5 $6 BAB 
■wares, but chiefly with palm-wine. Of thefe boats fome 
were very large, and fome very fmall. The larged car¬ 
ried the weight of 500 talents. There was room for an 
afs in one of their fmall boats; they put many into a large 
one. When they had unloaded, after their arrival at Ba¬ 
bylon, they fold the poles of their boats and the draw ; and, 
loading their affes with the (kins, returned to Armenia: 
for they could not fail up the river, its current was i'o ra¬ 
pid. For this reafon they made their boats of. (kins,, in- 
llead of wood ; and on their return to Armenia with their 
afles, they applied the (kins to their former ufe. 
“ As to tlfeir drefs, they wore a linen fhirt, which'came 
down to their feet. Over it they wore a woollen robe ; 
their outer garment was a white veil. Their Ihoes relcm- 
blcd thole of the Thebans. They let their hair grow-. 
On their heads they wore a turban. They rubbed their 
bodies all over with fragrant liquors. Each man had a 
ring on his finger, and an elegant cane in his hand, with 
an apple at the top, or a rofe, a lily, or an eagle, or 
fome other figure ; for they were not differed to ufe 
canes without devices. With regard to their policy, 
Herodotus thinks that their bed law was one which the 
Keneti, an Illyrian people, likewife obferved in every 
town and village. When the girls were marriageable, 
they were ordered to meet in a certain place, where the 
young men likewife adembled. They were then fold by 
the public crier ; but he fird fold the mod beautiful one. 
When he had fold her at an immenfe price, he put up 
others to (ale, according to their degrees of beauty. The 
rich Babylonians were emulous to carry off the dned wo¬ 
men, who were fold to the highed bidders. But, as the 
young men who were poor could not al’pire to have fine 
women, they were content to take the uglied with the 
money which was given them : for, when the crier had 
fold the handfomeft, he ordered the uglied of all the wo¬ 
men to be brought ; and alked, if any one was willing 
to take her with a fmall fum of money. Thus (lie be¬ 
came the wife of him who was mod eafdy-fatisfied ; and 
thus the fined women were fold , and from the money 
which they brought, fmall fortunes were given to the 
uglied, and to thofe who had any bodily infirmity. A 
father could not marry his daughter as he pleafed ; nor 
was he who bought her allowed to take her home, with¬ 
out giving fecurity that he would marry her. But, after 
the iale, if the parties were not agreeable to each other, 
the law enjoined that the purchafe-money fliould be re- 
dored. The inhabitants of any of their towns were per¬ 
mitted to marry wives at thefe auctions; Such were the 
early cudoins of the Babylonians. But they afterwards 
made a law, which prohibited the inhabitants of different 
towns to intermarry, and by which hu(bands were punidi- 
ed for treating their wives ill. When they had become 
poor by the ruin of their metropolis, fathers ufed to prof- 
titute their daughters for gain. There was a feniible cnI- 
tom among'the Babylonians worthy to be related. They 
brought their fick into the forum, to confult thofe who 
palled on their difeafes; for they had no phyficians. They 
alked thofe who approached the fick, if they ever had the 
fame dillemper ? if they knew any one who had it r and 
how he was cured ? Hence, in this country, every one 
who law a lick perfon was obliged to go to him, and in¬ 
quire into his dillemper. They embalmed their dead with 
honey ; and their mourning was like that of tire Egyptians. 
“ There were three Babylonian tribes, who lived only 
upon filh, and who prepared them in the following man¬ 
ner : they dried them in the fun, and then beat them in a 
mortar to a kind of flour, which, after they had lifted 
through linen, they baked in rolls. The Babylonians at 
ffr.ft worlhipped only the fun and the moon ; but they foon 
multiplied their divinities. They deified Baal, Bel, or 
Belus, one of their kings, and Merodach-Baladan. They 
alfo worlhipped Venus, under the name of Myliita. She 
and Belus were the principal deities of the Babylonians. 
- They counted their day from fun-rife to fun-rife. They 
folemnized five days of the year with great magnificence, 
B A C 
and almoll the fame ceremonies with which the Romanf 
celebrated their Saturnalia. 
