UC-NRLF 
 
 $B 37b b?T 
 
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the 
 
 REMNANT FOUND y 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE PLACE OF ISRAEL'S HIDING 
 
 DISCOVERED. 
 BEING A SUMMARY OF PROOFS, 
 
 SHOWING THAT 
 
 THE JEWS OF DAGHISTAN ON THE CASPIAN SEA 
 ARE THE REMNANT OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 THE RESULT OP PERSONAL INVESTIGATION DURING A MISSIONARY 
 TOUR OF EIGHT MONTHS IN GEORGIA, 
 
 BY PERMISSION OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 YEARS 1837 AND 1838, 
 BY THE REV. JACOB SAMUEL, 
 
 w 
 
 SENIOR MISSIONARY TO THE JEWS FOR INDIA, PERSIA, AND ARABIA. 
 
 AUTHOR OKA" HEBREW SERMON ON THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES," AND 
 U A JOURNAL OF FIVE MONTHS' RESIDENCE IN COCHIN." 
 
 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, 
 And gather them from the coasts of the earth : 
 
 I am a Father to Israel, 
 And Ephraim is my first-born ! 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1841. 
 

 3 
 
 LONDON I 
 
 PRINTED BY IBOTSON AND PAL.VH*. 
 
 SAVOY STKERT. 
 
TO ROBERT WOODROW, ESQ., 
 
 OF GLASGOW, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 IS DEDICATED, 
 
 AS A 
 
 TOKEN OF REGARD AND ESTEEM, 
 
 AS WELL AS 
 
 OF GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PAST FAVOURS, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 London, December 1840. 
 
 J 04048 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction - - - - - Paye vii 
 
 The Kingdom of Israel - - - 1 
 
 The Dispersion of the Ten Tribes - - - 5 
 
 The Dispersion (continued) - - - - 15 
 
 Conjectures concerning the Tribes - - - 26 
 
 Personal Narrative - - - - - 37 
 
 Proofs. 
 
 Observance of Feasts, the Passover - - - 48 
 
 The Feast of Weeks ----- 54 
 
 of Trumpets - - - - 56 
 
 The Day of Atonement - - - - 58 
 
 The Feast of Tabernacles - - - - 61 
 
 The Festival of Inauguration - 63 
 
 The Feast of Purim - - - - - 64 
 
 Fast days - - - - - - 65 
 
 The Sabbath - - - - . -67 
 
 Funerals - . 73 
 
 Treatment of the corpse - - - - 74 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Defilements - 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 . 78 
 
 Marriage 
 
 - 
 
 * 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 80 
 
 Circumcision - 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 82 
 
 General Proofs 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 - 87 
 
 Ablutions - 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 87 
 
 Slaughtering 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 87 
 
 Priesthood - 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 89 
 
 Prayers 
 
 - . 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 89 
 
 Scriptures, Literature, &c. - 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 90 
 
 Mode of saluting 
 
 the stranger 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 98 
 
 An Account of the Jews in Imii 
 
 iti 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 - 100 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 British Society for promoting the spiritual welfare of 
 the Jews throughout India, Persia, and Arabia, in aid 
 of the Indian Association established in Bombay - 119 
 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The subject of the return of the Jewish people 
 to the favour of the God of their fathers is one of 
 deep and surpassing interest and moment. The 
 eye of faith, looking into the depth of the divine 
 records, perceives this peculiar people, under 
 the cloud of a frowning Providence, prepared 
 in the fulness of time to be led forward and 
 planted in the Lord their Righteousness, for a 
 name and a praise in every land: (Isaiah lxii. 7.) 
 It beholds them, not as the subjects of the 
 divine hatred, but the objects of God's com- 
 passionate love: (Isaiah xlix. 15, 16.) It dis- 
 tinctly perceives that a regard for, and scrip- 
 tural interest in this people, are co-ordinate with 
 the progress of evangelical truth and personal at- 
 tainment in the divine life ; that neglect of them is 
 
VIM INTRODUCTION. 
 
 an evidence of a sickly, as persecution is a con- 
 clusive testimony of a spurious aad apostate 
 Christianity. 
 
 In all the churches of the Reformation, we find 
 an awakening interest to the c ndition and pros- 
 pects of the ancient people of God one of the 
 most striking religious characteristics of the day : 
 yet the Jewish mission being confessedly one of 
 the most difficult labours of the Christian church, 
 and one which, in the estimation of those great 
 and good men who have been moved by the Holy 
 Ghost to send after the lost sheep of the house 
 of Israel, notwithstanding the exertions which 
 have been made during the last forty years to lift 
 up the testimony of Jesus amongst them, has 
 never been taken up on a scale commensurate 
 to its importance, or according to that plan likely 
 to bring down the unalloyed blessing of the Great 
 Head of the Church, in that fulness with which 
 he is both able and willing to crown the labours 
 of his faithful people. 
 
 With respect to the manner in which the an- 
 cient people of God are to be approached, to con- 
 ciliate their esteem, to overcome their prejudices, 
 to gain their confidence, and to lead them dispas- 
 sionately to examine the credentials of the chris- 
 tian faith, experience proves, that not doctrinal 
 Christianity merely, but the manifestation of 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 Jesus in the members of his body, accompanying 
 the word of truth, is the simple, effectual testi- 
 mony to the mind and spirit of the Jew. Christi- 
 anity, if it be anything, is a living principle. Its 
 tendency is to implant and nourish those gra- 
 cious affections, which they who are strangers to 
 its truth, and radically unmoved by its power, 
 shall nevertheless behold and acknowledge in 
 the saints to the glory of God. But, alas ! not 
 only upon the head of apostate Christianity 
 does the guilt lie of putting stumbling-blocks 
 in the way of the people ; (Isaiah lxii. 10 ;) but 
 upon those whose faith is purer, and whose pro- 
 fession is fairer, a heavy responsibility rests, for 
 requiring what God has not required, and with- 
 holding what God has freely given. 
 
 The labours of Christians amongst the Jews 
 during the last forty years have tended, in many 
 respects, to deepen the prejudice of that people 
 against the christian faith. And when we for a 
 moment reflect that, under that sacred name, 
 Israel in his dispersion has been most awfully in- 
 jured and afflicted, need we wonder that the 
 Jewish prejudice is strong, fixed, and determined ? 
 Even by those whose motives it were not charity 
 to doubt, how acutely and irritatingly has the 
 Jew been wounded, and in the tenderest place ! 
 The godly zeal which has impelled the servant 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Christ to speak the words of truth and love to 
 the Jew, has been alloyed by a violation of one of 
 the strictest and most sacred principles of the law 
 of Christ, which enjoins, " Let not the right hand 
 know what the left doeth." The precincts of the 
 domestic circle, to which in confidence the chris- 
 tian missionary has been admitted, has been be- 
 trayed frequently by partial, always by coloured 
 statements, and scarcely a conversation tran- 
 spires but it is dragged forward and circulated 
 through Christendom, in a manner repugnant alike 
 to the principles and spirit of the Gospel, to feed 
 a diseased and depraved appetite in the church, 
 which requires these stimulants to impel it to do its 
 duty. 
 
 It is not my v wish to dwell upon those principles 
 and proceedings with which I have no sympathy, 
 or to point out many evils which have tended to 
 present Christianity to the Jews as a sectarian 
 system. I would simply invite attention to a Plan, 
 the foundations of which have been laid in deep 
 and laborious experience, with a knowledge of 
 the character and genius of Judaism, and which, 
 through successive years, has been approved by 
 the most signal marks of the divine favour. The 
 Indian Mission to the Jews, in the countries 
 which have not been included in any plan of mis- 
 sionary labour until the present, presents a field 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 the fairest that can be imagined for a simple, 
 faithful testimony of the Gospel to the scattered 
 remnant inhabiting the deeply interesting lands 
 in question. From the Bay of Bengal to the Cas- 
 pian Sea, from the Caspian to the Red Sea, in- 
 cluding the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, and 
 the countries adjacent, up to Bokharra y there are 
 more than one million two hundred thousand 
 Jews, in whose synagogues I preached the word 
 of life, and amongst whom, commissioned by 
 the British and Foreign Bible Society, an ex- 
 tensive distribution of the holy Scriptures was 
 made, although for the attempt former Mis- 
 sionaries were compelled to evacuate the field, 
 and fly for their lives. 
 
 The following work I have considered the 
 most available mode (amidst the pressure of the 
 religious concerns committed to my charge by 
 the Association established in Bombay) of lay- 
 ing before the Christian public the nature and ob- 
 jects of " the Complete History of Judaism, as at 
 " present existing in various and remote quarters 
 " as well as in Europe," which I have pre- 
 pared ; and which now requires but a few 
 months of leisure to complete for the press. 
 As, however, some delay was unavoidable to 
 obtain that degree of accuracy requisite for a 
 work of so very complicated and yet so desirable 
 
XII INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a character, it seemed advisable to publish this 
 treatise as a precursor to the larger one. In the 
 larger work will be found an extensive view of 
 the historical circumstances relating to the ap- 
 proaching fulfilment of the prophecies concerning 
 the future welfare of the Jews as a nation ; a 
 full narrative of the discovery of the localities 
 inhabited by the Ten Tribes, together with ob- 
 servations on the civil and religious state of that 
 very important portion of our people, as well as 
 on the other Jewish communities, of which we 
 already possess an inadequate knowledge. 
 
 To have ascertained the existence of the Ten 
 Tribes, as a collected mass of people, has been the 
 peculiar happiness of the writer, who, in these 
 pages, desires to impart his information to the 
 public. It is now manifest, that the longlost people 
 were not among the multitudes who perished by the 
 ruthless swords of Genghis Khan and his conquer- 
 ing family ; and that they have not been scattered 
 to the four winds of heaven, like the sands of the 
 African Syrtes that are driven before the over- 
 whelming blast ; but that these tribes of our con- 
 sanguinity have been kept faithfully together as 
 a people separate to God. 
 
 These circumstances are no longer theoretical, 
 for they now assume the character of ascertained 
 facts. I shall not, therefore, recollecting the 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 successful result of the Persian mission, and the 
 great hopes founded on this discovery of Israel, 
 regret those years of toil, spent in the investiga- 
 tion throughout every quarter of the East as well 
 as of Europe. On the contrary, my visit to the 
 countries inhabited by the Ten Tribes, or such of 
 them as have outlived the disasters and political 
 agitations which our people have experienced since 
 they emigrated from the land of their captivity, 
 has become a subject of pleasing recollection, not- 
 withstanding the sorrows and sicknesses which 
 usually accompany laborious missionary efforts, 
 It is now proved that God did preserve a great 
 portion of his elect children by removing them 
 to the foot of the lofty Caucasus, and settling 
 them on the shores of the Caspian. (Ezekiel 
 xi. 16.) " Thus saith the Lord God ; Although 
 I have cast them far off among the heathen, 
 and although I have scattered them among 
 the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanc- 
 tuary in the countries where they shall come/' 
 (Micah ii. 12.) " I will surely assemble, O 
 Jacob, all of thee : I will surely gather the rem- 
 nant of Israel ; I will put them together as the 
 sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of the 
 fold." They shared not the fate of Judah and 
 Benjamin at the overthrow of the Holy City by 
 Vespasian's army, when the sepulchre of the 
 Saviour came into the power of the Romans. 
 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It had long been a problem, whither the re- 
 maining Israelites of the Ten Tribes betook them- 
 selves when they were last emancipated by their 
 Persian, Median, and Babylonian masters. An- 
 tiquarians, learned in the sacred lore of the 
 Scriptures, have long desired to recognise among 
 the various classes of Jews in exile throughout 
 the earth, the real representatives of the ancient 
 people ; it mattered not whether the Jews known 
 to Europeans were afflicted by an abject poverty, 
 or enjoyed the comforts of envied riches, the 
 identity of any great portion of them as incon- 
 testably the elect people of God would ever have 
 been hailed with the utmost joy ; and certainly 
 by none more cordially than by the dispersed 
 Jews of Europe. Yet the mystery admitted not 
 of a solution that could be acknowledged by all 
 the various claimants to that glorious appellation ; 
 and consequently the people, frittered away into 
 so many minor divisions, became more despised by 
 the Gentile nations than they would have been, if 
 any great body of people could have been gene- 
 rally recognised as Israel. By the discovery of 
 this remnant of the Ten Tribes, Israel will 
 regain a name among the nations, and the 
 consideration due to an ancient people, approved 
 though chastened by the Most High. 
 
 The Hebrew character had been so much dis- 
 guised in consequence of the ills to which the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 Jews had been subjected, as well at the hand 
 of their Father as at that of man, that it was no 
 wonder if it could not be perfectly recognised. 
 Their rabbis and religious governors were as 
 well educated as most men of any creed ; 
 they sedulously laboured to preserve the an- 
 cient institutions, to maintain the national cus- 
 toms, to comply, together with the congrega- 
 tion, in all the holy observances, to keep the 
 fasts and feasts, hand down the traditions, and 
 contribute by precept and example to identify 
 their people as the faithful servants of the God 
 of the Hebrews. The appellatives of German, 
 English, Spanish, French, Polish, or Russian 
 Greek and Armenian Jews confused too seriously 
 all the distinctive marks of the ancient nation, 
 and all the recognisable attributes of their cha- 
 racteristic separation from the nations of the 
 earth. These Israelites became too much blended 
 with the divers nations among whom they dwelt, 
 which is sufficiently proved by the fact, that there 
 was and still is a great dissimilarity between any 
 one of the above recited communities of European 
 Jews and all the others. They had, moreover, 
 become chiefly commercial in their pursuits ; and 
 it is known that the ancient elect of God were 
 either martial, or addicted to agriculture. They 
 had generally lost the power of conversing, when 
 travelling or in their usual habitations, in He- 
 

 XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brew, so that our ancient tongue was no longer 
 a spoken language, in any degree of purity. 
 Hebrew in matters of religion was a written 
 language, and formed the study of the rabbis, 
 and those learned in our law and ceremo- 
 nies ; but with the people, there arose a de- 
 grading intermixture of all the vernacular tongues 
 of modern Europe, as their only means of com- 
 munication upon the objects of ordinary life; so 
 that the Jew from a distant land understood with 
 difficulty the speech of him who was resident in 
 the country that was visited on affairs of com- 
 merce. German, I believe, forms the chief alloy 
 in the vernacular of the Jews, and is the best 
 understood mixed mode of speech by all classes 
 of our brethren. 
 
 The Jews, indeed, continue in many places to 
 wear long beards ; everywhere they assemble in 
 synagogues ; have rabbis and priests, with other 
 officers appointed by the congregations ; possess 
 some privileges of self-government, although the 
 rulers and governments of the lands in which 
 they have settled in their long exile, deny them 
 the civil rights of recognised citizens in a suffi- 
 ciently generous degree. It would be wise of the 
 powers of the earth to do away with this injustice, 
 and to show a more liberal policy towards a people 
 who contribute so much to the convenience of the 
 fiscal concerns of the various governments which 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVII 
 
 they so peaceably obey. No insurrections or re- 
 bellions are recorded against them, but they every- 
 where have gained the reputation of good and 
 loyal subjects ; therefore they should not re- 
 main unrewarded. They are ingenious and indus- 
 trious, "The labourer is worthy of his hire." 
 Yet they suffer from nations to whom they are so 
 useful, and have ever suffered great persecutions, 
 and great abuse and contumely. 
 
 If they have been persecuted ; if in England, in 
 the times of Richard I. and King John, they have 
 been tortured before a slow fire to extract from 
 them their gold ; if in France they were falsely 
 belied and all massacred, that their gold might 
 be confiscated, the infamy of the calumnies 
 against them being at the same time known ; if 
 they have been banished from many kingdoms, 
 such as Spain, &c. ; now is the M appointed time" 
 to render justice to them, and make them some 
 retribution for all the evil that has been inflicted 
 on them. 
 
 It will be proved in the details, that notwith- 
 standing all the difficulties in properly identifying 
 this people, the Jews are still everywhere to 
 be considered as the children of Israel; and that, 
 however disguised by the irresistible effect of their 
 multiplied persecutions they may be, the European 
 and other Jews will form themselves into a ureal 
 

 XVUI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nation, when they know of the actual discovery 
 of the long lost remnant from Samaria. Blessed, 
 therefore, be the name of the Most High, who has 
 faithfully kept his holy word, preserved his peo- 
 ple of Israel, and multiplied the seed of Abraham, 
 according to his gracious promises: "And it 
 shall come to pass, when all these things are 
 come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, 
 which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call 
 them to mind among all the nations whither the 
 Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return 
 unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice 
 according to all that I command thee this day, 
 thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and 
 with all thy soul, that then the Lord thy God 
 will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon 
 thee, and will return and gather thee from all the 
 nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered 
 thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the ut- 
 most parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord 
 thy God gather thee, and from thence will he 
 fetch thee, and the Lord thy God will bring thee 
 into the land which thy fathers possessed, and 
 thou shalt possess it ; and he will do thee good, 
 and multiply thee above thy fathers.' , Deut. 
 xxx. 1 5. 
 
 The discovery of the Remnant is of consequence 
 in the present posture of both religious and poli- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 tical interests, for it removes every discourage- 
 ment, rebuts the odious shafts of sarcasm and of 
 contempt, and reinstates our people in the eyes of 
 the christian world. It will infallibly give the 
 Jews a greater confidence among' themselves, and 
 very possibly will be the immediate incitement 
 towards the commencement of that movement of 
 the elect people towards their home, that land of 
 which Jacob and Judah are the true heirs, which 
 has been promised unto them in Holy Writ. 
 
 u And T will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, 
 and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains 
 and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants 
 shall dwell there." Isaiah lxv. 9. 
 
 It is not my present purpose to make many ob- 
 servations on what shall ensue when the Israel- 
 ites do re-occupy Jerusalem ; yet a few words may 
 be added on that particular subject, which has 
 engrossed the attention of christian prelates and 
 divines more, perhaps, than any other of the 
 scriptural prophecies ; viz. the Millennium. 
 
 Of the nature of this Millennium I shall simply 
 state my opinion, that it is mystical; yet it is 
 assured by Scripture. Undoubtedly it will be a 
 golden age, when justice, charity, and faith shall 
 hold undivided sway, and when the Governor shall 
 be Christ Jesus, the Messiah. 
 
 Micah iv. G 8. " In that day, saith the Lord, 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 will I assemble her that haltetb, and I will gather 
 her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted : 
 and I will make her that halteth a remnant, and 
 her that was cast far off a strong nation : and the 
 Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion, from 
 henceforth, even for ever. And thou, O tower of 
 the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, 
 unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion ; 
 the kingdom shall come to the daughter of 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 Certainly the disposition manifested by many 
 Protestant communities has been praiseworthy 
 and truly Christian in past times ; they have not 
 hesitated to spread the genuine doctrines of the 
 New Testament, and they have gone among the 
 heathen without the aid of any executive power 
 to punish those whom they could not convert. 
 But now a clearer dawn breaks upon the religious 
 horizon ; there are prognostications that the ruling 
 power of the Almighty is in more immediate ac- 
 tion, the kingdom of heaven is more sensibly at 
 hand, that the Millennium may be expected with 
 more proximate certainty than in the long cen- 
 turies that have elapsed since John and the great 
 Saviour, of whom he was the harbinger, proclaimed 
 the "Kingdom" to the nations of the Roman em- 
 pire, and to the people of the land of Judeea. 
 
 The present is possibly not a blind generation 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 of the Jews; they have, and I myself individually 
 have long professed to have, a just perception 
 of the times that are coming. The breath of 
 heaven is in the dayspring of the East. The winds 
 of salvation rise beneath the coming sun and the 
 new dawn. 
 
 Do not think that Jacob, who received the 
 blessing that by birthright belonged to Esau, will 
 choose to yield it up to the disciples of the 
 great preacher Paul, as the moment approaches 
 wherein Jacob shall vindicate his inheritance. 
 (Isaiah xlviii. 20.) " With a voice of singing de- 
 clare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the 
 earth ; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his ser- 
 vant Jacob." 
 
 Who are the rivals of Jacob ? The fierce 
 Ishmaelites, and all the posterity of Agar, 
 begin to feel that Mahomet has been an insuffi- 
 cient prophet in the eastern world. The Mus- 
 sulman power is abridged and controlled ; the Ot- 
 tomans quail and turn themselves towards the 
 Christians, lest they themselves should be sub- 
 merged in the strife of political ambition ; the 
 Hebrews will not consent to be the last in the 
 race of salvation ; they already listen, and many of 
 them read the New Testament. The fulness 
 of the Revelation is about to be recognised, 
 and Christians must not be lukewarm and re- 
 
XX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 miss in their high vocation. Think not that 
 if Ishmael has failed to make good his claim to 
 be the heir of Abraham, the Gentiles are to ap- 
 pear in the great day as the representatives of 
 Isaac. The posterity of Isaac represent the elder 
 children of the house of God ; and although the 
 Gentile shall accompany Jacob, he is not to have 
 precedence of him. 
 
 As I have endeavoured to show that the Jews 
 exist in a national body, although they have not 
 yet returned to Judaea, I shall proceed to speak of 
 the probability of their restoration, and of the 
 comparative facility of the surrender of Jerusalem 
 to their tribes. I have said that the descendants 
 of the Ten Tribes are forthcoming, and are ani- 
 mated by a sufficient spirit ; that they retain a 
 nationality, and are possessed of great wealth. 
 Let us then entertain a belief that the Almighty 
 hand is again ready to reconduct them. " And 
 the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of 
 a cloud, to lead them the way ; and by night in 
 a pillar of fire, to give them light ; to go by day 
 and night : He took not away the pillar of the 
 cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from 
 before the people." (Exodus xiii. 21, 22.) 
 
 As the commands of God are not to be dis- 
 obeyed, and a prompt obedience is due to his 
 parental voice, their recall will be speedy, and 
 
1NTKODUCTION. XXIII 
 
 their restoration sudden; whenever God shall cry, 
 Go ye and occupy your city of Sion and the land 
 of promise. Isaiah xxx. 19. " The people shall 
 dwell in Zion at Jerusalem : thou shalt weep 
 no more." 
 
 Jerusalem has long worn the attire of the 
 widow ; she has mourned, and ashes have covered 
 the brow of Sion. How soon may not the song 
 of joy be renewed, and the voice of the bride- 
 groom be once more heard ! Jerusalem herself 
 claims Jacob in the freshness of renewed youth, 
 as the heir ; she has long been a place of motley 
 occupants; the surrounding territory has for cen- 
 turies been a waste under the Moslem and the 
 Turk, the Saracen and the Arab, the star of whose 
 ascendency has set ; whilst a star in the East, 
 betokening the advance of civilisation, the proba- 
 bility of agricultural renovation in wide-spread 
 fields, now arid for want of cultivation this bril- 
 liant star, as that seen by the magi who re- 
 paired to the cradle in the manger at Bethlehem, 
 is but a figurative harbinger of the promised 
 return of Jesus, when he shall be acknowledged 
 as the Messiah. 
 
 I am not now addressing myself to Jews ; I 
 speak to Christians, and write in favour of the 
 Jews. I inquire then of Christians, celebrated 
 for candour, reason, and biblical learning, is 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 there not an imperative necessity in the consti- 
 tution of ecclesiastical affairs, according to the 
 very essence of Christianity, that the promise 
 of the restoration of the Israelites should be 
 fulfilled ? Has not the Lord promised this ? 
 And will he not fulfil his high behest? Cer- 
 tainly the Hebrew nation will be led to their 
 Holy City, and to the site of the beautiful sanc- 
 tuary built by king Solomon ; they will assemble 
 upon Mount Moriah, and will crown the rock of 
 Sion with their multitudes. 
 
 " Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the 
 Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord 
 liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out 
 of the land of Egypt. But the Lord liveth, that 
 brought up the children of Israel from the land 
 of the north, and from all the lands whither he 
 had driven them : And I will bring them again 
 into their land that I gave unto their fathers." 
 (Jeremiah xvi. 14, 15.) 
 
 Hosea iii. 4, 5. "The children of Israel shall 
 abide many days without a king, and without a 
 prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an 
 image, and without an ephod, and without tera- 
 phim : afterward shall the children of Israel re- 
 turn, and seek the Lord their God, and David 
 their king ; and shall fear the Lord and his good- 
 ness in the latter days." 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 This people shall revisit the sepulchres of then- 
 forefathers in the valley of Jehosaphat. The 
 dark ages of their long oppression and servitude 
 are fast elapsing; and that which is ordained may 
 take place in our time. 
 
 Christians, it is then essentially needful that 
 you be unremitting in your endeavours to effect 
 the return of the Jews. The miseries of a wicked 
 world, that are not to endure sempiternally, have 
 yet to last until the fulfilment of all things; until 
 that moment when God shall vouchsafe to ratify 
 his holy promise to the children of Israel by their 
 restoration to their inheritance. Wealth they 
 possess more than sufficient to purchase their 
 land of the ruler of Egypt. But the great pur- 
 chase of Jerusalem is not to be made merely by 
 the trash of gold and silver, but by their turning 
 to their heavenly Father with repentance of all 
 that is recorded of them in the page of history, 
 and by their bowing before the holy name of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Do not let us for a moment think that the Jews 
 are not a patriotic race. Demand of them, if you 
 will, whether they do not fully expect that the 
 children of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, shall 
 re-enter Jerusalem in triumph, and enjoy the 
 possessions of their forefathers in peace and 
 security. They will answer affirmatively ; and 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they expect the Messiah, as did Simeon, who, 
 having long awaited the advent, exclaimed when 
 he beheld the infant Jesus, " Lord, now lettest thou 
 thy servant depart in peace, according to thy 
 word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 
 
 That the glorious Saviour should become a 
 sacrifice, and be led like a lamb to the slaughter, 
 was ordained ; and all that then took place, and 
 afterwards came to pass, was a matter of prophecy. 
 The announcements, ay, the menaces of both the 
 greater and the lesser prophets, were exactly ful- 
 filled ; they were so minutely identified in their 
 completion with respect to the Jewish people, 
 that this precision of their fulfilment constitutes 
 an important branch of God's own miracles, which 
 have been recognised as such by all the Christians 
 that have descended in countless multitudes into 
 the tomb, as well as all living Christians, and 
 form a chief evidence of the truth of the Christian 
 dispensation ; equally assuring us also that the 
 remaining predictions of Holy Writ shall be ac- 
 complished. Of these the chief is the restoration 
 of the Jews ; and we firmly believe in the same ; 
 so also do the Jews. United in the expectation 
 with us of so great a promise, think ye that they 
 will never unite amongst themselves in purpose ? 
 I assert that Jews and Christians, the elect of the 
 children of God, and the chosen of the Gentiles 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV11 
 
 are on the best terms of friendship. Conciliation 
 has proved the offspring of civilisation. Present 
 unto them their Messiah by the brilliant and 
 irrefragable evidences of the Gospel ; and may 
 be, they will accept uf your proofs, and will join 
 with John, the beloved of our Saviour, and with 
 us, in the exclamation, so replete with a sanctified 
 spirit, that concludes the Book of Revelation, 
 " Come. Lord Jesus." 
 
 This new prospect of the accomplishment of 
 what is so devoutly to be wished, is a result of 
 the zealous labours of the faithful. It is an im- 
 portant feature also of the present face of affairs, 
 that the successful labourer in the vineyard, in 
 so far as the recent discovery of the stock of 
 Abraham, which has for ages vegetated in the 
 nearly unexplored regions of Georgia or 
 Circassia, and on the less known shores of the 
 Caspian sea, was himself a Jew who had em- 
 barked in the service of the Captain of our 
 salvation. To him it has been a high privilege 
 to have been the envoy to the lost tribes of Israel, 
 and to have carried into effect the views of the 
 Indian Association on that point. From it may 
 be fairly entertained some renewed hopes of the 
 coming fulfilment of the prophecies of the res- 
 toration ; for there is a purity of conservation in 
 the state of the Remnant now dwelling Dear the 
 
XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Caspian, that the other remnants of the de- 
 scendants of Abraham cannot equally boast of. 
 The route pursued on returning from exploring 
 the Caucasus to Bagdad is probably the route 
 that the Jews will pursue in their progress to- 
 wards Judea ; having to cross the great river 
 Phoat, which is to be dried up for their passage, 
 according to the prophecies. " In returning and 
 rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and in con- 
 fidence shall be your strength ; and ye would 
 not." (Isaiah xxx. 15.) " And they shall come 
 which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, 
 and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall 
 worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jeru- 
 salem." (Isaiah xxvii. 13.) 
 
 In conclusion, it is hoped that the public will 
 pardon the apparent delay which has occurred in 
 committing these Eastern Researches to the press, 
 being assured that the writer has been by no 
 means idle in the sacred cause, from the day in 
 which he first took it in hand till the present. 
 In the year (a. d. 1837) when he set out for 
 Georgia, the most active personal investigation 
 was instituted, to obtain local proofs of the result 
 of eighteen years previous study and meditation 
 on the history of the Jews, all which have re- 
 quired to be digested into proper form, previous 
 to being presented to the public. As it was only 
 
INTRODUCTION XXIX 
 
 on the very scene of the biblical events that so 
 much could have been gained in the way of posi- 
 tive information, it was found needful to repair 
 in person to all those regions that surround the 
 ancient territories of the Jews, and to trace their 
 establishments in many countries to which they 
 had resorted after their dispersion. 
 
 And finally, the present mission to England, from 
 the Christian brethren in India, for the purpose of 
 advocating these great interests, has accumulated 
 such manifold duties, and so harassing a share of 
 public business on the writer, that he must plead 
 with the indulgent public for some allowance as to 
 the time consumed in the preparation, and for the 
 mode of executing so considerable a task. A 
 mere author might probably have perfected such 
 a work in a more rhetorical and more elegant 
 style ; but that was not the thing needful. 
 Being aware that facts in all their naked truth, 
 devoid of extraneous embellishments, are ex- 
 pected in a work of this description, such facts 
 and deductions, therefore, irresistible by their 
 truth and consistency, it is trusted will only be 
 found in these pages. The writer's wish is, to 
 impress devout readers with all that zeal for the 
 welfare of the Jews that he has himself endea- 
 voured to testify ; and having once put upon 
 record, in a faithful and simple narrative, all that 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he has learned with regard to those very in- 
 teresting matters, he avows himself ready and 
 prepared to persevere in these labours, to lay 
 aside all thoughts of personal comfort, and to do 
 his duty to his brethren, both Christians and 
 Jews, in that sphere of life to which it has pleased 
 God to call him ; not desirous of seeking a home 
 or resting-place from the severity of toil, until the 
 the infirmities of age shall come and leave only 
 the solace of travelling over in imagination and 
 silent reflection the past active scenes of public 
 life. 
 
 May then the attention of the friends of 
 Israel be attracted to the lon^-lost Remnant scat- 
 tered beyond the Great River, to prepare them 
 by the testimony of the Gospel for that event 
 which is rapidly approaching, when the Deliverer 
 shall appear out of Zion to turn away ungodliness 
 from Jacob, " when the branch of the Lord 
 shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of 
 the earth shall be excellent and comely for them 
 that are escaped of Israel." 
 
THE REMNANT FOUND ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 ISRAEL DISCOVERED. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. 
 
 The Jews were elected and separated from the 
 rest of mankind to be the peculiar people of God, 
 and to be a blessing to all mankind. Their his- 
 tory is a record of the strivings of the Spirit of 
 God to imbue them, and the nations from the 
 midst of whom they were taken, with a know- 
 ledge of Jehovah, his attributes, his power, and 
 his will ; to prepare a miserable and ruined 
 world for that exhibition of grace and glory, 
 which was to follow in the redemption of all 
 things by Jesus Christ, and the establishment 
 
 B 
 
Z THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. 
 
 of the kingdom of God upon earth in the ap- 
 pointed season. 
 
 The history of Judah and Israel, distinguished 
 in the word of God as " Judah, and the children 
 of Israel, his companions," and " Joseph, the 
 stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel, his 
 companions," (Ezek, xxxvii. 16,) is an interest- 
 ing and deeply humbling one ; humbling, be- 
 cause of the fatal mistake of those unto whom 
 the word of God came, who certainly were des- 
 tined for great honour and glory ; and interesting 
 because of the extensive purposes of God towards 
 the human race through the seed of Abraham, 
 who seemed to be ignorant that the grace of God 
 was destined for the benefit and advantage of all 
 mankind. 
 
 The sin of David and the apostasy of Solomon 
 soon manifested their bitter fruits ; and that 
 kingdom which seemed settled in their house in 
 its entireness, was rent in twain. In the reign 
 of their successor Rehoboam, the rebel tribes 
 affirmed to that fatal principle, which, in these 
 days it is almost treason to gainsay, (the right of 
 the people to govern themselves,) which was fol- 
 lowed with such fatal consequences. " What 
 portion have we in David ? neither have we 
 
THE KINGrOM OF ISRAEL. 3 
 
 inheritance in the son of Jesse : to your tents, O 
 Israel; now see to thine own house, David!" 
 (1 Kings xii. 16.) In a. m. 3029, the revolt 
 took place, and the kingdom of Israel, esta- 
 blished by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, continued 
 two hundred and fifty-four years under nineteen 
 wicked sovereigns, of nine different families. 
 Notwithstanding the faithful warnings of the pro- 
 phets, the Ten Tribes continued obstinate in their 
 iniquity, and particularly in worshipping the 
 calves in Dan and Bethel. And after every 
 means were resorted to, to win them back to their 
 allegiance to the God of their fathers, the predic- 
 tion was pronounced, and carried into effect, that 
 Ephraim should no longer continue as a 
 nation, and that the land of their enemies 
 should consume them, (Isaiah vii. 8.) " The 
 God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of 
 Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king 
 of Assyria, and he carried them away, (even the 
 Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe 
 of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and 
 Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan." (1 
 Chron. v. 26.) This was the first deportation of 
 the rebellious tribes, which consisted of those 
 dwelling on the east of Jordan. About forty 
 
 i 2 
 
4 THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. 
 
 years afterwards, the kingdom of Israel, thus 
 weakened and distressed, was completely broken 
 up and destroyed. In a. m. 3283, Shalmaneser 
 and Esar-haddon, his grandson, carried off the re- 
 maining seven and a half tribes, planting them 
 in the same places whither their brethren had 
 been carried before them ; " and," it is added, 
 " in the cities of the Medes." (2 Kings xviii. 
 
 no 
 
 Strictly speaking, there were three deporta- 
 tions of these tribes : 
 
 1st. Of the two and a half tribes, on the other 
 side of Jordan, by Pul and Tilgath-pilneser. 
 
 2nd, Of the bulk of the seven and a half tribes, 
 by Shalmaneser. 
 
 3rd. Of the remains of the latter, by Esar- 
 haddon, who swept the land of even the poor 
 lingerers on the mountains of Israel ; so that 
 Israel could not by any means become a people ; 
 but remained broken as a nation, and broken as 
 a people too. 
 
 To make the riddance complete, Esar-haddon 
 " brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah 
 and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from 
 Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of 
 Samaria, instead of the children of Israel." (Ezra 
 iv. 2, 10 ; 2 Kings xvii. 24.) 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 From their captivity the Ten Tribes never re- 
 turned. It has been urged that they returned 
 with Ezra, because that individual sacrificed 
 twelve victims for the aggregate tribes. This no 
 more proves the case, than the fact of St. James 
 addressing his epistle to the Twelve Tribes esta- 
 blishes their distinct and corporate existence in 
 his day. This act of Ezra, simply testified his 
 faith in the purposes and promises of God; of the 
 unalterable love of God for his people, though 
 now broken, and dispersed, and swallowed up of 
 the Gentiles. 
 
 It is not to be doubted that individuals of 
 these tribes returned when Judah and Benja- 
 min were restored ; for we have New Testament 
 evidence of the fact. To cite individual instances, 
 
6 
 
 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 we have Anna, who was of the tribe Asshur; (St. 
 Luke ii. 36 ;) and the apostles were selected from 
 four different tribes in Galilee. For a collective 
 example, the day of Pentecost proves that many 
 of these tribes were distinguished in the days of 
 the apostles ; for is it to be doubted, that of the 
 dwellers in Parthia, Media, Elam, &c, who, when 
 the Spirit was poured out, were assembled from 
 the very seats of the captives of the tribes, 
 none were of Ephraim. History informs us, 
 that " Ezra sent a copy of the decree of Ar- 
 taxerxes to all of the same nation throughout 
 Media, where the Ten Tribes lived in captivity, 
 and many of them came with their effects to 
 Babylon, desiring to return to Jerusalem; but 
 the main body of the Israelites abode in that 
 region; and therefore it hath happened, (says Jo- 
 sephus,) that there are two tribes in Asia and 
 Europe, living in subjection to the Romans ; but 
 the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates at this 
 time."* Again, the Talmud, far from acknow- 
 ledging the return of the tribes, affirms that only 
 the dregs of the people followed Ezra. 
 
 Ephraim no longer existed as a distinct part of 
 the nation. The genealogies of the Jews became 
 * Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 5, sect. 2, p. 482. 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 7 
 
 irregular, and the tribes were blended together. 
 Persecution and the revolution of empires di- 
 minished their numbers; in short, "the land 
 of their enemies consumed them." The Ten 
 Tribes, however, never were nor can become 
 extinct : and for their existence, or rather for 
 the existence of the remnant, it is natural to 
 turn to those regions which were the acknow- 
 ledged seats of their exile and captivity ; whilst, 
 for their identity, we must refer to other proofs 
 than the antiquary would furnish, and data 
 which perhaps the authority of history would be 
 prone to despise. 
 
 The captivity of Judah and Benjamin subse- 
 quent to that of the Ten Tribes, and the diffusion 
 of the Jewish family throughout Chaldea, Meso- 
 potamia, Parthia, and Media, (Esther ix. 30,) 
 contributed to further the judgment of God upon 
 rebellious Ephraim, in melting him with the mass 
 of his people, and destroying his existence inde- 
 pendent of Judah and Benjamin. This amalga- 
 mation, together with the revolution of empires, 
 and the vicissitudes of a hundred generations, 
 renders the identification difficult and almost im- 
 possible. But the purposes of God are sure, and 
 who can annul when he decrees ? 
 
O THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 "The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob unto 
 the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the 
 sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall return." (Isaiah x. 
 21,22.) 
 
 Considering the myriads carried into captivity, 
 and the large proportion of the Ten over the Two 
 Tribes, it is not a matter of speculation to con- 
 clude, that the great mass of the Persian Jews, 
 and those of adjacent countries, are of Ephraim, 
 or the Ten Tribes. In fact, the traditions of 
 the Jews of Salmas and the Koord countries 
 affirm this fact. The Jews of Babylon to this 
 day, preserve a distance from their brethren 
 in Persia and Georgia under this conviction. 
 But the identification must be irrespective of 
 tradition, and of those generalities which may 
 lead us to speculate to the end of the chapter, but 
 which would never conduct to any satisfactory 
 result. 
 
 The seven and a half tribes which were scat- 
 tered and sold into Mesopotamia, Media, Parthia, 
 Ethiopia, India, and Assyria, are never likely to 
 return to the land of their forefathers, or to be 
 incorporated in the true stock of Israel, as it is 
 not clear from Scripture whether the return of 
 the whole tribes is foretold. We find in the time 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. \) 
 
 of Jeroboam, that the two and a half tribes 
 amounted to eighty thousand mighty men of 
 valour, and since that time must have increased 
 to an indefinite number. The seven and a half 
 tribes must have increased to an unaccountable 
 multitude. What has become of this mighty mass 
 of people, none have been able satisfactorily to 
 show. Every quarter of the world has been 
 traversed, and every region explored by travellers, 
 whose zeal and curiosity have scarcely left a tract 
 unnoticed ; and yet, notwithstanding the labour 
 bestowed and the works published, we are as 
 much in the dark as ever. The Indians, the 
 Scythians, the Tartars, have all in turn been put 
 forward as the long-lost tribes, because of some 
 identity in physiognomy, customs, and character. 
 But something else is required besides isolated 
 traits. The Scriptures, the Hebrew letters, 
 the sabbath, new moons, clean and unclean 
 animals, the expectation of a Messiah, and cir- 
 cumcision, are the distinguishing circumstances 
 which are required to identify the family of Abra- 
 ham ; and to place it beyond a doubt that they 
 are descended from him who was the promised 
 beir of the world, in whose seed all the nations of 
 the earth are to be blessed. 
 
10 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the majority who 
 have treated this important subject for the last 
 two hundred years, have not paid sufficient at- 
 tention to the declaration of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures concerning the whole house of Israel. 
 Even in the present day, from the prevalence of 
 speculative opinions, much confusion has re- 
 sulted : and certain commentaries have made the 
 plain testimony of prophecy of none effect. 
 
 As was observed before, there is a clear dis- 
 tinction between Israel and Judah in the his- 
 torical parts of Scripture, which were written 
 subsequently to the revolt of the tribes. This 
 obtains equally in the prophetical books, where 
 the same distinction is preserved between the 
 house of Israel and the house of Judah. The 
 confusion has been caused by indiscriminately 
 using the names Jerusalem, Zion, Manasseh, 
 Ephraim, Israel, Judah, the Jews, the Church 
 of Christ, to signify the whole house of Israel. 
 These ought to be restricted to the places, and 
 to their immediate inhabitants ; their application 
 by the inspired penmen being definite. Refer 
 to the eleventh chapter of Isaiah (verse 12,) 
 where the prophet distinguishes Judah as " dis- 
 persed," from Israel " outcast." 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 11 
 
 " And he shall set up an ensign for the nation, 
 And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, 
 And gather together the dispersed of Judah 
 From the four corners of the earth." 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel, who wrote after the cap- 
 tivity, foretells, in the twelfth chapter, the dis- 
 persion of Judah, and seems to apply the same 
 terms to the whole house of Israel. By ex- 
 amining the passage (verse 10) it will be seen, 
 however, to refer strictly to Judah, or to any of 
 the other tribes dwelling with Judah. The pro- 
 phet Zephaniah (iii. 10 13) uses the same 
 term ; yet no instance is found in Scripture in 
 which the expression dispersed is applied to the 
 Ten Tribes alone. Israel is described as outcast, 
 Judah is termed dispersed* In 2 Kings xvii. 18, 
 we find concerning the Ten Tribes, " The Lord 
 was very angry with Israel, and removed them 
 out of his sight: there was none left but the 
 tribe of Judah only." Jeremiah, at the third 
 chapter and seventh verse, says, " When the 
 Lord had put backsliding Israel away, and given 
 her a bill of divorce, yet her treacherous sister 
 feared not." The prophet Amos speaks ex- 
 pressly (ix. 9) by the word of the Lord, " I 
 will sift the house of Israel among all nations, 
 
12 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 like as corn shall be sifted in a sieve," meaning 
 shall be mingled among the heathen. Hosea 
 declares that " Ephraim hath mixed himself 
 among the people," (vii. 8,) that Israel " is 
 swallowed up among the Gentiles, as a vessel in 
 which there is no pleasure. " (viii. 8.) God has 
 cast them away ; they are wanderers among the 
 nations, " I will no more have mercy on the 
 house of Israel ; I will utterly take them away. 
 (i. 6.) But I will have mercy on the house of 
 Judah, and save them." (verse 7.) In the pro- 
 phet Zechariah we find that they are to be sown 
 amongst the nations ; and if we examine into 
 the present condition of the Jews throughout the 
 world, we shall find that Judah, who is dis- 
 persed amongst all nations, his name and his 
 memorial abide. 
 
 But Israel is not only scattered and sifted among 
 the nations, but he is swallowed up amongst 
 the Gentiles ; he is as a people divorced from 
 God. He has lost the only sign of the covenant 
 which distinguishes the seed of Abraham, and 
 his name and memorial have perished. The 
 descendants of Judah and Benjamin, on the con- 
 trary, are everywhere, and by all nations ac- 
 knowledged as the Israel of God, and will 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 13 
 
 remain distinct till the day when the Deliverer 
 shall appear out of Zion to turn away ungodli- 
 ness from Jacob. The majority of the Ten 
 Tribes, therefore, according to prophecy, have 
 been sown amongst the Gentiles as an outcast 
 of the Israel of God, and form a part of the 
 population in nearly every country under heaven, 
 which I hope to show in detail in my larger 
 work, in which that promise to Abraham, that 
 all nations should be blessed in his seed, is 
 minutely fulfilled. 
 
 If the Ten Tribes were to be found in a body, 
 as some writers have expected, the Scriptures 
 would be contradicted. The sacred penmen 
 foretold that the Ten Tribes should cease to be 
 a nation, and no longer be reckoned as a people ; 
 for a mere remnant is promised, one of a city, 
 and two of a family, to be brought to Zion, 
 (Isaiah x. formerly quoted) ; and this remnant 
 is declared to be preserved, and to be brought 
 out of the land of the north : 
 
 " Go and proclaim these words towards the north, 
 
 And say, return thou, backsliding Israel, saith the Lord. 
 ****** 
 * * * * * * 
 
 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord 
 
 For I am married to you. 
 
14 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 And I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, 
 And I will bring you to Zion I" (Jer. iii. 12 14.) 
 
 In the same prophet, in the thirty-first chapter, 
 and at the eighth verse, we have a confirmation 
 of this as relating to the remnant of the Ten 
 Tribes 
 
 " Behold, I will bring them from the north country, 
 And gather them from the coasts of the earth ;" 
 
 and that it is restricted to these tribes is appa- 
 rent by the verse which follows 
 
 " I am a father to Israel, 
 
 And Ephuaim is my first-born." 
 
15 
 
 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 (continued.) 
 
 Of the many modern writers upon the sub- 
 ject of the lost tribes of the house of Israel, 
 none seem to have approached so near the 
 truth as Dr. Giles Fletcher, envoy from 
 Queen Elizabeth at Moscow. He supposed the 
 Tartars near the Caspian sea to belong to the 
 Ten Tribes. The reason he assigns is, that the 
 cities and places in that region are called by the 
 same names as those in the land of Canaan ; 
 and because the Tartars are divided into ten 
 tribes, as were those of the captives of Israel : 
 he supposes them to be the descendants of the 
 whole house of Israel. He mentions that Tamer- 
 
16 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 lane boasted that he was descended from the 
 tribe of Dan.* 
 
 Had Dr. Fletcher followed up his inquiries, 
 he would undoubtedly have succeeded in his re- 
 search, in tracing the remnant to the very spot 
 of their present existence. But since it seems 
 from his dissertation that neither he nor his 
 informants were in that part of the world, nor 
 possessed personal knowledge of the customs and 
 manners of the people about whom he wrote, it 
 is to be regretted that a work of such import- 
 ance was rendered useless, to other writers 
 and travellers. 
 
 The Tartars are the descendants of the Syrians 
 who were transplanted seven hundred years be- 
 fore Christ, when Rezin king of Syria made war, 
 in company with Pekah king of Israel, against 
 Judah. Tilgath-pilneser came, subdued Syria, 
 Galilee, and all the territory east of the Jordan, 
 and sent the inhabitants of Syria to the river 
 Kur, (into which the Araxes emptied itself.) 
 
