authority lasted to Holy Innocents' Day (December 28th). He was arrayed in episcopal vestments, and, attended by a crowd of subordinates in priestly dress, went about with songs and dances from house to house blessing the people. He and his fellows performed all the ceremonies of the church with the exception of the mass. In portions of England the boy bishop had the power of disposing of such prebends as happened to fall vacant during the days of his episcopacy, and if he died during his office the funeral honors of a bishop, with a monument, were granted him. The custom was finally abolished in England at about the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Boycott and Boycotting.-The origin of the term "Boycotting" was as follows: A Captain Boycott was the agent of a landowner in Ireland. His policy proved to be distasteful and offensive to the tenants, and such was their feeling in the matter that they asked the landlord to remove him. This was refused, and in retaliation the tenants and their friends refused to work for or under Boycott. They would not harvest his crops, and they made an agreement among themselves that none of them or theirs should assist or work for him in the harvest. His crops were endangered, when relief arrived in the person of certain Ulster men, who, under the protection of troops, harvested the crops of Boycott. The defensive league of the tenantry was much more powerful and effective than might be supposed from the single instance of the combination referred to above. The ramifications of their compact were very numerous and extensive. For example, if any one had dealings with Boycott or those who represented him, then no one was to have any dealings with that person. If a man worked for Boycott he was looked upon by his old friends and neighbors as a stranger-no one would sell to or buy of him, no one was to know him. The effect of this agreement when carried to this extent was just what its authors proposed, and "Boycotting" has become a very forcible phrase.

Bread-Fruit-Tree is a native of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and of the Indian Archipelago, and grows to a height of from forty to fifty feet. It has large, pinnatifid leaves, frequently twelve to eighteen inches long, dark green and glossy. The fruit of the bread-tree, which in shape and size resembles a muskmelon, supplies the principal part of the food of the inhabitants of these islands. It is attached to the small branches of the tree by a small, thick stalk, and hangs either singly or in clusters of two or three together. It contains a somewhat fibrous pulp, which, when ripe, becomes juicy and yellow, but has then a rotten taste. At an earlier stage, when it is gathered for use, the pulp is white and mealy and of a consistence resembling new bread. The common method of preparing this fruit for eating is to cut it into three or four pieces, and then take out the core, then to place heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the ground, to cover them with green leaves, and upon these to place a layer of the

fruit, then stones, leaves and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled, when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over all. In rather more than half an hour the breadfruit is ready for eating. It has little taste, and more resembles the plantain than bread made of wheat flour. The inner bark of the bread-fruit-trees supplies a considerable part of the clothing of the islanders, and its timber and its milky juice are employed for economical purposes.

Breviary.-The books in which the offices used at the seven Canonical Hours were contained were formerly distinct, but out of these separate books the Breviary was compiled, about the eleventh century, by Pope Gregory VII, the lessons, anthems, hymns and responses for the different days of the year being all arranged in their proper places in the same volume with the psalter, prayers, etc. The Breviary is in Latin, portions of it being sometimes translated for the use of the unlearned. It is necessarily a very bulky volume, when complete, and although some of the legends of the saints and martyrs may be of doubtful authenticity, yet it is a mine of interesting and devotional reading. The Roman Church enjoins, under pain of excommunication, all religious persons, i. e. all persons, male or female, who have taken vows in any religious order, to repeat, either in public or private, the services of the Canonical Hours as contained in the Breviary.

Bride, Throwing Shoe After.-The custom of throwing a shoe after a departing bride and groom originated so far back in the dim and mystical past that the memory of man stretcheth not back to its beginning. It is by some thought to typify an assault, and is a lingering trace of the custom among savage nations of carrying away the bride by violence. Others claim that it has a likeness to a Jewish custom mentioned in the Bible. Thus, in Ruth, when the kinsman of Boaz gave up his claim to the inheritance of Ruth, and to Ruth also, he indicated his assent by plucking off his shoe and giving it to Boaz. Also, we read in Deuteronomy that when the brother of a dead man refused to marry his widow she asserted her independence of him by "loosing his shoe."

