Chapter 19

Authorities.—There is no work dealing with the three languages as a group. Both theComparative Grammarsof Beames and Hoernle (seeIndo-Aryan Languages) are silent about Assamese. The fullest details concerning them all will be found in vol. v. of theLinguistic Survey of India, parts i. and ii. (Calcutta, 1903). In this each dialect and subdialect is treated with great minuteness and with copious examples.The first Bengali grammar and dictionary in a European language was theVocabulario em Idioma Bengalla e Portuguezof Manoel da Assumpçam (Lisbon, 1743). N.B. Halhed wrote the first Bengali grammar in the English language (Hooghly, 1778), but the real father of Bengali philology was the great missionary, William Carey (Grammar, Serampore, 1801;Dictionary, ib., 1825). W. Yates’sGrammar, as edited and improved by T. Wenger (Calcutta, 1847) and others, is still on sale. It is entirely confined to the literary Bengali of the paṇḍits. Its great rival has been Śyāmā Caraṇ Sarkār’sGrammar(Calcutta, 1850), of which there have been numerous reprints. In 1894 J. Beames published hisGrammar(Oxford), now the standard work on the subject. It is largely based on Śyāmā Caraṇ’s work, but with much new material, especially that dealing with the colloquial side of the language. G.F. Nicholl’sGrammar(London, 1885) is an independent study of the language, in which the vernacular works of the best native grammarians have been freely utilized. There is no good Bengali dictionary. G.C. Haughton’sDictionary(London, 1833) is perhaps still the best, but J. Mendies’ (Calcutta, about 1870) is also well known, and is the parent of countless others which have issued from the Calcutta presses.A Small Dictionary of Colloquial Bengali Words, by J.M.C. and G.A.C. (Calcutta, 1904), may also be studied with advantage. Cf. also Śyāmā-caraṇ Gāṇguli,Bengali Spoken and Written(Calcutta, 1906). For Bengali literature, see R.C. Dutt,The Literature of Bengal(Calcutta and London, 1895), and Hara Prasād Śāstrī,The Vernacular Literature of Bengal before the Introduction of English Education(Calcutta, n.d.). The most complete work isBangabhāsā o Sāhityaby Dīnēś Candra Sēn (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1901) in the Bengali language.For Oriya there are E. Hallam’s (Calcutta, 1874), T. Maltby’s (Calcutta, 1874) and J. Browne’s (London, 1882)Grammars. The last two are in the Roman character. They are all mere sketches of the language. Sutton’s (Cuttack, 1841) is still the onlyDictionarywhich the present writer has found of any practical use. For Oriya literature, see App. IX. of Hunter’sOrissa(London, 1872), and Monmohan Chakravarti’s “Notes on the Language and Literature of Orissa” in theJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lxvi. (1897), part i. pp. 317 ff., and vol. lxvii. (1898), part i. pp. 332 ff.The first AssameseGrammarwas Nathan Brown’s (Sibsagar, 1848, 3rd ed. 1893), and it is still the one usually studied. G.F. Nicholl gives an Assamese grammar as a supplement to his BengaliGrammaralready quoted. Like that work, it is quite independent, and is not a revised edition of Brown. M. Bronson’sDictionary(Sibsagar, 1867) was for long the only vocabulary available, and a very useful and practical work it was. It is now superseded by Hem Candra Baŗuā’sHema-koṣa(Shillong, 1900). For Assamese literature, see Ananda Rām Dhekiāl Phukan’sA Few Remarks on the Assamese Language(Sibsagar, 1855), partly reprinted in theIndian Antiquary, vol. xxv. (1896), pp. 57 ff.

The first Bengali grammar and dictionary in a European language was theVocabulario em Idioma Bengalla e Portuguezof Manoel da Assumpçam (Lisbon, 1743). N.B. Halhed wrote the first Bengali grammar in the English language (Hooghly, 1778), but the real father of Bengali philology was the great missionary, William Carey (Grammar, Serampore, 1801;Dictionary, ib., 1825). W. Yates’sGrammar, as edited and improved by T. Wenger (Calcutta, 1847) and others, is still on sale. It is entirely confined to the literary Bengali of the paṇḍits. Its great rival has been Śyāmā Caraṇ Sarkār’sGrammar(Calcutta, 1850), of which there have been numerous reprints. In 1894 J. Beames published hisGrammar(Oxford), now the standard work on the subject. It is largely based on Śyāmā Caraṇ’s work, but with much new material, especially that dealing with the colloquial side of the language. G.F. Nicholl’sGrammar(London, 1885) is an independent study of the language, in which the vernacular works of the best native grammarians have been freely utilized. There is no good Bengali dictionary. G.C. Haughton’sDictionary(London, 1833) is perhaps still the best, but J. Mendies’ (Calcutta, about 1870) is also well known, and is the parent of countless others which have issued from the Calcutta presses.A Small Dictionary of Colloquial Bengali Words, by J.M.C. and G.A.C. (Calcutta, 1904), may also be studied with advantage. Cf. also Śyāmā-caraṇ Gāṇguli,Bengali Spoken and Written(Calcutta, 1906). For Bengali literature, see R.C. Dutt,The Literature of Bengal(Calcutta and London, 1895), and Hara Prasād Śāstrī,The Vernacular Literature of Bengal before the Introduction of English Education(Calcutta, n.d.). The most complete work isBangabhāsā o Sāhityaby Dīnēś Candra Sēn (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1901) in the Bengali language.

For Oriya there are E. Hallam’s (Calcutta, 1874), T. Maltby’s (Calcutta, 1874) and J. Browne’s (London, 1882)Grammars. The last two are in the Roman character. They are all mere sketches of the language. Sutton’s (Cuttack, 1841) is still the onlyDictionarywhich the present writer has found of any practical use. For Oriya literature, see App. IX. of Hunter’sOrissa(London, 1872), and Monmohan Chakravarti’s “Notes on the Language and Literature of Orissa” in theJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lxvi. (1897), part i. pp. 317 ff., and vol. lxvii. (1898), part i. pp. 332 ff.

