BET 



Betchouana. The Vankeetz also appear to bear tho cha- 

 racter of being treacherous ; but Campbell, in his Second 

 Journey, 1 820, visited Kurrochane, tho capital of the Moor- 

 ootiec, whom be describes more favourably. With regard 

 to industry, the Moorootxee seem far superior to the more 

 southern and western tribes. They cultivate tobacco and 

 the sugar-cane ; they paint their houses ; they smelt and 

 alloy the copper, and make wire and chains of it; they 

 make wooden bowls, spoons, &c. ; and they build walls of 

 masonry. The Machlapee are orderly and decent in their 

 outward behaviour, but they are addicted to lying and 

 thieving, and their word cannot be depended upon. Mur- 

 der, although not a very common occurrence, does not ap- 

 pear to be looked upon as criminal. Their want of humanity 

 was exhibited after the defeat of the Mantatees, when they 

 butchered the women and children that tho invaders had 

 left behind. Before the action they showed a want of 

 courage, and bad it not been for the assistance of the 

 Griqiias, the Mantatees would have found no difficulty in 

 overrunning tho whole country. The Machlapee, upon 

 the whole, seem to be inferior in bravery, honesty, and 

 humanity to the southern Caffres, though superior to them 

 in ingenuity and industry. Their wonlen appear to be mo- 

 dest, mild, and domestic ; but they are treated harshly, and 

 are looked upon as inferior beings : most of the hard labour 

 at home and in the fields falls upon them. The men go 

 often out upon great hunting parties, and sometimes also in 

 marauding parties against their neighbours. There is, 

 however, no slave trade among the Betchouana. but the 

 prisoners they make are kept as domestic servants. Both 

 men and women rub their bodies with grease mixed up 

 with a red mineral powder, which gives their skin a shining 

 and glittering appearance. 



Each tribe of the Betchouana is under the rule of an 

 hereditary king or chief, but his authority over the subordi- 

 nate chiefs seems to be rather loose. In cases of emer- 

 gency, such as the Mantatee invasion, they convene an 

 assembly of all the warriors, when speeches ore delivered 

 in succession by the chiefs: specimens of their oratory, 

 which is chiefly remarkable for its bombast, are to be 

 found in Thompson's account. These assemblies are called 

 Peetsho. 



The greater part of the Betchouana country, most of 

 whose tribes are known to us only by name, lies east and 

 north-cast of the Machlapee or Lattakoo territory, and be- 

 tween that and the sea-coast The best point from which 

 to explore this unknown tract seems to be the coast of Dala- 

 go* Bay, from which the Moorootzee country lies about 

 250 miles distant west by north, not one-fourth of the djs- 

 tancc by land from Cape Town. The Vankeetz are next to 

 the Moorootzee to the westward. Tho intermediate space 

 between the Moorootzee and the mountains near the coast 

 is occupied by the Morremootzans, whose country consists 

 chiefly of plains. It is watered by the river Waritzi, which 

 flows northward, and is supposed to fall into the Moriqua, 

 the river of the Moorootzee. An expedition for the object 

 of exploring the country west of Dalagoa Bay has been sent 

 out lately from the Cape, but we have as yet (1835) no ac- 

 counts of its success. (See Report of the Council of the 

 Geographical Society for 1834.) 



Beyond tho Moorootzee to the north-east are the Mak- 

 wccn, a numerous and powerful nation, whose name is 

 known to all the southern tribes, even to the Amakosa on 

 the frontiers of the Cape colony. It is from the Makween 

 that the other tribes obtain by exchange much of the copper 

 and iron which they afterwards manufacture, as well as the 

 beads which serve them as money, and which lost the Mak- 

 ween obtain from the Mahalcsely and the Mateebelay, two 

 other numerous tribes, who extend north-cast towards 

 Inhamban, and who trade with the Portuguese of tho coast 

 of Sofala. These two last tribes are described by the 

 loorootzco as being of a brown complexion, having long 

 hair, wearing clothes, and riding on elephants. They also 

 northward with Zumbo on the Zambese river. (See 

 Cooley's Memoir.) 



I ! KT K L, the leaf of an intoxicating kind of pepper. [See 

 PIHHR ] 



ni. [SceBKiT.] i 



BKTHAMA (B3aK/a), according to Simon (Onomas- 

 ticum, Novi Testumenli. 42), ,TJJ? TV2L, ' tho house or tho 



of lowliness,' so called from its low situation, which 

 various travellers have observed. Lightfoot, Roland, ami 



BET 



others, derive it from \)VT /V:i. ' the house or place of dates, 



'from the Talraudic PUTIN, ' unripe date.' (Othon. Lex. 

 Rabb. 98.) Many names of places in the Holy Land aro 

 compounded with tho word /TH. ' house,' an iii (ierniun, 

 Miihlhausen, Nordhausen, Schaffhau&en ; and iii I 

 names, such as Limchouse. Compare the German ' heim' 

 in Hoehheim, Manheim, Hildeshcim, corresponding to the 

 English ' ham' in Clapham, Egham, Tottenham : tho termi- 

 nation heim is equivalent to h<>mr. 



