DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DURHAM, N. C. 
 
 Rec'd ^/^ ltT t Ml(* 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/jewgypsyelislamOOburt 
 
The Jew The Gypsy 
 and El Islam 
 
 By the late Captain 
 
 SIR RICHARD F. BURTON 
 
 K.C.M.G. F.R.G.S. ETC 
 
 Translator of 
 
 "The Thousand and One Nights," and Author of "The 
 Book of the Sword," "My Pilgrimage 
 to Mecca," etc 
 
 Edited with a Preface and Brief Notes 
 by 
 
 W. H. WILKINS 
 
 London 
 
 Hutchinson & Co 
 
 Paternoster Row 
 1898 
 
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 OOD wine needs no bush," and a good book 
 
 needs no preface, least of all from any 
 but the author's pen. This is a rule more 
 honoured in the breach than the observance nowa- 
 days, when many a classic appears weighed down 
 and obscured by the unnecessary remarks and bulky 
 commentaries of some unimportant editor. For 
 my part it will suffice to give as briefly as possible 
 the history of the MSS. now published for the 
 first time in this volume. 
 
 Sir Richard Burton was a voluminous writer. In 
 addition to the forty-eight works published during 
 his life, there remained at his death twenty MSS., 
 some long and some short, in different stages of 
 completion. A few were ready for press ; others were 
 finished to all intents and purposes, and only required 
 final revision or a few additions; some were in a 
 state of preparation merely, and for that reason 
 may never see the light. Those in this volume 
 
 V 
 
 b 
 
vi 
 
 preface 
 
 belong to the second category. That so many of 
 Burton's MSS. were unpublished at the time of his 
 death arose from his habit of working at several 
 books at a time. In his bedroom, which also served 
 as his study, at Trieste were some ten or twelve rough 
 deal tables, and on each table were piled the materials 
 and notes of a different book in a more or less ad- 
 vanced stage of completion. When he was tired of one, 
 or when he came to a standstill for lack of material, 
 he would leave it for a time and work at another. 
 During the last few years of his life the great success 
 which attended his Arabian Nights led him to turn 
 his attention more to that phase of his work, to 
 the exclusion of books which had been in prepara- 
 tion for years. Thus it came about that so many 
 were unpublished when he died. 
 
 As it is well known, he left his writings, published 
 and unpublished, to his widow, Lady Burton, 
 absolutely, to do with as she thought best. Lady 
 Burton suppressed what she deemed advisable ; the 
 rest she brought with her to England. She 
 published her Life of Sir Richard Burton, a new 
 edition of his Arabian Nights, also Catullus and 
 // Pentamerone ; and was arranging for the publica- 
 tion of others when she died (March, 1896). 
 
 Her sister and executrix, Mrs. Fitzgerald (to 
 
preface 
 
 vii 
 
 whom I should like to express my gratitude for the 
 mauy facilities she has given me), thought fit to 
 entrust me with the work of editing and pre- 
 paring for publication the remaining MSS. In the 
 exercise of the discretion she was good enough to 
 vest in me, I determined to bring out first the three 
 MSS. which make up this book. 
 
 The first part — The Jew — has a somewhat 
 curious history. Burton collected most of the 
 materials for writing it from 1869 to 1871, when 
 he was Consul at Damascus. His intimate know- 
 ledge of Eastern races and languages, and his 
 sympathy with Oriental habits and lines of thought, 
 gave him exceptional facilities for ethnological 
 studies of this kind. Disguised as a native, and 
 unknown to any living soul except his wife, the 
 British Consul mingled freely with the motley popu- 
 lations of Damascus, and inspected every quarter 
 of the city — Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. His 
 inquiries bore fruit in material, not only for this 
 general essay on the Jew, but for an Appendix dealing 
 with the alleged rite of Human Sacrifice among the 
 Sephardim or Eastern Jews, and more especially the 
 mysterious murder of Padre Tomaso at Damascus 
 in 1840. There is little doubt that his inquiry 
 into these subjects was one of the reasons which 
 
viii 
 
 preface 
 
 aroused the hostility of the Damascus Jews against 
 him ; and that hostility was a powerful factor, though 
 by no means the only one, in his recall by Lord 
 Granville in 1871. 
 
 Burton, however, had collected a mass of material 
 before he left Damascus, and in 1873, the year after 
 he had been appointed Consul at Trieste, he began to 
 put it into shape for publication. It was his habit 
 to collect for many years the material of a work, 
 to mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, and then 
 write it in a few months. This plan he pursued 
 with The Jew, which, with the Appendix before 
 mentioned, was finished and ready for publication 
 towards the end of 1874. 
 
 In 1875 he came home from Trieste on leave, and 
 brought the book with him, intending to publish it 
 forthwith. But first he asked an influential friend, 
 who was highly placed in the official world, to read 
 the MS., and give him his opinion as to the ex- 
 pediency of publishing it. That opinion was adverse, 
 owing to the anti-Semitic tendency of the book. 
 Other friends also pointed out to Burton that, so long 
 as he remained in the service of the Government 
 of a country where the Jews enjoy unprecedented 
 power and position, it would be unwise, to say the 
 least of it, for him to make enemies of tfyem. These 
 
preface 
 
 ix 
 
 arguments had weight with Burton, who was not 
 as a rule influenced by anything but his own will, 
 and for once he deemed discretion the better quality, 
 and returned with his MS. to Trieste. There were 
 other considerations too. His wife had just brought 
 out her Inner Life of Syria, which was partly 
 devoted to a defence of his action at Damascus in 
 the matter of the Jews. It had met with a very 
 favourable reception. His friends were also en- 
 deavouring to obtain for him a K.C.B. and the post 
 of Tangier, Morocco — the one thing he stayed in 
 the Consular Service in the hope of obtaining. So 
 the time (1875) was not deemed a propitious one 
 for making enemies. 
 
 Burton put his MS. on the shelf, and waited for 
 the promotion which never came. It remained there 
 until 1886, when Tangier, which was as good as 
 promised to Burton, was given by Lord Rosebery 
 to Sir William Kirby-Green. Then Burton took 
 down the MS. on The Jew again, and had it re- 
 copied. But his wife, who was endeavouring to 
 obtain permission for him to retire on full pension, 
 pointed out to him that since it had waited so long 
 it might as well wait until March, 1891, when, his 
 term of service being finished, they would retire 
 from official life and be free to publish what they 
 
X 
 
 preface 
 
 liked. Moreover, they numbered many friends 
 among the wealthy Jews of Trieste, and had no wish 
 to wound their susceptibilities. Burton reluctantly 
 agreed to this, but declared his determination of 
 publishing the book as soon as he had retired from 
 the Consular Service. Five months before the date 
 of his retirement he died. 
 
 Lady Burton had The Jew next on her list for 
 publication at the time of her death. In publishing 
 it now, therefore, one is only carrying out her wishes 
 and those of her husband. But in the exercise 
 of the discretion given to me, I have thought it 
 better to hold over for the present the Appendix 
 on the alleged rite of Human Sacrifice among the 
 Sephardim and the murder of Padre Tomaso. The 
 only alternative was to publish it in a mutilated 
 form ; and as I hold strongly that no one has a 
 right to mutilate the work of another writer, least of 
 all of one who is dead, I prefer to withhold it until 
 a more convenient season. I can do this with a 
 clearer conscience, because the Appendix has no direct 
 bearing on the other part of the book, and because 
 the chapters on The Jew which are retained are 
 by far the more important. The tone of even this 
 portion is anti-Semitic ; but I do not feel justi- 
 fied in going contrary to the wishes of the author 
 
preface 
 
 xi 
 
 and suppressing an interesting ethnological study 
 merely to avoid the possibility of hurting the sus- 
 ceptibilities of the Hebrew community. It has 
 been truly said, " Every nation gets the Jew it de- 
 serves," and it may well be that the superstitions 
 and cruelties of the Eastern Jews have been 
 generated in them by long centuries of oppression 
 and wrong. From these superstitions and cruelties 
 the enlightened and highly favoured Jews in England 
 naturally shrink with abhorrence and repudiation ; 
 but it does not therefore follow they have no exist- 
 ence among their less fortunate Eastern brethren. 
 
 The Gypsy has a far less eventful history, though 
 the materials for its making were collected during 
 a period of over thirty years, and were gathered 
 for the most part by personal research, in Asia 
 mainly, and also in Africa, South America, and 
 Europe. Burton's interest in the Gypsies was life- 
 long ; and when he was a lieutenant in the Bombay 
 Army and quartered in Sindh, he began his investi- 
 gations concerning the affinity between the Jats and 
 the Gypsies. During his many travels in different 
 parts of the world, whenever he had the opportunity 
 he collected fresh materials with a view to putting 
 them together some day. In 1875 his controversy 
 with Bataillard provoked him into compiling his 
 
xii 
 
 preface 
 
 long-contemplated work on the Gypsies. Unfortu- 
 nately other interests intervened, and the work was 
 never completed. It was one of the many unfinished 
 things Burton intended to complete when he should 
 have quitted the Consular Service. He hoped, for 
 instance, to make fuller inquiries concerning the 
 Gypsies in France, Germany, and other countries 
 of Europe, and especially he intended to write a 
 chapter on the Gypsies in England on his return 
 home. Even as it stands, however, The Gypsy 
 is a valuable addition to ethnology ; for apart 
 from Burton's rare knowledge of strange peoples 
 and tongues, his connexion with the Gypsies lends 
 to the subject a unique interest. There is no doubt 
 that he was affiliated to this strange people by 
 nature, if not by descent. To quote from the Gypsy 
 Lore Journal 1 : 
 
 " Whether there may not be also a tinge of Arab, 
 or perhaps of Gypsy blood in Burton s race, is a 
 point which is perhaps open to question. For the 
 latter suspicion an excuse may be found in the 
 incurable restlessness which has beset him since his 
 infancy, a restlessness which has effectually prevented 
 him from ever settling long in any one place, and 
 in the singular idiosyncrasy which his friends have 
 
 1 January, 1891. 
 
preface 
 
 xiii 
 
 often remarked — the peculiarity of his eyes. ' When 
 it (the eye) looks at you/ said one who knows him 
 well, ' it looks through you, and then, glazing over, 
 seems to see something behind you. Richard Burton 
 is the only man (not a Gypsy) with that peculiarity, 
 and he shares with them the same horror of a corpse, 
 death-bed scenes, and graveyards, though caring 
 little for his ow r n life/ When to this remarkable 
 fact be added the scarcely less interesting detail 
 that 1 Burton ' is one of the half-dozen distinctively 
 Romany names, it is evident that the suspicion of 
 Sir Richard Burton having a drop of Gypsy blood in 
 his descent — crossed and commingled though it be 
 with an English, Scottish, French, and Irish strain — 
 is not altogether unreasonable.'' 
 
 On this subject Lady Burton also wrote : 
 " In the January number of the Gypsy Lore 
 Journal a passage is quoted from ' a short sketch 
 of the career' of my husband (a little black pamphlet) 
 which half suspects a remote drop of Gypsy blood 
 in him. There is no proof that this was ever the 
 case ; but there is no question that he showed many 
 of their peculiarities in appearance, disposition, and 
 speech — speaking Romany like themselves. Nor did 
 we ever enter a Gypsy camp without their claiming 
 him : ' What are you doing with a black coat on ? ' 
 
xiv 
 
 preface 
 
 they would say ; * why don't you join us and be 
 our King?"' 1 
 
 Whether the affinity was one of blood or of nature 
 does not greatly matter ; in either case it lends a 
 special interest to Burton's study of the gypsy. 
 
 Of El Islam ; or, The Rank of Muhammadanism 
 among the Religions of the World there is little 
 to be said. It is one of the oldest of the Burton 
 MSS. ; and though it bears no date, from internal 
 evidence I judge it to have been written soon after 
 his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1853. It is, in 
 fact, contemporary with his poem The Kasidah, 
 though I know not why the poem was published 
 and the essay withheld. Probably Burton con- 
 templated writing more fully on the subject. 
 Muhammadanism in its highest aspect always 
 attracted him. So long ago as 1848 we find him 
 preparing for his Mecca pilgrimage, not only by 
 learning the Koran and practising rites and cere- 
 monies, but by " a sympathetic study of Sufi-ism, the 
 Gnosticism of El Islam, which would raise me high 
 above the rank of a mere Muslim." 2 Lady Burton 
 writes : " This stuck to him off and on all his life " ; 
 and, it may be added, gave a colour to his writings. 
 
 1 Lady Burton's Life of Her Husband, Vol. I., p. 252. 
 
 2 Burton's Reminiscences, written for Mr. Hitchman in 1888. 
 
preface 
 
 XV 
 
 Since Burton wrote this essay (now published for 
 the first time) a change has taken place among 
 thinking men in the estimate of El Islam among 
 the religions of the world. Writers like Lane Poole, 
 Isaac Taylor, and Bosworth Smith, to name no 
 others, have cleared away many misconceptions 
 concerning the " Saving Faith," and have discussed 
 its merits as a humanizing creed. But the testimony 
 of a man like Burton, who by personal observation 
 studied thoroughly the " inner life of the Muslim/ 
 who absolutely lived the life of an Arab pilgrim, 
 and penetrated to the Holy of Holies, of necessity 
 carries peculiar weight. 
 
 I should like to say a few words concerning the 
 author's MSS. So many conflicting rumours have 
 appeared with reference to the late Sir Richard 
 Burton's MSS., that it is well to state that these are 
 here reproduced practically as they left the author's 
 hands. 1 It has been my endeavour to avoid over- 
 editing, and to interfere as little as possible with the 
 original text. Hence editorial notes, always in 
 square brackets, are sparingly introduced. It has not 
 been found necessary to make any verbal changes 
 
 1 In the case of the Appendix on Human Sacrifice among the 
 Sephardlm or Eastern Jews and the murder of Padre Tomaso, I 
 have (as before stated) preferred to hold it over to publishing it in 
 a mutilated form. 
 
xvi 
 
 preface 
 
 of importance. But the case is different with the 
 spelling of proper names, which were left in such a 
 chaotic condition that a revision was found indis- 
 pensable, so as to reduce them to some measure 
 of uniformity. The variants were so many and 
 the MS. so difficult to decipher, that I am fain 
 to crave indulgence for my performance of this 
 somewhat troublesome task. 
 
 In conclusion, I will only add that it has been my 
 endeavour to give a full and accurate presentment of 
 these hitherto unpublished MSS. There are more to 
 follow ; but these form a good sample of the work 
 of the famous Oriental traveller in fields which 
 he made peculiarly his own. They are eminently 
 characteristic of the man. They give glimpses of 
 him once more as a bold and original thinker, a 
 profound student of men and things, as a rare 
 genius, if a wayward one, and as one of the most 
 remarkable personalities of our day and generation. 
 
 W. H. WILKINS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 i 
 
 THE JEW 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. GENERAL OPINION OF THE JEW 
 II. OPINION OF THE JEW IN ENGLAND . 
 
 III. THE JEW OF THE HOLY LAND AND HIS DESTINY 
 
 IV. THE JEW AND THE TALMUD .... 
 V. THE CONTINUITY OF TRADITION IN THE EAST . 
 
 II 
 
 THE GYPSY 
 part I 
 
 NOTES ON MODERN STUDIES OF 
 "CHINGANOLOGY " 
 
 I. THE INDIAN AFFINITIES OF THE GYPSIES . . .136 
 
 II. THE CLAIMS AND PRETENSIONS OF M. PAUL BATAILLARD 144 
 
 xvii 
 
 . 3 
 . 20 
 . 46 
 . 72 
 . llo 
 
xviii 
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 in. A REVIEW OF M. PAUL BATAILLARD'S REVIEWS . .157 
 
 § 1. Preliminaries . . . . . .157 
 
 §2. "Derniers Travaux, etc." . . . .172 
 
 § 3. "Origines, etc." 183 
 
 §4. "Notes et Questions, etc.," " Sur le mot 
 
 Zagaie, etc." . . . . . .197 
 
 part II 
 
 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE GYPSIES 
 AND THE JATS 
 
 IV. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE GYPSY IN EUROPE . 202 
 
 V. THE GYPSY IN ASIA 211 
 
 § 1. The Panjabi Jats 211 
 
 §2. The Jats of Belochistan . . . .215 
 § 3. The Gypsies of Persia . . . .217 
 § 4. The Gypsies of Syria . . . .219 
 § 5. The Gypsies of the Hauran, South-Eastern 
 
 Syria 228 
 
 § 6. The Gypsies of Damascus . . . .231 
 
 VI. THE GYPSY IN AFRICA 233 
 
 § 1. The Egyptian Ghajar or Ghagar . .233 
 § 2. The Gzane of Algeria and Morocco . .258 
 § 3. The Gypsies in Inner Africa . . .261 
 
Contents xix 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 VII. THE GYPSY IN EUROPE 263 
 
 § 1. The Gypsy in Hungary .... 263 
 § 2. The Gypsies of Spain . . . .269 
 
 VIII. THE GYPSY IN AMERICA 282 
 
 The Gypsies of the Brazil . . . .282 
 
 III 
 
 EL ISLAM 
 
 OB 
 
 THE RANK OF MUHAMMAD ANISM AMONG 
 THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD 
 
 EL ISLAM 
 
 289 
 
THE JEW 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 GENERAL OPINION OF THE JEW 
 
 IHE history of the Jew as well as his physiological 
 
 aspect are subjects which still remain to be 
 considered and carefully to be worked out from an 
 Aryan point of view. We have of late years seen 
 books in plenty upon points of detail : let us 
 particularize The Physical History of the Jewish 
 Race, by Dr. Josiah Clark Nott* (Charleston, 1850) ; 
 Le Juif par le Chevalier Geargenot des Monceseaux 
 (Paris: Henri Plon, 1871) ; and Notices of the Jews 
 and their Country by the Classic Writers of 
 Antiquity : being a Collection of Statements and 
 Opinions translated from the Works of Greek and 
 Latin Heathen Authors previous to a.d. 500, by 
 John Gill (London: Longmans, 1872). But in these, 
 as in other works, we find wanting a practical and 
 personal familiarity with the subject, nor can we be 
 surprised at its absence. It is generally assumed 
 
 [* Dr. J. C. Nott, the well-know ethnologist.] 
 