 * The present deposed king of Georgia, who is a pen- 
 sioner of Persia, and whose family is kept as hostages by 
 Russia, told me that he considered that he and his family 
 were descended from the Danites. The Jews in Persia be- 
 lieve that Georgia was formerly governed by Jews. 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 17 
 
 And these people, supposed by Dr. Fletcher to 
 belong to the Ten Tribes, are known in the 
 present day as the Usbeck Tartars. And except 
 among the Circassian tribes, which profess the 
 Mussulman religion, circumcision, that great seal 
 of the seed of Abraham, is nowhere practised. 
 The Cossacks have not the least vestige of Israel - 
 itish descent ; nor are their features in the re- 
 motest degree of Jewish character. 
 
 As for the similitude of the names with those 
 in the land of Israel,* their existence, which con- 
 tinues to the present day, only serves to prove 
 that the remnant were formerly in possession of 
 these quarters ; and is a collateral proof of their 
 existence in these regions, doubtless from a 
 period not long subsequent to their captivity and 
 dispersion. 
 
 The Jews of the town of Acdrova, which is 
 on the north-west of the Caspian, have informed 
 me that they were in possession of those coun- 
 tries as late as the twelfth century, as described 
 by Benjamin of Tudela; and were only finally 
 driven from them in the time of Nadir Shah, when 
 thousands were compelled to embrace the Maho- 
 medan faith. According to their traditions, those 
 * Yerico and Thabor* 
 
18 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TUIBES. 
 
 inhabiting the mountain regions, called by the 
 inhabitants Jeordico and Tubar, by the Jews 
 Yerico and Thabor, are the descendants of the 
 two and a half tribes, the first portion of the 
 captivity of the whole house of Israel. 
 
 Since the invasion of Nadir Shah, the Lesgyan 
 tribes have surrounded them more completely 
 than ever : and in their isolated condition they 
 have remained distinct even from their brethren 
 in the adjacent provinces of Armenia and Geor- 
 gia. The evidence on which I conclude them 
 to be in reality the remnant of the Ten Tribes, 
 will presently be stated. The Jews in Imiriti 
 and Gahatia I consider to bear a strong affinity 
 to the remnant ; but in many respects, from 
 intercourse with their brethren elsewhere, have 
 lost that caste which would identify them with 
 the Jews of the mountain regions of Daghistan. 
 The Jews of Imiriti and Gahatia present the 
 singular spectacle, unknown elsewhere through- 
 out the world, of being slaves ; an article of 
 commodity to their masters in whose country 
 they dwell. 
 
 We will briefly refer to the countries of the cap- 
 tivity of the Twelve Tribes. Assyria and Media 
 are among the places most familiar to the readers 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 19 
 
 of modern and ancient history. Assyria Jay north- 
 east of the Holy Land ; and Media still further, 
 in the same direction. In the maps, Media is 
 made to include the southern border of the Cas- 
 pian, as far north-west as the Araxes. This part 
 of Media, however, whether from its mountainous 
 character, or its possession in ancient times, as 
 now, by intrepid and warlike hordes, was per- 
 haps rather claimed by the Medes than actually at 
 all times possessed. It is striking, that almost 
 immediately on the deportation of the tribes into 
 the northern possessions of Assyria, those coun- 
 tries, and especially Media, revolted from under 
 the Assyrians. At this very time, too, an im- 
 mense migration poured into Asia, holding in 
 subjection the northern countries of that conti- 
 nent ; and which would serve to arrest any power 
 which would have been exerted to prevent them 
 proceeding northward. I have always considered 
 the account contained in the apocryphal book 
 of Esdras to possess some historical truth, which 
 may perhaps be separated from it by the process 
 of discrimination and judgment. That account 
 is as follows : " And whereas thou savvest that 
 he gathered another peaceable multitude unto 
 him : These are the Ten Tribes which were 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 carried away prisoners out of their own land, in 
 the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanaser the 
 king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried 
 them over the waters, and so came they into 
 another land. But they took this counsel among 
 themselves, that they would leave the multitude 
 of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, 
 where never mankind dwelt, that they might 
 there keep their statutes, which they never kept 
 in their own land. And they entered into Eu- 
 phrates by the narrow passages of the river. For 
 the Most High then showed signs for them, and 
 held still the flood, till they were passed over^ 
 For through that country there was a great way 
 to go; namely, of a year and a half; and the 
 same region is called Arsareth (Ararath.) Then 
 dwelt they there until the latter time." (2 Esdras 
 xiii. 39, 40.) 
 
 Whether, during the revolt of the Medians from 
 under the yoke of the Assyrians, the above 
 migration took place ; and whether the far country 
 is the province which lies between the Caspian 
 and the Euxine, or beyond ; and whether the 
 A raves, which was the northern boundary of 
 Media, was the stream, or one of them, alluded to ; 
 I cannot say. Suffice it for our purpose that 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 21 
 
 such a migration took place; that the mountain 
 regions between the Euxine and the Caspian 
 were most inviting districts for a people accus- 
 tomed to freedom, and impatient of the conqueror's 
 yoke ; that in these very regions a body of 
 Jews exists, combining in their religious rites 
 and customs (the great distinguishing mark of 
 tl.e seed of Abraham*) all the characteristics of 
 the elder captives of the house of Israel. 
 
 With respect to the other places mentioned in 
 Scripture, " Halah and Habor, by the river 
 Gozan;" the river Chaboras, which is called by 
 the Arabian geographers Alchabor, rises among 
 the mountains, runs through Mesopotamia, and 
 falls into the Euphrates. f 
 
 The city of Halah, the Chalcite of Plotmez, 
 was situated on one bank of the Chaboras : and 
 Gozan (both province and city) on the other. 
 Thus the Ten Tribes located in Assyria, inhabited 
 
 * L. Hoist de Sabbath. Flum. in A Hat. p. 440. 
 
 f Cellarius Geog. Ant. lib. iii. cap. xv. p. 433, places the 
 river Chaboras, or Chalcitis, and Charran, or Haran, near 
 Bdessa, and beyond it the Gauzan. Thus the Israelites in 
 their idolatry were returned to the country from which 
 their father Abraham was removed, that he might be sepa- 
 rated. 
 
22 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 
 
 both banks of the river Chaboras, and were sepa- 
 rated from each other only by the river which 
 flowed through their territories. 
 
 The other colony inhabited the cities of the 
 Medes.* Thus we must seek for the tribes, or 
 the remnant of them, in the neighbouring pro- 
 vinces, which are indicated as the land of their 
 captivity, both in the Chaldean paraphrase and in 
 the original Hebrew. They spread into pro- 
 vinces which are now known as Georgia and 
 Tabarastan. Orosius relates that the Jews who 
 inhabited the provinces near the Caspian, in- 
 creased in numbers, and confidently expected to 
 return at some future day to the Holy Land. The 
 nation was numerous also at Nineveh and Baby- 
 lon, after the captivity of the two tribes, Judah 
 and Benjamin ; but the number of Babylonian 
 Jews diminished considerably under the tyranny 
 of Antiochus. After the destruction of Jerusalem 
 by Titus, we may naturally suppose that those 
 Jews who fled from Judea would join their coun- 
 trymen elsewhere. In proportion as the eastern 
 empire declined, that people became populous, 
 
 * In urbibus Mediornm. The Chaldaic paraphrase is the 
 cities of Media. Buxtorf, 2127. 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 23 
 
 and in some respects powerful. Under the pre- 
 sidents of the captivity, they founded colleges 
 which were much celebrated for their learning. 
 Jewish courts of justice were established also in 
 many cities. 
 
 The best writers on Jewish antiquities freely 
 allow, that the distinction of tribes and families 
 can no longer be made out incontrovertibly. Thus 
 Maimonides affirms, they no longer existed from 
 the time of Sennacherib.* The Talmudists of Ba- 
 bylon arrogate to themselves a peculiar nobility 
 of descent, at a depreciation of the whole Jewish 
 family elsewhere. " Ezra carried with him," say 
 they, " the chaff of the nation, and kept the pure 
 wheat in Babylon." f These very Talmudists, 
 however, refer to Media as preserving families of 
 high descent. And my own impression always 
 was, that if we were likely at all to arrive at a 
 successful solution of the question, " What has 
 become of the Ten Tribes ?" we must restrict our 
 attention to those immediate neighbourhoods 
 from whence the colonies of expatriated Jews 
 
 * Hinc familiae inter confusae sint, ita ut dignosci nequeant 
 inter se, nee e locis ipsarum cognosci. 
 
 j Maimon. U*V J1TZD3 de Lotione Manuum, cap. 4, 
 
 sec. iv. j). 49. 
 
24 THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIIiUS. 
 
 went forth ; and if at all found, whether in larger 
 or smaller numbers, it must be in circumstances 
 of isolation, offering few temptations to merge 
 themselves into the body of the Jews, or into the 
 nations of the Gentiles. In the revolutions of 
 kingdoms, the obscurity of localities from change 
 of name, the vicissitudes which have occurred in 
 the great Jewish family in the east, and the exag- 
 gerated testimony of the mcdern Hebrew history 
 it would be more curious than profitable to follow 
 the changes, alleged and real, which occurred to 
 the various Jewish colonies of the dispersions and 
 captivities. The Jews of Persia are doubtless, 
 more or less, descended from the tribes. The 
 Affghans, Circassians, and others, may or may 
 not be related to the dispersion. But what is 
 wanted, and has long been sought, is a body en- 
 titled from incontrovertible internal proof to be 
 considered as the nucleus and representatives of 
 those tribes. It remains to be proved whether 
 those proofs which follow, referring to the Jews 
 of Daghistan, fulfil the expectation in question. 
 They are satisfactory to my own mind ; and I 
 have no doubt they will prove so to those who 
 look beyond the surface, and who are not fettered 
 by prejudice and foregone conclusions. 
 
THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. 25 
 
 In this brief sketch I have limited myself to a 
 simple statement of facts : nor can I afford time 
 at present to apply these to the demolition of 
 various theories which have been propounded by 
 successive writers on the subject ; but shall leave 
 these facts to their legitimate effect on those who 
 have given attention to the subject one way or 
 another. Those who take an interest in the 
 Talmudic controversy, and in the efforts which are 
 making to detach the Jewish mind from the influ- 
 ence of the rabbins, will immediately perceive, in 
 the perfect ignorance of the Jews of Daghistan of 
 the precepts and authority of that celebrated 
 code, the irresistible proof how much modern 
 Judaism is opposed to the views and practice of 
 the early Jewish church. 
 
26 
 
 CONJECTURES CONCERNING THE TRIBES. 
 
 Bishop Newton* has remarked, " that the diffi- 
 culty of finding out the habitations of the Ten 
 Tribes has induced some to maintain, that they 
 returned into their own country, with the other 
 two tribes, after the Babylonish captivity." The 
 decree of Cyrus extended, it is true, " to all the 
 people of God," (Ezra i. 3,) and that of Artaxerxes 
 to all the people of Israel, (vii. 13 ;) and no doubt 
 many of the Israelites took advantage of these 
 decrees, and returned with Zerubbabel and Ezra 
 to their own cities ; but still the main body of the 
 Ten Tribes remained behind. Ezra, who should 
 best know, says that " there rose up of the chief 
 of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin," (i. 5;) 
 and he calls " the Samaritans the adversaries of 
 Judah and Benjamin ;" these two tribes were the 
 principals, the others were only accessories. And 
 if they did not return at this time, they cannot be 
 supposed to have returned in a body at any time 
 
 * On the Prophecies. 
 
CONJECTURES CONCERNING THE TRIBES. 27 
 
 after this; for we read of no such adventure in 
 history; we know neither the time nor occasion of 
 their return, nor who were the generals and lead- 
 ers of such an expedition. " The entire body of the 
 people of Israel," says Josephus, " remained in 
 that country, where they were carried captive; 
 wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and 
 Europe subject to the Romans, while the Ten 
 Tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and 
 are an immense multitude, and not to be esti- 
 mated by numbers."* 
 
 Indeed, it is natural to suppose, and what evi- 
 dences history furnishes confirm it, that the Jews of 
 the various captivities spread themselves and took 
 root in the lands of their captivity, and through- 
 out Media, Parthia, Mesopotamia, Ethiopia, and 
 India ; indeed, throughout the whole east.j* I think 
 ita question upon which it were vain to speculate, 
 whether the Jews of those regions are not largely 
 descended from the Ten Tribes. The point which 
 remains to be proved is, whether, amidst the amal- 
 gamation of the tribes, and the destruction of 
 genealogies, any portion may be pointed out, 
 incontrovertibly and exclusively a remnant of 
 those tribes, the escaped of Israel. The evi- 
 
 * Antiq. b. xi. c. 5. t OrroraSj I), ii. c. 7. 
 
28 CONJECTURES CONCERNING 
 
 dences are numerous and curious, which have 
 satisfied various travellers and inquirers of the 
 general existence of descendants of the missing 
 tribes. In the fifth century Jerome writes, " Unto 
 this day the Ten Tribes are subject to the kings 
 of Persia, nor has their captivity been ever 
 loosed."* He adds, " The Ten Tribes inhabit 
 at this day the cities and the mountains of the 
 Medes."t " ^ n Samarcand," says Benjamin of 
 Tudela, " the city of Tamerlane, there are fifty 
 thousand Jews under the presidency of Rabbi 
 Obadiah; and in the mountains and cities of 
 Nubor, there are four tribes of Israel resident; 
 namely, Dan, Zebulon, Asher, Naphtali/' 
 
 A writer, who published his travels in the begin- 
 ning of the last century, says, " that many of the 
 Turks came from Tartary, and that the Tartars are 
 the descendants of the Ten Tribes, which tribes 
 were brought into Tartary by Shalmaneser." 
 " The capital of Tartary," he adds, " is called Sa- 
 margan, which is very little different from Samaria, 
 once the great capital of Israel's monarch. They 
 have another town called Jericho, a mount named 
 Sion, and another mount distinguished by the 
 name of Tabor, with a river Yordan, (from the 
 * Vol. vi. p. 7. ; Vol, vi. p. 80. 
 
THE TRIBES. 29 
 
 Hebrew Jordan,) and a thousand other names of 
 places, which plainly prove a Jewish etymology." 
 They are divided into ten great tribes or parties, 
 bearing names not much unlike the ancient pa- 
 triarchs. Another thing which serves to prove 
 the just validity of this opinion is, that all the 
 Tartars do not only circumcise, and use the ancient 
 Jewish rites in almost every point of worship, but 
 traditionally boast themselves of being descended 
 from the Israelites, who, conquering their con- 
 querors, became possessed of all the territories 
 by the Caspian Sea ; and hence it was that Ta- 
 merlane, or Tarn- her- lane the Great, who led the 
 Turkish Bajazet about the city in an iron cage, 
 would often take occasion to be vaunting of his 
 pedigree, affirming " he was lineally descended 
 from the tribe of Dan in an uninterrupted genea- 
 logy."* 
 
 The Afghans have been pointed to, and I 
 conceive with strong probability of the truth of 
 the conjecture, as the lineal descendants of the 
 Ten Tribes. " If the first wonder," observes a 
 writer in a celebrated periodical, " if the first 
 wonder of the Hebrew nation be its existence, 
 national and religious, in its dispersion, such as 
 
 * Probable Conjectures on the Ten Tribes, by Aaron Hill. 
 
30 CONJECTURES CONCERNING 
 
 we witness it ; the second is that interment, as it 
 were, of the Ten Tribes for above 2500 years ; 
 from whence, if there be any faith in prophecy, 
 they are to arise as from the tomb, to share the 
 splendour of the revival of Israel. It is natural 
 that the eye should seek with anxious curiosity 
 for the hiding-place, in which these illustrious 
 exiles have so long* lain buried. But hitherto 
 we have conjecture alone for our guide ; such as 
 it is, it appears to point out preferably the 
 Afghans as their descendants." Foster, in his 
 journey from India, overland, through their coun- 
 try, was forcibly struck by their Jewish phy- 
 siognomy. Sir William Jones subsequently sug- 
 gested that they might be the children of the Ten 
 Tribes ; and his supposition is countenanced by 
 the fact, that the neighbouring nations believe 
 them to have an Israelitish origin; and by a fact 
 still more material, namely, that they themselves 
 believe it too. For the Jewish name is in such 
 unfavourable repute through the world, that no 
 nation can be suspected of claiming such descent 
 gratuitously. Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, in 
 his very interesting account of his mission to 
 Cabul, throws much doubt on their Israelitish 
 descent ; for he states, " that no affinity exists be- 
 tween their language and the Hebrew; while, on 
 
THE TRIBES. 
 
 31 
 
 the other hand, the Serampore missionaries (who 
 have more recently, and far more fully, examined 
 the matter) declare that in no eastern language 
 have they discovered so many Hebrew roots as in 
 the Pushtoo or Afghan. All testimonies agree in 
 attributing to them the qualities befitting them 
 for mighty deeds. They are robust in their per- 
 sons, and so brave, that they have long been 
 known in the armies of India, as their most va- 
 liant soldiers, by the name of Patans." If the 
 Afghans be the Ten Tribes, and the Ten Tribes 
 be " the kings of the east," whose way may be 
 even now preparing, that title may not be deemed 
 too lofty for a nation which has held the thrones 
 both of Persia and Hindostan.* 
 
 Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, says, " there are 
 Jews in Abyssinia, who are as black as the ori- 
 ginal natives ; which Jews," says he, " must be the 
 descendants of the Ten Tribes." He further adds, 
 "The motto of the king of Abyssinia is, The Lion 
 of the race of Solomon and of the tribe of Judah 
 hath overcome.'" Bruce adds, " that the people 
 of Abyssinia consider that they are to bear a part in 
 the final restoration of the Jews." t Dr. Claudius 
 Buchanan's Researches are well known; especially 
 * Quarterly Review. + Travels in Abyssinia. 
 
32 CONJECTURES CONCERNING 
 
 what relates to the black Jews of Bombay and 
 Cochin. " The black as well as white," he ob- 
 serves, " still continue a distinct people, reading 
 the Hebrew scriptures, and practising all the rites 
 of the law of Moses which can be practised out 
 of Jerusalem." The black Jews, he seems to 
 think, derive their origin from the Ten Tribes 
 which were carried away by Shalmaneser king of 
 Assyria, as the others derive theirs from the dis- 
 persed Jews of Jerusalem.* 
 
 * Translation of an Inscription granted to the Jews on a 
 copper-plate, showing the time of their arrival. Swasti Sri ! 
 The King of kings hath ordained it ! When Raja Sri Bhas- 
 karah Iravah Varma, was wielding the sceptre of royalty in 
 an hundred thousand places, in the thirty-sixth year above 
 the second cycle, he vouchsafed, during the time that he so- 
 journed in Moyil Kottah, to perform a deed, the subject of 
 which is as follows : From Yusuf Rabba and his people, in 
 five degrees of persons, we exact the tribute of due and de- 
 ference to our high dignity, and of the usual present to our 
 royal person. To these we allow the privileges of bearing 
 five kinds of names ; of using day-lamps, of wearing long ap- 
 parel ; of using palanquins and umbrellas ; copper vessels ; 
 trumpet and drums ; of garlands for the person ; and garlands 
 to be suspended over their roads ; and we have given in full, 
 seventy and two separate houses ; and we have relinquished 
 all taxes and rates for these ; and also for all other houses 
 and churches in other cities ; and independent of this bond to 
 
THE TK1BES. 33 
 
 To the above conjectures maybe added that of 
 the celebrated William Perm, governor of Penn- 
 sylvania, who was decidedly of opinion that the 
 Red Indians of North America were descendants 
 of the Ten Tribes. In his general description of 
 that country, he says, " They agree in rites , 
 they reckon by moons : they offer their first-fruits ; 
 they have a kind of feast of tabernacles ; they 
 are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones; 
 
 him, we have made and given a Copper Instrument for these 
 latter, separate and distinct. These are to be enjoyed after 
 these five modes of descent, viz. by Yusuf Rabba, himself and 
 his heirs in succession : thus, his male children, and his female 
 children, his nephews, and the nephews of his daughters, in 
 natural succession, an hereditary right to be enjoyed as long 
 as the earth and the moon remain. Sri ; I, Govarddhana 
 Martandan, of Venadar, witness this deed ; I, Kotaigiri, 
 Karrun, of Venapa-i-nada, witness this deed ; I, Mana Vepala 
 Manuviyan, of Eradu-nada, witness this deed ; I, Irayan 
 Chattan, of Vallava-nada, witness this deed; I, Katai Iravah, 
 of Nedambataryar-nada, witness this deed ; I, Markan Chat- 
 tan, inhabitant of Kilpadui Nayukam, witness this deed. 
 This is the hand writing of Pozanaya Kezavaya Kellapan, 
 engraved by Vandra Sherry Kandapa. 
 
 CM. Whish. 
 
 The black Jews of Cochin are well known to be proselytes 
 from slaves and Portugese Christians. In 1834, when I was 
 there, two Portuguese were circumcised 
 
 U 
 
34 CONJECTURES CONCERNING 
 
 their mourning a year ; the customs of women ; 
 with many things that do not now occur." 
 
 In a letter to a friend in London he gives the 
 following description of them. " I found them 
 with the countenances of the Hebrew race ; and 
 their children of so lively a resemblance to 
 them, that a man would think himself in Duke's 
 Place or Bury Street in London, when he sees 
 them."* 
 
 Another writer, Adair, who lived as a trader 
 among those Indians for forty years, a man of 
 integrity and character, thus expresses himself: 
 " It is very difficult to divest ourselves of pre- 
 judices and favourite opinions ; and I expect to 
 be censured for opposing commonly-received 
 statements. But truth is my object, and from 
 the most exact observation I could make in the 
 long time I traded among the Indian Americans, 
 I was forced to believe them to be lineally de- 
 scended from the Israelites. Hence (he adds) 
 it is probable that the * desert,' or i further 
 country,' referred to by Esdras, ' where never 
 mankind dwelt,' may be America ; which coun- 
 try, indeed, would much better accord than any 
 contiguous one could do with that other repre- 
 
 * History of Pennsylvania. 
 
THE TRIBES. 35 
 
 sentation which he makes of it, as a great why 
 to go, namely, of a year and a half. Esdras 
 further says, * The same region is called Ararash 
 or Ararat :' and Dr. Boudinot says, ' A gentle- 
 man of the first character of the city of New 
 York, well acquainted with the Indians from his 
 childhood, assured him, that when with them at 
 a place called Cohoch or Oulglah, yet well 
 known, they showed him a mountain to the west, 
 very high, and that appeared from Cohoch, much 
 as the Neversinks do from the sea, at first ap- 
 proaching the American coast, and told him the 
 Indians call it Ararat.' "* 
 
 Another and more recent writer has advanced 
 the theory, that the whole of the nations which 
 occupy the platform of the Roman empire, the 
 modern nations of Europe, the English in par- 
 ticular, are the tribes in question. f That, origi- 
 nally located in Media and the sea-shores of the 
 Caspian, extending into the provinces and coun- 
 tries north of that sea, they became those over- 
 whelming floods, which the frozen north poured 
 from its populous loins into Europe, to the con- 
 
 * History of the American Indians. 
 -}- Lectures on Ancient Israel. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 CONJECTURES CONCERNING THE TRIBES. 
 
 sternation of its former inhabitants, in the early 
 centuries of the christian dispensation. 
 
 I mention all these views, facts, and theories, 
 that the reader may draw his own conclusions, 
 and form his own opinions. The object of this 
 little work is not to follow Israel in his wander- 
 ings and dispersions, and to reckon the real and 
 probable fate of the various tribes. I have my 
 own opinions on the dispersion of the seed of all 
 the house of Israel among* the nations ; and I be- 
 lieve that the vestiges of the primitive worship of 
 the Hebrews, which we find in various parts of 
 the world, amongst the various nations and tribes, 
 may serve to elucidate the truth of the prophecies 
 concerning Israel, and the fate of this people. I 
 am desirous simply to confine my attention to The 
 Remnant spoken of in Scripture, and to consider 
 whether, in or very near the seat of their original 
 captivity, such a remnant does not exist. 
 
