BEET-FLY-BEETHOVEN. mostly biennials, with smooth, ovate, stalked root- year he published, at Manheim, a volume of varialeaves, and tall, leafy, flowering-stems. They are tions on a march, songs, and sonatas. In 1792, he natives of the temperate parts of the Old World. was sent to Vienna by his patron, the Elector of The COMMON B. (B. vulgaris) is a native of the Cologne, to enjoy the instructions of Haydn, who shores of the Mediterranean, but is now in very first made him acquainted with the works of Händel, general cultivation both in fields and gardens, chiefly He also studied composition under Albrechtsberger. for the sake of its large succulent and generally There he soon attracted notice by his extraordinary carrot-shaped roots, which are used as food both for ability as an extempore player of fantasias, and also man and for cattle, and from which also sugar is by some compositions, which, however, did not largely extracted on the continent of Europe. Beet- escape the censure of critics. He became so much roots may be substituted for malt, when deprived of attached to Vienna, that, after his patron's death in the greater part of their juice by pressure. The 1801, he determined to remain, and declined an variety chiefly cultivated in gardens is known as invitation to England. In 1809, when another offer RED B., from the colour of the root, which also tempted him to leave Vienna, several friends of more or less appears in the leaves and leaf-stalks. music, with the Archduke Rudolf at their head, The subvarieties are very numerous. In some, the raised a subscription to provide for the composer a root is rather turnip-shaped than carrot-shaped, and pension sufficient to retain him. At Vienna, therethe size and colour also vary much, some being of fore, he stayed during the remainder of his life, a deep blood-red, or even almost blackish colour, secluded from the world, of which he knew as little both externally and internally; and others of a much as it knew of him; and in later years, still more lighter red, and internally, even white. It forms a isolated from society by a defect of hearing, which favourite pickle, and is also very agreeable as a gradually became confirmed into entire deafness. In boiled vegetable when properly dressed. The seed this sad inviolable solitude, he produced his new is sown so late in spring, that the plants may not symphonies, his sublime overtures, his quintetts and produce flowering stems the first year, which, when quartetts, so full of profound conceptions and mysit occurs, renders the root fibrous and useless.- terious revelations of the highest harmonies, and MANGOLD-WURZEL (q. v.), so valuable as a field-his pianoforte sonatas, which express, sometimes, a crop for food of cattle, is, in general, regarded as merely a larger and coarser variety of the common B., in which the red colour is comparatively little exhibited, although some botanists have, on very slender grounds, endeavoured to erect it into a distinct species.-The WHITE B. of our gardens (B. cicla of some botanists) is now also generally supposed to be a mere variety of the common B., with little or no red in its roots or leaves, and a comparatively slender root. It is cultivated for the sake of its leaves, which are used in the same manner as spinach, and form an excellent substitute for it, especially in the beginning of spring. The leaf-stalks and midribs (chards) of the leaves, especially of a variety in which these parts are unusually developed, are also dressed for the table.-SEA-B. (B. maritima) grows wild upon the shores of Britain, and differs from the common B. in its perennial root, its partly prostrate stems, and other characters. The leaves are used for food in Ireland, as are also those of B. Bengalensis in the East Indies. peculiar train of feelings, at other times appear to represent his own recluse character. Shut out in a large measure from the ordinary pleasures of life, ignorant of the sweetness of married life, and able to enjoy only in a slender measure social intercourse, he retired for compensation into the world of his own imagination, and brought forth from its deep resources those treasures of harmony which, though at first received with a shy astonishment rather than a cordial admiration, are now ranked among the works of art which cannot die. These new forms and original creations, which display B.'s majestic powers in music, were only gradually developed; in his early productions, he submitted to established forms of composition. The works of B. may be divided into three classes, or may be assigned to three distinct periods of his intellectual development. All the works of his first period, though important, shew the influence of his teacher Haydn, or of his more highly esteemed model, Mozart. This period of composition may be said to extend to his 16th orchestral work, including, BEET-FLY (Anthomyia Beta), an insect which forte and for stringed instruments. All these early besides several pianoforte sonatas, trios for pianoinfests crops of mangold-wurzel, and other kinds works display the highest cultivation of the forms of beet, depositing its eggs on the leaves, the soft and principles of art previously established in the parts of which the larvae devour, causing them to Viennese school of music. The second period of assume a blistered appearance, and when numerB.'s artistic life, in which his genius was completely ous, injuring the health of the plants. It is a two- self-reliant, extends from the 16th to the 80th work. winged insect (see DIPTERA), of the great family This was certainly the most productive and brilliant Muscides, of which the common house-fly may be To it belong his greatest crearegarded as the type, and belongs to a genus of part of his career. which more than 100 British species are known, tions, his magnificent and powerful orchestral works the larvæ of some of which are well known as feed-symphonies, overtures, &c.—all of which display ing upon the roots of cabbages, turnips, &c. See Besides the great orchestral works, it includes many the highest qualities of imaginative composition. CABBAGE-FLY, TURNIP-FLY, and POTATO-FLY. It sonatas for pianoforte, and various compositions of is not so large as the common house-fly. chamber-music-septetts, quintetts, quartetts, trios, serenades, &c. In dramatic composition, B. produced only one opera, but this was Fidelio, the first truly German musical work of a dramatic character. This was the result of great study, and, as it is now given, is the reconstruction of an earlier composition. Other dramatic pieces are-the overture, interludes, and melodramatic music in Goethe's Egmont, and the instrumental music and choruses in the Ruins of Athens.-In the third and last period of B.'s career we find those two gigantic works, the Missa Solemnis in D Minor, and the ninth symphony BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN, the unrivalled composer, whose works have made a new epoch in the development of music, was born at Bonn, December 17, 1770, and died in Vienna, March 26, 1827. His father, a tenor-singer in the elector's chapel at Bonn, began to cultivate the genius of his son when only five years of age. He next placed him under the court-organist, Van Eden, and shortly after under the composer Neefe. In his eighth year he created astonishment by his performance on the violin; when only eleven, he played the music in BEETLE BEFFANA. all common laws and forms, and belong to the highest sphere of art. Their deep mysteries can be apprehended only by those who have deep emotions and profound technical knowledge of music. Other works of this last class approach those just mentioned, though they do not reach the same elevation. But all are alike in passing far beyond the ordinary traditional forms of art. All are pervaded by an impulse as of inspiration. Among these works may be mentioned, the great quartetts for bow-instruments (mostly published after the death of B.), the grand overtures-works 115 and 124-and several sonatas for pianoforte, especially that in Bb major. The life of B. has been written by Schlosser, Schindler, Moscheles, Marx, Nohl, Thayer (18661871). See also Nottebohm, Skizzenbuch B.'s. BEETLE, a name popularly applied to many kinds of coleopterous insects. It is never extended to insects of any other order, and it is sometimes used in works on natural history as a common name for all coleopterous insects; but this makes it to include many kinds to which it is not popularly applied, as fireflies, lady-birds, weevils, cantharides, &c. It is also employed by some authors in a more restricted sense, as a designation of the insects forming the large tribe Scarabaides; but the restriction, equally with the extension, is an interference with the popular use of the English word, of which, however, the limits are very uncertain. To frame an article, with strict regard to that popular use, and at the same time to science, would not be easy, nor would it be profitable, as the assemblage of kinds would be not only large, but very miscellaneous. We think it better to refer to the article COLEOPTERA, and to the articles SCARABEIDE, BOMBARDIER BEETLE, STAG BEETLE, BURYING BEETLE, GOLIATH BEETLE, ROSE BEETLE, &c. The name BLACK BEETLE is often given to the COCKROAch (q. v.). See also BLAPS. BEETLE-STONES, the name given by the lapidaries of Edinburgh to hard nodules of clay ironstone, found abundantly in a low cliff, composed of shale, at Newhaven, or strewed upon the beach in that neighbourhood. They take a beautiful polish, and have been employed to make letter-weights and other ornamental articles. The name was given in consequence of the supposed origin of the fossil which is of most frequent occurrence as the nucleus of the nodules, which, however, is not a fossil beetle, but a coprolite (q. v.). Some of the nodules contain a fossil fish, and some a fossil of vegetable origin. BEETLING is a finishing mechanical process applied originally to linen shirting, and afterwards to cotton shirting, in imitation of linen, to give the cloth a hard and wiry look, by flattening the yarn irregularly in an angled manner. This is done by the rising and falling of upright wooden stampers, placed close together in a row, with their square buts resting on a roller over which the cloth passes under them, doubled in a particular way so as to give the yarn an angled appearance when struck. The stampers are worked by the rotation of a horizontal shaft, acting with tapets, like the cylinder of a barrel-organ. Linen weft is likewise beetled, but by handhammering, on a large flat stone, with a wooden mallet, to soften the yarn for easiness of working it, or getting it on,' in the language of the craft, in weaving. Beetling is likewise a process in flaxdressing, to separate the woody from the flexible fibres of the plant. See FLAX-DRESSING. BEET-ROOT SUGAR. See