 3 
 
XTbe Jew 
 
 that at the present moment there are six millions of 
 Jews scattered over the face of the earth. Some have 
 exaggerated the total to nine millions and a half ; 
 but even the former figure is a greater number, says 
 M. Cremieux, than the nation could boast of at 
 any other period of its history, ancient or modern. 1 
 Throughout the world also the race increases with 
 such marvellous rapidity as a rule, which admits 
 of few exceptions, that philosophical inquirers are 
 
 1 The two great centres of Jewish population are, first, the 
 northern part of Africa between Morocco and Egypt, especially the 
 Barbary States, where they form the chief element of the town 
 population, and where a census is at present mere guesswork ; 
 they spread gradually southwards, and since 1858 a trading colony 
 has occupied Timbuctoo on the Niger. The other families in Africa 
 are the Falashas, or Black Jews of Abyssinia, mere proselytes like 
 those of Malabar, and a few Europeans at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 The second great centre is that region of Europe which extends 
 from the Lower Danube to the Baltic ; and here there are about 
 four millions who occupy the middle class among the Sclavonic 
 nationalities, while in the whole of Western Europe there are not a 
 hundred and twenty thousand. Their descendants have followed 
 the path of European migrations to America, North and South, and to 
 Australia, where the large commercial towns enable them to multiply 
 as in the Old World, and much more rapidly than the Christian 
 population. The other outlying colonies are in Turkey, European as 
 well as Asiatic, although the Holy Land now contains but a small 
 proportion of their former numbers ; in Yemen, especially at Sanaa 
 and Aden, in Nejeran, and other parts of Arabia ; along the whole 
 course of the Euphrates, in Kurdistan, Persia, and India, especially 
 in Malabar, where there are white and black Jews ; in China and in 
 Cochin China, both colonies being also found ; and in the Turkoman 
 countries. Here they inhabit the four fortresses of Shahr-i-sabz, 
 Kulab, Shamatan, and Urta Kurgan, with about thirty small 
 villages ; they live in their own quarters, and, except having to pay 
 higher taxes, they are treated on an equal footing with the other 
 inhabitants. 
 
General ©pinion of tbe 3ew 
 
 5 
 
 beginning to ask whether this immense fecundity, 
 taken in connexion with the exceptionally healthy 
 and vigorous physique of the race, its ubiquity and 
 its cosmopolitanism, does not point to a remarkable 
 career in times to come. 
 
 The ethnologist and the student of general 
 history are urgently invited to consider the annals 
 and the physical and intellectual aspects of the 
 children of Israel, perhaps the most interesting 
 subject that can occupy their attention. The Jew, 
 like the Gypsy, stands alone, isolated by character, if 
 not by blessing. Traditionally, or rather according 
 to its own tradition, the oldest family on earth, it 
 is at the same time that which possesses the most 
 abundant vitality. Its indestructible and irrepressible 
 life-power enables this nation without a country to 
 maintain an undying nationality and to nourish a 
 sentiment of caste with a strength and a pertinacity 
 unparalleled in the annals of patriotism. The people 
 that drove the Jews from Judaea, the empires which 
 effaced the kingdoms of Israel and Judah from 
 the map of the world, have utterly perished. The 
 descendants of the conquering Romans are un- 
 distinguishable from the rest of mankind. But, 
 eighteen hundred years after the Fall of Jerusalem, 
 the dispersed Jewish people have a distinct existence, 
 are a power in every European capital, conduct the 
 financial operations of nations and governments, and 
 are to be found wherever civilization has extended 
 
6 
 
 and commerce has penetrated ; in fact, it has made 
 all the world its home. 
 
 One obstacle to a matured and detailed ethno- 
 logical study of the Jew is the difficulty of becoming 
 familiar with a people scattered over the two 
 hemispheres. Though the race is one, the two 
 great factors blood and climate have shown it to 
 be anything but immutable, either in physique 
 or in character. Compare, for instance, the two 
 extremes — the Tatar-faced Karaite of the Crimea 
 with the Semitic features of Morocco, the blond 
 lovelocks of Aden and the fiery ringlets of Germany 
 with the greasy, black hair of Houndsditch. And 
 as bodily form differs greatly, there is perhaps a 
 still greater distinction in mental characteristics : 
 we can hardly believe the peaceful and industrious 
 Dutch Jew a brother of the fanatic and ferocious 
 Hebrew who haunts the rugged Highlands of Safed 
 in the Holy Land. Yet though these differences 
 constitute almost a series of sub-races, there is one 
 essentially great quality which cements and combines 
 the whole house of Israel. 
 
 The vigour, the vital force, and the mental capacity 
 of other peoples are found to improve by inter- 
 mixture ; the more composite their character, the 
 greater their strength and energy. But for genera- 
 tion after generation the Jews have preserved, in 
 marriage at least, the purity of their blood. In 
 countries where they form but a small percentage of 
 
(General ©pinion of tbe Sew 7 
 
 the population the range of choice must necessarily 
 be very limited, and from the very beginning of 
 his history the Jew, like his half-brother the Arab, 
 always married, or was expected to marry, his first 
 cousin. A well-known traveller of the present day 
 has proved that this can be done with impunity 
 only by unmixed races of men, and that the larger 
 the amount of mixture in blood the greater will 
 be the amount of deformity in physique and morale 
 to be expected from the offspring. Consanguineous 
 marriages are dangerous in England, and far more 
 dangerous, as De Hone has proved, in Massachusetts. 
 Yet the kings of Persia intermarried with their 
 sisters, and the Samaritan branch of the Jews is 
 so closely connected that first cousins are almost 
 sisters. 
 
 Physically and mentally the Jewish man and 
 woman are equal in all respects to their Gentile 
 neighbours, and in some particulars are superior 
 to them. The women of the better class are strongly 
 and symmetrically shaped ; and although their beauty 
 of feature is not that admired by the Christian eye, 
 debility and deformity are exceptionally rare. In 
 grace of form and in charm of manner they are far 
 superior to their husbands and brothers, and indeed 
 this everywhere appears to be a sub-characteristic 
 racial feature. They are nowhere remarkably distin- 
 guished for chastity, and in some places, Morocco for 
 instance, their immorality is proverbial. Their grand 
 
8 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 physique does not age like that of the natives of the 
 strange countries which they colonize and where 
 Europeans readily degenerate, they preserve youth 
 for ten years longer than their rivals, they become 
 mothers immediately after puberty, and they bear chil- 
 dren to a far later age. Their customs allow them 
 to limit the family, not by deleterious drugs and 
 dangerous operations, but by the simple process of 
 prolonging the period of lactation, and barrenness 
 is rare amongst them as in the days when it was 
 looked upon as a curse. There is scarcely any 
 part of the habitable globe, from the Highlands 
 of Abyssinia to the Lowlands of Jamaica, in which 
 the Jewish people cannot be acclimatized more 
 readily and more rapidly than the other races of 
 Europe — also the result of blood comparatively free 
 from that intermixture which brings forward the 
 inherent defects of both parents. 
 
 The Jews also enjoy a comparative immunity from 
 various forms of disease which are the scourge of 
 other races. Pulmonary and scrofulous complaints 
 are rare amongst them ; leprosy and elephantiasis 
 are almost extinct ; and despite their impurity in 
 person and the exceptional filth of their dwelling- 
 places, they are less liable to be swept away by 
 cholera and plague than the natives of the countries 
 which are habitually ravaged by those epidemics. 
 They seldom suffer from the usual infectious results, 
 even where the women are so unchaste that honour 
 
General ©pinion of tbe Jew 9 
 
 seems as unknown to them as honesty to the 
 men. 
 
 Physiologists have asked, How is this phenomenon 
 to he accounted for? Why is the duration of life 
 greater among the Jews than among the other races of 
 Europe ? Is it the result of superior organization or 
 of obedience to the ceremonial law ? The researches 
 of those who have made these questions their special 
 study supply but one satisfactory or sufficient answer, 
 and it may be summed up in six words — a prodigious 
 superiority of vital power. And all the laws attri- 
 buted to the theistic secularism of Moses were issued 
 with one object — namely, that of hardening and 
 tempering the race to an extent which even Sparta 
 ignored. The ancient Jew was more than half a 
 Bedawin, and not being an equestrian race his annual 
 journeys to and from Jerusalem were mostly made 
 on foot. His diet was carefully regulated, and his 
 year was a succession of fasts and feasts, as indeed 
 it is now, but not to such an extent as formerly. 
 The results were simply the destruction of all the 
 weaklings and the survival of the fittest. 
 
 Thrice during the year, by order of the Torah 
 (Deut. xvi. 16) — namely (1) in the Passover, or feast 
 of unleavened bread during the first ecclesiastical 
 and the seventh civil month; (2) at Pentecost, or 
 Shebaoth (weeks), the feast of the wheat harvest 
 in the third or the ninth month ; and (3) at the 
 Feast of Tabernacles, or the ingathering of the harvest 
 
10 
 
 XTbe Sew 
 
 in the seventh or the first month — the Jew of old was 
 religiously commanded to appear before the Lord. 
 He was bound to leave his home, which might be 
 distant a hundred and fifty miles, and travel up 
 to Jerusalem, where he led a camp life like his 
 half-brothers in the Desert. This semi-nomad life 
 was combined with a quasi-ascetic condition produced 
 by the frequency and the severity of his fasts and 
 by the austerities attending upon making ready for 
 the Sabbath, that is to say, the preparations of Friday 
 evening — some religious men even in the present age 
 suffer nothing to pass their lips for seven consecutive 
 days and nights. 1 This afflicting the soul, as it is 
 called, served to breed a race equally hard and hardy 
 in frame and mind. It embodied to perfection the 
 idea of the sacrifice of personal will. Add to this 
 the barbarous and ferocious nature of their punish- 
 ments, amongst which stoning by the congregation 
 is perhaps the most classical, and the perpetual 
 bloodshed in the Temple, which must have suggested 
 a butcher's shambles. 
 
 1 This terrible fast is called Ha-fraka. Old men have been known 
 in Syria and Palestine to endure it twice a year, in summer and in 
 winter. They sup on Saturday evening, and till the sunset of the 
 next Saturday they do not allow themselves to swallow even a drop 
 of water or to touch a pinch of snuff. The state of prostration 
 towards the end of the term is extreme, and the first thing done, 
 when the time has passed, is to place the patient in a warm bath. 
 This is probably the severest fast known to the world, unless it be 
 rivalled by certain Hindu ascetics : the Greek and Coptic Christians 
 and the Muhammadans have nothing to compare with it. 
 
General ©pinion of the Jew 11 
 
 Again, the history and traditions, the faith and 
 practice of the Jew ever placed before his eyes the 
 absolute and immeasurable superiority of his own 
 caste, the " Peculiar People, the Kingdom of Priests, 
 the Holy Nation." This exaltation justified the 
 Hebrew in treating his brother-men as heathens barely 
 worthy of the title of human. " Lo, the people shall 
 dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the 
 nations " — an unfriendly separation and an estrange- 
 ment between man and man equally injurious to the 
 welfare of Jew and Gentile. It grew a rank crop of 
 hideous crimes committed in the fair name of religion 
 — what nation but the Hebrew could exult over a 
 Jephthah who "did with his daughter according to 
 his own," that is, burnt her to death before the Lord ? 
 At the same time it inculcated a rare humanity 
 amongst its own members unknown to all other 
 peoples of antiquity : for instance, it allowed the 
 coward to retire from the field before battle, and, 
 strange to say, it inculcated the very highest of moral 
 dogmas. In 250 b.c. Sochaeus, and after him the 
 Pharisees, according to Josephus, taught that God 
 should be served, not for gain, but for love and 
 gratitude : hence his follower Sadik forbade the 
 looking forward to futurity, even as Moses had 
 neglected the doctrine with studious care. Even in 
 the present age of the world such denegation of 
 egotism would be a higher law. 
 
 All these specialities in combination urged the 
 
12 
 
 Jews to dare and to do everything against all who 
 were not of their own blood. The inevitable con- 
 clusion of such a policy was that eventually they 
 came into collision with all around them ; that they 
 failed in the unequal combat with pagan Rome and 
 early Christianity ; that they lost the birthplace of 
 their nationality, and were scattered far and wide over 
 the surface of the earth. And what has happened 
 once may happen again. 
 
 The Greeks of earlier days, who like the Hebrews 
 had but one faith and one tongue, also met periodi- 
 cally as a single family at Delphi, the centre of 
 their racial area. Thus that gifted people without 
 any inspiration effectually combined with grandeur 
 in the worship of the gods the law of harmony which 
 should preside over human society. But the Greeks 
 were a sensuous and a joyous race, walking under the 
 free heavens in the glorious lights of poetry, of art, 
 and of beauty, and could not fail to realize the truth 
 that society based upon reciprocal benevolence means 
 civilization and the highest stage of human society 
 
 — communion with the world. 
 
 # # # # # 
 
 Dr. Boudin, the eminent physiologist and medical 
 writer, remarks that the Jew is governed by statistical 
 laws of birth, sickness, and mortality completely 
 different from those which rule the peoples amongst 
 whom he lives. This assertion is confirmed by the 
 testimony of history. During the Middle Ages, when 
 
General ©pinion of tbe Sew 13 
 
 the unclean capitals of Europe and Asia were periodi- 
 cally devastated by the plague, the angel of death 
 passed by the houses of the oppressed and despised 
 Jews, although they were condemned by local regula- 
 tions to occupy the worst quarters of the cities. In 
 speaking of the pestilence of a.d. 1345, Tschudi says 
 that it nowhere attacked the Jews. Frascator men- 
 tions that they completely escaped the typhus 
 epidemic in a.d. 1505; they were untouched by the 
 intermittent fevers which reigned in Rome in a.d. 
 1691 ; they were not subject to the dysentery which 
 was so fatal at Nimeguen in a.d. 1736 ; and both in 
 1832 and 1849 it is stated upon excellent authority 
 that they enjoyed comparative exemption from the 
 cholera in London, although during the last-named year 
 the city numbered nearly thirteen thousand victims. 1 
 
 Not less curious are the statistics showing the 
 natural aptitude of the Jewish people, at once so 
 national in their sentiments and so cosmopolitan in 
 their tendencies, for universal acclimatization. The 
 Jew and the Christian will emigrate to a British or a 
 French colony from the same birthplace ; and while, 
 
 1 This we gather from the reports of the General Board of Health 
 on the epidemic cholera. In 1832 only 4 deaths were recorded out 
 of the 3,000 Portuguese Jews, and in 1849 amongst the 20,000 then 
 inhabiting London there were no more than 13, although the loss from 
 cholera amounted to 12,837. This gives a proportion of 0*6 per 1,000, 
 whilst the superintendent registrar assigns 1 : 1,000 to Hampstead, 
 6 : 1,000 to Whitechapel, 7 : 1,000 to the City of London, 19 : 1,000 
 to Shoreditch, and 29 : 1,000 to Eotherhithe. [These figures are for 
 the special cholera year 1832. Since then the visitations have been 
 much less severe.] 
 
14 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 owing to the uncongenial climate, the Christian 
 settler with his family eventually dies out, the Jewish 
 settler increases and multiplies. In Algeria, for 
 example, the French colonies would become extinct in 
 a very short process of time were it not for the steady 
 influx of immigrants, whereas the Jew takes deep root 
 and throws out vigorous branches. 
 
 With respect to the superior longevity of the Jews, 
 German sources supply some interesting particulars. 
 Dr. W. C. de Neufville,* of Frankfort, by the collection 
 and collation of an immense mass of statistics, has 
 demonstrated the following facts : 
 
 1. One-fourth of Christian populations dies at the 
 
 mean age of 6 years 11 months. 
 
 2. One -fourth of Jewish populations dies at the 
 
 mean age of 28 years 3 months. 
 
 3. One -half of Christian populations dies at the 
 
 mean age of 36 years 6 months. 
 
 4. One-half of Jewish populations dies at the 
 
 mean age of 53 years 1 month. 
 
 5. Three-fourths of Christian populations die at 
 
 the mean age of 59 years 10 months. 
 
 6. Three-fourths of Jewish populations die at the 
 
 mean age of 71 years. 
 It is found that in Prussia the annual mortality 
 among the Jews is 1*61 per cent, to 2*00 among 
 the rest of the population. The annual rate of 
 increase with the former is 1*73 per cent. ; with the 
 
 [* The work referred to is Lebensdauer und Todesursachen 
 22 verschiedener Stdnde. Frankfort, 1855.] 
 
General ©pinion of tbe Jew 15 
 
 latter only 1*36. # In Frankfort the mean duration of 
 human life is 36 years 1 1 months among the Christian 
 population, and 48 years 9 months among the Jewish. 
 
 I will now quote at full length the favourable 
 verdict usually offered in the case of the Hebrews 
 by the writers of Europe : 
 
 "If we trace the history of the Israelitish race 
 from the destruction of Jerusalem to the time at 
 which the prevalence of a more enlightened public 
 opinion caused to be effaced from the Statute Books 
 of European nations the barbarous and cruel enact- 
 ments against the Jews, adopted in an epoch when 
 bigotry, brutality, and persecution were rampant, 
 we shall be constrained to admit that there has 
 been something little less than miraculous in the 
 preservation of this people from utter extermina- 
 tion. Basnaget (Histoire des Juifs) calculates that 
 1,338,460 Jews perished by fire and sword, famine 
 and sickness, at and after the siege of the Holy 
 City. Subsequently a host of unfortunate exiles 
 became the objects of bitter and unrelenting per- 
 secution, fanaticism, and tyranny in every country 
 throughout Christendom. During the two years 
 which preceded their final expulsion from Judeea, 
 580,000 Jews were slaughtered by the Romans ; and 
 the gradual dispersion of the rest over the face of 
 Europe was the prelude for the perpetration upon 
 
 [* These figures are for average years, and hence hold good now as 
 then.] 
 
