Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/235

207&#93; BE A whales, are the principal food of this animal, which also greedily de'ours human bodies, and is par- ticularly fond of human blood. Polar bears are bold enough to at- tack armed men, and even to board small vessels. — Their flesh is white, and similar to mutton in flavour ; their fat is melted for train oil, and that of the paws is used in medicine, for anointing rheumatic and paralytic limbs, hav- ing formerly been esteemed as a sovereign remedy for these dis- eases ; but the liver is extremely unwholesome and unfit for food. This ferocious creature, however, is easily pacified, when in pursuit of prey; for a glove, or handker- chief, thrown in its way, affords it sufficient diversion, and gives time for the escape of the person pur- sued. 3. The luscus, or wolverene of Hudson's Bay and Canada, a na- tive of the most rigorous climates, and found in the northern parts of Europe and Asia, where it is called the glutton ; because it feeds so voraciously as to be in danger of bursting, till it has eased itself by squeezing out the contents of its bowels between two trees. Its skin is valuable, as the whole body is covered with very long and thick hair, which varies in colour, according' to the season. 4. The. lotor, or racoon, inha- bits the warm and temperate cli- mates of America, the mountains of Jamaica, and is also found in the South Sea islands, &c. In sportiveness, it resembles the mon- key, and its skin serves as an excel- lent substitute for beaver, in the manufacture of hats. 5. The moles, or common bad- ger, a clumsy, fetid animal, to be met with in laost parts of Europe BE A [207 and Asia, as far as, China, where its flesh is much esteemed, though it is rather a sxarce quadruped in all countries. It is generally very fat, and subsists on roots, fruit, grass, insects, and frogs. Having already given a short account of this animal, under the head of Badger, we shall only add that, when overtaken, it defends itself in a vigorous manner, and its bite is dangerous. It burrows under ground, and makes several apart- ments, to which there is only one entrance, where it may be easily taken during night, in the manner formerly described. BEARD, the hair growing on the chin and adjacent parts of the face of male adults. The cus- toms of most nations, respecting the beard, have been various. An- cient writers have spo!:en honour- ably of the line boards of antiquity. Homer praises the white beard of Nestor, and of King Priam. — Strabo relates, that the Indian philosophers, the Gymnosophists, were particularly solicitous to make the length of their beards the object of popular veneration. ft would be tedious and uninte- resting, to detail the historical ac- counts respecting the beard. The Chinese consider a long beard as inestimable ; and among the Turks it is more infamous for a man to have his beard cut off, than in other countries to be publicly whipt, or exposed in the pillory. — Nature lias granted this ornament exclu- . to the male sex, with a very few exceptions ; hence there ap- pears to be no other justifiable rea- son for shaving it, than that such custom certainly contributes to cleanliness. —See Shaving. Bear -foot, or Setterwort. See Stinking Hellebore. BEAUTY,