The origin of the story has not been found in Babylonia. The tower was no doubt suggested by one of the temple towers of Babylon. W. A. Bennet (_Genesis_, p. 169; cf. Hommel in Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_) suggests E-Saggila, the great temple of Merodach (Marduk). The variety of languages and the dispersion of mankind were regarded as a curse, and it is probable that, as Prof. Cheyne (_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, col. 411) says, there was an ancient North Semitic myth to explain it. The event was afterwards localized in Babylon. The myth, as it appears in Genesis, is quite polytheistic and anthropomorphic. According to Cornelius Alexander (frag. 10) and Abydenus (frags. 5 and 6) the tower was overthrown by the winds; according to Yaqut (i. 448 f.) and the Lisan el-'Arab (xiii. 72) mankind were swept together by winds into the plain afterwards called "Babil," and were scattered again in the same way (see further D. B.

Macdonald in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_). A tradition similar to that of the tower of Babel is found in Central America. Xelhua, one of the seven giants rescued from the deluge, built the great pyramid of Cholula in order to storm heaven. The G.o.ds, however, destroyed it with fire and confounded the language of the builders. Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been met with among the Mongolian Tharus in northern India (_Report of the Census of Bengal_, 1872, p. 160), and, according to Dr Livingstone, among the Africans of Lake Ngami. The Esthonian myth of "the Cooking of Languages" (Kohl, _Reisen in die Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 251-255) may also be compared, as well as the Australian legend of the origin of the diversity of speech (Gerstacker, _Reisen_, vol. iv. pp. 381 seq.).

BAB-EL-MANDEB (Arab, for "The Gate of Tears"), the strait between Arabia and Africa which connects the Red Sea (_q.v._) with the Indian Ocean. It derives its name from the dangers attending its navigation, or, according to an Arabic legend, from the numbers who were drowned by the earthquake which separated Asia and Africa. The distance across is about 20 m. from Ras Menheli on the Arabian coast to Ras Siyan on the African. The island of Perim (_q.v._), a British possession, divides the strait into two channels, of which the eastern, known as the Bab Iskender (Alexander's Strait), is 2 m. wide and 16 fathoms deep, while the western, or Dact-el-Mayun, has a width of about 16 m. and a depth of 170 fathoms. Near the African coast lies a group of smaller islands known as the "Seven Brothers." There is a surface current inwards in the eastern channel, but a strong under-current outwards in the western channel.

BABENBERG, the name of a Franconian family which held the duchy of Austria before the rise of the house of Habsburg. Its earliest known ancestor was one Poppo, who early in the 9th century was count in Grapfeld. One of his sons, Henry, called margrave and duke in Franconia, fell fighting against the Normans in 886; another, Poppo, was margrave in Thuringia from 880 to 892, when he was deposed by the German king Arnulf. The family had been favoured by the emperor Charles the Fat, but Arnulf reversed this policy in favour of the rival family of the Conradines. The leaders of the Babenbergs were the three sons of Duke Henry, who called themselves after their castle of Babenberg on the upper Main, round which their possessions centred. The rivalry between the two families was intensified by their efforts to extend their authority in the region of the middle Main, and this quarrel, known as the "Babenberg feud," came to a head at the beginning of the 10th century during the [v.03 p.0092] troubled reign of the German king, Louis the Child. Two of the Babenberg brothers were killed, and the survivor Adalbert was summoned before the imperial court by the regent Hatto I., archbishop of Mainz, a partisan of the Conradines. He refused to appear, held his own for a time in his castle at Theres against the king's forces, but surrendered in 906, and in spite of a promise of safe-conduct was beheaded. From this time the Babenbergs lost their influence in Franconia; but in 976 Leopold, a member of the family who was a count in the Donnegau, is described as margrave of the East Mark, a district not more than 60 m.

in breadth on the eastern frontier of Bavaria which grew into the duchy of Austria. Leopold, who probably received the mark as a reward for his fidelity to the emperor Otto II. during the Bavarian rising in 976, extended its area at the expense of the Hungarians, and was succeeded in 994 by his son Henry I. Henry, who continued his father's policy, was followed in 1018 by his brother Adalbert and in 1055 by his nephew Ernest, whose marked loyalty to the emperors Henry III. and Henry IV. was rewarded by many tokens of favour. The succeeding margrave, Leopold II., quarrelled with Henry IV., who was unable to oust him from the mark or to prevent the succession of his son Leopold III. in 1096. Leopold supported Henry, son of Henry IV., in his rising against his father, but was soon drawn over to the emperor's side, and in 1106 married his daughter Agnes, widow of Frederick I., duke of Swabia. He declined the imperial crown in 1125. His zeal in founding monasteries earned for him his surname "the Pious," and canonization by Pope Innocent VIII. in 1485. He is regarded as the patron saint of Austria. One of Leopold's sons was Otto, bishop of Freising (_q.v._). His eldest son, Leopold IV., became margrave in 1136, and in 1139 received from the German king Conrad III. the duchy of Bavaria, which had been forfeited by Duke Henry the Proud. Leopold's brother Henry (surnamed Jasomirgott from his favourite oath, "So help me G.o.d!") was made count palatine of the Rhine in 1140, and became margrave of Austria on Leopold's death in 1141. Having married Gertrude, the widow of Henry the Proud, he was invested in 1143 with the duchy of Bavaria, and resigned his office as count palatine. In 1147 he went on crusade, and after his return renounced Bavaria at the instance of the new king Frederick I. As compensation for this, Austria, the capital of which had been transferred to Vienna in 1146, was erected into a duchy. The second duke was Henry's son Leopold I., who succeeded him in 1177 and took part in the crusades of 1182 and 1190. In Palestine he quarrelled with Richard I., king of England, captured him on his homeward journey and handed him over to the emperor Henry VI. Leopold increased the territories of the Babenbergs by acquiring Styria in 1192 under the will of his kinsman Duke Ottakar IV. He died in 1194, and Austria fell to one son, Frederick, and Styria to another, Leopold; but on Frederick's death in 1198 they were again united by Duke Leopold II., surnamed "the Glorious." The new duke fought against the infidel in Spain, Egypt and Palestine, but is more celebrated as a lawgiver, a patron of letters and a founder of towns. Under him Vienna became the centre of culture in Germany and the great school of Minnesingers (_q.v._). His later years were spent in strife with his son Frederick, and he died in 1230 at San Germano, whither he had gone to arrange the peace between the emperor Frederick II. and Pope Gregory IX. His son Frederick II. followed as duke, and earned the name of "Quarrelsome" by constant struggles with the kings of Hungary and Bohemia and with the emperor. He deprived his mother and sisters of their possessions, was hated by his subjects on account of his oppressions, and in 1236 was placed under the imperial ban and driven from Austria. Restored when the emperor was excommunicated, he treated in vain with Frederick for the erection of Austria into a kingdom. He was killed in battle in 1246, when the male line of the Babenbergs became extinct. The city of Bamberg grew up around the ancestral castle of the family.

