pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BHEELS. This savage tribe of plunderers are supposed to have been the aborigines of Gujerat and the adjacent quarters of Hindostan, in common with the Coolies, and to have been driven to their present fastnesses and their miserable way of life by the invasion of those tribes, from whatever quarter they may have come, who profess the religion of Brahma; and though they were unquestionably thieves and savages, many British officers who are acquainted with them esteem them a better race than their conquerors. They arc of a franker and livelier character; they treat their women better; and though they have little scruple at shedding blood in a fray or in any of their deadly quarrels, they are not inhospitable nor vindictive under other circumstances; and many British officers have gone into their country with perfect safety on hunting or fishing expeditions. Sir John Malcolm, always guided in his administration of India by the most enlightened policy, raised a corps of these Bhecls, and subjected them to such discipline as their wild nature would bear. He also gave them lands, and to encourage them in industrious habits, freed them for a time from all taxes. By this mild and statesman-like policy he improved their character, and laid the foundation of their future civilization. In the north of India they have been treated under the British administration with unmingled severity; and they complain that they are punished for robbery, while no other means are afforded them of making a livelihood. They are now scattered over Hindostan Proper and, the north of the Deccan, particularly along the course of the Nerbuddah river, where they live on what they can procure by hunting or thieving.
BIA, in Commerce, a name given by the Siamese to those small shells which are called cowries throughout almost all the other parts of the East Indies.
BIAEUM, β∣aιοv, in Rhetoric, denotes a kind of counterargument, by which something alleged for the adversary is retorted against him, and made to conclude a different way: for instance, Occidisti, quia adstitisti interfecto. B∕a∕οv, Immo quia adstiti interfecto, non occidi; nam si id esset, in fugam me conjecissem. “You killed the person, because you were found standing by his body. Biaeum, Rather, I did not kill him because I was found standing by his body; because, in that case, I should have fled.”

Biaeum, in the Grecian laws, was an action brought against those who had committed rape or used violence to the person of any one.
BIAFORA, in the customs of the middle ages, a form of cry or alarm, on the hearing of which the inhabitants of towns or villages were to issue forth armed, and attend their prince.
BIAFRA, a tract of country on the coast of Western Africa, on a bay or bight of the same name, situated at the easternmost extremity of the Gulf of Guinea. It has long been known that a number of broad estuaries open into this bight from the north; but, owing to a strange want of enterprise, or some other cause, European vessels trading on this coast have not hitherto ascended any of these beyond fifty or sixty miles from its embouchure. Recently, however, Lander, the traveller, in descending the Niger, arrived by one of these channels in the bight of Biafra; thus solving the great problem of African geography, and leaving no doubt that the system of inter-ramified riverchannels, extending from Benin to Biafra, constitutes the delta of the Niger, through which, by a number of outlets, it discharges itself into the sea. For the details of this important and interesting discovery, see the article Niger.
BIALA, a town, the capital of the circle of the same name, in the province of Podlachia, in Poland. It is situated on the banks of the Krzna, and contains 3000 inhabitants. There is a fine castle here, belonging to Prince Radzivill. Long. 29. 50. E. Lat. 52. 1. N.
BIALYSTOCK, a city, the capital of the circle of the same name, in the province of Grodno, in European Russia. It is on the river Bialy, and is an open town, regularly built, with four churches, two monastic institutions, and about 7000 inhabitants, of whom, as in all the Polish trading towns, a great proportion are Jews. There is here a fine castle belonging to the family of Potochi. Long. 24. 12. E. Lat. 53. 7. N.
BIANCHI, Francesco, called II Frate, an eminent painter, was born at Modena, and had the honour of being master to one of the greatest painters that ever appeared, Antonio Correggio
BIANCHIN1, Francis, one of the most learned men of his time, was born at Verona in 1662, of a noble and ancient family. His taste for natural philosophy and mathematics induced him to establish the academy of Aleto-fili, at Verona. He went to Rome in 1684, and was made librarian to Cardinal Ottoboni, who was afterwards pope under the name of Alexander VIII. He also became canon of St Mary de la Rotonda, and at length of St Lawrence in Damaso. He was esteemed by the learned, was a member of many academies, and published several ingenious dissertations. He died in 1729, aged sixty-seven.
