Bideford (Bedeford, Bydyford, Budeford, _Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bible" to "Bisectrix" Volume 3, Slice 7

pre-Conquest records, but according to Domesday it rendered geld for

three hides to the king. From the time of the Conquest down to the

18th century, Bideford remained in the possession of the Grenville

family, and it first appears as a borough in an undated charter

(probably of the reign of Edward I.) from Richard de Grenville,

confirming a charter from his grandfather, Richard de Grenville,

fixing the rent and services due from the burgesses and granting them

liberties similar to those in use at Breteuil and a market every

Monday. Another charter, dated 1271, confirms to Richard de Grenville

and his heirs a market every Monday and five days' fair yearly at the

feast of St Margaret (20th of July). In 1573 Elizabeth granted a

charter creating Bideford a free borough corporate, with a common

council consisting of a mayor, 5 aldermen and 7 chief burgesses,

together with a recorder, town-clerk and 2 serjeants-at-mace. This

charter also granted the Tuesday market, which is still held, and

three annual fairs in February, July and November, now discontinued. A

later charter from James I. in 1610 added the right to have a town

seal, 7 aldermen instead of 5, and 10 chief burgesses instead of 7,

and continued in force until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1873,

which established 4 aldermen and 12 common councillors. In the 16th

century Sir Richard Grenville, the famous Virginian settler, did much

to stimulate the commercial development of Bideford, which long

maintained a very considerable trade with America, Spain and the

Mediterranean ports, the import of tobacco from Maryland and Virginia

being especially noteworthy. From the beginning of the 18th century

this gradually declined and gave place to a coasting trade in timber

and coal, chiefly with Wales and Ireland. The silk industry which

flourished in the 17th century is extinct.

See John Watkins, _History of Bideford_ (Exeter, 1792).

BIDPAI (or PILPAY), FABLES OF, the name given in the middle ages (from

Sanskrit _Vidya-pati_, chief scholar) to a famous collection of Hindu

stories. The origin of them is undoubtedly to be found in the _Pancha

Tantra_, or Five Sections, an extensive body of early fables or

apologues. A second collection, called the _Hitopadesa_, has become more

widely known in Europe than the first, on which it is apparently

founded. In the 6th century A.D., a translation into Pahlavi of a number

of these old fables was made by a physician at the court of Chosroes I.

Anushirvan, king of Persia. No traces of this Persian translation can

now be found, but nearly two centuries later, Abdallah-ibn-Mokaffa

translated the Persian into Arabic; and his version, which is known as

the "Book of Kalilah and Dimna," from the two jackals in the first

story, became the channel through which a knowledge of the fables was

transmitted to Europe. It was translated into Greek by Simeon Sethus

towards the close of the 11th century; his version, however, does not

appear to have been retranslated into any other European language. But

the Hebrew version of Rabbi Joel, made somewhat later, was translated

in the 13th century into Latin by John of Capua, a converted Jew, in his

_Directorium vitae humanae_ (first published in 1480), and in that form

became widely known. Since then the fables have been translated into

nearly every European tongue. There are also versions of them in the

modern Persian, Malay, Mongol and Afghan languages.

See Wilson's analysis of the Pancha Tantra, in the _Mem. of the Royal

Asiat. Soc._ i.; Silvestre de Sacy's introduction to his edition of

the _Kalilah and Dimna_ (1816); articles by the same in _Notices et

Extr. des MSS. de la Bib. du Roi_, vols. ix. and x.; German

translation by Philipp Wolff, _Bidpai's Fabeln_ (2 vols., 2nd ed.,

Stuttgart, 1839); the _Anvar-i Suheili_, Persian version of the

Fables, translated by E.B. Eastwick (Hertford, 1854); Benfey,

_Pantscha Tantra_, German translation with important introduction (2

vols., Leipzig, 1859); other editions, by L. Fritze (ib. 1884) and R.

Schmidt (ib. 1901); Max Mueller, _Essays_ (Leipzig, 1872), vol. iii.

pp. 303, &c.; J. Jacobs' edition of Sir T. North's _Morall Philosophie

of Doni_, the earliest English version of the fables (London, 1888);

J.G.N. Keith-Falconer, _Kalilah and Dimnah, or the Fables of Bidpai_

(Cambridge, 1895), their history, with a translation of the later

Syriac version and notes; Leopold Hervieux, _Les Fabulistes Latins_,

&c. v. _Jean de Capoue et ses derives_ (1899); E.G. Browne, _Persian

Literat._ (1906), ii. 350.

BIEKKICH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau,

on the right bank of the Rhine, 3 m. S. from Wiesbaden, of which it is

the river port, and on the main line of railway from Cologne to

Frankfort-on-Main. Pop. (1900) 15,048; (1905) 20,137. The palace of the

former dukes of Nassau occupies a fine position on the river bank, and

the shady gardens and groves attract large numbers of visitors during

the summer. It is an important steamboat station for both passenger and

cargo traffic, and besides manufactures of cement, dyes and soap, has a

considerable trade in the wines of the district.

BIEDERMANN, FRIEDRICH KARL (1812-1901), German publicist and historian,

was born at Leipzig on the 25th of September 1812, and after studying at

Leipzig and Heidelberg became professor in the university of his native

town in 1838. His early writings show him as an ardent advocate of

German unity, and he was a member of the national parliament which met

at Frankfort in 1848. Becoming a member of the Upper House of the

parliament of Saxony, he advocated union under the leadership of

Prussia; and, subsequently losing his professorship, he retired to

Weimar, where he edited the _Weimarische Zeitung_. Returning to Leipzig

in 1863 he edited the _Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_, and regained his

professorship in 1865. He was again a member of the Saxon Upper House,

and from 1871 to 1874 a member of the German Reichstag. He died at

Leipzig on the 5th of March 1901. Biedermann's chief works are:

_Erinnerungen aus der Paulskirche_ (Leipzig, 1849); _Deutschland im 18.

Jahrhundert_ (Leipzig, 1854-1880); _Friedrich der grosse und sein

Verhaeltnis zur Entwickelung des deutschen Geisteslebens_ (Brunswick,

1859); _Geschichte Deutschlands 1815-1871_ (Berlin, 1891); _Deutsche

Volks- und Kulturgeschichte_ (Wiesbaden, 1901). He also wrote the

dramas, _Kaiser Heinrich IV._ (Weimar, 1861); _Kaiser Otto III._

(Leipzig, 1862); and _Der letzte Buergermeister von Strassburg_ (Leipzig,

1870).

BIEL, GABRIEL (c. 1425-1495), scholastic philosopher, was born at Spires

(Speier). He was the first professor of theology at the newly founded

(1477) university of Tuebingen, of which he was twice rector. Some years

before his death he entered a religious fraternity. His work consists in

the systematic development of the views of his master, William of Occam.

His _Epitome et Collectorium ex Occamo super libros quatuor

Sententiarum_ (1508, 1512, and various dates) is a clear and consistent

account of the nominalist doctrine, and presents the complete system of

scholastic thought from that point of view. The empirical individualism

of the work, tending necessarily to limit the province of reason and

extend that of faith, together with scattered utterances on special

points, which gained for Biel the title of _Papista Antipapista_, had

considerable influence in giving form to the doctrines of Luther and

Melanchthon. It is the best specimen of the final aspect of

scholasticism. His other works also have been frequently reprinted. The

title _Ultimus Scholasticorum_ is often wrongly bestowed on Biel;

scholasticism did not cease with him, even in Germany, and continued to

flourish long after his time in the universities of Spain.

See Linsenmann, in _Theologischen Quartalschrift_ (Tuebingen, 1865);

Stockl, _Phil. d. Mittelalt._ ii. Sec. 269; H. Plitt, _Gabriel Biel als

Prediger_ (Erlangen, 1879); art. s.v. by P. Tschackert in

Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopaedie_, vol. iii. (1897); W. Roscher, _Ges.

d. Nationalokonomik_ (Munich. 1874), pp. 21-28; and works quoted under

SCHOLASTICISM.

BIELEFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, 68

m. S.W. from Hanover on the main line to Cologne. Pop. (1885) 34,931;

(1905) 71,797. It is situated at the foot of the Teutoburger Wald, and

consists of two portions, separated by the river Lutter, which were

first united into one town in 1520. Among its public buildings and

institutions are the old town church, with a curious carved altar-piece,

the town hall, the gymnasium and the provincial industrial school. On

the height above the town is the old castle of Sparenburg, built in the

12th century by Bernhard, count of Lippe. It was for a long time

employed as a prison, but was restored after its destruction by fire in

1877 and now contains a historical museum. Bielefeld is the centre of

the Westphalian linen industry. It has also important plush, silk and

hosiery manufactures, as well as extensive bleaching works, and does a

very large export trade to all parts of the world in these branches.

Engines, automobiles, biscuits, glass, pianos, furniture and paper are

also manufactured.

Bielefeld is mentioned as early as the 9th century, as _Belanvelde_, but

its first recorded mention as a town is in 1233. It belonged at this

time to the counts of Ravensberg, who often resided in the Sparenburg.

It joined the Hanseatic league in 1270, and about the same time began to

engage in the linen manufacture, which was greatly extended during the

16th and 17th centuries by a number of refugees from the Netherlands. In

1347 the town passed with the countship of Ravensberg to the duchy of

Juelich, and in 1666 to that of Brandenburg.

BIELITZ (Czech _Bilsko_, Polish _Bielsko_), a town of Austria, in

Silesia, 80 m. S.E. of Troppau by rail. Pop. (1900) 16,885, chiefly

German. It is situated on the Biala river, just opposite the Galician

town of Biala and possesses a fine castle belonging to the Sulkowsky

family, in favour of whom the lordship of Bielitz was raised to a duchy

in 1752. It has an important woollen and linen industry, and

manufactures of jute and machinery, as well as an active trade,

especially of woollens, to the East. The town was founded in the 13th

century, and in the 15th and 16th was a fortified place.

BIELLA, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of

Novara, 55 m. N.E. of Turin by rail, and 38 m. direct, situated on the

S. edge of the lower Alps. Pop. (1901) town, 3454; commune, 19,267. The

old town (1558 ft.) lies on a hill above the new town, and is reached

from it by a cable tramway. It has fine palaces with decorations in

terra-cotta; and a modern bath establishment is situated here. The new

town contains the 15th-century cathedral and the fine Renaissance church

of S. Sebastiano; near the former is a baptistery of the 9th century. It

is a considerable manufacturing centre for woollens, silks and cottons,

electric power being furnished by the torrents descending from the

mountains at the foot of which it lies. It is frequented as a tourist

centre, and several hydropathic establishments and mountain resorts lie

in the vicinity.

BIENNE, or BIEL, an industrial town in the Swiss canton of Bern. It is

built between the N.E. end of the lake of the same name and the point at

which the river Suze or Scheuss (on the right bank of which it is

situated) issues from a deep cleft (called the Taubenloch) in the Jura

range. Bienne is 19 m. by rail N.E. of Neuchatel, and 21 m. N.W. of

Bern. Its industrial importance is shown by the fact that it is the site

of the West Swiss technical institute, which has departments for

instruction in watch-making, in electricity, in engraving and chasing,

and in subjects relating to railway, postal and telegraph matters. Its

chief industries are watch-making, chain-making, the manufacture of

machines and other objects for use on railways, &c. Its rapidly

increasing commercial activity accounts no doubt for the rapid rise in

its population, which in 1850 was but 3589, rose in 1870 to 8165, and in

1900 was 22,016, mainly Protestant, and two-thirds German-speaking. The

parish church of St Benedict dates from 1451, but was restored in

1775--it has some fine 15th-century painted glass in the choir. In the

town is the Schwab museum, which is chiefly notable for its fine

collection of objects from the lake-dwellings. To the north-west of

Bienne two funicular railways lead up to Evilard (or Leubringen) and

Macolin (or Magglingen), both situated on the slope of the Jura.

First mentioned in the 12th century, Bienne continued for centuries to

be under the jurisdiction of the prince-bishop of Basel. In 1279

(permanently in 1352) it made an alliance with Bern, in 1344 with

Soleure, and in 1382 with Fribourg. But its attempts to be admitted into

the Swiss Confederation were fruitless, though after it adopted the

Reformation in 1525, it was closely associated with the Protestant

cantons. In 1798 it was seized by the French, but in 1815, with the

greater part of the bishopric of Basel, it became part of the canton of

Bern.

See C.A. Bloesch, _Geschichte der Stadt Biel_ (to 1854), (3 vols.,

Biel, 1855-1856). (W. A. B. C.)

BIENNE, LAKE OF, or BIELERSEE, a lake in Switzerland, S.W. of the town

of Bienne, and extending along the southern foot of the Jura range. It

is 71/2 m. in length, 21/2 m. broad and 249 ft. in depth, while its surface

is 1424 ft. above the sea-level, and its area 16 sq. m. In it is the Ile

de St Pierre, where Rousseau resided for a short time in 1765. Many

traces of lake-dwellings have been discovered on the shores of the lake.

It receives the river Suze or Scheuss at its north-east end, while the

Hagneck canal leads the waters of the Aar into the lake, as that of

Nidau conducts them out again. At the southwestern end the river Thiele

or Zihl flows into this lake from that of Neuchatel. (W. A. B. C.)

BIERSTADT, ALBERT (1830-1902), American landscape painter, was born in

Solingen, Westphalia, Germany, on the 7th of January 1830, and was taken

to the United States when about a year old. In 1853-1856 he studied

painting at Duesseldorf. His pictures of the western part of the United

States, and particularly the Rocky Mountains, made him widely popular.

His "Estes Park, Colorado," is in the collection of the earl of

Dunraven; his "Sierra Nevada" (1878) is in the Corcoran Gallery in

Washington, and "The Valley of Yosemite" in the James Lenox collection

in New York. He received many German and Austrian decorations, and was a

chevalier of the French Legion of Honour. He rendered panoramic views

with a certain ability, though his work was rather topographically

correct and impressive than artistic in conception and execution. He was

a member of the National Academy of Design of New York, and is

represented by two historical paintings, "The Discovery of the Hudson

River," and "The Settlement of California," in the Capitol in

Washington, D.C. He died in New York City on the 18th of February 1902.

BIFROST, in Old Norse mythology, the rainbow, which was supposed to form

the bridge by which the gods passed between heaven and earth. It was

guarded by Heimdal, god of light.

BIGAMY (from Lat. _bis_, twice, and Gr. [Greek: ghamos], marriage), in

English law. according to the statute now in force (24 and 25 Vict. c.

100, Sec. 57), the offence committed by a person who "being married shall

marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife."

In the canon law the word had a rather wider meaning, and the marriage

of a clerk in minor orders with a widow came within its scope. At the

council of Lyons (A.D. 1274) bigamists were stripped of their privilege

of clergy. This canon was adopted and explained by an English statute of

1276; and bigamy, therefore, became a usual counterplea to the claim of

_benefit of clergy_. However, by an act of 1547 every person entitled to

the benefit of clergy is to be allowed the same, "although he hath been

divers times married to any single woman or single women, or to any

widow or widows, or to two wives or more."

A bigamous marriage, by the ecclesiastical law of England, is simply

void. By a statute of 1604 the offence was made a felony. This statute,

after being repealed in 1828, was re-enacted and reproduced in the

Offences against the Person Act 1861. It is immaterial whether the

second marriage has taken place within England and Ireland or elsewhere,

and the offence may be dealt with in any county or place where the

defendant shall be apprehended or be in custody. The following clause

embodies the necessary exceptions to the very general language used in

the definition of the offence.--"Provided that nothing in this section

contained shall extend to any second marriage contracted elsewhere than

in England and Ireland by any other than a British subject, or to any

person marrying a second time whose husband or wife shall have been

continuously absent from such person for the space of seven years then

last past, and shall not have been known by such person to be living

within that time, or shall extend to any person who at the time of such

second marriage shall have been divorced from the bond of the first

marriage, or to any person whose former marriage shall have been

declared void by any court of competent jurisdiction." The punishment is

penal servitude for not more than seven nor less than five years, or

imprisonment with or without hard labour, not exceeding two years.

