Part 9

BEETLE, _s._ An insect distinguished by having hard cases, or sheaths, under which he folds his wings; a heavy mallet. Beetles flying about late in an evening often foretel a fine day on the morrow.—_Foster._

BELLADONNA, _s._ Nightshade; a powerful narcotic.

Mr. Youatt considers this to have some prophylactic powers against rabies, but particularly when in union with the scutellaria, or skull-cap. He begins “with a drachm ball to a moderate-sized dog, containing two scruples of the scutellaria, and about two and a half grains of the belladonna, to be given night and morning: on the second week two balls are given; on the third, three; and this continued for six weeks.” The nightshade is also a general sedative.—_The Horse._

BELLMETAL, _s._ The metal of which bells are made.

BELLOW, _v._ To make a noise as a bull; to make any loud and violent outcry.

BELLWETHER, _s._ A sheep which leads the flock with a bell hung on his neck.

BELLY, _s._ That part of the body which reaches from the breast to the thighs, containing the bowels.

BELLY-BOUND, _a._ Costive.

BELT, _s._ A girdle; a cincture.

BENZOIN, _s._ Called also GUM BENJAMIN. It is a yellow resinous substance, and from it _Flowers of Benjamin_ are extracted. It is used as an ingredient in Friar’s Balsam and Paregoric Elixir.

BERNACLE, _s._ A bird like a goose, fabulously supposed to grow on trees.

The Bernacle, (_Anas Erythropus_, LINN. _La Bernacle_, BUFF.) weighs about five pounds, and measures more than two feet in length, and nearly four and a half in breadth. The bill, from the tip to the corners of the mouth, is scarcely an inch and a half long, black, and crossed with a pale reddish streak on each side; a narrow black line passes from the bill to the eyes, the irides of which are brown; the head is small, and, as far as the crown, together with the cheeks and throat, white; the rest of the head and neck, to the breast and shoulders, is black; the upper part of the plumage is prettily marbled or barred with blue, grey, black, and white; the feathers of the back are black, edged with white, and those of the wing coverts and scapulars, blue grey, bordered with black near the margins, and edged with white; the quills black, edged a little way from the tips with blue grey; the under parts and tail coverts white; the thighs are marked with dusky lines or spots, and are black near the knees; the tail is black, and five inches and a half long; the legs and feet dusky, very thick and short, and have a stumpy appearance.

In severe winters these birds are not uncommon in this kingdom, particularly on the northern and western parts, where, however, they remain only a short time, and depart early in the spring to their northern wilds, to breed and spend the summer.—_Bewick._

BETTER, _s._ One that lays bets or wagers.

BEVY, _s._ A flock of quails.

BILE, _s._ A thick, yellow, bitter liquor, separated in the liver, collected in the gall bladder, and discharged by the common duct; a sore angry swelling.

BILL, _s._ The beak of a fowl; a kind of hatchet with a hooked point.

BILLIARDS, _s._ A kind of play upon a flat surface, with cues, maces, and balls.

In order to play billiards well, attention must be given at first to the method of holding the mace; to the position in which the player should stand, and the manner of delivering the hall from the mace; but these are much more easily acquired by observation or by the direction of a good player, than by any possible written rules. A person who plays with his right hand must stand with his left foot foremost; and on the contrary he who is left-handed must stand with his right foot foremost, by which he will stand more steady and firm. Immoderate bursts of passion, and even fretting at trifling disappointments in the game, are usually found very prejudicial to the player; his nerves, being affected, it is impossible for him to make the stroke with that steadiness and nicety the game requires.

The games usually played till lately were the white winning and the red winning carambole games, but the winning and losing carambole game is now very fashionable.

The different games of billiards are—

_The white winning game_, played with two white balls, is twelve in number, when two persons play, and fifteen when four play; scored (independently of forfeitures) from winning hazards only.

_The white losing game_, also twelve in number, played with two white balls, is the reverse of the winning; the points being scored from losing and double, or winning and losing hazards.

_The white winning and losing game_ is a combination of the two preceding; all balls put in by striking the adversary’s ball first, reckon towards the game.

The preceding games should be introductory to the knowledge of those with three or more balls, which are more complicated and difficult.

_Choice of balls_, in which the player chooses his ball each time, an incalculable advantage, generally played against the losing and winning game.

_The bricole game_, signifies, being required to strike a cushion, from whence the ball is to rebound so as to hit that of the adversary, reckoned equal to giving eight or nine points. When both parties play bricole, the game is ten, scored from bricole hazards, and forfeitures.

_The bar-hole game_, so styled because the hole which the ball should be played for is barred, and the player strikes for another hole. When this is played against the common game, the advantage to the last-mentioned is calculated at six points.

