Belper

Belper (formerly Beaupoire), a town of Derbyshire, England, on the Derwent and the Midland railway, 7 m. N. of Derby; pop. in 1871, 11,156. It is well built, and one of the most flourishing towns of Derbyshire. The Strutt cotton works employ over 2,000 persons, and there are also manufactories of silk and cotton hosiery, nails, and brown earthenware.

Belshazzar

Belshazzar (Chal. Belshatztzar). See Babylon.

Beltane, Or Bcltein

Beltane, Or Bcltein, a kind of festival, still celebrated in parts of Ireland and Scotland on the 1st of May, and supposed to be as old as the remotest period of druidical supremacy. The name signifies the fire of Bel or Baal, and the custom was probably an offshoot and remnant of oriental worship. To the Beltane may be referred the practice of lighting fires on midsummer eve in England, in honor of the summer solstice.

Beltis, Or Bilit

Beltis, Or Bilit, a goddess of the Babylonians. See Mylitta.

Beltrami

Beltrami, a N. W. county of Minnesota; pop. in 1870, 80. Red lake in the N. W. part discharges into the Red river of the North, and several lakes in the west discharge into Wild Rice river, which flows into the Red. Itasca lake, about 1,600 ft. above the level of the sea, in the 8. part of the county, is the source of the Mississippi river, which in its course through the county forms several lakes, the largest being Cass lake, on the S. E. border. Leech lake, a large body of water touching the S. E. corner, also flows into the Mississippi.

Belus

Belus (Ileb. Bel; Gr. ), the Graecized form of the Chaldee Bel, as given in the Hebrew Scriptures, or Bil, as read in the inscriptions, the name or title of one of the principal Babylonian divinities. The name Bel is supposed to he contracted from Bed, a Chaldee equivalent of the Phoenician and Hebrew Baal (the Lord). (See Baal, Babylonia, and Me-rodach.) The attending female divinity was Bilit or Mylitta. (See Mylitta.) The Greeks adopted Belus among their divinities, making him the son of Neptune, and the ancestral hero and national divinity of several eastern nations.

Belur Tagh

Belur Tagh. See Bolor Tagh.

Bembo

Bembo. I. Bonifazio, an Italian painter, born at Valdarno, was employed by the court of Milan about the middle of the 15th century. He assisted in the decoration of the cathedral of Cremona, where he painted the "Purification" and the "Adoration of the Magi." His works are esteemed for their brilliant coloring, bold attitudes, and splendid drapery. II. Giovanni Francesco, brother and pupil of the preceding, a painter of the Cremonese school, who of all his contemporaries departed furthest from the antique manner, and resembles Fra Bartolommeo in coloring.

Ben

Ben, the Hebrew and Arabic word for son, often used in forming complements of names; thus: Shelomeh ben David (Solomon son of David), Mosheh ben Maimon (Moses Maimoni-des), Ali ben Hassan. In Arabic, and after it in medieval Hebrew, the form ibn is used in the same way, being in rabbinical names often changed into aben. The qualifying names with the prefixed ben, etc, are also used independently, thus: Ibn Batuta, Ibn Ezra, Ben Gabirol, Bendavid; like the similar modern names Ja-cobson, Mendelssohn, and Davison.