a small well-built town in Ireland, county of Mayo, situated on the Robe, 16 miles S.S.E. of Castlebar. It has a parish church, Roman Catholic chapel, several schools, and a union workhouse. Pop. in 1851, 2161.

BALISTA, or BALISTA, a military engine used by the ancients for discharging darts, javelins, and stones. The name is derived from the Greek word βάλλειν, to throw. It would appear that the projectile force of these machines, in their several kinds, was derived from the torsion of ropes by means of a lever. Their power was very great, and indeed they may be said to have answered, in some degree, the purposes of modern artillery. The balista originally differed from the catapultia, which was used for discharging darts; but they are confounded by writers subsequent to the time of Julius Cesar.

BALISTEA, in Antiquity, songs accompanied by dancing, used on occasions of victory. Vopiscus has preserved a song of this kind sung in honour of Aurelian, who, in the Sarmatian war, was said to have killed forty-eight of the enemy in one day with his own hand. Mille, mille, mille, mille, mille decollarit: Unus homo mille, mille, mille, mille decollavit: mille, mille, mille virat, qui mille, mille occidit. Tantum vini habet nemo, quantum sanguinis. The same writer subjoins another popular song of the same kind: Mille Francos, mille Sarmatos, semel occidimus; mille, mille, mille, mille Persos querimus. The term is derived from the Greek βάλλειν, I cast or toss, on account of the motions used in this dance, which consisted in elevating, swinging, and throwing round the hands. The ballistea were a kind of popular ballads, composed by poets of the lower class, with little regard to the laws of metre.