Barb, a horse of the Barbary breed, introduced by the Moors into Spain, and of great speed, endurance, and docility.
Bar´bacan, or Barbican, generally an advanced work defending the entrance to a castle or fortified town, as before the gate or drawbridge, and often of formidable size and strength.
Barba´does, or Barbados, the most eastern of the West India Islands, first mentioned in 1518, and occupied by the British in 1625. Length, 21 miles; breadth, 13; area, 106,470 acres or 166 sq, miles, about 74,000 being under cultivation. It is divided into eleven Church of England parishes; capital, Bridgetown. It is one of the most densely-populated areas in the world, the population in 1917 being estimated at 186,656, or nearly 1100 to the square mile. The climate is very hot, though moderated by the constant trade-winds; and the island is subject to dreadful hurricanes. The surface is broken, now without forests, and with few streams; the highest point is 1145 feet above the sea-level. There are few indigenous mammals or birds. The black lowland soil gives great returns of sugar in favourable seasons. The chief exports, besides sugar, are molasses and rum; imports: rice, salt meat, corn, butter, flour, &c. Both exports and imports were over £2,000,000 in 1918. Barbadoes has a considerable transit trade, being in some measure the central mart for all the Windward Islands. It is the see of a bishop and the head-quarters of the British forces in the West Indies. There is a railway across the island, also tramways, telephones, &c. The island forms a distinct government under a Governor, an Executive and a Legislative Council of 9 members, and a House of Assembly of 24 members. Liberal provision is made for education both by old foundations and by annual vote.
Barbadoes Leg, a form of elephantiasis.
Bar´bara, St., according to the legend, belonged to Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, and was beheaded by her father for having turned Christian, he being immediately thereafter struck dead by lightning. The latter part of this legend caused her, probably, to be invoked in storms, and to be considered the patron saint of artillerists.
Barbarelli. See Giorgione.
Barbarian (Gk. barbaros), a name given by the Greeks, and afterwards by the Romans, to everyone who spoke an unintelligible language; and hence coming to connote the idea of rude, illiterate, uncivilized. This word, therefore, did not always convey the idea of something odious or savage; thus a Greek character in
Plautus calls Nævius a barbarous poet, because he had not written in Greek; and Cicero terms illiterate persons without taste 'barbarians'.
Barbarossa ('red-beard'), the name of two famous Turkish corsairs of the sixteenth century, who ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean, and established themselves in Algiers. The elder of the brothers, Aruch or Horuk, was killed in 1518; the younger and more notorious, Hayraddin, who captured Tunis, died in 1546. See Frederick Barbarossa.