now of little value ; all that is known with any certainty on the matter will be found in Rawlinson s Great Mon
archies, 2d edition, vol. iii.BELT, Great, and Little Belt, two straits which connect the Baltic Sea with the Cattegat. The former, with a depth of from 5 to 20 fathoms, and a breadth of about 15 miles, runs, from S.S.E. to N.N.W., between the islands of Zealand and Fiinen ; while the Little Belt, which is only about half as wide, with a narrow entrance from the Cattegat, separates Fiinen from the mainland of Schleswig. The navigation of both is rather dangerous for large vessels, owing to the number of sandbanks and small islands ; and on that account the Sound, which lies to the east, is the channel preferred by shipping.
BELTANE, or Beltein, a festival originally common to ail the Celtic peoples, of which traces were to be found in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland down to the begin ning of the present century. The name is compounded of bel or beal, the Celtic god of light, and tin or teine, meaning fire. The principal Beltane celebration was held annually in the beginning (generally on the first day) of May, though the name is also applied to a similar festival which occurred in the beginning of November. According to Cormac. archbishop of Cashel about the year 908, who furnishes the earliest notice of Beltane, it was customary to kindle, in very close proximity, two fires, between which both men and cattle were driven, under the belief that health was thereby promoted and disease warded off. (See Transactions of the Irish Academy, xiv. pp. 100; 122, 123.) Of the celebration in more recent times an account is given by Armstrong in his Gaelic Dictionary, s. v. "Bealtainn." The whole subject is fully treated by J. Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie t c. xx.
BELUCHISTAN. See Baluchistan.
BELVEDERE, a town of Italy, in the province of Calabria Citra, on the Mediterranean, 32 miles N.W. of Cosenza. It possesses a castle and a maidens hospital, and 13 beautifully situated on the slope of a hill. Population between 5000 and 6000.
BELZONI, Giovanni Battista, one of the most enterprising and successful Egyptian explorers, was born of humble parentage at Padua in 1778. When about eighteen years of age he appears to have removed to Rome, and for a short time became a monk. In 1798 the occupation of the city by the French troops drove him from Rome. He wandered through Holland, and in 1803 came to England. Here for some time he was compelled to find subsistence for himself and his wife, an Englishwoman, by exhibiting on the streets athletic exercises and feats of agility. Through the kindness of Mr Salt, who was ever afterwards his patron, he was engaged at Astley s amphitheatre, and his circumstances soon began to improve. In 1812 he set out on his travels, passing through Lisbon and Madrid to Egypt, where his friend, Mr Sale, was British consul. He was desirous of laying before the pasha Mehemet Ali a hydraulic machine for raising the waters of the Nile. Though the experiment with this engine was successful, the design was abandoned by the pasha, and Belzoni resolved to continue his travels. He visited Thebes and removed with great sLill the colossal statue, commonly called young Memnon, which he shipped for England. He also pushed his investigations into the great temple of Edfoo, visited Elephantina and Philse, discovered the temple of Abusimbel, made excavations at Carnac, and opened up a splendid tomb in the Beban-el-Molouk. He was the first to penetrate into the second great pyramid of Ghizeh, and the first to visit the oasis west of Lake Mceris. In 1819 he returned to England and published in the following year a most interesting account of his travels and discoveries. He also exhibited for some time at the Egyptian Hall fac similes of the great tomb at Beban-el-Molouk. In 1823 he again set out for Africa, intending to penetrate to Tim- buctoo. He reached Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a village called Gato, and died December 3, 1823.
BEMBO, Pietro, Cardinal, was born at Venice on the 20th of May 1470. While still a boy he accompanied his father to Florence, and there acquired a love for that Tuscan form of speech which he afterwards cultivated in preference to the dialect of his native city. Having com pleted his studies, which included two years devotion to Greek under Lascaris at Messina, he chose the ecclesiastical profession. After a considerable time spent in various cities and courts of Italy, where his learning already made him welcome, he accompanied Julio de Medici to Rome, where he was soon after appointed secretary to Leo X. On the Pontiff s death he retired, with impaired health, to Padua, and there lived for a number of years engaged in literary labours and amusements. In 1529 he accepted the office of historiographer to his native city, and shortly afterwards was appointed librarian of St Mark s. The offer of a cardinal s hat by Pope Paul III. took him in 1539 again to Rome, where he renounced the study of classical litera ture and devoted himself to theology and classical history, receiving before long the reward of his conversion in the shape of the bishoprics of Gubbio and Bergamo. He died on the 18th of January 1547. Bembo, as a writer, is the beau ideal of a purist. The exact imitation of the style of the genuine classics was the highest perfection at which he aimed. This at once prevented the graces of spontaneity and secured the beauties of artistic elaboration. One can not fail to be struck with the Ciceronian cadence that guides the movement even of his Italian writings.
His works include a History of Venice from 1487 to 1513, dia logues, poeins, and what we would now call essays. Perhaps the most famous are a little treatise on Italian prose, and a dialogue entitled Gli Asolani, in which Platonic affection is explained and recommended in a rather long-winded fashion, to the amusement of the reader who remembers the relations of the beautiful Morosina with the author. The edition of Petrarch s Italian Poems, published by Aldus in 1501, and the Tcrzerime, which issued from the same press in 1502, were edited by Bembo, who was on intimate terms with the great typographer. See Operede P. Bembo, Venice, 1729; Casa, Vita di Bembo, in 2d vol. of his works.
BENARES, a division, district, and city of British India, under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Governor of the N.W. Provinces. Benares Division lies between 24 and 28 N. lat, and 82 and 85 E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Oudh, the Duab, and Bundelkhand ; on the E. by Nepal ; on the S. by Bengal ; and on the W. by Riwa. It comprises the districts of Mirzapur, Ghdzipur, Azimgarh, Bastl, and Gorakhpur ; has an area of 18,314 square miles ; and a total population in 1872, of 8,178,147, of whom 7,286,415, or 89-1, were Hindus; 889,335, or 10 9, Mahometans; 1797 Christians and others.
Benares, a District of British India, in the division of the same name, under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant- Governor of the N.W. Provinces, lies between 25 7 and 25 32 N. lat., and 82 45 and 83 38 E. long. It is bounded on the N. by the British district of Jaunpur, on the N E. by Ghdzipur, on the S.E. by Shdhdbdd, on the S. and S.W. by Mirzapur, and on the W. by Mirzapur and Jaunpur. The surface of the country is remarkably level, with nume rous deep ravines in the calcareous conglomerate. This substratum when burnt affords good lime, and forms an excellent material for roads in its natural state. The soil is a clayey or a sandy loam, and very fertile, except in the tracts called Usur, which are impregnated with soda, nitre, and other salts.
Principal rivers the Ganges ; the Karamnasa, which separates Benares district from that of IShahabad ; the Gumti, separating it from Jaunpur and Ghdzipur; the Barna-nala, which falls into the Ganges near Benares city. Area, 996 19 square miles, of which 738 are under cultivation, 33 39 cultivable but not actually under cultiva-
