Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/456

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BRY—BUC

a portrait of Seleucus (it is not said which). On doubtful authority he is also said to have been the sculptor of a group of Jupiter and Apollo with a lion at Patara, and of a statue of Serapis. Before his time there is no mention of statues of y Esculapius or Serapis, and it is supposed that the types which we now have of these deities were intro duced by Bryaxis. The statue of Apollo at Daphne represented the god in his character of Musagetes, with long flowing drapery girt at the waist. The Bacchus at (Jnidus must have been similarly draped ; and altogether Bryaxis seems to have shown as much preference for draped and mature forms as Praxiteles displayed for nude

and youthful figures.

BRYDGES, Sir Samuel Egerton (1762–1837), a miscellaneous writer, was born 30th November 1762. He studied at Queen s College, Cambridge, and adopted the pro fession of law. In 1790 he persuaded his elder brother that their family were the heirs to the barony of Chandos, being descended from a younger branch of the Brydges who first held the title The case was tried and lost, but Brydges never gave up his claim, and used to sign himself Per legem terrce B. C. of S. (i.e. Baron Chandos of Sudeley). It has bean said that he underwent the labour of re-editing Collins s Peerage, for the sole purpose of inserting a statement about his supposed right. In 1814 he was made a baronet, and in 1818 he left England. He died at Geneva in 1837. Sir Egerton was a most prolific author ; he is said to have written 2000 sonnets in one year. His first volume of poems was published in 1785 ; of his other numerous works, including novels, political pamphlets, and bibliographies, perhaps the most important are Censura Literaria, 10 vols., 1805-9, and Autobiography, Times, Opinions, and Contemporaries of Sir S. E. Brydges, 1834.

BRZEZANY, a town of Austria, in Galicia, S.E. from Lembergo n the River Zlota-Lipa, in 49 30 25" N. lat. and 24 41 39" long. It possesses a Roman Catholic, a Greek, and an Armenian church, a castle, a convent, and a gymnasium ; and it carries on a considerable manufacture of linen and leather. The population in 1869, including some contiguous villages, amounted to 9290.

BUBASTIS, the great name of the Egyptian goddess Bast, supposed to hold the same pla^e in the Egyptian Pantheon as Artemis or Diana. The triad of Memphis consisted of three gods Ptah or Vulcan, the Greek Hephaistos ; Bast, the wife of Ptah and mother by him of Nefer-Atum, or " the good Turn ; " and Sexet. formerly called Pasht, the sister or antithesis of Bast. This last goddess was also called Merienptah., or " the beloved of Ptah." Although the names of Bast, Sexet, and Merienptah are written with different hieroglyphs, their types are exactly alike, being that of a lion-headed goddess having on her head the sun s disk entwined by an uraaus. Sexet and Bast appear both to have personified fire acted upon by Ptah, the cosmic demiurgos, and Vulcan. Owing to the pantheistic ideas prevalent in Egypt, Bast was identified at times with Neith, the Egyptian Athene or Minerva, and Athor, the Aphrodite or Venus. Her type and attributes were also those of Tefnu or Daphne, the pupil or daughter of the sun ; and it was probably from her relation to this goddess, who, with her twin brother Su or S6s, represented the Apollo and Artemis of the religions, and the Gemini, or Twins, of the zodiacal system, that Bast was identified with Diana. Bast was supposed to be the beneficent portion of the element fire and the bringer of good fortune; her sister and rival Sexet to represent the malevolent deity of the element and the bringer of ill-fortune. At a later period Bast has the head of a cat substituted for that of a lion, and holds in her hands a vase or situlus. About the time of the 2Gth dynasty, figures of her, made of porcelain, abound, representing the goddess seated and sometimes holding a sistrum. Her local worship was principally carried on at Bubastis, the modern Tel Basta. The Specs Artemidos, or Sheik Hassan, Anxtata supposed to be Letopolis near Memphis. The cat was sacred to this goddess, and mummies of this animal are found at Bubastis, the Speos Artemidos, and Thebes, sometimes in bronze or wooden figures in shape of the cat seated on a pedestal, carved in form of the vase which was the hieroglyphic name of the goddess. Connected with Bubastis were the Bubasteia or festival of the goddess, celebrated with great pomp at the city of Bubastus, and the largest and most important in Egypt. The Egyptians flocked to it by water, accompanied by music ; and as many as 700,000 are said to have been present on the occasion. A nome was also named after this goddess, and the capital city called Bubastus or Bubastis was on the site of the present Tel Basta on the Bubastite branch of the Nile. In later times the canal of Necho started from it to the Red Sea, and the adjoining lands were given by Psammetichus to the Greek mercenaries. It is, however, mentioned in inscriptions of the earlier periods of history, and was an important city. Taken by the Persians under Memnon, its walls were razed, and it sunk gradually in importance. The nome struck some bronze coins of small size in the eleventh year of the Emperor Hadrian, 127 A.I)., with a goddess holding in her hands a small animal, possibly a cat. Many antiquities and remains are found in the ruins of the city.


Brugsch, Gcogr, Inschrift, i. 138-236 ;Jablonski, Panth. sEgypt., iii. p. 68; Diodovus, i. 27; Uerodot. ii. 67, 137-156; Rev. Arch. 1863, 195; Wilkinson, Mann, and Oust., iv. 277, v. 203.

BUCCANEERS, a band of piratical adventurers of different nationalities united in their opposition to Spain, who maintained themselves chiefly in the Caribbean Seas during the 17th century.

The island of St Domingo was one of several in the West Indies which had early in the 16th century been almost depopulated by the oppressive colonial policy of Spain. Along its coast there were several isolated establishments presided over by Spaniards, who were deprived of a free and convenient market for the produce of the soil by means of the monopolies imposed by the mother country. Accordingly English, Dutch, and French vessels were welcomed with eagerness, and their cargoes readily bought. The island, thinned of its former inhabitants, had become the home of immense herds of wild cattle, which multiplied with great rapidity ; and it became the habit of the hardy smuggler to provision his ship at St Domingo. The natives still left upon the island were skilled in preserving flesh by means of fire and smoke at their little establishments called Boucans. The adventurers learned " boucanning " from the natives ; and gradually Hispaniola became the scene of an extensive and illicit butcher trade. A sailor in those days when piracy abounded was expert with his weapons, and was almost a fighting man by trade. Spanish monopolies were the pest of every port from Mexico to Cape Horn ; and the seamen who had sailed the Caribbean were filled with a natural hate of everything Spanish. The pleasures of a roving life gained upon them, while the monotony of its routine was broken by occasional skirmishes with the forces organized and led by Spanish officials. Out of such conditions arose the Buccaneer, alternately sailor and hunter, even occasionally a planter, roving, bold, not over scrupulous, not unfrequently savage, with an intense detestation of the power and the representatives of Spain.

In the year 1625 indirect assistance and encouragement

previously given culminated in a combined venture on behalf of the Buccaneers by the Governments of England and France. Each nation contributed a band of colonists,

and selected the island of St Christopher, in the West