The first AssameseGrammarwas Nathan Brown’s (Sibsagar, 1848, 3rd ed. 1893), and it is still the one usually studied. G.F. Nicholl gives an Assamese grammar as a supplement to his BengaliGrammaralready quoted. Like that work, it is quite independent, and is not a revised edition of Brown. M. Bronson’sDictionary(Sibsagar, 1867) was for long the only vocabulary available, and a very useful and practical work it was. It is now superseded by Hem Candra Baŗuā’sHema-koṣa(Shillong, 1900). For Assamese literature, see Ananda Rām Dhekiāl Phukan’sA Few Remarks on the Assamese Language(Sibsagar, 1855), partly reprinted in theIndian Antiquary, vol. xxv. (1896), pp. 57 ff.

(G. A. Gr.)

1In Mg. Pr. everyrbecomesl. For an explanation of the apparent non-observance of this rule in languages of the Eastern Group, seeBihari.

BENGAZI(anc.Hesperides-Berenice), a seaport on the north coast of Africa, capital of the sanjak of Bengazi or Barca, formerly in the vilayet of Tripoli, but, since 1875, dependent directly on the ministry of the interior at Constantinople. It is situated on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf of Sidra and a salt marsh, in 30° 7′ N. lat. and 20° 3′ E. long. Though for the most part poorly built, it has one or two buildings of some pretension—an ancient castle, a mosque, a Franciscan monastery, government buildings and barracks. Senussi influence is strong and there is a largezawia(convent). The harbour is half silted up with sand and the ruins of fortifications and is accessible only to vessels of light draught. A lighthouse has been erected at the entrance, but reefs render approach difficult, and the outer anchorage is fully exposed to west and north and not good holding. The export trade is largely in barley, shipped to British and other maltsters. The Sudan produce (ivory, ostrich feathers, &c.) formerly brought to Bengazi by caravan, has now been almost wholly diverted to Tripoli, the eastern tracks from Wadai and Borku by way of Kufra to Aujila having become so unsafe that their natural difficulties are no longer worth braving. Consular vigilance has also killed the once considerable slave trade. Trade in other commodities, however, is on the increase, exports now amounting to nearly half a million sterling and imports to half that figure. The neighbouring coast is frequented by Greek and Italian sponge-fishers, the industry being a valuable one. The province of Bengazi, being still without telegraphs or roads, is one of the most backward in the Ottoman empire.

Founded by the Greeks of Cyrenaica under the name Hesperides, the town received from Ptolemy III. the name of Berenice in compliment to his wife. The ruins of the ancient town, which superseded Cyrene and Barca as chief place in the province after the 3rd centuryA.D., are now nearly buried in the sand. The modern town lies south-west of the original site. Certain large natural pits which are found in the plain behind, and have luxuriant gardens at the bottom, are supposed to have originated the myth of the Gardens of the Hesperides. Ancient tombs are found, which in 1882 yielded fine Greek vases to G. Dennis, then British vice-consul. The present name is derived from that of a Moslem saint whose tomb, near the sea-coast, is an object of veneration. The population, amounting to about 25,000, is greatly mixed. Levantines, Maltese, Greeks and Jews form the trading community, but since 1895, when a branch of the Agenzia Italiana Commerciale was established at Bengazi, Italians have exercised an increasing influence on Cyrenaic commerce. Turks, Arabs and Berbers are the ruling castes, and negroes act as labourers and domestics. Many of these found their way to Crete, and becoming porters, &c. in Canea and Candia, were notorious for turbulence and fanaticism. In 1897 and 1898 the European admirals forcibly deported consignments of the worst characters back to Bengazi. In 1858 and again in 1874 the town was devastated by plague (see alsoTripoliandCyrenaica).

(D. G. H.)

BENGEL, JOHANN ALBRECHT(1687-1752), Lutheran divine and scholar, was born at Winnenden in Württemberg, on the 24th of June 1687. His father died in 1693, and Bengel was educated by a friend, who became a master in the gymnasium at Stuttgart. In 1703 Bengel left Stuttgart and entered the university of Tübingen, where, in his spare time, he devoted himself specially to the works of Aristotle and Spinoza, and in theology to those of Philipp Spener, Johann Arndt and August Franke. His knowledge of the metaphysics of Spinoza was such that he was selected by one of the professors to prepare materials for a treatiseDe Spinosismo, which was afterwards published. After taking his degree, Bengel devoted himself to theology. Even at this time he had religious doubts; it is interesting in view of his later work that one cause of his perplexities was the difficulty of ascertaining the true reading of certain passages in the Greek New Testament. In 1707 Bengel entered the ministry and was appointed to the parochial charge of Metzingen-unter-Urach. In the following year he was recalled to Tübingen to undertake the office ofRepetentor theological tutor. Here he remained till 1713, when he was appointed head of a seminary recently established at Denkendorf as a preparatory school of theology. Before entering on his new duties he travelled through the greater part of Germany, studying the systems of education which were in use, and visiting the seminaries of the Jesuits as well as those of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Among other places he went to Heidelberg and Halle, and had his attention directed at Heidelberg to the canons of scripture criticism published by Gerhard von Mästricht, and at Halle to C. Vitringa’sAnacrisis ad Apocalypsin. The influence exerted by these upon his theological studies is manifest in some of his works. For twenty-eight years—from 1713 to 1741—he was master (Klosterpräceptor) of theKlosterschuleat Denkendorf, a seminary for candidates for the ministry established in a former monastery of the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. To these years, the period of his greatest intellectual activity, belong many of his chief works. In 1741 he was appointed prelate (i.e.General Superintendent) at Herbrechtingen, where he remained till 1749, when he was raised to the dignity of consistorial counsellor and prelate of Alpirspach, with a residence in Stuttgart. He now devoted himself to the discharge of his duties as a member of the consistory. A question of considerable difficulty was at that time occupying the attention of the church courts, viz. the manner in which those who separated themselves from the church were to be dealt with, and the amount of toleration which should be accorded to meetings held in private houses for the purpose of religious edification. The civil power (the duke of Württemberg was a Roman Catholic) was disposed to have recourse to measures of repression, while the members of the consistory, recognizing the good effects of such meetings, were inclined to concede considerable liberty. Bengel exerted himself on the side of the members of the consistory. In 1751 the university of Tübingen conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity. He died after a short illness, in 1752.