A valid marriage must be proved in the first instance in order to

support a charge of bigamy. A _voidable_ marriage, such as were

marriages between persons within the prohibited degrees before the

Marriage Act 1836, will be sufficient, but a marriage which is

absolutely _void_ as all such marriages now are, will not. For example,

if a woman marry B during the lifetime of her husband A, and after A's

death marry C during the lifetime of B, her marriage with C is not

bigamous, because her marriage with B was a nullity. In regard to the

second marriage (which constitutes the offence) the English courts have

held that it is immaterial whether, but for the bigamy, it would have

been a valid marriage or not. An uncle, for example, cannot marry his

niece; but if being already married he goes through the ceremony of

marriage with her he is guilty of bigamy. In an Irish case, however, it

has been held that to constitute the offence the second marriage must be

one which, but for the existence of the former marriage, would have been

valid. With reference to the case in which the parties to the first

marriage have been divorced, it may be observed that no sentence or act

of any foreign country dissolving _a vinculo_ a marriage contracted in

England by persons continuing to be domiciled in England, for grounds on

which it is not liable to be dissolved _a vinculo_ in England will be

recognized as a divorce (_R. v. Lolley_ 1812, R. & R. 237). Hence, a

divorce _a vinculo_ for adultery, in a Scottish court, of persons

married in England, is not within the statute. But if a person charged

with bigamy in England can prove that he has been legally divorced by

the law of the country where the divorced parties were domiciled at the

time (even though the ground on which the divorce was granted was not

one that would justify a divorce in England) it will be good defence to

the charge. Criminal jurisdiction is always regarded as purely

territorial, but bigamy (together with homicide and treason) is an

exception to this rule. A British subject committing bigamy in any

country may be tried for the same in the United Kingdom (Earl Russell's

case, 1901).

In Scotland, at the date of the only statute respecting bigamy, that of

1551, cap. 19, the offence seems to have been chiefly considered in a

religious point of view, as a sort of perjury, or violation of the

solemn vow or oath which was then used in contracting marriage; and,

accordingly, it was ordained to be punished with the proper pains of

perjury.

Bigamy was punished in England until the reign of William III. by death,

then the penalty changed to life imprisonment and branding of the right

hand. An act of George I. still in force lessened the penalty to

deportation for seven years or imprisonment for two years with or

without hard labour. The Offences against the Person Act 1861 changed

deportation to penal servitude.

In the United States the law in regard to bigamy is practically founded

on the English statute of 1604, with the exception that imprisonment and

a fine, varying in the different states, were substituted instead of

making the offence a felony. Congress has passed a statute declaring

bigamy within the territories and places within the exclusive

jurisdiction of the United States to be a misdemeanour (U.S. Rev. Stat.

Sec. 5352). By statute in some states, upon absence of one spouse from the

state for five years without being heard of, the other may marry again

without committing bigamy, in other states the period is seven years. In

most of the states, prosecutions for bigamy are barred after the lapse

of a certain number of years. The marriage wherever solemnized must be a

valid marriage according to the law of the place of solemnization; if

void there, no prosecution for bigamy can be founded upon it. In some

jurisdictions, an honest belief that a prior divorce of one of the

parties was valid would be a defence to a prosecution for bigamy, in

others the contrary is held.

On the continent of Europe, bigamy is punishable in most countries with

varying terms of imprisonment, with or without hard labour, according to

the circumstances of the case.

See Stephen, _History of Criminal Law_; Dicey, _Conflict of Laws;

Report of the Royal Commission on Marriage Laws_ (1868).

BIGELOW, JOHN (1817- ), American journalist and diplomat, was born at

Malden, New York, on the 25th of November 1817. He graduated at Union

College in 1835, practised law in New York for several years after 1839;

took up journalistic work; was joint owner (with William Cullen Bryant)

and managing editor of the New York _Evening Post_ (1849-1861); was

United States consul at Paris in 1861-1864, and was minister to France

in 1864-1867. While consul, Bigelow wrote _Les Etats-Unis d'Amerique en

1863_ in order to counteract the apparent desire of the French people

for a dissolution of the American Union, by showing them the relative

importance of the commerce of the northern and southern states. On

discovering in 1863 that a French shipbuilder, with the connivance of

Napoleon III., was constructing two formidable iron-clads and two

corvettes for the use of the Confederacy, he devoted his energies to

thwarting this scheme, and succeeded in preventing the delivery of all

but one of these vessels to the Confederate agents. In his work entitled

_France and the Confederate Navy_ (New York, 1888) he gives an account

of this episode. In 1865-1866, it devolved upon Bigelow, as minister to

France, to represent his government in its delicate negotiations

concerning the French occupation of Mexico, and he discharged this

difficult task with credit. From 1875 to 1877 he served as secretary of

state of New York. He wrote books of travel, of popular biography, or of

historical or political discussion, &c., from time to time; but his

principal literary achievements were editions, between 1868 and 1888, of

Franklin's autobiography and autobiographical writings, copiously

annotated; and of the complete works of Franklin, in ten octavo volumes

(New York, 1887-1889). These editions were based in part upon the

editor's personal investigations of manuscript sources in France and

elsewhere, and supplanted the well-known, long serviceable, but less

accurate edition of Jared Sparks (Boston, 1836-1840); they have in turn

been supplanted by the edition of A.H. Smythe (10 vols., 1905-1907). Mr

Bigelow was a close friend of Samuel J. Tilden, and became his literary

executor, editing his speeches and other political writings (1885),

publishing a biography in 1895, and editing a two-volume collection of

Tilden's letters and literary memorials (1908). He also wrote a

biography of William Cullen Bryant (1890). In 1897 he published a volume

entitled _The Mystery of Sleep_ (2nd ed., 1903). In 1909 he published

_Retrospections of an Active Life_.

BIGGAR, a police burgh of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1366. It is

situated about 10 m. S.E. of Carstairs Junction (Caledonian railway),

where the lines from Edinburgh and Glasgow connect. Lying on Biggar

Water and near the Clyde, in a bracing, picturesque, upland country,

Biggar enjoys great vogue as a health and holiday resort. It was the

birthplace of Dr John Brown, author of _Rab and his Friends_, whose

father was secession minister in the town. It was created a burgh of

barony in 1451 and a police burgh in 1863. St Mary's church was founded

in 1545 by Lord Fleming, the head of the ruling family in the district,

whose seat, Boghall Castle, however, is now a ruin. John Gledstanes,

great-grandfather of W.E. Gladstone, was a burgess of Biggar, and lies

in the churchyard. Easter Gledstanes, the seat of the family from the

13th to the 17th century, and the estate of Arthurshiels, occupied by

them for nearly a hundred years more, are situated about 31/2 m. to the

north-west of the burgh. On the top of Quothquan Law (1097 ft.), about 3

m. west is a rock called Wallace's Chair, from the tradition that he

held a council there prior to the battle of Biggar in 1297. Lamington,

nearly 6 m. south-west, is well situated on the Clyde. It is principally

associated with the family of the Baillies, of whom the most notable

were Cuthbert Baillie (d. 1514), lord high treasurer of Scotland,

William Baillie, Lord Provand (d. 1593), the judge, and William Baillie

(fl. 1648), the general whose strategy in opposition to the marquess of

Montrose was so diligently stultified by the committee of estates. The

ancient church of St Ninian's has a fine Norman doorway. Lamington Tower

was reduced to its present fragmentary condition in the time of Edward

I., when William Heselrig, the sheriff, laid siege to it. The defenders,

Hugh de Bradfute and his son, were slain, and his daughter Marion--the

betrothed, or, as some say, the wife of William Wallace--was conveyed to

Lanark, where she was barbarously executed because she refused to reveal

the whereabouts of her lover. Wallace exacted swift vengeance. He burnt

out the English garrison and killed the sheriff.

BIGGLESWADE, a market town in the Biggleswade parliamentary division of

Bedfordshire, England, 41 m. N. by W. of London by the Great Northern

railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5120. It lies on the east bank of

the Ivel, a tributary of the Ouse, in a flat plain in which vegetables

are largely grown for the London markets. The town is a centre of this

trade.

