are goats and hogs. The names of the islands are Orange, Grafton, Monmouth, Isle of Goats, and Bashee, or Bachi; they are situated to the south of Formosa.

1.

2. Vi

BASHFUL. a. (verbaesen, Dutch.) Modest; shamefaced (Shakspeare). tiously modest; sheepish (Sidney). BASHFULLY. ad. (from bashful.) Timorously; modestly.

1.

BASHFULNESS. s. (from bashful.) Modesty (Dryden). 2. Vitious or rustick shame (Dryden).

BASHKIRS, a people of the Russian empire, who in the year 1770 consisted of 27,000 families: they are settled about the rivers Volga and Ural. See Tooke's View of Russia, vol. 1. p. 473.

BASIA ULTIMA. See ULTIMA. BA'SIL. s. The angle to which the edge of a joiner's tool is ground away.

BA'SIL. S. The skin of a sheep tanned. To BA'SIL. v. a. To grind the edge of a tool to an angle (Moxon).

BASIL. In botany. See OCIMUM. BASIL (Field). See CLINOPODIUM. BASIL (American). See MONARDA. BASIL (Syrian). See ZIZIPHORA. BASIL (Stone). See THYMUS. BASIL (St.), a father of the church. He was bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, where he was born in 326. He was ordained by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, whom he succeeded in 370, and was greatly persecuted by the emperor Valens, because he would not embrace Arianism, or countenance the people of that persuasion. He died in 379. The best edition of his works is that of Paris, 1730, 3 vols. folio, in Greek.

BASIL, a protestant canton of Switzerland. It produces corn and wine in abundance; and its air is salubrious and tenperate. The language of the inhabitants, who are in general robust and well-made, is a mixture of High Dutch and French.

BASIL, BASLE, and BALE, is the capital city of the above canton. It is large, rich, and populous; the see of a bishop; and a famous university. The greatest part of this town was thrown down by an earthquake in 1356. No person without the city is permitted to wear gold or silver lace, under the penalty of three gilders; and all unmarried women are prohibited silk clothes. The clocks in the city are always an hour faster than those of the country, because they were so on the day appointed for the murder of the magistrates, by which the conspiracy was disconcerted. Lat. 47.35 N. Lon. 7. 34 E.

BASIL (Order of St.), is the most ancient of all the religious orders: it takes its name from St. Basil, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, about the middle of the fourth century; who is supposed to have been the author of the rules observed by this order, though some dispute it. The order of St. Basil was anciently very famous in the east, and still continues in Greece.

BASIL (Council of), began its sittings in

1431, and continued till 1443. The two grand points proposed to the deliberation of this council were the union of the Greek and Latin churches, and the reformation of the church universal, both in its head and in its members. The proceedings of this council are related in Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. iii. p. 420, &c.

BASILARY ARTERY. Arteria basilaris. An artery of the brain. So called because it lies upon the basilary process of the occipital bone. It is formed by the junction of the two vertebral arteries within the skull, and runs forwards to the sella turcica along the pons varolii, which it supplies, as well as the adjacent parts, with blood.

Processus basilaris.

BASILARY PROCESS. Cuneiform process. See OCCIPITAL BONE.

BASILEUS, Basis, a title assumed by the emperors of Constantinople, exclusive of all other princes, to whom they give the title rex, king. The same quality was afterwards given by them to the kings of Bulgaria, and to Charlemagne, from the successors of which last they endeavoured to wrest it back again. The title basileus has been since assumed by other kings, particularly the kings of England, Ego Edgar totius Anglia basileus confirmavi. Hence also the queen of England was entitled basilea and basilissa.

BASILIAN MONKS; religious of the order of St. Basil. That saint, having retired into a desert, in the province of Pontus, founded a monastery for the convenience of himself and his numerous followers: and for the better regulation of this new society, he drew up in writing the orders and rules he would have them follow. This new order soon spread all over the east; nor was it long before it passed into the west. The rule of St. Basil was approved by pope Liberius, the same year in which it was written and published; and afterwards by several other popes; and, in these last ages, by pope Gregory XIII. who approved the abridgment made of it by cardinal Bessarion, in the pontificate of Eugenius IV.

The historians of this order tell us, that it has produced 1805 bishops; and beatified, or acknowledged as saints, 3010 abbots, 11,805 martyrs, and an infinite number of confessors and virgins. They likewise place among the religious of the order of St. Basil 14 popes, some cardinals, and a very great number of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops. This order likewise boasts of several emperors and empresses, kings and queens, princes and princesses, who have embraced its rules.

BASILIA'RE OS. (basiliarus, from Bazıus, a king.) Several bones were so termed by the ancients, as the sphenoid and occipital bones, from their supposed pre-eminence, or importance above others.