Bridge of Sighs is the bridge connecting the palace of the Doge with the State prison in Venice. It was so called because prisoners once having crossed it from the Judgment Hall were never seen again, and it was supposed that many of them were dropped through a trap-door into the dark and deep waters of the Canal flowing beneath.

Bridges of the World, Notable.-The Brooklyn Bridge, which connects the cities of New York and Brooklyn, was commenced, under the direction of J. Roebling, in 1870, and completed in 1883. It is 3,475 feet long and 135 feet high, and cost nearly $15,000,000. The Cantalever Bridge, over the Niagara, is built almost entirely of steel. Its length is 910 feet, and it cost to build $900,000.

The Niagara Suspension Bridge is 821 feet long, 245 feet above water, and its strength is estimated at 1,200 tons. It cost $400,000. The bridge at Havre de Grace over the Susquehanna River is 3,271 feet long. The Britannia crosses the Menai Strait, Wales, at an elevation of 103 feet above high water. It is of wrought iron, 1,511 feet long, and cost $3,008,000. The new London Bridge is constructed of granite. It was commenced in 1824, and completed in about seven years, at a cost of $7,291,000. The old London Bridge was the first stone bridge. It was commenced in 1176 and completed in 1209. Its founder, Peter of Colechurch, was buried in the crypt of the chapel erected on the center pier. Coalbrookdale Bridge, England, was the first cast-iron bridge. It was built over the Severn in 1779. The bridge at Burton, over the Trent, was formerly the longest bridge in England, being 1,545 feet. It was built in the twelfth century, but is now partly removed. The Rialto, at Venice, is a single marble arch 98 1-2 feet long. It was built in 1591 from the designs, it is said, of Michael Angelo. The Bridge of Sighs, at Venice, over which condemned prisoners were transported from the Hall of Judgment to the place of execution, was built in 1589. The bridge of the Holy Trinity, at Florence, was built in 1569. It is 322 feet long, constructed of white marble, and stands unrivaled as a work of art. The St. Louis Bridge over the Mississippi is 1,524 feet long, exclusive of approaches. There are three arched spans of cast steel, the center arch being 520 feet, with a rise of 47 1-2 feet, and the side spans 502 feet each, with a rise of 46 feet. The width on top between the rails is 50 feet. The Rush Street Bridge, Chicago, Ill., was erected in 1884 at a cost of $132,000. It is the largest general traffic drawbridge in the world. Its roadway will accommodate four teams abreast, and its footways are seven feet wide. It is swung by steam and lighted by electric light. The Cleveland, Ohio, viaduct is 3,211 feet in length and 64 feet wide, 42 feet of which is roadway; the drawbridge is 332 feet in length, 46 feet wide, and is 68 feet above the ordinary stage of

water.

Buccaneers. From the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth century an association of piratical adventurers maintained themselves in the Caribbean Sea, at first by systematic reprisal on the Spaniards, later by indiscriminate piracy, who were known as buccaneers. Their simple code of laws bound them to a common participation in the necessaries of life; and every man had his comrade, who stood by him when alive, and succeeded to his property after his death. The principal center of their wild and predatory life was for some time the Island of Tortuga, near St. Domingo. Among the " great captains" whose names figure most prominently in the records of buccaneering were the Frenchman Montbars, surnamed by the terrible title of "The Exterminator;" his countryman, Peter of Dieppe, surnamed "The Great;" Michael de Busco and Van Horn. Pre-eminent, however, among

them all was the Welshman, Henry Morgan, who organized fleets and armies, took strong fortresses and rich cities, and displayed throughout the bold genius of a born commander. He it was that led the way for the buccaneers to the Southern Ocean by his daring march in 1670 across the Isthmus of Panama to the city of that name, which he took and plundered after a desperate battle. He was knighted by Charles II, and became Deputy-Governor of Jamaica. The war between France and England after the accession of William III dissolved the ancient alliance which had existed between the French and English buccaneers, and after the accession of the Bourbon, Philip V, to the Spanish throne, they finally disappeared. The last great event in their history was the capture of Carthagena in 1697, when the booty was enormous.

