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bv only blowing it up, so will a thimbleful of barm, by adding ofwarm water, raise or spunge any body of flour ; for warm watergives fresh life to that which is before at work : so the reason ofmaking bread heavy i<, not because tne body spunged is too little,but was made tip and put into the oven before it wa- ripe.
BAKOU, or BAKU, a town of Persia, 300 miles S>. ofAstra-can.
BAKTSCIIISAR.I, a towu on the W. side of the Crimea .
BAL, a Gaelic word, used in the composition of the names ofmany places, particularly in Scotland and Ireland , and signifyinga town, village, or place of residence.
BALA, an ancient town of N. Wales , in Merionethshire, 50inil -s, S. E. I y E. from Holyhead. It has the remains of threeHoman camps.
BALAAM , [from y?3, without, and oy, people,] the son ofBeor, a prophet and di'iiier ot Pethor upon the Euphrates , whosepractices with Bainix king of the Moabites are recorded in Num-bers, xxii—xxiv. as well as his involuntary prophecies ol theprosperity of isreal. It is a question much debuted among divines,whether Balaam was a true prophet of God , or only a magician orfortune-teller. Origen will have it, that he was one of the devil’ssorcerers, and that of him he went to inquire; but that God pre-vented him, and put what answer., he pleased into his mouth. Itcannot be denied, however, that the scriptures expressly call hima prophet; (2 Pet. ii. 16.) and therefore some later writers haveimagined, that he had once been a good man and true prophet, tillloving the wages of iniquity, and prostituting the honour of hisoliice to covetousness, he aposlatiz -d from Clod ; and betakinghimself to idolatrous practices, fell under the delusion of the devil,of whom he learnt all his magical enchantments; though at thisjuncture, when the p -rservation of his people was concerned, itmight be consistent with God ’s wisdom to appear to him, andvouchsafe his revelations. As to what passed between him andhis ass, when that animal was miraculously enabled to speak to itsmaster; commentators are divided in their opinions, whether itliterally happened as Moses relates it: or whether it be an alle-gory only, or the im re imagination or vision of Balaam . St. Peterputs the matter out of all doubt, and speaks of the fact as literal andcertain, and so all interpreters explain it. St. Austin, who un-derstands it exactly according to the letter, finds nothing in thewhole account more surprising than the stupidity of Balaam , whoheard his ass speak to him, and answered it, as if he talked witha reasonable person. Gregory of Nyssa thinks the ass did notutter any word articulately, but that, having brayed as usual, thediviner, whose practice it had been to draw presages from thecries of beasts and singing of birds, comprehended the ass’s mean-ing by its noise ; that Moses desianed to ridicule this superstitiousart of augurs and soothsayers, as il the ass really spoke in words ar-ticulate.
BALAAM1TES, a sect in the first age of Christianity , of thesame import, in the Hebrew language, with Nicolaitans , in theGreek.
BALABOLA, one of the Society Islands in the South Sea,visited by Captain Cook .
BA LAIN A, the Whale, in zoology, a genus of the classmamm.d.a, order eete. The character-, of this genus are these :‘The bateau, in place of teeth, his a horny plate on the upper jaw,and a double fistula or pipe for throwing out water. There are sixspecies; viz.
B. Bo-ops, the pike-headed whale, lias a double pipe in itssnout, throe fins and a hard horny ridge on its back ; belly full oflongitudinal folds or rug:e; it frequents the Northern ocean. Thelength of tint taken on the coast of Scotland , as remarked bv SirHubert Sibbald, was 46 feet, and its greatest circumference 20.
2. B. Muse ulus has a double pipe in its front: and three fins;the under jaw is much wider than the upper one. It frequents theScotch coasts, and feeds upon herrings.