BASILIC VEIN. (basilicus, Baordinis, royal, an adjunct applied to various vessels and other parts of the animal machine as well as to several of the bones, and for the same reason. See BASILIARE OS.) Vena basilica. The large vein that runs in the internal part of the arm),

and evacuates its blood into the axillary vein. The branch which crosses, at the head of the arm, to join this vein, is called the basilic median. They may either of them be opened in the operation of blood-letting.

BASILIC, in ancient architecture, a large hall, or public room, with isles, porticoes, galleries, tribunals, &c. being the term originally applied to those places where magistrates administer justice.

The term basilic is now applied to churches of royal foundation, and frequently to any large or public building; as a hall, town-house, exchange, &c.

BASILICAL. BASI'LICK. a. (from basilica.) Belonging to the basilica (Sharp).

BA'SILICK. S. (basilique, Fr. Basin.) A large hall; a magnificent church. See BA

SILIC.

BASILICATA, or BASILICATE, a territory of Naples, in Italy, abounding in corn, wine, oil, cotton, honey, and saffron.

BASILICI, a denomination given in the Greek empire to the prince's manditories, or those who carried the emperor's orders and commands.

BASILICON, in pharmacy, a name given to several compositions to be found in ancient medical writers. Of late years it has been confined to three officinal ointments, distinguished by their colours, viz. black, yellow, and green. The last revised pharmacopoeia of the London college retains only the two first, under the names of unguentum resine flava, and unguentum picis. See PHARMACY. BASILICS, in literary history, a name supposed to have been given by the emperor Leo to a collection of laws in honour of his father Basilius Macedo, who began it in the year 867, and in the execution chiefly made use of Sabbathius Protospatharius, who carried the work as far as forty books. Leo added twenty books more, and published the work in 880. The whole, thirty years after, was corrected and improved by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, son of Leo; whence many have held him the author of the basilica. Six books of the basilica were translated into Latin in 1557, by Gentian Hervetus. An edition of the Greek basilics, with a Latin version, has been since published at Paris, in 1647, by Annib. Fabrottus, in 7 volumes. There still want nineteen books, which are supposed to be lost. BASILICUM. Ocimum. Basil. The plant which bears this name in the pharmacopias, is the ocimum basilicum; foliis ovatis, glabris; calycibus ciliatis of Linnéus. It is supposed to possess nervine qualities, but is seldom employed but as a condiment to season high dishes, to which it imparts a grateful odour and taste.

BASILICUS, in astronomy, Regulus or Cor

Leonis.

BASILIDIANS, ancient heretics, the followers of Basilides, an Egyptian, who lived near the beginning of the second century. He was educated in the Gnostic school, over which Simon Magus presided; with whom he agreed

that Christ was a man in appearance, that his body was a phantom, and that he gave his form to Simon the Cyrenian, who was crucified in his stead. We learn from Eusebius, that this heresiarch wrote twenty-four books upon the gospel, and that he forged several prophets: to two of which he gave the names Barcaba and Barcoph. We have still the fragment of a Basilidian gospel. His disciples supposed there were particular virtues in names; and taught, with Pythagoras and Plato, that names were not formed by chance, but naturally signified something.-Basilides, to imitate Pythagoras, made his disciples keep silence for five, years together.

Generally speaking, the Basilidians held much the same opinions with the Valentinians, another branch of the Gnostic family. Their speculations were, in many respects, similar to the more modern Antinomians, and their conduct was in general impure and disgraceful.

BASILISCUS, in zoology, a name given by some of the old authors to the regulus cristatus, or golden-crowned wren. This name is a diminutive of the word basileus, king, another of its names, given it because of its golden crown.

BASILISK, a fabulous kind of serpent, said to kill by its breath or sight only. Galen describes it as of a colour inclining to yellow; and says that it has three little eminences upon its head, speckled with whitish spots, which have the appearance of a sort of crown. Eliau says, that its poison is so penetrating as to kill the largest serpents with its vapour only; and that if it bite but the end of any man's stick it kills him. It drives away all other serpents by the noise of its hissing. Pliny, magnifying these wonderful properties still farther, says, it kills those who even look upon it.-The generation of the basilisk is not less marvellous, being said to be produced from a cock's egg, brooded on by a serpent. These, and other things, equally ridiculous, have been related of the basilisk: but, as such stories are not likely to be believed now, we shall spend no time in refuting them. See LACERTA.

Paulus

BASILISK, in military affairs, a large piece of orduance, thus denominated from its resemblance to the supposed serpent of that name. The basilisk throws an iron ball of 200 pounds weight. It was much talked of in the time of Solyman emperor of the Turks, in the wars of Hungary; but seems now out of use. Jovius relates the terrible slaughter made by a single ball from one of these basilisks in a Spanish ship; after penetrating the boards and planks in the ship's head it killed above thirty men. Masseus speaks of basilisks made of brass, which were drawn by one hundred yoke of oxen. Modern writers also give the name basilisk to a much smaller and sizeable piece of ordnance, which the Dutch make fifteen feet long, and the French only 10. It carries 48 pounds.

