BAS 
shadow of his face with lines on the wall by 
lamp-light. Her father took the impression 
in clay and baked it among his vases. 
BASSOVIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Es- 
sential character : corolla five-cleft ; spread- 
ing, with a very short tube ; berry ovate, 
knobbed, with many seeds. There is but 
one species; viz. B.sylvatica; the stems her- 
baceous, three or four feet high, branched ; 
flowers in axillary corymbs, green and very 
small. Native of Guiana, in wet forests, 
flowering and fruiting in June. 
BASS-VIOL, a musical instrument of a 
like form with that of a violin, but much 
larger. It is struck with a bow as that is, 
has the same number of strings, and has 
eight stops, which are subdivided into semi- 
stops ; its sound is grave, and has a much 
nobler effect in a concert than that of the 
violin. 
BASTARD, a natural child-, or one born of 
an unmarried woman. Bythe laws ofEngland, 
a bastard is incapable of inheriting land, as 
heir to his father ; nor can any one inherit land 
as heir to him, except the children of his 
own body, born in wedlock ; for by order 
of law, a bastard has no relation, of which 
it takes any notice, and he himself is ac- 
counted the first of his family. If a man 
marries a woman that is big with child by 
another, who was not her husband, and the 
child is born within the espousals, then it 
shall be deemed the child of the husband, 
and no bastard, though it were born but a 
day after the marriage ; but this is under- 
stood when the parties are of age, and there 
is no apparent impossibility on the man’s 
side. If a woman be with child by a man 
who afterwards marries her, and then the 
child is born, this child is no bastard ; but 
if a man hath issue by a woman, before 
marriage, and afterwards marries her, the 
first issue is a bastard, by our laws, but le- 
gitimate by the civil law. If a woman elope 
from her husband, and he be within the four 
seas', her issue shall not be a bastard by our 
laws, though by the special law it shall : and 
if the wife continues in adultery, and has is- 
sue, it is a bastard in our law. If the hus- 
band and wife consent to live separate, and 
have issue afterwards, it shall be accounted 
legitimate, because the access of the hus- 
band shall be presumed ; but if the contrary 
be found, it shall be a bastard. 
BASTION, in the modern fortification, 
a huge mass of earth, faced usually with 
sods, sometimes with brick, and rarely with 
stone, standing out from a rampart, where- 
B AT 
of it is a principal part, and is what, in the 
ancient fortification, was called a bulwark. 
A bastion consists of two faces and two 
flanks ; the faces include the angle of the 
bastion; and their union makes the out- 
most, or the saliant angle, called also the 
angle of the bastion ; and the union of the 
two faces to the two flanks makes the side- 
angles, called also the shoulders, or epaules ; 
and the union of the two other ends of the 
flanks to the two curtains makes the angles 
of the flanks. See Fortification. 
BASTON, in krw, one of the servants to 
the warden of the Fleet-prison, who attends 
the king’s courts with a red staff for taking 
into custody such as are committed by the 
court. He also attends on such prisoners 
as are permitted to go at large by licence. 
Baston, or Batoon, in heraldry, a kind 
of bend, having only one third of the usual 
breadth. The baston does not go from side to 
side, as the bend or scarf does, being in the 
form of a truncheon. Its use is a note or 
mark of bastardy. 
BASTONADE, or Bastinado, a kind 
of punishment inflicted by beating the of- 
fender with a stick. This sort of beating, 
among the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
was the punishment commonly inflicted on 
criminals that were freemen, as that of 
whipping was, on the slaves. We find some 
instances of this sort of discipline among the 
Hebrews ; and it is a penalty used in the 
east at this day. 
BAT. See Vespertilio. 
Bat fowling, a method of catching 
birds in the night, by lighting some straw, 
or torches, near the place where they are 
at roost ; for upon beating them up, they 
fly to the flame, where being amazed, they 
are easily caught in nets, or beat down with 
bushes fixed to the end of poles, &c. 
BATH, knights of the, a military order in 
England, supposed to have been instituted 
by Richard II. who limited the num- 
ber of knights to four ; however, his suc- 
cessor, Henry IV. increased them to forty- 
six. Their mqtto is “ Tria juncta in uno,” 
signifying the three theological virtues. 
This order received its denomination from 
a custom of bathing before the knights re- 
ceived the golden spur. They wear a red 
ribband beltwise, appendant to which is the 
badge or symbol of the order, which is a 
sceptre, rose, thistle, and three imperial 
crowns conjoined within a circle. Upon which 
circle is the motto, and all of pure gold. 
Each knight wears a silver star of eight 
