The Karaite Jews, though they receive not Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah, yet aver that they were no way concerned in, or consenting to his death. But though they thus reject the dreadful responsibility entailed on them by the declaration oftheir forefathers " His blood be on us, and on our children," yet, like many others ofmankind, they ground their opinions in matters of lo/igion, less upon theirown reason N2 and conviction, than on the faith and practice of their ancestors. "Why should I," said one of these people in conversation, "Why should I suppose my father was mistaken upon a subject which it concerned him as much as myself to be informed upon?" " Supposing him not to have been mistaken, that is no sufficient cause for your not consulting your own reason in a matter of such great importance: if it was a speculation in which your worldly possessions were hazarded, probably you would think it right to judge for yourself, and should you differ in opinion, would even venture in conduct to oppose him also. How much more essential then, when the interests of time and eternity are equally implicated in the question?" He shrugged his shoulders with a tacit assent to a truth, that was yet above his reach.
The Jewish women are generally handsome, though disfigured by their extremely disagreeable costume, which abroad they universally wear, though in England the most part have laid it aside. They are, I believe, the only women in the Crimean towns, who are enough skilled in needle-work to do it for hire; and many of the Jews are tailors.
A curious Jewish custom was related to me by a Polish gentleman. The Jews, when first married, wear a shirt of finer texture than ordinary, which, after the wedding-day, is carefully put by unworn till the time of their deaths, when they are uniformly buried in it. So valuable is this shirt in their estimation, and so indispensible a part of their possessions, that in money transactions, when they require to borrow, and have no pledge in gold or pearls to give, they frequently deposit this shirt, which is always a satisfactory security to the lender, as the Jew could not die happy without redeeming it.
Of the other nations who constitute a part of this mingled multitude, none are settled as colonists in large bodies, but are such as the different offices of government, or some accidental incitement, has brought thither ; those of the peasantry have been either attached to the army, in the service ofsome family, or, (and it is said not a few), escaped from the rigour of offended laws.
Heterogeneous as this mass appears., they yet form a whole in which each, as a member, bears a distinct part; and though daily mixing in commercial pursuits, and all following one grand object, the never-failing desire of gain, yet the characteristic traits of each nation are preserved; and the assimilation between them is no more than is needful to effect this predominant purpose.
The Poles in the Crimea are few in number, tall, and finely formed: even the servants are superior in their manners to any other of the peasantry, andmanyofthemfound in such situations, still relate with aproud consciousness, and a spiritthatscarcebrooks controul, that theyrank as nobles. Amongst our particular acquaintance too, was a Hungarian, a worthy excellent man, who, though living 'in a small cottage, which had nothing to recommend it except the beauty of its situation and its internal neatness, could yet shew the credentials of his nobility, and feel an inward superiority, of which the power of fortune had not been able to deprive him. His two sons were both in the army, the only line of advancement to honour in the Russian government. The youngest having been wounded, was permitted to retire, and a civil appointment given to him. In this manner his Imperial Majesty, with great policy, reserves as rewards and encouragements for his soldiers, the civil offices and most honourable distinctions of his state. In their schools, rank is alone given to the military cadet, which he receives immediately on enter-, ing the school, if designed for the army or the navy.
To be a citizen ofRussia, rank is indispensibly necessary ; and the peasant will refuse to obey the orders of him who cannot call himself by some more distinguishing title than that ofgenman ; and hewho, unmarkedbyrank, can find admission even at our court, cannot fail to be struck by the difference of system in the country of which I am now speaking, where aman bearing a rank, however high, will not presume to sit before his superior officer, until bidden perhaps more than once to take his place.
The Russian fasts are kept with rigid sanctimony by the peasantry ; those who are in servitude, and living in the houses of such as eat meat, always prepare their own food, and refuse to partake of that cooked in a saucepan where meat has been :