The works on which Bengel’s reputation rests as a Biblical scholar and critic are his edition of the Greek New Testament, and hisGnomonorExegetical Commentaryon the same.(A.) His edition of the Greek Testament was published at Tübingen in 1734, and at Stuttgart in the same year, but without the critical apparatus. So early as 1725, in an addition to his edition of Chrysostom’sDe Sacerdotio, he had given an account in hisProdromus Novi Testamenti Graeci recte cauteque adornandiof the principles on which his intended edition was to be based. In preparation for his work Bengel was able to avail himself of the collations of upwards of twenty MSS., none of them, however, of great importance, twelve of which had been collated by himself. In constituting the text, he imposed upon himself the singular restriction of not inserting any various reading which had not already beenprintedin some preceding edition of the Greek text. From this rule, however, he deviated in the case of the Apocalypse, where, owing to the corrupt state of the text, he felt himself at liberty to introduce certain readings on manuscript authority. In the lower margin of the page he inserted a selection of various readings, the relative importance of which he denoted by the first five letters of the Greek alphabet in the following manner:—α was employed to denote the reading which in his judgment was the true one, although he did not venture to place it in the text; β, a reading better than that in the text; γ, one equal to the textual reading; δ and ε, readings inferior to those in the text. R. Étienne’s division into verses was retained in the inner margin, but the text was divided into paragraphs. The text was followed by a critical apparatus, the first part of which consisted of an introduction to the criticism of the New Testament, in the thirty-fourth section of which he laid down and explained his celebrated canon, “Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua” (“The difficult reading is to be preferred to that which is easy”), the soundness of which, as a general principle, has been recognized by succeeding critics. The second part of the critical apparatus was devoted to a consideration of the various readings, and here Bengel adopted the plan of stating the evidence bothagainstandin favourof a particular reading, thus placing before the reader the materials for forming a judgment. Bengel was the first definitely to propound the theory of families or recensions of MSS. His investigations had led him to see that a certain affinity or resemblance existed amongst many of the authorities for the Greek text—MSS., versions, and ecclesiastical writers; that if a peculiar reading,e.g., was found in one of these, it was generally found also in the other members of the same class; and this general relationship seemed to point ultimately to a common origin for all the authorities which presented such peculiarities. Althoughdisposed at first to divide the various documents into three classes, he finally adopted a classification into two—the African or older family of documents, and the Asiatic, or more recent class, to which he attached only a subordinate value. The theory was afterwards adopted by J.S. Semler and J.J. Griesbach, and worked up into an elaborate system by the latter critic. Bengel’s labours on the text of the Greek Testament were received with great disfavour in many quarters. Like Brian Walton and John Mill before him, he had to encounter the opposition of those who believed that the certainty of the word of God was endangered by the importance attached to the various readings. J.J. Wetstein, on the other hand, accused him of excessive caution in not making freer use of his critical materials. In answer to these strictures, Bengel published aDefence of the Greek Text of His New Testament, which he prefixed to hisHarmony of the Four Gospels, published in 1736, and which contained a sufficient answer to the complaints, especially of Wetstein, which had been made against him from so many different quarters. The text of Bengel long enjoyed a high reputation among scholars, and was frequently reprinted. An enlarged edition of the critical apparatus was published by Philip David Burk in 1763.(B.) The other great work of Bengel, and that on which his reputation as an exegete is mainly based, is hisGnomon Novi Testamenti, or Exegetical Annotations on the New Testament, published in 1742. It was the fruit of twenty years’ labour, and exhibits with a brevity of expression, which, it has been said, “condenses more matter into a line than can be extracted from pages of other writers,” the results of his study. He modestly entitled his work aGnomonor index, his object being rather to guide the reader to ascertain the meaning for himself, than to save him from the trouble of personal investigation. The principles of interpretation on which he proceeded were, to import nothingintoScripture, but to drawout ofit everything that it really contained, in conformity with grammatico-historical rules; not to be hampered by dogmatical considerations; and not to be influenced by the symbolical books. Bengel’s hope that theGnomonwould help to rekindle a fresh interest in the study of the New Testament was fully realized. It has passed through many editions, has been translated into German and into English, and is still one of the books most valued by expositors of the New Testament. John Wesley made great use of it in compiling hisExpository Notes upon the New Testament(1755).Besides the two works already described, Bengel was the editor or author of many others, classical, patristic, ecclesiastical and expository. The more important are:Ordo Temporum, a treatise on the chronology of Scripture, in which he enters upon speculations regarding the end of the world, and anExposition of the Apocalypsewhich enjoyed for a time great popularity in Germany, and was translated into several languages.Authorities.—For full details regarding Bengel the reader is referred to Oskar Wächter’sJ.A. Bengels Lebensabrissand to theMemoir of His Life and Writings(J.A. Bengels Leben und Wirken), by J.C.F. Burk, translated into English by Rev. R.F. Walker (London, 1837); see also Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie, and E. Nestle,Bengel als Gelehrter(1893).

The works on which Bengel’s reputation rests as a Biblical scholar and critic are his edition of the Greek New Testament, and hisGnomonorExegetical Commentaryon the same.

