JEWISH FORTRESS OF TCHOUFUT KALE
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As the population was said to be entirely Jewish, Oliphant remarks that he expected to find Tchoufut Kale filled with picturesque groups of handsomely-dressed men and lovely maidens; but he passed through the archway, and along the streets, to which the living rock answered the purpose of pavement, and still, to his astonishment, not a soul was to be seen! A few dogs flew at him, and obliged him to perambulate the rest of the town armed with stones. It seemed quite empty, for not only were the public thoroughfares deserted, but he could get no answer at any of the doors at which he knocked; so that he was beginning to suspect that the last inhabitant must have recently got some one to.bury him in the valley of Jehosh-aphat, when a husky voice murmured something through a crack in a shutter ; and presently a decrepit, stone-blind old man, who might have been the individual in question, hobbled out with a stick, and offered to conduct him to the synagogue.
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