Beltrami.

the inhabitants. The surrounding country is rich in coal, iron, lead, and limestone. B. was at one time the residence of John of Gaunt, part of whose mansion still remains. Pop. '71, 8527; '81, 9875.

BELSHAM, THOMAS, one of the ablest expounders of the Unitarian system of theology, was b. at Bedford in 1750. He was educated in the principles of Calvinism, and for some years officiated as pastor of the dissenting congregation and head of the theological academy at Daventry. These offices he resigned in 1789, on embracing Unitarian views, and shortly after received the charge of a new theological academy at Hackney, which in a few years collapsed for want of funds. Before its extinction, he succeeded Dr. Priestley in his pastoral charge, and in 1805 removed to London as the successor of Dr. Disney, where he continued till his death in 1829. Most of his works are controversial: his doctrine regarding the person of Christ represents the purely humanitarian" view, as distinguished from the more nearly Arian sentiments of men like Channing. He published also a work on mental and moral philosophy, following Hartley, and a memoir of his predecessor, Theophilus Lindsey. His brother, William (b. 1752; d. 1827), was an active and voluminous writer of history and political tracts on the side of the Whigs.

64

BELSHAZʼZAR, or BELSA'ZAR, was the last king of the Chaldean dynasty in Babylon. The name occurs only in the Old Testament, where it indicates either the person who is called by Herodotus Labynetos, or his son. For an account of the circumstances attending his overthrow, see the book of Daniel, Herodotus, etc.

BELSHAZZAR (ante). In regard to the supposed discrepancies between the Bible and such writers as Berosus and Herodotus, sir Henry Rawlinson has recently shown that those writers not only do not contradict, but explain and confirm the account given in the Scriptures. It appears that the eldest son of Nabonedus was Bel-shar-ezar, and was by his father admitted to a share in the government. Sir Henry says "we can now understand how Belshazzar may have been king in Babylon when the city was attacked by the combined forces of the Medes and Persians, and may have perished in the assault which followed, while Nabonedus, leading a force to the relief of the place, was defeated and obliged to take refuge in Borsippa, capitulating after a short resistance, and being subsequently assigned, according to Berosus, an honorable retirement in Carmania."

BELT (signifying Girdle), the name given to two straits, the GREAT and the LITTLE B., which, with the Sound, connect the Baltic with the Cattegat. The GREAT B., about 70 m. in length, and varying in breadth from 4 to more than 20 m., divides the Danish islands, Seeland and Laaland, from Fünen and Langeland. The LITTLE B. divides the island of Fünen from Jütland. It is equal in length to the Great B., but much narrower. Its greatest breadth is about 10 m., but it gradually narrows toward the n., until at the fort of Frederica it is less than a mile wide; thus the passage from the Cattegat into the Baltic is here easily commanded. Both the Belts are dangerous to navigation, on account of numerous sandbanks and strong currents; and therefore, for large vessels, the passage by the Sound (q.v.) is preferred.

BEL'TEIN, BEL'TANE, BEIL TINE, or BEAL'TAINN, the name of a heathen festival once common to all the Celtic nations, and traces of which have survived to the present day. The name is derived from tin or teine, fire, and Beal or Beil, the Celtic god of light or sun-god, a deity mentioned by Ausonius (309-92 A.D.) and Tertullian (who flourished during the first half of the 3d c.), as well as on several ancient inscriptions, as Belenus or Belinus. B. thus means "Beal's fire," and belongs to that sun and fire worship which has always been one of the most prominent forms of polytheism. The great festival of this worship among the Celtic nations was held in the beginning of May, but there seems to have been a somewhat similar observance in the beginning of November (the beginning, and the end of summer). On such occasions, all the fires in the district were extinguished (while the system was in full force, even death was the penalty of neglect); the needfire (q.v.) was then kindled with great solemnity, and sacrifices were offeredlatterly, perhaps, of animals, but originally, there can be little doubt, of human beings. From this sacrificial fire the domestic hearths were rekindled.