See G. Juritsch, _Geschichte der Babenberger und ihrer Lander_ (Innsbruck, 1894); M. Schmitz, _Oesterreichs Scheyern-Wittelsbacher oder die Dynastie der Babenberger_ (Munich, 1880).

BABER, or BABAR (1483-1530), a famous conqueror of India and founder of the so-called Mogul dynasty. His name was Zahir ud-din-Mahomet, and he was given the surname of Baber, meaning the tiger. Born on the 14th of February 1483, he was a descendant of Timur, and his father, Omar Sheik, was king of Ferghana, a district of what is now Russian Turkestan. Omar died in 1495, and Baber, though only twelve years of age, succeeded to the throne. An attempt made by his uncles to dislodge him proved unsuccessful, and no sooner was the young sovereign firmly settled than he began to meditate an extension of his own dominions. In 1497 he attacked and gained possession of Samarkand, to which he always seems to have thought he had a natural and hereditary right. A rebellion among his n.o.bles robbed him of his native kingdom, and while marching to recover it his troops deserted him, and he lost Samarkand also. After some reverses he regained both these places, but in 1501 his most formidable enemy, Shaibani (Sheibani) Khan, ruler of the Uzbegs, defeated him in a great engagement and drove him from Samarkand.

For three years he wandered about trying in vain to recover his lost possessions; at last, in 1504, he gathered some troops, and crossing the snowy Hindu Kush besieged and captured the strong city of Kabul. By this dexterous stroke he gained a new and wealthy kingdom, and completely re-established his fortunes. In the following year he united with Hussain Mirza of Herat against Shaibani. The death of Hussain put a stop to this expedition, but Baber spent a year at Herat, enjoying the pleasures of that capital. He returned to Kabul in time to quell a formidable rebellion, but two years later a revolt among some of the leading Moguls drove him from his city. He was compelled to take to flight with very few companions, but his great personal courage and daring struck the army of his opponents with such dismay that they again returned to their allegiance and Baber regained his kingdom. Once again, in 1510, after the death of Shaibani, he endeavoured to obtain possession of his native country. He received considerable aid from Shah Ismael of Persia, and in 1511 made a triumphal entry into Samarkand. But in 1514 he was utterly defeated by the Uzbegs and with difficulty reached Kabul. He seems now to have resigned all hopes of recovering Ferghana, and as he at the same time dreaded an invasion of the Uzbegs from the west, his attention was more and more drawn towards India.

Several preliminary incursions had been already made, when in 1521 an opportunity presented itself for a more extended expedition. Ibrahim, emperor of Delhi, had made himself detested, even by his Afghan n.o.bles, several of whom called upon Baber for a.s.sistance. He at once a.s.sembled his forces, 12,000 strong, with some pieces of artillery and marched into India. Ibrahim, with 100,000 soldiers and numerous elephants, advanced against him. The great battle was fought at Panipat on the 21st of April 1526, when Ibrahim was slain and his army routed. Baber at once took possession of Agra. A still more formidable enemy awaited him; the Rana Sanga of Mewar collected the enormous force of 210,000 men, with which he moved against the invaders. On all sides there was danger and revolt, even Baber's own soldiers, worn out with the heat of this new climate, longed for Kabul. By vigorous measures and inspiriting speeches he restored their courage, though his own heart was nearly failing him, and in his distress he abjured the use of wine, to which he had been addicted. At Kanwaha, on the 10th of March 1527, he won a great victory and made himself absolute master of northern India. The remaining years of his life he spent in arranging the affairs and revenues of his new empire and in improving his capital, Agra. He died on the 26th of December 1530 in his forty-eighth year. Baber was above the middle height, of great strength and an admirable archer and swordsman. His mind was as well cultivated as his bodily powers; he wrote well, and his observations are generally acute and accurate; he was brave, kindly and generous.

Full materials for his life are found in his _Memoirs_, written by himself (translated into English by Leyden and Erskine (London, 1826); abridged in Caldecott, _Life of Baber_ (London, 1844). See also Lane-Poole, _Baber_ (Rulers of India Series), 1899.

[v.03 p.0093] BABEUF, FRANcOIS NOEL (1760-1797), known as GRACCHUS BABEUF, French political agitator and journalist, was born at Saint Quentin on the 23rd of November 1760. His father, Claude Babeuf, had deserted the French army in 1738 and taken service under Maria Theresa, rising, it is said, to the rank of major. Amnestied in 1755 he returned to France, but soon sank into dire poverty, being forced to earn a pittance for his wife and family as a day labourer. The hardships endured by Babeuf during early years do much to explain his later opinions. He had received from his father the smatterings of a liberal education, but until the outbreak of the Revolution he was a domestic servant, and from 1785 occupied the invidious office of _commissaire a terrier_, his function being to a.s.sist the n.o.bles and priests in the a.s.sertion of their feudal rights as against the unfortunate peasants. On the eve of the Revolution Babeuf was in the employ of a land surveyor at Roye. His father had died in 1780, and he was now the sole support, not only of his wife and two children, but of his mother, brothers and sisters. In the circ.u.mstances it is not surprising that he was the life and soul of the malcontents of the place. He was an indefatigable writer, and the first germ of his future socialism is contained in a letter of the 21st of March 1787, one of a series--mainly on literature--addressed to the secretary of the Academy of Arras. In 1789 he drew up the first article of the _cahier_ of the electors of the _bailliage_ of Roye, demanding the abolition of feudal rights. Then, from July to October, he was in Paris superintending the publication of his first work: _Cadastre perpetuel, dedie a l'a.s.semblee nationale, l'an 1789 et le premier de la liberte francaise_, which was written in 1787 and issued in 1790. The same year he published a pamphlet against feudal aids and the _gabelle_, for which he was denounced and arrested, but provisionally released. In October, on his return to Roye, he founded the _Correspondant picard_, the violent character of which cost him another arrest. In November he was elected a member of the munic.i.p.ality of Roye, but was expelled. In March 1791 he was appointed commissioner to report on the national property (_biens nationaux_) in the town, and in September 1792 was elected a member of the council-general of the department of the Somme. Here, as everywhere, the violence of his att.i.tude made his position intolerable to himself and others, and he was soon transferred to the post of administrator of the district of Montdidier. Here he was accused of fraud for having subst.i.tuted one name for another in a deed of transfer of national lands. It is probable that his fault was one of negligence only; but, distrusting the impartiality of the judges of the Somme, he fled to Paris, and on the 23rd of August 1793 was condemned _in contumaciam_ to twenty years'

imprisonment. Meanwhile he had been appointed secretary to the relief committee (_comite des subsistances_) of the commune of Paris. The judges of Amiens, however, pursued him with a warrant for his arrest, which took place in Brumaire of the year II. (1794). The court of ca.s.sation quashed the sentence, through defect of form, but sent Babeuf for a new trial before the Aisne tribunal, by which he was acquitted on the 18th of July.

