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  • Bang disease (pathology)
    infectious disease of humans and domestic animals characterized by an insidious onset of fever, chills, sweats, weakness, pains, and aches, all of which resolve within three to six months. The disease is named after the British army physician David Bruce, who in 1887 first isolated and identified the causative bacteria, Brucella, from the spleen of a soldier who h...
  • Bang, Herman (Danish writer)
    novelist who was a major Danish representative of literary Impressionism. His work reflected the profound pessimism of his time....
  • Bang Kapi (district, Bangkok, Thailand)
    ...mostly for the wealthy foreign community, usually takes the form of large, modern, two-story masonry structures set in private compounds and equipped with separate servants’ quarters and kitchens. Bang Kapi is perhaps the most affluent neighbourhood. High-rise offices, hotels, and condominiums are increasingly common....
  • Bang Klang Hao (Thai ruler)
    founder and ruler of the kingdom of Sukhothai, the first independent Tai (Thai) state....
  • Bang Klang Thao (Thai ruler)
    founder and ruler of the kingdom of Sukhothai, the first independent Tai (Thai) state....
  • Bang Pla Soi (Thailand)
    town, south-central Thailand. Chon Buri is located on the coastal road leading south from Bangkok, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand. Locally known as Bang Pla Soi, it has food-processing industries and a meteorological station. Rice, sugarcane, and cassava are grown in the surrounding area. Pop. (2000) 182,641....
  • Bang the Drum Slowly (work by Harris)
    ...Shoeless Joe (1982). The Southpaw, the first of four books in a series of baseball novels by Mark Harris that includes the popular Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), began a more realistic tradition, continued in fiction ranging from Eliot Asinof’s Man on Spikes (1955; see also Asinof...
  • Bāng-e darā (work by Iqbāl)
    ...Jawāb-e shikwah (“The Answer to the Complaint”), and Khizr-e rāh (“Khizr, the Guide”), were published later in 1924 in the Urdu collection Bāng-e darā (“The Call of the Bell”). In those works Iqbāl gave intense expression to the anguish of Muslim powerlessness. Khizr (Arabic: Khiḍr), the......
  • Baṅga (region, Asia)
    historic region in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, generally corresponding to the area inhabited by speakers of the Bengali language and now divided between the Indian state of West Bengal and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Bengal formed part of most of the early empires that controlled northern India....
  • banga (Japanese painting)
    ...childhood, despite limited schooling. In 1924 he went to Tokyo, studied woodblock printing with Hiratsuka Un’ichi, and, after several years, developed his own style, preferring to call his works banga (“panel pictures”) instead of hanga (“woodblock prints”). Munakata’s style was influenced by fellow artists involved in the revival of Japan...
  • Banga (ancient kingdom, India)
    The name of Bengal, or Bānglā, is derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga, or Banga. References to it occur in early Sanskrit literature, but its early history is obscure until the 3rd century bc, when it formed part of the extensive Mauryan empire inherited by Aśoka. With the decline of Mauryan power, anarchy once more supervened. In the 4th century ...
  • Bangabandhu Bridge (bridge, Sirajganj-Bhuapur, Bangladesh)
    ...mills were the first to be established in the Bengal area. It was constituted a municipality in 1869. The city has several government colleges and many private institutions of higher education. The Bangabandhu Bridge, one of the largest in South Asia, was completed across the Jamuna River in 1998, connecting Sirajganj with Bhuapur on the river’s east bank. Pop. (2001) 128,144....
  • Bangala (people)
    ...different nature, notably by poison, is conducted in the marshy areas, where the population is more extensive than might be imagined. Among these peoples are the “water people”—the Ngombe—who inhabit the Itimbiri-Ngiri and the triangle formed by the Congo and the Ubangi. Other fisherfolk of the marshes dwell in the lagoons and the drowned forests of the region where ...
