the fall of the ground the upper galleries are on a level with | and more convenient to build a new edifice at a higher the road at the east end, and were originally entered from level, than to repair the old one. The annexed plan and view show the peculiarities of the existing building. The church is preceded by an atrium, the only perfect example remaining in Rome, in the centre of which is the cantharus, or fountain for ablutions. The atrium is entered by a portico made up of earlier fragments very carelessly put together. The chorus cantorum, which occupies about onethird of the nave is enclosed by a low marble screen, about 3 feet high, a work of the 9th century, preserved from the old church, but newly arranged. The white marble slabs are covered with patterns in low relief, and are decorated with ribbons of glass mosaic of the 13th century. These screen-walls stand quite free of the pillars, leaving a passage between. On the ritual north stands the gospel-ambo, of octagonal form, with a double flight of steps westwards and FIG. 14.-Interior of St Clement, Rome. eastwards. To the west of it stands the great Paschal candlestick, with a spiral shaft, decorated with mosaic. Opposite, to the south, is the epistle-ambo, square in plan, with two marble reading-desks facing east and west, for the reading of the epistle and the gradual respectively. The sanctuary is raised two steps above the choir, from which it is divided by another portion of the same marble screen. The altar stands beneath a lofty ciborium, supported by marble columns, with a canopy on smaller shafts above. It retains the rods and rings for the curtains to run on. Behind the altar, in the centre of the curved line of the apse is a marble episcopal throne, bearing the monogram of Anastasius who was titular cardinal of this church in 1108. The conch of the apse is inlaid with mosaics of quite the end of the 13th century. The subterranean church, disinterred by the zeal of Father Mullooly, the prior of the adjacent Irish Dominican convent, is supported by columns of very rich marble of various kinds. The aisle walls, as well as those of the narthex, are covered with fresco-paintings, of various dates from the 7th to the 11th century, in a marvellous state of preservation. (See St Clement, Pope and Martyr, and his Basilica in Rome, by Joseph Mullooly, O.P., Rome, 1873). Out of Rome the most remarkable basilican churches are the two dedicated to St Apollinaris at Ravenna. They are of smaller dimensions than those of Rome, but the design and proportions are better. The cathedral of this city, a noble basilica with double aisles, erected by Archbishop Ursus, 400 A.D. (Agincourt, pl. xxiii., No. 21), was unfortunately destroyed on the erection of the present tasteless building. Of the two basilicas of St Apollinaris, the earlier, S. Apollinare Nuovo, originally an Arian church erected by Theodoric, 493-525, measuring 315 feet in length by 115 feet in breadth, has a nave 51 feet wide, separated from the single aisles by colonnades of twentytwo pillars, supporting arches, a small prismatic block bearing a sculptured cross intervening with very happy effect between the capital and the arch. The clerestory wall is not stilted to the excessive height of the Roman examples. Below the windows a continuous band of saintly III. 53 figures, male on one side and female on the other, advancing | In the Eastern church, though the erection of St Sophia in stately procession towards Our Lord and the Virgin at Constantinople introduced a new type which almost Mother respectively, affords one of the most beautiful examples of mosaic ornamentation to be found in any church. The design of the somewhat later and smaller church of St Apollinaris in Classe, 538-549 A.D., measuring 216 feet by 104 feet, is so similar that they must have proceeded from the same architect (Agincourt, pl. lxxiii., No 35). The cathedral on the island of Torcello near Venice, originally built in the 7th cenFIG. 15.-Arches of St Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. tury, but largely repaired circa 1000 A.D., deserves special attention from the fact that it preserves, in a more perfect state than can be seen elsewhere, the arrangements of the seats in the apse. The bishop's throne occupies the centre of the arc, approached by a steep flight of steps. Six rows of stone benches for the presbyters, rising one above another like the seats in a theatre, follow the curve on either side, the whole being singularly plain and almost rude. The altar stands on a FIG. 16.-Apse of Basilica, Torcello, with Bishop's throne and seats for the clergy. From a drawing by the late Lady Palgrave. platform; the sanctuary is divided from the nave by a screen of six pillars. The walls of the apse are inlaid with plates of marble. The church is 125 feet by 75 feet. The narrow aisles are only 7 feet in width. Another very remarkable basilica, less known than it deserves to be, is that of Parenzo in Istria, circa 542 A.D. Few basilicas have sustained so little alteration. From the annexed ground-plan it will be seen that it retains its atrium, and a baptistery, square without, octagonal within, to the west of it. Nine pillars divide each aisle from the nave, some of them borrowed from earlier buildings. The capitals are Byzantine. The choir occupies the three easternmost bays. The apse, as at Torcello, retains the bishop's throne and the bench for the presbyters apparently unaltered. The mosaics are singularly gorgeous, and the apse walls, as at Torcello, are inlaid with rich marble and mother-of-pearl. The dimensions are small,-121 feet by 32 feet. (See Kunstdenkmale des Oesterreichischen Kaiserstadts, by Dr G. Heider and others). entirely superseded the old one, the basilican form, or as it was then termed dromical, from its shape being that of a race-course (dromos), was originally as much the rule as in the West. The earliest church of which we have any clear account, that of Paulinus at Tyre, 313-322 A.D., described by Eusebius (H. E., x. 4, § 37), was evidently basilican, with galleries over the aisles, and had an atrium in front. That erected by Constantine at Jerusalem, on the site of the Holy Sepulchre, 333, followed the same plan (Euseb., Vit. Const., iii. c. 29), as did the original churches of St Sophia and of the Apostles at Constantinople. Both these buildings have entirely passed away, but we have an excellent example of an Oriental basilica of the same date still standing in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, rebuilt by Justinian in the 6th century. Here we find an oblong atrium, a vestibule or narthex, double aisles with Corinthian columns, and a transept, each end of which terminates in apse, in addition to that in the usual position. Beneath the centre of the transept is the subterranean church of the Nativity (De Vogué, Les Eglises de la Terre Sainte, p. 46). Constantinople still preserves a basilican church of the 5th century, that of St John Studios, 463, now a mosque. It has a nave and side aisles divided by columns supporting a horizontal entablature, with another order supporting arches forming a gallery above. There is the usual apsidal termination. The chief difference between the Eastern and Roman basilicas is in the magnitude of the galleries. This is a characteristic feature of Eastern churches, the galleries being intended for women, for whom privacy was more studied than in the West (Salzenberg, Altchrist. Baudenkmale von Constantinople). FIG. 18.-Plan of church of the Nativity, Bethlehem. 1. Narthex. 2. Nave. 3, 3. Aisles. Other basilican churches in the East which deserve notice are those of the monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai built by Justinian, that of Dana between Antioch and Bir of the same date, St Philip at Athens, Bosrah in Arabia, Xanthus in Lycia, and the very noble church of St Demetrius at Thessalonica. Views and descriptions of most of these may be found in Texier and Pullan's Byzantine Architecture, Couchaud's Choix d'Eglises Byzantines, and the works of the count de Vogué. We may refer to Fergusson's History of Architecture for views and plans and description of the very interesting early miniature Christian basilicas, some of which are probably the earliest existing Christian buildings in the Mediterranean provinces of Africa. The same work (p. 640) also gives an account of the early French basilica, dating from the Willis from Eadmer's description, we see that it was an aisled basilica, with an apse at either end, containing altars standing on raised platforms approached by steps. Beneath the eastern platform was a crypt, or confessio, containing relics, "fabricated in the likeness of the confessionary of St Peter at Rome" (Eadmer) The western apse, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, contained the bishop's throne. From this and other indications Willis thinks that this was the original altar end, the eastern apse being a subsequent addition of Archbishop Odo, circa 950, the church having been thus turned from west to east, as at the alreadydescribed basilica of St Lawrence at Rome The choir, as at St Clement's, occupied the eastern part of the nave, and like it was probably enclosed by breast-high partitions. There were attached towers to the north and south of the nave. The main entrance of the church was under that to At this suthdure, according to Eadmer, "all disputes from the whole kingdom, which could not legally be referred to the king's court, or to the hundreds and counties, received judgment." The northern tower contained a school for the younger clergy. There remains one other English basilican church to be mentioned, that of Brixworth in Northamptonshire, probably erected by Saxulphus, abbot of Peterborough, circa 690 A.D. It consisted of a nave divided from its aisles by quadrangular piers supporting arches turned in Roman brick, with small clerestory windows above, a short chancel terminating in an apse, outside which, as at St Peter's at Rome, ran a circumscribing crypt entered by steps from the chancel. At the west end was a square tower, the lower story of which formed a porch. Authorities:-Vitruvius, De Architectura, v. i; the same, translated, with notes, by W. Wilkins, R. A.; Gell, Pompeiana; Montfaucon, Antiquités Expliquées, iii. 178; Canina, Edifizii di Roma Antica; Donaldson, Architectura Numismatica; Ciampini, Veteri Monumenti; Allatius, De Recent. Græc. Templis, ep. ii. § 