early manifested a love for art, and while at Bonn, received his first lessons in painting from Philippart. In 1811, he proceeded to Paris, and there spent eighteen months in the studio of the celebrated Gros. In 1815, Frederick William III., on the occasion of his visit to Paris, bought a large original painting by B. "Job surrounded by his Friends," and gave him two commissions for 'different churches in Berlin. This led to his moving thither in 1818, and to his subsequently residing in Italy at the king's expense. On his return to Berlin in 1825, he painted a great many biblical subjects for churches, as well as other pictures. He died 23d Nov., 1854. There are frescoes of colossal size by him in the new church of Sacrow, near Potsdam. He is especially distinguished for the animation and individuality of his portraits, and has painted for the king a gallery of celebrated authors and artists, including Humboldt, Schelling, etc. Several of his genre paintings have been rendered familiar by repeated engravings; and his works, in general, are eminent for expression, rich coloring, and a peculiarly clear chiaro oscuro. BEGGAR, a person who solicits charitable aid from the public at large. The word is supposed to have some connection with the fraternity known as Beghards. See BEGUIN. The actual begging or solicitation of temporal aid became, however, so conspicuous a feature among these mendicant orders, that the term originally applied to their sacred duties seems at a very early period to have acquired its modern vulgar acceptation. There is no class of men who have had their lot and condition so varied by ethnical and social conditions as beggars. In a civilized industrious country, the B., to have any chance of relief, must manage to get it believed, whether it be true or false, that he is on the verge of want, and requires the solicited alms to keep him from starvation. Among oriental nations, on the other hand, beggars have often been a potent class, who may be rather considered as endowed with the privilege of taxing their fellow-creatures, than as objects of compassion. It has sometimes been supposed that a residue of this feeling of superiority characterizes the mental physiology even of the mendicant of civilization, and that, abject as he seems, he considers himself to some extent a privileged person, entitled to support from his fellows, without being amenable to the slavish drudgery by which the working-classes live. In Europe, during the middle ages, those doctrines of Christianity which are intended to teach us to abjure selfishness and worldly-mindedness, were exaggerated into a profession of total abstraction from worldly cares and pursuits. Hence arose the large body of religionists who, as hermits or members of the mendicant orders, lived on the contributions of others. In later times, the mendicant orders became the proudest and the richest of the clergy; but while the chiefs lived in affluence, the practices of the lower adherents fostered throughout Europe a system of mendicancy very inimical to civilization and industrial progress. In Great Britain its evil results have been long felt, in the inveterate establishment of practices naturally out of harmony with the independent, industrious character of the British people. Ever since the reformation, the British laws have had a death-struggle with the B.; but neither by the kindness of a liberal poor-law, nor by the severity of a merciless criminal code, have they been able to suppress him. When a country provides, as Britain does, that no one shall be permitted to starve, it would naturally be expected that the springs of miscellaneous charity would be dried. But it is not so, and it is indeed often plausibly urged, that entirely to supersede all acts of kindly generosity between man and man, through rigid legal provisions, must lower the standard of human character, by depriving it of all opportunity for the exercise of the generous emotions. It is clear that, in the light of political economy, promiscuous charity is the most costly and most corrupting way of administering relief to indigence. No one will maintain that the idle B. on the street deserves such a luxurious table as the industrious mechanic cannot afford to himself. But, at the same time, no one who drops a coin in a beggar's hat can say how many others may be deposited there during the day, and whether the B. is merely drawing a wretched pittance, or deriving a good income. Begging being a trade, it is not always those who are the poorest, but those who are the most expert, who will practice it to the best results. The great object is to seize on and appropriate any characteristic calculated, whether permanently or temporarily, to excite compassion. Hence periods of general distress are often the harvest of the B., and his trade rises and falls in an inverse ratio with that of