BERANGER.

whole of his life a man of the most sensitive honor, and he soon left it. He had ere this begun to write, but his poems were not successful; and reduced almost to destitution, he, 1804, enclosed some of his verses to M. Lucien Bonaparte, with a letter explaining his circumstances, and with a request for assistance--the one solitary instance of solicitation during a long life of independence, marked by the refusal of numerous offers of lucrative patronage. M. Bonaparte obtained employment for the poet, first as editor of the Annales du Musée, afterwards as a subordinate sec. in the univ.; a post which he held for twelve years, when the government, provoked at his satire, and alarmed at his popularity, dismissed him. During the Hundred Days,' Napoleon offered B. the remunerative post of censor-a singular office for such a man. He refused it. But though he scorned to accept favor from or to flatter Napoleon, at a time when it was alike fashionable and profitable to do so, he was of much too noble a nature to join in the sneers and reproaches which greeted the hero on his fall. Above the fear of power, he was incapable of taking advantage of misfortune. In 1815, B. published his first collection of songs, which soon attained very wide popularity. In 1821, he published another collection, followed by some fugitive pieces, which subjected him to a government prosecution, a sentence of three months' imprisonment, and a fine of 500 francs. In 1825, a third collection, and in 1828, a fourth appeared, still more withering in its sarcasm on those in power; and the penalty of B's outspokenness was a fine of 10,000 francs, and nine months' confinement in La Force. The fine was soon paid by the poet's friends, and his prison became the resort of the most eminent men in the kingdom, and a very armory in which he forged those keen-piercing bolts which galled so terribly, and contribut ed so much to the overthrow of the Bourbons. But B. refused to profit by the new state of things he had been instrumental in bringing about. Rejecting the emoluments and honor which his friends, now in power, were anxious to bestow, he retired to live in privacy at Passy. In 1833, he published a fifth collection of songs, when he took a formal leave of the public; and until his death, twentyfour years afterwards, he remained silent. In 1848, B. was elected a member of the Assemblée Constituante by more than 200,000 votes; but after taking his seat to show his appreciation of the honor conferred on him, he almost immediately resigned. He consistently rejected all the offered favors of the late emperor, as well as a graceful overture on the part of the empress, which he owned it cost him much to refuse. B. died at Paris, and the cost of his funeral was defrayed by the French government, and his remains were attended to the grave by the most distinguished men in all departments of literature. B. was as emphatically the poet of the French people as Burns was the bard of the Scottish peasantry. The same stanch and fearless independence, genuine manliness, sound common sense, and contempt for everything mean and hypocritical, charac terized both men; and as poets, they differ in excellence only

BERAR-BERBERA.

as the sentiments of the French and Scottish people differ in their capacity to be turned into song. Neither friend nor enemy has as yet disclosed to us any speck on the heart, the honor, the genius, or the good sense of Béranger.' Since his death his Last Songs, written 1834-51, have been published, and also My Biography (Paris, M. Perrotin; Lon don, Jeffs). See My Biography; Memoirs of Béranger, by M. Lapointe; and Béranger et son Temps, by Jules Janin, (1866).

BERAR, ba-rár': valley, locally in the Nizam's territo ries, but annexed politically to British India, for the maintenance of what is called the Nizam's Contingent. It is bounded on the n. by a detached portion of Scindia's dominions and the Nerbudda provinces; on the e. by Nagpoor; on the w., by Candeish; on the s., by two of the Nizam's remaining districts-Maiker Bassim and Mahur. It lies between 20° 15' and 21° 40′ n. lat., and between 76° and 78° 2' e. long.; 17,711 sq. m. It is traversed in its length by the Poornah-itself a tributary of the Tapteewhich, with its numerous affluents, affords an ample sup ply of water to the valley, and, for other reasons, is pecul iarly suitable to the cultivation of cotton. The transfer in 1853 from the Nizam to the British has proved favorable to this production; about 25 per cent. of the area is devoted to cotton. In the e. part there is a coal-field of 40 sq. m., and at Akolah, in Purana, there are salt wells. Ellichpore is the chief town, but is smaller than Oomrawutti (q.v.). Pop. (1881) 2,672,673.

BERAT, bĕr-át': town of Albania, Turkey, vilayet of Janina, about 30 m. n.e. of the seaport of Avlona; in a fertile valley which produces much grain, oil, and wine. Pop., of which two-thirds are Greeks, abt. 12,000.

BERATE, v.: to rate much; to scold.

BERATTLE, v. bě-răť tl [be, with, and rattle]: in OE., to fill with noise; to make a great noise in contempt.

