courtesy it is always the young ones; those who have served as Governor always remain. In the English sense, no banker has a chance of becoming a bank director. The mass of the directors are merchants of experience, who have information as to the present course of trade, and as to the character and wealth of merchants, which is invaluable to the bank. It is usually about twenty years from the time of a man's first election that he arrives, as it is called, at the chair; accordingly, bank directors, when first chosen by the Board, are comparatively young men. The management of the entire public debt of Great Britain is in the hands of the bank, for which it receives a compensation which has from time to time varied in amount, according to circumstances.

Banks, Origin of.-Banks existed in China, Babylon, Greece, Rome and other nations long before the Christian era, but the earliest records of European banks now in existence are those of the Bank of Venice, founded A. D. 1171; the Bank of Barcelona in 1401, the Bank of Geneva in 1407, and the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609. The oldest bank-notes of which we have any record were issued in China as far back as 2657 B. C. The popular name of this paper currency was "flying money" or "convenient money," and it was in form similar to that of American bank-bills, except in the addition of mottoes, such as "Produce all you can; spend with economy." They bore the name of the bank, number of the note, value, place of issue, date, and signature of the proper bank officers. The value was in some cases expressed in figures, in words, and in pictorial representations showing coins or ingots equal in amount to the face value of the paper. They bore also a notice of the penalties of counterfeiting. A specimen of these notes, issued in 1399 B. C., is on exhibition in the Asiatic Museum, St. Petersburg. It is printed in blue ink on paper made from the fiber of the mulberry-tree. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, there are Babylonian tablets of banking transactions dating back to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The earliest of these tablets belong to the year 601 B. C. The earliest known Babylonian banking-house is said to be that of Egibi & Co., a house that seems to have acted as a sort of imperial banking institution in Babylon from the time of Sennacherib (about 700 B. C.) down to the reign of Darius, 516 B. C., having been traced through five generations. Records of this house, on clay tablets found in an earthen jar in the neighborhood of Hillel, near Babylon, may be seen in the British Museum.

Barber's Pole.-The spiral red stripe on a barber's pole is said to symbolize the winding of a ribbon or bandage around the arm of a patient upon whom the barber had operated in the capacity of surgeon. In former times, when the operation of bleeding was extensively practiced, blood-letting formed a part of the duties of a barber.

Barbican, a watch-tower before the gate of a castle or fortified town. In ancient times the barbican formed an important por

The

tion of any defensive work, as from it an enemy could be descried at a great distance. There are a few perfect barbicans remaining in England, as at Alnwick and Warwick; but the best examples of it, as of other parts of the fortifications of the middle ages, are probably to be seen in the town of Carcassone. street called Barbican, in London, near Aldersgate Street, marks the site of such a work in front of one of the gates of the old city. It is proBarilla is an impure carbonate of soda, used in the manufacture of soap and of glass, and for other purposes in the arts. cured from plants which grow in salt-marshes or other places near the sea. It is obtained by burning the plants much in the same way that sea-weeds are burned upon the coasts of Scotland to procure kelp. The greatest quantities of barilla are produced in Spain and the Balearic Islands, but the Canary Islands, Italy and The Spanish barilla is the most France also contribute a part. esteemed, especially that produced near Alicante. The manufacture of barilla has of late years greatly declined, from the fact that soda can now be made artificially from common salt.

Bashi-Bazouks are wild, turbulent troopers in the service of the Sultan. They are mostly Asiatics, and during the RussoTurkish war in 1854 had many encounters with the Russians. They fight for pay and plunder, and are greatly dreaded by villagers. In 1855 it was determined by the British Government to take into their pay a Turkish contingent to aid in the operations of the war, and for this purpose an Indian officer was placed in charge of a corps of Bashi-Bazouks; but it was found utterly impossible to reduce them to discipline. Their ferocity was exhibited in the Servian war, but most relentlessly in the massacre of Batak, where, in May, 1876, under Achmet Agha, they slew over 1,000 defenseless Bulgarians in a church in which they had sought refuge.