The earliest mention of B. is found by Cormac, archbishop of Cashel in the beginning of the 10th century. A relic of this festival, as practiced in some parts of the highlands of Scotland about the beginning of the 19th c., is thus described: "The young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors on the 1st of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions with charcoal until it is perfectly black. They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The bonnet-holder is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person, who is to be sacrificed to Beal, whose favor they mean to implore in rendering the year productive. The devoted person is compelled to leap three times over the flames." The leaping three times through

the fire is clearly a symbolical sacrifice, and there was doubtless a time when the victim was bound on the pile, and burned. See SACRIFICE.

The

It has been usual to identify the worship of the Celtic Beal with that of the Baal (q.v.) or Bel of the Phenicians and other Semitic nations. It is unnecessary, however, to go beyond the family of nations to which the Celts belong (see ARYANS), in order to find analogies either for the name or the thing. J. Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie, i. 208, 581) identifies the Celtic Beal not only with the Slavonic Belbog or Bjelbog (in which name the syllable bel or bjel means white, and bog, god), but also with the Scandinavian and Teutonic Balder (q.v.) or Paltar, whose name appears under the form of Baldag (the white or bright day), and who appears to have been also extensively worshiped under the name of Phol or Pol. The universality all over Europe in heathen times of the worship of these personifications of the sun and of light through the kindling of fires and other rites, is testified by the yet surviving practice of periodically lighting bonfires (q.v.). The more marked turningpoints of the seasons would naturally determine the times of these festivals. two solstices at midwinter (see YULE) and midsummer, and the beginning and end of summer, would be among the chief seasons. The periods of observance, which varied, no doubt, originally, more or less in different places, were still further disturbed by the introduction of Christianity. Unable to extirpate these rites, the church sought to Christianize them by associating them with rites of her own, and for this purpose either appointed a church-festival at the time of the heathen one, or endeavored to shift the time of the heathen observance to that of an already fixed church-festival. All over the 8. of Germany, the great bonfire celebration was held at midsummer (Johannisfeuer), [see JOHN'S, EVE OF ST.]-a relic, probably, of the sun-festival of the summer solstice: throughout the n. of Germany, it was held at Easter. It is probable that this firefestival (Osterfeuer) of Ostara-a principal deity among the Saxons and Angles-had been originally held on the 1st of May, and was shifted so as to coincide with the church-festival now known as Easter (q.v.; see also WALPURGA, ST.). The seriousness and enthusiasm with which these observances continued to be celebrated in the 16th and 17th c., began afterwards to decline, and the kindling of bonfires has been mostly put down by the governments; the earlier interdicts alleging the unchristian nature of the rites; the later, the danger occasioned to the forests.

In Great Britain, St. John's eve was celebrated with bonfires; and Easter had its fire. rites, which, although incorporated in the service of the Roman Catholic church, were clearly of heathen origin. But the great day for bonfires in the British islands was the 1st of Nov. Fewer traces of this are found in other countries, and therefore we must look upon it as more peculiarly Celtic. While the May festival of B. was in honor of the sun-god in his character of god of war-who had just put to flight the forces of cold and darkness-the Nov. festival was to celebrate his beneficent influence in producing the fruits which had just been gathered in. Hence it was called Samhtheine (peacefire). If we may judge from the traces that still remain or have been recorded, the Nov. observances were more of a private nature, every house having its bonfire and its offerings, probably of fruits, concluding with a domestic feast. The B. festival, again, was public, and attended by bloody sacrifices. Although the Nov. bonfires, like B., were probably of Celtic origin, they seem to have been adopted by the inhabitants of the British islands generally. About the end of last century they were still kindled in various parts of England, and to this day, over whole districts of Aberdeenshire, every rural dwelling has its hallow-e'en bonfire lighted at nightfall in an adjoining stubble-field.

