Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-12-21
A PECULIAR PEOPLE.
Inhabitants of Saloniks Who Are Jews NJ
Heart, But Turks to the World

Heart. But Turks to the World.
In these days it is somewhat difficult
to find anywhere peculiar people who
are not public property; about the Nor
mons of America and the savages of
Central Africa we know as much, If
not more, than we know about our
selves; so that it was with considerable
satisfaction that | came across a pc
culiar people who, in many respects,
out-Mormon Mormons, and have GUS
toms as quaint as any to be found in
Central Africa. Moreover, they live
in Europe, in the ancient city of Salon
ika, and come of the most ancient stock
in the world, namely, the Hebrew; they
are bound together by ties that none
lare break; they are double-faced
race, race with two distinct religions,
race which leads two distinct lives,
processing openly to be followers of
Mahomed, while in private they pro-
Tess a religion of their own, accepting
the old Hebrew traditions, yet believ-
ing in the first advent of their own
Messiah, and living in daily expecta-
tlol VI Ills SctOUu COulluR.
The Turks call them "Dunmehs," or
"renegades," their Jewish brethren
call them "hypocrites, while they call
themselves Maimeenim, or true be-
levers" For the sake of simplicity
we will call them Dunmehs, arj We
may take it for granted that they are
dislilSed by both their would-be co-relig-
ionists and in consequence they have
been compelled to exercise secrecy
in their acts and deeds, a fact which
has rendered them mysterious people
in the midst of "a busy mercantile world.
During recent stay at Salonika l set
myself the task of investigating this
people.
SaloniSa may be termed New Je-
rusalem, as there are no less than TO-
600 of the seed of Abraham within its
walls almost all the business of the
place is carried on by them; the quays
are gay with them in their quaint cos
, tunes, the men with their long robes
lined with fur over tunic of striped
cotton or silk, while the women ara
decked in the gayest color possible, and
adorn their heads with caps of green or
red, closely bound over their foreheads,
and hanging down behind in thick
trail embroidered with gold thread and
terminating in n fringe of gold, while
around theirnecks hang strings of pearls
and other jewels. These Jews of SALON.
ika are perhaps the most fervid adher-
! nf Mt ah ,,in
to be found anywhere nowadays.
During the days before the Passover
you may see Jewish women at the
tombs outside the walls in their long
red cloaks and white mantles round
their shoulders, wailing over their
dead; turbaned rabbis stand at the gate
of knramilia to conduct families for q
consideration to the graves of their
relatives, there to excite them to
frenzy by reading portions of Scripture,
and finally to drive them home again
like sheep when the ceremony is over,
with lacerated arms and faces, uttering
bitter walls. There cemetery the Jews
call 1.-The house of the living;' for the
dead they look upon as alive, and pass
ing the first eleven months after their
departure in Gehenna, where they can
intercede for the living; consequently
during this period the death walls ara
continued, which are in point of fact in
many cases more microscopy than tha
outcome of genuine grief.
If rabbi of distinction dies, you see
Jewish women rush forward to thrust
letters into his hand for delivery to de-
parted friends as he is carried on the
bier ito the house of the living"
On the Sabbath day no jew of SALON.
ika may carry any burden in his pocket
no money, no tobacco, no scrip-so
that u jew with 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
Sabbath days journey not interfered
with. Such are among the doctrines
of the orthodox Jews; from these their
renegade brethren are happily exempt;
and, though despising 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 own 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 brazier to warm himself withal
If the weather be cold on a Sabbath
dav ,-LOngman'S Magazine.