Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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(W. WR.)

BUSIRI [Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Sa'id ul-Busiri] (1211-1294), Arabian
poet, lived in Egypt, where he wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the
vizier. His poems seem to have been wholly on religious subjects. The most
famous of these is the so-called "Poem of the Mantle." It is entirely in
praise of Mahomet, who cured the poet of paralysis by appearing to him in a
dream and wrapping him in a mantle. The poem has little literary value,
being an imitation of Ka'b ibn Zuhair's poem in praise of Mahomet, but its
history has been unique (cf. I. Goldziher in _Revue de l'histoire des
religions_, vol. xxxi. pp. 304 ff.). Even in the poet's lifetime it was
regarded as sacred. Up to the present time its verses are used as amulets;
it is employed in the lamentations for the dead; it has been frequently
edited and made the basis for other poems, and new poems have been made by
interpolating four or six lines after each line of the original. It has
been published with English translation by Faizullabhai (Bombay, 1893),
with French translation by R. Basset (Paris, 1894), with German translation
by C.A. Ralfs (Vienna, 1860), and in other languages elsewhere.

For long list of commentaries, &c., cf. C. Brockelmann's _Gesch. der Arab.
Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 264-267.

(G. W. T.)

BUSIRIS, in a Greek legend preserved in a fragment of Pherecydes, an
Egyptian king, son of Poseidon and Lyssianassa. After Egypt has been
afflicted for nine years with famine, Phrasius, a seer of Cyprus, arrived
in Egypt and announced that the cessation of the famine would not take
place until a foreigner was yearly sacrificed to Zeus or Jupiter. Busiris
commenced by sacrificing the prophet, and continued the custom by offering
a foreigner on the altar of the god. It is here that Busiris enters into
the circle of the myths and _parerga_ of Heracles, who had arrived in Egypt
from Libya, and was seized and bound ready to be killed and offered at the
altar of Zeus in Memphis. Heracles burst the bonds which bound him, and,
seizing his club, slew Busiris with his son Amphidamas and his herald
Chalbes. [v.04 p.0874] This exploit is often represented on vase paintings
from the 6th century B.C. and onwards, the Egyptian monarch and his
companions being represented as negroes, and the legend is referred to by
Herodotus and later writers. Although some of the Greek writers made
Busiris an Egyptian king and a successor of Menes, about the sixtieth of
the series, and the builder of Thebes, those better informed by the
Egyptians rejected him altogether. Various esoterical explanations were
given of the myth, and the name not found as a king was recognized as that
of the tomb of Osiris. Busiris is here probably an earlier and less
accurate Graecism than Osiris for the name of the Egyptian god Usiri, like
Bubastis, Buto, for the goddesses Ubasti and Uto. Busiris, Bubastis, Buto,
more strictly represent Pusiri, Pubasti, Puto, cities sacred to these
divinities. All three were situated in the Delta, and would be amongst the
first known to the Greeks. All shrines of Osiris were called _P-usiri_, but
the principal city of the name was in the centre of the Delta, capital of
the 9th (Busirite) nome of Lower Egypt; another one near Memphis (now
Abusir) may have helped the formation of the legend in that quarter. The
name Busiris in this legend may have been caught up merely at random by the
early Greeks, or they may have vaguely connected their legend with the
Egyptian myth of the slaying of Osiris (as king of Egypt) by his mighty
brother Seth, who was in certain aspects a patron of foreigners. Phrasius,
Chalbes and Epaphus (for the grandfather of Busiris) are all explicable as
Graecized Egyptian names, but other names in the legend are purely Greek.
The sacrifice of foreign prisoners before a god, a regular scene on temple
walls, is perhaps only symbolical, at any rate for the later days of
Egyptian history, but foreign intruders must often have suffered rude
treatment at the hands of the Egyptians, in spite of the generally mild
character of the latter.

See H. v. Gartringen, in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, for the
evidence from the side of classical archaeology.

(F. LL. G.)

BUSK, GEORGE (1807-1886), British surgeon, zoologist and palaeontologist,
son of Robert Busk, merchant of St Petersburg, was born in that city on the
12th of August 1807. He studied surgery in London, at both St Thomas's and
St Bartholomew's hospitals, and was an excellent operator. He was appointed
assistant-surgeon to the Greenwich hospital in 1832, and served as naval
surgeon first in the _Grampus_, and afterwards for many years in the
_Dreadnought_; during this period he made important observations on cholera
and on scurvy. In 1855 he retired from service and settled in London, where
he devoted himself mainly to the study of zoology and palaeontology. As
early as 1842 he had assisted in editing the _Microscopical Journal_; and
later he edited the _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_
(1853-1868) and the _Natural History Review_ (1861-1865). From 1856 to 1859
he was Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology in the
Royal College of Surgeons, and he became president of the college in 1871.
He was elected F.R.S. in 1850, and was an active member of the Linnean,
Geological and other societies, and president of the Anthropological
Institute (1873-1874); he received the Royal Society's Royal medal and the
Geological Society's Wollaston and Lyell medals. Early in life he became
the leading authority on the Polyzoa; and later the vertebrate remains from
caverns and river-deposits occupied his attention. He was a patient and
cautious investigator, full of knowledge, and unaffectedly simple in
character. He died in London on the 10th of August 1886.

