BEARD of a Comet, the rays which the comet emits towards that part of the heaven to which its proper motion feems to direct it; in which the beard of a comet is diftinguished from the tail, which is underflood of the rays emitted towards that part from whence its motion feems to carry it.

BEARD of a Horfe, that part underneath the lower mandible on the outfide and above the chin, which bears the curb. It is alfo called the chuck. It fhould have but little flesh upon it, without any chops, hardnefs, or fwelling; and be neither too high raifed nor too flat, but fuch as the curb may reft in its right place.

BEARD of a Mufcle, oyster, or the like, denotes an affemblage of threads or hairs, by which thofe animals fatten themselves to ftones. The hairs of this beard terminate in a flat fpongy fubftance, which being applied to the furface of a ftone, fticks thereto, like the wet leather ufed by boys.

BEARDS, in the hiftory of infects, are two fmall, oblong, flcthy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in the gnats, and in the moths and butterflies.

BEARDED, denotes a perfon or thing with a beard, or fome resemblance thereof. The faces on ancient Greek and Roman medals are generally bearded. Some are denominated pogonati, as having long beards, . g. the Parthian kings. Others have only a lanugo about the chin, as the Seleucid family. Adrian was the first of the Roman emperors who nourished his beard: hence all imperial medals before him are beardless; after him, bearded.

BEARDED Women have been all obferved to want the menftrual discharge; and feveral inftances are given by Hippocrates, and other phyficians, of grown women, efpecially widows, in whom the menfes coming to ftop, beards appeared. Eufebius Nierembergius mentions a woman who had a beard reaching to her navel.

Of women remarkably bearded we have feveral inftances. In the cabinet of curiofities of Stutgard in Germany, there is the portrait of a woman called Bartel Graetje, whofe chin is covered with a very large beard. She was drawn in 1587, at which time he was but 25 years of age. There is likewife in the fame cabinet another portrait of her when he was more advaneed in life, but likewife with a beard.-It is faid, that

the Duke of Saxony had the portrait of a poor Swifs woman taken, remarkable for her long bushy beard; and those who were at the carnival at Venice in 1726, faw a female dancer aftonifh the fpectators not more by her talents than by her chin covered with a black bushy beard. Charles XII. had in his army a female grenadier: it was neither courage nor a beard that she wanttowa, and carried to Petersburg, where the was prefented to the Czar in 1724: her beard measured a yard and a half.-We read in the Trévoux Dictionary, that there was a woman feen at Paris, who had not only a bufhy beard on her face, but her body likewise covered all over with hair. Among a number of other examples of this nature, that of Margaret, the governefs of the Netherlands, is very remarkable. She had a very long ftiff beard, which the prided herself on; and being perfuaded that it contributed to give her an air of majesty, fhe took care not to lose a hair of it. This Margaret was a very great woman.—It is faid, that the Lombard women, when they were at war, made themselves beards with the hair of their heads, which they ingeniously arranged on their cheeks, in order that the enemy, deceived by the likeness, might take them for men. It is afferted, after Suidas, that in a fimilar cafe the Athenian women did as much. Thefe women were more men than our Jemmy-Jeffamy countrymen. About a century ago, the French ladies adopted the mode of dreffing their hair in fuch a manner that curls hung down their cheeks as far as their bofom. Thefe curls went by the name of avhikers. This cuftom undoubtedly was not invented, after the example of the Lombard women, to fright the men. Neither is it with intention to carry on a very bloody war, that in our time they have affected to bring forward the hair of the temple on the checks. The difcovery feems to have been a fortunate one: it gives them a tempting, roguith look.

BEARERS, in heraldry. See SUPPORTERS. BEARING, in navigation, an arch of the horizon intercepted between the neareft meridian and any diftinct object, either difcovered by the eye, or refulting from the finical proportion; as in the firft cafe, at 4 P. M. Cape Spado, in the ifle of Candia, bore S. by W. by the compafs. In the fecond, the longitudes and latitudes of any two places being given, and confequently the difference of latitude and longitude between them, the bearing from one to the other is dif covered by the following analogy:

As the meridional difference of latitude
Is to the difference of longitude;
So is radius

To the tangent bearing.

