BAGARA, ba-ga'ra. A tribe of pastoral Arabs in the Egyptian Sudan, on the White Nile, above Khartum.
BAGASSE, ba-gas' (Fr. dialectic byform of
bagage, baggage, lumber). Cane-straw, or Cane-
trash. The refuse matter left after the extrac-
tion of the saccharine juice from the sugar-cane.
The only use to which the bagasse is put is as
fuel in the heating of the boilers and pans in the
sugar manufactory. See Sugar; Fuel.
BAGATELLE, bag'a-tel' (Fr., It. bagattella,
dim. of bagata, trifle, from Low Lat. baga, bun-
dle; cf. bag, baggage). A game somewhat akin
to billiards, inasmuch as it is played with cues
and balls upon a cushion-rimmed table. The
table, which is usually about 7 feet long and 38
inches wide, has a group of 9 holes, arranged and
numbered as follows:
5 3 2 8 9 7 4 6 1
It is played with 9 balls, 8 of which are white, and 1 red (or black). This (the king-ball) is placed on a spot in front of hole 1, and the player strikes a ball at it from the balk-line at the end of the table, and endeavors to put it, his own, or both balls into hole or holes. Whatever hole the king-ball falls into counts double. The re- mainder of the balls are driven, one by one, up the table in like manner, and the sum total of the holes they drop into is the player's score. In 'Mississippi' a bridge with arches is placed in front of the first hole, and through these arches the ball must pass before it can reach the holes beyond.
BAGAU'DÆ. Peasants of Gaul who resisted Roman oppression, about A.D. 270, capturing and destroying Augustdunum (now Autun). Claudius II. temporarily repressed them, but Aurelian made concessions to them and proclaimed general amnesty. They rose again in 294, and Maximian was sent against them. Their first leader was Victoria; subsequently there were two, Ælianus and Amandus, the latter calling himself emperor. The two last named fell in battle, and Maximian utterly defeated their forces; but they were troublesome to Rome until the end of the Western Empire.
BAG'BY, George William (1828-83). An American humorist. He was educated at Delaware College, and afterwards had a medical course at the University of Pennsylvania. He then took up editorial work, especially on the Southern Literary Messenger, from 1859 till near the close of the war. Subsequently he was made State Librarian, and became widely known as a lecturer and humorist, writing over the name 'Mozis Addums.' He deserves to be remembered as having kept up the old school of Southern humor, founded by Longstreet and Hooper. His works were collected in 3 vols. (Richmond, 1884-86).
BAGDAD, bag-dad' or (as Anglicized) bag'-
dad. A vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated near
the southeastern end of the country, and covering
an area of 54,503 square miles (Map: Turkey in
Asia, L 6). It is watered by the Tigris and
Euphrates, but the soil, with the exception of a
small portion, is barren and unproductive. The
population is variously estimated at from 600,-
000 to 850,000, consisting of Turks, Arabs,
Armenians, Jews, and Kurds.
BAGDAD (Ar. and Turk. bagh, garden +
Dad, a monk whose cell was near the city; or
Pers. Bag, Russ. Bog, God + dad, Lat. datus,
given). The capital of the Turkish vilayet of
the same name, and formerly one of the most
magnificent cities of the Mohanunedan world,
situated in the centre of the vilavet on both sides
of the Tigris (Map: Turkey in Asia, L 6). The
modern and larger portion of the city lies on
the eastern bank and is connected with the old
town on the opposite side by two pontoon bridges,
650 and 715 feet long respectively. Bagdad is
surrounded by a brick wall, partly ruined, and a
dry moat, and has an attractive appearance from
the river. Upon closer examination, however, it
proves to be a very ill built and neglected city,
with but few remnants of its former splendor
here and there, and on the whole possessing but
few attractions. The streets are crooked, narrow,
and filthy, as only streets in the Orient can be.
The houses are low, and the absence of windows
in the front renders them exceedingly sombre and
uninviting. The interior, however, is here and
there richly decorated, and the courts are sometimes ornamented with artistic fountains. Bagdad contains a large number of mosques (most of them ruined) which alone testify to its former splendor. Among other public buildings the most noteworthy are the Governor-General's palace, the citadel, and the numerous khans. Bagdad also contains a number of brick-covered bazaars, which have long been famous. In the vicinity are situated a number of tombs held in high reverence by the natives and visited annually by thousands of pilgrims. In olden times Bagdad was famous as a seat of learning and culture, but at present its high schools or medressen are very few in number, and its importance is due chiefly to its commerce. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, Bagdad was an important centre on the trade route from India to Europe. At present the traffic from India is on the decline, but Bagdad is still a place of importance in the trade of the Orient, the mart through which pass the imports and exports of Mesopotamia, and an outlet for the products of Arabia and Persia intended for the Eastern markets. Transportation is effected from Basra to Bagdad by the Tigris, and from there to Constantinople, Aleppo, and Damascus by caravans. The construction of the projected German railway, which is to connect Bagdad with Konieh, in Asia Minor, promises a revival of the former commercial importance of the city. The chief articles of export are wool, fruits, horses, various Oriental fabrics, skins, gum tragacanth, feathers, dates, and leather articles. Bagdad is the seat of a United States consulate. The population has been repeatedly decimated by pestilence and inundations. At present it is estimated at 150,000. It consists of Arabs, Turks, Jews, Persians, Kurds, Armenians, Syrians, and some Hindus. The number of Christians is insignificant, and the Mohammedans are about equally divided between Sunnites and Shiites.
Bagdad was built by the Abbasside Caliph Al-mansur (A.D. 762-60), out of the ruins of Ctesiphon and Seleucia. Soon after it was greatly enlarged by Harun-al-Rashid, under whose immediate successors it attained to that magnificent prosperity which finds its reflex in the pages of the Arabian Nights. In 1258 the grandson of