  • Bangalore (India)
    city and capital (since 1830) of Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. One of India’s largest cities, Bangalore lies 3,113 feet (949 metres) above sea level atop an east-west ridge in the Karnataka Plateau in the southeastern part of the state, at a cultural meeting point of the Kannada-, Telugu-, and Tamil-speaking peoples. Pleasant winter...
  • Bāngangā River (river, India)
    ...and perennial river in the state. Its principal tributary, the Banās, rises in the Aravālis near Kumbhalgarh and collects all the drainage of the Mewār Plateau. Farther north, the Bāngangā, after rising near Jaipur, flows east toward the Yamuna before disappearing. The Lūni is the only significant river west of the Aravālis. It rises in the Pushk...
  • bangar (soil)
    ...mile (95 mm per km) in the Ganges basin and slightly more along the Indus and Brahmaputra. Even so, to those who till its soils, there is an important distinction between bhangar—the slightly elevated, terraced land of older alluvium—and khadar, the more fertile fresh alluvium on the low-lying floodpla...
  • Bangbu (China)
    city, north-central Anhui sheng (province), China. The area is mentioned in the early 1st millennium bce in connection with myths surrounding the cultural hero Emperor Yu. Throughout most of Chinese history, however, it was only a small market town and port on the middle course of the Huai River. The city c...
  • Banggai Islands (archipelago, Indonesia)
    archipelago consisting of two major islands and approximately 100 islets in Sulawesi Tengah provinsi (“province”), Indonesia. The archipelago is situated between the Sula and Celebes islands at the entrance to Tolo Gulf. Peleng, the largest of the Banggai Islands, is well forested and mountainous; the bays affording anchorage have reefs. The chief town and port of the group is...
  • Banggai, Kepulauan (archipelago, Indonesia)
    archipelago consisting of two major islands and approximately 100 islets in Sulawesi Tengah provinsi (“province”), Indonesia. The archipelago is situated between the Sula and Celebes islands at the entrance to Tolo Gulf. Peleng, the largest of the Banggai Islands, is well forested and mountainous; the bays affording anchorage have reefs. The chief town and port of the group is...
  • Banghāzī (Libya)
    city and major seaport of northeastern Libya, on the Gulf of Sidra. It was founded by the Greeks of Cyrenaica as Hesperides (Euesperides) and received from the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III the additional name of Berenice in honour of his wife. After the 3rd century ad it superseded Cyrene and Barce as the chief centre of the region; but its importance waned, and it...
  • Bangia (algae genus)
    ...with flattened cristae; flagella completely absent; coralline red algae contribute to coral reefs and coral sands; predominantly marine; approximately 4,100 described species; Bangia, Palmaria, Polysiphonia, Porphyra, and Rhodymenia.......
  • Bangka (island, Indonesia)
    island, Bangka-Belitung propinsi (province), Indonesia. The island is situated off the eastern coast of Sumatra across the Bangka Strait, which is only 9 miles (14 km) wide at its narrowest point. On the east, Gaspar Strait separates Bangka from Belitung island. The soil is somewhat dry and stony but is largely covered with tropical vegetati...
  • Bangka, Pulau (island, Indonesia)
    island, Bangka-Belitung propinsi (province), Indonesia. The island is situated off the eastern coast of Sumatra across the Bangka Strait, which is only 9 miles (14 km) wide at its narrowest point. On the east, Gaspar Strait separates Bangka from Belitung island. The soil is somewhat dry and stony but is largely covered with tropical vegetati...
  • Bangka-Belitung (province, Indonesia)
    ...Indonesia, bounded by the provinces of Lampung to the south, Bengkulu to the west, and Jambi to the north. In 2000 the eastern islands of Sumatera Selatan were made into the separate province of Bangka-Belitung. Palembang is the provincial capital and largest city....
  • Bangkok (Thailand)
    city, capital, and chief port of Thailand. It is the only cosmopolitan city in a country of small towns and villages and is Thailand’s cultural and commercial centre....