Babeuf now returned to Paris, and on the 3rd of September 1794 published the first number of his _Journal de la liberte de la presse_, the t.i.tle of which was altered on the 5th of October to _Le Tribun du peuple_. The execution of Robespierre on the 28th of July had ended the Terror, and Babeuf--now self-styled "Gracchus" Babeuf--defended the men of Thermidor and attacked the fallen terrorists with his usual violence. But he also attacked, from the point of view of his own socialistic theories, the economic outcome of the Revolution. This was an att.i.tude which had few supporters, even in the Jacobin club, and in October Babeuf was arrested and sent to prison at Arras. Here he came under the influence of certain terrorist prisoners, notably of Lebois, editor of the _Journal de l'egalite_, afterwards of the _Ami du peuple_, papers which carried on the traditions of Marat. He emerged from prison a confirmed terrorist and convinced that his Utopia, fully proclaimed to the world in No. 33 of his _Tribun_, could only be realized through the restoration of the const.i.tution of 1793. He was now in open conflict with the whole trend of public opinion. In February 1795 he was again arrested, and the _Tribun du peuple_ was solemnly burnt in the Theatre des Bergeres by the _jeunesse doree_, the young men whose mission it was to bludgeon Jacobinism out of the streets and cafes. But for the appalling economic conditions produced by the fall in the value of _a.s.signats_, Babeuf might have shared the fate of other agitators who were whipped into obscurity.

It was the attempts of the Directory to deal with this economic crisis that gave Babeuf his real historic importance. The new government was pledged to abolish the vicious system by which Paris was fed at the expense of all France, and the cessation of the distribution of bread and meat at nominal prices was fixed for the 20th of February 1796. The announcement caused the most wide-spread consternation. Not only the workmen and the large cla.s.s of idlers attracted to Paris by the system, but _rentiers_ and government officials, whose incomes were paid in _a.s.signats_ on a scale arbitrarily fixed by the government, saw themselves threatened with actual starvation.

The government yielded to the outcry that arose; but the expedients by which it sought to mitigate the evil, notably the division of those ent.i.tled to relief into cla.s.ses, only increased the alarm and the discontent. The universal misery gave point to the virulent attacks of Babeuf on the existing order, and at last gained him a hearing. He gathered round him a small circle of his immediate followers known as the _Societe des egaux_, soon merged with the rump of the Jacobins, who met at the Pantheon; and in November 1795 he was reported by the police to be openly preaching "insurrection, revolt and the const.i.tution of 1793."

For a time the government, while keeping itself informed of his activities, left him alone; for it suited the Directory to let the socialist agitation continue, in order to frighten the people from joining in any royalist movement for the overthrow of the existing regime. Moreover the ma.s.s of the _ouvriers_, even of extreme views, were repelled by Babeuf's bloodthirstiness; and the police agents reported that his agitation was making many converts--for the government. The Jacobin club of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine refused to admit Babeuf and Lebois, on the ground that they were "_egorgeurs_." With the development of the economic crisis, however, Babeuf's influence increased. After the club of the Pantheon was closed by Bonaparte, on the 27th of February 1796, his aggressive activity redoubled.

In Ventose and Germinal he published, under the _nom de plume_ of "Lalande, soldat de la patrie," a new paper, the _eclaireur du peuple, ou le defenseur de vingt-cinq millions d'opprimes_, which was hawked clandestinely from group to group in the streets of Paris. At the same time No. 40 of the _Tribun_ excited an immense sensation. In this he praised the authors of the September ma.s.sacres as "deserving well of their country,"

and declared that a more complete "September 2nd" was needed to annihilate the actual government, which consisted of "starvers, bloodsuckers, tyrants, hangmen, rogues and mountebanks." The distress among all cla.s.ses continued to be appalling; and in March the attempt of the Directory to replace the _a.s.signats_ (_q.v._) by a new issue of _mandats_ created fresh dissatisfaction after the breakdown of the hopes first raised. A cry went up that national bankruptcy had been declared, and thousands of the lower cla.s.s of _ouvrier_ began to rally to Babeuf's flag. On the 4th of April it was reported to the government that 500,000 people in Paris were in need of relief. From the 11th Paris was placarded with posters headed _a.n.a.lyse de la doctrine de Baboeuf_ (sic), _tribun du peuple_, of which the opening sentence ran: "Nature has given to every man the right to the enjoyment of an equal share in all property," and which ended with a call to restore the const.i.tution of 1793. Babeuf's song _Mourant de faim, mourant de froid_ (Dying of hunger, dying of cold), set to a popular air, began to be sung in the cafes, with immense applause; and reports were current that the disaffected troops in the camp of Grenelle were ready to join an _emeute_ against the government. The Directory thought it time to act; the _bureau central_ had acc.u.mulated through its agents, notably the ex-captain Georges [v.03 p.0094] Grisel, who had been initiated into Babeuf's society, complete evidence of a conspiracy for an armed rising fixed for Floreal 22, year IV. (11th of May 1796), in which Jacobins and socialists were combined. On the 10th of May Babeuf was arrested with many of his a.s.sociates, among whom were A. Darthe and P. M. Buonarroti, the ex-members of the Convention, Robert Lindet, J. A. B. Amar, M. G. A. Vadier and Jean Baptiste Drouet, famous as the postmaster of Saint-Menehould who had arrested Louis XVI., and now a member of the Council of Five Hundred.

The _coup_ was perfectly successful. The last number of the _Tribun_ appeared on the 24th of April, but Lebois in the _Ami du peuple_ tried to incite the soldiers to revolt, and for a while there were rumours of a military rising. The trial of Babeuf and his accomplices was fixed to take place before the newly const.i.tuted high court of justice at Vendome. On Fructidor 10 and 11 (27th and 28th of August), when the prisoners were removed from Paris, there were tentative efforts at a riot with a view to rescue, but these were easily suppressed. The attempt of five or six hundred Jacobins (7th of September) to rouse the soldiers at Grenelle met with no better success. The trial of Babeuf and the others, begun at Vendome on the 20th of February 1797, lasted two months. The government for reasons of their own made the socialist Babeuf the leader of the conspiracy, though more important people than he were implicated; and his own vanity played admirably into their hands. On Prairial 7 (26th of April 1797) Babeuf and Darthe were condemned to death; some of the prisoners, including Buonarroti, were exiled; the rest, including Vadier and his fellow-conventionals, were acquitted. Drouet had succeeded in making his escape, according to Barras, with the connivance of the Directory. Babeuf and Darthe were executed at Vendome on Prairial 8 (1797).