37 
 
 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 
 
 Being at Tehran in the month of March, 1837, 
 prosecuting my missionary labours in Persia 
 amongst my brethren of the seed of Abraham, 
 I paid my respects to His Excellency Graf 
 Simoniech, ambassador extraordinary to the court 
 of Mohammed Shah. In conversation with the 
 ambassador concerning one of the objects of my 
 mission, His Excellency informed me that about 
 five years previously, the Russian government 
 had sent a commission into Georgia to investigate 
 the character and circumstances of the Caucasian 
 Jews. The individuals sent returned without 
 being able to give any satisfactory account of the 
 object they were sent to inquire into : their qua- 
 lifications not being such as to enable them to 
 throw any light on a question of this character. 
 Ilia Excellency, perceiving my ardent curiosity 
 and interest in what relates to the Jewish people, 
 
38 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 
 
 and in particular as to any facts which might illus- 
 trate the fate of the long-lost tribes, spontaneously 
 offered me every assistance in his power, if I 
 would undertake to follow up these inquiries; 
 laying no other obligation upon me, than to fur- 
 nish him with a copy of my journal, when I 
 should publish it, containing investigations through 
 the East on this important subject. 
 
 Having consulted Her Britannic Majesty's mi- 
 nister at the court of Persia, and obtained his 
 sanction, I received from him a letter of protec- 
 tion, on which I could depend, in the critical 
 circumstances of the country at that time. The 
 Anglo-Indian army was preparing to march to- 
 wards Cabul, and all individuals in connexion 
 with England were under strong suspicion. This 
 letter of protection was of the utmost importance, 
 as it enabled me to resist and overcome the in- 
 trigues and repugnance of the Russian govern- 
 ment of the Trans-Caucasian provinces at my 
 presence during the military operations against 
 Khiva, at this crisis. And I shall not soon forget 
 the impressions left upon me at Tiflis, after I en- 
 tered upon my investigations, when summoned 
 before the Governor-general of those provinces. 
 Every effort was made to daunt my courage 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVE. Hi) 
 
 by an array of military (consisting of Cossacks 
 and gens (Tarmerie) drawn up in front of the 
 palace, the object of which was to expel me 
 from the country, or to induce me to retire. I was 
 enabled, however, in the strength imparted to me 
 at that trying hour, to maintain an independence of 
 spirit, I trust not unbecoming a British subject ; 
 and to read such a lesson to General Radifinicki, 
 (son of the celebrated diplomatist,) in the pre- 
 sence of the Russo-Georgian court, which he will 
 not easily forget. What a state of things is 
 that which owes its support wholly to bristling 
 bayonets ; where such a system of ramified es- 
 pionage exists, that the very wife is an emissary 
 to report the actions and opinions of her husband 
 to an ever-suspicious and jealous government ! 
 
 His Excellency (Graf Simoniech) furnished me 
 with letters to the Governor-general, Baron 
 Rosa, General Brechoft, commander-in-chief of 
 Georgia, and civil governor Palawandeof. All 
 these letters, though of importance, weighed as 
 nothing beside the simple pass of the British 
 ambassador. 
 
 I proceeded to Tabriz, and from thence to 
 Georgia, instituting inquiries in every place 
 where Jews resided, to Akhalsikhe, Goorici, 
 
40 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 
 
 Kotais, Khartatanici, and so on to Tiflis, where I 
 remained for five months. The result of the in- 
 quiries is contained in the summary of proofs 
 which follow, convincing my mind that if the 
 remnant is to be found anywhere, the Jews of 
 Daghistan, Kakhete, Imiriti, Gooriel, and Min- 
 grella (including the whole of ancient Cotchei) 
 are these. Had this inquiry been instituted pre- 
 vious to the invasion of Nadir Shah, in the middle 
 of the last century, the evidence which I shall 
 have to consider would have been of even a more 
 striking character. Since that time, owing to the 
 encroachments of Russia, whose policy has been 
 to narrow up the tribes dwelling between the Cas- 
 pian and the Euxine, the Polish Jews and other 
 Hebrew emigrants, who have followed in the wake 
 of the aggressors, have infused their traditional 
 notions, and in some respects assimilated the re- 
 ligious views of the people in these regions to 
 the Judaism of Europe. The introduction of 
 modern manuals of Judaism has reduced, in some 
 measure, the characteristic antiquity of the peo- 
 ple : but it still stands out to the perceptive eye, 
 broad, clear, and distinct, a state of things, in 
 customs, rites, turn of thought, and manners, 
 leading the inquirer up to more primitive times. 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 41 
 
 And although the Jews in the districts in ques- 
 tion are a poor and a weak people, to those con- 
 versant with Hebrew antiquities, and relishing 
 simplicity and unsophistication, especially on mat- 
 ters of such importance as religion, the subject 
 opens up a field of inquiry and meditation, em- 
 bracing the widest range possible of what is 
 gratifying to the mind and consoling to the 
 spirit. History, philosophy wisely tempered, 
 philology, biblical research, prophecy, may upon 
 this subject be brought to bear ; and in the hands 
 of able and dispassionate men, a flood of light 
 may be thrown upon the question of the fate of 
 the tribes of Israel, much to the instruction and 
 comfort of the Christian Church. Circumstances, 
 however, compel me at the present time to be 
 brief: I would simply caution those who may be 
 led to investigate this subject, to come to it in 
 simplicity, and divested of the prejudices resulting 
 from foregone conclusions ; also to drink deeply 
 from a well which few scholars linger long at. 
 It is not that of learning merely, but of Hebrew 
 learning. In fact, there is an intellectual as well 
 as a spiritual necessity imposed upon the inquirer, 
 to become on this subject a Jew. Like the dialects 
 of a country, or the varied habits of the same 
 
42 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 
 
 people in the same kingdom, which only the 
 resident can appreciate, but which are lost upon 
 the visitor ; so in the Jewish world there are marks 
 and distinctions, habits and customs, social diver- 
 sities and religious signs, which arrest the Hebrew, 
 but would pass for nothing with a Gentile. 
 
 It remains for me to say a few words on the 
 country in which my researches were pursued, 
 where this peculiar portion of the family of Israel 
 are located. 
 
 THE COUNTRY OF THE REMNANT. 
 
 Daghistan, on the west coast of the Caspian 
 Sea, lies between the rivers Koisin and Rubas. 
 It is about one hundred and thirty-four miles in 
 length, by between thirty and forty in breadth. 
 It is almost entirely mountainous, as its name, 
 Daghistan, implies, the plain that runs along the 
 shore being a narrow strip. It is usually divided 
 into the following small states, namely, Lesgestan, 
 Schamgal, the khanship of Derbund, and the 
 domain of Tabasseran. Lesgestan is a stupendous 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 43 
 
 range of mountains running in a south-easterly 
 direction, of great length, but of inconsiderable 
 breadth, and forming the whole north-east frontier 
 of Georgia. The inhabitants are a wild savage 
 banditti, divided into different tribes, whose habi- 
 tations are secluded in the depths of the mountains, 
 on the loftiest summits, oron the most frightful pre- 
 cipices. The country is rugged and impracticable ; 
 the soil is scanty ; and the level ground being- 
 insufficient to enable the proprietor to raise the 
 means of subsistence, he increases the surface to 
 the very summit of the heights by graduated 
 terraces. These rude tribes of the mountains are 
 the terror and scourge of all the neighbouring 
 countries, as they sally down from the mountains, 
 laying waste villages, and carrying off or murder- 
 ing the inhabitants. The other districts are of the 
 same mountainous character ; that of Tabasseran 
 is covered with wood ; but the valleys are beauti- 
 ful and fertile. The greater part of the country 
 is still terra incognita to the traveller, especially 
 the region indicated as the abode of the remnant 
 in question. It has been the scene of the strife of 
 the three great empires, namely, Russia, Turkey, 
 and Persia, and is divided between them, and has 
 consequently received less attention than some 
 others equally little known. 
 
 ....^r,^lT\/ I 
 
44 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 
 
 The Russians, as I remarked before, have con- 
 tracted the limits of the independent tribes be- 
 tween the Euxine and the Caspian ; and, accord- 
 ing to the working of that colossal and dangerous 
 power, have largely succeeded in doing so. But 
 to reduce them to real subjection is beyond the 
 power even of Russia. Nearly half the country 
 of the Alkhar is marked as subject to Russia, on 
 the maps of these provinces ; but, in fact, the 
 garrison of Sookoom-kuluah live as in a besieged 
 city, and their authority is acknowledged no 
 further than their guns can reach. Swaneti, too, 
 has the same mark of subjection ; though it is 
 well known that the Swani confine themselves to 
 the neighbourhood of the perpetual snows of 
 Elburg, in order not to compromise their liberty. 
 Two passes also, through the mountain, are 
 marked as Russian soil ; but not even the weekly 
 mail is sent through that of Dariel, without an 
 escort amounting sometimes to a hundred soldiers, 
 two field-pieces, and several Cossacks. If an oc- 
 casional traveller wishes to try the pass of Der- 
 bund, which is in Daghistan, he is not considered 
 safe without a similar guard. 
 
 The length of Daghistan from north to south, 
 but more especially towards the south, is guarded 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 45 
 
 by the fierce and sanguinary Lesghies. Seen 
 even upon the crowded thoroughfares of Tiflis, 
 (which presents a curious spectacle of mingled 
 nations,) the dark Lesghy, with his two-edged 
 kama, is an object of repugnance and terror. 
 But that fierce people, in their own precincts, are 
 the terror of the surrounding provinces. Soiper- 
 severingly did they resist the power of Persia, 
 that a proverb is current, " If any king of Persia 
 is a fool, let him march against the Lesghies. ." 
 Such is their predatory and blood-thirsty disposi- 
 tion, that the Russians, instead of residing and 
 having military posts amongst them, station 
 troops along their frontiers, to prevent them from 
 pillaging the adjacent territories. That the rem- 
 nant in question, locked up in these solitudes, 
 should preserve the institutions of their fathers, 
 strikingly illustrates the inevitable necessity which 
 Divine Providence has laid upon this people to 
 be his witnesses in every land, even in exile and 
 dispersion. Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and 
 shall not be reckoned among the nations I When 
 we look at the character of the tribes by which 
 they are surrounded, and the hordes in the midst 
 of which they live, there is a convincing proof 
 of their preservation for some important end. 
 
46 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 
 
 The Lesghies are a bigoted Moslem race. The 
 mountaineers are a nondescript mixture, whose 
 religion is a compound of Mahommedanism, 
 Christianity, and Paganism. 
 
 The government of the Caucasus has its 
 capital at Tiflis, but extends to the north of the 
 mountain from which it takes its name ; and 
 embraces there a tract extending from the Cas- 
 pian to the Black Sea. 
 
 The Jews of Daghistan have lived there from 
 time immemorial, and are on the best terms with 
 the Nomadic hordes of the country. They tra- 
 verse the country, and amongst these fierce 
 tribes, in peace and safety. 
 
 The other Jews, scattered in the regions be- 
 tween the seas in question, may be considered, 
 both by phisiognomy and characteristics in their 
 worship, to belong to the same branch of the 
 family of Israel as the remnant in question. 
 To none of them, however, do the proofs which 
 follow exclusively apply, but to those Jews 
 found in Daghistan, and amongst the Lesghy 
 tribes. 
 
 The Lesghy tribes affirm themselves to be de- 
 scended from the tribe of Dan : and certainly 
 their physiognomy and character assimilate in 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 47 
 
 many respects to the Hebrew family. Yet more 
 than this, the characteristic feature of the tribe 
 to which they affiliate themselves, contained in 
 Jacob's prophetic description, Dan shall be a 
 serpent by the way ; an adder in the path, that 
 biteth the horses 9 heels, so that his rider shall fall 
 backwards, is strikingly illustrated in the habits 
 of this horde, who are the terror of the surround- 
 ing provinces, and who exterminate the mounted 
 Cossacks exactly in the way specified in the 
 prophetic description of the tribe of Israel in 
 question. 
 
 The Lesghies acknowledge the Jews to be 
 the original inhabitants of the mountains ; although 
 they themselves appear of the same stock, and 
 descended from one common parent, as far as 
 outward appearance goes. 
 
48 
 
 MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGIOUS CERE- 
 MONIES OF THE JEWS OF DAGHISTAN. 
 
 OBSERVANCE OF FEASTS THE PASSOVER. 
 
 Driven from their native land, dependent for 
 centuries on the caprice of nations having no 
 sympathy with them, force, persuasion, and op- 
 pression, have been alike ineffectual in order to 
 compel the Jewish people to forego obedience to 
 the commands of the Law. The edict of Adrian 
 forbade the Jews from approaching within sight 
 of Jerusalem, which was cruelty indeed, but not 
 to be equalled to that of the laws* of Ricazed 
 in Spain, which forbade the Jews to celebrate 
 the passover on the fourteenth day of any month, 
 
 * 1 Lex Visigoth, lib. xii. tit. 5. Ne Judcei mone suo 
 cekbreut pctseha. 
 
TIIF, PASSOVER. 49 
 
 or to observe any of their feasts and holydays 
 at the stated times : a law renewed and con- 
 firmed by the council of Toledo.* The same 
 spirit dictated the law of Justinian, which for- 
 bade the Jews to celebrate the passover before 
 the Christians. However, amidst the overwhelm- 
 ing power of their Gentile conquerors, and the 
 teeming population of the lands where they have 
 been scattered, the feasts of the Jews have been 
 rigidly kept : and the season of the paschal lamb, 
 once slain in Egypt, is the time to arouse 
 from slumber all the natural feelings of the 
 Israelites. 
 
 The feast is generally called by the Jews 
 npDn m Hag Ha Pasack ; the remnant in Dag- 
 histan call it kiipd nDD Pas Ha Pscha ; the ob- 
 servance of which is commenced on the fourteenth 
 day of p3 Nisan, (the new moon of April,) 
 when they remove all leaven out of their houses ; 
 and between sunset and twilight oa-iy ja Ben 
 Ar-beim, the master of the house, takes a kid or 
 lamb, cuts it across the neck, receives the blood 
 into a basin, and sprinkles it on every door- 
 post. (Exodus xii. 7.) The animal is then 
 roasted and eaten with bitter herbs, all the males 
 * Council Toledo, xii. Can. 9. 
 
50 THE PASSOVER. 
 
 in the house sitting down to the feast, but no 
 Gentile is permitted that evening to come near 
 their dwelling. It is eaten in the most retired 
 part of their houses ; those who are immediately 
 contiguous to the Mussulmans repair to celebrate 
 the feast in the mountains, or amongst uncultivated 
 places, where they are not likely to be intruded 
 upon. This would appear to have been the an- 
 cient practice amongst the Jews before the cap- 
 tivity, similar to that enjoined in Egypt, (Deute- 
 ronomy xvi. 2 6,) before the temple was built. 
 The Ten Tribes, after the revolt of Jeroboam, com- 
 memorated this feast in their own houses or in 
 the high places, not resorting to Jerusalem, which 
 was the only place appointed in the Mosaic law 
 for sacrifices to be offered. It is remarkable that 
 during the Babylonish captivity we have no re- 
 cord of the Jews eating the Paschal Lamb. And 
 since the destruction of Jerusalem the lamb is 
 substituted by a portion of meat roasted on the 
 coals by the Jews generally. The Caucasian 
 Jews are the only ones who observe this institu- 
 tion in its primitive requirements, that is, in re- 
 spect of actually and fully sacrificing the Paschal 
 Lamb. And their doing it in other than " the 
 place which the Lord God" appointed, is a proof 
 
THE PASSOVER. 51 
 
 conclusive to my mind of their affinity to, and 
 descent from, the revolted tribes. 
 
 The following day begins the feast of un- 
 leavened bread, rnron jn Hag-Ha-Matsoth, which 
 they keep for six days. This seems to contradict 
 the following passages of Scripture, " Seven 
 days shall ye eat unleavened bread," Exodus xii. 
 15. (See alsoxiii. 6, 7 ; xxiii. 15. Leviticus xxiii. 
 6. Numbers xxviii. 17.) Josephus assigns eight 
 days for this feast. (See Antiquities, 2 vol. xv. I,) 
 and seven days to the feast of Passover. (Anti- 
 quities, 3 vol. x. 59, xiii. 3.) This, however, is 
 perfectly reconcileable with Scripture. The eight 
 days which Josephus allows for this feast of un- 
 leavened bread, includes the fourteenth day of the 
 month at its commencement, as mentioned in the 
 above references ; and the six days of the feast 
 of unleavened bread observed by the Jews of 
 Daghistan is according to the passage in Deute- 
 ronomy xvi. 8, " Six days shalt thou eat un- 
 leavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be 
 a solemn assembly,''' which of course does not in- 
 clude the evening of the fourteenth day, when the 
 paschal lamb is eaten. To this part of Scripture 
 Josephus refers in the second book of his Antiqui- 
 
 e 2 
 
52 THE PASSOVER. 
 
 ties : but the Jews in general not observing the 
 paschal feast in its primitive institution, as al- 
 ready alluded to, make no distinction between 
 the first and last day of this solemn convocation ; 
 and therefore the differences arise chiefly on ac- 
 count of the abolition of sacrifice. 
 
 In this feast the Jews of Daghistan do not ob- 
 serve the ceremony of (>ran mya Beur Chamatz, or 
 npnn ?nn the search after leavened bread the even- 
 ing before the passover, like the Jews elsewhere. 
 They do not remove the utensils which they have 
 used throughout the year, nor do they immerse in 
 water for three days those which are to be used at 
 the feast. Elsewhere all domestic utensils undergo 
 a careful ablution ; not so among these. 
 
 The book riDD bw mrr "idd is unknown to them, 
 which contains minute directions to be observed 
 in the eating of the paschal lamb. They have 
 no cup of benediction : but after supper all the 
 males stand up, turn their faces towards the east, 
 and commence chanting the 113th, 114th, and 
 116th Psalms. These psalms are particularly 
 used throughout the feast, except the 113th, 
 which is omitted during the six days ; in which 
 they differ from their brethren scattered else- 
 where, who use the great Hallel ^rr. 
 
THE PASSOVER. 53 
 
 They observe with great scrutiny the eating 
 of unleavened bread during the six days, con- 
 sidering an infraction of this to merit death. 
 That sentence in the law rvo translated in the 
 English version " to be cut off" not being ex- 
 pressive enough of the signification which they, 
 in common with their brethren elsewhere, under- 
 stand to be conveyed by it. They abstain from 
 all labour on the first day of the feast and the 
 eighth day of the convocation ; but follow their 
 rural occupation in the intermediate time, (ex- 
 cepting, of course, the Sabbath.) On the eighth 
 day they repair to some locality in the mountains, 
 near a small building, where they go through 
 the same religious ceremony recorded in the ac- 
 count of their celebration of the Feast of Taber- 
 nacles.* 
 
 * Reference regarding the customs and observances of 
 the passover amongst the Jews elsewhere : Hilchath 
 Chametz ; Arbah Turim ; Orach Chaim ; Ball Aruch ; 
 Hilchath Kiddush Hachodesh ; Hilchath Jour Tov ; Hil- 
 chath Psachim ; En Jacob ; Berachath. 
 
54 
 
 THE FEAST OF WEEKS. 
 
 mynwn jn. 
 
 The second feast observed by the Jews of the 
 mountains is the Feast of Weeks. 
 
 This they commence p*3 unm iW) the new 
 moon of April, until the sixth day of the new 
 moon of June, *]vd, on which occasion the elders 
 in the various villages collect certain tithes of 
 the people. On the sixth day, in the morning, 
 the former assemble with the latter near a moun- 
 tain, and after a salutation they ascend to the top, 
 and there deposit their gifts. The people then 
 gather round their elders, and burn incense pro- 
 fusely ; after which the latter begin with a loud 
 voice to sing, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God 
 is one Lord, nnx rkv Whkn ffirV S*ntr> yew* 
 When all the people respond nriN nnx Trot One ! 
 one ! one ! an emphatic affirmation of the unity of 
 Jehovah. Several portions of the law are then 
 read, after which a fire is kindled, and a sheaf of 
 barley laid up from last harvest is thrown into it 
 and consumed. They then sit down to eat and 
 drink, crying out continually, nnx mrv God is one, 
 
FEAST OF WEEKS. 55 
 
 inx pNi Dttf, Heaven and earth is one. btnv* 
 in DV, All Israel is one people. 
 
 The Jews generally throughout the world ob- 
 serve the feast for two days ; those of Daghistan 
 but one. The former was adopted upon the 
 opinion of the Rabbis. {See Talmud: Treatise, 
 folio 86,) in which we find mention made of the 
 controversies which the subject has excited (un- 
 known to the Jews of the mountains.) Indeed it 
 is still an undecided question coucerning the 
 original observance of the new moon. 
 
 This feast is observed by the Jews elsewhere, 
 in commemoration of the giving of the law on 
 Mount Sinai. 
 
 In Daghistan it commemorates the reaping of 
 the harvest by the Israelites when in their own 
 land. How far the intention of the original in- 
 stitution is preserved by the latter, reference to 
 Leviticus xxiii. will decide. Nor do they, as their 
 brethren elsewhere, introduce this feast by the ob- 
 servance of a strict watch. (See Gemarrah, for the 
 feast of Pentecost.*) 
 
 * Prayers of Pentecost : Talmud Shabbath ; Hilchath 
 Talmud Torali ; Hilchoth Shevnath ; Medrosh Rabba. 
 
56 
 
 ninnn dv 
 
 FEAST OF TRUMPETS. 
 
 This feast is generally called by the Jews else- 
 where rtKtfn wm the beginning or the head of the 
 year. The Jews in Daghistan call it nynn Dv the 
 feast of Trumpets. It is observed on the first 
 day of the new moon in October nwn (Num- 
 bers xxiv.) On this day they assemble together 
 and blow a ram's horn, recite allegories, read a 
 portion of the law of Moses, and abstain from 
 labour as on the Sabbath day. 
 
 By other Jews on the first day of the month 
 Elel, b)bx which is the new moon in September, 
 preparation is made for the new year, which is 
 considered a day of judgment, in which the des- 
 tiny of each individual is fixed. The mountain 
 Jews of Daghistan simply regard it as a day of 
 the blowing of trumpets ; nor do they sound the 
 rams' horns every day in the month like their 
 brethren, but only on the day of the feast itself. 
 They are ignorant of the book nurSo from 
 which their brethren scattered abroad read every 
 morning, eight days before the feast of Trumpets. 
 
FEAST OF TRUMPETS. 57 
 
 They do not, as the others, make an especial con- 
 fession of sin at this season, and they are quite 
 ignorant of D*rm d>q> the days of terror observed 
 by their brethren. The practice of nox nap 
 visiting the graves of their fathers is not followed 
 by them ; nor have they any >*vh nayo liturgy for 
 that purpose, as provided by the Gemarrah. 
 (Taanith, folio 16.) They have no prayers called 
 mn^D "HD. Their dress exhibits no difference 
 from that used on other feast-days. The cere- 
 mony called fton casting away their sins, so 
 strictly observed by other Jews, founded on that 
 passage in Micah, (vii. 19,) " Thou wilt cast 
 all their sins into the depths of the sea," is 
 not practised by the Jews of Daghistan. An- 
 other observance is equally unknown, so common 
 elsewhere. This is rown d> rrwy the ten days of 
 repentance, rigidly observed by the Jews after the 
 new year until the day of atonement. They do 
 not call the sabbath preceding the day of atone- 
 ment rov^n r\w nor is any one sabbath dis- 
 tinguished from the rest throughout the year.* 
 
 * Regarding the laws for the new year, and the obser- 
 vances of the modern Jews, see Hilchath Rash Hashanali ; 
 Hilchoth Teshunah ; Shulchan Aruck ; Prayers for the new 
 
 year. 
 