BEARING is alfo the fituation of any diftant object, eftimated from fome part of the fhip according to her pofition. In this fenfe, an object fo difcovered must be either ahead, aftern, abreast on the bow, or on the quarter. These bearings, therefore, which may be called mechanical, are on the beam, before the beam, abaft the beam, on the bow, on the quarter, ahead, or aftern. If the fhip fails with a fide-wind, it alters the names of fuch bearings in some meafure, fince a diftant object on the beam is then faid to be to leeward or to windward; on the lee-quarter or bow, and on the weather-quarter or bow.

BEARING

BEARING, in the fea-language. When a fhip fails towards the thore, before the wind, fhe is faid to bear in with the land or harbour. To let the fhip fail more before the wind, is to bear up. To put her right be. fore the wind, is to bear round. A fhip that keeps off from the land, is faid to bear off. When a fhip that was to windward comes under a fhip's ftern, and fo gives her the wind, the is faid to bear under her lee, &c. There is another sense of this word, in reference to the burden of a fhip; for they say a fhip bears, when, having too flender or lean a quarter, fhe will fink too deep into the water with an overlight freight, and thereby can carry but a small quantity of goods.

BEARINGS, in heraldry, a term used to express a coat of arms, or the figures of armories by which the nobility and gentry are diftinguished from the vulgar and from one another. See HERALDRY.

BEARING-Claws, among cock-fighters, denote the foremost toes, on which the bird goes; and if they be hurt or gravelled, he cannot fight.

BEARING of a Stag, is ufed in refpect of the state of his head, or the croches which he bears on his horns. If you be afked what a ftag bears, you are only to reckon the croches, and never to exprefs an odd number: as, if he have four croches on his near horn and five on his far, you muft fay he bears ten; a false right on his near horn: if but four on the near horn and fix on the far horn, you must fay he bears twelve; a double falfe right on the near horn.

BEARN, a province of France, bounded on the eaft by Bigorre, on the fouth by the mountains of Arragon, on the weft by Soule and part of Navarre, and on the north by Gafcony and Armagnac. It lies at the foot of the Pyrenæan mountains, being about 16 leagues in length and 12 in breadth. In general it is but a barren country; yet the plains yield confiderable quantities of flax, and a good quantity of Indian corn called mailloc. The mountains are rich in mines of iron, copper, and lead; fome of them alfo are covered with vines, and others with pine trees; and they give rife to feveral mineral fprings, and two confiderable rivers, the one called the Gave of Oleron, and the other the Gave of Bearn. Some wine is exported from this country; and the Spaniards buy up great numbers of the horfes and cattle, together with moft of their linen, of which there is a confiderable manufactory. The principal places are Pau, Lefcar, Ortez, Novarreins, Sallies, and Oleron.

BEAST, in a general fenfe, an appellation given to all four-footed animals, fit either for food, labour, or fport.

BEASTS of Burden, in a commercial fenfe, all fourfooted animals which ferve to carry merchandizes on their backs. The beafts generally ufed for this purpofe, are elephants, dromedaries, camels, horses, mules, affes, and the sheep of Mexico and Peru.

BEASTS of the Chase are five, viz. the buck, the doe, the fox, the roe, and the martin.

BEASTS and Fowls of the Warren, are the hare, the coney, the pheafant, and partridge.

BEASTS of the Foreft are the hart, hind, hare, boar, and wolf.

BEAST, among gamefters, a game at cards, played in this manner: The beft cards are the king, queen, &c. whereof they make three heaps, the king, the VOL. III. Part I.

f

play, and troilet. Three, four, or five, may play; and to every one is dealt five cards. However, before the play begins, every one takes to the three heaps. He that wins moft tricks, takes up the heap called the play; he that hath the king, takes up the heap fo called; and he that hath three of any fort, that is, three fours, three fives, three fixes, &c. takes up the troilet heap.

BEAT, in a general fignification, fignifies to chaftife, ftrike, knock, or vanquish.

This word has feveral other fignifications in the manufactures, and in the arts and trades. Sometimes it fignifies to forge and hammer; in which fense smiths and farriers lay, to beat iron. Sometimes it means to pound, to reduce into powder: Thus we say, to beat drugs, to beat pepper, to beat spices; that is to fay, to pulverize them.

