Chapter XVII: Front Matter (17)

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 asserted, in the sense of "Gate of God" or "Gate of Religion," that the title _Bab_ was understood and assumed by Mirza 'Ali Muhammad; but, though still generally thus styled by non-Babis, he soon assumed the higher title of _Nuqta_ ("Point"), and the title _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 assassinate 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 passages 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 title 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, entitled _Baha' u'llah_ ("the Splendour of God"), 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 God 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, Mass., entitled "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 19^2 = 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 assassination 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 constitutional 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 manuscript. 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 illustrate 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 Manuscripts," _Journal of R. Asiat. Soc._ (July and October 1892); Andreas, _Die Babi's in Persien_ (1896); Baron Victor Rosen, _Collections scientifiques de l'Institut des Langues orientales_, vol. i. (1877), pp. 179-212; vol. iii. (1886), pp. 1-51; vol. vi. (1891), pp. 141-255; "Manuscrits 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 God), by Ibrahim Khayru'llah, assisted by Howard MacNutt (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 certitude_ (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 entitled _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 associated 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 ambassador, 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 assist with an expedition directly the assassination 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 passport abroad, for the ostensible purpose of spying upon the refugees, but in reality to organize the foreign expedition and secure his own safety. The passport 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 L1000 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 documentary proof in Mary's own hand that she had knowledge of the intended assassination of Elizabeth, but her circumstances, 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 classical 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 class of the classical 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 Cockfield in Suffolk. From 1865 to 1880 he held the Disney professorship of archaeology at Cambridge. In his lectures, illustrated 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 Pecock'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 classical and scientific journals, he catalogued the classical MSS. in the University Library and the Greek and English coins in the Fitzwilliam museum.

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, analogous 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 buttocks, 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 _Choeropithecus_. The named Arabian baboon, _P. hamadryas_ of North Africa and Arabia, dedicated by the ancient Egyptians to the god Thoth, and the South Arabian _P. arabicus_, typify _Hamadryas_; while the drill and mandrill of the west coast, _P. leucophaeus_ and _P. maimon_, constitute 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 assigned 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 fictitious 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 assigned 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. Knoell from a Vatican MS. (edited by A. Eberhard, _Analecta Babriana_, 1879).

EDITIONS.--Boissonade (1844); Lachmann (1845); Schneider (1853); Eberhard (1876); Gitlbauer (1882); Rutherford (1883); Knoell, _Fabularum Babrianarum Paraphrasis Bodleiana_ (1877); Feuillet (1890); Desrousseaux (1890); Passerat (1892); Croiset (1892); Crusius (1897). See also Mantels, _Ueber 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 L5 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 substituted 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 Massachusetts, 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, s. 288, subsec. 4).

Persons neglecting children may be prosecuted under s. 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 practitioner (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 passed 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 god" (sometimes incorrectly written "of the gods"), which again is the Semitic translation of the original Sumerian name Ka-dimirra. The god was probably Merodach or Marduk (_q.v._), the divine patron of the city. In an inscription of the Kassite conqueror Gaddas the name appears as Ba-ba-lam, as if from the Assyrian _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 pronunciation 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 title 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 god 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._).

The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (3800 B.C.), who is stated to have built sanctuaries there to Anunit and A[=e] (or Ea), and H. Winckler may be right in restoring a mutilated passage in the annals of this king so as to make it mean that Babylon owed its name to Sargon, who made it the capital of his empire. If so, it fell back afterwards into the position of a mere provincial town and remained so for centuries, until it became the capital of "the first dynasty of Babylon" and then of Khammurabi's empire (2250 B.C.). From this time onward it continued to be the capital of Babylonia and the holy city of western Asia. The claim to supremacy in Asia, however real in fact, was not admitted _de jure_ until the claimant had "taken the hands" of Bel-Merodach at Babylon, and thereby been accepted as his adopted son and the inheritor of the old Babylonian empire. It was this which made Tiglath-pileser III. and other Assyrian kings so anxious to possess themselves of Babylon and so to legitimize their power. Sennacherib alone seems to have failed in securing the support of the Babylonian priesthood; at all events he never underwent the ceremony, and Babylonia throughout his reign was in a constant state of revolt which was finally suppressed only by the complete destruction of the capital. In 689 B.C. its walls, temples and palaces were razed to the ground and the rubbish thrown into the Arakhtu, the canal which bordered the earlier Babylon on the south. The act shocked the religious conscience of western Asia; the subsequent murder of Sennacherib was held to be an expiation of it, and his successor Esar-haddon hastened to rebuild the old city, to receive there his crown, and make it his residence during part of the year. On his death Babylonia was left to his elder son Samas-sum-yukin, who eventually headed a revolt against his brother Assur-bani-pal of Assyria. Once more Babylon was besieged by the Assyrians and starved into surrender. Assur-bani-pal purified the city and celebrated a "service of reconciliation," but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel. In the subsequent overthrow of the Assyrian empire the Babylonians saw another example of divine vengeance.

