52 ATIIA MELIK ATHANASIAN CREED which drew about him a large band of fol- lowers. He always wore a veil, declaring that no one could behold his face and live ; but the real reason of his doing so is supposed to have been to hide the loss of an eye. The caliph Mahdi having sent an army against him, he shut himself up in the castle of Keh, north of the Oxus, and when no longer able to stand a siege put himself to death. According to some, he set fire to his castle and threw himself into the flames, followed by many of his disciples. Others state that he poisoned himself and his followers; and again others that he threw himself into a cauldron of corrosive acid, in the hope that his complete destruction would follow, causing the belief that he had been re- moved by divine agency. Mokanna is the hero of Moore's poem, "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan." ATHA JIELIK, la ed-Din, a Persian historian and statesman, born in Khorasan about 1227, died at Bagdad in 1282. He enjoyed the favor of the Mongol princes of Persia, and was for many years governor of Bagdad. His history of the Mongols, entitled " Conquest of the World," has been highly valued. ATHABASCA, or Athapescow. I. A lake of British North America, in lat. 59 N., and be- tween Ion. 106 and 112 W., about midway between the Rocky mountains and Hudson bay. It is about 20 m. wide from N. to S. and 230 m. long. Forts Chipewyan and Fond du Lac are on its N. shore. At the W. end it receives the Athabasca and Peace rivers, and discharges the Slave river, which flows N. into Great Slave lake, whence there is communica- tion by the Mackenzie river with the Arctic ocean. The Black river issues from its E. ex- tremity, and forms part of the channel through which, by Black, Manito or Wollaston, Deer, and Indian lakes, and the Churchill river, it is connected with Hudson bay. II. A river which rises in the Rocky mountains, near Mt. Brown, in lat. 52 10' N., Ion. 116 30' W., and has a tortuous N. and N. E. course, receiving the overflow of the Lesser Slave and several other lakes, and entering Athabasca lake. Its length is about 600 m. A shoal several miles in extent is formed by the debris and drift timber which it brings into the lake. ATHABASCAS, a family of American Indians, comprising two large divisions : one bordering on the Esquimaux in the northwest, and ex- tending from Hudson bay to the Pacific ; the other on the Mexican frontier, extending from the gulf of California to Texas, with smaller bands scattered along the Pacific from Cook's inlet to Umpqua river, Oregon. The north- ern district contains a variety of tribes, the more important being the Tinne (called Chipe- wyans by the Crees), the Tahkali or Carriers, Sicaunies, Kutchin or Loucheux, Dog Ribs, Mauvais Monde, Slaves, Beaver Indians, and Yellow Knives, with the Sursee on the Sas- katchewan. Their numbers have not been ac- curately computed, but are estimated by Kirby at 32,000. The scattered tribes are the Ke- naians or Tnaina on Cook's inlet, numbering about 25,000 ; the Kwalhioqua and Tlatskanai, about 100 each, on the Columbia ; and the Umpquas, about 400 in number, on the river of that name. These tribes are all repre- sented as timid, mild, and gentle in man- ner, peaceable and industrious. The southern district includes the sedentary Navajos, who cultivate the soil and weave blankets; the fierce, wandering Apaches, the most trouble- some of tribes ; and the more quiet Lipans of Texas. These number about 17,000. The name of the family is derived from Lake Ath- abasca, but the word is taken, not from their language, but from the Cree, meaning cords of hay according to some. They are easily dis- tinguished from other families, having square massive heads, short hands and feet, and a quantity of beard quite unusual in American tribes. They profess to have come from a dis- tant country in the west, over a series of islands amid ice and snow. Some writers trace strong Tartar resemblances in them, and Turner found curious analogies between their language and that of Thibet. ATIIALIAH, queen of Judah, daughter of Ahab, king of Israel. She was sought by Je- hoshaphat, king of 3udah, in marriage for his son Jehoram. This marriage was the occasion of the introduction of idolatry into Judah, and of an interruption in the Judean dynasty. Af- ter the death of Jehoram, and the short reign and destruction of her son Ahaziah (884 B. 0.), Athaliah caused all the male members of the royal line, as she supposed, to be slain, and mounted the throne of Judah herself. But after she had reigned six years, the high priest Jehoiada produced her grandson, the young Joash, who had been saved from the massacre and reared in the temple, caused him to be an- ointed as king, and ordered the punishment of Athaliah by the armed Levites. ATHA5IAS, in Greek legendary history, a son of ^Eolus, married Nephele, who, discovering that he preferred Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, vanished from the earth. Ino endeavored to destroy Phrixus and Ilelle, his children by Ne- phele, but they were rescued by their mother and transported to Colchis on the back of the ram with the golden fleece. Juno, to punish the infidelity of Athamas, afflicted him with mad- ness. While in this condition he killed Lear- chus, one of his sons by Ino, and the latter cast herself into the sea with her other son, Melicertes. Athamas now fled from Boeotia, and was commanded by an oracle to remain wherever he should be hospitably received by savage beasts. After much wandering he ar- rived at a place where wolves were devouring sheep ; they fled at his approach, and left their prey at his disposal. Athamas settled there, and called his new territory Athamania. ATHANASIAJf CREED, a symbol chiefly com- posed of precise theological definitions of the doctrines of the Trinity and incarnation. The