3; Seroux d'Agincourt, L'Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens; Bunsen and Plattner, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom; Gutensohn and Knapp, Basiliken; Hubsch, Altchristliche Kirche; Letarouilly, Edifices de Rome moderne; Von Quast, Altchristliche Bauwerke von Ravenna; Texier and Pullan, Byzantine Architecture; De Vogué, Eglises de la Terre Sainte; Couchaud, Eglises Byzantines; Fergusson, History of Architecture; Milman, History of Christianity, ii. 239-342; iii. 373. (E. V.) An BASILICA, a code of law, drawn up in the Greek language, with a view to put an end to the uncertainty which prevailed throughout the empire of the East in the 9th century as to the authorized sources of law. This uncertainty had been brought about by the conflicting opinions of the jurists of the 6th century as to the proper interpretation to be given to the legislation of the Emperor Justinian, from which had resulted a system of teaching which had deprived that legislation of all authority, and the imperial judges at last were at a loss to know by what rules of law they were to regulate their decisions. endeavour had been made by the Emperor Leo the Isaurian to remedy this evil, but his attempted reform of the law had been rather calculated to increase its uncertainty; and it was reserved for Basilius the Macedonian to show himself worthy of the throne, which he had usurped, by purifying the administration of justice and once more reducing the law into an intelligible code. There has been considerable controversy as to the part which the Emperor Basilius took in framing the new code. There is, however, no doubt that he abrogated in a formal manner the ancient laws, which had fallen into desuetude, and the more probable opinion would seem to be, that he caused a revision to be made of the ancient laws which were to continue in force, and divided them into forty books, and that this code of laws was subsequently enlarged and distributed into sixty books by his son Leo the Philosopher. A further revision of this code is stated to have been made by Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, the son and successor of Leo, but this statement rests only on the authority of Theodorus Balsamon, a very learned canonist of the 12th century, who, in his preface to the Nomocanon of Patriarch Photius, cites passages from the Basilica, which differ from the text of the code as revised by the Emperor Leo. The weight of authority, however, is against any further revision of the code having been made after the formal revision which it underwent in the reign of the Emperor Leo, who appointed a commission of jurists under the presidency of Sympathius, the captain of the body-guard, to revise the work of his father, to which he makes allusion in the first of his Novella. This latter conclusion is the more probable from the circumstance, that the text of the code, as revised by the Emperor Leo, agrees with the citations from the Basilica which occur in the works of Michael Psellus and Michael Attaliates, both of them high dignitaries of the court of Constantinople, who lived a century before Balsamon, and who are silent as to any second revision of the code having taken place in the reign of Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, as well as with other citations from the Basilica, which are found in the writings of Mathæus Blastares and of Constantinus Hermenopulos, both of whom wrote shortly after Balsamon, and the latter of whom was far too learned a jurist and too accurate a lawyer to cite any but the official text of the code. Authors are not agreed as to the origin of the term Basilica, by which the code of the Emperor Leo is now distinguished. The code itself appears to have been originally entitled The Revision of the Ancient Laws (ȧvakáapois Tv Taλaιov vóμov); next there came into use the title ἡ ἑξηκοντάβιβλος, derived from the division of the work into sixty books: and finally, before the conclusion of the 10th century, the code came to be designated 3 Barilikós, or rà Baotiká, being elliptical forms of o Baσilikos vóμos and rà Barilikà vópa, namely the Imperial Law or the Imperial Constitutions. This explanation of the term "Basilica" is more probable than the derivation of it from the name of the father of the Emperor Leo, inasmuch as the Byzantine jurists of the 11th and 12th centuries ignored altogether the part which the Emperor Basilius had taken in initiating the legal reforms, which were completed by his son; besides the name of the father of the Emperor Leo was written Baoídeos, from which substantive, according to the genius of the ancient Greek language, the adjective Baσiikós could not well be derived. No perfect MS. has been preserved of the text of the Basilica, and the existence of any portion of the code seems to have been ignored by the jurists of Western Europe, until the important bearing of it upon the study of the Roman law was brought to their attention by Viglius Zuichemus, professor of the Roman law in the university of Padua, in his preface to his edition of the Greek Paraphrase of Theophilus, published in 1533. A century, however, elapsed before an edition of the sixty books of the Basilica, as far as the MSS. then