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tatious member was promoted to the speaker’s chair; a boaster ofhis own courage was honoured with the commission of genera-lissimo, which was presented him with great ceremony b v the sub-ordinate heroes. It was attended by great good to the Polishnation, but degenerating into indecency and profaneness, it wasat length totally dropt.

BABOON, in zoology. See Simia.

BABYLON, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Babylonia or Chaldiea, and supposed to have stood in Lon. 44. 0. E. Lat.32. 0. N. Semiramis is said by some, and Belusby others, to havefounded this city. But, bv whomsoever it was founded, Nebu-chadnezzar embellished it, and made it one of the wonders ofthe world. The most famous works in and about it were the wallsof the city, the temple of Belus, Nebuchadnezzar ’s palace, thehanging-gardens, the banks of the river, the artilieial lake, andthe canals. This city w ; as surrounded with walls, in thickness 87feet, in height j.>0 feet, and in compass 480 furlongs or 60 of ourmiles, according to Herodotus, who was himself at Babylon ; andmost writers, give us the same dimensions. In the whole compassof the wall there were 100 gates, that is, 25 on each of the foursides, all of solid brass. Between every two ol these gates, atproper distances, were three towers. From the 25 gales in eachside of this square, there was a straight street, extending to thecorresponding gate in the opposite wall ; whence by the inter-section of the streets, the city was divided into 676 squares, cadiof four furlongs and an half on each side, or two miles and a quar-ter in compass. The next great work of Nebuchadnezzar was thetemple of Belus. The wonderful tower, however, that stood inthe middle of it, was not his work, but was built many ages be-fore ; that, and the famous tower of Babel , being, as is commonlysupposed, one and the same structure. This tower is said to havebeen composed of eight pyramidical ones raised above one ano-ther, and by Herodotus said to have been a furlong in height;but as there is an ambiguity in his expression, it has been disputedwhether each of the towers was a furlong in length, or the wholeof them taken together. Even on the latter supposition, it musthave exceeded the highest of the Egyptian pyramids by 179feet, though it fell short of its breadth at the basis by 33. Theway to go up was by stairs on the outside round it; whence itseems most likely, that the whole ascent was, by the benching in,drawn in a sloping line from the bottom to the top eight timesround it ; and that this made the appearance of eight towers,one above the other. Till the time of Nebuchadnezzar , it isthought by some that this tower was all the temple of Belus ;but he made great additions, by erecting vast edifices roundit, in a square of two furlongs on every side, and a mile in cir-cumference, which exceeded the square at the temple of Jerusalem by 1S0O feet. Nothing was more wonderful at Babylon than thehanging-gardens, which Nebuchadnezzar made in complaisance tobis wife Ainyitis; who, beingaMede, and retaining a strong in-clination for the mountains and forests of her own country, wasdesirous of having something like them at Babylon . They aresaid to have contained a square of four plethra, or 400 feet, oneach side ; and to have consisted of terraces one above another,carried up to the height of the wall of the city, the ascent fromterrace to terrace being by steps ten feet wide. The whole pileconsisted of substantial arches upon arches, and was strengthenedby a wall surrounding it on every side, 22 feet thick ; and thelioors on each of them were laid in this order; first, on the topsof the arches was laid a pavement of stones 16 feet long, and fourfeet broad ; over this was a layer of reeds, mixed with a greatquantity of bitumen ; over this two courses of brick, closely ce-mented together with plaster; over all these were thick sheets oflead, and on these the earth or mould of the garden. This floor-age was designed to retain the moisture of the mould ; whichwas so deep, as to give root to the greatest trees which wereplanted upon every terrace, together with great variety of othervegetables pleasing to the eye. Upon the uppermost of theseterraces was a reservoir, supplied by a certain engine with waterfrom the river, from whence the gardens on the other terraceswere supplied. Yet it is the opinion of some authors, thesehanging-gardens never existed. The silence of Herodotus on awork so singular and so remarkable, seems to render the accountsof other w riters fabulous. Herodotus had carefully visited Baby-lon . He enters into such details, as prove that he has omitted noneof the rarities of that city. Can w e presume, that lie would haveVOL. i.— no. 23.

passed over in silence such a work as the hanging-gardens ? AHthe authors who have spoken of it are of much later date than thisgreat historian. None of them except Berosus speaks on his owntestimony.

