LOT, VA. A southwest department of France, formerly part of the Province of Guie»ne (Slap: France. H 7). Area, 2012 square miles. it is watered by the Dordogne and the Lot, with its tributary, the Se116. A range of hills, broad, but not high, and containing some iron, runs through the centre of the department from east to west in the form of a semicircle. The valleys yield corn. hemp, tobacco, and fruits, and the hillsides are clothed with grapevines. Flax mills are numerous. Capital. Cahors (q.v.). Population. in 1896. 240,403; in 1901, 226,720.
LOT (Lat. OHis). A river of Southern France, one of the largest tributaries of the Garonne (Slap: France, J 7). It rises in the CtIvennes at an altitude of nearly 5000 feet, and flows in a westerly direction through the depart ments of Lozere, AVeyrOn, Lot. and Lot-et Garonne. joining the Garonne at Aiguillon, after a winding course of 300 miles. It is navigable for 194 miles and slack-water navigation is made possible by a system of locks.
LOT. According to the Book of Genesis, the son of Ilaran and nephew of Abraham, and, through his daughters, ancestor of the Monbites and Ammonites. He is said to have emigrated with Tcrah and Abraham from Ur of the Chal dees to Ilaran, and with the latter to Caanan (Gen. xi. 27-xii. 5). There Abraham and Lot separated, and Lot chose to dwell in the 'circle of the Jordan,' i.e. the plain between Jericho and %oar. near the Dead Sea: he made his abode in Sodom (xiii. 5-12). He was captured in a raid upon Sodom and rescued by Abra ham (ch. xiv.). Dwelling in Sodom. he is brought into connection with the destruction of the city. which is described with many details (xix. 1-29). Lot is often mentioned in the Koran.
and is regarded as a teacher of righteousness (e.g. sura vii. 78-82; xxvi. 160-174), and the Arabs still call the Dead Sea Bahr 1,u t, or Sea of Lot. Many modern scholars regard the nar rative of Lot as a combination Of tribal traditions with legendary and perhaps mythical admixtures. As the nephew of Abraham he is thought to rep resent a minor Aramaic elan, once in close affilia tion with a Hebrew clan and afterwards sepa rated from it. The separation eau hardly have been an amicable one, for otherwise tradition would hardly have represented Lot as the ances tor of two tribes so hateful to Ilebrews as Sloabites and Ammonites. The resent. by Abra ham. if it has any historical basis. belongs to the period when the relations were still friendly. The story of Lot's incest with his daughters re minds of passages in early Arabic poetry, where it is often sought to bring a rival (or a hostile clan) into disrepute h• casting suspicion upon his descent. The destruction of Sodom and ;onior rah is also paralleled by variiills tales circulated among the Arabs. It is not impossible that Lot. is identical with Lotan. the eponym of a llorite clan ((.en. xxxvi. 20, 22, 20). The sojourn of Lot in a cave (lieb. /tor, cave) would then find a natural explanation. See Sonom .GNU OOMOR Inktr.
LOT. (1) The King of Norway, husband of King Arthur's sister Anne, and father of kValgan and Modred, in Geoffrey of Monmouth. (2) The King of Orkney, in Malory's Morte d'Arthur. lle is the husband of Alarga•se, King Arthur's sister, and the father of Ga•ain. Agravain, Galwris, and Oareth. In Tennyson's Crowning of his wife is Bellieent.