BERAY, v. bě-rā' [AS. be, about: OF. ray, dirt: Fin. roju, dung]: in OE., to soil with ashes; to dirt; to defile. BERAY'ING, imp. BERAYED, pp. bě-rād'.

BERBER, n. a. ber'ber, a name used to designate the Semitic language formerly spoken in northern Africa or Barbary-now pushed back, with its various dialects, towards the interior.

BERBER, ber ber, or DAR BERBER (also El Mekheir, or Mersherif): town on the right bank of the Nile, below the confluence of the Atbara; a station on the route from Khartoum to Cairo, and a point to which caravans come from Suakim on the Red Sea. It has been proposed to make a railway from Suakim to Berber. Pop. about 8,000.

BERBERA, ber'běr-a: seaport of Somali, e. Africa, with a good harbor, on a bay of the Gulf of Aden. It was seized by England 1884. It is scarcely a permanent town, but the scene of a large annual fair, which brings over 30,000 people together from all quarters in the

BERBERIDEÆ-BERBERS.

East. Coffee, grains, ghee, gold-dust, ivory, gums, cattle, ostrich-feathers, slaves, etc., are brought hither from the interior on camels, sometimes numbering 2,000 or 3,000, and exchanged for cotton, rice, iron, Indian piece-goods, etc. As soon as the fair-which usually extends from Nov. to Apr.-is over, the huts are carefully taken down, and packed up, and little remains to mark the site of the town but the bones of animals slaughtered for food during the continuance of the fair.

BERBERID'EÆ, or BERBERIDACEÆ, ber-ber-ž-dā'sē-ë: u nat. ord. of exogenous plants, of which the different species of Barberry (q.v.) afford the best known examples. Many of the plants of this order are spiny shrubs; some are perennial herbaceous plants. Their leaves are alternate, their flowers sometimes solitary, sometimes in racemes or panicles. The calyx consists of 3, 4, or 6 deciduous sepals; the corolla, which arises from beneath the germen, consists of petals equal in number to the sepals, and opposite to them, or twice as many; the stamens are equal in number to the petals and opposite to them; the anthers are 2-celled, each cell opening curiously by a valve which curves back from bottom to top; the carpel is solitary and 1-celled; the fruit is either a berry or a capsule. This order, nearly allied to Vitacea (q.v.), (Vines, etc.), contains more than 100 known species, chiefly belonging to the temperate parts of the n. hemisphere, and of S. America.

BERBERINE, n. bér bér in [L. berberis, the berberryfrom Ar. berbĕri, wild]: alkaloidal substance in the form of needle-like crystals of a beautiful bright yellow, obtained from the root of the berberry shrub. BERBERRY, n. ber'běr-i, the correct spelling of BARBERRY, a tree whose fruit is used as a preserve, and contains oxalic acid; the Berberis vulgaris, ord. Berberidaciæ.

BERBERS, ber berz: general name usually given to the tribes inhabiting the mountainous regions of Barbary and the n. portions of the Great Desert. It is derived, according to Barth, either from the name of their supposed ancestor, Ber, which we recognize in the Lat. A-fer, an African (see letter B); or from the Greek and Roman term Barbari. The name by which they call themselves, and which was known to the Greeks and Romans, is Amazigh, or Mazigh, Mazys, Amoshagh, Imoshagh, etc., according to locality, and whether singular or plural. These tribes have a common origin, and are descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants of n. Africa. They appear to have been originally a branch of the Semitic stock; and although they have been conquered in succession by the Phoeni cians, Romans, Vandals, and Arabs, and have become, in consequence, to some extent, a mixed race, they still retain, in great part, their distinctive peculiarities. Till the 11th c. the B. seem to have formed the larger portion of the population inhabiting the s. coast of the Mediterranean, from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean; but, on the great Arab immigrations which then took place, they were driven to the Atlas Mountains, and to the desert regions

BERBICE.

