of small slippers, resplendent with gold and silver embroidery, and silk, and coloured stones, conveys an impression of wealth, luxury, and populousness which ten times the number of shops in a dispersed form would not give. Wholesale dealers have no open shops in the bazaars, but they have warehouses in it or in its vicinity, to which the retailers resort as they have occasion. These warehouses are frequently in a large house or khan, occupied in common by several wholesale dealers. The khans also, to which the itinerant merchants resort until they have disposed of their goods, are generally in or near the bazaars; and they frequently make use of the same building with the stationary merchants. The principle of association for facility of reference is the true principle of a bazaar; the vaulted covering is merely a circumstance of climate. Therefore Paternoster-row with its books, Monmouth-street with its shoes, and Holywell-street with its old clothes, are more properly bazaars than the miscellaneous shops assembled under cover, which are in London designated by the name. Besides the regular business conducted in the bazaars by the professional shopkeepers, there is an under-current of irregular trade, highly characteristic of oriental manners. If a person not in business, or a stranger, has an article of which he wishes to dispose, he employs a crier, who takes it through the bazaar, proclaiming, at the top of his voice, its praises and its price. Many poor people also endeavour in the same manner, without the services of the crier, to dispose of such articles of their property, or produce of their industry, as they desire to sell. These are mostly persons who imagine they shall be able to obtain a better price from the purchasers or idlers in the bazaar than they have found the shopkeepers willing to give. There is also a class of sellers who exhibit a little stock of wares upon stools, in baskets, or on cloths spread on the ground. They generally deal in but one commodity, which they profess to sell on lower terms than the shopkeepers will take. It would seem that in respectable towns a preference is given to this mode of selling some one particular commodity. Much tobacco, and most of the little snuff that is used, are sold in this way at Bagdad; much opium is thus disposed of every morning at Tabreez in Persia; and at Constantinople many women post themselves in the bazaars, displaying embroidered handkerchiefs and other needlework, often wrought by the hands of ladies of quality, who are enabled by the produce to make a private purse for themselves, and purchase some little indulgences which they might not otherwise obtain. If the truth be told, at Constantinople no small portion of this supply to the bazaars of that metropolis is contributed by the ladies of the imperial seraglio.

In hot weather, oriental bazaars are traversed by men laden with a skin or pitcher, from which they deal out to the thirsty a draught of excellently filtered water. Sometimes payment, seldom exceeding the fourth of a farthing, is expected; but frequently the men are employed to distribute water gratuitously, by pious individuals, who consider it an act of charity acceptable to Allah.

The contrast between the deserted appearance of the streets in an oriental town and the thronged state of the bazaars surprises a stranger. The women, except those of the lowest class, go little abroad; and of the men, the idle resort to the bazaar for amusement or conversation; and those who are not idle generally have some business there in the course of the day, which collects the visible population much into that part of the town, until the approach of evening effects a more equal distribution. The bazaar is not only the seat of immediate traffic, but of all commercial business; there all public, mercantile, and private news circulates, and there only free discussion can be carried on, unrestrained by the presence of the emissaries of power who haunt the coffee-houses. Hence in the bazaar the timid becomes bold, and the bold insolent. Public measures are keenly investigated, and the popular voice is often loudly expressed even to the ears of princes or ministers if they appear in the bazaars, as they sometimes do. Through the medium of slaves, eunuchs, and other agents, a constant intercourse is maintained between the innermost recesses of the seraglio and the bazaar. This is particularly the case at Constantinople, and in the capitals of the Turkish pashalies, and it is doubtful whether any thing is transacted in the palaces at night, which is not known in the bazaars the next morning. This intercourse has often exercised an influence upon public affairs which none but the most minute inquirers into oriental history would suspect.

