careful of his own safety, he attacks no caravan or camp without being sure of his superiority. To superior numbers, and a bold resistance, he yields, and saves himself by a speedy flight. A terror to the neighboring nations, the rapacious Bedouin lives in a state of continual watchfulness; poor, ignorant, wild and rude, but free, and proud of his liberty. This people is remarkable for temperance in regard to food, amounting alinost to abstinence.

BEE (apis mellifica, L.); a species of hymenopterous insect, belonging to the family apiaria. The honey-bee is universally celebrated for its singular instincts, and highly prized for the valuable produets of its industry. A vast number of interesting facts have consequently been collected in relation to the economy of the species, for the detail of whose history a volume of considerable size would be required. We shall therefore be able to present nothing inore than a sketch of the most striking generalities, obtained from the admirable works of Huber, Cuvier, &c., and to these authentic sources must refer the reader desirous of more ample information.-Three sorts of individuals are found to form a community of honey-bees; the female, mother, or, as she is commonly called, queen; the males, or drones; and the working bees, improperly termed neuters, as they are actually females, though, in a peculiar respect, imperfect. A hive commonly consists of one mother, or queen, from 6 to 800 males, and from 15 to 20,000 working bees. The last mentioned are the smallest, have 12 joints to their antenna, and 6 abdominal rings: the first joint or square portion of the posterior tarsi is enlarged at the posterior angle of its base, and shaped like a pointed auricle, having its internal surface covered with a fine, short, close, silky down. They are provided with stings. The mandibles are spoon-shaped, and not dentated. There is, on the outside of the hind legs, a smooth hollow, edged with hairs, called the basket the silky brush of the first joint of the posterior tarsi has 7 or 8 transverse striæ. The mother, or queen, has the same characteristics, but is of larger size, especially in the abdomen: she has a shorter sucker or trunk, and the mandibles grooved and velvet-like beneath the tip. The males, or drones, differ from both the preceding by having 13 joints to the antennæ; a rounded head, with larger eyes, elongated and united at the summit; smaller and more velvety mandibles, and

shorter anterior feet, the two first of which are arched. They have no auricular dilatation nor silky brush on the square part of the posterior tarsi, and are destitute of stings. The genitals consist of two horn-shaped bodies of a reddishyellow color, with a broad-ended penis.When we examine the internal structure of this insect, we find at the superior base of the trunk or sucker, below the labrum, a considerable aperture, shut by a small, triangular piece, which has been called tongue, epipharynx, &c. This opening receives the food, which is thence conveyed by a delicate esophagus, through the corselet, to the anterior stomach, which contains the honey; the second stomach receives the pollen of flowers, and has, on its internal surface, a number of transverse and annular wrinkles. The abdominal cavity of the queen and working bees also contains the little bag of poison communicating with the sting. In the queen, there are, moreover, two large ovaries, consisting of a great number of small cavities, each containing 16 or 17 eggs. These ovaries open near the anus, previous to which they dilate into pouches, where the egg is delayed to receive a viscous coating from an adjacent gland. The inferior half-circles, except the first and last, on the abdomens of working bees, have each on their inner surface two cavities, where the wax is formed in layers, and comes out from between the abdominal rings. Below these cavities is a particular membrane, formed of a very small, hexagonally-meshed network, which is connected with the membrane lining the walls of the abdominal cavity. -Wax, of which the combs are formed, is elaborated from honey. The pollen collected from flowers, mixed with a small quantity of wax, constitutes the food of bees and their larves; and this food appears to be modified in its composition, according to the sort of individuals it is intended for. Another substance collected by bees from the opening buds of poplar and other trees, and used by them for lining their hives, stopping holes, &c., is called propolis.-Besides the distinctions remarked in the female, male and working bees, Huber regards the working bees as of two sorts; one devoted to the collection of provisions, and all the materials necessary to the comb, as well as to its construction; these he calls ciriéres. The others are more delicate, small and feeble, and employed exclusively within the hive, in feeding and taking care of the young.-The re

