BLUNDERBUSS 784 



that is needed to blue the water used in rinsing 

 a tub of clothes. The bluing must be thor- 

 oughly stirred in the water before the clot Ins 

 are placed in the tub, otherwise they will be 

 streaked. Bluing is also put in starch. The 

 substances used most commonly in making 

 bluing are soluble Prussian blue and coal-tar 

 blue. 



BLUN'DERBUSS, a corruption of a Dutch 

 word meaning thundtr box, is applied to an 



BOABDIL 



THE BLUNDERBUSS 



old-fashioned smooth-bore, muzzle-loading gun. 

 The barrel terminated in a somewhat bell- 

 shaped muzzle, and several bullets could be 

 put in at one load. It made an effective 

 weapon at short range, as the charge scattered 

 widely and some of the bullets were almost 

 certain to take effect. It became entirely 

 obsolete with the introduction of breech-load- 

 ing weapons, but the word is much used in a 

 figurative sense to apply to anything which 

 does not concentrate effort. 



BLUSHING, which causes the face and neck 

 to redden, is brought about by the stimulation 

 of certain nerves called vaso-dilator. As a 

 result the arteries become larger and more 

 blood flows through them. Blushing is also 

 accompanied by a sensation of warmth in the 

 face. Children blush less frequently than older 

 persons because they are too young to have 

 the mental states that cause blushing that is, 

 modesty, shame and similar sensations. Un- 

 blushing is often applied to a person who is so 

 hardened that he has lost the sense of shame. 

 Mark Twain once said, "Man is the only animal 

 that blushes or needs to." 



Terror produces a physical state the opposite 

 of the one described above. The vaso-con- 

 strictor nerves are in this case stimulated, 

 which causes the tiny blood vessels to contract. 

 Thus the amount of blood is lessened, and the 

 skin grows cold and pale. W.A.E. 



BOA, bo' a, a variety of South American 

 serpents of great size and enormous strength, 

 but without poison fangs. Many fantastic 

 stories are told of the terribly destructive power 

 of boas. In the still-popular boy's book Suriss 

 Family Robinson is a vivid description of the 

 destruction and swallowing of a donkey by a 

 boa constrictor. They are said to be able to 

 swallow horses, oxen and other large animals 



whole. Of course this is not true, but it is well 

 known that they can swallow animals much 

 larger than their own heads. This is due to the 

 formation of their mouths; the jaws are joined 

 by an elastic substance which allows them to 

 Mn-trh both vertically and horizontally. 



The boas are generally found in dense for- 

 ests, where they suspend themselves from tree 

 branches and seize animals passing beneath. 

 With their strong teeth, pointing backward to- 

 wards the throat, they easily hold a small 

 animal, round which they wrap a fold of the 

 body and quickly crush it to death. Before 

 the animal is swallowed it is covered witli a 

 thick coating of saliva. After a meal a long 

 sleep is taken, lasting sometimes a week, until 

 the food is thoroughly digested; bones, horns 

 and other indigestible substances are disgorged 

 and the serpent is ready for another meal. 

 However, it can live in comfort several weeks 

 without eating. 



The most common species is the boa con- 

 strictor. It inhabits the tropical regions of 



THE BOA CONSTRICTOR 



Mexico and Brazil, and seldom exceeds twelve 

 feet in length. Stories of boas thirty and more 

 feet in length are fabrications, though the 

 anaconda, sometimes called a boa, attains a 

 length of nearly thirty feet. In Arizona and 

 other southern parts of the United States two 

 very small species of boas are found. They 

 live chiefly on small animals and insects. 



BOABDIL, boahbdeel', or ABU- ABDUL- 

 LAH, ah boo' abdil'ah, also called the little 

 and the unfortunate, was the last Moorish king 

 of Granada, which is now a province of South- 

 ern Spain. Boabdil claimed the throne in 1482 

 and expelled his father, who died of a broken 

 heart. Because of his tyranny, his subjects 

 were not loyal. Taking advantage of such 

 unsettled conditions, the Castilian army of 

 Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of 

 Castile and Aragon, was sent to besiege Gra- 



