B A O 



BAP 



BANZA, in Geography, a town of Africa, in the king- 

 dom of Congo, now called St. Salvador. 



BANZKOW, a town of Germany, in the circle of 

 Lower Saxony, and county of Schwciin. 



BAOBAB, in Natural Hijlory, the name of an African 

 fruit, defcribed by Profpcr Alpinus. It is of the fize of a 

 lemon, but it rtftmbles a gourd, and contains feveral black 

 feeds, whofe extremities are a little crooked. Its fiibf.ance 

 alio much refembles that ol' the gourd ; and, when firil pulled 

 off, is moill, red, and of a grateful ac'd tallc. The people 

 of Ethiopia, where it is plentiful, are very fond of it, in 

 the fcorching heats of fummer; and the richer fort add 

 fugar to it, to correct its acidity. It i.s a great cooler, and 

 very agreeably quenches thiril; and has alfo fome medi- 

 cinal ule, as it is good iii conijgious and peililential fevers. 

 The people of Cairo, where the frefh fruit is not to be had, 

 ufe it's pulp dried and posvdered; and it is fo ufed at Se- 

 negal in peililential fevers, the dyfentery, and bloody flux. 

 The dofe is a drachm, taken either in common water, or in 

 an infufion of the plantain. 



The baobab tree, the Adanfon'ta dig'itata (fee Adansonia), 

 has been very minutely and accurately defcribed by 

 Mr. Adanfon, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences 

 at Paris. It is foimd at Senegal in Africa; and its bulk is 

 fo enormous, that it has more the appearance of a forefl 

 than of a fingle tree. Its trunk, which feldom exceeds 

 twelve feet in height, meafures between feventy and eighty 

 feet in circumfere^ice, and is crowned with a number of 

 branches, remarkable for their thicknefs and their length, 

 which is from fifty to fixty feet. They mollly fhoot out in 

 an horizontal direftion, and give to the trunk the ap- 

 pearance of an hemifphere from fixty to feventy feet high, 

 and about a hundred and forty feet in diameter. The 

 bark is an inch thick, of an afh-coloured grey, greafy to 

 the touch, bright, and very fmooth ; the outfide is covered 

 with avarnifli, and the inhde is green fpeckled with red; the 

 wood is white and foft ; the leaves are oval, pointed at the 

 end, and about five inches long, and two and a half broad; 

 feven of thefe are generally attached to one pedicle. The 

 tree produces flowers much larger than any hitherto known ; 

 the calyx cf the flower confiils only of one piece, the lower 

 part of which forms a fhart tube, which fp'reads into the 

 (hape of a faucer, having its edge divided into five equal 

 parts of a triangular figure. The petals are five in number, 

 of the fame length with the calyx. From-the fame centre, 

 and within the petal, rifes a cone, which fpreads into about 

 feven hundred filaments, each having a fniall fubftance in form 

 of a kidney at the end of it, the convex part of which opens 

 into two cells, which fhed a duft, confilling of fmall white 

 tranfparent particles. The pillil rifes from the centre of 

 the calyx, and confifts of an ovary, a ftylus, and feveral 

 ftigmata, in number from ten to fourteen. The ovary be- 

 comes a very confiderable fruit. The tree flowers in July, 

 and the fruit ripens in Oftober and November. The bark 

 and leaves are dried, and powdered by the negroes of Se- 

 negal, and ufed hke pepper and fait. Mr. Adanfon ufed it 

 as a prefervative from the epidemic fever of the country, 

 and foimd it of great benefit in promoting perfpiration, and 

 attempering the exccffive heat of the blood. The woody 

 bark of the fruit, and the fruit itfelf, fupply the negroes 

 with an excellent foap, which they prepare by drawing a 

 ley from the afhes, and boiling it with palm-oil that begins 

 to be rancid. The decaying trunks are hollowed out into 

 burying places for perfons moll elleemed by the negroes; 