where they now live. In Tripoli, the allegiance that they pay to the Turks is little more than nominal; in Algeria, where they are usually termed Kabyles, they were long conquered by the French; and in Morocco, where they are called Shellooh,' they are only in form subject to the emperor. The B. occupying the desert, who are called Tuaric, or Tawarek, by the Arabs, have become much mixed with the negro race. The number of the B. is esti mated at between three and four millions. They are of middle stature, sparely but strongly built. The complexion varies from a red to a yellow brown, and the shape of the head and of the features has more of the European than the oriental type. The hair is, in general, dark, and the beard small. The eyes are dark and piercing. Their manners are austere, and in disposition they are cruel, suspicious, and implacable. They are usually at war, either with their neighbors or among themselves; are impatient of restraint; and possessed of a rude, wild spirit of independence, which makes it impossible for them to unite for any common purpose, or to make the advances in civilization which might be expected from their high physi cal organization. They live in clay huts and tents; but, in their larger villages, they have stone houses. They have herds of sheep and cattle, and practice agriculture, and are especially fond of the cultivation of fruit trees. They possess water-mills and oil-presses. The mines of iron and lead in the Atlas are wrought by them, and they manufacture rude agricultural implements, and swords, guns, and gunpowder. They formerly professed the Christian religion; but since the Arabs drove them from the fertile plains between the mountains and the sea, they appear to have retrograded in every way, and they are now among the most bigoted adherents of the religion of Mohammed; although their former creed has left a few traces, as in the names Mesi for God, and angelus for angel, and many curious customs still observed among them. See Barth's Africa, vol i.

BERBICE, ber-bēs': eastern division of British Guiana, bounded w. by Demerara; n. by the Atlantic; e. by Dutch Guiana or Surinam; s. by the basin of the Amazon, or rather, perhaps, the upper waters of the Surinam and Corentyn. In 1796, Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo were surrendered to the British under Maj.gen. Whyte, but were soon restored to the Dutch at the peace of Amiens, and recaptured 1803. B. stretches in long. between 55° 40'-57° 20′ w.; in lat. s. from 6° 30′ n. It is subdivided into six parishes, four of which belong ecclesiastically to the Scotch National Church, and two to the Episcopalian. The principal products are sugar, coffee, cocoa, and tropic fruits. Cotton has nearly ceased to be grown. The forests abound with splendid timber trees, including the mora, bullet-tree, and cedar. The Bernice river, though not the largest in British Guiana, is naviga. ble to the greatest distance from the sea. The Essequibo discharges a greater volume of water, but is interrupted by rapids within 50 m. of the coast, while the Berbice admits

BERCETO-BERCHTESGADEN.

a draught of 12 ft. for 100 m., and one of 7 ft. for 60 more, the influence of the tide reaching nearly the whole way. Even as far as lat. 3' 55′ n., 175 m. in a straight line from its outlet, it has been found to have a width of 100 ft. with a depth of from 8 to 10. An important afluent is the Canje, on the banks of which a number of the most important plantations are situated. New Amsterdam, on the right bank of the Berbice river (pop. 7,000), is the chief town and port of the district. Pop. of B. 32,000, of whom nearly 4,000 white and of mixed race.

BERCETO, ber-cha'to: town of Italy, in the province and 25 m. s. w. from the city of Parma, beautifully situ ated among the Apennines. It is a clean, well-built town. The church is an old Gothic building. The mountains rise rapidly to the west of B., and some of the scenery which they present is very wild and desolate.

BERCHE MIA: see SUPPLE JACK.

BERCH'TA (in Old German, Peracta, and the original form of the name Bertha, being from the same root as the Engligh word bright, and meaning ‘shining,''white'); in the mythology of the south of Germany and in Switzerland, a spiritual being, who was apparently the same as the Hulda (gracious, benign) of northern Germany. This being represented originally one of the kindly and benign aspects of the unseen powers; and so the traditions of Hulda (q.v.) in the n. continued to represent her. But thé B. of the s., in the course of time, became rather an object of terror, and a bugbear to frighten children; the difference probably arising from the circumstance, that the influence of Christianity in converting the pagan deities into demons was sooner felt in the s. than in the n. Lady B. has the oversight of spinners. The last day of the year is sacred to her, and if she find any flax left on the distaff that day, she spoils it. Her festival is kept with a prescribed kind of meagre fare-oatmeal-gruel, or pottage, and fish. If she catches any persons eating other food on that day, she cuts them up, fills their paunch with chopped straw and other such agreeable stuffing, and then sews up the wound with a ploughshare for a needle, and an iron chain for a thread. In some places, she is the queen of the crickets. She is represented as having a long iron nose and an immensely large foot. That she was once an object of worship, is testified by the numerous springs, etc., that bear her name in Salzburg and elsewhere. It is likely that many of the Sagas of B. were transferred to the famous Berthas (q.v.) of history and fable. The numerous stories of the White Lady' who appears in noble houses at night, rocks and nurses the children while the nurses are asleep, and acts as the guardian angel of the race, have doubtless their root in the ancient heathen goddess Berchta.

BERCHTESGADEN, běrk'tès-gå-den: village of Bavaria, charmingly situated on a mountain slope, about 15 m. s. of Salzburg. It has a royal hunting lodge, but the place is most remarkable for its government salt-mines, from which 150,000 cwt. of rock salt is annually obtained.