;o BIS 
BISNAGAR', a city of Hindooftan, in the country of 
My fore, and drear of Sanore, once the capital of a mighty 
kingdom ; for at the time the Europeans firft opened a 
paffage to the Indies by Cea, the great peninfula without 
the Ganges was moftly fubjeft to the emperor of Bifnagar, 
whole dominions extended from the frontiers of Orilla to 
Cape Comorin. The air is very hot, but winter nights 
extremely cojd : it is alio fubjecl to the monfoons. The 
foil is fruitful, well watered, and abounds in cattle and 
deer, alfo in lions, tigers, elephants, and boars. The peo¬ 
ple are well-fliaped, tawney, and indolent; yet fotne are 
very ingenious at watering and painting of calicoes, their 
chief trade. The emperor was once fo powerful as to 
bring into the field 3400 horfe, 76,000 foot, and 6oo ele¬ 
phants. Bifnagar is lituated on the river Nigouden : 172 
miles north of Seringpatam, 132 fouth of Vifiapour, and 
135 eall of Goa. Lat. 15. 20. N. Ion. 76. E. Greenwich. 
See Hindoostan. 
BIS'NEE, a town of Afia, in the country of Bootan : 
1-16 miles fouth-eaft of TaiTaludon, and 188 north-eaft of 
Moorfliedabad. 
BIS'NOW, or Bischnou, f. A fe£t of the Banians in 
the Eaft Indies; they call their god Ram-ram, and adorn 
his image with golden chains, necklaces of pearls, and all 
forts of precious (tones. They ling hymns to his honour, 
mixing their devotion with dances and the found of drums, 
flagelets, brazen bafons, and other inftruments. In this 
Sett, the wives do not burn themfelves after tlieir hnf- 
bands death, as is prattifed by tliofe of the J'amarath fett; 
but content themfelves with a perpetual widowhood. 
BI'SOMUM, or Disomum, f. in Roman antiquity, 
means a tomb for two dead bodies, or the allies of two. 
The ancients frequently buried two, three, or four, bodies 
in the lame fepulchre, by the fide of each other ; hence 
the fepulchres of the primitive Chriftians had the words 
bifomi , trifomi , quadrifomi, &c. inferibed, to indicate the 
number of bodies depofited in them. 
BI'SON,/. The trivial name of a (pecies of bos. See Bos. 
BIS'SA, a town of Servia, on the Danube : fixteeu 
miles fouth-fouth-eafl of Orfova. 
BISSAG', a town of Croatia: fixteen miles north-eaft 
of Agram. 
BISSA'GOTS, or Bissacos Islands, a clufter of 
iflands, near the well coaft of Africa: eighty.five leagues 
fouth of Cape Verd. Lat. n.N. Ion. 13. W. Greenwich. 
BISSA'GUE, one of the BiflTagos ifiands, near the weft 
coaft of Africa. 
BISSA'O, or Bisskaux, an ifland in the Atlantic, near 
the weft coaft ot Africa, eighty miles in circumference. 
The ground r.ifes imperceptibly to the middle of the illand. 
The foil is cultivated and fertile, abounding with feveral 
forts of trees, particularly fine large orange and mangroves 
near the fhore ; Portnguefe and Negroes being intermixed 
inhabitants. The ifland is divided into nine provinces, 
eight of which are governed by officers appointed by the 
fovereign. Lat. 11. 24. N. Ion. 14. 10. W. Greenwich. 
BIS'SENDORF, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Weftphalia, and biffiopric of Ofnabruck; live miles fouth- 
eaft of Ofnabruck. 
BIS'SINGEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Swabia, and county of Pettingen Wallerftin : four miles 
fouth-fouth-weft of Haarburg. 