58 
 
 THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. 
 
 This day is observed on the tenth of the seventh 
 month nwn which is in October. Males, females, 
 and even infants at the breast, abstain on this 
 solemn occasion from food of any kind, and even 
 the cattle are not fed. The fast commences at 
 sunset on the evening of the ninth, and termi- 
 nates next day at the same time. 
 
 The rules laid down in the law of Moses are 
 followed in Daghistan. (Leviticus xxiii. 27, xxv. 
 9.) They read portions of scripture from Levi- 
 ticus xvi., Exodus xxiii., Numbers xxix. 
 
 There is a custom observed by the remnant in 
 these mountains, which I am not aware is ob- 
 served anywhere else. On the morning of the 
 day of atonement, the males assemble together to 
 afflict themselves with various penances, and give 
 expression to their feelings in sighs, and lamenta- 
 tions, and groans. After about two hours spent 
 in this discipline, they proceed to a well or cistern 
 and draw water, pouring it on their heads and 
 
DAY OF ATONEMENT. 59 
 
 crying mn^ mri' 1 ?. This occupies from two to 
 three hours, when they cover themselves with dust 
 and ashes, and return to the place of convocation, 
 continuing their lamentations during the whole 
 day. At sunset they proceed to the well or cistern, 
 again draw water, and pour it on their heads 
 three times, crying, TO3 TOO tiDD, forgiven! for- 
 given! This finished, they dress in their best 
 apparel, instruments of music strike up cheerful 
 sounds, and running into each other's arms, em- 
 bracing and kissing, they cry out forgiven ! for- 
 given ! They return to their families from whom 
 they have been separated, and the feast termi- 
 nates in mirth and gladness. 
 
 What they understand by the outpouring of 
 the water, I was not able to learn. That it is an 
 ancient and scriptural custom, may be seen from the 
 first book of Samuel (vii. 6, 7,) where, on the oc- 
 casion of a humiliation, something similar is prac- 
 tised. " And they gathered together in Mizpeh, 
 and drew water, and poured it out before the 
 Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We 
 have sinned against the Lord." No doubt it is 
 a symbol, which, as it is twice repeated, signifies 
 in the one the overflowing of grief for sin, and of 
 
60 DAY OF ATONEMENT. 
 
 gratitude in the heart for the pardon of it, to the 
 Lord. 
 
 They have no other ceremonies on that or on 
 the previous day. They do not observe the reli- 
 gious custom of nriDD ttd atoning sacrifices, 
 considered of so much importance by their Jewish 
 brethren throughout the world : nor do they pay 
 nnsa pH>D the redemption of the atoning sacrifice. 
 They have no tribunal before which the Jews 
 elsewhere express their sorrow for offences against 
 their neighbours. The custom of eating before 
 the fast is unknown ; as also the making of two 
 wax candles, one called nraiOT "i3 candle for the 
 soul, the other "nso dv "tf candle for the day of 
 atonement ; and they have no traditions what- 
 ever generally connected with this great fast.* 
 
 * Reference regarding the observances of the Jews of 
 Europe, see Order of the Day of Atonement : Orach 
 Chaim ; Shulchan Aruck. Prayer for the day of Atonement. 
 
61 
 
 FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 
 
 rronn jn 
 
 The last and great feast is that of tabernacles, 
 niDD which they begin on the fifteenth day of 
 nvn October. This is a feast of great re- 
 joicing with them. During seven days they 
 remove from their abodes and live in huts. The 
 first day is kept holy like the sabbath. They as- 
 semble in the mountains and proceed in proces- 
 sion with various fruits, branches of trees, &c. 
 During the feast they follow their several em- 
 ployments. On the eve of the seventh day of 
 the festival, they resort again to their booths and 
 consecrate a new feast, constituting the eighth 
 day of the feast of Tabernacles. This is called 
 by them ^PNn jn the feast of the gathering of 
 harvest {See Exodus xxiii. 16; xxxiv. 22.) Early 
 in the morning of this day, every one strong 
 enough to carry a pitcher of water from the cis- 
 tern in the village used for sacred purposes, fol- 
 low the elders, with the people, to the mountains. 
 The former collect from the latter stalks of corn, 
 
62 FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 
 
 which they bind and constitute into a sheaf. 
 They go in procession with great solemnity, and 
 deposit the sheaf in a building used for sacred 
 purposes. Music, allegories, and the reading of 
 the law succeed each other, the people then 
 gather round the elders and unite in a loud chant. 
 The latter proceed to take the water from the peo- 
 ple, pouring it out, first in the direction of their 
 dwelling places, saying, " Do thou pour out thy 
 blessing upon us /" then, turning towards those 
 places where their enemies or oppressors are 
 supposed to exist, they pour out again, crying to 
 the Lord, " Pour out thine indignation upon all 
 the heathen, that they may know that thou art 
 the God of Israel." 
 
 What the ceremony of pouring out water may 
 here signify is to be ascertained from the Talmud. 
 It is a symbol of rain, for the Jews throughout 
 the world use this day a prayer called omr\ nbDn 
 prayer for rain, which is a part of the liturgy, and 
 is repeated in the second section of the eighteen 
 prayers until Easter rmy >3>oitf. The eighth day, 
 called by the Jews span jrr, is strictly kept accord- 
 ing to the divine command in Numbers xxix. 35. 
 
 They do not keep mm nnDttf the feast of the 
 law, nor do they observe the sixth day of the feast 
 
THE FESTIVAL OF INAUGURATION. 69 
 
 called ton royttfin, the great Hosanna, see 2nd 
 Maccabees x. 7. They have not the procession 
 with :nn citron, and zbti palm-leaves, nor the 
 ceremony of the D3oy3"iN which our great master 
 Aben Esri says are symbols of the relation be- 
 tween the Deity and the universe. They observe 
 only one day at the beginning, and one day at 
 the end, whilst the Jews throughout the world 
 observe two days at the beginning and two at 
 the end. They have no processions of the law, 
 nor the ceremonies of bridegrooms, to close and 
 to commence the reading of the law. 
 
 See Avadah Zarah Gemarrah Berachoth ; Hil- 
 chath Yam Tov ; Orach Chaim ; The Mishna. 
 
 THE FESTIVAL OF INAUGURATION. 
 
 This festival, which commemorates the rebuild- 
 ing f the temple, is celebrated by the Jews 
 throughout the world, and commences on the 
 25th day of the month Chisle, ^>pd, and is kept for 
 eight days. The remnant in Daghistan, however, 
 
64 THE FESTIVAL OF INAUGURATION. 
 
 are so much in ignorance concerning the past, 
 that they do not even know the meaning of the 
 word noun lights or inauguration. This is remark- 
 able ; for the modern Jews affix to this feast ano- 
 ther and very solemn origin ; namely, that it is 
 in commemoration of Jacob's wrestling with the 
 angel, and of his passing over the brook Jabbok. 
 From the testimony of Joseph us, however, we may 
 learn, that it has no remoter origin than the time 
 of the Maccabees, when the temple was inaugu- 
 rated on the 25th day of the third month, pre- 
 cisely three years after its profanation and pillage 
 by Antiochus. 
 
 The following is the account in the Talmud 
 on which this feast rests. {Treatise, Sabbath, 
 chap, ii.) 
 
 " When every preparation for the inauguration 
 was completed, no consecrated oil could be found 
 for the sacred lights, and the scrupulous Judas 
 justly feared to contaminate the purity of the 
 temple by using oil which had been defiled by 
 idolaters. In this strait, a small jar of oil, with 
 the seal of a former high priest, still inviolate, was 
 found ; and though the quantity which it con- 
 tained was barely sufficient once to light the 
 sacred lamps, yet, by the special blessing of the 
 
FAST DAYS. 65 
 
 Deity, it proved sufficient for the consumption of 
 a whole week, during which period new oil was 
 obtained and consecrated. " 
 
 This fully proves the origin of this feast, and 
 explains the term lights by which it is sometimes 
 known. The ignorance of the Jews of Daghistan 
 on the subject proves, in this as in other cases, 
 that their customs and religious ceremonies have 
 been handed down from a period prior, in this 
 instance at least, to the time of the Maccabees. 
 
 THE FEAST OF PURIM. 
 
 This festival is observed with great strictness 
 by the Jews on the fourteenth and fifteenth days 
 of Adar niK. It is also observed amongst the Jews 
 of Daghistan. It commemorates the deliverance of 
 that people from the sanguinary devices of 
 Haman. The decree of Ahasuerus, it will be 
 remembered, extended over one hundred and 
 twenty-seven provinces, and doubtless the de- 
 struction contemplated by the Jews' enemy was 
 not confined to those of the latter captivities, but 
 
66 FAST DAYS. 
 
 to that nation wherever the seed of Jacob was 
 found. But great differences exist in the manner 
 of celebrating it between Jews generally and 
 those locked up in the mountains on the Caspian. 
 They do not observe the fast day -inoy myn> like 
 their brethren elsewhere. The spirit and intent 
 of it have been greatly departed from by the 
 former. By the latter the institution is observed. 
 
 FAST DAYS. 
 
 The following fast days are observed throughout 
 the world by the Hebrew nation ; but form no 
 part of the religious observances of the remnant 
 in Daghistan. The seasons of humiliation pre- 
 scribed by the law of Moses are the smallest con- 
 stituent of the religious observances of the He- 
 brew nation. In consequence of natural trans- 
 gression the number of fast days increased. This 
 serves to show the delight which the Lord has in 
 the happiness and joy of his creatures. The 
 Mosaic economy was eminently social ; and if it 
 has lost this characteristic in any degree, the 
 
FAST DAYS. *>/ 
 
 fault is not in the dispensation but in those who 
 interpreted and altered it. 
 
 The following days are observed by the Jews 
 with the solemnity and strictness almost of the 
 day of atonement. 
 
 1st. nDn3 "rtfy nyattf, which is the seventeenth 
 of the fourth month, (viz. July,) instituted in com- 
 memoration of the destruction of Jerusalem at 
 the period of the great captivity, recorded in the 
 book of the prophet Jeremiah lii. 6, 7 ; Zechariah 
 viii. 19. 
 
 2ndly. nn nyitfn, which is the fourth day of the 
 fifth month, (viz. August,) appointed to com- 
 memorate the burning of the Temple ; for which 
 refer to Zechariah vii. 3, viii. 19. 
 
 3rdly. >S"rt Diif, which is on the third day of the 
 seventh month, (or October,) a fast appointed, 
 in memory of Gedaliah whose death it com- 
 memorates ; recorded in the prophet Jeremiah 
 xli. 4 ; Zechariah vii. 5. 
 
 4thly. mon mwy 9 which is the tenth day of 
 the tenth month, (January,) a fast instituted to 
 keep in remembrance the attack on Jerusalem, to 
 which there is reference in Zechariah's prophecy 
 (viii. 19.) 
 
 None of the preceding fasts are known or ob- 
 
 . 2 
 
68 THE SABBATH. 
 
 served in Daghistan. Nor have they any but the 
 great national one preserved in the law o!' Moses, 
 the day of atonement. I except, of course, those 
 occasional humiliations which they prescribe for 
 themselves on any casual affliction or calamity. 
 This they do. The absence, however, from the 
 roll, of the fasts observed by the Jews elsewhere, 
 is a striking proof of the habits of the Jewish 
 family previous to the captivity.* 
 
 THE SABBATH. 
 
 The Sabbath is the most remarkable observance 
 of the Jewish people ; one which distinguishes 
 and identifies them wherever they are found. If 
 the Jew, in his own person, fulfils his high calling 
 of witness of the existence and unity of Jehovah, 
 the return of the seventh day emphatically re- 
 minds every nation in the midst of whom that 
 people are scattered, of their sacerdotal character. 
 
 * References concerning the laws of the fast days for 
 modern Jews, see Hilchath Taanioth ; Hilchath Tishah 
 Baav Kinath, or prayers for fast days. 
 
THE SABBATH. 69 
 
 " Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a 
 sign between me and you, throughout your gene- 
 rations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that 
 doth sanctify you." (Exodus xxxi. 13.) The sim- 
 plicity and beauty of this institution is nowhere 
 better illustrated than in contemplating Israel in 
 his tents in the wilderness, gathering- his manna, 
 and enjoying himself in his God. Much of this 
 simplicity has been destroyed by the consequences 
 resulting from putting the traditions of men in 
 \he place of the commandments of God. In 
 Daghistan we have, as it were, a glimpse of what 
 the Sabbath was to the ancient Jews. It is not 
 commenced, as elsewhere, by ablutions, cutting 
 of nails, reading the Songs of Solomon and the 
 lessons usual for the seventh day, and preparation 
 of the food, the routine usually followed. It is 
 simply begun at sunset of the sixtli day by ex- 
 tinguishing the fires and putting out the lights. 
 (Exodus, ch. xxxv. v. 3, Ye shall not kindle a 
 fire on the Sabbath.) They remain in the coldest 
 and darkest weather without these; and have no 
 recourse, as other Jews, to the services ol Gen- 
 tiles to supply them with these; preserving in 
 their own persons the letter, and through stran- 
 gers destroying the spirit of the law. The ce- 
 
70 THE SABBATH. 
 
 remony of consecrating or blessing the light, 
 and taking a portion from the dough or bread 
 r\bn to be used on the seventh day is not 
 known to them. Their sanctification of the 
 Sabbath may be said to be illustrated by 
 them, as in those words, " Therefore he giveth 
 you on the sixth day the bread of two 
 days : abide ye every man in his place on the 
 seventh day." (Exodus xvi. 29.) " If thou 
 turn away thy foot from doing thy pleasure 
 on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, 
 the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt ho- 
 nour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding 
 thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : 
 then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." 
 (Isaiah lvii.,13, 14.) 
 
 It is remarkable, that as they are quite igno- 
 rant of the oral law and traditions followed by 
 the Jews elsewhere, and which enumerates thirty- 
 nine different species of occupations, from which 
 they consider themselves prohibited, {vide Talmud, 
 Sabbath, or Treatise, folio 73,) the Jews of 
 Daghistan observe all these prohibitions except 
 the last. This last is called p>ryy or nwy ; 
 which is a reservation of a permission to carry 
 loads from one house to another on the Sab- 
 
THE SABBATH. 71 
 
 bath-day. It is allowed by the following cere- 
 mony, practised by the Jews, being observed. 
 A cake which is called nvry is consecrated 
 and suspended in the synagogue. A string or 
 rope is extended from each corner of a street 
 where Jews live; and this is deemed to consti- 
 tute those embraced within the extremities of 
 the nrvy one family ; thereby evading the penalty 
 resulting from the prohibitory injunction. 
 
 If we refer to the prophet Jeremiah, (xvii. 
 21 27,) we find this is in direct opposition to 
 the word of Jehovah " Thus saith the Lord, 
 Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on 
 the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of 
 Jerusalem : neither carry forth a burden out of 
 your houses on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye 
 any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I 
 commanded your fathers/' Thus, in this impor- 
 tant respect, the Jews of Daghistan preserve 
 the institution according to its appointment before 
 the prophet in question was commanded to reprove 
 the Jewish people for infringing thus its sanctifica- 
 tion, which was after the captivity of the lost tribes. 
 
 They further differ from the Talmudists in the 
 following observances. The Jews throughout the 
 
72 THE SABBATH. 
 
 world abstain from those duties which necessity 
 and mercy justify, such as feeding cattle, milk- 
 ing, &c. 
 
 The day is to them a day of rest, and peace, 
 and cheerfulness, they dance, sing, and play on 
 instruments. These are of a religious nature, 
 expressive of religious emotions; but are ex- 
 pressly forbidden by the oral law or Talmud. 
 They spend the forenoon of the Sabbath in the 
 way described in the following scriptures, which 
 serve to illustrate their religious habits on that 
 day, better than any description of mine, See 
 Exodus; also 2 Samuel vi. 15. Psalm lxviii. 
 25, 26 ; cxlix. 3 ; cl. 4. 
 
 The afternoon is spent in a very profitable way, 
 quite unlike the Jews elsewhere. They resort to 
 the dwellings of their elders and of religious men, 
 who sit in their places of abode to receive the 
 visits of those who come to them, and instruct 
 them in the doctrines of their scriptures, and make 
 allegories of the law of Moses. This custom of 
 resorting to holy men on the Sabbath-day is a 
 very ancient one, as may be gathered from 2 Kings 
 iv. 23, practised long before the great captivities. 
 They surround these good men until sunset, who 
 
THE SABBATH. 73 
 
 pronounce the Sabbath to be ended ;* the women 
 kiss the hem of their garments, and the men the 
 hands of the elders. They then disperse to their 
 own dwellings and resume their occupations. 
 They know of no nHnn, which means conse- 
 crating the weeks, as their brethren elsewhere 
 after the evening prayer in the synagogue. 
 
 The consecration of the Sabbath on the sixth day 
 evening, is another observance worthy of remark. 
 After sunset, the whole family meet together in 
 one room, when the head of the family, after a 
 short prayer, reads the following passages of 
 scripture; the first chapter of Genesis, and tlie 
 first three verses of chapter the second ; Exodus xx. 
 verses 8 and 11 ; and then concludes by reading 
 with great solemnity Exodus xvi. from the 22nd 
 to the 30th verses. 
 
 This proves the consecration of the Sabbath 
 prior to the time of Moses, and not as some would 
 affirm, that it is an institution merely commemo- 
 rative of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. 
 The Sabbath consecrated by the children of Israel 
 throughout the world, is that day sanctified from 
 the beginning of the creation ; the abrogation of 
 
 Rabbinic Syhtem kilckoth Shablu.th. 
 
74 FUNERALS. 
 
 which I have never been able to see. I refer the 
 reader to Josephus against Appian* for the ori- 
 ginal institution of this holy day.f 
 
 FUNERALS. 
 
 A person when dying is visited by all his friends 
 and relations to take leave of him. The elders of 
 the place congratulate the dying man that his 
 journey is at an end, and his pilgrimage accom- 
 plished on the face of the earth. They encourage 
 him by reciting allegories and playing upon in- 
 struments, which they believe assist the spirit in 
 its migration from the body to the invisible world, 
 During the period of a last illness, they read to 
 those about to depart the fifteenth chapter of 
 Genesis, fifteenth verse, containing the Lord's in- 
 timation to Abraham of his dismission from the 
 body : Genesis xxxv. 25, the mourning of Jacob 
 for his son Joseph ; xlix. 29, the injunction of the 
 
 * Antiquities, b. 11, p. 39. 
 
 f Difference of observance of the Sabbath, see the Rabbi- 
 nical Laws, Arbab Turim ; Orach Chaim ; Hilchoth Shab- 
 bath. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE CORPSE. 7:"i 
 
 same patriarch in anticipation of his decease; 
 also Numbers xx. 24 26, and Deut. xxxii. 50, 
 wherein Moses and Aaron are reminded of their 
 mortality, the object evidently being to impress 
 the dying man with the solemn truth that it is 
 appointed unto all men once to die ; that his is no 
 extraordinary case, "the fathers, where are they? 
 and the prophets, do they live for ever?" In the 
 hour of dissolution and in the very article of 
 death, they resound in the ears of the dying man, 
 " Hear, O Israel, The Lord thy God is 
 One Lord !" They cry aloud several times, " Go, 
 sleep with thy fathers." They have no confession, 
 no uncleanness, no lights, like their brethren else- 
 where. 
 
 treatment of the corpse. 
 
 The nearest male relations close the eyes of the 
 corpse with a bandage ; they then wash it, dress 
 it in clean linen, and lay it in a dark room. They 
 then proceed to seek a place of sepulture. In 
 carrying the body to the grave, the children, 
 friends, relations, (male and female,) take the 
 
76 TREATMENT OF THE CORPSE. 
 
 lead in the ceremony ; the corpse being borne 
 by the elders of the place. A woman and a 
 young man precede the body singing praises, 
 with the accompaniment of instrumental music, 
 until they arrive at the place of interment, when 
 at once the scene, hitherto animated, changes 
 into one of the deepest affliction and mourning; 
 this is a very ancient practice, and might be 
 traced as far back as the days of Jacob. (See 
 Genesis xlvi. 4.) 
 
 A great lamentation is made, during which the 
 women smite themselves with their right hand on 
 the breast. When this is over, they lower the body 
 into the grave, dug three or four feet deep, during 
 which time the female relatives of the deceased tear 
 their hair and wound their faces with their nails. 
 The applications thus practised are not peculiar 
 to the Jewish people elsewhere. They are derived 
 by those of Daghistan from early times, which 
 may be seen by consulting Genesis 1. 3 ; Deut. 
 xxxiv. 8 \ 1 Samuel xxxi. 13 ; Amos v. 16, where 
 mention is made of those skilful in lamentation 
 being called to wailing. Also in Jeremiah ix. 20, 
 where it is written, " Hear the word of the Lore 1 , 
 O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of 
 his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and 
 
TREATMENT OF THE CORPSE. 77 
 
 every one her neighbour lamentation ; for death is 
 come up into our windows," &c. The corpse 
 being then interred without coffin or any other 
 ceremony, they depart to their houses. For 
 forty days (Sabbaths excepted) their neighbours 
 occasionally bring them food, which is called 
 D ! 3iN Drr? the bread of bitterness. During those 
 days the elders visit the mourners, to whom 
 the latter repeat, Alas, alas, my father, my 
 brother, my kinsman! They then indulge their 
 grief and sorrow.* 
 
 On the fortieth day, (excepting always Sab- 
 baths and feast days,) all the relations and friends 
 of the deceased go to the sepulchre, and carry 
 thither a stone or piece of wood, which is set up 
 as a monument. They depart in silence to the 
 house of the deceased. Their neighbours and 
 friends being gathered together, each one pro- 
 duces some provision, and they sit down to eat. 
 The elders of the place hand the mourners a cup of 
 
 * The modern Jews do not allow females to follow a 
 funeral or touch a male corpse, which they consider unclean, 
 nor do they permit women to visit the burial-ground during 
 their monthly period, of which custom the Jews in the Cas- 
 pian are ignorant. 
 
78 TREATMENT OF THE CORPSE. 
 
 wine or other liquor, which they call dd ran did 
 the cup of consolation, saying, " Take, drink, 
 and remember thy grief no more" 
 
 For scripture illustrations of the antiquity of 
 these customs, reference may be made to 2 Samuel 
 iii. 35, and Jeremiah xvi. 4 7, where the pro- 
 phet threatens that for the sins of the people, 
 " Neither shall men tear themselves for them in 
 mourning, to comfort them for the dead ; neither 
 shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink 
 for their father or for their mother." Should 
 any young man die unmarried, the virgins put on 
 sackcloth, and ashes on their head, for forty days, 
 with great lamentation. 
 
 I was also informed, that the chiefs of the Jews, 
 when dying, command their bodies to be burnt. 
 This is held in great abhorrence by the Jews 
 throughout the world ; and yet it was practised 
 in the time of King Saul and King Asa; and for 
 great men not to be burned was considered a 
 sign of inferiority and disgrace. In proof of 
 which, I have only to refer the attentive reader to 
 the following scriptures: 2Chron.xvi. 14; xxi. 19; 
 Jerem. xxxiv. 5; Amos vi. 10. 
 
 In respect of lamentation for the dead, they 
 are free from those ceremonies which characterise 
 
DEFILEMENTS. 79 
 
 the modern Jews, from sitting seven days on the 
 ground, and burning a light in commemoration of 
 the death, as a fast observed by the children 
 throughout their lives. No daily prayers for 
 eleven months after the decease of a parent 
 called mrv vnp> no cutting the garment called 
 
 imp.* 
 
 DEFILEMENTS. 
 
