east is North Galloway; on the extreme eastern peninsula are Cumberland and Penny Lands, while the southern is called Meta Incognita; in the west is Fox Land. In the southern part of the interior are two large lakes, Amadjuak, which lies at an altitude of 289 ft., and Nettiling or Kennedy.
BAGAMOYO, a seaport of German East Africa in 6° 22′ S., 38° 55′ E. Pop. about 18,000, including a considerable number of British Indians. Being the port on the mainland nearest the town of Zanzibar, 26 m. distant, Bagamoyo became the starting-point for caravans to the great lakes, and an entrepôt of trade with the interior of the continent. It possesses no natural harbour. The beach slopes gently down and ships anchor about 2 m. off the coast. The town is oriental in character. The buildings include the residence of the administrator, barracks, a government school for natives, a mosque and Hindu temple, and the establishment of the Mission du Sacré Cœur, which possesses a large plantation of coco-nut palms. Bagamoyo is in telegraphic communication with Zanzibar and with the other coast towns of German East Africa, and has regular steamship communication with Zanzibar. Of the explorers who made Bagamoyo the starting-point for their journeys to the interior of Africa, the most illustrious were Sir Richard Burton, J. H. Speke, J. A. Grant and Sir H. M. Stanley.
BAGATELLE (French, from Ital. bagatella, bagata, a trifle), primarily a thing of trifling importance. The name, though French, is given to a game which is probably of English origin, though its connexion with the shovel-board of Cotton's Complete Gamester is very doubtful. Strutt does not mention it. The game is very likely a modification of billiards, and is played on an oblong board or table varying in size from 6 ft. by 1½ ft. to 10 ft. by 3 ft. The bed of the table is generally made of slate, although, in the smaller sizes, wood covered with green cloth is often used. The sides are cushioned with india-rubber. The head is semicircular and fitted with 9 numbered cups set into the bed, their numbers showing the amount scored by putting a ball into them. An ordinary billiard-cue and nine balls, one black, four red and four white, are used. The black ball is placed upon a spot about 9 in. in front of hole 1, and about 18 in. from the player's end of the board a line (the baulk) is drawn across it, behind which is another spot for the player's ball. (These measurements of course differ according to the size of the table.) Some modern tables have pockets as well as cups.
Bagatelle Proper.—The black ball having been placed on the upper spot, the players “string” for the lead, the winner being that player who plays his ball into the highest hole. Any number may play, either separately, or in sides. Each player in turn plays all eight balls up the table, no score being allowed until a ball has touched the black ball, the object being to play as many balls as possible into the holes, the black ball counting double. Balls missing the black at the beginning, those rolling back across the baulk-line, and those forced off the table are “dead” for that round and removed. The game is decided by the aggregate score made in an agreed number of rounds.
Sans Égal.—This is a French form of the game. Two players take part, one using the red and one the white balls. After stringing for lead, the leader plays at the black, forfeiting a ball if he misses. His opponent then plays at the black if it has not been touched, otherwise any way he likes, and each then plays alternately, the object being to hole the black and his own balls, the winner being the one who scores the highest number of points. If a player holes one of his opponent's balls it is scored for his opponent. The game is decided by a certain number of rounds, or by points, usually 21 or 31. In other matters the rules of bagatelle apply.
The Cannon Game.—This is usually considered the best and most scientific of bagatelle varieties. Tables without cups are sometimes used. As in billiards three balls are required, the white, spot-white and black, the last being spotted and the non-striker's ball placed midway between holes 1 and 9. The object of the game is to make cannons (caroms), balls played into holes, at the same time counting the number of the holes, but if a ball falls into a hole during a play in which no cannon is made the score counts for the adversary. If the striker's ball is holed he plays from baulk; if an object-ball, it is spotted as at the beginning of the game. A cannon counts 2; missing the white object-ball scores 1 to the adversary; missing the black, 5 to the adversary. If there are pockets, the striker scores 2 for holing the white object-ball and 3 for holing the black, but a cannon must be made by the same stroke; otherwise the score counts for the adversary.
The Irish Cannon Game.—The rules of the cannon game apply, except that in all cases pocketed balls count for the adversary.
Mississippi.—This variation is played with a bridge pierced with 9 on more arches, according to the size of the table, the arches being numbered from 1 upwards. All nine balls are usually played, though the black is sometimes omitted, each player having a round, the object being to send the balls through the arches. This may not be done directly, but the balls must strike a cushion first, the black, if used, counting double the arch made. If a ball is played through an arch, without first striking a cushion, the score goes to the adversary, but another ball, lying in front of the bridge, may be sent through by the cue-ball if the latter has struck a cushion. If a ball falls into a cup the striker scores the value of the cup as well as of the arch.
Trou Madame.—This is a game similar to Mississippi, with the exceptions that the ball need not be played on to a cushion, and that, if a ball falls into a cup, the opponent scores the value of the cup and not the striker.
Bell-Bagatelle is played on a board provided with cups, arches from which bells hang, and stalls each marked with a number. The ball is played up the side and rolls down the board, which is slightly inclined, through the arches or into a cup or stall, the winner scoring the highest with a certain number of balls.
BAGDAD, or Baghdad, a vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated between Persia and the Syrian desert, and including the greater part of ancient Babylonia. The original vilayet extended from Mardin on the N. to the Persian Gulf on the S., and from the river Khabor on the W. to the Persian frontier on the E. From the middle of the 17th century, when this region was annexed by the Turks, until about the middle of the 19th century, the vilayet of Bagdad was the largest province of the Turkish empire, constituting at times an almost independent principality. Since then, however, it has lost much of its importance and all of its independence. The first reduction in size occurred in 1857, when some of the western portion of the vilayet was added to the newly created sanjak of Zor. In 1878 the Mosul vilayet was created out of its northern, and in 1884 the Basra vilayet out of its southern sanjaks. At the present time it extends from a point just below Kut el-Amara to a point somewhat above Tekrit on the Tigris, and from a point somewhat below Samawa to a point a little above Anah on the Euphrates. It is still, territorially, the largest province of the empire, and includes some of the most fertile lands in the Euphrates-Tigris valleys; but while possessing great possibilities for fertility, by far the larger portion of the vilayet is to-day a desert, owing to the neglect of the irrigation canals on which the fertility of the valley depends. From the latitude of Bagdad northward the region between the two rivers is an arid, waterless, limestone steppe, inhabited only by roving Arabs. From the latitude of Bagdad southward the country is entirely alluvial soil, deposited by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, possessing great possibilities of fertility, but absolutely flat and subject to inundations at the time of flood of the two rivers. At that season much of the country, including the immediate surroundings of Bagdad, is under water. During the rest of the year a large part of the country is a parched and barren desert, and much of the remainder swamps and lagoons. Wherever there is any pretence at irrigation, along the banks of the two great rivers and by the few canals which are still in existence, the yield is enormous, and the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates in the neighbourhood of Bagdad and Hilla seem to be one great palm garden. Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II. personally acquired large tracts of land in various parts of the vilayet. These so-called senniehs are
