A B A K A N S K — A B B O T.

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a rich temple which was plundered and burnt by thePersians.

Abakansk, a fortified town of Asiatic, Russia, inSiberia, comprehended within the government ofTomsk. It was built in 1707, and has since beenfixed on as the seat of the courts of justice. Itspopulation is about 1,200 souls. Lat. 54“ N. Long.91° 14' E.

Abanilla, a town in the province and departmentof Murcia, in Spain.

Abano, a town in the Austrian division of Italy,situated under the Euganian hills. It is celebratedfor its warm baths, of which there are five, viz. Fonted’ Abano, Mont Ortone, St. Pietro, Monte Gratto,and St. Barteolomo, and a mud bath, Bagno di Fanzo.It contains 3,000 inhabitants.

Abany, a town in the Austrian kingdom of Hun-gary, in the palatinate of Pest, and in the circle ofReeskernet, with one Catholic and one Reformedchurch.

Abaris, the Hyperborean, a celebrated sage ofantiquity, whose history and travels have been thesubject of much learned discussion. Such a numberof fabulous stories were told of him, that Herodotushimself seems to scruple to relate them.

Abascia, or Abcassia, the northern district of thewestern division of Georgia, situated on the coast ofthe Black Sea, and tributary to the Turks. The in-habitants trade in furs, tiger-skins, linen, yarn, box-wood, and bees.

Abattoir. Public and national establishmentsunder this name are now in course of erection inmany parts of Europe. They have been recom-mended in this country, though, as yet, the plan hasnot been adopted to any extent. We give a trans-lation of La Bruyere’s account of the Parisian abat-toirs. The abattoirs of Paris contain two or fourcorps of slaughter-rooms, each composed of twobuildings separated by a court. The slaughter-rooms,formed by partition-walls, of free stone, have fivemetres, (sixteen feet three inches in width,) and tenmetres, (thirty-two feet six inches in length,) fromcentre to centre of pilaster, and each of them has twoentrances, one from the court by which the animal isintroduced, and one from the exterior for the removalof the meat. Each slaughter-room is supplied withwater, and a sink placed a little below the level ofthe pavement. A rack-wheel and pulleys is fixedagainst the wall for lifting the animal, and a framing,composed of two pieces, placed horizontally, at theheight of two metres, thirty-two centre metres, (sixfeet ten inches,) fixed in the wall at one end, andcarried at the other by a cross-piece. From thisframing seven or eight oxen may be suspended bythe means of moveable rails ; and iron brackets fixedagainst the wall serve to support the calves andsheep.

These slaughter-rooms, as well as the court ofcommunication, are built of stone; the joints arecarefully stopped with a mastic of iron filings, that nooffensive matter may lodge therein. The ceilingsare plastered for the greater cleanliness. Smallopenings are made at the bottom of the doors forthe circulation of air, and the roofs have a projectionof about three metres (nine feet nine inches) beyondthe exterior walls, affording the double advantage ofguaranteeing the slaughter-rooms from the heat ofthe sun, and protecting the butchers from the weatherwhile working in the court yard.

The days on which the animals arrive at Paris areseldom the days on which they are killed. It istherefore necessary to have places to receive them.These buildings, of the most simple form and con-struction, have about nine metres, (twenty-nine feetthree inches in width), on the inside. Large stonearches supply the place of girders, and support thejoists of the flooring of the upper rooms. A secondrange of arches supplies the place of principals forthe roof, and receives the perlines. The upper flooris partitioned into as many divisions as there areslaughter-rooms, that each butcher may secure hisown forage, and each building is supplied with a verylarge cistern.

Abbe, before the French revolution, was the titleof all those Frenchmen who devoted themselves todivinity, or had at least pursued a course of study ina theological seminary, in the hope that the kingw'ould confer on them a real abbey; that is, a certainpart of the revenues of a monastery. Ordained cler-gymen were those only who devoted themselves en-tirely to the performance of clerical duty : the otherswere engaged in every kind of literary occupation.There were so many of them, poor and rich, men ofquality and men of low birth, that they formed a par-ticular class in society, and exerted an important in-fluence on its character. They were seen everywhere;at court, in the halls of justice, in the theatre, in thecoffee-houses. In almost every wealthy family therewas an abbe, occupying the post of familiar friendand spiritual adviser, and not seldom that of the gal-lant of the lady. They corresponded, in a certaindegree, to the philosophers who lived in the housesof the wealthy Romans in the time of the emperors.A round toupet, a short, black, brown, or violet coat,completed the appearance of an abbe.

Abbes Commaniiataires. The King of Francehad formerly the right of appointing abbots over twohundred and twenty-five monasteries. These abbotsenjoyed a third part of the revenues of the monastery,but had no authority over if, the charge of superin-tendence being committed to a/incur claustrul. Ac-cording to rule, every abbot ought* to receive ordina-tion in the course of a year, but the pope dispensedwith' the rule, and the abbe spent his income (from1200 to 150,000 French livres) wherever be pleased.This shocking abuse excited the indignation of thepeople, and was one of the causes of the revolution.The lower sinecures of this kind, the ahbayes dessavans, were used as pensions for learned men ; thericher, to provide for the younger sons of the nobi-lity.

Abbey. (See Abbot and Monastery.)

Abbot, was originally the name of every agedmonk ; but, since the 8th century, it denotes the headof a monastery. The abbot required unconditionalobedience from his monks, and his office was to su-pervise the whole brotherhood, to enforce the obser-vance of the rules of the order, and manage the pro-perty of the convent. Since the 6th century, abbotshave alw'ays been priests ; and, since the secondcouncil of Nice, A. D. 787, have enjoyed the powerof conferring the lower orders of priesthood; but,in the essential points of jurisdiction, were every-where subject to the diocesan bishop, till the 11thcentury, and independent of each other. The con-sequence of the abbots grew with the wealth of theirmonasteries : several, especially in those countrieswhere the diffusion of Christianity proceeded from