ueger, article
"Basilides," in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_, ed. 3.

(W. BO.)

[1] = Nimrod = Zoroaster, cf. Pseudo-Clement, _Homil._ ix. 3; _Recogn._ iv.
27.

[2] The materials are in Baur, _Das manichaeische Religionssystem_ (1831),
p. 162, &c.

[3] Whether the myth of the creation of the first man by the angels, which
recurs in many Gnostic systems, found a place also in the system of
Basilides, cannot be determined with any certainty. Philastrius, however,
says: _hominem autem ab angelis factum asserit_, while according to
Epiphanus xxiv. 2, men are created by the God of the Jews.

BASILISK (the [Greek: Basiliskos] of the Greeks, and _Tsepha_ (cockatrice)
of the Hebrews), a name given 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
_Iguanidae_, the species of which are characterized by the presence, in the
males, of an erectile crest on the head, and a still higher, likewise
erectile crest--beset with scales--on the back, and another on the long
tail. _Basiliscus americanus_ reaches the length of one yard; its colour is
green and brown, with dark crossbars, while the crest is reddish. This
beautiful, strictly herbivorous creature is rather common amidst the
luxuriant vegetation on the banks of rivers and streams of the Atlantic hot
lands of Mexico and Guatemala. The lizards lie upon the branches of trees
overhanging the water, into which they plunge at the slightest alarm. Then
they propel themselves by rapid strokes of the hind limbs, beating the
water in a semi-erect position and letting the long rudder-like tail drag
behind. They are universally known as _pasa-rios_, _i.e._ ferrymen.

BASIM, a town of India, in the Akola district, Berar, 52 m. S.S.E. from
Akola station of the Great Indian Peninsula railway. Pop. (1901) 13,823.
Until 1905 it was the headquarters of the district of Basim, which had an
area of 2949 sq. m.; but in that [v.03 p.0480] year the district was
abolished, its component _taluks_ being divided between the districts of
Akola and Yeotmal. Its western portion, the Basim _taluk_, consists of a
fertile tableland, about 1000 ft. above sea-level, sloping down westward
and southward to the rich valley of the Penganga; its eastern portion, the
_taluks_ of Mangrul and Pasud, mainly o