ARANY

arany, janos (1817-1882), the greatest poet of hungary after petofi, was born at nagy-szalonta on the 2nd of march 1817, the son of gyorgy arany and sara megyeri; his people were small calvinist yeomen of noble origin, whose property consisted of a rush-thatched cottage and a tiny plot of land. an only son, late born, seeing no companions of his own age, hearing nothing but the voices of his parents and the hymns and prayers in the little calvinist chapel, arany grew up a grave and gentle, but by no means an ignorant child. his precocity was remarkable. at six years of age he went to school at szalonta, where he read everything he could lay his hands upon in hungarian and latin. from 1832 to 1836 arany was a preceptor at kis-ujszallas and debreczen, still a voracious reader with a wider field before him, for he had by this time taught himself french and german. tiring of the monotony of a scholastic life, he joined a troupe of travelling actors. the hardships he suffered were as nothing compared with the pangs of conscience which plagued him when he thought of the despair of his father, who had meant to make a pastor of this prodigal son, to whom both church and college now seemed for ever closed. at last he borrowed sixpence from the stage-manager and returned home, carrying all his property tied up in a handkerchief. shortly after his home-coming his mother died and his father became stone-blind. arany at once resolved that it was his duty never to leave his father again, and a conrectorship which he obtained at this time enabled them to live in modest comfort. in 1840 he obtained a notaryship also, and the same year married juliana ercsey, the penniless orphan daughter of an advocate. the next few happy years were devoted to his profession and a good deal of miscellaneous reading, especially of shakespeare (he learnt english in order to compare the original with his well-thumbed german version) and homer. meanwhile the reactionaries of vienna were goading the magyar liberals into revolt, and arany found a safety-valve for his growing indignation by composing a satirical poem in hexameters, entitled "the lost constitution." the kisfaludy society, the great literary association of hungary, about this time happened to advertise a prize for the best satire on current events. arany sent in his work, and shortly afterwards was awarded the 25-gulden prize (7th of february 1846) by the society, which then advertised another prize for the best magyar epic poem. arany won this also with his _toldi_ (the first part of the present trilogy), and immediately found himself famous. all eyes were instantly turned towards the poor country notary, and petofi was the first to greet him as a brother. in february of the following year arany was elected a member of the kisfaludy society. in the memorable year 1848 the people of szalonta elected him their deputy to the hungarian parliament. but neither now nor subsequently (1861, 1869) would he accept a parliamentary mandate. he wrote many articles, however, in the gazette _nepbaratja_, an organ of the magyar government, and served in the field as a national guard for eight or ten weeks. in 1849 he was in the civil service of the revolutionary government, and after the final catastrophe returned to his native place, living as best he could on his small savings till 1850, when lajos tisza, the father of kalman tisza, the future prime minister, invited him to his castle at geszt to teach his son domokos the art of poetry. in the following year arany was elected professor of hungarian literature and language at the nagy-koros gymnasium. he also attempted to write another epic poem, but the time was not favourable for such an undertaking. the miserable condition of his country, and his own very precarious situation, weighed heavily upon his sensitive soul, and he suffered severely both in mind and body. on the other hand reflection on past events made clear to him not only the sufferings but the defects and follies of the national heroes, and from henceforth, for the first time, we notice a bitterly humorous vein in his writings. thus _bolond istok_, the first canto of which he completed in 1850, is full of sub-acrid merriment. during his nine years' residence at nagy-koros, arany first seriously turned his attention to the magyar ballad, and not only composed some of the most beautiful ballads in the language, but wrote two priceless dissertations on the technique of the ballad in general: "something concerning assonance" (1854), and "on hungarian national versification" (1856). when the hungarian academy opened its doors again after a ten years' cessation, arany was elected a member (15th of december 1858). on the 15th of july 1860 he was elected director of the revived kisfaludy society, and went to pest. in november, the same year, he started _szepirodalmi figyelo_, a monthly review better known by its later name, _koszeru_, which did much for magyar criticism and literature. he also edited the principal publications of the society, including its notable translation of _shakespeare's dramatic works_, to which he contributed the _midsummer night's dream_ (1864), _hamlet_ and _king john_ (1867). the same year he won the nadasdy prize of the academy with his poem "death of buda." from 1865 to 1879 he was the secretary of the hungarian academy. domestic affliction, ill-health and his official duties made these years comparatively unproductive, but he issued an edition of his collected poems in 1867, and in 1880 won the karacsonyi prize with his translation of the _comedies of aristophanes_ (1880). in 1879 he completed his epic trilogy by publishing _the love of toldi_ and _toldi's evening_, which were received with universal enthusiasm. he died suddenly on the 24th of october 1882. the first edition of his collected works, in 8 volumes, was published in 1884-1885. arany reformed hungarian literature. hitherto classical and romantic successively, like other european literatures, he first gave it a national direction. he compelled the poetry of art to draw nearer to life and nature, extended its boundaries and made it more generally intelligible and popular. he wrote not for one class or school but for the whole nation. he introduced the popular element into literature, but at the same time elevated and ennobled it. what petofi had done for lyrical he did for epic poetry. yet there were great differences between them. petofi was more subjective, more individual; arany was more objective and national. as a lyric poet petofi naturally gave expression to present moods and feelings; as an epic poet arany plunged into the past. he took his standpoint on tradition. his art was essentially rooted in the character of the whole nation and its glorious history. his genius was unusually rich and versatile; his artistic conscience always alert and sober. his taste was extraordinarily developed and absolutely sure. to say nothing of his other great qualities, he is certainly the most artistic of all the magyar poets. see _posthumous writings and correspondence of arany_, edited by laszlo arany (hung.), (budapest, 1887-1889); article "arany," in _a pallas nagy lexikona_, kot 2 (budapest, 1893); mor gaal, _life of janos arany_ (hung.), (budapest, 1898); l. gyongyosi, _janos arany's life and works_ (hung.), (budapest, 1901). translations from arany: _the legend of the wondrous hunt_ (canto 6 of _buda's death_), by d. butler (london, 1881); _toldi, poeme en 12 chants_ (paris, 1895); _dichtungen_ (leipzig, 1880); _konig buda's tod_ (leipzig, 1879); _balladen_ (vienna, 1886). (r. n. b.) arapaho (possibly from the pawnee for "trader"), a tribe of north american indians of algonquian stock. they formerly ranged over the central portion of the plains between the platte and arkansas. they were a brave, warlike, predatory tribe. with the sioux and cheyennes they waged unremitting warfare upon the utes. the southern divisions of the tribe were placed (1867) on a reservation in the west of indian territory (now oklahoma), while the northern are in western wyoming. the southern section sold their reservations in 1892 and became american citizens. the arapahos number in all some 2000. see indians, north american; h.r. schoolcraft, _history of the indian tribes of the united states_ (1851-1837, 6 vols.); _handbook of american indians_, ed. f.w. hodge (washington, 1907). ararat (armen. _massis_, turk. _egri dagh_, i.e. "painful mountain," pers. _koh-i-nuh_, i.e. "mountain of noah,"), the name given to the culminating point of the armenian plateau which rises to a height of 17,000 ft. above the sea. the _massif_ of ararat rises on the north and east out of the alluvial plain of the aras, here from 2500 ft. to 3000 ft. above the sea, and on the south-west sinks into the plateau of bayezid, about 4500 ft. it is thus isolated on all sides but the north-west, where a _col_ about 6900 ft. high connects it with a long ridge of volcanic mountains. out of the _massif_ rise two peaks, "their bases confluent at a height of 8800 ft., their summits about 7 m. apart." the higher, great ararat, is "a huge broad-shouldered mass, more of a dome than a cone"; the lower, little ararat, 12,840 ft. on which the territories of the tsar, the sultan, and the shah meet, is "an elegant cone or pyramid, rising with steep, smooth, regular sides into a comparatively sharp peak" (bryce). on the north and west the slopes of great ararat are covered with glittering fields of unbroken _neve_. the only true glacier is on the north-east side, at the bottom of a large chasm which runs into the heart of the mountain. the great height of the snow-line, 14,000 ft., is due to the small rainfall and the upward rush of dry air from the plain of the araxes. the middle zone of ararat, 5000-11,500 ft., is covered with good pasture, the upper and lower zones are for the most part sterile. whether the tradition which makes ararat the resting-place of noah's ark is of any historical value or not, there is at least poetical fitness in the hypothesis, inasmuch as this mountain is about equally distant from the black sea and the caspian, from the mediterranean and the persian gulf. another tradition--accepted by the kurds, syrians and nestorians--fixes on mount judi, in the south of armenia, on the left bank of the tigris, near jezire, as the ark's