B A L 



According to authors, the human fiibjcft is liable to the 

 formation of balls in the ir.ttdincs, in confequence of indi- 

 geftible matters not beinjr regularly expelled. Thus cafes 

 have been related of deatii enfuing from accumulations of 

 goofeberry feeds, which luid been rolled into a folid ball in 

 the ftomach ; and fir Hans Sloane gives the hillor)- of a ball 

 found in the inteilines of a man, much afflicted with the 

 colic, fix inches in circumference, of a fpongy fubllance, 

 and which, when viewed with a microfcopc, appeared made 

 up of Imall tranfparent hairs or fibres, wrought toi-elhcr 

 like the tophus Lovinus; in the middle was a common plumb 

 Hone, which made, as it were, the core or nucleus upon 

 which the fibrous matter had coUccK-d, llratum fujier flratum. 

 Phil. Tranf. N°309. P.23S7. Sloane, in Phil. Tranf. N'2S2. 

 p. 1283. 



Balls of Sult-iuorms ami Sp'idcrs, are little cafes or cone-; 

 woven of filk, wherein thufc infects depofit their eggs. See 

 Silk. 



Spiders are extremely tender of their balls, wliich they 

 carry about with them, adhering to the papillx- about their 

 anus. Grew fpeaks ot balls or bags of a fpecies of fillc-worms 

 in Virginia, as big as hen's eggs, and containing each four 

 aurd'tte. Phil. Tranf. N° 362. p. 1037. 



Ball of the Foot of a Dog, is the prominent part of the 

 middle of the foot, called by Latin writers of the middle 

 age, pclota, which is to be taken away in expeditatio.^. Du- 

 Cange GlofT. Lat. 



Balls, Billiard, are ivory balls ufed in the game of bil- 

 liards. Moxon defcrib':-s the method of turning hollow ivory 

 balls one within another. Mechan. Exerc. p. 219. 



B.\ll, Tennis, is a little globe, made and covered with 

 cloth or leather, ufed in playing at the game of tennis. 



Ball is aU'o ufed, in a well-known fcnfe, for an aifembly 

 of both fexes, who dance to the found of inllruments. 

 Balls, G/a/}. See Glass-^j/Zt. 

 BALL-i'oa/'. See Soap. 



Ball and Socket, a machine contrived to give an inftru- 

 ment full play and motion every way. It conliils of a ball 

 or fpliere of brafs, fitted within a concave femi-globe, fo as 

 to he moveable every way, horizontally, vertically, and 

 obliquely. It is carried by an endlefs fcrew, and is princi- 

 pally ufed for the managing of furveying inilruments ; to 

 which it is a very neceCfary appendage. 



The ancient bjllsand fockets had two concaves, or chan- 

 nels, the one for the horizontal, the other tor the verticil 

 direftion. 



Ballsy, JVool. See Wool. 



Ball's Pyramid, in GeograpLy, a rock in the great Sou- 

 thern Pacific ocean. S. lat 31° 30'. E. long. 159" 8'. 

 B A LL A B U AN, Straits of. See B a l i. 

 BALI^AD, or Ballet, a p< pnlar fong containing the 

 recital of fome action, adventure, or Intrigue. 



The French confine their ballads to llrifter terms. A 

 ballad, according to Riehelet, is a foug confilH-g of three 

 flrophes, or ftanzas, of eight verfes each, befides a half ftro- 

 phe ; the whole in rhime, of two, three, or four verlcs, with 

 a burden repeated at the end of each llrophe, as well as of 

 the half (Irophe. 



In the old Englifh veriion of the Bible, the book of Can- 

 ticles is intitkd the Lallad of ballads, which has given fcan- 

 dal to fome Romifh writers as countenancing the opinion of 

 thofe who hold that book a ballad of love, or a recital 

 of the amours bctv/een Solomon and his concubine, as Callalio 

 and fome others have conceived it to be. 



Some have fuggeiled that a collection of ballads is neccf- 

 fary to a miniller, in order to Icara the temper aiid jntlina- 



8 



B A L 



tions of « people, which are here frequently uttered with 

 great fimplitity. The great Cecil, chief miniller to queen 

 Elizabeth, is faid to have made a moft ample colkdion of 

 ballads on thi» account. 



