the manners and character of the American aborigines many years ago, and before they were affected or corrupted by any extensive intercourse with Europeans.

We shall conclude our extracts from Mr. Frey's volume on the subject of the American tribes, with one which shows that they have a law that is not very dissimilar to the divine law given to the Israelites, which provided cities of refuge for the accidental manslayer.

They regard the blood of a kinsman as calling upon them with irresistible eloquence to shed blood for blood; to avenge the blood of a relative they will travel hundreds of miles, and keep their anger alive until they have taken vengeance, although many years may elapse. Yet they have an ancient custom of setting apart certain houses and towns as places of refuge, to which a criminal and even a captive may flee, and be safe from the avenger of blood if he can but enter it. Bartram mentions the Apalachuela town in the Greek nation as sacred to peace, and adds, No captives are put to death or human blood spilt here.' Adair says, that although the Cherokees are now exceedingly corrupt, they still observe the law of refuge so inviolably, that they allow their beloved town the privilege of protecting even a wilful murderer; but they seldom allow him to return home from it in safety. There is a town of refuge called Choate, on a stream of the Mississippi, five miles above where fort Loudon formerly stood. In this place an Englishman found protection, after killing an Indian in defence of his property. He would after a time have returned home, but the chiefs told him the attempt to do so would be fatal to him. He therefore remained until he had satisfied the relatives of the deceased with presents. In the upper country of the Muskoge there was an old beloved town called Koosah, now reduced to a small ruinous village, which is still a place of safety for those who kill undesignedly. Indeed, towns of this description appear to have been in almost every Indian nation; they are called old beloved, holy or white towns, and it does not appear that human blood has ever been spilt in them, although it is admitted that persons have sometimes been forced from them and then murdered elsewhere."

Each reader will make the best of these, and similar resemblances, according, probably, to his previous modes of thinking. That some of them are extraordinary and deeply interesting all must feel; that they are conclusive, or that they might not be weakened by apparently very strong evidence of a contrary tendency, is perhaps no less true. One important fact occurs to us, which Mr. Frey, so far as we have observed, has not combated or accounted for, and yet it militates strongly against his decided opinion and elaborately argued doctrine-if the American Indiansbe the Ten Tribes, and are to return at no distant date to the land of their Israelitish fathers. We refer to the circumstance which, we believe, every recent writer concerning the American Indians has mentioned, explained, and lamented; and to which the increase and prosperity of the whitemen is daily adding authenticity and incontrovertible proofs, viz.

that the aborigines are at a fearful rate diminishing in numbers, degenerating in character, and losing more rapidly their national manners. These melancholy facts are the result of the incroachments of the white men, whether by superior skill in war, or peaceful diplomacy-by the habits of civilized life, which are incongruously engrafted upon a savage-stock, and above all by the abundance and cheapness of the intoxicating liquors for which the Indians have acquired a passionate desire, and which circulates amongst their tribes with a speed and a malignity that no liquid poison can ever surpass-breaking down not merely their physical energies, but destroying the intellectual powers, and implanting debilitating vices where the freedom and magnanimity, of the hunter and the warrior were before so conspicuous. It is not for us nor any man to utter a word that would intimate a limitation of Divine power, or the entire and unfailing accuracy of all his predictions. But on the other hand, we must not be rash in bending those predictions to our theories, or in giving heed to our fancies as to the manner, the place, the time in which that power is to be exercised, seeing that the persons it immediately concerns, and the mode of its operation, have not been distinctly pointed out by Deity himself.

It is but just to the author to state, at the same time, that he is careful not to commit himself by any unmodified opinion as to the actual residence of the Ten Tribes since their dispersion-but naturally supposes, as indeed the word purports, that they may be scattered through various distant countries, so as to afford some just grounds for the discordant conjectures of the persons who have differed in their accounts on this subject. It may not, for instance, be a very wild notion which suggests, that when the Israelites left the places to which the Assyrian monarch first sent them, though some staid behind, that the greater number passed over the Euphrates, going northward and then eastward, till they at length gained the north-east extremity of Asia. Some or many of them might then pass over to the north-west of America, by crossing Behring's Straits.