Babeuf's character has perhaps been sufficiently indicated above. He was a type of the French revolutionists, excitable, warm-hearted, half-educated, who lost their mental and moral balance in the chaos of the revolutionary period. Historically, his importance lies in the fact that he was the first to propound socialism as a practical policy, and the father of the movements which played so conspicuous a part in the revolutions of 1848 and 1871.

See V. Advielle, _Hist. de Gracchus Babeuf et de Babouvisme_ (2 vols., Paris, 1884); P. M. Buonarroti, _Conspiration pour l'egalite, dite de Babeuf_ (2 vols., Brussels, 1828; later editions, 1850 and 1869), English translation by Bronterre O'Brien (London, 1836); _Cambridge Modern History_, vol. viii.; Adolf Schmidt, _Pariser Zustande wahrend der Revolutionszeit von 1789-1800_ (Jena, 1874). French trans. by P. Viollet, _Paris pendant la Revolution d'apres les rapports de la police secrete, 1789-1800_ (4 vols., 1880-1894); A. Schmidt, _Tableaux de la Revolution francaise, &c._ (Leipzig, 1867-1870), a collection of reports of the secret police on which the above work is based. A full report of the trial at Vendome was published in four volumes at Paris in 1797, _Debats du proces, &c._

(W. A. P.)

BaBiISM, the religion founded in Persia in A.D. 1844-1845 by Mirza 'Ali Muhammad of Shiraz, a young Sayyid who was at that time not twenty-five years of age. Before his "manifestation" (_zuhur_), of which he gives in the Persian _Bayan_ a date corresponding to 23rd May 1844, he was a disciple of Sayyid Kazim of Rasht, the leader of the Shaykhis, a sect of extreme Shi'ites characterized by the doctrine (called by them _Rukn-i-rabi'_, "the fourth support") that at all times there must exist an intermediary between the twelfth Imam and his faithful followers. This intermediary they called "the perfect Shi'ite," and his prototype is to be found in the four successive _Babs_ or "gates" through whom alone the twelfth Imam, during the period of his "minor occultation"

(_Ghaybat-i-sughra_, A.D. 874-940), held communication with his partisans.

It was in this sense, and not, as has been often a.s.serted, in the sense of "Gate of G.o.d" or "Gate of Religion," that the t.i.tle _Bab_ was understood and a.s.sumed by Mirza 'Ali Muhammad; but, though still generally thus styled by non-Babis, he soon a.s.sumed the higher t.i.tle of _Nuqta_ ("Point"), and the t.i.tle _Bab_, thus left vacant, was conferred on his ardent disciple, Mulla Husayn of Bushrawayh.

The history of the Babis, though covering a comparatively short period, is so full of incident and the particulars now available are so numerous, that the following account purports to be only the briefest sketch. The Bab himself was in captivity first at Shiraz, then at Maku, and lastly at Chihriq, during the greater part of the six years (May 1844 until July 1850) of his brief career, but an active propaganda was carried on by his disciples, which resulted in several serious revolts against the government, especially after the death of Muhammad Shah in September 1848.

Of these risings the first (December 1848-July 1849) took place in Mazandaran, at the ruined shrine of Shaykh Tabarsi, near Barfurush, where the Babis, led by Mulla Muhammad 'Ali of Barfurush and Mulla Husayn of Bushrawayh ("the first who believed"), defied the shah's troops for seven months before they were finally subdued and put to death. The revolt at Zanjan in the north-west of Persia, headed by Mulla Muhammad 'Ali Zanjani, also lasted seven or eight months (May-December 1850), while a serious but less protracted struggle was waged against the government at Niriz in Fars by Aga Sayyid Yahya of Niriz. Both revolts were in progress when the Bab, with one of his devoted disciples, was brought from his prison at Chihriq to Tabriz and publicly shot in front of the _arg_ or citadel. The body, after being exposed for some days, was recovered by the Babis and conveyed to a shrine near Tehran, whence it was ultimately removed to Acre in Syria, where it is now buried. For the next two years comparatively little was heard of the Babis, but on the 15th of August 1852 three of them, acting on their own initiative, attempted to a.s.sa.s.sinate Nasiru'd-Din Shah as he was returning from the chase to his palace at Niyavaran. The attempt failed, but was the cause of a fresh persecution, and on the 31st of August 1852 some thirty Babis, including the beautiful and talented poetess Qurratu'l-'Ayn, were put to death in Tehran with atrocious cruelty. Another of the victims of that day was Hajji Mirza Jani of Kashan, the author of the oldest history of the movement from the Babi point of view. Only one complete MS. of his invaluable work (obtained by Count Gobineau in Persia) exists in any public library, the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. The so-called "New History" (of which an English translation was published at Cambridge in 1893 by E. G. Browne) is based on Mirza Jani's work, but many important pa.s.sages which did not accord with later Babi doctrine or policy have been suppressed or modified, while some additions have been made. The Bab was succeeded on his death by Mirza Yahya of Nur (at that time only about twenty years of age), who escaped to Bagdad, and, under the t.i.tle of _Subh-i-Ezel_ ("the Morning of Eternity"), became the pontiff of the sect.

He lived, however, in great seclusion, leaving the direction of affairs almost entirely in the hands of his elder half-brother (born 12th November 1817), Mirza Husayn 'Ali, ent.i.tled _Baha' u'llah_ ("the Splendour of G.o.d"), who thus gradually became the most conspicuous and most influential member of the sect, though in the _Iqan_, one of the most important polemical works of the Babis, composed in 1858-1859, he still implicitly recognized the supremacy of _Subh-i-Ezel_. In 1863, however, Baha declared himself to be "He whom G.o.d shall manifest" (_Man Yuz-hiruhu'llah_, with prophecies of whose advent the works of the Bab are filled), and called on all the Babis to recognize his claim. The majority responded, but _Subh-i-Ezel_ and some of his faithful adherents refused. After that date the Babis divided into two sects, Ezelis and Baha'is, of which the former steadily lost and the latter gained ground, so that in 1908 there were probably from half a million to a million of the latter, and at most only a hundred or two of the former. In 1863 the Babis were, at the instance of the Persian government, removed from Bagdad to Constantinople, whence they were shortly afterwards transferred to Adrianople. In 1868 Baha and his followers were exiled to Acre in Syria, and _Subh-i-Ezel_ with his few adherents to Famagusta in Cyprus, where he was still living in 1908. Baha'u'llah died at Acre on the 16th of May 1892. His son 'Abbas Efendi (also called 'Abdu'l-Baha, "the servant of Baha") was generally recognized as his successor, but another of his four sons, Muhammad 'Ali, put forward a rival claim. This caused a fresh and bitter schism, but 'Abbas Efendi steadily gained ground, and there could be little doubt as to his eventual [v.03 p.0095] triumph. The controversial literature connected with this latest schism is abundant, not only in Persian, but in English, for since 1900 many Americans have adopted the religion of Baha. The original apostle of America was Ibrahim George Khayru'llah, who began his propaganda at the Chicago Exhibition and later supported the claims of Muhammad 'Ali. Several Persian missionaries, including the aged and learned Mirza Abu'l-Fazl of Gulpayagan, were thereupon despatched to America by 'Abbas Efendi, who was generally accepted by the American Baha'is as "the Master." The American press contained many notices of the propaganda and its success. An interesting article on the subject, by Stoyan Krstoff Vatralsky of Boston, Ma.s.s., ent.i.tled "Mohammedan Gnosticism in America," appeared in the _American Journal of Theology_ for January 1902, pp. 57-58.