Biggleswade (Bichelswade, Beckeleswade, Bickleswade) is an ancient

borough by prescription which has never returned representatives to

parliament. The borough court was held by the lord of the manor. At

the time of Edward the Confessor, Archbishop Stigand owned the manor,

which according to Domesday passed to Ralf de Insula. Henry I. granted

it to the bishop of Lincoln, under whose protection the borough

evidently grew up. In 1547 the bishop surrendered his rights to the

king, and in the 17th century Biggleswade formed part of the jointure

of the queens of England. Owing to its important position on the Roman

road to the north the town became an agricultural centre for the

surrounding district. In 1335 Edward III. renewed the bishop's licence

to hold a Monday market, and annual fairs were held here from very

early times. Those for horses are mentioned as famous by Camden. In

addition to agriculture, Biggleswade was formerly engaged in

straw-plaiting and lace manufacture.

BIGHT (O. Eng. _bight_, bend; cf. Ger. _Bucht_, a bay, and _beugen_, to

bend), a nautical term for the loop or bent part of a rope, as

distinguished from the ends; also a geographical term for a bay between

two distant headlands, or with a shallow curve, e.g. the Bight of Benin,

the Great Bight of Australia.

BIGNON, JEROME (1589-1656), French lawyer, was born at Paris in 1589. He

was uncommonly precocious, and under his father's tuition had acquired

an immense mass of knowledge before he was ten years of age. In 1600 was

published a work by him entitled _Chorographie, ou description de la

Terre Sainte_. The great reputation gained by this book introduced the

author to Henry IV., who placed him for some time as a companion to the

duc de Vendome, and made him tutor to the dauphin, afterwards Louis

XIII. In 1604 he wrote his _Discours de la ville de Rome_, and in the

following year his _Traite sommaire de l'election du pape_. He then

devoted himself to the study of law, wrote in 1610 a treatise on the

precedency of the kings of France, which gave great satisfaction to

Henry IV., and in 1613 edited, with learned notes, the _Formulae_ of the

jurist Marculfe. In 1620 he was made advocate-general to the grand

council, and shortly afterwards a councillor of state, and in 1626 he

became advocate-general to the parlement of Paris. In 1641 he resigned

his official dignity, and in 1642 was appointed by Richelieu to the

charge of the royal library. He died in 1656.

BIGNON, LOUIS PIERRE EDOUARD, BARON (1771-1841), French diplomatist and

historian, born on the 3rd of January 1771, was the son of a dyer at

Rouen. Though he had received a good education, he served throughout the

early part of the revolutionary wars without rising above the rank of

private. In 1797, however, the attention of Talleyrand, then minister of

foreign affairs, was called to his exceptional abilities by General

Huet, and he was attached to the diplomatic service. After serving in

the legations in Switzerland and the Cisalpine republic, he was appointed

in 1799 attache to the French legation at Berlin, of which three years

later he became charge d'affaires. As minister-plenipotentiary at Cassel,

between the years 1804 and 1806, he took a prominent share in the

formation of the confederation of the Rhine; and after the battle of Jena

he returned to Prussia as administrator of the public domains and

finances. He filled a similar function in Austria after the battle of

Wagram. At the end of 1810 he became French resident at Warsaw and was

for a couple of years supreme in the affairs of the grand duchy.

The preparation of a constitution for Poland, on which he was engaged,

was, however, interrupted by the events of 1812. Bignon, after a short

imprisonment at the hands of the allies, returned to France in time to

witness the downfall of Napoleon. During the Hundred Days he once more

entered Napoleon's service, and, after Waterloo, as minister of foreign

affairs under the executive commission, it was he who signed the

convention of the 3rd of July 1815, by which Paris was handed over to

the allies. Bignon did not re-enter public life until 1817, when he was

elected to the chamber of deputies, in which he sat until 1830,

consistent in his opposition to the reactionary policy of successive

governments. His great reputation and his diplomatic experience gave a

special weight to the attacks which he published on the policy of the

continental allies, two of his works attracting special attention. _Du

Congres de Troppau ou Examen des pretentions des monarchies absolues a

l'egard de la monarchie constitutionelle de Naples_ (Paris, 1821), and

_Les Cabinets el les peuples depuis 1815 jusqu'a la fin de 1822_ (Paris,

1822).

The revolution of 1830, which brought his party into power, only led to

a very temporary resumption of office by Bignon. He was for a few weeks

minister of foreign affairs in the first government of Louis Philippe,

and again for a few weeks minister of public instruction. But the idea

of making him responsible for the foreign policy of France could not be

realized owing to the necessity under which Louis Philippe lay of

courting the goodwill of the powers, whom Bignon had offended by his

outspoken writings. Elected deputy in 1831 and member of the chamber of

peers in 1839, he withdrew for the most part from politics, to devote

himself to his great work, the _Histoire de France sous Napoleon_ (10

vols. 1829-1838, then 4 posthumous vols., 1847-1850). This history,

while suffering from the limitations of all contemporaneous narratives,

contains much that does not exist elsewhere, and is one of the

best-known sources for the later histories of Napoleon's reign.

See Mignet, _Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de M.

Bignon_ (1848).

BIGOD, HUGH (d. 1177), earl of Norfolk, was the second son of Roger

Bigod (d. 1107), the founder of the English family of this name. Hugh

inherited large estates in East Anglia on the death of his brother

William in 1120, and enjoyed the favour of Henry I. At first a supporter

of Stephen during this king's struggle with the empress Matilda, Hugh

was rewarded with the earldom of Norfolk before 1141. After having

fought for the king at the battle of Lincoln the earl deserted him,

assumed a position of armed neutrality during the general anarchy, and

then assisted Henry II. in his efforts to obtain the throne. This king

confirmed him in the possession of his earldom; but becoming restless

under the rule of law initiated by Henry, he participated in the revolt

of 1173, which so far as England was concerned centred round his

possessions. Though defeated and compelled to surrender his castles,

Bigod kept his lands and his earldom, and lived at peace with Henry II.

until his death, which probably took place in Palestine.

His son ROGER (d. 1221), who succeeded to the earldom of Norfolk, was

confirmed in his earldom and other honours by Richard I., after he had

fallen under the displeasure of Henry II. He took part in the

negotiations for the release of Richard from prison, and after the

king's return to England became justiciar. The earl was one of the

leaders of the baronial party which obtained John's assent to Magna

Carta, and his name appears among the signatories to this document.

Roger was succeeded as 3rd earl by his son, Hugh, who died in 1225,

leaving a son, ROGER (d. 1270), who became 4th earl of Norfolk. Through

his mother, Matilda, a daughter of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke,

Roger obtained the office of marshal of England in 1246. He was

prominent among the barons who wrested the control of the government

from the hands of Henry III., and assisted Simon de Montfort. The earl

married Isabella, daughter of William the Lion, king of Scotland, but

left no sons.

Hugh, the 3rd earl, left a younger son, HUGH (d. 1266), who was chief

justiciar of England from 1258 to 1260, and who fought for Henry III. at

the battle of Lewes. The latter's son, ROGER, succeeded his uncle Roger

as 5th earl of Norfolk in 1270. This earl is the hero of a famous

altercation with Edward I. in 1297, which arose out of the king's

command that Bigod should serve against the king of France in Gascony,

while he went to Flanders. The earl asserted that by the tenure of his

lands he was only compelled to serve across the seas in the company of

the king himself, whereupon Edward said, "By God, earl, you shall either

go or hang," to which Bigod replied, "By the same oath, O king, I will

neither go nor hang." The earl gained his point, and after Edward had

left for France he and Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, prevented the

collection of an aid for the war and forced Edward to confirm the

charters in this year and again in 1301. Stubbs says Bigod and Bohun

"are but degenerate sons of mighty fathers; greater in their

opportunities than in their patriotism." The earl died without issue in

December 1306, when his title became extinct, and his estates reverted

to the crown. The Bigods held the hereditary office of steward

(_dapifer_) of the royal household, and their chief castle was at

Framlingham in Suffolk.

See W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, vols. i. and ii. (1896-1897);

J.R. Planche, "The Earls of East Anglia" (_Brit. Arch. Ass._, vol.

xxi., 1865); and G.E. C(okayne), _Complete Peerage_, vol. vi. (1895).

