BENEDICTION 484 BENGAL indebted to them for having copied many of the classical authors and preserved such knowledge as existed in their age. When at length their merits broueht wealth, luxury and indolence sapped their virtues and diminished their influ- ence for good. Afterward they became reformed, especially in France, in the 17th century. The Benedictine habit con- sisted of a loose black coat, or a gown, reaching to their feet, and having large, wide sleeves. Under it was a flannel habit, white in color. The head-dress was a hood, or cowl, pointed at the tip. They were sometimes called Black Monks. The Benedictines control 16 colleges in the United States. There were Benedic- tine nuns as well as monks. When they originated is uncertain. BENEDICTION (from the Latin bene- dicere, literally, "to speak well of"; "to commend") , a solemn invocation of the Divine blessing upon men or things. BENEDICTUS, the name given to the hymn of Zacharias (Luke i: 68), used as a canticle in the morning service of the Church of England to follow the les- sons. This position it has occupied from very ancient times. It is also used in the Church of Rome. BENESH. EDWARD, a Czecho-Slovak statesman, one of the delegates at the Paris Peace Conference. He was a stu- dent of sociology and a teacher at the Czech University of Prague. He es- caped from Bohemia early in the war and joined Thomas Masaryk, later pres- ident of Czecho- Slovakia, in the founda- tion of the Czecho-Slovakdan Council. He performed valuable services in the Czecho-Slovakian army and secured rec- ognition of the state by the Allies. BENEVENTO (ancient Beneventum), a city of southern Italy, seat of an arch- bishop, capital of a province of the same name, betv/een and near the confluence of the Calore and Sabato, 32 miles N. E. of Naples. The modem town is almost entirely constructed out of the ruins of the ancient. Among its most perfect re- mains of antiquity is the Arch of Tra- jan, erected about a. d 114. Near Bene- vento, in 1266, was fought the great battle between Charles of Anjou and his rival, Manfred, in which the latter was killed, and his army totally defeated. During the reign of Napoleon L, Bene- vento was formed into a principality con- ferred on Talleyrand. In 181.5, it again reverted to the Pope. In 1860 it was annexed to the kingdom of Italv Pod about 25,000. ^ ^' BENGAL, a state of Briti?:h India re- constituted in 19(^r, and 1912 from the former Bengal presidency and provinces. Area, 78,699 square miles; pop. about 50,000,000. Topography. — As a whole Bengal con- sists of plains, there being few remark- able elevations, though it is surrounded with lofty mountains. It is intersect?d in all directions by rivers, mostly tribu- taries of its two great rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, which annually, in June and July, inundate a large part of the region. The Sundarbans or Sun- d^rbunds (from being covered with the sunder tree), that portion of the coun- try through which the numerous branches of the Ganges seek the sea, about 150 miles from E. to W. and about 160 from N. to S., is traversed in all di- rections by water courses, and inter- spersed with numerous sheets of stag- nant water. The country is subject to great extremes of heat. The most un- healthful period is the latter part of the rainy season. The mean temperature of the whole year varies between 80" F. in Orissa, and 74° F. in Assam, that of Calcutta being 79'. The heaviest rain- fall occurs in eastern Bengal, the an- nual average amounting to over 100 inches. Productions. — Besides rice and other grains, which form, along with fruits, the principal food of the population, there may be noted among the agricultural products indigo, opium, cane sugar, to- bacco, betel, cotton, and the jute and sunn plants. Tea is now extensively grown in some places, notably in Darjeeling dis- trict and Chittagong. Cinchona is cul- tivated in Darjeeling and Sikkim. The forests cover 12,000 square miles, the principal forest trees being the sal on the Himalaya slopes, sal and teak in Orissa. Wild animals are most numerous in the Sijndarbans and Orissa, snakes being remarkably abundant in the latter district. The principal minerals are coal, iron, and salt. Coal is worked at Raniganj, in Bardwan district, where the seams are about 8 feet in thickness, and iron in the district of Birbhum, in the same division. Salt is obtained from the maritime districts of Orissa. The im- ports in 1919 were 64,04,52,684 rupees, and the exports 105,71,68,192 rupees. Manufactures. — The principal manu- factures are cotton piece goods of various descriptions, jute fabrics, blanketing, and silks. Muslins of the most beautiful and delicate texture were formerly made at Dacca, but the manufacture is almost ex- tinct. Sericulture is carried on more largely in Bengal than in any other part of India, and silk wearing is a lea Hn-^ industry in many of the districts. The commerce, both internal and external, is