 [t Author of the large history of the Jews in 5 vols. Rotterdam, 1707.] 
 
16 
 
 Ubc Jew 
 
 them by ' Christians ' of a series of atrocities almost 
 unequalled for merciless savagery. The functions 
 they discharged in mediaeval society were, in reality, 
 of the most valuable kind ; but so dense was the 
 ignorance, and so inveterate were the prejudices of 
 the age, that towards the close of the thirteenth 
 century upwards of 13,000 Israelites were banished 
 from England in one day ; just as two hundred 
 years later 500,000 were expelled from Spain, 
 150,000 from Portugal, and an indefinite number 
 were cast out of France. For a period of three 
 centuries successive sovereigns refused to accord 
 permission to the Jews to worship Almighty God 
 within the English realm ; nor was it until the 
 Protectorate of Cromwell that a synagogue was 
 allowed to be erected in London. 
 
 "In works of fiction, in the drama, and in daily 
 life the name of Jew has become a byword and a 
 reproach, and an explanation of this is to be sought 
 for rather in the malignity of religious prejudice 
 than in the actual conduct of the people who have 
 been visited with so much opprobrium. Their 
 virtues are their own, but their faults are the fruit 
 of eighteen centuries of outlawry and oppression. 
 Under such treatment archangels would have become 
 depraved. In the history of the whole world there 
 is nothing which in any degree resembles the syste- 
 matic persecutions, the barbarous cruelties, the 
 cowardly insults, the debasing tyranny to which 
 
General ©pinion ot tbe 3ew 17 
 
 the Jewish race has been exposed. That it was not 
 degraded to the level of the African negroes, or 
 absolutely obliterated from the face of the earth, is 
 only another proof of its wonderful vitality and of 
 the indestructible elasticity of the national character. 1 
 In spite of all these centuries of oppression and 
 repression, its representatives are still found, not 
 merely among the monarchs of finance, but among 
 the royalties and aristocracies of genius. Every one 
 must remember the passage in Coningsby in which 
 Mr. Disraeli enumerates the illustrious Jews who 
 are occupying, or have occupied, the foremost rank in 
 arts, letters, statesmanship, and military science — 
 Count Cantemir in Russia, Senor Mendizelal in 
 Spain, and Count Arnim in Prussia ; Marshals Soult 
 and Massena, Professors Neander, Regius, Bearnary, 
 and Wohl ; the composers Rossini, Mendelssohn, and 
 Meyerbeer (not to mention Offenbach) ; Rachel the 
 actress; Pasta, Grisi, and Braham the vocalists, 
 Spinoza the philosopher, and Heine the poet ; to 
 which list he might have added the names of some 
 of the most distinguished of living French and 
 English celebrities. 2 And though we have forgotten 
 
 1 There is another parasitic race, also of pure blood, but Indo- 
 European, not Semitic, whose preservation appears almost as " pro- 
 vidential" as that of the Jews, and whose union is even more 
 exceptional because it is not bound either by revelation or indeed by 
 any form of faith — the Gypsy. 
 
 2 Not to mention Wolff and Palgrave the travellers, and Mon- 
 seigneur Bauer, Pere Hermann, and Pere Marie de Ratisbonne, the 
 converts. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Xapol and Gondomar, Yahuda Haley i, and Aviabron, 
 alias Solomon ben Gabriel, few of us can ignore 
 the Rothschilds and Goldsmids, the Ricardos, 
 Rouhers, and Torlonias, now become household words 
 in Europe. 
 
 " That in all countries the Jews, on the other hand, 
 should evince a preference for sordid pursuits, and 
 follow them with an eagerness and tenacity worthy 
 of employment in more generous and elevated call- 
 ings, must also be admitted. William Abbott, in 
 his outspoken and earnest but narrow-minded way, 
 advanced this plea upon one occasion in the House 
 of Commons, in resistance to a motion to relieve all 
 persons professing^ the Jewish religion in England 
 from the civil- disabilities under which they then 
 laboured. He was replied to by Macaulay in a speech 
 as eloquent in terms as it was irresistible in logic. 
 
 " 1 Such, sir,' said he, ' has in every age been the reasoning 
 of bigots. They never fail to plead, in justification of per- 
 secution, the vices which persecution has engendered. 
 England has been to the Jews less than half a country, and 
 we revile them because they do not feel for England more 
 than a half patriotism. We treat them as slaves, and 
 wonder that they do not regard us as brethren. We drive 
 them to mean occupations, and then reproach them for not 
 embracing honourable professions. We long forbade them 
 to possess land, and we complain that they chiefly occupy 
 themselves in trade. We shut them out from all the paths 
 of ambition, and then^we despise them for taking refuge in 
 avarice. During many ages we have in all our dealings with 
 them abused our immense superiority of force, and then we 
 are disgusted because they have recourse to that cunning 
 
General ©pinion of tbe 3ew 
 
 19 
 
 which is the natural and universal defence of the weak 
 against the violence of the strong. But were they always 
 a mere money-changing, money-getting, money-hoarding 
 race ? Nobody knows better than my honourable friend, 
 the member for the University of Oxford, that there is 
 nothing in their national character which unfits them for 
 the highest duties of citizens. He knows that in the infancy 
 of civilization, when our island was as savage as New Guinea, 
 when letters and arts were still unknown to Athens, when 
 scarcely a thatched hut stood on what was afterwards the 
 site of Rome, this contemned people had their fenced cities 
 and cedar palaces, their splendid Temple, their fleets of 
 merchant ships, their schools of sacred learning, their great 
 statesmen and soldiers, their natural philosophers, their 
 historians and poets. What nation ever contended more 
 manfully against overwhelming odds for its independence 
 and religion ? And if, in the course of many centuries, the 
 oppressed descendants of warriors and sages have degene- 
 rated from the qualities of their fathers — if while excluded 
 from the blessings of law and bound down under the yoke of 
 slavery they have contracted some of the vices of outlaws and 
 slaves, shall we consider this a matter of reproach to them ? 
 Shall we not rather consider it a matter of shame and 
 remorse to ourselves ? Let us do justice to them. Let us 
 open to them every career in which ability and energy can 
 be displayed. Till we have done this, let us not presume to 
 say that there is no genius among the countrymen of Isaiah, 
 no heroism amongst the descendants of the Maccabees.' " 
 
 We have " done this," and the results have 
 stultified all this nicely balanced rhetoric. And 
 the following pages may suggest that our European 
 ancestors had other reasons for expelling the Jews 
 than the mere " bigotry " and " brutality " so un- 
 philosophically ascribed to them by Lord Macaulay. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 OPINION OF THE JEW IN ENGLAND 
 
 F all Europeans, the Englishman, who boasts of 
 
 being a staunch friend to the people " scattered 
 and peeled," and whose confident ignorance and 
 indiscriminate philanthropy are bestowed upon them 
 equally with the African negro, knows least of the 
 customs and habits of his proteges, and especially 
 of those of Jews in foreign countries. The neglect 
 of things near to us must be the reason why we 
 know so little of the inner life of Jewry : there 
 are, however, other concomitant causes. 
 
 In our native land the Hebrew lives protected, 
 and honoured, in fact, as one of ourselves. We 
 visit him, we dine with him, and we see him at 
 all times and places, except perhaps at the Sunday 
 service. We should enjoy his society but for a 
 certain coarseness of manner, and especially an 
 offensive familiarity, which seems almost peculiar to 
 him. We marvel at his talents, and we are struck 
 by the adaptability and by the universality of his 
 genius. We admire his patience, his steadfastness, 
 
 20 
 
©pinion of tbe 5ew in England 21 
 
 and his courage, his military prowess, and his success- 
 ful career in every post and profession — Statesman 
 and Senior Wrangler, Poet and Literato, Jurist, 
 Surgeon, and Physician, Capitalist, Financier, and 
 Merchant, Philosopher and Engineer, in fact in every- 
 thing that man can be. When we compare the 
 Semitic Premier with his Anglo-Saxon rival, it is 
 much to the advantage of the former : while jesting 
 about the " Asian mystery," we cannot but feel that 
 there is something in the Asiatic which we do not 
 expect, which eludes our ken, which goes beyond us. 
 
 Those familiar with the annals of old families 
 in England are aware of the extent to which they 
 have been mixed with Jewish blood, even from 
 the days when religious prejudice is mistakenly 
 represented to have been most malign. Indeed, 
 of late centuries our nation has never prided itself, 
 like the Portuguese and the Iberians generally, in 
 preserving its blood "pure and free from taint of 
 Jew and Infidel." The cross perpetually reappears 
 in outward form as well as in mental quality. Here 
 and there an old country house produces a scion 
 which to all appearance is more Jewish than the 
 Jews themselves. A peculiar characteristic of the 
 blood is an extreme fondness for show, for colour, 
 for splendour and magnificence in general. The 
 rich Jew must display his wealth ; like the Parsee, 
 he makes and spends whilst his rivals the Greek 
 and the Armenian make and hoard. In certain 
 
22 
 
 continental cities where he now reigns supreme he 
 renders society impossible to the Christian. The 
 Messrs. G. Muir Mackenzie and 0. P. Irby — The 
 Turks, the Greeks, and the Slavons (London : Bell 
 & Daldy, 1867) — will show how at Salonika 1 the 
 
 French Consul Marquis de could not join in 
 
 any of the festivities. The dinner-table was not 
 respected unless it glistened with gold and silver 
 plate borrowed and lent for the occasion. His wife 
 could not appear without a new dress on every 
 occasion, and therefore she stayed at home. A 
 toilette from Paris twice a week not only ministers 
 to the womanly enjoyment of the wearer, and to 
 the sensuous pleasures of the beholders, but also 
 shows that the house is wealthy and that the firm 
 has spare money to throw away. It is, in fact, an 
 advertisement of the most refined description. Ladies 
 meeting in parties of three and four over what 
 our grandmothers called " a dish of tea " must 
 appear decolletees and in diamonds. The riviere 
 must disfigure the beautiful neck and bosom of the 
 bride. At the theatre those boxes are most valued 
 where the light falls strongest upon the precious 
 stones, and where costly textures and valuable 
 
 1 Here out of sixty thousand souls the Jews number forty thousand, 
 but to prevent taxation they have arranged with the Turkish author- 
 ities never to exceed eleven thousand five hundred. [Since this 
 was written (1873) the whole population of Salonika has increased 
 rapidly, and now (1897) numbers 150,000, of whom about 60,000 are 
 Jews, 30,000 Turks, 30,000 Serbs, 15,000 Greeks, and 4,000 Zinzers.] 
 
©pinion of tbe 3e\v in Enolattf 
 
 23 
 
 laces stand out to the greatest advantage. And 
 behind this splendour of show lies cunning of a high 
 order. The grand liveries are used once a week 
 upon Madame 's " day " ; at other times the lackeys 
 are en deshabille. The costly carriage horses work 
 till noon in carts and drays transporting the irrita- 
 menta malorum which support the equipage of the 
 afternoon. And so in everything. The Hebrew race 
 is so marked in its characteristics that it has ever 
 been the theme of over-praise or of undue blame, 
 like those individuals concerning whom society 
 cannot be neutral ; and of late years the transitions 
 of public opinion which usually moves slowly have 
 been comically abrupt. 
 
 The Jew of popular English fiction is no longer 
 Moshesh, a wretch who believes in one God and 
 in Shent-per-Shent as his profit, whose eyes, unlike 
 those of Banquo, are brimming full with " specula- 
 tion." The Fagin of young Dickens only a quarter 
 of a century ago has now become the " gentle Jew 
 Riah" of old Dickens, a being remarkable for resig- 
 nation and quiet dignity, a living reproach to the 
 Christian heathenry that dwells about him. The 
 great feminine actresses of the world, we are told 
 by a charming authoress, are all Jewesses. Tancred ; 
 or, the New Crusade, to mention nothing of meaner 
 note, teaches us to admire and love the modern 
 " Roses of Sharon," those exquisite visions that are 
 read to rest by attendants with silver lamps, and 
 
24 
 
 TLbc 3ew 
 
 who talk history, philosophy, and theology with the 
 warmth of womanly enthusiasm, tempered by the 
 pure belief of a bishop of the Church of England, 
 the learning of a German professor, and the grace 
 of Madame Recamier. Miriam has become, in fact, 
 a pet heroine with novel writers and novel readers, 
 and thrice happy is the fascinating young Christian 
 who, like " that boy of Norcott's," despite his manifold 
 Christian disabilities, can win her hand and heart. 
 
 Of the middle and lower classes of Jews the 
 Englishman only hears that they are industrious, 
 abstinent, and comparatively cleanly in person ; 
 decent, hospitable, and as strict in keeping the 
 Sabbath as the strictest Sabbatarians could desire — 
 perhaps, if he knew all, he would not desire so much. 
 He is told that they are wondrous charitable in 
 their dealings with those of the same faith, always 
 provided that some mite of a religious difference 
 does not grow to mountain size. The papers inform 
 him how munificent and judicious is their distribution 
 of alms, how excellent are their arrangements for 
 the support of their paupers, who are never exposed 
 to the horrors of the parish and the poor-house, and 
 who are maintained by their co-religionists, though 
 numbering in London at least 16*50 per cent, out of 
 a total exceeding thirty thousand souls, 1 And he 
 
 1 No religious census has lately been taken in England and Wales ; 
 the above therefore is only a conjecture. In 1853 the Jews of Great 
 Britain were set down at 30,000 ; of these 25,000 were resident in 
 London, and 5,000 elsewhere. The yearly deaths were 560, which at 
 
©pinion of tbe Jew in England) 
 
 25 
 
 everywhere reads of Charities, public, private, and 
 congregational ; of Hospitals and Almshouses ; of 
 Orphanages, Philanthropic Institutions; of Pensioners' 
 and Widows' Homes ; Friendly Societies ; of Doles of 
 Bread and Coal and Raiment ; of Lying-in Houses 
 and Infant Asylums ; of Burial Societies, male and 
 female ; of arrangements for supplying godfathers 
 and godmothers managed by Benevolent Societies, 
 Boards, Institutions, Committees, and Consistories. 
 Like their charities, the educational system may 
 be divided into three heads: Schools, public and 
 private ; Rabbinical and Theological Institutions ; 
 and Literary and Scientific Associations. 
 
 He — the ordinary Englishman — may be dimly 
 conscious that the Jew is the one great exception 
 to the general curse upon the sons of Adam, and 
 that he alone eats bread, not in the sweat of his 
 own face, but in the sweat of his neighbour's face — 
 like the German cuckoo, who does not colonize, but 
 establishes himself in the colonies of other natives. 
 He has perhaps been told that all the world over 
 
 the average rate of mortality would give a maximum of 25,000. Of 
 this total, 5,000 belonged to the upper or educated class, 8,000 to the 
 middle orders, and 12,000 represented the lower ranks. [In 1890 
 the Jews of Great Britain and Ireland were estimated at over 
 93,000, of whom 67,500 were resident in London. It may be of 
 interest to add that in 1 896 the entire Jewish population was calcu- 
 lated at 6,505,000, thus distributed over the globe : Europe 5,500,000 ; 
 Asia 260,000 ; Africa 430,000 ; America 300,000 ; Australia 15,000. 
 See A. H. Keane, Population, Races, and Languages of the World, in 
 the Church Missionary Atlas, New (eighth) edition. London, 1896.] 
 
26 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 the Jew spurns the honest toil of the peasant 
 and the day labourer ; that in the new Jewry of 
 Houndsditch and Petticoat Lane, in the Marais, in 
 the Ghetto, in the Juden Strasse, and in the Harat 
 el Yahud (Jewish quarters) of Mussulman cities, 
 his sole business is quocumque modo rem — sordid 
 gains — especially by money-lending, and by usury, 
 which may not be practised upon a fellow Jew, but 
 which, with the cleanest of consciences, is applied 
 to the ruin of the Gentile. He has heard that 
 where Saxon and Celt ply pick and pan, the 
 Hebrew broker and pedlar buy up their gains and 
 grow rich where the working-men starve in the 
 midst of gold. He sees that the " Chosen People " 
 will swarm over the world from California to 
 Australia, wherever greed of gain induces them to 
 travel. " To my mind," says a popular writer, 
 " there are few things so admirable and wonderful in 
 this life as the ' getting on,' as it is vulgarly called, 
 of the Hebrew race. For one of us who, by means 
 of infinite wriggling, panting, toiling, struggling, 
 and hanging on by his eyebrows, so to speak, to 
 opportunity, ambitious to emerge from obscurity, 
 and ascend to the topmost round of the ladder, 
 there seems to be at least five hundred Caucasian 
 Arabs who attain the desired altitude ; ay, and 
 who manage to avoid turning giddy and toppling 
 over. Most Jews seem to rise, and the instances 
 of a few going ' to the utter bad,' as the phrase 
 
©pinion of tbe Jew in Enfant) 27 
 
 runs, seem equally as rare. How often your suc- 
 cessful Nazarene comes to grief! At the moment 
 you think him Lord of All he is Master of Nothing. 
 . . . Jews appear to keep what they have gotten ; 
 and, what is better, to get more, and keep that 
 too. They are not much given, I fancy, to ex- 
 perience the pangs of remorse ; and I cannot well 
 imagine a mad Jew. It must be something awful. 
 On the whole, looking at the vast number of 
 Christians I have known who from splendour have 
 subsided into beggary, and the vast number of 
 Hebrews I have watched advancing, not from men- 
 dicity — a Jew never begs, save from one of his own 
 tribe, and then I suppose the transaction is more 
 of the nature of a friendly loan, to be repaid with 
 interest when brighter days arrive — but from 
 extreme indigence to wealth and station, I incline 
 to the opinion that Gentiles have a natural alacrity 
 in sinking — look how heavy I can be — but that 
 the Chosen People have as natural a tendency 
 towards buoyancy. That young man with the 
 banner in Mr. Longfellow's ballad was, depend upon 
 it, an Israelite of the Israelites ; only I think the 
 poet was wrong, as poets generally are, in his 
 climax. The young man was not frozen to death. 
 He made an immense fortune at the top of Mont 
 Blanc by selling 'Excelsior' penny ices." 
 