The various characteristic displays of oriental manner which the bazaars furnish, the nature of the goods exposed for sale, and the splendid appearance they sometimes make the manner in which the artizans conduct their various labours, the endless variety of picturesque costumes which meet the eye, and the babel-like confusion of tongues, all combine to form a scene of unequalled singularity and interest. No traveller who does not, in some oriental costume, sedulously frequent the bazaars and make many little purchases for himself, ought to feel assured that he understands the people, or has materials for fairly estimating their condition. The remarks here made are the result of the writer's intimate personal acquaintance with the bazaars of the East.

BAZAS, a town in France, in the department of Gironde, 41 miles S.E. of Bordeaux, and 419 miles S.S.W. of Paris. It is on a rivulet which flows into the Garonne, a few miles to the N. of the town, 44° 27' N. lat., 0° 13 W. long.

Under the name of Cossio it existed in the Roman times, and is mentioned by Ptolemy; but in the latter period of the Roman empire, the name of the people whose metropolis it was, the Vasates (called also Vasarii), prevailed over the older designation: we read in Ammianus Marcellinus, of Vasatæ, as a place of some consequence in Novempopulana; and in other authorities of Civitas Vasatas and Civitas Vasatica.

Bazas early attained the rank of a bishopric, which however it has now lost. A bishop of Bazas sat in the council of Agde in 506, and at the council of Orleans in 511. The bishop of Bazas was, during part of the tenth and eleventh centuries, the only bishop in Gascony, the towns having been destroyed by the Normans, and the cathedral being without clergy. During this interval he took the title of bishop of Gascony, Vasconensis Episcopus; but when the churches were again supplied with clergy, he shrunk into bishop of Bazas.

The town is situated on a rock, and has little in it that is remarkable except the cathedral, a fine edifice of the fourteenth century. In front of the cathedral is a place (or an open space), surrounded by a piazza. The walls of the town are in ruins. Among the manufactures are druggets, leather, glass, pottery, white wax, and wax-candles. The trade carried on is in the above mentioned goods, wood of all kinds, including timber for ship-building, and saltpetre. The population in 1832 was 2165 for the town, and 4255 for the whole commune.

The arrondissement of Bazas comprehends 697 square miles, or 446,080 acres. It had, in 1832, a population of 53,802. The district of Bazadois was a subdivision of Guienne. (Dictionnaire Universel de la France; Piganiol de la Force, Nouvelle Description de la France, &c.)

BAZOIS, the name of a small district in France, forming, under the old division of that country, the eastern part of Nivernois, now included in the department of Nièvre. It comprehended several valleys, and was boundedn the N.E. by the mountains of Morvan. It is watered by several small streams, the Airon, Aron, or Avron, a tributary of the Loire, being the principal. It produces little corn, but there is abundance of good pasturage and wood. Coal is dug. The chief town of the district is Moulins in Gilbert. The dimensions are usually given as nine or ten leagues, or about twenty-seven to twenty-eight miles long, and as many broad.

BAZTA'N, or BASTA'N, a valley in the Pyrenees to the north of Pamplona, extending twenty-three miles from north to south, and two from east to west: but authorities differ considerably as to the width of the valley; Miñano states it to be fifteen miles wide, and the dictionary of the Academy only two. The truth probably lies between them. It is bounded on the north and east by France, and on the south and west by the valleys of Ulzama and Basaburua Menor. It is surrounded on the north and east by the heights of Otamburdi, Otsondo, Auza, Ariete, Izpegui, and Urrichiquia, and on the south by those of Ernazabal, Arcesia, Velate, and Oclumendi. Several streams descend from these mountains. and form in the valley a river, which is called by the inhabitants Baztan-zubi. This river, after it leaves the valley, receives the name of Bidassoa. The valley produces Indian corn, wheat, pulse, and flax. The meadows and forests are held in common. Every man is bound by law to plant a certain number of trees every year.

Baztan is the sixth partido or district of the merindad or province of Pamplona. It is governed by its particular fueros or privileges, which were collected in a body of rural

phates of potass, and lime with salts of magnesia, but pm bably he examined a different sort from that of Pelletier. Resembling myrrh in appearance, it also resembles it in its effects upon the human system, and is often fraudulently substituted for it; it is, however, weaker, while it is more disagreeable and acrid. [See BALSAMODENDRON.] It was formerly used in many compounds and plasters, such as diachylon. It is now disused in Britain; but is to be found intermixed with gum Arabic.

