BAY 



63 



BAY 



in unison with the music ; the dancer now advancing, then 

 retreating : sometimes with the hands up, and twisting them 

 about ; at others, enveloping her head completely in the 

 shawl. The movements of the bayadeer are sometimes so 

 slow in this performance, that an inexperienced spectator 

 might suppose her about to fall asleep, when, in corre- 

 spondence with a change in the music, she becomes full of* 

 life, and exhibits a rapid and exhausting succession of vio- 

 lent action. She takes up her robe and folds 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 performance is sometimes dispensed with. 

 In different parts of the country these dances vary in the 

 proprieties of dress and attitude. In some parts they are 

 highly indecent, but this is not always, or perhaps gene- 

 rally, the case. The songs of the bayadeers, however, 

 commonly express, in very warm language, the sentiments 

 of amorous passion, as addressed by the female to her lover. 

 Such songs afford a striking contrast to those of the Per- 

 sians, who, according to Sir William Ouseley, ' never suffer 

 their females to make, either in prose or verse, any advances 

 or declarations of love.' 



(Description, fyc., of the People of India by the Abbi': 

 Dubois ; Morier's Second Journey ; Heber's Narrative of 

 a Journey, fyc. ; Ouseley *s Travels in various Countries of 

 the Ban.} 



BAYAMO, in Cuba. [See SALVADOR, S.] 

 BAYAN KHARA MOUNTAINS is the Mongol name 

 of a very extensive range in Eastern Asia, in a corner of 

 the globe which has never been visited by Europeans, and 

 which, therefore, is only known to us by the accounts of the 

 Chinese geographers. According to them a vast mountain- 

 knot is situated nearly in the centre of the high table-land 

 of Eastern Asia to the. west of the lake Khoo-khoo-nor, 

 between 35 and 38 N. lat., and about 96 and 100 E. 

 long. This mountain-knot, called Kulkun, is considered as 

 the eastern portion of the Kuen-luen Mountains, which 

 traverse the high table-land from west to east about the 

 thirty-fourth parallel. From this mountain-knot high 

 ranges seem to proceed towards all the points of the com- 

 . three of which extend to the east in the direction of 

 the principal chain. The most northern, called Khi-lian 

 Shan, separates the basin of the lake of Khoo-khoo-nor 

 from the great desert of the Gobi. The middle chain, and 

 as it seems the highest of the three, called Siue Shan 

 (Snow Mountains), fills up with its numerous high and 

 steep summits the whole region between the lake of Khoo- 

 khoo-nor and the great river Hoango. The most southern 

 of the three, the Bayan Khara Mountains, first runs towards 

 the south, and the waters descending from its eastern de- 

 clivities give rise to the river Hoango. Soon afterwards the 

 range declines towards east-south-cast and separates in 

 Ihis direction the upper courses of the two great rivers 

 Hoango and Yan-tse-kiang, until branching off in nume- 

 rous ramifications, it obliges the Yan-tse-kiang to take a 

 southern and the Hoango a northern course. Thus these 

 rivers, which to the west of the 100th meridian run hardly 

 more than fifty miles from one another, attain under the 

 1 03rd a distance of more than ten degrees of latitude, which 

 they keep to about the 1 12th meridian, where they again 

 approach one another within about four degrees, or about 270 

 miles. AH the numerous mountain chains which occupy the 

 eastern parts of Tibet, and that portion of China which ex- 

 tends between the Hoango and Yan-tse-kiang are connected 

 with the Bayan Khara Mountains, and ought to be considered 

 as ramifications of this mass. The most remarkable is that 

 which, including the basin of the Hoango on the south, 

 divides Sifan from the Chinese province Kan-su : there it 

 is called by the Chinese Min-shan. Its eastern prolonga- 

 tion, which divides the province Sut-shuan from those ol 

 Kan-su and Shen-si, bears the name of Peling (Northern 

 range), and, forming the watershed between the two great 

 rivi'rs, it advances into the great plain of Northern China, 

 where the last offsets terminate at a distance of about 100 

 miles from the Whang Hay or Yellow Sea. 



We know nothing respecting the mineral riches of the 

 Bayan Khara Mountains from the Chinese geographers, 

 but we are informed that those ranges which lie to the wes 

 of the 103rd meridian in many places rise above the line o 

 ternal snow, and that even glaciers are frequent among 

 them. They ate, however, rarely visited, on account of their 



severe climate. (Klaproth's Asiatic Magazine, and Rit- 

 ers'sAsia.) 



