1. “Abd el Wahab.” The founder of a recent Mohammedan sect now dominant throughout the greater part of Arabia. He was the son of an Arab chief, and was born about the end of the seventeenth century. He was highly educated, and conceived the idea of restoring in its primitive shape the ruined structure of Islam. The Koran had fallen into abeyance, and their religion was little else than a round of external ceremonies. He gained a numerous following in his efforts to revive the old zeal in their religion. The sect took the name of the Wa-haˈbis, or the Wa-haˈbites. 2. “The earthquake at Lisbon.” This, the greatest of the frequent earthquakes at Lisbon, and one of the most remarkable that ever occurred anywhere, took place in 1775, and destroyed a great part of the city. The area affected was very extensive. The shock was felt on one side as far as the southern shore of Finland, and on the other it reached to Canada, an area of 7,500,000 square miles. The force required to move this must have been enormous, for suppose the thickness of the earth’s crust moved to have been only twenty miles, then 150,000,000 cubic miles of solid matter was moved. The sea wave caused by it rose to a height of sixty feet at Cadiz. 3. “Laputa.” The name of a flying island described by Swift in his imaginary “Travels of Lemuel Gulliver.” It is said to be “exactly circular, its diameter seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven yards, or about four miles and a half, and consequently contains ten thousand acres.” The inhabitants are speculative philosophers, devoted to mathematics and music.—_Webster’s Dictionary._ So materializing is the spirit of the age that the extended study of physical and mechanical science seems likely one of these days to convert our island (Great Britain) into a _Laputa_.—_Keightly._ 4. “Syrian Maronites,” marˈo-nites. A Christian tribe of very ancient origin. In the year 1445 they were formally united to the Roman Catholic Church, but were allowed to retain their own national rites and usages. Their priests are allowed to marry. 5. “Lazaretto.” A pest-house or hospital for the reception of the sick, particularly for those affected with contagious distempers. 6. “Bactrian nomads.” Bactria is a country of Central Asia. A great part of it is made up of stretches of barren and drifting sands, so that the inhabitants are obliged to resort to the nomadic style of life. It was subjugated by Alexander the Great, but afterward became independent. Its modern history is not important.