4. Kelub', 3^3, so called from its similarity to a bird-ca2;e or trap QcdpraXXog is used in the latter sense in Ecclus. xi, 30), probably in regard to its having a lid. From the etymology, this appears to have been
BASKET
688
BASLE
an interwoven basket, made of leaves or rushes. In Jer. v, 27, however, it is used for a bird-cage, which must have been of open work, and probably not un- like our own wicker bird-cages. The name is applied to fruit-baskets (Amos viii, 1, 2, where the Sept. gives ayyur; Symni. more correctly Krt\a.Sw\Vulg. uncinus), Egyptian examples of which are presented in figs. 2 ami 4 (which contain pomegranates) of the annexed cut.
m
ui
5g£3mu-_3i
Various l-'orms of Ancient Kiryptiat L'askets Monuments.
the
5. Dun, 1W, or duday', ^ftf, used like the Greek KaXadoc (so the Sept.) for carrying figs (Jer. xxiv, 1, 2), as well as on a larger scale for carrying clay to the brick-yard (Psa. lxxxi, G; Sept. koQivoc, Auih. Vers. pots), or for holding bulky articles (2 Kings x, 7; Sept. K-('ii)-aWoc) ; the shape of this basket and the mode of carrying it usual among the brickmakers in Egypt is delineated in Wilkinson, ii, t'9, and aptly il- lustrates Psa. lxxxi, G. See Brick. In fact, very heavy burdens were thus carried in Egypt, as corn in very large baskets from the field to the threshin^- floor, and from the threshing-door to the granaries. They wire carried between two men by a pole resting on the shoulders. See Agriculture. In 1 Sam. ii, II: 2 Chron. xxxv, 10; Job xli, 20, however, the same word evidently means pots for boiling, and is translated accordingly.
In most places where the word basket occurs, we are doubtless to understand one made of rushes, simi- lar both in form and material to those used by carpen- ter > for carrying their tools. This is still the common kind of basket throughout Western Asia; and its use in ancient Egypt is shown by an actual specimen Which was found in a tomb at Thebes, and which is now in the British Museum. It was, in fact, a carpen- ket, ami contained his tools (tig. 1 above). Son fthe Egyptian baskets are worked ornament- ally with .dors (figs. :;, 5, above; also the modern examples, figs. 2, 7, below). And besides these the monuments exhibit a large variety of hand-baskets of different shapes, and 0 extensively employed as to : bow the numerous applications of basket-work in the remote times to which these representations extend. They ure mostly manufactured, the stronger and larger
sorts of the tibres. and the liner of the leaves of the
palm-tree, ami not infrequently of rushes, but men'
Of reeils. Kiit., -. \ . : Smith, S. V.
Modern Oriental Uaskets.
In the N. T. baskets are described under the three following terms, kuQiiwc, eTrvpic, and ffapyavr/. The last occurs only in 2 Cor. xi, S3, in describing Paul's escape from Damascus : the word properly refers to any thing twisted like a rope (/Esck. Svppl. 791), or any article woven of rope (irkkyjia n Ik (T\oi)iov, Suid.); fish -baskets specially were so made (c'nro <r\oii'iov TrXeyfidriov etc vtto$ox>)v i\0vwr, Etym. Mag.). It was evidently one of the larger and strong- er description (Hackett's J /lustra, of Script, p. 69). With regard to the two former words, it ma)- be re- marked that KuifHvoi; is exclusively used in the descrip- tion of the miracle of feeding the five thousand (Matt.
Mark
48; Luke ix, 17; John vi,
13), and oTrvpuj in that of the four thousand (Matt. xv, 87 ; Mark viii, 8), the distinction is most definitely brought out in Mark viii, 19, 20. The a-vpic is also mentioned as the means of Paul's escape (Acts ix, 25). The difference between these two kinds of baskets is not very apparent. Their construction appears to have been the same; for ko^ivoq is explained by Sui- das as a " woven vessel'' (ayytTov TrXncTiiv), while' (TTTvpuj is generally connected with sowing (rnrtli a). The (nrvpic (Vulg. sporta) seems to have been most appropriatelj- used of the provision-basket, the Roman sporlula. Ilesychius explains it as the "grain-basket" (to tCuv TtvpCov uyyoc, compare also the expression hlnvov ti-u GirvpifoQ, Athen. viii, 17). The kcQivoq seems to have been generally larger (Etym. Mag. j3a6v Kai Kotkov ^wpijjua); since, as used by the Ro- mans (Colum. xi, 8, p. 4G0), it contained manure enough to make a portable hot-bed (sec .Smith's Diet, of Class. Ant. s. v. Cophinus) ; in Rome itself it was constantly carried about by the Jews (quorum ccphinns fanumquc svpellex, Juv. Sat. iii, 14; vi, 5421. Gros- well (Diss, viii, pt. 4) surmises that the use of the cophinus was to sleep in, but there is little to support this. Baskets probably formed a necessary article of furniture to the Jews, who, when travelling either among the Gentiles or the Samaritans, were accus- tomed to carry their provisions witli them in baskets, in order to avoid defilement. — Smith, s. v.
Basle (Basiled), the capital ofa canton of the same name in Switzerland, with a university. In 1505 the people of Basic entered into the Swiss alliance, and, having declared themselves in favor of the Reformation, drove out John Philip, their bishop, from which time the Roman bishops of Basle made Porentrui their residence, and the chapter was at Freiburg, in Breisgau. At present the bishops of Basle have their residence at Solothurn. The cathedral church contains the tomb of Erasmus. The University was founded in 1459 by Pope Pius II, and has a line library. It is the seat of an active and prosperous Protestant Missionary Soci- ety. See Missions. The bishop was a prince of the German empire. Sec Switzerland. — Landon, Eccl. Diet. s. v.