BAKTCHESERAI, 
the women are allowed the greater luxury of 
smoking: this, to human beings so situated, 
must become an important comfort of life. The 
most remarkable part of the seraglio is the 
entrance, by a winding passage, so narrow, that 
one person alone could pass at the same time, 
who was under the absolute necessity of 
stepping close to the guard, so as to rouse him, 
even if he were asleep. Into this passage the 
Khan descended by a private staircase, which 
was appropriated solely to his use. 
The Armenian merchants of Nakhtshivan' , who, 
with almost all the Christians of the Peninsula, 
emigrated from the Crimea, were originally in- 
habitants of BaktcheseraP: their loss has been 
severely felt ever since the conquest of this 
country by the Russians. The present popula- 
tion, including male and female, amounts to near 
six thousand souls 1 2 3 . In this number are in- 
cluded above eleven hundred Jews : four hundred 
and twenty of these are registered as merchants. 
(1) See p. 337 of the former Volume. 
(2) The number of emigrants amounted to 75,000 ; all of whom, 
excepting 7000, perished from cold, hunger, and other causes, in the 
steppes, upon the western side of the Sea of Azof. 
(3) Five thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, according to 
Pallas, ( Travels , ml. W.p. C9,) including Creeks, Armenians , Jews, and 
Tahtars, 