Bethania was fifteen stadia south-east of Jerusalem, at 

 the foot of Mount Olivet On the site of Bethania there is 

 now a village inhabited by Arabs, where the house of Siiii<>n 

 the leper and the grave of Lazarus are shown. (Matt 

 17, xxvi. 6; Mark xi. 1, 11, 12; Luke xix. 29. xxiv. 50; 

 JohnxL; Pococke, Travels ; Richt. Wattfahrt. 35; Korle, 

 Reite, 129; Troilo, Reise, 373.) 



The oldest MSS. read in John i. 28, Bethania, instead of 

 Bethabara. This Bethania was another place on the east 

 side of the Jordan. Possin (Spicil. Et'ang. 32) has ob- 

 served that the names Bethabara and Bethania have a Miml.ir 

 signification. Tho name Bethbaro, JTU JT2 (J' 

 vii. 24), seems to be contracted or shortened from n~Q>' 

 /V3, domus trantitus, ' the house of passing over;' to this 

 the meaning of the name Bethania or Bethany is nearly 

 allied, JTJN 7T3. ' 'he house of the ship,' i.e. the hoi. 

 the ferry-boat. (Pococke; Paulus, Comment, iv. 129 ; Pau- 

 lus, Sammlung, i. 287 ; Bolten, Comment, to John i. 28 ; 

 Kiihni'J. Comment, iii. 151 ;Lucke, Comment, to John i. '2X ; 

 Neues Kritisches Journ. iii. 383; Crome, Beitrage, i. 82, 

 &c. ; Winer, Realworterbuch.) 



BETHESDA, Bij3ra (Eusebius writes BijJijSa) N1DH 

 /Vi house of charity, was the name of a tank or pool, 

 surrounded with five halls or porches near the sbee] 

 at Jerusalem. Tradition now points out this tank or pool 

 near the gate of St. Stephen, at the east side of the moun- 

 tain on which the temple stood, where there is an empty 

 tank 120 feet long, and 40 feet broad, walled round with 

 stones, but without water. Some have endeavoured to ac- 

 count for the healing power of the water contained in this 

 tank by its mineral properties ; others (as Theophylactus in 

 his Commentary, and Richter, de Balneo Animaii in J.ii\- 

 sertationibus Med. Gott. 1775, 4to. p. 107, &c.) by the 

 quantity of blood which ran into it from the sacrifices. 

 Richter says that the healing effect of this water, especially 

 in nervous disorders, could only lost while it was quite fresh. 

 This he mentions in reference to John v. 3, 4 : 'In these 

 porches lay a great number of impotent folk, of blind, halt, 

 withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an 

 angel went down at a certain season into the pool and 

 troubled the water : whosoever then first after the troubling 

 of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease 

 he had.' Some have ascribed tho red colour of this water 

 to the ochre which it contained, others to the fresh blood of 

 the animals offered in sacrifices. Eusebius describes tho 

 water in the pool of Bethesda as remarkably rod (wapafoKuf 

 a-i^otvtffuvov.) (See Hottinger, de Piscina Rethesdar, Tigur, 

 1705. 4.; E. A. Schulze, In den Berlinischen rermisrhten 

 Abhandlungen and Urtheilen. II. Medirinisrh-hermmeu- 

 tifch-Untersuchungen, p. 146, &c.; Winer's Wvrtcrbuch; 

 Gesenii Lexicon.) 



BETHLEHEM-JUDAH, Ephrath, or Ephratah, so 

 called to distinguish it from Bethlehem of Zebulon (Jos. xix. 

 1 5), stands on a rising ground about six miles south-cast of 

 Jerusalem. It never was a town of large size. The name 

 7 ./T3, Beth-lehetn, house of bread, indicates probably 



the fertility of the soil. The Septuagint write Bij3Xp, and 

 Josephus Bij3Xr/i and Brj3X<</</i. The earlier name of Beth- 

 lehem was nmS)N, Ephrathah (Gen. xxxv. 16, 19; xlviii. 



7.) : it was fortified by Rchoboam, who built cities for de- 

 fence in Judah, even Bethlehem, &c. (2 Chron. xi. 5, 6.) 

 Bethlehem was the birth-place of David, and also of Jesus 

 Christ The Emperor Hadrian is said to have instituted 

 rites here to Adonis, The pious Empress Helena built a 

 handsome church in the form of a cross, over the grotto in 

 which our Saviour is said to have been born, which remains 

 to this day. This church was much embellished by Con- 

 stant ine, and the interior adorned with mosaic work. The 

 ixxiy of tho church is supported by forty white marble 

 Corinthian columns in four rows: connected with the build- 

 ing are Latin, Greek, and Armenian convents. The rijflit 

 of guarding the sacred cradle (pointed out as a white mar/>l t 



