n BEIRUT. 



open bay, in 83' 50' N. lat, 35* 27' E. long., distant 40 mile* S.S.W. 

 from Tripoli, and milrs W.N.W". from Damascus, of which Beirut 

 in the port It was a Phoenician city of great antiquity, and was 

 called Blrytus and aim Bery'tiis (Dionysius Periegetes). Diodotus 

 Tryphon entirely destroyed it about ac. 140, but after the conquest 

 of Syria by the Romans it was rebuilt near the Bite of the ancient 

 city. Augustus, who mode it a colony, called it after his daughter 

 Colon i Julia Augusta Felix IJerytus, and medals were afterwards 

 track in honour of the Roman emperors, bearing the legend Colonia 

 Felix Berytus. (Plin. v. 20.) Herod the Great held in l'..-.-yt..- the 

 mock trial orer his two sons. Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the 

 Great, erected here a theatre, an amphitheatre, and baths, and insti- 

 tuted games. After the capture of Jerusalem, Titus celebrated the 

 birthday of bis father Vespasian at this city. Ben-tun was famous 

 for the study of the law, for which there was a celebrated school in 

 the city, the foundation of which is ascribed to Alexander Severus. 



Coin of Brrytu* from the Brltinb Ma<enm, actual ilzt. 



The Emperor M. Aurcl. Anton inn*. 



The Emperor H>crinu. 



The splendour of this school which preserved in the East the 

 language and jurisprudence of the Romans, may be computed to hare 

 lasted from the 3rd to tin- middle of the 6th century. (Qibbon, 

 : i Appian the martyr and Gregory Thaumaturgus studied in 

 the school of Berytus. In A.D. 551 Berytus was nearly destroyed by 

 an earthquake. 



i the Saracens overran Syria, Berytus fell into their hands. 

 tt was taken from th>-m in 1111 l>y Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, but 

 retaken by Salad in in 11*7. During the Holy Wars it often changed 

 master*. It is the scene of the fabled victory of St. George over 

 the dragon. Till the year 1791 the French had a factory at Beirut, 

 but they were expelled by Djer.zar, pasha of Acre, who seized the 

 place from the emir of the Druses, to whom it then liclongcd, and 

 placed a Turkish garrison in it The town was bombarded and taken 

 by the English in 1840. 



Beirut is now commercially the most important place in Syria, 

 and the entrepot of the commerce of the Dru*c* and Maronitea, who 

 export cottons and silks, and* receive in return rice, tobacco, and 

 money, which they exchange for the corn of the Bekaa and Hauran. 

 The British manufactures iiM]...rt.>l into l'-init are transmitted 

 through Damascus to Baghdad, ntirl through Aleppo to the towns of 

 Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. The imports include cambrics, cotton 

 twint, ralicoes, indigo, shawls, printed goods, shirtings, an<l 

 kcrrhiefs; the exports are chiefly raw silk and cotton, akin*. 

 madder, gum, galls, fruit, sponges, and tobacco. 



Beirut contains few trace* of Hs former splendour : a bath, pieces 

 of granite columns, several of which were still standing when Pococke 

 visited the place, and a few other fragment*, are all that now remain. 

 But a great nuniVr of granite columns may be seen along the shore 

 beneath the watr, and port of the present mole is composed of 

 thmn. r'n.tii th.- Irbri* without the present walls, it appears that the 

 ancirnt town occupil a larger space than the modern, which is but 

 a small place. The walls ore strengthened by several towers, and 

 there are five gates to the city. It receives a copious supply of 

 water from a (mall river called Nahr Beirut, which rises in Mount 



BEJA. on 



Libanus, and flows into the sea a short distance from the town ; the. 

 water is conveyed by a canal which was cut by Djezzar pasha, i 

 received into reservoirs and fountains. The streets are nanw 

 dirty : the house* are mostly built of stone. The town is commanded 

 by some low hills to the south-east It* population is eating- 

 15,000 persons, of whom the Turks form one-third. There is a 

 large and well-built mosque in the city, which was formerly a < 'hristian 

 church dedicated to St John. The suburbs of the town are as Urge 

 as the city itself. 



Beirut stands at the verge of a beautiful plain, varied with small 

 hills, and extending to the foot of Mount ;nding 



country is covered with kiosks, and enriched with groves of 

 olives, palms, and orange, lemon, and mulberry-trees ; behind 

 rises the lofty chain of Libanus. No corn is produced aniiiiul thr 

 town ; a light red wine is made on Mount Libanus, which is cheap 

 and good ; but raw silk is the staple, which \ ., and 



figs is exported to Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo. Game is abui 

 the beef from Libanus is excellent, and supplies of all kinds may be 

 procured good and cheap. 



