Aveuzoar.

stakes driven into the ground, and earth, of which traces, under the name of Avarian rings, are yet found in the countries formerly occupied by them. The results of the most recent criticism show that, in all probability, the A. belonged to the same great Turanian stock as the Huns, and that their original residence was the land lying e. of the Tobol, in Siberia.

AVAST, one of the peculiar terms employed on shipboard. It is a command to stop or cease in any operation going forward-such as, "avast heaving."

AVATAR' primarily signifies, in Sanskrit, a descent, but is specially applied to the descent of a Hindu deity upon the earth in a manifest shape, either for beneficent or for retributive ends. It is thus almost synonymous in its signification with the Christian term incarnation. The word is sometimes rhetorically employed in English literature. The avatars of Vishnu (q. v.) are the most famous in Hindu mythology.

AVAT CHA, a mountain and bay of Kamtchatka. The bay is on the e. coast, being by far the best harbor of the whole peninsula, and containing the capital city of Petropavlovsk (q.v.). The mountain, 9055 ft. in height, is about 20 m. to the n., and not far from the sea, in lat. 52° 15′ n., and long. 158° 50' e. It is a volcano with two cratersone at the summit, and the other rather more than half-way up, on the seaward side.

AVEBURY, A BURY, or A'BIRY, a small village of Wiltshire, situated in n. lat. 51° 25', and w. long. 1° 50', 25 m. n. of Salisbury, and 6 w. by n. of Marlborough. It is a place of no importance in itself, having a small pop.; but it is remarkable as the site of the largest so-called Druidical temple in Europe-in fact, occupying the most of the sacred inclosure itself-and as having in its neighborhood several remarkable barrows and cromlechs of remote antiquity.

What is called the temple occupies a flat area of ground on the s. of the Kennet, a diminutive tributary of the Thames. It consists, or rather consisted, of a hundred large blocks of stone, placed on end in a circular form, around a level area of about 470 yards in diameter, bounded by a deep ditch and a high embankment forming the inclosure. There are also the remains of two small circles of stones within the inclosure, supposed to be inner temples. Of these, one consisted of two concentric circles of 43 upright stones, having a single stone near the center; the other, a similar double circle of 45 stones, to the n. w. of the former, with three large and high blocks in the center. The stones that remain of this ancient work are not of uniform size; they measure from 5 to 20 ft. in height above the ground, and from 3 to 12 in breadth and thickness.

The embankment, which is broken down in several places, had originally two entrances to the temple, eastward and westward, from which issue two long walks, bending round to the southward, each furnished with a range of blocks on either side similar to those of the temple itself. These avenues are each upwards of a mile in length, the width varying from 56 to 35 feet. That which issues to the e., or rather s.e., after turning southward, bends near its extremity to the s.e. again, and closes on a knoll called Overton hill in two concentric oval ranges of blocks. That which issues to the w. also bends to the s., and then to s. w., ending in a point with a single block.

Of the surrounding antiquities, that which appears most closely connected with the temple is a large barrow, or lofty conical mound, called Silbury hill, lying duc s. of it, at a distance of three quarters of a mile. It is situated nearly midway between the two avenues, in the line of the ancient Roman road between London and Bath. Close to the base, it measures 2027 ft. in circumference; the sloping height is 316 ft.; the perpendicu lar height, 170 ft.; the diameter of the level area at the top, 120 ft.

AVE IRO (anc. Avreium), a city of Portugal, in the province of Beira, 31 m. n.w. from Coimbra. It is situated on the Ria d'Aveiro, a salt lake or lagoon, extending five leagues to the n., and separated from the sea by a narrow bar of sand. Into this lake the Vouga, the Antua, and some smaller rivers flow. The city has been very unhealthful, so that its population has fallen from 14,000 to about 6000. It is the seat of a bishop. Salt is its chief article of trade.

AVEIRO, JOSEPH MASCARENHAS, Duke of, Portuguese nobleman, known for his attempt on the life of King Joseph of Portugal, was b. in 1708. A conspiracy was formed against the king by the Jesuits and some of the higher nobility, who were angered by the favor shown to the Marquis de Pombal. On the night of Sept. 3, 1758, Joseph was attacked and wounded while returning from the house of Theresia de Tavora. Prompt action was taken against the conspirators, Pombal himself conducting the prosecution. Their punishment was severe. Aveiro was broken on the wheel, Jan. 13, 1759, and all his property confiscated.

