pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BELLASPOOR, a town of Hindostan, in the province of Delhi, situated on the east bank of the Sutlege river, which is here 100 yards broad when the water is lowest. The houses are well and regularly built, of stone and mortar; and the streets are all paved, though roughly. It is the residence of the rany or female ruler of the Cor-lour territory. Long. 76. 21. E. Lat 31. 35. N.
BELLEAU, Remi, a French poet, born at Nogent le Rotrou, in the territory of Perche, and province of Orleannois. He lived in the family of Renatus of Lorraine, marquis of Elbeuf, general of the French galleys, and attended him in his expedition into Italy in 1557. This prince highly esteemed Belleau for his courage; and having also a high opinion of his genius and abilities, intrusted him with the education of his son Charles of Lorraine. Belleau was one of the seven poets of his time who were denominated the French Pleiades. He wrote several pieces, and translated the odes of Anacreon into the French language; but in this he is thought not to have preserved the natural beauties of the original. Belleau died at Paris, in the family of the duke d’Elbeuf, on the 6th of March 1577, and was interred in the church Des Pères Augustines, near the Pont-neuf.
BELLEFOREST, Francis de, a French author, born in the province of Guienne in 1530. He was only seven years of age when he lost his father; and his mother was left in poor circumstances, but she contributed all in her power to his education. He was supported for several years by the queen of Navarre, sister to Francis I. Some time after, he went to study at Bordeaux, whence he removed to Toulouse, and afterwards to Paris, where he got acquainted with several men of learning, and was honoured with the friendship of many persons of quality. He wrote,

1. A History of the Nine Charleses of France; 2. Annotations on the books of St Augustin; 3. An universal History of the World; 4. The Chronicles of Nicholas Gillet, augmented; 5. A universal Cosmography; 6. Annals, or a General History of France; and many other works. He died in 1583.
BELLEGARDE, a barrier fortress of France, in the department of the Eastern Pyrenees. It stands on one of the Pyrennean mountains, very near a Spanish fort. Long.

2. 50. E. Lat. 42. 20. N. ∙
BELLE-ISLE, an island on the coast of France, in the arrondissement of L’Orient and department of Morbihan. Its extent is about 75 square miles; and it contains three towns and thirteen villages, with 5650 inhabitants.

