AVA'LOS, FERDINANDO FRANCESCO V, 1490-1529; ISIarquis of Lescara, and one of Charles V.'s Italian officers. When a mere boy lie married Vittoria Colonna, to whom he was affianced when she was but four years old. At the battle of Ravenna he was wounded and made prisoner, but was soon ransomed, and gained distinction at the fightat Vicenza, 1513; at 31ilan, which he took from France in 1621; at Como; and in several other engagements, including the plundering of Genoa.. Ile won the highest distinction in the great victory for Francis I. at Pavia, 1525, and was made generalis simo. But he ruined his fame by joining the conspiracy to drive the Germans and Spaniards from Italy, and then betraying the plot to the emperor, Ins reward was to Have been the crown of Naples, but his wife induced him to decline it.
• AVArTURINE, n variety of quartz, remarkable for the brilliancy with which it reflects light, which is supposed to result from small particles of mica inclosed in it. It is of a yellow, red, or brown color. It is used in jewelry, but is not so much valued as amethystor Cairngorm stone. It is found in India, Spain, and Scotland.
- a tribe of eastern origin, made their appearance 100 years later than the Bulgarians, in the countries about the Don, the Caspian sea, and the Volga. One part of them remained tile Caucasus. another part pressed forward (about 555 A.D.) to the
Danube, and settled in Dacia. Here they served in Justinian's army, and assisted the Lombards to overturn the kingdom of the Gepidte; and, about the end of the 6th c., tinder the mty Khan Bajan, they conquered Later they made themselves Masters of Dalmatia; made devastating incursions into Germany, as far as Thuringia; and into Italy, they warred with the Franks and Lombards, and extended their dominion over the slaves living on, and northwards front, the Danube, as well as over the Bulgarians as far as the Black sea. These nations at last rose against them, and, in 640 A.D., drove them out of Dalmatia. Confined to Pannonia, they were subdued by Charlemagne, and well-nigh extirpated by the Moravians, so that, after 827, they di,ap pear from history. They usually surrounded their settlements with fortifications of stakes driven into the ground, and earth, of which traces, under the name of Avarian rings, are yet found in the countries formerly occupied by them. The results of the most recent criticism .show that, in all probability, the A. belonged to the same great Turanian stock as the Huns, and that their original residence was the land lying c. of the Tobol, in Siberia.