_One-hole_, in which all halls that go into one hole are counted, and the player who best lays his ball at the brink of that particular hole, has the advantage. The lead should be given from that end of the table where the last hazard has been made.

_Hazards_, so styled as depending entirely upon making hazards, no account being kept of the game. Many persons may play at a table with balls that are numbered, though to avoid confusion seldom more than six play at once. The person whose ball is put in pays a fixed sum for each hazard to the player, and he who misses pays half the same to him whose ball he played at. The only general rule is not to lay any ball a hazard for the next player, which may best be done by always playing upon him whose turn is next, and either bringing his ball close to the cushion, or putting it a distance from the rest.

_The doublet game_ is ten in number, played with two balls, most commonly against the white winning game, and no hazard is scored unless made by a reverberation from the cushion, calculated as equivalent to giving five points.

_The commanding game_, where the adversary fixes upon the ball which the striker is to play at, reckoned equal to having fourteen points out of twenty-four: usually given by a skilful player against the common game of an indifferent one.

_The limited game_ is very seldom played. In it the table is divided by a line, beyond which, if the striker pass his ball, he pays forfeit.

_The red or winning and losing carambole game_ consists of twenty-one or twenty-four points, reckoned from caramboles, and from winning and losing hazards, equally; both white and red. Each of the white hazards and the carambole counts two; the red hazard three points.

_The winning carambole_ (or red) game is sixteen or eighteen in number, obtained (independently of the forfeitures which every game has peculiar to itself), by winning hazards and carom only.

_The losing carambole_ is nearly the reverse of the winning, and consists of sixteen or eighteen points, made by caramboles, losing and double hazards; counted as in the winning and losing game.

N.B. The simple carambole is only a trifling variation from the above.

The carambole games are played with three balls; one red which is neutral, and termed the _carambole_: the other two white: one of them allotted to each player. The _carambole_ is placed upon a spot on a line even with the stringing nail at the bottom of the table, and after leading from the upper end the striker is either to make the winning or losing hazard, according to the particular game, or to hit with his own ball the other two successively; for which stroke, called a _carambole_ or _carom_, he obtains two points.

The _Russian carambole_ varies from the common carambole in the following particulars:—

The red ball is to be placed upon the usual spot; but the player, at the commencement of the game, or after his ball has been holed, is at liberty to place it where he pleases. The leader, instead of striking at the red ball, should lay his own gently behind the same, and the opponent may play at either of them; if the said opponent play at and hole the red ball, he scores three; then the red ball is to be replaced upon the spot, and the player may take his choice again, always following his stroke till both balls are off the table; he gains two points for every carambole; but if in doing that he hole his own ball, then he loses as many as otherwise he would have obtained; and if he strike at the red ball, and should carambole and hole that ball and his own, he loses five points; and when he holes all three balls he loses seven, which respective numbers he would have won had he not holed his own ball.

_The caroline_ or _carline game_ is played either on a round or square table with five balls, two white, one red, another blue, and the caroline ball yellow. The red ball is to be placed on its usual spot, the caroline ball exactly in the middle of the table, and the blue ball between the two at the lower end of the table. The striking spot is at the upper end, in a parallel line with the three balls. The game is 42, scored from caramboles and hazards; the red hazard counts three, the blue two, and the yellow, when holed in the caroline or middle pocket, is reckoned at six points.

_The four game_ consists of two partners on each side at any of the common games, who play in succession after every winning hazard lost.

_The cushion game_ consists in the striker playing his ball from the top of the baulk cushion, instead of following his stroke upon the table, and is generally played in the winning, or winning and losing game, reckoned equal to giving six points.

_Fortification Billiards_, for an account of which see Hoyle.

As the _red_, or _winning and losing game_, is that most commonly played, and as its regulations are, with trifling exceptions, applicable to all the others, the following will be found a correct code of the general laws of billiards. For tables of the odds, and a description of particular games, the reader is referred to the later editions of Hoyle.

_Rules &c. in the winning and losing carambole game._—1. The game commences by stringing for the lead and choice of balls.

2. In stringing, the striker must place his ball within the striking ring; and, if his adversary desire it, must stand within the limits of the corner of the table.

3. He who, after playing at the bottom cushion, brings his ball nearest to the cushion, at the upper or baulk end of the table, wins the lead, and chooses his ball.

4. After the first person has strung for the lead, if the adversary who follows should make his ball touch the other, he loses the lead.

5. By holing his own ball, either in stringing or leading, the player loses the lead.

6. Should the leader follow his ball, with either mace or cue, beyond the middle hole, it is no lead; and his adversary may make him lead again.

