BEGGAR. art, and while at Bonn, received his first lessons in painting from Philippart. In 1811, he proceeded to Paris, and there spent eighteen months in the studio of the celebrated Gros. In 1815, FrederickWilliam III., on the occasion of his visit to Paris, bought a large original painting by B., Job surrounded by his Friends, and gave him two commissions for different churches in Berlin. This led to his moving thither in 1818, and to his subsequently residing in Italy at the king's expense. On his return to Berlin in 1825, he painted a great many biblical subjects for churches, as well as other pictures. He died 23d November 1854. There are frescoes of colossal size by him in the new church of Sacrow, near Potsdam. He is especially distinguished for the animation and individuality of his portraits, and has painted for the king a gallery of celebrated authors and artists, including Humboldt, Schelling, &c. Several of his genre paintings have been rendered familiar by repeated engravings; and his works, in general, are eminent for expression, rich colouring, and a peculiarly clear chiaro oscuro. through rigid legal provisions, must lower the stan- BE'GGAR, a person who solicits charitable aid from the public at large. The word is supposed to have some connection with the fraternity known as Beghards. See BEGUIN. The actual begging or solicitation of temporal aid became, however, so conspicuous a feature among these mendicant orders, that the term originally applied to their sacred duties seems at a very early period to have acquired its modern vulgar acceptation. There is no class of men who have had their lot and condition so varied by ethnical and social conditions as beggars. In a civilised industrious country, the B., to have any chance of relief, must manage to get it believed, whether it be true or false, that he is on the verge of want, and requires the solicited alms to keep him from starvation. Among oriental nations, on the other hand, beggars have often been a potent class, who may be rather considered as endowed with the privilege of taxing their fellow-creatures, than as objects of compassion. It has sometimes been supposed that a residue of this feeling of superiority characterises the mental physiology even of the mendicant of civilisation, and that, abject as he seems, he considers himself to some extent a privileged person, entitled to support from his fellows, BEGGARS, THE LAW OF ENGLAND RELATING TO, without being amenable to the slavish drudgery by is regulated by the 5 Geo. IV. c. 83 (amended which the working-classes live. In Europe, during in regard to other points by the 1 and 2 Vict. the middle ages, those doctrines of Christianity c. 38). By the third section of the 5 Geo. IV. it is which are intended to teach us to abjure selfishness and worldly-mindedness, were exaggerated into a profession of total abstraction from worldly cares and pursuits. Hence arose the large body of religionists who, as hermits or members of the mendicant orders, lived on the contributions of others. In later times, the mendicant orders became the proudest and the richest of the clergy; but while the chiefs lived in affluence, the practices of the lower adherents fostered throughout Europe a system of mendicancy very inimical to civilisation and industrial progress. In Great Britain its evil results have been long felt, in the inveterate establishment of practices naturally out of harmony with the independent, industrious character of the British people. Ever since the Reformation, the British laws have had a deathstruggle with the B.; but neither by the kindness of a liberal poor-law, nor by the severity of a merciless criminal code, have they been able to suppress him. When a country provides, as Britain does, that no one shall be permitted to starve, it would naturally be expected that the springs of miscellaneous charity would be dried. But it is not so, and it is indeed often plausibly urged, that entirely to supersede all acts of kindly generosity between man and man, enacted that every person wandering abroad, or placing him or her self in any public place, street, highway, court, or passage, to beg or gather alms, or causing or procuring, or encouraging any child or children so to do, shall be deemed an idle and disorderly person; and it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace to commit such offender to the house of correction, there to be kept for any time not exceeding one calendar month. And by section 4, it is further provided that any person so convicted, and offending in the same way again, shall be deemed a rogue and a vagabond, and may be punished by being committed to the house of correction for three months, with hard labour; and by the same section, every person wandering abroad and endeavouring, by the exposure of wounds or deformities, to obtain or gather alms, and every person going about as a gatherer or collector of alms, or endeavouring to procure charitable contributions of any nature or kind under any false or fraudulent pretence, shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond, and be punishable as before mentioned. By