Page images
PDF
EPUB

Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;" and in the subsequent verses, as well as in the writings of the prophets, it is said, that the Lord then "put away Israel out of his sight, and carried them away into the land of Assyria, unto this day." In the Apocrypha, 2nd Esdras xiii. it is said, that the Ten Tribes were carried beyond the river (Euphrates), and so they were brought into another land, when they took counsel together, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt; that they entered in at the narrow passages of the river Euphrates, when the springs of the flood were stayed, and "went through the country a great journey, even of a year and a-half:" and it is added, that "there they will remain until the latter time, when they will come forth again." The country beyond Bucharia was unknown to the ancients; and it is, we believe, generally admitted that the river Gozan, mentioned in the Book of Kings, is the same as the Ganges, which has its rise in those very countries in which the Jews reside, of whom the Leipsic account speaks. The distance which these two merchants must have travelled cannot, therefore, be less than three thousand miles; and there can be little doubt that the Jews, whom they represent as a third party of the population of the country, are descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel, settled by the river Gozan.

1

a

The great plain of central Asia, forming four principal sides, viz. Little Bucharia, Thibet, Mongols, and Mancheous, contains surface of 150,000 square miles, and a population of 20,000,000. This vast country is still very little known. The great traits of its gigantic formation, compose, for the most part, all that we are certain of. It is an immense plain of an excessive elevation, intersected with barren rocks, and vast deserts, of a black and almost moving sand. It is supported on all sides by mountains of granite, whose elevated summits determine the different climates of the great continent of Asia, and form the division of its waters. From its exterior flow all the great rivers of that part of the world. In the interior are a quantity of rivers, having little declivity, or no issue, which are lost in the sands, or perhaps feed stagnant waters. In the southern chains are countries, populous, rich, and civilized; Little Bucharia, Great and Little Thibet. The people of the north are shepherds and wanderers. Their riches consist in their herds. Their habitations are tents, and towns camps, which are transported according to the want of pasturage. The Bucharians enjoy the right of trading to all parts of Asia, and the Thibetians cultivate the earth to advantage. The ancients had only a confused idea of Central Asia. "The inhabitants of this country," as we learn from a great authority, "are in a high state of civilization; possessing all the useful manu

factures, and lofty houses built with stone. The Chinese reckon (but this is evidently an exaggeration) that Thibet alone contains 33,000,000 of persons. The merchants of Cashmere, on their way to Yarkand in Little Bucharia, pass through Little Thibet. This country is scarcely known to European geographers." The immense plain of Central Asia is hemmed in, and almost inaccessible by mountain ranges of the greatest elevation, which surround it on all sides, except towards China; and when the watchful jealousy of the government of the Celestial Empire is considered, it will scarcely be wondered at that the vast region in question is so little known. Such is the country which these newly-discovered Jews are said to inhabit in such numbers. The following facts may, perhaps, serve to throw some additional light on this interesting subject.

In the year 1822, a Mr. Sargon, who, if we mistake not, was one of the agents to the London Society, communicated to England some interesting accounts of a number of persons resident at Bombay, Cannanore, and their vicinity, who were evidently the descendants of Jews, calling themselves Beni-Israel, and bearing, almost uniformly, Jewish names, but with Persian terminations. This gentleman, feeling very desirous to obtain all possible knowledge of their condition, undertook a mission for this purpose to Cannanore; and the result of his inquiries was, a conviction that they were not Jews of the one tribe and a half, being of a different race to the white and black Jews at Cochin, and, consequently, that they were a remnant of the long-lost Ten Tribes. This gentleman also concluded, from the information he obtained respecting the Beni-Israel, that they existed in great numbers in the countries between Cochin and Bombay, the north of Persia, among the hordes of Tartary and in Cashmere; the very countries in which, according to the paragraph in the German paper, they exist in such numbers. So far, then, these accounts confirm each other, and there is every probability that the Beni Israel, resident on the west of the Indian Peninsula, had originally proceeded from Bucharia. It will, therefore, be interesting to know something of their moral and religious character. The following particulars are collected from Mr Sargon's accounts. 1. In dress and manners they resemble the natives, so as not to be distinguished from them, except by attentive observation and inquiry. 2. They have Hebrew names of the same kind, and with the same local terminations, as the Sepoys in the ninth regiment Bombay Native Infantry. 3. Some of them read Hebrew, and they have a faint tradition of the cause of their original Exodus from Egypt. 4. Their common language is the Hindoo. 5. They keep idols and worship them, and use idolatrous ceremonies intermixed with Hebrew. 6. They circumcise their own children. 7. They observe the Kippoor, or great expiation day of the Hebrews, but not the Sabbath, or any feast or fast days. 8. They call themselves Gorah Jehudi, or White Jews; and they term the Black Jews Collah Jehudi. 9. They speak of the Arabian Jews as their brethren, but do not acknowledge the European Jews as such, because they are of a fairer complexion than themselves. 10. They use on all occasions, and under the most trivial circumstances, the usual Jewish prayer, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." 11. They have no cohen, (priest), levite, or casi among them, under those terms; but they have a kasi (reader), who performs prayers, and conducts their religious ceremonies; and they appear to have elders and a chief in each community, who determine in their religious concerns. 12. They expect the Messiah, and that they will one day return to Jerusalem. They think that the time of his appearance will soon arrive, at which they much rejoice, believing that at Jerusalem they will see their God, worship him only, and be despised no more.

This is all the information that can be collected from the accounts of Mr. Sargon. The celebrated Oriental Geographer, Ibn Haukal, however, describes, with great minuteness, under the appellation of Mawer-al-nahr, the region in which these Jews are said to have been discovered. He speaks of it generally as one of the most flourishing and productive provinces within the dominions of Islam, and

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »