CAPITAL OF THE CRIMEA. 
The number of Tahtars does not exceed three 
thousand : of this number, twenty belong to the 
class of nobles, two hundred and thirty-seven 
are merchants, one hundred and seventy-three 
priests, and seventy-eight students of divinity. 
The morning after our arrival. Colonel visit to the 
. Fortress of 
Richard, Dunant, a native oi Smyrna, and an Dschou- 
, . ... . JcutkaU. 
officer in the Russian service residing in 
Bahtcheserai, accompanied us on horseback to 
climb the steep defile leading from the city to 
the Jewish colony of Dschoufouthale *, situate 
upon a mountain, and distant about five versts. 
These Jews are of the sect called Karai : they 
inhabit an autient fortress originally constructed 
by the Genoese upon a very lofty precipice. 
Passing up the defile leading to this fortress, 
we observed some Tahtar women among the 
tombs and ruined mosques, in long snow-white 
veils, seeming like so many ghosts : their veils 
covered all the face, except the eyes; and some 
of them had the whole of the head and upper 
part of the body concealed from observation. 
Their beautiful flowing drapery, and the inter- 
esting groupes they exhibited among the ruins, 
would have furnished a pleasing subject for a 
j85 
CHAP. 
IV. 
(4) Dschoufout is a name, originally, of reproach, bestowed upon the 
Jews: and Kali signifies a Fortress. 
