robe-with lofty cap and arctic furs-with forehead pale as the Siberian snows, or dark as the Egyptian soil from whence they

come.

There are perhaps fewer Jews in Palestine than in most countries of Europe. There is no rural Hebrew population there, though they have acquired both wealth and influence in Acre and Damascus. There are not probably in the whole of Syria above 30,000 souls: and they say their number on the whole earth is not above 6,000,000.

They are very zealous students of the Prophecies, and ingeniously distribute, between Solomon and other heroes of their race, the promises with regard to Shiloh that are absolutely fulfilled. Their hope of the Messiah is as strong as ever, and, in their prayers for the day of atonement, they have the exclamation, "Woe unto us, for we have no mediator!"

The Moslem hates the Jew above all other nations, following up Mahomet's quarrel when he refused to hearken to his voice, or accept his flattering invitation: there are only seven degrees of eternal punishment in the Moslem's future world, and the sixth is appropriated exclusively to the reception of the Hebrew race the hypocrite occupies the seventh, the opprobrium of which is not complete in that it is the lowest, but in that it is below the Jew.

Hamburgh contains so many of this people that it has been called the lesser Jerusalem, but Poland is the country wherein they mostly abound. Here they have stately synagogues, richly endowed colleges, and courts of Judicature, even for criminal cases. In Hungary, the revenues were farmed by them, until Ferdinand the Second published an edict forbidding their employ. ment. In this country took place, in the year 1650, a most extraordinary assembly, convened to decide whether the Messiah was come or not. Three hundred Rabbis and an immense mul. titude of Jews assembled in the Plain of Ageda. Some of the Rabbis expressed a wish to hear the Protestant divines upon the subject, and two Roman Catholic priests proposed to preach on their own account. Then rose a stormy cry as of old in Jeru salem, "We will have no Christ!—no man-God!—no virgin!"— and they tore their hair, and rent their garments. The question

being put to the vote, the majority of voices declared the Messiah not come. They voted also that his advent was delayed by the sins and impenitence of the people.

Not only in civilized Europe, but even in their own promised land, the Jews can now find rest. It appears strange that not more "of the wandering foot and weary breast" seek refuge here, where all seems free to them. Once under the protection of a European power, property is here secure; and no where in the world perhaps would capital meet with a richer return than in Palestine. But all its prospects are agricultural; and the Jew has so long been accustomed to wander about the streets of the cities of the Gentiles, that he no longer desires "to sit under the shade of his own fig-tree, or to eat of his own vine."

Notwithstanding that the Jew is at once the object and the guardian of prophecy; the recipient, and the illustration of Scripture's promises and threats; there is perhaps no religious body that is so little spiritual in its worship. Their pride, their trust, their hope, linger about the Land of Promise, above which it seldom seems to soar; or to rise, even now, beyond the tempo. ralities for which they abandoned Him who declared that his kingdom was not of this world. It seems little probable that the Israelites in the wilderness held the hope of immortality, that is now almost disrespectfully familiar to our minds: it is true that in Job, the Prophets, and the Psalms, we have occasional intimations of such a hope, but the emigrants from Egypt had none of these.* The joys of Heaven never appeared as a Mosaic doctrine, or even as a reward for righteousness; the Pentateuch does not refer to it; and it seems improbable that a leading article of belief would have been only darkly shadowed out in a Scripture intended as a rule of faith. Moreover, long afterwards, we find the Sadducees only considered as Dissenters, not as unbelievers in the Scriptures; when Zaduch, with his colleague Bythos, introduced a schism among the adherents of the Oral Law, Maimonides only speaks of them as having put a new construction on some of the articles of Hebrew faith.

Unless indeed Moses composed the Book of Job, as an allegory, among the scenes that it describes

These matters are too deep for me, and for this book; I only allude to them here as mere questions of literature. Certain it is, however, that the Jew's worship, with all its abhorrence of idolatry, seems to be of rather a material nature.

The Caraites are said to be a pure remnant of the Hebrews,set apart as a specimen of what the Israelite was, and may be. come again. They abide scrupulously by the written law, rejecting the Talmud and Rabbinical explanations. There are many of this sect in Lithuania, and Wolff found 5,000 of them at Bagdad who were distinguished for veracity, and called Chil dren of The Book: they are also found in the Crimea, where their character stands very high; they all understand Hebrew, and even speak it as a household language.

In Jerusalem, the Hebrews are divided into two great sects, as much at rivalry with each other, as the Greek and the Latin Churches they follow generally the national distinctions of the Polish and the German Jew. The same zeal for their ancient worship seems to actuate both, and their common talk is of their faith, while they cultivate anxiously the language of their forefathers. Frequently you meet small parties of Jews in the envi rons of the Holy City, and almost always, I am told, their conver sation is about prophecy.