AVE-LALLEMANT, FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN BENEDICT, criminologist, b. at Lübeck in 1809, studied at Jena, became advocate at Lübeck in 1834, and was a police magistrate in that city, 1851-68. His chief work is Das deutsche Gaunertum (1858-1862), a study of the history of crime in Germany with interesting researches in the dialect of criminals. Among his other works are Physiologie der deutschen Polizei, Die Krisis der deutschen Polizei, 1861, and Die Reform der Polizei in Hamburg, 1862. D. 1892.

AVE-LALLEMANT, ROBERT CHRISTIAN BERTHOLD, physician and traveler, brother of Friedrich Christian Benedict A., b. 1812; practiced medicine for many years at Rio Janeiro. His principal works are Travels in Brazil (1859-60), Fata Morgana (1872), describing his travels in Egypt and Italy, and Wanderungen durch die Pflanzenwelt der Tropen (1881). He died in 1884.

AVEL'LA (anc. Abella), a t. of central Italy, in the province of Avellino, 20 m. e.n.e. from Naples. It is delightfully situated in a hilly district, and commands a very extensive view. A ruined castle marks the site of the ancient city, which was founded by one of the Greek colonies from Chalcis, and was celebrated in Roman times for its apples and pomegranates. Virgil speaks of it as malifera Abella. Population about 4000.

AVELLANE ́DA, GERTRUDIS GOMEZ DE, 1816-71; poet and novelist; the daughter of a Spanish naval officer. In 1840 she produced, in Madrid, a successful drama, Leonicia, and in 1845 was awarded a laurel crown for a poem praising the queen's clemency. Two vols. of lyrics, 8 vols. of prose, and 16 dramas are of her production.

AVELLI'NO (anciently Abellinum), chief t. of the province of the same name in the s. of Italy. It is situated at the foot of monte Vergine, on which is the famous monastery founded by S. Guglielmo da Vercelli, on the ruins of a temple of Cybele, in 1119. A. suffered greatly from earthquakes in 1694, 1731, and 1805. It has manufactures of woolens, paper, macaroni, and considerable trade in corn and hazel-nuts. The nuces Avellana were famous even in Pliny's time. Between A. and Benevento is the Val de Gargano, where the Samnites defeated the Romans in 433 A.U.C. Population in 1894 was 26,600. AVELLI NO, a province in s. Italy, 1409 sq.m.; pop. '95, 417,594. It is a mountainous region, but with fertile soil, yielding good harvests. It is watered by the Calore and Ofanto rivers. Chief t., Avellino.

AVÉ MARI'A, also ANGELICA SALUTATIO, or the angelic salutation, are names given by the Roman Catholics to a very common form of address to the Virgin Mary. Ave Maria are the first two words of the prayer, in Latin, which is taken from the angel Gabriel's salutation (Luke i. 28): Hail, Mary, highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." In this form, according to an ordinance of Gregory I., the invocation was at first said by the priests during mass, on the fourth Sunday after Advent. With the extended worship of the Virgin since the 11th c., the A. M. appears as a lay-prayer of nearly equal use with the Paternoster, and was sanctioned as such at the end of the 12th century. Accordingly, not only did Urban IV. (1261) add the concluding words, Jesus Christus, Amen, but since the first half of the 16th c., the prayer began to receive, more and more commonly, as an addition to the old formula, what constitutes the conclusion of the modern form: Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen." An edict of John XXII. (1326) ordains that every Catholic shall, morning, noon, and evening, at the warning of the bells, repeat three aves. This ringing of bells as a summons to morning, midday, and evening prayers, is retained in some Protestant countries, and is still called the A. M., or Angelus Domini. The aves are reckoned by the small beads of the rosary, which are hence called Ave Marias, while the large beads are devoted to the Paternoster. 150 Ave Marias form-after the 150 Psalms-a Psalteriam Maria, and are thought to possess high propitiatory power.

AVEMPACE (ABU BEKR MOHAMMED IBN JAHYA), probably b. in Saragossa near the close of the 11th c., d. at Fez, 1138; the earliest and one of the most distinguished Arab philosophers in Spain. He was a physician, mathematician, astronomer, and poet, though now known only from his metaphysical speculations. The most important of his works, and one noticed by Averrhoes, is Regime, or Conduct of the Solitary, which the author set forth as a system of rules by which man may rise from the life of the senses to the perception of pure intellectual principles, and may participate in the divine thought which sustains the world.

