The Opelousas courier., 1888-02-18
QUAINT PEOPLE
Turks in Public, But Followers
Of Abraham in Private.
Customs of the 10000 True
Hebrews in, SaIonika.

In these days it is somewhat difficult
to find anywhere peculiar people who
are not public property; about de Nor
mons of America and the savages of Cen
! trail Africa we know as much, if not
more, than we know about ourselves;
so that it was with considerabI i satisfac-
ton that / came across a peculiar people
who in many respects out-Mormop Nor
mons, and have customs as quaint as any
TO be found in Central Africa. More
over they live III Europe in the ancient
scity of Salonika. and come of the most
ancient stock in the world, namely, the
HNbrew; they are bound together by
ties that none dare break, they are a
double-faced race, a race with two
distinct religions, a race which leads
two distinct lives, protesting openly to
be followers of Mahomed, while in pri-
vate they profess a religion oftheir own
accepting the old Hebrew traditions,
yet believing in the first advent of their
own Messiah, and living in daily ex-
pectation of his second coming. c.
The Turks call them "Dunmehs," OF,
d~'renegades," their Jewish brethren call
themselves Maimeenim, or ''tFne be-
LEVERS" For the sake of simplicity we
will call them Dunmehs, and we may
take it for granted that they are aisliked
by botA their would be-co -religionists,
and in consequence they have been COM
PEELED to exercise a secrecy in their acts
and deeds, afact which Las rendered
them a mysterious people in this busy
mercantile world. Daring a recent stay
at Salonica I set myself the task of in
yestigating this people.
Salonika may be termed a New Jeru-
salem, as there are no less than seventy
thousand of the descendants of Abra-
ham within its walls; almost all the
business of the place is carried OF by
them; the quays are gay with them in
their quaint costumes, the men with
their long robes lined with fur over a
tunic of stripped cotton or silk, while
the women are decked in the gayest
color possible, and adorn their heads
with caps of green or red, closely
their foreheads, and hanging down be-
hind in a thick trail embroidered with
gold thread and terminating in a fringe
of gold, while around their necks hang
strings of pearls and other jewels. These
Jews of salonika are perhaps the most
fervid adherents of the %auaint ra bbinical
doctrines to be found siImewhere nova
days. During the daySbefore the Pass
over you may see Jewish women
at the tombs outside the walls, in their
long red cloaks and white nantes round
their shoulders, wailing over their dead;
turbaned rabbis stand at the gate OF
Karamilia to conduct families, for a con-
sideratioD, to the graves oftheir relatives,
there to excite them to frenzy by read
ing portions of scripture, and finally to
drive them home again like sheep, when
the ceremony is over, with lacerated
arm and faces, uttering bitter walls.
Their cemetery the Jews call "the
5use of the living" for the dead they
look upon as alive, and passing the first
eleven months after their departure in
Gehenna, where they can interccde for
the living; consequently during this
period the death walls are contla ued,
which are in point of fact in many cases
more microscopy than the outcome of
genuine grief.
If rabbi of distinction dies, you see
Jewish women rush forward to thrust
letters into hisahand for delivery to de-
parted friends as he is carried on the
bier to the house of the Lying"
On the Sabbath day no Jew of salon
aka may carry any burden in his pocket
-no money, no tobacco, no scrip
so that a Jew with a cold has to wear a
handkerchief around his waist. At a
spot where the walls have been pulled
down, of late years the rabbis have
stretched a wire, SO that the idea Of the
city being surrounded by walls may be
kept up, and the computation Of a Sab
bath days journey not interfered
with. Such are among the doctrines of
the orthod OK Jews; from these their
renegade brethren are exempt; and,
thoughdespising them as they do, an
orthodox Jew will not scruple to make
use of the Dunmeh, who may eat such
portions of flesh as his W law forbids,
who may come in and light his fire for
him on the Sabbath and cook his food,
for it is unlawful for a right-minded
Jew even so much as to light a brazier
to warm himself withal if the weather is
cold on a Sabbath day.
~ Pigs as Pets.
Now th4t ladies have taken to wear
ing bugs and beetles on their arms and