604 BEZOAR BHAETEIHARI in the neighborhood in excellent qualities), grain, honey, oil, almonds, and other articles. An amphitheatre and other remains of the Ro- man era Btill exist. The town dates from 120 Cathedra! of St. Nazatre, BSziers B. 0., but it was named Julia Baeterra in honor of Julius Caasar, who established a colony here. Flourishing in the 4th century, the Visigoths destroyed the town in 450, and Charles Martel in 738, in wresting it from the Moors. In 1209 the fearful massacre of the Albigenses depop- ulated the place, the loss of life reaching over 20,000, and according to some authorities over 50,000, besides the victims in the Madeleine. In 1229 Beziers was united with the French crown, after having been ruled in the 10th century by the local counts of Septimania, and subsequently by viscounts of Beziers, Carcas- sonne, and Albi, subject to the counts of Barce- lona. Several synods were held here in the 13th and subsequent centuries. Beziers suf- fered much during the religious wars of the 16th century. BEZOAR (Pers. pad-zahr, poison expeller pad, wind, and zahr, poison), a concretion, con- sisting chiefly of bile and resin, met with as a round or orbicular calculus in the stomach, the intestines, the gall bladder, the salivary ducts, and even in the pineal gland, but mostly in the intestines of certain ruminant animals. Such bodies were once celebrated for their sup- posed medicinal properties, distinguished by the names of the animals or the countries from which they were obtained, and eagerly bought for ten times their weight in gold. Besides being taken internally as medicines, they were worn around the neck as preservatives from contagion. Modern investigation and experi- ment have destroyed the charm of these won- derful calculi. BHADRINATH, or Badrinatt, a town of British India, in the district of Gurhwal, Northwestern Provinces, situated on the right bank of the Vishnu-gunga or Bishengunga, 55 m. N. E. of Serinagar. It is situated in a valley of the Himalaya, 10,000 ft. above the level of the sea, the neighboring Bhadrinath peaks being 21,- 000 to 23,000 ft. high. It is celebrated for a temple of Vishnu, sup- posed to be of ancient origin, though the pres- ent building is modern. Below it is a tank 30 ft. square, which by means of a subterraneous com- munication is supplied with water from a ther- mal spring. In this tank the sexes bathe in- discriminately, and the ablution and the wor- ship of the chief idol, which is a figure of black marble array- ed in gold and silver brocade, is regarded as efficacious in washing away sins. Nearly 50,- 000 pilgrims visit the shrine every 12th year, during the celebration of the Kumbh Mela fes- tival. In ordinary years the number of pil- grims is much less. From November to April the temple is closed on account of the cold. BHAGAVAT GITA. See SANSKBIT LANGUAGE AND LlTERATUEE. If IH 110, lianio, or Bhanmo, a town of Burmah, on the Irrawaddy, 40 m. W. of the Chinese frontier; pop. about 12,000. The permanent inhabitants are chiefly Laos, and the transient residents Chinese and Shans (Siamese). The old Shan town of Bhamo or Mhanmo is further up the river Tapan, which joins the Irrawaddy at a short distance from the modern town. The latter, surrounded with a bamboo palisade, con- tains a Chinese temple and about 2,000 large dwellings, those of the natives being made of reeds thatched with grass, and those of the Chinese of blue-stained brick. It is the seat of a viceroy and the principal trading place between the Chinese caravans and the Burman and Mohammedan merchants. A greater varie- ty of tribes gather at the annual fair and in the bazaar here from December to April than in any other Asiatic town, not excepting Kiakhta. The total annual value of the trade with China is estimated at about 500,000, and sometimes as much as 700,000, including imports of 80,000 worth of silk, besides tea, copper, drugs, and paper, and exports of 230,000 worth of cotton, besides feathers, ivory, wax, edible birds' nests, rhinoceros and deer horns, and sapphires. Among the most industrious dyers and mechanics are the Palongs, who live in the neighborhood on the frontier of China. BHAKTKIHARI, a Hindoo poet of the 1st century B. C., said to have been a brother of King Vikramaditya. According to another tra-