AVE'NA. See OAT.

AVENBRUG'GER. See AUENBRUG'GER.

AVENGER OF BLOOD. See BLOOD, AVENGER OF.

A'VENS. See GEUM.

AVENTI'NUS, JOHANNES THURMAYR, a scholar and historian, b. at Abensberg, Bavaria, where his father was a publican, in 1477. Having studied at Ingolstadt, he went to Paris, where he took the degree of M.A. He afterwards taught Greek and mathematics at Cracow, and poetry and eloquence at Vienna. In 1512, the duke of Bavaria called him to Munich, and intrusted him with the education of his sons.

Here

A. wrote his esteemed History of Bavaria (Annales Boiorum), a work which occupied him sixteen years. This work was not published until twenty years after his death, which took place in 1534, and then only with large portions, more true than pleasant, about the Roman church, excised. These, however, were all restored in Cisner's edition of 1580. A. wrote several other learned works.

AVEN'TURINE, the name of certain specimens of feldspar and quartz having the property of reflecting or refracting light in various colors from points inside the stone. In some cases the effect is produced by the presence of mica in small scales. A. is imitated by the Venetian glass makers, who outdo the original in beautiful effects. The signifies "accident," and the discovery is said to have come from the dropping of brass filings into melted glass.

name

AVENZO'AR (ABU MERWAN ABDALMALEC IBN ZOнR), 1072–1162; a Spanish Arabian physician, pupil of his father. He made earnest efforts to reduce medicine to the plane of experimental science. Some of his works have been published, and one is spoken of by Averrhoes.

AVERAGE. If any number of unequal quantities are given, another quantity may be found of a mean or intermediate magnitude, some of the given quantities being greater, and others less, than the one found, which is called the average. The exact relation is this: that the sum of the excesses of the greater above the A. is equal to the sum of the defects of the less below it. If there are, say, 7 vessels unequally filled with sand, and if we take handfuls from the greater, and add these to the less, until the sand is equally distributed, then any one of the equalized measures of sand is the A. of the 7 unequal measures. If the quantites of sand in the several vessels are stated in numbers, as 5, 10, 12, 8, 11, 14, 3 oz., the A. is found by adding together the numbers, and dividing by how many there are of them-viz., 7. The sum being 63, this, divided by 7, gives 9 oz. as the A. The system of averaging is a very important and time-saving one. By averages, the farmer calculates the value of his crops; the grazier, the value of his cattle; and the forester, the value of his trees. Reflection, however, requires to be exercised in striking averages; otherwise, serious errors may be committed. If a farmer, for instance, has three lots of cattle, the first of which he averages at £25 a head, the second at £15, and third at £9, it might be thought that the A. of the whole stock made up of the three lots would be got by taking the mean of £25, £15, and £——viz., 25+15+9 =£16. But this would be correct only if there were an equal number of cattle in each of the lots. To get the real A. in case of the lots being unequal, he must multiply the A. of each lot by the number of cattle in it, add the three products together, and divide by the whole number of cattle in all three lots taken together. If we suppose 9 head in the first lot, 20 in the second, and 15 in the third, the A. is 25×9+15×20+9×15-£15.

3

9+20+15

AVERAGE (in marit. law). A rule was established by the Rhodian law (q.v.), and has prevailed in every maritime nation, that where a loss has been sustained, or expense incurred, for the general safety of the ship and cargo, a contribution should be made, in proportion to their respective interests, by the owners of the ship, freight, and goods on board; or, in modern times, by the insurers of these. To this contribution the name of general A. is given. The apparel, jewels, and other personal property of the passengers, not carried for purposes of traffic, and the seamen's wages and provisions, are not liable for any share in this contribution. Goods thrown overboard are now estimated at the price they would have yielded at the port of delivery at the time, freight, duties, etc., being deducted. See JETTISON. Particular A., again, is the loss of an anchor, the starting of a plank, the leaking of a cask, the loss of goods washed from the deck, or the like, where the common safety was not in question, and where there is, consequently, no contribution. To losses of this description, the term A., though generally, is incorrectly applied. Petty averages are the duties of anchorage, pilotage, etc. If these occur in the ordinary course of the voyage, they are not loss, but simply part of the expense necessarily incurred. But if they have been incurred in extraordinary circumstances, and for the purpose of avoiding impending danger, they are a loss which is included in the general A., and covered by the contribution. A. bond is a deed which parties liable to a general A. are in the habit of executing, by which they empower an arbiter to value the property lost, and fix the proportion which shall be borne by each proprietor. AVERDUPOIS. See AvOIRDUPOIS.