  • Bangkok International Banking Facility (banking entity, Thailand)
    ...as one of the most important factors in the rapid growth of the national economy. As part of the liberalization of the country’s financial markets in the early 1990s, the government established the Bangkok International Banking Facility (BIBF), an offshore banking entity that became a major conduit for international capital. Originally envisioned as a means to establish Bangkok as a majo...
  • Bangkok Metropolis (province, Thailand)
    ...In 1971 the two were united as a city-province with a single municipal government. In 1972 the city and the two surrounding provinces were merged into one province, called Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok Metropolis). The metropolis is a bustling, crowded city, with temples, factories, shops, and homes juxtaposed along its roads and canals. It is also a major tourist destination, noted for......
  • Bānglā language
    eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Two Bengali dialects are significant: Sādhu-Bhāsā, the literary language, which has a vocabulary with many Sanskrit words and is unintelligible to the uneducated; and Calit-Bhāsā, the colloquial speech, which has many contracted forms. Calit-Bhāsā is spoken by the ...
  • Bangladesh
    country of south-central Asia, located in the delta of the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent....
  • Bangladesh, flag of
    ...
  • Bangladesh, history of
    Although Bangladesh has existed as an independent country only since the late 20th century, its national character within a broader South Asian context dates to the ancient past. The country’s history, then, is intertwined with that of India, Pakistan, and other countries of the area. The land of Bangladesh, mainly a delta formed by the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and the Jamuna (Brahmaputra) ri...
  • Bangladesh, People’s Republic of
    country of south-central Asia, located in the delta of the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent....
  • Bangni (people)
    tribal people of eastern Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh (formerly North East Frontier Agency), a mountainous state in northeastern India. They speak a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan family....
  • Bangor (Wales, United Kingdom)
    cathedral city, Gwynedd county, historic county of Caernarvonshire (Sir Gaernarfon), Wales. It commands the northern entrance to the Menai Strait, the narrow strip of water separating Anglesey from the mainland. Bangor Cathedral is dedicated to the Celtic St. Deiniol, who founded a church there in the 6th century; the community was a leading centre of Celtic C...
  • Bangor (Maine, United States)
    city, seat (1816) of Penobscot county, east-central Maine, U.S. It is a port of entry at the head of navigation on the Penobscot River opposite Brewer. The site, visited in 1604 by Samuel de Champlain, was settled in 1769 by Jacob Buswell. First called Kenduskeag Plantation (1776) and later Sunbury (1787), it was incorporated as a town in 1791 and is thought t...
  • Bangor (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    town, North Down district (established 1973), formerly in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the southern shore of Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). About 555, St. Comgall founded a monastery at Bangor, which became a celebrated seat of learning. Incursions by Danes in the 9th century destroyed Bangor, which was partially rebuilt by St. Malachy in the 12th century. Part o...
  • Bangor Cathedral (cathedral, Bangor, Wales, United Kingdom)
    ...Gwynedd county, historic county of Caernarvonshire (Sir Gaernarfon), Wales. It commands the northern entrance to the Menai Strait, the narrow strip of water separating Anglesey from the mainland. Bangor Cathedral is dedicated to the Celtic St. Deiniol, who founded a church there in the 6th century; the community was a leading centre of Celtic Christianity. The cathedral, built during the 12th.....
  • Bangor Is-coed (Wales, United Kingdom)
    ...tribe known as the Deceangli held the region before they were overrun by the Romans in the 1st century ad. Roman remains in the area are quite sparse, however. According to legend, the village of Bangor Is-coed, in the present county borough of Wrexham, was the site of the oldest monastery in Britain (c. 180). It was destroyed early in the 7th century by the king of Northum...
  • bangos (fish)
    (Chanos chanos), silvery marine food fish that is the only living member of the family Chanidae (order Gonorhynchiformes). Fossils of this family date from as far back as the Cretaceous Period (144 to 66.4 million years ago). The milkfish is often collected when young and raised for food in brackish or freshwater tropical ponds. It is a toothless herbivore 1 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 feet) or more ...
