white; _e.g._ Biela (white stream); Bela, Belaia (white place); Belowes and Belowiz (white village); _was_ or _wies_ (a town or village); Belgrade, Ger. _Weissenburg_ (white fortress); Bialgorod, Turc. _Akkermann_ (white castle); Belki or Bielki (a name applied in Russia to snow-capped mountains); Berat, in Albania, corrupt. from Belgrade (white fort). [Sidenote: BEL, BEAL (Gadhelic),] a mouth, in its literal sense, but in a secondary sense, signifying an entrance into any place. In Ireland it is often united with _ath_ (a ford), forming _belatha_ (ford entrance). The word _bel_ itself is often used to denote a ford; _e.g._ Belclair, _i.e._ _Bel-an-chlair_ (the ford or entrance to the plain); _Belatha_ (Anglicised _Bella_) is found in many names, as in Bellanagare, _i.e._ _Bel-atha-na-gcarr_ (the ford mouth of the cars); Lisbellaw (the fort at the ford mouth); Bel-atha is often changed in modern names to _balli_ or _bally_, as if the original root were _baile_ (a town), as in Ballinamore (the mouth of the great ford); Ballinafad (the mouth of the long ford); Ballyshannon is corrupt. from _Bel-atha-Seanach_ (Shannagh’s ford); Belfast, anc. _Bel-feirsde_ (the ford of the _farset_ or sandbank); Ballinaboy, _i.e._ _Bel-an-atha-buide_ (the mouth of the yellow ford); Ballinasloe, _Bel-atha-na-sluaigheadh_ (the ford mouth of the armies); _Bel_ (a ford) is not found in Scotland, but a word with a kindred meaning as applied to land, _bealach_ (a pass or opening between hills), is frequent there, as well as in Ireland, and takes the form of _ballagh_ or _balloch_; _e.g._ Ballaghboy in Ireland, and Ballochbuie in Scotland (the yellow pass); Ballaghmore (great pass); Ballaghkeen (the beautiful pass, _cæin_); Ballaghadereen (the pass of the little oak grove); Balloch alone occurs in several counties of Scotland, the best known being Balloch, at the entrance to Loch Lomond; Ballochray (smooth pass, _reidh_); Ballochmyle (the bald or bare pass); Ballochgair (short pass); Ballochcraggan (of the little rock); Balloch-nam-bo (the pass of the cattle), etc. [Sidenote: BELED, or BELAD (Ar.),] a district; _e.g._ Beled-es-Shurifa (the district of the nobles); Belad-es-Sûdân (the district of the Blacks); Belad-es-Sukkar (sugar district); _Belad-t-moghrib_ (the district of the West), the Arabian name for Morocco, also called _Beled-el-Djered_ (the land of dates); Beled-el-Sham (the district of the north or on the left), the Arabic name for Syria, to distinguish it from Yemen (to the south or right). Syria was also called by the Turks Soristan, and by the Greeks Suria, _i.e._ the country of Tyre (_Tzur_, the rock). The word in its secondary sense means prosperous or happy--hence the Greeks called it Αραβια ἡ εὐδαίμων, to distinguish it from Arabia deserta (Ar.), _El-Badiah_ (the desert), hence the Bedawees or Bedouins. [Sidenote: BENDER (Ar.),]