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YABLONOI MOUNTAINS, a range of mountains which extend NE. from the Altai chain, and run S. of Lake Baikal, near the frontier of China, dividing the basin of the Amur from that of the Lena.

YACU-MAMA, a fabulous marine monster, said to haunt the lagoons of the Amazon, and to suck into its mouth and swallow whatever comes within a hundred yards of it; before bathing in a lagoon, where he apprehends its presence, the Indian sounds a horn, the effect of which is to make it reveal itself if it is there.

YAHOO, name of a race of brutes, subject to the Houyhuhnms (q. v.), in “Gulliver’s Travels,” with the form and all the vices of men.

YAJUR-VEDA, one of the books of the VEDAS (q. v.), containing the prescribed formulae in connection with sacrifices.

YAKSHA, a species of gnome in the Hindoo mythology.

YAKUTSK (5), a capital town in East Siberia, on a branch of the Lena; occupied chiefly by traders in furs, hides, &c.; is said to be the coldest town in the world.

YALE UNIVERSITY, a well-equipped university at New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., founded in 1701, which derives its name from Elihu Yale, a Boston man, and which was given to it in recognition of his benefactions; it occupies a square in the heart of the city, has a staff of 70 professors, besides tutors and lecturers, also 1200 students, and a library of 200,000 volumes; the faculties include arts, medicine, law, theology, fine arts, and music, while the course of study extends over four years.

YAMA, in the Hindu mythology “a solar hero who rules over the dead; might have lived as an immortal, but chose to die; was the first to traverse the road from which there is no return, tracing it for future generations; in the remotest extremity of the heavens, the abode of light and the eternal waters, he reigns in peace and in union with VARUNA (q. v.); there by the sound of his flute, under the branches of the mythic tree, he assembles around him the dead who have lived nobly, they reach him in a crowd, convoyed by AGNI (q. v.), grimly scanned as they pass by two monstrous dogs that are the guardians of the road.”

YAMBO or YAMBU, the port of Medina, in Arabia, on the Red Sea.

YANAON (5), a small patch of territory belonging to France, on the Godavery, enclosed in the British province of Madras, India.

YANG-TSZE-KIANG, or the Blue, or Great, River, the largest river in China and in the East; rises in the plateau of Tibet, and after a course of 3200 m., draining and irrigating great part of China by the way, falls by a wide estuary into the Yellow Sea, terminating near Shanghai; it has numerous tributaries, some of great length, and is of great value to the country as a waterway; it is navigable 1000 m. from its mouth, and at Hankow, 700 m. up, is a mile in width.

YANKEE, slang name for a New Englander; applied in England to the citizens of the United States generally; it is of uncertain derivation.