6x4 B' A G 
from north to fouth. Lat. 70. to 79. N. nearly. Ion. 4.5. 
to 8 j. W. Greenwich. 
To BAF'FLB, v. a. [baffler, Fr.] To elude; to make 
ineffectual.—They made a thift to think themfelves guilt- 
lefs, in fpite of all their fins ; to break the precept, and 
at the fame time to bajfle the curfe. South :—To confound ; 
to defeat with lome confufion, as by perplexing or amu- 
f.ng: to bajfle is fometimes tefs tlian to conquer. •—When the 
mind has brought itfelf to clofe thinking, it may go on 
roundly. Every abfirufe problem, every intricate quef- 
tion, will not bajfle, difeourage, or break, it. Locke. —A fo¬ 
reign potentate trembles at a war with the Englifh nation, 
ready to employ againft him fuch revenues as fiiall bajfle 
his defigns upon their country. Addifon. 
Baffle, f. A defeat.—It is the (kill of the difputant 
that keeps off a bajfle. South. 
BAF'FLER,/i He that puts to confufion, or defeats. 
—Experience, that great baffler of fpeculation, affures us 
the thing is too potfible, and brings in all ages matter of 
faCt to confute our fuppofition. Government of the Tongue. 
BAF'FO, a confiderable town in the ifiand of Cyprus, 
with a fort built near ancient Paphos, of which fome con¬ 
fiderable ruins yet remain, particularly fome broken co¬ 
lumns, which probably belonged to the temple of Venus. 
BAG,/ [beige, Sax. from whence perhaps, by drop¬ 
ping, as is uliial, the harlh confonant, caxi\thcge, bage , bag.'] 
A lack, or pouch, to put any thing in, as money, corn, 
&c.—What is it that opens thy month in praife's ? Is it 
that thy bags and thy barns are full ? South .—That part 
of animals in which fome particular juices are Contained, 
as the poifon of vipers : 
The (welling poifon of the feveral feds, 
Which, wanting vent, the nation’s health infeCts, 
Shall burlt its bag. Dryden. 
An ornamental purfe of filk tied to fome men’s hair.— 
We (aw a young fellow riding towards us full gallop, with 
a bob wig and black filken bag tied to it. Addifon. —A term 
uled to fignify different quantities of certain commodities; 
as, A bag of pepper, A bag of hops. 
Bag, among farriers, is when, in order to retrieve a 
horle’s loll appetite, they put in an ounce of afafoetida, 
and as much powder of favin, into a bag, to be tied to the 
bit, keeping him bridled for two hours, feveral times a- 
day; as foon as the bag is taken off, he begins eating. 
This praCtice is alfo ufeful in difeafes of the mouth and 
throat. 
To Bag, v.a. To put into a bag.—Hops ought not to 
be bagged up hot. Mortimer.. —To load with a bag: 
. Like a bee, bagg'd with his honey’d venom. 
He brings it to your hive. Dryden. 
To Bag, v. n. To fvvell like a full bag.—-The (kin feem- 
ed much contracted, yet it bagged , and had a porringer full 
of matter in it. Wifeman. 
BAGATvIA'DER, or Bagamedri, a province of the 
•kingdom of Abyffinia, in Africa. It is laid to receive its 
name from the great number of ffieep bred in it; meder 
fignifying ‘ land or earth,’ and bag, a ‘flieep.’ Its length 
is eftimated at about fixty leagues, and its breadth twenty: 
-but formerly it was much more extenfive; feveral of its 
provinces having been difmembered from it, and joined to 
that of Tigre. It is inhabited chiefly by wandering Gal- 
las and Caffres. 
BAGAN', a town of Servia, twenty miles N. of Niffa. 
BAGAN'ZA, a river of Italy, which joins the river 
•Parma, at the city of Parma. 
BAGANZO'LA, a town of Italy, four miles north of 
(Parma. 
BA'G AT, a town of France, one league weft of Paris. 
