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BOA

BOA

till they assume a blue colour; it is particularly practised by gilders,who blue their metals, before they apply the gold and silver leaf.

Blueing of Iron , is a method of beautifying that metal formourning-buckles, swords, &c. The process is as follows : take apiece of grind-stone or whet-stone, and rub hard on the work, totake from it the black scurf; then heat it in the fire, and as it growshot, the colour changes by degrees, appearing first of a light, thenof a darker gold colour, and lastly of a blue. Sometimes theyalso grind indigo and salad-oil together; and rub the mixture onthe work, while it is heating, with a woollen rag, leaving it to coolgradually.

BLUENESS, the quality which denominates a body blue ; orit is such a size and texture of the parts which compose the sur-face of a body, as dispose them to reilect the blue, or azure rays oflight, and those only, or principally to the eye.

Blueness of the Sky. See Sky.

BLUFE-IIEAD, among sailors. A ship is said to be bluff-beaded that has an upright stern.

BLUNDERBUSS, a gun that is charged with many bullets, sothat, without any exact aim, there is a chance of hitting the mark.They are generally made short, and have wide bores.

BLUNT, in fencing, a foil.

BLUSHING, a suffusion, or redness of the cheeks, excited bya sense of shame, on account of a consciousness of some failing orimperfection.

Blushing is generally excited by a sense of shame, thoughthis may admit of some exceptions. It is supposed to beproduced from a sympathy between several parts of the body, oc-casioned by the same nerve being extended to them all. Thusthe 5th pair of nerves being branched from the brain to the eye,ear, muscles of the lips, cheeks, palate, tongue, and nose ; a thingseen or heard that is shameful, affects the cheeks with blushes,driving the blood into their minute vessels, at the instant that itaffects the eye and ear. For the same reason, Mr. Derham ob-serves a savoury thing seen or smelt affects the glands of themouth: if a thing heard be droll, it affects the muscles of the facewith laughter; if melancholy, it exerts itself on the glands of theeyes, and occasions weeping, &c. And to the same cause Dr. Wil-lis ascribes the pleasure of kissing.

B MI, in music, the third note in the modern scale. See thearticle Scale.

B MOLLARRE, or MOLLE, one of the notes of the scale ofmusic, usually called soft or fiat, in opposition to b quadro.

BN IZO MEN JE, an ancient tribe of Arabs .

BOA, in zoology, a genus of the class and order amphibia ser-pentes. Plates on the belly, and under the tail, without a rattle.Eighteen species, natives of India, America , and Africa. Severalof the species are twenty, thirty, or more feet long, and of prodi-gious strength.

Boa Constrictor, has 240 scuta or plates on the belly, and60 on the tail. This is an immense animal, often exceeding 36feet in length; the body is very thick, of a dusky white colour,and its back is interspersed with 24 large pale irregular spots;the tail is of a darker colour; and the sides are beautifully varie-gated with pale spots. Besides the whole body is interspersed withsmall brown spots. (See Plate II.) The head is covered withsmall scales, and has no broad lamina; betwixt the eyes, but hasa black belt behind them. It wants the large dog-fangs. Thetongue is fleshy, and very little forked. Above the eyes, oneach side, the head rises high. The scales of this serpent are allvery small, roundish, and smooth. The tail does not exceed one-eighth of the whole length of the animal. The Indians, who adorethis monstrous animal, use the skin for cloaths, on account of itssmoothness and beauty. There are several of these skins of theabove dimensions preserved, and to be seen in the different mu-seums of Europe , particularly in the library and botanic gardenof Upsal in Sw'eden. The flesh of this serpent is eaten by the In-dians and the negroes of Africa. Piso, Margraave, and Kemp-fer, give the following account ot its method of living and catch-ing its prey. It frequents caves and thick torests, where it concealsitself, and suddenly darts out upon strangers, wild beasts, &c.When it chooses a tree for its watching-place, it supports itself by-twisting its tail round the trunk or a branch, and darts down uponsheep, goats, tigers, or any animal that comes within its reach.When it lays hold of animals, especially any of the larger kinds, ittwists itself several times round their body, and by the vast force

