88o BEN 
To BE'MOCK, -v. a. [from mock.~\ To treat with mocks, 
— Remock the modefl moon. Shakefprare. 
To BEMOI'L, v. a. \bt and moil , from mouillcr, Fr.] To 
bedraggle ; to bemire ; to encumber with dirt and mire. 
To BEMON'STER, v. a. [from be and monjicr.'] To 
make monftrous : 
Thou chang’d and felf-converted thing ! for (flame,, 
Rcmonjltr not thy feature. Shahtfpeare. 
BEMU'SED, adj. [from to mvfe.~\ Overcome with mu fl¬ 
ing ; dreaming : a word of contempt : 
Is tliere a parfon much bemus'd in beer, 
A maudlin poetefs, a rhiming peer ? Pope. 
BF.N,yl [[*13 behn, Arab.] An oily nut brought from 
Arabia. It is alfo called balanus 'myrepjica, or glans uv- 
gucntaria. Naturalifts dittinguilh two kinds of bens, viz. 
the great, ben magnum, which refembles the filbert, and is 
by home called avellana purgatrix, brought from America; 
and the (mall, ben parvum, brought from Ethiopia. Ben- 
nuts yield, by exprefiion, much oil, which is obtained from 
the nut by limple preflu re. It is remarkable for its not 
growing rancid in keeping, or at lealt not until it has 
flood for a number of years ; and, on this account, it is 
tifed in extracting the aromatic principle of fuch odoriferous 
flowers as yield little or no eflential oil in diftillation. Thefe 
preparations are made in Spain, Portugal, and more efpe- 
Cially Italy, by the following method, according to Neu¬ 
mann : Some fine carded cotton is dipped in oil, and laid 
in the bottom of a proper veflel; on this is fpread a pretty 
thick layer of frefli flowers, above thefe Come more of the 
dipped cotton; and thus alternately till the veffel is full. 
The whole is then digefied, for a day and a night, in the 
heat of a water-bath ; after which the flowers are taken 
out, the cotton ({ratified in the fame manner with frefli 
flowers, and the procefs repeated until the oil fqueezed 
out from the cotton is found to be fufliciently impregnated 
with the odour of the fubjedt. The digefting veflel is ei¬ 
ther of tin, with a cover to ferew upon it; or of porce¬ 
lain, compofed of two parts, which are clofely luted to¬ 
gether. Mod of them have an air-hole in the top, which 
is (lopped with a dofli! of the oiled cotton, which retains 
fuch of the odorous effluvia as would otherwife make their 
efcape. Some, inflead of the oil of ben, take the ben it- 
felf, cut it in pieces, flratify it repeatedly with the flowers, 
and then prefs out its oil ; but the oil thus obtained is 
greatly inferior in fragrance to the other. 
BK'NA, a kingdom of Africa, near the fource of the 
river Sierra Leona, and fouth of the country of Mandinga. 
BENAC', a town of France, in the department of tiie 
Ille and Viliaine, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
tricl of Redon : two leagues and a half north-north-eaft of 
Redon, and eight and a half fouth of Rennes. 
BENAI'AH, [of nJ 3 a building, and tv the Lord, Heb. 
i. e. the Lord’s building.] The foil of Jehoiada. 
BENA'MFNIL, a town of France, in the department 
of the Meurte, and chief place of a canton, in the diftriCt 
-of I.uneville : two leagues and a half eaft of Luneville, 
and two and a quarter well of Blamont. 
BENA'RES, a country or fubah of Hindoflan, bounded 
on the north and north-weft by Oude, on the eaft by Ba- 
har, and on the fouth by the Oriffa, about 120 miles long, 
and 100 broad : the principal towns are Benares, Jionpour, 
Gazypour, Merzapour, and Chunar ; the foil is fertile, 
and the country populous : it was ceded to the Englifh in 
the year 1775, and produces a revenue of near 400,cool, 
a year. 
