for their profanity in looking into it. 1 Sam vi. 12-19. The circumstance of 75,000 being here stated to be slain in one village has been thought incredible. But the present Heb. text supports our common rendering. Dr. Kennicott, however, instances three reputable MSS. in

fifty thousand חמשים אלף איש which the words

men, are wanting; and Josephus omits all mention of the 50,000. The supposed omission of a single letter ke, like, or equal to, in the common reading, would render this circumstance less extraordinary, i. e is reading anɔ (kechamashim) for (chamashim). The passage would then read, He smote of the people seventy men, equal to (or rulers of) 50,000 men': that is they were governors or chiefs of the people. This was also the name of 2. A town of Egypt, supposed to be the same with Aven, or On. 3. A town of Israel, on the frontiers of the tribe of Issachar. 4. A town of Palestine, belonging to the tribe of Naphthali, from which the Canaanites were not expelled.

BETH-SHITTAH, a district of Palestine, to which the Midianites fled when they were routed by Gideon. It belonged to the Manassites; and is supposed to have been situated south-west of the sea of Tiberias.

BETH-TAPPUAH, a city on the south-west border of Canaan; said to have been situated fourteen miles beyond Raphia, not far from the Nile.

BETHUEL, the son of Nahor, cousin of Abraham, and father of Laban and Rebekah.

BETHUEL, OF BETHUL, a city of the Simeonites, the scene of the apocryphal story of Judith and Holophernes.

BETHUMP'. From thump. To beat; to lay blows upon; a ludicrous word.

I was never so bethumpt with words, Since first I called my brother's father dad. Shakspeare. BETHUNE, a town of France, in the department of the Pas de Calais (the ci-devant Artois), containing 7000 inhabitants. It is the capital of an arondissement of eighteen cantons.; is surrounded with walls, and has been well fortified. The city and the castle taken together are of a triangular figure, but the former is a very irregular building. The houses are indifferent, and the streets ill-paved; but there is a large handsome market-place, and several churches. Here is made excellent cheese, in which, as in corn and flax, a tolerable trade is carried on; there are, besides, manufactures of linen, and vines are partially cultivated in the surrounding country. In 1710 it sustained a siege of six weeks, and was taken by the allied army under the duke of Marlborough, but was restored to France at the peace of Utrecht. It is seated on a rock near the river Brette, and is traversed by the Lave, which falls into the Lys. Twenty miles north-west of Arras, and 134 north of Paris.

BETHUNE (Maximilian de), duke of Sully. See SULLY.

BETHZUR, in ancient geography, a city on the south of Judah, and borders of Edom, near Hebron. It was fortified by Rehoboam, and was very strong during the Machabean war.

Chaucer.

of true frendes there be too fewe
But sothfast frendes, what so betide,
In every fortune wollen abide.
And leaveing there this ladie all dismayed,
Went forth streightway, into the forest wyde,
To seek if he perchance asleep were layed,
Or whatso else were unto him betyde:

He sought him farre and neare, yet him no where
he spyde.
Spenser.
She, when her turn was come her tale to tell,
Told of a strange adventure that betided,
Betwixt the fox and the' ape by him misguided. Id.
In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire
With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
Of woeful ages long ago betid.
Shakspeare.

If he were dead what would betide of thee? Id.
But say, if our deliverer up to heaven
Must reascend, what will betide the few,
His faithful, left among the' unfaithful herd,
The enemies of truth.

What should then betide
But that our charity be not too nice?
Come, let us those we can to real bliss entice.

Through many a clime 'tis mine to go, With many a retrospection curst; And all solace is to know

my What'er betides I've known the worst..

Milton.

Thomson.

Byron.

He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes.

Bacon.

Shakspeare.

Id.

Milton.

is about eight miles from Newcastle-under-Line, sixteen N. N.W. of Stafford, and 157 from London. It supplies Newcastle with almost all its vegetables; and there is a large cattle fair held here in July.