Bucentaur was a galley about 100 feet long by 21 feet in extreme breadth; on the lower deck were 32 banks or rows of oars, manned by 168 rowers, and on an upper deck were accommodations for the illustrious visitors who occasionally came on board. The vessel was employed only once a year, when the Doge of Venice "married the Adriatic.' At this ceremony a magnificent water procession was formed with the Doge and the chief notables in the Bucentaur, and other distinguished persons in gondolas and feluccas. When the vessels arrived at the mouth of one of the channels opening into the Adriatic the Doge dropped a ring into the water, using the words, "We wed thee with this ring, in token of our true and perpetual sovereignty." This singular ceremony arose out of an honor or privilege conferred by the Pope on the Doge in 1177, consequent on a splendid victory gained by the Venetians over the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and was celebrated on Ascension-Day.

Buddhism. The religion known as Buddhism is one of the oldest existing religions, and traces its origin back to Siddhartha or Buddha, a Hindoo prince. In Hindustan, the land of its birth, it has now little hold, except among the Nepaulese and some other northern tribes, but it bears full sway in Ceylon and over the whole eastern Peninsula. It divides the adherence of the Chinese with the system of Confucius. It prevails also in Japan and north of the Himalayas. It is the religion of Thibet, and of the Mongolian population of Central Asia. Its adherents are estimated at 340,000,000. According to the Buddhist belief, when a man dies he is immediately born again, or appears in a new shape; and that shape may, according to his merit or demerit, be any of the innumerable orders of being composing the Buddhist universe from a clod to a divinity. If his demerit would not be sufficiently punished by a degraded earthly existence-in the form, for instance, of a woman or a slave, of a persecuted or a disgusting animal, of a plant, or even of a piece of inorganic matter-he will be born in some one of the 136 Buddhist hells situated in the interior of the earth. These places of punishment have a regular gradation in the intensity of the suffering and in the length of

A

time the sufferers live, the least term of life being 10,000,000 years, the longest term being almost beyond the powers of even Indian notation to express. A meritorious life, on the other hand, secures the next birth either in an exalted and happy position on earth or as a blessed spirit, or even divinity, in one of the many heavens in which the least duration of life is about 10,000,000,000 years. But however long the life, whether of misery or bliss, it has an end, and at its close the individual must be born again, and may again be either happy or miserable. The Buddha himself is said to have gone through every conceivable form of existence on the earth, in the air and in the water, in hell and in heaven, and to have filled every condition in human life; and a great part of the Buddhist legendary literature is taken up in narrating his exploits when he lived as an elephant, as a bird, as a stag, and so on. second Buddhist doctrine is embodied in the "Four Sublime Verities." The first asserts that pain exists; the second that the cause of pain is desire or attachment; the third that pain can be ended by nirvana; and the fourth shows the way that leads to nirvana, from simple faith to complete regeneration. Theoretically this religion has no priests, nor clergy nor public religious rites. Every man is his own priest and confessor, and the monks are ascetics only for their own advancement in holy living; but in fact Buddhist countries swarm with priests or religious teachers, so reputed. The central object in a Buddhist temple, corresponding to the altar in a Roman Catholic church, is an image of the Buddha, or a dagoba or shrine containing his relics. Here flowers, fruit and incense are daily offered, and processions are made, with singing of hymns. Of the relics of the Buddha, the most famous are the teeth that are preserved with intense veneration in various places. The quantities of flowers used as offerings are prodigious. A royal devotee in Ceylon, in the fifteenth century, offered on one occasion 6,480,320 flowers at the shrine of the tooth, and at one temple it was provided that there should be offered "every day 100,000 flowers, and each day a different flower."

Bulls and Bears are terms used to designate two opposing factions engaged in speculation, the one endeavoring to raise the values, and the other to depress them. The bulls" magnify every circumstance favorable to the appreciation of the stocks or other mediums of speculation they hold or have agreed to take at a given time, while those who have contracted to deliver the same, or who for any reason wish to buy, do all in their power to depreciate them, and are therefore nicknamed "bears." The origin of the terms is probably the natural proclivities of the animals-the bulls to toss things into the air, and the bears to squeeze any enemy with which they may come in contact.

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Bundesrath and Reichstag.—The Federal Council of Germany, or Bundesrath, as it is called, combines the functions of a legislative assembly with those of an executive body, and is presided over by the Emperor, who has power to appoint the Chan