in our old customs, was a keeper of spaniels, setting-dogs, &c. for the use of sportmen. The word is derived from alan, a gothic term for a greyhound.

ALAUQUECA, a stone brought from the East Indies in small glossy fragments, said to stop hemorrhages by external application.

ALARAF, in the Mahometan theology, the partition wall that separates heaven from hell. The word is plural, and properly written al araf; in the singular it is written al arf. It is derived from the Arabic verb arafa, to distinguish. Al araf gives the denomination to the seventh chapter of the alcoran, wherein mention is made of this wall. Mahomet seems to have copied his al araf, either from the great gulf of separation mentioned in the New Testament, or from the Jewish writers, who also speak of a thin wall dividing heaven from hell. Mahometan writers differ extremely as to the persons who are to be found on al araf. Some take it for a fort of limbus for the patriarchs, prophets, &c. others place here such whose good and evil works so exactly balance each other, that they deserve neither reward nor punishment. Others imagine this intermediate space to be possessed by those who, going to war without their parents leave, and suffering martyrdom there, are excluded paradise for their disobedience, yet escape hell because they are martyrs.