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an antient queen of the country, wherein were buried a great number of their martial women, who had been killed by the
Gorgons b [» Majjieu, Difl'. fur les Gorgon, in Mem.
Acad. Infcript. T. 4. p. 72. b Majjieu, loc. cit.] Befides M. Petit's works on the Amazons', M. Moreau de Mautour has publifhed a plan of a new hiftory of the Ama- zons '■ ; but we do not find that the promifcd hiftory itfelf has appeared.— [' Pet. Petiti dc Amazonibus Differtatio : qua an vefe extiterent necne variis ultrocitroque ConjecUiris & Argu- mentis difputatur ; multa etiam ad earn Gentem pertincntia ex Antiquis Monumuitis eruuntur, atque illullrantur, Parif. 1685. 121110. Aft. Erud. Lipf. 1685. p. 390. Nouv. Rep. Let. T. 4. p. 831. Jour. Liter. T. 10. p. 105. '1 rait. Hiftor. fur les Amazones, ou Ton trouve tout ce que les Au- teurs tant Anciens que Moderns ont efcrit pour ou contre ces Heroines, &c. Leid. 1718. 2 Tom. 8vo. d Difc. Prelim, fur la Diil'ert. Hiftor. des Amazones. Ap. Mem. de Trev. 1703. p. 157.] Amazon is alio applied, in a figurative fenfe, to bees, by rea- fon among thefe infefls the females alone bear fway. Vid. Butler, Hift. of Bees, in Pref.
Mr. Warder has publifhed a work under the title of the true Amazons, or, the Commonwealth of Bees. See Bee. AMAZONIAN, fomething relating to, or refembling Ama- zons. See Amazon. Amazonian kingdom is particularly ufed for a feminine one, or that wherein the females alone bear fway. Ariftotle, treating of the breeding of bees, profeffes himfelf ignorant of their fex, and therefore, willing to keep up the prerogative of the males, calls their governor Bztrite:';, Rex, in which he has been followed by the generality of others. An ingenious writer, of our own country, takes the liberty to (train the ordinary fignification of the word rex, and in fuch places tranflates it queen, this being an Amazofiian, or female kingdom. Vid. Butler on bees, c. 4. Amazonian habit, in antiquity, denotes a drefs formed in imitation of the Amazons.
Martia, the famous concubine of the emperor Commodus, had the appellation Amazonian, by reafon it was in a habit of this kind that fhe chiefly charmed him.— Hence alfo that prince himfelf engaged in combat, in the amphitheatre, in an Amazonian habit ; and of all titles, the Amazonius was one of thofe he moft delighted in — In honour either of the gal- lant, or his miftrefs, the month December was alfo denomi- nated Amazonius.
Some alfo apply Amazonian habit to the hunting drefs worn by manv ladies among us. AMAZONIUS is an appellation given to a kind of paftil, or troche, antiently ufed againft rifmgs of the ftomach, and vo- mitings. — The ingredients of which it is compofed, are fmal- lage, anifefeed, wormwood, myrrh, pepper, caftoreum, opium, and cinnamon. Gal. de Compof. Medic. 1. 8. c. 3. Gorr. Med Def. p. 26. AMBA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the manga Indiea, or mango tree. J. Bauhin, Vol. I. p. 173. AMBACHT, in topography, denotes a kind of jurifdiction, or territory, the pofleffbr whereof has the adminiftration of juftice, both in alto and bajo. Aubert, ap. Richel. Dift. T. 1 p 74.
In this fenfe, the term is ufed in fome parts of Germany and Flanders, where cities and corporations, who ek-dt chiefs, or fuperiors, to whom they pay obedience, are called Ambaebten, and thofe fuperiors Ambaebten Herren, or Heercn. Countries were alfo divided into Ambachties. Hence, inftead of the country of Engelbert, we meet, in antient charters, with the Engelbrecbtes, and Ambachte, or Amleehte. Du Caiige, Gloff. Lat. T. I. p. 160.
Hence alfo we meet with officina, or officium Ambachti, or Ambabt.
In fome antient writers Ambaeht is particularly ufed for the jurifdidfion, government, or chief magiftracy of a city. The word is very antient, though ufed originally in a fenfe fomewhat diffcret. Ennius calls a mercenary, or flave hired for money, Ambalius ; and Caefar gives the fame appellation to a kind of dependents among the Gauls, who, without being flaves, were attached to the fervice of great lords. AMBMl-feecl, in the materia medica, a name by which fome
have called mufk-fecd. See the article MusK-yW. AMBARVALIA (G>/.)— This feaft was alfo called Lujlratio Agrarian.
Rofinus ranks it among the number of thofe which were not fixed to any certain day ; but were, nevertheleis, to be con- ftantly performed every year. The title of a chapter in Cato. on the contrary, fecms to import, as if people were at their choice as to the folemnizing of this ceremony. Cato, de Re Ruft. c. 141.
