Two-storey tiled houses in the valleys
Editorial contextJesse notices that Tatar houses in the inland valleys were better built than the flat-roofed coastal ones: still low, but often two storeys with an outside gallery, raised tiled roofs and carved wooden ceilings. At the village inn of Uzenbash a Tatar barber gave him an expert shave.
The houses in these valleys are much better built than those on the coast, and though very low, have frequently two stories, with a gallery running round them on the outside; the roofs also are raised and tiled, and the ceilings sometimes ornamented with carving in wood.
About Crimean Tatars of the inland valleys
Mangup: a Greek, Genoese and Karaite ruin, with a Tatar fountain
Editorial contextJesse credits the cliff-top ruined town of Mangup to others: first Greek, then a Genoese fortress, then home to Karaite Jews. The Tatars appear in the village at the foot, where women hurried to veil themselves, and in a roadside fountain whose inscription said a 'benevolent Tartar' had built it as an act of charity.
The town was once in the hands of the Greeks, it became afterwards a Genoese fortress, and was subsequently the residence of the Karaite Jews … The inscription informed us that it was erected as an act of charity by some benevolent Tartar.
About Crimean Tatars (village below); earlier Greeks, Genoese and Karaites
Keep in mind
His history of Mangup is secondhand and simplified (Mangup was the capital of the Principality of Theodoro before the Ottoman conquest of 1475).
The head man calls the horses from the minaret
Editorial contextTatar villages had to supply post horses to travellers in turn. Jesse describes the village head man (bashi) climbing the wooden minaret in the middle of the village to shout out the names of those whose horses were due, with replies coming back from around the village.
On arriving at a station, the Bashi, or head man, was not always in the way; when found, he immediately ascended the wooden minaret in the centre of the village, and commenced calling a roster of those whose horses were next for duty, a reply was soon elicited from one corner or another
About Crimean Tatar villagers
'Our conquerors, Sir, have left us very poor'
Editorial contextIn the morning Jesse's Tatar host was surprised to be paid, explaining that most of his guests were Russians travelling on duty, who did not pay. His short reply about the conquerors is a rare recorded Tatar voice on life under Russian rule, a generation after annexation.
Our host appeared rather astonished at being remunerated, in the morning, and said that the generality of his visitors were always on duty; adding, “Our conquerors, Sir, have left us very poor.”
About Crimean Tatars under Russian rule
Keep in mind
Heard through an interpreter by a strongly anti-Russian author.
Woken by a Tatar bride's procession
Editorial contextAt dawn in Bakhchysarai Jesse was woken by drums, gongs and bagpipes accompanying a Tatar bride in a curtained carriage drawn by two ponies, lit by torch-bearers. The same page gives his unimpressed verdict on the Khans' mausoleum and the palace's 'diminutive apartments'.
the concert was in honour of a Tartar bride, whose equipage, drawn by two ponies, was surrounded by curtains and torch-bearers, lighting her to the hymeneal couch, in a manner truly classical … The mausoleum of the Khans is a wretched edifice after that of the Sultans at Constantinople
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
He mocks Tatar music.
Hajj pilgrims on a Black Sea steamer
Editorial contextOn the steamer to Odessa's quarantine, Jesse shared the deck with forty passengers including Tatars returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca. He sneers at their lack of washing but notes that they prostrated themselves constantly towards the Kaaba.
The Tartars were returning from a pilgrimage which they had made to Mecca; and though Mohammedans, did any thing but observe the ablutions recommended by their religion; but they unceasingly prostrated themselves in the direction of the Caaba.
About Tatar pilgrims returning from Mecca
Keep in mind
Openly contemptuous; the conditions were those of a crowded quarantine deck.
The 'Golden Hill' of Kerch
Editorial contextIn the Kerch museum of ancient Greek finds, Jesse reports a Tatar tradition that centuries earlier about forty poods (some 1,440 pounds) of gold had been taken from one of the nearby burial mounds, which they therefore called the Golden Hill. He calls the story 'no doubt fabulous'.
The Tartars have a tradition, that upwards of forty pouds, nearly one thousand four hundred and forty pounds English, of this metal, in ornaments and coin, were, several hundred years ago, taken from one of the tumuli in the neighbourhood; and they call it in consequence the Golden Hill. This is, no doubt, fabulous
About Crimean Tatars (local tradition)
Keep in mind
The mounds were ancient Greek and Bosporan burials, not Tatar; the tradition is about finding treasure, not building.