across the western Asian trade-routes, Babylonia being in the south and
Assyria in the north. The area, in which they flourished is embraced by the
Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, and extends from the head of the Persian Gulf
to the frontiers of Armenia and Northern Syria, is bordered on the east by
Persia and on the west by the Syro-Arabian desert. 'Mesopotamia' is a term
borrowed by the ancient Greeks from the Semites, and was first applied to
the north-western region. There was a Roman province of that name. The
northern area of the Tigro-Euphrates valley is partly mountainous and
partly steppe land, with wide stretches of elevated grazing-lands and
fertile districts on the banks of rivers. Assyria, derived from A-usar
('the river-bank region'), had origin in north-eastern Mesopotamia. Its
most ancient capital, Asshur (modern Kal'at Sherkat), was situated on the
western bank of the River Tigris, between the tributaries the Upper Zab and
the Lower Zab. Nineveh, the last capital of all, lay farther north on the
eastern bank of the Tigris, and right opposite modern Mosul. The Assyrians
called themselves Asshurai, and their national god was Ashur (earlier
Ashir), written A-Shur, but confused in time with Ash-Shur, the name of the
capital. The southern area of Mesopotamia, below Bagdad, where the Tigris
and Euphrates come within 35 miles of one another, is a flat alluvial
plain. Babylonia proper is that fish-shaped region between the rivers,
which broadens out to about 100 miles and gradually narrows to the point at
Kurnah where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab. From Kurnah to the
head of the Persian Gulf is the ancient area of Chaldea, which means
'Sea-land'. The inhabitants called themselves Kaldu (Sea-landers) and were
known to the Hebrews as the Kasdim, and to the Greeks as the Chaldaioi.
Babylonia, and the rest of the alluvial plain, is the 'gift' of the rivers
which rise in flood each year when the snow melts on the Armenian
mountains. Both the Tigris and the Euphrates bring down enormous quantities
of sediment--indeed five times as much as does the Egyptian Nile--and they
have withal more destructive tendencies. The accumulating silt tends to
divert the flow of the rivers in the south, and a process of land-making
which began at the close of the Ice Age is still in progress, thrusting
back the head of the Persian Gulf. At one time the Tigris and Euphrates
entered the gulf by separate mouths, and Chaldea was then a narrow fringe
of steppe land, plain, and marshes. The River Tigris is about 1146 miles
long, and begins to rise early in March, reaching its height in May, and
subsiding before the end of June. The Euphrates is a slower river, about
1780 miles in length. It begins to rise a fortnight later than the Tigris,
is longer in flood, and does not reach its lowest level until September. As
there is a drop of only 120 feet between Bagdad and the sea, a distance, as
the crow flies, of about 300 miles, the ancient Babylonians did their
utmost to conserve the water which came down in such abundance and was
rapidly drained away, after doing much damage. Near Bagdad the Tigris is on
a higher level than the Euphrates, and could be run into it through a
canal; farther south the Euphrates, being on the higher level, could be run
by canal into the Tigris. The ancient engineers cut these and other canals;
indeed, they covered the whole valley with a network of them. To store the
Euphrates water for the season of drought and great heat, they formed
canals which carried the roaring flood into two depressions in the western
desert between the modern towns of Kerbela and Ram[.a]di. These depressions
are utilized for the British irrigation scheme. The Babylonians did their
utmost to control the Tigris by erecting earthen dams so as to hold up as
much of the water as possible. Earthen dykes were also erected to raise its
banks. The right bank protected the farms from disastrous flooding. These
ancient irrigation works made Babylonia the greatest grain-yielding area in
the ancient world. Its vast surplus of food stimulated trade and brought
Babylonia immense wealth, while its strategic situation made it very
powerful. Its cultural influence flowed along the trade routes, eastward
across Persia and the Iranian plateau, northward through Assyria to Armenia
(ancient Urartu) and beyond, and north-westward along the Euphrates banks
into Syria and Palestine, and into Asia Minor, the land of the Hittites,
and then along the highway to Europe, called later by the Persians 'the
royal road'. The road to Egypt ran southward from North Syria through
Palestine, skirting the maritime valley by 'the way of the Philistines'.
The merchants of many nations met in the city of Babylon, the London of the
ancient western Asian world, and in the trading centres of North Syria,
including Carchemish.