BIGOT, one obstinately and intolerantly holding particular religious

opinions, who refuses to listen to reason and is ready to force others

to agree with him; hence also applied to one who holds similar views on

any subject. The early meaning of the word in English, at the end of the

16th century, was that of a religious hypocrite. The origin is obscure;

it appears in French, in the forms _bigot_ or _bigos_, in the 12th

century romance of Girard of Roussillon, where it is applied to certain

tribes of southern Gaul, and in the _Roman du Rou_ of Wace (d. 1175?) as

an abusive name given by the French to the Normans:

"Moult on Franchois Normans laidis

et de meffais et de mesdis.

Souvent lor dient reproviers,

et claiment Bigos et Draschiers."

To this use has been attached the absurd origin from "_ne se, bi god_,"

the words in which, according to the 12th century chronicle, Rollo, duke

of the Normans, refused to kiss the foot of Charles III., the Simple,

king of the West Franks. The word may have some connexion with a

corruption of Visigoth, a suggestion to which the use in the Girard

romance lends colour. The meaning changed in French to that of

"religious hypocrite" through the application, in the feminine _bigote_,

to the members of the religious sisterhoods called Beguines (q.v.).

BIG RAPIDS, a city and the county-seat of Mecosta county, Michigan,

U.S.A., on both sides of the Muskegon river, 56 m. N. by E. of Grand

Rapids, in the west central portion of the lower peninsula. Pop. (1890)

5303; (1900) 4686, of whom 881 were foreign-born; (1910, U.S. census)

4519. It is served by the Pere Marquette and the Grand Rapids & Indiana

railways. Big Rapids is the seat of the Ferris Institute (opened 1884,

incorporated 1894), a large private co-educational school, founded by

W.N. Ferris. The river, which falls 16 ft. within the city limits, is

dammed a short distance south of the city, and 16,000 horse-power is

generated, part of which is transmitted to the city. The principal

manufactures are lumber and furniture, and saw-filing and filing-room

machinery. Big Rapids, named from the falls of the Muskegon here, was

settled in 1854, was platted in 1859 and was chartered as a city in

1869.

BIGSBY, JOHN JEREMIAH (1792-1881), English geologist and physician, the

son of Dr John Bigsby, was born at Nottingham on the 14th of August

1792. Educated at Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D., he joined

the army medical service and was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope in

1817. About a year later he went to Canada as medical officer to a

regiment, and having developed much interest in geology he was

commissioned in 1819 to report on the geology of Upper Canada. In 1822

he was appointed British secretary and medical officer to the Boundary

Commission, and for several years he made extensive and important

geological researches, contributing papers to the _American Journal of

Science_ and other scientific journals; and later embodying an account

of his travels in a book entitled _The Shoe and Canoe_ (1850). Returning

to England in 1827 he practised medicine at Newark until 1846 when he

removed to London, where he remained until the end of his life. He now

took an active interest in the Geological Society of London, of which he

had been elected a fellow in 1823. In 1869 he was elected a fellow of

the Royal Society, and in 1874 he was awarded the Murchison medal by the

council of the Geological Society. During the last twenty years of his

long life he was continually at work preparing, after the most

painstaking research, tabulated lists of the fossils of the Palaeozoic

rocks. His _Thesaurus Siluricus_ was published with the aid of the Royal

Society in 1868; and the _Thesaurus Devonico-Carboniferus_ in 1878. In

1877 he founded the Bigsby medal to be awarded by the Geological Society

of London, with the stipulation that the receiver should not be more

than forty-five years old. He died in London on the 10th of February

1881.

BIHARI (properly _Bihari_), the name of the most western of the four

forms of speech which comprise the Eastern Group of modern Indo-Aryan

Languages (q.v.). The other members are Bengali, Oriya and Assamese (see

BENGALI). The number of speakers of Bihari in 1901 was 34,579,844 in

British India, out of a total of 90,242,167 for the whole group. It is

also the language of the inhabitants of the neighbouring Tarai districts

of Nepal. In the present article it is throughout assumed that the

reader is in possession of the facts described under the heads of

INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES and PRAKRIT. The article BENGALI may also be

studied with advantage.

"Bihari" means the language of the province of "Bihar," and to a certain

extent this is a true description. It is the direct descendant of the

old Magadhi Prakrit (see PRAKRIT), of which the headquarters were South

Bihar, or the present districts of Patna and Gaya. It is, however, also

spoken considerably beyond the limits of this province. To the west it

extends over the province of Agra so far as the longitude of Benares,

and to the south it covers nearly the whole of the province of Chota

Nagpur. Allowing for the speakers in Nepal, its area extends over about

90,000 sq. m., and the total number of people who claim it as a

vernacular is about the same as the population of France. Bihari has

been looked upon as a separate language only during the past twenty-five

years. Before that it was grouped with all the other languages spoken

between Bengal and the Punjab, under the general term "Hindi."

The usual character employed for writing Bihari is that known as

_Kaithi_, a cursive form of the well-known Nagari character of Upper

India. The name of the character is derived from the _Kayath_ or

_Kayasth_ caste, whose profession is that of scribes. Kaithi is widely

spread, under various names, all over northern India, and is the

official character of Gujarati. The Nagari character is commonly

employed for printed books, while the Brahmans of Tirhut have a

character of their own, akin to that used for writing Bengali and

Assamese. In the south of the Bihari tract the Oriya character belonging

to the neighbouring Orissa is also found.

Bihari has to its east Bengali, also a language of the Outer Band. To

its west it has Eastern Hindi, a language of the Intermediate Band (see

INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). While it must decidedly be classed as an Outer

language, it nevertheless shows, as might be expected, some points of

contact with the Intermediate ones. Nothing is so characteristic of

Bengali as its pronunciation of the vowel _a_ and of the consonant _s_.

The first is sounded like the _o_ in "hot" (transliterated _o_). In

Eastern Bihari the same vowel has a broad sound, but not so broad as in

Bengali. As we go westwards this broad sound is gradually lost, till it

entirely disappears in the most western dialect, Bhojpuri. As regards

_s_, the Magadhi Prakrit pronounced it as _'s_, like the _sh_ in "shin."

The Prakrits of the West preserved its dental sound, like that of the

_s_ in "sin." Here Bengali and Eastern Hindi exactly represent the

ancient state of affairs. The former has the _'s_-sound and the latter

the _s_-sound. At the present day Bihari has abandoned the practice of

the old Magadhi Prakrit in this respect, and pronounces its _s_'s as

clearly as in the West. There are political reasons for this. The

pronunciation of _s_ is a literal shibboleth between Bengal and Upper

India. For centuries Bihar has been connected politically with the West,

and has in the course of generations rid itself of the typical

pronunciation of the East. On the other hand, a witness as to the former

pronunciation of the letter is present in the fact that, in the Kaithi

character, _s_ is always written _'s_. In the declension of nouns,

Bihari follows Bengali more closely than it follows Eastern Hindi, and

its conjugation is based on the same principles as those which obtain in

the former language.

Language.

The age of Bihari as an independent language is unknown. We have songs

written in it dating from the 15th century, and at that time it had

received considerable literary culture. Bihari has three main dialects,

which fall into two divisions, an eastern and a western. The eastern

division includes _Maithili_ or _Tirhutia_ and _Magahi_. Magahi is the

dialect of the country corresponding to the ancient Magadha, and may

therefore be taken as the modern representative of the purest Magadhi

Prakrit. Its northern boundary is generally the river Ganges, and its

western the river Son. To the south it has overflowed into the northern

half of Chota Nagpur. It is nearly related to Maithili, but it is quite

uncultivated and has no literature, although it is the vernacular of the

birthplace of Buddhism. Nowadays it is often referred to by natives of

other parts of the country as the typically boorish language of India.

Maithili faces Magahi across the Ganges. It is the dialect of the old

country of _Mithila_ or _Tirhut_, famous from ancient times for its

learning. Historically and politically it has long been closely

connected with Oudh, the home of the hero Rama-candra, and its people

are amongst the most conservative in India. Their language bears the

national stamp. It has retained numerous antiquated forms, and parts of

its grammar are extraordinarily complex. It has a small literature which

has helped to preserve these peculiarities in full play, so that though

Magahi shares them, it has lost many which are still extant in the

everyday talk of Mithila. The western division consists of the Bhojpuri

dialect, spoken on both sides of the Gangetic valley, from near Patna to

Benares. It has extended south-east into the southern half of Chota

Nagpur, and is spoken by at least twenty millions of people who are as

free from prejudice as the inhabitants of Mithila are conservative. The

Bhojpuris are a fighting race, and their language is a practical one,

made for everyday use, as simple and straightforward as Maithili and

Magahi are complex. In fact, it might almost be classed as a separate

language, had it any literature worthy of the name.