BABYLONIA , or CHALDrEA, a kingdom of Asia, and themost ancient in the world, was founded by Nimrod the grandsonof Ham, who also is said to have founded Nineveh the capital ofthe kingdom of Assyria . Indeed, these two kingdoms seem tohave always continued in such a state of friendship that we canscarcely help thinking that they were either the same, or thatBabylonia was for some time a province of Assyria .

Babylonia Cura, the art of casting nativities.

BABYLONIAN, [Babylonius,] is used in ancient writersfor an astrologer, or any thing related to astrology.

BABYLON ICA Soi.ana, coverings laid over couches, &c.painted w ith gold, purple, and other colours.

Babylonica Texta, a rich sort of weavings, or hangings, de-nominated from the city of Babylon , where tlu-ir practice of inter-weaving divers colours in their hangings first obtained. Hencealso Babylonia garments, Babylonia skins, Bubylonic carpets,housings, Sec.

BA By LON ICS, Babylonica, in literary history, a fragmentof the ancient history of the world, ending at 267 years beforeChrist : and composed by Berosus, a priest of Babylon , about thetime of Alexander. Babylonics are sometimes also cited in anck-ntwriters by the title of Chaldaics. The Babylonics were very-consonant with the Holy Scripture, as Josephus and the ancientChristian chronologers a'ssure us; whence the author is usuallysupposed to have consulted the Jewish writers. Berosus speaks ofan universal deluge, an ark, &c.

BABYLONI1 Numerj, Babylonian numbers, or the compu-tations of astrologers.

BAC, [Fr. a ferryboat,] in brewing, a large flat kind of tub,or vessel, wherein the wort is put to stand and cool before-boiling.

Bac , in distillery, vessels into which the liquor to be fer-mented is pumped from the cooler, in order to be worked’with yeast.

Bac , in navigation, is used for a praam, or ferry-boat.

BACA, or BAZA, a town of Spain in Granada .

BACAIM, or BAZA1M, a sea-port town of the Deccan ofIndostan, on the Malabar coast. Lon. 72. 40. E. Lat. 37. 18. N,

BACASERAY, a town in Crim 'I artary, 70 miles S. ofPrecop.

BAC'CA , Berry, in botany, is used to signify yich fruits as"consist of pericarpium full of juice, and seeds/w ithout anyvalves.

BACCARACH, a town of Germany , 20 miles W. of Mentz.Lon. 7. 52. K. Lat. 49. 55. N.

BACCILE, in antiquity, 1. the priestesses of Bacchus , whocelebrated the mysteries of that god : 2. the iv\- crowns or gar-lands worn by the priests of Bacchus , in offering sacrifice's tohim.

BACCHANALIA, BACCHANALS, religious feasts, inhonour of Bacchus , celebrated with much solemnity among theancients, particularly the Athenians , who even computed theiryears by them, till the commencement of Olunpiads. ’t hey aresometimes also called orgia, from the Greek c=7>i ,fury ; on accountof the madness and enthusiasm wherewith the people appeared lobe possessed at the time of their celebration.

BACCHANTES, priestesses of Bacchus .

BACCI1AR1S, ploughman’s spikenard: A genus of the poly-gamia superllua order and syngenesiaclass of plants;, natural order,Compositie discoides. Calyx imbricate, cylindrlc ; florets, femalemixed with hermaphrodites; down simple; receptacle naked.There are nine species ; most of the plants are shrubby.

BACCIII, in fabulous history, a kind of machines, in form ofgoats, said to have been used by Jupiter, in his wars against thegiants.

BACCI1IUS, in ancient poetry, a foot composed of a shortsyllable and two long ones ; as agestas. 'File Romans called itlikewise a’notrius, tripodius, and saltans; and the Greeks

BACCHUS, in heathen mythology, the god of wine. He isseldom named in modern times, but as a sensual encourager of feastand jollity; but he was regarded in a more respectable light by theancients, who worshipped him in different countries under the fol-4 Z lowing