[Illustration: Assyrian Soldiers]
The earliest agriculturists and traders of Babylonia were the Sumerians, a
non-Semitic people, who built a number of cities in the irrigated valley
and founded colonies in Assyria. No trace has been found of a Neolithic Age
in Babylonia. Its civilization, so far as our knowledge goes, began after
copper was introduced. At an early period Semites filtered into the valley.
They absorbed Sumerian civilization, and ultimately became politically
predominant in the northern part of the valley, which was called Akkad (the
biblical Accad). The southern part was then known as Sumer or Sumeria (the
biblical 'Plain of Shinar'). Akkad embraced the city States of Agade,
Babylon, Borsippa, Sippar, Kish, Opis, and Kutha. The Sumerian city States
included Eridu, Ur (later 'of the Chaldees' and the birthplace of Abraham),
Lagash, Shuruppak, Erech, Umma, and Adab. Inter-state wars resulted time
and again in the formation of confederacies which were more of political
than racial character, and the predominance of one city or another.
Religious ideas were fused, and local pantheons appear to have reflected
local politics. The chief seat of early Sumerian civilization was the city
of Eridu, a name signifying 'on the seashore'. Its site is marked by modern
Abu-Shahrein on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, and south-east of Ur,
modern Mukayyar. Eridu was originally a seaport on the Persian Gulf, from
which it is now separated by about 125 miles of land formed by river silt.
The chief god of Eridu was Ea, a name also rendered Ae and Aa, and
apparently meaning 'waters' or 'house (region) of waters'. That the term
'waters' had a special significance for the inhabitants of a water-formed
land is evident by the fact that the Semitic equivalent of Ea is Enki,
which means 'lord of earth'. Other titles of the god were 'lord of Heaven
and Earth', 'ruler of the land', 'the deep', 'god of the abyss', and 'king
of the river'. He was withal the 'Creator', water having created Sumeria,
and Nadimmud, 'lord of everything', as the Egyptian Osiris in his character
of god of the Nile was 'Neb-er-Zer', also 'lord of everything'. Ea had a
ship with a crew including his son Marduk (Merodach or Marad, the Ni-marad
or Nimrod of legend) and In-ab, 'the pilot of Eridu'. The ship was hailed,
in religious literature, as the bringer of fertility and joy. Evidently the
beginning of Sumerian civilization had some connection with ancient
seafarers. Of special interest in this connection are the references made
by the Greek writer Berosus to Oannes, a sea-dweller who came daily from
the Persian Gulf to instruct the early Babylonians how to irrigate the
land, grow crops, erect houses, make laws, write, calculate and measure,
and engage in trade. Texts have been discovered which tend to identify
Oannes with the god Ea. As the early Sumerians bore a strong physical
resemblance to the ancient Egyptians, and there were links between the
early religious beliefs and customs of the two peoples, it is suspected
that they represented two branches of the same ancient stock. Some think
Sumerian civilization was founded by colonists from Egypt, while others
believe that Egyptian civilization was stimulated by settlers from Sumeria.
The question as to who first invented ships has an important bearing in
this connection. When we turn to Sumero-Babylonian religious myths we find
that some reflect local natural phenomena. In one the Euphrates is hailed
as the River (god) "who didst create all things". Another, referring to the
creation of man, says that Marduk (earlier the god Gilimma) "tied reeds on
the face of the waters, he formed dust and poured it out beside the reeds
... he formed mankind". Another version is that man was created from the
god's blood and bone, or, as Berosus has it, from the god's blood and
earth. The oldest Sumerian creation myth states that all things came from
primeval water. Then many deities were created by the pre-existing triad of
gods, Anu (the sky-god), Enlil ('the elder Bel', the earth-god, and 'lord
of grain'), and Ea, who was associated with the goddess Ninkharsagga. Ea
had several other wives, including Ninshar or Ninkurra, Ninella, Nintu, and
Damkina. These goddesses were ultimately all absorbed by Ishtar, the
Semitic name of the love and mother goddess. In the later Babylonian 'Seven
Tablets' version of the creation myth a conflict is introduced. The female
chaos-dragon Tiamat is slain by Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, 'the
later Bel', who cuts up her body and uses part to form the sky and part to
