BASTARD-PITCH. A mixture of colophony, black pitch, and tar. They are boiled down together, and put into barrels of pine-wood, forming, when the ingredients are mixed in equal portions, a substance of a very liquid consistence, called in France _bray gras_. If a thicker consistence is desired, a greater proportion of colophony is added, and it is cast in moulds. It is then called _bastard-pitch_. BASTE, TO. To beat in punition. A mode of sewing in sail-making. BASTILE. A temporary wooden tower, used formerly in naval and military warfare. BASTIONS. Projecting portions of a rampart, so disposed that the bottom of the escarp of each part of the whole rampart may be defended from the parapet of some other part. Their form and dimensions are influenced by many considerations, especially by the effect and range of fire-arms; but it is essential to them to have two faces and two flanks; the former having an average length, according to present systems, of 130 yards, the latter of 40 yards. BASTON, OR BATON. A club used of old by authority. (_See_ BATOON.) BASTONADO. Beating a criminal with sticks [from _bastone_, a cudgel]. A punishment common among Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and still practised in the Levant, China, and Russia. BAT, OR SEA-BAT. An Anglo-Saxon term for boat or vessel. Also a broad-bodied thoracic fish, with a small head, and distinguished by its large triangular dorsal and anal fins, which exceed the length of the body. It is the _Chætodon vespertilio_ of naturalists. BAT AND FORAGE. A regulated allowance in money and forage to officers in the field. BATARDATES. Square-stemmed row-galleys. BATARDEAU. In fortification, a dam of masonry crossing the ditch: its top is constructed of such a form as to afford no passage along it. BATARDELLES. Galleys less strong than the capitana, and placed on each side of her. BATEAU. A flat-bottomed, sharp-ended clumsy boat, used on the rivers and lakes of Canada; some of them are large. Also a peculiar army pontoon. BATED. A plump, full-roed fish is said to be bated. BATELLA. A small plying-boat. BATH. (_See_ WASHING-PLACE.) An order of knighthood instituted in 1339, revived in 1725, and enlarged as a national reward of naval and military merit in January, 1815. Henry IV. gave this name, because the forty-six esquires on whom he conferred this honour at his coronation had watched all the previous night, and then _bathed_ as typical of their pure virtue. The order was supposed to belong to men who distinguished themselves by valour as regards the navy, but it is now deemed an inferior representation of court favour. BATILLAGE. An old term for boat-hire. BATMAN. A Turkish weight of 6 okes, or about 18 lbs. English. There is also a smaller batman in Turkey, of about 4 lbs. 10 ozs. English. In Persia there are also two batmans--the larger equal to 12 lbs. English, and the other is of about half that weight. Also, a soldier assigned to a mounted officer as groom.