Belle-isle, an island of North America, lying at the mouth of the strait between the country of the Esquimaux, or New Britain, and the north end of Newfoundland; whence the straits also take the name of Belleisle. Long. 58. 5. W. Lat. 51. 50. N.
BELLEROPHON, in fabulous history, the son of Glaucus, king of Epirus. Happening accidentally to kill his brother, he fled to Proetus, king of Argos, who gave him a hospitable reception; but Sthenoboea, his queen, falling in love with the beautiful stranger, and finding that nothing could induce the latter to injure his benefactor, accused him to her husband of an attempt to violate her honour. Proetus, however, being unwilling to act contrary to the laws of hospitality, sent him to Iobates, king of Lysia, the father of Sthenoboea, with letters desiring him to be put to death; whence the proverb Bellerophontis literas affert, equivalent to Literae Uriae. On the receipt of these letters, the Lysian prince was celebrating a festival of nine days, which prevented Bellerophon’s destruction. In the meanwhile, however, Iobates sent him to subdue the Solymi, the Amazons, and Lysians; thinking doubtless to get rid of [7:4:554]him by exposure to the greatest dangers, without incurring the odium of direct murder: but the prudence and courage of Bellerophon disappointed this calculation, and he came off victorious. Iobates next employed him to destroy the Chimaera; when, in consideration of his innocence, Minerva, or,according toothers, Neptune, furnished him with the horse Pegasus, by the assistance of which he killed this monster. On his return, Iobates, convinced of his truth and integrity, and charmed with his heroic virtues, gave Bellerophon his daughter Philonoe in marriage, and declared him his successor in the kingdom; intelligence which drove Sthenoboea to despair and suicide. But Bellerophon grew vain of his prosperity, and resolving by the assistance of Pegasus to ascend the skies, Jupiter checked his presumption by striking him blind in his flight; on which he fell down to the earth, and wandered about till his death in contempt and misery, while Pegasus mounting into heaven, was placed by Jupiter among the constellations.
BELLES Lettres. Neither the voluminous dictionaries of the French language, nor those treatises which profess to point out the method of studying and teaching the belles lettres, have thought proper to give a precise definition, or an intelligible explanation, of the meaning they attach to the words, nor any summary of those sciences which are comprehended under this general denomination. The terms, indeed, appear to be so vague, that any one may include under them whatever he thinks proper. Sometimes we are told that, by the belles lettres, is meant a knowledge of the arts of oratory and poetry; sometimes that the true belles lettres include natural philosophy, geometry, and other essential parts of learning; sometimes that they comprehend the art of war, in its various branches, together with all that we know, and whatever we please; and one author, in treating of the belles lettres, introduces a discourse on the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic church. Others, again, comprehend under the term all those instructive and pleasing sciences which chiefly occupy the memory and the understanding, and do not form part either of the superior sciences, of the fine arts, or of the mechanical professions; considering history, chronology, geography, genealogy, blazonry, philology, and such like subjects, as constituting the belles lettres. But it were endless to attempt to enumerate all the parts of literature and science which different learned men have comprehended under this title; nor would it be of any use to pretend to fix the true import of a term which is rapidly passing into desuetude.
BELLEVOIS was a painter of sea-pieces, and known as such, though no particulars of his life have been handed down. He died in 1684.
BELLEY, an arrondissement of the department of Ain, in France, 540 square miles in extent, and comprehending nine cantons and 118 communes, with a population of 75,230 persons. The capital is a city of the same name, containing an episcopal palace, and 3770 inhabitants. Long. 5. 35. 14. E. Lat. 45. 45. 29. N.
BELLINI, Gentile, a Venetian painter, born in the year 1421. He was employed by the republic of Venice; and to him and his brother that state is indebted for the noble works which are to be found in its council-hall. Mahomed II. having seen some of his performances, was so struck with them that he wrote to the republic, entreating that the artist might be sent to him. Bellini accordingly proceeded to Constantinople, where he painted a number of pieces, among which was the decollation of St John the Baptist, whom the Turks revere as a great prophet. Mahomed admired the proportion and shading of the work; but remarking a defect in regard to the skin of the neck, from which the head was separated, the sultan, to prove the truth of his observation, sent for a slave and ordered his head to be struck off. The painter by no means relished this capital style of instruction, and; anxious to place his own head beyond the reach of experiment, earnestly solicited his dismission, which the grand seignior granted, at the same time making him a present of a gold chain. The republic settled a pension upon him at his return, and made him a knight of St Mark. He died in 1501, in the eightieth year of his age. John Bellini, his brother, who died in 1512, aged ninety, painted with more art and sweetness than Gentile.