The Sicilian bdellium is produced by the Daucus Hispanicus (Decand.), the D. gummifer of Lamarck, or perhaps the D. gingidium (Linn.), according to Boccone (Museo di Piante rare della Sicilia, &c. tom. xx.), which grows on the islands and shores of the Mediterranean.

The Egyptian bdellium is conjectured to be produced by the Borassus flabelliformis (Linn.), the Chamaerops humilis, or the Hyphane cuciphera (Pers.)

Jaws called Ordenanzas del valle (laws or statutes of the valley), approved by the supreme council of Navarra in 1696. The inhabitants, in a junta-general held every three years, appoint three individuals, out of whom the viceroy of Navarra chooses one to hold the office of Alcalde. This officer is the civil and military chief of the valley, and also the judge in minor offences. He is also the president of the concejo, or common council of the capital. Every man in the valley is a soldier, and is bound to provide himself with arms and ammunition. It is the alcalde's duty to instruct the men in the management of arms, and every three years he holds a general review, on which occasion every man is obliged to appear with a musket in good condition, half a pound of gunpowder, and twelve bullets. In a privilege granted by Alonso I. of Aragon, to the town of Sangüesa, in 1132, he is entitled king of Aragon and Baztan. The Baztanese, afterwards, on the separation of Aragon from Navarra, became subjects of the kings of Navarra. The bdellium mentioned in the second chapter of Genesis At the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa they fought so gal- is obviously a mineral, and has no reference to the substances lantly that their king, Sancho VI., granted them a privilege above-mentioned. It is supposed to mean pearls. in 1212, by which every native of Baztan was declared an BEACHY HEAD, in Sussex, is a high bluff chalk hidalgo or gentleman. Any Spaniard from another pro- cliff, forming a remarkable headland in the British Channel, vince, who can prove a noble origin, is admitted to the which may always be known by seven conspicuous white rights of citizenship in the valley. The letters of citizen-cliffs to the westward of it. There is a telegraph and staship are granted by the junta-general of the valley. The tion-house on the top; and a little farther to the westward, population of the valley amounts to 7065 inhabitants, dis- on that portion of the Head called Belltout Cliff, a tempotributed into fourteen towns and villages. The capital, rary lighthouse was erected in 1828, which has been found Elizondo, is situated on the banks of the Baztanzubi, which so serviceable, that it has been replaced by a more durable divides it into two parts. According to Miñano it con- one of stone. The lights, like the old one, revolve altertains 1111 inhabitants. The principal buildings are the nately bright and dark at intervals of two minutes: their town-house, where the junta-general is held, and the Casa elevation above the sea is 285 feet. de Misericordia, or charity house, in which the poor and destitute of the village receive support and employment. This benevolent institution has ceased to exist for want of funds. The house was inhabited by some poor families of the town, and has been of late changed into a fortified place by the Carlists: but it is at present occupied by the troops of the queen (1835). The front of the town-house is ornamented with the names of the illustrious persons who at different epochs have made themselves conspicuous for their valour, or for other eminent services. These names are written on wooden scutcheons carved into the shape of a crowned eagle with two heads. The Baztanese speak the Basque language.

(See Academia de la Historia, Diccionario Geográfico Histórico de España; Miñano.)

Caverns near Beachy Head.-There are six caverns, with entrances three feet wide, and flights of steps twenty feet in height, terminating in an apartment eight feet square, now cut in the cliffs, between Beachy Head and Cuckmere. A place called Derby Cave has also been repaired, by which means mariners, who may be unfortunately wrecked on that part of the coast, can find a place of refuge from the sea. There is no danger a quarter of a mile immediately off the Cape, but six miles to the eastward of it there are some dangerous rocks, on which the Royal Sovereign, a first-rate, once struck. (British Channel Pilot, p. 51.)

