b 6 'to 
The town, the clocks, and the arfenal, are flrohgly forti¬ 
fied ; and behind them is t'h,e Duhgeree town for the na¬ 
tives, When the Portuguefe ceded this place to us, it 
had only ten thoufand inhabitants. By our mild govern¬ 
ment, in 1764, it had increafed to fixty thoufand. Abbe 
Reynall gives to this ifiand an hundred thoufand inhabi¬ 
tants, among which he reckons feven or eight thoufand 
bailors. The Arabs (fill keep up a confiderable trade in 
fhips of a thoufand tons, either Indian built, or old In- 
diamen bought of the company. The bay is full of 
fiioals or rocks, and the tide rifes to an amazing height; 
but the channels are of fufficient depth for the fkilful pilot 
to bring in fecurely the larged (hips ; and at leaf! three 
hundred fail canatone time ride here in fafety. But, al¬ 
though Bombay is a place of very great trade, it is w holly 
as a magazine; its native productions are nothing in the 
account, unlefs we reckon (hip-building ; for here the fi¬ 
ned (hips in the world are built, and all of teek. Mr. 
Pennant, in his late excellent work, The View of Hindoojian, 
fays, “ the durability of this timber is beyond belief 
greater than that of our bed Englifli oak; it refids the 
worm longer than ahy other; but whether this be owing 
to the nature of the timber itfelf, or to the cement with 
which the plank is joined and covered, 1 cannot tell. Su¬ 
rat or Bombay built (hips will certainly lad threefcore 
years (fome fay more), in which time, however, they are 
generally doubled once or twice, fo that the (ides of an 
old (hip are as thick as the walls of an houfe. Much is 
likewife faid of the number of years they fometimes run, 
without having occalion to life a pump; but of this I 
cannot fpeakwith certainty. All the repairs are effected 
by native carpenters, and all the fhips, even the larged, 
are built by them, and in a fimplicity of manner which 
would adonifh an European workman. The neighbour¬ 
ing mountains fupply them with the teek-wood, Bengal 
with iron and hemp, and the adjacent foreds with pines 
for mads.” Penn. Hind. 4to. vol. i. p. 92. 
When the ifland of Bombay was ceded to the Englifii 
by the Portugucfe, it was divided, and dill continues to 
be fo, into three Roman Catholic parifhes, Bombay, Ma- 
him, and Sal vacant; the churches of which are governed 
by prieds of that religion. Here is only one Englidi 
church, which is feated on a fpacious area, called the 
Green, pleafantly laid out in walks planted with trees, 
round which the houfes of the Englidi inhabitants are mod- 
Iy (ituated. Thefe are generally only ground-floored, 
with a court-yard before and behind, in which are the of¬ 
fices and out-houfes. They are fubflantially built of done 
and lime, and fmooth pladered on the otitlide. Few' of 
them have glafs windows to any apartment; the faflies be¬ 
ing generally paned with a kind of tranfparent oyder-fliells, 
Iquare cut; which have the lingular property of tranfmit- 
ting fufficient light, at the fame time that they exclude 
the violent glare of (he fun, and have befides a cool look. 
The flooring is generally compofed of a kind of loam or 
ducco called cfiunam, being a lime made of burnt fhells, 
which if well tempered is extremely hard and lading, and 
takes a fine polilh* The town is under the government of 
a prefident, who is governor and commander in chief; and 
from hence inarched the forces under the marquis Corn¬ 
wallis, dedined for the reduction of the tyrant Tippoo Sul¬ 
tan, and which gave peace to the fouthern part of this 
vad continent. 
The natives of Bombay, though compofed of almod 
every Afiatic nation, are fiiorter of dature and dronger 
than the inhabitants of the Coromandel coad. Here are 
fome Perfees,'who, like their forefathers the ancient Per- 
fians, are followers of Zoroader, who is laid to have re¬ 
duced into order the religion of the Perfian magi; the fun¬ 
damental maxim of which was the worfliipping of one God 
under the fymbol of light. They adore the fun, particu¬ 
larly when riling, with the mod profound reverence and 
veneration ; and likewife pay a kind of adoration to com¬ 
mon fire. As the Geritoos burn their dead, one would 
imagine that the Perfees, who have fuch a veneration for 
BOM 
fife, would be defirous of having' their dead' bodlfcs cdhfif. 
