B A L 



BALMALA, a town of Africa, In the dcfcrt of Ber- 

 doa. 



B ALMA MAT, a town of Afiatic Turkey, twelve 

 miles well of Karahifar. 



BALMARINO, in the county of Fife, in Scotland, is 

 the name of a parifti within whofe limits is a fmall har- 

 bour, and the remains of an abbey which bears the nart:e 

 of the parifii. From the former a confijerable quantity of 

 grain is annually exported ; and a fulmon fifliery is efta- 

 bliihed near this place in the frith of Tay. The abbey of 

 Balmarino, which was founded in 1229, for monks of the 

 Ciikrcian order, has been a magnificent a"d extenfive pile 

 of building ; but its grandeur is nearly annihilated, and only 

 a few fragments remain to mark its fite and character, 

 it is about ten miles to the call of Perth. 

 BALMING. See Embalming. 



BALMUCCIA, a town of Piedmont, in the valley of 

 Sefia, feven miles v.eil of Varallo. 



, BALNAVES, Henp.y, laBiogrnphy, a Scots Pioteflant 

 divine, was born in the (hire of Fife in the reign of James 

 v., and educated in the univerfity of St. Andrews. He fi- 

 niflied his ftudits in France ; and on his return to Scotland, 

 was admitted into the family of the earl of Arran, but dif- 

 mifTed in 1542, for embracing the Protcllant religion. Hav- 

 ing joined the murderers of cardinal Beaton in 1564, he was 

 declared a traitor, and excommunicated. During the iiege 

 of St. Andrews, he was lent by this party to England, and 

 returned with a confiderable fupply of provifions and money ; 

 but being compelled to funender to the French, he was 

 fent with the reft of the garrifon to France. After his re- 

 turn to Scotland, about the year 1559, he was appointed 

 one of the cammiflioners to treat with the duke of Norfolk 

 on the part of queen Elizabeth. In 1563, he was made 

 one of the loids of felTion ; and appointed, with other 

 learned men, to revife the book of difcipline. Knox, who 

 was his fellow-labourei", gives him the charafler of a very 

 learned and pious divine. He died at Edinburgh in 1579. 

 His writings are " A Treatife concerning Juftification," and 

 " A Catechiim, or Confefiion of Faith." Encycl. Brit. 



BALNEA RH Servi, in Antiquity, fervants or attend- 

 ants belonging to the baths. 



Some were appointed to heat them, cMei fornicatores ; 

 others were denominated capfani, who kept the clothes of 

 thofe that went into them ; others aliptis, whofe care it was 

 to pull off the hair; others uncluarii, who anointed and per- 

 fumed the body. 



BALNEARIUS Fur, a kind of thief who praaifed 

 flealing the clothes of perfons in the baths ; fometimes alio 

 called yur balnearum. 



The crime of thofe thieves was a kind of facrilege ; for 

 the hot baths were facred : hence they were more feverely 

 punifhed than common thieves, who dole out of private 

 lioufcs. The latter were acquitted with paying double the 

 value of the thing ftolen ; whereas the former were pu- 

 nidied with death. 



BALNEUM, in Chemijlry. See Bath. 

 BALNIA, Cabo, in Geography, Balnea, or White 

 Cape, a fmall white cliff, about fix leagues from cape Paf- 

 fado, nearly under the equator, on ihe coall of Peru, in 

 South America. 



BALOG, a town of Hungan-, twenty miles eaft of 

 Altfol. 



BALOHA, a town of Africa, on the river Grand, in- 

 liabittd by the defcendants of a mixture of Portugucfe and 

 Africans. 



BALONGO, in Geography, three iflands ia the bay of 



B A L 



Bengal, near the coaft of Arracan. N. lat. 19' 50' to 20' 



5'. E. long. 93^ to 93° 20'. 



