Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 105.djvu/152

Rh find yourself walking through a labyrinth of gravestones, which hare the form of a sarcophagus, and generally bear Hebraic inscriptions. This is the Valley of Jehosaphat, for maoy centuries the burial-place of the Karaïtes. This path may be followed for nearly two miles, and yet the graves do not cease. Suddenly this collection of graves terminates on a fearful abyss, from whose dizzy height a magnificent view of a rich, varying landscape, the conical rock of Tepekerman, the Tchatir Dagh, and the lofty coast-range may be enjoyed. If, however, we follow the crest of the lime rock on which we are standing, we reach a spot where the prospect over the opposite coast is still more imposing. While on the right hand the weatherbeaten old fortress of Tjufut Kalè crowns the nearest height, the monastery of Uspenskoi, or the Ascension of the Virgin, built on the projecting rock opposite, seems as if its buildings towered to the sky. When the Tartar Khans exchanged Tjufut Kalè for the charming valley below, this fortress again became exclusively the residence of the Karaïtes, who ever found here in times of persecution a safe place of refuge.

According to Oliphant, the population of Tjufut Kalè has greatly diminished since trade has grown brisker, and it has been found advisable to settle at more convenient spots. A great portion of the inhabitants of Eupatoria consists of Karaïtes, and nearly two thousand are said to be still dwelling there, many of them very rich traders. Their temple is large, one of the handsomest of the few large buildings in the town, richly decorated, and surrounded by splendid bushes, in which they hold their festival of tabernacles. The ladies' portion is separated by a grating. According to the statement of a French military surgeon in a Parisian paper, they assembled in October, 1854, to celebrate the feast of expiation in their temple a day later than the Rabbinical Jews, of whom there is also a community in Eupatoria. According to the same writer, their costume is precisely similar to that of the Muhammadan Tartars, whose language they speak, and whose manners they have assumed, "while the other Jews, Germans, or Poles, in customs, trade, and language, resemble the lower classes of the Alsacians, and speak a corrupt Jewish Grerman." Polygamy is legally permitted among the Karaïtes, but no one takes advantage of this privilege. The German historian, Dr. Jost, was for a long time in correspondence with the Karaïte savans. The Russian government has recently commissioned a member of the sect, Abraham Firkovitch, to make an inquiry into the history of the Karaïtes, who, as Professor Koch conjectures, had a material influence on the acceptance of the Jewish religion by the Chasars.