effect when the mass is just poised, and Swiss guides often
enjoin absolute silence when crossing dangerous spots.

AVALLON, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Yonne, 34 m. S.S.E. of Auxerre on a branch of the Paris-Lyon
railway. Pop. (1906) 5197. The town, with wide streets and picturesque
promenades, is finely situated on a promontory, the base of which is washed
on the south by the Cousin, on the east and west by small streams. Its
chief building, the church of St Lazare, dates from the 12th century. The
two western portals are adorned with sculpture in the ornate Romanesque
style; the tower on the left of the facade was rebuilt in the 17th century.
The Tour de L'Horloge, pierced by a gateway through which passes the Grande
Rue, is a 15th century structure containing a museum on its second floor.
Remains of the ancient fortifications, including seven of the flanking
towers, are still to be seen. Avallon has a statue of Vauban, the military
engineer. The public institutions include the subprefecture, a tribunal of
first instance, and a communal college. The manufacture of biscuits and
gingerbread, and of leather and farm implements is carried on, and there is
considerable traffic in wood, wine, and the live-stock and agricultural
produce of the surrounding country.

Avallon (_Aballo_) was in the middle ages the seat of a viscounty dependent
on the duchy of Burgundy, and on the death of Charles the Bold passed under
the royal authority.

AVALON (also written AVALLON, AVOLLON, AVILION and AVELION), in Welsh
mythology the kingdom of the dead, afterwards an earthly paradise in the
western seas, and finally, in the Arthurian romances, the abode of heroes
to which King Arthur was conveyed after his last battle. In Welsh the name
is Ynys yr Afallon, usually interpreted "Isle of Apples," but possibly
connected with the Celtic tradition of a king over the dead named Avalloc
(in Welsh Afallach). If the traditional derivation is correct, the name is
derived from the Welsh _afal_, an apple, and, as no other large fruit was
well known to the races of northern Europe, is probably intended to
symbolize the feasting and enjoyments of elysium. Other forms of the name
are Ynysvitrin and Ynysgutrin, "Isle of Glass"--which appear to be
identical with Glasberg, the Teutonic kingdom of the dead. Perhaps owing to
a confusion between Glasberg or Ynysvitrin and the Anglo-Saxon
Glaestinga-burh, Glaston