BAO
BAP
-to a kind of hawk, fomewhat larger than our fparrow-havvk, and of a yellowifh colour on the back and wings, and white under the belly. It is the moll common of all the kinds of hawk in that part of the world, and is a very voracious animal. BANQUET, in the manege, denotes that fmall part of the branch of a bridle under the eye ; which, being rounded like a fmall rod, gathers and joins the extremities of the bit to the branch, in fuch a manner, that the banquet is not feen, but co- vered by the cap, or that part of the bit next the branch. Banquet-Z/w, is an imaginary line drawn by the bit-makers along the banquet, in forging a bit, and prolonged upwards and downwards, to adjuft the defigncd force or weaknefs of the branch, in order to make it (tiff, or eafy. For the branch will be hard and ftrong, if the fevil-hole be on the outfide of the banquet, with refpect to the neck; and it will be weak, and eafy, if the fevil-hole be on the infide of the line, taking the center from the neck. Guillct, Gent. Diet, in voc. BANQUETTING-fowi, or Hcufe. See Xenia, Saloon, &e. The antient Romans fupped in the atrium, or veftibule, of their houfes; but, in after-times, magnificent faloons, or banqueting- rooms, were built, for the more commodious and fplendid enter- tainment of their guefts. Lucullus had feveral of thefe, each diftinguifhed by the name of fome god ; and there was a parti- cular rate of expence appropriated to each. Plutarch relates with what magnificence he entertained Cicero and Pompey, who went with defign to furprize him, by telling only a Have who waited, that the cloth fhould be laid in the Apollo. The emperor Claudius, among others, had a fplendid banqueting- room, named Mercury. But every thing of this kind was out- done by the luftre of that celebrated bemqueting-houfe of Nero, called dornus aurea; which, by the circular motion of its parti- tions, and ceilings, imitated the revolution of the heavens, and reprefented the different feafons of the year, which changed at every fervice, and fhowered down flowers, effences, and per- fumes, on the guefts '. Heliogabulus, neverthelefs, is faid to have improved as much upon Nero, as the latter had done on Lucullus <•.— [' Seme. Epift. go. b Vid. l'Abbe Couture, in Mem. Acad. Infcript. T. 2. p 427, feq.]
EANSTICKLE, in ichthyology, a name given by us to the gaf-
terojieus. See Gasterosteus. The Banstickle is otherwife called prickle-bag, or prickle-back. BtYNTAM-lP'crk, a kind of Indian painting, and carving on wood, rcfembling Japan- work, only more gay, and decorated with a great variety of gaudy colours. Vid. Pari. Treat, of Japann. p. 7.
Bantam-uwk is of lefs value among connoiffeurs, though fome- times preferred, by the unfkilful, to the true Japan-work. For- merly it was in more ufe, and cfteem, than at prefent, and the imitation of it much pracrifed by our japanners. There are two forts of Bantam, as well as of Japan work ; as,
■ in the latter, Ibme are flat, lying even with the black, and others high or emboffed, fo, in Bantam-work, fome is flat, and others in-cut, or carved into the wood, as we find in many large fcreens ; with this difference, that the Japan artiftswork
- chiefly in gold and other metals, and the Bantam generally in colours, with a fmall fpririkling of gold here and there.
, bor the flat Bantam-work, it is done in colours, mixed with gum-water, proper for the thing defigned to be imitated. For the carved, or in-cut kind, the method of performing it is thus defcribed by an ingenious artift. I . The wood is to be primed with whiting and fize, fo often till the primer lie near a quar- ter of an inch thick ; then it is to be water-plained, i. e. rub- bed with a fine wet cloth, and, fome time after, brufhed very fmooth, the blacks laid on, varnifhed up with a good bodv, and polifhed well, though with a gentle hand. This done, the defign is to be traced out with vermilion, and gum-water, exacMy in the manner wherein it is intended to be cut j the figures, trees, buildings, CSV. in their due proportions. Then the graver is applied, with other tools of proper fhapes, differ- ing according to the workman's fancy. With thefe he cuts deep or (hallow, as is found convenient, but never deeper than the whiting lies ; the wood being never to feel the edge of the mftrument. Lines, or parts of the black, are ftill tS be left, tor the draperies and other out-lines, and for the diftinction of one thing Brora another ; the rule being to cut where the white is, and leave the black untouched. The carving being finifh- ed, they take to the pencil, with which the colours arclaid in- to the cut-work. After this, the sold is to be laid in thefe places which the defign requires ; for which purpofe, a ftrong, thick gum-arabic water is taken, and laid with a pencil on the work; and, while this remains wet, leaf sold is cut with a iliarp tmooth-c-dged knife, in little pieces, fiiaped to the bixnefs and figure of the places where they are to be laid. Thefe be- ing taken up with a little cotton, they dab them with the fame
. dole to the gum-water, which affords a rich luftre. The work thusnnifhed, they clear up the black with oil, taking care not to touch the colours. The European workmen, in lieu of leaf- go u, ordinarily ufe brafs-duft, which is lefs bright and beauti- ful. Bark. ibid. c. 13. p. 37, feq
BAOBAB in natural hiftory, the name of an African fruit de-
- . fenbed by Proffer Alpinus. It is of the fize of a lemon, but
-..itrefemblesagourd, and contains feveral black feeds, whole extremities are a little crooked. Its fubftance alfo much re-