ance,

Basilica was originally a hall in which the laws were administered by the king. Among the Romans it attained its chief importand was used not only as a court of justice, but also as a market and meeting-place for the transaction of general business. The earliest form of the basilica was a structure open to the air, surrounded by a peristyle of columns. Eventually an external wall was substituted for the columns; they, if continued at all, being used only as a decoration, and confined generally to the vestibules. The idea of the Christian church was suggested by this form of basilica. [See Apse.] Some twenty of these structures are known to have existed in Rome; and later every provincial town, even those of small extent, had each its basilica, as that of Pompeii, which is now the most perfect example, still testifies. The most frequented part of the city was always selected for its site. Some of these buildings were of vast size, as is evidenced by the fact that they furnished seats for the jurymen, who often numbered as many as 180, in addition to the accommodations required by the prætor, the suitors, and their advocates. In the middle ages the

term basilica was also applied to the large structures erected over the tombs of persons of distinction, probably from their resemblance to small churches; thus the tomb of Edward the Confessor, in Westminster, is called a basilica. In Italy, and particularly in Rome, many of the churches are still called basiliche.

Basilisk. According to ancient and mediæval writers the basilisk was a terrible creature. The ancients, Galen and Pliny, describe it as a serpent. In the middle ages it was generally represented as more of a lizard in appearance, but provided with eight instead of four feet. It appears to have been at last pretty completely identified with the cockatrice, which was believed to be generated in a very wonderful manner, being produced from an egg laid by an extremely old cock and hatched by a toad; for which reason we sometimes find the basilisk figured with something like a cock's head. The basilisk was the king of dragons and serpents, all of which left their prey to it whenever it approached. It inhabited the deserts of Africa, and, indeed, could only inhabit a desert, for its breath burned up all vegetation, the flesh fell from the bones of any animal with which it came in contact, and its very look was fatal to life; but a brave man could venture into a cautious contest with it by the use of a mirror, which reflected back its deadly glance upon itself. The basilisk occupies an important place in some of the legends of the saints, and Pope Leo IV is said to have delivered Rome from a basilisk whose breath caused a deadly pestilence.

Basques are a simple, brave and independent people, who from earliest times have inhabited both slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains. Their early history is unknown, but they are supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Iberi, who once occupied the whole of the peninsula. The Basques are a robust and active race, of darker complexion than the Spaniards, and their women are beautiful and skilled in all outdoor work. Their dwellings are scattered over all the heights of the Pyrenees, and they have but few cities or villages. They number about 800,000, somewhat less than a fourth of this number living on the French side of the mountains and the others on the Spanish side. They have been, through the different ages, nominally under the control of the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Goths, the Saracens, the French and the Spanish; but they have never really been conquered, nor have their peculiar characteristics been in any way changed. Their language, which is different from and older than other languages of Europe, is preserved among them in its pristine purity. Politically they are divided into districts, each of which chooses annually an alcalde, who is both a civil and a military officer and a member of the Supreme Junta, which meets every year for deliberation on matters of general interest. Until 1876 the Basques retained a separate constitution guaranteeing them many political and fiscal privileges not possessed by the rest of Spain; but on the suppression of the Carlist insurrection, which

had all along its strongholds in the Basque Provinces and in Na-
The Basques were
the old immunities were abolished.
varre,
known to the Romans as the Cantabri.

Bastile. The famous French prison known by this name was originally the Castle of Paris, and was built by order of Charles V, between 1370 and 1383, as a defense against the English. When it came to be used as a State prison it was provided with vast bulwarks and ditches. The Bastile had four towers, of five stories each, on each of its larger sides, and it was partly in these towers and partly in underground cellars that the prisons were situated. It was capable of containing seventy to eighty prisoners, a number frequently reached during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV, the majority of them being persons of the higher ranks. The Bastile was destroyed by a mob on the 15th of July, 1789, and the Governor and a number of his officers were killed. On its site now stands the Column of July, erected in memory of the patriots of 1789 and 1830.