With the recovery of Babylonian independence under Nabopolassar a new era of architectural activity set in, and his son Nebuchadrezzar made Babylon one of the wonders of the ancient world. It surrendered without a struggle to Cyrus, but two sieges in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, and one in the reign of Xerxes, brought about the destruction of the defences, while the monotheistic rule of Persia allowed the temples to fall into decay. Indeed part of the temple of E-Saggila, which like other ancient temples served as a fortress, was intentionally pulled down by Xerxes after his capture of the city. Alexander was murdered in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, which must therefore have been still standing, and cuneiform texts show that, even under the Seleucids, E-Saggila was not wholly a ruin. The foundation of Seleucia in its neighbourhood, however, drew away the population of the old city and hastened its material decay. A tablet dated 275 B.C. states that on the 12th of Nisan the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to the new town, where a palace was built as well as a temple to which the ancient name of E-Saggila was given. With this event the history of Babylon comes practically to an end, though more than a century later we find sacrifices being still performed in its old sanctuary.

Our knowledge of its topography is derived from the classical writers, the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar, and the excavations of the _Deutsche Orientgesellschaft_, which were begun in 1899. The topography is necessarily that of the Babylon of Nebuchadrezzar; the older Babylon which was destroyed by Sennacherib having left few, if any, traces behind. Most of the existing remains lie on the E. bank of the Euphrates, the principal being three vast mounds, the _Babil_ to the north, the _Qasr_ or "Palace" (also known as the _Mujelliba_) in the centre, and the Ish[=a]n 'Amran ibn 'Ali, with the outlying spur of the Jumjuma, to the south. Eastward of these come the Ish[=a]n el-Aswad or "Black Mound" and three lines of rampart, one of which encloses the _Babil_ mound on the N. and E. sides, while a third forms a triangle with the S.E. angle of the other two. W. of the Euphrates are other ramparts and the remains of the ancient Borsippa.

We learn from Herodotus and Ctesias that the city was built on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and enclosed within a double row of lofty walls to which Ctesias adds a third. Ctesias makes the outermost wall 360 stades (42 m.) in circumference, while according to Herodotus it measured 480 stades (56 m.), which would include an area of about 200 sq. m. The estimate of Ctesias is essentially the same as that of Q. Curtius (v. 1. 26), 368 stades, and Clitarchus (_ap._ Diod. Sic. ii. 7), 365 stades; Strabo (xvi. 1. 5) makes it 385 stades. But even the estimate of Ctesias, assuming the stade to be its usual length, would imply an area of about 100 sq. m. According to Herodotus the height of the walls was about 335 ft. and their width 85 ft; [v.03 p.0099] according to Ctesias the height was about 300 ft. The measurements seem exaggerated, but we must remember that even in Xenophon's time (_Anab._ iii. 4. 10) the ruined wall of Nineveh was still 150 ft high, and that the spaces between the 250 towers of the wall of Babylon (Ctes. 417, _ap._ Diod. ii. 7) were broad enough to let a four-horse chariot turn (Herod. i. 179). The clay dug from the moat served to make the bricks of the wall, which had 100 gates, all of bronze, with bronze lintels and posts. The two inner enclosures were faced with enamelled tiles and represented hunting-scenes. Two other walls ran along the banks of the Euphrates and the quays with which it was lined, each containing 25 gates which answered to the number of streets they led into. Ferry-boats plied between the landing-places of the gates, and a movable drawbridge (30 ft. broad), supported on stone piers, joined the two parts of the city together.

