Ba. The Egyptians represented the ba or soul by a bird, sometimes with a human head. There was also the luminous one or Khou which hid itself in the darkest corner of the vault.
Bacchus. Called by the Greeks Lord of the Palm Tree. [See Dionysos.]
Ball or Tama. A symbol among the Buddhists of the sacred emanations of the gods. It is sometimes surmounted by flames and is called the "flaming jewel" or "flaming pear1." It is the third eye of Buddha, the symbol of transcendent wisdom. Basilisk. A fabulous creature with the body and wings of a dragon, head of a serpent and tail ending in a serpent's head. The glance of its eye would kill. It could only be destroyed by holding a mirror up so that it must see itself, when it would burst asunder with horror of its own appearance. We have here the same thought of the Taoists about evil being made to recognise itself. In sacred art the basilisk was used to symbolise the spirit of' evil.
Bee. ' Vishnu when depicted in the form of Krishna was given a blue bee hovering over his head as a symbol of the ether. Carved on ancient tombs the bee symbolised immortality. The bee was a prominent feature of the Mithra cult. On an altar dedicated to the Persian sun-god was found a gilded bull's head and three hundred golden bees. Napoleon I adopted the bee as an emblem of sovereignty. The sanctity of the bee may be derived from the ancient custom of smearing the bodies of the dead with honey to prevent decomposition.