semblance existing between the working and female bees first led to the idea that they were of the same sex, and the ingenious experiments and accurate observations of Huber enabled him to establish this fact in the most satisfactory manner. Having deprived a hive of the mother or queen, he found that the working bees immediately began to prepare a larve of their own class to occupy this important station. This was effected by enlarging the cell to the dimensions of a maternal or royal chamber, and feeding the selected individual on food exclusively destined for the nourishment of the royal larves. If merely fed upon this food, without an accompanying enlargement of the cell, the maternal faculties were but imperfectly acquired, as the female did not attain the proper size, and was incapable of laying any eggs but those which produced males.—The cells of the comb compose two opposite ranges of horizontal hexagons, with pyramidal bases: each layer of the comb is perpendicular, and attached by the suminit, and separated from the rest by a space sufficient for the bees to pass in and out. The comb is always built from above downward. The cells, with the exception of those for the female larve and nymph, are nearly of equal size, some containing the progeny, and others the honey and pollen of flowers. Some honey cells are left open, others are closed for future use by a flat or slightly convex covering of wax. The maternal or regal cells vary from 2 to 40 in number, are greatly superior in size, nearly cylindrical, and somewhat larger at the extremity. They have small cavities on the outside, and commonly depend from the comb like stalactites, so that the larve has its head downwards.-The season of fecundation occurs about the beginning of summer, and the meeting between the females and males takes place high in the air, whence the female returns with the sexual parts of the male attached to the extremity of the abdomen. This one fecundation is thought to be sufficient to vivify the eggs which the mother may lay in the course of two years. The laying begins immediately afterwards, and continues until autumn. Réaumur states that the female, in the spring, lays as many as 12,000 eggs in the lapse of 24 days. Each sort of egg is deposited in the appropriate cell, unless a sufficient number of cells have not been prepared: in this case, she places several eggs in one, and leaves to the working bees the

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task of subsequently arranging them. The eggs laid at the commencement of fine weather all belong to the working sort, and hatch at the end of 4 days. The larves are regularly fed by the workers for 6 or 7 days, when they are enclosed in their cell, spin a cocoon, and become nymphs, and in about 12 days acquire their perfect state. The cells are then immediately fitted up for the reception of new eggs. The eggs for producing males are laid two months later, and those for the females immediately afterwards. This succession of generations forms so many particular communities, which, when increased beyond a certain degree, leave the parent hive to found a new colony elsewhere. Three or four swarms sometimes leave a hive in a season. A good swarm is said to weigh at least six or eight pounds. The life of the bee, like that of all the other insects of its class, does not continue long after the great business of providing for the continuance of the species is completed. The history of the bee, as already stated, is too extensive to allow us to attempt more than this brief sketch. But to such as have leisure, and are desirous of instructive amusement, we know of no study which promises a greater degree of satisfaction; and there is no book better adapted for this purpose, than the excellent treatise of Huber, which may almost be regarded as the ne plus ultra of its kind. A beautiful little poem, called The Bees, written by the Florentine Giovanni Rucellai, appeared in 1539.

BEECH. The beech (fagus sylvatica), one of our handsomest forest-trees, is known by its waved and somewhat oval leaves, and its triangular fruit, consisting of three cells, and enclosed, by pairs, in a husk, which is covered with simple prickles.-Beech woods are very common in almost all the New England and Middle States, in the states of Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, &c. They are very luxuriant in their growth. These woods, it has been observed, are peculiarly dry, and pleasant to walk in, and, under their shade, afford to the botanist many interesting plants, such as the bird's nest (monoiropa), winter-green (pyrola), and some rare orchidea. Beech-trees bear lopping well, and may be trained so as to form lofty hedges, which are valuable for shelter, since the leaves, though faded, remain through the winter, and the twisted branches may be formed into a very strong fence. The wood is hard and brittle, and, if exposed to the air, is