The account thus given of the walls must be grossly exaggerated and cannot have been that of an eye-witness. Moreover, the two walls--Imgur-Bel, the inner wall, and Nimitti-Bel, the outer--which enclosed the city proper on the site of the older Babylon have been confused with the outer ramparts (enclosing the whole of Nebuchadrezzar's city), the remains of which can still be traced to the east. According to Nebuchadrezzar, Imgur-Bel was built in the form of a square, each side of which measured "30 _aslu_ by the great cubit"; this would be equivalent, if Professor F. Hommel is right, to 2400 metres. Four thousand cubits to the east the great rampart was built "mountain high," which surrounded both the old and the new town; it was provided with a moat, and a reservoir was excavated in the triangle on the inner side of its south-east corner, the western wall of which is still visible. The Imgur-Bel of Sargon's time has been discovered by the German excavators running south of the _Qasr_ from the Euphrates to the Gate of Ishtar.

The German excavations have shown that the _Qasr_ mound represents both the old palace of Nabopolassar, and the new palace adjoining it built by Nebuchadrezzar, the wall of which he boasts of having completed in 15 days. They have also laid bare the site of the "Gate of Ishtar" on the east side of the mound and the little temple of Nin-Makh (Beltis) beyond it, as well as the raised road for solemn processions (_A-ibur-sabu_) which led from the Gate of Ishtar to E-Saggila and skirted the east side of the palace. The road was paved with stone and its walls on either side lined with enamelled tiles, on which a procession of lions is represented. North of the mound was a canal, which seems to have been the Libilkhegal of the inscriptions, while on the south side was the Arakhtu, "the river of Babylon," the brick quays of which were built by Nabopolassar.

The site of E-Saggila is still uncertain. The German excavators assign it to the 'Amr[=a]n mound, its tower having stood in a depression immediately to the north of this, and so place it south of the _Qasr_; but E. Lindl and F. Hommel have put forward strong reasons for considering it to have been north of the latter, on a part of the site which has not yet been explored. A tablet copied by George Smith gives us interesting details as to the plan and dimensions of this famous temple of Bel; a plan based on these will be found in Hommel's _Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des alten Orients_, p. 321. There were three courts, the outer or great court, the middle court of Ishtar and Zamama, and the inner court on the east side of which was the tower of seven stages (known as the House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth), 90 metres high according to Hommel's calculation of the measurements in the tablet; while on the west side was the temple proper of Merodach and his wife Sarpanit or Zarpanit, as well as chapels of Anu, Ea and Bel on either side of it. A winding ascent led to the summit of the tower, where there was a chapel, containing, according to Herodotus, a couch and golden table (for the showbread) but no image. The golden image of Merodach 40 ft. high, stood in the temple below, in the sanctuary called E-Kua or "House of the Oracle," together with a table, a mercy-seat and an altar--all of gold. The deities whose chapels were erected within the precincts of the temple enclosure were regarded as forming his court. Fifty-five of these chapels existed altogether in Babylon, but some of them stood independently in other parts of the city.

There are numerous gates in the walls both of E-Saggila and of the city, the names of many of which are now known. Nebuchadrezzar says that he covered the walls of some of them with blue enamelled tiles "on which bulls and dragons were pourtrayed," and that he set up large bulls and serpents of bronze on their thresholds.

The _Babil_ mound probably represents the site of a palace built by Nebuchadrezzar at the northern extremity of the city walls and attached to a defensive outwork 60 cubits in length. Since H. Rassam found remains of irrigation works here it might well be the site of the Hanging Gardens. These consisted, we are told, of a garden of trees and flowers, built on the topmost of a series of arches some 75 ft. high, and in the form of a square, each side of which measured 400 Greek ft. Water was raised from the Euphrates by means of a screw (Strabo xvi. 1. 5; Diod. ii. 10. 6). In the Jumjuma mound at the southern extremity of the old city the contract and other business tablets of the Egibi firm were found.

See C. J. Rich, _Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon_ (1816), and _Collected Memoirs_ (1839); A. H. Layard, _Nineveh and Babylon_ (1853); C. P. Tiele, _De Hoofdtempel van Babel_ (1886); A. H. Sayce, _Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, App. ii. (1887); C. J. Ball in _Records of the Past_ (new ser. iii. 1890); _Mittheilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft_ (1899-1906); F. Delitzsch, _Im Lande des einstigen Paradieses_ (1903); F. H. Weissbach, _Das Stadtbild von Babylon_ (1904); F. Hommel, _Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des alten Orients_ (1904).

(A. H. S.)