 The secret of this " getting on " is known to 
 every expert. The Jewish boy begins from his 
 
28 
 
 earliest days with changing a few sovereigns, and 
 he pursues the path of lucre till the tomb opens to 
 receive him. He is utterly single-minded in this 
 point ; he has but one idea, and therefore he must 
 succeed. Who does not remember the retort of 
 the Jewish capitalist to the Christian statesman 
 who, impertinently enough, advised him to teach 
 his children something beyond mere trade ? " My 
 first wish," answered the Hebrew, "is to see my 
 boys become good men of business ; beyond that — 
 nothing ! " 
 
 The average Englishman cannot help observing 
 with Cobbett, and despite Lord Macaulay, that the 
 callings which the lower orders of Jews especially 
 prefer are those held mean or dishonourable by 
 other men, such as demoralizing usury, receiving 
 stolen goods, buying up old clothes, keeping gambling- 
 houses and betting-cribs, dealing in a literature cal- 
 culated to pervert the mind of youth ; combining, 
 as a person — afterwards sent to Newgate — lately 
 did, the trade of a cosmetic artist with the calling 
 of a procuress, and supplying the agapemonae of 
 the world, 1 while occasionally producing a sharp 
 jockey or a hard-hitting prize-fighter. He is not 
 ignorant of their prodigious trickery, of their im- 
 mense and abnormal powers of lying — the "trifle 
 
 1 At this moment there is a traffic far fouler and more terrible than 
 any Coolie-hunting in African slave-export— extending from Lemberg 
 to India and China. 
 
©pinion of tbe 3ew in JEnalanfc 
 
 29 
 
 tongue," as they picturesquely call it — and their 
 subtle art of winning their object by roundabout 
 ways. He cannot mistake their physical cowardice, 
 but he remembers that the Jewish officers, once so 
 numerous in the French army, were as brave as 
 their Christian brethren ; and again he recognizes 
 the fact that lying and cowardice long continue to 
 be the effects of oppression. He smiles at their 
 intense love of public amusements, and their exces- 
 sive fondness for display, evinced by tawdry finery 
 and mosaic gold. 
 
 Knowing this, however, he supposes himself to 
 know the worst. He has heard little of the exces- 
 sive optimism of the Jew, the iravra koKcl \Cav, 
 so strongly opposed to Christianity, the "religion of 
 sorrow." He knows nothing of the immense passions 
 and pugnacity, the eagerness and tenacity of 
 Lutheran rancour displayed against all who differ 
 from some minutiae of oral law. He ignores the 
 over-weening, narrow-minded pride of caste which 
 makes the Jew " destined by God to be a kingdom 
 of priests and a holy nation " — as one of their own 
 race, Rabbi Ascher (initiator of youth), even now 
 repeats. 1 He cannot realize the fact that the ferocity 
 
 1 The essential superiority of the Jew over Nakhrlm, or strangers, 
 is carefully kept up by the Gavnim, or luminaries, of the Jewish Law. 
 During the preparations for Sabbath one of the prayers is : " Blessed 
 art Thou, O Lord, who hast made a distinction between things sacred 
 and profane, between light and darkness, between Israel and other 
 nations." On the New Year's Day (Rosh ha-Shanah) the house- 
 
30 
 
 and terrible destructiveness which characterize the 
 Jew and his literature, from the days of the Prophets 
 to those of the Talmudists, are present in his 
 civilized neighbour, whom he considers to be one 
 of the best of men — a sleeping lion, it is true, but 
 ready to awake upon the first occasion. And he 
 is ignorant of the Eastern Jews' love of mysticism 
 and symbolism, their various horrible and disgust- 
 ing superstitions, and their devotion to magical 
 
 master says at supper : " Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who didst select 
 us from all other people, and exalt us above all other nations, and 
 sanctify us with Thy commandments, ... for Thou didst select us, 
 and sanctify us from all other people. . . . Blessed art Thou, O Lord, 
 the Sanctifier of Israel," etc. At the Passover they repeat the same, 
 adding, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the Sanctifier of Israel and 
 the times." During the Feast of Pentecost they pray, " Blessed art 
 Thou, O Lord, who hast selected us above all other people, and 
 exalted us above all other nations, and sanctified us with Thy 
 commandments. . . . Our Lord is exalted — He is the first and the 
 last, He desired and chose us, and delivered to us the Law." 
 
 Such are a few of the passages which are still approved of by 
 learned and reverend Jews, "the stars of the evening twilight of 
 their race." These pretensions are evidently misplaced at the end 
 of the nineteenth century. Their effects are remarkable upon the 
 feeble brains of certain Christians, who, in conversation and mission- 
 ary matters, have been thrown much in Jewish society, and who end 
 by thoroughly believing all these absurd claims. A Gentile writes 
 about them : "In addressing the posterity of the Patriarchs on such 
 a theme [incredulity], well may I avail myself of the words held 
 sacred by their fellow-citizens, not of their race, while I repeat the 
 assertion that a Hebrew infidel — an infidel amongst the ' Israelites, to 
 whom appertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,' 
 and to whom were committed the oracles of God' — the only open eye 
 of the world when all the rest of mankind had darkness for their 
 portion, or the light of dreams— is indeed a frightful, a portentous 
 phenomenon ! " Yet such as they are they number hundreds of 
 thousands, and the spread of absolute infidelity is enormously on 
 the increase. 
 
©pinion of tbe Jew in JEnalanfc 
 
 31 
 
 charms and occult arts which lead to a variety of 
 abominations. 
 
 This ignorance produces weak outbursts of lamen- 
 tations that the Hebrews " still cling with obstinate 
 persistence to a hopeless hope." Hence we read in 
 the pages of a modern traveller — The Rob Roy on 
 the Jordan, p. 274, by J. MacGregor, M.A. (London : 
 Murray, 1869) : " Here, as well as some twenty years 
 ago, I heard men in Palestine call their fellows 
 ' Jew ' as the lowest of all possible words of abuse. 
 When we recollect that the Jews, in this very land of 
 their own, were once the choice people of the world ; 
 that now through the whole earth, among the 
 richest, the bravest, the cleverest, the fairest, the 
 best at music and song, at poetry and painting, 
 at art and science and literature, at education, 
 philanthropy, statesmanship, war, commerce, and 
 finance, in every sphere of life are Jews, — we may 
 well remember the word of prophecy which told 
 us long ago that the name of Jew would be a 
 'byword and a reproach,' even in the Jews' own 
 land." It is true that, even in the Portuguese 
 colonies, where the Jew is comparatively unknown, 
 his name is worse than at Jerusalem, Bagdad, and 
 Damascus ; whilst " Judear " — to play the Jew — 
 signifies the being capable of any villainy. But 
 how long will prophecy prove true ? In the coast 
 towns of Morocco, a few years have sufficed to 
 raise the Hebrew from the lowest of stations to 
 
32 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 equality with, and even superiority over, his Mussul- 
 man cousin. The Jew may ere long make the 
 Gentile a " byword and a reproach." 
 
 But the English world never hears the fact that the 
 Jew of Africa, of Arabia, of Kurdistan, of Persia, and 
 of Western Asia generally, is still the Jew " cunning 
 and fierce " of the thirteenth and the fourteenth 
 centuries in Europe ; that he is the Jew of the 
 Talmud, of Shammai, and of Rabbi Shalomon 
 Jarchi, not of the Pentateuch, of Hillel, and of 
 Gamaliel ; that he sympathizes, not with those 
 staunch old conservatives and rationalists, the 
 Sadducees, now gone for ever, nor with Ezra and 
 the Priests, the Levites and the Nethinim — men of 
 the Great Synagogue — nor with the ascetic Essenes, 
 prototypes of Christian monkery; but with the 
 Pharisees, the Separatists, and the Puritans of his 
 faith, with the Captains, the Fanatics, the Zealots, 
 the Sicarii, the Swordsmen and the Brigands of 
 John of Giscala, of Eleazar son of Ananias, and 
 of those who worked all the civil horrors of our 
 first century. Some distant or adventurous journey 
 of Sir Moses Montefiore 1 or other philanthropists, 
 
 1 The journey of this eminent philanthropist to Alexandria in 
 1840 was a very remarkable one, all things considered. In 1855 
 he again visited "the East," with the especial object of amelio- 
 rating the condition of his co-religionists in the Holy Land ; and it is 
 a favourite subject to conjecture how much, or how little, of the true 
 state of things he was allowed to know. He certainly learned 
 nothing from his Damascus host, the late Ishak Haim Farkhi, a Jew 
 
©pinion of tbe 3ew In JEnalanfc 
 
 33 
 
 duly published with packed and partial comments 
 in the papers of Europe, reveals to the lazy compre- 
 hension of the man of refinement that the Hebrew 
 in many parts of the semi-civilized world is still the 
 object of suspicion, fear, and abhorrence. He attri- 
 butes the persecutions, the avarice, or the massacre 
 to the pleasures of plunder, to the barbarous bigotry, 
 and to the cruel fanaticism of bloodthirsty and 
 cruel races, who still look upon the present with 
 the eyes of the past, and who have seized an 
 opportunity to glut their lust of spoil or to wreak 
 an obsolete revenge because some eighteen centuries 
 and three-quarters ago a an aristocratic and un- 
 popular high priest, whom the people afterwards 
 rose upon and murdered, had for political reasons 
 crucified our Lord," or because in a.d. 729 # a heroic 
 Jewess of Khaibar poisoned a shoulder of lamb 
 with the object of trying by a crucial test whether 
 Muhammad was the Prophet of Allah, or merely the 
 
 under French protection. Nor is it believed that he gained much 
 knowledge of the true state of affairs at Jerusalem. For instance, 
 the almshouses built outside the city under his trusteeship are 
 occupied by the friends of the Scribes and those who pay court 
 to them, not by the destitute for whom they were intended. When 
 the venerable philanthropist paid his last visit, a collection of the 
 poorest and the most miserable of the community was hurriedly 
 installed there, and after his departure was as summarily ejected. 
 The public has not forgotten his trip to Morocco, which, however, 
 if matters progress as they do now, may eventually be regretted by 
 his proteges. 
 
 [* I have retained 729, the date given by Burton, although 
 Muhammad died in 732 from the effects of the experiment] 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 Zbc Sew 
 
 Sheikh of Arab pillagers, the worthy confrere of 
 Musailamah the Liar. 
 
 We do not waste time upon thought or inquiry 
 whether the persecution, the avarice, or the massacre 
 may not be the direct result of some intolerable 
 wrong, of some horrible suspicion which has gradu- 
 ally assumed the form of certainty, and which calls 
 for the supreme judgment of the sword ; we do not 
 reason that the cause which from ancient times has 
 confined the Jew to Ghettos and to certain quarters 
 in all great continental cities resulted, not only 
 from his naturally preferring the society of his 
 co-religionists, but also from the fact that his 
 Christian neighbours found it advisable to consult 
 by such means their own safety and that of their 
 families. The disappearance of children was talked 
 of at Rome and in all the capitals of Italy even 
 throughout the early part of the present century, 
 when constitutional rule and the new police were 
 unknown, as freely and frequently as at Salonika, 
 at Smyrna, and in all the cities of the Levant 
 during the year of grace 1873. 
 
 Again, we hardly reflect that, as intolerance begets 
 intolerance and injury breeds injury, a trampled and 
 degraded race will ever turn when it can upon the 
 oppressor, and that the revenge of the weak, the 
 slavish, and the cowardly will be the more certain, 
 ruthless, and terrible because it has a long score of 
 insults and injuries to reckon up. In the country 
 
©pinion of tbe Jew in Englatto 
 
 35 
 
 towns of modern Persia, as in Turkey, the Jew is 
 popularly believed to make away with children. The 
 Muhammadan boy, meeting a Hebrew in the streets, 
 will pluck his grey beard, taunt him with the 
 Bu-e-Shimit — the rank odour which is everywhere 
 supposed to characterize the race — tread upon his 
 toes, and spit upon his Jewish gabardine. In Turkey 
 there are still places where he would be expelled 
 the Bazar with sticks and stones ; others where 
 every outrage of language would be levelled against 
 him, including Al Yahud Miisairaj 1 — the Jew 
 smells of the lamp — alluding to his free culinary 
 use of sesamum oil. A Jew passing through the 
 square of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem would 
 infallibly be mobbed on all occasions, and on 
 certain fetes would be torn to pieces ; and the 
 list of dangers and insults which he incurs both 
 from Muslims and Christians might be indefinitely 
 prolonged. 
 
 Can we wonder then if the persecutor, man 
 or boy, disappear, should opportunity offer such 
 tempting punishment for their barbarous fanaticism ? 
 And will not this supposition explain the Arabic 
 proverb, " Sup with the Jews and sleep at the 
 
 1 Upon the sa?iguineo-oleaginous expression of the Jews and the 
 consequent pendency of the epiglottis, see " A Cause of Diminished 
 Longevity among the Jews," by Sir Duncan Gibb, Bart., M.A., 
 M.D., LL.D., Article 10, Journal of Anthropology, No. 1, July, 1870, 
 pp. 94 — 97. It exactly describes many of the Jews of Syria and 
 Palestine. 
 
36 
 
 Christians'," and the fact that every mother teaches 
 her boy from earliest youth to avoid the Jewish 
 quarter, binding him by all manner of oaths? 
 Finally, is it surprising that amongst an ignorant 
 and superstitious race of outcasts such random acts 
 and outbreaks of vengeance, pure and simple, should 
 by human perversity pass, after the course of ages, 
 into a semi-religious rite, and be justified by men 
 whose persecution has frenzied them as a protest 
 and a memorial before the throne of the Most High 
 against the insults and injuries meted out by the 
 Gentile to the children of Abraham ? 
 
 Shakespeare may not have drawn Shylock from 
 a real character, but his genius has embodied in 
 the most lifelike form the Jew's vengefulness and 
 the causes that nourished it. How many cities 
 of the world there are where he might hear these 
 words: "Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew 
 hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, pas- 
 sions ? fed with the same food, hurt with the same 
 weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the 
 same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter 
 and summer, as a Christian is ? If you prick us, do 
 we not bleed ? if you tickle us, do we not laugh ? 
 if you poison us, do we not die ? and if you wrong 
 us, shall we not revenge ? " 
 
 Moreover, in the course of our reading, we Eng- 
 lishmen meet with nothing which points to the 
 existence of cruel murders and similar horrors in 
 
©pinion of tbe Jew in Enfant) 
 
 37 
 
 any branch of the Hebrew race. Popular books 
 like The British Jew (Rev. John Mills. London : 
 Hurlston & Stoneman, 1854), for instance, are mostly 
 written in the apologetic tone ; they are advocates 
 and missionaries, not describers. They enumerate 
 the duties and ceremonies of the " strict, enlightened 
 Israelite " — a powerful majority amongst the thirty- 
 five to forty thousand that have colonized the British 
 Islands — modified and transformed by the civiliza- 
 tion of their surroundings. They studiously avoid 
 that part of the subject which would be most 
 interesting to the ethnologist, the various irregular 
 practices of the people, because they would not 
 " crowd their pages with the superstitions of the 
 ignorant " ; and they probably have not defined to 
 themselves the darker shades which the religious 
 teaching of later centuries has diffused over the 
 Jewish mind, and which linger even among the most 
 advanced of modern communities. The well-known 
 volume of Dr. Alexander McCaul, The Old Paths ; 
 or, a Comparison of the Principles and Doctrines 
 of Modern Judaism with the Religion of Moses 
 and the Prophets (London : Hubbard & Son, 1854), 
 which has been translated into almost every European 
 language, reveals but little, while professing to reveal 
 much. It is written in a purely apologetic spirit ; 
 and as it attacked the Talmud, but spared the Jew, 
 who, however, systematically destroys every copy, it 
 has lost for the general reader all its significance. 
 
38 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 The celebrated article upon the Talmud first pub- 
 lished in the Quarterly Review (October, 1867), 
 and afterwards owned to by the late M. Emanuel 
 Deutsch, who began by denying the authorship, 
 greatly surprised the poco-curanti of Great Britain. 
 It was a triumph of special pleading. It studiously 
 ignored the fact that the Talmudic writers who 
 flourished in the third and the sixth centuries of 
 our era had evidently consulted the writings of the 
 " School of Galilee," 1 especially of the New Testament, 
 apocryphal as well as canonical. It artfully opened 
 to the admiring eye of ignorance a noble garden 
 of time-honoured experience, a goodly parterre of 
 racial and social piety and benevolence, a paradise 
 of religious wisdom, from which a few transplanted 
 shoots would suffice to enrich and adorn a wilderness 
 of rugged and neglected fields. It concealed with 
 equal skill the sinks and drains, the shallows and 
 quagmires which everywhere underlie the fair and 
 flowery surface ; and it withdrew attention from 
 the dark corners rank with poisonous weeds and 
 overrun with trees bearing deadly fruit. Such 
 art of manipulation would readily pick the Sermon 
 on the Mount from the pages of the erotic poets 
 of "the East," perhaps the most materialistic and 
 the most corrupt which the literature of the world 
 has produced. 
 
 1 This is a complete misnomer applied to Christianity, which it 
 confuses with the Rabbinical Schools of Tiberias and Safed. 
 