The Anglo-Saxon population of England had their own characteristic May-day rites; but there exist traces also of the observance among them on that day of rites similar to the Celtic beltane. An "Old Holne Curate," writing to Notes and Queries in 1853, says: "At the village of Holne, situated on one of the spurs of Dartmoor, is a field of about two acres, the property of the parish, and called the ploy (play) field. In the center of this stands a granite pillar (Menhir) 6 or 7 ft. high. On May morning, before daybreak, the young men of the village assemble there, and then proceed to the moor, where they select a ram lamb (doubtless with the consent of the owner), and after running it down, bring it in triumph to the ploy field, fasten it to the pillar, cut its throat, and then roast it whole, skin, wool, etc. At mid-day, a struggle takes place, at the risk of cut hands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck for the ensuing year on the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry, in high esteem among the females, the young men sometimes fight their way through the crowd to get a slice for their chosen among the young women, all of whom, in their best dresses, attend the ram feast, as it is called. Dancing, wrestling, and other games, assisted by copious libations of cider during the afternoon, prolong the festivities till midnight.

The time, the place (looking e.), the mystic pillar, and the ram, surely bear some evidence in favor of the ram feast being a sacrifice to Baal."

Additional notices of this sun and fire worship will be found under Yule, CandleMAS, LAMMAS, and the other heads referred to in this article.

BELTRA'MI, a co. in s.w. Minnesota, very little settled. It has several lakes, one of which, Itasca, is 1600 ft. above sea level. Some of its lakes empty into the Red. river of the n., which carries their waters to the ocean through Hudson's bay and straits, while others are emptied by the Mississippi into the gulf of Mexico. Pop. '80, 10.

Bem.

BELTS, endless strips of flexible material, usually leather or india rubber, to transmit motion or power from one pulley to another. Ropes and chains serve a similar purpose. When chains are used, the pulleys are provided with projections which engage in the links of the chains and prevent slipping, and the mechanism has the positive relations of a rack and pinion. Ordinary flexible belts transmit power by the friction between them and their pulleys. The pulley which communicates motion is the driving pulley; that which receives, the driven pulley; that part of the belt which runs from the driven pulley to the driver is the driving part of the belt, since it is pulled by the driver, and in turn pulls on the driven pulley; the part of the belt which runs from the driver to the driven pulley is the slack belt. The strain on the driving belt is the sum of the strain of the belt on the pulleys when there is no motion, plus the strain of the friction; that on the slack belt is the same strain on the pulleys less the friction. Thus, if a belt is stretched over its pulleys with a strain of 10 lbs. per in. of width, and it requires 5 lbs. to make it slip, then the strain on the driving belt is 10+5=15 lbs., and the strain on the slack belt is 10-5=5 lbs., per in. of belt. As the two parts of the belt are unequally strained there will be a tendency to move, or creep, towards the driving belt over the driven pulley. Hence, the velocity ratio of the two pulleys will not exactly follow the inverse ratio of their radii, and the belt cannot be relied upon for giving uniformity of motion. For driving most machinery, the fact that the belt is elastic, and will slip if unduly strained, makes it a favorite method of communicating power. Rubber belts transmit about 25 per cent more power than leather, because the surface of the rubber conforms more perfectly to the minute inequalities of the pulley surface, and thus acquires a closer grasp. The texture of a rubber belt is more uniform than can be had in leather, and therefore a wide rubber belt will wear more evenly. In damp and exposed places, rubber is more durable than leather. If, however, the belt is to be shifted back and forth, as in the stopping and starting of many machines, or in cross belting-wherever the edge of the belt is liable to wear-leather is preferable. If the pulley be higher at the center than at the side, or higher at one side than at the other, the belt will creep towards the highest part; for this reason the surface of the pulley is usually made not cylindric, but of greater diameter at the center. If this be overdone, the belt does not pull, except along its central part. The pulleys usually lie in the same plane, and with their axes parallel; but this is not necessary, provided that the course of each part of the belt-the driving and the slack part alike-be in the plane of the pulley toward which that part of the belt runs; the belt being always delivered by one pulley into the plane of the other.

