owever, that Har[=u]n's anger was caused
to a large extent by the insinuations of his courtiers that he was a mere
puppet in the hands of a powerful family. See further CALIPHATE, section C,
ss. 4, 5.

The expression "Barmecide Feast," to denote an imaginary banquet, is drawn
from one of the tales ("The Barber's Tale of his Sixth Brother") in the
Arabian Nights, in which a series of empty dishes is served up to a hungry
man to test his sense of humour by one of the Barmecides (see edition by
L. C. Smithers, Lond., 1894, vol. i. 317).

BARMEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province and the
governmental district of Duesseldorf. Pop. (1816) 19,030; (1890) 116,144;
(1905) 156,148. It is served by the main railway from Berlin to
Aix-la-Chapelle, and lies immediately east of Elberfeld, with which it
virtually forms one town. It stretches for some 4 m. along the narrow
valley of the river Wupper, which, within the municipal boundaries, is
crossed by twenty bridges. High wooded hills surround it. It is divided
into three main districts, Upper, Middle and Lower Barmen, and is
connected, throughout its length, with Elberfeld, by railway, tramway, and
a suspended trolley line, hanging over the bed of the Wupper. It contains
nine Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches, a stately modern town
hall, a Hall of Fame (_Ruhmeshalle_), with statues of the emperors William
I. and Frederick III., a theatre, a picture-gallery, an ethnographical
museum, and an exchange. There are many public monuments, one to Bismarck
another to the poet Emil Rittershaus (1834-1897), a native of the town, and
one commemorative of the Franco-German War of 1870-71. There are several
high-grade public schools, academies of technical science, engineering and
textile industry, and a missionary theological seminary. Barmen is one of
the most important manufacturing centres of Germany. The rapid development
of its commercial activity only dates from the beginning of the 19th
century. It is the chief seat of ribbon weaving in Germany, and
manufactures thread, lace, braids, cotton and cloth goods, carpets, silks,
machinery, steel wares, plated goods and buttons, the last industry
employing about 15,000 hands. There are numerous bleaching-fields,
print-fields and dyeworks famous for their Turkey-red, soap works, chemical
works and potteries. There are also extensive breweries. Its export trade,
particularly to the United States, is very considerable. The