33S BRA 
to flit them at a joint, as is praftifed in laying carnations, 
which will promote their taking root. Thefe mud have 
but little water given them, efpecially in winter; for, .as 
the young fhoots are chiefly pith within, they are very apt 
to rot witli much moidure. The bed time to make the 
layers is in 'Aprij, jud as tlie plants are beginning to (hoot; 
and they mud always be made of the former year’s fiioots. 
The plants mud have a good greenhoufe in winter ; but in 
fuminer they diould be let abroad in a fhcltered fituation, 
where they will thrive, and annually produce flowers in the 
ipring, making a pretty variety among other exotic plants. 
BR A BEU'TES, or Brabeuta,/ in antiquity, an of¬ 
ficer among the Greeks, who prefided at the public games, 
and decided controverlies that happened among the anta- 
gonids in the gymnidical exercifes. The number of bra- 
beutae was not fixed ; fometimes there was only one, but 
generally they amounted to nine or ten. 
BRA'BORG, a towm of Sweden, in Ead Gothland : 
twenty-four miles ead of Nordkioping. 
BRA'BYLA,/ in botany. See Brabeium. 
BRACCI A'NO, a duchy of Italy, lying round the lake 
of Bracciano ; the principal places are Bracciano, Pato, 
and Anguillara. 
BRACUCIA'NO, a to-wn of Italy, which gives name to 
a lake and medicinal baths at Stigliano : two leagues from 
the Mediterranean : fifteen miles north-wed of Rome. 
BRACCIGLIA'NO, a town of Italy, in the Principato 
Citra: feven miles north-north-wed of Salerno. 
BRACCIOLI'NI DELL’ API • (Francis), an Italian 
poet, born at Pidoya, in 1556, was near forty years of age 
when he embraced the ecclelladical date, for the fake of 
holding acanonry. The cardinal Maffei Barberini, wdiofe 
fecretary he had been during his nunciature in France, be¬ 
ing advanced to the tiara under the name of Urban VIII. 
Bracciolini repaired to Rome to felicitate the new pontiff, 
who was an encourager of literary men, and had a parti¬ 
cular edeem for him. He placed him in quality of fecre¬ 
tary, with his brother the cardinal Anthony Barberini. 
After the death.of Urban VIII. he retired to his native 
country, where he died in 1645, aged eighty. It .was on 
occafion of a poem in twenty-three cantos, which he com- 
pofed on the election of that pope, that, in order to fhew 
his fatisfaCtion,- the pontift' ordered him to adopt the fur- 
name detle Api, and to add to his arms three bees, ftill 
borne by the family of Barberini. He compofed fev.eral 
poems, as follows : 1. La Croce riacquidata, Paris, 1605, 
X7.mo. a a heroic poem, which the Italians do not hefitate 
to rank immediately after the Jerufaletn of Taffo. 2. Lo 
Scheme deglo Dei, an heroi-comic poem, Rome, 1626, 
nmo, in which he lias ingenioully ridiculed the pagan de¬ 
ities. This truly original poem has been thought not in¬ 
ferior to the Secchia rapita di.Taffoni. 3. Tragedies, Co¬ 
medies, and Padorals. Bracciolini alfo exercifed himfelf 
ip lyric poetry. 
To BRACE, v. a. [embrajfer , Fr.] To bind ; to tie clofe 
with bandages.—The women of China, by bracing and 
binding -them from their infancy, have very little feet. 
■Locke .—To intend ; tomaketenfe; to drain up.—The di¬ 
minution of the force of the preffure ol the external air, 
an bracing the fibres, mud- create a debility in mufcular 
motion. Arbuthnot. 
BRACE,/! - CinCture ; bandage. That which holds any 
.thing fight.—The little bones of the ear-drum do in drain- 
ing and relaxing it, as the braces oi the war-drum do in 
t-liat. Dirham. / 
BRACE, /. in architecture, is a piece of timber framed . 
in with bevii joints, ufed to keep the building front fwerv- 
ing either way. 
BRACE, f. in printing, a crooked line inclofinga paf- 
fage, which ought to be taken together, and not feparately; 
as -in a triplet: 
'•’Charge Venus to command Her fon, 
■Wherever etfe fhe lets him rove, 
To Ihun my ltoufe, and field, and grove ; 
Peace cannot dwell with hate or love. 