A very ingenious political writer, Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun, 

 fays, that if he could but make the balk.is of a nation, he 

 would care very little who made the religion cf it. There 

 IS a very curious coUeftion of old Engh(h and Scottilh bal- 

 lads, p.ibliflied in 3 vols. 8vo. by Dr. Percv ; in which, and 

 in a dilTertation prefixed to Ai-kin's Collection of Songs, &c. 

 the curious in this way may find abundance of entertain- 

 ment and information concerning the old balbds, and ballad- 

 makers. 



Ballad, a mean and trifling fong, generally, fuch as is 

 fung in the ilreets. In the new Frencli Eiicy'clopedie we 

 are told, that we dance and fiiig our ballads' at the fame 

 time, as the French do their vaudevilles. We have often 

 heard ballads fung, and fccn country-dances danced ; but 

 never at the fame time, if there was a fiddle to be !iad. 

 The Uiovement of our couritry-dances is too rapid for the 

 utterance of words ; though the term ballad, we have no 

 doubt, was derived from the Italian ballala, a fong to be 

 fung and danced at the fame time, as it is defined in the 

 Crufea Dictionary : canzone, chef! canta lallando. Ballalella, 

 and Ballaielta, are diminutivus of the fame word: piccola 

 canzonclta a hallo. The Engllth ballad has long been dc- 

 dctached from dancing, and, fince the old tranflation of the 

 Bibl:-, been confined to a lower order of fong. In 

 SKakefpeare's time this fpecies of vulgar and popular poetry- 

 was wholly degraded and tnrntd into the ftrtets — 



" An I have not ballads made on you all, and fun-r to 

 filthy tunes, may a cup of fack be my poifon." Hen. IV. 



DALLADUK, in GeograpLy, a town of Arabia De. 

 ferta, 140 miles E. N. E. of Damafcus. 



BALLA-GAUT, denoting the higher or upper Gautt, 

 an elevated triift of the peninlula of India, being the weftern 

 part of the Carnatic, or of that part of the peninfula that lies 

 fouth of the Gondcjiamaand I'oombuddra (or Tungebadra) 

 ri\ers, from the coall of Coromandcl eailward to the Gaut 

 mon:. tains well ward, and contamingthe diltrids which lately 

 compofed the country of Tippou. The other or eaftem 

 part, which is the Carnatic according to its prefent defini- 

 tion, is denominated Payen-Gaiit, or the lower Gauts. (Sec 

 Balagat.) The Balia-Gaut mountains denote that eleva- 

 ted trail, acrofs which goods were formerly conveyed from 

 Tagara, or the modem Dowlatabad, to Baroach. 

 See Afiatic Relcarchcs, vol. i. p. 369, J>;c. 8vo. 



BALLAGHAN Point, a cape on the call coaft of Ire- 

 land, m thccourty of Louth, at the fouth-welf entrance of 

 Carlingford bay; eleven miles fouti-eail of Newry. N. lat. 

 53 ' 58'. \V. long. 6° 4'. 



BALANTIRE, or Ballantrae, a fea-port town or 

 rather populous village of Scotlaut^, on the wtft coail of 

 the county of Ayr, in that fubdivifion called Carrick, on 

 the frith of Clyde, containing about eighty houfes, and 3C0 

 inhabitants. They have a good f.ilmon fifhcry at the mouth 

 of a fmall river called Ardilinctiar which joins the frith near 

 the town ; but the principal fi(her\- of fjis diftricl is that 

 of haddocks, whitings, cod, ling, ikate, &c. : twenty-eight 

 mi'ei S. S. W of Ayr. 



BALLARD, Cipe, lies on the eaft coaft of New- 

 fouiidtaiid, four lea;.^ ucs N. N. E. from cape Race, ar.d 

 four miles from Frelh-waler bay. N. lat. 46" 49'. W. king. 

 52° 40'. • 



Ballard'^ Ptint, a cape on the wtft coaft of Ireland, . 

 ia the county of Clare. N. luLiz" 42'. W. long. 9° ^2'. 



DALL.\, 