AVERELL, WILLIAM W., b. N. Y., 1832; a graduate of West Point; served on the frontier and in the war against the rebellion, rising from lieut. of mounted riflemen to maj.-gen. He resigned in 1865, and in the next year was appointed consul-general to Canada. In 1888 he was reappointed to the army and retired; afterwards engaged in manufacturing, and took out several patents, including one for asphalt pavement.

AVER'NUS, in Gr. Aornos, or "without birds," called now Lago d'Averno, is a small, nearly circular lake in Campania, Italy, situated between Cuma, Puteoli, and Baiæ. It is about a mile and a half in circumference, and occupies the crater of an extinct volcano. It is in some places as deep as 180 ft., and is almost completely shut in by steep and wooded heights. The sulphureous and mephitic vapors arising from the lake were believed in ancient times to kill the birds that flew over it; hence, according to some, its Greek appellation. Owing to its gloomy and awful aspect, it became the center of almost all the fables of the ancients respecting the world of shades. Here was located Homer's Nekyia, or entrance to the under-world; here the Cimmerians are said to have dwelt-a people who lived in deep caverns, without ever coming into the light of day, explored metals, and imparted Stygian oracles; here also were placed the grove of Hecate and the grotto of the Cumean Sibyl. Agrippa caused the dense woods to be thinned, by which the place lost much of its wildness; and by his orders Cocceius constructed the famous tunnel through the mountain to Cuma, a work of comparative ease, considering that the hills round about are composed of volcanic tufa. The lake was also connected in ancient times with the gulf of Baiæ.

AVERRHO A. See CARAMBOLA.

AVERRHOES', properly, Ibn Roshd, or more fully. Abul-Walid Mohammed-Ibn, Ahmed Ibn, Mohammed-1bn Roshd, the most famous of the Arabian philosophers, was

b. at Cordova, in Spain, in 1126. His father, who was chief judge and mufti, instructed him in Mohammedan jurisprudence. In theology and philosophy, he had Thophail for his teacher; and in medicine, Ibn Zohr, the elder. His talents and acquirements caused him to be appointed successor to his father, and afterwards chief judge in the province of Mauritania. Being accused, out of envy, of a departure from the orthodox doctrines of Mohammedanism, he was dismissed from his office, and condemned by the ecclesiastical tribunal of Morocco to recant his heretical opinions, and do penance. After this, he returned to his native place, and lived in great poverty until the caliph Almansor reinstated him in his offices, on which he went back to Morocco, where he died in 1198. A. regarded Aristotle as the greatest of all philosophers. He translated and illustrated Aristotle's writings with great penetration; but the influence of the Alexandrine view laid down in the commentaries of Ammonius, Themistius, and others, is easily seen in his works, as in those of most of the Arabian philosophers. In opposition to the Arabian orthodox school, especially against Algazali, A. stood forth on the side of reason as the defender of philosophy. The Arabians called him, by way of eminence, the expositor (of Aristotle). Most of his writings are known to us only through Latin translations (Ven., 1489). The Arabic text of A.'s philosophical works was published at Munich in 1859 by M. J. Müller, whose German translation of the same appeared in 1875. His commentaries on Aristotle appeared in an addition of that philosopher's works (11 vols., Ven., 1560). He also wrote a sort of medical system, which, under the name of Colliget, was translated into Latin, and repeatedly printed. The philosophy of A. attained to importance in the Christian church as early as the 13th c., although his pantheistic doctrine of the unity of the active principle in the universe was often repudiated as an error, and astrology was characterized as Averrhoism. See Renan's Averroës et l'Averroisme. See MONOPSYCHISM.