BEAT, in fencing, denotes a blow or stroke givenwith the fword. There are two kinds of beats; the first performed with the foible of a man's fword on the foible of his adversary's, which in the fchools is commonly called baterie, from the French batre, and is chiefly used in a purfuit, to make an open upon the adverfary. The fecond and best kind of beat is performed with the fort of a man's fword upon the foible of his adverfary's, not with a spring, as in binding, but with a jerk or dry beat; and is therefore most proper for the parades without or within the fword, because of the rebound a man's fword has thereby from his adverfary's, whereby he procures to himself the better and furer opportunity of rifpofting.

BEAT, in the manege. A horfe is faid to beat the duft, when at each ftroke or motion he does not take in ground or way enough with his fore-legs. He is more particularly faid to beat the duft at terra à terra, when he does not take in ground enough with his fhoulders, making his ftrokes or motions too fhort, as if he made them all in one place. He beats the duft at curvets, when he does them too precipitantly and too low. He beats upon a walk, when he walks too fhort, and thus rids but little ground, whether it be in ftraight lines, rounds, or paffings.

BEAT of Drum, in the military art, is to give notice by beat of drum of a fudden danger; or, that scattered foldiers may repair to their arms and quarters, is to beat an alarm, or to arms. Alfo to fignify, by different manners of founding a drum, that the foldiers are to fall on the enemy; to retreat before, in, or after, an attack; to move or march from one place to another; to permit the foldiers to come out of their quarters at break of day; to order to repair to their colours, &c.; is to beat a charge, a retreat, a march, &c.

BEAT (St), a town of France, in the county of Comminges, at the confluence of the Garonne and the Pique. It is feated between two mountains which are close to the town on each fide. All the boufes are built with marble, because they have no other materials. W. Long. 1. 6. N. Lat. 42. 50.

BEATER is applied, in matters of commerce, to divers forts of workmen, whose business is to hammer or flatten certain matters, particularly metals.

Gold-BEATERS, are artifans, who, by beating gold and filver with a hammer on a marble in moulds of vellum and bullocks guts, reduce them to thin leaves fit for gilding, or filvering of copper, iron, fteel, wood, N

&c.

There are alfo Tin-BEATERS employed in the looking-glafs trade, whofe bufinefs is to beat tin on large blocks of marble till it be reduced to thin leaves fit to

be applied with quickfilver behind looking-glaffes. See FOLIATING, GOLD-Beating.

BEATIFICATION, an act by which the pope declares a perfon beatified or bleffed after his death. It is the first step towards canonization, or raifing any one to the honour and dignity of a faint. No perfon can be beatified till 50 years after his or her death. All certificates or atteftations of virtues and miracles, the neceffary qualifications for faintfhip, are examined by the congregation of rites. This examination often continues for feveral years; after which his holiness decrees the beatification. The corps and relics of the future faint are from thenceforth expofed to the veneration of all good Chriftians; his images are crowned with rays, and a particular office is fet apart for him; but his body and relics are not carried in proceffion : indulgences likewife, and remiffion of fins, are granted on the day of his beatification; which though not fo pompous as that of canonization, is however very fplendid.

BEATING, or PULSATION, in medicine, the reciprocal agitation or palpitation of the heart or pulfe. BEATING Flax or Hemp, is an operation in the dreffing of these matters, contrived to render them more foft and pliant.-When hemp has been fwingled a fecond time, and the hurds laid by, they take the ftrikes, aad dividing them into dozens and half dozens, make them up into large thick rolls, which being broached on long ftrikes, are fet in the chimney-corner to dry; after which they lay them in a round trough made for the purpofe, and there with beetles beat them well till they handle both without and within as pliant as poffible, without any hardness or roughness to be felt: that done, they take them from the trough, open and divide the ftrikes as before; and if any be found not fufficiently beaten, they roll them up and beat them

over as before.

Beating hemp is a punishment inflicted on loofe or diforderly perfons.

BEATING, in book-binding, denotes the knocking a book in quires on a marble block, with a heavy broad-faced hammer, after folding, and before binding or ftitching it. On the beating it properly, the clegance and excellence of the binding, and the eafy opening of the book, principally depends.

BEATING, in the paper-works, fignifies the beating of paper on a stone with a heavy hammer, with a large fmooth head and fhort handle, in order to render it more smooth and uniform, and fit for writing.

BEATING the Wind, was a practice in ufe in the ancient method of trial by combat. If either of the combatants did not appear in the field at the time appointed, the other was to beat the wind, or make fo many flourishes with his weapon; by which he was intitled to all the advantages of a conqueror. BEATING the Hands or Feet, by way of praife or ape probation. See APPLAUSE.