©pinion of tfoe 3ew in JEnslanfc 39 
 
 What then can the average Englishman, thus 
 instructed, know about the Hebrew at home P how 
 much of the Hebrew abroad, especially in Asia, in 
 Africa, and even in Europe P How is he fully to 
 comprehend the reason why the name of Jew is 
 still a byword and a reproach P or why the scrupu- 
 lous British official — the late Consul Brant, C.B., 
 the historical Consul of Erzerum, who revived the 
 trade of ancient Trebizond — who never allowed him- 
 self to use profane language, applied to Christians 
 and Muslims the word " Jew " as the most insulting 
 term that can be levelled at man ? 
 
 The following article appeared in the Saturday 
 Review* as a comment upon a " recent outbreak of 
 Rumanian fanaticism against the Jews at Ismail," 
 and explains at once the isolation and the great 
 material success of the children of Israel all the 
 world over. I quote it in extenso as it shows the 
 general opinion of educated Englishmen and the un- 
 reality and shallowness of the treatment which views 
 the world through glasses of British home -make : 
 
 " There is no real difference between the Ruma- 
 nian Jews and the Jews of Galicia or Bohemia ; 
 nor can they in their turn be separated from the 
 Jews of Germany, of France, or of England. The 
 dirty, greasy usurers of Rumania are the humble 
 brethren of the financiers of London and Frankfort, 
 and that the Jews are a great power in Europe is 
 
 [* The year would be 1873.] 
 
40 
 
 incontestable. What are, it may be asked, the 
 secrets of their power P They are religion, the 
 capacity for making money, and internal union. A 
 ceremonial, and therefore an exclusive religion, a 
 religion that binds together its members by rites 
 that seem strange to the rest of the world, has a 
 strong hold upon those who are within the fold. 
 They are like the tenants of a beleaguered fort cut 
 off from the rest of mankind, and obliged to protect 
 themselves and help each other. But religion is 
 not enough to raise a race into eminence. The 
 Jews and the Parsees are eminent, not only because 
 they circumcise their sons, or light fires on the tops 
 of their houses, but because they make money. The 
 money they have gives them consequence ; but it is 
 not only the money itself that does this ; it is the 
 qualities that go to making money which raise 
 them — the patience, the good sense, the capacity 
 for holding on when others are frightened, the 
 daring to make a stroke when the risk is sufficient 
 to appal. And the Jews are not only religious and 
 rich ; they are bound together by intimate ties. The 
 inner world of Judaism is that of a democracy. 
 The millionaire never dreams of despising, or fail- 
 ing to aid, his poorest and most degraded brother. 
 The kindness of Jews for Jews is unfailing, spon- 
 taneous, and unaffected. The shabbiest hat-buyer 
 or orange-seller of Houndsditch is as sure of having 
 the means provided for him of keeping the sacred 
 
©pinion of the Jew in Bnolanfc 
 
 41 
 
 feast of the Passover as if he lived in a Piccadilly 
 mansion. To the eyes of the Jews even the most 
 degraded of Jews do not seem so degraded as they 
 do in the eyes of the outer world. The poorest 
 have perhaps possessions which redeem them in the 
 eyes of their brethren ; and many of the lowest, 
 greasiest, and most unattractive Hebrews who walk 
 about the streets in search of old clothes or skins 
 are known by their co-religionists to be able to 
 repeat by rote portions of the sacred volumes by 
 the hour at a time. To all these permanent causes 
 of Jewish eminence there must, however, be added 
 one that has had only time to develop itself since 
 extreme bigotry has died away, and since in Western 
 Europe the Jews have been treated, first with con- 
 temptuous toleration, then with cold respect, and, 
 finally, when they are very, very rich, with servile 
 adoration. 
 
 " These people — so exclusive, so intensely national, 
 so intimately linked together — have shown the most 
 astonishing aptitude for identifying themselves with 
 the several countries in which they have cast their 
 fortunes. An English Jew is an Englishman, admires 
 English habits and English education, makes an 
 excellent magistrate, plays to perfection the part of 
 a squire, and even exercises discreetly the power 
 which, with its inexhaustible oddity, the English 
 law gives him, while it denies it to the members 
 of the largest Christian sect, and presents incumbents 
 
42 
 
 XTbe 5ew 
 
 to livings so as to please the most fastidious bishops. 
 The French Jews were stout friends of France 
 during the war — served as volunteers in the defence 
 of Paris, and opened their purses to the national 
 wants, and their houses to the suffering French. 
 The German Jews were as stout Germans in their 
 turn ; and in war, as in peace, they are always 
 ready to show themselves Germans as well as Jews. 
 It is the combination of the qualities of both nations 
 that is now raising the foremost of the German Jews 
 to their high rank in the world of wealth. In that 
 world, to be a German is to be a trader whom it 
 is very hard to rival, to be a Jew is to be an 
 operator whom it is impossible to beat ; but to be 
 a German Jew is to be a prince and captain among 
 the people. 
 
 " In this way the Jews have managed to overcome 
 much of the antipathy which would naturally attach 
 to men of an alien race and an alien religion. 
 The English Jew is not seen to be standing aloof 
 from England and Englishmen. But it is impos- 
 sible there should not be some sort of social barrier 
 between the Jew and the Christian. They cannot 
 intermarry except for special political or other cogent 
 reasons, and it necessarily chills the kindness and 
 intimacy of family intercourse when all the young 
 people know that friendship can never grow into 
 anything else. In order to overcome this obstacle 
 many wealthy Jews have chosen to abjure their 
 
©pinion of tbe Jew in Bnglanfc 
 
 43 
 
 religion and enrol their households in the Christian 
 communion. But the more high-minded and high- 
 spirited among them shrink from doing this, and 
 accept, and even glory in, the position into which 
 they were born. Fortunately for himself and for 
 England, a kind friend determined the religion of 
 Mr. Disraeli before he was old enough to judge 
 for himself, and in his maturer years he has been 
 able conscientiously to adopt what he terms the 
 doctrines of the School of Galilee. If they are not 
 decoyed into Christianity by their social aspirations, 
 Jews are unassailable, for the most part, by the 
 force of either persecution or argument ; and al- 
 though there are some conversions to be attributed 
 to Christian reasoning or Christian gold, they are 
 probably counterbalanced by the accessions to 
 Judaism of Christian women who marry Jewish 
 husbands. The Jews therefore lead, and must lead, 
 on the whole a family life marked by something 
 of reserve and isolation. But the disadvantages 
 they have thus to endure are not without their 
 compensative advantages. Their family life by being 
 secluded has gained in warmth and dignity. 1 In 
 very few families is there so much thoughtfulness, 
 consideration, parental and fraternal affection, reve- 
 
 1 The Jewish family is still in England what it is all over the 
 East, the chief defence of the individual against society. Hence the 
 strong affections between relations. And for the same reason Jews 
 are excellent parents — it can hardly be otherwise when the son is 
 expected to liberate his father and mother from Sheol. 
 
44 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 rence for age, and care for the young as in Jewish 
 families. The women too have been ennobled, 
 not degraded, by being thrown on themselves and 
 on their families for their sphere of thought and 
 action. They are almost always thoroughly in- 
 structed in business, and capable of taking a part 
 in great affairs; for it has been the custom of 
 their race to consider the wife the helpmate — the 
 sharer in every transaction that establishes the 
 position or enhances the comfort of the family. 
 Leisure, activity of mind, and the desire to hand 
 on the torch of instruction from the women of 
 one generation to those of another, inspire Jewesses 
 with a zeal for education, a love of refinement, 
 and a sympathy with art. Homes of the best type 
 are of course to be taken as the standard when 
 it is inquired what are the characteristics of a race 
 as seen at its best ; and European family life has 
 few things equal to show to the family life of the 
 highest type of Jews. Their isolation, again, makes 
 most of the men liberal and free from the prejudices 
 of class, just as their connexion with their dispersed 
 brethren relieves them from the pressure of insular 
 narrowness. But, as Mr. Bright remarks, religious 
 bigotry is slow to die away altogether ; and even 
 in educated English society there are few Christians 
 who do not think themselves entitled to approach 
 a Jew with a sense of secret superiority. If a 
 Jew is ostentatious or obtrudes his wealth, if his 
 
©pinion of tfoe Jew in England 
 
 45 
 
 women are loaded with jewellery, if he talks the 
 slang of the sporting world in order to show what 
 a fine creature he is, society is as right to put 
 him down as to put down any Christian like him. 
 But the philanthropists who invited Mr. Bright 
 to attend their meeting may be profitably invited 
 to search their own hearts, and ask themselves 
 whether they are quite free from that feeling that 
 the best Jew is never the equal of the worst Christian, 
 which is at the root of the Rumanian riots, 1 and 
 which certainly is entirely out of keeping with the 
 tenets and teaching of the School of Galilee." 
 
 1 This is a very small fibre of a very pretty root. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE JEW OF THE HOLY LAND AND HIS DESTINY 
 
 FN dealing with the Jews of the Holy Land, 
 
 it is well to remember that the two great 
 branches of the Hebrew race are the Sephardim 
 and the Ashkenazim. They are both equally 
 orthodox, and may intermarry when they please. 
 It is advisable to offer a few words concerning 
 these great branches first. 
 
 " Sepharad," pronounced throughout " the East " 
 Safard, a word occurring only once in the Old 
 Testament (" and the captivity of Jerusalem, which 
 is in Sepharad," Obad. ver. 20), has been subjected 
 to various interpretations. Enough to say the 
 majority of Jews following the Targum Jonathan 
 and the Peshito, or Syriac version, identify it with 
 Iberia, modern Spain and Portugal. The Sephardim 
 claim descent from the royal tribe of Judah, 
 which, like the children of Benjamin, was the last 
 to disperse. It contains the usual three orders: (1) 
 The Cohen (in Arabic Kahin), the priest or Levite 
 
 46 
 
Zbc 3ew of tbe Dols XanO anfc bis Besting 47 
 
 of the house of Aaron — a numerous body, as the 
 Cohens of England show. Though born an ecclesi- 
 astic, he may now, since the rite of ordination 
 has become extinct, pursue a purely laical trade. 
 Whenever a Jew slaughters an animal, the Cohen 
 claims the tongue, one side of the face, and one 
 shoulder. 1 So in the days of Josephus (Antiquities 
 of the Jews, IV. iv. 4) the priest took the maw, 
 the cheek (or breast), and the right shoulder of 
 the sacrifice privately killed for a festival. (2) 
 The Levite or descendant of Levi, but not through 
 the house of Aaron ; like the Cohen, to whom he 
 should pay the tithe of his tithes, he must prove 
 his genealogy, which is often doubtful, and he is 
 known by taking the name of Levi after his own 
 and before that of his birthplace — e.g. Simeon Levi 
 Salonikli. (3) " The circumcision" or Ammon 
 Israelite. 
 
 Since the final destruction of the Temple there 
 are no Gentile Proselytes of the Covenant, that is, 
 circumcised strangers admitted to all the privileges 
 of the children of Abraham ; nor are there Proselytes 
 of the Gate, uncircumcised worshippers of Jehovah 
 who keep the moral law. The Ger, or stranger, 
 may be received into the Church under certain cir- 
 cumstances by purification and circumcision, which 
 
 1 In consequence of the accident which occurred to Jacob (Gen. 
 xxxii.) his descendants still abstain from the hind-quarters of the 
 few beasts left to them by Leviticus xv. 
 
48 
 
 latter, unlike the law of Muhammad, is absolutely 
 necessary. Judaism, however, like Hinduism and 
 Guebrism, is essentially one of the old congenital 
 creeds ; it never has been, it is not, and it never 
 will be a system of proselytizing. As regards the 
 tribes, Judah and Levi are everywhere known. 
 Benjamin, Ephraim, and Half Manasseh are spoken 
 of, and tradition declares that Asher exists in 
 Abyssinia with Karaite peculiarities. Finally, many 
 Jews do not believe that the Ten Tribes were ever 
 lost. They say that, during the Great Captivity, 
 when the faith became all but extinct, they were 
 mixed to such an extent that it was afterwards 
 impossible to separate them. 
 
 The Sephardim, or Southern Jews, are mostly the 
 descendants of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry, 
 and throughout the Levant and the North African 
 coast they speak Spanish and read and write it in 
 their own character. Those of the Moroccan interior 
 use Arabic. The dress is Oriental, and in the Holy 
 Land they still wear the black turban ordained by 
 the sumptuary laws of El Hakim (circa a.d. 1000). 
 In physical appearance they are somewhat more 
 prepossessing than the Ashkenazim, who are out- 
 numbering them in Syria and Palestine, and are 
 gradually ousting them. Officially they retain their 
 position ; the Hakham Bashi, or chief doctor, is 
 the only Jewish official recognized by the Turkish 
 Government and representing the community in 
 
TTbe Jew of tbe tt>ols Xanfc ant) bis Besting 49 
 
 the Majlis, or town council. In all matters which 
 come before the tribunals the Ashkenazim must 
 be supported by the Hakham Bashi, while the 
 doctors hear and decide all cases relating to the 
 internal affairs of the community. Many of the 
 Sephardim are shopkeepers, trading chiefly in stuffs 
 and hardwares. There are many minor differences 
 between them and the Ashkenazim, such as the 
 contents and the arrangement of their ritual, the 
 constitution of their meetings, the mode of reading 
 the service, their music, and even their cursive form 
 of the square Hebrew character. The Maghrabis, 
 or Western Jews, chiefly living in North-western 
 Africa, rank elsewhere as Sephardim ; at Jerusalem, 
 however, they are considered a separate sect, and 
 have their own chief doctor. 
 
 Thus the Sephardim are the Southern, opposed to 
 the Northern Jews, or Ashkenazim. These derive 
 their name from Ashkenaz, son of Gomer, and 
 grandson of Japhet (Gen. x. 3), who is supposed to 
 have peopled, in ethnologic succession, Armenia 
 (Jer. li. 27), Poland, Germany, and Scandinavia — 
 the latter according to some derives from him 
 its name. The Ashkenazim claim descent from 
 Benjamin, and are generally supposed not to have 
 been present at the second building of the Temple 
 by Zorobabel (b.c. 520), as described in the Book 
 of Ezra. 
 
 The Ashkenazim of the Holy Land are chiefly 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 Germans, Poles, Muscovites, and other Northerners. 
 On January 26, 1849, an order from the Russian 
 Consulate -General of Beyrut obliged them either 
 to return home biennially in order to renew their 
 passports or to give up their nationality. They 
 were then taken under the protecting wing of 
 Great Britain by the immense exertions of their 
 co-religionists in the " City of Refuge " (London) 
 and of other Western powers. This step can hardly 
 be looked upon with satisfaction. Relying upon 
 their new nationality, they addict themselves openly 
 to usury and to other transactions of a doubtful and 
 often of a dishonourable character. A determination 
 to protect the whole community from religious 
 persecution, allowing the Sultan to treat their 
 commercial and civic affairs on the same footing 
 as all the rest of his subjects, would be much more 
 just, and would probably remedy not a few evils. 
 In the year 1840 the Northern Jews mustered few 
 at Damascus, and even now they are not numerous ; 
 among them may be mentioned old Abu 'Brahim, 
 a well-known cicerone at Demitri Cara's Hotel, who 
 usually passed for a Cohen. 
 
 The Ashkenazim speak a kind of Jew-German, 
 garbled with Hebrew and other foreign words. Their 
 dress is a long robe like a dressing-gown, and a low- 
 crowned hat of felt or beaver; the lank love-lock 
 hanging down either cheek, and the eccentrically 
 clipped fur caps, which, despite the burning sun, 
 
TTbe 3ew> of tbe Ibols Xanfc an& bts Destiny 51 
 
 they everywhere don for the Sabbath and for feast- 
 days, make their appearance not a little comical. 
 In the Holy Land they are mostly petty traders and 
 craftsmen, supported in part by the Hallorkah, or 
 alms. Many Jews who have neither the time nor 
 the will to visit Jerusalem pay considerable sums 
 for vicarious prayers there offered by their co- 
 religionists, and the contributions are collected 
 throughout Europe by appointed emissaries like the 
 begging friars of the Catholic world. This dole, 
 distributed alike and indiscriminately to all who 
 occupy the four Holy Cities, brings many idle and 
 worthless persons together, and promotes early and 
 improvident marriages, every child being a source 
 of additional increase. Some steps should be taken 
 to obviate the scandals of the Hallorkah. Much 
 vice, misery, and ill-feeling are engendered by the 
 present system of bounty, which leaves much behind 
 when passing through the hands of doctors re- 
 sponsible to no one for the money they receive. 
 These men live in comfort and even luxury ; the 
 terrorism, physical as well as spiritual, with which 
 they inspire their congregations, renders them ab- 
 solutely unassailable. Knowing that his doctor can 
 excommunicate him, and, what is more to the purpose, 
 starve him and his family, not a Jew dare object 
 to, though he will loudly complain of, a system 
 of hypocrisy and peculation. And as a rule the 
 almsgiving of the Israelite, so exceptionally liberal 
 
52 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 throughout Western Europe, becomes mean and 
 niggardly throughout the Holy Land. In the 
 absence of coin sufficiently small, the wealthy 
 Hebrews of Jerusalem have invented a system of 
 tin bits, which the mendicant must collect till 
 sufficiently numerous to be changed for currency. 
 Whenever there is a famine in the country, pauper 
 Jews receive probably the least assistance from 
 their fellows dwelling within the same walls. 
 
 The Ashkenazim are divided into religious sects 
 and social communities. The former are three in 
 number — viz. Parushim, Khasidim, and Khabad. The 
 Parushim, Pharisees or Separatists, follow the law as 
 laid down in the commentary of the late R. Gaon 1 
 of Wilna. They consider the diligent study of the 
 Talmud an essential for every religious Jew, and 
 they conduct their liturgy according to it, respect- 
 ing, however, the sense attached to various rites by 
 the Cabalistic teachers. They strictly observe the 
 appointed times for prayer, but they do not con- 
 sider it necessary to dip the body in water before 
 ablution. They neglect the second pair of phylacteries 
 prescribed by Rabbenu Tarn.* They do not hold it 
 unlawful to slaughter animals for food with a knife 
 which is not very sharp, provided that the edge has 
 no notches. They regard a Passover cake as lawful, 
 
 1 Gaon means a learned man : had he not some other name 1 
 [* Rabbenu Tarn was the most distinguished disciple of the 
 renowned R. Rashi (1040—1105 a.d.)-] 
 
XTbe Jew of tbe fbols Xanfc ant) bis Besting 53 
 
 even though it be made of any kind of wheat or 
 flour. 
 
