DAK 



203 



B A K 



Baking, 



seem to have been introduced from Greece, about 

 the year of the city 588, t 1 j much esteemed 



as to be occasionally admitted into the senate. To 

 preserve them more upright and honourable, they 

 were expressly forbidden to associate with gladiators 

 or comedians; and to enable them to devote their 

 whole time to their proper business, they were ex- 

 empted from guardianships and other offices to which 

 the rest of the citizen* were liable. To the foreign 

 bakers who first practised this art in Rome, a num- 

 ber of freedmen were added, forming together an in- 

 corporation, or college, from which neither themselves 

 nor their descendants were allowed to withdraw. 

 Even their effects were held in common, and no part 

 of them could be alienated. Each bake-house was 

 under the superintendance of a patron, and one of 

 the patrons was annually elected to preside over the 

 rest, and take charge of the general concerns of the 

 college. By the statutes of England, too, bakers 

 are considered as superior to the general order of 

 handicrafts. " No man," says the 2'2 Henry VIII. 

 cap. IS. " for using the mysteries or sciences of ba- 

 king, brewing, surveying, or writing, shall be inter- 

 preted a handicraft." In London, and indeed in 

 most of the towns tlrroughout the kingdom, they are 

 under the jurisdiction of the magistrates, who regulate 

 the price of bread, and have the power of fining those 

 who do not conform to their rules. The two kinds 

 of bread made in London are distinguished by the 

 .names of white, or wheaten, and household, which 

 differ only in their degrees of purity. Every baker 

 is liable to a penalty if he does not mark his loaves, 

 according to their different qualities, with the letters 

 AV or H. 



The ingredients of bread are flour, yeast, water, 

 and salt, which are mixed according to the follow- 

 ing process : To a peck of flour are added a hand- 

 ful of salt, a pint of yeast, and three quarts of wa- 

 ter, which in hot weather must be cold, in winter 

 hot, and in temperate weather lukewarm. The oven 

 must be heated more than an hour before the bread 

 is introduced, which must remain there three hours 

 to be properly baked. The peck-loaf, whether house- 

 hold or wheaten, must weigh seventeen pounds six 

 ounces avoirdupois, and smaller bread in the same 

 proportion. Every sack of flour must weigh two 

 hundred weight and a half; and from this there should 

 be made, at an average, twenty peck loaves, or eighty 

 common quartern loaves. Formerly if the bread was 

 deficient only one ounce in thirty-six, the baker was 

 liable to the pillory ; and the same offence is now 

 punished by a fine imposed at the will of the magis- 

 trates, provided it be not more than five shillings, nor 

 leas than one for every ounce wanting. Suspected 

 bread, however, must be weighed before a magistrate 

 within twenty-four hours atter being baked; as its 

 weight diminishes the longer it is kept. For further 

 particulars concerning bread, and the substitutes used 

 for it in various nations, see Bread. (/*) 



BAKU, or Baccou, a sea-port town of the Cas- 

 pian Sea, situated in the province of Schirvan in Per- 

 sia. Although the entrance to the harbour is beset 

 with shallows, islands, ai*d sand banks, yet it is 

 reckoned the safest in the Caspian, as ships can 

 fee moored bead and stem, in seven fathom9 of wa- 



ter, at the distance of forty fathoms from the shore, Eakut 

 under the command of two strong bastions. The * - 'V -' 

 town, which is said to have been built by the Turks, 

 is defended by a double wall, by strong redoubts, 

 and by a dry ditch, which can be filled in twenty-four 

 hours with water from the adjoining mountains. On 

 the north and west of the town are several lofty and 

 rugged mountains, with strong watch towers built 

 upon their summits. The rock-salt, brimstone, and 

 naphtha, which are found in the neighbourhood of 

 Baku, are carried to Ghiland, Mazanderas, and the 

 surrounding countries. Saffron is also produced in 

 great quantities. The trade of Baku is chiefly car- 

 ried on with Shamachy, from which they receive an 

 excellent red wine, and silks and silken stuffs. 



Among the curiosities in the neighbourhood of 

 Baku, is what is called the everlasting fire. About 

 ten British miles north-east of Baku, where the land 

 is dry and rocky, there are several small ancient 

 temples, or arched vaults, about ten feet high, sup- 

 posed to have been dedicated to fire. In one of these 

 where the Indians now worship, a large hollow cane 

 is fixed to the ground near the altar, and from the 

 extremity of it issues a blue flame, more gentle than 

 that which is produced from spirits of wine, which 

 the Indians suppose lias burned since the flood, and 

 will continue till the end of the world. From a hori- 

 zontal gap on an adjoining rock, about 60 feet long 

 and three broad, there issues a blue flame of a simi- 

 lar kind. According to Gmelin, the soil is a coarse 

 marl mixed with sand, and effervesces with acids. 

 The following interesting account of the naphtha 

 springs is taken from Hanway's Travels, and shall 

 be given in his own words. The revenue arising from 

 them to the Khan of Baku has been computed at no 

 less than forty thousand rubles. 



" The earth round this place, for above two miles, 

 has this surprising property, that by taking up two 

 or three inches of the surface, and applying a live 

 coal, the part which is so uncovered immediately 

 takes fire, almost before the coal touches the earth : 

 the flame makes the soil hot, but does not consume 

 it, nor affect what is near it with any degree of heat. 

 Any quantity of the earth carried to another place 

 does not produce this effect. Not long since eight 

 horses were consumed by this fire, being under a roof 

 where the surface of the ground was turned up, and 

 by some accident took flame. 



If a cane, or tube even of paper, be set about two 

 inches in the ground, confined and close with the 

 earth below, and the top of it touched with a live 

 coal, and blown upon, immediately a flame issues 

 without hurting cither the cane or the paper, pro- 

 vided the edges be covered with clay ; and this me- 

 thod they use for light in their houses, which have 

 only the earth for the floor : three or four of these 

 lighted canes will boil water in a pot, and thus they 

 dress their victuals. The flame may be extinguished 

 in the same manner as that of spirits of wine. The 

 ground is dry and stony ; and the more stony any 

 particular part is, the stronger and clearer is the 

 flame ; it smells sulphureous like naphtha, but not 

 very offensive. 



Lime is burnt to great perfection by means of 

 this phenomenon ; the flame communicating itself t 

 C 



