The first part of that doodad is a "long s" such as you may have noticed
in 18C printing. It's marginally significant in that long s never
appears at the end of a syllable; thus the thing-that-looks-like-B can
never represent two "ss" that have come together by compounding.
-- "How'd ya like to climb this high without no mountain?" --Porky Pine Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 !! visiting New Mexico, end of March !!