keep the waters in their place. After a time a deluge took place. In the
Sumerian myth a priest-king called Ziusudu (earlier named Tatug or Uttu)
corresponds both to Adam and to Noah, and builds a large vessel, having
been warned by Ea of the approaching disaster. The Gilgamesh Epic refers to
the hero as Ut-na-pishtim (or Pir-na-pishtim). He and his wife afterwards
become immortal, and they are visited on their island by Gilgamesh (the
Babylonian Hercules), when, smitten by disease, he searches for the Plant
of Life, which he finds and afterwards loses. Ishtar, the goddess who plays
a part in this epic, is also the heroine of the poetic legend which tells
of her descent to Hades in quest of Tammuz, whose story resembles somewhat
that of Adonis and has Osirian characteristics. The Babylonian Persephone
was Eresh-ki-gal with whom Tammuz dwelt in her underworld for part of the
year. Associated with her was Nergal, chief god of Kutha, whose planet was
Mars. He conquered Hades. He and other city gods appear to have been
developed from attributes vaguely shared by the earlier triad Anu,
Bel-Enlil, and Ea. The moon-god of Ur was Sin (Sumerian Nannara), whose
name clings to the desert of Sinai. Shamash was the Semitic name of the
sun-god of Sippar, the Sumerian being Utu; Gishnu, the Light, and
Ma-banda-anna, 'the boat of heaven' (like the Egyptian Ra), and Mitra were
among his other non-Semitic names. Dagan, the god of the Euphrates, is
regarded as a form of Ea, and as probably the same deity as Dagon of the
Philistines. In later times the astrologers coloured with their doctrines
the religious beliefs of Babylonia.
Among the early empire-builders of Babylonia were Lugal-zaggisi of Sumerian
Erech, who claimed to have subdued all lands from the Lower Sea (Persian
Gulf) to the Upper Sea (the Mediterranean). He flourished about 2800 B.C.
Another was Sargon of Akkad, who lived about a century and a half later. He
must not be confused with the much later biblical Sargon of Assyria. His
son or grandson, Naram-Sin, recorded his great trading activities and
victories over his enemies, including the Elamites, whose chief stronghold
was Susa in south-western Persia. Elam was a rival power of considerable
strength. About 2200 B.C. it had overrun a great part of Sumeria, and Akkad
fell to the invading bands of Amorites. These Amorites founded the
Hammurabi Dynasty, of which the king of that name was sixth in succession;
Hammurabi extinguished the last sparks of Elamite power in Sumeria, which,
with Akkad, was united to form the kingdom of Babylonia, named after
Babylon, the capital. It was during this period that Abraham migrated from
Ur to Palestine. Hammurabi (_c._ 2123-2081 B.C.) codified the ancient
Sumerian laws and did much to develop trade. The chief god of his kingdom
was Marduk, 'the later Bel', whose temple was called Esagilla. Babylon
became the greatest trading centre in Western Asia and a rival of the
Egyptian Memphis. Sumerian gradually ceased to be a spoken language, being
supplanted by Semitic, but remained, like Latin, in mediaeval Europe, the
language of law, culture, and religion, while the Babylonian language
became the language of trade and diplomacy, and was used in international
correspondence by all the great Powers. The Hammurabi dynasty came to an
end about 1926 B.C., when the Hittites raided Babylonia and carried off the
statues of Marduk and his consort. Kassites, assisted by Elamites, had been
attacking Babylonia from the east, and the Sea-landers, who were Arabians
mixed with Sumerians, established their independence. In the end the
Kassites, who were probably Aryan by race, conquered Babylonia and
established a new dynasty. Like the Trojans they were 'tamers of horses'.
Their military successes are believed to have been due to the use of the
horse, which was a rarity in Babylonia before their time, but became common
as a beast of burden as soon as the Kassite dynasty was established.
Kassite supremacy lasted for over 570 years, and during that period
Babylonia was known as Karduniash. One of its early kings brought back from
Khani (Mitanni) the statues of Marduk and his consort which had been
carried off by the Hittites. Babylonian civilization was not changed by
Kassite conquest, and its trade went on as of yore. The Kassites formed an
aristocracy like the Normans in England. During the Kassite period Assyria
was a growing power. It had origin as a Sumerian colony, but above the
relics of the Sumerians at Asshur have been found those of a people whose
kings had such non-Semitic and probably Aryan names as Ushpia, Kikia, and
Adasi. The Amorites afterwards swept into Assyria, which they Semitized.