A correct understanding of the doctrines of the early Babis (now represented by the Ezelis) is hardly possible save to one who is conversant with the theology of Islam and its developments, and especially the tenets of the Shi'a. The Babis are Muhammadans only in the sense that the Muhammadans are Christians or the Christians Jews; that is to say, they recognize Muhammad (Mahomet) as a true prophet and the Qur'an (Koran) as a revelation, but deny their finality. Revelation, according to their view, is progressive, and no revelation is final, for, as the human race progresses, a fuller measure of truth, and ordinances more suitable to the age, are vouchsafed. The Divine Unity is incomprehensible, and can be known only through its Manifestations; to recognize the Manifestation of the cycle in which he lives is the supreme duty of man. Owing to the enormous volume and unsystematic character of the Babi scriptures, and the absence of anything resembling church councils, the doctrine on many important points (such as the future life) is undetermined and vague. The resurrection of the body is denied, but some form of personal immortality is generally, though not universally, accepted. Great importance was attached to the mystical values of letters and numbers, especially the numbers 18 and 19 ("the number of the unity") and 19 = 361 ("the number of all things"). In general, the Bab's doctrines most closely resembled those of the Isma'ilis and Hurufis. In the hands of Baha the aims of the sect became much more practical and ethical, and the wilder pantheistic tendencies and metaphysical hair-splittings of the early Babis almost disappeared. The intelligence, integrity and morality of the Babis are high, but their efforts to improve the social position of woman have been much exaggerated. They were in no way concerned (as was at the time falsely alleged) in the a.s.sa.s.sination of Nasiru'd-Din Shah in May 1896. Of recent persecutions of the sect the two most notable took place at Yazd, one in May 1891, and another of greater ferocity in June 1903. Some account of the latter is given by Napier Malcolm in his book _Five Years in a Persian Town_ (London, 1905), pp. 87-89 and 186. In the const.i.tutional movement in Persia (1907) the Babis, though their sympathies are undoubtedly with the reformers, wisely refrained from outwardly identifying themselves with that party, to whom their open support, by alienating the orthodox _mujtahids_ and _mullas_, would have proved fatal. Here, as in all their actions, they clearly obeyed orders issued from headquarters.

LITERATURE.--The literature of the sect is very voluminous, but mostly in ma.n.u.script. The most valuable public collections in Europe are at St Petersburg, London (British Museum) and Paris (Bibliotheque Nationale), where two or three very rare MSS. collected by Gobineau, including the precious history of the Bab's contemporary, Hajji Mirza Jani of Kashan, are preserved. For the bibliography up to 1889, see vol. ii. pp. 173-211 of the _Traveller's Narrative, written to ill.u.s.trate the Episode of the Bab_, a Persian work composed by Baha's son, 'Abbas Efendi, edited, translated and annotated by E. G. Browne (Cambridge, 1891). More recent works are:--Browne, _The New History of the Bab_ (Cambridge, 1893); and "Catalogue and Description of the 27 Babi Ma.n.u.scripts," _Journal of R.

Asiat. Soc._ (July and October 1892); Andreas, _Die Babi's in Persien_ (1896); Baron Victor Rosen, _Collections scientifiques de l'Inst.i.tut des Langues orientales_, vol. i. (1877), pp. 179-212; vol. iii. (1886), pp.

1-51; vol. vi. (1891), pp. 141-255; "Ma.n.u.scrits Babys"; and other important articles in Russian by the same scholar; and by Captain A. G. Toumansky in the _Zapiski vostochnava otdyeleniya Imperatorskava Russkava Archeologicheskava Obshchestva_ (vols. iv.-xii., St Petersburg, 1890-1900); also an excellent edition by Toumansky, with Russian translation, notes and introduction, of the _Kitab-i-Aqdas_ (the most important of Baha's works), &c. (St Petersburg, 1899). Mention should also be made of an Arabic history of the Babis (unsympathetic but well-informed) written by a Persian, Mirza Muhammad Mahdi Khan, _Za'imu'd-Duwla_, printed in Cairo in A.H. 1321 (= A.D. 1903-1904). Of the works composed in English for the American converts the most important are:--_Baha'u'llah_ (The Glory of G.o.d), by Ibrahim Khayru'llah, a.s.sisted by Howard Mac.n.u.tt (Chicago, 1900); _The Three Questions_ (n.d.) and _Facts for Bahaists_ (1901), by the same; _Life and Teachings of 'Abbas Efendi_, by Myron H. Phelps, with preface by E. G.

Browne (New York, 1903); Isabella Brittingham, _The Revelations of Baha'u'llah, in a Sequence of Four Lessons_ (1902); Laura Clifford Burney, _Some Answered Questions Collected_ [in Acre, 1904-1906] _and Translated from the Persian of 'Abdu'l-Baha_ [_i.e._ 'Abbas Efendi] (London, 1908). In French, A. L. M. Nicolas (first dragoman at the French legation at Tehran) has published several important translations, viz. _Le Livre des sept preuves de la mission du Bab_ (Paris, 1902); _Le Livre de la cert.i.tude_ (1904); and _Le Beyan arabe_ (1905); and there are other notable works by H. Dreyfus, an adherent of the Babi faith. Lastly, mention should be made of a remarkable but scarce little tract by Gabriel Sacy, printed at Cairo in June 1902, and ent.i.tled _Du regne de Dieu et de l'Agneau, connu sous le nom de Babysme_.

(E. G. B.)