t

of its circular muscles bruises and breaks all their bones. Afterthe bones are broken, it licks the skin of the anilnal all over, be-smearing it with a glutinous kind of saliva. This operation is in-tended to facilitate deglutition,-and is a preparation for swallowingthe whole animal. It it be a stag, or any horned animal, it beginsto swallow the feet first, and gradually sucks in the body, and lastof all the head. When the horns happen to be large, "it has beenobserved to go about for a long time with them slicking out fromits mouth. As the animal digests, the horns putrefy and fall off.—After this serpent has swallowed a stag or a tiger, it is unable forsome days to move ; the hunter * who are well acquainted with thiscircumstance, always take this opportunity of destroying it. Whenirritated, it makes a loud hissing noise. It is said to cover itselfover with leaves in such places as stags or other animals frequent,in order to conceal itself from their sight, and that it may the moreeasily lay hold of them. One of them, in the reign of Claudius ,was found with a child whole in its belly.

Boa Canina, a high beautiful snake; measuring about fourfeet in length, and being of moderate size or thickness in propor-tion : the bead is large, and shaped like that of a dog : the colourof the whole animal on the upper parts is a most beautiful Saxon-green, with several short, undulating, transverse white bars downthe back, the edges of which are of a deeper or stronger green thanthe ground colour of the body ; the under or abdominal part iswhite. This species is a native of South America. In the BritishMuseum is an elegant specimen. See Plate II.

Boa Fasciata. It is to Dr. Patrick Russel that we owe theknowledge of this remarkable species, which is a native of India ,and is said to be most frequent in the country of Bengal. It is of ayellow colour, marked with pretty numerous dusky-blue transversebands, continued at equal distances: the head is rather small, andcovered in front with large scales : the body is of a trigonal form,the sides sloping very considerably ; the whole length of the ani-mal is something more than five feet; the diameter, in the thickestpart, being nearly five inches: the length of the tail five inchesonly, and its termination rather obtuse. This snake is among thenumber of poisonous species, and its bite is considered by the In-dians as inevitably fatal.

Boa Ophrias, has 281 scuta on the belly, and 84 on the tail ;the colour is nearly the same with that of the Constrictor, butbrowner.

Boa Scytale, has 250 scuta on the belly, and 70 on the tail.The body is ash-coloured and bluish, with round black spots onthe back, and black lateral rings edged with white. It is a nativeof America ; and, like the constrictor, though not so long, twistsitself about sheep, goats, &c. and swallows them whole.

BOADADA BASHAW, in the Turkish military orders, anofficer of the janizaries, whose business it is to walk every dayabout the principal parts of the city, with a number of janizaries,to keep order, and sec that all tilings are regular even to the dress,

BOADICEA, or VOAD1CEA, a valiant British queen in thetime of Nero the emperor, wife to Prasutagus king of the Iceni inBritain , who by his will left the emperor and his own daughtersco-heirs to his great treasures, in expectation of procuring by thatmeans Nero ’s protection for his family and people : but he was nosooner dead, than the emperor’s officers seized all. Boadicea opposed these unjust proceedings; which was resented tosuch a pitch of brutality, that they ordered the lady to be pub-licly whipped, and her daughters to be ravished by the sol-diers. The Britons took arms, to the number of 120,00(1, withBoadicea at their head, to shake off the Roman yoke ; and madea general and bloody massacre of about 80,000 Romans. Thewhole province of Britain would have been lost, if Suetonius Pau-linus bad not hastened from the isle of Mona to London , andwith 10,000 men engaged the Britons. The battle was fought fora long time with great vigour and doubtful success, till at last vic-tory inclined to the Romans. Boadicea , who had behaved withall thebraverv imaginable, dispatched herstll by poison, A. D.61.

BOAR. See Sus.

BOARD, \burcuu,'] a public office, where accounts are taken,payments ordered, and the like ; such as board of works, board ofordnance, board of treasury, See.

Board of Agriculture, a public-spirited Society, establishedby Act of Parliament, 17th May, 1793, and constituted by royalcharter, 23d August following, tor the encouragement of agvicul-[ ture and internal improvement.

Board