The bay of Beirut is large, and the anchorage good, though open 

 to the northward ; formerly there was a port, but i , 

 a small mole sufficient to shelter boats. The entrance ? 

 is too shallow to admit large vessels. There is a rise ami 

 about two feet, but no regular tide. In 1841 the r vessels 



which arrived at Beirut was 883 (of which 85 w. 

 aggregate tonnage amounted to 38,441, and the value f thr cargoes 

 to 66.748Z. ; in the same year 381 vessels cleared out, and the v; 

 the cargoes which left the port was 25,1 28i. 



(Pococke's Trarcli in tkc East; Volney's TrateU in Syria ; Browne's 

 Travdi ; Macgregor's Commercial Statiifirt.) 



BEITH, Ayrshire, Scotland, a town in the parish of Beith and 

 district of Cunningham, is situated in 55 45' N. lat., 4 40' W. long., 

 distant 22 miles N. from Ayr, and 62 miles W.S.W. from Kdinbnrgh. 



The parish of Beith, a part of which runs into Renfrewshire, is 

 about 4 miles in length, and nearly the same in breadth. On the 

 north-east side of the parish there i a ridge of hills, from which 

 the land slopes to the south and west Its lowest - 

 Kilbimie Loch is 90 feet, and ( 'uff' Hill, l>.V2 fret al 



level of the sea. The parish . all 11,000 acres, 500 acres 



being in Renfrewshire : the population of the i 

 Limestone, coal, freestone, and ironstone are wrought in different 

 parts of the parish. The produce of the distri 



which find a ready sale ; there is a flax mill at the village of 

 Northbar ; the flax manufacture is also carried on at Roughbank. 

 Uleachfields and power-loom weaving employ the inhabitants of the 

 village of Tl 



The town of Beith has gradually advanced from the 1 

 the lost century, when only a few houses occupied the rite. It has 

 now a good town-house, built by subscription, whi. ' d as a 



newsroom and for the local courts; a parish church with a modern 

 spire, a Free church, two chapels for I'nitrd 1'rnbr .1 nub- 



n library. The town is well lighted by ^vs suppli. 

 works belonging to a local joint-stock company. Its manufactures 

 have several times changed. At the beginning of the lost cent 

 chief trade wax in linen cloth ; at present thn , and leather 



are the principal articles manufactured. 



There are several fairs held here annually. The Glasgow and Ayr, 

 now tin: South -Western, rail , ready communication with 



the neighbourhood, and by its connecting lines with all parts of 

 Scotland and lin.'l.md. 



The parish of Beith was the residence of St. Inan, a Scottish 

 confessor who flourished in 839, and whose- n the 



town on the 18th of August, old style (Aug. 2'.l). There arc 

 cairns in the parish, in which stone coffins an .1 d urns 



have occasionally been found. The Cuff Hill, as it is called, the 

 highest ground in the parish, is supposed to have been a K 

 Druidism, and to derive its name from having been n 

 wor hip. There is here a rocking-stone, n 'lie slightest 



touch, the placing of which is ascribed by |ipular tra.liti.rn to the 

 Druids. 



Among the anti i.h are thn Mo.,thill ..r Conrt-hill, 



where the Ablxits of Kilw inning di-p.-n cd baronial justice ; th- 

 of OifBn Castle, the < of !). Moreville, lord of Cunningham, and 

 constable of Scotland ; tor Home 



time the property of a family named Montgomery, a cadet of 

 Eglinton, and one of whom wan the poet Montgomery, aut! 

 'The Cherry and the Sloe.' 



(AVw Statutical Account of 

 \. [Aijnmuo.] 



BEJA. or BOJA, an African people who inhabit a tract of country 



north of Abyssinia, and between the Mareb and the Red Sea, to the 



south of the port of Sunkim. Mr. Salt says the country of the Boja 



<h of Hiinmzcn, which is tl -them 



district of Abyssinia, and that they are partially under the influence 

 of the Nayib of Mossowa and of a Christian chief, the natives being 

 half Musselmans and half Christians. 



Mr. Salt places to the east of the Bejo, and near the coast of the 

 Red Sea, north of Arkoeko, another people, whom he calls Bekla. 