known to exist supplied materials, was published in seven volumes, by Carolus Annibal Fabrotus, under the patronage of Louis XIII. of France, who assigned an annual stipend of two thousand livres to the editor during its publication, and placed at his disposal the royal printing-press. This edition, although it was a great undertaking and a work of considerable merit, was a very imperfect representation of the original code. A newly restored, and far more complete text of the sixty books of the Basilica, has recently issued from the press of Johannes Ambrosius Barth at Leipsic, in six volumes, edited by Professor Charles William Ernest Heimbach of the university of Jena, assisted by his brother Gustavus Ernest Heimbach. This is one of the most important literary works of the 19th century. The learned editor lived long enough to witness the completion of the text of the Basilica by the publication of the fifth volume in 1850. He died in 1865, leaving behind him a valuable historical introduction to the code, and a manual of its contents, which are printed in the sixth and last volume, published at Leipsic in 1870. Several MSS., which contain portions of the code or of works bearing directly on the code, have been available for this edition, which were not accessible to Fabrotus when he published his edition in 1647. Amongst others may be mentionedMS. Coislin 151, of the 11th century, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which came direct from Mount Athos into the hands of Chancellor Seguier, and which contains a general index of the contents of the sixty books of the Basilica; MS. Coislin 152, of the 13th century, also in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; a Palimpsest MS. of the Holy Sepulchre (Toû aylov Tápou), which was discovered in 1838 by Dr C. E. Zachariæ von Lingenthal, in the palace of the patriarch of Jerusalem in Constantinople. The text of four books of the Code has been restored by Dr C. E. Zachariæ von Lingenthal from this MS., and is printed in an appendix to the third volume of Heimbach's edition. A further MS. deserves notice, being No. 853 in the Vatican Library at Rome; it belongs to the 14th century, and is the only MS. which contains the work known as Tipucitus. This MS. has been very carefully collated by Gustavus Ernest Heimbach, and the text of a portion of Tipucitus has been printed from this MS. in the appendix to the second volume of Heimbach's edition, the remaining portions of the work having been incorporated by Heimbach into the text of the restored code. It may seem strange that so important a body of law as the Basilica should not have come down to us in its integrity, but a letter has been preserved, which was addressed by Mark the patriarch of Alexandria to Theodorus Balsamon, from which it appears that copies of the Basilica were in the 12th century very scarce, as the patriarch was unable to procure a copy of the work. The great bulk of the code was an obstacle to the multiplication of copies of it, whilst the necessity for them was in a great degree superseded by the publication from time to time of synopses and encheiridia of its contents, composed by the most eminent jurists, of which a very full account will be found in the Histoire du Droit Byzantin, by the advocate Mortreuil, published in Paris in 1846. well on low grounds near the sea. The chief towns are Potenza, Melfi, Francavilla, Rionero, and Tursi. From BASILIDES, one of the most celebrated of the Gnostics, flourished probably about 120 A.D. Extremely little is known of his life. He is said to have been born in Syria and to have studied at Alexandria, and this is probably correct. There is, to some extent, a corresponding uncertainty with regard to the precise doctrines held by him. Of these there are two distinct expositions, the one given chiefly by Irenæus, which has been long before the world, the other contained in the Philosophoumena of Hippolytus, discovered in 1842. According to Irenæus, the system of Basilides strongly resembled that of Valentinus. The first principle or root of all things, was the supreme God, the unknown and unborn Father. Him emanated in succession νοῦς, λόγος, φρόνησις, σοφία, and dúvapus. From the last, according to Irenæus, sprang the powers who created the first heaven; according to Clemens Alex., however, from dúvaμis sprang dikaloσúvn and cipývn, and these seven with the Father formed the first Ogdoad, or octave of existence. From them emanated other powers, by whom the second heaven was made, and so on in succession, each system being a more shadowy type or reflex of the original ogdoad. The number of heavens was 365, whence the whole series was called Abraxas, or Abrasax, a name frequently applied to the lower deity, or even, as by Tertullian, to the supreme God. The powers of the lowest heaven, of whom the chief was called the apxwv, created the earth. This apxwv is the God of the Jews, and against Him the other powers were arrayed. To alleviate the misfortunes of the earth, the voûs, or first emanation, became incarnate and descended upon earth. The vous as incorporeal could not suffer death; accordingly, he changed forms with Simon of Cyrene, and stood by the cross, laughing at his enemies, while