BAGATEL'LE, f. [bagatelle, Fr.] A trifle; a thing 
of no importance: 
Heaps of hair-rings and cipher’d feals; 
dj£ich trifles, ferious bagatelles. Prior. 
rtBAGAU'DdE, or Bacaud^, an ancient faCtion of 
t 
bag 
peafantf, or malcontents, who ravaged Gaul. The Gauls, 
being oppreffed with taxes, role about the year of Chrift 
290, under the command of Amand and Elian ; and af¬ 
firmed the name bagaudee , which, according to fome au¬ 
thors, fignified in the Gallic language ‘forced rebels;’ ac- 
toothers, ‘tribute;’ according to others, ‘robbers ;’ which 
lad fignification others allow the word had, but then is 
was only after the time of the bagaudas, and doubtlefs took 
its rife from them. 
BAG'DAD, a celebrated city of Afia, in Irak Arab;, 
feated on the eaflefn bank of the Tigris, in lat. 33. 15. N. 
Ion. 63. 15. E. F'erro. By many authors this citv is very 
improperly called Babylon. The latter flood on‘the Eu¬ 
phrates, at a confiderable diflance. This city, for many 
years the capital of the Saracen empire, was founded by 
the khald Al Manfur, the fecond of the houfe of A 1 Ab¬ 
bas, after an attempt by the Rawandians to affaffmate him, 
as mentioned under the article Arabia, p. 21, of this vo¬ 
lume. 
The reafons affigned by the Arabian hiflorians for build¬ 
ing the city of Bagdad are, That the attempt to affallinate 
the khalif had difgufled him with his Arabian fubje&s in 
general, and that the fpot where Bagdad flood was at a 
confiderable diflance from the city of Cufa particularly ; 
the inhabitants of which were remarkable for their trea¬ 
chery and inconflancy, A 1 Manfur himfelf having felt fe¬ 
veral inflances of it. Befides, the people of Irak, who 
had always continued faithful to him, reprefented, that 
by building his capital near the confluence of the Euphra¬ 
tes and Tigris, it would be in a great meafure fecured from 
the attacks of thofe who fliould have an inclination to dif- . 
pute the khalifate with him; and that, by being fituated 
as it were in the middle of the tradl comprehending the 
diftrifts of Bafrah, Cufa, Wafet, Mawfel, and Swada, at 
no great diflance from thofe cities, it would be plentifully 
fupplied with provifions by means of the above-mention¬ 
ed rivers. 
Concerning the origin of the name Bagdad, there are 
various accounts, which, being equally uncertain and tri¬ 
fling, merit no attention. The firfl city that went bf this 
name was fituated on the weflern bank of the Tigris; from 
whence A 1 Manfur difpatched his fon A 1 Mohdi with a bo¬ 
dy of Modem troops to the oppofite bank. Here the young 
prince took pod, and fortified the place on which he had 
encamped with a wall, in order to cover his troops, as well 
as the workmen employed by his father on the other fide of 
the river, from the incurfions of the Perfians, who feemed 
to have taken umbrage at the erection of a new metropo¬ 
lis fo near the frontiers of their dominions. Hence that 
part of the city foon afterwards built on the eaftern bank 
of the Tigris, received the name of the Camp, or Fortrefs, 
of Al Mohdi. The khalif had a fuperb and magnificent 
palace both in the eaftern and weftern part of the town. 
The eaftern palace was furrounded on the land fide by a 
femicircular wall that had fix gates; the principal of which 
feems to have been called the gate of prefdls, whofe en¬ 
trance Was generally killed by the princes and ambaffadors 
that came to the khalif’s court. The weftern part of the 
city was entirely round, with the khalif’s palace in the 
centre, and having the great mofque annexed to it. The 
eaftern part conlifted of an interior and exterior town, each 
of which was furrounded by a wall. For fome time the 
building of the city went but (lowly on, owing to a fcar- 
city of materials; for which reafon the khalif was fome. 
times.inclined to remove the materials of Al Madayen the 
ancient metropolis of the Perfian empire. But, upon tri¬ 
al, he found the ftones to be of fuch an immenfe lize, thaj 
the removal of them to Bagdad would be attended with 
great difficulty and expence; befides, heconfidered that it 
would be a reflection upon himfelf to have it faid that he 
could not finifti his metropolis without deftroying fuch a 
pile of building as perhaps could not be paralleled in the 
whole world; for which reafons he at length gave over 
his delign, and ereCted the city of Bagdad mod probably 
out of the ruin* of the ancient cities of Seieucia and Cte- 
fiphoRj 