BISSENPOUR', a fmall diftridl of Bengal in the Eaft 
Indies, which has all along preferved its independence. It 
has been governed time immemorial by a Bramin family 
of the tribe of Rajahputs. Here the purity and equity of 
the ancient political fyftem of the Indians is feen unadul¬ 
terated. This fingular government lias till now been be¬ 
held with too much indifference. We have no remains of 
ancient nations but brafs and marble, which fpeak only to 
imagination and conjecture, thofe uncertain interpreters 
of manners and cuftoms that no longer exift. Were a phi- 
lofopher tranfported to Biffenpour, he would immediately 
be a witnefs of the life led by the inhabitants of India 
imny thoufand years ago; he would converfe with them: 
B I S 
he would trace the progrefs of this nation, celebrated as 
it were from its very infancy ; lie would fee the rife of a 
government which, being founded in happy prejudices, in 
a (implicit)' and purity of manners, in the mild temper of 
the people, and the integrity of the chieftains, has furvived 
thofe innumerable fyftems of legiflation, which have made 
only a tranfitory appearance in the ftage of the world with 
the generations they were defigned to torment. More 
folid and durable than thofe political ftruChires, which, 
raifed by impofture and entluifiafm, are the fcourges of 
human kind, and are doomed to perifti with the opinions 
that gave them birth, the government of Biffenpour, the 
offspring of a juft attention to order and the laws of na¬ 
ture, has been eftabliflied and maintained upon unchange¬ 
able principles, and has undergone no more alteration than 
thofe principles themfelves. The fingular fituation of this 
country lias preferved to the inhabitants their primitive 
happinefs and the gentlenefs of their charader, by fecur- 
ing them from the danger of being conquered, or of im¬ 
bruing their hands in the blood erf their fellow-creatures. 
Nature has furrounded them with water ; and they need 
only open the fluices of their rivers to overflow the whole 
country. The armies fent to fubdue them have fo fre¬ 
quently been drowned, that the plan of enflaving them 
has long been laid afide; and the projectors of it have 
thought proper to content themfelves with an appearance 
of fubmiffion. Robbery, public or private, is never heard 
of here. As foon as any ftranger enters the territory, he 
comes under the protection of the laws, which provide for 
his fecurity. He is furnifhed’ with guides at free coft, 
who conduCt him from place to place, and are anfvverable 
for his perfon and effeCts. When he changes his conduc¬ 
tors, the new ones deliver to thofe they relieve an attefta- 
tion of their conduCt, which is regiftered and afterwards 
fent to the Raja. All the time he remains in the country, 
lie is maintained and conveyed w ith his mercliandife at the 
ex pence of the date, unlefs he delires leave to flay longer 
than three days in the fame place. In that cafe, he is 
obliged to defray his own expences ; unlefs he is detained 
by any di (order, or other unavoidable accident. This be¬ 
neficence to ftrangers is the confequence of the warmth 
with which the citizens enter into each others interefts. 
They are (o far from being guilty of an injury to each 
other, that whoever finds a purf'e, or other thing of value, 
hangs it upon the firft tree he meets with, and informs the 
neareft guard, who give notice of it to the public by beat 
of drum. Thefe maxims of probity are fo generally re¬ 
ceived, that they direCt even the operations of govern¬ 
ment. Out of about 330,0001. on an average it annually 
receives, without injury to agriculture or trade, what is 
not wanted to fupply the unavoidable expences of the date 
is laid out in improvements. The Raja is enabled to engage 
in thefe employments, as he pays the Moguls only what 
tribute and at what times he thinks proper. 
BIS'SET (Charles), took his degree of M. D. at St. 
Andrew’s, in Scotland, in 1765. He was the author of, 
1. An ElFay on the Theory and Conftrii£fion of Fortifica¬ 
tions, 8vo. 1751. 2. A Treatife on the Scurvy, 8vo. 1755. 
3. An Fffay on the Medical Conftitution of Great Britain, 
8vo. 1762. Dr. Biffett, hearing that many perfons who 
had read his work on fortifications, were at a lofs to re¬ 
concile the medical with the military character; and were 
ftifpicious that he had not received a regular education in 
the line of his profeffion; he publiffied an account, dating 
that, after a proper courfe of medical ftudies at Edinburgh, 
he was appointed fecond furgeon to the military hofpital 
in Jamaica, where he continued from 1740 to 1745, when 
he returned to England, purchafed a commiflion in the 
army, and ferved in Flanders as a lieutenant and engineer 
extraordinary till the p6ace of 1748, when he was reduced 
on Half pay. In 1751, he retired to Skelton in Cleveland, 
Yorkfhire, and refumed the practice of phyfic; where, 
and in that neighbourhood, he continued till his death, 
which happened at Knayton, near Thirfk, the beginning 
of May 1791, being then in his 73th year. 
BISSEX'. 