the working community. Times of prosperity are not favorable to him, because he is then told that there is plenty of work for him. But when workmen are dismissed in thousands, and their families turned on the road to seek alms, the professional beggars, by their superior skill and experience, will be sure to draw the prizes in the distribution. Many surprising statements have been made of the large incomes made by skillful professional beggars, especially in London. The most remarkable anecdotes on the subject will be found in Grose's Olio, whence they have often been repeated. Attempts have been made, but with questionable success, to set forth an average statement of the earnings in different departments of the B. trade. A good deal of information of this kind will be found in the Report of the Constabulary Force Commission of 1839 (see p. 60, et seq ). It does not appear, however, that this trade is, like others, dependent on the law of supply and demand. The B. generally is so constitutionally, whether from hereditary or other physical causes. He has a loathing even to horror, of steady systematic labor, and he will rather Beguines. submit to all the hardships and privations of the wanderer's lot, than endure this dreaded evil. BEGGARS, THE LAW OF ENGLAND RELATING TO, is regulated by the 5 Geo. IV. c. 83 (amended in regard to other points by the 1 and 2 Vict. c. 38). By the third section of the 5 Geo. IV. it is enacted that every person wandering abroad, or placing him or her self in any public place, street, highway, court, or passage, to beg or gather alms, or causing or procuring, or encouraging any child or children so to do, shall be deemed an idle and disorderly person; and it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace to commit such offender to the house of correction, there to be kept for any time not exceeding one calendar month. And by section 4, it is further provided that any person so convicted, and offending in the same way again, shall be deemed a rogue and a vagabond, and may be punished by being committed to the house of correction for three months, with hard labor; and by the same section, every person wandering abroad and endeavoring, by the exposure of wounds or deformities, to obtain or gather alms, and every person going about as a gatherer or collector of alms, or endeavoring to procure charitable contributions of any nature or kind under any false or fraudulent pretense, shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond, and be punishable as before mentioned. By section 15, however, of the same act, the visiting justices of any county jail, house of correction, or other prison, may grant certificates to persons discharged, to receive alms on their route to their places of settlement; but if such persons shall act in a manner contrary to the directions or provisions of their certificates, or shall loiter upon their route, or shall deviate therefrom, they shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds, and punished accordingly. Other later statutes, however, enable justices to give aid to all prisoners on being discharged from prison, and supersede this doubtful license to beg on their way home. Many prisoners' aid societies are established in different parts of the country, and if their rules are good, they receive a certificate from the visiting justices of jails. When the time arrives for the discharge of a prisoner, the justices have power, out of the moneys under their control, to order a payment of £2, either to the prisoner, or the treasurer of the aid society, for his benefit; and they may also pay his railway fare, so that by this means he can always reach his home without begging. The attempt or purpose to obtain money or alms by means of shows or entertainments on the streets of London, is also an offense under the metropolitan police act, 2 and 3 Vict. c. 47, s. 54 (No. 14), and punishable by a fine of 40 shillings. In the Scotch law, there are many severe statutes of the Scotch parliament against beggars and vagabonds, all of which, along with the proclamations of the Scotch privy council on the same subject, are renewed and ratified by the act 1698, c. 21, which forms the existing Scotch law in regard to beggars. The Scotch poor-law amendment act, 8 and 9 Vict. c. 83, contains no provision on the subject. Anciently, in Scotland, legal permission to beg was given to certain sick and infirm poor persons, and in the reign of James V., a system of tokens for the same purpose was established.