BEATING Time, in mufic, a method of measuring

and marking the time for performers in concert, by a Beating motion of the hand and foot up or down fucceffively and in equal times. Knowing the true time of a crotchet, and fuppofing the measure actually fubdivided into four crotchets, and the half measure into two, the hand or foot being up, if we put it down with the very beginning of the firft note or crotchet, and then raife it with the third, and then down with the beginning of the next meafure; this is called beating the time; and, by practice, a habit is acquired of making: this motion very equal. Each down and up is fometimes called a time or measure. The general rule is,, to contrive the divifion of the measure fo, that every down and up of the beating fhall end with a particular. note, on which very much depends the diftin&tnefs, and, as it were, the fenfe of the melody. Hence the beginning of every time or beating in the measure is reckoned the accented part thereof..

Beating time is denoted, in the Italian mufic, by the term á battuta, which is ufually put after what they call recitativo, where little or no time is obferved, to denote, that here they are to begin again to mark. or beat the time exactly.

The Romans aimed at fomewhat of harmony in the ftrokes of their oars; and had an officer called portifculus in each galley, whofe bufinefs was to beat time to the rowers, fometimes by a pole or mallet, and fometimes by his voice alone..

The ancients marked the rhyme in their mufical compofitions; but to make it more obfervable in the practice, they beat the measure or time, and this in different manners, The moft ufual confifted in a motion of the foot, which was raifed from, and ftruck alternately againft, the ground, according to the modern method. Doing this was commonly the province of the master of the mufic, who was thence called roox?p® and xgupai, because placed in the middle of the choir of musicians, and in an elevated fituation, to be seen and heard more eafily by the whole company. Thele beaters of measure were alfo called by the Greeks odoxlux and odoo, because of the noife of their feet; and evvivapo, becaufe of the uniformity or monotony of the rhyme. The Latins denominated them pedarii, pedarii, and pedicularii. To make the beats or ftrokes. more audible, their feet were generally shod with a fort of fandals either of wood or iron, called by the Greeks. κρουπέζια, κρούπαλα, κρυπνία, and by the Latins pedicula, fcabella, or feabilla, because like to little ftools or footftools. Sometimes they beat upon fonorous foot-ftools, with the foot fhod with a wooden or iron fole. They beat the measure not only with the foot, but also with the right-hand, all the fingers whereof they joined together, to ftrike into the hollow of the left. He who thus marked the rhythm, was called manuductor. The ancients also beat time or meafure with fhells, as oyfterfhells and bones of animals, which they ftruct againít one another, much as the moderns now ufe caftanets, and the like inftruments. This the Greeks called pnCaniat, as is noted by Hefychius. The fcholiaft on Ariftophanes fpeaks much to the fame purpose. Other noify inftruments, as drums, cymbals, citterns, &c. were also used on the fame occafion. They beat the measure generally in two equal or unequal times; at leaft, this holds of the ufual rhythm of a piece of mufic, marked either by the noise of sandals, or the flapping

Beatorum.

defcription, as appears from the writers on Alexander's expedition thither. It was a place of relegation or banishment for real or pretended criminals from which there was no escape, (Úlpian).

Beating of the hands. But the other rhythmic inftruments laftmentioned, and which were ufed principally to excite and animate the dancers, marked the cadence after another manner; that is, the number of their percuffions equalled, or even fometimes furpaffed, that of the different founds which composed the air or fong played.

BEATING, with hunters, a term used of a flag, which runs first one way and then another. He is then faid to beat up and down.-The noise made by conies in rutting time is alfo called beating or tapping. BEATING, in navigation, the operation of making a progrefs at fea againft the direction of the wind, in a zig-zag line, or traverfe, like that in which we afcend a fteep hill. See TACKING.

BEATITUDE, imports the fupreme good, or the highest degree of happiness human nature is fufceptible of; or the most perfect ftate of a rational being, wherein the foul has attained to the utmoft excellency and dignity it is framed for. In which fenfe, it amounts to the fame with what we otherwife call blessedness and fovereign felicity; by the Greeks, tudamovie; and by the Latins, fummum bonum, beatitudo, and beatitas.

BEATITUDE, among divines, denotes the beatific vifion, or the fruition of God in a future life to all eternity.

BEATITUDE is also used in fpeaking of the thefes contained in Chrift's fermon on the mount, whereby he pronounces bleffed the poor in fpirit, thofe that mourn, the meek, &c.