  • Bang’s bacillus (bacterium)
    ...the bacillus of each of the species has its major reservoir in domestic animals. The causative bacteria are B. melitensis (goats and sheep), B. suis (swine), and B. abortus (cattle). The infection may not be apparent in animals, for the brucellae and animals that they infect have become fairly well adapted to one another. In cattle, for example, the....
  • Bangs, Lester (American journalist)
    ...then filling arenas across America. The resulting vacuum of sympathetic coverage of hard, electric-guitar-based music was occupied by Creem, whose most famous writer, Lester Bangs, had been fired from Rolling Stone after panning one of Wenner’s favourite bands. In raging, humorous polemics like “James Taylor Marked for....
  • Bangsa Moro Army (military force)
    ...insurgency against the Philippine government that began in 1973, soon after President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law. The MNLF’s well-organized and sophisticated military force, known as the Bangsa Moro Army, had 30,000 fighters at the time of its greatest strength in the 1970s. In 1975 Marcos conceded that the Moros’ economic grievances, at least, were justified, particular...
  • bangsawan (drama)
    Bangsawan was created by professional Malay-speaking actors in the 1920s as light, popular entertainment. Songs and contemporary dances were added to a repertory of dramatic pieces drawn from Islamic romances and adventure stories. Troupes traveled to Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sunda, and Java, where their melodramatic plays found large audiences and influenced......
  • bangu (Chinese musical instrument)
    Chinese frame drum that, when struck by one or two small bamboo sticks, creates a sharp dry sound essential to the aesthetics of Chinese opera. It is also used in many Chinese chamber music ensembles. The drum, which is about 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter and 10 cm (4 inches) deep, consists of an animal skin stretched over wooden wedges; the skin and wedges are wrapped by a meta...
  • Bangui (Central African Republic)
    city, capital of the Central African Republic, located on the west bank of the Ubangi River. It is connected by an extended 1,100-mile (1,800-km) river-and-rail transport system with Pointe-Noire on the west-central African coast and with Brazzaville (both in the Republic of the Congo). The river port development includes a quay 1,300 feet (400 m) long and an oil port downstream. Diamonds, cotton,...
  • Bangwaketse (people)
    Kwena and Hurutshe migrants founded the Ngwaketse chiefdom among the Khalagari-Rolong in southeastern Botswana by 1795. After 1750 this chiefdom grew into a powerful military state controlling Kalahari hunting and cattle raiding and copper production west of Kanye. Meanwhile, other Kwena had settled around Molepolole, and a group of those Kwena thenceforth called Ngwato settled farther north at......
  • Bangweulu (lake, Zambia)
    shallow lake with extensive swamps in northeastern Zambia. It is part of the Congo River system. Lying at an elevation of 3,740 feet (1,140 m), the waters of Bangweulu, fluctuating with the rainy season, cover a triangular area of about 3,800 square miles (9,800 square km). The lake, at the triangle’s northwest corner, is 45 miles (72 km) long and 24 miles (38 km) wide. There are three inha...
  • Bangweulu Swamps (swamps, Zambia)
    ...the Copperbelt, the Kafue River drains the Lukanga Swamp and Kafue Flats before an abrupt descent to the Zambezi. The Luangwa River, mostly confined within its rift trough, is quite different. The Bangweulu Swamps and the Kafue Flats are wetlands of international importance....
  • Banhā (Egypt)
    town, capital of Al-Qalyūbīyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Lower Egypt. The town lies on the right (east) bank of the Damietta Branch of the Nile and on the At-Tawfīqī Canal in the delta area. It is about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Cairo on the highway to Alexandria. Its Arabic name is derived from the Coptic name Panaho. S...
  • Banhart, Devendra (American singer and songwriter)
    town, capital of Al-Qalyūbīyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Lower Egypt. The town lies on the right (east) bank of the Damietta Branch of the Nile and on the At-Tawfīqī Canal in the delta area. It is about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Cairo on the highway to Alexandria. Its Arabic name is derived from the Coptic name Panaho. S...