BIAR, a town of the province of Valencia, in Spain, containing about 3000 inhabitants, who are employed in making woollen goods. The vicinity is celebrated for its honey, which has a peculiar flavour, extracted from the rosemary, which grows wild there in great abundance.' .
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BIARCHUS, an officer in the court of the emperol’s of Constantinople, intrusted with the care and inspection of the provisions of the soldiery.
BIAS, one of the seven sages of Greece, who flourished about 608 before Christ. He was accustomed to say, that it was a sickness of the mind to wish for impossible things. During the siege of Priene, his native city, being asked why he alone had retired from the place without carrying any thing with him, he replied, that he carried his all with him; meaning, that knowledge and virtue were the only blessings peculiarly his own, since they could not be taken from him. He expired ,while in the act of pleading for one of his friends.

Bias, in a general sense, the inclination or bent of a person’s mind to one thing more than another. It also signifies the lead or weight put into a bowl, that draws or turns the course of it any way to which the bias inclines.
BIBERACH, a bailiwick in the circle of the Danube, in the kingdom of Wirtemburg. It extends over 140 square miles, comprehends one city, three market-towns, and eighty-four villages, with 25,940 inhabitants. It is a rich productive district, well watered by the rivers Riess, Um-lach, and Iller. The city which gives name to the bailiwick stands on the Riess, is surrounded with walls, is well built, contains four churches and other public buildings, and 4960 inhabitants, of whom 3190 are Protestants, and 1770 Catholics. Biberach and its vicinity were the scenes of sanguinary but indecisive combats between the French and Austrian armies, in 1796 and in 1800; although, on both occasions, the former claimed the victory. Long. 9. 4L 50. E. Lat. 48. 5. 55. N.
BIBIENA, Ferdinand Galli, a painter and architect, was born at Bologna in 1657, and surnamed Bibiena from a territory of that name in Tuscany, in which his father was born. He acquired such reputation by his skill in architecture, that he was invited to court by the Duke of Parma, and made his first painter and architect. Bibiena afterwards went to the emperor’s court, where he had the same honours and advantages conferred on him. He wrote two books of architecture; and died at Bologna, at about eighty years of age.
BIBLIANDER, Theodore, professor of divinity at Zurich in the sixteenth century. As he understood the oriental languages, he undertook a new edition of the Koran, the text of which he corrected, by collating the Arabic and Latin copies; and to this edition he subjoined the life of Mahommed and his successors, prefixing an apology by way of preface, which has been vehemently censured.
BIBLIOMANCY, a kind of divination performed by means of the Bible, otherwise called sortes bibliçoe or sor te sanctorum· It consisted in taking passages of Scripture at hazard, and thence drawing indications concerning the future; as in Augustin’s tolle et lege. It was. much used at the consecration of bishops.
BIBLIOTHECA, in its original and proper sense, denotes a library or place for containing books.

Bibliotheca, in matters of literature, denotes a treatise giving an account of all the writers on a certain subject. Thus we have bibliothecae of theology, law, philosophy, and other branches.
BÍBLISTS. So the Roman Catholics denominate those Christians who make Scripture the sole rule of faith; in which sense all Protestants either are or ought to be biblists.
BICANERE. See Beykaneer.
BICCARINO, a city in the province of Capitanata, of the kingdom of Naples, the seat of a bishop, now joined, with Troja. It stands on the river Volgano, and contains about 4000 inhabitants.
BICE, or Bise, among painters, a blue colour prepared from the lapis Armenus. Bice bears the best body of all bright blues used in common work, but it is the palest in colour. It works indifferently well, but inclines a little to sandy, and therefore requires good grinding.
BICESTER or Bisseter, a market-town in the hundred of Ploughley, in the county of Oxford, fifty-nine miles from London, and twelve from Oxford. A small Stream here runs into the Charwell at Islip. The market is held on Friday. It has no other trade than the supply of the agricultural district which surrounds it. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 1945, in 1811 to 1921, and in 1821 to 2544.
