BEL 



172 



B K \. 



We poMets no other data respecting the public burden*, 

 except that the yearly quota which Bekes contribute* to 

 the Hungarian treasury it about -MOO/. (43,440 florins), in- 

 dependently of about 4500/. (15,642 florins) towards the 

 expense of recruiting the army. 



HI kes it divided into two principal circlet ; that of Gyula 

 including the eastern districts, and that of Csaba the western. 

 It contain* flve market-towns and sixteen villages, among 

 which Csaba. which was founded in 1715, is the largest 

 village in Hungary if not in Europe, for it contains upwards 

 of -2HOO houses an'd 20,200 inhabitants ; Oroshnza contains 

 8100; and Tot Komli'w nearly 9500 inhabitants: besides 

 these there are sixty-one prtedia, or privileged settlements, 

 (ivnla, though not the most populous town, is the capitil. 

 aiuch as it is the spot where the provincial assemblies 

 are held. The town of Bekes is situated in the eastern part 

 of this county, at the confluence of the White and Black 

 Koros. The Catholic, Lutheran, and Greek denominations 

 of Christians have each a church in the town. The number 

 of houses is about 2000, and of inhabitants about 1 5,000. 

 It has a considerable market for cattle, and the surrounding 

 country produces much excellent wheat, and large quantities 

 of wine, flax, honey, and vegetables. Close to it are the re- 

 mains of a strongly fortified castle. It lies in 46" 46' N. 

 lat. and 20 49' E. long. 



BEL. [See BBLUS.] 



BELBE'YS, a small town in the Bahari or Lower Egypt, 

 and the head place of a district or prefectship. It is situ- 

 ated on the right bank of the most eastern or Pelusiae 

 branch of the Nile and on the borders of the desert, thirty 

 miles N.N.E. of Cairo, and on the road from that city to 

 Syria by Salhieh or Ras el Wadi, and about eight miles 

 south of the antient Bubastis. Traces of the canal which 

 joined the Nile to the Red Sea are seen in the neighbour- 

 hood of Belbeys. (French Description of Egypt ; Jomnrd, 

 quoted by Balbi in the Abrege de Geographies 



BELED, or BALAD, is an Arabic word, which signifies 

 a town, a province, or country, and is met with as a com- 

 ponent part of many proper names in Oriental geography, 

 e.g. in Biledulgorid, which properly is Balad-at-Jarid, i.e. 

 the 'Country of Palm-trees.' [Sec ATLAS.] 



BELEEFF. or BJELEFF, the capital of a circle of this 

 name in the province of Tula in Russia in Europe, lying on 

 the left bank of the Oka, about 80 miles S.W. of Tula, and 

 about 680 miles (1029 versts) S.lv of St. IVu-r^nirgh. It is 

 a large town, surrounded by a wall and diloh, and of remote 

 date, for it is mentioned in native chronicles as the seat of 

 the Viatitches as far back as the year 11-17, when it be- 

 longed to the Tshernigoff domains. It contains about 1060 

 houses, mostly of wood, and a population of about 7000 

 souls : it has a public school, attached to a monastery, four 

 nunneries, fifteen churches, two charitable asylums, a cutlery 

 manufactory where the celebrated BjelefT knives are made, 

 fifty-one iron and two copper manufactories, several tanneries 

 and breweries, and wax, tallow, and soap manufactories. 

 It carries on a brisk trade with other parts of Russia, for 

 which the Oka affords great facilities, and it has an annual 

 fair, which is much frequented. It gives its name to an 

 cparchate of the Greek church. It is in Si 25' N. lat., and 

 30' 5' E. long. 



BELE'M, properly BETHLEHEM, one of the suburbs 

 of Lisbon, on the south-west part of the city, with which it 

 is united. King Emanuel built a church here in I r.i'.i, in 

 honour of the birth of Christ, and a monastery of Hierony- 

 rnites. The church is a fine specimen of the mixed Nor- 

 man-Gothic and Arabic styles ; but the monastery is such a 

 confused mixture of all styles, that there are no two columns 

 alike. In the monastery is a royal vault, ornamented with 

 white marble. Opposite the church a square tower rise's 

 out of the Tagut, and serves to defend both the suburb and 

 the entrance of the river. At that tower, called Torre de 

 Belcm. all the vessels which enter the port of I.islxm are 

 first visited by the custom-house officers. Near it is a 

 commodious quay with numerous wharfs, made in the 

 of Joseph 1. The royal palace of Ajucla is also near 

 Bclem. Close by the palace aro a botanical garden, :i ca- 

 binet of natural curiosities a chemical laboratory, and the 

 Quinta da Rain ha, a royal villa, with fine garden*, exten- 

 sive parks, a menagerie, and an aviary <>!' rare birds. Any 

 respectable person, by cning a trilling um to the keeper, 

 m%y easily obtain admittance. Beirut is a co;isid- 

 place, and is inhnbitc 1 l>. inanv of tin- nubility aiul rich 

 citizens. This part of Lisbon suffered least Trot 



earthquake in 17 ii. In the opinion of Mr. Link, this was 

 owing to the circumstance of the place being built on a rock 

 of basalt, which he supposes to have been forced up by a 

 similar convulsion at some very remote epoch. (Murphy ; 

 Link's Travels in Portugal.) 



