BAY-SALT. 



BAYEL'X TAPESTRY. 



u 



BAY-SALT. [SiLT.1 



BAY WINDOW. [0KX.) 



BAYADEER (said to be a corruption of Bailadtira, a Portuguese 

 word, which signifies a dancing woman), a name given to the regularly- 

 fared dancing girl* in India, who are also the regular prostitute*. 

 Among the Hindu Brahmins, female children are devoted, before their 

 births, under a vow of the parents, to the service of the deity 

 Mahadeo, and tbiiee are received into some of hi* temples. They are 

 brought up in the usual accomplishment*, and the wages of their 

 exertooos and their infamy enter the treasury of the temple with which 

 they are connected. Mr. Maurice (' Indian Antiquities ') lays that the 

 priest* of then pytttat, a* he calls them, induce young females to 

 enter, that every pagoda has a band of them, who dance before the 

 idol, to whom they are considered a* wedded, and that they are not 

 nomirternil as at ail disreputable. If there is any ofispring from their 

 promiscuous intercourse, boy* and girl* are both considered as conse- 

 crated to the idol : the boys are taught to be musicians for the festival* ; 

 the girls have to lead a similar life to their mothers. Bernier's account, 

 of a much earlier date, is of a like character. The Mohammedans of 

 India have also their dancing-girls, of the same character, but who are 

 mil ally provided by women who make it their business to select 

 handsome children, teach them the necessary accomplishments, and 

 subject them to the same infamous life ; but though called bayadeers, 

 they are not devotees of the temple*. 



These girl* are generally introduced to any party that requires their 

 attendance, escorted by a band of musicians. A native band consist* 

 of instrument* resembling guitars, and others like clarionets, with 

 cymbals and kettle-drums, which altogether produce a very wild, but 

 not an unpleaaing, and a somewhat melancholy harmony. The women 

 dance and sing ; and when one is desired to dance, she calls for the 

 ornaments of her feet, which consist of silver chains, which she fastens 

 on her ancle*. Then, ruing from the ground, she arranges her dress, 

 which generally consists of about a hundred yards of light muslin, 

 which terminate* in innumerable folds at about the swell of the leg ; 

 and of a shawl which covers part of the head, comes over the shoul- 

 ders, and falls in folds over the prttii-o.it. The hair is seldom orna- 

 mented, but is parted in the middle, and kept close down by the aid of 

 the cocoa-nut, which improve* it* jet and gloss, but communicate* an 

 unpleasant odour. Behind the ear* a bunch of pearls is worn like a 

 cluster of grapes, and a ring is suspended from one of the nostrils, 

 through which it is inserted. The ornament* however are sometimes 

 more and sometime* less numerous and costly than this. 



The dancing consist* in a certain methodical kicking of the right 

 foot, which causes the chains on the ancles to jingle in unison with the 

 music; the dancer now advancing, then retreating; sometime* with 

 the hand* up, and twisting them about ; at others, enveloping her head 

 completely in the shawL The movements of the bayadeer are some- 

 times so slow in this performance that an inexperienced spectator 

 might suppose her about to fall asleep, when, in correspondence with a 

 change in the music, she becomes full of life, and exhibits a rapid and 

 exhausting succession of violent action. She takes up her robe and 

 fold* it into various shapes ; then she lets it go, so that while she spins 

 round like a top it forms a circle, bearing some resemblance to the tail 

 of a peacock. It is perfectly amazing for what a length of time practice 

 enables them to maintain this circular motion. This part of the per- 

 formance is sometimes dispensed with. In different* parts of the 

 country these A*f** vary in the proprieties of dress and attitude. In 

 some part* they are highly indecent, but this is not always, or perhaps 

 generally, the case. The songs of the bayadeers however commonly 

 e*piee, in very warm language, the sentiment* of amorous passion, as 

 sddrfturd by the female to her lover. Such songs afford a striking 

 contrast to those of the Persians, who, according to Sir William 

 Ouaeley, " never suffer their females to make, either in prose or verse, 

 any advance* or declarations of love." 



(Heber's Narratat of a Journey, &e. ; Ouscley's Trarelt in rarioi 

 Countria of tht Eatl.) 



BAYKI'X TAl'ESTRY, a web or roll of linen cloth or canvas*, 

 preserved in the Hotel de Ville, Bayeux, in Normandy, upon which a 

 continuous representation of the events connected with the invasion 

 and conquest of England by the Normans is worked in woollen thread 

 of different colours, in the form of a sampler. It is 20 inches wide, 

 and 214 feet long : and i* divided into seventy-two compartments, each 

 bearing a superscription in Latin which indicates it* subject, or the 

 person or persons represented. It U edged on it* upper, as well as it* 

 lower part, by a border representing chiefly quadrupeds, birds, sphinxes, 

 minotaiim, and other similar subject*. Mr. Bruce states that " it con- 

 tains figures of 023 men, 202 bones, 55 dogs, 505 animals of various 

 kind* not already enumerated, 37 buildings, 41 ships and boat*, and 49 

 trees in all ISI'2 figures." 



Attention was first directed to this singular monument by 

 M. Lancelot, hi a memoir presented to the Academy of Inscriptions 

 and Belles Lettre*. in 17'JI, in consequence of his discovering an illu- 

 minated drawing from a portion of it, among the manuscripts in the 

 library of M. Foncault, who had been Intendant of Normandy. At 

 the time of finding it, he did nut know what it actually represented ; 

 whether the original was a sculpture round the choir of a church, upon 

 a tomb, or on a frieze ; whether it was a painting in fresco, or on 

 glass ; or, lastly, whether it might not be a tapestry. He saw that it 



was historical, and that it related to William Duke of Normandy and 

 the conquest of England ; and he wrote to Caen respecting it, but got 

 no information. 



