CAPITAL OF THE CRIMEA. ' 
singular circumstance of having found one 
Jewish settlement, perhaps the only one upon 
earth, where that people exist secluded from 
the rest of mankind, in the free exercise of 
their antient customs and peculiarities 1 . The 
town contains about twelve hundred persons of 
both sexes, and not more than two hundred 
houses. The Tahtars left here a stately mauso- 
leum, erected for the daughter of one of their 
Khans, now a ruin. The principal part of each 
dwelling belongs to the women; but every 
master of a family has his own private apart- 
ment, where he sleeps, smokes, and receives 
his friends. The room wherein we were enter- 
tained was of this description: it was filled 
with manuscripts, many in the hand-writing of 
our host ; others by those of his children ; and 
all in very beautiful Hebrew characters. The 
Karaites deem it to be an act of piety to copy 
the Bible, or copious commentaries upon its 
text, once in their lives. All their manuscript 
copies of the Old Testament begin with the 
Book of Joshua : even the most antient did not 
contain the Pentateuch. This is kept apart. 
(0 “It seems singular that such fortresses should have been pos- 
sessed by such a people ; yet, in Abyssinia, the Falasha appear similarly 
situated; and Jackson mentions a Jews' rock in Morocco.” 
Hebei 's MS. Journal. 