section 15, however, of the same act, the visiting justices of any county jail, house of correction, or other prison, may grant certificates to persons BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR-BEGTASHI. discharged, to receive alms on their route to their his matting and carpeting, and he had the utmost places of settlement; but if such persons shall act in a manner contrary to the directions or provisions of their certificates, or shall loiter upon their route, or shall deviate therefrom, they shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds, and punished accordingly. Other later statutes, however, enable justices to give aid to all prisoners on being discharged from prison, and supersede this doubtful license to beg on their way home. Many prisoners' aid societies are established in different parts of the country, and if their rules are good, they receive a certificate from the visiting justices of jails. When the time arrives for the discharge of a prisoner, the justices have power, out of the moneys under their control, to order a payment of £2, either to the prisoner, or the treasurer of the aid society, for his benefit; and they may also pay his railway fare, so that by this means he can always reach his home without begging. The attempt or purpose to obtain money or alms by means of shows or entertainments on the streets of London, is also an offence under the Metropolitan Police Act, 2 and 3 Vict. c. 47, s. 54 (No. 14), and punishable by a fine of forty shillings. In the Scotch law, there are many severe statutes of the Scotch Parliament against beggars and vagabonds, all of which, along with the proclamations of the Scotch Privy Council on the same subject, are renewed and ratified by the act 1698, c. 21, which forms the existing Scotch law in regard to beggars. The Scotch Poor-law Amendment Act, 8 and 9 Vict. c. 83, contains no provision on the subject. Anciently, in Scotland, legal permission to beg was given to certain sick and infirm poor persons, and in the reign of James V., a system of tokens for the same purpose was established.-See Burn's Justice of the Peace, vol. vi.; Charnock's Police Guide, Dunlop's Parochial Law of Scotland, Lorimer's Hand-book of the Scotch Law, and the works and authorities referred to in these publications. BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR, a game at cards usually played by two persons, between whom the cards are divided. Holding their cards with the backs upwards, the players lay down a card alternately, until an honour is played, which is paid for by the adversary-four cards for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, and one for a knave; such payment being made, the winner lifts the trick. If, however, an honour should be laid down during the payment, then the opposite party must pay for that in the same way; and so on, till a payment is made without an honour. The game is played chiefly by children. BEGHA'RMI, or BAGI'RMI, a country in Central Africa, bounded on the N. by Lake Tsad; on the W. by the Shari, or Great River, which divides it from the kingdom of Bornou; and on the E. by the Waday kingdom. It extends southward to about lat. 10° N. Its greatest length is about 240 miles, and its breadth 150. The whole of B. Proper is flat, with a slight inclination towards the northits general elevation being about 1000 feet above the level of the sea. The outlying provinces in the south-east are slightly mountainous. B. has three considerable rivers flowing through and along its borders-the Bénuwé, Logon, and Shari; the last of which, augmented by the Logon, is upwards of 600 yards across at Mele. There is, in general, however, the utmost scarcity of water in the country, and the inhabitants guard their wells with jealous care. The soil is partly composed of sand, and partly of lime, and produces the grain and fruit common to countries of Central Africa. Worms and ants are very destructive to the crops. The ants appear to be a perfect pest. Dr Barth describes them as eating through difficulty in preserving his goods from entire destruction by them. The total population is about a million and a half. From the numerous deserted villages with which the traveller constantly meets, the population would appear to have been much greater at one time. Mohammedanism has been introduced among them, but many are still pagans, and all are grossly superstitious. The only industrial arts are weaving and dyeing. Physically, they are a fine race of people, superior to the tribes around them, the women being especially handsome. The men are subject to a peculiar disease in the little toe, called 'mukárdam. It seems to be caused by a worm, which eats the toe away. One in ten of the male population are said to have lost their little toes through this cause. The sultan is absolute in his own dominions, and several smaller states are tributary to him; and he, in his turn, is tributary to the more powerful ruler of Bornou. The fighting-force of the kingdom is about 13,000 men. Masena (q. v.), the capital, has a circumference of about 7 miles.