Transmission of power by B. is more common in the United States than in Europe. As extreme cases may be noted: a leather belt of the New Jersey zinc works, 4 thicknesses, 48 in. wide and 102 ft. long; a rubber belt in Chicago, 6 ply, 48 in. wide and 320 ft. long; a leather belt for a paper mill in Wilmington, Del., 60 in. wide and 1861 ft. long. Hempen or wire ropes, running over large pulleys with V shaped edges, are used to transmit power to long distances. The U. S. arsenal at Rock Island, Ill., carries more than half a mile by one rope the power of 4 large turbine wheels, sufficient for all the present need of the machine shops. Such cables have been called teleodynamic cables. They can be run as fast as one mile per minute, and without covering will last three years. Intermediate sheaves are required at every 300 or 400 feet. For information concerning the length of B. and the power transmitted, see RANKINE, MACHINERY AND MILL WORK, etc.

BELU'GA, a genus of cetacea (q.v.), of the family of delphinida or dolphins (q.v.), differing from the rest of that family in the blunt and broad head, which has no produced snout; the smaller number of teeth, the greater part of which often fall out before the animal is far advanced in age; and the want of a dorsal fin. The only species found in the northern parts of the world is B. arctica (for which name there are unhappily many synonyms, as B. leucas, etc.), the white whale and white fish of whalers, often called by English writers the B., and the round-headed cachalot. The form of the B. is remarkably characterized by the softness of all its curves, and adapts it for rapid and graceful movements; its skin is usually of a clear white color, and not very strong, so that it often fails to hold a harpoon. The B. attains a length of more than thirteen ft. The female brings forth two young ones at a birth, and displays the greatest solicitude for them. The food of the B. consists of fish, in pursuit of which it often ascends rivers to some distance. It is gregarious, and may be seen in herds of forty or fifty, which often gambol around boats; it abounds in most parts of the arctic seas, and sometimes, but not very frequently, visits the British shores. One was killed in the Firth of Forth in 1815, and one in the Medway in 1846. The Greenlanders take the B. with harpoons or with strong nets. Its flesh affords them a valuable supply of food, and is eaten by most of the inhabitants of arctic coasts; it affords also a considerable quantity of the very finest oil, and the skin is made into leather. Some of the internal membranes are also employed for various purposes.-Another species of B. is found in the southern hemisphere. It is called B. Kingii.

BE'LUS. See BAAL.

BELVEDERE (It.) was originally an erection on the top of a house, for the purpose of looking out on the surrounding country, and enjoying the air, in which sense it is

still understood in Italy. A part of the Vatican (q.v.) in Rome is known as the B., and gives name to the famous statue of Apollo. In France, and with us, the word has come to signify any kind of summer-house or place of refreshment.

BELVEDERE', Kochia scoparia, Chenopodium scoparium, or Salsola scoparia, an annual plant of the natural order Chenopodiacea (q.v.), a native of the middle and s. of Europe, and of great part of Asia, which has long been very familiar in British gardens as an ornamental annual, not upon account of its flowers, which have no beauty, but of its close, pyramidal, rigid form, and numerous narrow leaves, which make it appear like a miniature cypress tree. It is sometimes called SUMMER CYPRESS.

BELVIDERE', chief t. in Boone co., Ill., 78 m. w. of Chicago, on the Chicago and Northwestern railroad; pop. '80, 2951. There are flouring mills and other manu factories.

BELVI'SIA (also called NAPOLEO'NA), a genus of exogenous plants, the type of the natural order Belvisiacea, of which order only a very few species have yet been discov ered, natives of the tropical parts of Africa. They are large shrubs, with smooth, sim ple, leathery leaves. The flowers grow in threes, sessile in the axils of the leaves, and are beautiful and extremely curious. The calyx is a thick, leathery cup, divided into five ovate segments. The corolla consists of three distinct rings; the outer one 5-lobed, and furnished with ribs, by means of which it is strongly plaited, turning back over and hiding the calyx when full blown; the second, a narrow membrane, divided into numerous regular segments like a fringe; the third, an erect cup-shaped membrane. The stamens are erect like another cup; the ovary 5-celled, with two ovules in each cell; the style short, thick, and 5-angled, with a broad, flat, 5-angled stigma. The fruit is a soft berry, crowned with the calyx, with large kidney-shaped seeds. The wood is soft, and contains numerous dotted vessels.-The pulp of the fruit of the best known species is mucilaginous and eatable, the rind very full of tannin; the fruit is as large as a pomegranate, and the seeds 1 in. long. The position of this remarkable order in the botanical system is not yet well determined. Lindley regards it as most nearly allied to rhizophoracea (Mangroves, q.v.). It is supposed by some that the two inner rings of the corolla should be regarded as sterile stamens, and the place of the order is thus fixed near Barringtoniaceae (q.v.)

