Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/469

BAKHTCHISARAI. ted in a narrow limestone valley about 20 miles from Simferopol, the capital of the Government of Taurida. Russia (Map: Russia, D 6). It is a typical Tartar town. It has 36 mosques, one Christian church, and two synagogues. In the centre of the city is the famous palace of Khan-Sarai. Built in 1519 by the Khan Abdul-Sakhal-Gerai, the magnificent palace, after years of decay, was restored to its former grandeur in 1787 by orders of Prince Potemkin. Of the other noteworthy buildings, the Mosque of the Khan is probably the most magnificent; it was erected in 1737 by the Khan Selamit-Gerai. In one of the old Jewish synagogues, a parchment roll of the Bible — the most ancient, according to some Hebrew scholars — was discovered. It is now in the Imperial Library. The principal articles of manufacture are the well-known red and yellow morocco leather, fur coats, boots and shoes, soap, candles, and some hardware. The town is a mart for the products of the neighboring country, such as tobacco, flax, grain, and especially fruits. Its population, principally Mohammedans, numbered (1897) 13,000, including 3000 Christians, 1000 Jews (mainly Karaites), and some Greeks.

BAKHTEGAN, bilK'te-gan'. A salt lake of Persia, to the cast of Shiraz, 74 miles long, and from 4 to 13 miles broad. Its altitude is 5100 feet above the sea. Large deposits of fine salt are gatliered from its basin when the lake dries up in summer.

BAKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK, bak'hoi-zen viin dun lniijU, Reinier Cornelis (1810-65). A Dutch historian. He was born at Amsterdam February 28, 1810. Among his noteworthy achievements must be mentioned Vondel met Roskam en Rommelpot (new ed., 1891). Variæ Lectiones Ex Historia Philosophiæ Antiquæ (1842), La Retraite de Charles Quint (1842), and Het huwelijk van Prins Willem met Anna van Saksen (1853). He was in 1854 made keeper of the State archives, and published Het Rijksarchief (1857), and Cartons voor de ge- srhirdrnis ran den nedertftndselie Yri/heidsoorlotj (1860-77). He died at The Hague July 15, 1865. Not the least of his services to Holland was his connection with Gids, a monthly publication of very high aim.

BAK'ING. The mode of cooking food in an air-tight chamber or oven. The term is also applied in the manufacture of bricks and pottery. The oven attached to kitchen-ranges for cooking is simply an iron chamber, with flues for conveying the heated gases of the fire round it. Ovens are now often heated by water, or by steam, and also by gas. The chemical as well as mechanical effect of cooking upon food is explained in the article on. The chemistry of bread-baking is discussed under.

BAKING POWDER. A chemically prepared material used as a substitute for yeast in making bread, biscuits, etc. Bicarbonate of soda and tartaric acid mixed with starch or flour are the materials from which the best baking powders are made. When water is added to these substances in making bread they combine and give off carbonic acid gas or carbon dioxide, exactly as does yeast by fermenting, which causes the bread to rise. Instead of bicarbonate of soda, bicarbonate of ammonia is sometimes used, and sometimes in place of tartaric acid alum is substituted to cheapen the cost of production. Investigation has shown the last substance to be objectionable, if not injurious, but there seems to be little objection to the use of bicarbonate of ammonia. See.

BAKONY WALD, bo'kon-y' vjilt, or BAKONY FOR'EST. A chain of mountains in Hungary, extending northeastward from the neighborhood of Lake Balaton toward the bend of the Danube (Map: Hungary, F 3). It is about 60 miles long, over 20 miles in width, and densely covered with forests, on the mast of which numerous herds of swine are reared. Its average height is not over 2000 feet; the highest peaks are found on the western side. The lower parts of the chain are under culti- vation; a considerable export trade is carried on in the excellent marble of several quarries, and there are numerous villages in the valleys. The railway line from Stuhlweissenburg to Komorn winds through the chain, reaching its highest point near Gombas (1220 feet).

BAKSHEESH, bak'shesh', or BAKSHISH (Pers. bakhshīsh, a present). In the East, in modern times, in special significance of gratuity (Ger. Trinkgeld), which, however, the Orientals do not quietly wait to receive, but demand loudly, and even insolently. Every traveler, whether in Turkey or in Egypt, in Asia Minor or in Syria, if he receives the smallest service from any one, is immediately reminded, by the cry of "Bakshish, Bakshish," to pay for the courtesy by a gift of money.

BAKU, ba-koo' (a corruption of the Pers. badkubu, given to it on account of the destructive winds of that region). The seat of administration of Russian Trans-Caucasia and an important seaport on the west coast of the Caspian Sea, on the Peninsula of Apsheron (Map: Russia, G 6). It is an important commercial and manufacturing centre, has several ship-building yards, is of great importance to Russia as a naval station, and is known especially for the rich petroleum wells in its neighborhood. In its architectural aspect, the city presents a combination of the Oriental and the European styles, and while certain portions of it wear the impress of antiquity, others, on the contrary, look very much like the modern commercial town. On the new quay, which is about a mile in length, along the shore south of the city, there are modern stores and bazaars, many fine buildings, and the ancient garden of the Khans. The older town, laid out in terraces, on the slope of a hill, has irregular, narrow streets and alleys lined with low, wooden, flat-roofed houses. Here are the ruins of the palace of the Khans — once a magnificent edifice built in the Mussulman style of the Fifteenth Century, and the Mosque of the Shah, erected in 1078. Close to the shore, near the strong wall of the old town, stands the 'Tower of the Maiden' — the subject of many poetical legends. North of the harbor, also on the shore, is still another part of Baku, the so-called 'Black Town,' whither the crude oil is conducted through pipe-lines from the oil-wells eight or nine miles north of the town, and where it is refined for the market.