Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/125

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ARUNDEL SOCIETY.
107
ARYAN.

of the first great English patrons and lovers of the arts.


ARUN'DO. See Reed.


ARUWIMI, ii'rou-we'me. An important trib- utary of the Congo (q.v.), rising west of the Al- bert Nyanza, East Africa (Map: Congo Free State, E 2). It flows westward through a densely wooded region toward the Congo, form- ing numerous rapids and receiving the Repoko from the right. It enters the Congo in latitude 1° 10' N., after a course of nearly 800 miles. It is navigable to Jambuja, and assumes in the course of its flow the names of Ituri and Bijerre. Stanley ascended the Aruwimi in 1887 in his expedition in search of Emin Pasha.


ARVAK, iir'vAk (early awake). In Norse mythology, one of the horses of the sun. The other was called Alsvid (all-scorching).


AR'VAL BROTH'ERS (Lat. Fratres Arvales, from arvum, a field, arable land). A Roman priesthood of twelve members, whose duty it was to offer public sacrifices to insure the fertility of the fields. The place of their annual meeting was discovered near Rome in 1570, and since then large portions of their records, originally inscribed on slabs inside the temple of Dea Dia, have been recovered, including a list of magistrates from B.C. 2 to A.D. 27. The records end in A.D. 241, and may begin as early as B.C. 21. The college does not seem to have been of importance during the later Republic, but to have been raised to importance by the Emperor Augustus, who was a member, as were his successors, until Gordian III. The members were elected for life by the college, usually on nomination of the Emperor. The officers were a magister (master) and a flamen; and among the attendants were four boys, who were required to be the sons of senators, and to have living parents. Each officer wore a wreath of green, a white fillet, and a white toga bordered with purple. The great annual festival under their charge was in honor of Dea Dia, an otherwise unknown goddess, who must have originally resembled Tellus and Ceres. It occupied three days, between the middle and end of May, and was celebrated with an elaborate ritual. On the first day was the ceremony of 'touching' samples of old and young grain; on the second the sacrifice of two white pigs, a cow, and a fat sheep, in a sacred grove beyond the city, followed by blessing or 'touching' samples of grain, and after that the dance and song of brotherhood in the temple, and the election of officers for the coming year. On the third day, there was a sacrifice in the city. They seem also to have taken part in the ancient Ambarvalia, which are perhaps identical with their May festival. Other important duties of the brothers were to offer sacrifice on the birthday of an emperor, or at the beginning of a consulate, or for escape from danger, or at the starting or ending of a journey, or on occasion of any important event touching the Imperial family. On the third or fourth of January they recited a particular form of prayer for the ruling Emperor, and made sacrifice to the Capitoline deities. Consult: Henzen, Acta Fratrum Arvalium (Berlin, 1874) and Ephemeris Epigraphica (Rome, 1872-99).


ARVE, ;ir'. A tributary of the Rhône, 62 miles long, situated in the Department of Haute-Savoie, France (Map: Switzerland, A 2). It rises on the Col-de-Balme (over 7000 feet high), in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, and flows southwest through the Val-des-Bagnes and the celebrated valley of Chamonix, emptying into the Rhône at an elevation of over 1100 feet above the sea. The Arve is very swift and turbu- lent; and, as it is fed by glaciers, it often over- flows its banks, and is even the chief cause of the rises in the river Rhone itself. The district watered by the Arve contains many pleasure resorts and much fine scenery. The chief towns of interest are Servoz, Saint Gervais-les-Bains, which has sulphur baths, and Sallanches.


ARVEYRON, ar'vft'rox'. A tributary of the Arve in the Department of Haute-Savoie, France, rising in the Alps, 4400 feet above sea-level, as the outlet of the Mer-de-Glace in Chamonix (q.v.). Other tributaries of the Arve bear the name Arveyron, and are further distinguished by the addition of the names of the glaciers from which they take their source.


ARWIDSSON, iir'ved-son, Adolf Ivar (1791-1858). A Swedish poet, born at Padasjoki, Finland. In 1817 he was appointed docent in history at the University of Åbo; but his outspoken criticism of the acts of the authorities, in an essay contributed to a journal, the Mnemosyne, resulted in his banishment from Finland in 1822 and his removal to Stockholm, where he became director of the Royal Library (1843-58). His publications include a collection of poems, Ungdoms Rimfrost (1832); a collection of Swedish folk-songs, entitled Svenska Fornsånger, 3 vols. (1834-42); and a translation of the Icelandic Frithjof's Saga (2d ed., 1841).


ARYABHATTA, arVf-b'hiit'ta, (476-550). A Hindu astronomer, born at Pataliputra (mod. Patna, on the Upper Ganges). He was known to the Arabs as Arjehir, and his writings had considerable influence on Arabic science. His only work known to us is the Aryabhattiya, a series of rules and propositions written in verse, and so called after his own name. This was published in Sanskrit, and edited by Kern at Leyden in 1874. It is divided into four parts, entitled respectively: "Celestial Harmonies," "Elements of Calculation," "On Time and Its Measures," and "Spheres." Of the second part, Rodet has published a translation (Paris, 1879). Aryabhatta held that the earth rotates upon its axis, and he gave the correct explanation of eclipses of the sun and the moon. In mathematics he could solve the quadratic equation, but many of his geometric formulas were incorrect.


ARYAN, iir'j-an or ar'i-an. The name commonly employed to designate that group of languages and that branch of the human family to which formerly the appelation Caucasian or Japhetic, as opposed to Semitic, was popularly but inaccurately given. It is synonymous in general with the terms Indo-Germanic, Indo-European, or Indo-Celtic. German philologists commonly employ the term Indo-Germanic in its stead, and on good grounds they restrict the name Aryan to the sense of Indo-Iranian, that is, to the Indian and Iranian branches of the great Indo-European family of languages and the early national communities which these languages represent. It can be proved, for example, that in ancient times the inhabitants of India and Persia proudly styled themselves Aryans, and there is no doubt that the term was a national designa-