-See Burns' Justice of the Peace, vol. vi.; Charnock's Police Guide, Dunlop's Parochial Law of Scotland, Lorimer's Hand-book of the Scotch Law, and the works and authorities referred to in these publications. See POOR POOR LAWS: MENDICANCY. BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOR, a game at cards usually played by two persons, between whom the cards are divided. Holding their cards with the backs upwards, the players lay down a card alternately, until an honor is played, which is paid for by the adversary -four cards for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, and one for a knave; such payment being made, the winner lifts the trick. If, however, an honor should be laid down during the payment, then the opposite party must pay for that in the same way; and so on, till a payment is made without an honor. The game is played chiefly by children. BEGHARDS. See BEGUINES. BEGHAR MI, or BAGIR'MI, a country in Central Africa, bounded on the n. by lake Tsad; on the w. by the Shari, or Great river, which divides it from the kingdom of Bornou; and on the e. by the Waday kingdom. It extends southward to about lat. 10° north. Its greatest length is about 240 m., and its breadth 150. The whole of B. proper is flat, with a slight inclination towards the n.—its general elevation being about 1000 ft. above the level of the sea. The outlying provinces in the s.e. are slightly mountainous. B. has three considerable rivers flowing through and along its bordersthe Bénuwé, Logon, and Shari; the last of which, augmented by the Logon, is upwards of 600 yards across at Mele. There is, in general, however, the utmost scarcity of water in the country, and the inhabitants guard their wells with jealous care. The soil is partly composed of sand, and partly of lime, and produces the grain and fruit common to countries of Central Africa. Worms and ants are very destructive to the crops. The ants appear to be a perfect pest. Dr. Barth describes them as eating through his matting and carpeting, and he had the utmost difficulty in preserving his goods from entire destruction by them. The total population is about a million and a half. From the numerous deserted villages with which the traveler constantly meets, the population would appear to have been much greater at one time. Mohammedanism has been introduced among them, but many are still pagans, and all are grossly superstitious. The only industrial arts are weaving and dyeing. Physically, they are a fine race of people, Beguines. The men superior to the tribes around them, the women being especially handsome. are subject to a peculiar disease in the little toe, called "mukardam." It seems to be caused by a worm, which eats the toe away. One in ten of the niale population are said to have lost their little toes through this cause. The sultan is absolute in his own dominions, and several smaller states are tributary to him; and he, in his turn, is tributary to the more powerful ruler of Bornou. The fighting-force of the kingdom is about 13,000 men. Masena (q.v.), the capital, has a circumference of about 7 miles.-Barth's Travels in Central Africa. BEG'KOS, or BEI KOS, a large village of Anatolia, on the Bosphorus, 8 m. n.n.e. of Scutari, said to be the locality of the contest between Pollux and Amycus, in which the latter was killed. See ARGONAUTS. At the commencement of the Crimean war, the allied fleets anchored in B. bay, prior to their entering the Black sea in Jan., 1854. BEG'LERBEG. See BEG. BEGONIA CEÆ, a natural order of exogenous plants, the place of which in the system is doubtful, but is supposed by Lindley to be near cucurbitacea (q.v.). The B. are herbaceous or suffruticose plants, with alternate leaves, which are oblique at the base, and have large dry stipules. The flowers are in cymes, unisexual, the perianth colored, with 4 unequal divisions in the male flowers, and 5 or 8 in the female; the stamens are numerous; the fruit is membranous, winged, 3-celled, bursting by slits at the base, the seeds minute.-The order contains about 160 known species, all of which have pink flowers. They are almost all tropical plants, and some of them are often to be seen in British hot-houses; but a small species of begonia ascends the Himalaya to at least 11,500 ft., often growing on the trunks of trees. The leaves of the begonias have a reddish tinge. The leaves and young stems are succulent and acid, and those of B. Malabarica, B. tuberosa, and other species, are used as pot-herbs, or in tarts. The juicy stalks of a large species found in Sikkim, at an elevation of five or six thousand feet, are mentioned by Dr. Hooker as employed to make a pleasant acid sauce. This, and the small Himalayan species already mentioned, would probably succeed in the climate of Britain. The roots of some are used in their native countries as astringents, and some of the Mexican species are used as drastic purgatives. BEG-SHEHR', a fresh-water lake of Asia Minor, Karamania, 44 m. s. w. of Koniyeh, presumed to be the ancient Caralitis. It is about 20 m. long, and from 5 to 10 m. broad. It contains many islands, and discharges itself by a river of the same name into lake Soglah. On its e. and n. shores are the towns of Begshehr and