BUSKEN-HUET, CONRAD (1826-1886), Dutch literary critic, was born at the
Hague on the 28th of December 1826. He was trained for the Church, and,
after studying at Geneva and Lausanne, was appointed pastor of the Walloon
chapel in Haarlem in 1851. In 1863 conscientious scruples obliged him to
resign his charge, and Busken-Huet, after attempting journalism, went out
to Java in 1868 as the editor of a newspaper. Before this time, however, he
had begun his career as a polemical man of letters, although it was not
until 1872 that he was made famous by the first series of his _Literary
Fantasies_, a title under which he gradually gathered in successive volumes
all that was most durable in his work as a critic. His one novel,
_Lidewijde_, was written under strong French influences. Returning from the
East Indies, Busken-Huet settled for the remainder of his life in Paris,
where he died in April 1886. For the last quarter of a century he had been
the acknowledged dictator in all questions of Dutch literary taste.
Perfectly honest, desirous to be sympathetic, widely read, and devoid of
all sectarian obstinacy, Busken-Huet introduced into Holland the light and
air of Europe. He made it his business to break down the narrow prejudices
and the still narrower self-satisfaction of his countrymen, without
endangering his influence by a mere effusion of paradox. He was a brilliant
writer, who would have been admired in any language, but whose appearance
in a literature so stiff and dead as that of Holland in the 'fifties was
dazzling enough to produce a sort of awe and stupefaction. The posthumous
correspondence of Busken-Huet has been published, and adds to our
impression of the vitality and versatility of his mind.

(E. G.)

BUSKIN (a word of uncertain origin, existing in many European languages, as
Fr. _brousequin_, Ital. _borzacchino_, Dutch _brozeken_, and Span,
_borcegui_), a half-boot or high shoe strapped under the ankle, and
protecting the shins; especially the thick-soled boot or _cothurnus_ in the
ancient Athenian tragedy, used to increase the stature of the actors, as
opposed to the _soccus_, "sock," the light shoe of comedy. The term is thus
often used figuratively of a tragic style.

BUSLAEV, FEDOR IVANOVICH (1818-1898), Russian author and philologist, was
born on the 13th of April 1818 at Kerensk, where his father was secretary
of the district tribunal. He was educated at Penza and Moscow University.
At the end of his academical course, 1838, he accompanied the family of
Count S.G. Strogonov on a tour through Italy, Germany and France, occupying
himself principally with the study of classical antiquities. On his return
he was appointed assistant professor of Russian literature at the
university of Moscow. A study of Jacob Grimm's great dictionary had already
directed the attention of the young professor to the historical development
of the Russian language, and the fruit of his studies was the book _On the
Teaching of the National Language_ (Moscow, 1844 and 1867), which even now
has its value. In 1848 he produced his work _On the Influence of
Christianity on the Slavonic Language_, which, though subsequently
superseded by Franz von Miklosich's _Christliche Terminologie_, is still
one of the most striking dissertations on the development of the Slavonic
languages. In this work Buslaev proves that long before the age of Cyril
and Methodius the Slavonic languages had been subject to Christian
influences. In 1855 he published _Palaeographical and Philological
Materials for the History of the Slavonic Alphabets_, and in 1858 _Essay
towards an Historical Grammar of the Russian Tongue_, which, despite some
trivial defects, is still a standard work, abounding with rich material for
students, carefully collected from an immense quantity of ancient records
and monuments. In close connexion with this work in his _Historical
Chrestomathy of the Church-Slavonic and Old Russian Tongues_ (Moscow,
1861). Buslaev also interested himself in Russian popular poetry and old
Russian art, and the result of his labours is enshrined in _Historical
Sketches of Russian Popular Literature and Art_ (St Petersburg, 1861), a
very valuable collection of articles and monographs, in which the author
shows himself a worthy and faithful disciple of Grimm. His _Popular Poetry_
(St Petersburg, 1887) is a valuable supplement to the _Sketches_. In 1881
he was appointed professor of Russian literature at Moscow, and three years
later published his _Annotated Apocalypse_ with an atlas of 400 plates,
illustrative of ancient Russian art.

