Ba´boo, or Babu, a Hindu title of respect equivalent to sir or master, usually given to wealthy and educated native gentlemen, especially when of the mercantile class.
Baboon´, a common name applied to a division of old-world quadrumana (apes and
monkeys), comprehending the genera Cynocephălus and Papio. They have elongated abrupt muzzles like a dog, strong tusks or canine teeth, usually short tails, cheek-pouches, small deep eyes with large eyebrows, and naked callosities on the buttocks. Their hind and fore feet are well proportioned, so that they run easily on all fours, but they do not maintain themselves in an upright posture with facility. They are generally of the size of a moderately large dog, but the largest, the mandrill, is, when erect, nearly of the height of a man. They are almost all African, ugly, sullen, fierce, lascivious, and gregarious, defending themselves by throwing stones, dirt, &c. They live on fruits and roots, eggs and insects. They include the chacma, drill, common baboon, and mandrill. The chacma or pig-tailed baboon (Cynocephălus porcarius) is found in considerable numbers in parts of the S. African colonies, where the inhabitants wage war against them on account of the ravages they commit in the fields and gardens. The common baboon (C. babouin) inhabits a large part of Africa farther to the north. It is of a brownish-yellow colour, while the chacma is greyish-black, or in parts black. The hamadryas (C. hamadryas) of Abyssinia is characterized by long hair, forming a sort of shoulder-cape. The black baboon (C. niger) is found in Celebes.
Babour (bä´bu¨r). See Baber.
Bab´rius, a Greek poet who flourished during the second or third century of the Christian era, and wrote a number of Æsopian fables. Several versions of these made during the Middle Ages have come down to us as Æsop's Fables. In 1840 a manuscript containing 120 fables by Babrius, previously unknown, was discovered on Mount Athos.
Babuya´nes Islands, a group in the Pacific Ocean, between Luzon and Formosa, belonging to United States. Pop. 12,000.
Baby-farming. The law relating to the protection of children and young persons has been subjected to amendment and consolidation by the Children Act of 1908, which wholly repealed the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897 dealing with baby-farming and infant life protection.
The Act of 1908 (Part I) deals with baby-farming, and requires that notice shall be given to the Local Authority (in Scotland the Parish Council) by the person undertaking for reward the nursing and maintenance of any infant or infants under seven years of age apart from their parents, within forty-eight hours after reception, unless the period for which it is received be only forty-eight hours or less. The notice requires the name, sex, date and place of birth of the child to be stated, where it is to be kept, and from whom it is received. The Act also provides that such a person shall notify any change in his residence or the removal or death of the infant to the Local Authority within forty-eight hours. In regard to all these matters the Act is retrospective, and necessitates persons who had undertaken nursing and maintenance of such infants before its coming into operation to comply with its provisions within a month after the commencement thereof. But it exempts any person who may have given the similar notice required by the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897, although it does not exempt any person whose duty it was to have given notice thereunder from any liability which such a person may have incurred thereunder.
A duty is imposed upon Local Authorities to inquire regarding persons willing to undertake the nursing and maintenance of infants, to appoint infant-protection visitors of either sex in so far as it provides for infant life protection and gives powers to such Local Authorities and visitors for fulfilling the requirements of the Act. It is an offence for the person undertaking the nursing to refuse to allow such visitors access to the infant or the premises in which it is kept; and, if need be, application may be made to the court for a warrant to enter the house in which an infant is farmed out, and where there is reason to believe that the Act is being contravened. It is an offence for any infant to be kept (1) by any person from whose care an infant has been removed under the Act or the Infant Life Protection Act, or (2) by any person convicted of any offence under Part II of the Children Act of 1908 or the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904.