B A I 



Bcar tTie fouthcrn bank of the KcibixWah, and runs fouth- 

 ward tliroup;h the heart of Btrar; and after a comie of 

 400 miles mixes with the Goduvery, within the hills that 

 bound our northern circars, about ninety miles above the fca. 

 It is not certain how far the Bain Gonga is navigable; but 

 it is mentioned as a large river in the early part of its courfe ; 

 and is probably equal in bulk to the Godavcry, when itjouis 

 it. Rennell's Mem. p. 246. 



BAINBRIDGE, John, in Bk^rapliy, an emment phy- 

 fician and aftronomer, was born at A(hby de la Zouch, in 

 Leicefterlhire, in I5?2, finifncd his education at Kmaiiuel 

 college in the univcrlity of Cambridge, and then retired to 

 his own country, where for feme years he taught a grammar 

 fchool, and pradifed phyfic. He alfo applied himfelf to the 

 iludy of mathematics and allronomy, to which he had been 

 devoted from his earlieft years. Upon his removal to Lon- 

 don, he was admitted a fellow of the college of phyficians. 

 His " Defcription of the comet" in 1618, introduced .him 

 to an acquaintance with fir Henry Saville, by whom he was 

 appointed, in 1619, his firft profeffor of allronomy at Oxford, 

 where he fettled, having entered himfelf a mailer commoner 

 of Merton college, for fome years. At the age of forty 

 years he began the Iludy of Arabic, with a view of publilh- 

 mg correft editions of'the ancient allronomers. He died 

 at Oxford, November the 3d, 1643, in the fi.Kty-fecond 

 year of his age. His works that were publilhed arc " An 

 Aftronomical Defcription of the late comet from November 

 18th, 1618, to the 1 6th of December following," London, 

 1619, 4to.; " Procli fphxra ;" and " Ptolemsi de hypo- 

 thefibus Planetarum liber fingularis;" to which he added 

 Ptolemy's " Canon regnorum," 1620, 4to. ; " Canicularia," 

 publifhed at Oxford, in 1648, by Mr. Greaves, together with 

 a demonrtration of the heliacal rifing of Sirius or the dog-ftar 

 for the parallel of Lower Egypt, written at the requeil of 

 irchbifiiop UHier. Several other trcatifes were prepared fur 

 the prefs, and left in MS. Biog. Brit. 



BAINDER, in Gi-ori-jphy, a town of Afiatic Turkey, 

 in the province of Natoha, forty-four miles eall from 



Boli. 



BAINDT, a town of Germany, in the cncle of Swabia, 

 fix miles N.N. E. of Ravenfpurg. 



BAINE, a river of England, in Lincolnfliire, which 

 paffes by Horncallle, Tatterfal, &c. and joins the Welham 

 ilesr the laft-mentioned place. 



BAINETTA, a town of Piedmont, in the province of 

 Coni, on the Orobio, lix miles S. E. from Coni, and eight 

 W.S.W. from Mor.dovi. 



BAINS, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Vofges, and chief place of a canton in the diftrift of Dar- 

 rey 2* leagues well of Plombieres, and 3! fouth-eall of 



Darnev. 



BAIOCCO, in Ccmimrce, a copper coin in modern 

 Rome, equivalent to a tenth part of the juho, or a hundredth 

 part of the ducat. 



The baiocco is worth about nine deniers, French money. 



BAJOLE, Cape, in Geo:;raphy, the mod northerly cape 

 of Minorca ifland, in the Mediterranean, ten leagues from 

 the mod northerly cape of the ifland of Majorca. 



BAIPIA, a town of North America, in New Navarre, 

 165 miles fouth-well from Cafa Grand. 



BAIRAM, a name given to the great annual feall of the 

 Mahometans. 



The word is alfo written, by fome authors, more con- 

 formably to the oriental orthography, bcirain. It is originally 

 Turkifh, and fignifics literally, zfmjl-day, or holiday. 