 The Khasidim (Cabalists), that most fanatical 
 of Jewish sects, are here for the most part un- 
 learned. Their liturgy is according to Rambani or 
 Maimonides {Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon), a Spaniard 
 who flourished in the twelfth century, and of whom it 
 is said, " From Moses to Moses there was none like 
 Moses " ; they interpret it, however, in the Cabalistic 
 sense. Their favourite book is the Holy Ri ; they 
 pray whenever they feel bound to do so, no matter 
 whether the prescribed time has passed or not. 
 Unlike the Parushim, they believe in certain Sadikim, 
 or righteous men, popularly called Gute Yaden 
 (Juden), and regard them with a superstitious vene- 
 ration which borders upon worship, attributing to 
 them supernatural powers, and attaching some 
 spiritual and symbolic meanings to their most trivial 
 and insignificant actions. Whilst professing to be 
 guided only by the Talmud, they in reality follow 
 the teaching of some chosen Guter Jude. The 
 Khasidim are particular in the observance of Jewish 
 customs, especially such as relate to the Sabbath. 
 They shake themselves violently and cry aloud 
 during prayers ; at other times they are much 
 addicted to dancing, singing, and deep drinking. 
 They dip themselves in water before devotions, and 
 use the second pair of phylacteries. They deem it 
 unlawful to slaughter animals with a knife which 
 
54 
 
 TTfoe Jew 
 
 is not very sharp, or to use any but a particular 
 kind of wheat for the Passover cakes. Much im- 
 portance is attached by this sect to works of charity ; 
 in this way they are guided by the Yad ha-Khazakah, 
 or " strong hand " of Maimonides, who assigns eight 
 steps or grades to the golden ladder of charity. The 
 Parushim and Khasidim combine in various propor- 
 tions ; for instance, in Tiberias all are Khasidim 
 except the doctor, who is a Parushi. 
 
 The Khabad, or third sect, suggests in name the 
 Ebionites, or Jewish Nazarenes, who hold the " great 
 teacher of Nazareth " to be the Messiah, but merely 
 human ; this sect, however, has apparently died out. 
 The modern Khabad have a liturgy arranged from 
 their old Rabbi Zelmina. They resemble the Khasi- 
 dim, having their own Gute Juden, but they are 
 usually more learned and pious. They are given 
 to hospitality and charity, and attach much import- 
 ance to visiting the sick. They dip themselves 
 before prayers, read and study much, and meet 
 together on Sabbath evenings to hear the Law ex- 
 pounded by their principal teacher. They keep as a 
 feast the 19th day of Kislef, the third civil and ninth 
 ecclesiastical month (about December) ; on that day 
 R. Shalomon, the founder of the sect, was liberated 
 from prison. 
 
 The Ashkenazim are divided into social com- 
 munities according to the European district or city 
 whence they came, and each section is presided over 
 
XTbe Sew of tbe fboly Xanfc anfc bis Destiny 55 
 
 by a scribe or a layman of respectability and good 
 standing. The chief communities of Parushlm are 
 the Wilna, Grainer, Grodno, Minsk, Nassen, Warsaw, 
 Zuolik, and German. Those of the Khasidim are 
 the Volhynian, the Hungaro- Austrian, and the 
 Galician. The Khabad are a community by them- 
 selves. 
 
 The Ashkenazim, who are wrongly represented 
 to be considered pariahs by the Sephardim, have 
 brought from Northern climates a manliness of 
 bearing, a stoutness of spirit, and a physical hard- 
 ness strongly contrasting with the cowardly and 
 effeminate, the despised and despicable Sephardim 
 " Jew of Israel's land." If spoken to fiercely, they 
 will reply in kind ; if struck, they will return the 
 blow ; and they do not fear to mount a horse, unlike 
 their Southern brethren, who prefer an ass, or at most 
 an ambling pony, to the best of Arab blood. They 
 will travel by night over difficult and dangerous 
 paths, whereas their congeners tremble to quit the 
 city walls ; and they can endure extremes of heat 
 and cold, of hunger and thirst, which might be fatal 
 to any soft Syrian who would imitate them. The 
 Ashkenazim of the Holy Land are in a word " men " ; 
 the Sephardim are not. "The Spanish and Portu- 
 guese Jews are of far higher and more intellectual 
 type than the English and German," says Dr. 
 Linsdale. Possibly ; but in the matter of manliness 
 there is no comparison. And, as has been remarked, 
 
56 
 
 XTbe 5ew 
 
 the Ashkenazi is " eating up " the Sephardi wherever 
 they meet. 
 
 Concerning the so-called unorthodox sects in the 
 Holy Land a few brief details may be given. 
 
 The Karaites (Caraites), translated " Readers," 
 that is " textualists," assign a literal sense to all 
 Holy Writ, and reject every book posterior to the 
 Law and the Prophets ; they are therefore considered 
 pestilent heretics. These Puritans, claiming descent 
 from the Ten Tribes who took no part in the Cruci- 
 fixion, are scattered throughout Arabia, with Bagdad 
 for a centre ; and they are most numerous in Russia 
 and Poland, where they could boast that for four 
 centuries none of their number had ever been found 
 guilty of a serious crime. Henderson the traveller 
 numbers some four thousand of them in the Crimea 
 with their Cohens, or priests. At Pentecost, they read, 
 we are told, as Ha-phatorah, or conclusions of the day, 
 Joel ii. 28 — 32, whereas other Jews stop at ver. 27. 
 There is still a large colony at Aden, where the 
 English authorities have found nothing to complain 
 of them. Formerly there were many at Damascus ; 
 now they have left it en masse : the Protestant 
 cemetery occupies part of their old burial-ground, 
 whose gravestones are distinguished from those of 
 the Jews. In Syria they are mostly confined to 
 Jerusalem, where till lately they numbered seven 
 families (thirty-five souls). Their single, poor syna- 
 gogue, a small cellar-like chamber, which dates back, 
 
Ube 3ew of tbe 1fool£ Xanfc ant> bis Besting 57 
 
 they say, for many centuries, lies opposite the big new 
 building of the orthodox. Its sole object of attraction 
 is one old manuscript of the Pentateuch, and the 
 other Jews so hate them that the stranger will not 
 readily find his way to their place of worship. In 
 early 1872 they were reinforced by an emigration 
 from Bagdad numbering forty souls, who reported 
 that many more were on the way. These men all 
 wore Bedawin dresses, which, however, they changed 
 for the usual Jewish garb when once settled in 
 the city. 
 
 The Samaritans are now found only at Nablus, 
 the classical Neapolis, or new town. They claim 
 descent from Ephraim and Manasseh, whilst their 
 Cohens are of course Levites ; the orthodox oppro- 
 briously call them Kuthim, or Babylonians, and 
 despite physical evidence utterly deny their Jewish 
 consanguinity. All contact with them is defiling, 
 as though they were Gentiles. The total is now 
 forty families, or a hundred and thirty-five souls ; 
 they will not intermarry with any but their own 
 people ; the birth of males, contrary to what might 
 be expected, outnumbers that of females in the 
 proportion of eighty to fifty-five, and consequently 
 the " undying dogmatism " is threatened with 
 dying out. The little sect owes its fame in 
 Europe to the three well-known codices which 
 every stranger hastens to inspect. According to 
 their Hakhams, whilst repeating the Talmud they 
 
58 
 
 study the Targum of R. Levi. They keep their 
 Passover by solar computation, not lunar, like the 
 Hebrews ; for instance, in 1871 the former held 
 the feast on May 3, and the latter on April 5. 
 Moreover, they still sacrifice and eat their Paschal 
 Lamb upon Mount Gerizim. 
 
 Jerusalem is sometimes visited by some of the 
 " Black Jews " of Malabar and Western India, con- 
 cerning whom so much absurdity has been written. 
 The " White Jews" of India have a tradition 
 according to which their ancestors, numbering ten 
 thousand souls, emigrated Eastward about a.d. 70, 
 and settled about Cranganore on the Malabar coast. 
 Here they remained till a.d. 1565, when they were 
 driven into the interior by the Portuguese. As no 
 synagogue can be founded without a minimum 
 congregation of ten free and adult males, the white 
 Jews when necessary simply bought back their nine 
 Hindu slaves, manumitted them, circumcised and 
 bathed them, and thus obtained their wishes. The 
 " Reformed British Jews," mostly Ashkenazim, who 
 date from the 7th of Ellul, a.m. 5601 (August 
 24, 1841), and whose prayer-book is edited by 
 their minister, the Rev. Mr. Marks, are hardly 
 likely to make way in " the East " with such ultra- 
 Karaite doctrine as " the sufficiency of the Law 
 of Moses for the guidance of Israel," and with their 
 opposition to the divinity of the traditions con- 
 tained in the Mishnah ; and in the Jerusalem and 
 
Ube 3ew of tfoe 1bolE Xanfc ant> bte Besting 59 
 
 Babylonian Talmuds they would only be included 
 in the host 
 
 Of petulant, capricious sects, 
 The maggots of corrupted texts. 
 
 There is little to say concerning the physical 
 peculiarities of the Eastern Jew, who in all the 
 salient points of form and feature remarkably re- 
 sembles his brother of Houndsditch and the Minories. 
 Here and there the lines are less curved, the profile 
 is straight and high, whilst there are a few local 
 varieties like the fair hair and olive-coloured eyes 
 of Dalmatia. The highest type contains a certain 
 softness of expression, with that decisive cast of 
 mouth and chin which may be seen in the London 
 policeman and in the backwoodsman of the Far 
 West. Although centuries of oppression have neces- 
 sarily given to the many that cringing, deprecating 
 glance, that shifting look which painfully suggests 
 a tame beast expecting a blow, yet we still find 
 both amongst the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim 
 red Jews and black Jews ; fierce -eyed, dark-browed, 
 and hollow-cheeked, with piercing acuteness of glance, 
 and an almost reckless look of purpose. Greed and 
 craft, and even ferocity, are to be read in such 
 faces, but rarely weakness, and never imbecility ; 
 roughness, unculture, and coarseness are there, not 
 vulgarity, nor want of energy ; and the Christian 
 physiognomy by their side looks commonplace when 
 
60 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 contrasted with those features so full of concentra- 
 tion and vigorous meaning. 
 
 These are the same men as those who under 
 happier auspices organize such worldwide institu- 
 tions as the Alliance Israelite Universelle, with 
 its heart in Paris and its limbs extending far and 
 wide on the earth, whilst increasing organization 
 proposes to extend them farther and wider. Its 
 object is simply to promote concerted action amongst 
 the Jews scattered about both hemispheres ; to 
 effect unity and community in all matters interest- 
 ing to the Jewish body politic ; to forward the 
 interest of its friends, and to effect the ruin of its 
 enemies. Thus it will eventually absorb by taking 
 under its charge such detached institutions as the 
 Khagal, or Communal Government of the Hebrews 
 in Russia. It is the fashion to praise the organiza- 
 tion of the Jesuits, the Freemasons, the Carbonari, 
 the Mormons, and other bodies, who have an esoteric 
 system underlying the exoteric form. As far as my 
 knowledge goes, none can be compared with that 
 of the Jews, because those are local and partial, 
 whereas these are all but universal. 
 
 Such men easily become the warriors of commerce, 
 bringing to the battle of interests, the campaign of 
 life, all that boldness and resolution, that persistence 
 and heroism, that subtlety and unscrupulousness 
 which the Patriarchs and the Maccabees carried out 
 into the personal conflict of sword and spear. They 
 
XTbe Jew of tbe tools Xanb anfc bis Bestins 61 
 
 become the great potentates of finance and capital, 
 who have agents and reporters in every chief centre 
 of the world ; who know every project, what is to 
 flourish and what is to founder ; what enterprise 
 is to be effectual, and what is to fail. If a seaport 
 want a dock, a city require a bulwark, or a country 
 demand a railway or a loan, they are ever ready 
 to furnish each and all. And as a rule they are 
 not unfair, they are not mean ; indeed there is often 
 a certain generosity in their conditions. But they 
 ahvays bargain for something besides money. They 
 stipulate, for instance, that this man should be 
 allowed to participate in these profits, that another 
 should be excluded from those advantages ; their 
 interests are so various and so widespread that 
 they need political power everywhere, and as they 
 must have it so they will have it. One offence, 
 one deadly sin, never forgiven, never forgotten, is 
 insubordination in the ranks, however trifling. Let 
 a secondary firm attempt to throw off the yoke 
 by launching out, for instance, into an enterprise 
 unauthorized by the Great House ; straightway its 
 credit is assailed, its acceptances are dishonoured, 
 its ruin is assured. Such are the arts which have 
 enabled the Jew to arrive at his present position. 
 And he may confidently look forward to the time 
 when the whole financial system, not only of Europe 
 from one end to the other, but of the whole world, 
 will be in the hands of a few crafty capitalists, 
 
62 
 
 Uhe Jew 
 
 whose immense wealth shall, with a few pulsations 
 of the telegraph, unthrone dynasties and determine 
 the destinies of nations. 
 
 It remains now only to touch upon the future 
 prospects of the Jewish race. This important 
 consideration is still subject to two widely different 
 opinions. 
 
 The first, which may be called the vapid utterance 
 of the so-called Liberal School, speaks as follows : 
 "In this century we are battering down the pon- 
 derous walls of prejudice which nations and sects 
 have erected in past times, for the separation of 
 themselves from their neighbours, or as a coign of 
 vantage from which to hurl offensive weapons at 
 them. Roman Catholic and Jewish emancipation 
 have been conceded, though tardily, and we may 
 fairly hope that in the next generation our political, 
 social, and commercial relations with our fellow- men 
 will be conducted without regard to their religious 
 belief or their ethnological origin." The trifling 
 objection to this "harmonious and tolerant state 
 of things" is that, though the Christian may give 
 up his faith and race, the Jew, however readily he 
 may throw overboard the former, will cling to the 
 latter with greater tenacity, as it will be the very 
 root and main foundation of his power. 
 
 The second is the Judophobic or Roman Catholic 
 view of the supremacy of Jewish influence in the 
 governments and the diplomacy of Europe. It openly 
 
TTbe 3e\v of tbe 1bols Xanfc anfc bis Besting 63 
 
 confesses its dread of Judaic encroachments, and it 
 goes the full length of declaring that, unless the 
 course of events be changed by some quasi-miraculous 
 agency, the triumph of the Israelite over Christian 
 civilization is inevitable — in fact, that Judaism, the 
 oldest and exclusive form of the great Semitic faith, 
 will at least outlive, if it does not subdue and 
 survive, Christianity, whose triumph has been over 
 an alien race of Aryans. "Gold," it argues, "is 
 the master of the world, and the Jewish people are 
 becoming masters of the gold. By means of gold 
 they can spread corruption far and wide, and thus 
 control the destinies of Europe and of the world." 
 For the last quarter of a century the dominant 
 Church in France seems to have occupied itself in 
 disseminating these ideas, and the number of books 
 published by the alarmists and replied to by Jewish 
 authors is far from inconsiderable. Witness the 
 names of MM. Tousseuel, Bedarride, Th. Halliz, 
 Rev. P. Ratisbonne, and A. C. de Medelsheim, 
 without specifying the contributors to the Union 
 Israelite and the Archives Israelites of Paris — a 
 sufficient proof of the interest which this question 
 has excited, and of the ability with which it has 
 been discussed in France. 
 
 But these are generalisms which require the 
 specification of particulars. Where, however, the 
 field is so extensive, we must limit ourselves to 
 the most running survey of Europe and the Holy 
 
64 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 Land. Throughout this continent the career of the 
 Jew is at once thriving and promising. The removal 
 of Jewish disabilities in England and the almost 
 universal spread of constitutionalism throughout 
 Europe have told mightily in favour of the Jews. 
 An essential condition of all reform is that the 
 reformer never can say, "Thus far will I go, and 
 no farther." In sporting parlance, he took off the 
 weight from a dark horse, and the latter is everywhere 
 winning in a canter. The father kept a little shop 
 in the Ghetto ; the son has palaces and villas, buys 
 titles, crosses, and other graven images utterly un- 
 known to the Mosaic Law, and intermarries with the 
 historic Christian families of the land. The great, 
 if not the only, danger is that in the outlying parts 
 of Europe, where men are not thoroughly tamed, 
 and where the sword is still familiar to the hand, 
 the Jew advances far too fast ; nor is it easy to see 
 how his career can be arrested before it hurries him 
 over the precipice. At this moment Hungary is a 
 case in point. The Magnate, profuse in hospitality, 
 delighting in display, careless of expenditure, and 
 contemptuous of economy, sees all his rich estates, 
 with their flocks and herds, their crops and mines, 
 passing out of his own hands, and contributing to 
 swell the bottomless pocket of the Jewish usurer. 
 But the Magyar is a fiery race ; and if this system 
 of legal robbery be allowed to pass a certain point, 
 which, by-the-bye, is not far distant, the Jews 
 
ZTbe Jew of tbe tf>ol£ Xanfc anfc bis Besting 65 
 
 must prepare themselves for another disaster right 
 worthy of the Middle Ages. And they will have 
 deserved it. 
 
