Sir W. Scott, The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

AVENGER OF BLOOD, the man who had the birthright, according to the Jewish, polity, of taking vengeance on him who had killed one of his relatives.

  ... the Christless code
  That must have life for a blow.

  Tennyson, Maud, II. i. 1.

AVERY (Parson), a missionary “to the souls of fishers starving on the rocks of Marblehead.”  He is wrecked with his crew, one wintry midnight, and dies praying aloud.—­J.G.  Whittier, The Swan Song of Parson Avery (1850).

AVICEN or Abou-ibn-Sina, an Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Shiraz, in Persia (980-1037).  He composed a treatise on logic, and another on metaphysics.  Avicen is called both the Hippocrates and the Aristotle of the Arabs.

  Of physicke speake for me, king Avicen ... 
  Yet was his glory never set on shelfe,
  Nor never shall, whyles any worlde may stande
  Where men have minde to take good bookes in hande.

  G. Gascoigne, The Fruits of Warre, lvii. (died 1577).

AVIS, a New England girl, heroine of The Story of Avis, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward.  She is forced by genius to be an artist, and through her art loses hope of domestic happiness (1877).

AYL’MER (Mrs.), a neighbor of sir Henry Lee.—­Sir W. Scott, Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

AY’MER (Prior), a jovial Benedictine monk, prior of Jorvaulx Abbey.—­Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

AY’MON, duke of Dordona (Dordogne).  He had four sons, Rinaldo, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (i.e. Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), whose adventures are the subject of a French romance, entitled Les Quatre fils Aymon, by H. de Alleneuve (1165-1223).

AZA’ZEL, one of the ginn or jinn, all of whom were made of “smokeless fire,” that is, the fire of the Simoom.  These jinn inhabited the earth before man was created, but on account of their persistent disobedience were driven from it by an army of angels.  When Adam was created, and God commanded all to worship him, Azazel insolently made answer, “Me hast Thou created of fire, and him of earth; why should I worship him?” Whereupon God changed the jinnee into a devil, and called him Iblis or Despair.  In hell he was made the standard-bearer of Satan’s host.

  Upreared
  His mighty standard; that proud honor claimed
  Azazel as his right.

  Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 534 (1665).

AZ’LA, a suttee, the young widow of Ar’valan, son of
Keha’ma.—­Southey, Curse of Kehama, i. 10 (1809).

AZ’O, husband of Parisi’na.  He was marquis d’Este, of Ferrara, and had already a natural son, Hugo, by Bianca, who, “never made his bride,” died of a broken heart.  Hugo was betrothed to Parisina before she married the marqnis, and after she became his mother-in-law, they loved on still.  One night Azo heard Parisina in sleep express her love for Hugo, and the angry marquis condemned his son to death.  Although he spared his bride, no one ever knew what became of her.—­Byron, Parisina.