BALONICH, in the Materia Me/ilca of thearcients, a 

 name given by Avicenna, Avcrrhoes, and others, to a kit d 

 of camphor, which they dcfcribe as coarfe, brown, and of 

 lefs value than the other forts. This is probably the fame 

 with our rough camphor, as brought over to U8 from the 

 Eaft Indies. 



BALOiS TES, in Geography, a people of Africa, who in- 

 habit the banks of the river Gcves, th; chaimcl of wiiich fepa- 

 rates Biflao from the main land. Their territory is ab >ut 

 twelve leagues in length, and about as much in breadth. 

 The Balontcs maintain r.o ir-ttrcouife with the neigiiDourlng 

 negroes, either on the conti.iciit or iflands ; and though 

 they fometimes travel beyond th.-ir own limits, they will 

 permit no foreign negroes to pafs their frontiers. Their re- 

 ligion is idolatry, and their foiTn of government an arifto- 

 cracy. They allow of no flavery ; they arc bold, intrepid, 

 and warlike ; but crafty, treacherous, and fraudulent. 

 Their arms are aiTagayes, arrows, and flibres. The Balon- 

 tans are fuppofcd to have gold mines in their country ; and 

 under this idea the Portuguefc afiembled a large body of 

 troops at Bilfao in 1695, and invaded the country. But 

 the rain of the feafon rendered their arms and ammunition 

 ulelefs ; and tlie Balontans attacked them with this difad- 

 vantage fo vigoroufly, with their aflagayes and fabres, at 

 foon to rout them and force them to retire with a confidtr- 

 able lofs of men, and of all their ammunition and ftores. 



BALOU, a town of Afia, in Armenia, twenty-five mile» 

 northweft of Cars. 



BALQLIHIDDER is a parifti in Perthlhire, in the 

 highlands of Scotland, and is noted for its mountainous 

 fcencry. Some of the mountains are ver)- high and llccp ; 

 among them, thofe of Benmore and Benvoirlich are the 

 moft lofty and confpicnous ; the firft rifing to the height of 

 3903 feet above the level of the fea, and the latter to 

 that of 3300 feet. In this parifh is a confiderable extent of 

 the ancient Caledonian forelt ; but it is annualiy abridged 

 by the inclofmg fyilcm, which has at length found its way 

 into thefe northern regions. Here are alfo feveral lakes 

 or lochs, of which the principal are thofe of Loclidoinc, 

 Lochvoil, part of LochluLuaig, and part of Lccheamo. 

 The militaiy road from Stirhng to Fort William pafles 

 through this pirifli. The great inequahiy of ground pre- 

 vents the farmers from appropriating any of their lands 

 to arable ; and the pailure on the fides of the hills is 

 chiefly fed by (heep. 



BALS, a river of Greenland, which runs into the fea. 

 N. lat. 64° 30'. W. long. 50=^ 10'. 



BALSA, in Ancient Geography, Tav'tra, a town of Hif- 

 pania, in Lufitania ; belonging, according to Ptolemy, to 

 the Turdetani. It was in the pai t called Cuncus, near the 

 fea, and not far from Anas to the well. — Alfo, a burgh 

 of the interior of Africa, reckoned by Pliny among tiic 

 conquefts of Cornelius Balbus. 



BALSAM, in Chemijlry and liLuiieine, ^xXc-xun, Gr. ; 

 lalj'amus, lalf.imum, Lat. ; haume, Fr. Various meanings 

 have been allixcd to this term, which it is of fome import- 

 ance to dillinguifh, as the clafs of natural balfams have been 

 elleemed from the earliell ages as fome of the moft valuable 

 pi-oduftions of the vegetable kingdom, have formed the 

 moll precious articles of commerce in the Eall, and have 

 been ufed for medicinal purpofes, and about the human bo- 

 dy, as long as the art of medicine and the pritticc of adorn- 

 ing the perfon have been cultivated. 



The term balfam appears to have been originally confined 

 3X2 to 