BEACON, a sign or token ordinarily raised upon some foreland or high ground as a sea mark. It is also used for the fire-signal which was formerly set up to alarm the interior of the country upon the approach of a foreign enemy. The word, as used in England, is derived from the AngloSaxon beacen or beacn, a sign or signal, whence bycnian, to show or point out. Beac or bec is the real root, which we still have in beck, beckon.

BDE'LLIUM, commonly called a gum, but in reality a gum-resin, the origin of which is a subject of doubt. It would appear that there are two, if not more kinds, of bdelliam, the source of one of which seems to be ascertained; the others are matters of controversy. The bdellium of the an- Fires by night, as signals, to convey the notice of imtients, said by Pliny (book xii. chap. 9) to be brought from pending danger to distant places with the greatest expeBactria and other parts of Asia, still comes from Asia. Adan-dition, have been used in almost all countries. They are son states that he saw in Africa the substance exude from a mentioned in the prophecies of Jeremiah, who (chap. vi. thorny species of amyris, called by the natives niouttoutt. v. 1) says,Set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem, for evil From its resemblance to myrrh, the analogy is in favour of its appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. In the being obtained from an amyris or balsamodendron. Indeed, treatise De Mundo, attributed to Aristotle, we are told according to the recent statement of Mr. Royle, bdellium (edit. 12mo. Glasg. 1745, p. 35), that fire-signals were so would appear to be the produce of a species of amyris, or rather disposed on watch-towers through the King of Persia's dobalsamodendron, a native of India, called by Dr. Roxburgh minions that, within the space of a day, he could receive Amyris Commiphora (Fl. Ind. ii. p. 244), Amyris Agallocha intelligence of any disturbances plotted or undertaken in (Calcutta Catalogue, p. 28), the native name of which is goo- the most distant part of his dominions; but this is evidently gul. (Royle, Illustrations of the Flora of the Himalayah, part an exaggerated statement. Eschylus, in his play of the vi. p. 176.) The opinion of its being obtained from a palm, Agamemnon, represents the intelligence of the capture of either the Lontarus domestica (Gaertn.), or the Borassus Troy as conveyed to the Peloponnesus by fire-beacons. flabelliformis, is very improbable. This substance occurs in During the Peloponnesian war we find fire-beacons (ppuKToi) masses of variable size and shape, sometimes as large as a employed. (Thucyd. iii. 22.) Pliny distinguishes this sort walnut, in oblong or angular pieces of a yellow, red, or of signal from the Phari, or light-houses placed upon the brownish colour. The clearest pieces are transparent; the coasts for the direction of ships, by the name of Ignes odour is weak and peculiar; the taste bitter, balsamic, and prænuntiativi,' notice-giving fires (Plin. Hist. Nat., edit. resembling myrrh or Venice turpentine. It is tolerably Harduin, lib. ii. sect. 73), these being occasional only, the brittle at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, but phari constant. with a slight increase of heat the finer kinds may be kneaded between the fingers. Its specific gravity is 1371. In potass it is completely soluble. Analysed by Pelletier, 100 parts yielded

Resin
Gum

Bassorin

Volatile oil and loss

Lord Coke, in his Fourth Institute, chap. xxv., speaking of our own beacons, says, 'Before the reign of Edward III. they were but stacks of wood set up on high places, which were fired when the coming of enemies was descried; but in his reign pitch-boxes, as now they be, were, instead of those stacks, set up; and this properly is a beacon.' These beacons had watches regularly kept at them, and horsemen called hobbelars were stationed by most of them to give notice in day-time of an enemy's approach, when the fire would not be seen. (Camd. Brit. in Hampshire, edit. 1789

John found also caoutchouc, sulphates, muriates and phos- vol. i. p. 173.)