Some will have the Ambarvalia to have been held twice a year ; the firft time towards the end of January, or, as others think, in April ; and the fecond time in July, or, as Rofinus imagines, in Auguft, at the time when the harveft was ripe, maturis frugibus. Which opinion is the more probable, in that Ovid, who, in his Fajli, defcribes the feafis in the fuft lix
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months of the year, from January to June inclufive, fays no- thing of the Ambariwlia.
The facrifice offered on this occafion was hence called Ambar- vale jacrum, and hojiia Ambavoalis. The Ambarva/ia were of two kinds, public and private. The private were thofe folemnized by the mafters of families, accompanied with their children and fervants, in the villages and farms out of Rome. — They walked three times round the grounds, every one being crowned with leaves of oak, and finging hymns in honour of Ceres. After the proceflion, they went to facrifice.
There were certain formulas of words prefcribed on this occafion. Vid. Cato, de Re Ruft. ap. Danet, Diet. Ant. in voc.
The public Ambarval'w were thofe celebrated in the boundaries of the city, and in which the twelve ft aires arvales officiated pontifically, walking at the bead of a procefilon of the citi- zens, who had lands and vineyards in Rome. The prayer, or formula here ufed, was Avertas morhum, mor* tern, tabem t nebulam^ impetigtnem, pefejtatem. Feji, de Verb. fignif. in voc. Pefcjlas.
Some make a quinquennial as well as an annual Ambarvalia, the one performed one- every lujlrum, the other once a year. The former one was alfo called the greater Ambarvalia, as being performed according to a fettled rite. — It is to thefe the denomination Sucvciauriiia r feems alone to belong. Baxt. Gloll". See Suovet aurjlia, Cycl. AA4BARVAIJS f.os, in botany, a name given, by fome au- thors, to the polygala, or milkwort. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2. AMBE (Cycl.) — The reduction of luxations of the arm with the fhoulder is one of thofe chirurgical operations which has many times puz2ied the moft fkilful furgeons. Among the ma- chines invented [or this purpoi'e, the Ambe of Hippocrates Is one of the moil' aniienr, and moft famous. It confifts of an horizontal leaver, and a fixed point made of a piece of wood Handing vertically* to the extremity of which the leaver is joined by a hinge. The patient fitting, and his arm that is hurt being raifed, the machine is pufhed forward under the arm-pit, as far as can be, airamhm, fays Hippo- crates, ut quam penitiffime a/am fubeat. The arm is tied to this horizontal piece, and then an afliftant bears upon the fca- pula and the clavicula, whilft another prefles down the leaver, and thus makes the bone come into its place again. The capital defect of the Ambe is, that it pulhes the head of the bone into its cavity, before the extenfion and counter- extenfion are made j the dangerous confequences of which are, firft, That the reduction is very difficult, becaufe the bone is not condu&ed by the fame way it took in luxating it- felf, and that one meets with obftacles from the parts that furround it, even the fcapula itfelf, on which it articulates. Secondly, In making efforts for furmounting thofe obftacles, one runs the rifque of turning inwards the cartilaginous edge of the cavity of the fcapula, or the capfula ligamentofa. The third defect of the Ambe of Hippocrates is, that it cannot move the luxated bone, but from below upwards ; confe- quently, the machine is only proper in luxations directly downwards 3 and yet it is certain, that the arm luxates itfelf both outwards and inwards, and luxations forward are very frequent. In thofe cafes, the Ambe is ufelefs, and being dan- gerous in luxations downwards, it follows, that this machine labours under very great defeats.
Mr. le Cat, in the Phil. Tranf. N°. 469, has endeavoured to remedy thefe defects, by giving the defcription and u(c of a new Ambe, not fubjeit to the inconveniencies of the old one. But as the detail of this machine would exceed the bounds of our defign, we muft refer the curious to the tranfa&ion itfelf. See Luxation, Cycl. AMBER, (Cycl.) in natural hiftory. See Succinum. Ameer with infetls in it. See Insects. AMBERGREASE, Ambra, (Cycl) in natural hiftory, the name of a folid, dry, opake, inflamable foffil, very light, of an agreeable fmell, and melting into a fluid mafs in a very gentle fire.
The word is alfo written Ambergrefs, Ambergrecce, and Am- bergris. It is compounded of the barbarous Latin, Ambcr y and gris, grey.
Ambergreafe is alfo known by the names Amharum, Ambra, Ambra grifea, &c.
The author of a letter to Mr. Plukenet falfly affirms, that Am- bergreafe is an animal Jubftance, produced from a fort of infect, as honey or filk' are ; and that in many parts of a large piece of Ambergreafe found on the Jamaica coaft, the beaks, wings, and part of the bodies of birds, were viable. He adds, that he believes they fwarm as bees on the fea- fhore, or even in the fea. Phil. Tranf. N°. 232. p. 712. It is the opinion of fome, that Ambergreafe is really bred in the body of the fperma-ceti whale, much after the fame manner as mufk, civit, and fome other fubftances, in their refpe&ive animals. — The difcovery was firft publifhed by the honourable Paul Dudley, Efq; as he received it from, Mr. Atkins, a perfon of underftanding and veracity, at Bofton, who had ufed the whale-fifhcry ten or twelve years j being m% of the. firft of thofe who undertook to fifh
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