a strong town of Artois in the French Netherlands. It has been in the possession of the French ever since the year 1641; and is seated in a dry spot, in E. Long. 3. 1. N. Lat. 50. 6.

BAPTÆ, in antiquity, an effeminate, voluptuous kind of priests, at Athens, belonging to the goddes Cotyttus; thus called from their stated dippings and washings, by way of purification. Their rites were performed in the night, and consisted chiefly of lascivious dances, and other abominations. Eupolis having composed a comedy to expose them, entitled Baptes, they threw him into the sea, to be revenged; and the same fate is also said to have befallen Cratinus, another Athenian poet, who had written a comedy against the Baptæ, under the same title.