liable soon to decay. It is, however, peculiarly useful to cabinet-makers and turners: carpenters' planes, &c. are made of it. When split into thin layers, it is used to make scabbards for swords. Chairs, bedsteads and other furniture are occasionally formed of beech. The fruit of this tree, which has the name of beechmast, and falls in September, is very palatable, but, if eaten in great quantity, it occasions giddiness and headaches; when, however, it is dried and powdered, it may be made into a wholesome bread. The inhabitants of Scio, one of the Ionian islands, were once enabled to endure a memorable siege by the beech-mast which their island supplied. This fruit has occasionally been roasted, and used as a substitute for coffee. When subjected to pressure, it yields a sweet and palatable oil, which is equal in quality to the best olive-oil, and has the advantage of continuing longer than that without becoming rancid. Beech-oil is manufactured in several parts of France, and is used by the lower classes of Silesia instead of butter. The cakes which remain after the oil is extracted are a wholesome food, and may be also advantageously employed for the fattening of swine, poultry and oxen. In some countries, the leaves of the beech-tree are collected in the autumn, before they have been injured by the frost, and are used instead of feathers, for beds; and mattresses formed of them are said to be preferable to those either of straw or chaft.

BEEF-EATERS (a corruption from the French buffetiers, from buffet, sideboard) are yeomen of the guard of the king of Great Britain. They are stationed by the sideboard at great royal dinners. There are now 100 in service and 70 supernumeraries. They are dressed after the fashion of the time of Henry VIII.

BEEJAPOOR (Bija-pur, a corruption of Vijaya-puri, the city of victory, the original name of the capital); a large provinee of Deccan, between the 15th and 18th degrees of N. lat.; bounded N. and E. by Aurungabad and Beder, S. by North Canara and the river Toombudra, and W. by the sea; about 350 miles long, and 200 broad. It is watered by the Crishna, Toombudra, Beemah and Gatpurba; and is traversed by the Ghaut mountains. The soil is generally fertile, and provisions plentiful. The chief cities are Beejapoor, Boonah (the capital of the Mahrattas), St. Kuttany and Nubely. Four fifths of the country are subject to the Mahrattas, the rest to the Nizam.

The population is estimated at 7,000,000 : one twentieth Mohammedans, the rest Hindoos. The province is divided into 15 territorial divisions. In the southern part of Conean, one of these divisions, Goa (Gowah, or, more properly, Govay), the capital of the Portuguese settlements in the East, is situated. (See Goa.) The productions of B. are, in general, similar to those of the rest of the Deccan. One part-the neighborhood of the Beemah— is celebrated for its breed of horses, and supplies the best cavalry in the Mahratta armies.

Beejapoor; the former capital of the above province. (See Bija-pur.)

BEEK, David, a portrait-painter of considerable merit, was born in 1621, at Arnheim, in Guelderland; became a pupil of Vandyck; resided, for some time, at the court of Sweden, and died in 1656. It is related of him, that, on a journey through Germany, he fell sick, and became, to appearance, dead; when one of his servants pouring a glass of wine into his throat, to amuse his companions, B. opened his eyes, and, after a while, recovered his health.

BEELZEBUB (in Hebrew, the god of flies); an idol of the Moabites or Syrians. This term is applied, in the Scriptures, to the chief of the evil spirits. We must remember what a terrible torment insects often are in the East, in order to conceive how this name came to be given to one of the greatest of the imaginary spirits of evil. We find that almost all nations, who believe in evil spirits, represent them as the rulers of disgusting, tormenting or poisonous animals-flies, rats, mice, reptiles, &c. The Greeks worshipped several of their chief deities under the character of protectors against these animals; for instance, Apollo pievs, the destroyer of rats. Every one knows, that Christ was charged by the Jews with driving out demons by the power of Beelzebub. (Matt. xii. 24.)

BEER. (See Ale and Brewing.) We' have evidence of the use of this liquor for more than 2000 years. The Grecian poet and satirist Archilochus, who lived about 700 B. C., and the Grecian tragedians Eschylus and Sophocles, who lived more than 400 B. C., call it wine of barley. Diodorus of Sicily, who lived about the time of Julius Cæsar, about 50 B. C., mentions beer in his History (lib. i. chap. 20). Pliny also, about the middle of the first century after Christ, speaks of this beverage in several places of his Natural History. He says that it is prepared in different ways,

and that there is a species more intoxicating than wine. He says, further, that, in Spain, it is called celia and ceria; but, in Gaul and in other provinces of the Roman empire, cerevisia; that it was in general use among the ancient Germans, who also called it cerevisia (from Ceres, the goddess of grain, and vis, power.) The Egyptians, as the first promoters of agriculture, are said to have invented beer, and to have prepared a kind, in later times, at Pelusium, which was called by the name of that city, and was much celebrated. Beer was afterwards unknown in Egypt, until the French army introduced it anew, since which it is said that beer is still brewed there. We are ignorant how far the beer of the ancients resembled the modern article. The word beer may most naturally be derived from bibere, to drink.