  • banhu (musical instrument)
    bowed Chinese fiddle, a type of huqin (Chinese: “foreign stringed instrument”). The instrument traditionally has two strings stretched over a small bamboo bridge that rests on a wooden soundboard. (The sound box of most other Chinese stringed instruments is covered by a snakeskin membrane.) Its two lateral pegs are situated o...
  • Bani (Hindu religious work)
    Dādū’s poetic aphorisms and devotional hymns, the vehicle of his teachings, were collected in a 5,000-verse anthology, Bani (“Poetic Utterances”). They also appear along with selections from other poet-saints (sants) Kabīr, Nāmdev, Ravidās, and Haridās in a somewhat fluid verse anthology called ......
  • Baní (Dominican Republic)
    city, southern Dominican Republic, situated in coastal lowlands 3 miles (5 km) from the Caribbean Sea. The city is a commercial and manufacturing centre for the fertile agricultural hinterland, whose main products are bananas, rice, and coffee. The city lies on the paved highway linking Santo Domingo, the national capital, with Commendador, near the Haitian bo...
  • Banī Ḥasan (archaeological site, Egypt)
    Egyptian archaeological site from the Middle Kingdom (1938–c. 1630 bce), lying on the eastern bank of the Nile roughly 155 miles (245 km) south of Cairo. The site is noted for its rock-cut tombs of 11th- and 12th-dynasty officials of the 16th Upper Egyptian ...
  • Bani River (river, West Africa)
    principal affluent of the Niger River on its right bank in Mali, West Africa, formed by the confluence of the Baoulé and Bagoé headstreams 100 mi (160 km) east of Bamako. The Bani proper flows 230 mi northeast to the Niger at Mopti in the swampy Macina depression. It is navigable only in part. Within a savanna zone, the region derives its wealth from the cultivation of millet, rice,...
  • Banī Suwayf (governorate, Egypt)
    muḥāfaẓah (governorate), lying along the Nile River in northern Upper Egypt, with an extension into the Western Desert at its southern end. Al-Fayyūm governorate lies to the west and north and Al-Minyā to the south. Its cultivated, settled area consists mainly of a strip of the Nile River valley floodplain...
  • Banī Suwayf (Egypt)
    city, capital of Banī Suwayf muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northern Upper Egypt. It is an important agricultural trade centre on the west bank of the Nile River, 70 miles (110 km) south of Cairo....
  • Bani Thani (Indian singer)
    ...Vallabhācārya sect, which worships the lord in his appearance on Earth as Krishna, the divine lover. Sāvant Singh fell in love with a singer in the employ of his stepmother called Bani Thani (“Lady of Fashion”), and it is speculated that her features may have been the model for the Kishangarh facial type. The master artist largely responsible for transmitting ...
  • Bani-Sadr, Abolhasan (president of Iran)
    Iranian economist and politician who in 1980 was elected the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was dismissed from office in 1981 after being impeached for incompetence....
  • Banī-Ṣadr, Abū al-Ḥasan (president of Iran)
    Iranian economist and politician who in 1980 was elected the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was dismissed from office in 1981 after being impeached for incompetence....
  • Bania (Indian caste)
    (from Sanskrit vāṇijya, “trade”), Indian caste consisting generally of moneylenders or merchants, found chiefly in northern and western India; strictly speaking, however, many mercantile communities are not Banias, and, conversely, some Banias are not merchants. In the fourfold division of Indian society, the innumerable Bania subcastes, such as the Agar...
  • Banihāl Pass (pass, India)
    pass in the Pīr Panjāl Range in the Indian-held sector of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Banihāl—a name that in Kashmīrī means “blizzard”—lies at an altitude of 9,290 ft (2,832 m) in the Doda district. It forms the main gateway to the Vale of Kashmir from the Indian plains. The Jammu...
