many parts of Europe; in great abundance and of peculiarly excellent quality in Tuscany. From the finer and more compact kinds, vases, clock-stands, statuettes, and other ornamental articles are made, and from inferior kinds the cement known as plaster of Paris. A variety of carbonate of lime, closely resembling alabaster in appearance, is used for similar purposes under the name of Oriental alabaster. It is usually stalagmitic or stalactitic in origin and is often of a yellowish colour. It may be distinguished from true alabaster by being too hard to be scratched with the nail.
Alac′taga (Alactăga jacŭlus), a rodent mammal, closely allied to the jerboa, but somewhat larger in size, with a still longer tail. Its range extends from the Crimea and the steppes of the Don across Central Asia to the Chinese frontier.
Aladdin, son of Mustafa, a poor tailor of China. A magician, who pretended to be his uncle, gave him a magic ring and sent him to fetch 'the wonderful lamp' from a cave. Aladdin secured the lamp, but refused to give it to the magician, who shut him in the cave. Aladdin was rescued by the Genie of the Ring, and by means of the Genie of the Lamp acquired great wealth, built a magnificent palace, and married the Sultan's daughter. Afterwards the magician got possession of the lamp, and caused the palace to be transported into Africa. Aladdin was arrested, but was again saved by the Genie of the Ring. He poisoned the magician, recovered the lamp, and by its means restored his palace to its original site.
Alago′as, a maritime State of Brazil; area, 22,577 sq. miles; pop. 946,617.—Alagoas, the former capital of the province, is situated on the south side of an arm of the sea, about 20 miles distant from Maceio, to which the seat of government was transferred in 1839. Pop. about 4000.
Alais (a˙-lā), a town of Southern France, department of Gard, 87 miles N.W. of Marseilles, with coal, iron, and lead mines, which are actively worked, and chalybeate springs, which have many visitors during the autumn months. The treaty of Alais, signed on 28th June, 1629, ended the Huguenot wars in France. Pop. 29,800.
Alajuela (a˙-la˙-hu-ā′la˙), a town of Central America, in the State of Costa Rica. Pop. 12,000.
Ala-Kul, a lake in Russian Central Asia, near the borders of Mongolia, in lat. 46° N. lon. 81° 40′ E.; area, 660 sq. miles.
Alamanni. See Alemanni.
Alaman′ni, Luigi, an Italian poet, of noble family, born at Florence in 1495. Suspected of conspiring against the life of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, who then governed Florence in the name of Pope Leo X, he fled to Venice, and when the cardinal ascended the papal chair under the name of Clement VII he took refuge in France, where he henceforth lived, being employed by Francis I and Henry II in several important negotiations. He died in 1556. His principal works are a didactic poem, La Coltivazione, a splendid imitation of Virgil's Georgics (1546); a comedy entitled Flora; two epics, Girone il Cortese (1548) and L'Avarchide, an imitation of the Iliad (1570); and a collection of eclogues, satires, psalms, &c., partly in blank verse, the invention of which is contested with him by Trissino, a contemporary.
Al′amo, a fort in Bexar county, Texas, United States, celebrated for the resistance its occupants (140 Texans) made to a Mexican force of 4000 from 23rd Feb. to 6th March, 1836. At the latter date only six Texans remained alive, and on their surrendering they were slaughtered by the Mexicans.