BUB 
BUA'NES, a town of France, in the department of 
Landes: five miles weft of Aire. 
BUAR'COS, or Buargas, a town of Portugal, on 
thefeacoaft, in the province of Beira i feven leagues fouth- 
wefi of Coimbra. 
BUAR 1 D', a fmall ifiand in the Red Sea, near the coaft 
of Arabia, four miles well of Lohcia. \ 
BUB,y; A cant word for firong malt liquor. 
BU'BALIS,/. The trivial name of the buffalo. SeeBos. 
BUBAS'TIS, in the Egyptian mythology, one of the 
names of Ills or the moon. The Egyptians bellowed dif¬ 
ferent names on the fun, either to characterize his eifedts, 
or his relation with refpecf to the earth ; they followed 
the fame method refpetfing the moon. Chseremon, an 
Egyptian writer, leaves no doubt on this fubjecf. “ Every 
thing which is publifhed of Ofiris and I (is, all the facer- 
dotal fables, allude only to the phafes of the moon and 
the cotirfe of the fun.” Bubafiis w as one of the principal 
attributes of Ills, rheology, having perfonified her, form¬ 
ed of her a divinity, to whofe honour a city of that name 
was built, as deferibed by Herodotus, and where the peo¬ 
ple collcCled from all parts of Egypt to celebrate her fef- 
tival. A cat was the fyutbol of this deity. The priefts 
fed it with far red food ; andywhenit died, they embalmed 
its body, and carried it in pomp to the tomb prepared fer 
it. The ancients have explained this worftiip varioufly. 
The Greeks pretend that when Typhon declared waragainft 
the gods, Apollo transformed himfelf into a vulture, Mer¬ 
cury into an ibis, and Bubafiis into a cat, and that the ve¬ 
neration of the people for the latter animal took rife from 
that fable ; but they aferibe their own ideas to the Egyp¬ 
tians, who thought very differently. However that may 
be, the cat was greatly honoured in Egypt; and a Roman 
fuldier, having imprudently killed one, was immediately 
put to death by the populace. 
Bubajlis, in the language of the priefts, was deemed the 
daughter of His, and even reprefenied her in certain cir- 
cumftances. It is for tills re a (bn t hat the Greeks, who 
honoured the moon by the name of Diana, bellowed it alfo 
on this Egyptian divinity. Bubafiis, (ays Herodotus, is 
called Diana by the Greeks. A perfeCt refemblance, how¬ 
ever, does not exift between thefe two deities. The Greeks 
conilituted Diana goddefs of the chace and of the foreifs ; 
an attribute the Egyptians did net acknowledge in Bubaf- 
tis. The former added, that (he was .the daughter of Ju¬ 
piter and Lanina, and Bubafiis was produced by Ofiris and 
Ifis. The fefiivuls celebrated in honour of Bubafiis, call¬ 
ed by the Greeks ILliihyia or Lvcina , w ere to mark iter pre- 
fiding over childbed. It remains alfo to refolve a queftion 
which naturally arifes here: How could Bubafiis be call¬ 
ed the daughter of Ifis, (ince (he alfo w'as a fymbol of the 
moon f 1 lie Egyptian theology eafily explains thefe ap¬ 
parent contradictions : llis was the general appellation of 
the moon, Bubafiis a particular attribute. The fun, in 
conjunction with the (tar of the night,.formed the celefiial 
marriage of Ofiris and llis; the crefeent which appears 
three days after was allegorically called their davghttg. It 
is in tlris fenle that the Hebrews called this fame pheno¬ 
menon, the birth of the moon, and that Horace fays, 
Cario fupinas fi tuleris menus,. 
Nalcente luna, niiiica Piiidyle, &c. 
Thefe obfervations inform us, why in the city of Ilithyia, 
where Bubafiis was worf’nipped, tire third day of the lunar 
month was' confeerated for this fefiivah In fudl, it its 
three days after tlie conjunction, that the moon, diffengaged 
from the rays of the fun, appears as a crefeent, and is vi¬ 
able to us. The Egyptians celebrated therefore a folem- 
irity in honottr of Bubafiis, which i» their tongue (ignified 
new moon. The crefeent with which her head was crowned, 
expretl’es palpably the intention of the priefts in creating 
this fymbolical divinity. 