-Barth's Travels in Central Africa. BE'GKOS, or BEI'KOS, a large village of Anatolia, on the Bosphorus, 8 miles north-north-east of Scutari, said to be the locality of the contest between Pollux and Amycus, in which the latter was killed. See ARGONAUTS. At the commencement of the Crimean war, the Allied fleets anchored in B. Bay, prior to their entering the Black Sea in January 1854. BE'GLERBEG. See BEG. BEGONIA'CEÆ, a natural order of exogenous plants, the place of which in the system is doubtful, but is supposed by Lindley to be near Cucurbitacea (q. v.). The B. are herbaceous or suffruticose plants, with alternate leaves, which are oblique at the base, and have large dry stipules. The flowers are in cymes, unisexual, the perianth coloured, with four unequal divisions in the male flowers, and five or eight in the female; the stamens are numerous; the fruit is membranous, winged, 3-celled, bursting by slits at the base, the seeds minute.-The order contains about 160 known species, all of which have pink flowers. They are almost all tropical plants, and some of them are often to be seen in British hot-houses; but a small species of Begonia ascends the Himalaya to at least 11,500 feet, often growing on the trunks of trees. The leaves of the Begonias have a reddish tinge. The leaves and young stems are succulent and acid, and those of B. Malabarica, B. tuberosa, and other species, are used as pot-herbs, found in Sikkim, at an elevation of five or six thouor in tarts. The juicy stalks of a large species sand feet, are mentioned by Dr Hooker as employed This, and the small Himalayan species already mentioned, would to make a pleasant acid sauce. The probably succeed in the climate of Britain. roots of some are used in their native countries as astringents, and some of the Mexican species are used as drastic purgatives. BEG-SHE'HR, a fresh-water lake of Asia Minor, Karamania, 44 miles south-west of Koniyeh, presumed to be the ancient Caralitis. It is about 20 miles long, and from 5 to 10 miles broad. It contains many islands, and discharges itself by a river of the same name into Lake Soglah. On its east and north shores are the towns of Begshehr and Kereli, the old Caralio, which issued imperial coins, and which is also supposed to have occupied the site of Pamphylia. BEGTA'SHI, a religious order in the Ottoman empire, which had its origin in the 14th c. The name is believed to be derived from that of a BEGUINES-BEHAIM. celebrated dervise, Hadji Begtash, to whom also the order appears to owe its institution. The members use secret signs and pass-words as means of recognition, in the same way as is done by the masonic orders, some of them indeed appearing to be identical with those of freemasonry. Although numbering many thousands of influential persons in its ranks, the society does not appear to exercise any material influence in the religion or politics of Turkey. though environed by a wall, is open to the visits of strangers. Living here a life of retirement and piety, the B., in their simple dark dresses, go out as nurses to the hospital, and perform other acts of kindness among the poor. As above stated, they are under no monastic vow, but having attached themselves to the sisterhood, it is their boast that none is known to have quitted it. There are houses of B. also at Antwerp, Mechlin, and BE'GUINES, BEGUI'NÆ, or BEGUTTÆ, the Bruges; and in 1854, one was established in France, name of the earliest of all lay societies of women at Castelnaudry, in the department of Ande. united for pious purposes. The reason of their BEGHARDS (Ger. begehren, to seek with impororigin is not quite certain, but it is usually attri- tunity). Societies of laymen styling themselves buted-in part, at least to the disproportion in B., first appeared in Germany, the Netherlands, the numbers of men and women which was occa- and the south of France in the beginning of the sioned by the Crusades. These wars had robbed 13th c., and were known in Italy as Bizachi and Christendom of thousands of its most vigorous sons, Bocasoti; but they never obtained the reputation and left multitudes of widows and maidens, to enjoyed by the Beguine sisterhood. Towards the whom life had henceforth something of a solemn end of the 13th c., they were commonly stigmaand sorrowful aspect, and who therefore betook tised as bons garçons, boni pueri, ministers' men,' themselves, in earnest and affectionate piety, to bedesmen,'' pietists,' vagabonds'-contemptuous the charities and duties of religion. The origin of titles, which expressed the low estimation in the word is doubtful. The popular tradition of which they were held. On account of heretics Brabant since the 17th c., that a St Begga, daughter of all sorts retreating into these half-spiritual of Pepin, and sister of St Gertrude, founded, in 696, communities, they were subjected to severe persethe first sisterhood of B. at Namur, has no historical cutions after 1367, and were gradually dispersed, basis. Hallmann has also shewn that the supposed or joined the orders of Dominicans and Franciscans. oldest document of the B. (1065), giving an account In the Netherlands, where they had preserved a of their establishment at Vilvorde, near