[Barking], a market-town in Essex, 7 m. NE. of London, with the remains of an ancient Benedictine convent.
[Barlaam and Josaphat], a mediæval legend, being a Christianised version of an earlier legend relating to Buddha, in which Josaphat, a prince like Buddha, is converted by Barlaam to a like ascetic life.
[Barleycorn, John], the exhilarating spirit distilled from barley personified.
[Barlow, Joel], an American poet and diplomatist; for his Republican zeal, was in 1792 accorded the rights of citizenship in France; wrote a poem "The Vision of Columbus" (1755-1812).
[Barlowe], a French watchmaker, inventor of the repeating watch; d. 1690.
[Barmacide Feast], an imaginary feast, so called from a story in the "Arabian Nights" of a hungry beggar invited by a Barmacide prince to a banquet, which proved a long succession of merely empty dishes, and which he enjoyed with such seeming gusto and such good-humour as to earn for himself a sumptuous real one.
[Bar`macides], a Persian family celebrated for their magnificence, and that in the end met with the cruellest fate. Yâhyá, one of them, eminent for ability and virtue, was chosen by the world-famous Haroun-Al-Raschid on his accession to the caliphate to be his vizier; and his four sons rose along with him to such influence in the government, as to excite the jealousy of the caliph so much, that he had the whole family invited to a banquet, and every man, woman, and child of them massacred at midnight in cold blood. The caliph, it is gratifying to learn, never forgave himself for this cruelty, and was visited with a gnawing remorse to the end of his days; and it had fatal issues to his kingdom as well as himself.
[Bar`men] (116), a long town, consisting of a series of hamlets, 6 m. in extent, in Rhenish Prussia; the population consists chiefly of Protestants; the staple industry, the manufacture of ribbons, and it is the centre of that industry on the Continent.
[Barnabas, St.], a member of the first Christian brotherhood, a companion of St. Paul's, and characterised in the Acts as "a good man"; stoned to death at Cyprus, where he was born; an epistle extant bears his name, but is not believed to be his work; the Epistle to the Hebrews has by some been ascribed to him; he is usually represented in art as a venerable man of majestic mien, with the Gospel of St. Matthew in his hand. Festival, June 11.
[Barnabites], a proselytising order of monks founded at Milan, where Barnabas was reported to have been bishop, in 1530; bound, as the rest are, by the three monastic vows, and by a vow in addition, not to sue for preferment in the Church.