statement. Schweinfurth says the Akka have very large and
almost spherical skulls (this last detail proves to be an
exaggeration). They are of the colour of coffee slightly
roasted, with hair almost the same colour, woolly and tufted;
they have very projecting jaws, flat noses and protruding
lips, which give them an ``ape-like'' appearance. Marked
physical features are an abdominal protuberance which makes
all Akka look like pot-bellied children, and a remarkable
hollowing of the spine into a curve like an d. Investigation
has shown that these are not true racial characteristics, but
tend to disappear, the abdominal enlargement subsiding after
some weeks of regular and wholesome diet. The upper limbs are
long, and the hands, according to Schweinfurth, are singularly
delicate. The lower limbs are short, relatively to the
trunk, and curve in somewhat, the feet being bent in too,
which gives the Akka a top heavy, tottering gait. There is a
tendency to steatopygia among the women. The Akka are nomads,
living in the forests, where they hunt game with poisoned
arrows, with pitfalls and springs set everywhere, and with
traps built like huts, the roofs of which, hung by tendrils
only, fall in on the animal. They collect ivory and honey,
manufacture poison, and bring these to market to exchange
for cereals, tobacco and iron weapons. They are courageous
hunters, and do not hesitate to attack even elephants, both
sexes joining in the chase. They are very agile, and are
said by the neighbouring negroes to leap about in the high
grass like grasshoppers. They are timid as children before
strangers, but are declared to be malevolent and treacherous
fighters. In dress, weapons and utensils they are as the
surrounding negroes. They build round huts of branches
and leaves in the forest clearings. They seem in no way a
degenerate race, but rather a people arrested in development
by the forest environment. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa
(London, 1873); Dr W. Pleyte, Chapitres supplementaires du
Livre des Morts, traduction et commontaire (Leiden, 1883);
Sir H. H. Johnston, Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902).
AKKAD (Gr. versions aroad and achad), a Hebrew name,
mentioned only once in the Old Testament (Gen. x. 10), for
one of the four chief cities, Akkad, Babel, Erech and Calneh,
which constituted the nucleus of the kingdom of Nimrod in
the land of Shinar or Babylonia. This Biblical city, Akkad,
was most probably identical with the northern Babylonian city
known to us as Agade (not Agane, as formerly read), which
was the principal seat of the early Babylonian king Sargon
I. (Sargani-Sarali), whose date is given by Nabonidus,
the last Semitic king of Babylonia (555-537 B.C.), as
3800 B.C., which is perhaps too old by 700 or 1000 years.i
The probably non-Semitic name Agade occurs in a number of
inscriptions2 and is now well attested as having been the name
of an important ancient capital. The later Assyro-Babylonian
Semitic form Akkadu (``of or belonging to Akkad'') is,
in all likelihood, a Semitic loan form from the non-Semitic
name Agade, and seems to be an additional demonstration of
the identity of Agade and Akkad. The usual signs denoting
Akkadu in the Semitic narrative inscriptions were read in
the non-Semitic idiom uri-ki or ur-ki, ``land of the city,''
which simply meant that Akkadu was the land of the city par
excellence, i.e. of the city of Agade of Sargon I., which
remained for a long period the leading city of Babylonia.3
It is quite probable that the non-Semitic name Agade may mean
``crown (aga) of fire (de)''4 in allusion to Istar,
``the brilliant goddess,'' the tutelar deity of the morning
and evening star and the goddess of war and love, whose cult
was observed in very early times in Agade. This fact is again
attested by Nabonidus, whose record 5 mentions that the Istar
worship of Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess
Anunit, another personification of the Istar idea, whose
shrine was at Sippar. It is significant in this connexion that
there were two cities named Sippar, one under the protection
of Shamash, the sun-god, and one under this Anunit, a fact
which points strongly to the probable proximity of Sippar and
Agade. In fact, it has been thought that Agade-Akkad was
situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates,
and was probably the oldest part of the city of Sippar.
In the Assyro-Babylonian literature the name Akkadu appears
as part of the royal title in connexion with Sumer; viz.
non-Semitic: lugal Kengi (ki) Uru (ki) = sar mat Sumeri u
Akkadi, ``king of Sumer and Akkad,'' which appears to have
meant simply ``king of Babylonia.'' It is not likely, as many
scholars have thought, that Akkad was ever used geographically
as a distinctive appellation for northern Babylonia, or that
the name Sumer (q.v.) denoted the southern part of the land,
because kings who ruled only over Southern Babylonia used
the double title ``king of Sumer and Akkad,'' which was also
employed by northern rulers who never established their sway
farther south than Nippur, notably the great Assyrian conqueror
Tiglathpileser III. (745--727 B.C..) Professor Mccurdy has
very reasonably suggested 6 that the title ``king of Sumer
and Akkad'' indicated merely a claim to the ancient territory
and city of Akkad together with certain additional territory,
but not necessarily all Babylonia, as was formerly believed.
A discussion of the interesting question relating to
the non-Semitic so-called Sumero-Akkadian language
and race will be found in the article SUMER.
1 Prince, Nabonidus, p. v. 2 in the Sargon inscriptions;
Bab. Exped. of the Univ. of Penn. also xi. pl. 49, nr.
119 and in Nebuchadnezzar, col. ii. line 50 (Hilprecht,
Freibrief Neb.); Cun. Texts from Bab. Tablets, pl.
1, nr. 91146, line 3. 3Rogers, History of Babylonia and
Assyria, i. pp. 365, 373-374. 4 prince, ``Materials for
a Sumerian Lexicon,'' pp. 23, 73, Journal of Biblical
Literature, 1906. 5 I. Rawl. 69, col. ii. 48 and iii.