One other opinion, and the reasons for it regarding the present condition and habitation of the Ten Tribes, is the only addition offered in Mr. Frey's present volume on the subject; and this is, that the Afghans are this people. Others think they are derived from a Jewish stock. It is declared on good authority, that a learned Afghan has said, that "his nation are Beni Israel," that is, sons of Israel. We quote one paragraph on this point.

"M. Langles, in detailing the literary labours of Protestant Missionaries in the East, in the third number of the Archives du Christianisme,' published at Paris last March, observes that the country of the Afghans, called Afghanistan, extends from the 29th to the 35th degree of North latitude, and from the 62d to the 75th degree of East longitude from Greenwich;

it is bounded on the north by the mountains which divide it from Kachgar and Badakhchan; on the north-west by other mountains which separate it from Turkestan; on the west it encloses a part of Khoracan, the other part belonging to the Shah of Persia; while the south is terminated by deserts and Beloutchistan. The Indus, which rises about the 35th degree of north latitude, forms the chief boundary of Afghanistan on the east. Many learned men of respected authority, such as Sir William Jones, and others, have conjectured that the Afghans are descended from the ten tribes of Israel led away captive by Salmanasar, and banished to Halah and Hahor, along the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. An intelligent Afghan, who was lately at Serampore, remarked that his countrymen were called 'the children of Israel, not of Judah.' Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter dated the 23d April, 1814, observes, A very great number of the Afghans are indisputably the descendants of Abraham; their language comprising a greater number of Hebrew words than any other in India.' In fact, according to Pomponius Mela, and other ancient geographers, Media was only a hundred leagues distant from the frontier of Modern Afghanistan. The greater part of the inhabitants profess the Mahommedan religion. They have borrowed the Arabic alphabet, adding some characters and marks requisite to give the sounds of the Sanscrit. The Pushtoo, the tongue of the Afghans, and the Beloutchiky, may be considered as the two links which unite the languages of Sanscrit with those of Hebrew origin. Such is the opinion adopted and maintained by the Protestant Missionaries; but all their conjectures, and even the imposing authority of that illustrious character Sir William Jones, added to my own researches, are all insufficient, as I think, to counterbalance the investigations of Mr. Elphinstone. The authority of this learned traveller appears to me to be irrefragable: All this theory,' he says, is plausible, and it may even be true; but if it be attentively examined, it will easily be seen that it rests wholly on a very vague tradition enveloped in the profoundest obscurity.' I pass over the observations and facts by which Mr. Elphinstone destroys this specious hypothesis, and proves that the Afghans are not exotic, but aboriginal; and indeed it more rarely happens, I believe, that the inhabitants of plains settle in the mountains, than for mountaineers to descend in order to settle in the plain.'

Whilst speaking of the Afghans, we may observe that there has lately been printed by the Committee of the Oriental Translation Fund, a second volume of a history of this people. The translation is from the Persian, and is by Dr. Bernhard Dorn. In this work we have not discovered any striking intimations of a Hebrew origin; but before closing the present paper, we may as well allow our readers to taste a little of the inflated matter which fills the portion before us, which is chiefly occupied by Memoirs of the Afghan saints, and accounts of the miracles which these worthies have per"the formed. Among the Oriental epithets used, are to be found son of the sphere of guidance",-" the extract of the herbage of religion," that principal pole of the globe of sanctity,' VOL. II. (1837.) no. 11.

N

"crocodile in the sea of unity,"-that "falcon of the religion of the saints," &c.