Stowe, in his Annals, under the year 1326 mentions, | Uxbridge is, however, said to have rendered the market among the precautions which Edward II. took when pre- less relative importance now than in former times. The paring against the return of the queen and Mortimer to market-day is Wednesday, and the fairs are held on FeEngland, that 'he ordained bikenings or beacons to be set bruary 13th and Holy Thursday, the latter being for cattle. up, that the same being fired might be seen far off, and The number of houses in the parish was 341, according to thereby the people to be raised.' the returns of 1831, when the population consisted of 1763 persons, of whom 891 were females.

The Cottonian MS. in the British Museum, Augustus I. vol. i. art. 31, preserves a plan of the harbours of Poole, Purbeck, &c., followed, art. 33, by a chart of the coast of Dorsetshire from Lyme to Weymouth, both exhibiting the beacons which were erected on the Dorsetshire coast against the Spanish invasion in 1588. Art. 58 preserves a similar chart of the coast of Suffolk from Orwell Haven to Gorlston, near Yarmouth, with the several forts and beacons erected on that coast.

The power of erecting beacons was originally in the king, and was usually delegated to the Lord High Admiral. In the eighth of Elizabeth an act passed touching sea marks and mariners (chap 13), by which the corporation of the Trinity House of Deptford Strond were empowered to erect beacons and sea marks on the shores, forelands, &c., of the country according to their discretion, and to continue and renew the same at the cost of the corporation.

Professor Ward, in his 'Observations on the Antiquity and Use of Beacons in England' (Archæologia, vol. i. p. 4), says, the money due or payable for the maintenance of beacons was called Beconagium, and was levied by the sheriff of the county upon each hundred, as appears by an ordinance in manuscript for the county of Norfolk, issued to Robert de Monte and Thomas de Bardolfe, who sat in parliament as barons, 14th Edward II.

The manner of watching the beacons, particularly upon the coast, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, may be gathered from the instructions of two contemporary manuscripts printed in the Archæologia, vol. viii. pp. 100, 183. The surprise of those by the sea-side was usually a matter of policy with an invading enemy, to prevent the alarm of an arrival from being spread.

(Lysons's Magna Britannia; Beauties of England and Wales.)

BEAD MOULDING. [See MOULDING.] BEAD TREE. [See MELIA and ELEOCARPUS.] BEADLE, the messenger or apparitor of a court, who cites persons to appear to what is alleged against them. It is probably in this sense that we are to understand the bedelli, or under-bailiffs of manors mentioned in several parts of the Domesday Survey. Spelman, Somner, and Watts, all agree in the derivation of beadle from the Saxon bydel, a cryer, and that from bid, to publish, as in bidding the banns of matrimony. The bedelli of manors probably acted as criers in the lord's court. The beadle of a forest, as Lord Coke informs us in his Fourth Institute, was an officer who not only warned the forest courts and executed process, but made all proclamations.

Bishop Kennett, in the Glossary to his Parochial Antiqui ties of Oxfordshire, says that rural deans had formerly their beadles to cite the clergy and church officers to visitations and execute the orders of the court Christian. Parochial and church beadles were probably in their origin persons of this description, though now employed in more menial services.

Bedel, or beadle, is also the name of an officer in the English universities, who in processions, &c., precedes the chancellor or vice-chancellor, bearing a mace. In Oxford there are three esquire and three yeomen bedels, each attached to the respective faculties of divinity, medicine and arts, and law. In Cambridge there are three esquire bedels and one yeoman bedel. The esquire bedels in the latter university, beside attending the vice-chancellor on public solemnities, attend also the professors and respondents, collect fines and penalties, and summon to the chancellor's court all members of the senate. (See Ducange's Gloss, in voce Bedellus; Kennett, Paroch. Antiq. vol. ii. Gloss.; Gen Introd. to Domesday Book, 8vo. edit. vol. i. p. 247; Cami. and Oxf. Univ. Calendars.)

