BAJAZET I., sultan of the Turks, commenced to reign in 1389, and died in 1403. The well-known story of the iron cage, in which this monarch was said to have been carried about by his conqueror Timur, has no authority, and probably originated in a mistake as to the word for a litter, in which Bajazet was carried.
BAJAZET II., son of Mahomet II., succeeded his father as sultan in 1481, and died in 1512. See Constantinople and Turkey.
BAJUS, or De Bay, Michael, a celebrated theologian, was born at Melin in Hainaut in 1513. He distinguished himself highly during his course of study at Louvain, and was quickly promoted to a professorship in the college of that town. In 1549 he took his doctor s degree, and two years later he was appointed regius professor of divinity. On account of his eminence in theological learning ho was selected by the king of Spain to go to the great council at Trent, in the proceedings of which he took a prominent part. His studies having been chiefly directed to Augustine, with whose works he was very familiar, Bajus found that his doctrines on the fundamental points of freewill, predestination, grace, and the sacraments, were in direct opposition to the scholastic theology recog nised as orthodox by the powerful body of the Jesuits. Eighteen propositions, said to be gathered from the works of Bajus and his colleague Hessels, were condemned by the Sorbonne, and a more extensive collection of seventy- six were censured by Pope Pius V. in 1567. This censure, which did not press very heavily on Bajus, who was not indeed mentioned as holding the condemned doctrines, was confirmed by a bull of Gregory XIII. in 1580. Bajus, who was a man of meek and mild temper, quietly made such submission as was requisite under the circumstances, continued to hold his professorship, and even advanced to the dignity of chancellor of the university. He died in 1589, in the 77th year of his age. His principal works have been published in a collected form at Cologne, 1696, 1 vol. 4to, in 2 parts; some large treatises have not been published. The doctrines for which Bajus was censured, and the discussions arising with regard to them, are interesting in connection with the history of Jansen ism, for Jansen did little more than reproduce the Augustinianism of Bajus.
BAJZA, Anton, a distinguished Hungarian poet and critic, was born at Sziicsi in 1804. His earliest contribu tions were made to Kisfaludy s Aurora, a literary paper of which he was editor from 1830 to 1837. He also wrote largely in the Kritische Blatter, the AtJ^enoeum, and the Figyelmezo, or Observer. His criticisms on dramatic art were considered the best of these miscellaneous writings. In 1830 he published translations of some foreign dramas, Auslandische Biihne, and in 1835 a collection of his own poems. In 1837 he was made director of the newly established national theatre at Pesth. He then, for some years, devoted himself to historical writing, and published in succession the Historical Library (Tortereti Kunyvtdr), 6 vols. 1843-45; the Modern Plutarch (Uj Plutarch), 1845-47; and the Universal History (Vtiagtdretet), 1847. These works are to some extent translations from German authors. In 1847 Bajza edited the journal of the opposition, Ellenur, at Leipsic, and- in March 1848 Kossuth made him editor of his paper, Kossuth Hirlapja. In 1850 he was attacked with brain disease, and died in 1858.
BÁKARGANJ, a district of British India in the Dacca division, under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, situated between 23 14 27" and 21 48 N. lat., and 89 55 10" and 91 4 50* E. long. It is bounded on the K by the districts of Dacca and Faridpur, from which it is separated by the Padma and Mainakatlkhal ; on the E. by the Meghna and Shahbazpur rivers, and by the Buy of Bengal, which separates it from NoAkhali and Tipperah ; on the S. by the Bay of Bengal; and on the W. by Jesssr and Farid pur districts. Area, 4935 square miles; population, 2,377,433. The general aspect of the district is that of a flat even country, dotted with clusters of bamboos and bstel-nut trees, and intersected by a perfect network of dark-coloured and sluggish streams. There is not a. hill or hillock in the whole district, but it derives a certain picturesque beauty from its wide expanses of cultivation, and the greenness and freshness of the vegetation. This is especially conspicuous in the rains, but at no time of the year does the district present a dried or burnt-up appear ance. The villages, which are always walled round by groves of bamboos and betel-nut palms, have often a very striking appearance ; and Bakarganj has many beauties of detail which strike a traveller in passing through the country. The level of the country is low, forming as it does a part of the great Gangetic delta ; and the rivers, streams, and water-courses are so numerous that it is very difficult to travel except by boat at any season of the year. Every natural hollow is full of water, around the margin of which long grasses, reeds, and other aquatic plants grow in the greatest profusion, often making it difficult to say where the land ends and where the water begins. Towards the north-west the country is very marshy, and nothing is to be seen for miles but tracts of unreclaimed swamps and rice lands, with a few huts scattered here and there, and raised on mounds of earth. In the south of the district, along the sea face of the Bay of Bengal, lie the forest tracts of the Sundarbans, the habitation of tigers, leopards, and other wild beasts.
The principal rivers of the district are the Meghna, the Arial Khan, and the Haringhata or Bales-war, with their numerous off shoots. The Meghna represents the accumulated waters of the Brahmaputra and Ganges. It flows along the eastern houndary of the district in a southerly direction for about 100 miles, till it debouches into the Bay of Bengal. During the latter part of its course this noble river expands into a large estuary contain- inT many islands, the principal of which is that of Dakshin Shahbazpur. The Arial Khan, a branch of the Ganges, enters the district from the north, and flows generally in a south-easterly direction till it falls into the estuary of the Meghna. The main channel of the Arial Khan is about 1700 yards in width in the dry season, and from 2000 to 3000 yards in the rains. It receives a number of tributaries, sends off several offshoots, and is navigable throughout the year by native cargo boats of the largest size. The Haringhata, Baleswar, Madhumati, and Garai, are various local names for the same river in different parts of its course, and represent another great offshoot of the Ganges. It enters Bakarganj near the north-west corner of the district, whence it forms its western boundary, and runs south, but with great windings in its upper reaches, till it crosses the Sundartans, and finally falls into the Bay of Bengal by a large and deep estuary, capable of receiving merchant ships of considerable burden. In the whole of its course through the district the river is navigable by native boats of large tonnage, and by large sea-going ships as high up as Morrellganj, in the neighbouring district of Jessor. Among its many tributaries in Bakarganj the most important is the Kccha, itself a considerable stream and navigable by large boats all the year round, which flows in a southerly direction for 20 miles, when it falls into the Baleswar. Nihalganj, district are subject to and from the Bay of Bengal on the south, and nearly all of them are navigable at high tide by country boats of ail sizes. The rise of the tide is very considerable in the estuary of the Meghna, and many of the creeks and water-courses in the island of Dakshm Shahbazpur, which are almost dry at ebb tide, contain 18 or 19 feet of water at the flood. A very strong "bore" or tidal wave runs up the estuary of the Meghna at spring tides, and a singular sound like thunder, known as the "Banal Guns," is often heard far out at sea about the time it is coming in. There arc numerous marshes in the district, of great size and depth, and abounding in fish The following peculiarity of some of them is quoted from Colonel Gastrell s Geographical and Statistical Report of the District (1868): "In some of the swamps, especially in those of Bakarganj, the surface growth of aquatic plants, mixed with drift weeds,