med by that element; but indead of this, they eXnofe 
them to be devoured by birds of prey ; becaufe, (ay they, 
a living man is compofed of all the elements ; fo that it is 
but reafonable, after lie is dead, that every particular ele¬ 
ment (hould receive its own again. On the top of Mala¬ 
bar hill, about two miles from the town of Bombay, there 
are two round buildings for receiving the dead bodies of 
the Perfees, which remain there till the bones are clean 
picked by the birds. This is certainly an 'abominable cuf- 
tom, and affords very (hocking fpettacles ; however, a 
guard is always placed at a little didance to prevent people 
from prying too narrowly into thefe matters. Mr. Grofe 
tells 11s, that, on his going to look into one of thefe repofi- 
tories, a Perlee advifed him in a friendly manner to let it 
alone, as no perfon, who was not a party concerned, would 
long furvive fucli curiofitv. He tells us alfo, that the per. 
foil appointed to look after the dead, carefully obferves 
which eye is fir(t picked out by the birds, and from thence 
judges of the (ituation of the foul of the deceafed ; a ftatq 
of happinefs being indicated by the right eye being firft 
picked out. 
I11 Bombay oxen arc generally lifed infiead of horfes,. 
not only for drawing carriages but for riding; and, how¬ 
ever ridiculous fuch a pradtice may feem to us, it appears 
that they are not in this refpect inferior to ordinary horfes,, 
being capable of going at the rate of feven or eight miles 
an hour. The only inconvenience that attends them, is, 
that, by being naturally fubjedt to a lax habit of body, 
they fometimes incommode the rider with filth thrown 
upon him by the continual motion of their tails. In other 
refpedts they are far preferable to Indian horfes, and will 
trot and gallop as naturally as the horfes of this country. 
Some inconvenience is felt at Bombay on account of frefh 
water: the bed is what they preferve in ciflerns after 
rain; that which their wells furnilh having a brackifli 
tafle.. They make fait in large quantities, by letting the 
fea into pits, where the fun evaporates the watery part. 
The natives, and perfons feafoned to the country, live ge¬ 
nerally to a good old age. Mod firangers on their arrival 
are leized with fevers, fluxes, fcrophnlous diforders, or a 
difeafe they call the berbiere, which wholly enervates the 
body, and reduces it to a total (late of inactivity, and a 
deprivation of all the loco-motive faculties. Lat. 18 58. 
N. Ion. 72. 38. E. Greenwich. 
BOM'BERG (Daniel), a famous printer, born at Ant¬ 
werp, and eflablifhed at Venice, and died in 1349. He 
acquired great reputation by his Hebrew editions of the 
Bible and the rabbinical books. He expended the whole 
of his capital in thefe great works. It is faid that lie kept 
near a hundred Jews to correCt or to tranflate them. It 
is to him that we are indebted for the Talmud in u vols. 
folio. Some have affirmed that he printed books to the 
amount of 4,000,000 in gold. A high value is fet upon his 
Hebrew Bible printed at Venice in 1549, 4 vols. folio. 
BOM'BlAS,y. [from bombyx, thefilk.-worm.] A fait 
formed by the combination of the bombic acid with a dif¬ 
ferent bale, as bombias piumbi, bombiate of lead. 
BOMBI'CHIE, a town of Ada, in Syria: forty-four 
miles eaft-north-eaft of Aleppo. 
BOMBILA'TION, f. [from bombus , Lat.] Sound ; 
noife ; report.— How to abate the vigour or lilence the 
bombilation of guns, a way is faid to be by borax and but¬ 
ter, niixt in a due proportion, which will almod take off 
the report, and alfo the force of tlie charge. Brown. 
BOM'BUS,/j [from to found like a drum.] 
A noife in the inteftines, caufed by wind. The bombus 
heard in the ears, in acute difeafes, is laid down by Hip¬ 
pocrates as a fign of death. 
BOM'BUS,y. in nmfic, an artificial motion with the 
hands, imitating in cadence and harmony the buzzing of 
bees. The word is originally Greek, and fignifies the buz 
or noife of bees, gnats, and the like. In this fenfe, bom¬ 
bus made one of the fpecies of applaufe uled by the an¬ 
cient auditories. 
BOMBY'CINO’US, 