“ The Babylonians were very mu.ch addicled to judicial 
adrology. Their priells, who openly profefled that art, 
were obliged to commit to writing all the events of the 
lives of their illuftrious men ; and on a comparifon be¬ 
tween thofe events and the motions of the heavenly bodies, 
the principles of their art were founded. They aliened 
that fome of their books, in which their hiftorical tranf- 
aftions and revolutions were accurately compared with 
the courfes-of the (lars, were thou fand.s of years old. This 
aflertion of their judicial astrologers we may perhaps dif- 
pute ; but that their adronomers had made a long feries 
of obiervatjons, is inconteftably true. It is certain that 
fome of thole obfervations were extant in the days of Arif- 
totle, and that they were older than the empire of the Ba¬ 
bylonians,” 
B ABYLO'NIAN, BabYlonius, is ufed in fome an¬ 
cient-writers for an afirologer, or any thing related to afiro- 
logy. Hence Babylonia cur a, the art of calling nativities ; 
and numcri Babylonii, the computation of adrologers. 
BABYLO'NICA TEX'TA, a rich fort of weaving, 
denominated from the city of Babylon, where the prac¬ 
tice of interweaving divers colours in their hangings fird 
obtained. Hence alfo Baby Ionic garments, Babylonic 
lkins, Babylonic carpets, h 011 lings, &c. Baby/onica folana, 
coverings laid over couches, &c. painted with gold, pur¬ 
ple, and other colours. 
BABYLO'NICS, Babylonica, in natural hillory, a 
fragment of the ancient hillory of the world, ending at 
267 years before Chrifl; and compofed by Berofus, a pried 
of Babylon, about the time of Alexander. Babylonics 
are fometimes alfo cited in ancient writers by the title of 
C/ialdaics. The Babylonics were very confonant with Scrip¬ 
ture, as Jofephus and the ancient Chrillian chronologers 
affure; whence the author is ufually fuppofed to have con- 
fulted the Jewilh writers. Berofus fpeaks of an univer- 
fal deluge, an ark, &c. He reckons ten generations be¬ 
tween the firll man and the deluge ; and marks the dura¬ 
tion of the leveral generations by Jaroi, or periods of 223 
lunar months ;. which, reduced to years, differ not much 
from the chronology of Mofes. The Babylonics confided 
of three books, including the hiflory of the ancient Baby¬ 
lonians, Medes, &c. But only a few imperfect extracts 
are now remaining of the work ; prelerved chiefly by Jo¬ 
fephus and Syncellus, where all the palfages or citations 
of ancient authors out of Berofus are collected with great 
exactnefs. Annins of Viterbo, to fupply the 1 0fs, forged 
a complete Berofus out of his o» n head. The world has 
not thanked him for the impodure. 
B ABYROUS'SA,_/i in zoology. See Sus. 
BAC,/. in navigation, a praam, or ferry-boat. 
BA'CA, or Baja, a town of North America, in New 
Navarre, forty-five miles nerth-ead of Cinaloa. 
Baca. See Baza. 
BA'CACUM, anciently a town of the Nervii in Gallia 
Belgiea; now Bavay, in Hainault. 
BACADU'CHI, a town of North America, in New 
Navarre, 240 miles north of Cinaloa. 
BACAI'M, or BA9AIM, a town in the ifland of Salfete, 
near the coaft of Concan, in Alia, of which the Portu- 
guefe were a long time in podellion, but were driven away 
by ihe Mahrattas. 
BAG AM, a town of North America, in New Navarre, 
163 miles north-wed of Cinaloa. 
BA'CANON,/ The feed of rape or cabbage. 
BACANO'RA, a town of North America, in New 
Navarre, 230 miles fouth of Cafa Grand. 
BACAN'TIBI,/- [the word feems formed by corrup¬ 
tion from vacantivi.~\ In eccleliadical antiquity, wandering 
clerks, who drolled from church to church. 
BACA'PA, a town of North America, in New Navarre, 
120 miles fouth-wed of Cafa Grand. 
BACARA'CH, or Baccarac, a town of Germany 
in the circle of the Lower Rhine, and the Lower Palati- 
3 nate. 
