BET 



345 



BET 



trough placed in a grotto cut out of the rock) has, it ap- 

 pears, often changed hands from the Greeks to the Latins, 

 and is a source of much jealousy between the monks of 

 the two creeds, though both parties willingly join in its de- 

 fence when threatened by the Mohammedans. At the time 

 of Ali Bey s visit there were only about twenty monks in 

 the Latin convent. The whole building is enclosed by 

 walls of great strength with only one door, and has the 

 appearance of a fortress. 



The population of Bethlehem is given by Ali Bey at 500 

 families ; Volney, about 1785, estimated 600 men capable of 

 bearing arms ; and Parsons reckons 1500 Catholics, 1000 

 Greeks, and a few Armenians and Turks. The village is 

 beautifully situated ; the country around is richly covered 

 with olives, vines, and fig-trees, and a small rivulet runs 

 through the valley. Browne mentions the remains of a 

 stone channel, which formerly conveyed the water from 

 Solomon's pools to Jerusalem. 



There are shown the house of Simeon, the tomb of Ra- 

 chel, the wells for which David longed, the place of the 

 Nativity, the fountains of Solomon, the cave in which David 

 cut off Saul's skirt, the wilderness of St. John, and the 

 house where Joseph was warned to flee into Egypt from 

 the wrath of Herod, who committed the atrocious massacre 

 of all the young children of Bethlehem in his anxiety to de- 

 Btroy one who he feared would supplant him in his throne. 

 The village of the shepherds consists of a number of caves 

 still used as a retreat for cattle and shepherds at night. 

 The village retains the name of Beit-el-lahm. Pococke 

 mentions a singular method of baking with hot-stones 

 peculiar to this place. (Mariti's Hasselquist ; Pococke's, 

 Ali Bey's, Browne's, Volney's, Travels in Syria; Justin. 

 Tryph. c. 78; Hieron. Ep. 24, ad Marcell. ; Euseb. Dem. 

 _/>. vii. 4; Vit. Const, iii. 41 ; Origen, Op. i. 567 ; Epiph. 

 Haer. 51, &c. ; Phocas, c. 27; Protevangel. Jiic. c. 18, in 

 Fahricii Codex Apocryph. i. 105; Ernesti Opuscula Theo- 

 logica, 595, seq. ; Spanhem, De Pressepi Domini Nostri, 

 Berol. 1IJ95, 12mo.; Wernsdorf, De Bethleliemo ajiud 

 Hieronymitm, Viteb. 1769, 4to. ; Verpoorten, Fuse. Dis- 

 vrtutinnum, Coburg, 1739, 8vo. ; Abulfeda, Syr. 88; 

 Uelandi, Pal. 643, &e.) 



BETHLEHEM. There are several small towns and 

 villages of this name in the United States. Among the 

 most important is the Moravian settlement in the county of 

 Northampton, State of Pennsylvania. It is pleasantly situ- 

 ated on the river Lehigh, a branch of the Delaware, fifty 

 miles N. by W. from Philadelphia. The buildings, which, 

 like all others within the valley, are of limestone, have the 

 uniform appearance, and are laid out with the regularity, 

 by which the settlements of the brethren are everywhere 

 distinguished. The inhabitants are all Moravians, and have 

 here a bishop ; and as they are mostly of German extrac- 

 tion, the German language is more in use than the English. 

 English, however, is taught in the schools, and the reli- 

 gious services are performed in both languages. Besides 

 the church, there are three large public buildings in the 

 place ; namely, the house for single brethren, that for single 

 sisters, and that for such widows as are unprovided with a 

 house of their own. Connected with the houses of the single 

 brethren and sisters respectively, are academies for boys 

 and girls under the immediate care of competent teachers, 

 and under the general superintendence of the minister of 

 the place, and the elders and wardens of the fraternity. In 

 the boys' school instruction is given in the Latin, English, 

 and German languages, and in arithmetic, music, draw- 

 ing, &c. ; the girls are taught the usual branches of know- 

 ledge, with the English and German languages, history, 

 geography, music, and every thing that is usually taught 

 in a female boarding-school, with the exception of dancing. 

 These schools, particularly that for girls, have acquired a 

 very high repute ; and as they do not offer their advantages 

 exclusively to Moravians, persons of different religious per- 

 suasions resident in Philadelphia, New York, and other 

 towns in the neighbouring states, often send their children 

 to Bethlehem for education. (Morse's American Geogra- 

 phy : Lieut. Francis Hall's Travels in Canada and the 

 United States, &c.) 