Bellini, Laurence, an eminent physician, born at Florence in the year 1643. After having finished his studies in general literature, he went to Pisa, where, assisted by the generosity of the grand duke Ferdinand IL, he studied under two of the most learned men of that age, Oliva and Borelli, the former of whom instructed him in natural philosophy, and the latter taught him mathematics. At the early age of twenty he was chosen professor of philosophy at Pisa, but did not long continue in this office; for he had acquired such a reputation for skill in anatomy, that the grand duke procured him a professorship in that science. This prince often attended his lectures, and expressed himself highly satisfied with his abilities and performances. Bellini wrote the following books in Latin: 1. An Anatomical Discourse on the Structure and Use of the Kidneys; 2. A Speech by way of Thanks to the serene Duke of Tuscany; 3. Some Anatomical Observations, and a Proposition in Mechanics; 4. Of the Urine and Pulse, of Blood-letting, Fevers, and Diseases of the Head and Breasts; 5. Several Tracts concerning Urine, the motion of the Heart, and Bile, &c. He died in January 1703, in the sixtieth year of his age. The works of Bellini were read and explained publicly during his life, by our countryman Dr Pitcairn, professor of physic in Leyden. .
BELLON, a distemper common among persons employed in smelting lead-ore. It is attended with langour, intolerable pains and sensations of gripings in the belly, and generally with costiveness.
BELLONA, in Pagan Mythology, the goddess of war, is generally reckoned the sister of Mars, but some represent her as both his sister and wife. This goddess is described as of a cruel and savage disposition, delighting in bloodshed and slaughter; as not only the attendant of Mars, but as taking a pleasure in sharing his dangers. Hence she is commonly represented in an attitude expres. sive of fury and distraction, with her hair composed of snakes clotted with gore, and her garments stained with blood; sometimes she is depictured driving the chariot of Mars, with a bloody whip in her hand, sometimes with a lighted torch or brand, and a trumpet. Bellona had a temple at Rome, near the Circus Flaminius.
BELLONARH, in Antiquity, priests of Bellona, the goddess of wars and battles. The bellonarii pretended to cut and mangle their bodies with knives and daggers in order to pacify the deity; offering their own blood, not that of other creatures, in sacrifice. In the fury and enthusiasm with which they were seized on these occasions, they ran about raving, uttering prophecies, and foretelling blood and slaughter, devastations of cities and revolutions of states; whence Martial calls them turba entheata Bellona But Lampridius tells us that the emperor Commodus turned the farce into a tragedy, by obliging these priests to cut and mangle their bodies in good earnest. .
BELLORI, John Peter, of Rome, a celebrated antiquary and connoisseur, as well as author of the lives of the modern painters, architects, and sculptors,. and of other works on antiquities and medals. He died in 1υ»ο·
BELLOVACI, in Ancient Geography, a people of Gallia Belgica, reckoned the bravest of the Belgae.
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BELLOWS, a machine so contrived as to inspire and expire the air by turns, by enlarging and contracting its capacity. This machine is used in chambers and kitchens, in forges, furnaces, and founderies, to fan or blow up the fire; and it serves also for organs and other pneumatic instruments, to give them a proper degree of air. It is of various construction, according to the different purposes to which it is applied; but in general it is composed of two flat boards, sometimes of an oval, sometimes of a triangular figure. Two or more hoops, bent according to the figure of the boards, are placed between them; a piece of leather, broad in the middle and narrow at both ends, is nailed on the edges of the boards, which it thus unites together, and also on the hoops which separate the boards, that the leather may easily open and fold again; and a tube of iron, brass, or copper, is fastened to the undermost board, while there is a valve within, which covers the holes in the under board to keep in the air.

Anacharsis the Scythian is reputed the inventor of bellows. The action of bellows bears a near affinity to that of the lungs; and what we call blowing in the former, affords a good illustration of what is called respiring in the latter. Even animal life itself may on some occasions be supported by blowing into the lungs with a pair of bellows. This is shown by Dr Hooke’s well-known experiment. Having laid the thorax of a dog bare, by cutting away the ribs and diaphragm, pericardium, &c. and having cut off the aspera arteria below the epiglottis, and bound it on the nose of a bellows, this ingenious person found, that as he blowed the dog recovered, and as he ceased it fell into convulsions; and thus the animal was kept alternately alive and dead for more than an hour.

