ARYAN RACE, a designation, since about 1846, of the ethnological division of mankind otherwise called Indo-Euro pean or Indo-Germanic. That division consists of two branches geographically separated, an eastern and western. The western branch comprehends the inhab itants of Europe, with the exception of the Turks, the Magyars of Hungary, the Basques of the Pyrenees, and the Finns of Lapland; the eastern compre hends the inhabitants of Armenia, of Persia, of Afghanistan, and of northern Hindustan. The evidence on which a family relation has been established among these nations is that of language, and from a multitude of details it has been proven that the original mother tongue of all these peoples was the same. It is supposed that the Aryan nations were at first located somewhere in cen tral Asia, probably E. of the Caspian, and N. of the Hindu Kush and Pero pamisan Mountains. From this center successive migrations took place to ward the N. W. The first swarm formed the Celts, who at one time occupied a great part of Europe; at a consider ably later epoch came the ancestors of the Italians, the Greeks, and the Teu tonic people. The stream that formed the Slavonic nations is thought to have taken the route by the N. of the Cas pian. At a later period the remnant of the primitive stock would seem to have broken up. Part passed southward and
became the dominant race in the valley of the Ganges, while the rest settled in Persia and became the Medes and Per sians of history. It is from these east ern members that the whole family takes its name. In the most ancient Sanskrit writings (the Veda), the Hin dus style themselves Aryas, the word signifying " excellent," " honorable," originally "lord of the soil." AS, among the Romans, a weight, coin, or measure. (1) As a weight of 12 ounces, the same as a libra or pound, and divided into 12 parts called uncim or ounces. (2) As a coin, which, in the time of Tullus Hostilius, is said to have weighed 12 ounces. After the first Punic War had exhausted the treas ury, it was reduced to two ounces. The second Punic War brought it to one ounce; and, finally, the Papirian law fixed it at half an ounce only. At first it was stamped with a sheep, an ox, a ram, or a sow, but under the empire it had on one side a two-faced Janus, and on the other the rostrum or prow of a ship.
ASA, son of Abijah, and third King of Judah, conspicuous for his earnest ness in supporting the worship of God and rooting out idolatry, and for the vigor and wisdom of his government. He reigned from 955 to 914 B. C.