YMPIA.

OLYMPUS, a mountain range in Greece, between Thessaly and Macedonia,
the highest peak of which is 9750 ft.; the summit of it was the fabled
abode of the Greek gods; it is clothed with forests of pine and other
trees.

OLNEY, a little town in Buckinghamshire, associated with the life of
Cowper, and where he wrote, along with John Newton, the "Olney Hymns."

OM, a mystic word among the Hindus and Buddhists; presumed to be
latent with some magic virtue, and used on solemn occasions as a sort of
spiritual charm efficacious with the upper powers, and potent to draw
down divine assistance in an hour of need.

OMAGH (4), on the Strule, 34 m. S. of Londonderry; is the county
town of Tyrone; though a very ancient town it has been rebuilt since
1743, when it was destroyed by fire; it is the head-quarters of the NW.
military district.

OMAHA (102), chief city of Nebraska, on the W. bank of the Missouri,
20 m. above the confluence of the Platte; is connected by a bridge with
Council Bluffs on the opposite shore; it has many fine buildings,
including colleges and schools; its silver-smelting works are the largest
in the world; it ranks third in the pork-packing industry, and has
besides manufactures of linseed oil, boilers, and safes; an important
railway centre, it lies midway between the termini of the Union Pacific
Railroad; near it are the military head-quarters of the Platte
department.

OMAN, a territory of Arabia, lying along the shores of the Persian
Gulf and the Arabian Sea, round the south-eastern nob of the peninsula;
has some stretches of very fertile country where there happens to be
water for irrigation, but the coast is very hot and not healthy. The
region is subject to the Sultan of Muscat, who is in turn a pensioner of
the Anglo-Indian Government.

OMAR, the successor of Abu-Bekr, and the second Caliph from 634 to
644; was at first a persecutor of the Faithful, but underwent in 615 a
sudden conversion like Said, with a like result; was vizier of Abu-Bekr
before he succeeded him; swept and subdued Syria, Persia, and Egypt with
the sword in the name of Allah, but is accused of having burned the rich
library of Alexandria on the plea that it contained books hostile to the
faith of Islam; he was an austere man, and was assassinated by a Persian
slave whose wrongs he refused to redress.

OMAR KHAYYAM, astronomer-poet of Persia, born at Naishapur, in
Khorassan; lived in the later half of