BA'SIN. s. (basin, French.) 1. A small vessel to hold water for washing, or other

uses (Brown). 2. A small pond (Spectator). 3. A part of the sea enclosed in rocks (Popc). 4. Any hollow place capacious of liquids. 5. A dock for repairing and building ships. 6. Basins of a balance; the same with the scales. BASINET, or BASNET, in ancient armour, a species of light helmet, much used both here and abroad, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its form, as its name denotes, is that of a little basin: the helmet of Don Quixote gives an exact idea of it.

gether there is a sort of embrasure left at their bottoms, through which the soldiers fire without exposing themselves to the fire of the

enemy.

BASKET-FISH. See ASTERIAS CAPUT

MEDUSE.

SUS. See HYO-GLOSSUS.

BASIO-GLOSSUM. See HYO-GLOSSUS. BASIO-PHARYNGEUS. See CONSTRIC

TOR PHARYNGIS MEDIUS.

BASIS. s. (basis, Latin.) 1. The foundation of any thing (Dryden). 2. The lowest of the three principal parts of a column (Addison). 3. That on which any thing is raised (Denham), 4. The pedestal (Shak.). 5. The groundwork of any thing (Shaks.).

BASIS. (basis, Bass, from Banw, to go, or rather from the Chaldee radical, voz, basis, the support of any thing upon what it stands or goes.) This word is very frequently applied anatomically to the body of any part, or to that part from which the other parts appear, as it were, to proceed, or by which they are supported.

To BASK. v. a. (backeren, Dutch.) To warm by laying out in the heat (Milton). To BASK. v. n. To lie in the warmth (Dryden).

BASKET. $. (basged, Welsh.) A vessel made of twigs, rushes, or splinters (Dryden).

BASKET is sometimes used as a measure, denoting an uncertain quantity; as, a basket of medlars is two bushels, of asafoetida from 20 to 50 pounds weight. The ancient Britons were noted for their ingenuity in making baskets, which they exported in large quantities. These baskets were of very elegant workmanship, and bore a high price; and are mentioned by Juvenal among the extravagant expensive furniture of the Roman tables of his time.

Adde et bascaudas et mille escaria. Add baskets, and a thousand other dishes. That these baskets were manufactured in Briain we learn from the following epigram of Martial:

Barbara de pietis veni baseanda Britannis,

Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam. A basket I, by painted Britons wrought, And now to Rome's imperial city brought. BASKETS OF EARTH, in the military art, signify small baskets filled with earth, and used in sieges on the parapet of a trench. They are about a foot and a half high, as much in diameter at top, and eight or ten inches at botwhen everal of them are set to

hard pressed down into small wicker baskets, it is dried at the stove in them, and so kept for sale.

BAʼSKET-HILT. s. A hilt of a weapon so made as to contain the whole hand (Hudib.). BASKET-WOMAN. 3. A woman that plies at markets with a basket.

BASNAGE (James), a French protestant divine. He was born at Rouen, in 1653, and was educated first at Saumur, and then at Geneva. On finishing his studies he returned to Rouen, and became minister of the reformed church there, in 1676; but on the revocation of the edict of Nantes he retired to Rotterdam. In 1709, he was chosen one of. the pastors of the Walloon church at the Hague; and he was also employed in state affairs, which he managed with great address. The French ministers at the Hague were always directed to apply to him for his counsel, by which they profited, and in return for his services he obtained the restoration of all his property in France. He was held in great esteem by men of all parties. Mr. Basnage died in 1723. He wrote several valuable books, particularly the History of the Jews, since the Tine of Jesus Christ, 1716, 15 vols. 12mo.

BASON, pelvis, in anatomy. See PELVIS. BASON, in hydraulics, a term used on various occasions for a small reservatory of water: as the bason of a jet d'eau, or fountain; the bason of a port, of a bath, &c. which last Vitruvius calls labrum. Basons are made either with clay, cement, or lead; but they are most usually made with clay. In the making them this way, the diameter must be made four feet longer on each side than the bason is to be. This will be taken up by the walls of clay. For the same reason, it must be dug two feet deeper than the intended depth of the water; because it is to be laid over eighteen inches thick with clay, and six inches with gravel and paving. The wall is to be made with shards, rabbish, or flints, with the natural earth for mortar, and the clay must be well worked, and trod firmly down with the naked feet.

The leaded basons are made with walls a foot thick, and a bottom of half a foot. These must be of rubble stones cemented with plaster; for the lime will injure and cat the lead.