Smiths’ and founders’ bellows, whether single or double, are wrought by means of a rocker, with a string or chain fastened to it, which the workman pulls. The bellows pipe is fitted into that of the tewel. One of the boards is fixed so as not to play at all. By drawing down the handle of the rocker, the movable board rises; and, by means of a weight on the top of the upper board, it sinks again. The bellows of forges and furnaces of mines usually receive their motion from the wheels of a water-mill or steam-engine. Others, as the bellows of enamellers, are wrought by means of one or more steps or treddles under the workman’s feet. Lastly, the bellows of organs are wrought by a man called the blower; and in small organs by the hand or foot of the player. See Blowing Machinery. Hessian Bellows is a contrivance for driving air into a mine to facilitate the respiration of the miners.
BELLUNO, one of the delegations into which the Austrian kingdom of Venetian Lombardy is divided. It is bounded on the west and north by the Tyrol, on the east by Friuli, on the south-east by Treviso, and on the south-west by Vicenza; and its extent is 1210 square miles, or 774,4∩0 acres. It is generally a hilly and mountainous country. The widest valley is that through which runs the river Piave, and which, with a few other much narrower ones, are tolerably fertile in rye, barley, oats, and buckwheat; while some parts yield a little wheat, much maize, and some flax and hemp. The mountains contain veins of iron, lead, copper, and vitriol; but the mines are all worked upon a very contracted scale. The inhabitants amounted in 1817 to 114,772, of whom 58,820 were males and 55,952 females. The capital is of the same name, and stands on the Piave, where the Ardo forms a junction with it ∙ Besides the cathedral, there are 13 churches, and se-yeral religious houses both for males and females. The inhabitants amount to 8440, some of whom are employed 1 1 n the spinning of silk. It is situated in long. 12. 8. 46. E. lat. 46. 7. 46. N.
BELOI, a circle in the Russian government of Smolensko, the chief town of which is of the same name, on the: Obscha, and contains 2274 inhabitants. Long. 33. 7. E. Lat. 55. 34. N.
BELOMANCY, Belomantia, a kind of divination by means of arrows, practised in the East, but chiefly among the Arabians. The word is of Greek origin, being compounded of βiλος, arrow, and μαvitia, divination.
BELON, Peter, of Le Mans, the capital of Le Maine, a province of France, flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century. He published several works in Latin and in French, ’including a book of travels, or observations of many singularities and memorable things found in Greece, Asia, Judaea, Egypt, and other foreign countries. He was murdered near Paris, by one of his enemies, in 1564.
BELOSERSK, a circle of the Russian government of Novogorod, extending over 28,722 square miles, and comprehending one city, one market-town, and 126 parishes, with 54,700 inhabitants. The chief place, a city of the same name, on the river Seheksna, has some commerce, and contains about 4000 inhabitants. Long. 37. 46. E. Lat. 59. 50. N.
BELPER, a market-town in the hundred of Appletree, in the county of Derby, 134 miles from London. The whole is the property of the family of Strut, who have erected most extensive cotton works, which have caused a great increase of dwellings and population. A new church, and several dissenting places of worship, have been built within the last ten years. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 4500, in 1811 to 5778, and in 1821 to 7235, but they have rapidly increased since the last census.
BELSHAZZAR, the last king of Babylon, generally supposed to be the son of Evilmerodach, and grandson to Nebuehadnezzar. The memorable story of this king’s death, with the marvellous event by which it was foreshown, may be read in the book of the prophet Daniel.
BELT, Great and Little, the name of two straits which connect the Baltie with the Cattegat. The former lies between the islands of Zealand and Funen. Its greatest width is about twenty miles, and its depth varies from five to twenty fathoms. The navigation of the Great Belt is dangerous, from the number of sand-banks and small islands which it contains. The shores in general are neither bold nor lofty, but they afford convenient harbours and anchorage. Vessels passing this strait pay toll at Nyborg, where a guard-ship is stationed to enforce compliance. The Little Belt separates the island of Funen from Jutland. Its greatest breadth is not more than the half of that of the Great Belt, and at the fortress of Fredericia, where the tolls are levied, it does not exceed a mile. The depth is from four to twenty fathoms. It contains several sandbanks, and the current from the Baltic to the Cattegat is of great strength. The passage of both Belts is attended with risk for large vessels, and on that account the Sound is more generally frequented.

Belt, Balteus, properly denotes a kind of military girdle or eineture, usually of leather, by which the sword or any other weapon is sustained. The belt was an essentia 1 piece of the ancient armour; insomuch that we sometimes find it used to denote the whole armour. In later ages the belt was given to a person when he was raised to knighthood; and hence it has also been used as a badge or mark of the knightly order.