  • Banim, John (Irish author)
    John studied drawing in Dublin and subsequently taught it in Kilkenny. Shortly afterward he went to Dublin, where he earned a living by journalism. In 1821 his blank verse tragedy, Damon and Pythias, was produced at Covent Garden; John married, moved to London, and continued to live by journalism. In 1825 there appeared Tales, by the O’Hara Family, written in collaboration wit...
  • Banim, John and Michael (Irish authors)
    brothers who collaborated in novels and stories of Irish peasant life....
  • Banim, Michael (Irish author)
    ...was produced at Covent Garden; John married, moved to London, and continued to live by journalism. In 1825 there appeared Tales, by the O’Hara Family, written in collaboration with Michael, who had studied for the bar but had had to take over his father’s business. All three Tales—two by John, The Fetches and John Doe, and one by Michael, Croh...
  • banishment (law)
    prolonged absence from one’s country imposed by vested authority as a punitive measure. It most likely originated among early civilizations from the practice of designating an offender an outcast and depriving him of the comfort and protection of his group. Exile was practiced by the Greeks chiefly in cases of homicide, although ostracism was a form of exile imposed for p...
  • Banister, John (English musician)
    violinist and composer, a prominent musician of his day and organizer of the first public concerts in England....
  • Banisteriopsis (vine genus)
    ...of maté is taken in the Paraguay area, as well as by the Jívaro and other groups of Ecuador. Hallucinogens are used mainly in the Amazon–Orinoco area; they include species of Banisteriopsis (a tropical liana), from which is made a potion that produces visions. In certain tribes the use of this drug is restricted to shamanistic practices; in others, as in the......
  • Baniva (people)
    In Venezuela several tribes of the Orinoco River held masked puberty rites. For example, among the Maipure and Baniva tribes, Mauari, the spirit of evil, is impersonated by a dancer who is fully covered with red and black body paint, a face-covering of puma or jaguar pelt, and a crown of deer antlers. At the initiation of a youth or girl, he emerges from the forest with maskers representing......
  • Baniwa (people)
    The Baniwa of the northwest Amazon region of Brazil, for example, seclude girls during their initiation. The girls’ bodies are covered with heron down and red paint, and each girl is hidden inside two baskets. The elders deliver dramatic speeches and whip the initiate in order to open her skin. Pepper is touched to her lips; then a small hole is made in the dirt floor, and she spits into it...
  • Baniya (Indian caste)
    (from Sanskrit vāṇijya, “trade”), Indian caste consisting generally of moneylenders or merchants, found chiefly in northern and western India; strictly speaking, however, many mercantile communities are not Banias, and, conversely, some Banias are not merchants. In the fourfold division of Indian society, the innumerable Bania subcastes, such as the Agar...
  • Bāniyās River (river, Syria)
    ...is the Ḥāṣbānī, which rises in Lebanon, near Ḥāṣbayyā, at an elevation of 1,800 feet (550 metres). From the east, in Syria, flows the Bāniyās River; between the two is the Dan, the waters of which are particularly fresh. Just inside Israel, these three rivers join together in the Ḥula Valley. The plain of the......
  • Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
    city, northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies along the Vrbas River at its confluence with the Vrbanja. Under the Ottoman Turks, Banja Luka (“Baths of St. Luke”) was an important military centre and the original location (1583–1639) of the seat of the Bosnian paşalik (territory governed by a pasha). Its commercia...
  • Banjak Islands (islands, Indonesia)
    group of more than 60 small islands, in Aceh semiautonomous province, Indonesia. The largest of the islands are Great Banyak, or Tuangku, Island and Bangkaru Island. With an area of 123 square miles (319 square km), the group lies north of Nias Island and 18 miles (29 km) west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The population is a mixture of settlers from northern and central Sumat...
  • Banjak, Kepulauan (islands, Indonesia)
    group of more than 60 small islands, in Aceh semiautonomous province, Indonesia. The largest of the islands are Great Banyak, or Tuangku, Island and Bangkaru Island. With an area of 123 square miles (319 square km), the group lies north of Nias Island and 18 miles (29 km) west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The population is a mixture of settlers from northern and central Sumat...