During the Hammurabi dynasty it was subject to Babylonian overlordship. It
grew independent during the latter period of the Kassite dynasty, and its
kings formed compacts with the Kassites. Their western neighbours were by
this time the Mitannians. An Aryan military aristocracy had formed a
powerful State in north-western Mesopotamia, where they worshipped Indra,
Varuna, and Mitra, gods which figure in the mythology of the Aryan invaders
of India. Egypt, under Thothmes III, extended her Syrian empire to the
borders of Mitannia and a friendship sprang up between the two Powers.
Assyria was during the period subject to Mitanni. The Tell-el-Amarna
letters reveal the fact that Egyptian monarchs had married princesses from
Mitanni, and the famous Akhenaton had Mitannian blood in his veins.
[Illustration: Ashur-natsir-pal in Chariot, hunting Lions about 884 B.C.
From a relief in the Palace of Nimrod]
[Illustration: Tablet recording the Wars of Sennacherib]
The Hittites conquered Northern Syria and overran Mitannia when the
Egyptian Asian empire went to pieces. Assyria then became powerful and
independent again, the first great king of its new age being Ashur-uballit,
who was strong enough to interfere with Babylonia's domestic politics.
Shalmaneser I of Assyria (_c._ 1300 B.C.) conquered the whole of the
Mitanni kingdom and extended the Assyrian empire westward across the
Babylonian caravan road to North Syria. He built a new capital at Kalah
(Nimrud). His son, Tulkulti--Nineb I--(_c._ 1275 B.C.), conquered Babylonia
and reigned over it for seven years. In the end he was murdered by
political conspirators, with whom his son was associated. Civil war ensued,
and Assyria's history is found to be obscure for a century afterwards. In
Babylon the Kassite dynasty, under which trade flourished, came to an end
as a result of an Elamite invasion about 1185 B.C. A new Babylonian dynasty
then arose, and the third king, Nebuchadnezzar I, revived the old empire
and waged war against Assyria. But the future lay with Assyria, which was
organized as a military State. It did not have Babylonia's natural
resources, and could only exist as a great Power by imposing tribute on
weaker States. A standing army was the basis of its strength. The national
god was Ashur, who was symbolized by a winged disk, an adaptation of the
Egyptian winged disk of Horus. It was carried to battle with the king, so
that wherever the king was, there was the national god of war. The
heavily-bearded Assyrians were a fiercer and more war-like people than the
mild shaven Babylonians, who were ever influenced by Sumerian modes of
thought. The Assyrian temperament is reflected in its art, which at its
best is characterized by vigorous realism and brilliant ferocity. Much of
it is harsh, exaggerated, and pompous. A sharp contrast is presented by the
calmer and more idealistic art of the Sumero-Babylonians. The records of
Assyrian monarchs deal mainly with extensive conquests. They did their
utmost to set up a reign of terror in Western Asia, and when subject States
revolted the chief men in them were flayed alive or impaled on stakes. The
wholesale destruction of trading city States and the massacres of thousands
of innocents were fit subjects for an Assyrian conqueror to boast of in his
inscriptions. Hittites, North Syrians, Babylonians, and Urartians
(Armenians), were time and again plundered and subjected. A great conqueror
of the Middle Period was Tiglath-Pileser I (_c._ 1100 B.C.), and other
monarchs of the same name repeated his conquests and atrocities during the
last century of Assyria's existence. The military glory of such a monarch
as Ashur-natsir-pal III (885-860 B.C.), whose armies swept through western
Asia like cyclones, has a lurid background of savage cruelty and
oppression. He fought for no greater cause than plunder and the maintenance
of Assyria's ability to wring tribute from the oppressed. His son,
Shalmaneser III, extended the empire but died under a cloud of internal
revolt. Subsequent rulers dominated Babylonia, and one, Adad-nirari IV
(810-782 B.C.), married the Babylonian princess, Sammurammat, the Semiramis
of tradition. Tiglath-Pileser IV (745-727 B.C.) was overlord of Babylon,
and, indeed, Babylonia was more or less under Assyrian sway for the next
century. Sargon II ('Sargon the later') did his utmost to break the
