BADROULBOUDOUR, daughter of the sultan of China, a beautiful brunette.  “Her eyes were large and sparkling, her expression modest, her mouth small, her lips vermilion, and her figure perfect.”  She became the wife of Aladdin, but twice nearly caused his death; once by exchanging “the wonderful lamp” for a new copper one, and once by giving hospitality to the false Fatima.  Aladdin killed both these magicians.—­Arabian Nights ("Aladdin or The Wonderful Lamp").

BAG DAD.  A hermit told the caliph Almanzor that one Moclas was destined to found a city on the spot where he was standing.  “I am that man,” said the caliph, and he then informed the hermit how in his boyhood he once stole a bracelet, and his nurse ever after called him “Moclas,” the name of a well-known thief.—­Marigny.

BAGSHOT, one of a gang of thieves who conspire to break into the house of lady Bountiful.—­Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem (1705).

BAGSTOCK (Major Joe), an apoplectic retired military officer, living in Princess’s Place, opposite to Miss Tox.  The major has a covert kindness for Miss Tox, and is jealous of Mr. Dombey.  He speaks of himself as “Old Joe Bagstock,” “Old Joey,” “Old J.,” “Old Josh,” “Rough and tough old Jo,” “J.B.,” “Old J.B.,” and so on.  He is also given to over-eating, and to abusing his poor native servant.—­C.  Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846).

BAHADAR, master of the horse to the king of the Magi.  Prince Amgiad was enticed by a collet to enter the minister’s house, and when Bahadar returned, he was not a little surprised at the sight of his uninvited guest.  The prince, however, explained to him in private how the matter stood, and Bahadar, entering into the fun of the thing, assumed for the nonce the place of a slave.  The collet would have murdered him, but Amgiad, to save the minister, cut off her head.  Bahadar, being arrested for murder, was condemned to death, but Amgiad came forward and told the whole truth, whereupon Bahadar was instantly released, and Amgiad created vizier.—­Arabian Nights ("Amgiad and Assad").

BAHMAN (Prince), eldest son of the sultan Khrossou-schah of Persia.  In infancy he was taken from the palace by the sultana’s sisters, and set adrift on a canal, but being rescued by the superintendent of the sultan’s gardens, he was brought up, and afterwards restored to the sultan.  It was the “talking bird” that told the sultan the tale of the young prince’s abduction.

Prince Bahman’s Knife.  When prince Bahman started on his exploits, he gave to his sister Parazade (4 syl.) a knife, saying, “As long as you find this knife clean and bright, you may feel assured that I am alive and well; but if a drop of blood falls from it, you may know that I am no longer alive.”—­Arabian Nights ("The Two Sisters,” the last tale).

BAILEY, a sharp lad in the service of Todger’s boarding-house.  His ambition was to appear quite a full-grown man.  On leaving Mrs. Todgers’s, he became the servant of Montague Tigg, manager of the “Anglo-Bengalee Company.”—­C.  Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).