(Abbreviations: Mth. = Maithili, Mg. = Magahi, Bh. = Bhojpuri, B. =

Bihari, Bg. = Bengali. Skr. = Sanskrit, Pr. = Prakrit. Mg. Pr. =

Magadhi Prakrit.)

_Vocabulary._--The Bihari vocabulary calls for few remarks.

_Tatsamas_, or words borrowed in modern times from Sanskrit (see

INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES), are few in number, while all the dialects are

replete with honest home-born _tadbhavas_, used (unlike Bengali) both

in the literary and in the colloquial language. Very few words are

borrowed from Persian, Arabic or other languages.

_Phonetics._--The stress-accent of Bihari follows the usual rules of

modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars. In words of more than one syllable it

cannot fall on the last, whether the vowel of that syllable be long or

short, pronounced, half-pronounced, or not pronounced. With this

exception, the accent always falls on the last long syllable. If there

are no long syllables in the word, the accent is thrown back as far as

possible, but never farther than the syllable before the

antepenultimate. Thus, _ki-sa'-n(a)_ (final a not pronounced);

_pa'ni_, _ha-m^a-ra_; _de-kh^a-la-h^u_. In the last word there is a

secondary accent on the penultimate, owing to the following imperfect

vowel (see below). When the first syllable of a word has not the main

stress-accent, it also takes a secondary one, as in

_de-kh^a-li-ai-nh'_. When the letter a follows a syllable which has

the accent (secondary or primary) it is only half pronounced, and is

here denoted by a small ^a above the line. In Mth. (but not in Mg. or

Bh.) a final short _i_ or _u_ is often similarly very lightly

pronounced, and is then represented by the same device. Before such an

"imperfect" ^i or ^u the preceding syllable has a secondary accent, if

it has not already got the main one.

When a word ends in _a_ preceded by a single uncompounded consonant,

the _a_ is not pronounced; thus, _kisana_, sounded _kisan_. This vowel

is sometimes pronounced with a drawl, like the _a_ in "ball," and is

then transliterated _a_. When _a_ has this sound it can end a word,

and in this position is common in the second person of verbs; thus,

_dekha_, see thou. This sound is very frequently heard in Bhojpuri,

and gives a peculiar tone to the whole dialect, which at once strikes

the casual hearer. The usual short form of the letter _a_ is _a_, but

when this would lead to confusion it is shortened in Mth. and Mg. to a

sound like that of _a_ in the German _Mann_, and is then

transliterated _a_. In Bh. it is always shortened to _a_. As an

example, from _pani_, water, is formed the word _paniya_, but (in Mth.

and Mg.) from the word _marab_, to strike, we have Mth. _mar^ali_, Mg.

_mar^ali_, I struck, because _mar^ali_ (_-li_) would mean "I died." In

Bh. _mar^ali_ actually has both these meanings. The letters _e_ and

_o_ may be either long (_e, o_) or short (_e, o_). In Skr. the

diphthongs _ai_ and _au_ (here transliterated _ai, au_) are much

longer than the Bihari _ai_ and _au_, which are contractions of only

_a + i_ and _a + u_ respectively. We may compare the Sanskrit, or

_tatsama, ai_ with the English "aye," and the _tadbkava ai_ with the

English "I." In counting syllables in Bihari, _ai_ and _au_ count each

as two syllables, not each as one long syllable. The Skr. _r_ appears

only in _tatsamas_. Nasalization of vowels is extremely frequent. In

this article it is represented by the sign ~ over the vowel, as in

_muh, mar^ali_ and _dekh^alah^u_.

As regards consonants, _d_ and _dh_, when medial, are pronounced as

strongly burred _r_ and _rh_, and are then transliterated as here

shown. There is a constant tendency to change these to an ordinary

dental _r_ and _rh_; thus, _ghoda_, pronounced _ghora_ or _ghora_. The

semivowels _y_ and _v_ are always pronounced like _j_ and _b_

respectively, unless they are simply euphonic letters put in to bridge

the hiatus between two concurrent vowels; thus _yauvana_ pronounced

_jauban_, and _maliya_ for _mali-a, ghor^awa_ for _ghor^a-a_. The

sibilants _s_ and _s_ are both pronounced as a dental _s_, but (a

relic of the old Mg. Pr.) are both invariably written as a palatal _s_

in the Kaithi character. Thus, the English word "session" (_sesun_) is

written _sesan_ and pronounced _sesan_. The cerebral _s_, when

uncompounded, is pronounced _kh_. When compounded, it generally has

its proper sound. Thus, _sastha_, sixth, is pronounced _khasth_. As a

general statement we may say that Bihari spelling is not fixed, and

that there are often many ways of writing, and sometimes two or three

ways of pronouncing, the same word.

The main typical characteristics of Mg. Pr. are that western Pr. _s_

becomes _s_, and that western Pr. _r_ becomes _l_. We have seen that

the change of _s_ to _s_ occurs in Bengali but not in Bihari, and have

given reasons for the change back to _s_ in the latter language,

although the Mg. Pr. _s_ is retained in writing. In both Bengali and

Bihari, a western _r_ is not now represented by _l_, but is

represented by _r_. This deviation from the Mg. Pr. rule is only

apparent, and is due to the letter _r_ representing two distinct

sounds. In Skr., in the western Prakrits, and in the modern western

languages, _r_ is a cerebral letter, with a cerebral sound. In the

modern eastern languages, _r_ is a dental letter, with a dental sound.

Everywhere, both in old times and at the present day, _l_ was and is a

dental letter. The meaning, therefore, of the change from western Pr.

_r_ to Mg. Pr. _l_ was that the western _r_ lost its cerebral sound,

and became a dental letter, like _l_. That dental character is

preserved in the _r_ of the modern eastern languages. In fact, in

Bihari _r_ and _l_ are frequently confounded together, or with _n_,

another dental letter. Thus, we have _kali_ or _kari_, black; _phar_

or _phal_, fruit; Skr. _rajju-_, B. _leju-ri_, a string; _Lakhnaur_,

the name of a town, quite commonly pronounced _Nakhlaul_; and the

English names Kelly and Currie both pronounced indifferently _kari_ or

_kali_. Compare Assamese _saril_ for _Skr. sarira-_.

The genius of the Bihari language is adverse to the existence of a

long vowel in a _tadbhava_ word, when it would occupy a position more

than two syllables from the end. Thus, _ghora_, but _ghor^awa_;

_marel_, but _mar^ali_. This is subject to various subsidiary rules

which will be found in the grammars. The principle is a most important

one, and, indeed, pervades all Indo-Aryan vernaculars of the present

day, but it is carried out with the greatest thoroughness and

consistency in Bihari. The whole system of declension and conjugation

is subject to it. When _a_ preceding _i_ or _e_ is shortened, the two

together become _ai_, and similarly a shortened _a + u_ or _o_ become

_au_.

_Declension._--Bihari has a stronger sense of gender than the other

languages of the Eastern Group. In the modern language the distinction

is in the main confined no animate beings, but in the older poetry the

system of grammatical, as distinct from sexual, gender is in full

swing. Except in the case of the interrogative pronoun, there is no

neuter gender--words which in Skr. and Pr. were neuter being

generally, but not always, treated as masculine. The plural can

everywhere be formed by the addition of some noun of multitude to the

singular, and this is the universal rule in Mth., but in Mg. and Bh.

it is generally made by adding _n_ or (in Bh.) _nh_ or _ni_ to the

singular, before all of which a final vowel is shortened. Thus

_ghora_, a horse, _ghoran_, horses.

