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ly, and where the Gilanes tribe at present inhabit the N. part. The men are stout, short, with very hairy bodies, and allow the hair of the head and beard to grow to full length, which has caused them to be designated as the hairy Ainos. They are pagans, and sacrifice the first of the animals they kill, generally bears, to their idols. They are polygamists, groups of 10 to 12 families living together in miserable huts, with a chief for each group. They support themselves by fishing and hunting. The Aino language is divided into several dialects, and is regarded by Siebold as somewhat connected with the Japanese, but this opinion is not generally entertained. It is polysyllabic, has an alphabet of 47 letters, and is written in four different sets of characters, one of them, the Katakana, being sometimes called the writing of men, and another, the Hiragana, that of women. August Pfizmaier published a description of it (Vienna, 1852), and a vocabulary (1854).
AINSWORTH, Henry, an English nonconformist divine, the date and place of whose birth are unknown, died in Amsterdam in 1622. In 1590 he attached himself to the Brownist sect, and was afterward compelled by persecution to fly to Holland, where, in connection with a Mr. Johnson, he established a church at Amsterdam. He was a good Hebrew scholar, and published annotations on the Psalms and Pentateuch, together with a literal translation of the latter, a translation of Solomon's Song, and other works of a somewhat similar character.
AINSWORTH, Robert, an English teacher and scholar, born in Lancashire in September, 1660, died in London, April 4, 1743. He taught private schools in and near London, and early retired with a competency. His only claim to remembrance is his English-Latin and Latin-English dictionary, commenced in 1714 and first published in 1736. It was edited and reprinted many times, in 2 vols. 4to or folio; and abridgments of it were used in nearly all English and American schools till near the middle of the present century, when it was generally superseded by more accurate works.
AINSWORTH. I. William Francis, an English traveller, geologist, and physician, born in Exeter, Nov. 9, 1807. After having studied medicine at Edinburgh, he made geological excursions into Auvergne and the Pyrenees. In 1828 he took charge of the Edinburgh "Journal of Natural and Geographical Science," and delivered lectures on geology. He was attached to a cholera hospital in London in 1832, and afterward to various hospitals in Ireland. In 1835 he was appointed surgeon and geologist to Col. Chesney's expedition to explore the Euphrates and the route from that river to the Mediterranean, and in 1838 he was sent with Rassam and Theodore Russell, by the geological and Bible societies of London, to trace the course of the river Kizil-Irmak (the ancient Halys), and to visit the Nestorian Christians of Kurdistan. He has published "Researches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea" (1838); "Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia" (2 vols., 1842); "The Claims of the Christian Aborigines in the East"; "Travels in the Track of the 10,000 Greeks" (1844); the "Illustrated Universal Gazetteer" (1861-'3), &c. II. William Harrison, an English novelist, cousin of the preceding, born in Manchester, Feb. 4, 1805. His father was an attorney, and he was intended for the law, but from an early age he exhibited a strong taste for literature. A novel, "Sir John Cheverton," which he produced in 1825, was shown to Sir Walter Scott, whose praises encouraged Ainsworth to pursue the course he had thus commenced. In 1834 his "Rookwood" appeared, founded on the adventures of the noted highwayman Dick Turpin; and the popularity of this novel induced him to bring out "Jack Sheppard." The robber school of romance having fixed Mr. Ainsworth's celebrity, he turned to a more wholesome style of literature, and produced various novels of local interest, in which historical characters are introduced and very freely dealt with. Such are his "Tower of London," "Guy Fawkes," "Old St. Paul's," "Windsor Castle," "The Constable of the Tower," and "Cardinal Pole." In 1845 he became proprietor of Colburn's "New Monthly," which he still conducts (1872); and for a few years he also edited a second periodical called "Ainsworth's Magazine." His most recent novels are "The Miser's Daughter" (1869), "Hilary St. Ives"(1870), and "Boscobel, or the Royal Oak "(1872).
AINTAB (according to some, the ancient Antiochia ad Taurum), a city of Asiatic Turkey, in the vilayet of Aleppo, and about 70 m. N. by E. from Aleppo; pop. estimated at from 35,000 to 43,000, including 12,000 Armenians. It has large manufactures of silk, leather, and cotton goods, and the mountain fort which is connected with it makes it an important military point. Aintab is one of the centres of the American Protestant missions, and in 1869 had 1,900 registered Protestants. It was conquered in 1183 by Saladin, and in 1400 by Timour. Near Aintab is the village of Nizib, where Ibrahim Pasha on June 24, 1839, obtained a great victory over the Turks under Hafiz Pasha.
AIR (Gr. ἀήρ, Lat. aer), a term now limited to the atmospheric air. See Atmosphere.
AIR, or Asben, an oasis in the desert of Sahara, situated between lat. 16° and 20° N., and lon. 5° and 10° E. It is bordered by the territory of the Kelowi Tuariks on the north, and by Soodan, or Negroland, on the south. Dr. Barth terms it the Switzerland of the desert, and the frontierland of negrodom. Its northern borders are infested by a savage race who rob and often murder strangers passing through the country. In the north is the mountain group of Gunge, 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. Vegetation thrives in the valleys; it is the northern limit of the doum palm; there are groves swarming with ring doves, hoopoes, and other birds,