7. The leader must place his ball within the ring, between the striking nails or spots at the upper end of the table: and the same must be observed after every losing hazard has been got.

8. The red ball is to be placed on the lower of the two spots, at the bottom of the table.

9. When either of the white balls has been holed, &c., it must be replaced in, and played from the striking ring, as at the commencement of the game.

10. When the red ball has been holed or forced over the table, it must be replaced on the same spot as at the beginning of the game, and the present striker is bound to see it thus replaced, otherwise he cannot win any points while it is off the spot, and the stroke he may make is deemed foul.

11. If the striker do not hit his adversary’s ball, he loses one point; and if by the same stroke he pocket his own ball, he loses three points and the lead.

12. If the striker force either of the balls over the table, he loses the lead.

13. If the striker force his own, or either of the other balls over the table, after having made a carambole or hazard, he gains nothing, and also loses the lead.

14. If the striker hit both the red and his adversary’s ball with his own ball, this is called a _carambole_ or _carom_.

15. If the striker with his own hole his adversary’s ball, he wins two points.

16. If the striker hole the red ball, he wins three points.

17. If the striker hole his own off his adversary’s ball, he wins two points.

18. If the striker hole his own off the red ball, he wins three points.

19. If the striker hole both his adversary’s and the red ball, he wins five points.

20. If the striker, by playing at the red ball, hole his own and the red ball, he wins six points.

21. If the striker, by hitting the white ball first, hole both his own and the adversary’s ball, he wins four points.

22. If the striker, by striking at the red ball first, hole both his own and his adversary’s ball, he wins five points: three for holing his own ball off the red, and two for holing the white ball.

23. If the striker play at his adversary’s ball first, and hole his own ball and the red, he wins five points: two for holing his own ball off the white, and three for holing the red ball.

24. If the striker play at his adversary’s ball, and hole it, at the same time that he pockets both his own ball and the red, he wins seven points: two for holing his own ball off the white, two for holing his adversary’s, and three for holing the red ball.

25. If the striker play at the red, and hole his own ball off the same, and the red ball, and his adversary’s ball, by the same stroke, he wins eight points: three for holing his own ball off the red, three for holing the red, and two for holing the white ball.

26. If the striker make a carambole, and by the same stroke pocket his adversary’s ball, he wins four points: two for the carambole, and two for the white hazard.

27. If the striker make a carambole, and pocket the red ball, he wins five points: two for the carambole, and three for the red hazard.

28. If the striker should carambole, and hole both the red and his adversary’s ball, he gains seven points: two for the carambole, two for the white, and three for the red ball.

29. If the striker make a carambole by striking the white ball first, and hole his own by the same stroke, he wins four points: two for the carom, and two for the white losing hazard.

30. If the striker make a carambole by striking the red ball first, and by the same stroke pocket his own ball, he wins five points: two for the carambole, and three for the red losing hazard.

31. If the striker play at the white ball first, and should make a carambole, and also hole his own and his adversary’s ball, he wins six points: two for the carambole, and two for each white hazard.

32. If the striker play at the red ball first, and carambole, and should likewise hole his own and his adversary’s ball, he gains seven points: two for the carom, three for the red hazard, and two for the white hazard.

33. If the striker should carambole by playing first at the white ball, and also hole his own and the red ball, he wins seven points: two for the carom, two for the white losing hazard, and three for the red winning hazard.

35. If the striker should carambole by striking the white ball first, and hole his own and his adversary’s, and the red ball, he wins nine points: two for the carambole, two for each of the white hazards, and three for the red hazard.

36. If the striker should carambole by striking the red ball first, and by the same stroke hole his own and the red, and his adversary’s ball, he gains ten points: two for the carambole, three for red losing, three for the red winning, and two for the white winning hazard.

37. After the adversary’s ball is off the table, and the two remaining balls are either upon the line, or within the stringing nails or spots, at the upper end where the white balls are originally placed in leading, it is called a _baulk_; and the striker, who is to play from the ring, must strike the opposite cushion, to make his ball rebound, so as to hit one of the balls in the baulk—which if he do not, he loses one point.

38. It sometimes happens, after the red ball has been holed or forced over the table, that one of the white balls so occupies its place, that it cannot be put upon its proper spot without touching the same. In such a case, the marker must hold the red ball in his hand, while the striker plays at his adversary’s ball, and immediately afterwards replace the red on its proper spot, so that it may not prevent a carambole, &c.

39. If the striker play with the wrong ball, it is a foul stroke.

40. If the striker be going to play with the wrong ball, no person ought to discover it to him, except his partner, when they are playing a double match.

