364, 



KAUEUF BABYLONIA. 



ous disposition ; and he is noted as the first Indian 

 sovereign who had the road by which he travelled 

 measured after him. See Dow's History of Hindus- 

 tan. 



HAKETF, Francis Noel ; one of the numerous in- 

 dividuals, of more zeal than judgment, who dis- 

 tinguished themselves during the French revolution. 

 He was born at St Quentin, and left without re- 

 sources, at the age of sixteen, by the death of his 

 father. Having been unjustly imprisoned in the 

 citadel of Arras for forgery, he made his escape, and 

 went to Paris, where, in concealment, he published a 

 pamphlet against the Jacobins, entitled, Du Systeme 

 de Depopulation, ou la fie et les Crimes de Carrier, 

 8vo. Soon after, he started a democratic journal, 

 called Le Tribun du Peuple,par Gracchus Babeuf. 

 He then wrote with great severity against the 

 Jacobins, and even addressed severe reproaches to 

 the national representatives. After the fall of 

 Robespierre, to which he powerfully contributed, he 

 openly attacked the terrorists, and, after the organiza- 

 tion of the new government, in 1795, he resumed his 

 journal, and advocated in it the most democratic 

 principles, with such energy as to bring on him the 

 vengeance of the ruling powers. He was accused of 

 a conspiracy against the directorial government, 

 tried at Vendome, with some accomplices, declared 

 guilty, and condemned to death, in 1797. He en- 

 deavoured to destroy himself, but was prevented, 

 and fell by the hand of the. public executioner. The 

 debates on his trial were published in 6 vols., Svo. 



BABLVGTON, Anthony ; a Catholic gentleman of 

 Derbyshire, who associated with others of his own 

 persuasion to assassinate queen Elizabeth, and deliver 

 Mary, queen of Scots. The plot being discovered by 

 AValsingham, the conspirators were executed in 1586. 

 Babington seems to have been principally induced to 

 this rash conspiracy by a romantic hope that Mary, 

 in gratitude, would accept of him as a husband. 



BABOON; a common name applied to a genus of 

 monkeys, with the exception of one species peculiar 

 to Africa. This genus is the cynocephalus, or dog- 

 head monkeys of modern naturalists, and is divided 

 into two sub-genera, well characterized by the dif- 

 ference of their tails : the first is called baboon, having 

 the tail longer than, or nearly as long as, the body, 

 and continuous with the dorsal spine ; the second, 

 named mandrill, is characterized by a short, slender, 

 and pig-like tail, placed perpendicular to the dorsal 

 spine. There are four species of the first and two of 

 the second sub-genus. The most striking peculiarity 

 of the vrhole is the elongated, dog-like head, with 

 its flat, compressed cheeks, projecting and strong 

 teeth, and forehead depressed below the level of the 

 superior margins of the orbits. Notwithstanding this 

 close approximation to the shape of the dog's liead, 

 the form and position of the eyes, combined with 

 the similarity of the arms and hands, give to 

 these creatures a resemblance to humanity as strik- 

 ing as it is disgusting. The whole aspect of the ani- 

 mal impresses the beholder with an idea of great 

 physical strength, united with a temper at once incor- 

 rigibly vicious and brutally ferocious. Such, at 

 least, is the true character of the baboons capable of 

 being ruled by the severest treatment. It is only 

 while coercion is continued, that they can be even 

 partially restrained : left to their own will, their 

 savage nature immediately resumes its sway, and 

 their actions are gratuitously cruel, destructive, and 

 disgusting. The phrenologist finds evidence, in the 

 conformity of the character of these creatures with 

 their cerebral developement, of the exactness of his 

 general, positions. In the vicinity of the cape of 

 Good Hope, where a species of baboon (C. sphinx) is 

 found in considerable numbers, the inhabitants cliase 



them with docs and guns, in order to destroy the 

 on account 01 the ravages they commit in the fields 

 and gardens. They make a very obstinate and effec- 

 tual resistance to the dogs, and only retreat before 

 men when armed with giuis. They feed exclusively 

 on fruits, seeds, and other vegetable matter, which 

 shows how independent their disposition is of every 

 tiling but peculiar organization. Nothing can exceed 

 the lasciviousness ot these disagreeable creatures, 

 which, when in captivity, indulge their lubricity tn 

 the most disgusting manner a circumstance which 

 renders it unsafe for females to visit exhibitions of 

 animals where these beasts form a part of the num- 

 ber. If a woman be in presence of a baboon, the 

 slightest attention paid her by a man, the taking her 

 by the hand, or exhibiting any approach to can 

 throws the animal into a paroxysm of rage, and, no 

 doubt, could he escape, he would inflict severe pun- 

 ishment on the offender. The baboon can never be 

 called tamed, how long soever his confinement may 

 have endured. As he advances in age, all his worst 

 qualities become more strongly expressed, and his 

 savage disposition grows exceedingly dangerous, and 

 slight causes provoke him to terrible fury. For such 

 reasons, these animals should not be allowed to form 

 a part of a caravan for general exhibition, without 

 being carefully secured and well watched. 



BABOUR. See Baber. 



BABRIAS, or BABRIUS ; a Greek poet, supposed to 

 have lived a short time before the beginning of the 

 Christian era. He turned the fables of jEsop into 

 verse, of which work some fragments have been pub- 

 lished in Fabulee Gr. Lot., cum Notts Neveleti, Frank- 

 fort, 1660, Svo. Mr Tyrwhitt printed, in 1776, Dis- 

 sertatio de Babrio, Fabularum JEsopearum Scriptore, 

 containing all the information he could collect con- 

 cerning this ancient writer. 



BABYLONIA (now, Irak Arabt) ; an old Asiatic em- 

 pire, bounded E. by Susiana, S. by the Persian gulf 

 andChaldea, AV. by Arabia Deserta, and N. by Media 

 and Armenia, or Mesopotamia. As the Chaldeans 

 had possession of the whole country, it was also in- 

 cluded under the name Chaldea. It is a level region, 

 watered by two great rivers, the Euphrates, or Frat, 

 and the Tigris. The former stream, which is almost 

 always on a level with its low banks, overflows on 

 the slightest occasion. It inundates the whole coun- 

 try every spring, when it is swollen by the waters 

 from the Armenian mountains, and fertilizes it as the 

 Nile does Egypt. Nature has supplied the want of 

 wood and stone by clay, which, when dried in the 

 sun, or burned in furnaces, makes durable bricks, 

 that even to the present time have resisted the effects 

 of the climate in the ruins of the ancient city. For 

 mortar, the inhabitants use bitumen, of which there 

 are copious springs. 



The extent of the old capital, Babylon, situated on 

 the Euphrates, according to the representations of 

 the ancients, approaches the miraculous. The walls 

 are said to have been 350 feet high, and 87 feet 

 thick ; to have had 250 towers, and 100 gates of 

 brass, and to have been more than 60 miles in circuit. 

 The temple of Belus and the hanging gardens were 

 among the greatest curiosities of this gigantic city, 

 of which almost every trace is destroyed. The Ba- 

 bylonians, one of the most ancient nations of the 

 earth, of the Semitic race, as appears by their lan- 

 guage, which is an Aramaic or Syriac dialect, were a 

 distinct people, with settled abodes, and a certain 

 degree of scientific cultivation, as early as 2000 B. C. 

 The Mosaic account mentions Nimrod as the founder 

 of the first empire in Babylonia. The later Greek 

 describe Belus, Ninus, and Sf miramis as great con- 

 querors. (See Assyria.) B. C. 630, the Chaldeans, a 

 wandering people, under Nabopolassar, descended 





