Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/848

BENDER ABBAS. built, and its former commercial importance has diminished eonsiderablj'. The chief exports are opium, fniit, tobacco, wool, and carpets. The annual imports amount to about .$2,250,000, and llie exports to about $900,000. The town is con- nected by lines of steamships with Abushehr, Muscat, Bombay, and Basra. Population esti- mated at 8000. The most flourishing period in the history of the town was during the Seven- teenth Century, after the exclusion of the Portu- guese by Shah Abbas in 1622. Owing to the disturbed state of the surrounding country, the trade was gradually transferred to Abushehr and the northern ports.

BEN'DIGO, formerly SAND'HURST, The capital of Bendigo County, Loddon District, Victoria, Australia, on Bendigo Creek, 00 miles north-nortlieast of Ballarat, and on the railway between Melbourne and Sydney (Map: Victoria, D 3 ). It is an important gold-mining, wine- making, agricultural, and railway centre. Its industrial establishments comprise railway work- shops, foundries, breweries, coach-making, and brick and tile yards. The town is well built, has government buildings and offices, churches, mechanics' institute, a hospital, fine public park, liotanical gardens, and owns a good water-sup- ply. Founded in 18.51, it became a municipality in 1855, a Ijorough in 1863, and was created a city in 1871. Population, in 1891, 26,744; in 1901, 31,020, including 290 Chinese. Consult Mackay. History of Bendigo (Melbourne, 1891).

BENDIRE, ben-de're, Charles Emu- (1836- 97). An American ornithologist. He was born in Darmstadt, Gcnnany, April 27, 1836. He <;ame to the United States in 1852, and two years later entered tlie army as a private. He retired April 24, 1886, with the rank of captain. In 1890 he was made brevet major for distinguished services rendered in 1877, while fighting the In- dians at Canon Creek, Mont. He died in Jackson- ville, Fla., February 4, 1897. During his many campaigns, and while stationed at various re- mote army posts in the West, Southwest, and Northwest, lie was most active in improving Toads, surveying and constructing telegraphic lines so as to better military service, made inde- pendent explorations, and availed himself of the excellent opportunity to study birds. It is sup- posed that he began to collect the nests and eggs of birds about the year 1870. In all, he pub- lished about fifty papers and books, the majority of which relate to birds, especially with refer- •ence to nidification. His largest work, Life- Histories of North American Birds, icith Special Feference to Their Breeding Habits and Eggs (Smithsonian Contributions, Washington, 1892 and 1896), was left incomplete at the time of las death. His large collection of birds' eggs, 15,000 in all, he presented to the -United States National Jluseuni.

BEN'DIS. A female divinity of Thrace, iden- tified by the Greeks with Artemis, and later with Hecate. She was probably a moon god- dess. In Plato's time a festival in her honor, called Bendideia, was celebrated with proces- sions and torch-races at the Piraeus.

BEND-THE-BOW. (1) A name for Locksley (or Robin Hood), in Scott's novel Ivanhoe. (2) The name of an archer in Castle Dangerous, by Scott.

BENDZIN, beNd'zen (Polish). .The capital citjr of a district in the Government of Piotrkow, Russian Poland, on the banks of the Black Przemsza, 204 miles from Warsaw, and near the Warsaw-Vienna Railway (Map: Rus- sia, A 4). The industrial activity of the popula- tion of Bendzin is centred in the large Govern- ment zinc-works. There is also considerable manufacture of fireproof bricks. In the neighbor- hood are the rich Ravier coal-mines. The inter- esting ruins of an ancient castle (built in the Thirteenth Century) are a feature of the town. Population, in 1897, 21,200, more than one-half of which is Jewish. By the 'Pact of Bendzin,' concluded here in 1580, Sigismund IV. was recognized by Austria as King of Poland, and the Archduke Maximilian, brother of Rudoph II., renounced his claims to the throne.

BENE, ben's. See Sesamum.

BENECKE, ba'nf-ke, Eknst Wilhelm ( 1838- — ). A tierman geologist. He was born in Wurzburg, and studied at the universities of Halle, Wurzburg, Berlin, and Heidelberg. He was extraordinary professor at Heidelberg Uni- versity from 1869 to 1872, when he became full professor at Strassburg. His chief re- searches have been upon the invertebrate fossils of the Mesozoic rocks of Germany. He has been a member of the commission for the geological investigation of Alsace-Lorraine. Among his principal works are the following: Ueber Trias und Jura in den, Siidalpen (1866) ; Abriss der Geologie von Elsass-Lothringen (1879); Geo- gnostiche Beschreibung der Vmgegend von Hei- delberg (1880).

BENECKE, Georg Friedrich (1762-1844). A German philologist. He was born at Monchs- roth, in the former principality of Ottingen, and studied at the University of Gottingen, where he became professor of philosoph}' in 1814, and chief librarian in 1829. He was the first aca- demic lecturer on Old - German literature, and ranks with Grinmi and Lachmann as an au- thority on Middle High German. His editions of mediaeval poetry include: Boner's Edelstein (J816); Wirnt von Grafenberg's Wigalois ( 1819) ; and Hartmann von Aue's Iwein ( 1842).

BENEDEK, ben'e-dek, Ludwig von (1804- 81). An Austrian general, son of a phj'sician of Odenburg, Hungary. He received his military education at the Academy Wiener-Neustadt and entered the army as ensign in 1822. In 1846 he had reached the rank of colonel, and distin- guished liimself in suppressing the insurrection in Galicia. In 1847 he was sent to Italy, where he fought with bravery in the campaign of 1848, especially at Curtatone. The following year he took a conspicuous part in the capture of Mor- tara and in the battle of Novara (March 23), and in April was sent as major-general to Hungary, where he also served with gallantry. In tlic Italian campaign of 1859, Bencdek com- manded the Eighth Corps of the Austrians, and was the last to leave the field at Solferino; was military governor of Hungary in 1860, and soon afterwards was given the command of the Austrian army in Venetia. He led the Aus- trians in the war with Prussia in 1866 until he was disastrously defeated at Sadowa. See Seven Weeks' War.

BENEDEN, ba'ne-dgn, Pierre Joseph van (1809-94). A Belgian zoologist, born in Mech-