An iron beacon or fire-pot may still be seen standing upon the tower of Hadley Church in Middlesex. Gough, in his edition of Camden, fol. 1789, vol. iii. p. 281, says, at Ingleborough, in Yorkshire, on the west edge, are remains of a beacon, ascended to by a flight of steps, and ruins of a watch-house. Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, 4to. 1791, vol. ii. p. 5, describes the fire-hearths of four BEADS (Rosary Beads) are made of horn, ebony, ivory, large beacons as remaining in his time upon a hill called glass, box-wood, and other materials, and are strung in chap Dunkery Beacon in that county. He also mentions the lets used by the Roman Catholics for the purpose of counting remains of a watch-house for a beacon at Dundry (vol. ii. their prayers. The Rosary is a series of prayers said to p. 105). Beacon-hills occur in some part or other of most have been first instituted by St. Dominic about the year counties of England which have elevated ground. The 1200, in honour of the Virgin Mary, and as an invocation to Herefordshire beacon is well known. Gough, in his addi- her for spiritual assistance. It consists of a repetition of the tions to Camden, ut supr. vol. i. p. 394, mentions a beacon hill Ave Maria and the Paternoster or Lord's Prayer, both in at Harescombe in Gloucestershire, inclosed by a transverse Latin. It is divided into decads of ten Ave Marias, each vallation fifty feet deep. Salmon, in his History of Hert- decad being preceded by the Lord's Prayer, and terminating fordshire, p. 349, says, at Therfield, on a hill west of the with the Gloria Patri. The full or great rosary consists of church, stood one of the four beacons of this county. fifteen decads, but the common rosary, which is recided geBEACONSFIELD, a small market-town of Bucking-nerally in the evening by pious Catholics, consists of only hamshire, in the hundred and deanery of Burnham, twenty-five decads. At the end of the five decads they recite four miles W. by N. of London, and thirty-one S.S.E. of Buckingham. It is situated upon high ground, whence it has been supposed that its name is derived from a beacon that formerly occupied the spot. The town consists of four streets, the principal of which, forming part of the road from Uxbridge to High Wycombe, is nearly three quarters of a mile in length. The substratum on which the town stands is chiefly gravel, and the houses are built with flints or brick. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is built of flint and squared stones, and consists of a nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower at the west end. The remains of Edmund Burke, who resided and died at Gregories in this parish, are deposited in the church; and the churchyard contains a white marble table monument in honour of Waller, to whom the manor belonged, as it still does to his descendant. Hull Court, the poet's family mansion, is still in existence. The church, as well as the manor, was formerly attached to Burnham Priory. The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry of Bucks and diocese of Lincoln, valued in the king's book at 267. 2s. 84d.; the advowson belongs to Magdalen College, Oxford, which purchased it about the vear 1705. Beaconsfield derives great advantage from its situation on the high road between London and Oxford; and considerable business in the sale of cattle is done at its market and fairs. The proximity of High Wycombe and

the Creed, or Symbol of the Apostles, and afterwards (in Italy at least) the Litany of the Virgin, which is different from the Litany of the Liturgy. The rosary daily family evening prayer; the head of the family sa the first part of each Ave Maria, and the other membe repeat in chorus the remaining part. [See AVE MARIA.

The original rosary of St. Dominic is a recitation of fifteer decads of Ave Marias, preceded each by a Pater, each decad being devoted to the meditation of one of the mysteries of the life of our Saviour. The first five mysteries are those of the incarnation, nativity, &c., and are styled joyful mysteries. The next five are those of the passion and death, and are styled sorrowful. The remaining five are those of the resurrection, ascension, assumption of the Virgin, &c.. and are termed glorious. (Touron, Vie de St. Dominic; Quindecim Mysteria Rosarii Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, a R. Schiaminosso delin. atque incisa, Rome, 1609.) The common chaplet is called Corona, a crown, in honour of the Virgin.

The beads are distinguished by their size and shape, those marking the Lord's Prayer being larger than those for the Ave Marias. Rosaries of very small glass beads are worn by pious Catholics round their necks. The object of St. Dominic was probably, while doing honour to the Virgin, to fix at the same time the attention of the pious on the contemplation of the principal events of the Saviour's life,

I