ce from the village and to
which their womenfolk are sent in times of war. The Bakalai of Lake Isanga
cremate their dead; those of the Upper Ogowe throw the bodies into the
river, with the exception of those killed in war. The body of a chief is
placed secretly in a hut erected in the depths of the forest, and the
village is deserted for that night, in some cases altogether; the slaves of
the deceased are (or were) sacrificed, and his wives scourged and secluded
in huts for a week. "Natural" deaths are attributed to the machinations of
a sorcerer, and the poison-ordeal is often practised. Of their social
organization little is known, but it appears that nearly all individuals
refrain from eating the flesh of some particular animal.

BAKE, JAN (1787-1864), Dutch philologist and critic, was born at Leiden on
the 1st of September 1787, and from 1817 to 1854 he was professor of Greek
and Roman literature at the university. He died on the 26th of March 1864.
His principal works are:--_Posidonii Rhodii Reliquiae Doctrinae_ (1810);
_Cleomedis Circularis Doctrina de Sublimitate_ (1820); _Bibliotheca [v.03
p.0227] Critica Nova_ (1825-1831) and _Scholica Hypomnemata_ (1837-1862), a
collection of essays dealing mainly with Cicero and the Attic orators;
Cicero, _De Legibus_ (1842) and _De Oratore_ (1863); the _Rhetorica_ of
Apsines and Longinus (1849).

His biography was written (in Dutch) by his pupil Bakhuizen van der Brink
(1865); for an appreciation of his services to classical literature see L.
Mueller, _Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in den Niederlanden_
(1869).

BAKER, SIR BENJAMIN (1840-1907), English engineer, was born near Bath in
1840, and, after receiving his early training in a South Wales ironworks,
became associated with Sir John Fowler in London. He took part in the
construction of the Metropolitan railway (London), and in designing the
cylindrical vessel in which Cleopatra's Needle, now standing on the Thames
Embankment, London, was brought over from Egypt to England in 1877-1878. By
this time he had already made himself an authority on bridge-construction,
and shortly afterwards he was engaged on the work which made his reputation
with the general public--the design and erection of the Forth Bridge. On
the completion of this undertaking in 1890 he was made K.C.M.G., and in the
same year the Royal Society recognized his scientific attainments by
electing him one of its fellows. Twelve years later at the for