SUGAR. The sugar obtained from the beet is similar to cane-sugar, but inferior in sweetening power. Beet-root contains on an average about 10 per cent. of saccharine matter | (sugar-cane, 18 per cent.); of the varieties, the white Slesvig beet is the richest. To obtain the sugar, the roots, after being washed, are first rasped down by machines, so as to tear up the cells. The pulp is then put into bags, and the juice is squeezed out by presses. The juice is next treated with lime or sulphuric acid, to clarify it, and also filtered till no deposit is formed; after which it is boiled in large boilers to concentrate it. When it has attained a certain density (25° Beaumé), it is poured through flannel, and is now a dark-coloured sirup, which, in order to yield pure sugar, must be deprived of its colouring-matter and mucilage. This is effected by filtering it through animal charcoal or bone-black. The filtered juice is now treated with lime-water beat up with a little white of egg to a lather, till it is slightly alkaline, and is then further concentrated by boiling in copper pans, care being taken to stir and scum it all the while. When sufficiently concentrated, it is put into vessels, and allowed to stand several days in a warm room to crystallise; the uncrystallised part, or molasses, is then drained off, and what remains is raw sugar. This is still further refined by again dissolving and treating it with albumen and blood. In separating the crystallised from the uncrystallised part, centrifugal machines are now much used. Another improvement is the vacuum-pan, which allows the juice to be boiled down without burning. The molasses drained off from beet-root sugar has a disagreeable taste, and cannot be used for sweetening, like cane molasses. About the middle of the 18th c., Marggraf, an apothecary in Berlin, drew attention to the sugar contained in beet-root; but Achard, the Prussian chemist, was the first who was tolerably successful in extracting it. Still, as only 2 or 3 per cent. of sugar was obtained, the product did not pay the cost, until Napoleon's continental system raised the price of sugar, and gave rise to improved methods of manufacturing it. Even after the fall of Napoin France; and when numerous improvements of leon, protective duties kept alive this manufacture method had raised the percentage of sugar realised to about 5 lb. from 100 lb. of beet, it took a fresh start (about 1825) in France and Belgium, was revived in Germany, and spread even to Russia. The falling off of the customs' duties on the import to impose a small duty on beet-sugar, which checked of colonial sugar obliged the German governments the manufacture for a time; but owing to the protective measures of the Zollverein, the trade soon recovered, and is still brisk. Large quantities are annually imported from the continent of Europe, and are used by our refiners mixed with cane sugar, without which it is not successful, for producing the best qualities of refined or loaf-sugar. The imports into Great Britain from the continent, in 1875, amounted to about 240,000 tons. See SUPP., Vol. X. BEFFA'NA, a corruption of Epiphania (Epiphany), is the name given in Italy to a singular custom prevailing on Three Kings' Day (see BEAN-KING'S FESTIVAL), or Twelfth Night. According to tradition, the B. was an old woman who, being busy cleaning the house when the three wise men of the East passed by on their way to offer their treasures to the infant Saviour, excused herself for not going out to see them on the ground that she would have an opportunity of doing so when they returned. They, however, went home by another way; and the B., not knowing this, has ever since been watching for their return. She is supposed to take a great interest in children, who on Twelfth Night are put earlier to bed, and a stocking of each is hung before the fire. Shortly, the cry Ecco la B.' is raised; and the children, who have not gone to sleep, dart out of bed, and seize their stockings, in which each finds a BEFFROI-BEGAS. present bearing some proportion in value to his conduct during the year. If any one has been conspicuously ill behaved, he finds his stocking full of ashes-the method the B. takes of expressing her disapprobation. It was also customary in Italy, on Twelfth Night, to carry an effigy called the B. in procession through the streets amid great rejoicings; but this, which was probably the relic of the celebration of a middle-age mystery,' has fallen greatly into disuse. The word is also used to awe naughty children. BE'FFROI, or BELFRY, was the name of a tower used in the military sieges of ancient and medieval times. When a town was to be besieged, a movable tower, as high as the walls, was brought near it; and this tower was the beffroi. Its use is more than once spoken of by Cæsar in his account of his campaigns in Gaul. Froissart describes, with his usual spirit, a B. employed at the siege of the castle of Breteuil in 1356. At the siege of Jeru salem by the Crusaders, a B. was carried in pieces, put together just beyond bow-shot, and then pushed on wheels to a proper position. The object of such towers was to cover the approach of troops. Sometimes they were pushed on by pressure, sometimes by capstans and ropes. The highest were on six or eight wheels, and had as many as twelve or fifteen stories or stages; but it was usual to limit the height to three or four stages. They were often covered with raw hides, to