BEER, Michael, sometimes called Michael Berr, a learned Jew in Paris, born at Nancy, in 1784, was the first of his religion who pursued the profession of an advocate in France. His success in this career was brilliant; but he soon gave himself up exclusively to literature, and received the honor, never before conferred on a Jew, of being admitted into the learned academies of France. He was elected a member of the royal society of antiquaries, of the philotechnic society, of the academies of Nancy, Strasburg, Nantes and Göttingen. Napoleon invited him, in 1807, to the assembly of Jews, who were to advise concerning the amelioration of the condition of that people; and the general sanhedrim for France and Italy chose him their secretary. At the erection of the kingdom of Westphalia, on account of his knowledge of the language of the country, he received an appointment in the ministry of the interior, and, afterwards, was appointed to a corresponding office in the French ministry: he also delivered a course of lectures on German literature in the athenæum of Paris. Among his numerous works is an Eloge de Charles Villers.

Beering, Vitus, captain in the Russian navy, born at Horsens, in Jutland, being a skilful seaman, was employed by Peter the Great in the navy which he had newly established at Cronstadt. His talents, and the undaunted courage display ed by him in the naval wars against the Swedes, procured him the honor of being chosen to command a voyage of discovery in the sea of Kamtschatka. He set out from Petersburg, Feb. 5, 1725, for Siberia. In the year 1728, he examined the north

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ern coasts of Kamtschatka as far as lat. 67° 18′ N., and proved that Asia is not united to America. It remained, however, to be determined whether the land opposite to Kamtschatka was, in reality, the coast of the American continent, or merely islands lying between Asia and America. June 4, 1741, he sailed, with two ships, from Ochotsk, and touched the north-western coast of America, between lat. 35° and 69° N. Tempests and sickness prevented him from pursuing his discoveries: he was cast on a desolate island, covered with snow and ice, where he grew dangerously sick, and died Dec. 8, 1741. The straits between Asia and America have received the name of Beering's straits (also called Anian), and the island on which he died that of Beering's island. (See Müller's Voyages et Découv. faites par les Russes, Amsterdam, 1766).

BEERING'S ISLAND; an island in N. Pacific ocean, about 90 miles long, and 25 to 30 wide; lon. 163° 12′ to 164° 12′ E.; lat. 54° 45′ to 56° 10 N. Neither thunder nor the aurora borealis have ever been observed here. The island has springs of excellent water, and beautiful cataracts. No animals are found here but ice-foxes, scals, sea-bears, sea-lions, sea-cows, &c. No wood grows here, but several kinds of plants are seen. The island is uninhabited. It was discovered by Vitus Beering (q. v.) in 1741. It is sometimes classed with the Aleutian chain.

BEERING'S STRAITS; the narrow sea between the north-west coast of N. America and the north-east coast of Asia; 39 miles wide in the narrowest part; lon. 168° 15′ to 169° 20′ W.; lat. 65° 46′ to 65° 52′ N. There is a remarkable similarity in the portions of both continents north of the strait: both are without wood; the coasts are low, but, farther from the sea, they rise and form considerable mountains. The depth, in the middle of the straits, is from 29 to 30 fathoms; towards the land, the water on the Asiatic side is deeper. Captain Vancouver, who visited these shores in 1740, gave this name to the straits in honor of Vitus Beering (q. v.), because he thinks that he anchored there. Some have also called these straits Cook's straits.