Batrachomyomachia.—A serio-comic poem in Greek, describing a battle between frogs and mice. The authorship has been ascribed to Homer, with whose works it has been generally printed. It is a parody of the Iliad, in which the military preparations and contests of frogs and mice, with single combats, intervention of the gods and other Homeric circumstances are described with much humor.

Bayeaux Tapestry, The, is a web of canvas or linen cloth upon which is embroidered, in woolen threads of various colors, a representation of the invasion and conquest of England by the Normans. Tradition The canvas is 214 feet long by 20 inches broad, and is preserved in the public library at Bayeaux. asserts that it is the work of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, and it is believed that if she did not actually stitch the whole of it with her own hands, she at least took part in it, and directed the execution of it by her maids, and afterward presented it to the Cathedral of Bayeaux as a token of her appreciation of the effective assistance which its bishop, Odo, rendered her husband at the battle of Hastings. Some antiquarians contend that it was not the work of Queen Matilda (the wife of the Conqueror), who died in 1083, but of the Empress Matilda (the daughter of Henry I), who died in 1167. The tapestry contains, beside the figures of 505 quadrupeds, birds, sphinxes, etc., the figures of 623 men, 202 horses, 55 dogs, 37 buildings, 41 ships and boats, and 49 trees-in all, 1,512 figures. It is divided into 72 distinct compartments, each representing one particular historical occurrence, and bearing an explanatory Latin inscription. A tree is usually chosen to divide the principal events from each other. This pictorial history-for so it may be called-gives an exact and minute portraiture of the manners and customs of the times; and it has been remarked that the arms and habits of the Normans are identical with those of the Danes as they appear in

the miniature paintings of a manuscript of the time of King Cnut in the British Museum.

Bay, Symbolism of.-The leaves of the bay-tree, by which name are known a number of trees and shrubs, have from early times been associated with popular superstitions and usages. They have adorned houses and churches at Christmas along with evergreens; and sprigs of bay, as well as laurel, have been worn in the hat or wreathed around the head in token of rejoicing or of some meritorious deed. The withering of bay-trees was reckoned an omen of death, according to Shakespeare. Thus, Richard II: "Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country all are withered.” Parkinson's Garden of Flowers,' published in 1629, says: "The bay-leaves are necessary both for evil uses and for physic, both for the sick and for the sound, both for the living and the dead. It serveth to adorn the house of God as well as man; to crowne or enriche, as with a garland, the heads of the living; and to strike and deck forth the bodies of the dead; so that from the cradel to the grave we still have need of it.”

Beating the Bounds is an expression used in England to designate periodical surveys, which are made for the preservation of the ancient boundaries of parishes. The clergyman of the parish, with the parochial officers and other parishioners, followed by the boys of the parish school headed by their master, go in procession, on Holy Thursday or Ascension Day, to the different parish boundaries, which boundaries the boys strike with peeled willow wands that they bear in their hands; hence the expression "beating the bounds." In olden times the beating was not, however, always confined to the boundaries; but when it was desired to preserve evidence of particular boundaries, the boys themselves, or one of them, was beaten, and received a stated fee for the castigation out of the parish funds. It was thought that the impression made on the boy's memory by the whipping was calculated to have a beneficial effect on the preservation of his evidence.

Beer, Origin of.-The Germans, Gauls and Bretons manufactured beer from barley and wheat as far back as there are any written records regarding them. Tacitus tells us that beer was a common beverage of the Germans when he wrote, in the first century. We learn from Pliny that "The people of Spain, in particular, brew this liquor so well that it will keep a long time." He describes it as made from corn and water. The earliest of Greek writers speak of wine made from barley, and of the art of making it as derived from the Egyptians. It is believed that Archilocus, the Parian poet, who lived about 700 B. C., referred to beer-drinking when he depicted the follies and vicious indulgences of his time In the ancient writings of China reference is made to a fermented driak called "sam-shoo," made from rice. When it was first invented is unknown, but it was probably long before the Christian Era.

Behistun, Sacred Rock of.-The Persian King, Darius Hys