Pere Montfaucon, upon reading Lancelot's memoir, saw the value of 

 this curious representation, and left no stone unturned till he had 

 discovered the original. He wrote to Caen and Bayeux, and sent a 

 copy of the drawing for inspection, when, at last, the canons of Bayeux 

 recognised it as a portion of the tapestry in their possession, which 

 tradition said had been worked by, or under the superintendence of, 

 Matilda, the Conqueror's queen, which she had herself given to the 

 cathedral, of which Odo, the Conqueror's half-brother, was bishop, 

 and which they, the canons of Bayeux, were accustomed to exhibit t-. 

 the inhabitants of the city, in the nave of their church, at a particular 

 season of the year. M. Lancelot, in a second memoir, says it was at 

 that time traditionally called / Tuiltttc tit Iluc t!uillanmt, a name by 

 which it is still commonly known at Bayeux. Montfaucon sent an 

 able artist, of the name of Antoine Benoit, to copy it ; and at the 

 opening of the second volume of hi* ' Monumens de la Monarchic 

 Francoue,' published in 1730, engraved the whole in a reduced form, 

 Died with a commentary upon the Latin inscriptions, hi.-li. 

 throughout, explain the intention of the figure* represented in the 

 different compartment*. 



M. Lancelot, upon the publication of the tapestry by Montfaucon, 

 sent a second memoir to the Academy of Inscription* and Belles Lettre* 

 (a* has been just mentioned), which was read in 1 730, and published 

 in the same year, in the eighth volume of their transactions, in which 

 he states that the earliest mention of this tapestry among the archives 

 of the cathedral is in an inventory of jewels and ornaments belonging 

 to the church, taken in 1476, where it is called " une tente tres longue 

 et <5troite de telle a broderie de ymages et eserpteaulx ftin repre- 

 sentation du conquest d'Angleterre, laquelle eat tendue environ la nef 

 de 1'Eglise le jour et paries octave* de* reliques." 



Dr. Ducarel is the next who give* us an account of this tapestry, in 

 the appendix to his ' Anglo-Norman Antiquities ' u'"li", London, 1 7''>ri. 

 where he has printed an elaborate description of it, which In 

 drawn up some years before, during a -i Normandy, by 



Smart Lethicullier. Esq., an able English antiquary. Ducarel tells us 

 that when he was in Normandy it was annually hung up on St. John's 

 day, and went exactly round the nave of the church, where 

 tinned eight days. At all other times it was carefully kept locked 

 up in a strong wainscot press in a chapel on the south side of the 

 cathedral. 



From this time till the autumn of 1808 it received but little i 

 notice, when Bonaparte, then first consul of France, contemplating the 

 immediate invasion of England, ordered it to be brought from I 

 to the National Museum at Paris, where it was deposited during Home 

 months for public inspection. The first consul himself went to see 

 it. ami affected to be struck with that particular part which represent* 

 Harold on his throne at the moment when he was alarmed at the 

 appearance of a meteor which presaged his defeat, affording an op;...r 

 t unity for the inference that the meteor which hod then been lately 

 seen in the south of France was the presage of a similar event. 

 (' Gentleman'* Magazine,' 1830, vol. IxiiL, pt. ii. p. 1136.) The exhi- 

 bition was popular : so much so, that a small dramatic piece was got 

 up at the Theatre du Vaudeville, entitled ' La Tapisserie de la reine 

 Mathilde,' in which Matilda, who had retired to her uncle Roger during 

 the contest, was represented passing her time with her women in 

 embroidering the exploit* of her husband, never leaving their work, 

 except to put up prayers for his success. (Millin, ' Magazin Encyclo- 

 pediipie,' 1803, torn. iv. p. 541.) After having been exhibited in Paris, 

 and in one or two large towns, the tapestry was returned to Bayeux, 

 and lodged with the municipality. Mr. Dawson Turner, in his Tour 

 in Normandy,' written in 1818, says, the bishop and chapter of Bayeux 

 had then recently applied to the government for the tapestry to be 

 restored to their cathedral, but without effect. (' Tour in Normandy,' 

 8vo, Lond., 1820, vol. ii. p. 242.) 



It was most fortunate that this curious monument escaped destruction 

 during the Revolution. Its surrender at that time was demanded for 

 the purpose of covering the guns ; a priest however succeeded in con- 

 cealing it and preserving it from destruci 



The new degree of publicity given to the tapestry by its exposure in 

 the French capital again made it a subject of discussion ; and the Abbe 

 do la Rue, professor of history in the Academy of Caen, endeavoured, 

 in a memoir, afterwards translated by Francis Douce, Esq., and printed 

 in the 17th volume of the ' Archicologia ' of the Society of Antiquaries, 

 to show that a mistake had been committed by tradition in the selection 

 of the Matilda, and that it* origin ought not to have been ascribed to 

 Matilda the Conqueror's queen, but to Matilda the empress, the daughter 

 of King Henry I. 



The next memoir on this curious subject i* comprised in a short 

 letter from Mr. Hudson Qurney, printed in the 18th volume of the 

 ' Archicologia,' who saw the tapestry at Bayeux in 1814, where it then 

 went by the appellation of the Twit <lt >''. Jnin, which is explained by 

 what Ducarel has said, that it was formerly exhibited upon St. John's 

 Day. Lancelot, Montfaucon, Ducarel, and De la Rue, appear all to 

 have considered the tapestry as a monument of the Conquest of 

 England, intended to have been continued to Duke William's coro- 

 nation, but from some cause or other left unfinished. Mr. Ourney 