 fuch as poets, mulicians, and buffoons; and their bodies 

 {hut up in thefe trunks become ptrfedtly dry, without rot- 

 ting", and form a kind of mummies, without the help of 



I 



enihalment. This is the largeft tree in Abyffinia. The 

 wild bees perforate the trunk, whicli is foft and fpongv, and 

 lodge their honey in the holes made in it ; and this honey is 

 preferred to any other in AbyfTwia. It may be pronaga'ted 

 by feeds, procured from the country where it naturally 

 grows. Thefe niufl be fown in pots and plunged in a hot- 

 bed; and when in about fix weeks the plants come up, they 

 (houldbe tranfplanted into fcparate pots, filled with liglitfandy 

 earth, a'ul plunged into a frefli hot-bed, (hading them till 

 tiiey have taken nev/ roet; after which they ihould have 

 free air in warm weather, aiid be fpaiingly watered. As ths 

 plants advance in growth, they mull be fhifted into larger 

 pots, and kept conllantly plynged in the bark-bed, and re- 

 main in the Hove with other tender exotic plants. In three 

 years, many of them rife to the height of fix feet, and put 

 out feveral lateral branches, and their Hems arc proportion- 

 able; but after four or five years' growth, they are almofl at 

 a (land, their annual (hoots rarely exceeding two or three 

 inches. Some feeds obtained from Mr. Adanfon have fuc- 

 ceeded here, and many of the plants grow upwards of twelve 

 or fifteen feet high. NIartyn's Miller. The African baobab 

 has been fometimes confounded with the American ca- 

 labaHi. 



BAOL, or Baul, in Geography, a kingdom of Africa, 

 in the country of Senegal, about eighty leagues long and 

 twenty-four wide. 



BAOOM, or Apoom, one of the newly difcovered 

 iOands in the Southern Pacific ocean. S. lat. 16'' 26'. 

 W.long. iSe*' 17'. 



BAONS, Les, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Lower Seine, 2\ leagues north of Caudcbec. 



BAPAUME, a town of France, and principal place of a 

 diftrict in the department of the ftraits of Calais, containing 

 about 4500 inhabitants; three polls fouth of Arras, and 19^ 

 north ot Paris. 



BAPHE, in the WrUlngs of the ^Indents, a word ufed to 

 exprefs that fine red colour, with which they ufed to illumi- 

 nate the capital letters in manuferipts, at the beginning of 

 chapters. It is alio called, by fome, encaujium facra ; and, 

 by others, coccus and cmnabaris. It was a very elegant co- 

 lour,, and is (aid to have been prepared of the purple 

 colour taken from the murex, and fome other ingredients. 

 It was called eiicaujlum from its refenibling^ very much the 

 fine bright red ufed in enamels. 



BAPTACA, in Geography, a town of North America 

 in the country of New Navarre, forty-five miles E.S.E, of 

 Cafa Grand. 



BAPT^ in ytnltqulty, an effeminate voluptuous kind of 

 pricfts at Athens, belonging to Cotys or Cotytto, the 

 goddefs of wantonnels; tlius called, from their Hated dip- 

 pings and walhings, by way of puriiication. It feems, they 

 were to be made very clean aud pure, that they might 

 wallow and defile thcmfclves with the lefs referve; for their 

 rites were performed in the night, and confilled chiefly cf 

 lafcivious dances. 



Eupolis having compofed a comedy to expofe them, inti- 

 tled ^a'^-j©-, they threw him into the fea, to be revenged; 

 and the fame fate .is alfo faid to have befallen Cratinus, an- 

 other Athenian poet, who had written a comedy again ll the 

 baptx, under the fame title. 



Others deduce the denomination baptas, from the praSice 

 of dying and painting their bodies, efpecially^ their eye- 

 brows, and oificiating at the fervice of their deity with 

 the parade and demurenefs of women. Juvenal dcfcribes 

 them in this liglit. Sat.ii. vcr. 91. 



" Taha fecreta coluerunt orgia ta?da 

 Cecropiaia foLti baptae lallare Cotvtto." 



BAPTES, 