Kereli, the old Caralio, which issued imperial coins, and which is also supposed to have occupied the site of Pamphylia. BEGTA'SHI, a religious order in the Ottoman empire, which had its origin in the 14th century. The name is believed to be derived from that of a celebrated dervise, Hadji Begtash, to whom also the order appears to owe its institution. The members use secret signs and pass-words as means of recognition, in the same way as is done by the masonic orders, some of them indeed appearing to be identical with those of freemasonry. Although numbering many thousands of influential persons in its ranks, the society does not appear to exercise any material influence in the religion or politics of Turkey. BE GUINES, BEGUI'NÆ, or BEGUTTE, the name of the earliest of all lay societies of women united for pious purposes. The reason of their origin is not quite certain, but it is usually attributed-in part, at least-to the disproportion in the numbers of men and women which was occasioned by the crusades. These wars had robbed Christendom of thousands of its most vigorous sons, and left multitudes of widows and maidens, to whom life had henceforth something of a solemn and sorrowful aspect, and who therefore betook themselves, in earnest and affectionate piety, to the charities and duties of religion. The origin of the word is doubtful. The popular tradition of Brabant since the 17th c., that a St. Begga, daughter of Pepin, and sister of St. Gertrude, founded, in 696, the first sisterhood of B. at Namur, has no historical basis. Hallmann has also shown that the supposed oldest document of the B. (1065), giving an account of their establishment at Vilvorde, near Brussels, is unauthentic. The most probable account is, that a priest named Lambert le Bègue, or Le Beghe, i.e., the stammerer, about the year 1180, founded, in Liege, a society of pious women, who were called by his name. The B. were not restricted by vows, nor did they follow the rules of any order, but were united under a supérieure for the exercise of piety and benevolence, and lived generally in separate small cottages, which, collectively, formed the beginagium, or "vineyard," as it was scripturally termed. Their establishments were often enriched by liberal donations. church, a hospital, and a house of reception or common entertainment, generally belonged to every community of beguines. The sisters were distinguished from the rest of the laity only by their diligence and devotedness, piety, modesty, and zeal for the purity of youthful education. Societies of B. flourished greatly during the 12th and 13th c., when they spread themselves over France and Germany. Among the most important were those in Hamburg, Lübeck, Regensburg, Magdeburg, Leipsic, Goslar, Rochlitz, and Görlitz. As the pietists of the middle ages, the B. were often subjected to persecution by the mendicant orders of friars; but, on account of their practical usefulness, A were sheltered by the pope and councils as well as by secular authorities. In the 13th and 14th c., the B. became united with the persecuted spiritualists among the Franciscans (fratricelles), and with the sect of the brethren and sisters of the free spirit." Hence arose certain heresies, which, of course, occasioned interference on the part of the inquisition; and on account of certain immoralities, a synod held at Fritzlar required that all candidates must be 40 years old before they could enter a society of beguines. These sisterhoods maintained their position in Germany and the Netherlands longer than in other countries. In Holland, they existed at the close of the 18th c.; and in the present day we find here and there so-called Beguinen-häuser (beguin-houses) in Germany; but they are now nothing more than almshouses for poor spinsters. At Ghent, there is still a celebrated institution of B., numbering as many as 600 sisters, besides 200 locataires, or occasional inmates. Their houses form a kind of distinct little town, called the Béguinage, which, though environed by a wall, is open to the visits of strangers. Living here a life of retirement and piety, the B., in their simple dark dresses, go out as nurses to the hospital, and perform other acts of kindness among the poor. As above stated, they are under no monastic vow, but having attached themselves to the sisterhood, it is their boast that none is known to have quitted it. There are houses of B. also at Antwerp, Mechlin, and Bruges; and in 1854, one was established in France, at Castelnaudary, in the department of Aude. 99 66 99 66 BEGHARDS (Ger. begehren, to seek with importunity). Societies of laymen styling themselves B., first appeared in Germany, the Netherlands, and the s. of France in the beginning of the 13th c., and were known in Italy as bizachi and bocasoti; but they never obtained the reputation enjoyed by the beguine sisterhood. Towards the end of the 13th c., they were commonly stigmatized as bons garçons, boni pueri, “ministers' men,” “bedesmen,' pietists,' vagabonds"-contemptuous titles, which expressed the low estimation in which they were held. On account of heretics of all sorts retreating into these half-spiritual communities, they were subjected to severe persecutions after 1367, and were gradually dispersed, or joined the orders of Dominicans and Franciscans. In the Netherlands, where they had preserved a better character than elsewhere, they maintained their ground longer, and were protected by pope Innocent IV. (1245), in Brussels by cardinal Hugo (1254), and in Liege by pope Urban IV. (1261); but their communities disappeared in the 14th century.