AYLESBUKY AYMAR-VERNAY 169 to the prophet, who cherished an especial re- gard for her, though she hore him no children. The 24th chapter of the Koran was written by the prophet expressly to silence those cynics who doubted Ayesha's purity. She survived Mohammed about 46 years, and had an active part in the contest against Ali, who toolfcher prisoner with arms in her hands, but pardoned her. Her opinion was sought sometimes on difficult points in the Koran, and had the force of law with good Sunnis. AYLESBURY, a market town, parish, and par- liamentary borough of England, county seat of Buckinghamshire, 37 m. N. W. of London ; pop. of the borough in 1871, 28,760. The town is very old and irregularly built, but well paved, and lighted with gas. Straw plaiting is extensively carried on, and ducks are raised in great numbers for the London market. The manufacture of lace, formerly an important in- dustry, has diminished greatly of late years. There is one silk factory. AYLMKR, John, bishop of London, born at Tilney in Norfolk in 1521, died June 3, 1594. He was sent to Cambridge by the marquis of Dorset, afterward duke of Suffolk, but gradu- ated in divinity at Oxford, after which he be- came the duke's chaplain and tutor to his daughter, Lady Jane Grey. On the accession of Queen Mary, in 1553, Aylmer was compelled to give up the archdeaconry of Stow in Lin- colnshire, to which he had just been appointed, . and fled to Switzerland. In his exile he pub- lished a reply to John Knox's "First Blast," against the propriety of' women holding the sovereign sway, and complimented Elizabeth. Returning to England after the accession of the latter, he manifested much zeal in favor of the reformed faith, was made archdeacon of Lincoln in 1562, and was a member of the synod which reformed and settled the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican church. He was made bishop of London in 1576, and in this ca- pacity became so unpopular, on account of his intolerance toward the Catholics and the Puri- tans, that the privy council rebuked his se- verity. He was a ripe scholar and a popular preacher, but published nothing except his courtly answer to John Knox. AYMARAS, the name of the earliest known inhabitants of the Alpine valleys of S. E. Peru and N. W. Bolivia, whose descendants, save a few in the Peruvian province of Puno, are now to be found only in the Bolivian provinces of La Paz and Oruro. They claim descent from the Collaguas, who at a very remote period migrated from the north, and consti- tuted the sacred isle in Lake Titicaca the cen- tre of their government and religion. Though distinct in language, they physically resemble the Indians of the great Quichuan or Inca fam- ily, who were indebted to them for a part of their religious rites and the knowledge of the arts. They worked skilfully in gold and silver, tilled the ground, built splendid edifices orna- mented with sculpture and painting, and were somewhat versed in astronomy. Their poetry and religion were spiritualistic ; their priests were bound to celibacy, and the dead were held in religious veneration. Their skin is of an olive-brown color ; their features, though regular, are strongly marked, the cranium ca- pacious, and the general cast of the counte- nance thoughtful and melancholy. The wo- men are rarely handsome. The Aymaras have embraced Christianity, and are zealous obser- vers of all the rites of the Roman Catholic faith, in the performance of which, however, they introduce some relics of paganism. Their chief occupation is husbandry. As the Incas grew in power they gradually subdued the Ay- maras, and ultimately overran their whole ter- ritory. The Aymaras probably number 200,- 000 at the present day. In early times they were accustomed to mould the craniums of infants to a conical shape. They worshipped Aymaras, and an Aymara Tomb. the sun, and believed the present luminary to be the fifth, and that, after a long period of darkness, it emerged from the sacred island in the lake. The monuments of Tiaguanaco, re- mains of many of which are still standing, in- dicate a much higher civilization than do those of Palenque. (See TITICACA.) Their tombs, sometimes large square buildings with a single opening through which the body was intro- duced, contained 12 bodies placed feet to feet around a confined cavity, sitting in their clothes. Some of these tombs are small houses of sunburnt bricks; some are square towers of several stories, containing each a body ; but whatever be the size, they are always joined in groups, with the opening facing the east. AYMAR-VERNAY, Jatqnes, a French peasant of Dauphiny, a pretended diviner, born at St. Veran, Sept. 8, 1662; time of death unknown. He was originally a mason, but early abandoned that occupation, and began using the divining