28. 6 History, Prophecy and the Monuments, i. sec. 110.
LITERATURE.---Schmder, Zur Frage n. d. Ursprung d. altbab.
Kultur (1883); Keilinschriften und Geschichteforschung, pp.
533 fr; Fried. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? (1881), p.
198; Paul Haupt, Akkadische und Sumerische Keilschrifttexte
(1881), pp. 133 ff.; Die Sumerische Akkadische Sprache,
Verh. 5-ten Orient. Cong. ii. pp. 249-287; Die sumerischen
Familiengesetze (1879); Zimmern, Babylonische Busspsalmen
(1885), pp. 71 f.; Hommel, Gesch. Bab. Assyr. (1885),
pp. 240 ff.; Tiele, Bab. Assyr. Gesch. (1888), p. 68; W.
H. Ward, Hebraica (1886), pp. 79-86; Mccurdy, Presb. and
Ref. Review, Jan. 1891, pp. 58-81; History, Prophecy and
the Monuments (1894), sec. sec. 79-85, 94-110; Hugo Winckler,
Untersuchungen zur altorientallischen Geschichte (1886), pp. 65
ff. In Rabbinical literature, Louis Ginzberg, in Monatschrift,
xliii. 486; and Jewish Encyclopaedia, i. p. 149. (J. D. PR.)
AKKERMAN (in old Slav. Byelgorod, ``white town''), a
town, formerly a fortress, of south-west Russia, in the
government of Bessarabia, situated on the right bank of the
estuary (liman) of the Dniester, 12 m. from the Black Sea.
The town stands on the site of the ancient Milesian colony of
Tyras. Centuries later it was rebuilt by the Genoese, who called
it Mauro Castro. The Turks first acquired possession of it in
1484. It was taken by the Russians in 1770, 1774 and 1806,
but each time returned to the Turks, and not definitely annexed
to Russia until 1881 . A treaty concluded here in 1826 between
Russia and the Porte secured considerable advantages to the
former. It was the non-observance of this treaty that led to
the war of 1S28. The harbour is too shallow to admit vessels
of large size, but the proximity of the town to Odessa secures
for it a thriving business in wine, salt, fish wool and
tallow. The salt is obtained from the saline lakes (limans)
in the neighbourhood. The town, with its suburbs, contains
beautiful gardens and vineyards. It is surrounded by
ramparts, and commanded by a citadel. Pop. (1900) 32,470.
AKMOLINSK, one of the governments belonging to the
governor-generalship of the Steppes in Asiatic Russia, formerly
known as the Kirghiz Steppe; bounded by the government of Turgai
on the W., by that of Tobolsk on the N., of Semi-palatinsk
on the E., and of Syr-darya on the S. Area 229,544 sq. m.,
of which 4535 are lakes. In the north the government is low
and dotted with salt lakes, and is sandy on the banks of the
Irtysh in the north-east. An undulating plateau stretches
through the middle, watered by the Ishim and its tributary the
Nura. The plains gradually rise southwards, where a broad
spur of the Tarbagatai mountains stretches north-westwards,
containing gold, copper and coal. Many lakes, of which the
largest is Teniz, are scattered along the northern slope of these
hills. Farther south, towards Lake Balkash, on the southeastern
frontier, is a wide waterless desert, Bek-pak-dala, or Famine
Steppe. This section of the government is drained by the
Sary-su and Chu, the latter on the southern boundaryline.
The climate is continental and dry, the average temperatures
at the town of Akmolinsk being for the year 35 deg. , January
1.5 deg. , July 70 deg. ; rainfall, only 9 in. The population, which
was 686,863 in 1897 (324,587 women), consists chiefly of
Russians in the northern and middle portions, and of Kirghiz
(about 350,000), who breed cattle, horses and sheep. The
urban population was only 74,069. Agriculture is successfully
carried on in the north, the Siberian railway running between
Petropavlovsk and Omsk through a very fertile, well-populated
region. Steamers ply on the Irtysh. The government is divided
into five districts, the chief towns of which are: Omsk (pop.
53,050 in 1900), formerly capital of West Siberia, now capital
of this government and also of the governor-generalship of
the Steppes; Akmolinsk, or Akmolly (9560 in 1897), on the
Ishim, 260 m. S.S.W. of Omsk, and chief centre for the
caravans coming from Tashkent and Bokhara; Atbasar (3030);
Kokchetav (5000); and Petropavlovsk (21,769 in 1901).
AKOLA, a town and district of India, in Berar, otherwise
known as the Hyderabad Assigned Districts. The town is on
the Murna tributary of the Purna river, 930 ft. above the sea,
Akola proper being on the west bank, and Tajnapeth, containing
the government buildings and European residences, on the east
bank. It is a station on the Nagpur branch of the Great
Indian Peninsula railway and is 383 m. E.N.E. of Bombay. It
had a population (1901) of 29,289. It is walled, and has a
citadel built in the early years of the 19th century. Akola
is one of the chief centres of the cotton trade in Berar,
and has numerous ginning factories and cotton presses. Among
the educational establishments are a government high school,
and an industrial school supported by a Protestant mission.
The DISTRICT OF AKOLA as. reconstituted in 1905 has an
area of 4111 sq. n1.. the popi:lation of this area in 1901
being 754,804. (Before the alteration of the boundaries the
area of the district was 2678 sq. m., and the population
582,540.) The surface of the country is generally flat,
the greater part being situated in the central valley of
Berar. On the north it is bounded by the Melghat
hills. By the addition of Basim and Mangrul laluks in
1005, the district includes the eastern part of the Ajanta
hills, with peaks rising to 2000 ft., and the tableland of
Basim (q.v..) North of the Ajanta hills the country is