The sheets of lead are to be spread over the wells and bottom, and seamed with solder. These bisons, however, are but little in use now, from the expence of making them, the noxious qualities they are apt to communicate to the water, and the danger of the lead being solen. The waste pipes of fountains ought always to be made large enough, for fear of choking. When the waste water is to be carned off into common sewers, it may be carried away in drains, or earthen pipes; but when it is to serve for basons that lie below, it should be conveyed through leaden ones.

The hasons we have been speaking of are made of various forms and dimensions, according to the fancy of the persons who construct them, or the particular purpose they are meant to serve. A circular dock for the reception of ships, is frequently denominated a bason.

BASON, in Jewish antiquities, the laver of the tabernacle, made of the brass lookinggasses belonging to those devout women that watched and stood sentinels at the door of the tabernacle.

BASON, OF DISH, among glass-grinders. These artificers use various kinds of basons, of copper, iron, &c., and of various forms, some deeper, others shallower, according to the focus of the glasses that are to be ground. In these basons it is that convex glasses are formed, as escare ones are formed on spheres or bowls. Glasses are worked in basons two ways. In the first, the bason is fitted to the arbor or tree of a lathe, and the glass (ixed with cement to a handle of wood) presented and held fast in the right hand within the bason, while the proper motion is given by the foot to the bason. in the other, the bason is fixed to a stand or block, and the glass with its wooden handle moved. The moveable basons are very small, seldom exceeding five or six inches in diameter; the others are larger, sometimes above ten feet diameter. After the glass has been ground in the bason, it is brought smoother with grease and emery; and polished first with tripoli, and finished with peper cemented to the bottom of the bason.

BASON, among hatters, is a large round shell or case, ordinarily of iron, placed over a furnace, wherein the matter of the hat is moulded into form, The hatters have also besons for the brims of hats, usually of lead, having an aperture in the middle, of a diameter sufficient for the largest block to go through.

BASS, a small island in the mouth of the Frith of Forth in Scotland, about a mile from the S. shore of E. Lothian. This island is much frequented by Solan-geege. After the revolution a desperate crew got possession of it: and having a boat, which they hoisted up on the rock, or let down at pleasure, took a great many coasting vessels, and held out the longest of any place in Britain for king James: but their boat being either seized or lost, and for want of the usual supplies from France, they were obliged to surrender. Lat. 56. 3 N. Lon. 2.35 W.

BASS. . (by Junius derived from some
VOL. II.

British word signifying a rush; perhaps more properly boss, from the French bosse.) A mat used in churches (Mortimer).

BASS. a. (see BASE.) Grave; deep. To BASS. v. n. To sound in a deep tone (Shakspeare).

BASS, in music, that part of a concert which is the most heard, which consists of the gravest, deepest, and longest sounds; or which is played on the largest pipes or strings of a common instrument, or on instruments larger than ordinary for the purpose. It is called bass, from the Italian basso, of the Latin basis, as being the foundation of the harmony.

BASS-COUNTER, OF CONTRA-BASS. The underbass. That part which, when there are two basses in a composition, is performed by the double basses, the violoncellos taking the upper bass or basso concertante, as it is called.

BASS (Figured). A bass which, while a certain chord or harmony is continued by the parts above, moves in notes of the same harmony. For example: if the upper parts consist of C, E, G (the common-chord, or harmony of C), and while they are held on or continued, the bass moves from C, the fundamental note of that harmony to E, another note of the same harmony; that bass is called a figured biss.

BASS (Fundamental), is that bass which forms the tone or natural foundation of the incumbent harmony; and from which, as a lawful source, that harmony is derived. To explain this by an example: If the harmony consist of the common chord of C, C will be its fundamental bass, because from that note the harmony is deduced: and if while that harmony is continued, the bass be changed to any other note, it ceases to be fundamental, because it is no longer the note from which that harmony results, and is calculated.

BASS (Ground). A bass which starts with some subject of its own, and continues to be repeated throughout the movement, while the upper part, or parts, pursue a separate air and supply the harmony.

BASS (Thorough). Thorough-bass is the art by which harmony is superadded to any proposed bass, and includes the fundamental rules of composition. This branch of the musical science is two-fold; theoretical and practical. Theoretical thorough-bass comprehends the knowledge of the connection and disposition of all the several chords, harmonious and dissonant; and includes all the established laws by which they are formed and regulated. Practical thorough-bass is conversant with the manner of taking the several chords on an instrument, as prescribed by the figures placed over or under the bass part of a composition, and supposes a familiar acquaintance with the powers of those figures, a facility in taking the chords they indicate, and judgment in the various applications and effects of those chords in accompaniment. (Busby's Musical Dictionary.)

A few rules for practical thorough-bass may be given, as below:

D