As for cases, the Apabhramsa locative--_hi_ (_-hi_) and the ablative

_-hu_ (see PRAKRIT) terminations have survived in poetry, proverbs and

the like, and each of them can now be used for any oblique case; but

in ordinary language and in literature _-hi_ and _-hi_ have become

contracted to _e_ and _e_, the former of which is employed for the

instrumental and the latter for the locative case. Thus, _ghar_,

house; _ghare_, by a house; _ghare_, in a house. The old termination

_-hu_ has also survived in sporadic instances, under the form _o_,

with an ablative sense. Cases are, however, usually formed, as

elsewhere, by suffixing postpositions to a general oblique case (see

INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). The oblique case in Bihari is generally the

same as the nominative, but nouns ending in _n, b, l or r_, and some

others, form it by adding _a_ (a relic of the old Mg. Pr. genitive in

_aha_). Thus, _maral_, the act of striking, obl. _mar^ala_ (Mg. Pr.

_mari-allaha_). Another set of verbal nouns forms the oblique case in

_ai_, _e_ or _a_, thus, Bh. _mar_, the ace of striking, _mare-la_, for

striking, to strike. In Mg. every noun ending in a consonant may have

its oblique form in _e_; thus, _ghar_, a house, _ghar-ke_ or

_ghare-ke_, of a house. The _ai-_ or _e-_ termination is another relic

of the Apabhrarhsa _-hi_, and the _a_ is a survival of the Ap. _-hu_.

The usual genitive postposition is _k_, which has become a suffix, and

now forms part of the word to which it is attached, a final preceding

vowel being frequently shortened. Thus, _ghora_, gen. _ghorak_. Other

genitive postpositions are _ke_, _kar_ and _ker_. These, and all other

postpositions, are still separate words, and have not yet become

suffixes. The more common postpositions are[1] Acc.-Dat. _ke_;

Instr.-Abl. _sa, se_; Loc. _ma., me_. The genitive does not change to

agree with the gender of the governing noun, as in Hindostani, but in

Bh. (not in Mth. or Mg.), when the governing noun is not in the

nominative singular, the genitive postposition takes the oblique form

_ka_; thus, _raja-ke mandir_, the palace of the king; but _raja-ka

mandir-me_, in the palace of the king. In Mth. and Mg. pronouns have a

similar oblique genitive in _a_. There is no case of the agent, as in

Hindostani; the subject of all tenses of all verbs being always in the

nominative case.

Every noun can have three forms, a short, a long and a redundant. The

short form is sometimes weak and sometimes strong. Occasionally both

weak and strong forms occur for the same word; thus, short weak,

_ghor_; short strong, _ghora_; long, _ghor^awa_; redundant,

_ghorauwa_. This superfluity of forms is due to the existence of the

pleonastic suffix _-ka-_ in the Prakrit stage of the language (see

PRAKRIT). In that stage the _k_ of the suffix was already elided, so

that we have the stages:--Skr. _ghota-ka-s_, Pr. _ghod-a-u_, B.

_ghora_ (by contraction) or _ghor^a-wa_ (with insertion of a euphonic

_w_). The redundant form is a result of the reduplication of the

suffix, which was allowed in Pr. Thus. Skr. _*ghota-ka-ka-s_, Pr.

_ghoda-a-a-u_, B. _ghorauwa_ (contracted from _ghor^a-wa-wa-a_). The

long and redundant forms are mainly used in conversation. They are

familiar and often contemptuous. Sometimes they give a definite force

to the word, as _ghor^awa_, the horse. In the feminine they are much

used to form diminutives.

As in other languages of the Eastern Group, the singulars of the

personal pronouns have fallen into disuse. The plurals are used

politely for the singulars, and new forms are made from these old

plurals, to make new plurals. The old singulars survive in poetry and

in the speech of villagers, but even here the nominative has

disappeared and new nominatives have been formed from the oblique

bases. All the pronouns have numerous optional forms. As a specimen of

pronominal declension, we may give the most common forms of the first

personal pronoun.

+------------+----------------+--------------+------------+

+------------+----------------+--------------+------------+

| Sing. Nom. | ham | ham | ham |

| | | | |

+------------+----------------+--------------+------------+

The important point to note in the above is that the oblique form

singular is formed from the genitive. It is the oblique form of that

case which is also used when agreeing with another noun in an oblique

case. Thus, _hamar ghar_, my house; _ham^ara ghar-me_, in my house;

_ham^ara-ke_, to me. In Mth. the nominative plural is also the oblique

form of the genitive singular, and in Bh. and Mg. it is the oblique

form of the genitive plural. In Bengali the nominative plural of nouns

substantive is formed in the same way from the genitive singular (see

BENGALI). The usual forms of the pronouns are _ham_, I; _to_, _tu_,

thou; Mth. _ap^anah_, Bh. _raura_, Your Honour; _i_, this; _o_, that,

he; _je_, who; _se_, he; _ke_, who? Mth. _ki_, Mg., Bh. _ka_, what?

_keo, keu_, any one; Mth. _kicch^u_, Mg. _kuchu_, Bh. _kachu_,

anything. The oblique forms of these vary greatly, and must be learned

from the grammars.

_Conjugation in Maithili and Magahi._--It is in the conjugation of the

verb that the amazing complexity of the Mth. and Mg. grammars appears.

The conjugation of the Bhojpuri verb is quite simple, and will be

treated separately. In all three dialects the verb makes little or no

distinction of number, but instead there is a distinction between

non-honorific and honorific forms. In Mth. and Mg. this distinction

applies not only to the subject but also to the object, so that for

each person there are, in the first place, four groups of forms,

viz.:--

I. Subject non-honorific, object non-honorific.

II. Subject honorific, object non-honorific.

III. Subject non-honorific, object honorific.

IV. Subject honorific, object honorific.

+-------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------+

| | Object: non-honorific | Object: honorific. |

+-------+----------------------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+--------------+------------+

| +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+ | |

+-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+------------+

| +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+

+-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+

+-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+

In Mth. all the forms in which the object is honorific end in -_nh^i_.

Mg. closely follows this, but the forms are more abraded.

Forms in which the object is non-honorific may be, as in the case of

nouns, short, long or redundant. The long forms are made by adding

_ai_ (or in the second person -_ah_) to the short forms, and the

redundant forms by adding _k_ to the long forms. Again, if the

_object_ is in the second person, the _ai_ of the long and redundant

forms is changed to _au_. Finally, in the first person the

non-honorific and honorific forms depending on the subject are the

same, and are also identical with those forms of the second person in

which the subject is honorific. We thus get the following paradigm of

the Mth. past tense of the verb _marab_, to strike. The Mg. forms are

very similar. Besides the above there are numerous optional forms.

Moreover, these are only masculine forms. The feminine gender of the

subject introduces new complications. It is impossible here to go into

all these _minutiae_, interesting as they are to philologists. They

must be learnt from the regular grammars. On the present occasion we

shall confine ourselves to describing the formation of the principal

parts of the verb.

In Mth. the usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is, as in

Bengali, based on the root _ach_ (Skr. _rcchati_), the initial vowel

being generally dropped, as in _chi_, I am; _chalah^u_, I was; but

_ach^i_, he is. In Mg. we have _hi_ or _hiki_, I am; _halu_, I was.

The finite verb has three verbal nouns or infinitives, viz. (from the

root _mar_, strike), Mth. _mar^i_ or Mg. _mar_; _marab_; and _maral_.

All three are fully declined as nouns, the oblique forms being _marai_

or _mare_, _mar^aba_, and _mar^ala_, respectively. There are two

participles, a present (Mth. _marait_ = Pr. _marentu_) and a past

(Mth. _maral_ = Pr. _mari-allu_). The Mg. forms are very similar. The

old Mg. Pr. present and imperative have survived, but all other tenses

are made from verbal nouns or participles. The past tense (of which

the conjugation for a Maithili transitive verb is given above) is

formed by adding pronominal suffixes to the past participle. Thus,

_maral+i_, struck + by-me, becomes _mar'li_, I struck. In the case of

intransitive verbs, the suffixes may represent the nominative and not

the instrumental case of the pronoun, and hence the conjugation is

somewhat different. The future is a mixed tense. Generally speaking,

the first two persons are formed from the verbal noun in _b_, which is

by origin a future passive participle, and the third person is formed

from the present participle. Thus, _marab + ah^u_, about-to-be-struck

+ by-me, becomes _mar^abah^u_, I shall strike, and _marait + ah_,

striking + he, becomes _mar^atah_, he will strike (compare the English

"he's going," for "he is on the point of going"). A past conditional

is also formed by adding similar suffixes to the present participle,

as in _maritah^u_, (if) I had struck. This use of the present

participle already existed in the Pr. age (cf. Hema-candra's

_Grammar_, in. 180). In Mth. the present definite and the imperfect

are formed by conjugating the present or past tense respectively of

the auxiliary verb with the present participle; thus _marait chi_, I

am striking. Mg. (like vulgar English) substitutes the oblique form of

the verbal noun for the present participle, as in _mare hi_, I am

a-striking. The perfect is usually formed by adding the word for "is"

to the past; thus, Mth. _mar^ali ach^i_, I have struck, lit.

struck-by-me it-is. A pluperfect is similarly formed with the past

tense of the auxiliary verb.