 After the birth of a son, the woman is unclean 
 for seven days ; and after the birth of a daughter, 
 for fourteen. This time is strictly observed with- 
 out intercourse of the sexes. 
 
 In this respect they differ from the Jews else- 
 where. The latter observe the days appointed 
 in the law of Moses. Thus in Leviticus xii. 4, 5 : 
 " And she shall then continue in the blood of her 
 purifying three-and-thirty days : she shall touch 
 
 * Regarding mourning and funerals among the Jews of 
 Europe, compare the Talmud Hilchath Avel ; Jorah Deah ; 
 Prayers for the Fasts ; Rash Hashanah ; Daily Prayers ; 
 Kaddish for the Deceased ; Prayers for the Feast of Taber- 
 nacles ; Hilchath Chibbeth Hakcver. 
 
SO DEFILEMENTS. 
 
 no hallowed thing, nor come unto the sanctuary, 
 until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. But if 
 she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean 
 two weeks, as in her separation ; and she shall 
 continue in the blood of her purifying three score 
 and six days." (Also Leviticus xv. 28.) This, 
 be it observed, however, is the time prescribed of 
 separation from holy things, from the sacrifices 
 of the Temple : nothing is said about matrimonial 
 connexion. The adoption of the lengthened 
 period, is one of those innovations which charac- 
 terise the oral law ; the contrast between which 
 and the written law, containing the primitive insti- 
 tutions and customs, has this Popish mark upon 
 it, that whereas the latter is moderate, wise, and 
 beneficent; the former is severe, ascetic, and dis- 
 ciplinarian. (See the Book of Defilements.) 
 
 There is another proof that the Jews on 
 the Caspian are original observers. Women 
 during their monthly period, or when labouring 
 under the disease denominated an issue of 
 blood, are unclean, and are only separated 
 from their husbands for three instead of 
 seven days. They do not observe the ce- 
 remonies attending the mpD customary amongst 
 the Jews throughout the world : nor are 
 
MARRIAGE. 81 
 
 they so particular in attending the baths at the 
 proper time. They generally after three days 
 wash in their houses, and observe none of the for- 
 mularies prescribed in the oral law. # 
 
 MARRIAGE. 
 
 Marriages are covenanted between the respec- 
 tive parties desiring union, by their parents, or by 
 their guardians, or the elders of the place. Four 
 or five witnesses are assembled, before whom 
 everything is agreed and confirmed by oath ; after 
 which presents are given to the brides brother 
 or relations. For the scriptural antiquity of these 
 customs, reference may be made to the book of 
 Proverbs (ii. 17,) where the covenant is alluded 
 to ; also to 1 Samuel xviii. 2, 3, 6, where David is 
 required to present for the daughter of Saul to his 
 proposed father-in-law a certain dowry, or rather 
 a substitute for it. 
 
 * See Practice of Washing and Baptism of the Modern 
 Jews. Orach Chaim ; Hilchath Berachath ; Hilchath Maak- 
 haloth ; Hilchath Accum ; Talmud Satah ; Gomara Nidda. 
 
 G 
 
82 MARRIAGE. 
 
 On the day of nuptials the bride visits the 
 bath and adorns herself in the richest dress and 
 most costly ornaments she possesses. Accom- 
 panied by her female relations, she goes to the 
 house of the bridegroom. The father, or elders of 
 the place, take the right hand of the bride and 
 put it into the right hand of the bridegroom. 
 The latter takes a silver ring and puts it upon her 
 ringer. The nuptial blessing is then pronounced, 
 and a numerous offspring invoked. This is the 
 simple ceremony, and the husband and wife sit 
 down to a feast. Genesis xxiv. 60, is an illus- 
 tration answerable to the manners of the Caspian 
 Jews. 
 
 Adultery nny "m is never heard of. After the 
 marriage rite, they are visited by all their 
 neighbours, who salute them in the following 
 manner : 
 
 mn> i*id. Thou blessed of Jehovah ! 
 
 ybjf mn> m-D. The blessing of Jehovah be 
 upon thee ! 
 
 >n mn. Be prospered, my Lord. 
 
 The bridegroom is saluted, 
 
 "py niir mn- The Lord prosper with thee. 
 
 These salutations are quite peculiar to the an- 
 cient Jews. 
 
MARRIAGE. 83 
 
 Divorce* is not known amongst the Jews of 
 Daghistan. 
 
 They have not the absurd notion of the doc- 
 trine of liberation as prescribed in Massecheth 
 Tebamoth Talmud, Moses Alschceh. They ob- 
 serve the Mosaic institution, that if one of two 
 brethren die, and have no child, the wife of the 
 dead shall not marry a stranger. Her husband's 
 brother takes her to him to wife as prescribed 
 in the law. (Deut. xxv. 5.) In case of refusal, 
 the wife of the deceased loosens her husband's 
 brother's shoe, and spits in his face, saying, 
 " So shall it be done to that man that will not 
 build up his brother's house." They have no par- 
 ticular shoe for that purpose like the modern 
 Jews.t See Talmudical laws for marriages, 
 Eben Haezer and Maimonides, Tract. Nesuen. 
 
 * Doctrine of divorce. (Deut. xxiv. 1.) Arbak Turira ; 
 Ibilchoth Gettin. 
 
 f See Rabbinic Laws for Divorce : Arbah Turim ; Hil- 
 chath Gittin ; Jad Hachazaka; Hilchath Gerushin; Gemara 
 Jbamoth ; Aben Haezer. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 rrVo nnn 
 
 CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 Circumcision is considered by the Jews of Da- 
 ghistan, as of those everywhere else, as a right of 
 the highest and most indispensable obligation, 
 that it cannot be delayed a single day beyond the 
 appointed time, were the child even sick to death. 
 This differs from the practice of the Talmudists. 
 The manner of practising the rite is, however, 
 very different from the custom of the Jews else- 
 where. It is as follows : 
 
 They cut simply the foreskin, which is called 
 rfrD mela ; they have not the nynD- This fact 
 alone is sufficient to prove the high antiquity 
 of their descent. The nynv was instituted at the 
 time of the Maccabees. See Yore Deah and Maimo- 
 nides, tract. Mela. The Jews who took part in 
 the Grecian games, and contended for prizes in the 
 gymnastic exercises of that people, had to appear 
 naked amongst them. The laws of those games 
 required the competitors to be perfect in bodily 
 parts; and their national rite was a hindrance to 
 the Hebrew. By a process, however, the defect 
 
CIRCUMCISION. 85 
 
 was remedied, the prepuce was restored, at least 
 partially, and they were thus enabled to enter the 
 lists. See Celsus, vol. viii. chap. 25. The second 
 operation, therefore, was instituted, which effec- 
 tually prevented the restoration of the prepuce, 
 and thereby an effectual barrier was put in the 
 way of the Jews to take part in the heathen 
 games. (See Talmud, Sanhedrim Gemarra Sab- 
 bath.) It is enjoined in the Talmud that the second 
 process must be observed. " By saying n^D 
 bn Kb l^'to nyno Kb) circumcision without is as 
 much as if there were no circumcision at all." 
 (Gemarra Sabbath, sec. 13.) 
 
 That the nb>n after circumcision has been 
 practised, may be renewed, is proved from the 
 book of Joshua, who was commanded to cir- 
 cumcise the people in the wilderness a second 
 time. In Daghistan it is by no means an un- 
 usual thing to submit to the rite a second time. 
 
 In the operation they differ alike from the Mus- 
 sulman (who also circumcises) and the Talmudic 
 Jews. The former draws the skin over and 
 presses the flesh, cutting as short as possible. The 
 latter, in addition, after the skin is cut, tears it 
 downwards, which prevents the possibility of its 
 growth again. The Jews of Daghistan simply 
 
86 CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 perform the rite agreeably to the word of God, 
 (Genesis xvii. 12,) by cutting the foreskin which 
 hangs over the fleshy part. 
 
 The operation is generally performed by the 
 father in the presence of the elders of the place ; 
 when they read a portion of the above chapter 
 and name the child. A feast concludes the cere- 
 mony, in which, however, the women cannot par- 
 ticipate. 
 
 By the above explanation, the apparently 
 unnatural operation of the ny^D is accounted 
 for : and though it is a departure from the sim- 
 plicity of the original institution, considering that 
 the object was to preserve it from evasion or in- 
 fraction, some allowance is to be made for the 
 solicitude of the Talmudists, whose zeal, if en- 
 listed in the higher requirements of the justice 
 and mercy and the love of God, would contribute 
 to raise the religious character of the nation to 
 that pre-eminence for which, doubtless, through 
 a peculiar and trying discipline, they are being 
 prepared. 
 
 They do not observe the consecration of the 
 wine after the circumcision of a child, as do their 
 brethren throughout the world. In administer- 
 ing this rite, strangers will observe a vacant chair 
 
CIRCUMCISION. 87 
 
 set during the operation of cutting. This the Tal- 
 mudists design for the prophet Elijah, who is 
 supposed to be visibly present during the observ- 
 ance. The Jews of Daghistan have no such no- 
 tion, consequently there is no chair. They do 
 not observe the ceremony of pn VTS) usually 
 attended to by their brethren elsewhere four 
 weeks after the birth. They suckle their chil- 
 dren from thirty to forty months, and they remain 
 under the charge of the mother till five years of 
 age ; afterwards the father assumes the authority 
 over the male children. A great feast is made 
 when the child is weaned ; an obviously ancient 
 and scriptural custom (Gen. xxi. 8 ; Exod. ii. 9 ; 
 1 Sam. i. 24,) not, however, common to the Jews 
 throughout the world.* 
 
 * They do not observe the custom of confirmation like 
 their brethren elsewhere, who confirm every boy at thirteen 
 years old, nor do they permit any parent to bring their chil- 
 dren with them on the holy convocation days, until they are 
 married, which they general are at an early age. Reference 
 to the Talmud : Orach Chaim ; Hilchath Tefilin ; 
 Jorah Deah; Hilchath Milah ; Bavah Metziah. 
 
88 
 
 GENERAL PROOFS. 
 
 D>T JI^IM 
 
 ABLUTIONS. 
 
 Daily practice of Washing. 
 
 These Jews do not wash before meat. They 
 do so after eating, more on account of cleanliness 
 however, as they use their fingers like other 
 orientals.* See the ordinances of washing. 
 
 SLAUGHTERING. 
 
 They observe none of the ceremonies minutely 
 
 * See Rabbinic laws for washing : Hilchoth Mikvaoth ; 
 Nileot Berachoth ; Talmud JBerachoth ; Orach Chaim ; Sotah 
 Rab, Zerika ; Daily Prayer. 
 
SLAUGHTERING. 89 
 
 attended to by their brethren elsewhere, in slaying 
 animals for food. They have no examination of 
 the knife ; no scrutiny of the inside. They have 
 none of the prescriptions of the Talmud ; they 
 simply cut the throat of the animal, and let the 
 blood run on the ground. The fat covering the 
 intestines ; the larger lobe of the liver, the kidneys, 
 and the fat upon them, are not eaten by them. 
 But they do eat the haunches of the animal, 
 from which their brethren throughout the world 
 abstain. They do not abstain from the whole 
 hinder part, like the Jews of Europe. (Gen. xxxii. 
 25, 32.) They do not observe the five essentials 
 in slaughtering animals. ' nbm m^WI HDTJ nTM 
 
 They do not wait until eight days for the kill- 
 ing of a kid or of a lamb, like the Jews else- 
 where : but they hold the killing of a calf in great 
 abhorrence. They do not know about the law nia^n 
 2brt2 nan concerning the use of meat boiled with 
 milk. They have no scruple to boil or fry butcher's 
 meat with butter ; but they strictly abstain from 
 boiling a kid with butter or milk. This I consider 
 to be the literal meaning of Exodus xxiii. 19. 
 "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's 
 milk." They use the same plates for all their 
 
90 SLAUGHTERING. 
 
 food, whether fish or flesh. They boil milk 
 as well as butcher's meat in the same pots ; 
 this being strictly prohibited by the rest of the 
 Jews throughout the world. They do not ob- 
 serve the many absurdities connected with the 
 killing and preparation of meat, before it can 
 be used ; such as soaking it for half an hour 
 in water, thrice pouring water over it, &c. &c, 
 which I shall treat of hereafter. They have 
 no Shoccoh,* or special man to kill their 
 meat. The first-born in the house has great pri- 
 vileges, and is looked upon as invested with 
 the priestly character. The scriptural antiquity 
 of this may be instanced by reference to the 
 book of Numbers iii. 12; xviii. 818. The 
 person who kills needs no special license ; all 
 these things are quite unknown to them ; their 
 origin dating from the age of the Great Synagogue 
 after the return from Babylon. The Rabbinic 
 laws concerning them, ntDTNtf. 
 
 They do not know the law concerning -jD3 ] wine 
 of libation. They possess no vineyards ; and drink 
 the wine manufactured by the Armenians and 
 
 * (See Talmud Benacho.) Jad Hachazakah ; Hilchath 
 Shechitah ; Jorah Deah ; Zevaeh Shemuel. 
 
PRAYERS. 91 
 
 Tartars. On all these heads they follow the 
 literal direction of the law of Moses free from 
 any Talmudic laws. 
 
 PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 They have no priest, nor any levite amongst 
 them ; they say that all the priests deserted them 
 when Jeroboam ordained such indiscriminately 
 from the tribes. See Josephus, vol. i. p. 438; 
 vol. ii. p. 443. # See also Lam. iv. 16. f 
 
 n^sjn mbrt 
 
 PRAYERS. 
 
 They do not constitute prayer-meetings often, 
 namely jmnttf nV?3.n. This shows the modern 
 character of this institution, and that the form of 
 prayer which is found in the present Jewish 
 Liturgy has its origin from Ezra and Josiah. 
 
 * When the priests left them, with whom the Sacred 
 Writings were deposited, they took all with them. 
 
 f Hilchoth; Talmud Tarah ; Hilchoth Mattnath Dnum. 
 
92 SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 
 
 (See Myellah and Maimonides in Tafhellah.) 
 They have no particular prayers on Monday or 
 Thursday ;* nor any rubric by which to regulate 
 their service. They use no phylacteries like those 
 worn by the Jews of Europe ; See y^^Tl *OH But. 
 they use slips of leather and parchment, on which 
 the same verses of Scripture are written, usually 
 inscribed on the phylacteries. These they gene- 
 rally wear round the arm as a sort of charm. 
 They do not observe the Mishnical rule in the 
 training of their children,^ nor do they attach 
 importance to the wearing the phylactery during 
 the daily morning prayer, like their brethren else- 
 where. See Talmud on Rabbi Abin ; Rabbi 
 Zutra bar Tobiah. 
 
 SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 
 
 They have not the Thirteen Articles of faith 
 like the Jews of Europe, nor anything like a 
 creed, or the oral law nS) byiW m\n, nor the 
 
 * See Morning Prayer. 
 
 f The time for the study of the Bible is at five years ; for 
 the Mishna ten. To be under the obligation of the law at 
 thirteen, and fifteen is the age for the study of the Talmud. 
 
SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 93 
 
 m^D mWttrbttn JTW ~W, six hundred and thir- 
 teen commandments. They are in possession 
 of several literary compositions, such as poems, 
 allegories, &c, but none that are common to their 
 brethren elsewhere. They are stricter in the 
 performance of their religious rites than the other 
 Jews of Asia. They have no synagogues, but 
 places such as we have mentioned under the head 
 of Sabbath. They wear fringes on the four 
 corners of their garments. 
 
 They do not call the Hebrew by the name 
 BJnpn ywb the holy tongue, but yw*? the language 
 of Israel ; and some call it the Hebrew' language, 
 nnnyn ywb. Nor do they attach any sanctity to it 
 like their brethren throughout the world ; who 
 hold it unlawful to teach a Gentile the Hebrew 
 characters. Their alphabetical characters bear 
 the impression of great antiquity, and these are 
 certainly the old or original Hebraic characters. 
 Grammar or pHp*?, the capacity of distinguishing 
 elementary principles, is not known amongst 
 them : and it is evident that the rabbinical writers 
 who valued the sacred Scriptures saw the impor- 
 tance of a grammar, and were certainly the in- 
 ventors of the grammar on the Hebrew language. 
 They call the Armenian language d*t^3 |w6, the 
 
94 SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 
 
 language of the Kashdim, and the Chaldean lan- 
 guage they call jtvd-in Aramite. They have no 
 knowledge of Syriac, Greek, Arabic, or of any 
 other of the primitive languages. 
 
 They are in possession of a few manuscript 
 copies of the law of Moses which are divided 
 into five books like ours, which they call the 
 Book of the Covenant, rv*n nDD according to 
 Exodus xxiv. 7. They are written in the 
 original Hebrew character, without any division 
 of chapters, sentences, or points ; which manu- 
 scripts they hold to be very ancient, and would 
 not part with them on any account.* No man 
 under thirty years of age is permitted to read 
 them, and I have been told by the individual 
 whom I sent expressly for the purpose of ex- 
 amining them, that their copies do not differ from 
 the Hebrew copies in our possession except in 
 two places ; namely, in the book of Deut. ch. 
 xxxiii., where the last blessing of Moses places 
 Judah after Reuben in our copies, and Simeon 
 is omitted altogether, whilst in their copies 
 Simeon and Levi are placed together, as in 
 the blessing of Jacob in Gen. xlix. 2nd. The 
 
 * I commissioned a Jew in Andrewa to purchase them for 
 any price, and hope to succeed in getting one. 
 
SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 95 
 
 last chapter of Deuteronomy is omitted altogether, 
 and the book concludes with the prophetic bless- 
 ing, " Happy art thou, O Israel : who is like 
 unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the 
 shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy 
 excellency? and thine enemies shall be found 
 liars unto thee ; and thou shalt tread upon their 
 high places." 
 
 From this it appears that they are in possession 
 of the original text of the book of the law of 
 Moses, for it is certain that the last chapter of 
 Deuteronomy was added after the death of Moses ; 
 but whether this chapter was added by Joshua, 
 or by the seventy elders, or by Ezra the scribe, 
 is a point which cannot be easily decided ; but 
 when we consider the Talmudical insinuations 
 regarding the divine origin of the oral law, and 
 the points, as having been handed down by Moses 
 on Mount Sinai ; we have reason to suspect that 
 the same authors who have introduced the di- 
 visions, points, pauses, and sections in the He- 
 brew Bible, have also written the last chapter in 
 Deuteronomy ; for it will be acknowledged that 
 none of the authors of Jewish literature, from the 
 time of Ezra until the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 
9G SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 
 
 have manifested such a zeal for their own law, as 
 the Talmudists of the fourth and fifth centuries 
 have done; and lam therefore inclined to conclude 
 that the great authors of that stupendous and 
 laborious work called the Massorah Finalis, are 
 also the authors of the addition of the last chapter 
 of Deuteronomy, and if not of the whole chapter, 
 at least of the last three verses. This is corro- 
 borated by the facts that many of the old editions 
 of the Hebrew Bible amongst the Jews in Georgia 
 come short in the calculation of the number of 
 letters it contains. That the copies of our Pen- 
 tateuch must have undergone a change by the 
 authors of the Massorah, is almost an incontro- 
 vertible fact, since it is evident that Josephus 
 must have read a copy of the law wherein all the 
 tribes were mentioned. See Josephus, vol. i. 
 book iv. ; Genesis xlix; Deut. xxxiii. 
 
 They are not in possession of cmt^n own} the 
 first prophets, which consist of Joshua, Judges, 
 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings, 
 and the last prophets, ^'nm* ow^j, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets. 
 
 They have not oaina the Psalms, Proverbs, 
 Job, Ruth, the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, 
 
SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 97 
 
 Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the two Books of 
 Chronicles ; but are in possession of a part of the 
 Book of Esther.* 
 
 They are in entire ignorance, with the rest of 
 their brethren elsewhere, of the existence of the 
 Apocryphal Books. 
 
 All the rest of their writings are in manu- 
 script; and until the Russians took possession 
 of Georgia, they had no knowledge whatever of 
 any printed or pointed book ; and even in the 
 year 1838, those with whom I associated, who 
 were considered to be the most intelligent among 
 the Jews in Daghistan, possessed an imperfect 
 knowledge of the vowels and points in our He- 
 brew Bible. This is another proof that the 
 Massorah, and the divers critical remarks upon 
 the punctuation, have not originally been accom- 
 panied with the text from Mount Sina ; nor can 
 they have been invented in the time of Ezra, for 
 
 * They are very anxious to get the Psalms of David ; and so 
 ignorant are they of the New Testament, that in the year 
 1837-8, when two of the Jews from Andrewa visited me and 
 saw the volume, they put it three times to their forehead 
 and three times to their mouth, and kissed it. I sold forty- 
 six New Testaments for a high price. See Bombay Auxi- 
 liary Bible Society's Report for 1839. They are free from the 
 hatred and superstitions of their brethren towards Christianity. 
 
 H 
 
98 PLACES OF ASSEMBLY 
 
 the Jews in Kurdistan, who have been in com- 
 munication with their brethren in Babylon and 
 Syria ever since the return from the captivity, 
 are still in a great measure ignorant of the points : 
 this fact is sufficient to show that they were not 
 invented by Ezra or even the Great Synagogue. 
 And, from the fact that all the traditions and 
 compositions that are found in the possession of 
 the Jews throughout the world are without the 
 points, we may safely conclude that the Masoretic 
 notes were first introduced by the doctors of the 
 school of Tiberias, and were perfected between the 
 ninth and eleventh centuries of the Christian aera, 
 which we shall prove hereafter in the fourth vo- 
 lume on the History and Origin of the Jews in 
 Spain. 
 
 PLACES OF ASSEMBLY FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES. 
 
 Their sacred places are called ybDD no the 
 ' House of Prayers,' which is the Araman phrase 
 for synagogue : they are not buildings set apart 
 for divine worship like our churches, but are used 
 as schools for children, places of conversation, or 
 any sort of assembly; as well as lodgings for 
 strangers. To these places they resort on festival 
 
FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES. 
 
 days, to receive religious instruction from the 
 elders ; and they may be traced to be the iden- 
 tical schools of the prophets and seers, where the 
 people assembled for religious worship and in- 
 struction. References, 1 Samuel x. 5 11; 
 xix. 1824; 2 Kings iv. 23. 
 
 These buildings somewhat resemble the ancient 
 Proseuchai, irpoaev^al, which were in existence at 
 the time of the Tabernacle and the Temple of So- 
 lomon, in the land of Israel. They are without any 
 door, and have an outer inclosure consisting of 
 four walls, which is entered by a stone gate. The 
 building consists of several apartments for stran- 
 gers, and one in which an earthen pitcher is 
 placed where their books are preserved, and Mus- 
 sulmans as well as other tribes are permitted to 
 lodge, and join in religious exercises with them. 
 After prayer they generally embrace each other 
 as friends : this is a very ancient custom, and 
 might be referred to Isaiah lvi. 7, 8 " Even 
 them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make 
 them joyful in my house of prayer : their burnt 
 offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted 
 upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called 
 an house of prayer for all people." " The Lord 
 God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, 
 
 H 2 
 
100 SCRIPTURES, LITERATURE, &C. 
 
 yet will I gather others to him, beside those that 
 are gathered unto him." 
 
 Another place of assembly, in which the Jews 
 in the mountains at the head of Andrewa as- 
 semble, is called the Tabernacle of Nab. 33 pit'D. 
 This is the name of the tabernacle which was 
 formerly erected in the tribe of Dan, and in which 
 the prophets assembled, and held schools. This 
 place is a small building, generally surrounded by 
 a few trees, and built on a hill. At this place the 
 people of the villages assemble for music and 
 dancing ; perhaps it has the same origin as the 
 school mentioned, 1 Samuel xix. 18. 
 