  • Banjaluka (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
    city, northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies along the Vrbas River at its confluence with the Vrbanja. Under the Ottoman Turks, Banja Luka (“Baths of St. Luke”) was an important military centre and the original location (1583–1639) of the seat of the Bosnian paşalik (territory governed by a pasha). Its commercia...
  • Banjara (people)
    Nomadic groups may be found in most parts of India. Some are small bands of wandering entertainers, ironworkers, and animal traders. A group variously known as the Banjari or Labhani, originally from Rajasthan and related to the Roma (Gypsies) of Europe, roams over large areas of central India and the Deccan, largely as agricultural labourers and construction workers. Many tribal peoples......
  • Banjari (people)
    Nomadic groups may be found in most parts of India. Some are small bands of wandering entertainers, ironworkers, and animal traders. A group variously known as the Banjari or Labhani, originally from Rajasthan and related to the Roma (Gypsies) of Europe, roams over large areas of central India and the Deccan, largely as agricultural labourers and construction workers. Many tribal peoples......
  • Banjarmasin (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality) and capital of South Kalimantan propinsi (province), Indonesia. It is situated on Tapas island between the Barito and Martapura rivers on the southern coast of Borneo. The rivers drain the largest plain on Kalimantan. To the east the Meratus Mountains, lac...
  • Banjermasin (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality) and capital of South Kalimantan propinsi (province), Indonesia. It is situated on Tapas island between the Barito and Martapura rivers on the southern coast of Borneo. The rivers drain the largest plain on Kalimantan. To the east the Meratus Mountains, lac...
  • Banjo (novel by McKay)
    ...of the renaissance produced significant, politically radical novels that envision black political identity in a global framework: Du Bois in Dark Princess (1928) and McKay in Banjo (1929). Both novels show the strong influence of Marxism and the anti-imperialist movements of the early 20th century, and both place their hopes in the revolutionary potential of......
  • banjo (musical instrument)
    stringed musical instrument of African origin, popularized in the United States by slaves in the 19th century, then exported to Europe. Several African stringed instruments have similar names—e.g., bania, banju. The banjo has a tambourine-like body with a hoop and a screw that secure the vellum belly to the frame. Screw stretchers are used to vary the tensio...
  • banjo catfish (fish)
    ...10 to 50 marble-sized eggs in the mouth cavity until hatching. The male continues to protect the hatchlings in his mouth even after the young have begun to feed independently. In certain species of banjo catfishes (Aspredinidae), the eggs are anchored to spongy tentacles on the underside of the female’s abdomen. Some female callichthyid catfish carry eggs on the abdomen only for fertiliz...
  • banjo clock
    type of clock, so named because its upper portion is shaped like an inverted banjo. The clock was patented by Simon Willard of Massachusetts in 1802. It has a circular dial with a narrow metal frame and a bezel for the glass, which is usually dome-shaped. The top bears a finial. Below, a narrow trunk, slightly wider at the bottom than the top, protects the weight, and at the bot...
  • banjo shark (fish)
    an order (Rhinobatiformes) of fish closely related to the rays. The order contains some 47 to 50 species arranged in three families (Platyrhinidae, Rhinobatidae, and Rhynchobatidae)....
  • Banjoewangi (Indonesia)
    city, East Java (Jawa Timur) propinsi (province), Java, Indonesia. A major port on the Bali Strait, opposite Bali just to the east, it is located 120 miles (193 km) southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java. It is linked by railway and road with Jember to the west and by road with Situbondo to the northwest. Exports are copra, lumber, and rubber from the inland area...
  • Banjška Planota (plateau, Europe)
    ...Cadorna’s 10th Battle of the Isonzo in May–June 1917 won very little ground; but his 11th, from August 17 to September 12, during which General Luigi Capello’s 2nd Army captured much of the Bainsizza Plateau (Banjška Planota), north of Gorizia, strained Austrian resistance very severely. To avert an Austrian collapse, Ludendorff decided that the Austrians must take t...