BETLIS, a strong town of Armenia or Turcomania, belonging to a kind of independent bey or prince. It lies on the road from Tauris to Aleppo, and the passage between the mountains is so narrow, that ten men can defend it against 1000. There is a castle on an eminence exactly in the middle. This eminence is so steep on all sides, that it is impossible to get up but circuitously. The people in and about the town are shepherds, but are ready to take up arms at the command of their prince. It is 150 miles east of Diarbek. Betlis is an ancient city, founded, according to the Armenians, by Alexander the Great. The Persians obtained a signal victory over the army of Soliman here in 1534. The population of the town and neighbouring villages is computed at 26,000 Kurds, Turks, Armenians, and Syrians. The country around, denominated Kurdistan, is a fine and highly cultivated valley, producing fruit, grain, and honey. The Armenians have four churches here, and as many monasteries, and enjoy great liberty. Long. 42° 50′ E.,

The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow, Illumed with fluid gold, his near approach Betoken glad.

Thomson.

This, I say, being a current opinion, the wise men would be apt enough to conclude, that the present star betokened the birth of that Prince of whom (as they might easily have heard) it had been so very long foretold,- There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.'

If bursting heart, and maddening brain-
And daring deed, and vengeful steel-
And all that I have felt-and feel-
Betoken love-that love was mine ;-
And shewn by many a bitter sign.

Porteus.

Byron's Giaour.

BETONICA, BETONY, in botany, a genus of the gymnospermia order, and didynamia class of plants; ranking in the natural method under the forty-second order, verticillatæ. CAL. awned; the upper lip of the COR. ascending and flattish; and the tube cylindric. There are five principal species, viz. 1. B. Alpina, the least Alpine betony. 2. B. Danica, the greater Danish betony. 3. B. Incana, the hoary Italian betony, has a fleshcolored flower. 4. B. officinalis, is the species chiefly worth notice. It is a low plant growing in woods and shady places in several parts both of England and Scotland. 5. B. orientalis, the eastern betony, has very long narrow leaves, and a thick spike of flowers.

BETONICA AQUATICA. See SCROPHULARIA.
BETONICA PAULI. See VERONICA.

VOL. IV.

BETRAY', BETRAY'ER,

Shakspeare.

Junius derives this word from the French trahir; Latin BETRAY'ING. tradere. To give into the hands of enemies by treachery, or breach of trust: with to before the person, otherwise into. To discover that which has been entrusted to secrecy; to expose to evil by revealing something entrusted; to make known something that were better concealed; to make liable to fall into something inconvenient; to show; to discover; to delude; and deceive.

If ye be come to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it. 1 Chronicles. Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. Matthew. The wise man doth say of fear, that it is a betrayer of the forces of reasonable understanding.

Hooker.

There are only a few betrayers of their country; they are to purchase coin, perhaps at half price, and vend it among us, to the ruin of the publick. Swift.

For it is the opinion of goodness which creates easiness of trust: and by trust we are betrayed to power. Shaftesbury.

He was not to be won, either by promise or reward, to betray the city. Knolles The bright genius is ready to be so forward, as often betrays itself into great errours in judgement.

To stifle passion, is no easy thing;
A heart in love is always on the wing;
The, bold betrayer flutters still,
And fans the breath prepar'd to tell.

Ah, why this ruin so attractive made,
Or why, fond man, so easily betrayed?
Why heed we not, while mad we haste along,
The gentle voice of peace, or pleasure's song.

Watts.

Parnell

Collins' Eclogues.

He asked no question--all were answered now By the first glance on that still-marble brow! It was enough she died—what recked it how? The love of youth, the hope of better years, The source of softest joy and tenderest fears, The only living thing he could not hate, Was reft at once-and he deserved his fate. Byron. BETTERTON (Thomas), a celebrated actor in the reign of Charles II. was born in Westminster in 1635, and excelled in Shakspeare's characters of Hamlet, Othello, Brutus, and Hotspur. In 1695 he opened a new playhouse in Lincoln's-inn-fields, but the scheme did not succeed. He died in 1710, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He wrote The Woman made a Justice, a comedy; the Unjust Judge, or Appius and Virginia, a tragedy, written originally by Mr. John Webster, and altered by Betterton; The Amorous Widow, or the Wanton Wife; Dioclesian, a dramatic opera, &c.

BETTIAH, a district of the province of Bahar, Hindostan, situated between the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth degrees of north latitude. On the west it is bounded by the river Gunduck, and on the east by Tyrhoot. It retained its independence till the year 1765, when it was subdued and annexed to Champarun by the British government. In the fifteenth century the Hindoo prince of this country was of so much consequence, that the Afghan emperor Sekunder demanded his daughter in marriage. In cultivation and manufactures it is at present inferior to other parts of Bahar, but its woods yield abundance of fine ship-building timber.