BELZONI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, the son of a poor barber, was b. at Padua in 1778; and was educated at Rome, for the priesthood, but soon displayed a preference for mechanical science, especially hydraulics; and when the French republican troops took possession of the pontifical city, he quitted his religious studies altogether. About the year 1800, he visited Holland, and in 1803 came to England. For a time he gained a living by exhibiting feats of strength in the theaters. At Astley's, he played the part of Hercules, but he also continued his mechanical studies, and even gave numerous hydraulic representations in the most populous towns of the kingdom. After a sojourn of nine years in England, he went to Spain and Portugal, in his capacity of theatrical athlete. From the peninsula, he passed to Malta, and thence to Egypt in 1815, on the invitation of Mehemet Ali, who wished him to construct a hydraulic machine. After succeeding in this undertaking, he was induced, by the travelers Burckhardt and Salt, to direct his attention to the exploration of Egyptian antiquities. He threw himself with ardor into his new vocation. He removed the colossal bust of the so-called "Young Memnon" from the neighborhood of Thebes to Alexandria, and was the first who opened the temple of Ipsambul. In the valley of "the royal graves"-Biban-elMoluk-near Thebes, he discovered several important catacombs containing mummies, and among others, opened, in 1817, the celebrated tomb of Psammetichus, from which he removed the splendid sarcophagus, now, along with the " Young Memnon." and other results of B.'s labors, in the British museum. But B.'s greatest undertaking was his opening of the pyramid of Cephren. An attempt made on his life caused his departure from Egypt, but previously he made a journey along the coast of the Red sea, and another to the oasis of Siwah, hoping there to find ruins of the temple of JupiterAmmon. In the course of his explorations, he discovered the emerald mines of Zubara and the ruins of Berenice, the ancient commercial entrepôt between Europe and India. In Sept., 1819, he returned to Europe, visited his native town, Padua, and enriched it with two Egyptian statues of granite. He also published in London his Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia; and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea in search of the ancient Berenice, and another to the Oasis of Jupiter-Ammon (1821, with an atlas of 44 colored engravings). In 1821 he opened in London an exhibition of his Egyptian antiquities. but soon afterwards undertook a journey to Timbuctoo, in central Africa. At Benin, he was attacked by dysentery, which compelled him to return to Gato, where he died, Dec. 3, 1823. His original drawings of the royal tombs he had opened in Egypt were published by his widow (London, 1829).

BEM, JOSEPH, commander of the army in Transylvania during the Hungarian revolution, 1848-49, was b. at Tarnov, in Galicia, 1795. After a course of military adventure in Poland, he went to France, where he resided for a considerable time, earning a livelihood by teaching mechanics and mnemonics. In 1848, after failing in an attempt to.

organize an insurrection in Vienna, he joined the Hungarians, and was intrusted with the command of the army of Transylvania, amounting to 8000 or 10,000 men. He at first experienced some checks from the Austrian army, but afterwards defcated them at Hermannstadt and the bridge of Piski; and finally succeeded, in Mar., 1849, in driving both them and their allies, the Russians, back into Wallachia. Having thus made himself master of Transylvania, he proposed, by amnesties and general mild rule, to gain the adherence of the German and Slavonian population, especially in Wallachia; but his propositions were not entertained by Kossuth and the Hungarian commissariat. After expelling the troops under Puchner from the Banat, B. returned into Transylvania, where the Russians had defeated the Hungarians. Here he reorganized his forces, and did all that was possible in his circumstances to prevent the union of the Russians with the Austrians, but his efforts were unsuccessful. After failing in an attempt to excite an insurrection in Moldavia, he was defeated in a battle near Schäszburg, where he was opposed to three times the number of his own troops. At Kossuth's request, he now hastened into Hungary, where he took part in the unfortunate battle near Temesvar. Retreating into Transylvania, he here defended himself for some days against a vastly superior force, and then made his escape into Turkey, where he embraced, from political motives, the profession of Islam, was raised to the dignity of a pasha, and obtained a command in the Turkish army. In Feb., 1850, he was sent to Aleppo, where, after suppressing the sanguinary insurrection of the Arabs against the Christian population, he died of fever, Dec. 10, 1850. B. was in private life characterized by the benevolence of his disposition, and, as a military leader, was distinguished by courage, presence of mind when in extreme danger, and remarkable rapidity of movement.