. tanbles that of the gourd ; and, when firft pulled off, is moift,
red, and of a grateful acid tafte. The people of ^Ethiopia, where it is plentiful, are very fond of it, in the fcorching heats of fummer ; and the richer fort add fugar to it, to correct its acidity. It is a great cooler, and very agreeably quenches thirft ; and has alfo fome medicinal ufe, as it is eood in con- tagious and peftilential fevers. The tree much refemblcs the orange in fize, and in the fhape of its leaves. 7 'he people of Cairo, where the frefn fruit is not to be had, ufe its pulp dried and powdered. Profp. Alp'm. de Plant. -/Egypt. BAPHE, in the writings of the antients, a word ufed to exprefs that fine red cotour, with which they ufed to illuminate the ca- pital letters in manufcripts, at the beginning of chapters. It is alfo called, by fome, eneaujlum facrum, and, by others, coccus and dtintibaris. It was a very elegant colour, and is faid to have been prepared of the purple colour taken from the mu- rex, and fome other ingredients. It was called eneaujlum, from its rcfembling very much the fine bright red ufed in enamels. BAP'ITE, in antiquity, an effeminate, voluptuous kind of priefts at Athens, belonging to the goddefs Cotyttus; thus called, from their ftated dippings and wafhings, by way of purifica- tion. It feems, they were to be made very clean and pure, that they might wallow, and defile themfelves, with the lefs referve ; for their rites were performed in the ni<mr, and con- fifted chiefly of lafcivious dances, and other abominations. Eupolis having compofed a comedy to expofe them, entitled Haw?©-, they threw him into the fea, to be revenged ; and the fame fate is alfo faid to have befallen Cratinus, another Athe- nian poet, who had written a comedy againft the Bapta:, under the fame title. Sea/ig. Poet. 3. 1. c. 7, p. 28. Others deduce the denomination Bapta:, from the practice of dying and painting their bodies, especially their eye-brows, and officiating at the fervice of their deity, with the parade alld demurcnefs of women. Fabr. Thef. p. 334. Juvenal defcribes them in this light :
Talia jeer eta eoluerunt Orgia terda
Ceeropiam foliti Bapta lafare Cotyton,
I tie Jupcrcilium madidei fuligine taclum,
Obliquci producit aeu, pingitque trementes
Attollent oeulos, vitrio bibit ille Priapo. Sat. 2. v. or, feq. BAPTES, in natural hiftory, a name given by the antients to a tofiile fubftance ufed in medicine ; they have left us but very fhort defcriptions of it: Pliny only tells us, that it was foft, and of an agreeable fmell. Hence Agricola judges, that it was probably one of the bitumens. BAPTISECULA, in botany, a name given, by fome authors to the blue corn-flower, called the eyanus, or blue-bottle. Ger. Emac. Inch 2. BAPTISM,(Cy/.) — Baptifm is known, in ecclefiaftical writers, by divers other names and titles; fometimesit is ca]lcdindulgcnce,or: aijolution, by reafon of its eftecls in remitting fins a ; fometimes pallngenefla, or lavcr of regeneration b ; fometimes fains, or life and falvation e ; fometimes e-^aytc, fignaeulum Domini, andfig- naeulnmfidii, or the feal of faith d ; fometimes abfolntely myjte- rium, and facramentum c ; fometimes the facrament of faith r ; {omeumes facraments, in the plural, becaufe the eucharift, con- firmation, and exorcifm, were annexed to it £ ; fometimes via- ticum, from its ufe to departing perfons h ; fometimes facerio- tium laiei l , or the lay priefthood, becaufe allowed, in cafes of neceflity, to be conferred by laymen ; fometimes it is called the great cireumeifmi, by reafon it fucceeds in the room of cir- cumcifion, and is the feal of the chriftian covenant, as that was the feal of the covenant made with Abraham ; fo, in re- gard that baptifm had Chrift for its author, and not man, it was antiently known by the name of Aw§o, and %u^crp<t Kt^.y, the gift of the Lord; fometimes it was fimply called £0,^-., without any other addition, by way of eminence, becaufe it was both a gratuitous and fmgular gift of Chrift : in reference to the making men compleat members of Chriit's body, the church, it had the name of Ts?ew«6 and Te\si«, the eonfecration, and can- fummation; becaufe it gave men the perfection of chriftians, and a right to partake of the To Titem, which was the Lord's fup- per ; it had alfo the name of ptwts and ^raywyia, the initia- tion, becaufe it was the admittance of men to all the facred rites and myfteries of the Chriftian religion : and as the eucharift, from its reprefenting the death of Chrift, by the outward ele- ments of bread and wine, was called the facred Jymbols, fo bap- tifm, fometimes, had the fame name k . — [ a Bingh. Orig. Ec- clef. 1. 11. c. 1. §. 2. Idem, 1. 19. c. 1. §. 2. b Idem, ib. 1. 11. c. 1. §. 3. = Id. ibid. c. 1. §. 5. •" Id. ibid. §. 6. ' Id. ibid. §. 8. f Id. ibid. £ Jelmf. Ecclef. Law, an. 740. §. 41. h Bingh. 1. c. §. 10. I Jd. ibid. ij. 3. » Id. ibid. §• 10-] Baptism had its origin from the Jewiih church, where it was the practice, long before Chrift's time, to baptize profelytes or converts to their faith, as part of the ceremony of their ad- miffion: a practice which obtains among them to this day; a perfon turning Jew, is firft circumcifed, and, when healed, is bathed, or baptized in water, in prefence of their rabbins ; af- ter which he is reputed a good Jew. Vid. Leo de Mode::. Cerem. & Cout. desjuifs, P. 5. c. 3. Diet, de Trev. T. 1. p. 850.
Chauvin, and fome others, have pretended to derive baptifm
from the luftrations and ablutions praflifed by the heathen
priefts ; others will have baptifm of Chriftian origin, and to
1 have