BETHPHAGE, NJ3 Jta (pronounced Bethfagge), 



home of figs, is a village two miles from Jerusalem, on 

 the Mount of Olives, whence Christ obtained the ass on 

 which he rode into Jerusalem ; a custom which was and 

 perhaps is kept up at present by the Latin monks of Jeru- 



salem who attend to the city their superior, clothed in his 

 official habits and mounted on an ass, strewing palm-leaves 

 and their garments before him. (Pococke, See.) 



According to Rauwolf (p. 439) there were in his time 

 U.D. 1574) fig-trees at Bethphage. According to Origenes 

 ad Malthaoum, Bethphage was a place of the priests, or a 

 sort of ecclesiastical community. (See Huet in Origenis 

 Opera, iii. p. 743.) 



BETHUNE, a town in France in the department of Pus 

 de Calais. It is on the little river Lawe or Lave (otherwise. 

 Brette or Bietre), a feeder of the Lys ; 116 miles N. by E. 

 of Paris in a straight line; or 125 miles by the road through 

 Peronne and Arras; in 50 31' N. lat. and 2 38' E. long 

 from Greenwich. 



This town is not of very remote antiquity, having been 

 scarcely known before the beginning of the eleventh cen- 

 tury. At that period it was a lordship, the lords of which 

 bore also the title of Avoues de Saint- R'ast d' Arras; and 

 it continued in the same family till the middle of the 

 thirteenth century, when it came by marriage into the 

 hands first of the counts of Flanders, and afterwards of the 

 duke of Burgundy, Philippe le Hardi (Philip the Brave) son 

 of Jean (John) II. king of France. This duke exchanged it 

 for another possession with the count ofNamur, but Philippe 

 le Bon (Philip the Good) duke of Burgundy, grandson of 

 Philippe le Hardi, acquired it again by purchase. The 

 lordship was united to the county of Artois by Charles son 

 of Philippe le Bon, and with that county fell by conquest 

 into the hands of Louis XL of France, and afterwards by 

 treaty came to the House of Austria, th Spanish branch of 

 which inherited it. In 1645, in the reign of Louis XIV., 

 Bethune was taken by the French, under Gaston duke 

 of Orleans, the king's uncle, and with the rest of Ar- 

 tois was ceded to them by the treaty of the Pyrenees in 

 1659. In 1710 it was taken by the allies under the duke 

 of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, but restored to 

 France at the peace of Utrecht. Previous to its last cap- 

 ture the fortifications of Bethune had been augmented 

 and strengthened by Vauban. (Expilly, Dictionnaire des 

 Gaules.) 



The town is of a form nearly triangular, the castle, a very 

 irregular structure, occupying one of the angles. We have 

 no account of the present state or appearance of the town; 

 Expilly, in the middle of the last century, describes it as ill 

 built and ill paved; b'ut the place or public square is large, 

 regular, and handsome. Before the Revolution there were 

 several religious houses, a collegiate church, and two parish 

 churches. The religious houses were of Capuchins an^ 

 Recollets ; an establishment of the Jesuits, who had a 

 college under their direction ; and four nunneries, viz. two 

 of Franciscans, one of Annunciate nuns, and one of ' Les 

 Filles de la Paix.' There were also an hospital, and an 

 endowed school for poor girls. 



The trade of Bethune is benefited by the navigation of 

 the river Lawe, which navigation commences here and con- 

 tinues till the junction of the Lawe with the Lys. There 

 are tan-yards, breweries, flour and oil mills ; earthenware 

 is also made, and the cheese of the district is in high 

 repute. Linen cloth is also a very considerable article of 

 trade. The population in 1832 amounted to 6889. It 

 has rather diminished within the last thirty years. 



Bethune is the capital of an arrondissement which con- 

 tains 346 square miles or 221,440 acres, and is divided into 

 8 cantons and 144 communes : population of the arrondisse- 

 ment in 1832, 131,849. 



BETHY'LUS (Zoology), a genus formed by Cuvier, and 

 placed by him under his second order of birds (Les Passe- 

 reaux), in the first tribe (Dentirostres), and in the first 

 family (Laniadee). He says that there is but one species 

 known (Lanius Leverianus of Shaw, Lanius picatus of 

 Latham), and that the great shrike (Lanius corvinus of 

 Shaw) approaches it, though L. corvinus has the bill more 

 compressed. 



Vieillot has changed the generic name to Cissopis, and 

 Illiger makes it a Tangara. 



The genus is thus characterized by Vieillot ; bill short, 

 robust, swollen, a little compressed towards the end ; upper 

 mandible notched and curved at the point ; gape ciliated ; 

 the third and fourth quills longest ; outer toes united at 

 their base. 



Le Vaillant has figured this bird (pi. 60) under the name 

 of Pie Pie-greiche. White and black are the only colours 

 of its plumage, distributed like those of the magpie, which. 



NO. 248. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-2 Y 



