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 third persons, the pronominal affixes, the aoristic style of tense, the whole and broken plurals and the construction of the phrase. Among the peculiar grammatical features of Berber may be mentioned two numbers (no dual), two genders and six cases, and verbs with one, two, three and four radicals, and imperative and aorist tense only. As might be expected the Berber tongue is most common in Morocco and the western Sahara—the regions where Arab dominion was least exercised. When Arabic is mentioned as the language of Morocco it is seldom realized how small a proportion of its inhabitants use it as their mother tongue. Berber is the real language of Morocco, Arabic that of its creed and government.

 BERCEUSE (Fr. for a “lullaby,” from berceau, a cradle), a cradle-song, the German Wiegenlied, a musical composition with a quiet rocking accompaniment.

 BERCHEM (or ), NICOLAAS (1620–1683), Dutch painter, was born at Haarlem. He received instruction from his father (Pieter Claasz van Haarlem) and from the painters Van Goyen, Jan Wils and Weenix. It is not known why he called himself Berchem (or Berighem, and other variants). His pictures, of which he produced an immense number, were in great demand, as were also his etchings and drawings. His landscapes are highly esteemed; and many of them have been finely engraved by John Visscher. His finest pictures are at the Amsterdam Museum and at the Hermitage, St Petersburg.

 BERCHTA (English Bertha), a fairy in South German mythology. She was at first a benevolent spirit, the counterpart of Hulda in North German myth. Later her character changed and she came to be regarded as a witch. In Pagan times Berchta had the rank of a minor deity.

 BERCHTESGADEN, a town of Germany, beautifully situated on the south-eastern confines of the kingdom of Bavaria, 1700 ft. above the sea on the southern declivity of the Untersberg, 6 m. S.S.E. from Reichenhall by rail. Pop. (1900) 10,046. It is celebrated for its extensive mines of rock-salt, which were worked as early as 1174. The town contains three old churches, of which the early Gothic abbey church with its Romanesque cloister is most notable, and some good houses. Apart from the salt-mines, its industries include toys and other small articles of wood, horn and ivory, for which the place has long been famous. The district of Berchtesgaden was formerly an independent spiritual principality, founded in 1100 and secularized in 1803. The abbey is now a royal castle, and in the neighbourhood a hunting-lodge was built by King Maximilian II. in 1852.

 BERCK, a bathing resort of northern France, in the department of Pas-de-Calais, 25 m. S. of Boulogne by rail. Pop. (1906) 7638. It comprises two parts—Berck-Ville, 1 m. from the shore, and Berck-Plage, the latter with a fine sandy beach. There are two children’s hospitals, the climate proving peculiarly beneficial in the treatment of scrofulous affections. About 150 boats are employed in the fisheries, and herrings form the staple of an active trade. Boat-building and fish-curing are carried on.

 BERDICHEV, a town of W. Russia, in the government of Kiev, 116 m. S.W. of Kiev by rail and not far from the borders of Volhynia. The cathedral of the Assumption, finished in 1832, is the principal place of worship. The fortified Carmelite monastery, founded in 1627, was captured and plundered by Chmielnicki, chief of the Zaporogian Cossacks, in 1647, and disestablished in 1864. An extensive trade is carried on in peltry, silk goods, iron and wooden wares, salt fish, grain, cattle and horses. Four fairs are held yearly, the most important being on the 12th of June and the 15th of August. The numerous minor industries include the manufacture of tobacco, soap, candles, oil, bricks and leather. Pop. (1867) 52,563; (1897) 53,728, Jews forming about 80%. In the treaty of demarcation between the Lithuanians and the Poles in 1546 Berdichev was assigned to the former. In 1768 Pulaski, leader of the confederacy of Bar, fled, after the capture of that city, to Berdichev, and there maintained himself during a siege of twenty-five days. The town belongs to the Radziwill family.

 BERDYANSK, a seaport town of Russia, in the government of Taurida, on the north coast of the Sea of Azov, in 46° 45′ N. lat. and 36° 40′ E. long. The principal industries are in bricks and tiles, tallow and macaroni. The roads are protected from every wind except the south, which occasions a heavy surf; but against this a mole was constructed in 1863. The chief articles of export are cereals, flour, wool, hemp, skins and fish; and the imports include hardwares, fruits, oil and petroleum. In the immediate neighbourhood are salt-lagoons. Pop. (1867) 12,223; (1900) 29,168.

<section end="Berdyansk" /> <section begin="Berea" />BEREA, a town of Madison county, Kentucky, U.S.A., 131 m. by rail S. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1900) 762. Berea is served by the Louisville & Nashville railway. It is pleasantly situated on the border between the Blue Grass and the Mountain regions. The town is widely known as the seat of Berea College, which has done an important work among the mountaineers of Kentucky and of Tennessee. The college has about 70 acres of ground (and about 4000 acres of mountain land for forestry study), with a large recitation hall, a library, a chapel (seating 1400 persons), a science hall, an industrial hall, a brick-making plant, a woodwork building, a printing building, a tabernacle for commencement exercises and other buildings. In 1908 Berea had 65 instructors and 1150 students; and it paid the tuition of 141 negro students in Fisk University (Nashville, Tennessee) and in other institutions. The school out of which Berea College has developed was founded in the anti-slavery interests in 1855. An attempt was made to procure for it a college charter in 1859, but the slavery interests caused it to be closed before the end of that year and it was not reopened until 1865, the charter having then been obtained, as Berea College. Negroes as well as whites were admitted until 1904, when education of the two races at the same institution was prohibited by an act of the state legislature (upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908). This act did not, however, prohibit an institution from maintaining separate schools for the two races, provided these schools were at least 25 m. apart, and a separate school for the negroes was at once projected by Berea.

<section end="Berea" /> <section begin="Berekhiah Naqdan" />BEREKHIAH NAQDAN, Jewish fabulist, author of a collection of Fox Fables, written in Hebrew. As his title implies (Naqdan＝punctuator of the Biblical text), Berekhiah was also a grammarian. He further wrote an ethical treatise and was the author of various translations. His date is disputed. Most authorities place him in the 13th century, but J. Jacobs has identified him with Benedictus le Puncteur, an English Jew of the 12th century.<section end="Berekhiah Naqdan" />