300 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



provinces, and of these tliero were about 132,000 in Kherson alone in 1870. All 

 are descended from the Polish Jews, who are themselves of Gorman origin. Hence 

 they still speak a corrupt German, much mixed with Hebrew, Slav, and slang 

 expressions. In official documents and important correspondence the rabbinical 

 Hebraeo-Chaldee dialect is still used. Organized in brotherhoods and kahal, or 

 communes of a civil and religious character, the West Russian Jews are mostl}»- 

 traders, brokers, shopkeeiDers, contractors, inn-keepers, and money-lenders. Bat 



Fig. 152.— Jeavs in Volhyma, Podolia, axd Kiev. 



Accoi-ding to Tohubinskiy. 



E'.ofP. 



E cf .G, 



Towns having 5,000 to 10,000 

 Jewish Inhabitauts. 



10,000 to 15,f 00 

 Jews. 



40.000 

 Jews. 



Under 10 

 per cent. 



10 to 25 

 per cent. 



Over 25 

 per cent. 



many have fallen into poverty, and in West TJkrania over 20,000 are mendicants. 

 One of their chief centres is Berdichev, the " Russian Jerusalem," as it is often 

 called, situated on the Kiev plateau, watered by the Teretev, the first tributary of 

 the Dnieper below the Pripet. Here they numbered 50,400 in 1860, in a total 

 population of a little over 54,000, and probably as many as 100,000 are assembled 

 at this place during the fairs. They are engaged in various industries, such as 

 jewellery, tobacco, perfumery, distributed by their hawkers all over the country to 