BETTIAH, the capital of the above district, and formerly a strong fortress, was taken and destroyed by the Afghans in 1498, and is now a middling-sized town. It is situated in lat. 26° 47' N., long. 84° 40′ E.

BETTINELLI (Saverio or Xavier), in biography, a distinguished poet of Mantua, was born in 1718,and died in1808. He published a new edition of his works in twenty-four volumes, 12mo. Venice, 1799-1801, which contain, 1. Ragionamente filosofici, con Annotazioni. 2. Dell' Entusiasmo delle Belle Arti, two volumes. 3. Dia.oghi d'Amore, two volumes. 4. Risorgi

inento negli Studj, nelle Arti e nè Costume dopo il Mille, three volumes. 5. Delle Lettere e delle Arti Mantovane; Lettere ed Arti Modenesi, one volume. 6. Lettere dieci di Virgilio agli Arcadi, one volume. 7. Italian Letters from a Lady to her Friend on the Fine Arts, and Letters from a Friend, copied from the Originals, three volumes. 8. Poetry, three volumes. 9. Tragedies, two volumes. 10. Lettere a Lesbia Cidonia sopra gli Epigrammi, two volumes. 11. An Essay on Eloquence. He was a jesuit, and one of the most celebrated of that order: in 1751 was entrusted to him the superintendence of the college of nobles at Parma, where he remained eight years. In 1755 he travelled in Germany, Italy, and France, with the sons of the prince of Hohenlohe. Voltaire, whom he visited, wrote the following in an edition of his own works, which he sent to Bettinelli's inn :

Compatriote de Virgile,

Et son secretaire aujourd'hui,
C'est a vous d'ecrire sous lui;
Vous avez son ame et son style.'

'Fellow-countryman of Virgil, and at present his secretary, it is for you to write in his name: you possess his soul and his style.' After settling at Verona for some time, he returned to his own country.

BETTOOR, a flourishing town on the banks of the Ganges, containing several handsome Hindoo temples. Long. 80° 5' E., lat. 26° 52' N.

BETTOORIAH, a district of Bengal, 10C miles long by about twenty broad, on the northeast bank of the Ganges; now included in the collectorship of Raujeshy. The Ganges is said to have formerly run through this district, which is still much intersected by small rivers, and subject to inundations. It is consequently well adapted for the cultivation of rice, and produces immense quantities. It lies principally between the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth degrees of north latitude.

BETTS (John), M. D. physician in ordinary to Charles II. was educated at Oxford; when he died is uncertain. He wrote, 1. Of the Origin and Nature of the Blood; and, 2. The Anatomy of Thomas Parr, who died in the 152d year and ninth month of his age; with the Observations of the celebrated Dr. William Harvey, and others of the king's physicians, who were present.

BETULA, in botany, the birch-tree: a genus of the tetrandria order, and monœcia class of plants; ranking in the natural method under the fiftieth order, amentaceæ. CAL. of the male monophyllous, trifid, and triflorous: COR. parted into four segments; the female calyx is monophyllous, trifid, and biflorous; the seeds have a membranaceous wing on both sides. There are six species, viz. 1. B. alba, the common birchtree, is so well known as to need no description. It is generally of a humble growth, but in a proper soil and situation will grow to a great height, and considerable size. 2. B. alnus, the aldertree, will grow to large timber. Wherever the soil is or can be made pasturable, the alder should by no means be permitted to gain a footing. Its suckers and seedlings poison the herb

