Physical

characteristics (as pointed out by Humboldt and others) favour this view. The American languages have a large common vocabulary, which compares remarkably with that of Mongols and Tartars: words for “snow,” “ dog,” “ bear,” “ boat,” ., so compare; and Americans all appear to have migrated from the north. The distinction urged by some, between the “incorporating” grammar of American languages and the Mongol “ agglutination,” is more apparent than real, as any who know the Mongol grammar, with its long words or compounds, will admit. The comparison between the Aztek and Tartar cycles is remarkable (as indicated by Humboldt), and the Cowvade custom is common to American Indians and Mongols (see Couvade), As regards Aztek customs, including their asceticism, baptism, eucharist, the symbol of the Cro (see Cro es) called the “Tree of our Life,” and emblem of the rain god, the Virgin Mother of God, the burial of a stone with the corpse (as Chinese bury a piece of jade), the flood legend, Paradise, the journey of souls to a distance, the “ owl bridge ” which the dead must cro , the four cycles in which the world is destroyed by water, wind, fire, and famine (as among Hindus in the Kalpas ended by water, wind, earthquake, and fire), the burning of paper slips to pacify ghosts, and other Aztek ideas, these are all explicable by comparison—not with original Buddhism but with the corrupt Tantric Buddhism of China, Tibet, and India,—Ep.] B Ba. In Egyptian is a “sheep,” and also the soul, as distinguished from Ta “shade,” Ka “spirit,” Kha “mummy.” Ba means apparently to “breathe” or utter a sound (like Bu to blow, to bellow, see Bu), and compares with the Aryan Bha “to speak.” The Ba went to Hades (see Amenti), while the Ka remained in the statue of the deceased. The Ba was also represented by a crane hieroglyphic (see Book of the Dead, XV, i; Proceedings Bib. Arch. Socy., May 1892). The soul as a human-headed bird is represented revisiting the tomb or the mummy, and as being refreshed by Neith, or Has or, who pours down on it the water of life, from the sacred Persea tree (the aurora, with its dew), in the twilight land of Amenti. Ba’al. Hebrew: “lord” or “ master ”"—the Babylonian belu. In the Old Testament this name, when applied to a deity, never stands alone. It is either Ha-Ba’al “the Lord” (Arabic Hab’al at Makka), or else in the construct as in Ba’al-pe’or. The word is common to all early Semitic dialects. It applies to mountains as being high, and to all who are “masters,” including husbands. The Ba’alah was the “mistre ” of the house, and the Ba’alah marriage of Arabs (see Arabia) was the wedding of a lady of equal birth with the husband. The name Ba’al thus applied to Yahveh, as well as to other gods. In the rock texts of Petra (says Prof. Euting) the name B'al stands occasionally in place of Al, or Allah, Hosea about 700 B.c. is made to announce (ii, 16) a future change: “In that day saith Yahveh thou shalt call me Ishi, and no more Ba’ali”: that is “my man” (or husband), and no more “my lord” or master—indicating a more loving attitude. Baalbek. The famous temple west of Damascus, in the plain E, of Lebanon. It was called Helio polis by Romans, as a “sun city,” and continued to be pagan down to 380 a.c., when the emperor Theodosius built a church in the court of the temple of the sun— remains of which still exist, while a pagan altar has recently been found under the foundations. The Latin inscriptions, beside the eastern entrance of the Great Court, show that the whole was built to “all the gods of Helio polis” in the 3rd century of our era, by Julia Domna and her nephew the emperor Helio gab alus—or as he was called (after his great predece or) Ant on in us Pius, He too, in 220 A.C., brought the Black Stone from Emesa (his birthplace) to the Palatine at Rome; and Syrian architecture owed much to the marriage of the Syrian Julia Domna with Severus, The masonry at Ba’albek is marked with Greek letters as masons’ marks, and none of it appears older than the 3rd century. The previous history of the site is quite unknown (see the account by Col. 256