Avaris (AiVjott), the name of a city on the borders of Egypt and Syria, which the shepherd-kings (Hyk- sos) again occupied after their expulsion from it, ac- cording to Manetho, as recited by Josephus (Apion, i, 26). Rawlinson {Historical Ev. p. 74) thinks it is a corruption of the name Hebrews, who are referred to as being settled in Goshen. See Abarim.
Avatar or Avatara, a term in Hindoo mytholo- gy for the incarnation of the Deity. The number of the Avataras mentioned in the Puranas, or legendary poems of the Hindoos, is verj' great. Those of Vishnu alone, who is distinguished by the character of '•Pre- server" in the Trimurti, or triad of the principal Hin- doo deities, are stated to be endless. They are vari- ously enumerated ; but all accounts seem to agree in selecting the following ten as the most conspicuous:
1. Afatsya, the Fish, under whose form Vishnu pre- served Manu, the ancestor of the present human race, during a universal delude.
2. Kiirma, the Tortoise, which incarnation Vishnu underwent in order to support Mount Mairdara, or rather the entire earth, when the celestial gods and their opponents the Asuras, or Daityas, were churning the sea for the beverage of immortality (amrita).
3. Vardka, the Boar. Vishnu, with the head of a monstrous boar, is represented as slaying Hiranyaksha, the chief of the Asuras, who had taken possession of the celestial regions, and as uplifting the earth, which had been sunk to the bottom of the sea.
4. In his incarnation as Narasinha, a being half man and half lion, Vishnu killed Hiranyakasipu, the brother of Hiranyaksha.
5. The form of Vdmana, the Dwarf, was assumed by Vishnu to humble the pride of King Bali. He went to a sacrifice which the king was performing, and sup- plicated for as much ground as he could measure with three steps, which request being granted, the dwarf suddenly ^rcw to an immense size, and with his steps comprised earth, mid-air, and heaven.
<i. Vishnu appeared in a human form, as Parasur- ama, the son of Jamadagni and Renuka, in order to preserve mankind, and especially the Brahmins, from the tyranny of the military tribe of the Kshatri}^?.
7. Vishnu was born as the son of King Dasaratha, and under the name of Rama, in order to destroj' Havana, the Daitya sovereign of Ceylon, and other daemons who were then infesting the earth. The ac- tions of Baina form the subject of a celebrated epic poem in Sanscrit, called the Ramayana, and attributed to thr an< le.nl sage Valmiki.
8. The most celebrated of the Avataras of Vishnu is hi- appearance in the human form of Kris/ma, in which lie i-, supposed to have been wholly and com- pletely incarnate, whereas the other Avataras are only considered a- emanations from his being, Krishna assisted the family of the Patidavas in their war with the Kunis, and through them relieved the earth from
the wicked men wl ppressed it. The history of this
conflict is told at length in the Mahabbarata, another great epic poem in Sanscrit.
9. Buddha is, by the followers of the Brahminical re- ligion, considered as a delusive incarnation of Vishnu, assumed by him in order to induce the Asuras to aban- don the sacred ordinances of the Vedas, by which they lost their strength and supremacy.
10. Kalki is the name of an Avatara in which Vishnu will appear at the end of the Kaliyuga, or present age of the world, to destroy all vice and wickedness, an'd to restore the world to virtue and purity. — Penny Cyclopce-
I dia. See Buddhism ; Hixdooism.
Ave Maria or Ave Mary {Hail, Mary!), the angel Gabriel's salutation of the Virgin Mary when he brought her the tidings of the incarnation (Luke i, 28). It is now a prayer or form of devotion in the , Romish Church, called the Angelic Salutation (q. v.), : and used to invoke the aid of Mary. The chaplcts and rosaries arc divided into so many Ave-Marys and so many Pater-noster?. The papists ascribe a won- derful efficacy to the Ave. Mary. 'I he following is the prayer: "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of Cod, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of I death. Amen." The practice of using this prayer at all is not older than the eleventh century, and its use before sermon is to be traced to the fifteenth century, when Vincentius Ferrerius, a Spanish Dominican, be- , gan to use it before his sermons, from wdiose example ; it gained such authority as not only to be prefixed to ! sermons, but to be joined to the Lord's Prayer in the Roman breviary. — Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. xiv, ch. iv ; Farrar, Eccl. Diet. s. v. ; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen Lexikon, s. v. See Rosary.
A'ven (Heb. id., ""iX, nothingness , hence iniquity, as often, especially idolatry, and so concretely an idol itself, as in Isa. lxvi, 3), a contemptuous name given to three places on account of the idolatry practised there. See also Ben-om.
1. (Sept. '£})'.) A plain (pVpZ, bikah,', ralhy), " the plain of the sun," of Damascene Sj'ria, mentioned by
! Amos (i, 5) in his denunciation of Aram (Syria) and j the country to the north of Palestine. It is usually supposed to be the same as the plain of Baalbek, or valley of Baal, where there was a magnificent temple dedicated to the sun. See Baalbek. Being between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, it is supposed by Rosen- midler and others (in loc.) to be the same plain or val- ley that is mentioned as "the valley of Lebanon" in Josh, xi, 17 (comp. Gesenius, Thes, Heb. p. 52). Some, however, would rather seek Aven in the plain four leagues from Damascus toward the desert, where Mi- chaelis (Xotes on Amos) heard from a native of Damas- cus of a valley near that city called Un, and he quotes a Damascene proverb referring thereto ; but this lo- cality lacks confirmation (see Henderson, in loc); fcr the information was at best suspicious, and has not been confirmed, although the neighborhood of Damas- cus has been tolerably well explored by Burckhardt (A pp. iv) and by Porter. The prophet, however, would seem to be alluding to some principal district of the country of equal importance with Damascus itself; and so the Sept. have understood it. taking the letters as if pointed, ""S, Cn, and expressing it in their version as "the plain" of On, by which they doubtless intend the great plain of Lebanon, Ccele-Syria, in which the renowned idol-temple of Baalbek or Heliopolis was sit- uated, and which still retains the very same name by which Amos and Joshua designated it, el-Buha'a. The application of Aven as a term of reproach or contempt to a nourishing idol-sanctuary, and the play or paro- nomasia therein contained, is quite in keeping with the ir>inner of Amos and of Hosea. The latter frequently applies the very same word to Bethel. See Bki'iiaven.