B E H 
To be upon one's Behaviour. A familiar phrafe, not¬ 
ing - fuch a flate as requires great caution ; a (late in which 
a failure in behaviour will have bad confequences.—Tyrants 
theml'elves are upon their behaviour to a fuperior power. 
I.'EJlrange. 
To BEHEAD', v. a. [from be and head.~\ To deprive of 
the head; to kill by cutting off the head : 
On each fide they fly, 
By chains connext, and, with deftruftive fvveep, 
Behead, whole troops at once. Philips. 
Beheading was a punifliment among the Romans, known 
by the name of dccollatio. The head was laid on a cippus 
or block, placed in a pit dug for the purpofe ; in the ar¬ 
my, without the vallum ; in the city, without the walls, 
at a place near the porta decumana. Preparatory to the 
flroke, the criminal was tied to a flake, and whipped with 
rods. In the early ages the blow was given with an axe ; 
but in after-times with a fword, which was contidered the 
more reputable manner of dying. The execution was.but 
clumlily performed in early times; but afterwards they 
grew more expert, and look the head off- clean, with one 
circular flroke. Beheading was introduced into England 
by William the Conqueror, as an honourable mode of put¬ 
ting flate criminals to death. Waltheof earl of Northum¬ 
berland was the firft who had the honour of being fo exe¬ 
cuted in this country. The guillotine, adopted for this 
purpofe by the revolutionary government in France, is faid 
to have been copied from an infltrument anciently ufed in 
Scotland for the fame purpofe, called a maiden. See Guil¬ 
lotine. 
BEHEL'D, participle pajjivc from behold ; 
All hail ! ye virgin daughters of the main ! 
Ye flreams, beyond my hopes beheld again ! Pope. 
BEHE'MOTH,_/I Behemoth, in Hebrew, fignifies beads 
in general, particularly the larger kind, fit for fervice. 
But Job fpeaks of an animal behemoth, and diferibes its 
properties. Sandlins thinks it an ox ; and Calmet fuppofes 
it is the elephant ; but Bochart has taken much pains to 
fbew that it is the hippopotamus, or lea-horfe. See Hip¬ 
popotamus.. —Behold now behemoth, which I made with 
thee ; he eateth grafs as an ox. Job. 
Behold ! in plaited mail 
Behemoth rears his head. Tkomfon. 
BE'HEN, or Ben ,,f. Valerian roots. Alfo a fruit re- 
fembling the famarifk, from which perfumers.extradf an oil. 
Behen. See Cent Aura and Cu cub ai. us. 
BEHE'RUS, a town of Alia, in the Arabian Irak: 
twenty miles north-north-eaft of Bagdat. 
BEHEST', f. [from be and kef, has. Sax.] Command; 
precept; mandate.-—Her tender youth had obediently lived 
under her parents behejls, without framing, out of Iter own 
will, the forechoofing of any thing. Sidney, 
In heav’n God everbleft, and his divine 
Behejls obey, worthiefl to be obey’d ! Milton. 
To BEHI'GHT, v. a. pret. bekot, part, behight. [from 
halan, to promife^ Saxon.] To promife ; to entruft; to 
commit : 
That moll glorious lioufe that glift’reth bright, 
Whereof the keys are to thy hand behight 
By wife Fidelia. Fairy Queen. 
Perhaps to call: to name : hight being often put, in old 
authors, for named, or was named. The word is now obfolete. 
BEHIND', prep, \_hindan, Sax.] At the back of ano¬ 
ther.—-Acomates hatted with harquebufiers, which he had 
caufed His horfenten to take behind them upon their horfes. 
Knolles. —On the back part; not before.—She came in the 
prefs behind, and touched him. Mark. —Towards the back. 
—The Benjamites looked behind them. Judges. —Follow¬ 
ing another.—Her hufband went .with her, weeping behind 
her. Samuel. —Remaining after the departure of fomething 
elfe.—Piety and virtue are not only delightful for the pre- 
fent, but they leave peace and contentment behind them. 
