BEL 



vhich many people conclmlc, though vfry uiijuftly, that it 

 cannot he a whulefomc food. 



All the upper part of the back and head of thi'; fidi is of 

 n beautiful green colour ; fides and belly filvery. The num- 

 ber of rays in the dorfal fin are about fixteen ; peftoral thir- 

 teen ; ventral eight ; anal twcnty-tu-o ; and in the tail twen- 

 ty-two; but thcfe are liable to vary in number, as in other 

 fiflies. 



BELOW, or BEi.as, in Geography, a river of England, 

 which runs into the Eden, 2 miles north of Kirkby Stephen, 

 in the county of Weftmoreland. 



r.ELOZERO. See DiELO-0/.F.Ro. 

 BELPBERG, a mountain of SwiiTerland, about 7 or S 

 miles from Bern, being part of the chain of the Alps ; the 

 ftrata of which are full of dilferent fpeeies of chamites, ollra- 

 citcs, globofites, fplenites, itronibites, and other fimilar 

 pctrifaftions. 



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

 Aude, and chief place of a canton, in the dillrict of Callel- 

 naudary, 3 J miles fouthvvellof Caftclnaudary. N. lat. 43° 

 12'. E. long. 1° 39'. 



BELPRE, a poll town and fmall fettlcment of Ame- 

 rica, in the territory north-weft of the Ohio, on the north- 

 well bank of Ohio river, between the Hockliocking and Muf- 

 kingum rivers, and oppofite the mouth of the little Kanlia- 

 way ; about 14 miles below Marietta, and 480 miles S.W. 

 by W. from Philadelphia. 



BELSHAZZAR, in Scripture Hi/tory. See Baby- 

 lonia. 



BELSINUM, in Jncknt Geography, a town of Hifpania 

 Tarragonenfisj in the country of the Cclliberians. Pto- 

 lemy. 



BELSUNCE, Henrv-Francis-Xavier DE, in Blc 

 graphs, denominated, by way of honourable dillinrtion, '|the 

 good biihop of Marfeilles," was the fon of the marquis of 

 Belfunce, a nobleman of Gulenne. After quitting the 

 fociety of the Jefuits, into which he firft entered, he was in 

 1709 nominated to the bilhopric of Marfeilles ; where he di- 

 jlinguhhed himfelf by his fortitude and charity, during the 

 dreadful plague which afflicled that city in 1720 and 1721. 

 Such was the effefl produced by his attention and liberality 

 on occafion of this calamity, fuch the attachment cemented 

 between him and his dioccfans, by their gratitude and his 

 uwn fympathy, that he declined accepting the bilhopric of 

 Laon, to which are annexed a peerage and a dukedom, 

 which was offered to him by the king in 1723. He died in 

 1755. Nouv. Dift. Hill. 



BELT, Baltheus, and among the ancient and middle 

 age writers, zrina, cinguluni, reminkulnm, rinca, or ringat and 

 baUrellus, in Armour, a kind of military girdle, in which a 

 fword or fome other weapon is commonly hung. 



That the belt, or girdle, formed a material part of the 

 Hebrew armour, may be gathered from the expreffions fo 

 frequently repeated in the facred fcriptures. The Almighty 

 girding himfelf, imported not only his giving notable difplays 

 of power, but his re"adinefs to aft ; and his girding others 

 exprelfed the ability he had bellowed upon them to perform 

 magnificent exploits. 



The belts of the Hebrew foldiers, with which they girded 

 on their arms, went not about their (hpulders but their loins, 

 and were fuppofed to ftrengthen them. (See Nch.iv. 18. 

 Ezck. xxiii. 1;.) They were generally valuable, cfpecially 

 thofe of commanders, and were fometimes given as rev/ards 

 to foldiers. Jonathan prefented his to David ( 1 Sam. xviii. 4.); 

 and Joab tells the perfon, who had feen Abfalom hanging 

 from the tree, that if he had fmitten him to the ground, 

 be would have given him ten Ihekcls of filver and a girdle. 