BICLINIUM, in Roman Antiquity, a chamber with two beds or couches in it, or with only two round a table.
BIDAL, or Bidale, in our ancient customs, denotes the invitation of friends to drink ale at the house of some poor man, who, in consideration of the beverage, expected some contribution for his relief.
BIDDENDEN, a town of the hundred of Barclay, and Lathe of Soray, in the county of Kent, fifty-four miles from London, and fifteen from Maidstone. It was formerly one of the first places for the manufacture of woollen cloths, a trade introduced into this part of the kingdom by a colony of Flemings in the reign of Edward III. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 1151, in 1811 to 1295, and in 1821 to 1544.
BIDDING, or Offering, denotes the raising the price of an article or commodity at a sale or auction. The French call this encherir; and it answers to what was called licitari by the Romans, who used to bid by holding up the hand or finger.

Bidding is also used for proclaiming or notifying; in which sense we meet with “bidding of the banns,” the same with what is otherwise called “asking.”

Bidding Prayer. It was one part of the office of the deacons in the primitive Christian church to act as monitors and directors of the people in the exercise of their public devotions in the church; to which end they made use of certain known forms of words, to give notice when each part of the service began. This was called by the Greeks xηξυrτnν, and by the Latins praedicare, which therefore does not ordinarily signify to “preach,” as some mistake it, but to perform the office of crier (%^υξ, or preeed) in the assembly; and hence Synesius and others call the deacons iiΡοxηξυ×iς, the “holy criers” of the church, appointed to bid or exhort the congregation to pray and join in the several parts of the service of the church. Agreeably to this ancient practice is the form “Let us pray,” repeated before several of the prayers in the English liturgy, and used as a sort of proem in the simpler invocations of the Presbyterian church.
BIDDLE, John, one of the most eminent English writers among the Socinians, was born at Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, and educated in the free-school of that place. Being a hopeful youth, he was noticed, particularly by Lord George Berkeley, who allowed him an exhibition of L.10 a year. This caused him to apply himself vigorously to his studies; and, while at school, he translated Virgil’s Bucolics, and the first two satires of Juvenal. He continued at school till he was thirteen years of age; and having manifested, even at that early period, a singular piety, and contempt of secular affairs, he was sent to the university of Oxford, and entered a student in Magdalen hall. In 1641 the magistrates of Gloucester chose him master of the free-school of that city; an office in which he conducted himself very much to the satisfaction of his patrons and employers. But having formed some opinions concerning the Trinity different from those commonly received, and expressed his thoughts with too much freedom, he suffered various persecutions and imprisonments in the time of the commonwealth. During one of these confinements, which lasted for several years, being [7:4:636]reduced to great indigence, he was employed by Roger* Daniel of London to correct the impression of the Septuagint Bible, which that printer was about to publish, and ’wished to render as accurate as possible. In 1651 the parliament published a general act of oblivion, which restored him to liberty; but he was afterwards imprisoned on account of his tenets; and, at last, the protector banished him for life to St Mary’s Castle in the isle of Scilly, whither he was sent in October 1655. He was allowed a hundred crowns a year for his subsistence. In 1658 he was again set at liberty. But after the restoration of King Charles II. he was fined ìn L.100, each of his hearers being amerced in L.20, and further condemned to lie in prison till the fine was paid; and this cruel sentence having been put in execution, the want of fresh air and exercise caused him to contract a disease, of which he died on the 22d of September 1662, in the forty-seventh year of his age. Biddle’s life was published in Latin in 1682, by Mr Farrington of the Inner Temple, who represents him as possessed of extraordinary piety, charity, and humility. He would not discourse of those points in which he differed from others, with persons who did not appear religious according to their knowledge; and he was strict in observing himself, as well as severe in exacting from others, reverence in speaking of God and Christ. He had’so happy a memory, that he retained word for word the whole New Testament, not only in English, but in Greek, as far as the fourth chapter of the Revelation of St John.
