[1] Mr Annesley (b. 1851), after having served in the Prussian army,
and in the Turkish army during the war of 1877, was in the British
consular service from 1879 to 1892. In 1888 he became consul to the
Congo Free State.
BENITOITE, a mineral discovered in 1907 near the headwaters of the San
Benito river, San Benito Co., California, and described by Prof. G.D.
Louderback. It is a titano-silicate of barium (BaTiSi3O9), crystallizing
in the hexagonal system, with a hardness of 6.5, and specific gravity
3.65. It may be colourless or blue, the colour varying sometimes in
different parts, and passing to a deep sapphire blue. The blue variety
is cut as a gem stone, and often resembles blue spinel, though its
softness distinguishes it from spinel and sapphire. It is a brilliant
stone, with high refractive index, and is strongly dichroic, being pale
when viewed parallel to the principal axis and dark when viewed
transversely.
BENJAMIN, a tribe of Israel, named after the youngest son of Jacob and
Rachel. As distinct from the others Benjamin was born not beyond the
Jordan but in Palestine, between Bethel and Ephrath. His mother, dying
in childbed, gave him the name Ben-oni, "Son of my sorrow," which was
changed by his father to Ben-jamin, meaning probably "Son of the right
hand" (i.e. "of prosperity," or, perhaps, "son of the south"; Gen. xxxv.
16-18). Of his personal history little is recorded. He was the favourite
of his father and brothers (with which contrast the spirit of the
stories in Judg. xix.-xxi.), and the reputation of fierceness ascribed
to him in the blessing of Jacob ("Benjamin is a wolf that teareth," Gen.
xlix. 27) agrees with what is told of the tribe's warriors (see EHUD,
SAUL, JONATHAN). It is a curious feature that its noted slingers were
said to be left-handed (Judg. xx. 16, cf. iii. 15) and even ambidextrous
(1 Chron. xii. 2). The late references to this tribe in the Israelite
wanderings in the wilderness are of little value. On entering Palestine
it is allotted a portion encompassed by the districts of Ephraim, Dan
and Judah. In the time of the "judges" the tribe of Benjamin was almost
exterminated (see JUDGES, BOOK OF), 600 men alone escaping (Judges xix.
sqq.). The tribe was built up again by the rape of the maidens of Shiloh
at one of their annual festivals (for which cf. Judges ix. 27), but a
later narrative gives currency to a tradition that 400 virgins were also
brought to Shiloh, the survivors of a massacre of the inhabitants of
Jabesh-Gilead. At all events, Benjamin claimed the honour of providing
the great king of Israel whose heroic deliverance of Jabesh-Gilead is
referred to elsewhere (see SAUL), and it is noteworthy that the tribe
only now attain historical importance. If the genealogies associated it
with Joseph the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, its fortunes were for a
time bound up with the northern kingdom (see DAVID). Although its
territory lies open on the west and east, its physical features unite it
to Judah, and what is known of its mixed population[1] makes it
difficult to determine how far the youngest of the tribes of Israel
enjoyed any independent position previous to the monarchy. Its neutral
position between Judah and Ephraim gave it an importance which was
religious as well as political. Anathoth the home of Abiathar and
Jeremiah, Gibeon the old Canaanite sanctuary, the royal sanctuary at
Bethel, its associations with Samuel and the prophetic gilds of the
times of Elijah and Elisha, and finally Jerusalem itself, the centre of
worship, give "the least of all the tribes" a unique value in the
history of Old Testament religion.