BABINGTON, ANTHONY (1561-1586), English conspirator, son of Henry Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire, and of Mary, daughter of George, Lord Darcy, was born in October 1561, and was brought up secretly a Roman Catholic. As a youth he served at Sheffield as page to Mary queen of Scots, for whom he early felt an ardent devotion. In 1580 he came to London, attended the court of Elizabeth, and joined the secret society formed that year supporting the Jesuit missionaries. In 1582 after the execution of Father Campion he withdrew to Dethick, and attaining his majority occupied himself for a short time with the management of his estates. Later he went abroad and became a.s.sociated at Paris with Mary's supporters who were planning her release with the help of Spain, and on his return he was entrusted with letters for her. In April 1586 he became, with the priest John Ballard, leader of a plot to murder Elizabeth and her ministers, and organize a general Roman Catholic rising in England and liberate Mary. The conspiracy was regarded by Mendoza, the Spanish amba.s.sador, one of its chief instigators, and also by Walsingham, as the most dangerous of recent years; it included, in its general purpose of destroying the government, a large number of Roman Catholics, and had ramifications all over the country.

Philip II. of Spain, who ardently desired the success of an enterprise "so Christian, just and advantageous to the holy Catholic faith,"[1] promised to a.s.sist with an expedition directly the a.s.sa.s.sination of the queen was effected. Babington's conduct was marked by open folly and vanity. Desirous of some token of appreciation from Mary for his services, he entered into a long correspondence with her, which was intercepted by the spies of Walsingham. On the 4th of August Ballard was seized and betrayed his comrades, probably under torture. Babington then applied for a pa.s.sport abroad, for the ostensible purpose of spying upon the refugees, but in reality to organize the foreign expedition and secure his own safety. The pa.s.sport being delayed, he offered to reveal to Walsingham a dangerous conspiracy, but the latter sent no reply, and meanwhile the ports were closed and none allowed to leave the kingdom for some days. He was still allowed his liberty, but one night while supping with Walsingham's servant he observed a memorandum of the minister's concerning himself, fled to St John's Wood, where he was joined by some of his companions, and after disguising himself succeeded in reaching Harrow, where he was sheltered by a recent convert to Romanism. Towards the end of August he was discovered and imprisoned in the Tower. On the 13th and 14th of September he was tried with Ballard and five others by a special commission, when he confessed his guilt, but strove to place all the blame upon Ballard. All were condemned to death for high treason. On the 19th he wrote to Elizabeth praying for mercy, and the same day offered 1000 for procuring his pardon; and on the 20th, having disclosed the cipher used in the correspondence between himself and Mary, he was executed [v.03 p.0096] with the usual barbarities in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The detection of the plot led to Mary's own destruction. There is no positive doc.u.mentary proof in Mary's own hand that she had knowledge of the intended a.s.sa.s.sination of Elizabeth, but her circ.u.mstances, together with the tenour of her correspondence with Babington, place her complicity beyond all reasonable doubt.

[1] _Cata. of State Papers Simancas_, iii. 606, Mendoza to Philip.

BABINGTON, CHURCHILL (1821-1889), English cla.s.sical scholar and archaeologist, was born at Roecliffe, in Leicestershire, on the 11th of March 1821. He was educated by his father till he was seventeen, when he was placed under the tuition of Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, the orientalist and archaeologist. He entered St John's College, Cambridge, in 1839, and graduated B.A. in 1843, being seventh in the first cla.s.s of the cla.s.sical tripos and a senior optime. In 1845 he obtained the Hulsean Prize for his essay _The Influence of Christianity in promoting the Abolition of Slavery in Europe_. In 1846 he was elected to a fellowship and took orders. He proceeded to the degree of M.A. in 1846 and D.D. in 1879. From 1848 to 1861 he was vicar of Horningsea, near Cambridge, and from 1866 to his death on the 12th of January 1889, vicar of c.o.c.kfield in Suffolk. From 1865 to 1880 he held the Disney professorship of archaeology at Cambridge. In his lectures, ill.u.s.trated from his own collections of coins and vases, he dealt chiefly with Greek and Roman pottery and numismatics.

Dr Babington was a many-sided man and wrote on a variety of subjects. His early familiarity with country life gave him a taste for natural history, especially botany and ornithology. He was also an authority on conchology.

He was the author of the appendices on botany (in part) and ornithology in Potter's _History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest_ (1842); _Mr Macaulay's Character of the Clergy ... considered_ (1849), a defence of the clergy of the 17th century, which received the approval of Mr Gladstone, against the strictures of Macaulay. He also brought out the _editio princeps_ of the speeches of Hypereides _Against Demosthenes_ (1850), _On Behalf of Lycophron and Euxenippus_ (1853), and his _Funeral Oration_ (1858). It was by his edition of these speeches from the papyri discovered at Thebes (Egypt) in 1847 and 1856 that Babington's fame as a Greek scholar was made. In 1855 he published an edition of _Benefizio della Morte di Cristo_, a remarkable book of the Reformation period, attributed to Paleario, of which nearly all the copies had been destroyed by the Inquisition. Babington's edition was a facsimile of the _editio princeps_ published at Venice in 1543, with Introduction and French and English versions. He also edited the first two volumes of Higden's _Polychronicon_ (1858) and Bishop Pec.o.c.k's _Repressor of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy_ (1860), undertaken at the request of the Master of the Rolls; _Introductory Lecture on Archaeology_ (1865); _Roman Antiquities found at Rougham_ [1872]; _Catalogue of Birds of Suffolk_ (1884-1886); _Flora of Suffolk_ (with W. M. Hind, 1889), and (1855, 1865) some inscriptions found in Crete by T. A. B. Spratt, the explorer of the island. In addition to contributing to various cla.s.sical and scientific journals, he catalogued the cla.s.sical MSS. in the University Library and the Greek and English coins in the Fitzwilliam museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old Male Babirusa (_Babirusa alfurus_).]

BABIRUSA ("pig-deer"), the Malay name of the wild swine of Celebes and Buru, which has been adopted in zoology as the scientific designation of this remarkable animal (the only representative of its genus), in the form of _Babirusa alfurus_. The skin is nearly naked, and very rough and rugged.

