Ceylon; _b_.
1839.

ARABIA (12,000), the most westerly peninsula of Asia and the largest
in the world, being one-third the size of the whole of Europe, consisting
of (_a_) a central plateau with pastures for cattle, and fertile valleys;
(_b_) a ring of deserts, the Nefud in the N., stony, the Great Arabian, a
perfect Sahara, in the S., sandy, said sometimes to be 600 ft. deep, and
the Dahna between; and (_c_) stretches of coast land, generally fertile
on the W. and S.; is divided into eight territories; has no lakes or
rivers, only wadies, oftenest dry; the climate being hot and arid, has no
forests, and therefore few wild animals; a trading country with no roads
or railways, only caravan routes, yet the birthland of a race that
threatened at one time to sweep the globe, and of a religion that has
been a life-guidance to wide-scattered millions of human beings for over
twelve centuries of time.

ARABIA FELIX, the W. coast of Arabia, contains YEMEN and EL
HEJAZ (q. v.), and is subject to Turkey.

ARABIAN DESERT. See ARABIA.

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