Brussels, is better character than elsewhere, they maintained unauthentic. The most probable account is, that their ground longer, and were protected by Pope a priest named Lambert le Bègue, or Le Bèghe, i. e., Innocent IV. (1245), in Brussels by Cardinal Hugo the Stammerer, about the year 1180, founded, in (1254), and in Liege by Pope Urban IV. (1261); Liege, a society of pious women, who were called but their communities disappeared in the 14th c by his name. The B. were not restricted by vows,See Mosheim, De Beghardis et Beguinabus (Leip. nor did they follow the rules of any order, but were 1790), and Hallmann's Geschichte des Ursprungs der united under a supérieure for the exercise of piety Belg. Beghinen (History of the Origin of Beguines in and benevolence, and lived generally in separate Belgium), Berlin, 1843. small cottages, which, collectively, formed the Beginagium, or vineyard,' as it was scripturally termed. Their establishments were often enriched by liberal donations. A church, a hospital, and a house of reception or common entertainment, generally belonged to every community of Beguines. The sisters were distinguished from the rest of the laity only by their diligence and devotedness, piety, modesty, and zeal for the purity of youthful education. Societies of B. flourished greatly during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they spread themselves over France and Germany. Among the most important were those in Hamburg, Lübeck, Regensburg, Magdeburg, Leipsic, Goslar, Rochlitz, and Görlitz. As the pietists of the middle ages, the B. were often subjected to persecution by the mendicant orders of friars; but, on account of their practical usefulness, were sheltered by the pope and councils as well as by secular authorities. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the B. became united with the persecuted spiritualists among the Franciscans (Fratricelles), and with the sect of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit.' Hence arose certain heresies, which, of course, occasioned interference on the part of the Inquisition; and on account of certain immoralities, a synod held at Fritzlar required that all candidates must be forty years old before they could enter a society of Beguines. These sisterhoods maintained their position in Germany and the Netherlands longer than in other countries. In Holland, they existed at the close of the 18th c.; and in the present day we find here and there so-called Beguinen-häuser (Beguin-houses) in Germany; but they are now nothing more than almshouses for poor spinsters. At Ghent, there is still a celebrated institution of B., numbering as many as 600 sisters, besides 200 locataires, or occasional inmates. Their houses form a kind of distinct little town, called the Béguinage, which, BEHAIM, MARTIN, a famous cosmographer, descended from a Bohemian family which settled in Nuremberg after the middle of the 13th c., and still flourishes there. B. was born in Nuremberg in 1430 (or, more probably, in 1436). He early entered into mercantile life, and went to Venice (1457), and to Mechlin, Antwerp, and Vienna (1477-1479), in pursuit of trade. In 1480, he was induced to go to Portugal, where he soon acquired a reputation as a skilful maker of maps. From 1484 to 1485, he accompanied the Portuguese navigator, Diego Cam, in a voyage of discovery along the west coast of Africa, and sailed as far as the mouth of the Zaire or Congo river, in lat. 22° S., which was 19 further than had ever been previously reached. In 1486, B. sailed to Fayal, one of the Azore islands, where a Flemish colony had settled. Here he married the daughter of Jobst von Küster, governor of the colony. In 1490, he left Fayal, and returned to his native city, Nuremberg, where he resided from 1491 to 1493. During this stay, he constructed a large globe," principally from the writings of Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo, Marco Polo, and Sir John Mandeville. It is still preserved by the family of B. in Nuremberg, and is a valuable record of the progress of discovery, though it indicates that B.'s geographical knowledge did not at that period extend beyond Japan on the east, and the Cape Verd Islands on the west. After travelling through Flanders and France, B. again resided in Fayal from 1494 to 1506, and then removed to Lisbon, where he died, July 29, 1509. The services rendered by B. to geographical discovery and the science of navigation were considerable, though, according to the latest investigations, there is no support for the theory that B. was the discoverer of America, or even that Columbus and Magelhaen were indebted to B. for guidance with regard to their discoveries. B. left BEHEADING-BEHISTUN. no works behind him except his maps and charts. Murr's Diplomatische Geschichte des Ritters von B. (Nürn. 1778; 2d Aufl., 1801); and A. von Humboldt's Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent, vol. i. (Par. 1836). BEHEA'DING. See CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. BEHISTU'N, or BISUTU'N (Lat. Bagistanus; Persian, Baghistan, Place of Gardens), a ruined town of the Persian province