Bakony (ba˙-kon´yė) Wald, a thickly wooded mountain range dividing the Hungarian plains, famous for the herds of swine fed on its mast.
Baksheesh´, an Eastern term for a present or gratuity. A demand for baksheesh meets travellers in the East everywhere from Turkey and Egypt to Hindustan.
Baku (bä-kö´), a Russian port on the western shore of the Caspian, occupying part of the Peninsula of Apsheron. The naphtha or petroleum springs of Baku have long been known; and the Field of Fire, so called from emitting inflammable gases, has long been a place of pilgrimage with the Guebres or Fire-worshippers. From the development of the petroleum industry, Baku has greatly increased, and is now a large and flourishing town. About 1500 oil-wells are in operation, producing immense quantities of petroleum (6,448,000 tons in 1917), much of which is led direct in pipes from the wells to the refineries in Baku, and it is intended to lay a pipe for its conveyance all the way to the Black Sea at Batoum, which is already connected with Baku by railway. Some of the wells have had such an outflow of oil as to be unmanageable, and the Baku petroleum now competes successfully with any other in the markets of the world. Baku, formerly the station of the Caspian fleet, is strongly fortified, and has a large shipping trade. The district of Baku lies within the limits of the new Republic of Azerbaijan. Pop. 237,000; pop. of the province, 1,119,600.
Baku´nin, Michael, Russian anarchist, the founder of Nihilism, born 1814 of a rich and noble family, entered the army, but threw up his commission after two years' service, and studied philosophy at Moscow, with his friends Hertzen, Turgeniev, Granovski (historian), and Byelinski (critic). Having adopted Hegel's system as the basis of a new revolution, he went in 1841 to Berlin, and thence to Dresden, Geneva, and Paris, as the propagandist of anarchism. Wherever he went he caused disturbance, and after undergoing imprisonment in various States, was handed over to Russia in 1851 by Austria, imprisoned for five years, and finally sent to Siberia. Escaping thence through Japan, he joined Hertzen in London on the staff of the Kolokol. His extreme views, however, ruined the paper and led to a quarrel with Marx and the Internationale; and having fallen into disrepute with his own party in Russia, he died
suddenly and almost alone at Berne in 1878. He demanded the entire abolition of the State as a State, the absolute equalization of individuals, and the extirpation of hereditary rights and of religion, his conception of the next stage of social progress being purely negative and annihilatory.
Bala, a lake 4 miles long, and an urban district of N. Wales, in Merionethshire. Pop. 1408.
Balaam (bā'lam), a prophet, invited by Balak, King of Moab, to curse the Israelites, but compelled by miracle to bless them instead (Num. xxii-xxiv). In another account he is represented as aiding in the perversion of the Israelites to the worship of Baal, and as being, therefore, slain in the Midianitish war (Num. xxxi; Josh. xiii). He is the subject of many rabbinical fables, the Targumists and Talmudists regarding him, as most of the fathers did, in the light of an impious and godless man.
Bala Beds, or Bala Series, a deposit of Upper Ordovician Age, named from the Bala district, North Wales, consisting of slates, grits, sandstones, and limestones, there being two limestones separated by sandy and slaty rocks about 1400 feet thick. They contain trilobites of many species, and other marine fossils. The lower Bala limestone (25 feet thick) may be traced over a large area in North Wales. See Caradoc Series, Ordovician System.
Balachong´, an Oriental condiment, composed of small fishes, or shrimps, pounded up with salt and spices and then dried.
Balæ´na, the genus which includes the Greenland or right whale, type of the family Balænidæ, or whale-bone whales.