national spirit in subject States by transporting whole communities from
one to another. He removed a portion of the 'ten lost tribes' to the Median
hills, and dispatched Babylonians from Kutha to Samaria, where they made
Nergal their chief god. His campaigns extended to Phoenicia, Cilicia, and
Armenia. Sennacherib, his son, defeated Egypt and her allies in Palestine
and besieged Hezekiah in Jerusalem. A revolution in Babylonia broke out,
and he swept into it and devastated Babylon, so that Nineveh might become
the chief city in Mesopotamia. But Babylon had to be rebuilt by his son
Esarhaddon, so that its dislocated trade might be restored. Esarhaddon,
recognizing that the great commercial rival of Babylonia was Egypt, and
that Egypt instigated the Palestinian and Syrian revolts against Assyria,
invaded the Nile valley and captured and sacked Memphis. Ashur-bani-pal
(668-626 B.C.), the next Assyrian emperor, punished the Egyptian rebels by
sweeping southwards and capturing and sacking Thebes, which is referred to
as No (Nu-Amon) in the Bible (_Nahum_, iii, 8-10): "Populous No ... Yet was
she carried away ... her young children also were dashed in pieces at the
top of all the streets: and they (the Assyrians) cast lots for her
honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains". Egypt became
for a time an Assyrian province. Elam was similarly dealt with, the great
capital Susa being treated like Thebes. On the north and east Assyrian
power was established with characteristic Assyrian ferocity and
thoroughness. The result was that the predatory nomadic tribes of Scythians
and Medes were able to sweep through the devastated territories and strike
at the very heart of the empire. Ashur-bani-pal was the last great monarch
of Assyria. In private life he was cultured and scholarly, and his library,
which contained copies of many ancient records and literary works, is one
of the sources of Mesopotamian history. Although the Sardanapulus of Greek
tradition, he was not the actual monarch who perished when Nineveh was
captured and sacked about 606 B.C. by the fiery hillmen from the east. The
Assyrian military organization collapsed and Assyria ceased to be. The
factors that led to the downfall of Assyria can only be guessed at. It may
be that its many wars of conquest had left it in a state of exhaustion. It
is also possible that the new generation of the aristocratic class that
grew up in wealth and luxury was disorganized by intrigues and corruption.
After Ashur-bani-pal died, no great leader arose, and the vast unwieldy
empire suffered from internal decay. Babylonia was the first to foster
organized revolt. It was overrun by the Chaldeans from the south, who, two
years after Ashur-bani-pal's death, set on the throne at Babylon their
leader, King Nabopolassar. With him began the Neo-Babylonian dynasty which
lasted for 86 years. He had an ambitious and capable son named
Nebuchadnezzar, who set out, as soon as Nineveh fell, to seize the western
portion of the Assyrian Empire--the Medes, with whom the Chaldeans had an
agreement, being content to retain north-eastern Mesopotamia. The
Egyptians, having overcome the Assyrian garrisons in the Nile valley, were
by this time moving northward through Palestine with the idea of
re-establishing their ancient empire in Asia. Memphis and Babylon were
rival trading centres, and the struggle that ensued was one which was to
decide which should have preeminence on the western Asian trade-routes, and
especially the 'clearing-houses' of North Syria. In 604 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar
met and defeated Pharaoh Necho's Egyptian army at Carchemish. The Egyptians
retreated in confusion and were pursued to their frontier. Nabopolassar's
death in Babylon caused Nebuchadnezzar to return home and ascend the
throne. Eight years later, [Illustration] however, he was back in Palestine
again. Judah had been plotting with Egypt, its ally, and the Babylonian
monarch besieged and captured Jerusalem. Thousands of Jews were carried off
as captives to Babylonia. In 587 B.C. Egypt involved Judah in a second
revolt. Nebuchadnezzar II again captured Jerusalem. This time he destroyed
the city and carried away the greater part of the remnant of the Jewish
people to serve his artisans and agriculturists "by Babel's streams".
