Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/569

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BARBADOS.
495
BARBARIAN.

textiles, flour, rice, and fish. Manjak, a variety of bitumen, is exported to some extent.

The administration of the island is vested in a governor who is assisted by an executive committee, a legislative council of 9 appointed members, and the House of Assembly, which consists of 24 members, elected annually by popular vote. Education is under the direction of the Government, which also subsidizes the various religious denominations represented on the island. Besides primary and secondary educational institutions, Barbados has Codrington College, which is in affiliation with Durham University, England. The revenue and expenditure of the colony for 1900, respectively, were: £185,475 ($927,375) and £182,866 ($914,330). Barbados is the headquarters of the British troops in the West Indies. The island has 24 miles of railroad, 470 miles of roads, and 635 miles of telephone lines. The United States is represented by a consulate. The capital and principal port (the only harbor on the Island) is Bridgetown (q.v.), which is also the see of a bishop of the Anglican Church. The population of Barbados in 1891 was 182,306, and in 1900 it was estimated at about 195,000.

Barbados was first mentioned in the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, and is supposed to have been visited by English seamen in 1605, but it was not colonized until 1625. After being granted several times to different English noblemen, it was finally, in 1663, assumed by the Crown. The Continental wars of the Eighteenth Century were felt severely by Barbados, as the West Indies were the scene of important conflicts in the struggle between France and England. A period of prosperity succeeded the abolition of slavery in 1834. The riots of 1876, resulting from the proposed confederation of the Windward Islands, caused a considerable loss of life and property. Barbados has experienced several disastrous hurricanes, notably those of 1780 and of 1831, and, in more recent times, of 1898, all of which necessitated relief measures on the part of the Imperial Government. (See British West Indies.) Consult Stark, History and Guide to Barbados (Boston, 1893).


BARBADOS CHER'RY. The name given in the West Indies to the fruit of two small trees or shrubs, Malpighia urens and Malpighia glabra, which are cultivated for its sake. Clusters of fruit are produced from the axils of the leaves. The fruit of Malpighia urens is small; that of Malpighia glabra is like a mayduke cherry in size and appearance, but inferior in flavor. Each fruit contains a three or four angled stone. The leaves of Malpighia urens have stinging hairs on the under side.


BARBADOS GOOSE'BERRY (Pereskia aculeata). A plant not belonging to the gooseberry tribe, but to the cactus family. It is a native of the West Indies and tropical America. The fruit is pear or egg shaped, edible, but possesses expectorant properties. Pereskia plants are of value in that they furnish stocks upon which are grafted other kinds of cacti. Pereskia aculeata is chiefly used for this purpose, although Pereskia bleo is more vigorous, and therefore better suited for use with tall stocks.


BARBADOS LEG, Cochin-China Leg, or Tropical Big Leg. The common names of elephantiasis (q.v.), derived from the fact that in that disease the lower extremities are most commonly affected, increasing to an enormous size. This increase is due to hypertrophy of the skin and subcutaneous tissues, the exudates accompanying inflammation and the obstruction of the lymph channels. The leg and foot become a distorted mass, the calf commonly measuring 30 inches in circumference. The disease prevails as an endemic in tropical and semi-tropical countries.


BAR'BARA, Saint. A saint of the Roman Catholic Church, who, according to legends, suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia, in Bithynia, about 236, or, according to other accounts, at Heliopolis, in Egypt, about 306. She was of good birth, and well educated by her father, Dioscorus. To avoid disturbance in her studies he had a tower built for her, where she spent her youth in the deepest solitude. While in this retirement she was induced by Origen, as is said, to embrace Christianity. Her father, a fanatic heathen, learning his daughter's conversion, and failing to induce her to renounce Christ, delivered her up to the governor, Martianus, to be dealt with by the law. Martianus. struck with the intelligence and beauty of the maiden, attempted first by arguments to make her relinquish Christianity, and when that failed, had recourse to the most exquisite tortures. At last, the blinded father offered himself to strike off his daughter's head. Scarcely was the deed done, when he was struck with lightning. Hence Saint Barbara is to this day prayed to in storms. For the same reason she is the patron saint of artillery, and her image was at one time frequently placed on arsenals, powder magazines, etc." The powder-room in a French ship-of-war is to this day called Sainte-Barbe. Saint Barbara's day is December 4th.


BARBARA AL'LEN'S CRU'ELTY. One of the old ballads in Percy's Reliques. When her lover, Jemmy Groves, lay on his death-bed, all Barbara Allen said to him was: "Young man, I think you're dying!" For this heartless composure she suffered great remorse.


BARBARA FRIETCH'IE. A famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier (1863), first published in the Atlantic Monthly. The poem is based on the report of a patriotic act of an aged woman in Frederick, Md., in the Civil War.


BARBA'REA. See Cress.


BARBARELLI, bar'ba-rel'le, Giorgio. See Giorgione.


BARBARI, biirTia-re, Jacopo de'. See Jacopo de' Barbari.


BARBA'RIAN (Gk. ^dpj^apos, barbaros, non-Greek, barbarian). Among the Greeks, from the time of Homer, a designation for one who spoke a language other than Greek. This restricted signification prevailed until the Roman period. Plato, for example, divides the entire human race into Hellenes and Barbarians. The word is probably onomatopoetic in its origin, intended to represent a meaningless babble of sound, such as the Greeks conceived all foreign languages to be. It first began to acquire its secondary and invidious signification at the period of the Persian wars, when the Greeks, who always exhibited a proud consciousness of their