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BATTLE OF THE BOOKS. by giving a "full and true account of the battle fought; last Friday between the ancient and modern books in Saint James's Library," of which Bentley was librarian. See the sketches in this Encyclopædia of the authors here mentioned.

BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE. See.

BATTLE OF THE KEGS. See.

BATTLE OF THE SPURS (named so from the many gilt spurs gathered by the victors). The name given to a battle at Giunegate, August 16, 1513, in which Henry VIII., of England, and the Emperor Maximilian routed the French cavalry.

BATTONI, bat-to'ne. See.

BATTONYA, bot't6-nyo. A market-town of the County of Csanád, Hungary, about 60 miles east of Szegedin. Its principal industries are connected with the production of tobacco and wine, and the cattle-raising of the district (Map: Hungary, G 3). Population, in 1890, 12,000.

BATTUE, bjit'tii (Fr., from battre, to beat, strike). The method adopted in many parts of the world for driving wild animals to a point where the huntsman is secreted ready to kill them. Specifically, battue means to-day the spreading of beaters over the moors of Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England in a wide circle and gathering them to a narrower one, hereby the grouse are driven past groups of gunners, and shot at from cover. Similar tactics are employed with partridge, particularly in the open lands of the east of England; and the woods and coppices in England are beaten to drive the pheasants out of the timber and under- growth and over the guns stationed on the adja- cent pastures. In earlier times it was called 'driving" and was, and is, used extensively in Ger- many for driving the deer. And so it was in England and in France when deer abounded there. Hundreds of old prints and rare engravings and paintings attest the existence through cen- turies of this method of killing game. In Russia it is called the 'surround,' and is still put in practice in bear-hunting, the whole communi- ty being hired to surround a located bear and prevent his escaping the man with the gun. In India modifications of this method are used in tiger-hunting, and in driving elephants into inclosures from which they cannot escape. In Patagonia the natives surround the guanaeos in the same way. Indeed, as contradistinguished from still-hunting and stalking, the battue, under various names, has been used in every country and time.

BAT'TUS. See.

BATU KHAN, ba-to77' Kiln (?-c.1255). The leader of the Mongols in their invasion of Eu- rope in the Thirteenth Century, grandson of Genghis Khan and nephew of Ogotai Khan. Given command in 1235 of the Mongol Army destined against Europe, he marched westward, crossed the Volga River, and dividing his forces sent one southward to bring the Bulgarians to submission, while with the main army he ad- vanced into the heart of Russia. On December 21, 1237, he assaulted and took the city of Riazan. After this he captured Moscow, Vla- dimir, and, in 1240, Kiev, his followers every-

where perpetrating horrible atrocities. "The villages disappeared, and the heads of the Russians fell like grass before the sickle." The Russian princes were forced to bow to the Mongol yoke. In 1241 Batu Khan advanced into Hungary and overwhelmed the army of Béla IV. At the same time another Mongol army advanced against the Poles. On the memorable field of the Wahlstatt, near Liegnitz, the forces of the Silesian duke and the Teutonic knights succumbed to the Mongols, who, however, were unable to pursue their progress owing to their heavy losses. From the German frontier to the Volga, hardly a town survived the passage of this tornado of war. In 1242 Batu Khan was recalled to Asia by the news of the death of Ogotai. He died about 1255. In his campaigns, Batu's main army was preceded by a body of 40,000 men, who cut roads and acted as pioneers through the terribly difficult country. The secret of the military success of the Mongols was the incredible speed with which they marched, often covering, it was said, a distance of nearly 300 miles in three days. The khanate which Batu governed was Kipchak, a region extending from the Jaxartes in Turkestan to the limits of Russia of the Thirteenth Century, and comprising the region north of the Caucasus. Batu's army was named the Golden Horde (q.v.), because of his tent, which was richly covered with embroidery and gilded leather. The sira ordu, or silken palace, made the great encampment by the Volga known as Serai, the capital of the Golden Horde. The cause of the Mongol success lay in the fact that the whole Tartar nation was a standing army, which struck Europe in a time of feudalism, when patriotism was parochial, Russia without national unity, only the nobles and free men armed, and the number of monks, hired servants, and slaves in overwhelming majority. On the other hand, the Tartar cavalry was superbly disciplined, with admirable tactics, while their weapons were far superior to anything then known in Europe. Their arrows were longer and heavier, and their engineering skill far in advance of that of their foes. Their horses were of the Tartar breed, which could find food for themselves by brushing the snow away with their noses, where Western horses would starve. Consult: Howorth, History of the Mongols (London, 1880), and Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte der Goldenen Horde in Kiptschack (Pesth, 1840).

BATUM, ba-toom', or BATOUM. Formerly a Turkish fortified city, now a Russian port on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, about 8 miles north of the Turkish frontier (Map: Russia, F 6). The Berlin Congress of 1878, in sanctioning the cession of Batum to Russia, stipulated that it should not be made into a naval station, but should remain an essentially commercial port. It remained a free port until 1886. The harbor is one of the best on the east coast of the Black Sea. The climate is warm and mild, almost tropical; lemons, oranges, camelias, and even palms thrive in the open air. The city has but few well-appointed houses, and its sanitary conditions are very imperfect. An extensive trade is carried on, Batum being a great emporium for the export of petroleum, wheat, manganese ore, and other articles from Transcaucasia. It is the seat of a United States consul. Population, in 1880, 23,200; in 1807, 28,509,