In the sense of company or troop, "band" is probably also connected with bindan, to bind. It came into English from the French. The meaning seems to have originated in Romanic, cf. Italian, Spanish and Portuguese banda, and thence came into Teutonic. It has usually been taken (see Ducange, Gloss. s.v. banda) to be due to the "band" or sash of a particular colour worn as a distinctive mark by a troop of soldiers. Others refer it to the medieval Latin bandum, banner, a strip or "band" of cloth fastened to a pole. In this sense the chief application is to a company of musicians (see Orchestra), particularly when used in armies or navies, a military band.
Military Bands.—In all countries bands are organized and maintained in each infantry regiment or battalion if the latter is the unit. The strength of these bands and the number and nature of their instruments vary considerably, as also do the rank and status of the bandmaster. The buglers and drummers belonging to the companies are generally massed under the sergeant-drummer and on the march play alternately with the band. In action the British custom is to use the bandsmen as stretcher-bearers, but on the continent of Europe the bands are as far as possible kept in hand under the regimental commanders and play the troops into action; and in all countries the available bands, drums and bugles are ordered to play during the final assault. The training of bandmasters for the British service is carried out at Kneller Hall, Hounslow, an institution founded in 1857 and placed under direct control of the war office in 1867. The average strength of the various classes of instrument in the band of a British line regiment has been stated as—twenty flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, four horns, eight saxhorns, six trumpets and cornets, three trombones, two drums. The buglers and drummers are in the proportion of one of each per company. The saxophone, which is the characteristic instrument of military bands in other countries, has not found favour with the British authorities. Another specially military instrument, universal in the Russian army and more or less common to others, is the so-called "Jingling Johnny," a frame of small bells that is sharply shaken in the accented parts of the music. The "glockenspiel" is also fairly common. The peculiar instrument of Scottish regiments is the bagpipes. Cavalry, and more rarely artillery corps in the various armies, have small bands. The mounted arms, however, have little need of music as compared with the infantry, the order and ease of whose marching powers are immensely enhanced by the music of a good regimental band. In the navies of various countries bands are maintained on board flag-ships and sometimes on board other large ships.
BANDA, a town and district of British India, in the Allahabad division of the United Provinces. The town is near the right bank of the river Ken, 95 m. S.W. of Allahabad. The population in 1901 was 22,565. The town possesses 65 mosques and 168 Hindu temples. It was formerly, but is no longer, a military cantonment.
The district is the most barren and backward portion of the province. It contains an area of 3061 sq. m. In some parts it rises into irregular uplands and elevated plains, interspersed with detached rocks of granite; in others it sinks into marshy lowlands, which frequently remain under water during the rainy season. The sloping country on the bank of the Jumna is full of ravines. To the S.E. the Vindhya chain of hills takes its origin in a low range not exceeding 500 ft. in height, and forming a natural boundary of the district in that direction. The principal river of the district is the Jumna, which flows from north-west to south-east, along the N.E. boundary of the district, for 125 m. In 1901 the population was 631,058, showing a decrease of 11% in the decade, due to the effects of famine. The black soil of the district yields crops of which the principal are millet, other food-grains, pulse, rice, cotton and oil-seeds. Banda cotton enjoys a high repute in the market. A branch railway from Manikpur to Jhansi traverses the length of the district, which is also crossed by the East Indian main line to Jubbulpore.
Banda, which forms one of the districts included under the general name of Bundelkhand, has formed an arena of contention for the successive races who have struggled for the sovereignty of India. Kalinjar town, then the capital, was unsuccessfully besieged by Mahmud of Ghazni in A.D. 1023; in 1196 it was taken by Kutab-ud-din, the general of Muhammad Ghori; in 1545 by Shere Shah, who, however, fell mortally wounded in the assault. About the year 1735 the raja of Kalinjar's territory, including the present district of Banda, was bequeathed to Baji Rao, the Mahratta peshwa; and from the Mahrattas it passed by the treaties of 1802-1803 to the Company. At the time of the Mutiny the district, which was poverty-stricken and over-taxed, joined the rebels. The town of Banda was recovered by General Whitlock on the 20th of April 1858. The fiscal system was remodelled, and the district has since enjoyed a greater degree of prosperity only interrupted by famine.