B E H S59 
Tillotjon. —Remaining after the death of thofe to whom it 
belonged.—What he gave me to publifli, was but a (mail 
part of what he left behind him. Pope. —At a diflance from 
fomething going before; 
Such is the fvviftnefs of your mind, 
That, like the earth’s, it leaves our fenfe behind. Dryderr, 
Inferior to another; having the pofterior place with,regard 
to excellence.—Alter the overthrow of this tu ft lioufe of 
God, a fecond was cretted ; but with fo great odds, that 
they wept, which beheld how much this latter came be¬ 
hind it. Hooker. —On the other fide of fomething : 
From light retir’d behind his daughter’s bed. 
He, for approaching fleep, compos’d his head. Dryden. 
Behind, adv. Out of fight; not yet produced to view ; 
remaining.—We cannot be fure that we have all the par¬ 
ticulars before us ; and that there is no evidence behind, 
and yet unfeen, which may call the probability on the 
other fide. Locke. —Mod of the former fenles may become 
adverbial , by fupprefiing the accufative cafe ; as, 1 left my 
money behind, or behind me. 
BEHIND'HAND, adv. [from behind and hand.’] In a 
flate in which rent or profit, or any advantage, is antici¬ 
pated, fo that lets is to be received, or more performed, 
than the natural or juft proportion.—Your trade would 
fuller, if your being behindhand lias made the natural ofe 
fo high, that your tradefman cannot live upon his l abour. 
Locke. —Not upon equal terms, with regard to forwardnefs> 
In this fenfe, it is followed by with. —Confider, whether it 
is not better to be halt a year behindhand with the falh.ion- 
able part of the world, than to drain beyond his cireum- 
ftances. Spectator. —Shakefpeare ufes it as an adjeSivc, hut 
licentioufiy, for backward ; tardy: 
And thefe thy offices. 
So rarely kind, are as interpreters 
Of my behindhand flackilefs. Shakefpeare. 
BEHI'U, a town of Egypt: feventeen miles fouth of 
Abu Girge. 
BEH'KIR, a diflriCt of India, in the fouthern part of the 
country of Moultan, fituated on the eaft fide of the Indus. 
Behkir, or Bhakir, a town of India, and capital of 
a country to which it gives name, fituated on an ill and in 
the river Indus : 145 miles fouth of Moultan, 304 well of 
Agimere. Lat. 27. 30. N. Ion. 70. 1. E. Greenwich. 
BEHL.U'LIA, a town of Syria : forty miles fouth-weft 
of Aleppo. 
BEFI'MEN. See Boehmen. 
BKHN (Aphara), a celebrated authorefs, born in the 
city of Canterbury, in the reign of Charles 1 . Her father’s 
name was Johnfon, who through the intereft of lord Wil¬ 
loughby, to whom he was related, being appointed lieu¬ 
tenant-general of Surinam, undertook a journey to the 
Weft-Indies, taking with him his whole family. Mr. 
Johnfon died in the voyage; but his family, reaching Suri¬ 
nam, fettled there for fome years. Here it was that his 
daughter learned the hiftory of, and acquired a perfonal 
intimacy with, the American prince Oronooko, and his- 
beloved Imoinda, whofe adventures (he hath fo patheti¬ 
cally related in her celebrated novel of that name, and 
which Southerne afterwards made an admirable ufe of, in 
adopting it as the ground-work of one-of the bed trage¬ 
dies in the Englifli language. On her return to London, 
fhe became the wife of Mr. Behn, a merchant redding in 
that city, but of Dutch extraction. How long he lived 
is uncertain ; probably not very long ; for, her wit and 
abilities having brought her into high eftimation at coilrt, 
Charles II. fixed on her as a proper perfon to tranfaCf 
fome-affairs of importance abroad during the courfe of the 
Dutch war. To this purpofe fhe went over to Antwerp, 
where, by her intrigues and gallantries, and by means 
of the influence fhe had over Vander Albert, a Dutch¬ 
man of eminence, whofe heart was warmly attached 
to her, (lie very loon difeovered the detign formed by de 
Ruyter and de Witt, of failing up the Thames, and burn¬ 
ing. 
