BEE 



Ifraelitcs (Deut. x. 6.), placed by Eufebius lo miles from 

 the city of Pctra. 



BEER-SHEBA, cillcd alfo Bfrsabe and Barsheba, 

 a city given by Jofhim to tlie tribe of Jiidali, and afterwards 

 transferred to Simeon. Jodi. xv. 28. It derived its name 

 from y^ty-TJ^^ heer-Jlcln, the well of an oath, from the 

 well on which Abraham and Ifaac ratified their alliance by 

 an oath with Abimelech. [t was dillnnt foiith from He- 

 bron 20 miles, and had a Roman garrifon in the time of 

 Eufebius and Jerom. The limits of the Holy Land are often 

 exprefLJ in Scripture by the terms " from Dan to Beer-fhe- 

 bi" (2 Sam. xvii. 11. &c.) ; Dan being the northern and 

 Beer-lheba the fonthern extremities of the land. It is now 

 a poor village, adjoining a large, fandy, barren dcfart, altoge- 

 ther uninhabited, except towards the fea-coalt. 



BEES, in Naval Architecliire, denote pieces of elm-plank 

 bolted to the outer ends of bowfprits. 



BEESENSTADT, in Gio^raphy, a town of Germany, 

 in the circle of Upper Saxony, and county of Mansfeld, 6 

 miles eaft of Eitzlehen. 



BEES.HEAD, St. a cape of England in the weftern 

 extremity of the county of Cumberland, in the Irifh fea, 

 about 10 leagues E. by N. from the Illc of Man, and 2 S. 

 of Whitehaven. It has a liglit-houfe, and is a noted promon- 

 tory for fea-fowl. N. lat. 54° 31'. W. long. 30° 43'. 



BEESHEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Well- 

 plialia, and county of Lingen, 7 miles S. S. E. of Lingen. 



BEESKOW, a town of Germany, in the circle of Up- 

 per Saxony and Uckermark of Brandenburg, and capital of 

 a lordfhip, to which it gives name, feated on the Spree ; 

 16 miles S. W. of Frankfort on the Oder, and 34 E. S. E. 

 of Berlin. A cloth manufafture is carried on in this 

 town. 



BEES-WAX. See Wav. 



BEESTINGS, or Breastings, denote the fineft milk 

 taken from a cow after calving. 



The beeftings are of a thick confidence and yellow colour, 

 feemingly impregnated with fulphur. Dr. Morgan imagines 

 them peculiarly fitted and intended by nature to cleaafe the 

 young animal from the recrements gathered in its llomach 

 and inteftines during its long habitation in ulero. The hke 

 quality and virtues he fuppofes in women's firft milk after 

 delivery ; and hence infers the neceffity of the mother's fuck- 

 ling her own child, rather than committing it to a nurfe, 

 whofe firll milk is gone. 



BEET, in Botany. See Beta. 



Beet, hare's, Ida leponna, a name given by fome of the 

 •!d Latin writers to a fmall green plant of an acrid tafte. 

 BEET-^a/l-infia. See GAl.L-in/e{!. 



BEETLE, in Entomology, a common Englifh name for 

 all infefts that are furniftied with fhelly-wing-eafcs : thofe 

 which have them divided by a llraight future arc properly 

 beetles, and belong to the coleoptera order ; but the blattse, 

 or cock-roaches, are alfo called beetles, though the future is 

 oblique, or in other words one wing-cafe croffes the other ; 

 and therefore it belongs to the hemipteva order. See Cole- 

 optera. The fcarabsei are beetles in the ftrifteft fenfe of 

 the word. 



Beetles, luater, is likewife a common name for mofl in- 



fefts that have wing-cafes, and inhabit the water, including 



the dytifci, and fome other aquatic infefts, that are truly 



' beetles, with fuch as aretiot of the lame order, fuch as the 



nepx, notone£tae, &c. See Hemiptera. 



Beetle, in a Mechanical Senfe, denotes a large wooden 

 inflrument, formed after the manner of the mallet, having 

 each face bound with a ftrong iron hoop, to keep it from 

 fpreading, and ufed for driving piles, ftakes, palifades, wedges, 

 and the lil^e. 