 A third place of assembly is found north of 
 Andrewa, situated on the Koisoo river, which 
 takes its rise in the Caucasian mountains, flows 
 into the Atala river, and empties itself into the 
 Caspian Sea. The place is called rrrtf dipd, the 
 tabernacle Shiloh. To this place Jews from all 
 quarters of Daghistan resort on the three great 
 festivals; and it is very remarkable that this is 
 the only place from which females are prohibited. 
 May this not be a representation of the national 
 sanctuary or tabernacle which was erected in 
 Shiloh in the tribe of Ephraim, where all the 
 male population assembled three times a year ? 
 
MODES OF SALUTING STRANGERS, &C. 101 
 
 Here prayers are offered up, the cornet is blown, 
 and allegories are recited ; and the congregation 
 are blessed with the benediction prescribed by 
 Moses, (Numbers xxiv. 26 ; Deut, xxvi. 10 15.) 
 The Jews of Daghistan are in general very 
 hospitable; and if any stranger of their own sect, 
 whom they call neighbours, jri, approaches them, 
 he is immediately invited and sumptuously treated, 
 and may remain as long as he likes; and if any 
 other happens to come at the time when the 
 house of an elder is thus occupied, they will lodge 
 him who had first arrived, in the place of as- 
 sembly above-mentioned ; where the village will 
 send him plenty of provisions. 
 
 MODE OF SALUTING THE STRANGER, AMONG 
 THE JEWS IN DAGHISTAN. 
 
 The words used in salutations differ from those 
 of the rest of their brethren throughout the world. 
 On meeting the stranger they salute him by say- 
 ing, mrv Too, " thou be blessed of Jehovah." To 
 which the stranger replies, -j>ty mn nmn, " the 
 blessing of Jehovah be upon thee." 
 
102 MODES OF SALUTING STRANGERS, &C. 
 
 They do not refrain from work during the four 
 days of the Feast of the Tabernacles and the 
 Passover, and the two days in the Feast of Weeks, 
 and two days in the feast of the seventh month, 
 which is acknowledged to be a rabbinical institu- 
 tion. Reference to the above you will find in 
 Hilchoth Youn Tov. 
 
 All differences between them are decided by 
 the nnx >nn, " father of the house ;" and if any 
 matter of importance occurs which the father of 
 the house cannot settle, they bring it before the 
 my wtw, " chiefs of the community," who decide 
 everything in the congregation. This appears 
 to be exactly the Hebrew republic instituted by 
 Moses. (See Numbers i. 2 ; xvi. 2.) This seems 
 also to have been the mode of administering 
 justice, and arranging matters, even during the 
 time of the kings. For we find that war was 
 carried on by certain tribes both before and after 
 the establishment of the regal authority. (See 
 Joshua xvii. 15, 18; Judges iv. 10; xviii. 20; 
 1 Chron. v. 18, 22.) 
 
 They believe in, and are positive of, their 
 future restoration to the land of their forefathers 
 they expect a temple in Jerusalem and the resto- 
 
OF THE JEWS IN IMIRITI. 103 
 
 ration of the sacrifices according to the order of 
 the law of Moses. 
 
 The above, I trust, will be sufficient to es- 
 tablish our claims to the discovery of the remnant 
 of the lost Ten Tribes which were carried away 
 into captivity by the king of Assyria, and planted 
 in Halah and Habur by the river of Gozen and 
 into the cities of the Medes. (See 2 Kings xviii. 
 11.) 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE JEWS IN IMIRITI. 
 
 The Jews of Imiriti come next under our obser- 
 vation, and are placed in the list next to their 
 brethren of Daghistan. They are scattered all 
 over the country in abject slavery. Their lives, 
 their persons, and their property, have hitherto 
 been at the absolute disposal of their masters, for 
 whom they have to labour during their lifetime. 
 Formerly their masters sold their daughters to 
 the Persians for slaves,* but since the Russians 
 
 * To prevent their daughters being taken for concubines 
 
104 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 took possession of that country, their condition 
 has been somewhat improved. The power of 
 capital punishment is taken from their masters, 
 and they enjoy at present the same rights as the 
 rest of the serfs in Russia, with the exception that 
 the master can sell a Jew, his slave, at any time 
 he pleases, but not out of the country. They 
 are in general very ignorant, and have no means 
 of educating their children. They do abstain 
 from all labour on the Saturday, except when 
 they are compelled to work by their taskmasters, 
 which is very seldom the case, as they are in 
 general very profitable to their masters in trade, 
 which they carry on by a license from their mas- 
 ters for a specified time, in the province of their 
 captivity. 
 
 In the capital of Imiriti (which is Kotais,) there 
 are about nine hundred families of Jews ; some of 
 them are free, but the most of them are slaves, and 
 belong to the noblemen about the province; they 
 have no written history nor printed books of any 
 great age, except such as they have received from 
 the Russian Jews. Their oral tradition says 
 that they have come there by ships from the land 
 
 by their masters, they have adopted early marriages, and 
 unite their children between eight and ten years of age. 
 
THE JEWS IN IMII11TI. 105 
 
 of Judea, and have been sold as slaves to the an- 
 cestors of their present masters. They have one 
 place of worship, and two rules of the laws of 
 Moses, and some parts of the liturgy and hymns 
 common amongst the Jews in Poland, which was 
 introduced into Kotais about twenty years ago 
 by the Russian Polish Jews, who penetrated into 
 that country with the Russian army. They have 
 no traditions of any kind, and are as strict in 
 their observance of the Sabbath as their brethren 
 in the mountains near the Caspian. They have 
 no other place of worship in all Imiriti, and are 
 as ignorant of the laws, ceremonies, and obser- 
 vances prescribed in the Talmud, as their bre- 
 thren above mentioned. Their women do, how- 
 ever, observe minutely the time for purification 
 prescribed by the law of Moses, and are as scru- 
 pulous regarding ablution, &c, as the rest of their 
 sisters in Poland. I have been told as a certain 
 fact, that the Jewish women in Imiriti would, in the 
 coldest winter day, go to bathe in the river, 
 though covered with ice at the time. There are 
 altogether about fifteen or sixteen thousand fami- 
 lies in Imiriti. 
 
 The Jews in Aklialtsikhe are similar to those of 
 Imiriti, but are somewhat more enlightened. In 
 
106 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 their observances they do not differ from them. 
 Their physiognomy and features prove them to 
 be of the same origin. 
 
 The Jews of Kakheti and Shaky are not so ig- 
 norant as their brethren in Imiriti: they are gene- 
 rally merchants, and live in towns in great num- 
 bers : they have their own places of merchandise, 
 where they carry on a trade in silks. There 
 are many villages inhabited by Jews, who share 
 with their Mussulman neighbours the profits of 
 the sale, which can at any time be but very little 
 under the Russian government. They have a 
 few schools, but books are very scarce; they pos- 
 sess a few traditions common amongst the Jews 
 in Persia : they are not serfs like their brethren 
 in Imiriti, and often leave their place of abode for 
 the towns : they are reputed an honest, but poor 
 class of people. Their women are proverbial for 
 chastity ; and I have been credibly informed by 
 a Russian general, and an Armenian bishop, that 
 some of them, when taken captives by the Per- 
 sians, have precipitated themselves headlong into 
 the river, rather than submit to their captors.* 
 
 * We ought here to contrast the conduct of some uf the Lu- 
 theran females during the time of the Persian war : some of 
 the wives of those colonists were taken captive, and though 
 
THE JEWS IN IMIRITI. 107 
 
 Except goldsmiths, there are no artificers 
 among the native Jews; and in the whole country 
 of Kartaline, Somaketia, and Ganja, there are 
 about nine thousand families of native Jews, who, 
 with the exception of a few traditions which they 
 have gathered from Jews of Persia, and a few 
 whole copies of the Bible from the Jews of Russian 
 Poland, are as ignorant, and in as abject a state 
 of slavery, as the Jews of Imiriti. 
 
 This discovery of the Ten Tribes at the 
 present important crisis must appear a won- 
 derful event. The preservation of them through 
 so many ages, in the very heart of their ene- 
 mies, must be acknowledged as a most signal act 
 of Divine Providence ; and we need no stronger 
 or more convincing proof of the time of their 
 restoration being at hand, when they shall be 
 taken from the place of their interment for near 
 two thousand five hundred years, and be restored 
 to their own land, to share with their brethren of 
 
 they had an offer from the Russian authority in Tabreez to 
 return to their homes, yet they preferred to be the wives 
 of poor Mussulman gardeners, than of their own christian 
 husband*. The one with whom I spoke lived out of town, 
 
 and has three children 1\ her Mussulman husband. 
 
108 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 the house of Judah the splendour of the Messiah's 
 kingdom. No people on earth have been scat- 
 tered, like rain in an immense body of waters, 
 amongst the nations like them ; and yet they still 
 live distinct : and though the distinction of the 
 tribes and families is in a great measure lost 
 among them, yet they have preserved their na- 
 tional character as the Israel of God. 
 
 Whatever difficulty and perplexity there may 
 exist in the chronological records of their tribes, 
 one thing is sure, they have been preserved for 
 the great day, which is now fast approaching, 
 when the Lord shall stretch forth his hand, to re- 
 deem his people a second time. " And say unto 
 them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will 
 take the children of Israel from among the hea- 
 then whither they be gone, and will gather them 
 on every side, and bring them into their own land. 
 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given 
 unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have 
 dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they, and 
 their children, and their children's children for 
 ever, and my servant David shall be their prince 
 for ever." (Ezekiel xxxvii. 21, 25.) "Then 
 shall they know that I am the Lord their God, 
 which caused them to be led into captivity among 
 the heathen : but I have gathered them into their 
 
THE JEWS IN IMIRITI. 109 
 
 own land, and have left none of them any more 
 there. Neither will I hide my face any more 
 from them : for I have poured out my spirit upon 
 the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." (Ezekiel 
 xxxix. 28, 29.) 
 
 I trust that all conjectures regarding the Ten 
 Tribes are at an end, for we have found their 
 hiding-place, and shall give their history at large, 
 if the Lord permits it. 
 
 Comfort for Israel. 
 
 1. Comfort , Comfort ye my people, saith your God: 
 
 2. Speak ye kindly to Jerusalem, and declare unto her, 
 That her warfare is completed that her iniquity is par- 
 doned 
 
 That she shall receive from the hand of Jehovah, 
 Double after all her offences. 
 
 3. A voice proclaimeth in the Wilderness ! 
 Prepare ye a way for Jehovah : 
 
 Make straight in the desert a highway for our God! 
 
 4. Let every valley be upraised; and every mountain and 
 
 hill made low : 
 Let the crooked become straight; and the rough places 
 plain ! 
 
 5. Then shall the glory of Jehovah be discovered ; 
 And all flesh shall see it together, 
 
 For the mouth of Jehovah speaketh. 
 
 6. A voice" say et h : Proclaim I 
 
110 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 And I said : What shall I proclaim ? 
 Every flesh grass ! Yea, all its goodness like a flower of 
 the field ! 
 
 7. Grass withereth ! A flower fadeth away ! 
 When the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it. 
 Verily the people are grass ! 
 
 8. Grass may wither ! A flower may fade away ! 
 But the word of our God will stand for ever. 
 
 9. On a lofty mountain get thee up, O messenger of Sion ! 
 Elevate thy voice with strength, O messenger of Jeru- 
 salem ! 
 
 Lift it up ! Be not afraid ! 
 
 Declare to the cities of Judah : Behold your God ! 
 10. Behold, the Lord Jehovah against a strong one shall 
 come; 
 And his arm shall prevail over him. 
 Behold his reward with him ; and his work before him ! 
 
 11. Like a shepherd he will feed his flock; 
 
 In his arm he will gather up the lambs, 
 And in his bosom carry them : the nursing ewes he 
 will gently lead. 
 
 12. Who hath measured seas in the hollow of his hand : 
 Or meted out Heaven by a span ? 
 
 Or comprehended with a measure the dust of the earth? 
 Or weighed mountains in scales : or hills in balances ? 
 
 13. Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah; 
 
 Or one of his council, hath given him knowledge ? 
 
 14. Whom consulteth He, that he should instruct Him : 
 That he should teach Him in the way of judgment : 
 That he should cause Him to learn knowledge ; 
 
THE JEWS IN IMIR1TI. 1 1 1 
 
 Or make him to know the way of understanding ? 
 
 15. Behold ! nations are like the drop of a bucket : 
 Even as the small dust of balances are they reckoned ! 
 Behold ! islands he taketh up as an atom ! 
 
 16. Even Lebanon is not enough for a fire ; 
 Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering ! 
 
 17. All the nations are like nothing before Him : 
 
 They are esteemed by Him less than nothing and vanity ! 
 
 18. To whom therefore will ye liken God : 
 
 Or what resemblance will ye prepare for him ? 
 
 19. The workman casteth an image, 
 
 And the smith overlayeth it with gold, 
 He also forgeth chains of silver. 
 
 20. He that is frugal in oblation, chooseth wood that will 
 
 not rot, 
 A skilful artist he procureth for himself, 
 To erect an image that may not be moved ? 
 
 21. Will ye not know ? Will you not hear ? 
 Hath it not been told you from the beginning : 
 
 Have ye not understood from the foundations of the 
 earth ? 
 
 22. Who sitteth upon the circle of the earth : 
 And the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers? 
 Who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain : 
 And extendeth them like a tent to dwell in ? 
 
 23. Who reduceth princes to nothing : 
 
 Judges of the earth he maketh as emptiness ! 
 
 24. Yea, they are not planted they are not even sown : 
 Indeed their stock does not take root in the earth : 
 For if He blow upon them they instantly wither, 
 
112 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 And a whirlwind bears them away like stubble ! 
 
 25. To whom then will ye liken Me : 
 
 Or shall I be equalled, saith the Holy One ? 
 
 26. Lift up on high your eyes 
 And see who hath created these ? 
 
 Who bringeth forth their armies by number : 
 
 Who calleth to them all by name : 
 
 Through the greatness of strength and might of power, 
 
 Not one can be separated ! 
 
 27. Wherefore wilt thou say, O Jacob, or speak, O Israel : 
 My way is hidden from Jehovah : 
 
 And my judgment is passed over from my God ? 
 
 28. Hast thou not known ? Or, hast thou not heard ? 
 The God of eternity Jehovah 
 
 The Creator of the extremities of the earth- 
 Can neither faint, nor even be weary : 
 And that his understanding is unsearchable ! 
 
 29. He giveth strength unto the fainting ; 
 
 And to those not strong he increaseth strength. 
 
 30. Yea, young men may become faint and wearied ; 
 And chosen ones stumble and fall. 
 
 31. But those trusting in Jehovah shall obtain new strength ; 
 They shall ascend the wing like eagles ; 
 
 Run shall they, and never be wearied ; 
 They shall march onward and not faint. 
 
 Critica Biblica, vol. iv. 
 
m 
 
 THE JEWS IN BOMBAY. 
 
 As so much has of late been said regarding the 
 Black Jews of Cochin and the Beni Israel of Bom- 
 bay, I ought to say something on this subject ; 
 and having page to spare, the following result 
 of my investigation on that head, I trust will not 
 be out of place. 
 
 1st. The Beni Israel in Bombay I believe to 
 be the original descendants of Fatur, the son of 
 Ishmael, who belong to the class of proselytes 
 called pitf nj and were admitted into the 
 Jewish church by the rite of circumcision only, 
 during the reign of Aristobylas when he made war 
 on them, and left them no choice but either to 
 leave the country or to submit to the ceremony of 
 circumcision : they have nothing in common 
 with the ceremonies of the Jewish proselytes in 
 Cochin ; their observances, besides circumcision, 
 may be comprised in what is called the precepts 
 of Noah, viz. m nfD. 
 
 1st. They abstain from idolatry. 
 
 2nd. They teach the worship of one true God. 
 
 3rd. They hold incest in great abhorrence. 
 
 4th. They never have been known to commit 
 homicide. 
 
1 14 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 5th. They never have been known to be thieves 
 or robbers. 
 
 6th. They hold a murderer punishable with 
 death. 
 
 7th. They abhor the eating of blood, and any- 
 thing that is strangled. 
 
 This statement shows plainly that their assertion 
 that they are of the Ten Tribes is unfounded, 
 since their circumcision is not that of the Jews, but 
 of the Mussulmans ; and the non-observance of the 
 Sabbath according to the Mosaic law would lead 
 me to reckon them amongst the class of prose- 
 lytes, who in the time of Moses worshipped the 
 one true God, while at the same time they alto- 
 gether refused to observe the laws of Moses. 
 Numbers x. 29 ; Judges i. 16, iv. 11 ; 1 Sa- 
 muel xv. 6; Jer. xxx. 6. 
 
 They do not observe any of the Mosaic ordi- 
 nances, such as are commanded in Levit. xii. 4, 
 5, and are strictly observed by every Jew. Nor 
 do they observe any ordinance either of the oral 
 or the written law. Their women are natives of 
 the country, and keep the ordinances and statutes 
 during their monthly period. # Every family 
 
 * They did not originally observe the Mosaic ceremony, 
 and even now they do not undergo ablution with water, 
 
THE JEWS IN BOMBAY, &C. 115 
 
 has a private place where an image of a serpent 
 is preserved. Travellers, or single men who 
 have no private room for themselves, have 
 the image of the serpent pasted upon the in- 
 side of the lid of their chest. The respect- 
 able families have a little image of a serpent 
 placed over the door in their private apartments, 
 and a lamp is burning before it continually. 
 They will bow towards it before and after 
 meat. They are very anxious to conceal from 
 Europeans the worship of this image, and 
 try to persuade such casual visiters as might 
 be inclined to favour their assertion, that they 
 are a remnant of the Ten Tribes. Their com- 
 plete history will appear under the heads of the 
 history of the Ethiopian and Abyssinian prose- 
 lytes to Judaism. 
 
 2nd. The Jews of Cochin emigrated after 
 the destruction of the second temple, be- 
 tween the second and third century of the chris- 
 tian era. 
 
 3rd. The Black Jews are none other than the 
 proselytes made from their slaves, by virtue of 
 their privileges under the Malabar kings, which 
 they possessed as late as the year 1834; for 
 during my stay at Cochin, I witnessed the cere- 
 
 i 2 
 
116 AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 mony of circumcision of two adult Portuguese, 
 and the baptism of two native females. Farther 
 information regarding them will appear in the 
 complete History of the Jews. 
 
 4th. The Jews of China are none other but 
 the descendants of the Jews in Cochin, who 
 emigrated after the destruction of the second 
 temple, and have been separated from their 
 brethren in Cochin since the year 1600 of the 
 Christian era, 
 
 5th. The Jews of Yemen are the descendants 
 of the numerous robbers dispersed under the reign 
 of Herod the Great, and who took possession of 
 the country between the fourth and fifth centuries 
 of the Christian era. 
 
 6th. The Jews of Abyssinia are the descend- 
 ants of the numerous slaves who were proselytes 
 at the court of Solomon, and presented to Queen 
 Sheba ; emigrated to that country long before the 
 Babylonish captivity. 
 
 7th. The Jews of Hadjirah, or near the moun- 
 tains, are the descendants of the Rechabites, who 
 have their origin from Habub, the father-in-law of 
 Moses. 
 
 8th. The Jews in Persia are a mixture of all 
 tribes, but the majority belong to the Ten Tribes. 
 
THE JEWS IN BOMBAY, &C. 117 
 
 9tli. The Jews of Georgia are the remnant of 
 the half tribe of Manasseh. 
 
 10th. The Jews near the Caspian are the de- 
 scendants of the tribes of Gad and Dan. 
 
 11th. The Jews of Bockara and Turkistan are 
 the remnant of the mixed multitude, that came 
 with Queen Helena and her son from Jerusalem. 
 
 The rest of the Jews in Asia, including Syria, 
 Mesopotamia ; and in Europe, viz. Italy, Spain, 
 &c, are all descendants of the two tribes of Judah 
 and Benjamin. I shall trace the time of their 
 arrival in each country, with their present posi- 
 tion, their customs, and manner, &c, in the com- 
 plete history of the Jews. 
 

 The Author begs to draw attention to the following Notices 
 respecting the Society referred to in the annexed Appendix. 
 
 Notice. This Society has been formed in London, not to 
 have control over the Missionaries, or the affairs of the In- 
 dian Association, but merely to identify the credentials of 
 their Agents to the British public ; and to collect subscrip- 
 tions for the furtherance of the cause. 
 
 Note. To prevent many disorders, troubles, and expenses, to which 
 Institutions are subject, the agent of the Indian Association will not 
 recognise any societies with a standing committee ; except treasurers 
 or collectors, in the chief places of England, and who will remit the 
 subscriptions, when such shall have accumulated to five pounds, to 
 Messrs. Smith, Payne, Smith, and Co , Bankers. 
 
 A collector or subscriber of five pounds annually will be considered 
 a member of the Indian Association ; and a secretary appointed as the 
 medium of communication between England and India, shall have 
 power to call a committee of any of the members, in the place which 
 he may happen to visit. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 British Society for promoting the Spiritual Welfare of the 
 Jews throughout India, Persia, and Arabia, in aid of 
 the Indian Association, established in Bombay. 
 
 Henry Cremer, Esq., 40, Lime Street, Fenchurch Street. 
 
 SSanturg. 
 Messrs. Smith, Payne, Smith & Co., Lombard Street. 
 
 i^onoravg jtecutarg. 
 
 L. H. J. Tonna, Esq., United Service Institution 
 (Pro tern. J 
 
 ommtttee. 
 
 The Rev. John Cumming, 
 
 M.A. 
 The Rev. T. Boys. 
 The Rev. Monro, M.A. 
 Henry Blanshard, Esq. 
 Captain Cotton, R.A. 
 Captain Layard, late 97th. 
 A. Turnbull, M.I). 
 George Bogue, Esq. 
 
 Henry Cremer, Esq. 
 
 S. Dennis, Esq., Bank of 
 England. 
 
 Richard King, Esq., Pay- 
 master General's Office. 
 
 E. J. Longley, Esq. 
 
 L. H. J. Tonna, Esq. 
 
 James Mondeau, Esq. 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 xMINUTES OF PRELIMINARY MEETINGS, 
 
 AND 
 
 FORMATION OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 At a Meeting of Gentlemen interested in behalf of Israel, 
 held in the Committee Room, Exeter Hall, on the Evening 
 of Wednesday, September 16th, 1840. 
 
 Henry Pownall, Esq. in the Chair. 
 
 The Meeting opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Simpson. 
 The Rev. Jacob Samuel, having laid on the table several 
 documents and credentials, (vide page J *24, ) addressed the 
 meeting at some length, giving an account of his labours in 
 the East, and of the mode of procedure adopted by the Society 
 in Bombay, in connexion with which he had hitherto laboured ; 
 and concluded by stating that the object of his present visit 
 to England, in compliance with the wishes of the Bombay 
 Society, was to endeavour to extend the operations amongst 
 his Jewish brethren in the East, by sending out more mission- 
 aries to occupy the large field in the Lord's vineyard now 
 waiting for labourers. 
 
 The Meeting were occupied until a late hour, and adjourned 
 without passing any resolutions. 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 At a Meeting held in the Committee Room, Exeter Hall, on 
 the Evening of Friday, October 9th. 
 
 Captain H. L. Layard in the Chair. 
 
 The Chairman opened the Meeting with prayer. 
 