6 



BEL 



The Greeks calk-d it fi^vi, or ^i-vk, and they thought it 

 fo elFeiitisl to a warrior, that ^i'jvt/5v»i became a general term 

 for clothing themfelves in armour. Whence Agamcmon is 

 defcribed by Homer 



and which no doubt occafioned Paufanias to fuppofe that 

 I'-.'^Yt had a reference to the whole armour. So Herodotus, 

 relating the flight of Xerxes to Athens, dcfcribcs him, when 

 arrived at Abdera, and believing himlelf free from danger, 

 ?v-j;>v m ^iv>i», to have difarmed himflf. (Urania, cxx.) 



Amono- the Greeks, the belt was worn very differently 

 from the manner already defcribed, and reached even to the 

 thigh, whence Homer's hero, (OdyfT. x.) 



and Virgil's .^neas (1.x. 1. 86.) 



ocyus enle: 



fem 



Eripit a femore." 



Foot foldiers, we are told, wore their fwords on the left; 

 horlemen, on the right fide. Jofephus, defcribing the down- 

 f^l of Jerufalem (1. iii.), exprefsly mentions horfemcn with 

 their fwords on the right. But whether this was conllantly 

 the cafe, or frequently varied, as Lipfius has obferved of the 

 Roman fword, cannot eafily be determined. 



Herodotus, mentioning the military habits of the Pcrfians, 

 favs, they had daggers fufpendcd to the right thigh by a 

 bek. 



Beger has given a bud of Scipio, copied by Montfaucon 

 (vol. IV. pi. vi. f. 4.), which has an embroidered belt hang, 

 ing from the rii.;ht ; while a foldier on the arch of Conftan- 

 tine is reprefented in fcale armour, with a belt fufpended 

 from the left Ihoulder. Montfaucon, vol. iv. pi. xx. f. 2. 



In our own country, like thofe of ancient times, it was 

 frequently ornamented in the richtil llyle ; and it ii worthy 

 oi ibfcrvation, that in fome of the moll magnificent iliumi- 

 nations of our ancient manufcripts, even in the fame pidlure, 

 the fword is reprefented as indifcrimlnatcly belted on the 

 right fide or the left. In later ages, the belt was given to 

 a perfon when he was raifed to knigl-.thood ; whence it has 

 alio been uied as a badge of the knightly order. 



Belt is alfo a denomination applied to a fort of bandages 

 in ivfe among furgeons, &c. Thus we meet with qiiickfilver 

 belts, ufed for the itch. A later writer dcfcribes a belt for 

 keeping the belly tight, and difcharging the water in the 

 operation of tapping. Medic. EIT. Edinb. torn. i. p. 218. 



Belt, or Beltis, in EcckfiaJVuul Writers of the MidiUc 

 Age, denotes a fort of firing ot beads. 



Belt is alfo a frequent difcafe in flieep, cured by cutting 

 their tails off, and laying the fore bare ; then calling mould 

 on it, and applyiiig tar and gooft-greafe. 



BEL-TEIN, in Mythology, a fuperllitious cuftom, for- 

 merly obferved in Scotland and Ireland ; and according to 

 Dr. Ledwich, on the authority of ^Vormius, in Scandinavia. 

 Dr. O'Brien, in his Irilh Dielionai-)', explains it igv.is Beii 

 Dei AJiatici ; and mentions, that on the firll of May the 

 Druids were ufed to light large fires on the fummits of hills, 

 into which they drove four-footed beads, ufing at the fame 

 time certain ceremonies, to expiate the fins of the people. 

 This pagan ceremony of lighting thefe fires in honour of 

 Belus, or the fun, gave its name to the month of May, 

 which is called Deal-tine, and May-day la Bealtinc. On this 

 day all the inhabitants of Ireland quenched their fires, and 

 kindled them again out of fome part of the facred fire. That 

 celebrated Irilh antiquarian, general Vallancey, infers from 

 the name of this cufi;om, that it was derived from the Ptrfian- 

 Scythians, or Phcenicians, by whom the fun was -vorlhip- 

 ped under the fame name of Belus, or Bel, and on the tops 

 of hills alfo, as appears from tlie high places mentioned in 



fcripture. 