BEG 



In this fenfe, the word is corruptly written in fome places 

 b'^ytk. Skinner derives it from the Englilh beating. For 

 the military ufe, beetles, called alfo Hampers, are thick 

 round pieces of wood, a foot and a half long, and eight or 

 ten inches in diameter, having a handle of about four feet 

 long. Their life is for beating or fettling tlie, earth of a pa- 

 rapet, or about palifades ; which is done by lilting up the 

 beetle a foot or two, and letting it fall with its own weight. 

 The name beetle is alfo given to the paviour's rammer, or in- 



II rument wherewith the Itones are beaten down, and fallcned. 



BEEVES, a general name for oxen. 



BI'U'"ARIA, in Botany. See Bejaria. 



r)EI"ORT, in Geography, a town of France, and princi- 

 pal place of a dillrift, in the department of the Upper Riiine, 

 ceded to France by the houfc of Aullria in the year 1648, 

 at the treaty of Wcflphalia. It was fortified by Vaiiban. 



III this town fevtral forges are employed in the manufadture 

 of iron. N. lat. 47^ 9'. E. long, b'^ 46'. 



BEFROI, Grand Bi'FROi, and Petit Befroi, in Or- 

 nithology, the names of tlie two fpecies of Turdl's, called 

 t'mn'uns and Tmcatits by Gmelin, in Buffon's Hift. Birds. 



BEG, or Bey, in the TurLiJh Gwivrnmeni. See Bey. 



BEG, Lough, in Geography, or the Little Lough, in the 

 province of Ulller, Ireland, a fmall lake into whicli the waters 

 from Lough Neagh again expand, after a courfe of about a 

 mile, through a very narrow channel. The form of Lough- 

 bcg, its iflands, fome wooded points of land with intervcninfj 

 lawns and rocks, a magnificent rotunda at Ballyfcullen, and 

 the beautiful lightnefs of Toome-bridge, produce the molt 

 happy effeft. It is fituated between the counties of Armagh 

 and Londonderry. 



BEGA, or BEGEYN, Cornelius, in Biography, a 

 painter and engraver, was burn at Hatrlcm in 1620, and be- 

 came the difciple of Adrain Oftade, whofe manner he imi- 

 tated, and by whofe inftruftionshe profited, fo as to acquire 

 confiderable reputation as a painter. But contrafting habits 

 of diffipatinn and licentioufnefs, he was difowned by his 

 father, and rcfcnting the indignity, he affumed the name of 

 Bega inflcad of Begeyn, which was that of his family. He 

 had a fine pencil, and a delicate mode of handling his colours, 

 fo as to give them a neat and tranfparent appearance ; and 

 his performances arc fo much clleenied in the Low Countries 

 as to be placed among the works of the bell ai tills. He alfo 

 etched feveral drolleries, and a fet of 34 prints, rcprefenting 

 ale-honfe fceiies, &c. His death, which happened in 1664, 

 was occafioned by the plague, whish he caught from a fa- 

 vourite female, to whom he was fo llrongly attached that he 

 vifited her, againft the lemonlliaiiccs of his friends and phy- 

 licians, to the lail moments of her life ; and he outlived her 

 only a few days. Pilkington and Strutt. 



Bega, or Vega, in Geography, 3. river of Germany, which 

 runs into the Werra, 4 miles N. W. of Lemgo, in the circle 

 of Wertphalia. 



BEGANNA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Arabia 

 Deferta, in the neighbourhood of Mefopotamia. Ptolemy. 



BEGAR-MEE, or Baghermi, in Geography, fuppofcd 

 to be the " Begama" of EdriC, and the " Gorham" of D* 

 Anville, an extenfive kingdom of Africa, fituate S. E. of 

 Bornou, at the diftance of about 20 days' travelling, or al- 

 lowing, with major Rennell, 15 miles for a day's journey, 300 

 miles, and feparated from it by feveral fmall deferts. The 

 extent, according to Browne's Travels in Africa, p. 468, is 

 from E. to W. 12 days, and from N. to S. 15 days, allow- 

 ing 12 1 geographical miles per day. The inhabitants are 

 rigid Mahometans, and though perfeftly black in their com- 

 plexions, are not of the Negro call. Beyond this kingdom to 

 the eaft, (fee Proceedings of the Affociation for promoting 

 the difcovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, p. 155) are 

 6 feveral 