The total number of teeth is 34, with the formula _i.2/3. c.1/1. p.2/3.

m.3/3._ The molars, and more especially the last, are smaller and simpler than in the pigs of the genus _Sus_, but the peculiarity of this genus is the extraordinary development of the canines, or tusks, of the male. These teeth are ever-growing, long, slender and curved, and without enamel. Those of the upper jaw are directed upwards from their bases, so that they never enter the mouth, but pierce the skin of the face, thus resembling horns rather than teeth; they curve backwards, downwards, and finally often forwards again, almost or quite touching the forehead. Dr A. R. Wallace remarks that "it is difficult to understand what can be the use of these horn-like teeth. Some of the old writers supposed that they served as hooks by which the creature could rest its head on a branch. But the way in which they usually diverge just over and in front of the eye has suggested the more probable idea, that they serve to guard these organs from thorns and spines while hunting for fallen fruits among the tangled thickets of rattans and other spiny plants. Even this, however, is not satisfactory, for the female, who must seek her food in the same way, does not possess them. I should be inclined to believe rather that these tusks were once useful, and were then worn down as fast as they grew, but that changed conditions of life have rendered them unnecessary, and they now develop into a monstrous form, just as the incisors of the beaver and rabbit will go on growing if the opposite teeth do not wear them away. In old animals they reach an enormous size, and are generally broken off as if by fighting." On this latter view we may regard the tusks of the male babirusa as examples of redundant development, a.n.a.logous to that of the single pair of lower teeth in some of the beaked whales. Unlike ordinary wild pigs, the babirusa produces uniformly coloured young. (See SWINE.)

(R. L.*)

BABOON (from the Fr. _babuin_, which is itself derived from _Babon_, the Egyptian deity to whom it was sacred), properly the designation of the long-muzzled, medium-tailed Egyptian monkey, scientifically known as _Papio anubis_; in a wider sense applied to all the members of the genus _Papio_ (formerly known as _Cynocephalus_) now confined to Africa and Arabia, although in past times extending into India. Baboons are for the most part large terrestrial monkeys with short or medium-sized tails, and long naked dog-like muzzles, in the truncated extremity of which are pierced the nostrils. As a rule, they frequent barren rocky districts in large droves, and are exceedingly fierce and dangerous to approach. They have large cheek-pouches, large naked callosities, often brightly coloured, on the b.u.t.tocks, and short thick limbs, adapted rather to walking than to climbing. Their diet includes practically everything eatable they can capture or kill. The typical representative of the genus is the yellow baboon (_P. cynocephalus_, or _babuin_), distinguished by its small size and grooved muzzle, and ranging from Abyssinia to the Zambezi. The above-mentioned anubis baboon, _P. anubis_ (with the subspecies _neumanni_, _pruinosus_, _heuglini_ and _doguera_), ranging from Egypt all through tropical Africa, together with _P. sphinx_, _P. olivaceus_, the Abyssinian _P. lydekkeri_, and the chacma, _P. porcarius_ of the Cape, represent the subgenus _Ch.o.e.ropithecus_. The named Arabian baboon, _P. hamadryas_ of North Africa and Arabia, dedicated by the ancient Egyptians to the G.o.d Thoth, and the South Arabian _P. arabicus_, typify _Hamadryas_; while the drill and mandrill of the west coast, _P. leucophaeus_ and _P. maimon_, const.i.tute the subgenus _Maimon_. The anubis baboons, as shown by the frescoes, were tamed by the ancient Egyptians and trained to pluck sycamore-figs from the trees. (See PRIMATES; CHACMA; DRILL; GELADA and MANDRILL).

(R. L.*)

BABRIUS, author of a collection of fables written in Greek. Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Roman, whose gentile name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in Syria, where the fables seem first [v.03 p.0097] to have gained popularity. The address to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result that dates varying between the 3rd century B.C. and the 3rd century A.D.

have been a.s.signed to Babrius. The Alexander referred to may have been Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235), who was fond of having literary men of all kinds about his court. "The son of Alexander" has further been identified with a certain Branchus mentioned in the fables, and it is suggested that Babrius may have been his tutor; probably, however, Branchus is a purely fict.i.tious name. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient writers before the beginning of the 3rd century A.D., and his language and style seem to show that he belonged to that period. The first critic who made Babrius more than a mere name was Richard Bentley, in his _Dissertation on the Fables of Aesop_. In a careful examination of these prose Aesopian fables, which had been handed down in various collections from the time of Maximus Planudes, Bentley discovered traces of versification, and was able to extract a number of verses which he a.s.signed to Babrius. Tyrwhitt (_De Babrio_, 1776) followed up the researches of Bentley, and for some time the efforts of scholars were directed towards reconstructing the metrical original of the prose fables. In 1842 M. Minas, a Greek, the discoverer of the _Philosophoumena_ of Hippolytus, came upon a MS. of Babrius in the convent of St Laura on Mount Athos, now in the British Museum. This MS. contained 123 fables out of the supposed original number, 160. They are arranged alphabetically, but break off at the letter O. The fables are written in choliambic, _i.e._ limping or imperfect iambic verse, having a spondee as the last foot, a metre originally appropriated to satire. The style is extremely good, the expression being terse and pointed, the versification correct and elegant, and the construction of the stories is fully equal to that in the prose versions. The genuineness of this collection of the fables was generally admitted by scholars. In 1857 Minas professed to have discovered at Mount Athos another MS. containing 94 fables and a preface. As the monks refused to sell this MS., he made a copy of it, which was sold to the British Museum, and was published in 1859 by Sir G. Cornewall Lewis. This, however, was soon proved to be a forgery. Six more fables were brought to light by P. Knoll from a Vatican MS. (edited by A. Eberhard, _a.n.a.lecta Babriana_, 1879).

EDITIONS.--Boissonade (1844); Lachmann (1845); Schneider (1853); Eberhard (1876); Gitlbauer (1882); Rutherford (1883); Knoll, _Fabularum Babrianarum Paraphrasis Bodleiana_ (1877); Feuillet (1890); Desrousseaux (1890); Pa.s.serat (1892); Croiset (1892); Crusius (1897). See also Mantels, _uber die Fabeln des B._ (1840); Crusius, _De Babrii Aetate_ (1879); Ficus, _De Babrii Vita_ (1889); J. Weiner, _Quaestiones Babrianae_ (1891); Conington, _Miscellaneous Writings_, ii. 460-491; Marchiano, _Babrio_ (1899); Fusci, _Babrio_ (1901); Christoffersson, _Studia de Fabulis Babrianis_ (1901).

There are translations in English by Davies (1860) and in French by Leveque (1890), and in many other languages.

BABU, a native Indian clerk. The word is really a term of respect attached to a proper name, like "master" or "Mr," and _Babu-ji_ is still used in many parts of India, meaning "sir"; but without the suffix the word itself is now generally used contemptuously as signifying a semi-literate native, with a mere veneer of modern education.

BABY-FARMING,[1] a term meaning generally the taking in of infants to nurse for payment, but usually with an implication of improper treatment.

