AMADOU, a spongy substance, consisting of slices of certain fungi beaten together, used as a styptic, and, after being steeped in saltpetre, used as tinder.

AMAIMON, a devil who could he restrained from working evil from the third hour till noon and from the ninth till evening.

AMALARIC, king of the Visigoths, married a daughter of Clovis; d. 581.

AMALEKITES, a warlike race of the Sinaitic peninsula, which gave much trouble to the Israelites in the wilderness; were as good as annihilated by King David.

AMAL`FI, a port on the N. of the Gulf of Salerno, 24 m.  SE. of Naples; of great importance in the Middle Ages, and governed by Doges of its own.

AMALFIAN LAWS, a code of maritime law compiled at Amalfi.

AMA`LIA, ANNA, the Duchess of Weimar, the mother of the grand-duke; collected about her court the most illustrious literary men of the time, headed by Goethe, who was much attached to her (1739-1807).

AMALRIC, one of the leaders in the crusade against the Albigenses, who, when his followers asked him how they were to distinguish heretics from Catholics, answered, “Kill them all; God will know His own;” d. 1225.

AMALTHE`A, the goat that suckled Zeus, one of whose horns became the cornucopia—­horn of plenty.

AMA`RA SINHA, a Hindu Buddhist, left a valuable thesaurus of Sanskrit words.

AMA`RI, MICHELE, an Italian patriot, born at Palermo, devoted a great part of his life to the history of Sicily, and took part in its emancipation; was an Orientalist as well; he is famous for throwing light on the true character of the Sicilian Vespers (1806-1889).

AMARYL`LIS, a shepherdess in one of Virgil’s pastorals; any young rustic maiden.

AMA`SIA (25), a town in Asia Minor, once the capital of the kings of Pontus.

AMA`SIS, king of Egypt, originally a simple soldier, took part in an insurrection, dethroned the reigning monarch and assumed the crown, proved an able ruler, and cultivated alliances with Greece; reigned from 570 to 546 B.C.

AMA`TI, a celebrated family of violin-makers; Andrea and Niccolo, brothers, at Cremona, in the 16th and 17th centuries.

AMATITLAN (10), a town in Guatemala, the inhabitants of which are mainly engaged in the preparation of cochineal.

AMAUROSIS, a weakness or loss of vision, the cause of which was at one time unknown.

AMAZON, a river in S. America and the largest on the globe, its basin nearly equal in extent to the whole of Europe; traverses the continent at its greatest breadth, rises in the Andes about 50 m. from the Pacific, and after a course of 4000 m. falls by a delta into the Atlantic, its waters increased by an immense number of tributaries, 20 of which are above 1000 m. in length, one 2000 m., its mouth 200 m. wide; its current affects the ocean 150 m. out; is navigable 3000 m. up, and by steamers as far as the foot of the Andes.