Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, first edition - Volume I, A-B.pdf/645

 BEG ( 537 ) BEL 4 petals ; and has a great number of ftamina. There BEE, in zoology. See Apis. is but one fpecies of begonia, viz. the obliqua, a naBee-eater, in zoology. See Merges. tive of India. BEECH, in botany. See Fagus. Beech-galls, hard protuberances found on the leaves BEGUARDI, or Beghardi. See Beghardi. of the beech, wherein are lodged the maggots of a BEGUINS, congregations of devout young women, who maintain themfelves by the work of their hands, leadcertain fly. Beech-mast, the fruit of the beech-tree, faid to be ing a middle kind of life between the fecular and religious. Thefe focieties confift of feveral houfes placed good for fattening hogs, deer, 6v. Beech-oil, an oil drawn by expreflion from the maft together in one inclofure, with one or more churches, of the b?ech-tree, after it has been ftielled and pound- according to the number of beguins. There is in every houfe a priorefs, without whofe ed. This oil is very common in Picardy, and ufed there, and in other parts of France, inftead of butter ; leave they cannot ftir out. Their vow is conceived in but moft of thofe who take a great deal of it, com- thefe terms : Ipromife to be obedient and chafe, as long as I continue in this beguinage. They obferve plain of pains and a heavinefs in the ftomach. BEELE, a kind of pick-ax, ufed by the miners for fe- a three years novitiate before they take the habit, and parating the ores from the rocks in which they lie : the reftor of the parilh is their fuperior, but can do This inftrument is called a tubber by the miners of nothing without the advice of eight beguins. They are eftablilhed in feveral parts of Flanders. Cornwall. BEER, a common and well-known liquor, made with BEHEADING, a capital punilhment, inflicted by cutting off the head with an ax, fword, he. malt and hops. See Brewing, he. Among the Romans, beheading was a military puBeer, among weavers, a term that fignifies nineteen ends of yarn, running all together the whole length of nilhment, performed at firft with an ax, but afterwards with a fword, as done at prefent in Holland and the cloth. Beer measure. See Measure. France. In England the ax is preferred ; and in BEESTING, a term ufed by country-people for the firft Scotland they ufe, for this purpofe, a machine called a. maiden. milk taken from a cow after calving. BEHEN, in botany. See Cucubalus. BEET, in botany. See Beta. BEETLE, in the hiftory of infers. See Scara- BEJA, a city of0 Alentejo, in Portugal, in 8° 40'W. long, and 37 ^ N. lat. bjeus. Beetle alfo denotes a wooden inftrument for driving BEICHLINGEN, a city of Thuringia, in the circle of piles, he. It is likewife called a Jiamper, and by Upper Saxony in Germany, in 11 0 25' E. long, and paviors a rammer. 5 i° 20' N. lat. BEFORT, a town of Alface, fubje&to France, and fi- BEILA, a town of Piedmont in Italy, about thirty-two tuated qabout 15 miles north of Bafil, in 70 E. long, miles north of Turin ; E. long. 70 45,> and N. and 47 35' N. lat. lat. 450. BEG, or Bey, in the Turkilh affairs. See Bey. BEILSTEIN, a town of the landgraviate of HtlTe BEGGAR, one who begs alms. in Germany, fituated about 32 miles north of Mentz, BEGHARDI, a certain fed! of heretics, which arofe in in 8° E.long. and 50° 1,0' N. lat. Germany, and in the I ow Countries, about the end BEIZA, or Beizath, in Hebrew antiquity, a word of the 13th century. They madd profellion of the fignifying an egg, was a certain meafure in ufe amonaftical life, without obferving celibacy ; and main- mong the Jews. The beiza was likewife a gold coin, tained, that man could become as perfect in this life, weighing forty drachms, among the Perfians, who as he (hall be in heaven ; that every intellectual na- gave out, that Philip of Macedon owed their king ture is of itfelf happy, without the fuccour of grace ; Darius a thoufand beizaths or golden eggs, for triand that he who is in thisAtate of-perfedion ought to bute-money; and that Alexander the Great refufed perform no good works, nor worlhip the hoft. to pay them, faying, that the bird which laid thefe BEGLERBEG, a governor of one of the principal go- eggs was flown into the other world. vernments in the Turkilh empire. There are two forts BELAC, a fmall city of la Marche, in the Lyonnois; of beglerbegs : The one have a certain revenue afligned E, long. i° 15', and N. lat. 46° . upon the cities, boroughs, and villages of their goin the fea-language, is to make fall the ropes vernment, which they raife by power of the commiflion BELAY, in their proper places. granted to them by the fultan ; the others have a cer- BELCASTRO, a city0of Calabria, of 0 tain rent paid by the treafurer of the grand fignior. Naples ; E. long. 17 ij7, and N.inlat.the39kingdom 15'. They are become almoft independent; and have under BELCOE, a town of Ireland, fituated on Loch-ninny, their jurifdidion feveral fangiacs or particular govern- in the county of7 Farmanagh, and province of Ulfter;: mentsi and begs, agas, and other officers who obey W. long. 8° 6, and N. lat. 540 j'. them. BELEM, a fortrefs on the north fide of the river TaBEGONIA, in botany, a genus of the polygamia mo- gus, about three miles weft of Lilbon. noecia clafs. The hermaphrodite flower has no calix ; in natural hiftory, a fubftance conthe corolla has 5 petals ; it has many ftamina,. and 3 BELEMNITES, cerning the pature of which there has been much difftyli, the male has likewife no calix ; the corolla has pute. Some maintain it to be a petrified animal; others Vol. I. No. 21. 3 6U will