Simon suffered in his place. Salvation is spiritual, pertains only to the soul; outer actions are not in themselves good or bad. That Basilides taught this doctrine of moral indifference is not perfectly clear, but Irenæus reports that his disciples acted up to it. The exposition given by Hippolytus is widely different. According to the account he gives, Basilides started neither with a dualism of God and matter or evil, nor with a theory of emanation. His first principle was God, the unknown, incomprehensible, unspeakable, non-existent one, of whom nothing can be predicated, for no words are adequate to express His essence. This non-existent God, by the exercise of what may be called volition, created the Tavoπepuía, or seed, which contained in itself the germs of all things. In this chaotic mass, which strongly resembles the ouocoμep of Anaxagoras, there is a mixture of elements,ovyxious apxikn, and at the same time are embedded in it three degrees of kinds of divine sonship, consubstantial with the Deity. The first kind is refined BASILICATA, or, as it is also called, POTENZA, a and pure, the second gross, the third requiring purification. province of Italy, bounded on the N. by Capitanata, N.E. As all things naturally tend towards God, the first sonship by Terra di Bari, E. by Otranto and the Gulf of Taranto, ascended and sat beside the Father. The second also strove S. by Calabria Citra, S.W. by the Mediterranean, W. by to ascend by means of the Spirit, which is to him as a Principato Citra, and N.W. by Principato Ultra. It has wing, but he could not rise quite to the Deity, and occupied an area of 4120 English square miles, and is divided into an inferior position, while the wing or spirit formed the the four districts of Lagonegro, Matera, Melfi, Potenza. The firmament. The third sonship still remained immersed in population in 1871 was 500,543. In the N.W. of the matter. Then from the world seed there burst forth the territory the Apennines divide into two branches, the one great apxwv, or ruler, who ascended as far as the firmament, running eastward to Terra di Bari, and the other southward and, imagining that there was nothing beyond, glorified to Calabria. The principal rivers are the Bradano, Basento, himself as the brightest and strongest of all beings. This Salandrella, Agri, and Sinno, all flowing into the Gulf of ruler, who is sometimes called Abraxas, but whose true Taranto. The principal productions are maize, wine, name is ineffable, produced a son wiser and better than linen, hemp, and tobacco; swine, goats, and sheep, are himself, by whose aid he laid the foundations of the world. numerous; and the produce of the silkworm forms a con- The seat of their rule is called the Ogdoad, and it extends siderable branch of industry. The cotton plant thrives through all the ethereal region down to the moon's sphere, to any that had hitherto been employed. He then set up a printing-house, and published his first work, a Virgil in royal quarto. Horace, Terence, Catullus, and others were also printed by him. These books are admirable specimens of typography; and Baskerville is deservedly ranked among the foremost of those who have advanced the art of printing. He did not print many works, as the sale did not meet his expectations; after 1765, indeed, he seems to have put forth very little. Specimens from the Baskerville press are not easily had, and are of considerable value. where the grosser air begins. This lower dominion is ruled | producing types much superior in distinctness and elegance by a second and inferior apxwv, the God of the Jews, who also had produced a son; and their seat is called the Hebdomad. Meanwhile, the third sonship, which is truly the spiritual element in the elect, is tied to matter, and is in need of deliverance. Freedom is given by the truth, i.e., by a knowledge of the true system of things, and it is given by a series of illuminations. First the mind of the son of the Great Archon is enlightened, and he instructs his father, who learns with fear and repentance that there is a sphere of being higher than his own. The light then passes to the son of the Archon of the Hebdomad, who likewise instructs his father. Finally, the mind of Jesus is illuminated, and he instructs those of mankind who are able to receive the truth. There are thus three great stages in the world's religious history, each being an advance on its predecessor. These periods are the Ante-Jewish, the Jewish, and the Christian. All the souls capable of receiving the light ascend upwards, while their bodies return to the primeval chaos; the minds of all others are shrouded in eternal night, the darkness of ignorance. For the relation of Basilides to other Gnostics, and for the interpretation of his intensely symbolic impressions, see GNOSTICS. The earlier accounts of Basilides, such as those of Neander, Baur in the Christliche Gnosis), and Matter, were based for the most part on Irenæus. The discovery of the Philosophoumena threw unexpected light on the subject, and the later expositions generally follow Hippolytus as the exponent of the original system of Basilides. Hilgenfeld still retains the older view. Full information is to be found in