  • Banjul (The Gambia)
    city, capital, and Atlantic port of The Gambia, on St. Mary’s Island, near the mouth of the Gambia River. It is the country’s largest city. It was founded in 1816, when the British Colonial Office ordered Captain Alexander Grant to establish a military post on the river to suppress the slave trade and to serve as a trade outlet...
  • Banjuwangi (Indonesia)
    city, East Java (Jawa Timur) propinsi (province), Java, Indonesia. A major port on the Bali Strait, opposite Bali just to the east, it is located 120 miles (193 km) southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java. It is linked by railway and road with Jember to the west and by road with Situbondo to the northwest. Exports are copra, lumber, and rubber from the inland area...
  • bank (gambling)
    ...odds—the casino returns to winners from 35 of 1 percent to 27 percent less than the fair odds, depending on the type of bet made. Depending on the bet, the house advantage (“vigorish”) for roulette in American casinos varies from about 5.26 to 7.89 percent, and in European casinos it varies from 1.35 to 2.7 percent. The house must always w...
  • bank (landform)
    On natural or canalized rivers of relatively large cross section, bank erosion can be checked by rubble roughly tipped or by natural growth such as reeds or willows....
  • bank (finance)
    an institution that deals in money and its substitutes and provides other money-related services. In its role as a financial intermediary, a bank accepts deposits and makes loans. It derives a profit from the difference between the costs (including interest payments) of attracting and servicing deposits and the income it receives through interest charged to borrowers or earned t...
  • bank (seafloor feature)
    rocky or sandy submerged elevation of the seafloor with a summit less than 200 m (650 feet) below the surface but not so high as to endanger navigation. Many banks are local prominences on continental or island shelves. Similar elevations with tops more than 200 m below the surface are called oceanic plateaus. Banks whose tops rise close enough to the sea surface to be hazardou...
  • Bánk bán (Hungarian noble)
    one of the most powerful Hungarian nobles during the reign of Andrew (Endre) II (1205–35) and for a time his bán (viceroy)....
  • Bánk bán (work by Katona)
    Hungarian lawyer and playwright whose historical tragedy Bánk bán achieved its great reputation only after his death....
  • Bánk bán (opera by Erkel)
    ...Liszt. His 1857 opera, Erzsébet (“Elizabeth”), was less than a success with audiences. In 1861 Erkel staged his most famous work, Bánk bán (based on a drama by József Katona, with a libretto by Egressy), which at that point probably had been ready for production for more than 10 years. However, ......
  • Bánk bán (motion picture [1914])
    In the fledgling Hungarian film industry she appeared in the silent films Bánk bán (1914) and A tolonc (1914; “The Vagrant”). Her autobiography, Emlékiratai (“Memoirs”), was published in 1927....
  • Bank Charter Act (United Kingdom [1844])
    ...by act of Parliament in 1694 with the immediate purpose of raising funds to allow the English government to wage war against France in the Low Countries (see Grand Alliance, War of the). A royal charter allowed the bank to operate as a joint-stock bank with limited liability. No other joint-stock banks were permitted in England and Wales until 1826. This special status and its position as......
  • bank check (finance)
    bill of exchange drawn on a bank and payable on demand; it has become the chief form of money in the domestic commerce of developed countries. As a written order to pay money, it may be transferred from one person to another by endorsement and delivery or, in certain cases, by delivery alone. Negotiability can be qualified by appropriate words, as with restrictive endorsements, ...
  • Bank Craps (dice game)
    dice game, the variant of Craps most played in Nevada gambling houses. A special table and layout are used, and all bets are made against the house. A player signifies his bet by placing chips or cash on the appropriate part of the layout before any roll. It is invariably required that the dice be thrown over a string or wire stretched a few inches above the surface of the table...
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