Babylon was triumphant as a political and trading centre, and, during
Nebuchadnezzar's long reign of 42 years, prospered greatly. Its products
and its culture were carried far and wide, and Chaldean astrologers as well
as merchants became known in Egypt and Greece. Babylonia was the birthplace
of the science of astronomy, which developed from astrology. Nebuchadnezzar
was a great builder. It is the ruins of his Babylon that have been
excavated in our own day. Although Greek descriptions of the city have been
found to be somewhat exaggerated, it was yet made very strong and
impressive. The royal palace was rebuilt, and the Hanging Garden on its
terraced platform became one of the seven wonders of the world. Trade
flourished in the capital, and a harbour was built at the head of the
Persian Gulf to promote sea traffic. In 539 B.C. Cyrus, the Persian
conqueror, having defeated the Babylonian army, entered Babylon in state
and was welcomed by the priests, Nabo-nidus, the last king of the
Neo-Babylonian empire, having made them his enemies. The independence of
Babylonia then came to an end, but the importance of its capital as a
trading centre did not suffer sudden decline. When it was captured by
Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. it had been much damaged in consequence of
revolts against Persia. The Macedonian conqueror resolved to make it his
capital, but his early death, and subsequent political developments,
hastened its decay. The Greeks had removed the rocks that blocked the
Tigris, which then could be navigated by vessels from the Persian Gulf.
Seleucus built the new capital of Seleucia on the right bank of the Tigris,
and the traders followed the officials to the new Babylon. In time
Ctesiphon arose on the left bank, and after the fall of the Parthian empire
it was the principal city of the province. The Moslem conquest of
Mesopotamia in the seventh century of our era brought about the rise of
Bagdad, a few miles to the north of Ctesiphon. It will be noted that all
these cities are strategically situated in the neck of land, between the
rivers, which is crossed by the caravan roads leading east and west. During
the reign of the famous Harun al Rashid (786-809) Bagdad was at the height
of its splendour. A portion of this ruler's great palace still remains, and
the tomb of Zobiede, his queen, is a prominent feature on the outskirts of
the city. Bagdad declined as a trading centre after Vasco da Gama
discovered the sea-route to India, and diverted the merchandise previously
carried to Europe across the overland routes across Persia and through
Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Bagdad afterwards depended chiefly on the
traffic caused by pilgrim caravans to and from Mecca. The disastrous
neglect of Babylonia's irrigation system occurred under Turkish rule.
Towards the close of the nineteenth century Germany obtained concessions
from the Turks and planned the Bagdad railway, so as to reopen the ancient
overland trade-route for Indo-Persian trade. British interests in the
Persian Gulf were seriously threatened by this scheme. When war broke out
in 1914, a British force landed in ancient Chaldea and pushed northward.
Bagdad, the modern Babylon, was captured in 1917, and Mosul (Nineveh) was
occupied in 1918. The Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Turkey
placed Mesopotamia under the protection of Great Britain, which thus
secured control of the Bagdad railway. An extensive irrigation scheme in
the southern alluvial valley promises to restore ancient Babylonia to its
importance as one of the great grain-yielding areas of the
world.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. W. Rogers, _History of Babylonia and Assyria_; H.
Winckler, _History of Babylonia and Assyria_; L. W. King and H. R. H. Hall,
_Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of recent Discoveries_; P. S. P.
Handcock, _The Latest Light on Bible Lands_; L. W. King, _History of
Babylon_; D. A. Mackenzie, _Myths of Babylonia and Assyria_; T. G. Pinches,
_The Religion of Babylon and Assyria_; _The Old Testament in the Light of
the Records of Assyria and Babylonia_; A. H. Sayce, _Religions of Ancient
Egypt and Babylonia_; M. Jastrow, _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice
in Babylonia and Assyria_; R. Koldeweg, _The Excavations of Babylon_.
BABYROUSSA (bab-i-r[u:]s'a; a Malay word signifying stag-hog), a species of
wild hog (_Sus_ or _Porcus Babyrussa_), a native of the Indian Archipelago.
From the outside of the upper jaw spring two teeth 12 inches long, curving
upwards and backwards like horns, and almost touching the forehead. The
tusks of the lower jaw also appear externally, though they are not so long
as those of the upper jaw. Along the back are some weak bristles, and on
the rest of the body only a sort of wool. These animals live in herds, feed
on herbage, are sometimes tamed, and their flesh is well flavoured.
BAC'CARAT, a gambling card game of French origin, played by any number of
players, or rather betters, and a banker. The latter deals two cards to
each player and two to himself, and covers the stakes of each with an equal
sum. The cards are then examined, and according to the scores made the
players take their own stake and the banker's, or the latter takes all or a
certain number of the stakes.
BACCARAT (b[.a]k-[.a]-rae), a town of France, about 15 miles south-east of
Luneville, department Meurthe-et-Moselle, on the River Meurthe, with a
handsome new church, and one of the largest works for plate-glass and
crystal in France. Pop. 7277.