tion in their case. In the oldest hymns of India, the Rig-Veda. Aryan (arya) is employed as a national epithet of the members of the rul- ing people of Northern India, as opposed to the Dasyus, the Gentile or subject races, and espe- cially the darker-skinned inhabitants of the south. The Avesta (q.v.) divides countries into Aryan and non-Aryan (airt/a. <innrjta), and from airya comes the later form of the name Eran or Iran, and also the classical Ariana (see Iranians). In the old Persian inscriptions. Darius boasts of being "an Aryan and of Aryan descent" fariya ariya ciSra, Inscr. Nanshi' Rustam, a 14).
The etymology of the word iiri/a, uiri/a, ariya, is obscure, and the real meaning of Aryan is un- certain. In the older Sanskrit, aryu, Ciryu seems to denote 'true,' 'loyal,' and 'good' — in reference, perhaps, to those of the true stock, the real peo- ple, the loyal. In later Sanskrit urya means 'noble.' Such explanations as 'plowmen,' 'tillers of the soil' (cf. Lat. arare, to plow), taken to de- note an agricultural population in contradistinc- tion to a nomadic tribe, have little to recommend them. Moreover, while Aryan, in the sense of Indo-Iranian, is well authenticated in antiquity, little success has followed the attempt to prove that Aryan was used in primitive times by the people themselves as a broad and general designation, in the sense in which philologists and anthropologists have employed it. At present the name is given to a family composed of eight great groups of European and Asiatic peoples, whose languages are as follows: (1) Indian and Iranian; (2) Armenian; (3) Greek; (4) Albanian; (5) Italic; (6) Celtic; (7) Germanic; (8) Balto-Slavonic. (See these titles.) As a linguistic and ethnologic term, Aryan, both in Europe and in the United States, is beginning to give place to the preferable terms Indo-European or Indo-Germanic. Indo-Celtic, as a designation instead of Aryan, has not had much vogue; but it is sometimes employed as a substitute for Indo-Germanic, especially by the French, who use also Indo-European. As a convenient term, however, for general usage, Aryan has much in its favor, and it will doubtless survive as an alternate to the more precise designations.
That the Aryan peoples had their primitive home in the Pamirian region of the Hindu-Kush, was formerly the commonly received theory; but of late years the evidence is more in favor of the location of the home of the Aryans somewhere between the Caspian and the North Sea, or rather in the steppe land of Southern Russia (S. Schrader, 1890, 1901). Brinton (1890) made the Aryans a West European development of the white race (primitively from northern Africa); Keane (1896) placed the Aryan cradle-land somewhere in the Eurasian steppe area. Others, like Deniker (1900) and Sergi (1895-1901), prefer to speak of the Aryanization of prehistoric dwellers in Europe (from Asia?). In any case, the Aryan is a very ancient dweller in both Asia Minor and Central Asia, and the Aryan element in the culture of the south Asiatic peoples is both old and far-reaching. Aryan savagery and Aryan culture are both well represented in Asia. Consult: Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, trans. by Jevons (London, 1890), and Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde (Strassburg, 1901); Taylor, Origin of the Aryans (New York, 1890); Reinach, L'Origine des Aryens (Paris, 1892); Ripley, Races of Europe (New York, 1890); Sergi, Mediterranean Races (1901), and the works listed by him. See Indo-Germanic Languages; Indo-Europeans.
ARZAMAS, iir'za-mas'. The capital of the
district of the same name, in the Government of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia (Map: Russia, F 3). It. is situated on the high right bank of the Tesha River at its juncture with the Arsha, an affluent of the Volga, about 80 miles from Nizhni Novgorod, and 340 miles east of Moscow. Arzamas has tanneries, brick-yards, and tallow factories. Population estimated at 10,600. Arzamas was noted in the first half of the Nineteenth Century for its school of painting, whose products supplied a great part of Russia with holy pictures.
AS (Lat.). The designation both of a Roman
weight (called also libra) , corresponding very
nearly to an English pound, and also of a
coin made of the mixed metal æs, or bronze.
The as (coin) originally no doubt weighed a
(Roman) pound; but was gradually reduced
to 1-36 of a pound, and even lower. It is thus
difficult to assign any fixed value to the as.
About B.C. 270, the denarius (= 17c.) contained
10 asses; so that the value of the as was a little
less than one and three-quarters cents; when
16 asses went to the denarius, the value was about
one cent. It was by the sestertius (q.v.) that
money was reckoned at Rome. The oldest form
of as usually bore the figure of an ox, a sheep,
or other domestic animal (pecus); from which
it is usually supposed that the Latin word for
money, pecunia, is derived.
A'SA, son of Abijah (II. Chron. xiv. 1) and
the third king of Judah. He began his reign as
a religious reformer by removing the idolatrous
altars and breaking the images (II. Chron. xiv. 3).
He next turned his attention to the fortifications
of the land, building walls and towers (II. Chron.
xiv. 6). With the help of a large army which he
collected — the Chronicler puts it at 580,000 men,
which is surely too large a figure — he was able to
defeat Zerah, the Ethiopian King (II. Chron.
xiv. 8-12). On his return from this glorious
victory he was met by Azariah, the son of Oded,
who preached a new religious reform. Azariah's
preaching strengthened Asa in his work, and he
removed the traces of idolatry from Judah and
Benjamin. He even removed his mother, Maa-
chah, from power because she had made an idol
to Ashera (I. Kings xv. 13; II. Chron. xv. 16).
For a time Asa had peace in the country, but war
broke out between him and Baasha, King of
Israel. Against this king, Asa asked and secured
the help of Benhadad, King of Syria. For this
step he was severely rebuked by Hanani, the seer.
The King, in anger, imprisoned the prophet (II.
Chron. xvi. 7-10). For the last two years of his
reign Asa was afflicted with a disease of the foot.
He died and was buried in the city of David (II.
Chron. xvi. 13; I. Kings xv. 23-'24) with great
solemnity. The duration of his reign may be
fixed approximately at B.C. 917-876.
ASABA, a-sii'ba. A town of southern Nigeria (q.v.), Africa, situated on the Niger about 150 miles from the coast (Map: Africa, E 4). It