3. B. Gibbosa, hump whale. Back gibbous without dorsalfi ns.
4. B. Bostrata. Beaked wh ile nose elongated; dorsal fin fat.
5. B. Mysticetus, thacommon whale, which has many turn-ing; and windings in its nostrils, and has no fin on the back. Thisis tit: largest of all animals; it is sometimes found in the northernseas 90 feet in length; but formerly they were taken of a muchgreater size, when the capture; were less frequent, and the fish hadtime to grow. Such is their bulk vyithiu the arctic circlebut iu
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those of the torrid zone, where they are unmolested, whales arestill seen 160 feet long. The ln-.id is very much disproportionedto the size of the body, being one third ol the size ot the fish : theunder lip is much broader than the upper. 'I'lie tongue, is com-posed of a very soft spongy fat, capable of yielding live or sixbarrels of oil. The gullet is very small for so vast a fish, not ex-ceeding four inches in width. In the middle of the head are twoorifices, through which it spouts water to a vast height, and witha great noise, especially when disturbed or wounned. The eyesare not larger than those of an ox, and when the crystalline humouris dried, it does not appear larger than a pea. They are placeu to-wards the back of the head, being the most convenient situationfor enabling them to to see both before and behind; as also to seeover them, where their food is principally found. They areguarded by eye-lids and eye-la-lies, as in quadrupeds; and tneyseem to be very sharp sighted. Nor is their sense ot hearing inless perfection; for they are warned at a great distance ol anydanger preparing against them. What is called l\ li..l*-bom , ad-heres to the upper jaw, and is formed ol thin parallel lamina',some of the longest four yards in length; of these there are com-monly 350 on each side/blit in very old fish more ; about 50b ofthem are of a length fit for use, the others being too short. . hey aresurrounded with long strong hair, not only that they may not hurtthe tongue, but as strainers to prevent the return ot their foodwhen they discharge the water out of their mouths. 1 he realbones of the whale are hard, porous, and full of marrow. Theybreed once in two years. 1 heir fidelity to each other exceedswhatever we are told, even of the constancy of birds. Some fishers,as Anderson informs us, having struck one of two whales, amale and a female, that were in company together, the woundedfish made a long and terrible resistance: it struck down a boat withthree men in it, with a single blow of its tail, by which all went tothe bottom. The other still attended its companion, and lent itevery assistance ; till, at last, the fish that was struck, sunk undertlie number of its wounds; while its faithful associate, disdainingto survive the loss, with great bellowing, stretched itself upon thedead fish, and shared his fate. The whale goes with young ni»eor ten months, and is then falter than usual, particularly when nearthe time of bringing forth. It is said that the embryo, when firstperceptible, is about 17 inches long, and white: but the cub,when excluded, is black, and about 10 feet long. She generallyproduces one young one, and never above.two. When shesuckles her young, she throws herself on one side on the surfaceof the sea, and the young one attaches itself to the teat. Nothingcan exceed the tenderness of the female for her offspring; shecarries il with her wherever she goes, and when hardest pmsuedkeeps it supported between her fins. Even when wounded, shestill clasps her young one; and when she plunges to avoid danger,takes it to the bottom ; but rises sooner than usual, to give it breathagain. The young ones continue at the breast for a year; duringwhich time, they are called by the sailors, short-heads. Theyare then extremely fat, and yield above 50 barrels of blubber. Themother at the same time is equally lean and emaciated. At theage of two years they are called Aunts, as they do not thrive muchimmediately after quitting the breast: they then yield scarceabove 20 or 24 barrels of blubber: from that time forward they arecalled skull-fish, and their age is wholly unknown.
6. B. Physalus, or fin-fish, is distinguished from the com-mon whale by a fin on the hack, placed very low and nearthe tail. The length is equal (o that of the common kind, butmuch more slender. It is furnished with whalebone in the upperjaw, mixed with hairs, but short and knotty, and of little value.The blubber also on the body of this kind is very inconsiderable.These circumstances, added to its extreme fierceness and agility,which renders the capture very dangerous, cause the fishers to ne-glect it. The natives of Greenland , however, hold it in great es-teem, as it affords a quantity of flesh which to their palate is veryagreeable. (Sec Plate YJ.) It seems astonishing how a shoal ofthese enormous animals find subsistence together, when it wouldseem that the supplying even one with food would require greaterplenty than the ocean could furnish. To increase our wonder,we not only see them herding together, hut usually find them fatterthan any oilier animals of whatsoever element. We likewise knowthat they cannot swallow large fishes, as their throat is so narrow,that an animal larger than an herring could not enter, flow thendo they subsist and grow so fat ? A certain sort of small snail, or