BELEMN1TE, THUNOERSTONE, or ARROW- 

 UK \ I) (Zoology), from the Greek fliXtjtrov, a dart or 

 arrow, pfeilitrin and donnrrstein of the Germans, pierre 

 ilefuudre of the French. Before the geological ln-ton <>( 

 tins extinct marine animal was well made out, lew natural 

 productions ministered more largely to the superstitious 

 feelings of man. The antient-. it was said, had a legend 

 that they came from the lynx, and called them Lapttles 

 Lynrii, and Lyncuria. They were also, from being i 

 on Mount Ida, and from their supposed resemblance to 

 those organs, called Ida-i ductyli, or petrifn J Jingert*. This 

 idea was too much in unison \uth tin: gloomy imagina- 

 tion of the northern nations to be l>st : we accordingly liud 

 the term Devits fingers bestowed on them, and not unfrr.- 

 cuicntly that of spectre- candies. 



Afterwards came the age of Thunderstonrs, when this 

 fossil was alleged to be the produce of electricity, and was 

 called by the learned Lafiit fulminant. 



Subsequently, and at the period when organic remains 

 were almost universally regarded as liisus naturir, formed 

 by the plastic power of the earth, the Belemmlf u- consi- 

 dered, even by those who had adopted more correct opinions 

 upon the subject of many fossil shells, to be strictly mi- 

 neral, to be a stalactite or a crystal*: and by some who 

 found it in the sandy parts of Prussia, where amber also 

 occurs, it was supposed to be that suli-tance pcli.. 



At length, it began to be granted that the Uelcinnite was 

 of organic animal origin, and the conical cavity at its 

 broader end caused it to be looked upon as the tooth of 

 some unknown creature ; while some pronounced it to be a 

 spine, like those of an echinus, and others gave way to va- 

 rious conjectures not worth recording. Then arrived the 

 dawn of Von Tressan, Klein, Breynius, Da Costa, Brandur, 

 and Plott, who allowed the fossil to be of testaceous ; 

 hut knew nothing of its relative position. At last, the in- 

 creasing light of science placed the belemuitu in a compa- 

 ratively clear point of view. 



A substance with whiuh fable had been so busy was n,,t 

 likely to have been overlooked in the old main ,,i mcdica : we 

 accordingly find that it was administered in u puv, 

 state as a remedy for the night- mare, and Cor tiie stone. 

 Dr. Woodward states, that in (ilouceslcr.shirc, the powder 

 was blown into the eyes of horses affected with watery hu- 

 mours; and, in Prussia, it is said to be used when pulverized 

 in dressing wounds. 



The true place of the Buleranite is among the Ceplialo- 

 pods. Cuvicr, Lamarck, and indeed all modern writ 

 any note agree in thisj, and they also concur in allowing 

 that it was an internal .shell. It forms the first genus of the 

 first family (Orthocerata) of Lamarck s first division of the 

 Cephalopoda, namely, the Polythalamous or many-cliam- 

 btred iiivi.\iii. 



Miller, in his interesting paper in the Transactions of the 

 Geological Society, gives the following as the generic cha- 

 racter 



Thru arc tlio ouinioni of Woodward, Foimty. mid othcn. and they aic 

 ir[n-aii-(l l,y MiUrr : tmt it i by no menu clear that the aulieuu were iwH 

 ing of JleVmnitei on thon- occaimni. That the Bclemnite wai 



de / yn.r, und that it :i the :in:rlc uvit iti ilii- old M.Uriia Mnli.-a, ai a 

 <i the ni^hl nm:r. stone, &c. &c., need not be doiibtfil. lint tile 

 iiUtiKliou i, whether aulhi'ii II:IM- not beeu rallu-r hanty in concluding Out tiio 

 Lapiitri l.tftrlt, &<-., of tin- anticnu (see Udd. Mctam. Ub. xr. r. 413J were 

 the Cm ill alluded to in DUB .- 



I'liny'a arcounlx (AV. Hist. lib. viii. c. &!, and lib. xxx\ii. c. 9 *t 3) 

 rcUtivt: to these J.yncurni. luy-nvout of tlie < irecks, are by no means uniform, 

 anil *. i-m ratlirr to rrlW t-> H!l.-r.-nt KimU t'C title n<-ms : ..;,.[ 

 t.-nllii li.-ijr,T (it 1m t]iirty--\,-nlh lxik, In- viys that Mtei 1) M . 

 til C/rrte, that they jrr of an iruu r\>lm>r, -uul i.v,-n,i..- t)i liunmn i] 

 (" Ilii^-T" wuij.l havi- lM-t-n ; 



nieinU-red that he haa plated th T'I in his c.itUo^ue of (Jems; be hu, it it 

 tine, hiM-ilud tlie I'onm llatnnw ill in.- *..mu h-L Jt klivulil not be forgotlcu 

 Ui.i: tlie C'or\l>.n.u- uerc called l<U-i Inurlyli. 



If va.tara lo *tWoolimtlU, who >l--*crilM-ft the *.vy**ftn at come, length 



- 50, 51. S'J, 56), we >h.ill fln'i nothing lo ^am-liou tli' 1 ni'inmn : 

 .i. a Uelemnite, Uumub it is rlrarly tbv,l^tria Lynci* of authorn. It i 

 deictiued. ou the contrary, at a gem of very wtlid texture (rrf^u/r9-n), on 

 which w.-aU weie -nitr;m-.l. 



t Xolateai 1 -n- .,n unalyili of it .-n niv.-n by Mr. T. Arton in V 

 *m't Jonrnnl. nnd-r tin- n.-itm- uf u rryt-^lr;llr<i a "Tlruni--T j 

 f-'llow in(t year ! d titt Intflttkfl (la IfM -,i..i'- Dialed 



t We mud i .. tiini 



u apppBdafcaof a ni.uiiu- aintn il. iiruliably 



it, anil Iiml Ihe .tlrmhi, or clii. 

 IIIKM fi.,m tin- liclc-muiU fpmliatilv it, naruilc), !jj- 