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. I. _Geography._--Geographically as well as ethnologically and historically, the whole district enclosed between the two great rivers of western Asia, the Tigris and Euphrates, forms but one country. The writers of antiquity clearly recognized this fact, speaking of the whole under the general name of Assyria, though Babylonia, as will be seen, would have been a more accurate designation. It naturally falls into two divisions, the northern being more or less mountainous, while the southern is flat and marshy; the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian alluvium, tends to separate them still more completely. In the earliest times of which we have any record, the northern portion was included in Mesopotamia; it was definitely marked off as Assyria only after the rise of the Assyrian monarchy. With the exception of Assur, the original capital, the chief cities of the country, Nineveh, Calah and Arbela, were all on the left bank of the Tigris. The reason of this preference for the eastern bank of the Tigris was due to its abundant supply of water, whereas the great Mesopotamian plain on the western side had to depend upon the streams which flowed into the Euphrates. This vast flat, the modern El-Jezireh, is about 250 miles in length, interrupted only by a single limestone range, rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching off from the Zagros mountains under the names of _Saraz[=u]r_, _Hamrin_ and _Sinjar_. The numerous remains of old habitations show how thickly this level tract must once have been peopled, though now for the most part a wilderness. North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with dwarf-oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and north-eastern flank and the main mountain-line from which they detach themselves, rich plains and fertile valleys. Behind them tower the massive ridges of the Niphates and Zagros ranges, where the Tigris and Euphrates take their rise, and which cut off Assyria from Armenia and Kurdistan.

The name Assyria itself was derived from that of the city of Assur (_q.v._) or Asur, now Qal`at Sherqat (Kaleh Shergat), which stood on the right bank of the Tigris, midway between the Greater and the Lesser Zab. It remained the capital long after the Assyrians had become the dominant power in western Asia, but was finally supplanted by Calah (_Nimr[=u]d_), Nineveh (_Nebi Yunus_ and _Kuyunjik_), and Dur-Sargina (_Khorsabad_), some 60 m. farther north (see NINEVEH).

In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia, stretched the [v.03 p.0100] rich alluvial plain of Chaldaea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers by which it was enclosed. The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious population. Eastward rose the mountains of Elam, southward were the sea-marshes and the Kald[=a] or Chaldaeans and other Aramaic tribes, while on the west the civilization of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of the Semitic nomads (or Suti). Here stood Ur (_Mugheir_, more correctly _Muqayyar_) the earliest capital of the country; and Babylon, with its suburb, Borsippa (_Birs Nimr[=u]d_), as well as the two Sipparas (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now _Abu Habba_), occupied both the Arabian and Chaldaean sides of the river (see BABYLON). The Arakhtu, or "river of Babylon," flowed past the southern side of the city, and to the south-west of it on the Arabian bank lay the great inland freshwater sea of _Nejef_, surrounded by red sandstone cliffs of considerable height, 40 m. in length and 35 in breadth in the widest part. Above and below this sea, from Borsippa to Kufa, extend the famous Chaldaean marshes, where Alexander was nearly lost (Arrian, _Exp. Al._ vii. 22; Strab. xvi. 1, s. 12); but these depend upon the state of the Hindiya canal, disappearing altogether when it is closed.

Eastward of the Euphrates and southward of Sippara, Kutha and Babylon were Kis (_Uhaimir_, 9 m. E. of _Hillah_), Nippur (_Niffer_)--where stood the great sanctuary of El-lil, the older Bel--Uruk or Erech (_Warka_) and Larsa (_Senkera_) with its temple of the sun-god, while eastward of the Shatt el-Hai, probably the ancient channel of the Tigris, was Lagash (_Tello_), which played an important part in early Babylonian history. The primitive seaport of the country, Eridu, the seat of the worship of Ea the culture-god, was a little south of Ur (at _Abu Shahrain_ or _Now[=a]wis_ on the west side of the Euphrates). It is now about 130 m. distant from the sea; as about 46 m. of land have been formed by the silting up of the shore since the foundation of Spasinus Charax (_Muhamrah_) in the time of Alexander the Great, or some 115 ft. a year, the city would have been in existence at least 6000 years ago. The marshes in the south like the adjoining desert were frequented by Aramaic tribes; of these the most famous were the Kald[=a] or Chaldaeans who under Merodach-baladan made themselves masters of Babylon and gave their name in later days to the whole population of the country. The combined stream of the Euphrates and Tigris as it flowed through the marshes was known to the Babylonians as the _n[=a]r marrati_, "the salt river" (cp. Jer. l. 21), a name originally applied to the Persian Gulf.