-See Mosheim, De Beghardis et Beguinabus (Leip. 1790), and Hallmann's Geschichte des Ursprungs der Belg. Beghinen (History of the Origin of Beguines in Belgium), Berlin, 1843. BEGUM, the feminine of "Beg," meaning "lord” or “prince," bestowed upon sultanas and East Indian princesses. BEHAIM, MARTIN, a famous cosmographer, descended from a Bohemian family which settled in Nuremberg after the middle of the 13th c., and still flourishes there. Behaim was b. in Nuremberg in 1430 (or, more probably, in 1436). He early entered into mercantile life, and went to Venice (1457), and to Mechlin, Antwerp, and Vienna (1477– 79), in pursuit of trade. In 1480, he was induced to go to Portugal, where he soon acquired a reputation as a skillful maker of maps. From 1484 to 1485, he accompanied the Portuguese navigator, Diego Cam, in a voyage of discovery along the w. coast of Africa, and sailed as far as the mouth of the Zaire or Congo river, in lat. 22° s., which was 19° further than had ever been previously reached. In 1486, Behaim sailed to Fayal, one of the Azore islands, where a Flemish colony had settled. Here he married the daughter of Jobst von Küster, governor of the colony. In 1490, he left Fayal, and returned to his native city, Nuremberg, where he resided from 1491 to 1493. During this stay, he constructed a large globe, principally from the writings of Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo, Marco Polo, and Sir John Mandeville. It is still preserved by the family of Behaim, in Nuremberg, and is a valuable record of the progress of discovery, though it indicates that Behaim's geographical knowledge did not at that period extend beyond Japan on the e., and the Cape Verd islands on the west. After traveling through Flanders and France, Behaim again resided in Fayal from 1494 to 1506, and then removed to Lisbon, where he died, July 29, 1509. The services rendered by Behaim to geographical discovery and the science of navigation were considerable, though, according to the latest investigations, there is no support for the theory that Behaim was the discoverer of America, or even that Columbus and Magelhaen were indebted to Behaim for guidance with regard to their discoveries. Behaim left no works behind him except his maps and charts.—Murr's Diplomatische Geschichte des Ritters von B. (1778–1801); A. von Humboldt's Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la Géog. du Nouveau Continent (1836). BEHAR. See BAHAR. BEHEAD'ING. See CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. BE'HEMOTH, a large animal mentioned in the book of Job. Scholars are undecided whether it means the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, or crocodile; but as the animal was both of land and water, and fed upon grass, a number believe the hippopotamus was meant. BEHISTUN', or BISUTUN' (Lat. Bagistanus; Persian, Baghistan, place of gardens), a ruined town of the Persian province of Irak-Ajemi, 21 m. e. of Kirmanshah, lat. 34° 18 n., long. 47° 30' e. B. is chiefly celebrated for a remarkable mountain, which on one side rises almost perpendicularly to the height of 1700 ft., and which was in ancient times sacred to Jupiter or to Ormuzd. According to Diodorus, Semiramis, on her march from Babylon to Ecbatana, in Media Magna, encamped near this rock, and having cut away and polished the lower part of it, had her own likeness and those of a hundred of her guards engraved on it. She further, according to the same historian, caused the following inscription in Assyrian letters to be cut in the rock: "Semiramis having piled up one upon the other the trappings of the beasts of burden which accompanied her, ascended by these means from the plain to the top of the rock.' No trace of these inscriptions is now to be found, and sir Henry Rawlinson accounts for their absence by the supposition that they were destroyed "by Khusraú Parvíz when he was preparing to form of this long scarped surface the back wall of his palace.' Diodorus also mentions that Alexander the great, on his way to Ecbatana from Susa, visited Behistun. But the rock is especially interesting from its cuneiform inscriptions (q.v.), which