There are numerous irregular verbs. Most of the irregularities are due

to the root ending in a vowel or in a weak consonant such as _b_ (=

Pr. _v_). Thus root _pab_, obtain, past participle _paol_, first

singular, past tense, _pauli_. More definitely irregular are a few

roots like _kar_, do, past participle _kail_. These last instances are

cases in which the past participle is independently derived from a

Skr. past participle, and is not formed as usual by adding the

pleonastic suffix -_al_ or -_il_ (Skr., Pr., _-alla-_, _-illa_-, see

PRAKRIT) to the Bihari root. Thus, Skr. _krta-s_, Pr. _kaa-u,

ka-ill-u_, B. _kail_, instead of _kar-al_.

There is a long series of transitive verbs formed from intransitives

and of causal verbs formed from transitives, generally by adding _ab_

(Skr. _apaya_-, Pr. _ave_-). Compound verbs are numerous. Noteworthy

is the desiderative compound formed by adding the root _cah_, wish, to

the dative of a verbal noun. Thus, _ham dekha-ke cahait-chi_, I am

wishing for the seeing, I wish to see.

_Conjugation in Bhojpuri._--The Bh. conjugation is as simple as that

of Mth. and Mg. is complex. In the first and second persons the plural

is generally employed for the singular, but there is no change in the

verb corresponding to the person or honour of the object. The usual

verb substantive and auxiliary verb is derived in the present from the

root _bat_ or _bar_, be, as in _bate_ or _bare_ (Skr. _vartate_, Pr.

_vattai_), he is. The past is derived from the root _rah_ (Skr.

_rahati_, Pr. _rahai_), as in _rah^ali_ or (contracted) _rahi_, I was.

The verbal nouns and participles are nearly the same as in Mth.-Mg.,

the first verbal noun and the present participle being _mar_ and

_marat_, as in Mg. The old present and imperative, derived from the

Mg. Pr. forms, are also employed in Bh. Thus, _mare_ (Pr. _marei_), he

strikes. This tense is often used as a present conditional. When it is

wished to emphasize the sense of a present indicative, the syllable

-_la_ is suffixed. The same suffix is employed in Rajasthani, Naipali

and Marathi to form the future, and in Bh. it is often also used with

a future sense. The past tense is formed, as in Mth.-Mg., by adding

pronominal suffixes to the past participle; thus, _mar^ali_ (_mara +

li_), I struck, as explained above. Similarly, for the first and

second persons of the future we have _mar^abi_, I shall strike, and so

on, but the third person is _mari_ (Pr. _marehi_), he will strike,

_marihen_ (Pr. _marehinti_), they will strike. The periphrastic tenses

are formed on the same principles as in Mth. As an example of Bh.

conjugation we give the present, past and future tenses in all

persons. There are a few additional optional forms, but nothing like

the multiplicity of meanings which we find in Mth. and Mg.

+---------+----------+----------+----------+

+---------+----------+----------+----------+

| | | | |

+---------+----------+----------+----------+

It will be observed that the termination of the present changes in

sympathy with the old present to which it is attached. In some parts

of the Bh. area, especially in the district of Saran, _u_ is

substituted for _^al_ in the past. Thus, _marui_, I struck. The

_maru_- is merely the past participle without the pleonastic

termination _-alla-_ which is used in Bihari, as explained under the

Mth.-Mg. conjugation.

Irregular verbs, the formation of transitive and causal verbs, and the

treatment of compound verbs, are on the same lines as in Mth.

Literature.

_Bihari Literature._--In all three dialects there are numerous

folk-epics transmitted by word of mouth. Several have been published at

various times in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_ and in

the _Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft_. The only

dialect which has any real literature is Maithili. The earliest writer

of whom we have any record is Vidyapati Thakkura (Bidyapati Thakur), who

lived at the court of Raja Siva Simha of Sugaona in Tirhut in the 15th

century. He was a voluminous Sanskrit writer, but his fame rests chiefly

on his dainty lyrics in Maithili dealing with the loves of Radha and

Krishna. These have exercised an important influence on the religious

history of eastern India. They were adopted and enthusiastically recited

by the reformer Caitanya (16th century), and through him became the

home-poetry of the Bengali-speaking Lower Provinces. Their language was

transformed (we can hardly say translated) into Bengali, and in that

shape they have had numerous imitators. A collection of poems by the old

Master-singer in their Maithili dress has been published by the present

writer in his _Chrestomathy_ of that language. The most admired of

Vidyapati's successors is Manbodh Jha, who died in 1788. He composed a

_Haribans_, or poetical life of Krishna, which has great popularity.

Many dramas have been composed in Mithila. The fashion is to write the

body of the work in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but the songs in Maithili. Two

dramas, the _Parijata-harana_ and the _Rukmini-parinaya_, are attributed

to Vidyapati. Among modern writers in the dialect, we may mention

Harsanatha, an elegant lyric poet and author of a drama entitled

_Usa-harana_, and Candra Jha, whose version of the Ramayana and

translation of Vidyapati's Sanskrit _Purusa-pariksa_ are deservedly

popular.

AUTHORITIES.--_The Linguistic Survey of India_, vol. v. part ii.

(Calcutta, 1903), gives a complete conspectus of Bihari in all its

dialects and sub-dialects. See also G.A. Grierson, _Seven Grammars of

the Dialects and Sub-dialects of the Bihari Language_, parts i. to

viii. (Calcutta, 1883-1887--these deal with every form of Bihari

except standard Maithili); and S.H. Kellogg, _A Grammar of the Hindi

Language, in which are treated High Hindi... also the Colloquial

Dialects of ... Bhojpur, Magadha, Maithila, &c._ (2nd ed., London,

1893).

For Maithili, see G.A. Grierson, _An Introduction to the Maithili

Language of North Bihar, containing a Grammar, Chrestomathy and

Vocabulary_; part i. _Grammar_ (Calcutta, 1881; 2nd ed., 1909); part

ii. _Chrestomathy and Vocabulary_ (Calcutta, 1882). For Vidyapati

Thakkura, see J. Beames, "The Early Vaishnava Poets of Bengal," in

_Indian Antiquary_, ii. (1873), pp. 37 ff.; the same, "On the Age and

Country of Vidyapati," _ibid_. iv. (1875), pp. 299 ff.; anon, article

in the _Banga Darsana_, vol. iv. (1282 B.S.), pp. 75 ff.; Saradacarana

Maitra, Introduction to _Vidyapatir Padavali_ (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1285

B.S.); C.A. Grierson, _Chrestomathy_, as above; "Vidyapati and his

Contemporaries," _Indian Antiquary_, vol. xiv. (1885), pp. 182 ff.;

"On some Mediaeval Kings of Mithila," _ibid_. vol. xxviii. (1899), pp.

57 ff.

For Bhojpuri, see J. Beames, "Notes on the Bhojpuri Dialect of Hindi

spoken in Western Bihar," in _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_,

vol. iii. N.S., 1868, pp. 483 ff.; A.F.R. Hoernle, _A Grammar of the

Eastern Hindi compared with the other Gaudian Languages_ (here

"Eastern Hindi" means "Western Bhojpuri"), (London, 1880); J.R. Reid,

_Report on the Settlement Operations in the District of Azamgarh_

(Allahabad, 1881--contains in appendices full grammar and vocabulary

of Western Bhojpuri).

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bible" to "Bisectrix" Volume 3, Slice 7 · 第 43 / 78 题

Bideford (Bedeford, Bydyford, Budeford, Bytheford) is not mentioned in