290 BAPAUME BAPTISM Nile in the vicinity of the southern tropic. It was first discovered in 1748 by Adanson, in his voyage to Senegal, and it has been raised in England from seeds. It was carried to India many centuries ago, and one of great size is at Alipore near Calcutta. The trunk is from 15 to 60 ft. high and from 70 to 75 ft. in circum- ference. Its lower branches grow horizontally, frequently to the length of 60 ft., and hang to the ground, concealing the trunk. The leaves are large and abundant, of a dark green color, and divided into five radiating lanceolate leaf- lets ; they are used by the natives as an anti- sudorific. The flivver is large, white, with stamens gathered in a tube below, but spread- ing like an umbrella above, surmounted by a long, slender, and recurved style, terminated by a rayed stigma ; petals reflexed and calyx deciduous. The fruit is a soft, pulpy, but dry substance, about the size of a quart bottle, en- closed in a long dull green woody pod ; the pulp between the seeds tastes like cream of tartar, is used by the natives to give a flavor to por- ridge, and is much esteemed as an antifebrile. The baobab is also called monkey bread, sour gourd, and lalo plant. The natives make a strong cord from the fibres obtained from its pounded bark. To this end they often wholly strip the trunk of its bark, which is replaced by a new one. No external injury, not even fire, can destroy it from without, nor can it be injured from within, as it is quite common to find it hollow. Even cutting down does not exterminate it, for it continues to grow in length while lying on the ground, and its roots, which reach 40 or 50 yards from the trunk, retain their vitality. Livingstone judged that one of the baobab trees which he examined was at least 1,400 years old. It is subject to a very remarkable disease, a softening of its woody structure, until it falls by its own weight a mass of ruins. The natives use the trunk hollowed out as a place of deposit for executed criminals whom the law denies the rights of burial. In this position the bodies soon wither and dry up, having much the ap- pearance of mummies. BAPAUME, a town of France, in the depart- ment of Pas-de-Calais, situated in a wide plain, 13 m. S. S. E. of Arras; pop. in 1866, 3,174. It has several oil and soap manufactories. On Jan. 3, 1871, after some fighting on the pre- ceding day in the vicinity, a battle took place at Bapaume between the French army of the north under Faidherbe, advancing for the relief of Paris, and a portion of the first Prussian army under Von Goeben. The French were repulsed, and on the next day fell back on Arras and Douai. The particu- lars of the battle became the subject of an animated controversy between Faidherbe and Von Goeben. BAPHOMET, or Baflomet, a mysterious symbol used among the knights templar. The word was believed to be a corruption of Mahomet, to whose faith the templars were accused of inclining. According to more recent views, it had reference to Gnostic mysteries, and was connected with the Gnostic baptism, or baptism of fire. Some of these curious sym- bols were found in 1818 in the imperial mu- seum of Vienna, and described by Von Ham- mer. They are of stone, and represent a fe- male figure with two male faces, inscribed with a serpent, a truncated cross, or Egyptian key of life and death, tlie sun and moon, a chess- board, a candlestick with seven branches, and numerous Arabic inscriptions. BAPTISM (Gr. {Sdnna/ia, from /5an-Tifi>, fre- quentative of fiaTTTeiv, to dip), the application of water as the sign of reception of a per- son into the visible Christian church. As to the mode, it is admitted by all orders of Chris- tians that immersion is a valid form, while the Baptist denomination, with its various branch- es, maintain that this is the only valid form. The Latin church favors affusion three times applied, in the names of the three persons of the Trinity ; it however admits of either immer- sion or sprinkling. The original rubric of the Greek church requires a trine immersion, but in the Russian branch sprinkling is held equal- ly valid. The rubric of the church of Eng- land requires that an infant be dipped three times in water, unless the health of the child renders it unadvisable. Protestant denomina- tions, other than Baptists, recognize either mode ; among them immersion is rare, affusion not uncommon, but sprinkling more usual. In the Greek and Latin churches the rite is admin- istered at a very early age, practically as soon as the physical condition of the recipient will permit. The proper time is generally held to be from a week to a month after birth ; but when there is supposed to be danger of death, it may be administered at once. By many Protestant denominations who recognize the baptism of children, only those are to be bap- tized one or both of whose parents are mem- bers of the church. Baptists maintain that the rite can only be administered upon pro- fession of faith by the recipient, and therefore only to those who have reached a sufficient age to make such profession intelligently. In the case of infants, the Greek, Roman, and Anglican churches require sponsors, who prom- ise in the name of the child obedience to the' divine law. In the Latin church sponsorship is held to constitute a kind of affinity, so that sponsors are not allowed to intermarry. In the Lutheran church the parents may be sponsors. In the dissenting bodies in England, and in most of the non-episcopal churches in the United States, sponsors are usually dispensed with. The Latin church recognizes as valid baptism performed by any person, even by a midwife, upon anew-born child; but except in peril of death, the minister should be a clergy- man. Baptism is only to be administered once. Baptists immerse all new postulants. The Ro- man church recognizes all baptisms as valid, but administers to converts what is sometimes