 As regards the restoration of Israel to the Holy 
 Land, that favourite theme of prophecy and poetry, 
 that day-dream of the Jew, at least until he found 
 a country and a home in the far happier regions 
 beyond his ancient seats, no supernatural gift is 
 required to point out the natural course of events. 
 Though the recovery of Jerusalem is the subject 
 of eternal supplication throughout the Jewish world, 
 wealthy and prosperous Jews openly declare that they 
 take no personal interest in the matter. The prayer, 
 in fact, has become a mere formula. 1 Still, with six 
 millions of souls, which will presently become nine, 
 there can be no difficulty in finding volunteers like 
 those who now garrison the four Holy Cities — 
 Jerusalem and Hebron, Tiberias and Safed. A single 
 million of souls would give the Israelite complete 
 command over the Land of Promise in the widest 
 
 1 The formula, however, is still perpetually repeated. On the 
 Sabbaths preceding the new moons Jehovah is adjured to " gather 
 the dispersed, the united people of Israel from the four corners 
 of the earth." The sunset devotions, the Yom ha-Kippur, or Great 
 Day of Atonement, concludes with, "Next year we shall be in 
 Jerusalem." At the Passover feast before the fourth cup the Lord 
 is blessed, and all say, as they have been saying during the last 
 eighteen centuries, " The year that approaches we shall be in Jeru- 
 salem." The burden of the Musaph concluding the Sabbath 
 services is that God may be pleased to return His people from their 
 dispersions, and restore them to the possession of Jerusalem and 
 the Temple. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 Uhc Jew 
 
 acceptation of the term, and it will not be long before 
 this number can be contributed. 
 
 The Jews might readily return to Judaea ; but 
 there is a lion in the path. Russia cares little for 
 Constantinople, which will fall to her in the fulness 
 of time when the fruit is ripe. But she will brook 
 no interference with the Holy Land, except for her 
 own benefit. This power, half European and half 
 Asiatic, greatly indebted withal for her success in 
 life to the mixture which she despises, has the 
 immense advantage of a peculiar and homogeneous 
 creed, in which she believes with childish ardour 
 and which she preaches with virile energy. To her, 
 conquest is not mere increase of area, of physical 
 growth. It is extending the field of proselytism, 
 of religion ; and this view of national progress and 
 of racial duty is at once her strength and her 
 weakness, her glory and her shame. She finds the 
 headquarters of Christianity necessary to the full 
 development of her religious superiority, and in 
 the ever-increasing weakness of the Latin Church 
 she descries her best opportunity. 
 
 Thus, as modern travellers assure us, Russia is 
 quietly absorbing the Holy Places in Syria and 
 Palestine. A bran-new Jerusalem of church, con- 
 vent, and hospice, which a few days' work would 
 convert into forts and barracks, has lately risen 
 outside the grey old walls and towers of Jebus, 
 concealing them from the ardent gaze of the pilgrim 
 
XTbe Jew of tbe 1bolE Xanfc ant) bte Destiny 67 
 
 as he tops the last hill leading to the Jaffa Gate. 
 At Hebron the Muscovite was not allowed to buy 
 building-ground within the settlement ; he bought the 
 oak which passes itself off for Abrahams terebinth, 
 and here again will be a church, convent, and hospice. 
 Jacob's Well at Shechem has shared the same fate, 
 and even Tiberias is threatened with a fourth church, 
 convent, and hospice. The so-called Greeks, 1 whose 
 Muscovite sympathies are well known, were granted 
 such boons as the monopoly of Mount Tabor, whose 
 classic and Saracenic ruins were ruthlessly pulled 
 down to build a cockney church and convent. This 
 usurpation became so intolerable, that in the summer 
 of 1872 the Latin monks attacked the intruders, 
 seized vi et armis a part of the mountain to which 
 they laid claim, and enclosed their conquest with a 
 wall. On the other hand, when the Latins proved an 
 undoubted right to their ancestral chapel at Kefr 
 Kenna (Cana in Galilee), the Greeks were instructed 
 to set up a rival claim, and both were formally 
 dismissed with the oyster shell, the oyster having 
 been pronounced Wukiif, or mosque endowment. 
 
 This Russian pre-emption of the Holy Land is 
 a benefit to the Jew, although the latter may not 
 recognize it. But for this he would hasten to fulfil 
 the prophecy ; he would buy up the country, as 
 
 1 Not to be confounded with Hellenes. These Greeks are Syrian 
 and Christian peasants (fellahin), without a drop of Greek blood 
 in their veins, but belonging to the so-called Greek Church. 
 
68 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 indeed he is now doing at Jerusalem ; 1 he would 
 conquer the people by capital, and he would once 
 more form a nation. 
 
 But here the question obtrudes itself : " If 
 Judaism should again prevail — indeed its advocates 
 say it shall prevail universally — how long could it 
 endure ? " 
 
 Those who know the codes of the Talmud and 
 of the Safed School, which are still, despite certain 
 petty struggles, the life-light of Judaism, will have 
 no trouble in replying. A people whose highest 
 ideas of religious existence are the superstitious 
 sanctification of Sabbath, the washing of hands, the 
 blowing of ram's horns, the saving rite of circum- 
 cision, and the thousand external functions compen- 
 sating for moral delinquencies, with Abraham sitting 
 at the gate of Hell to keep it closed for Jews ; a 
 community which would declare marriage impossible 
 to some twelve millions of Gentiles, forbid them 
 the Sabbath, and sentence to death every " stranger " 
 
 1 In 1873 the population of the Holy City is generally laid 
 down as : 
 
 Jews 9,500 
 
 Christians 5,300 
 
 Muslims 5,000 
 
 Total 19,800 
 
 [Owing to the recent immigration especially of Russian Jews, and 
 to the opening of the railway to the coast of Jaffa, these figures have 
 been more than quadrupled. In 1896 the whole population was 
 estimated at over 80,000, of whom nearly 40,000 were Jews, 25,000 
 Christians of all denominations, and 15,000 Muhammadans, chiefly 
 Turks and Arabs.] 
 
XTbe 3evv of tbe tools Xanfc ant) bis Besting 69 
 
 reading an Old Testament ; which would have all 
 the Ger who are not idolaters without religion, 
 whilst forbidding those whom it calls " idolaters " 
 (the Christians) to exercise the commonest feelings 
 of humanity ; which would degrade and insult one- 
 half of humanity, the weaker sex, and which would 
 sanction slavery, and at the same time oppress 
 and vilify its slaves by placing them on a level 
 with oxen and asses j a faith which, abounding in 
 heathen practices, would encourage the study of 
 the Black Art, would loosen every moral obligation, 
 would grant dispensations to men's oaths, and 
 would sanction the murder of the unlearned ; a 
 system of injustice, whose Sanhedrins, at once 
 heathenish and unlawful, have distinguished them- 
 selves only for force and fraud, for superabundant 
 self-conceit, for cold-blooded cruelty, and for un- 
 relenting enmity to all human nature, — such con- 
 ditions, it is evident, are not calculated to create 
 or to preserve national life. The civilized world 
 would never endure the presence of a creed which 
 says to man, " Hate thy neighbour unless he be one 
 of ye," or of a code written in blood, not in ink, 
 which visits the least infractions of the Rabbinical 
 laws with exorcism and excommunication, with stoning 
 and flogging to death. 1 A year of such spectacles 
 
 1 It has been well remarked that no Hebrew citizen was ever 
 condemned to exile. If guilty, he was punished, but not made an 
 outcast and infamous, forced to sin by dwelling beyond the holy 
 soil of their own land in the impure and accursed rest of earth. 
 
70 
 
 Zhc Sew 
 
 would more than suffice to excite the wrath and 
 revenge of outraged humanity ; the race, cruel, 
 fierce, dogged, and desperate as in the clays of 
 Titus and Hadrian, would defend itself to the last ; 
 the result would be another siege and capture of 
 Jerusalem, and the " Chosen People " would once 
 more lie prostrate in their blood and be stamped 
 out of the Holy Land. 
 
 Briefly, it is evident that nothing but Russian 
 preponderance in Syria and Palestine prevents its 
 being reoccupied by its old intolerant and per- 
 secuting owners, 1 and that to these the greatest 
 
 1 It is interesting to read what the inspired Jew Spinoza wrote 
 upon the Jews : " The rite of circumcision, I am fain to persuade 
 myself, is of such moment in this matter (i.e. of isolating nations) 
 that it alone, methinks, were enough to preserve this people 
 distinct for ever ; indeed, unless the fundamentals of their reli- 
 gion bring upon them effeminacy of mind and character, I am 
 inclined to believe that, with the opportunity afforded, since human 
 affairs are notoriously changeable, they may again recover their 
 empire, and God elect them to Himself anew. ... To conclude, 
 were any one disposed to maintain that the Jews, for the cause 
 assigned, or for any other cause whatsoever, had been especially 
 chosen by God to all eternity, I should not gainsay him, provided 
 he allowed that this choice was most in respect of nothing but 
 empire and personal advantages (in which only one nation can 
 be distinguished from another), for as regards understanding and 
 true virtue no nation is more remarkable than another, and so 
 cannot on such grounds be looked on as elected by God" (Tractatus 
 Theologico-Politiciis, chap. iii.). 
 
 It is instructive to compare with the sage's text two commen- 
 taries of his editions. One of them assures us that, no longer 
 persecuted by Pope and Kaiser or Christian community, " with no 
 mark of civic distinction denied the Jews, they will soon become 
 absorbed into the larger Christian communities, surrounded by whom 
 they now dwell in all the countries of Europe ; they will finally 
 
XTbc 3ew of the 1fools Xanfc anfc bis Desttnp 71 
 
 possible misfortune would be the granting of their 
 daily, weekly, and yearly prayer — 
 
 jPejt peac map toe meet at 3]eru0alem* 
 
 disappear, and leave only historical records of their existence." At 
 present, however, Judaism bids fair to rise above and to survive 
 Christianity. In B. Auerbach's Lehen Spinozas we are told that the 
 immediate cause which to Spinoza suggested this " curious per- 
 suasion" (the restoration of the Jews) may have been this, that 
 a certain Sabbathai Zewi,* who had lately appeared in Greece, 
 caused such a commotion amongst his co-religionists as at one 
 time to make their regeneration and reconstitution into a sovereignty 
 appear not impossible. 
 
 [* Better known under the popular form Cevi.] 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE JEW AND THE TALMUD 
 
 ri 1HE present chapter contains many an assertion 
 which will make the expert Talmudist smile. 
 It will, however, serve one most useful purpose — 
 namely, to show what the Christians and Muslims 
 of the East hold to be the belief of the Hebrew race 
 and the practices of men dwelling within the same 
 walls as themselves. That this hostility to the 
 Eastern Jews is no mere unreasoning prejudice, but 
 is founded in some sort on fact, the following brief 
 survey of the Rabbinical and Talmudic writings 
 will show. A people which has such a vindictive 
 Oral Law is sure to excite the spirit of retaliation, 
 for obviously the Law exists not merely in letter, 
 but in the spirit. 
 
 In a notorious trial in Damascus within living 
 memory, which roused the anti-Jewish feeling in 
 that city and indeed throughout Syria to a frenzy, 
 certain learned doctors brought into court as 
 evidence a number of manuscripts and printed books. 
 It was remarked that the texts were full of lacunae. 
 This was explained by the fact that they are so 
 
 72 
 
Ube Jew ant> tbe Ualmufc 
 
 73 
 
 written, since Europe began to read the Rabbinical 
 and Talmudic writings, for the purpose of concealing 
 what might excite odium. The divines supply the 
 omissions by inserting them in writing, or preferably 
 by committing them to memory. Thus they suppress 
 offensive sectarian words, such as Goi (plural 
 Goyim), the wicked, the forgetful of God — that is 
 to say, Gentiles in general, including Christians 
 and Muslims ; Minim, or Karaite Jews ; Kuthim, 
 Samaritans ; Nakhrim, strangers or infidels, corre- 
 sponding with the Arabic Kafirin, or the Turkish 
 Giaour ; and Ndoyyim, or Mesumedim, in Arabic 
 Mahrumm or Murtaddin, the excommunicated. 
 And it is evident that they had good reasons for 
 this prudence ; the Seder Adarhout, for instance, 
 enumerates with the object of refuting them many 
 foul crimes attributed to the Jews. 
 
 The most important and pregnant tenet of modern 
 Jewish belief is that the Ger, or stranger, in fact 
 all those who do not belong to their religion, are 
 brute beasts, having no more rights than the fauna 
 of the field. Thus in Lucio Ferraris {Prompta 
 Bibliotheca, Vol. III., sub lit. E and H, Order 4, 
 Tract 8) we read : " Praecipitur omnibus Judseis ut 
 Christianes omnes loco brutorum habeant, nec aliter 
 eos tractent quam bruta animalia." The argument 
 from which this abominable belief is derived appears 
 to be as follows: "When Abraham was ordered to 
 offer up Isaac (Gen. xxii.), he saddled his ass, and 
 
74 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 took two of his young men with him. But when 
 he saw the place of sacrifice, 1 he said unto his young 
 men, ' Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the 
 lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to 
 you.' " The Talmud declares that Abraham, who had 
 seen God, asked his servants if they had likewise 
 done so ; and on their replying in the negative, 
 he said to them, " Abide ye here with the ass," 
 meaning that they were animals like the ass. But 
 this is by no means contrary to Scripture doctrine ; 
 for instance, Jeremiah (x. 8) calls the votaries of 
 false religion " altogether brutish and foolish." Thus 
 the Law and the Prophets belong exclusively to the 
 Jews ; the Gentile reading or even buying a copy 
 should be put to death. All the books of other 
 faiths must be burnt, even though they contain the 
 name of Jehovah ; and if any but a Hebrew write 
 the name of God in a Bible which is not a Jewish 
 manuscript, the volume must also be burnt. 
 
 The Jew who does not keep the Sabbath (Satur- 
 day) 2 according to Rabbinical Law must suffer 
 
 1 Mount Moriah (of appearance), afterwards the site of Solomon's 
 Temple. Certain modern writers, especially Mr. Mills (Nablous and 
 the Samaritans), would identify Mount Gerizim of Shechem with 
 Moriah ; but the most superficial consideration of the distance to be 
 marched and the time required proves the theory to be absurd. 
 
 2 This institution has even distinguished the Jew from the other 
 civilized nations of antiquity, the Egyptians and Assyrians, the 
 Hindus and Guebres, the Greeks and Romans, who ignored it. 
 By this part of his cosmogony Moses evidently intended to inculcate 
 the dignity of labour and the hygienic necessity of rest. But the 
 Rabbis and Doctors exaggerate all things, and they have still, like 
 
XTbe Jew anfc tbe Ualmufc 75 
 
 excision, be stoned to death, or incur the flogging 
 of rebellion, that is, he must be " beaten until his 
 soul go out," like all those who transgress affirmative 
 commandments. Some Rabbis hold that a Hebrew, 
 hearing the sound of the trumpet, should stand or 
 sit in the same position until the evening of the 
 Holy Day. All manner of work is absolutely for- 
 bidden to the Jew : he is guilty of capital crime if 
 he carry a snuff-box or a pocket-handkerchief ; he 
 may not light a fire to cook his meals, nor extinguish 
 it to prevent his house being burnt down. Until 
 the days of the Maccabees he could not defend his 
 life against an enemy ; and when Strabo informs 
 us that Pompey (b.c. 63) stormed Jerusalem "by 
 waiting for the day of fast, on which the Jews 
 were in the habit of abstaining from all work," he 
 evidently alludes to the Saturday. The modern Jew 
 in Syria and Palestine can walk only two thousand 
 paces upon the Sabbath, except when travelling 
 through the dangerous desert. 1 He will not receive 
 
 the vulgar Hebrew, to learn that the Sabbath was made for man, not 
 man for the Sabbath. The Targum of Onkelos (Dr. Etheridge's 
 Translation. London : Longmans, 1862) makes the Creator rest and 
 be refreshed in all points like a wearied human being. Dr. McCaul 
 and a host of writers have enlarged upon the vexatious, barbarous, 
 and inhuman Sabbatical ordinances engrafted by the Talmudists 
 upon the Mosaic Law. 
 
 1 Usually the Sabbatical journey is reckoned at one Mil (mile) ; 
 but it varies according to circumstances, the permitted extremes 
 varying between seven furlongs and two miles. Probably the ancient 
 Jews had a longer and a shorter measure, in the latter the pace being 
 half of what it was in the former ; the longer mile, equal to 2,000 
 
76 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 money on that day, or transact any business, however 
 profitable ; it is moreover the fashion to keep a 
 grave face, and to speak as little as possible. Yet 
 he is not the strictest of Sabbatarians, and his 
 women rather enjoy being called upon between 
 the services 1 in order to display their dresses 
 and jewellery. Of course there are many " guiles," 
 technically so called, in order to elude restrictions 
 which savour of the degrading spirit peculiar to the 
 Oral Law, which is little more than the Rabbinical 
 Criminal Code intended to raise and provide for an 
 aristocracy of savants. For instance, most wealthy 
 
 paces, = 5,000 feet = 1,666 yards, or 98* yards shorter than the 
 English statute measure, whilst the Roman was 142 yards less 
 than ours. 
 
 1 The Sabbath services throughout the world are four — namely, 
 (1) Prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings in the synagogue on Friday 
 after sunset ; (2) Saturday morning prayers, rather later than usual 
 that men may take a longer rest ; (3) Ha-phatorah, the conclusion 
 after the morning prayer, reading sections of the Law and the 
 Prophets ; and (4) Ha-musaph, or the additional prayers, consisting 
 of portions of the Pentateuch referring to the sacrifices of the Mosaic 
 Dispensation which are now no longer lawful. The style of can- 
 tillation is complicated as the reading of the Koran, and would be 
 called a " neuma " t in the mediaeval music of the Christian Church. 
 And the chant annotation, which is shown in every Old Testament, 
 offers a host of difficulties. As a rule the services are the reverse of 
 impressive. They are in a dead language " not understanded of the 
 people " ; they are hurried over with unseemly haste ; and, as in 
 most ceremonial faiths, the profuse outward observances contrast 
 strangely with the apparent absence of religious feeling. 
 
 [* Sic Burton, but should be 94.] 
 
