VAIGATZ, an island in the Arctic Ocean, 67 m. long by 26 m. broad, the “Holy Island” of the SAMOYEDES (q. v.), an abode of furred animals, seals, &c.

VAISHNAVAS, in India, name given to the worshippers of Vishnu.

VAISYAS.  See CASTE.

VALAIS, a Swiss canton, between Berne on the N. and Italy on the S., in a wide valley of the Rhone, and shut in by lofty mountains; cattle-rearing is the chief industry.

VALDAI HILLS, a plateau rising to the height of 1100 ft. above the sea-level in Russia, forming the only elevation in the Great European Plain.

VALENCIA (180), a city of Spain, once the capital of a kingdom, now of a fertile province of the name; is situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, 3 m. from the mouth of the Guadalaviar, in the midst of a district called the Huerta, which is watered by the river, and grows oranges, citron, almond, mulberry-trees in richest luxuriance, the fruits of which it exports; is an archbishop’s see, and contains a large Gothic cathedral, a picture gallery, and a university with a large library; has silk, cloth, leather, cigar, floor-tile manufactures, and exports grain and silk besides fruits.

VALENCIA (40), a city of Venezuela, in a rich district, on a lake of the same name; large numbers of cattle, horses, and mules are reared in the neighbourhood.

VALENCIENNES (24), an ancient fortified city in the dep.  Nord, France, on the Scheldt, 32 m.  SE. of Lille, with a citadel planned by Vauban, a fine town-hall, and a modern Gothic church and other buildings; has textile manufactures, besides iron-works, and was once famous for its lace.

VALENS, FLAVIUS, Emperor of the East from 364 to 378; nominated by his brother Valentinian I. emperor of the West; was harassed all his reign by the Goths, who had been allowed to settle in the empire, and whom he drove into revolt, to the defeat of his army in 378, in a battle in which he was himself slain; the controversy between the orthodox and the Arians was at its height in this reign, and to the latter party both he and his victors belonged; b. 328.

VALENTIA, an island in co.  Kerry, Ireland, is the European terminus of the Atlantic telegraph system.

VALENTINE, BASIL, a German alchemist of the 15th century, is said to have been a Benedictine monk at Erfurt, and is reckoned the father of analytical chemistry.

VALENTINE’S DAY, the 14th of February, on which young people of both sexes were wont (the custom seems gradually dying out) to send love-missives to one another; it is uncertain who the Valentine was that is associated with the day, or whether it was with any of the name.

VALENTINIAN I., Roman emperor from 364 to 375, born in Pannonia, of humble birth; distinguished himself by his capacity and valour; was elected emperor by the troops at Nicaea; his reign was spent in repelling the inroads of the barbarians.

VALENTINIANS, a Gnostic sect, called after their leader Valentine, a native of Egypt of the 2nd century, regarded heathenism as preparatory to Christianity, and Christ as the full and final development in human form of a series of fifteen stages of emanation from the infinite divine to the finite divine in Him “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all,” each stage in the process achieved by the union of a male element with a female, that is, a conceptive and a susceptive.