Baur, Kirchengeschichte, i.; Lipsius, Gnosticismus; Uhlhorn, Dus Basilideanische System; Mansel, Gnostic Heresies. BASILISK, Baoiλiokos of the Greeks, and Tsepha (cockatrice) of the Hebrews, a name applied by the ancients to a horrid monster of their own imagination, to which they attributed the most malignant powers and an equally fiendish appearance. The term is now applied, owing to a certain fanciful resemblance, to a genus of Lizards belonging to the family Iguanide, the species of which are characterized by the presence of a membranous bag on the crown of the head, which they can distend or contract at will, and of a fin-like ridge along the back and part of the tail. Both appendages are admirably adapted for aiding the basilisk in swimming, while they do not impede its movements on land,-its mode of life being partly aquatic, partly arboreal. The Mitred Basilisk occurs in Guiana, the Hooded Basilisk in Amboyna. BASINGSTOKE, a market and borough town in the county of Hants, 45 miles from London. It occupies a pleasant situation, and has a good trade in corn and malt, which has been greatly facilitated by the canal. which joins the rivers Wey and Thames. The parish church, St Michael's, is a spacious and handsome structure, dating from the reign of Henry VIII. In the neighbourhood is Basing House, remarkable for its defence by the marquis of Winchester against the Parliamentary forces in 1645. Population in 1871, 5574. Armis of Basingstoke. BASKERVILLE, JOHN, a celebrated printer, and the introducer of many improvements in type-founding, was born at Wolverley in Worcestershire in 1706, and died in 1775. About the age of twenty he became a writingmaster at Birmingham, and he seems to have had a great talent for caligraphy and carving in stone. While at Birmingham his attention was attracted to the business of japanning, which he took up with great zeal. He made some important improvements in the process, and gained a considerable fortune. About the year 1750 he began to make experiments in type-founding, and soon succeeded in BASKET, a utensil made of twigs, rushes, or strips of wood, as well as of a variety of other materials, interwoven together, and used for holding or carrying any commodity. Modern ingenuity has applied many substances before unthought of to the construction of baskets, such as iron and even glass. But wicker-work being the oldest as well as the most universal invention, it alone will be treated of in the present article. The process of interweaving twigs, seeds, or leaves, is practised among the rudest nations of the world; and as it is one of the most universal of arts, so also does it rank among the most ancient industries, being probably the origin of all the textile arts of the world. A bundle of rushes spread out may be compared to the warp of a web, and the application of others across it to the woof, also an early discovery; for basket-work is literally a web of the coarsest materials. The ancient Britons appear to have excelled in the art of basket-making, and their baskets were highly prized in Rome as we learn from Martial (xiv. 99): "Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis; Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam." Among many uncivilized tribes at the present day baskets of a superior order are made and applied to various useful purposes. The North American Indians prepare strong water-tight "Wattape" baskets from the roots of a species of Abies, and these they frequently adorn with very pretty patterns made from the dyed quills of their native porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum. The Indians of South America weave baskets equally useful from the fronds of the Carnahuba and other palms. The Kaffres and Hottentots of South Africa are similarly skilful in using the Ilala reed and the roots of plants; while the tribes of central Africa and the Abyssinians display great adroitness in the art of basket-weaving. Basket-making, however, has by no means been confined to the fabrication of those simple and useful utensils from which its name is derived. Of old, the shields of soldiers were fashioned of wicker-work, either plain or covered with hides; and the like has been witnessed among modern savages. In Britain the shields of the ancient warriors, and also their huts, even up to the so-called palaces of the Saxon monarchs, were made of wicker-work; and their boats of the same material, covered with the skins of animals, attracted the notice of the Romans. Herodotus mentions boats of this kind on the Tigris and Euphrates, but with this difference, that the former seem to have been of the ordinary figure of a boat, whereas the latter were round and were covered with bitumen. Boats of this shape, about 71 feet in diameter, are used at the present day on these rivers; and boats of analogous construction are employed in crossing the rivers of India which have not a rapid current. Nothing can be more expeditious or more simple than the fabrication and materials of these vessels, if they merit that name. One may be made by six men in as many hours,-only two substances, hides and bamboo, almost always accessible, being used. Window screens, perambulators, chairs, &c., are now largely made of basket |