of Irak-Ajemi, 21 miles east of Kirmanshah, lat. 34° 18' N., long. 47° 30′ E. B. is chiefly celebrated for a remarkable mountain, which on one side rises almost perpendicularly to the height of 1700 feet, and which was in ancient times sacred to Jupiter or to Ormuzd. According to Diodorus, Semiramis, on her march from Babylon to Ecbatana, in Media Magna, encamped near this rock, and having cut away and polished the lower part of it, had her own likeness and those of a hundred of her guards engraved on it. She further, according to the same historian, caused the following inscription in Assyrian letters to be cut in the rock: 'Semiramis having piled up one upon the other the trapping of the beasts of burden which accompanied her, ascended by these means from the plain to the top of the rock.' No trace of these inscriptions is now to be found, and Sir Henry Rawlinson accounts for their absence by the supposition that they were destroyed by Khusraú Parvíz when he was preparing to form of this long scarped surface the back wall of his palace.' Diodorus also mentions that Alexander the Great, on his way to Ecbatana from Susa, visited Behistun. But the rock is especially interesting for its cuneiform inscriptions (q. v.), which within recent years have been successfully deciphered by Sir H. Rawlinson. The principal inscription of B., executed by the command of Darius, is on the north extremity of the rock, at an elevation of 300 feet from the ground, where it could not have been engraved without the aid of scaffolding, and can now only be reached by the adventurous antiquary at considerable risk to his life. The labour of polishing the face of the rock, so as to fit it to receive the inscriptions, must have been very great. In places where the stone was defective, pieces were fitted in and fastened with molten lead with such extreme nicety, that only a careful scrutiny can detect the artifice. But the real wonder of the work,' says Sir H. Rawlinson, 'consists in the inscriptions. For extent, for beauty of execution, for uniformity and correctness, they are perhaps unequalled in the world. After Rock Inscriptions at Behistun. the engraving of the rock had been accomplished, a coating of silicious varnish had been laid on, to give a clearness of outline to each individual letter, and to protect the surface against the action of the elements. This varnish is of infinitely greater hardness than the limestone rock beneath it.' Washed down in some places by the rain of twenty-three centuries, it lies in consistent flakes like thin layers of lava on the foot-ledge; in others, where time has honey-combed the rock beneath, it adheres to the broken surface, still shewing with sufficient distinctness the forms of the characters. The inscriptions-which are in the three forms of cuneiform writing, Persian, Babylonian, and Median-set forth the hereditary right of Darius to the throne of Persia, tracing his genealogy, through eight generations, up to Achæmenes; they then enumerate the provinces of his empire, and recount his triumphs over the various rebels who rose against him during the first four years of his reign. The monarch himself is represented on the tablet with a bow in hand, and his foot upon the prostrate figure of a man, while nine rebels, chained together by the neck, stand humbly before him; behind him are two of his own warriors, and above him, another figure [see cut]. The Persian inscriptions which Sir H. Rawlinson has translated are contained in the five main columns numbered in cut 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The first column contains 19 paragraphs, and 96 lines. Each paragraph after the first, which commences, I am Darius the Great King,' begins with, 'Says Darius the King.' The second column has the same number of lines in 16 paragraphs; the third, 92 lines and 14 paragraphs; the fourth has also 92 lines and 18 paragraphs; and the fifth, which appears to be a supplementary column, 35 lines. With the exception BEHME-BEIRAM. of the first paragraph on the first column, all begin with, Says Darius the King.' The second, fourth, and fifth columns are much injured. Sir H. Rawlinson fixes the epoch of the sculpture at 516-515 B. C. See Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. x. BEHME, JACOB. See BÖHME. BEHN, APHARA, or APHRA, a licentious poetess and novelist of the reign of Charles II., the date of whose birth is unknown, was the daughter of Mr Johnson, a gentleman who, through his aristocratic connections, obtained the appointment of governor of Surinam. He died on his passage out, but the daughter pursued her journey, and resided at Surinam for some considerable time. Here she made the acquaintance of the celebrated slave Oronoko, who afterwards became the subject of one of her novels, and of a tragedy by Southern. Returning to England, she married Mr Behn, a merchant of Dutch extraction, was presented at court, where her personal appearance and vivacious freedom of manners pleased the 'Merry Monarch,' who deputed her to watch events in Flanders. She accordingly went to Antwerp, where she succeeded in discovering the intention of the Dutch