Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/87

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ARONA.
71
ARQUEBUS


end of Lake Maggioro. Steamers connect it in summer with Locarno in Switzerland. It has silk, cotton, and metal works, and is commercially very active. A noteworthy feature of the town is a brazen statue, 70 feet high, erected in 1697 to the memory of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (q.v.), who was born here in 1538. Population, in 1881, 4182; in 1901, 4700.

ARON'IA. See Cratægus.

AROOSTOOK, aroos'tiik. A river rising in Piseataqus County, northern Maine, 1050 feet above the sea. Mowing northeast through Aroostook County, and entering the Saint John's River, in New Brunswick (Map: Maine, H 2). It is the chief tributary of the Saint John's River, and along its valley lies some of the richest soil in the State. It is about 125 miles long, and drains an area of 2550 square miles, of which 2500 are in Maine. It falls 705 feet from its source to the State line, a distance of 117 miles, thus affording extensive water power. It possesses historical interest from its connection with the long-agitated question of the northeastern boundary between British America and the United States.

AROOSTOOK, Lady of the. The title of a novel of W. D. Howells. The heroine of it takes passage across the Atlantic on a trading vessel, the Aroostook, no other woman being on board. The book is among the best of Howells's earlier period.

AROUET. a'rijo'il'. See Voltaire.

ARPACHSHAD, iir-paK'sliad. In the list of eponyms of the nations in Gen. x., Arpachshad appears as the third son of Shem, ancestor of the Tershites, and consequently of the Hebrews. The name is supposed by many scholars to represent Arrapachitia, a region on the Upper Zab, northeast of Nineveh. Since the absence of Babylonia causes some surprise, Cheyne suggests that the original had two words. Arpach-Arrapachitis and Chesed-Chaldæa, while Hommel explains it as Ur-pa-keshad, an Egyptian variant of Ur-kasdim. More probable is Jensen's explanation that the word was originally Arba-kishadu, meaning "the four banks," a designation of Babylonia, as including the territory from the eastern bank of the Tigris to the western bank of the Euphrates.

ARP'AD (Assyrian ar-pad-da). An ancient city of Syria, the site of which is 13 miles northwest of Aleppo. In B.C. 740 it fell into the hands of Tiglath Pileser II. It is mentioned in Isa. x. 9. The modern Tel Erfad represents its locality.

ARPAD (?-907). The national hero of Hungary. He was the son of Almos, the leader under whom the Magyars first gained a footing in Hungary, and was chosen duke on his father's death, in 889. By incessant and, for the most part, successful warfare with the Bulgarians and Moravians he extended the conquests of the Magyars on all sides. He also made incursions into Italy about 900, and returned laden with booty. He died in 907, leaving his son in possession of the supreme command. The first crowned king of the house of Arpád was Saint Stephen, who ascended the throne in 997. The Arpád dynasty became extinct in the male line with Andreas III., in 1301. Arpád lives in the popular songs of the country; his history, even in the oldest chronicles, is mixed up with the national legends.

ARPEGGIO, ;ir-pej'-6 (It., harping, from arpa, harp). In music, a chord of which the notes are sounded not contemporaneously, but in succession, in a broken manner, as on a harp. Bass chords thus treated form Alberti bass, so named from Domenico Alberti (1707-40), a popular singer and player, who often played the bass in this style.

AR'PENT, Fr. pron. ar'paN'. The old French land measure, corresponding to our acre. The word is derived from arepennis, arapennis, the Latin form of the name of a Gallic land measure. It was identified by Columella with the Roman actus, or half iugerum. Ordinarily, an arpent may be reckoned as five-sixths of an acre.


ARPINO, iir-pe'n') (anciently, Lat. Arpinum). A town of south Italy, 14 miles north of Roccasecca, and 94 miles northwest of Naples, near the river Garigliano (ancient Liris) (Map; Italy, H 6). It is celebrated as the birthplace of Marius, Cicero, and Vipsanius Agrippa. Near Arpino are a Trappist convent, called Casamari, and a bridge called Ponte di Cicerone. The public school bears the name Collegio Tulliano, and the local theatre is Teatro Tulliano. The local cloth manufacturers proudly proclaim that id the time of the Roman Republic, Arpinum was famous for woolens, and that the father of the immortal orator was superintendent of a fulling mill. Arpino also manufactures parchment, paper, and leather, and quarries excellent marble. Population, in 1881, about 5000 (commune, 11,368); in 1900 (commune), 10,607. Consult Kelsall, Classical Excursion to Arpino (Geneva, 1820).

ARQUA. iir-kwii'. A village in north Italy 12 miles southwest of Padua. Here Petrarch lived and died. His house has faded frescoes of scenes from his poems, and a few souvenirs, and his sarcophagus rests on red marble colunms in front of the church. Population, about 500.

ARQUEBUS, .ir'kwe-hus, or HARQUEBUS, (Fr. arquebuse, OF. harquebuse, from Dutch haakbus, from haak, hook + bus, gunbarrel; cf. Eng. hagbut, and Ger. Hakenbüchse, a gun with a hook). The first form of a gun, resembling the modern musket. Hand-guns are mentioned as early as 1414, but not until the second half of the Fifteenth Century do we find illustrations of the same. The arquebus at this period consisted of a metal tube, fixed in a straight stock of wood, with a vent at the top of the barrel, where the match was applied. Some time between the close of the Fifteenth Century and the middle of the Sixteenth Century the lock was added. Two kinds of locks are noteworthy: the first moved toward the gunner when the trigger was pressed; the second, like the modern lock, receded. It was not until the middle of the Sixteenth Century that firearms became important in warfare. The arquebus of the period is of two principal kinds, fired with a rest or without one. In 1567 the arquebus was used by the Duke of Alva against the Flemings, and in 1573 Charles IX. introduced it into the French army. The arquebusiers were both footmen and cavalry, and in England many yeomen of the guard became arquebusiers. By the middle of the Seven-