Saddle-horses had been ordered for eleven o'clock, at which hour we rode out of the palace court, and observed, as we passed the gate, an insignificant monument, erected ' in remembrance of the visit which Catherine II. deigned to pay to the city of Baghtchasara! on the 14th May, 1787.' We turned in the first place into the narrow and crooked streets, where people of all trades follow their vocations in stalls thrown wide open, the leather- workers and slipper-ihakers predominating, for Baghtchasaral has ever been celebrated for its leather work, bakeries and cooking shops being the next in number. By an edict of the Empress Catherine, Baghtchasaral, like Kira-sou-bazar, was given up to the exclusive occupation of the Tatars, by whom it is principally inhabited, and it is consequently not exempt from the peculiarities of Mussulman towns — neglect and filth. It is well supplied with mosques, and the fountains are said to be three hundred in number.'
Returning towards the palace, we continued in a southerly direction along the Douryel-sou, 'stagnant water,' a fitting name for a stream that is dammed with the refuse of the town, and passing through the tchyngheny, 'gipsy' quarter, a stragglii^ and foul neighbourhood where the dwellers in the extreme condition of dirt universally follow the occupation of blacksmiths, we entered the Malrem, ' Mary's ' ravine, formed of lofty and nearly perpendicular cliffs that extend to the picturesque valley of the same name as the town, where were of old the gardens of the khans. We kept to the right, and halted to mount the wooden stairs, and steps cut in the rock, to visit the chapel and monastery of the Ouspenye, ' Assumption,' in the ancient crypts high up the white calcareous cliff. The road hence continues to the end of the valley, but we
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preferred crossing it to take the shortest path to Tchyfout-Kaleh, two miles from Baghtchasaral.
We first ascended a narrow path over wondroasly rough ground, until a steeper ascent brought us to the gate of the ancient strong, hold, which we entered on foot, for a time-honoured observance forbids that the silence of the narrow and now deserted streets, should be broken by the tramp of horses.
Tchyfout-Kaleh, 'Jew's fortress,' is said to have been occupied by an Israelitish people as early as the year 460 B.C., when the place was called Sela Youhodym, 'Jewish rock.' The KaraTm Jews ' maintain, that in the armies of Cyrus and of his son Cambyses, and again in the army of Darius which advanced into Scythia, there were many Israelites who thought not of returning after the Babylonian captivity. Darius gave to them the Tauric peninsula, which they named in the Median tongue Heiym, that is to say, a gift. In after times, the word Herym became changed by the Tatars to Crim, whence it is pretended that we have the name Crimea. Thus was it that, 513 years before the birth of Christ, those Israelites who dis^reed with the Jews at Jerusalem, chanced to settle with some Medes in the Tauric peninsula and founded the sect of the Tzadykym,')i^z righteous' {afterwards called the Karalms), breaking off at the same time all intercourse with Jerusalem. The Tzadykym eventually settled at Sela Youhodym, and at Esky Crim, which was called Solghat; their language became a mixture of the Hebrew and Median, and was afterwards confused with the Tatar, which is their tongue at the present day.
' The observations Ihal follow on the sect of (he Kara'ims, are qaoted id great part from TcAy/aiit-A'alei, T. B. Lyvanoff, Moscow, 1874, and from notes of conversilioni held by myself with the late Abr. PhyrkovKch, Rabbi of Kara'imsat Tchyfbut-Kileh,uiil with Isaac Soultan, Rabbi of Koraims at Sevasl6po[.
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The Karalms date the foundation of their sect from the period of the Maccabees in the second century B.C., when traditional lore was introduced to the prejudice of the books of Moses; but accordii^ to the Rabbinists, who form the larger section of Jews, their reputed founder was one Anan-ben-David (Hannassy), of the race of Betzour, in the eighth century of the Christian era. Anan erected a ^Tiagogue at Jerusalem, which has been ever since the great centre of the Karalms, who acknowledge his successors as their head. That synag<^ue is supported by contributions from the Karalms in all parts, and, so far as they in the Crimea are concerned, a member from the holy city visits the peninsula annually, for the purpose of collecting their donations.