resting-place. there so-called genuine relics of the ark were exhibited, and a monastery and mosque of commemoration were built; but the monastery was destroyed by lightning in 776 a.d., and the tradition has declined in credit. round mount ararat, however, gather many traditions connected with the deluge. the garden of eden is placed in the valley of the araxes; marand is the burial-place of noah's wife; at arghuri, a village near the great chasm, was the spot where noah planted the first vineyard, and here were shown noah's vine and the monastery of st james, until village and monastery were overwhelmed by a fall of rock, ice and snow, shaken down by an earthquake in 1840. according to the babylonian account, the resting-place of the ark was "on the mountain of nizir," which some writers have identified with mount rowanduz, and others with mount elburz, near teheran. from the armenian plateau, ararat rises in a graceful isolated cone far into the region of perennial snow. it was long believed by the armenian monks that no one was permitted to reach the "secret top" of ararat with its sacred remains, but on the 27th of september 1829, dr. johann jacob parrot (1792-1840) of dorpat, a german in the employment of russia, set foot on the "dome of eternal ice." ararat has since been ascended by s. aftonomov (1834 and 1843); m. wagner and w.h. abich (1845); j. chodzko, n.w. chanykov, p.h. moritz and a party of cossacks in the service of the russian government (1850); stuart (1856); monteith (1856); d.w. freshfield (1868); james bryce (1876); a.v. markov (1888); p. pashtukhov and h.b. lynch (1893). mr freshfield thus described the mountain:--"it stands perfectly isolated from all the other ranges, with the still more perfect cone of little ararat (a typical volcano) at its side. seen thus early in the season (may), with at least 9000 ft. of snow on its slopes, from a distance and height well calculated to permit the eye to take in its true proportions, we agreed that no single mountain we know presented such a magnificent and impressive appearance as the armenian giant." there are a number of glaciers in the upper portion, and the climate of the whole district is very severe. the greater part of the mountain is destitute of trees, but the lower ararat is clothed with birches. the fauna and flora are both comparatively meagre. both great and little ararat consist entirely of volcanic rocks, chiefly andesites and pyroxene andesites, with some obsidian. no crater now exists at the summit of either, but well-formed parasitic cones occur upon their flanks. there are no certain historic records of any eruption. the earthquake and fall of rock which destroyed the village of arghuri in 1840 may have been caused by a volcanic explosion, but the evidence is unsatisfactory. the name of ararat also applies to the assyrian _urardhu_, the country in which the ark rested after the deluge (gen. viii. 4), and to which the murderers of sennacherib fled (2 kings xix. 37; isaiah xxxvii. 38). the name urardhu, originally that of a principality which included mount ararat and the plain of the araxes, is given in assyrian inscriptions from the 9th century b.c. downwards to a kingdom that at one time included the greater part of the later armenia. the native name of the kingdom was _biainas_, and its capital was _dhuspas_, now van. the first king, sarduris i. (c. 833 b.c.), subdued the country of the upper euphrates and tigris. his inscriptions are written in cuneiform, in assyrian, whilst those of his successors are in cuneiform, in their own language, which is neither aryan nor semitic. the kings of biainas extended their kingdom eastward and westward, and defeated the assyrians and hittites. but sarduris ii. was overthrown by tiglath pileser iii. (743 b.c.), and driven north of the araxes, where he made armavir, _armauria_, his capital. interesting specimens of biainian art have been found on the site of the palace of rusas ii., near van. shortly after 645 b.c. the kingdom fell, possibly conquered by cyaxares, and a way was thus opened for the immigration of the aryan armenians. the name ararat is unknown to the armenians of the present day. the limits of the biblical ararat are not known, but they must have included the lofty armenian plateau which overlooks the plain of the araxes on the north, and that of mesopotamia on the south. it is only natural that the highest and most striking mountain in the district should have been regarded as that upon which the ark rested, and that the old name of the country should have been transferred to it. see also h.b. lynch, _armenia_ (1901); sayce, "cuneiform inscriptions of lake van," in _journal of royal asiatic society_, vols. xiv., xx. and xxvi.; maspero, _histoire ancienne des peuples de l'orient classique_, tome iii., _les empires_ (paris, 1899); j. bryce, _transcaucasia and ararat_ (4th ed., 1896); d.w. freshfield, _travels in the central caucasus and bashan_ (1869); parrot, _reise zum ararat_ (1834); wagner, _reise nach dem ararat_ (1848); abich, _die besteigung des ararat_ (1849); articles "ararat," in hastings' _dictionary of the bible_, and the _encyclopaedia biblica_. (c. w. w.)