See S.D. Sheremetev, _Memoir of F.I. Buslaev_ (Moscow, 1899).

(R. N. B.)

BUSS, FRANCES MARY (1827-1894), English schoolmistress, was born in London
in 1827, the daughter of the painter-etcher R.W. Buss, one of the original
illustrators of _Pickwick_. She was educated at a school in Camden Town,
and continued there as a teacher, but soon joined her mother in keeping a
school in Kentish Town. In 1848 she was one of the original attendants at
lectures at the new Queen's College for Ladies. In 1830 her [v.04 p.0875]
school was moved to Camden Street, and under its new name of the North
London Collegiate School for Ladies it rapidly increased in numbers and
reputation. In 1864 Miss Buss gave evidence before the Schools Inquiry
Commission, and in its report her school was singled out for exceptional
commendation. Indeed, under her influence, what was then pioneer work of
the highest importance had been done to put the education of girls on a
proper intellectual footing. Shortly afterwards the Brewers' Company and
the Clothworkers' Company provided funds by which the existing North London
Collegiate School was rehoused and a Camden School for Girls founded, and
both were endowed under a new scheme, Miss Buss continuing to be principal
of the former. She and Miss Beale of Cheltenham became famous as the chief
leaders in this branch of the reformed educational movement; she played an
active part in promoting the success of the Girls' Public Day School
Company, encouraging the connexion of the girls' schools with the
university standard by examinations, working for the establishment of
women's colleges, and improving the training of teachers; and her energetic
personality was a potent force among her pupils and colleagues. She died in
London on the 24th of December 1894.

BUSSA, a town in the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria, on the west
bank of the Niger, in 10 deg. 9' N., 4 deg. 40' E. It is situated just above the
rapids which mark the limit of navigability of the Niger by steamer from
the sea. Here in 1806 Mungo Park, in his second expedition to trace the
course of the Niger, was attacked by the inhabitants, and drowned while
endeavouring to escape. During 1894-1898 its possession was disputed by
Great Britain and France, the last-named country acknowledging by the
convention of June 1898 the British claim, which carried with it the
control of the lower Niger. It is now the capital of northern Borgu (see
NIGERIA, and BORGU).

BUSSACO (or BUSACO), SERRA DE, a mountain range on the frontiers of the
Aveiro, Coimbra, and Vizeu districts of Portugal, formerly included in the
province of Beira. The highest point in the range is the Ponta de Bussaco
(1795 ft.), which commands a magnificent view over the Serra da Estrella,
the Mondego valley and the Atlantic Ocean. Luso (pop. 1661), a village
celebrated for its hot mineral springs, is the nearest railway station, on
the Guarda-Figueira da Foz line, which skirts the northern slopes of the
Serra. Towards the close of the 19th century the Serra de Bussaco became
one of the regular halting-places for foreign, and especially for British,
tourists, on the overland route between Lisbon and Oporto. Its hotel, built
in the Manoellian style--a blend of Moorish and Gothic--encloses the
buildings of a secularized Carmelite monastery, founded in 1268. The
convent woods, now a royal domain, have long been famous for their cypress,
plane, evergreen oak, cork and other forest trees, many of which have stood
for centuries and attained an immense size. A bull of Pope Gregory XV.
(1623), anathematizing trespassers and forbidding women to approach, is
inscribed on a tablet at the main entrance; another bull, of Urban
VIII.(1643), threatens with excommunication any person harming the trees.
In 1873 a monument was erected, on the southern slopes of the Serra, to
commemorate the battle of Bussaco, in which the French, under Marshal
Massena, were defeated by the British and Portuguese, under Lord
Wellington, on the 27th of September 1810.