Benares, the capital of the above fubah, and one of 
the larged cities of Hindoflan, fituated on the fide of the 
Ganges: its ancient Indian name is 'Baranaffi or Cafchi, 
which name it had when taken by Mahmoud, king of Gaf- 
nin, the firft Mahometan who became mafter of it. It is 
about (ix miles long, and four wide. Benares is the uni- 
■verfity of the original Gentoos, or principal feminary of 
the bramins or pridls, where-fome thoufands of them re- 
B E N 
fide. It is a place of great fan&ity, having feveral noble 
pagodas or temples, belides hofpital'ii, and other public cha¬ 
rities. It is celebrated for its ancient obfervatory, of which 
Sir W. Baker gives the following defeription, in vol. lxvii, 
of the Philofophical TranfaCtions. “ Having, (ays he, 
frequently heard that the ancient Bramins had a know¬ 
ledge of aflronomy, and being confirmed in this by their 
information of an approaching eclipfe both of the fun and 
moon, I made enquiry, when at that place in 1772, among 
the principal Bramins, to endeavour to get fome informa¬ 
tion relative to the manner in which they were acquainted 
of an approaching eclipfe. I was told, that thefe matters 
were confined to a few; who were in poffeffion of certain 
books and records ; fome containing the myfteries of their 
religion ; and others the tables of aftronomical obferva- 
tions written in tiie Shanfcrit language, Which few under- 
flood but themfelves : that they would take me to a place 
which had been conflructed for the purpofe of making fuch 
obfervations' as I was enquiring after, and from whence 
they fuppofed the learned Bramins made theirs. I was 
then conduced to an ancient building of (lone, the lower 
part of which, in its prefent (ituation, was converted into 
a ftable for liorfes, and a receptacle for lumber ; but, by 
the number of court-yards and apartments, it appeared 
that it mull once have been an edifice for the life of fome 
public body of people. We entered this building, and 
went up a (laircafe to the top of a part of it, near to the 
river Ganges, that led to a large terrace, where, to my 
furprife and fatisfaClion, 1 faw a number of inflruments yet 
remaining, in the greateft prefervation, (lupendoufly large, 
immovable from the (pot, and built of (lone, Come of 
them being upwards of twenty feet in height; and, although 
they are (aid to have been erected 200 years ago, the gra¬ 
duations and divifions on the feveral arcs appeared as well 
cut, and as accurately divided, as if they had been thq 
performance of a modern artift. The execution in the 
conftruCtion of thefe inflruments exhibited a mathematical 
exaCtnefs in the fixing, bearing, fitting of the feveral parts, 
in the neceflary and fufficient (upports to the very large 
flones that compofed them, and in the joining and fatten¬ 
ing each into the other by means of lead and iron. The 
fituation of two large quadrants adapted to one of the in¬ 
flruments, and whofe radius is nine feet two indies, by 
their being at right angles with a gnomon at twenty-five 
degrees elevation, are thrown into fuch an oblique fitua¬ 
tion as to render them the mod difficult, not only to con- 
'ItruCt of fuch a magnitude, but to fecure in their pofitioa 
for Co long a period, and'aftbrds a ftriking inftance of the 
ability of tiie architect in their cbnflruiStion : for, by the 
fliadow of the gnomon, thrown on the quadrants, they do 
not appear to have altered in the lead from their original 
polition ; and fo true is the line of the gnomon, that, by 
applying the eye to a final! iron ring of an inch diameter 
at one end, the fight is carried through three others of the 
fame dimenfions, to the extremity at the other end, diflant 
thirty-eight feet eight inches, without obltruCtion : fuch 
is the firmnels and ait with which this inflrument has been 
executed. This performance is the more wonderful and 
extraordinary when compared with tiie works of the arti¬ 
ficers of Hindoflan at this day, who are not under the im¬ 
mediate direction of an, European mechanic ; but arts ap¬ 
pear to have declined equally with fcience in the eafl.' The 
Bramins, without the affiflance of optical glades, feem to 
have had an advantage unexperienced by aftronomers of the 
more northern climates. The ferenity and clearnefs of 
the atmofphere in the night-time in the Eafl Indies, ex¬ 
cept at the feafons of changing the monfoons or periodical 
winds, is difficult to exprefs to thofe who have not feen it, 
becaufe we have nothing in comparifon to form our ideas 
upon : it is clear to perfection, a total quietude fubfifts, 
fcaccely a cloud is to be (een ;' and the light of the hea¬ 
vens, by the numerous appearance of the ftars, affords a 
profpeCt both of wonder and contemplation.” This ob¬ 
servatory at Benares is faid to have been built by the or¬ 
der of the emperor Ackbar; for, as this wife prince endea¬ 
voured 
