ANFRACTUOSITY (from Lat. anfractuosus, winding), twisting and turning, circuitousness; a word usually employed in the plural to denote winding channels such as occur in the depths of the sea, mountains, or the fissures (sulci) separating the convolutions of the brain, or, by analogy, in the mind.

ANGARIA (from [Greek:  aggaros], the Greek form of a Babylonian word adopted in Persian for “mounted courier"), a sort of postal system adopted by the Roman imperial government from the ancient Persians, among whom, according to Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 6; cf.  Herodotus viii. 98) it was established by Cyrus the Great.  Couriers on horseback were posted at certain stages along the chief roads of the empire, for the transmission of royal despatches by night and day in all weathers.  In the Roman system the supply of horses and their maintenance was a compulsory duty from which the emperor alone could grant exemption.  The word, which in the 4th century was used for the heavy transport vehicles of the cursus publicus, and also for the animals by which they were drawn, came to mean generally “compulsory service.”  So angaria, angariare, in medieval Latin, and the rare English derivatives “angariate,” “angariation,” came to mean any service which was forcibly or unjustly demanded, and oppression in general.

ANGARY (Lat. jus angariae; Fr. droit d’angarie; Ger. Angarie; from the Gr. [Greek:  aggareia], the office of an [Greek:  aggaros], courier or messenger), the name given to the right of a belligerent to seize and apply for the purposes of war (or to prevent the enemy from doing so) any kind of property on, belligerent territory, including that which may belong to subjects or citizens of a neutral state.  Art. 53 of the Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, annexed to the Hague Convention of 1899 on the same subject, provides that railway plant, land telegraphs, telephones, steamers and other ships (other than such as are governed by maritime law), though belonging to companies or private persons, may be used for military operations, but “must be restored at the conclusion of peace and indemnities paid for them.”  And Art. 54 adds that “the plant of railways coming from neutral states, whether the property of those states or of companies or private persons, shall be sent back to them as soon as possible.”  These articles seem to sanction the right of angary against neutral property, while limiting it as against both belligerent and neutral property.  It may be considered, however, that the right to use implies as wide a range of contingencies as the “necessity of war” can be made to cover.

(T.  BA.)

ANGEL, a general term denoting a subordinate superhuman being in monotheistic religions, e.g..  Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and in allied religions, such as Zoroastrianism.  In polytheism the grades of superhuman beings are continuous; but in monotheism there is a sharp distinction of kind, as well as degree, between God on the one hand, and all other superhuman beings on the other; the latter are the “angels.”