protect them from the flames of boiling grease and oil directed against them by the besieged; and there was a hinged drawbridge at the top, to let down upon the parapet of the wall, to aid in landing. The lower stage frequently had a ram (see BATTERING RAM); while the others were crowded with archers, arbalestiers, and slingers; or there were bowmen on all the stages except the top, which had a storming or boarding party. During the wars under Charles I., the royalists made a B. to aid in the besieging of a town or castle in Herefordshire; it was higher than the defence-works, and was provided with loopholes, a bridge, &c.; but the Roundheads captured it before it could be applied to use. Ducange thinks that the name of belfry (q. v.) given to a bell-tower, was derived from the warlike machine called the beffroi or belfry. BEG, or BEY, a Turkish title, rather vague in its import, and commonly given to superior military More strictly, it applies to the governor of a small officers, ship-captains, and distinguished foreigners. district, who bears a horse-tail as a sign of his rank. The governor of Tunis has this title. Beglerbeg,' or, more correctly, Beilerbegi ('lord of lords), is the title given to the governor of a province who bears three horse-tails as his badge of honour, and has authority over several begs, agas, &c. This superior title belongs to the governors of Rumelia, Anatolia, and Syria. BEGAS, KARL, court-painter to the king of Prussia, professor and member of the Academy of Art in Berlin, was born there in 1794. He had been destined for the law, but early manifested a love for 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. 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, without being amenable to the slavish drudgery by which the working-classes live. In Europe, during the middle ages, those doctrines of Christianity 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, through rigid legal provisions, must lower the standard of human character, by depriving it of all opportunity for the exercise of the generous emotions. It is clear that, in the light of political economy, promiscuous charity is the most costly and most corrupting way of administering relief to indigence. No one will maintain that the idle B. on the street deserves such a luxurious table as the industrious mechanic cannot afford to himself. But, at the same time, no one who drops a coin in a beggar's hat can say how many others may be deposited there during the day, and whether the B. is merely drawing a wretched pittance, or deriving a good income. Begging being a trade, it is not always those who are the poorest, but those who are the most expert, who will practise it to the best results. The great object is to seize on and appropriate any characteristic calculated, whether permanently or temporarily, to excite compassion. Hence periods of general distress are often the harvest of the B., and his trade rises and falls in an inverse ratio with that of the working community. Times of prosperity are not favourable to him, because he is then told that there is plenty of work for him. But when workmen are dismissed in thousands, and their families turned on the road to seek alms, the professional beggars, by their superior skill and experience, will be sure to draw the prizes in the distribution. Many surprising statements have been made of the large incomes made by skilful profesThe most sional beggars, especially in London. remarkable anecdotes on the subject will be found in Grose's Olio, whence they have often been repeated. Attempts have been made, but with questionable success, to set forth an average statement of the earnings in different departments of the B. trade. A good deal of information of this kind will be found in the Report of the Constabulary Force Commission of 1839 (see p. 60, et seq.). does not appear, however, that this trade is, like others, dependent on the law of supply and demand. The B. generally is so constitutionally, whether from hereditary or other physical causes. He has a loathing, even to horror, of steady systematic labour, and he will rather submit to all the hardships and privations of the wanderer's lot, than endure this dreaded evil. It BEGGARS, THE LAW OF ENGLAND RELATING TO, is regulated by the 5 Geo. IV. c. 83 (amended in regard to other points by the 1 and 2 Vict. c. 38). By the third section of the 5 Geo. IV. it is 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. 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. plants, the place of which in the system is doubtful, BEGONIA'CEÆ, a natural order of exogenous 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 BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR, a game at cards unequal divisions in the male flowers, and five or usually played by two persons, between whom the eight in the female; the stamens are numerous; cards are divided. Holding their cards with the the fruit is membranous, winged, 3-celled, bursting backs upwards, the players lay down a card alter-by slits at the base, the seeds minute. The order nately, 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 contains about 160 known species, all of which have found in Sikkim, at an elevation of five or six thou- The 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. The BEGTA'SHI, a religious order in the Ottoman empire, which had its origin in the 14th c. name is believed to be derived from that of a |