BUSSY, ROGER DE RABUTIN, COMTE DE (1618-1693), commonly known as
BUSSY-RABUTIN, French memoir-writer, was born on the 13th of April 1618 at
Epiry, near Autun. He represented a family of distinction in Burgundy (see
SEVIGNE, MADAME DE), and his father, Leonor de Rabutin, was
lieutenant-general of the province of Nivernais. Roger was the third son,
but by the death of his elder brothers became the representative of the
family. He entered the army when he was only sixteen and fought through
several campaigns, succeeding his father in the office of _mestre de camp_.
He tells us himself that his two ambitions were to become "honnete homme"
and to distinguish himself in arms, but the luck was against him. In 1641
he was sent to the Bastille by Richelieu for some months as a punishment
for neglect of his duties in his pursuit of gallantry. In 1643 he married a
cousin, Gabrielle de Toulongeon, and for a short time he left the army. But
in 1645 he succeeded to his father's position in the Nivernais, and served
under Conde in Catalonia. His wife died in 1646, and he became more
notorious than ever by an attempt to abduct Madame de Miramion, a rich
widow. This affair was with some difficulty settled by a considerable
payment on Bussy's part, and he afterwards married Louise de Rouville. When
Conde joined the party of the Fronde, Bussy joined him, but a fancied
slight on the part of the prince finally decided him for the royal side. He
fought with some distinction both in the civil war and on foreign service,
and buying the commission of _mestre de camp_ in 1655, he went to serve
under Turenne in Flanders. He served there for several campaigns and
distinguished himself at the battle of the Dunes and elsewhere; but he did
not get on well with his general, and his quarrelsome disposition, his
overweening vanity and his habit of composing libellous _chansons_ made him
eventually the enemy of most persons of position both in the army and at
court. In the year 1659 he fell into disgrace for having taken part in an
orgy at Roissy near Paris during Holy Week, which caused great scandal.
Bussy was ordered to retire to his estates, and beguiled his enforced
leisure by composing, for the amusement of his mistress, Madame de
Montglas, his famous _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_. This book, a series
of sketches of the intrigues of the chief ladies of the court, witty
enough, but still more ill-natured, circulated freely in manuscript, and
had numerous spurious sequels. It was said that Bussy had not spared the
reputation of Madame, and the king, angry at the report, was not appeased
when Bussy sent him a copy of the book to disprove the scandal. He was sent
to the Bastille on the 17th of April 1665, where he remained for more than
a year, and he was only liberated on condition of retiring to his estates,
where he lived in exile for seventeen years. Bussy felt the disgrace
keenly, but still bitterer was the enforced close of his military career.
In 1682 he was allowed to revisit the court, but the coldness of his
reception there made his provincial exile seem preferable, and he returned
to Burgundy, where he died on the 9th of April 1693.

The _Histoire amoureuse_ is in its most striking passages adapted from
Petronius, and, except in a few portraits, its attractions are chiefly
those of the scandalous chronicle. But his _Memoires_, published after his
death, are extremely lively and characteristic, and have all the charm of a
historical romance of the adventurous type. His voluminous correspondence
yields in variety and interest to few collections of the kind, except that
of Madame de Sevigne, who indeed is represented in it to a great extent,
and whose letters first appeared in it. The literary and historical
student, therefore, owes Bussy some thanks.

The best edition of the _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_ is that of Paul
Boiteau in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne (3 vols., Paris, 1856-1859). The
_Memoires_ (2 vols., 1857) and _Correspondance_ (6 vols., 1858-1859) were
edited by Ludovic Lalanne. Bussy wrote other things, of which the most
important, his _Genealogy of the Rabutin Family_, remained in MS. till
1867, while his _Considerations sur la guerre_ was first published in
Dresden in 1746. He also wrote, for the use of his children, a series of
biographies, in which his own life serves a moral purpose.

BUSTARD (corrupted from the Lat. _Avis tarda_, though the application of
the epithet[1] is not easily understood), the largest British land-fowl,
and the _Otis tarda_ of Linnaeus, which formerly frequented the champaign
parts of Great Britain from East Lothian to Dorsetshire, but of which the
native race is now extirpated. Its existence in the northern locality just
named rests upon Sir Robert Sibbald's authority (_circa_ 1684), and though
Hector Boethius (1526) unmistakably described it as an inhabitant of the
Merse, no later writer than the former has adduced any evidence in favour
of its Scottish domicile. The last examples of the native race were
probably two killed in 1838 near Swaffham, in Norfolk, a district in which
for some years previously a few hen-birds of the species, the remnant of a
plentiful stock, had maintained their existence, though no cock-bird had
latterly been known to bear them company. In Suffolk, where the
neighbourhood of Icklingham formed its chief haunt, an [v.04 p.0876] end
came to the race in 1832; on the wolds of Yorkshire about 1826, or perhaps
a little later; and on those of Lincolnshire about the same time. Of
Wiltshire, George Montagu, author of an _Ornithological Dictionary_,
writing in 1813, says that none had been seen in their favourite haunts on
Salisbury Plain for the last two or three years. In Dorsetshire there is no
evidence of an indigenous example having occurred since that date, nor in
Hampshire nor Sussex since the opening of the 19th century. From other
English counties, as Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire, it
disappeared without note being taken of the event, and the direct cause or
causes of its extermination can only be inferred from what, on testimony
cited by Henry Stevenson (_Birds of Norfolk_, ii. pp. 1-42), is known to
have led to the same result in Norfolk and Suffolk. In the latter the
extension of plantations rendered the country unfitted for a bird whose shy
nature could not brook the growth of covert that might shelter a foe, and
in the former the introduction of improved agricultural implements, notably
the corn-drill and the horse-hoe, led to the discovery and generally the
destruction of every nest, for the bird's chosen breeding-place was in wide
fields--"brecks," as they are locally called--of winter-corn. Since the
extirpation of the native race the bustard is known to Great Britain only
by occasional wanderers, straying most likely from the open country of
Champagne or Saxony, and occurring in one part or another of the United
Kingdom some two or three times every three or four years, and chiefly in
midwinter.

