BACTRUN COINS. 



BAIL. 



the gold coins of Antiochus II., and tho portrait bears to cloM a 

 IMWihlinnn to that of Antiochua, that it ia supposed the artist copied 



Eutbydi-mu.". (Weight 187 grains.) 



llcllocln Dikiioi. (Weight 231 grains.) 



EocritidM I.* (Weight 257 grains.) 

 BACTSUM Coixi or THI Gun KINGS. 



the head of that prince. The obverse has the head of Theodotiu. 

 The reverse haa a naked figure of Jupiter erect, with his back to the 

 spectator, and turned to tho left ; he is in the act of hurling his 

 thunderbolt from hi right arm railed, whilst his left arm extended 

 bears the segis : on one aide, in the field of the coin, ia a crown, and 

 at the foot of the figure an eagle. The legend on each margin of the 

 rererae is BA2IAEO2 AIA*T*T, perfectly distinct The second coin is 

 a silver tetradrachm, presented by Sir Alexander Bumes to the British 

 Museum, where then are also many coins belonging to the other Greek 

 kings of Bactria. 



The bilingual class of Bactrian coins begins with Heliocles, who 

 reigned about B.C. 147, but bilingual inscriptions are alao found on the 

 square copper coins of his predecessor Bucratides. The two languages 

 are Greek and Prakrit, a Hindu dialect written with particular cha- 

 racters forming the Arian or Arianian alphabet. The oldest bilingual 

 coins are all square, the barbaric inscriptions having been adopted 

 together with the barbaric shape, but the later coins are both square 

 and round. Fourteen kings with Greek names are ascribed to this 

 class, the last of whom is Pantaleon. who reigned about B.C. 120. Tho 

 Greek letters on these coins are nail-headed ; the design is generally 

 good, on some very fine, and probably done by Greek artists; but 

 there are also many of apparently barbaric execution, and in the whole 

 the appearance of Eastern emblems of royalty, and different Indian 

 animals and other figures, betrays the decline of Oreek civilisation; 

 and, in addition, the title Basileus is translated by Maharaiaaa. 

 Among the animals, the elephant and elephant's bead, which we find 

 on the coins of Demetrius, Menandcr, Apollodotns, Lycias, and 



Th* fourth IrttCT of ttw name of Eoentidcs, which on the original coin In 

 an I, vu trMsntlr Intended for P, and has probablj ben duaagrd a liul. ; 

 SSSSBO* UK p o UM eoia of DnMtriu. 



Heliocles, and the humped bull on the coins of Philoxenus, Diomedei 

 and several other kings, are supposed to indicate dominion in Indin. 

 The wild horse, however, and the double-humped camel are beli< 

 have exclusive reference to Bactria. Barbaric dynastic* reigned over 

 Bactria from the end of the second century before Christ. 



The coins of the Scythic princes are exelu- 



anil bilingual a proof that Qreek civilisation, although on its decline, 

 had still some influence upon the people, as was tho case in Part hin 

 under the Arsacidae. There are also many Sisirnnian coins foun.l in 

 Afghanistan ; a fact by no means extraordinary, as the power i 1 1,. 

 Rasmnisns in Persia extended occasionally as far as the Indus, so that 

 those Scythian kings were not always independent, but paid tribute to 

 the Persians. The prince of Iskardo, in the upper valley of the Indus, 

 pretends to be descended from Alexander. As the Greek powi-r in 

 Bactria was maintained in some parts of the Hindu Koosh after the 

 Scythian conquest, the prinri|iIity of Iskardo may be a remnant of 

 the Bactro-Greek empire, and a closer investigation into the history of 

 Iskardo and the whole upper valley of the Indus would perhaps lead 

 to interesting results. 



The obscurity prevailing in the history and chronology of Bactria 

 has of course an influence upon Bactrian numismatics, and one cannot 

 b* surprised at seeing the principal writers on these subjects at 

 variance on essential points. 