BEMAN, NATHANIEL S. S., D.D., 1785-1871; b. N. Y.; graduate of Middlebury col lege; studied for the ministry, and was pastor of a Congregational church in Portland, Me. About 1813 he was a missionary in Georgia, where he labored to establish_better_edu. cation. In 1822, he became pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Troy, N. Y., where he officiated more than 40 years, during which period he was prominent in the moral and political questions of the time. He was moderator of the Presbyterian general assembly in 1881, and in 1837 he was a leader of the New School section. He resigned his pastoral charge in 1863. Some of his addresses and sermons have been published, in a volume. He also published Four Sermons on the Atonement.

BEMBATOO'KA, BAY OF, a safe and commodious bay on the n.w. coast of Madagascar, in lat. 16° s., and long. 46° e. Prime bullocks are sold here for less than 10s.

each, and are bought extensively by agents of the French government, who have them driven to fort Dauphin, on Antongil bay, on the opposite side of the island, where they are killed and cured for the use of the French navy, and for colonial consumption. Rice is also sold very cheap at Bembatooka. Majunga, on the n. side of the bay, is an important town, Bembatooka being but a village.

BEMBE CIDÆ, a family of hymenopterous insects of the division in which the females are furnished with stings. Along with sphegidæ (q.v.), and other nearly allied families, they receive the popular name of sand-wasps. They very much resemble bees or wasps in general appearance. They are natives of the warmer parts of the world. Some of them are remarkable for the odor of roses which they emit. The females make burrows in sandy banks, in each of which they deposit an egg, and along with it the bodies of a few flies as food for the larva. The B. fly very rapidly, and with a loud buzzing noise. Bembex rostrata is common in the s. of Europe.

BEMBO, PIETRO, one of the most celebrated Italian scholars of the 16th c., was b. in Venice, May 20, 1470; having studied at Padua and Ferrara, he early devoted himself to polite literature. He edited the Italian poems of Petrarch, printed by Aldus, in 1501, and the Terzerime of Dante, 1502. In 1506, he proceeded to the court of Urbino, where he resided until 1512, when he went to Rome, where he was made secretary to pope Leo X. On the death of that pope, B. returned to Padua, where he became a liberal patron of literature and the arts, as well as a fertile writer himself. In 1529, he accepted the office of historiographer to the republic of Venice, and was also appointed keeper of St. Mark's library. In 1539, B., who had only taken the minor ecclesiastical orders, was unexpectedly presented with a cardinal's hat by pope Paul III., who afterwards appointed him to the dioceses of Gubbio and Bergamo. He died Jan. 18, 1547. B. united in his character all that is amiable. He was the restorer of good style in both Latin and Italian literature. His taste is said to have been so fastidious with regard to style, that he subjected each of his own writings to forty revisions previous to publication. Some of his writings are marred by the licentiousness of the time. Among his works may be mentioned the Rerum Veneticarum Libri XII. (Venice, 1551), of which he published an Italian edition (Venice, 1552); his Prose, dialogues in which are given the rules of the Tuscan dialect; Gli Asolani, a series of disputations on love, etc.; Rime, a collection of sonnets and canzonets; his letters, Italian and Latin; and the work, De Virgilii Culice et Terentii Fabulis. His collected works were published at Venice, in 4 vols., 1729.

BEM BRIDGE BEDS are a division of the upper Eocene strata, resting on the St. Helen's, and capped by the Hempstead series. They are principally developed in the