B.UB'BLE,/. Ibobbtl, Dutch.] A fmall bladder of wa¬ 
tery- a film of water filled with wind ;—Bubbles are in the 
form of a hCmifphere ; air within, and a little (kin of wa¬ 
tt U Bx 467 
ter without: and it feemeth fomewhat firange, that the 
air fliould rife fo fwiftly, while it is in the water, and 
when it cometh to the top, fhould be (laved by fo weak a 
cover as that of tiie bubble is. Bacon. — Any thing which 
wants folidity and firmnefs ; any thing that is more fpe- 
cious than real : 
War, he lung, is toil and trouble, 
Honour but an empty bubble. 
Fighting (till, and Kill deftroying. Dryden, 
A cheat; a falfe fhow : 
The nation then too late will find, 
Diredtors’ promifes but wind, 
Sontii-Sea at bed a mighty bubble. Swift. 
The perfon ciieated.—He has been my bubble thefe twenty 
years, and, to my certain knowledge, underftands no more 
of h ; s own affairs, than a child in (waddling clothes. 
Arbuthnvt. 
Tiie term bubble, has been emphatically applied to an 
unproductive funding fcheme, lienee called the South-Sea 
bubble-, and alfo to various other projedts for railing mo¬ 
ney, or eftablifhing a capital, to carry on fume fcheme of 
imaginary profit; (itch as embanking and recovering lands 
overflowed by the fea ; digging and working mines ;> plans 
ot inlurance ; fchemes for exploring and Seizing uninha¬ 
bited countries abroad; or for fetting on foot any new 
kind of traffic or nianufadlory. Propolals were made our, 
(fating the great advantages to be derived, and inviting 
perfons to become adventurers therein. The films necef- 
iary to manage the affair were to be fubferibid, and appor¬ 
tioned into dividends or fliares, and made transferable-. 
Thefe bubbles took their rife in France, and found their 
way to England about the year 1718 ; they raged violemly 
lor a time, but had their declenfion in 172a. The parti¬ 
culars of tliele events are fo curious and interefting, that 
we (hull take a fhort retrofpedfive view of them, particu¬ 
larly of the South-Sea bubble, which arofe in the follow¬ 
ing manner. The government had in view the reduction 
of t fie irredeemable annuities, created in the reigns of king 
William and queen Anne, molt of them for ninety-nine, 
and Come of t Ire in for ninety-fix and eighty-nine, years, 
and others for fhorter terms ; amounting in all to very near 
8oo,oool. per annum. And, the then managers of the 
South-Sea company having been fuccefsful in taking in 
the greateft part of the annuities of the lottery of 1710, 
tiie miniftry encouraged the directors of that company to 
make propofals for reducing thefe annuities into a redeem¬ 
able (fate. In January, 1720, that company, in confe- 
quence hereof, propofed to the houfe of commons to give 
3,500,000k to the public, for tlie privilege of taking in all 
thefe irredeemable debts, and alfo the redeemable debts 
then at the exchequer and bank, rnoftly bearing five per 
cent, either by purchafe from the proprietors, or by ftib- 
feription into their capital (lock. This project exciting 
the jealoufy of the bank of England, the directors of that 
company offered'a have 5,000,000k fur the fame privilege. 
1 his rivalfhip proved in efFedt the bane of the whole plan :• 
for a fecond propolal of the South-Sea company amounted 
to no lefs than 7,567,500k in cafe all thefe debts Ihpul’d 
be fnbfcribed, and in that proportion for any part of them - x 
and alfo propofed further, to pay, to the ufe of tiie pub¬ 
lic, one year's purchafe of all the long irredeemable an¬ 
nuities as fticuld not be brought into their capita). The 
bunk made a feeond propofa), mere advantageous to the 
public in feveral refp'edts, and therein obliged themfelves. 
'to give 1,700k bank-dock for every 100k irredeemable 
long annuity. The miniftry however preferred the offer 
of the South»Sea company ; who, flulhed with their fuc- 
cefs, carried their aims fo far as to incorporate all the 
funds of tiie bank, Eaft-lndia company, and the exche¬ 
quer, with their own capital. But, although that was not 
relilhed, tiie very rumour of the fcheme railed their dock 
to 126 per cent, at the (hutting of the books for Chrift- 
mas 1719. It is to little purpofe to enlarge on tiie me¬ 
thods taken by the managers, for enabling them to exe* 
3 