BAYARD, PIERRE DE TERR AIL, known by the 

 lonourable appellation of the ' Good Knight, without fear 

 ,nd without reproach ' (le ban Chevalier, sans peur et sans 

 reproche), was born, in the year 1475, at the Chateau de 

 Jayard in Dauphine. His family were for generations the 

 eudal lords of the territory whence they took their name , 

 and were distinguished for their military prowess during the 

 wars of the English in France. Almost all his immediate 

 ncestors died on the field of battle: his great-great-grand- 

 ather fell at Poictiers ; his great-grandfather at Cressy ; his 

 grandfather at Montchery; and his father also received 

 nany wounds in the wars of Louis XI. With a view to 

 >eing educated for the profession of arms, he was placed, 

 vhen thirteen years old, in the household of the Duke of 

 Savoy as page, in which capacity he continued for five years, 

 >erfecting himself in the various accomplishments then con- 

 :,idered essential to the character of a true knight. Bayard, 

 vhen only eighteen years of age, carried away the prize in 

 a tournament against one of the most experienced knights 

 n France. When he had completed his eighteenth year he 

 entered into actual service. 



In the latter end of the year 1494, Bayard accompanied 

 Charles VIII. in his expedition against Naples, and greatly 

 distinguished himself at the battle of Fornovo, fought on the 

 6th of July in the next year. He liad two horses killed 

 under him in this engagement, and he performed numerous 

 "eats of that romantic valour which have perpetuated his 

 name as one of the last and best representatives of the days 

 of chivalry. Bayard served also in the Italian wars of 

 Louis XII., which began in 1499. On one occasion he kept 

 a bridge over the Garigliano single-handed against 200 

 Spaniards, long enough to enable the main-body of the 

 French to make good their retreat. 



Bayard was also present at the famous ' battle of the 

 Spurs,' fought at Guingette near Terouenne in Picardy, on 

 the 16th of August, 1513. Either from panic or mistaken 

 orders, the French gendarmerie, when retreating from the 

 English force, commanded in person by the then youthful 

 Henry VIII., (led before the English cavalry in disgraceful 

 confusion. The contest, in fact, was one of mere speed be- 

 tween the pursuers and the pursued, and hence the humorous 

 epithet, applied by the vanquished themselves, of the ' battle 

 of the Spurs.' But for the presence of mind and daring 

 valour of Bayard, the whole French army would have 

 shared in the disgrace of the gendarmerie. He retired 

 with fourteen men-at-arms, often turning on his pursuers, 

 till he reached a place where only two could pass in front. 

 ' We halt here,' said he, ' the enemy will be an hour gaining 

 this post. Go and tell them so at the camp.' He was 

 obeyed, and succeeded in gaining time for the French army 

 to re-assemble itself, but was himself taken prisoner. Henry's 

 reception of the knight was much more courteous than that 

 of the Emperor Maximilian, who was present, being, with 

 his troops, in the pay of the English king. The emperor 

 taunted him with the remark that he thought Bayard was 

 one who never fled. ' Sire, if I had tied I should not have 

 been here,' was the prompt answer. 



Bayard attended Francis I., then in the pride of youth, 

 and ambitious of the honours of chivalry, in the war under- 

 taken to recover Milan and the other Italian conquests of 

 his predecessor. The bloody battle of Marignano, Sept. 13, 

 1515, which lasted two days, was fought with a fierce- 

 ness that made Trivulzio, the French commander, who had 

 been in eighteen pitched battles, exclaim that ' all other 

 fights compared with this were but children's sport; this is 

 the war of giants.' Bayard displayed his usual romantic 

 daring and prowess. When the battle was won, Francis, 

 who had fought by his side, and who had witnessed his 

 extraordinary valour, begged and received the honour of 

 knighthood at his hands upon the field. 



The next great service which Bayard rendered his country 

 was the obstinate and successful defence of Mezieres, on 

 the Netherlands frontier of France, in 1522, against the 

 Count of Nassau, with a force of 35,000 men, aided by a 

 strong artillery. The garrison consisted of only 1000 men, 

 but such was the fame of Bayard, that many of the young 

 nobility of France considered it the highest honour to bo 

 engaged under him in the defence of this frontier town. 



In 1524 Bayard had a command in the force which 

 Francis I. sent to Italy to act against the army of the Em- 

 peror Charles, directed by the celebrated Duke of Bourbon. 



