Bel-fires Between Bel's two fires. Scylla on one side and Charybdis on the other. In Irish, Itter dha teine Bheil, in a dilemma. The reference is to the two fires kindled on May Eve in every village, between which all men and beasts devoted to sacrifice were compelled to pass.
Belford A friend of Lovelace in Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe. These “friends” made a covenant to pardon every sort of liberty which they took with each other.
Belfry A military tower, pushed by besiegers against the wall of a besieged city, that missiles may be
thrown more easily against the defenders. Probably a church steeple is called a belfry from its resemblance
to these towers, and not because bells are hung in it. (French, beffroi, a watch-tower, Old French, berfreit,
belefreit, from German, berg-frit, bergen, to protect, frit [vride], a place fenced in for security.)
“Alone, and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.”
Tennyson: The Owl, stanza 1.
Belial (Hebrew). The worthless or lawléss one, i.e. the devil. Milton, in his pandemonium, makes him a
very high and distinguished prince of darkness. (Paradise Lost.)
“What concord hath Christ with Belial?” - 2 Cor. vi. 15.
“Belial came last- than whom a spirit more lewdSons of Belial. Lawless, worthless, rebellious people. (See above.
Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for itself.”
Milton: Paradise Lost, book i. 490-2.
“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial.” - 1 Sam. ii. 12.