BANDA ISLANDS, a group of the Dutch East Indies, consisting of three chief and several lesser islands in the Banda Sea, south of Ceram, belonging to the residency of Amboyna. The main islands are Great Banda or Lontor; Banda Neira to its north; Gunong Api, west of Banda Neira; Wai or Ai still farther west, with Run on its south-west; Pisang, north of Gunong Api; and Suwangi, north-west again. The total land area is about 16 sq. m. A volcanic formation is apparent in Lontor, a sickle-shaped island which, with Neira and Gunong Api, forms part of the circle of a crater. The arrangement is comparable with Santorin in the Aegean Sea. Gunong Api (Fire Mountain), 2200 ft. high, is an active volcano, and its eruptions and earthquakes have frequently brought destruction, as notably in 1852, when the damage was chiefly due to a huge wave of the sea. Banda, the chief town, on Neira, is a pleasant settlement, commanded by two Dutch forts of the early 17th century, Nassau and Belgica. The largest island, Lontor, was found too unhealthy to be the site of the principal settlement; but the climate of the islands generally, though hot, is not unhealthy. In the space between Lontor, Neira and Gunong Api there is a good harbour, with entrances on either side, which enable vessels to enter on either of the monsoons. Between Gunong Api and Neira there is a third channel, but it is navigable for small vessels only. The principal articles of commerce in the Banda group are nutmegs and mace. The nutmeg is indigenous. The native population having been cleared off by the Dutch, the plantations were worked by slaves and convicts till the emancipation of 1860. The introduction of Malay and Chinese labourers subsequently took place. The plantations (perken) were originally held by the conquerors of the natives, the government monopolizing the produce at a fixed rate; but in 1873 the government monopoly was abolished. The production amounts annually to nearly 1,500,000 lb of nutmegs, and 350,000 lb of mace. The nutmegs are grown, in accordance with natural conditions, under the shade of other trees, usually the canari. Jalti or jatti wood is cultivated on the small island of Rosingen. The total population of the islands is about 9500, of which some 7000 are descendants of the natives introduced as slaves from neighbouring islands, and are Christians or Mahommedans.
The Banda Islands were discovered and annexed by the Portuguese Antonio D'Abreu in 1512; but in the beginning of the 17th century his countrymen were expelled by the Dutch. In 1608 the British built a factory on Wai, which was demolished by the Dutch as soon as the English vessel left. Shortly after, however, Banda Neira and Lontor were resigned by the natives to the British, and in 1620 Run and Wai were added to their dominions; but in spite of treaties into which they had entered
the Dutch attacked and expelled their British rivals. In 1654 they were compelled by Cromwell to restore Run, and to make satisfaction for the massacre of Amboyna; but the English settlers not being adequately supported from home, the island was retaken by the Dutch in 1664. They remained in undisturbed possession until 1796, when the Banda Islands were taken by the British. They were restored by the treaty of Amiens in the year 1800, again captured, and finally restored by the treaty of Paris concluded in 1814.
BANDANA, or Bandanna, a word probably derived through the Portuguese from the Hindustani bāndhnū, which signified a primitive method of obtaining an effect in dyeing by tying up cloth in different places to prevent the particular parts from receiving the dye. The name was given to richly coloured silk handkerchiefs produced by this process, of which bright colours were characteristic. Bandanas are now commonly made of cotton and produced in Lancashire, whence they are exported. The effect is also produced by a regular process in calico printing, in which the pattern is made by discharging the colour.
BANDELIER, ADOLPH FRANCIS ALPHONSE (1840- ), American archaeologist, was born in Bern, Switzerland, on the 6th of August 1840. When a youth he emigrated to the United States. After 1880 he devoted himself to archaeological and ethnological work among the Indians of the south-western United States, Mexico and South America. Beginning his studies in Sonora (Mexico), Arizona and New Mexico, he made himself the leading authority on the history of this region, and—with F. H. Cushing and his successors—one of the leading authorities on its prehistoric civilization. In 1892 he abandoned this field for Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, where he continued ethnological, archaeological and historical investigations. In the first field he was in a part of his work connected with the Hemenway Archaeological Expedition and in the second worked for Henry Villard of New York, and for the American Museum of Natural History of the same city. Bandelier has shown the falsity of various historical myths, notably in his conclusions respecting the Inca civilization of Peru. His publications include: three studies "On the Art of War and Mode of Warfare of the Ancient Mexicans," "On the Distribution and Tenure of Lands and the Customs with respect to Inheritance among the Ancient Mexicans," and "On the Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans" (Harvard University, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Annual Reports, 1877, 1878, 1879); Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico, and Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos (1881); Report of an Archaeological Tour in Mexico in 1881 (1884); Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the South-western United States (1890-1892, 2 vols.); Contributions to the History of the South-western Portion of the United States carried on mainly in the years from 1880 to 1885 (1890),—all these in the Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, American Series, constituting vols. i.-v.; "The Romantic School of American Archaeologists" (New York Historical Society, 1885); The Gilded Man (El Dorado) and other Pictures of the Spanish Occupancy of America (1893); and a report On the Relative Antiquity of Ancient Peruvian Burials (American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin, v. 30, 1904). He also edited The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca ... from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536 (1905), translated into English by his wife.