Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/85

* BIG SPRING. BXLBAO. BIG SPBING. The county-seat oi Howard County. Tex., 270 miles west of Fort Worth: on the Texas and Pacific Railroad (Map: Teias, D 3 1 . It is an important railroad town, with division shops, offices, etc.. of the Texas and Pacific, and has a considerable trade in the prod- ucts of the surrounding region, principally live stock, hides, fruit, and agricultural produce. Extensive deposits of salt underlie the town, and near it is a large spring frrfm which it is named. Population, about 20OO. BIG TKEES. See Sequoia. BIG WAE'EIOK. See Black Wabkiob. BIHAC. ^r BIHATCH, beTioch. A fortified town of Bosnia, capital of a district of the same name (Map: Austria-Hungary, D 4t. It is situated on an island in the Una, near the fron- tier of Dalmatia. It has been the scene of frequent contests during the Turkish wars. In September, 1S78. the town was successfully defended by the Bosnian insurgents against the Austrian army of occupation, whose assaults were repelled with great loss. Subsequently, however, it was evacu- ated by the native troops. Population, in 1S95, 4330. chiefly Mohammedans. Bl M K. be^a. A portion of the Portuguese West African colony of Angola (q.v.). BIJAPTJB, beja-poor' (Skt. ri/aya, Tictory — pur, city). A decayed city in the Presidency of Bombay. British India, on an affluent of the Kistna, 245 miles southeast of Bombay (Map: India. C 5). Bijapur was for centuries the flourishing capital of a powerful kingdom, fall- ing therewith tmder various dynasties in suc- cession, Hindu and Mussulman, till, in 16S6, it was c-aptured by Aurangzeb. Early in the Eigh- teenth Century it passed into the hands of the Mahrattas. On the overthrow of the Peshwa, in ISIS, it was assigned by the British to the dependent Kajah of Satara. Bijapur pre- sents a contrast perhaps unequaled in the world. Lofty walls, of hewn stone, still entire, inclose the ruins of a city which is said to have con- tained 1600 mosques and 100.000 dwellings. With the exception of an ancient temple, the sole relic of aboriginal domination, the ruins are Mohammedan, and consist of beautiful mosques, colossal tombs, and a fort of more than C miles in circuit, with an inner citadel. . An additional wonder of the place is the largest piece of brass ordnance in existence, cast at Ahmednagar. Population, about 17,000. Consult: FergUiSon..ln- ci'^nf Architecture in Hindostan (London. 1S47) ; id., .^tudy of Indian Architecture (ib., 1867). BUlIS,bm5. AxTfA (c.I494-157.5t. A Flemish poet. She was bom at Antwerp, and was the first writer of the Sixteenth Century in the native language. Her best-known verses are collected in her Schoone Refereunen ^chruftiieren ende Leerintirn teghen Tnlle Kettereyen (1.528: with commentaries by Van Helten and .Jonckbloet, 1876). which were frequently republished and won for the author the name of '.Sappho of Bra- bant.' Most of these refrains are energetic epi- grams asainst Luther and his adherents, but all are written in a languase of singular purity for that period. Those which are free from religious intolerance show much more poetic fire than is found in the works of her contemporaries. A collection of ninetv-fmir of her other poems was published by Van Helten (1886). BTKAKIR, beka-ner'. The capital of the native State of the same name in Rajputana, India, situated in a desolate tract. 2.50 miles west-southwest of Delhi in latitude 28" X. and lonsitude 73' 22' E. (Map: India. B 3i. Popu- lation, in 1S91, 56.300: in 1901, 53,100. It is surrounded by a battlemented wall S"--; miles in circuit, and from a distance presents a mag- nificent appearance with its carved Jain monas- teries, palace, and buildings, but inside, the streets are narrow, and, like the inhabitants, dirty. Immediately to the northeast is a de- tached citadel., of which the Rajah's residence occupies the greater part. The State of Bikanir is in latitude 27' 30' to 29° 55' X. and longitude 72' 30' to 75° 40' E., measuring, in its ex- tremes. 160 miles by 200 miles. It contains 23.- 340 square miles. iPopulation. in 1S91. 832.000; in 1901, 5S4.700. The Rajputs are the predomi- nant race: but the -Tats form the great body of the inhabitants. Though the people find their principal resource in pasturage, yet water is re- markably scarc-e. In the whole territory there is not one perennial stream: while wells, as pre- carious and scanty as they are brackish and tmwholesome, average 2.50 feet in depth. In 186S-69 nearly half of the population were destroyed by famine. The temperature varies greatly. In the beginning of February ice is formed on the ponds: and in the beginning of May the thermometer stands at 123" F. -in the shade. In the begitming of November each period of twenty-four hours, as the sun is above or below the horizon, presents such extremes of heat and cold as often to be fatal to life. BIKHI.AS. b^kalas. DniriKios (1S35— ). A modem Greek poet and historian. He early attracted national attention by his patriotic hymns, and has rendered into modem Greek several plays of Shakespeare. His chief histori- cal works have appeared under the titles: The Greeks of the lliddle Ages ( 187S) : T^e Role and the Aspirations of Greece in the Eastern Ques- tion (1S85): and Greece, Byzantine and Hod- em (1893). BrLAlTE. be-la'na. A tribe of southern Min- danao. Philippine Islands (q.v.). BrLASPTTB, be-las-poor'. A town of the Central Provinces, British India, capital of the district of the same name. It is situated on the river -Arpa and on the Bengal-Xagpur Railway, and has a population of about 11.100. mostly Hindus. The district of Bilaspur comprises 8340 square miles, with a poptilation of 1.163.000. of which more than 90 per cent, is Hindu. Rice is the principal agricultural product, and famines are frequent. BILBAO, bel-ba'6 (Basque Pyii:ale1. "under the hill'). A seaport town of Spain, capital of the Province of Vizcaya. sittiated in a mountain gorge on the XerviOn. about 8 miles from its mouth at Porttigalete ( Map : Spain. D 1 ) . Bil- bao is well built, the principal streets are straight, and the houses substantial. Five bridges, one a stone bridge of the Fourteenth Century, cross the river which divides the old town from the new. There are several fine pub- lic walks, numerous fountains, but no public buildinsrs of any note. The city is purely com- mercial. It has many extensive rope-works, and manufactures of hardware, leather, hats, tobacco, and earthenware. There are also docks