Two Rabbis, approaching Jerusalem, observed a fox running upon the Hill of Zion, and Rabbi Joshua wept, but Rabbi Eliezer laughed: "Wherefore dost thou laugh?" said he who wept. "Nay, wherefore dost thou weep?" demanded Eliezer. "I weep," replied the Rabbi Joshua, "because I see what is written in the Lamentations fulfilled; because of the Mount of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it." "And, therefore," said Rabbi Eliezer, "do I laugh; for when I see with mine own eyes that God has fulfilled his threatenings to the very letter, I have thereby a pledge that not one of His promises shall fail, for He is ever more ready to show mercy than judgment."

In speaking of Abyssinia, I have mentioned that its people are very much possessed in favour of the Jews; and, in speaking of the Arabs, I should perhaps have mentioned the Rechabites, or Midianites, supposed to be descendants of Jethro. This people, if they cannot be called Jews themselves, are very zealous for

them, and profess their faith; they understand Hebrew, though their common language is the same as that of the other Arabs, by whom they are surrounded; they possess the Pentateuch, Isaiah, Kings, Samuel, and the lesser prophets; they amount to about 60,000 in number, dwell in tents, and "neither sow nor plant vineyards." They inhabit the fertile Oases, whence they issue forth to levy contributions on Moslem travellers. Should a caravan approach their haunts, a horseman of their tribe suddenly presents himself, and demands tribute. Whether refused or not, he disappears as suddenly as he came; but, in the former case, he returns with a storm of cavalry; in the latter, with a scribe, who writes a passport, and gives a receipt for the tribute-money. Mahomet defeated this tribe in several engagements, but made no converts among them: one of his female captives was so beautiful that he proposed to marry her; but it is said that dreading a worse fate, or emulous of the fame of Jael, who was of this heroic tribe the captive girl poisoned her "inspired" lover.

The Jews are spoken of in Revelations* as the "Kings of the East" if, indeed, the Affghans be of the Ten Tribes, this title may not be deemed too lofty for a nation which has held the thrones of Persia and Hindostan. Seldom, however, any well authenticated Jews are found in the countries eastward of Pales tine, though Morison speaks of having found some ancient families of them in China.

Although Jews are continually arriving to lay their bones in the ancestral sepulchres, their number is not at present on the increase. Riding one day in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the progress of the party was arrested by a Jewish caravan, weary, wasted, and overpowered with fatigue and misery. They had no eyes but for the City, whose towers rose before them in the distance; while their hearts wandered over it, their feet stood still; the fathers held up their little children to gaze upon that shrine of Israel's faith, and tears flowed down their rugged cheeks and reverend beards. "Now," observed Bishop Alexander, "had an English traveller met this party, he would have taken with him the impression that the gathering together of the Children of Is* xvi. 21.

rael was already begun; and it was not until I had met several such, and made particular inquiries, that I found such arrivals only served to replace those gone to rest in the valley of Jehoshaphat."

It is a curious but well-ascertained fact, that the Jews do not multiply at present in the native city of their race; few children attain to puberty, and the mortality altogether is so great, that the constant reinforcements from Europe scarcely maintain the average population. They inhabit a quarter of the city between the Hill of Zion and the Temple, now the Mosque of Omar; most of their houses are mean in their external appearance, but, if I may judge from the only specimen of an interior that I saw, this outward show is very deceitful.

The Jews are very fond of news, and therefore partial to foreigners, particularly to the English. I introduced myself one day to a venerable and noble-looking Hebrew in the street, by asking my way to the Pool of Hezekiah, whither he courteously accompanied me, and afterwards invited me to his house. We entered by a very humble doorway from the silent street, and, passing through a dark gallery of some length, entered a large apartment, which equalled in oriental luxury any that I had yet

seen.

The ceiling was slightly arched, and crusted with stalactites of purple and gold that appeared to have oozed out from some rich treasury above. The walls were of panelled cedar, or some such dark and fragrant wood, exquisitely carved; and curtains of Damascus silk were gathered into thick folds between pilasters of cedar, polished, yet rugged with rich carving. The windows were without glass, but the foliage of some orange-trees softened the sunshine into a delicious gloom, lending all the effect of painted glass, with the addition of a quiver which added coolness to its shade. The furniture was simple, as is customary in the East, and consisted only of divans, or wide silken cushions, ranged round the walls, and slightly elevated above the floor. This was of marble mosaic, wrought into floral emblems, such as bells, pomegranates, &c., with a white marble basin of clear water in the midst. A rich tufted carpet, in which the foot sank as in a meadow, was spread in each corner of the upper end; and, leaving our slippers on the marble floor, we took our seat on the divan. When seated, my host laid his hand upon his breast,