■NUMEUAL riGURES. 501 
into the ditch of an unfinished ravelin, which was afterwards filled 
with earth. 
Commonwealth of Babina. 
This was the name of a society founded in Poland in the reign of 
Sigisinimd-Angiistus, in the six-tcenth century. It took its rise from 
a set of gentlenieis, inhabitants of Lnbiin, who had agreed to meet at 
Babina merely for the purpose of mirth and Jollity. In time their num- 
ber increased, and they formed themselves into a government, under the 
presidency of a king, senate, and chief magistrates. The magistrates 
were elected from something which appeared ridiculous in the cha- 
racter or conduct of any of the members. For instance, if any per- 
son was meddling or officious, he was immediately created an arch- 
bishop ; a blundering or disputatious member was promoted to the 
speaker’s chair ; a boaster of his ow n courage was honoured with the 
commission of generalissimo, w^hich was presented him v/ith great 
ceremony by the subordinate heroes. Those who declined the office 
for which they were declared qualified, were persecuted with hissings, 
and abandoned by the society. Thus every \ice and every foible was 
attacked with ridicule ; and Babina became in a short time the terror, 
the admiration, and the reformer of the Polish nation ; genius flou- 
rished, wit was cultivated, and the abuses which had crept into 
government and society were corrected by the judicious application of 
good-humoured satire. Never did any institution of this nature 
become so general and so useful; but at length it degenerated into a 
set of buffoons, and bantereis of every thing, sacred or profane. For 
several years it was patronized by the kings of Poland, and Sigismund 
himself became a member ; the starosta of Babina telling him jocu- 
larly, that his majesty had certain qualities which entitled him to the 
first dignity of the commonwealth. Not the least remnant of this 
society now remains, though it was honoured with extraordinary pri- 
vileges by kings and emperors. 
Numeral Figures. 
The learned, after many contests, have at length agreed that the 
numeral figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, S, 9, usually called Arabic, are of 
Indian origin. The Arabians do not pretend to have been the inven- 
tors of them, but borrowed them from the Indian nations. The nu- 
meral characters of the Brarnins, the Persians, and Arabians, and 
other eastern nations, are similar. They appear afterwards to have 
been introduced into several European nations, by their respective 
travellers, who returued from tlie East. They were admitted into ca- 
lendars and chronicles but they w'ere not introduced into charters, 
says Mr. Astle, before the sixteenth century. The Spaniards, no dotibt, 
derived their use from the Moors who invaded them. In 1*240, the 
Alphonsean astronomical tables were made by the order of Alphon- 
sus the Tenth, by a Jew and an Arabian ; they used these nume- 
rals, from whence the Spaniards contend that they were first intro- 
duced by them. 
They were not generally used in Germany until the beginning of 
the fourteenth century ; but in general the forms of the ciphers were 