to sail up the Thames and Medway, and communicated the secret to the English court; which, however, took no notice of the information, a slight which caused the fair agent to throw up state politics in disgust. On her return to England, she became intimate with all the profligate wits as well as the more staid scholars and poets of the time, and devoted herself to literature. Her numerous plays, poems, tales, letters, &c., are disfigured alike by general impurity of tone and indecency of language; and, in point of intellectual ability, none of her works appear deserving of the high praise lavished on them by Dryden, Cotton, Southern, and others. She died in 1689. A America. The distance between the two capes, in 1741. BEILA'N, a pass and town in the northern extremity of Syria, on the east shore of the Gulf of Iscanderoon. The pass of B. runs from south-west to north-east, between the mountain-ranges of Rhosus and Amanus, and is the common route from Cilicia into Syria. It is one of the two Amanian passes, supposed to be the lower one, mentioned by Cicero as capable of easy defence on account of their narrowness. There seems to be no doubt that, in the war between Darius and Alexander, the B. Pass was an important consideration to both commanders, but historians and geographers appear to be at variance as to the precise advantage taken of it in the struggle. The town of B. is situated near the summit-level of the pass, at an elevation of 1584 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. It has a population of about 5000, many of whom are wealthy, and is much esteemed for its salubrity and fine Between the north-western foot of the pass and the water, which is supplied by numerous aqueducts. sea, are caves and springs, supposed to be the site of battle between the Egyptians and Turks in 1832, B. was the scene of a the ancient Myriandrus. when the latter were defeated. BEHRING, VITUS, the discoverer of the strait called after his name, was a native of Denmark, and entered as captain the newly formed navy of Peter the Great. From the ability and daring he had displayed in the wars with Sweden, he was appointed to conduct an expedition of discovery in the Sea of Kamtchatka. Sailing, in 1728, from a port on the east of Kamtchatka, he followed the BE'IRA, a Portuguese province, bounded N. by coast northward until he believed, from the west- the provinces of Minho and Tras-os-Montes; S. by ward trending of the land, that he had reached the Estremadura and Alemtejo; E. by Spain; and W. north-east point of Asia. It is now, however, by the Atlantic Ocean. It has an area of about believed that the cape which B. rounded was to the 8576 square miles, and a pop. (1871) of 1,294,282. south of the real East Cape (in lat. 66°), and that he The surface is mountainous, and the soil on the never actually reached the strait to which he has plains sandy, and generally far from fertile. The given his name. After some years spent in explora-mountain-slopes afford good pasturage for sheep tions on the coasts of Kamtchatka, Okhotsk, and the north of Siberia, he sailed in 1741 from Okhotsk towards the American continent, and sighting land about 58° N. lat., he followed the coast northward for some distance; but sickness and storms obliged him to return, and being wrecked on the desert island of Awatska, since called Behring's Island, he died there, 8th December 1741. The previous year, he had founded the present settlement of Petropaulovski, in the Bay of Awatska. BEHRING'S STRAIT separates Asia from America, and connects the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean. The proof that the two continents were not connected was given by the voyage of a Cossack named Deschnew, who, in 1648, sailed from a harbour in Siberia, in the Polar Ocean, into the Sea of Kamtchatka. But the whole voyage was long regarded by Europeans as a fable, until Behring's (q. v.) expedition in 1728. The strait has since been explored by Cook and Beechy. The narrowest part is near 66° lat., between East Cape in Asia, and Cape Prince of Wales in and cattle. The products are corn, wine, oil, flax, and various kinds of fruit, and considerable attention is paid to the rearing of bees. Sea-salt is obtained at the coast. The river Douro waters the whole of its northern, and the Tagus, a portion of its southern, boundary. The Mondego and Vouga flow through its centre. Iron, coal, and marble are wrought in small quantity. There is little done in manufactures, The inhabitants are an industrious race of people. In 1835, the province was divided into Upper and Lower Beira, the former having Viseu and the latter Castel Branco for its capital. BEIRAM, or BAIRAM, a Mohammedan festival somewhat analogous to Easter. It commences immediately after the fast of Ramadan, or Ramazan, which corresponds to Lent. Being one of the only two feasts the Moslems have in the year, it is looked forward to with great interest, the zest being enhanced by the previous abstinence. Its advent is announced at Constantinople by the discharge of artillery, the beating of drums, and blowing of trumpets. Properly, it should terminate in one day, |