lan. Slaves and women are not
allowed to master this language, but all the initiated are bound to repeat
it so as to pass the messages on. The Ba-Kwiri have also a horn language
peculiar to themselves.

BALA, a market-town and urban district of Merionethshire, N. Wales, at the
north end of Bala Lake, 17 m. N.E. of Dolgelley (Dolgellau). Pop. (1901)
1554. It is little more than one wide street. Its manufactures are flannel,
stockings, gloves and hosiery (for which it was well known in the 18th
century). The Tower of Bala (some 30 ft. high by 50 diameter) is a tumulus
or "moat-hill," formerly thought to mark the site of a Roman camp. The
theological college of the Calvinistic Methodists and the grammar school
(endowed), which was founded in 1712, are the chief features, together with
the statue of the Rev. Thomas Charles, the distinguished theological
writer, to whom was largely due the foundation of the British and Foreign
Bible Society. Bala Lake, the largest in Wales (4 m. long by some 3/4 m.
wide), is subject to sudden and dangerous floods, deep and clear, and full
of pike, perch, trout, eel and _gwyniad_. The _gwyniad_ (Caregonus) is
peculiar to certain waters, as those of Bala Lake, and is fully described
by Thomas Pennant in his _Zoology_ (1776).

The lake (_Llyn Tegid_) is crossed by the Dee, local tradition having it
that the waters of the two never mix, like those of Alpheus and the sea.

BALAAM ([Hebrew: BIL`AM] Bil'am; [Greek: Balaam]; Vg. _Balaam_; the
etymology of the name is uncertain), a prophet in the Bible. Balaam, the
son of Beor, was a Gentile seer; he appears in the history of the
Israelites during their sojourn in the plains of Moab, east of Jordan, at
the close of the Forty Years' wandering, shortly before the death of Moses
and the crossing of the Jordan. Israel had conquered two kings of eastern
Palestine--Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. Balak, king
of Moab, became alarmed, and sent for Balaam to curse Israel; Balaam came
after some hesitation, but when he sought to curse Israel Yahweh compelled
him to bless them.

The main passage concerning Balaam in Num. xxii-xxv.; it consists of a
narrative which serves as a framework for seven oracular poems, the first
four being of some length and the last three very brief. The story is
doubtless based on ancient traditions, current in various forms; the Old
Testament references are not wholly consistent.

The narrative in Num. xxii.