41. If the striker play with the wrong ball, and his adversary should not discover it, he may reckon all the points gained by the stroke, and the marker is obliged to score them.

42. If the striker, after having made a hazard or carom, move with his hand or stick either of the balls which remain upon the table, the stroke is deemed foul.

43. If a ball be found to have been changed during the game, and it is not known by which player, the game must be played out with the balls as they then are.

44. No one has a right to take up or otherwise move a ball, without permission of the adversary.

45. If a striker touch his ball with the instrument twice, the stroke is foul.

46. If a striker be impeded in his stroke by his adversary or a spectator, he has a right to recommence the stroke.

47. If the striker should accidentally move his own ball, without intending at the time to make a stroke, he loses no point; but the adversary may replace the ball.

48. If the striker touch his ball, and make his mace or cue go over or past it, he loses one point.

49. If either of the players, in the act of striking, happen to move his own, the adversary’s, or the red ball, from the place it occupied on the table, it is a foul stroke.

50. When the striker’s, and either of the other balls are so close as to touch, and in playing the former off, the latter is moved from its place, the stroke is considered foul.

51. If the striker, in attempting a stroke, do not touch his ball, it is no stroke, and he must strike again.

52. If, when the balls are very near each other, the striker should make his ball touch the other, it is to be considered a stroke, though not intended as such.

53. If the striker play upon a ball which is still running, the stroke is foul.

54. Whoever stops a ball when running, loses the lead; if his adversary do not like the ball he has to play at the next stroke.

55. Whoever retains his adversary’s cue or mace, when in the act of striking, makes the stroke foul.

56. If the striker interrupt the course of his own ball, when running towards a hole, after having made a miss, and it is the opinion of the marker that it would have entered the pocket, had it not been interrupted, he loses three points.

57. And if the striker should interrupt, stop, or put his adversary’s ball out of its course, when running towards or into a hole, he is subjected to the same forfeiture.

58. If the striker, after having made a hazard, or carambole, interrupt the course of his own ball, the stroke is foul, and he cannot score any of the points he may have thus made.

59. He who blows upon a ball when running makes the stroke foul; and if his own ball were running towards a hole, or near a hole, and he be seen by his adversary to blow upon it, he loses two points.

60. If the striker play with both feet off the ground, the stroke is deemed foul.

61. Whoever strikes the table when the ball is running, makes the stroke foul.

62. If the striker throws his mace or cue upon the table so as to baulk his adversary, he causes him to make a foul stroke.

63. If a ball be made to go extremely near the brink of a hole, and after sensibly standing still, falls into it, the striker wins nothing, and the ball must be put on the same brink where it stood before the adversary makes his next stroke; and if it should fall into the hole at the instant the striker hath played upon his ball, so as to prevent the success of his stroke, the striker’s and the adversary’s balls must be placed in the same relative position, and the striker play again.

64. He who will not play the game out, loses the same.

65. If a person agree to play with the cue, he is obliged to play with it during the whole of the game or match; but if no agreement have been made, he may at any time change it for the mace, and _vice versâ_. But when the parties agree to play mace against cue, the mace player has no right to use a cue, nor has the cue player any right to use a mace, without permission.

66. When a person agrees to play with a cue, he must play every ball within his reach with the point thereof; and if he should agree to play with the butt of the cue, he has no right at any time to play with the point without permission. Also, when the parties agree to play _point and point_ of the cue, neither of them has any right to use the _butt_: but every person who plays with a cue, may use occasionally a long one, and in such case he may play with the point of a long cue or a mace.

67. If the striker should make his mace or cue touch both balls at the same time, it is deemed a foul stroke, and if discovered by the adversary, he wins nothing for any points he might make by the stroke, and the adversary may break or part the balls.

68. Whenever a foul stroke is made, it is at the option of the adversary either to part the balls, and play from the striking ring, as at the beginning, or, if the balls happen to be in a favourable position for himself, to suffer the preceding striker to score the points; which the marker is obliged to do in every case where the balls are not broken.

69. The adversary only is bound to see that the striker plays fair, which, if he neglect, the striker wins all the points he may have made by that particular stroke, and the marker is obliged to score them.

70. No person has a right to discover whether a stroke be fair or foul until asked, unless during a four match; and in that case none but the player or his partner has a right to ask it.

71. Should a dispute arise between the players concerning the fairness of a stroke, the marker alone is authorised to decide, and from his decision there is no appeal: but if he happen to be incompetent, the majority of the disinterested company then present should decide the dispute.

72. Whoever proposes to part the balls, and his adversary agrees, the person who made the proposal loses the lead.