AVER'SA, a t. of southern Italy, in the province of Caserta, is situated between Naples and Capua, 94 m. s. of the latter, in a beautiful district rich in oranges and wine. It is well built, with 24,000 inhabitants; has a cathedral, and a number of monasteries in one of which Andrew of Hungary, the Darnley of Neapolitan history, was murdered with the connivance of his wife, the beautiful but guilty Joanna, queen of Naples; an excellent asylum for the insane, established by Murat; and a foundling hospital. A. was built in 1029 by the Normans on a territory ceded to them by duke Sergius of Naples, to be held in fief. About 2 m. from A. are still to be seen a few ruins of the Oscan city of A.ella, famous as the birthplace of the satirical farces so popular on the Roman stage.

AVERY, WAITSTILL, 1745-1821; b. Conn.; a patriot of the American revolution. He was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg declaration, a member of the Hillsborough congress, of the North Carolina congress, and first attorney-general of the state. During the war he was in active service as col. of militia.

AVES. See BIRDS.

AVESNES, a t. of France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Le Nord, 50 m. s.e. of Lille. It is one of the eastern fortresses of France, built during the reign of Louis XIV., according to the system of Vauban. It was bombarded after the battle of Waterloo and for some time occupied by the allied troops. Pop. about 5300.

AVESTA, or ZEND-AVESTA, as it is more familiarly, though less accurately, called, is the name under which, as a designation, we comprise the bible and prayer-book of the Zoroastrian religion. The Avesta forms to-day the Sacred Books of the Parsis or Fire Worshipers, as they are often termed, a small community living now in India, or still scattered here and there in Persia. The original home of these worshipers and of their holy scriptures was ancient Iran, and the faith they profess was that founded centuries ago by Zoroaster (q.v.), one of the great religious teachers of the East.

The Avesta is, therefore, an important work, preserving as it does, the doctrines of this ancient belief and the customs of the earliest days of Persia. It represents the oldest faith of Iran, just as the Vedas do of India. The oldest parts date back to a period of time nearly as remote as the Rig Veda, though its youngest parts are much later. The religion which the Avesta presents was once one of the greatest; it has, moreover, left ineffaceable traces upon the history of the world. Flourishing more than a thousand years before the Christian era, it became the religion of the great Achæmenian kings, Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, but its power was weakened by the conquest of Alexander, and many of its sacred books were lost. It revived again during the first centuries of our own era, but was finally broken by the Mohammedans in their victorious invasion. Most of the Zoroastrian worshipers were then compelled through persecution to accept the religion of the Koran; many, however, fled to India for refuge and took with them left of their sacred writings. A few of the faithful remained behind in Persia and, though persecuted, they continued to practise their religion. It is these two scanty peoples, perhaps 80,000 souls in India and 10,000 in Persia, that have preserved to us the Avesta in the form in which we now have it.

what was

The designation Avesta, for the scriptures, is adopted from the term Avistāk, regularly employed in the Pahlavi (q.v.) of the Sassanian time. But it is quite uncertain what the exact meaning and derivation of this word may be. Possibly Phl. Avistak, like the Skt. Veda, signifies wisdom, knowledge, the book of knowledge," It may, how.

