orbidden fruit of Eden; whilst others supposed it to be the grapes
brought out of the Promised Land by the spies of Moses. The spikes of
fruit often weigh forty pounds.

BANCO [Sp.] Seat for rowers.

BAND. The musicians of a band are called idlers in large ships. Also a
small body of armed men or retainers, as the band of gentlemen
pensioners; also an iron hoop round a gun-carriage, mast, &c.; also a
slip of canvas stitched across a sail, to strengthen the parts most
liable to pressure.--_Reef-bands_, rope-bands or robands; rudder-bands
(which see).

BANDAGE. A fillet or swathe, of the utmost importance in surgery. Also,
formerly, parcelling to ropes.

BANDALEERS, OR BANDOLEERS. A wide leathern belt for the carriage of
small cases of wood, covered with leather, each containing a charge for
a fire-lock; in use before the modern cartouche-boxes were introduced.

BANDECOOT. A large species of fierce rat in India, which infests the
drains, &c.

BANDED-DRUM. _See_ GRUNTER.

BANDED-MAIL. A kind of armour which consisted of alternate rows of
leather or cotton and single chain-mail.

BANDEROLD, OR BANDEROLE. A small streamer or banner, usually fixed on a
pike: from _banderola_, Sp. diminutive of _bandera_, the flag or ensign.

BAND-FISH, OR RIBBON-FISHES. A popular name of the _Gymnetrus_ genus.

BANDLE. An Irish measure of two feet in length.

BANG. A mixture of opium, hemp-leaves, and tobacco, of an intoxicating
quality, chewed and smoked by the Malays and other people in the East,
who, being mostly prohibited the use of wine, double upon Mahomet by
indulging in other intoxicating matter, as if the manner of doing it
cleared off the crime of drunkenness. This horrid stuff gives the
maddening excitement which makes a Malay run _amok_ (which see).--_To
bang_ is colloquially used to express excelling or beating rivals.
(_See_ SUFFOLK BANG.)

BANGE. Light fine rain.

BANGLES. The hoops of a spar. Also, the rings on the wrists and ankles
of Oriental people, chiefly used by females.

BANIAN. A sailor's coloured frock-shirt.

BANIAN OR BANYAN DAYS. Those in which no flesh-meat is issued to the
messes. It is obvious that they are a remnant of the maigre days of the
Roman Catholics, who deem it a mortal sin to eat flesh on certain days.
Stock-fish used to be served out, till it was found to promote scurvy.
The term is derived from a religious sect in the East, who, believing in
metempsychosis, eat of no creature end