(Wilson, Ariana Antigua; Lassen, Zur Gttduchte der GrleehMien 

 tend Indo-Skytliuchen Kmige in Bactricn, d-c. ; Grotcfend, JXe Hitmen 

 der Griechiwhen, Partkitchen, und Indo-Sb/tliiicJirn Konigt ron Baetrtm, 

 (te. ; H. T. Prinsep, Note on At Historical Retullt deducible from rtcent 

 Ditcoeeriti in Afghanistan ; James Prinsep, Eoayt on Indian A ntiquitia, 

 Hiitaric, ffumumatic, and Palaograpkic, edited, with addit., notes, 

 &c., by Edw. Thomas, 1858.) 



BA'GNIO, a word derived from the Italian bagno, which means a 

 bath, and also a bathing-house. It haa been applied, by the Europeans 

 trading with the Levant, to the prisons in which the slaves or convicts 

 who are made to work in the docks and at other public works in 

 Constantinople, Tunis, and other cities of Turkey or Barbary, are 

 shut up for the night. The French likewise call lagnt the house 

 of detention, where they keep their galley-slaves, at Toulon and Brest. 

 Bagnio, in English, has been used as synonymous with brothel. 



BAGPIPE, a musical instrument of the pneumatic kind, still well 

 known in Scotch regiments. It is described by Grassineau as con- 

 sisting of a leathern bag, inflated by a port-vent fixed in it, which has 

 a valve ; and of three pipes, the first and the second called the yreat 

 and the little drone, each giving but one note, the third. a kind of oboe, 

 having eight ventages or holes, on which the tune is played by the 

 fingers. The wind is communicated to the pipes by compress: 

 bag under the arm, the mouth piece of each pipe being fixed in tin 

 bag. The compass of this instrument is three octaves. 



The bagpipe, or something nearly similar to it, was in use among the 

 ancients. Blanchinus gives a figure of it under the name .>; 

 ntrlrularit, though this is not precisely the same as the modern in- 

 strument. Luscinius, in his ' Musurgia ' (1536), has a woodcut of it. 

 whence it appears that the bagpipe in his time was in all respects the 

 same as in ours. Indeed, it is mentioned, though not described, by 

 Chaucer, who says of his miller 



" A baggtplpe wel conde he blowe and sount ; 



and this, we are told in the some prologue, was the music to which 

 the Canterbury pilgrims performed their jouri 



Hat/pipe seems to be a translation of the German Satl-pfeife. By 

 the Italians it is called Cornamtoa ; by the French, MIM'I- 

 Chalnmran, as Dr. Burney states ; the latter signifying a single ) 

 the simplest kind. 



BAH K, the Arabic word for the sea, a lake, or a large river, appears as a 

 component part of many proper names in eastern geography : /' 

 Kotzum, ' the Sea of Kolzuin,' that is, the Arabian ' .1 Sea, 



especially its north-western extremity (the Sinus Herooimlites) ; Bohr 

 L&t, ' the Lake of Lot,' that is, the Lacus Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, in 

 Syria; Bahr-ol-Abiad, 'the White River,' and JiaJir-al-Azrat, 'the lllue 

 rUver,' that is, the two principal southern branches of the Kile. It has 

 passed into the Portuguese language under the form Atbufeira, 'a 

 reservoir, a tank, a lagune ; ' and into Spanish under the two forms of 

 Alhvfera, and Alhuhrra, in the same sense. The prefixed al in these 

 words is tho Arabic definite article ; and it is a general remark that 

 the letter h of many Arabic words that have been received into the 

 Spanish and Portuguese languages, has been changed into/. 



HAIL, in civil rausus, ordinarily signifies the sureties who become 

 responsible for a defendant arrested by legal process while the cause is 

 yet pending metne process ; and they are so called, because anciently 

 the defendant was baUM, delivered or committed to the custody <":' 

 his bail, who were bound to produce him at the time npp 

 for his appearance. By the statute of 23 Hen. VI. c. 9, the 

 was compelled to admit to I nil all persons arrested by him i> 

 personal action, or because of any indictment of tresinss, on rca> 

 sureties !< in/ oH'eml fur i\\<-h- appearance; and if ho refu 

 take sufficient boil when offered, he wan liable to an art 

 party arrested. Bail were formerly either common bail or 

 6ai7, a distinction which arose thus: until tho commencement. 

 last century, the defendant was in all cases of process against bi< 