BRA 
Warlike preparation ; from bracing the armour ; as we fay, 
girded for the battle. Tenfion ; tightoefs.—The mod-fr.e- 
quent cattfe of deafnefs, is the laxnefs of the tympanum, 
when it has lod its brace- or tenfion. Holder. 
BRACE,/, [of uncertain etymology, probably derived 
from two braced together.] A pair; a couple, it is.i\ot 
braces, but brace, in fhe plural: 
Down from a hill the beads that reign in woods,- 
Fird hunter then, purfidd a gentle brace, 
Goodlied of all the fored, hart and hind. '■ Milton. 
It is ufed generally in converfation as a fportman’s word. 
— He is faid, this dimmer, to have (hot with his own hands, 
fifty brace of 'pheafants. Addifon. —It is applied to men .in 
contempt: 
But you, my brace of lords, were I fo minded, 
1 here .could pluck his highnefs’ frown upon you. Shake/. 
BRACE'LET,/. [ bracelet, Fr.] An ornament for the 
arms.—A very ingenious lady ufed to wear, in rings and 
bracelets-, dore of gems. Boyle. —A piece of defendve ar¬ 
mour for the arm. 
BRA'CER,/ A'cinCture ; a bandage.—When they af- 
feCt the belly, they may be redrained by a bracer, without 
much trouble. Wi/eman. —A medicirie of condringent power. 
BRACES,/ in fea-language, ropes belonging to all the 
yards except the mizen. They have a pendant to the yard¬ 
arm, two braces to each yard ; and, at the end of the pen¬ 
dant, a block i-s feized, through which the rope called-the 
brace is reeved. The braceis ferve to fquare and traverfe 
the yards. 
BRACES of a COACH./ Thick drapsof leather on 
which it hangs:--Harnefs. 
BRACM,/ \_braque, Fr.] A bitch hound.—Truth’s a 
dog mud to kennel; he mud be whipped out when the lady 
brack may (land by the fire, and dink. Skakefpeare. 
BRA'CHIAL, adj. [from brachium, an arm, Lat.] Be¬ 
longing to the arm. 
BRACH'MAN, Brachmin, or Brahmin, the name 
of the chief order of the religious in Hindoodan. Some 
fay they derive their name from the patriarch Abraham, 
whom they call in their language Brtichma, or Brama. 
Others deduce it from the name of their god Brachma ; 
which fome again take to be the fame with-Abraham ; 
whence Podel calls them Abrachamanes. F. Thomaffm de¬ 
rives -the word from the Hebrew barach, to fly or efcape; 
becaufe the Bracinn-ins were wont to retire into the coun¬ 
try, and live in deferts. The fame author gives another 
derivation from the Hebrew barach (bcncdicere, or are), to 
bl'e-fs or pray ; that being their principal occupation. The 
Greeks aferi-be to them the doctrine of the immortality of 
the foul, and certain notions concerning the nature of the 
Supreme Being, and of future rewards and pnnifhments.- 
To this fpecies of knowledge the Brachmans added a num¬ 
ber of religious obfervances, ‘-which were adopted by Py¬ 
thagoras in his fchool; fitch as fading, prayer, fitence, and 
contemplation. They were looked upon as the friends o'f 
the gods, becaufe they affected fo pay fo much regard ; 
and as the protestors- of mankind, becaufe they were al¬ 
ways ready to advife and indruCt them. Ho bounds were 
therefore fet to the refpeCt and gfatitivde that Were (hewn 
them : princes themfelves did not fcrirple to confult thele 
reclnfestiponany critical conjuncture,from a ftippoftcion that 
they were infpired. Their perfons were held fa c red ; and 
to kill a brachman was confidered as one of the'fiVe ftps in¬ 
expiable in this or the next world. According to the pre- 
fent ufage in Hindoodan, every pried mud be a brachmin, 
but every brachmin is not a pried. They now mingle in 
feveral fectilar employments. They are prime miniders, 
ambaffadors, and ! fil'! other places of confidence and' trtift. 
They profefs an abhorrence to the Iheddingof blood, and 
never partake of any thing that has had life in it; yet th?,y 
take upon them military commands in different capacities. 
Hurry Punt was a brahmin of the fird rank, and Purferam 
Bhow was alfo a. brahmin ; and yet both of thefe were ac¬ 
tive leaders in the Mahratta armies, which Confederated 
with- 
1 
Prior, 