BIDDOOMAHS, a fierce and piratical tribe who inhabit a cluster of large rugged islands in the eastern part of the great African lake or inland sea called the Tchad. They neither sow, plant, nor rear cattle, but maintain the creed, that providence, while withholding from them these goods, has bestowed strength and courage to wrest them from the nations in whose possession they may be found; and they exert themselves with the utmost activity to fulfil this assumed destination. They own nearly a thousand barks of some magnitude, with which they have made themselves complete masters of this water, and extend their ravages round the whole circuit of its shores. Bornou and others of the more powerful states have ceased to dispute with them the command of its waves. Some of these men, whom Major Denham saw at Bornou, appeared. to him about the wildest and rudest human beings he had ever beheld.
BIDEFORD, or Biddeford, a market-town and seaport of the hundred of Shebbear, in the county of Devon, 202 miles from London. The town is on the river Tawe, which runs into the Bristol Channel at Barnstaple Bay. Itis built partly on the bank of the river, and partly on the declivity of a very steep hill. It is accessible to ships of considerable burden, several of which are employed in the Newfoundland fishery. It is a corporate town, and an- ’ ciently returned two members to parliament, but in the reign of Edward I. was excused from doing so on the plea of poverty. It has a very good market on Tuesday. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 2987, in 1811 to 3244, and in 1821 to 4053.
BIDENTAL, in Roman Antiquity, a place blasted with lightning, which was immediately consecrated by an haruspex, with the sacrifice of a bidens. This place was afterwards accounted sacred, and it was unlawful to enter it or to tread upon it; for which reason it was commonly Surrounded with a ditch, wall, hedge, ropes, or other kind of fence.
BIDENTALES, in Roman Antiquity, priests instituted to perform certain ceremonies and expiations when lightning struck on any place. Their principal office was the sacrificing a sheep of two years old, which in Latin is called bidens; and hence the place struck with thunder got the name of bidental.
BIDENTES, in middle-age writers, denotes two-yearlings, or sheep of the second year. The wool of these bidentes, or two-year-old sheep, being the first shearing, was sometimes claimed as a heriot to the king on the death of an abbot. Among the ancient Romans the word was extended further to any sorts of beasts used for victims, especially those of that age; and hence we meet with sues bidentes.
BIDET, a nag or little horse, formerly allowed to each trooper and dragoon, for his baggage and other occasions.
BIDLOO, Godfrey, author of several treatises on anatomy, was born at Amsterdam on the 12th March 1649. In 1688 he was chosen professor of anatomy at the Hague, and in 1694 at Leyden, when King William III. of England appointed him his physician; an office which he accepted only on condition of holding his professorship, which was readily conceded to him. He published in Latin, 1. The Anatomy of the Human Body, demonstrated in 105 cuts, explained by the discoveries of the ancient and modern writers; 2. An Oration upon the Antiquity of Anatomy; 3. A Letter to Anthony Lecu∙ wenhoeck on the animalcules sometimes found in the liver of sheep and other animals; 4. Two Decades of Dissertations in Anatomy and Chirurgery; and other pieces. He died at Leyden in April 1713.
BIDSCHOW, a circle in the Austrian kingdom of Bohemia. It extends over 902 square miles, or 577,280 acres, and comprehends nine cities, nineteen market-towns, and 610 villages, with 33,680 houses. The inhabitants amount to 234,600. The Elbe has its source in this circle. The ćhief place, New Bidschow, is a city containing a church, a Jews’ synagogue, and 3460 inhabitants, a great portion of whom are of the Hebrew nation.
BIEDENKOPF, a city, the chief of a canton of the same name, containing 7550 inhabitants, on the river Lahn. It is a town of much industry, containing 2800 inhabitants, employed in making cloth, baize, blankets, and various’ other kinds of goods.
BIELFELD, a circle in the Prussian government of Minden, and province of Westphalia. It extends over 110 square miles, or 70,400 acres; contains one city, one market-town, five parishes, and sixteen hamlets; and is peopled by 31,840 persons. It is mostly of a poor soil, and chiefly produces hemp and flax, with but little corn. It is, however, the chief seat of the weaving and bleaching of Ravensburg linens. The principal place is the city of the same name, on the river Luther. It was fortified, but the walls have been converted into a pleasing promenade. It contains one Catholic, one Calvinist, and two Lutheran churches, an orphan-house and an hospital, 782 dwellings, and 7254 inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in various branches of the linen trade. More than 2,000,000 ells are sold in the place yearly. Long. 18. 23. 8. E. Lat. 52. 1. 9. N.
