[Barataria], the imaginary island of which Sancho Panza was formally installed governor, and where in most comical situations he learned how imaginary is the authority of a king, how, instead of governing his subjects, his subjects govern him.
[Barbacan], or Barbican, a fortification to a castle outside the walls, generally at the end of the drawbridge in front of the gate.
[Barba`does] (182), one of the Windward Islands, rather larger than the Isle of Wight; almost encircled by coral reefs; is the most densely peopled of the Windward Islands; subject to hurricanes; healthy and well cultivated; it yields sugar, arrowroot, ginger, and aloes.
[Barbara, St.], a Christian martyr of the 3rd century; beheaded by her own father, a fanatical heathen, who was immediately after the act struck dead by lightning; she is the patron saint of those who might otherwise die impenitent, and of Mantua; her attributes are a tower, a sword, and a crown. Festival, Dec. 4.
[Barbarians], originally those who could not speak Greek, and ultimately synonymous with the uncivilised and people without culture, particularly literary; this is the sense in which Matthew Arnold uses it.
[Barbarossa], the surname of Frederick I., emperor of Germany, of whom there is this tradition, that "he is not yet dead; but only sleeping, till the bad world reach its worst, when he will reappear. He sits within a cavern near Saltzburg, at a marble table, leaning on his elbow; winking, only half-asleep, as a peasant once tumbling into the interior saw him; beard had grown through the table, and streamed out on the floor. He looked at the peasant one moment, asked something about the time it was; then drooped his eyelids again: 'Not yet time, but will be soon.'"
[Barbarossa] (i. e. Red-beard), Horuk, a native of Mitylene; turned corsair; became sovereign of Algiers by the murder of Selim the emir, who had adopted him as an ally against Spain; was defeated twice by the Spanish general Gomarez and slain (1473-1518).
[Barbarossa, Khair-Eddin], brother and successor of the preceding; became viceroy of the Porte, made admiral under the sultan, opposed Andrea Doria, ravaged the coast of Italy, and joined the French against Spain; died at Constantinople in 1546.
[Barbaroux, Charles], advocate, born at Marseilles, of which he became town-clerk; came to Paris "a young Spartan," and became chief of the Girondins in the French Revolution; represented Marseilles in the Constituent Assembly and the Convention; joined the Rolands; sent "fire-eyed" message to Marseilles for six hundred men "who knew how to die"; held out against Marat and Robespierre; declared an enemy of the people, had to flee; mistook a company approaching for Jacobins, drew his pistol and shot himself, but the shot miscarried; was captured and guillotined (1767-1794).
[Barbary ape], a tailless monkey of gregarious habits, native of the mountainous parts of Barbary, and of which there is a colony on the Rock of Gibraltar, the only one in Europe.