(A.) His edition of the Greek Testament was published at Tübingen in 1734, and at Stuttgart in the same year, but without the critical apparatus. So early as 1725, in an addition to his edition of Chrysostom’sDe Sacerdotio, he had given an account in hisProdromus Novi Testamenti Graeci recte cauteque adornandiof the principles on which his intended edition was to be based. In preparation for his work Bengel was able to avail himself of the collations of upwards of twenty MSS., none of them, however, of great importance, twelve of which had been collated by himself. In constituting the text, he imposed upon himself the singular restriction of not inserting any various reading which had not already beenprintedin some preceding edition of the Greek text. From this rule, however, he deviated in the case of the Apocalypse, where, owing to the corrupt state of the text, he felt himself at liberty to introduce certain readings on manuscript authority. In the lower margin of the page he inserted a selection of various readings, the relative importance of which he denoted by the first five letters of the Greek alphabet in the following manner:—α was employed to denote the reading which in his judgment was the true one, although he did not venture to place it in the text; β, a reading better than that in the text; γ, one equal to the textual reading; δ and ε, readings inferior to those in the text. R. Étienne’s division into verses was retained in the inner margin, but the text was divided into paragraphs. The text was followed by a critical apparatus, the first part of which consisted of an introduction to the criticism of the New Testament, in the thirty-fourth section of which he laid down and explained his celebrated canon, “Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua” (“The difficult reading is to be preferred to that which is easy”), the soundness of which, as a general principle, has been recognized by succeeding critics. The second part of the critical apparatus was devoted to a consideration of the various readings, and here Bengel adopted the plan of stating the evidence bothagainstandin favourof a particular reading, thus placing before the reader the materials for forming a judgment. Bengel was the first definitely to propound the theory of families or recensions of MSS. His investigations had led him to see that a certain affinity or resemblance existed amongst many of the authorities for the Greek text—MSS., versions, and ecclesiastical writers; that if a peculiar reading,e.g., was found in one of these, it was generally found also in the other members of the same class; and this general relationship seemed to point ultimately to a common origin for all the authorities which presented such peculiarities. Althoughdisposed at first to divide the various documents into three classes, he finally adopted a classification into two—the African or older family of documents, and the Asiatic, or more recent class, to which he attached only a subordinate value. The theory was afterwards adopted by J.S. Semler and J.J. Griesbach, and worked up into an elaborate system by the latter critic. Bengel’s labours on the text of the Greek Testament were received with great disfavour in many quarters. Like Brian Walton and John Mill before him, he had to encounter the opposition of those who believed that the certainty of the word of God was endangered by the importance attached to the various readings. J.J. Wetstein, on the other hand, accused him of excessive caution in not making freer use of his critical materials. In answer to these strictures, Bengel published aDefence of the Greek Text of His New Testament, which he prefixed to hisHarmony of the Four Gospels, published in 1736, and which contained a sufficient answer to the complaints, especially of Wetstein, which had been made against him from so many different quarters. The text of Bengel long enjoyed a high reputation among scholars, and was frequently reprinted. An enlarged edition of the critical apparatus was published by Philip David Burk in 1763.

(B.) The other great work of Bengel, and that on which his reputation as an exegete is mainly based, is hisGnomon Novi Testamenti, or Exegetical Annotations on the New Testament, published in 1742. It was the fruit of twenty years’ labour, and exhibits with a brevity of expression, which, it has been said, “condenses more matter into a line than can be extracted from pages of other writers,” the results of his study. He modestly entitled his work aGnomonor index, his object being rather to guide the reader to ascertain the meaning for himself, than to save him from the trouble of personal investigation. The principles of interpretation on which he proceeded were, to import nothingintoScripture, but to drawout ofit everything that it really contained, in conformity with grammatico-historical rules; not to be hampered by dogmatical considerations; and not to be influenced by the symbolical books. Bengel’s hope that theGnomonwould help to rekindle a fresh interest in the study of the New Testament was fully realized. It has passed through many editions, has been translated into German and into English, and is still one of the books most valued by expositors of the New Testament. John Wesley made great use of it in compiling hisExpository Notes upon the New Testament(1755).

Besides the two works already described, Bengel was the editor or author of many others, classical, patristic, ecclesiastical and expository. The more important are:Ordo Temporum, a treatise on the chronology of Scripture, in which he enters upon speculations regarding the end of the world, and anExposition of the Apocalypsewhich enjoyed for a time great popularity in Germany, and was translated into several languages.

Authorities.—For full details regarding Bengel the reader is referred to Oskar Wächter’sJ.A. Bengels Lebensabrissand to theMemoir of His Life and Writings(J.A. Bengels Leben und Wirken), by J.C.F. Burk, translated into English by Rev. R.F. Walker (London, 1837); see also Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie, and E. Nestle,Bengel als Gelehrter(1893).

BENGUELLA(São Felipe de Benguella), a town of Portuguese West Africa, capital of Benguella district, on a bay of the same name, in 12° 33′ S., 13° 25′ E. Benguella was founded in 1617 by the Portuguese under Manoel Cerveira Pereira. It was long the centre of an important trade, especially in slaves to Brazil and Cuba, but has now greatly declined. The anchorage, about a mile from the town, in 4 to 6 fathoms, is nothing but an open roadstead. Besides the churches of S. Felipe and S. Antonio, the hospital, and the fortress, there are only a few stone-built houses. The white population numbers about 1500. A short way beyond Benguella is Bahia Tarta, where salt is manufactured and sulphur excavated.

About 20 m. north of Benguella is Lobito Bay, a natural harbour chosen (1903) as the starting-point of a railway to Katanga. At Lobito steamers can come close inshore and discharge cargo direct. Lobito is connected with Benguella by a railway which passes about midway through Katumbella, a town at the mouth of the river of the same name, and the sea terminus of an ancient route from the heart of Central Africa through Bihe. Old Benguella is a small town about 120 m. north of Lobito Bay.

