BAS 



shining, yellow, with a white band ; na- 

 tive of Malabar and Ceylon. 



BASSOON, a musical instrument of the 

 wind sort, blown with a reed, furnished 

 with eleven holes, and used as a bass in a 

 concert of hautboys, flutes, &c. To ren- 

 der this instrument more portable, it is 

 divided into two parts, whence it is also 

 called fagot. Its diameter at bottom is 

 nine inches, and its holes are stopped 

 like those of a large flute. The compass 

 of the bassoon comprehends three oc- 

 taves, extending from double B flat, to B 

 above the treble-cliff note. The scale 

 includes every semitone between its ex- 

 tremes, and its tone is so assimilated to 

 that of the hautboy, as to render it the 

 most proper bass to that instrument. 



BASSO-RELIEVO, or BASS-RELIEF, a 

 piece of sculpture, where the figures or 

 images do not protuberate, jet, or stand 

 out far above the plane on which they 

 are formed. Whatever figures or repre- 

 sentations are thus cut, stamped, or other- 

 wise wrought, so that not the entire bo 

 dy, but only a part of it, is raised above 

 the plane, are said to be done in relief, 

 or relievo ; and when that work is low, 

 flat, and but a little raised, it is called 

 low relief; when a piece of sculpture, a 

 coin, or a medal, has its figure raised, so 

 as to be well distinguished, it is called 

 bold, and we say its relief is sirong 



The origin of basso-relievo is said to 

 have been' described in the story of the 

 maid of Corinth, related by Pliiw, who 

 says that the Sicyonian potter, her father, 

 invented the following method of taking 

 likenesses. His daughter being in love 

 with a youth going to a foreign country, 

 she circumscribed the shadow of his face 

 with lines on the wall by lamp light. Her 

 father took the impression in clay, and 

 baked it among his vases. 



BASSOVIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Essential character ; corolla five-cleft ; 

 spreading with a very short tube ; berry 

 ovate, knobbed, with many seeds. There 

 is but one species; viz, B. sylvatica; the 

 stems herbaceous, three or four feet 

 high, branched; flowers in axillary co- 

 rymbs, green, and very small. Native of 

 Guiana, in wet forests, flowering and 

 fruiting in June. 



BASS-VIOL, a musical instrument of a 

 like form with that of a violin, but much 

 larger. It is struck with a bow as that is, 

 has the same number of strings, and has 

 eight stops, which are subdivided into 

 semi-stops ; its sound is grave, and has a 

 much nobler effect in a concert than that 

 of the violin. 



BJ4K 



BASTARD, a natural child, or one 

 born oi' an unmarried woman. By ihe 

 laws of England, a bastard is incapable of 

 inheriting 1 land, as heir to his father; nor 

 can any one inherit land as heir to him, 

 except the children of his own body, 

 born in wedlock ; for, by order of law, a 

 bastard has no relation, of which it takes 

 any notice, and he himself is accounted 

 the first of his family. If a man marries a 

 woman that is big with child by another, 

 who was not her husband, and the child 

 is born within the espousals, then it shall 

 be deemed the child of the husband, and 

 no bastard, though it were born but a 

 day after the marriage ; but this is un- 

 derstood when the parties are of age, 

 and there is no apparent impossibility on 

 the man's side, if a woman be with child 

 by a man who afterwards marries her, 

 and then the child is born, this child is 

 no bastard ; but if a man hath issue by a 

 woman, before marriage, and afterw ard 

 marries her, the first issue is a bastard, by 

 our laws, but legitimate by the civil law. 

 If a woman elope from her husband, and 

 he be within the four seas, her issue shall 

 not be a bastard by our laws, though by 

 the special law it shall : and if the wife 

 continues in adultery, and has issue, it is 

 a bastard in our law. If the husband and 

 wife consent to live separate, and have 

 issue afterwards, it shall be accounted le- 

 gitimate, because the access of the hus- 

 band shall be presumed ; but if the con- 

 trary be found, it shall be a bastard. 



BASTION, in the modern fortification, 

 a huge mass of earth, faced usually with 

 sods, sometimes with brick, and rarely 

 with stone, standing out from a rampart, 

 whereof it is a principal part, and is what, 

 in the ancient fortification, was called a 

 bulwark. A bastion consists of two faces 

 and two flanks ; the faces include the an- 

 gle of the bastion ; and their union makes 

 the outmost, or the saliant angle, called 

 also the angle of the bastion ; and the 

 union of the two faces to the two flanks 

 makes the side-angles, called also the 

 shoulders, or epaules ; and the union of 

 the two other ends of the flanks to the 

 two curtains makes the angles of the 

 flanks. See FORTIFICATION. 



B ASTON, in law, one of the servants 

 to the warden of the Fleet-prison, who 

 attends the king's courts with a red staff, 

 for taking into custody such as are com- 

 mitted by the court. * He also attends on 

 such prisoners as are permitted to go at 

 large by licence. 



BASTOX, or BATOON, in heraldry, a kind 

 of bend, having only one third of the 

 usual breadth. The hasten does not go 