Previous to the year 1871 the abuse of the practice of baby-farming in England had grown to an alarming extent, while the trials of Margaret Waters and Mary Hall called attention to the infamous relations between the lying-in houses and the baby-farming houses of London. The evil was, no doubt, largely connected with the question of illegitimacy, for there was a wide-spread existence of baby-farms where children were received without question on payment of a lump sum. Such children were nearly all illegitimate, and in these cases it was to the pecuniary advantage of the baby-farmer to hasten the death of the child. It had become also the practice for factory operatives and mill-hands to place out their children by the day, and since in many cases the children were looked upon as a burden and a drain on their parents' resources, too particular inquiry was not always made as to the mode in which the children were cared for. The form was gone through too of paying a ridiculously insufficient sum for the maintenance of the child. In 1871 the House of Commons found it necessary to appoint a select committee "to inquire as to the best means of preventing the destruction of the lives of infants put out to nurse for hire by their parents." "Improper and insufficient food," said the committee, "opiates, drugs, crowded rooms, bad air, want of cleanliness, and wilful neglect are sure to be followed in a few months by diarrhoea, convulsions and wasting away." These unfortunate children were nearly all illegitimate, and the mere fact of their being hand-nursed, and not breast-nursed, goes some way (according to the experience of the Foundling hospital and the Magdalene home) to explain the great mortality among them.

Such children, when nursed by their mothers in the workhouse, generally live. The practical result of the committee of 1871 was the act of 1872, which provided for the compulsory registration of all houses in which more than one child under the age of one year were received for a longer period than twenty-four hours. No licence was granted by the justices of the peace, unless the house was suitable for the purpose, and its owner a person of good character and able to maintain the children. Offences against the act, including wilful neglect of the children even in a suitable house, were punishable by a fine of 5 or six months' imprisonment with or without hard labour. In 1896 a select committee of the House of Lords sat and reported on the working of this act. In consequence of this report the act of 1872 was repealed and superseded by the Infant Life Protection Act 1897, which did away with the system of registration and subst.i.tuted for it one of notice to a supervening authority. By the act all persons retaining or receiving for hire more than one infant under the age of _five_ had to give written notice of the fact to the local authority.

The local authorities were empowered to appoint inspectors, and required to arrange for the periodical inspection of infants so taken in, while they could also fix the number of infants which might be retained. By a special clause any person receiving an infant under the age of two years for a sum of money not exceeding twenty pounds had to give notice of the fact to the local authority. If any infants were improperly kept, the inspector might obtain an order for their removal to a work-house or place of safety until restored to their parents or guardians, or otherwise legally disposed of.

The act of 1897 was repealed and amended by the Children Act 1908, which codified the law relating to children, and added many new provisions. This act is dealt with in the article CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO.

In the United States the law is noticeably strict in most states. In Ma.s.sachusetts, a law of 1891 directs that "every person who receives for board, or for the purpose of procuring adoption, an infant under the age of three years shall use diligence to ascertain whether or not such infant is illegitimate, and if he knows or has reason to believe it to be illegitimate shall forthwith notify the State Board of Charity of the fact of such reception; and said board and its officers or agents may enter and inspect any building where they may have reason to believe that any such illegitimate infant is boarded, and remove such infant when, in their judgment, such removal is necessary by reason of neglect, abuse or other causes, in order to preserve the infant's life, and such infant so removed shall be in the custody of said Board of Charity, which shall make provision therefor according to law." The penal code of the state of New York requires a licence for baby-farming to be issued by the board of health of the city or town where such children are boarded or kept, and "every person so licensed must keep a register wherein he shall enter the names and ages of all such children, and of all children born on such premises, and the names and residences of their parents, as far as known, the time of reception and the discharge of such children, and the reasons therefor, and also a correct register of every child under five years of age who is given out, adopted, taken away, or indentured from such place [v.03 p.0098] to or by any one, together with the name and residence of the person so adopting" (Pen. Code, -- 288, subsec. 4).

Persons neglecting children may be prosecuted under -- 289 of the N.Y. penal code, which provides that any person who "wilfully causes or permits the life or limb of any child, actually or apparently under the age of sixteen years, to be endangered, or its health to be injured, or its morals to become depraved ... is guilty of a misdemeanour."

In Australia particular care has been taken by most of the states to prevent the evils of baby-farming. In South Australia there is a State Children's Council, which, under the State Children Act of 1895, has large powers with respect to the oversight of infants under two years boarded out by their mother. "Foster-mothers," as the women who take in infants as boarders are called, must be licensed, while the number of children authorized to be kept by the foster-mother is fixed by licence; every licensed foster-mother must keep a register containing the name, age and place of birth of every child received by her, the names, addresses and description of the parents, or of any person other than the parents from or to whom the child was received or delivered over, the date of receipt or delivery over, particulars of any accident to or illness of the child, and the name of the medical pract.i.tioner (if any) by whom attended. In New South Wales the Children's Protection Act of 1892, with the amendments of 1902, requires the same state supervision over the homes in which children are boarded out, with licensing of foster-mothers. In Victoria an act was pa.s.sed in 1890 for "making better provision for the protection of infant life." In New Zealand, there is legislation to the same effect by the "Adoption of Children Act 1895" and the "Infant Life Protection Act 1896."

[1] Baby is a diminutive or pet form of "babe," now chiefly used in poetry or scriptural language. "Babe" is probably a form of the earlier _baban_, a reduplicated form of the infant sound _ba_.

BABYLON (mod. _Hillah_), an ancient city on the left bank of the Euphrates, about 70 m. S. of Bagdad. "Babylon" is the Greek form of Babel or Bab-ili, "the gate of the G.o.d" (sometimes incorrectly written "of the G.o.ds"), which again is the Semitic translation of the original Sumerian name Ka-dimirra.

The G.o.d was probably Merodach or Marduk (_q.v._), the divine patron of the city. In an inscription of the Ka.s.site conqueror Gaddas the name appears as Ba-ba-lam, as if from the a.s.syrian _babalu_, "to bring"; another foreign _Volksetymologie_ is found in Genesis xi. 9, from _balbal_, "to confound."

A second name of the city, which perhaps originally denoted a separate village or quarter, was Su-anna, and in later inscriptions it is often represented ideographically by E-ki, the p.r.o.nunciation and meaning of which are uncertain. One of its oldest names, however, was Din-tir, of which the poets were especially fond; Din-tir signifies in Sumerian "the life of the forest," though a native lexicon translates it "seat of life." Uru-azagga, "the holy city," was also a t.i.tle sometimes applied to Babylon as to other cities in Babylonia. Ka-dimirra, the Semitic Bab-ili, probably denoted at first E-Saggila, "the house of the lofty head," the temple dedicated to Bel-Merodach, along with its immediate surroundings. Like the other great sanctuaries of Babylonia the temple had been founded in pre-Semitic times, and the future Babylon grew up around it. Since Merodach was the son of Ea, the culture G.o.d of Eridu near Ur on the Persian Gulf, it is possible that Babylon was a colony of Eridu. Adjoining Babylon was a town called Borsippa (_q.v._).