BENÍ,a river of Bolivia, a tributary of the Madeira, rising in the elevated Cordilleras near the city of La Paz and at first known as the Rio de La Paz, and flowing east, and north-east, to a junction with the Mamoré at 10° 20′ S. lat. to form the Madeira. Fully one-half of its length is through the mountainous districts of central Bolivia, where it is fed by a large number of rivers and streams from the snowclad peaks, and may be described as a raging torrent. Below Reyes its course is through the forest-covered hills and open plains of northern Bolivia, where some of the old Indian missions were located. The lower river is navigable for 217 m. from Reyes to the Esperanza rapids, 18 m. above its confluence with the Mamoré, where a fall of 20 ft. in a distance of 330 yds. obstructs free navigation. Its principal affluent is the Madre de Dios, or Mayu-tata, which rises in the eastern Cordilleras about 35 m. east of Cuzco, and flows in an east and north-east direction through northern Bolivia to a junction with the Bení 120 m. above its mouth. The principal tributaries of the Madre de Dios are the Inambari and Paucartambo, both large rivers, and the Chandless, Marcapata, and Tambopata. In length and size of its tributaries the Madre de Dios is a more important river than the Bení itself, and is navigable during the wet season to the foot of the Andes, 180 m. from Cuzco.

BENÍ(El Bení), a department of north-eastern Bolivia, bounded N. and E. by Brazil, S. by the departments of Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, and W. by La Paz and the national territory contiguous to Peru and Brazil. Pop. (est., 1900) 32,180, including 6000 wild Indians; area (est., probably too high) 102,111 sq. m. The “Llanos de Mojos,” famous for their flourishing Jesuit mission settlements of the 17th and 18th centuries, occupy the eastern part of this department and are still inhabited by an industrious peaceful native population, devoted to cattle raising and primitive methods of agriculture. Cattle and forest products, including rubber and coca, are exported to a limited extent. The capital, Trinidad (pop. 2556), is situated on the Mamoré river in an open fertile country, and was once a flourishing Jesuit mission.

BENI-AMER(Amir), a tribe of African “Arabs” of Hamitic stock, ethnologically intermediate between Abyssinians and Nubians. They are of the Beja family, and occupy the coast of the Red Sea south of Suakin and portions of the adjacent coast-country of Eritrea, north of Abyssinia. They are of very mixed Beja and Abyssinian blood, and speak a dialect half Beja and half Tigré, locally known asHassa. They marry the women of the Bogos and other mountain tribes; but are too proud to let their daughters marry Abyssinians.

SeeAnglo-Egyptian Sudan, ed. Count Gleichen (London, 1905); A.H. Keane,Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan(1884); G. Sergi,Africa: Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica(Turin, 1897).

BENI-ISRAEL(“Sons of Israel”), a colony of Jews settled on the Malabar coast in Kolaba district, Bombay presidency, chiefly centring in the native state of Janjira. With the Jews of Cochin, they represent a very ancient Judaic invasion of India, and are to be entirely distinguished from those Jews who have come to India in modern days for purposes of trade. Some authorities believe that the Beni-Israel settled in Kolaba in the 15th century, but they themselves have traditions which indicate a far longer connexion with India (seeJews: § 3).

BENIN,the name of a country, city and river of British West Africa, west of the main channel of the Niger, forming part of the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. The name was formerly applied to the coast from the Volta, in 0° 40′ E., to the Rio del Rey, in 8° 40′ E., and included the Slave Coast, the whole delta of the Niger and a small portion of the country to the eastward. Some trace of this earlier application remains in the name “Bight of Benin,” still given to that part of the sea which washes the Slave Coast, whilst up to 1894 “Benin” was used to designate the French possessions on the coast now included in Dahomey.

In its restricted sense Benin is the country formerly ruled by the king of Benin city. This area, at one time very extensive, gradually contracted as subject tribes and towns acquired independence. It may be described as bounded W. by Lagos, S. by the territory of the Jakri and other tribes of the Niger delta, E. by the Niger river, and N. by Yorubaland. The coast-line held by Benin had passed out of its sovereignty by the middle of the 19th century. In physical characteristics, climate, flora and fauna, Benin in no way differs from the rest of the southern portion of Nigeria (q.v.). The coast is low, intersected by creeks, and forms one huge mangrove swamp; on the rising ground inland are dense forests in which the cotton and mahogany trees are conspicuous.

Benin river (known also as the Jakri outlet), though linked to the Niger system by a network of creeks, is an independent stream. It is formed by the junction of two rivers, the Ethiope and the Jamieson, which rise (north of 6° N,) on the western side of the hills which slope east to the Niger river. They unite about 50 m. above the sea. The general course of the Benin is westerly. It enters the Atlantic in about 5° 46′ N., 5° 3′ E., and at its mouth is 2 m. wide. It is here obstructed by a sand-bar over which there is 12-14 ft. of water at high tide. The river is navigable by small steamers up to Sapele, a town on the south bank immediately below the junction of the head streams. The Ologi and Gwato creeks enter the Benin on the right or north bank, and on the same side (8 m. above the mouth of the river) a channel, the Lagos creek, 170 m. long, branches off to the north-west, affording a waterway to Lagos. From the south or left bank of the Benin the Forcados mouth of the Niger can be reached by the Nana creek.

The Beni are a pure negro tribe, speaking a distinct language, but having many characteristics common to those of the Yoruba- and Ewe-speaking tribes. Like the Ashanti and Dahomeyans the Beni had a well-organized and powerful government and possessed a culture rare among negro races (see below,History).

Benin city is situated in a clearing of the forest, about 25 m. from the river-port of Gwato, on Gwato creek. The principal building is the British residency, which is constructed of brick and timber. A primary school, supported by the native chiefs, was opened in 1901, and a meteorological station was established in 1902. In 1904 the town was placed in telegraphic communication with the rest of the protectorate and with Europe. Of the ancient city, whose buildings excited the admiration of travellers in the 17th and 18th centuries, scarcely a trace remains. The houses are neatly built of clay, coloured with red ochre, and frequently ornamented with rudely carved pillars. The port of Gwato, which lies about 30 m. north-north-east of the mouth of the Benin river, has a special interest as the place where Giovanni Belzoni, the explorer of Egyptian antiquities, died in 1823 when starting on an expedition to Timbuktu. No trace of his grave can now be found. Wari (formerly known also as Owari, Oywheré, &c.) is a much-frequented port on a branch of the Niger of the same name reached from the Forcados mouth, and is 55 m. south of Benin city.