The Mahometans have two bairams, the great and the 

 huh, which Scaliger, Erpeniu^, Rycaut, Hyde, Chardin, 



B A I 



Bobovius, ar.d other European writers, commonly inttr- 

 cl'.aiige, giving the appellation ^;-w/ to that which the Turks 

 call little, and vice verjd. 



Tuio feail commencing with the new moon, the Maho- 

 metans are very fcrupulous in obferving the time when the 

 new moon commences ; to which purpofe, obfervers arc 

 fent to the tops of the high mountains, who, the moment 

 they fpy the appearance of a new moon, run to the city, 

 and proclaim mu-zoladaluh, ixidcome uetus ; as it is the fignal 

 for beginning the fcllivity. 



The ceremonies are defcribed at large by Rycaut and 

 Tournefort. 



Bairam, the Greater, is properly that held by the pil- 

 grims at Mecca, commencing on the tenth of Dhu'lhajja, 

 when the vittims are flain, and lading three days. This is 

 called by the Arabs, id al korlan, id al adha, that is, the 

 fcad of the facriiice, as being celebrated in memory of the 

 facrificc of Abraham, whofe fon God redeemed with a great 

 viftim. By European %vriters it is called the lefftr bairam, 

 as being lefs taken notice of by the generality of the people, 

 who are not druck with it, becaufe the ceremonies attend- 

 ing it are performed at Mecca, the only fcene of the folem- 

 nity. 



The Lcffir Bairam is called in Arabic Jd al Fetr, that 

 is, the fead of breaking the fad, and begins the fird of 

 Shawal, immediately fucceeding the fad of Ramadan. This 

 is called by the vulgar, and by mod others who have 

 written of the Mahometan affairs, the greater bairam, be- 

 caufe it is obfer\-cd in an extraordinary manner, and lads 

 for three days at Condantinople and in other parts of Tur- 

 key, and for five or fix days in Perfia, during which no 

 work is done ; but prefents pafs from one to another, with 

 many other manifedations of joy. If the day after Rama- 

 dan fhould prove fo cloudy as to prevent the fight of the 

 new moon, the bairam is put off to the next day, when it 

 begins, though the moon be dill obfcured. When they 

 celebrate this fead, after numerous ceremonies, or rather 

 drange mimicries, in their mofque, they end it with a 

 folemn prayer againd the infidels, to root out Chridiafl 

 princes, or to arm them one againd another, that they may 

 have an opportunity to extend the borders of their law. 

 Sale's PreL DifT. p. 150. 



BAIRDSTOVVN, or Beardstown, in Geography, a 

 flourifhing town of America, in Nelfon county, Kentucky, 

 containing 216 inhabitants, feated on the head-waters of 

 Salt-river, fifty miles S. E. from Louifville, and about the 

 fame didance S. W. from Danville. 



BAIROITT, as it is pronounced by the Arabs, and as 

 the modern Greeks pronounce B;:^u'/, Berout, or the ancient 

 Berytus, a town of Syria, in the pachalic of Saide or Acre, 

 is fituat.;d in a plain, which runs out from the foot of mount 

 Lebanon into the fea, narrowing to a point about two lea- 

 gues from the ordinary line of the fhore, and on the north 

 fide forms a pretty long road, receiving the river of Nahr- 

 el-Salib, called alfo Nahr-Bairout. The frequent floods 

 to which this river is icbjecl in winter, have occafiontd 

 the erettion of a confiderable bridge ; but this is in fo ruinous 

 a date as to be impaffable. The bottom of the road is 

 rocky, which chafes tiie cables, and renders it infecure. 

 Th; town of Bairout, which lies about an hour's journey 

 wedward towards the point, belonged till of late to the Dru- 

 zes, but E'jezzar took it from thcni, and placed in it a Turkifh 

 garrifon It dill continues, however, to be the emporium 

 of the Maronitcs and the Druzes, where they export their 

 cottons and their filks, almod all of which are fent to Cairo. 

 In return, they receive rice, tobacco, coffee, and fpecie, 

 which they exchange again for the corn of .the JBekaa and 



the 