BEATON (David), archbishop of St Andrew's, and a cardinal of Rome, in the early part of the 16th century, was born in 1494. Pope Paul III. raifed him to the degree of a cardinal in December 1538; and being employed by James V. in negociating his marriages with the court of France, he was there confecrated bishop of Mirepoix. Soon after his inftalment as archbishop of St Andrew's, he promoted a furious perfecution of the reformers in Scotland; when the king's death put a ftop, for a time, to his arbitrary proceedings, he being then excluded from affairs of government, and confined. He raifed however fo ftrong a party, that, upon the coronation of the young queen Mary, he was admitted of the council, made chancellor, and procured 'commiffion as legate a latere from the court of Rome. He now began to renew his perfecution of heretics; and among the reft, of the famous Proteftant preacher Mr George Wishart, whose fufferings at the flake the cardinal viewed from his window with apparent exultation. It is pretended, that Wishart at his death foretold the murder of Beaton; which indeed happened fhortly after, he being affaffinated in his chamber, May 29th, 1547. He was a haughty bigotted churchman, and thought severity the proper method of fuppreffing herefy: he had great talents, and vices that were no lefs confpicuous. See Scor

LAND.

BEATORUM INSULA (anc. geog.), feven days journey to the weft of Thebe, a district of the Nomos Oafites; called an island, because surrounded with fand, like an island in the fea, (Ulpian); yet abounding in all the neceffaries of life, though encompaffed with vaft fandy defarts, (Strabo); which fome fuppofe to be a third Oafis, in the Regio Ammoniaca; and the fcite of the temple of Ammon answers to the above

BEATS, in a watch or clock, are the ftrokes made by the fangs or pallets of the spindle of the balance, or of the pads in a royal pendulum.

BEUCAIRE, a town of Languedoc in France, fituated on the banks of the river Rhone, in E. Long. 5. 49. N. Lat. 43. 39.

BEAUCE, a province of France, lying between the ifle of France, Blafois, and Orleannois. It is fo very fertile in wheat, that it is called the Granary of Paris. Chartres is the principal town.

BEAVER, in zoology. See CASTOR. BEAVER-Skins, in commerce. Of thefe, merchants diftinguifh three forts; the new, the dry, and the fat. The new beaver, which is also called the white beaver, or Muscovy beaver, becaufe it is commonly kept to be fent into Mufcovy, is that which the favages catch in their winter hunting. It is the beft, and the most proper for making fine furs, because it has loft none of its hair by shedding.

The dry beaver, which is fometimes called lean beaver, comes from the fummer hunting, which is the time when thefe animals lofe part of their hair. Tho' this fort of beaver be much inferior to the former, yet it may also be employed in furs; but it is chiefly used in the manufacture of hats. The French call it fummer caftor or beaver.

The fat beaver is that which has contracted a certain grofs and oily humour, from the fweat which exhales from the bodies of the favages, who wear it for fome time. Though this fort be better than the dry beaver, yet it is ufed only in the making of hats.

Befides hats and furs, in which the beaver's hair is commonly used, they attempted in France, in the year 1699, to make other manufactures of it: and accordingly they made cloths, flannels, ftockings, &c. partly of beaver's hair, and partly of Segovia wool. This manufactory, which was fet up at Paris, in St Anthony's fuburbs, fucceeded at firft pretty well; and according to the genius of the French, the novelty of the thing brought into fome repute the ftuffs, ftockings, gloves, and cloth, made of beaver's hair. But they went out of fashion on a fudden, because it was found, by experience, that they were of a very bad wear, and befides that the colours faded very much: when they had been wet, they became dry and hard, like felt, which occafioned the miscarriage of the manufactory for that time.

When the hair has been cut off from the beavers fkins, to be used in the manufacturing of hats, those fkins are ftill employed by feveral workmen; namely, by the trunk-makers, to cover trunks and boxes, by the fhoemakers, to put into flippers; and by turners, ta make fieves for fifting grain and feeds.

BEAUFORT, a town of Anjou in France, with a castle, near the river Authion. It contains two parifhes and a convent of Recolets, and yet has not roo houfes. W. Long. o. 3. N. Lat. 47. 26.

BEAUFORT gives title of Duke in England to the noble family of Somei fet, who are lineally defcended from John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, whose duchef's refided in this town. BEAU

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