An adult male will measure nearly 4 ft. from the tip of the bill to the end
of the tail, and its wings have an expanse of 8 ft. or more,--its weight
varying (possibly through age) from 22 to 32 lb. This last was that of one
which was recorded by the younger Naumann, the best biographer of the bird
(_Voegel Deutschlands_, vii. p. 12), who, however, stated in 1834 that he
was assured of the former existence of examples which had attained the
weight of 35 or 38 lb. The female is considerably smaller. Compared with
most other birds frequenting open places, the bustard has
disproportionately short legs, yet the bulk of its body renders it a
conspicuous and stately object, and when on the wing, to which it readily
takes, its flight is powerful and sustained. The bill is of moderate
length, but, owing to the exceedingly flat head of the bird, appears longer
than it really is. The neck, especially of the male in the breeding-season,
is thick, and the tail, in the same sex at that time of year, is generally
carried in an upright position, being, however, in the paroxysms of
courtship turned forwards, while the head and neck are simultaneously
reverted along the back, the wings are lowered, and their shorter feathers
erected. In this posture, which has been admirably portrayed by Joseph Wolf
(_Zool. Sketches_, pl. 45), the bird presents a very strange appearance,
for the tail, head and neck are almost buried amid the upstanding feathers
before named, and the breast is protruded to a remarkable extent. The
bustard is of a pale grey on the neck and white beneath, but the back is
beautifully barred with russet and black, while in the male a band of deep
tawny-brown--in some examples approaching a claret-colour--descends from
either shoulder and forms a broad gorget on the breast. The secondaries and
greater wing-coverts are white, contrasting vividly, as the bird flies,
with the black primaries. Both sexes have the ear-coverts somewhat
elongated--whence doubtless is derived the name _Otis_ (Gr. [Greek:
otis])--and the male is adorned with a tuft of long, white, bristly plumes,
springing from each side of the base of the mandible. The food of the
bustard consists of almost any of the plants natural to the open country it
loves, but in winter it will readily forage on those which are grown by
man, and especially coleseed and similar green crops. To this vegetable
diet much animal matter is added when occasion offers, and from an
earthworm to a field-mouse little that lives and moves seems to come amiss
to its appetite.

Though not many birds have had more written about them than the bustard,
much is unsettled with regard to its economy. A moot point, which will most
likely always remain undecided, is whether the British race was migratory
or not, though that such is the habit of the species in most parts of the
European continent is beyond dispute. Equally uncertain as yet is the
question whether it is polygamous or not--the evidence being perhaps in
favour of its having that nature. But one of the most singular properties
of the bird is the presence in some of the fully-grown males of a pouch or
gular sac, opening under the tongue. This extraordinary feature, first
discovered by James Douglas, a Scottish physician, and made known by
Eleazar Albin in 1740, though its existence was hinted by Sir Thomas Browne
sixty years before, if not by the emperor Frederick II, has been found
wanting in examples that, from the exhibition of all the outward marks of
virility, were believed to be thoroughly mature; and as to its function and
mode of development judgment had best be suspended, with the understanding
that the old supposition of its serving as a receptacle whence the bird
might supply itself or its companions with water in dry places must be
deemed to be wholly untenable. The structure of this pouch--the existence
of which in some examples has been well established--is, however, variable;
and though there is reason to believe that in one form or another it is
more or less common to several exotic species of the family _Otididae_, it
would seem to be as inconstant in its occurrence as in its capacity. As
might be expected, this remarkable feature has attracted a good deal of
attention (_Journ. fuer Ornith._, 1861, p. 153; _Ibis_, 1862, p. 107; 1865,
p. 143; _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1865, p. 747; 1868, p. 741; 1869, p. 140; 1874,
p. 471), and the later researches of A.H. Garrod show that in an example of
the Australian bustard (_Otis australis_) examined by him there was,
instead of a pouch or sac, simply a highly dilated oesophagus--the
distension of which, at the bird's will, produced much the same appearance
and effect as that of the undoubted sac found at times in the _O. tarda_.

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