Since the abolition of the slave trade the chief export of the country is palm-oil. Other trade products were from time to time—with the desire to preserve the isolation and independence of the country—placed under fetish,i.e.their export was forbidden, so that in 1897 the only article in which trade was allowed by the king was palm-oil. After the British occupation, an extensive trade developed in oil, kernels, timber, ivory, rubber, &c. In the rubber and timber industries great strides have been made. The chiefs and people have shown considerable aptitude in adapting themselves to the new order of things. Among the articles prized by the Beni is coral, of which the chiefs wear great quantities as ornaments.

History.—Benin was discovered by the Portuguese about the year 1485, and they carried on a brisk trade in slaves, who were taken to Elmina and sold to the natives of the Gold Coast. At that time and for more than two centuries afterwards, Benin seems to have been one of the most powerful states of West Africa. It was known to Europeans in the 17th century as the Great Benin. The towns of Lagos and Badagry were both founded by Benin colonists. Benin city was the seat of a theocracy of priests, in whose hands the oba or king, nominally supreme, appears to have often been a puppet. He was revered by his subjects as a species of divinity, and seldom left the enclosure surrounding the royal palace. The religion and mythology of the Beni, like those of the Yorubas, are based on spirit- and ancestor-worship (seeNegroandAfrica:Ethnology); the chief spirit or juju was worshipped with human sacrifices to an appalling extent, the Benin fetish being considered the most powerful in all West Africa. The usual form of sacrifice was crucifixion. Many chiefs, in no way politically dependent on Benin, used to send annual presents to the juju. The Benin people do not appear to have indulged in wanton cruelty, and it is stated that they usually stupefied the victims before putting them to death. The people were skilled in brass work; their carving and design were alike excellent. Carved ivory objects abound, and there are many evidences of the skill attained by native artists, who perhaps owed something to their contact with the Portuguese. The weaving of cloth was also carried on. The Beni remained politically and socially almost unaffected by European influence until the occupation of their country by the British in 1897, their connexion with the white men having previously been almost confined to matters of trade. The Portuguese withdrew from the coast in the 18th century, but one of the most striking proofs of their commercial influence is the fact that a corrupt Lusitanian dialect was spoken by the older natives up to the last quarter of the 19th century. The first English expedition to Benin was in 1553; after that time a considerable trade grew up between England and that country, ivory, palm-oil and pepper being the chief commodities exported from Benin. The Dutch afterwards established factories and maintained them for a considerable time, chiefly with a view to the slave trade. In 1788 Captain Landolphe founded a factory called Barodo, near the native village of Obobi for the French Compagnie d’Oywheré; and it lasted till 1792, when it was destroyed by the English. In 1863 Sir Richard Burton, then British consul at Fernando Po, went to Benin to try and put a stop to human sacrifices, an attempt in which he did not succeed. At that time the decline in power of the kingdom of Benin was obvious, and the city was in a decaying condition. In 1885 the coast-line of Benin was placed under British protection, and steps were taken to enter into friendly relations with the king. Consul G.F.N.B. Annesley1saw the king in 1890, with the hope of making a treaty, but failed in his object. In March 1892 Captain H.L. Gallwey, British vice-consul, succeeded in concluding a treaty with the king Overami. The treaty, however, proved of no avail, and the king kept as aloof as of old from any outside interference. In January 1897 J.R. Phillips, acting consul-general, and eight Europeans were brutally massacred on the road from Gwato to Benin city, whilst on a mission to the king. Phillips had persisted in starting for Benin despite the repeated request of the king that he should delay his visit until he (the king) had finished the celebration of the annual “customs.” Two Europeans, Captain Alan Boisragon and R.F. Locke, alone escaped. A punitive expedition was organized under the command of Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, the success of which was a remarkable example of good organization hastily improvised. The news of the massacre of Phillips’s party reached Rear-Admiral Rawson, the commander-in-chief on the Cape station, on the 4th of January 1897. The flagship was at Simons Town. The small craft were dispersed. Two ships at Malta had been ordered to join the Cape command. A transport was chartered in the Thames for the purposes of the expedition. In twenty-nine days a force of 1200 men, coming from three places between 3000 and 4500 m. from the Benin river, was landed, organized, equipped and provided with transport. Five days later the city of Benin was taken, and in twelve days more the men were re-embarked, and the ships coaled and ready for any further service. On the 17th of February Benin was occupied after considerable fighting. The town, which was found to be reeking of human sacrifices, was partly burned, and on the 22nd the expedition started on its return. The king and chiefs responsible for the massacre were placed on their trial by Sir Ralph Moor, high commissioner for Southern Nigeria; the king was deposed and deported to Calabar, and the chiefs, six in all, were executed. The chief offender was not brought to justice until a second punitive expedition in 1899 completed the pacification of the country. After the removal of the king in September 1897 a council of chiefs was appointed. This council carries on the government of the whole Beni country, and is presided over by a British resident.

Authorities.—H.L. Roth,Great Benin, its Customs, Art and Horrors(Halifax, 1903), a comprehensive and profusely illustrated work, with an annotated bibliography; C.H. Read and O.M. Dalton,Antiquities from Benin ... in the British Museum(1899); Pitt Rivers,Works of Art from Benin(1900); R.E. Dennett,At the Back of the Black Man’s Mind(London, 1906); Sir R. Burton,Wanderings in West Africa(London, 1863); H.L. Gallwey, “Journeys in the Benin Country,”Geog. Jnl., vol. i., London, 1893; A. Boisragon,The Benin Massacre(London, 1897); R.H. Bacon,Benin, the City of Blood(London, 1898), by a member of the punitive expedition of 1897; the annualReports on Southern Nigeria, issued by the Colonial Office, London.