within recent years have been successfully deciphered by sir H. Rawlinson. The principal inscription of B., executed by the command of Darius, is on the n. extremity of the rock, at an elevation of 300 ft. from the ground, where it could not have been engraved without the aid of scaffolding, and can now only be reached by the adventurous antiquary at considerable risk to his life. The labor of polishing the face of the rock, so as to fit it to receive the inscriptions, must have been very great. In places where the stone was defective, pieces were fitted in and fastened with molten lead with such extreme nicety, that only a careful scrutiny can detect the artifice. "But the real wonder of the work," says sir H. Rawlinson, "consists in the inscriptions. For extent, for beauty of execution, for uniformity and correctness, they are perhaps unequaled in the world. After the engraving of the rock had been accomplished, a coating of silicious varnish had been laid on, to give a clearness of outline to each individual letter, and to protect the surface against the action of the elements. This varnish is of infinitely greater hardness than the limestone rock beneath it." Washed down in some places by the rain of twentythree centuries, it lies in consistent flakes like thin layers of lava on the foot-ledge; in others, where time has honey-combed the rock beneath, it adheres to the broken surface, still showing with sufficient distinctness the forms of the characters. The inscriptionsin the three known forms of cuneiform writing, Persian, Babylonian, and Medean-set forth the hereditary right of Darius to the throne of Persia, tracing his genealogy, through eight generations, up to Achæmenes; they then enumerate the provinces of his empire, and recount his triumphs over the various rebels who rose against him during the first four years of his reign. The monarch himself is represented on a tablet with a bow in hand, and his foot upon the prostrate figure of a man, while nine rebels, chained together by the neck, stand humbly before him; behind him are two of his own warriors, and above him, another figure. The Persian inscriptions which sir H. Rawlinson has translated are contained in five columns situated in the lower tier The first column contains 19 paragraphs and 96 lines. Each paragraph after the first, which commences, "I am Darius the Great King," begins with, "Says Darius the King." The second column has the same number of lines in 16 paragraphs; the third, 92 lines and 14 paragraphs; the fourth has also 92 lines and 18 paragraphs; and the fifth, which appears to be a supplementary column, 35 lines. With the exception of the first paragraph on the first column, all begin with, "Says Darius the King." The second, fourth, and fifth columns are much injured. Sir H. Rawlinson fixes the epoch of the sculpture at 516-515 B. C. See Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. x. BEHME, JACOB. See BÖHME. BEHN, APHARA, or APHRA, a licentious authoress of the reign of Charles II., the date of whose birth is unknown, was the daughter of Mr. Johnson of Canterbury, & gentleman who, through his aristocratic connections, obtained the appointment of governor of Surinam. He died on his passage out, but the daughter pursued her journey, and resided at Surinam for some considerable time. Here she made the acquaintance of the celebrated slave Oronoko, who afterwards became the subject of one of her novels, and of a tragedy by Southern. Returning to England, she married Mr. Behn, a merchant of Dutch extraction, was presented at court, where her personal appearance and vivacious freedom of manners pleased the "merry monarch," who deputed her to watch events in Flanders. She accordingly went to Antwerp, where she succeeded in discovering the intention of the Dutch to sail up the Thames and Medway, and communicated the secret to the English court; which, however, took no notice of the information, a slight which cansed the fair agent to throw up state politics in disgust. On her return to England, she became intimate with all the profligate wits as well as the more staid scholars and poets of the time, and devoted herself to literature. Her numerous plays, poems, tales, letters, etc., are disfigured alike by general impurity of tone and indecency of language; and, in point of intellectual ability, none of her works deserves the high praise lavished on them by Dryden, Cotton, Southern, and others. She died in 1689. Her works were reprinted in 4 vols. 1872. BEHRENDS, ADOLPHUS J. F., D.D. See page 887. BEHRING, or BERING, VITUS, a famous navigator, b. in 1680 at Horsens in Denmark. In 1704, he entered as captain the newly-formed navy of Peter the great. From the ability and daring he displayed in the wars with Sweden, he was appointed to conduct an expedition of discovery in the sea of Kamtchatka. Sailing, in 1728, from a port |