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ever, mean "the law." The designation Zend-Avesta, though introduced by Anquetil du Perron, as described below, is not an accurate title. It arose by mistake from an inversion of the oft-recurring Pahlavi phrase, Aristak va Zand, "Avesta and Zend," or "the Law and Commentary.' The term Zand in Pahlavi (cf. Av. āzaiñti), as the Parsi priests now rightly comprehend it, properly denotes "understanding, explanation," and refers to the later version and commentary of the Avesta texts, the paraphrase which is written in the Pahlavi language. The proper designation for the scriptures, therefore, is Avesta ; the term Zend (see below) should be understood as the Pahlavi version and commentary. Discovery and History of Research of the Avesta.-Of the religion, manners, and customs of ancient Persia which the Avesta preserves to us we had but meagre knowledge until about a century ago. What we did know up to that time was gathered from the more or less scattered and unsatisfactory references of the classic Greek and Latin, from some allusions in Oriental writers, or from the later Persian epic literature. To direct sources, however, we could not turn. Allusions to the religion of the Magi, the faith of the Avesta, are to be found in the Bible. The wise men from the East who came to worship our Saviour, the babe in Bethlehem, were Magi. Centuries before that date, however, it was Cyrus, a follower of the faith of Zoroaster, whom God called his annointed and his shepherd (Isaiah 45: 1, 13; 44: 28; 2 Chron. 36: 22, 23; Ezra 1:1-11), and who gave orders that the Jews be returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon. Darius, moreover (Ezra 5: 13-17; 6: 1-16), the worshiper of Ormazd, favored the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem as decreed by Cyrus. Allusions to the ancient faith of the Persians are perhaps contained in Ezek. 8: 16; Is. 14: 7, 12. The classical references of Greek and Roman writers to the teachings of Zoroaster (q.v.), which we can now study in the Avesta itself, may be said to begin with the account of the Persian religion given by Herodotus (B.c. 450). To this account may be added references and allusions, though often preserved only in fragments, by various other writers, including Plutarch, "On Isis and Osiris," and Pliny, down to Agathias, A.D. 500, vide ZOROASTER. The Armenian writers, Eznik and Elisæus, of the 5th century A.D., also refer to the Zoroastrian religion. After the Mohammedan conquest of Persia, we have an allusion by the Arabic writer, Masūdi (A.D. 940), who tells of the Avesta of Zeradusht (Zoroaster), and its commentary called Zend, together with a Pazend explanation. The Abasta (Avesta) is also mentioned several times by Al-Biruni (about A.D. 1000). The later Mohammedan author, Shaharastani (A.D. 1150), sketches in outline the creed of the Magi of his day. An interesting reference is found in the Syriac-Arabic Lexicon of Bar-Bahlul (A.D. 963) to an Avastāk, a book of Zardosht (Zoroaster), as composed in seven tongues, Syriac, Persian, Aramæan, Segestanian, Marvian, Greek and Hebrew. In an earlier Syriac мs. Commentary on the New Testament (A.D. 852) by 'Ishō'dād, Bishop of Hadatha, near Mosul, mention is made of the Abhāstā as having been written by Zardosht in 12 different languages. These latter allusions, though late, are all of them important, as showing the continuity during ages of the tradition of such a work as the Avesta, which contains the teachings of Zoroaster, the prophet of Iran. All these allusions, however, it must be remembered, are by foreigners. No direct Iranian sources had been accessible. From this time, moreover, till about the 17th century we find there was little inquiry into the sacred books of the Persians. One of the first series of investigations into the Greek and Roman sources seems then to have been undertaken by a European, Barnabé Brisson, De Persarum Principatu (Paris, 1590). The Italian, English, and French travele. s in the Orient next added some information as to the religion and customs of the Persians. Among them may be mentioned the works of Pietro deila Valle (1620), Henry Lord (1630), Mandelso (1658), Tavernier (1678), Chardin (1721), Du Chinon. Most im portant, however, was the work of the distinguished Oxford scholar, Thomas Hyde (1700). It was written in Latin, and entitled Historia Religionis veterum Persarum. Hyde resorted chiefly to the later Parsi sources; the original texts he could not use, although an Avesta Ms. of the Yasna seems to have been brought to Canterbury as early as 1633. Hyde appealed earnestly, however, to scholars to procure MSS, of the sacred books of the Parsis, and aroused much interest in the subject. In 1723 a copy of the Vendidad Sadah was procured by an Englishman, George Boucher, from the Parsis in Surat and deposited as a curiosity in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. No one, however, could read the texts. To a young Frenchman, Anquetil du Perron, belongs the honor of first deciphering them. The history of his labors is interesting and instruc tive. Happening, in 1744, to see some tracings made from the Oxford Ms., and sent to Paris as a specimen, du Perron at once conceived the spirited idea of going to Persia, or India, and obtaining from the priests themselves the knowledge of their sacred books. Though fired with zeal and enthusiasm, he had no means or aid to carry out his plan. He seized the idea of enlisting as a soldier in the troops that were to start for India, and in Nov., 1754, behind the martial drum and fife, this youthful scholar marched out of Paris. The French Government, however, recognizing at once his noble purpose, gave him his discharge from the army and presented him his passage to India. After countless difficulties he reached Surat, and there, after innumerable discouragements, and in spite of almost unsurmountable obstacles, he succeeded in winning the confidence and favor of the priests, with whom he was able to communicate after he learned the modern Persian. He gradually induced the priests to impart to him the language of their sacred works, to let him take some of the manuscripts, and even to initiate