BIELITZ, a duchy in the Austrian government of Moravia and Silesia. It stands on the frontiers of the former kingdom of Poland, between the Vistula and the Beila. It contains one city, and fifteen small towns and villages, with 10,300 inhabitants, mostly of the Sclavonic race. The city, of'the same name, is a great manufacturing place for fine cloths and cassimeres. The ducal palace and park adjoining are very magnificent. There are two churches for Catholics, and one for Lutherans. The inhabitants are about 5500. .
BIELLA, a province of the kingdom of Sardinia. It is a mountainous district, bounded on the north by Sesia, on the east and south-east by Vercelli, on the south-west and west by Ivrea, and on the north-west by Aoste. It ex * tends over 264 square miles, and contains a population of 102,-714 inhabitants. The > capital, from which the province[7:4:637] derives its name, is on the banks of the rivers Cervo and Aurena, and contains 8350 inhabitants, employed chiefly in the manufacture of silk and linen goods, and in the cultivation of vines. Long. 7. 50. E. Lat. 45. 55. N.
BIER, a wooden machine for carrying the bodies of the dead to the place of interment. The word comes from the French bière, which signifies the same thing. It is called in Latin feretrum, from ferendo. Among the Romans the common bier, on which the poorer sort were carried, was called sandapila; that used for the richer sort lectica, lectica funebris, and sometimes lectus. The former was only a wooden chest, vilis arca, which was burnt with the body; the latter was enriched with gilding and other ornaments. It was carried bare or uncovered when the person died a natural and easy death; when he was much disfigured or distorted it was veiled or covered over.
BIFRONS, a person double-fronted, or two-faced. Bi-frοηs is more peculiarly an appellation of Janus, who was represented by the ancients with two faces, because he was supposed to look both backwards and forwards; though other reasons for this mode of delineation are mentioned by Plutarch. Sometimes he was painted with four faces, quadrifrons, as regarding the four seasons.
BIGA, in Antiquity, a chariot drawn by two horses abreast. Races of chariots with two horses were introduced into the Olympic games in the 93d Olympiad; but the invention was much more ancient, as we learn that the heroes in the Iliad fought in chariots of that kind. The moon, the night, and the morning, are by mythologists supposed to be carried in bigae, but the sun in quadrigae. Statues in bigae were at first only allowed to the gods, but were afterwards conceded to conquerors in the Grecian games. Under the Roman emperors, however, statues in bigae were decreed and granted to great and well-deserving men, as a kind of half triumph, and erected in most public places of the city; and figures of bigae were also struck on their coins. The drivers of bigae were called bigarii; and a marble bust of one Florus, a bigarius, is still seen at Rome.
BIGAN, an arrondissement of the department of the Gard, in France, 550 square miles in extent, and containing ten cantons and eighty-seven communes, with 60,349 inhabitants. The capital, a market-town of the same name, stands on the river Acre, and contains a population of 3980 persons.
BIGGAR, a town and parish of Scotland, in the county of Lanark. The town is small, but the main street, though irregular, is broad and spacious. The only building worthy of notice is the church, which was collegiate, and founded by Malcolm Lord Fleming in 1545, who liberally endowed it. In the parish are to be seen the vestiges of three Roman camps and a large tumulus. The remains of Biggar castle are situated in a bog about a quarter of a mile south of the town. It is distant from Edinburgh twenty-seven miles south-west.
BIGGLESWADE, a market-town of the hundred of Biggleswade, in the county of Bedford, forty-five miles from London, and five from Bedford. It is on the river Ivel, which is navigable to Lynn by the Ouse. The land near it is remarkably prolific, and is let at a higher rent than in any other part of England. It is chiefly cultivated as gardens, and yields abundant crops of culinary vegetables, and a large supply of seeds for the London seedsmen. The market is held on Wednesday, and is much frequented. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 1790, in 1811 to 1895, and in 1821 to 2778; including the two hamlets of Holme and Stratton, which form part of the parish.