The Jewish Chronicle printed a letter from the Falashas of Abyssinia to their European and Palestinian co-religionists, carried by the Jewish traveller M. Taitlevitch. The letter (per the Lincolnshire Echo's summary) describes forcible conversion attempts under the Abyssinian emperor 'Theodore', a reduction of their numbers from roughly 200,000 to about 30,000 through Dervish persecution and famine, and the burning of their literature. Young Falashas accompanied the traveller to Paris, where they were objects of general curiosity in a Paris synagogue on the Day of Atonement, since French Israelites were largely unaware of the existence of 'negro Jews'. The OCR is heavily degraded (numerals and several proper nouns are unreliable); the figures above are the clearest reading available.