age; and it is a fact well known to the observant husbandman, that the roots of the alder have a peculiar property, of rendering the soil they grow in moist and rotten. Of the native species, Hanbury enumerates five, viz. 1. The long-leafed. 2. The white. 3. The black. 4. The hoaryleafed, and 5. The dwarf-alder.-3. B. lenta, the Canada birch, grows to sixty or more feet in height. The leaves are heart-shaped, oblong, smooth, of a thin consistence, pointed, and very sharply serrated. They differ in color; and the varieties of this species go by the names of 1. Dusky Canada birch; 2. White paper-birch; 3. Poplar-leafed Canada birch; 4. Low-growing Canada Birch, &c.-4. B. nana, the dwarf birch, with roundish leaves, grows naturally in the northern parts of Scotland, and Europe generally, and on the Alps. It seldom rises above two or three feet high. It has slender branches garnished with round leaves, but seldom produces flowers here. The catkins and seeds are the principal food of grouse, ptarmigans, &c. The Laplander turns this humble shrub to account, for fuel, and driving away the gnats; when covered with the rein deer's skin, it serves him for a bed. 5. B. nigra, the black Virginia birch-tree, will grow to upwards of sixty feet in height. The branches are spotted, and more sparingly set in the trees than the common sorts. There are several varieties of this species, differing in the color, size of the leaves, and shoots; such as, 1. the broad-leaved Virginian birch; 2. the poplar-leaved birch; 3. the paper birch; 4. the brown birch.-6. B. pumila, American, or hairy dwarf birch. Linn. Syst. 849. Reich. iv. 127. B. nana. Kalm. ii. 263. Leaves obovate, crenate; resembling the nana; a native of North America, and introduced into Kew garden in 1762, by Mr. James Gordon. The alba is easily propagated: it may be raised either from seeds or layering; and it will flourish in almost any soil and situation. The method of propagating the foreign sorts of birch is, 1. from seeds sown in beds of fine mould, covering them over about a quarter of an inch deep. During the time they are in the seminary, they must be constantly weeded, watered in dry weather, and, when about one or two years old, according to their strength, they should be planted in the nursery in rows. Weeding must always be observed in summer, and digging between the rows in winter; and when the plants are about three or four feet high, they will be of a good size to be planted out for the shrubbery quarters. A part may be then taken up for such purposes; whilst the remainder may be left for standards, to answer other purposes; 2. these trees may also be propagated by layers; and this is the way to continue the peculiarities in the varieties. A sufficient number of plants should be procured, and set upon a spot of double dug ground, three yards distant from each other. The year following, if they have made no young shoots, they should be headed to within half a foot of the ground, to form the stools, which will then shoot vigorously the summer following; and in autumn the young shoots should be plashed near the stools, and the tender twigs layered near their

ends: they will then strike root, and become good plants by the autumn following; whilst fresh twigs will have sprung up from the stools, to be ready for the same operation. The layers, therefore, should be taken up, and the operation performed afresh. If the plants designed for stools have made good shoots the first year, they need not be headed down, but plashed near the ground, and all the young twigs layered. Thus may an immediate crop be raised, whilst young shoots will spring out in great plenty below the plashed part, for layering the succeeding year. This work may be repeated every autumn or winter; when some of the strongest layers may be planted out, if wanted; whilst the others may be removed into the nursery, to grow stronger before they are removed; 3. cuttings also, if set in a moist shady border in the beginning of October, will frequently grow: but as this is not a sure method, and as these trees are so easily propagated by layers, it hardly deserves to be put in practice. The alder, like the other aquatic natives, may be raised either from suckers, from cuttings, or by layering; and no doubt from seed, though this mode of propagation is seldom practised in this country.

The bark of the birch seems in a manner incorruptible. In Sweden the houses are often covered with it. It frequently happens that the wood is entirely rotten, when the bark is perfectly sound. In Kamtschatka it is used for making drinking cups. It abounds with a resinous matter, to which its durability is owing: in consequence, it is highly inflammable; and in the northern countries torches are made of this bark sliced and twisted together. The bark itself consists of two different substances; a thick brittle brownish red one; and several very thin smooth white transparent membranes, in which the inflammable property resides. The thick part is less resinous, and has a roughish taste. It has been thought to possess some medicinal virtues, but concerning these, experience has as yet determined nothing certain. Upon deeply wounding or boring the trunk of the tree, in the beginning of spring, a sweetish juice issues, sometimes in so large a quantity as to equal the weight of the whole tree and root; one branch will bleed a gallon or more in a day. Horses, cows, goats, and sheep, eat the leaves of all the species of betula; but swine refuse them. When eaten by cows, they are said greatly to increase the quantity of the milk. With the addition of sugar, and properly fermented, its juice makes a pleasant wine. Mr. Loudon says, 'birch wine has been made from an open grove of about 100 birch trees, near Overton Hall, for sixty or seventy years past. Thirty trees or more are tapped in a season, about six or eight inches above the ground, in March. A piece of bark about three quarters of an inch in diameter, is cut out with a gouge, and the wood penetrated an inch or more; an iron spout is then driven into the bark below the hole, which conducts the sap to a bottle. In warm weather the holes soon grow up, and will cease to run in four or five days; but in windy weather they will run for a month. Some trees will run twenty-four gallons in twenty-four hours, others not half a pint. The