[Askew, Antony], a physician and classical scholar, a collector of rare and curious books (1722-1774).
[Asmode`us], a mischievous demon or goblin of the Jewish demonology, who gloats on the vices and follies of mankind, and figures in Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux," or the "Devil on Two Sticks," as lifting off the roofs of the houses of Madrid and exposing their inmost interiors and the secret doings of the inhabitants.
[Asmonæ`ans], a name given to the Maccabees, from Asmon, the place of their origin.
[Aso`ka], a king of Behar, in India; after his accession in 264 B.C. became an ardent disciple of Buddha; organised Buddhism, as Constantine did Christianity, into a State religion; convened the third great council of the Church of that creed at Patna; made a proclamation of this faith as far as his influence extended, evidence of which is still extant in pillars and rocks inscribed with his edicts in wide districts of Northern India; d. 223 B.C.
[Asp], a poisonous Egyptian viper of uncertain species.
[Aspa`sia], a woman remarkable for her wit, beauty, and culture, a native of Miletus; being attracted to Athens, came and settled in it; became the wife of Pericles, and her home the rendezvous of all the intellectual and wise people of the city, Socrates included; her character was often both justly and unjustly assailed.
[As`pern], a village in Austria, on the Danube, 4 m. NE. of Vienna, where a charge of the Austrians under the Archduke Charles was defeated by Napoleon, May 21, 1809, and Marshal Lannes killed.
[Asphalt], a mineral pitch of a black or brownish-black colour, consisting chiefly of carbon; also a limestone impregnated with bitumen, and more or less in every quarter of the globe.
[Asphaltic Lake], the [Dead Sea] (q. v.), so called from the asphalt on its surface and banks.
[As`phodel], a lily plant appraised by the Greeks for its almost perennial flowering, and with which they, in their imagination, covered the Elysian fields, called hence the Asphodel Meadow.