 After some discussion on the principles of the Society in 
 Bombay, it was resolved 
 
 " That Dr. Hodgkins, Dr. Fisher, Capt. H. L. Layard, 
 and Lewis Tonna, Esq., be requested to act as a Sub-com- 
 mittee, for the purpose of drawing up a Report, explanatory of 
 the objects and the principles of the ' Indian Association for 
 Promoting the Welfare of the Jews in India, Persia, and 
 Arabia, 1 to be submitted to a future meeting of the friends of 
 this cause." 
 
 Capt. Cotton, R. A., having asked for a blessing on their 
 labours, and those of the Sub-committee, 
 
 The Meeting then adjourned. 
 
 At a Meeting held at No. 5, Beaufort Buildings, on the 
 Evening of Wednesday, October 21st. 
 
 The Rev. T. Boys in the Chair. 
 
 The Chairman opened the Meeting with prayer. 
 The Report of the Sub-committee appointed at the last 
 Meeting was read, vide page 124: 
 
 Upon which it was Resolved 
 
 First. * That this Meeting, having heard the Report of 
 the Sub-commit tic, do hereby express the strong sense they 
 entertain of the importance of the field of labour now opened 
 for the first time to the Missionary of the Gospel, and that 
 the Meeting da hereby pledge themselves* by divine help, to 
 
122 APPENDIX. 
 
 do all in their power to aid in carrying forward the glorious 
 and blessed work of spreading the knowledge of the true 
 Messiah amongst these sons of Abraham, outcast and scat- 
 tered, throughout India, Persia, and Arabia." 
 
 Second. It was resolved, 
 
 "That this Meeting, desiring to take part in this work of 
 faith and love, and to walk hand in hand with their brethren 
 in India, do hereby form themselves into a Society, to be de- 
 nominated 'The British Society for Promoting the 
 Spiritual Welfare of the Jews in India, Persia, and 
 Arabia, in aid of the Indian Association.'' " 
 
 Third. It was resolved, 
 
 " That this Meeting, in conveying their congratulations 
 to the Members of the Indian Association for their past 
 exertions, desire, in the first place, to lift up their hearts 
 in devout gratitude and thankfulness to the God of Israel, 
 for the seal he has been pleased to put upon their work ; 
 and as they feel the fullest confidence in their brethren 
 in India, to whom, under the Lord, the honour is due of 
 having first commenced this glorious undertaking, they are 
 of opinion that, in organizing themselves into a Society, they 
 will most effectively farther the work by leaving the manage- 
 ment of the Mission in the hands of the Indian Association, 
 who have given evidence that, from their local knowledge and 
 experience, they are well qualified to conduct its affairs. 
 The sole object, therefore, of the Society now formed will be 
 to obtain funds for the furtherance of the work, and to form a 
 medium of communication between their brethren in India 
 and the Christian public in England. 
 
 Fourth. It was resolved, 
 
 " That this Meeting do entertain the highest confidence in 
 the zeal and devotion of the Rev. J. Samuel in the cause in 
 which he has taken so active and so disinterested a part since 
 the year 1831; and do humbly yet gratefully acknowledge 
 the abundant success which, by the grace of God working 
 with him, has attended his mission ; and do hereby engage to 
 be earnest in remembering him at the throne of grace, that 
 he may be preserved and strengthened in the discharge of the 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 great duties to which the Lord has been pleased to call 
 him." 
 
 Fifth. It was resolved, 
 
 " That the following gentlemen, who have accepted the 
 office, be a Committee for carrying out the objects of the 
 Society, with power to make regulations for the conduct of 
 their proceedings, and to add to their numbers ; and that five 
 members do form a quorum. 
 
 Henry Blanshard, Esq., 37, Great Ormond Street. 
 
 The Rev. T. Boys, Middleton Square, Pentonville. 
 
 The Rev. John Cumming, M.A. 
 
 Captain Cotton, R.A. 
 
 Henry Cremer, Esq., Oakley Square, Chelsea. 
 
 S. Dennis, Esq., Bank of England. 
 
 Richard King, Esq., Paymaster General's Office, Whitehall. 
 
 George Bogue, Esq., Holly Grove. 
 
 Captain H. L. Layard, late Ninety-seventh Regiment. 
 
 E. J. Longley, Esq., Vale Cottage, Chelsea. 
 
 The Rev. Monro, Harrow. 
 
 James Mondeau, Esq., Manor House, Enfield. 
 
 Lewis H. J. Tonna, Esq., United Service Institution. 
 
 The Agent of the Indian Association, ex officio." 
 
 A. Turnbull, M.D., 48, Russell Square. 
 
 The Rev. Jacob Samuel closed the meeting with prayer. 
 
 Subscriptions and Donations in behalf of this Mission will 
 be received by the Treasurer or Bankers. 
 
 Those only are requested to subscribe, whose hearts are fully 
 impressed with the importance of this work, and who fully 
 approve of th plan of operations pursued by the Rev. 
 
 .). Sam i 1:1.. 
 
124 APPENDIX. 
 
 REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE. 
 
 " In the discharge of the duty entrusted to them, your 
 Committee have acted on the principle that their business was 
 simply to examine into facts, and to lay the result of their ex- 
 aminations before you, in a brief and condensed form ; and 
 they beg to express their acknowledgments to the Rev. Jacob 
 Samuel for the assistance which he has afforded them both by 
 his own explanations and the original documents, including 
 his own private journal, which he submitted to their exami- 
 nation. 
 
 " Your Committee felt it to be their duty, in the first place, 
 to examine into Mr. Samuel's own credentials, in order that 
 they might be enabled to recognize him officially as the agent 
 of the Bombay Society. In answer to their inquiries on this 
 point, Mr. Samuel laid before the Committee, 
 
 " First. An * Extract from the Minutes of the Committee of 
 the Association in aid of the Rev. Jacob Samuel's Mission to 
 the Asiatic Jews, held in St. Andrew's Church, Bombay, 
 November 22d, 1839. 
 
 (Signed) Major F. P. Lester, Chairman. 
 
 Dr. J. Stevenson, Secretary.' 
 
 " Secondly. * An original letter, addressed to Mr. Samuel, 
 by the above-named chairman and secretary, authorizing him 
 to proceed to England, and endeavour to induce the friends of 
 Israel to co operate with the Indian Society. Both these do- 
 cuments have been printed, and will be found in the Appendix 
 to Mr. Samuel's Appeal, page 2325.' 
 
 " Mr. Samuel further laid before the Committee a letter 
 from the Rev. A. Brandram, Secretary to the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, appointing him their agent in Persia 
 and the adjacent countries, and authorizing him to take pos- 
 session of the Society's books wherever he might find them, 
 and might have means of circulating them. The letter bears 
 date, November I, 1837, and is addressed to tne Rev. Jacob 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 Samuel, care of H. B. M., Envoy Extraordinary at the Court 
 of Persia, Tabreez. 
 
 " It likewise appears (from a copy of them previously 
 printed at Bombay) that the testimonials which have ap- 
 peared before the public in England were printed at the re- 
 quest and under the sanction of the 4 Bombay Committee,"' 
 at a meeting held at Calabah, March 24, 1 839. For honour- 
 able mention of Mr. Samuel, your Committee would also 
 refer to the 'Jewish Intelligence.' for the year 1832, page 113. 
 
 " Upon the evidence of the foregoing letters and printed 
 documents, your Committee are of opinion that the Rev. 
 Jacob Samuel is the accredited agent of the Bombay Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 " Your Committee next proceeded to examine into the prin- 
 ciples and object of the Bombay Association. 
 
 " This Society appears to have always acted on a principle 
 of mutual confidence between the Committee, its officers, and 
 the missionary employed, and has not bound itself to any de- 
 fined code of regulation. Its principles will, therefore, be 
 best understood by the following extract from the letter above 
 mentioned, addressed to Mr. Samuel, by the chairman and 
 secretary. 
 
 Extract. 
 
 " * You are well aware that the grand principle on which our 
 connexion for the last five years has subsisted, and on which 
 our harmonious intercourse has been based, is, that in the 
 conduct of your mission, in all spiritual affairs, we refrain 
 from the assumption of all authority over you. While we 
 have to acknowledge that you have always been ready to listen 
 to our advice, and follow it as far as you thought you could 
 do so with propriety, we have ever acted on the assumption, 
 that the man who goes forth in dependence on Divine Provi- 
 dence, not counting his life dear to him, that he may fulfil 
 the ministry of the word, is, to say the least, as likely to 
 know the path of duty as any other, and has as good a right 
 to suppose that divine directions will be afforded directly to 
 
126 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 himself, as that it will be given to another to be imparted to 
 him. At any rate, we deem it most important that he should 
 be fully convinced that the course he is pursuing is the one in 
 which his energies will be most exerted in promoting the Re- 
 deemer's cause ; and that all the responsibility, in reference 
 to it, rests with himself, which can hardly be the case if he is 
 merely pursuing a plan laid down by others, of which his own 
 mind does not fully approve.' 
 
 " ' The object of the Society may be gathered from a series 
 of resolutions passed at the period of the first formation of 
 the Society, in which it was resolved, That Mr. Samuel be 
 sent forth as a missionary to the Jews, to preach among them 
 the Gospel, unfettered by us, as God shall give him grace 
 and direction/ 
 
 " Thus it appears that our brethren in India acted on the 
 principle of committing their missionary entirely to the guid- 
 ance and direction of God, and the object of their sending him 
 forth was to preach the Gospel. 
 
 " Your Committee are of opinion that they will best dis- 
 charge their duty by laying before you, before they conclude, 
 a short sketch of the plan on which Mr. Samuel proceeded, 
 and by which he has been so eminently successful in gaining 
 and preserving the confidence of his Jewish brethren, while 
 bearing testimony to Him ' of whom Moses in the law ; and 
 the prophets did write;' for which purpose they will first quote 
 an extract from c Mr. Samuel's Appeal on behalf of the Jews,' 
 lately published ; after which they will select a few extracts 
 from the private journal, which Mr. Samuel has confiden- 
 tially allowed them to examine. 
 
 Extract from Mr. Sam uePs printed "Appeal." 
 
 " And how, it may be inquired, have I, in the testimony 
 of a crucified Messiah, gone in and out amongst my brethren 
 of the circumcision ; how freely entered the sacred precincts 
 of their house of prayer, and from the seat of Moses borne 
 witness in my ministry ? How, it may be asked, am I fur- 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 nished with testimonies and recommendations from their elders 
 and teachers, from place to place, from one quarter of the 
 world to the other ? I have not looked upon them as an ac- 
 cursed and alien people, but a beloved, (Rom. xi. 28;) and I 
 have sought to sympathize with the mind of God, who has 
 said, " I have delivered the well-beloved of my soul into the 
 hand of her enemies.' " 
 
 " In making the following extracts from the Rev. J. Sa- 
 muel's journals, the Committee have merely selected a few 
 passages, which they think calculated to decide the following 
 important points, viz. that the favourable reception given to 
 Mr. Samuel was obtained by no compromise of the great 
 truths of the Gospel, but by a judicious use of his own inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the peculiarities, the prejudices, and 
 the sympathies of his brethren according to the flesh ; that he 
 never attempted to lay any other foundation-stone than * that 
 which has been laid ;' that he never avoided the offence of 
 the cross ; that he preached to them * Christ Jesus, and him 
 crucified,' and remission of sins by the shedding of his blood ; 
 and that he plainly asserted the co-equality of three persons 
 in the Divine Unity. 
 
 " Your Committee, in making their selection, have passed 
 over many interesting narratives, extracting only passages 
 which gave evidence on the above-named points, which they 
 hold to be of the highest moment 
 
 Extract from the Rev. J. SamueVs Journals. 
 
 "' October, 1831. After this, I visited several families, 
 with whom I became acquainted at the house I have men- 
 tioned ; and my intimacy with its owner also became closer, 
 from his having discovered, by a sign known amongst our- 
 selves, that I was of the family of Aaron, from which he also 
 was descended. He questioned me upon the ceremonies of 
 the Mosaic dispensation, when I explained to him that in my 
 opinion they were no longer of any consequence. He im- 
 mediately observed, that he was sorry a brother of the holy 
 priesthood should disregard all that had been esteemed by his 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 forefathers. From this very day I perceived that his affec- 
 tions towards me became colder and colder, and that when I 
 went into the synagogue every one else received me with 
 brotherly love ; he alone went aside, to avoid all intercourse 
 with me. 
 
 " ' In the first four months, the only additional circumstance 
 I shall notice is, that in August, during a fortnight before 
 the Jewish feast, several Jews called upon me daily ; and as I 
 knew that Jews seldom like to call at a place such as that where 
 I resided, I was anxious to discover what might be the motive 
 of such a proceeding. Instead of conversing with them upon 
 the Old Testament, as I had done before, I changed the sub- 
 ject to the Hebrew New Testament, and thus I found that 
 they were offended, like the Pharisees of old ; so that, after a 
 short time, all, except two or three, left me. From this I 
 have reason to believe that the plan which I first followed 
 seems to be the best for spreading the Gospel amongst them ; 
 that is, not to preach Christ crucified in the first instance, 
 without stating beforehand what had been said of Christ by 
 Moses and the Prophets. In order to persuade them, we 
 must attend to the word of God, and do as the apostle did : 
 1 Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the 
 Jews, to them that are under the law, as under the law,' &c. 
 # # # # # 
 
 " ' The subject of my discourse had been the dream of Jacob, 
 concerning the ladder which reached from earth to heaven, in 
 which I showed them that it was not possible to reach heaven 
 without, as it were, the steps of a ladder ; I meant without 
 some means of communication a mediator between God and 
 man ; and this could in no way offend them. Their answer 
 was ' How shall we come to hear you, who cast to the dust 
 the holy garment of priesthood with which your heavenly 
 Father clothed our ancestors,' meaning that I did not appear 
 in my Jewish dress ; others said ' If you will refer more to 
 the Mishna, and will use the law written on parchment, we will 
 all come and attend to you ;' and accordingly I promised them 
 that I would procure a suit of garments in time. So there 
 were thirty Jews on the next Sabbath. The above will show 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 that I must do as the apostle did, and * count all things but 
 loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my 
 Lord ;' and therefore, if I would gain my kinsmen after the 
 flesh, I must go to this expense for their sakes.' 
 
 "' December 1, 1831. I visited three Jewish families in 
 Doomtollah, Poultry Lane. 1 began my conversation with 
 them about the miserable situation I found them in. After 
 having expressed my anxiety to know the reason, they replied 
 that the cause of it was, that they did not know the country, 
 neither had they any friends that would support them in busi- 
 ness; that their situation might be better, and expressed their 
 gratitude to me if I would be that friend, and place them in a 
 better situation. I told them I should feel much pleasure 
 if I could be in any way serviceable to them for the welfare of 
 their souls, and recommend them to a friend who will be their 
 support both in body and soul. They asked me Where is 
 this friend? O show him to us/ I replied, ' The friend is 
 Jesus Christ, who came into the world to seek poor and 
 miserable lost sinners.' After they had attentively heard me 
 for two hours, I ended my discourse with a prayer, and 
 leaving them, I recommended them to the Bible, and passages 
 which I quoted to them in my conversation.* 
 
 " December 12, 1831. I visited some families in Doom- 
 tollah. In the corner of the street I met with sixteen Jews ; 
 I began to preach to them in the words of our Lord : ' / am 
 the way, the truth, and the life ; no man can come to the 
 Father except by me. And after having shown them that no 
 man could be justified in the sight of God by the law of Moses, 
 they all spoke one with another, and I heard one of them say 
 with a loud voice ; * Sadek, Sadek, xeh hadeverim emet, kai 
 Thorah Moke emet,' which signifies, * Verily, verily, these 
 words are true as the law of Moses is true.'' After hearing 
 this, I thanked God for giving me a new supply of faith." 
 
 "'December 17, 1831. 1 met thirty-three Jews at the river 
 side. I conversed with them about the deliverance from 
 
 K 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 Egypt. In the afternoon I went to the chapel, and found 
 there two Jews. I commenced with prayer, and preached to 
 them from Exodus xxiii. 21 'Behold, I send an angel he- 
 fore thee, to keep thee in the way.' From thence I went to 
 Smyth's Ghaut, and found thirty-six Jews. I began my dis- 
 course as before, but immediately they rose up and began to 
 mock me, and as I could not succeed with my preaching, I 
 left them. One, who seemed to be the greatest hypocrite, fol- 
 lowed me with vain flattery, saying that it was not suitable for 
 a man as I was to be mocked and ill-used by the Jews ; to 
 which I replied, that this mockery is only a grief to me when 
 I feel that One who endured the same will soon come to bring 
 you to judgment ; and how you will tremble when you see 
 Him whom you have mocked, and whose words you have 
 despised and rejected, come to be the very judge, and pass 
 sentence over you. An Armenian was present, whom I met 
 afterwards opposite the chapel. When he found out that I 
 was a Jew, he asked me, ' Do you believe in the Trinity ?' 
 I replied : ' Else I would not preach to my brethren that Jesus 
 is the Son of God.' He said, ' I cannot believe in the Trinity.' 
 I said, ' Are you a Christian ?' He answered, ' Yes.' I said, 
 ' It is an awful thing to be a Christian, and not to believe in 
 Christ as the divine Saviour.' He replied, ' Where can you 
 prove it from, that he is the Son of God ?' I replied, 'If you 
 believe in this book, where I will prove his divine character, 
 then I should feel great pleasure to converse with you ; if not, I 
 think it is not worth wasting time in conversation. - ' He said, 
 ' I believe the Scriptures to be true, and when you can show 
 me in the Scriptures the Trinity, I shall believe.' I quoted 
 fifty or sixty passages, but he seemed to have strong prejudices 
 against it. When I repeated the passage, ' My name is in 
 him,' and what our Lord's character must be when the sijm 
 and the promise was, ' A virgin shall conceive,' &c, after two 
 hours' argument he said, * I can say nothing against this ex- 
 planation,' and it would appear flattery to repeat what he said ; 
 but I shall indeed flatter myself that God has used me as His 
 feeble instrument in convincing him of the divine character of 
 our Lord.' 
 
 " ' April, 1832. Good Friday. In the evening I visited the 
 
APPENDIX, 131 
 
 synagogue, two hours before their service commenced, which 
 was that of their passover feast, when I found a good number of 
 Jews assembled in the room with the Chacham. I soon had 
 an opportunity respecting the Passover, and I commenced from 
 the second to the eighth verse, when I questioned them how 
 they could now keep that feast, where the chief thing is the 
 paschal lamb. After receiving several rough answers, I laid 
 before them the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, where Jews and 
 Gentiles agree that it relates to the Messiah. I placed before 
 them the importance of rightly understanding that chapter, 
 and proceeded to prove by the most convincing arguments, 
 that the person spoken of by the prophet must have been of- 
 fered in the place of this paschal lamb, which has been abo- 
 lished these 1800 years, and that their observance of the rites 
 and ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation were unprofitable. 
 After I had been speaking for about three quarters of an hour, 
 the Chacham endeavoured to refute my arguments, and quoted 
 a passage from Abarbanel, by which he endeavoured to prove 
 that the person alluded to by the prophet had no reference to 
 the Messiah. I replied, ' To whom then does it refer ? and 
 what is to be understood when it says, Surely He hath borne 
 our griefs, and carried our sorrows ; He was smitten and 
 afflicted ; He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised 
 for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was laid 
 upon him, and with his stripes are we healed ? Now 1 think, 
 Chacham, and all that are here present, if you have well con- 
 sidered what I have laid before you, and you will not shut 
 your eyes against the truth which you and your fathers believe, 
 viz. that this chapter is the word of God, you must testify 
 that the person spoken of by the prophet must be Jesus, the 
 Son of David, by whose sufferings, death, and resurrection^ 
 all the prophecies have been fulfilled, and, through the vain ex- 
 pectation of a temporal king, our forefathers have rejected 
 him ; and the clearest proof that he must have been offered as 
 the paschal lamb, when God commanded the offering of the pas- 
 chal lamb should last for ever. How can you otherwise ac- 
 count for the circumstance that, since the day when Christ 
 was crucified, our fathers have ceased to offer this paschal 
 lamb, and all the former sacrifices from that clay have been 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 abolished, according to the prophecies ? Your rites of atone- 
 ment have become ineffectual, and on the same footing those 
 of other nations, for you yourselves profess that without shed- 
 ding of blood there is no remission of sins ; and if you would 
 acknowledge this Lamb of God, you would enjoy the blessing 
 which God promised to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob; for in Christ all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.' 
 
 " The following extract from a journal written at the com- 
 mencement of Mr. Samuel's labours is also important : ' I 
 wish it to be understood that the object of my coming out here 
 is not to convert the Jews, but to deliver to them the Gospel 
 in their own language, and to prepare a way in the wilderness, 
 which is one day to be like Eden, and in a desert which is to 
 become at last like the garden of the Lord/ 
 
 " Your Committee are of opinion that these few extracts 
 from a journal written on the spot will afford sufficient proof 
 that the Gospel, without compromise, was preached to the 
 Jews by the Rev. J. Samuel, and will also give an insight into 
 his mode of proceeding among them. 
 
 " The Committee also beg leave to refer to the arduous 
 and extensive labours of Mr. Samuel, in distributing copies of 
 the Sacred Writings. He has, with his own hand, circulated 
 upwards of 9,000 copies of the whole or of parts of the Holy 
 Scriptures, not only amongst Jews, but in still greater num- 
 bers among Mussulmans. For an attestation of his labours in 
 regard to this object, your Committee would refer to the Re- 
 port of the British and Foreign Bible Society for 1838. 
 
 " They will now bring their report to a conclusion, trusting 
 that the blessing of the Lord may rest on their labours, for 
 which, at each of their meetings, they have offered their earnest 
 prayers. The more they have examined into the documents 
 laid before them, the more they have been impressed with the 
 importance of the work now brought before the Christian 
 public ; and they humbly yet confidently hope that it is the 
 Lord who has issued his command to prophesy to these dry 
 bones, which are now lying in the open valley, very many 
 and very dry.' May it please him in his own good time to 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 breathe upon them, that the bones may eome together, hone to 
 his bone, and that the sinews and the flesh may come upon 
 them, and that they may live and stand up upon their feet, an 
 exceeding great army. The work indeed is great, the fields, 
 white for the harvest, are wide and measureless, and the weak 
 heart of man may at first be discouraged, and doubtingly ask, 
 1 Where shall the labourers be found ?' But here we may 
 claim a precious promise. We may pray to the Lord of the 
 harvest to send forth labourers ; and though we seem but a 
 little and a feeble band, yet let us remember that it is not by 
 might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. 
 
 " To His name be all power and honour and praise 
 ascribed, henceforth and for evermore. Amen. 
 
 " H. L. La yard. 
 
 Thomas Fisher. 
 
 Lewis H. J. Tonna." 
 
 "Having been prevented from attending the meetings of the 
 Sub-committee, I wish, after repeated conferences with Jacob 
 Samuel, and examination of data which he placed before the 
 Committee, to mark my unison with the above Report, and to 
 express my approval of the principle adopted by the Bombay 
 Society, which, whilst it gives to those who are engaged in the 
 work that " Liberty of prophesying " which every rightly 
 qualified minister should enjoy inviolate, retains in its hands a 
 necessary and wholesome check to errors, both in doctrine and 
 practice. 
 
 "Thomas Hodgkin, M.D. 
 " Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 
 22nd October, 1840." 
 
 At a subsequent Meeting of the Committee, the preceding 
 Minutes, Report, and Resolutions were ordered to be printed 
 for circulation. 
 
 By Order of the Committee. London, Oct. 30, 1840. 
 
 Lewis H. J. Tonna, 
 
 Hon. Sec. pro tern. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED RY mOTSON AM) l'AI.MKIt, SAVOY STREET. 
 
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 III. 
 
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 Containing a full Account of the Labours amongst the Jews, the 
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