BOO 



717 



BOP 



Booshoo- made from 1781 to 1783, in the forty-one viceroyal- 

 anas, t j es f ^ gj^pj,^ t ] le num t, er f crown boors was 



. 1, 4,674,603, and or" private boors 6,678,239. See 

 Tooke's View of the Russian Empire ; and Clarke's 

 Travels, chap. 9. (k) 



BOOSHOOANAS, or Booshuaxas, a tribe of 

 CafFres who inhabit a fertile country in the south of 

 Africa. Their manners are remarkably simple, and 

 their principal occupation is in attending their cows, 

 and hunting the antelope. The relative duties of the 

 men and women are, in a singular manner, inter- 

 changed. The women break up the ground with an 

 iron hoe, sow the seed, reap the grain, and deposit it 

 in their granaries in a state fit for use ; while the men 

 attend the cattle, milk the cows, and prepare the dif- 

 ferent articles of dress for their wives and children. 



The capital of the Booshooanas is Leetakoo, a 

 large and populous town, which is divided into two 

 parts by a river of considerable size. Leetakoo was 

 estimated by the commissioners who visited it in 1801, 

 to be as large in ciraumference as Cape Town, inclu- 

 ding all the gardens of Table Valley. The streets are 

 regular, and the buildings very low. The ground 

 plan of every house is exactly circular, and is from 12 

 to 15 feet in diameter. The floor consists of hard 

 beaten clay, elevated about four inches above the sur- 

 face of the ground. The lower part of the house, 

 to the height of four feet from the floor, is formed of 

 stone laid on clay, having wooden spars erected at 

 certain distances. About one-fourth part of the cir- 

 cle is entirely open, and this open part was the part 

 which seemed always to face the east. By means of 

 an inner circular wall passing through the centre of 

 the house, and of the same radius as the outer wall, 

 so as to cut off one-third of the circumference, an 

 apartment is formed, in which they deposit their clo- 

 thing, their ivory ornaments, their hassagais, (the 

 weapon which they use in hunting and fighting,) their 

 knives, and other articles of value. In this apartment 

 the heads of the family sleep, while the children sleep 

 in the half closed viranda, which comprehends two- 

 thirds of the circumference of the circle. The roofs 

 of the houses are round, and pointed in the form of a 

 tent, thatched with reeds, or the straws of the holcus. 

 Every house is surrounded with a pallisade, the open 

 space between which and the house is reserved for the 

 granary. The grain is lodged in jars of baked clay, 

 each of which holds about 100 gallons. Each jar 

 stands upon a tripod of baked clay, which raises it 

 about nine inches from the ground. A round straw 

 roof, erected on poles, forms a covering for the jars 

 in such a manner, as to allow an opening into each of 

 them. Leetakoo contains about two or three thou- 

 sand houses, and ten or fifteen thousand inhabitants. 

 East Long. 27, and South Lat. 26 30'. See Bar- 

 row's Voyage to Cochin-China, p. 390. (h) 



BOOTAN, or Butaan, a province dependant 

 on Thibet, and situated between that country and 

 Bengal. The limits of this province are not accu- 

 rately ascertained. Paridrong, and the chain of 

 mountains near it, were supposed to have been the 

 boundary between Bengal and Thibet ; but it ap- 

 pears from later authorities, that they form the boun- 

 dary between Thibet and Bootan. This country 

 abounds with lofty mountains, covered with eternal 



verdure. Rich orchards, fertile fields, and thriving Bootes, 

 villages, crown their summits, while forests of lofty ^ Bopal. 

 trees rise at their base. Bootan is bounded on the v " " v "~" 

 south, by a ridge of mountains, which, in the space 

 of fifteen miles, rise to the perpendicular height of 

 one mile and a half from the plains of Bengal. The 

 few passes that are to be found in this chain are 

 strongly fortified, and the road to Tassasudon, the 

 capital of Bootan, is over the rugged summits of 

 high mountains and dangerous precipices. In ad- 

 vancing still farther into the interior, we meet with 

 another lofty chain of mountains covered with snow, 

 called Ritnola, or Himmaleh, which is seen at the 

 distance of 150 miles. This chain runs between Tas- 

 sasudon and Paridrong, and the mountains are suppo- 

 sed to exceed in height even the highest of the Andes. 

 Mr Turner is of opinion, that iron, and a small portion 

 of copper, are the only metals in this province. The 

 inhabitants of Bootan are supposed to have a nearer 

 a'ffinity to the Chinese than to the Hindoos. They 

 carry on a considerable commerce with the people of 

 Sirinagur. They bring to that country rock salt 

 and borax, and carry back in exchange the salt which 

 is brought from Lahore, and is called Nemuk La- 

 kooree. For a more complete account of this pro- 

 vince, see Turner's Account of an Embassy to the. 

 Court of the Teshoo Lama in Thibet. See also Cap- 

 tain Thomas Hardwicke's Narrative of a Journey to 

 Sirinagur in the Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 369. 

 and Thibet, (h) 



BOOTES, the name of a constellation in the 

 northern hemisphere, containing 23 stars in Ptolemy's 

 catalogue, 28 in Tycho's, 3+ in Bayer's, 52 in He- 

 velius's, 54 in Flamstead/s, and 64 in the catalogue 

 published in the Tables de Berlin. See Astronomy, 

 p. 751. (tu) 



BOPAL, or Bopaltal, a town of Hindostan, 

 and capital of a territory of the same name in the 

 country of Malwa. As the only correct account of 

 this town is that which is given by Mr Hunter, in 

 his Narrative of a Journey from Agra to Oujein, 

 performed in the year 1792, we shall make no apolo- 

 gy for presenting it in his own words. 



" The town of Bopal is extensive, and surround- 

 ed with a stone wall. On the outside is a large 

 gunge, with streets wide and straight. On a rising 

 ground, to the south-west of the town, is a fort call- 

 ed Futteh-gurh, newly) erected, and not yet quite fi- 

 nished. It has a, stone wall with square towers, 

 but no ditch. The spot on which it is built is one 

 solid rock. To the south-west, under the walls of 

 this fort, is a very extensive tank, or pond, farmed 

 by an embankment, at tire confluence of five streams 

 issuing from the neighbouring hills, which form a 

 kind of amphitheatre round the lake. Its length is 

 about six miles, and from it the town has the addition 

 of tal to its name. These hills, and others in the 

 neighbourhood, contain a soft free stone, and a red- 

 dish granite, the latter of which seems well calculated 

 for buildings that will resist water and the injuries 

 of the weather. It is accordingly used in the new 

 embankment, which is now buiiding at the east end 

 of the lake. From this part issues the small river. 

 Patara, and it is said that the Betwah takes its rise v 

 from another part of the same. 



