ARABIAN NIGHTS, or the Thousand and One Nights, a collection of tales of various origin and date, traceable in their present form to the middle of the 15th century, and first translated into French by Galland in 1704.  The thread on which they are strung is this:  A Persian monarch having made a vow that he would marry a fresh bride every night and sacrifice her in the morning, the vizier’s daughter obtained permission to be the first bride, and began a story which broke off at an interesting part evening after evening for a thousand and one nights, at the end of which term the king, it is said, released her and spared her life.

ARABS, THE, “a noble-gifted people, swift-handed, deep-hearted, something most agile, active, yet most meditative, enthusiastic in their character; a people of wild, strong feelings, and iron restraint over these.  In words too, as in action, not a loquacious people, taciturn rather, but eloquent, gifted when they do speak, an earnest, truthful kind of men, of Jewish kindred indeed, but with that deadly terrible earnestness of the Jews they seem to combine something graceful, brilliant, which is not Jewish.”  Such is Carlyle’s opinion of the race from whom Mahomet sprang, as given in his “Heroes.”

ARACAN.  See ARAKAN.

ARACH`NE, a Lydian maiden, who excelled in weaving, and whom Athena changed into a spider because she had proudly challenged her ability to weave as artistic a work; she had failed in the competition, and previously hanged herself in her despair.

ARAD (42), a fortified town in Hungary, seat of a bishop, on the right bank of the Maros; manufactures tobacco, trades in cattle and corn.

ARAF, the Mohammedan sheol or borderland between heaven and hell for those who are from incapacity either not morally bad or morally good.

ARAFAT`, a granite hill E. of Mecca, a place of pilgrimage as the spot where Adam received his wife after 200 years separation from her on account of their disobedience to the Lord in deference to the suggestion of Satan.

AR`AGO, FRANCOIS, an eminent physicist and astronomer, born in the S. of France, entered the Polytechnic School of Paris when seventeen, elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at the early age of twenty-three, nominated Director of the Observatory in 1830, was member of the Provisional Government in 1848, refused to take the oath to Louis Napoleon after the coup d’etat, would rather resign his post at the Observatory, but was retained, and at his death received a public funeral (1786-1853).

ARAGO, JACQUES, a brother of the preceding, a litterateur and a traveller, author of a “Voyage Round the World” (1790-1855).

AR`AGON (925), a territory in the NE. of Spain, traversed by the Ebro, and divided as you proceed southward into the provinces of Huesca, Saragossa, and Teruel, mountainous in the N.; with beautiful fertile valleys, rather barren, in the S; was a kingdom till 1469.