Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/425

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BAYADEEE BAYARD 405 her charms survive she serves the passions of the Brahmans. Jf she has children, the girls are educated to bo nautchnees and the boys musicians. The devadasees of the Soodra caste rank lower, but enjoy more freedom ; when not on duty in the temples they are at liber- ty to go abroad, and their earnings are their own. They attend, when sent for, at the houses of the noble and the wealthy, to assist with their songs and dances at weddings and other feasts. The devadasees receive stated wages in money and rice. The inferior class add to these resources the fruits of an infamous profession. Every temple entertains a troop of 8, 12, or even more devadasees. Sometimes the nautchnee becomes a kunchenee, a doomin- ca, or a bazeegharnee, terras for the different Bayadeer. sorts of dancing girls who wander through the country in troops of 10 or 12 to entertain strangers with music and dancing. These at- tend at chooltrees or inns, or at the garden houses of wealthy Hindoos; and in all the large cities of Hindostan there are sets of these nautchnees under the management of dliyas, ready to be hired for religious or other pur- poses. The nautch girls form a distinct body in Hindoo society, living under the protec- tion of government and regulated by the pe- culiar rules of their order. Their costume is cumbrous, cf rich material, gayly colored, and consists of a pair of embroidered trou- sers, a petticoat containing at least twelve breadths, gold or silver fringed, and a coortee or vest, half hidden by an immense veil which crosses the bosom several times, hanging down in front, and at the back in broad ends. The hands, arms, neck, legs, toes, feet, ears, and nose are decked with gold and jewels, and the hair is braided with silver ribbons and confined with bodkins of beautiful workmanship. The dance is, strictly speaking, a pantomime, ex- plained with music, in which commonly the old story of love and its troubles is related. I'. IVU.Oi Us, an Indian tribe, of Choctaw affinity, on the Mississippi, who with the Mon- goulachas were also known by the name of Quinipissas. They are noticed by early writers for their strange temple in which divine honors were paid to the opossum. They were friendly to the French, and the missionary Limoges labored among them, but without fruit, as they seem to have been cruel and treacherous. Tonti in 1685, looking for La Salle, left a letter for him at the village of this tribe, where Iber- ville found it in 1699. Before the Natchez war they had merged in other tribes. BAYAMO, an inland town of Cuba, in the Eastern department, capital of a district of the same name, situated in a plain on a tribu- tary of the river Cauto, 96 in. S. E. of Puerto Principe; pop. previous to the civil war, which commenced in 1868, about 18,000. It is in the main badly built. It has a trade through the Cauto with the ports of Manzanillo on the south- west and Holguin on the northeast. The chief productions of the district are horses and horned cattle, which are largely raised. BAYARD. I. James Asheton, an American law- yer and statesman, born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1767, died in Wilmington, Del., Aug. 6, 1815. His ancestor, Nicholas Bayard, a French Huguenot, arrived in this country in 1647 in company with his brother-in-law Peter Stuy- vesant, the last Dutch governor of New York. James Bayard was educated at Princeton col- lege, studied law in Philadelphia, began prac- tice in Delaware, and in 1796 was elected to congress as a supporter of the federal adminis- tration. In 1801 he was appointed by Presi- dent Adams minister to France, but declined. He was a leader in the policy which resulted in the election of Mr. Jefferson as president by the house in 1801, and in 1804 was chosen United States senator as successor of his father- in-law Gov. Bassett, and remained there until selected by Mr. Madison as one of the commis- sioners for negotiating the treaty of Ghent in 1813. He took a prominent share in the ne- gotiations, and after the ratification of the treaty was appointed envoy to Russia, but re- fused tin' appointment. II. Richard Bassett, son of the preceding, born in Wilmington, Del., in 1796, died in Philadelphia, March 4, 1868. He waa United States senator from 1836 to 1839, and again from 1841 to 1845. HI. James Ashe- ton, brother of the preceding, was elected sen- ator from Delaware in 1851, 1857, 1863, and 1869. He was an able lawyer, and for several years was chairman of the judiciary commit- tee. He resigned owing to ill health in 1869. IV. Thomas Francis, son of the preceding, born at Wilmington, Oct. 29. 1828, succeeded his father as senator from Delaware in 1869. BAYARD, Jean Franeols Alfred, a French dra- matist, born in Charolles, department of Sa6ue-