1Mr Annesley (b. 1851), after having served in the Prussian army, and in the Turkish army during the war of 1877, was in the British consular service from 1879 to 1892. In 1888 he became consul to the Congo Free State.

BENITOITE,a mineral discovered in 1907 near the headwaters of the San Benito river, San Benito Co., California, and described by Prof. G.D. Louderback. It is a titano-silicate of barium (BaTiSi3O9), crystallizing in the hexagonal system, with a hardness of 6.5, and specific gravity 3.65. It may be colourless or blue, the colour varying sometimes in different parts, and passing to a deep sapphire blue. The blue variety is cut as a gem stone, and often resembles blue spinel, though its softness distinguishes it from spinel and sapphire. It is a brilliant stone, with high refractive index, and is strongly dichroic, being pale when viewed parallel to the principal axis and dark when viewed transversely.

BENJAMIN,a tribe of Israel, named after the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel. As distinct from the others Benjamin was born not beyond the Jordan but in Palestine, between Bethel and Ephrath. His mother, dying in childbed, gave him the name Ben-oni, “Son of my sorrow,” which was changed by his father to Ben-jamin, meaning probably “Son of the right hand” (i.e.“of prosperity,” or, perhaps, “son of the south”; Gen. xxxv. 16-18). Of his personal history little is recorded. He was the favourite of his father and brothers (with which contrast the spirit of the stories in Judg. xix.-xxi.), and the reputation of fierceness ascribed to him in the blessing of Jacob (“Benjamin is a wolf that teareth,” Gen. xlix. 27) agrees with what is told of the tribe’s warriors (seeEhud,Saul,Jonathan). It is a curious feature that its noted slingers were said to be left-handed (Judg. xx. 16, cf. iii. 15) and even ambidextrous (1 Chron. xii. 2). The late references to this tribe in the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness are of little value. On entering Palestine it is allotted a portion encompassed by the districts of Ephraim, Dan and Judah. In the time of the “judges” the tribe of Benjamin was almost exterminated (seeJudges, Book of), 600 men alone escaping (Judges xix. sqq.). The tribe was built up again by the rape of the maidens of Shiloh at one of their annual festivals (for which cf. Judges ix. 27), but a later narrative gives currency to a tradition that 400 virgins were also brought to Shiloh, the survivors of a massacre of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead. At all events, Benjamin claimed the honour of providing the great king of Israel whose heroic deliverance of Jabesh-Gilead is referred to elsewhere (seeSaul), and it is noteworthy that the tribe only now attain historical importance. If the genealogies associated it with Joseph the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, its fortunes were for a time bound up with the northern kingdom (seeDavid). Although its territory lies open on the west and east, its physical features unite it to Judah, and what is known of its mixed population1makes it difficult to determine how far the youngest of the tribes of Israel enjoyed any independent position previous to the monarchy. Its neutral position between Judah and Ephraim gave it an importance which was religious as well as political. Anathoth the home of Abiathar and Jeremiah, Gibeon the old Canaanite sanctuary, the royal sanctuary at Bethel, its associations with Samuel and the prophetic gilds of the times of Elijah and Elisha, and finally Jerusalem itself, the centre of worship, give “the least of all the tribes” a unique value in the history of Old Testament religion.

See H.W. Hogg,Ency. Bib., col. 534 sqq.

(S. A. C.)

1Jerusalem and its district was Jebusite until its capture by David (see 2 Sam. v.); for Beeroth and Gibeon, see 2 Sam. iv. 2 seq., xxi. 2, and note the Benjamite and Judahite names which find analogies in the Edomite genealogies. See, on these points, S.A. Cook,Jew. Quarterly Review(1906), pp. 528 sqq.

BENJAMIN OF TUDELA(in Navarre), a Jewish rabbi of the 12th century. He visited Constantinople, Egypt, Assyria and Persia, and penetrated to the frontiers of China. His journeys occupied him for about thirteen years. He was credulous, but hisItinerary, orMassa’oth, contains some curious notices of the countries he visited and of the condition of the Jews. Thus his work is of much value for the Jewish history of the 12th century. It is from Benjamin that we know that the Jews of Palestine and other parts of the East were noted for the arts of dyeing and glass-making.

HisItinerarywas translated from the Hebrew into Latin by Arias Montanus in 1575, and appeared in a French version by Baratier in 1734. There have been various English translations. One was published by Asher in 1840; another (with critical Hebrew text) by M.N. Adler (Jewish Quarterly Review, vols. xvi.-xviii.; also reprinted as a separate volume, 1907).

BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP(1811-1884), Anglo-American lawyer, of Jewish descent, was born a British subject at St Thomas in the West Indies on the 11th of August 1811, and was successively an American lawyer, a leading Confederate politician and a distinguished English barrister. He eventually died in Paris a domiciled Frenchman. After 1818 his parents lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and he went to Yale in 1825 for his education, but left without taking a degree, and entered an attorney’s office in New Orleans. He was admitted to the New Orleans bar in 1832. He compiled with his friend John Slidell a valuable digest of decisions of the superior courts of New Orleans and Louisiana; and as a partner in the firm of Slidell, Benjamin & Conrad, he enjoyed a good practice. In 1848 he was admitted a councillor of the supreme court, and in 1852 he was elected a senator for Louisiana, and thereafter he took an active part in politics, declining to accept a judgeship of the supreme court. In 1861 he withdrew from the Senate, left Washington and actively espoused the Confederate cause. He joined Jefferson Davis’s provisional government as attorney-general, becoming afterwards his secretary for war (1861-1862), and chief secretary of state (1862-1865). Although at times subject to fierce criticism with regard to matters of administration and finance, he was recognized as one of the ablest men on the Confederate side, and he remained with Jefferson Davis to the last, sharing his flight after the surrender at Appomattox, and only leaving him shortly before his capture, because he found himself unable to go farther on horseback. He escaped from the coast of Florida in an open boat, and after many vicissitudes reached England, an exile. In 1866 his remaining property was lost in the banking failure of Overend & Gurney.