BEET (beta vulgaris) is a well-known valuable succulent root, which is cultivated in our kitchen gardens, and grows wild in several countries of the south of Europe. There are two principal varieties of beet, one of which is of a deep red or purple color, and the other is white, crossed with bands of red.-Red beet is

principally used at table, in salad, boiled, and cut into slices, as a pickle, and sometimes stewed with onions; but, if eaten in great quantity, it is said to be injurious to the stomach. The beet may be taken out of the ground for use about the end of August, but it does not attain its full size and perfection till the month of October. When good, it is large, and of a deep red color, and, when boiled, is tender, sweet and palatable. It has lately been ascertained, that beet roots may be substituted for malt, if deprived of the greater part of their juice by pressure, then dried, and treated in the same manner as the grain intended for brewing. The beer made from the beet has been found perfectly wholesome and palatable, and little inferior to that prepared from malt.-From the white beet the French, during the late wars in Europe, endeavored to prepare sugar, that article, as British colonial produce, having been prohibited in France. For this purpose, the roots were boiled as soon as possible after they were taken from the earth. When cold, they were sliced, and afterwards the juice was pressed out, and evaporated to the consistence of sirup. The sugar was obtained from this sirup by crystallization. 110 pounds weight of the roots yielded 41 pounds of juice, which, on further evaporation, afforded somewhat more than 4 pounds of brown sugar; and these, by a subsequent operation, produced 4 pounds of well-grained white powder sugar. The residuum, together with the sirup or molasses which remained, produced, after distillation, 3 quarts of rectified spirit, somewhat similar to rum. But many subsequent experiments, both in France and in Prussia, have tended to prove, that sugar can never be advantageously manufactured from the beet upon a large scale, it yielding, upon a fair average, barely enough to defray the expenses of making. The leaves of the beet, when raised in richly-manured soil, have been found to yield a considerable quantity of pure nitre, proceeding, in all probability, from the decomposition of the animal matter contained in the manure; but this, like the sugar of the root, will probably never pay the expenses of cultivation, which will also increase rather than diminish; so that it may be considered valuable, at present, only as an esculent plant. The French, however, and other European nations, still persevere in manufacturing beet sugar, and make great quantities of it, although it can never supersede the use of common sugar, unless

its production be encouraged by bounties and prohibitions.

BEETHOVEN, Louis von, born in Bonn, 1772, was the son of a man who had been a tenor singer in that place (according to another account, in Fayolle's Dictionary of Musicians, a natural son of Frederic William II, king of Prussia). His great talent for music was early cultivated. He astonished, in his eighth year, all who heard him, by his execution on the violin, on which he was in the habit of performing, with great diligence, in a little garret. In his 11th year, he played Bach's Wohl Temperirtes clavier, and, in his 13th, composed some sonatas. These promising appearances of great talent induced the then reigning elector of Cologne to send him, in 1792, in the character of his organist, and at his expense, to Vienna, that he might accomplish himself there in composition, under the instruction of Haydn. Under Haydn and Albrechtsberger he made rapid progress, and became, likewise, a great player on the piano forte, astonishing every one by his extempore performances. In 1809, he was invited to the new court of the king of Westphalia, at which several men of distinction, and among them his pupil in music the archduke Rodolph, now bishop of Olmütz, persuaded him to remain, by the promise of a yearly salary. He composed his principal works after 1801. A few years before his death, a cold, which he had caught by composing in the open air, produced a deafness, which became, by degrees, very great. He lived, afterwards, very much retired, in the village of Modlingen, near Vienna. Instrumental music has received from his compositions a new character. Beethoven united the humor of Haydn with the melancholy of Mozart, and the character of his music most resembles Cherubini's. His boldness is remarkable. Reichhardt, in a comparison of Beethoven with Haydn and Mozart, says, "The Quartett of Haydn was the offspring of his amiable and original character. In naivete and good humor he is unrivalled. The more powerful nature and richer imagination of Mozart embraced a wider field, and many of his compositions express the whole height and depth of his character. He placed more value also on exquisite finish. Beethoven, early acquainted with Mozart's composi tions, gave a still bolder cast to his ideas.” Besides his great symphonies and overtures, his quintetts, quartetts, and trios for stringed instruments, his numerous sonatas, variations, and other pieces for