·

"That investigator of truth, and revealer of mysteries; that flower of the just and essence of the pious, Sheikh Mati Khalil, was a strict ascetic. They constituted him the head of twelve Scarbanni clans; and the Afghans flocked in numbers to him, to become his pupils. When the rumour of his miracles had spread over the whole world, Sheikh Kutahr Kasi came to try them; and proudly asked him, Do you style yourself the head of twelve clans? To which he answered, 'Yes.' While they were one day seated on the banks of a river, Sheikh Hassan said, The occan consists of water; and this river, on the banks of which we sit, consists of water, too: dive down, and fetch up pearls.' To this, Sheikh Mati replied, 'O Hassan! the diver gathers pearls in the ocean; but a saint should dive under ground, and pick up pearls from thence.' Sheikh Hassan Kasi saying, In the name of God!' Sheikh Mati ordered his youngest son, Hassan, to dive under ground, and, filling both his hands with pearls from the Almighty's subterranean treasury, to bring them up. The ground, where he was standing, opened; and young Hassan dived down, and reappeared with his hands full of pearls, which he laid before Sheikh Hassan Kasi. Upon that, he desired to dive down himself, to procure pearls; but when he got down as far as his knees, Sheikh Mati struck his hand upon the ground, and exclaimed, Do not allow Hassan Kasi to dive!'-in consequence of which, the latter could only with the greatest difficulty extricate his knee from the ground. He then seized the foot of Sheikh Mati Khalil, and said, 'I am now fully convinced of thy greatness.' But God knows best the truth of this.

"That pole-star of the saints, and evidence of the devotees; that chosen of the Deity, and wave in the ocean of eternity, Sheikh Ali Sarvar Lodi Shalu Khail, was one of the distinguished individuals amongst this tribe. He lived in the village called Gahrur, belonging to Mooltan. He was very devout; his prayers were always fulfilled, and his sight was blissful. The people of the contiguous districts ranged themselves in the series of his disciples. During thirty years, he never lay down, nor indulged in sleep. One day, while sitting in the mosque, a barber came in to shave him, but immediately lost the use of his eyes. Now, every person that Sheikh Najm Uddeen cast his sight upon obtained the gift of revelation. He, therefore, smiled, and said that this was very easy. When the barber finished his work, he felt himself in a wonderful state, and discoursed on the revelation of mysteries. He laid down his avocation, and devoted himself to an ascetic life; and people used to have .ecourse to him for the relief of their wants. Several pieces of timber having been carried to the sheikh, to repair his house, ten thieves, during the night, stole some of the pieces, put them upon their heads, and went away. On their arrival at home, they attempted to take their burdens off their heads, which, however, in spite of all their efforts, they could not effect. Being frightened in the extreme, they carried the timber back to the place where they had stolen it. In the morning they

came to the sheikh, and confessed their guilt. His noble descendants at present are the resource of high and low, and his progeny and tribes are well settled."

It only now remains for us, in reference to Mr. Frey and his volumes, to state that he has lately arrived in London from America-one of his objects being "to facilitate the gratuitous distribution amongst the Jews of his work, entitled, "Joseph and Benjamin," in the language in which it is now printed, and also to get it translated and printed in the German language,”—another important object, "is to collect materials and open correspondence to enrich the future numbers and volumes of the Jewish Intelligencer," the production from which we have drawn so copiously concerning the Ten Tribes; in all which undertakings we sincerely wish and hope that every success may attend him, that his longcontinued and arduous exertions merit.

ART. II.-Excursions through the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, in 1835 and 1836. By the REV. C. LESINGHAM SMITH, M. A. Fellow, and late Mathematical Lecturer, of Christ's College, Cambridge. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1837.

THERE are a goodly number of erroneous, as well as of silly, statements in this volume, and yet it is one that ought to be and will be extensively read. Whatever opinion one may form of particular portions of it, there is a charm about the whole which irresistibly leads on from page to page, leaving at the close not merely delightful but instructive impressions. This arises from the union of culture with amiability of mind on the part of the author, together with a peculiar felicity of description which attends his representations. We have intimated that the work, which, be it observed, is modest and portable in its appearance, conveys useful lessons along with entertainment. One of these lessons, and it is not slight, consists in the deep interest which the writer felt, or rather feels, and lends in behalf of an important section of the British empire. The Rev. gentleman, in fact, begets that sort of affection towards himself, and for the land and people he visited in these Excursions, which forces the reader to wish that it were in his power to traverse the same paths, but not without him who has here sketched and vivified them. Having uttered so many generalities, we must proceed to allow the author to show himself in his own dress and capacity.

These Excursions, as the title of the volume announces, were performed at two different but very recent times in parts of Scotland, which, though often described, are exhaustless as respects the sublimity and variety of scenery, as well as the simple but ener