Belts, in Astronomy. See Astronomy. BEL-Tein, a superstitious custom observed in the Highlands of Scotland. It was a kind of rural sacrifice, performed by the herdsmen of every village on the first of May, and seems to be a remnant of some oriental superstition. Some account of this festival may be found in Pennant’s Tour, General Stewart’s Sketches, and in almost every work which treats of the Highlands.
BELTURBET, a town of Ireland, in the county of Cavan, on the river Erne. Distilling and brewing are carried on here, and there is also a weekly market. The population is 2010; and it is seventy-seven miles N. W. of Dublin.
BELVEDERE, in Italian Architecture, denotes either a pavilion on the top of a building, or an artificial eminence in a garden. The word literally signifies a Jine prospect. Belvedere, a considerable town of Greece, and capital of a province of the same name in the Morea. The province[7:4:560] is situated on the western coast. It is the richest and most fertile in all the Morea; and from it the raisins called Belvederes take their name. The town is situated in long. 21. 30. E. lat. 37. 59. N.
BELUNUM, in Ancient Geography·, a town of Rhaetia, above Feltria, in the territory of the Veneti; now Belluno, capital of the Bclluncse.
BELUS, in Ancient Geography·, a small river of Galilee, at the distance of two stadia from Ptolemais, running out of the lake Cendevia, at the foot of Mount Carmel.
BEMBEA. See Bamba.
BEMBO, Peter, a noble Venetian, secretary to Leo X., afterwards cardinal, and one of the best writers of the sixteenth century. He was a good poet, both in Italian and Latin; but he is justly censured for the licentiousness and immodesty of some of his poems. Besides these, he published A History of Venice; Letters; and a book in praise of the duke and duchess of Urbino. He died in 1547, in the seventy-second year of his age.
BENAVIDIUS, or Bonavxdus, Marcus Mantua, a celebrated civilian, who taught civil law with reputation, during sixty years, at Padua, the place of his birth, and died in 1582, aged ninety-three. His principal works are, l∙ Collectanea super Jus Caesareum; 2. Consilia, tom. ii.; 3. Problemata Legalia; 4. De illustribus Jurisconsultis.
BENBECULA, a low, sandy, and unproductive island °f the Hebrides, eight miles in length and as much in breadth. It is situated between the islands of North and oouth Uist, from the latter of which it is separated by a narrow channel. It is annexed to the county of Inverness.
BENCHERS, in the inns of court, the senior members of the society, who are invested with the government of the body to which they belong.
BENCOOLEN, the chief establishment possessed by the East India Company, in the island of Sumatra, on the south-western coast. It was for a few years a distinct presidency, but has been since placed under a resident, with four assistants, subject to the immediate direction of the government of Bengal. Under the East India Company’s government there is a number of districts, the lands of which were taken possession of in 1685, in virtue of an agreement with the neighbouring chiefs. In 1698 the settlement had cost the company L.200,000, and at the same time proved remarkably unhealthy. The foundation [7:4:562]of Fort Marlborough was laid in 1714; and in 1719 the settlers were expelled by the natives, but were soon permitted to re-establish themselves. In 1760 all the English settlements on the coast of Sumatra were destroyed by a French fleet under Comte d’Estaign; but they were afterwards secured to the British by the treaty of 1763.

The settlement thus established by the East India Company was the seat of every species of mal-administration. The people were oppressed by being forced to cultivate pepper, the professed and only object of the settlement; but of this, however, the quantity produced had dwindled away to one solitary cargo yearly, of the value of L.15,000. The revenues arising from this settlement had diminished in 1824 from L.12,891, their amount in 1809, to L.6811, while the charges during the same period were increased from L.70,986 to L.101,528. In 1817 Sir Stamford Raffles arrived here as lieutenant-governor; and he gives a deplorable account of the wretchedness, desolation, and misgovernment which prevailed. He instantly began, with all his characteristic zeal, the work of reformation, by emancipating the government slaves, freeing the people from the compulsory cultivation of pepper, and introducing various other changes. Under his beneficent administration a great improvement was effected. Cultivation was extended, and trade would soon have furnished ample products. But, while these ameliorations were in progress, Sir Stamford left the settlement, in 1824, and it was soon after transferred to the government of the Netherlands. Long. 102. 3. E. Lat. 3. 50. S.
BEND, in Heraldry, one of the nine honourable ordinaries, containing a third part of the field when charged, and a fifth when plain.
BENDER, a town of Bessarabia in European Russia, seated on the river Dniester. It is remarkable for being the place of retreat of Charles XII. after he was defeated by the Russians at the battle of Pultowa in 1709. Long. 29. 36. E. Lat. 46. 50. 32. N.
BENDIDA, in Antiquity, a festival, not unlike the Bacchanalia, celebrated by the Athenians in honour of Diana.
BENDING, in a general sense, the reducing of a straight body into a curve, or giving it a crooked form.

Bending, in the sea language, the tying of two ropes or cables together; thus, to bend the cable, is to make it fast to the ring of the anchor; to bend the sail, to make it fast to the yard.
BENDS, in a ship, the same with what seamen call wails or wales, are the outmost timbers of a ship’s side, on which men set their feet when climbing up. They form the chief strength of a ship’s sides, and have the beams, knees, and foot-hooks, bolted to them.