a circle in the Prussian government of Dantzig and province of West Prussia. It extends over 500 square miles, or 320,000 acres, and contains two towns and sixty-four villages. It is filled with extensive woods and large fresh-water lakes, and scarcely yields food sufficient for its thin population. The capital is of the same name, with 155 houses and 1146 inhabitants. Long. 17° 53'. 50. E. Lat. 54° 7'. 12. N.

**BEINASCHI, Giovanni Battista**, called Cavalier Beinaschi, an historical painter, and a Piedmontese, was born in 1634. He studied at Rome under the direction of Pietro del Po; and some authors affirm that he was afterwards the disciple of Lanfranc. He was a good designer; and as a public acknowledgement of his merit, the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him.

**BEIT el FAKIH**, an unvalled town of Arabia, situated on a barren sandy plain, protected by a castle, in which the governor resides, against the predatory incursions of the Arabs. It carries on an extensive trade in coffee, which grows in the hills, distant thirty-six miles, and is carried to Mocha, the shipping port, and thence exported to Egypt, the East Indies, and to Europe. European houses have had residents in this place, and merchants resort to it from all quarters of the East. The Persians have a caravan which travels to Bussorah; the Turkish and Russian caravans join those of Smyrna; and the Barbary and African caravans join that of Cairo. The trade of Beit el Fakih is carried on solely by the caravans; and the coffee is either sold for specie or for such goods as are required for the use of the inhabitants. It is twenty-four miles E.S.E. of Loheia and Hodeida. Long. 43° 23'. E. Lat. 14° 32'. N.

**BEITH**, a town and parish of Scotland, in the county of Ayr, and partly also in Renfrewshire. It carries on to a considerable extent the manufacture of bleached and coloured thread, and has also cotton manufactories. The population is 4050, of which the town contains 2560. It is eight miles north of Irvine.

**BEIZA, or BEIZATH**, in Hebrew antiquity, a word signifying an egg, and also a certain measure in use among the Jews. The beiza among the Persians was a gold coin, weighing forty drachmas. Hence they pretended that Philip of Macedon owed their king Darius a thousand bezaths or golden eggs as tribute-money; and that Alexander the Great refused to pay them, saying, the bird which laid these eggs had flown into the other world.