In London Benjamin was able to earn a little money by journalism, and on the 13th of January 1866 he entered Lincoln’s Inn. He received a hospitable welcome from the legal profession. The influence of English judges who knew his abilities and his circumstances enabled him to be called to the bar on the 6th of June 1866, dispensing with the usual three years as a student, and he acquired his first knowledge of the practice and methods of English courts as the pupil of Mr C.E. (afterwards Baron) Pollock. Pollock fully recognized his abilities and they became and remained firm friends. Benjamin was naturally an apt and useful pupil; for instance, an opinion of Mr Pollock, which for long guided the London police in the exercise of their right to search prisoners, is mentioned by him as having been really composed by Benjamin while he was still his pupil. Benjamin joined the northern circuit, and a large proportion of his early practice came from solicitors at Liverpool who had correspondents in New Orleans. His business gradually increased, and having received a patent of precedence, he was on the 2nd of November 1872 called within the bar as a queen’s counsel. In addition to his knowledge of law and of commercial matters he had considerable eloquence, and a power of marshalling facts and arguments that rendered him extremely effective, particularly before judges. He was less successful in addressing juries, and towards the close of his career did not takeNisi priuswork, but in the court of appeal and House of Lords and before the judicial committee of the privy council he enjoyed a very large practice, making for some time fully £15,000 a year. The question of raising him to the bench was seriously considered by Lord Cairns, who, however, seems to have thought that the ungrudging hospitality andgoodwill with which Benjamin had been received by the English legal profession had gone far enough. Towards the close of his career he was in ill health, and he suffered from the results of a fall from a tramcar. He retired in 1882 to a house in Paris which he had built and where he had been in the habit of passing his vacations with his wife, who was a Frenchwoman. He never returned to practice, but came back to London to be entertained by the bench and bar of England at a banquet in the Inner Temple Hall on the 30th of June 1883. He died at Paris on the 6th of May 1884.

Benjamin was thick-set and stout, with an expression of great shrewdness. An early portrait of him is to be found in Jefferson Davis’sRise and Fall of the Confederate Government. His political history may be traced in that work, and in John W. Draper’sAmerican Civil Warand von Holst’sConstitutional History of the United States. Many allusions to his English career will be found in works describing English lawyers of his period, and there are some interesting reminiscences of him by Baron Pollock in theFortnightly Reviewfor March 1898. HisTreatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property with References to the American Decisions and to the French Code and Civil Law—a bulky volume known to practitioners asBenjamin on Sales—is the principal text-book on its subject, and a fitting monument of the author’s career at the English bar, of his industry and learning. Many of his American speeches have been published.

SeeJudah P. Benjamin, by Pierce Butler (Philadelphia, 1907, with a good bibliography).

BEN LEDI(Gaelic, “the hill of God”), a mountain of Perthshire, Scotland, 2875 ft. high, 5 m. by road N.W. of Callander. It is situated close to some of the most romantic scenery in the Highlands, and is particularly well known through Scott’sLady of the Lake. Its name is supposed to point to the time when Beltane rites were observed on its summit. A cairn was built on the top in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s jubilee. On one of the sides of the mountain is a tarn which bears the name of Lochan nan Corp, “the little loch of the dead,” from an accident to a funeral party by which 200 lives were lost.

BENLLIURE Y GIL, JOSÉ(1858- ), Spanish painter, was born at Valencia, studied painting under Domingo, and showed from the first such marked talent that he was sent to the Spanish school in Rome. He was one of the select circle pensioned by the Spanish government for residence in Italy and executed several state orders for the decoration of public buildings; but he owes his chief fame to his large historical paintings, notably the “Vision in the Coliseum.” He became the leader of the Spanish art colony in Rome, where he practised as painter and sculptor.

BEN LOMOND,a mountain in the north-west of Stirlingshire, Scotland. It is situated near the eastern bank of Loch Lomond, about 9 m. from the head and about 15 from the foot. It is 3192 ft. high, and the prevailing rocks are granite, mica schist, diorite, porphyry and quartzite, the last, where it crops out on the surface, gleaming in the distance like snow. Duchray Water, a head-stream of the Forth, rises in the north-east shoulder. The hill, which is covered with grass to the top, is a favourite climb, being ascended from Rowardennan (the easiest) or Inversnaid on the lake, or Aberfoyle 10 m. inland due east. The view from the summit extends northward as far as the Grampians, with occasional glimpses of Ben Nevis; westward to Jura in the Atlantic; south-westward to Arran in the Firth of Clyde; southward to Tinto Hill, the Lowthers and Cairnsmore; and eastward to Edinburgh Castle and Arthur’s Seat.

BENLOWES, EDWARD(1603?-1676), English poet, son of Andrew Benlowes of Brent Hall, Essex, was born about 1603. He matriculated at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1620, and on leaving the university he made a prolonged tour on the continent of Europe. He was a Roman Catholic in middle life, but became a convert to Protestantism in his later years. He dissipated his fortune by openhanded generosity to his friends and relations, and possibly by serving in the Civil War; so that he was in great poverty at the time of his death, which occurred on the 18th of December 1676. The last eight years of his life were passed at Oxford. Many of his writings are in Latin. His most important work isTheophila, or Love’s Sacrifice, a Divine Poem(1652). The poem deals with mystical religion, telling how the soul, represented by Theophila, ascends by humility, zeal and contemplation, and triumphs over the sins of the senses. It is written in a curious stanza of three lines of unequal length rhyming together. Until recent times justice has hardly been done to Benlowes’ poetical merits and indisputable piety. Samuel Butler, who satirized him in his “Character of a Small Poet,” found abundant matter for ridicule in his eccentricities; and Pope and Warburton noted him as a patron of bad poets.

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