 [f The neuraes, properly pneumes (Gr. nvevfia), i.e. the musical notations 
 prevalent from the eighth to the twelfth century, are supposed by some to 
 represent the ancient JYota Bomana, though others hold them to be of Oriental 
 origin.] 
 
XTbe Sew ant) tbe Ualmufc 77 
 
 families, forgetting that he who hires a man to 
 murder a third person is really the murderer, habitu- 
 ally keep Muslim servants, who can boil coffee and 
 serve pipes to Gentile friends. And the latter must 
 by no means join in honouring the day. According 
 to the Talmud (chap, iv., Sanhedrin, of the fourth 
 Mishnic Section, or order Seder Nezikin), the Gentile 
 sanctifying the Sabbath must be put to death with- 
 out asking questions, even as the Lord said to 
 him, " Thou shalt not rest day nor night." 1 
 
 The Oral Law is superior in dignity to all others. 2 
 
 1 " A Gentile who employs himself in the Law is guilty of death. 
 He is not to employ himself except in the seven commandments 
 that belong to the Gentiles. And thus a Gentile who keeps a 
 Sabbath — though it be on one of the weekdays — if he make it to 
 himself as a Sabbath, he is guilty of death." And the measure 
 of difference between Gentile and Jew is that, whilst the former 
 has seven commandments, the latter has six hundred and thirteen. 
 
 2 Thus the Rabbinical saying is : " Every one is bound to divide 
 the time of his study into three— one-third to be devoted to the 
 Written Law, one-third to Mishnah, and one-third to Gemara." Thus 
 he gives one-half to the Old Testament, whilst double study is 
 assigned to the Oral Law. The latter, which has some tangible 
 points of resemblance with the traditions of the Roman Catholic 
 Church and the Siinnat of the Muhammadans, is the unwritten code 
 received by Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted inviolate 
 by word of mouth from generation to generation. Until after the 
 last destruction of Jerusalem it was never committed to writing 
 (see A Manual of Judaism, by Joshua Van Oven, Esq., M.R.C.S.L. 
 London, 1835). It is held uninspired by all save the Jews, and one 
 of its bitterest enemies was the Founder of Christianity, who, when 
 attacking tradition, never failed to uphold the Law. One might 
 smile at so prodigious an assumption as this legendary system in the 
 total absence of historic proof. But only a few years ago a French 
 Grand Rabbi published a learned work to prove that the facts can be 
 accounted for only supernaturally. Also Dr. Adler, Orthodox Chief 
 
78 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 In the Prompta Bibliotheca we find (p. 297, Order 4, 
 Tract 4, Dist. 10) : " Gravius plectendos esse qui 
 contradicunt verbis Scribarum quam verbis Mosaicse 
 Legis, quibus qui contradixerit, morte moriatur." 
 And he must die by the flogging of rebellion, a 
 Rabbinical practice utterly unknown to the Penta- 
 teuch, which ordered forty stripes, whereas in the 
 New Dispensation the offender must be flogged 
 without intermission till he expires. Thus the 
 Scribes and Pharisees still sit in Moses' seat. The 
 modern Jew follows the creed of Maimonides (twelfth 
 century), which contains thirteen fundamental articles, 
 the last being the resurrection of the dead. The 
 ancient Jew obeyed the Twelve Commandments 
 without a word about the resurrection. The sojourn- 
 ing proselyte who would be saved must become a 
 Noahite, and obey the Seven Commandments assured 
 to the Noachidee ; the Hakham Abu'l Afiya gave 
 them as follows: 
 
 1. Thou shalt not worship planets, stars, or idols. 
 
 2. Thou shalt not fornicate nor commit adultery. 
 
 3. Thou shalt not slay (man). 
 
 4. Thou shalt not steal. # 
 
 Rabbi of England, declared, in a sermon preached but a few years 
 ago, the Written and the Oral Laws to be equally divine, and 
 compared the reformers with the false mother in the judgment 
 of Solomon. These things make us regret the total disappearance 
 of the Sadducee or Rationalistic School. 
 
 [* The fourth, omitted by Burton, is, " Tu non ruberai " according 
 to the Hakham.] 
 
Ubc Jew anfc> tbe Ualmufc 
 
 79 
 
 5. Thou shalt not eat in the street the flesh of a 
 lamb. 
 
 6. Thou shalt not castrate the sons of Abraham, 
 mankind, or any other animal. 
 
 7. Thou shalt not join the several races of 
 animals. 1 
 
 More correctly speaking, this code given to the 
 Noachidae, or Noahites, commands them to abstain 
 from the Seven Deadly Sins: (1) idolatry; (2) ir- 
 reverence to God ; (3) homicide ; (4) robbery, fraud, 
 and plunder — generally, not only of a co-religionist ; 
 (5) adultery ; (6) disobedience and misrule ; and 
 (7) eating part of an animal still living, or the blood 
 of the dead. The latter was added (Gen. ix. 4) to 
 the Six Sins forbidden to Adam — namely, idolatry, 
 blasphemy, shedding of blood, incest, robbery, and 
 injustice. 
 
 But the sojourning proselyte 2 receives scant con- 
 
 1 Arubirn, or mixtures, were forbidden by the Mosaic Law (Lev. 
 xix. 19), and were greatly extended by the Oral Law, such as 
 grafting, sowing different kinds of seeds in the same soil, wearing 
 a garment of wool and linen mixed, and so forth. The subject 
 is copiously treated in the nine chapters of Kilaim (Heterogeneous, or 
 Things not to be Mixed), the fourth tract of the first order, Seder 
 Zeraaim (the Order of Seeds). 
 
 2 The subject of proselytizing amongst the ancient Jews is full 
 of difficulties, and the object seems mostly to have been the dis- 
 couragement of converts, with a fair scheme on paper. The 
 Proselytes of the Gate, generally called Gerim, or strangers ("the 
 stranger that is within thy gates") and properly Noachidse (sons 
 of Noah), were only half Israelites. The Proselytes of the Covenant 
 or of Righteousness were perfect Israelites. They are still admitted 
 under protest — men by circumcision and immersion in water, and 
 
80 
 
 solation, as he may not be received when the Jubilee 
 cannot be observed (Hilchoth Issure Biah, xiv. 7, 8) ; 
 and this ceased after Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh 
 were led away captive, or in b.c. 884, according to 
 common chronology. Add to this 1,873, and we 
 have 2,757 years since the last feast of the kind, 
 and we have twenty-seven centuries and a half 
 since any Gentiles were converted from the errors 
 of idolatry to the religion of the sons of Noah. 
 
 Those who transgress any of the Commandments 
 transgress them all. 1 The goods of Gentiles who 
 have not conformed to the Noahite code, that is 
 to say, all now living, are lawful to the Hebrews. 
 This right was first conferred by Jehovah during the 
 Exodus from Egypt, and it was confirmed to the 
 descendants of the wanderers by the Talmud (Baba 
 Masiaah, or Middle Gate, second of the fourth 
 order, and Abodah Zarah, eighth of the same). 
 
 Rabbinical religion is rampant in the kitchen. 
 Blood first forbidden to Noah (Gen. ix. 4), and 
 afterwards to all the sons of Abraham (Lev. iii. 17 
 and vi. 30) — because it was supposed to contain the 
 vital principle which it does not — must be drained 
 out of the meat before this can be eaten. The 
 
 women by the latter rite only. It is a question how far baptism 
 was used in ante-Christian times, and possibly John the Baptist 
 merely adopted the old rite for a new purpose. 
 
 1 This again is Scriptural. "The doctrine of Moses is not that 
 obedience to one command will compensate for disobedience to 
 another, but that disobedience to one command will make obedience 
 to others of none effect." 
 
XTbe 3ew anfc tbe UalrnuS 
 
 81 
 
 usual practice is by macerating it in water for thirty 
 minutes, and leaving it in salt for an hour. It is 
 then taken out and washed again, a peculiar wooden 
 tub and sieve being used for the purpose. In Morocco 
 the Jews also pound the flesh till the fibre is broken, 
 and thus it becomes more tender and less able to 
 be kept — this, however, is a local practice unknown 
 to the Jews elsewhere. The Talmud declares that 
 there are two kinds of blood pleasing to the Lord — 
 viz. (1) that of the Paschal holocaust ; (2) that of 
 circumcision. In the books of Moses we find that 
 blood is used as a purifier. For instance, the Lawgiver 
 (Exod. xxiv. 6-8) took half of the blood drained from 
 victims and put it in basins, with which he sprinkled 
 the people to cleanse them from the abominations 
 of the Egyptians, and the other half he sprinkled 
 upon the altar. Human blood is not used by us 
 in its pure state ; nor can we # call it human, for the 
 Gentiles are mere vermin, and of their daughters 
 it is said, " Cursed be he that lieth with any beast." 
 It must also mostly undergo through manipulation 
 a change of essence. 1 Nor is it administered 
 indiscriminately, but only to the most zealous. 
 On the eve of the Passover the chief Scribe at- 
 tends the oven, and mixes what he pleases with 
 the cakes, which are then sent round to the 
 congregation. 
 
 [* Sic Burton. The Hebrew scribe is supposed to be speaking.] 
 1 Here the scribe does not explain himself. What he refers to 
 is the supposed system of reducing the blood to ashes. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 Zht Jew 
 
 A Jew abandoning the faith of Israel must die 
 the death ; also he should be surely slain for all 
 such breaches of the Law as committing adultery. 
 All who admit the doctrine of the Trinity, whether 
 they be Jewish perverts, Christians, Muslims, or 
 Pagans ; all Hebrews who have violated the secrets 
 of the Synagogue ; 1 and all those especially who speak 
 against or who injure a co-religionist, have forfeited 
 their lives. In these days minor offenders are usually 
 excommunicated ; 2 but those who have been informers 
 or who proved themselves hostile to Israel must be 
 killed at all risks, either by the Jews themselves, or, 
 better still, through the local authorities. This is 
 an invariable rule. 3 
 
 We read in the tract Sanhedrin (fourth of fourth 
 order, p. 58) that the Gentile who strikes a Jew has 
 committed a capital offence ; this ordinance is as old 
 as the sojourn of Moses in Egypt. He who strikes 
 a Jew strikes the Deity. The " sons of Noah " may 
 be slain by the sentence of a single Rabbi, or upon the 
 
 1 "Heretics and informers and Epicureans, who have denied the 
 Law or the resurrection of the dead, ... all such go down to hell, 
 and are judged for ever " (Rosh ha-Shanah, or Head of the Year, 
 eighth tract of the second order). 
 
 2 There are three forms of excommunication— (1) the Nachri, or 
 simple expulsion from the synagogue ; (2) expulsion accompanied 
 with Anathema ; and (3) the same with Maranatha. The latter is 
 composed of two Syriac words meaning " the Lord will come," i.e. in 
 judgment. 
 
 3 Hence, it may be added, the exceeding care of the Jews to 
 propitiate all those having authority. 
 
TTbe Sew an& tbe TTalmufc) 
 
 83 
 
 testimony of a solitary witness, although the latter be 
 a relation. A descendant of the Hebrews who, learn- 
 ing the true God in the days of Abraham, thereby 
 separated themselves from and exalted themselves 
 above the rest of humanity, may not be put to death 
 but by the decision of twenty Rabbis and on the 
 testimony of two witnesses. A Gentile forfeits life 
 if he cause a pregnant Jewess or her fruit to perish • 
 a Jew is not to be punished capitally for such crime, 
 but he must pay for the loss of the child (p. 57). 
 The " son of Noah " who blasphemes the Holy 
 Name, who has committed adultery with or who 
 has slain a co-religionist, ceases to merit death 
 by becoming a sojourning proselyte ; but he must 
 not be suffered to escape if he has slain a Jew, 
 or if he has committed adultery with a Jewess 
 (p. 71). The Jew must not contract friendship 
 with Gentiles, lest, an oath being necessary, he 
 be compelled to swear by an idol (p. 63). He 
 may not eat bread prepared by the heathen, for 
 fear of undue intimacy being the result. Market 
 bread may be bought and eaten, but on condition 
 that it was made for sale, not for private use and 
 then sold — it is usual to burn a bit of such bread 
 before using it. A Jew may not eat victuals cooked 
 by Gentiles, although vessels from a Jewish house 
 were used in the presence of Jews — this extends 
 even to a roasted egg. 
 
 The tract Abodah Zarah, before alluded to, 
 
84 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 asserts (p. 4) that all the commandments kept by 
 Jews 1 shall bear friendly and favourable witness in 
 heaven before all the assembled souls of men, and to 
 the confusion of every other faith. Hebrews dwelling 
 out of the four Holy Cities are as idol- worshippers, 
 but without blame. A Jew going to a Gentile 
 marriage feast eats impure food, although the meats 
 be cooked by Jews and served by Jews in the presence 
 of Jews ; he even commits a sin if he enters the house 
 within thirty days of the coming ceremony (p. 8). 
 Gentiles should be prevented as much as possible 
 purchasing immovable property. It is not allowed 
 to speak well of a Gentile, man or woman, and it is 
 a sin to make a present to them (p. 20), to greet or 
 to approach them ; and the Jew becomes as cere- 
 monially impure by handling anything touched by 
 them, by drinking out of the same cup, or by sleep- 
 ing under the same roof, as if eating with them. 
 Hebrews should never tether their beasts in places 
 not belonging to them, at least without locking them 
 up, lest the heathen plunder or pollute them. 
 Gentiles preferred the Jews' beasts to their own 
 women, because evil entered into Eve on the day 
 when the serpent (demon) committed adultery with 
 her. A Jewess may not live amongst the heathen, 
 
 1 A tenet which in the hands of the Arab has become a very 
 poetical vision. The Muhammadan's good deeds in this life, his 
 works in fact, will meet him under the form of a beautiful woman, 
 and will lead him over the terrible bridge El Sirat to the Gates 
 of Paradise. 
 
XTbe Jew anfc tbe ZTalmufc 
 
 85 
 
 because possibly the latter do not hold adultery to 
 be a sin ; a Jew should also beware for fear of their 
 killing him, as they probably will do. Israel was 
 purified of every sin upon Mount Sinai ; but the 
 descendants of the peoples not present there preserve 
 their perversity (p. 22). If a Hebrew wayfarer 
 meet a Gentile armed with a sword (worn on the 
 left), he should pass on the other's right side, and 
 vice versa if the stranger has only a staff, so that 
 the arm can be seized before the weapon can be 
 used ; he must also name a distant place when asked 
 his journey's end, in order that the Gentile may 
 defer slaying him till too late (p. 25). 1 The better 
 to prevent all intimacy, the Jew must not buy wine 
 or vinegar from a Gentile, who also may perhaps 
 have used it in pagan rites. If a Christian, a 
 Muslim, or an idolater touch a cup containing 
 wine, the Jewish owner must throw away the wine 
 or sell it to the heathen, and cleanse the cup. The 
 same is the case with grapes. The Law forbids the 
 Israelites to marry the daughters of the Seven Tribes 
 that held the land before the conquest — namely, the 
 Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, 
 Hivites, and Jebusites. This, say the writers of 
 
 1 Dr. McCaul (Old Paths, No. 5) remarks upon these and other 
 precautions which are numerous in the Hilchoth Rotsih : " What 
 an affecting picture does this present of the Jews under heathen 
 domination ! " We should rather ask : " What conduct on the part 
 of the Jews must have led to this habitual treatment by those whom 
 they branded with the name of idolaters ? " 
 
86 
 
 and commentators on the Talmud, arose from the 
 fact of these women being impure from their child- 
 hood upwards. Others, however, whilst including 
 all Gentiles in these Seven Tribes, assert that the 
 prohibition was not on account of any special im- 
 purity, such women being vermin or brute beasts 
 not subject to the normal feminine infirmities. 
 Thus the learned restrain their weaker brethren 
 who might suppose that an impure Gentile woman 
 is pure to them, and who might even extend it to 
 the case of a Jewess. Hence again the deduction 
 that only the Hebrews are human beings (p. 35). 1 
 Tract Arubim (second of the second order, Seder 
 Moed, Of Appointed Seasons) declares (p. 62) that 
 if a Jew live under the same roof with a Gentile 
 who breaks the Sabbath (Saturday), 2 the former, lest 
 he be robbed, should drive out the latter by hiring 
 the whole house. But he may expel the heathen 
 as he can or as he pleases; all tenements inhabited 
 by others than Jews are dens of beasts which cannot 
 
 1 "It is unlawful to bake or to cook on a holy day, in order 
 to feed Gentiles or dogs ; for it is said (Exod. xii. 16), ' That 
 only may be done for you.' ' For you,' and not for Gentiles ; ' for 
 you,' and not for dogs " (Hilchoth Yom Tov., c. i. 10). Some Rabbis 
 go so far as to make the Am ha-erits (son of earth, i.e. people of 
 the land like the Seven Tribes), or unlearned Jew, an abomination, 
 a beast, whose nostrils may be split, but who is too worthless 
 to be slain (see Dr. McCaul, The Old Paths, pp. 6, 7). 
 
 2 Nothing is more striking to the Hebraist, or to one who has 
 lived long among the Hebrews, than to hear unlearned Christians 
 perpetually using the word (Sabbath) which can mean only Saturday 
 to signify Sunday. 
 
TLbc Jew ant) tbe TTalmufc 
 
 87 
 
 become householders. The " son of Noah " who 
 steals even a farthing should be put to death — one 
 of ten commandments given by God in His covenant 
 with Noah — and he cannot be pardoned unless he 
 restore the stolen goods. But God enjoined this 
 restitution only upon Gentiles becoming Israelites 
 (i.e. sojourning proselytes) ; all other thieves must 
 be instantly and pitilessly slain. 
 
 In tract Ohaleth (second of the sixth order, called 
 Seder Taharoth, or Of Purification) we read (§ 6) 
 that the graves of Gentiles cannot be held impure 
 because they are not tenanted by human beings, and 
 that when the law declares sitting upon tombs a 
 cause of defilement it alludes only to those of Jews. 
 Chapter Baba Bathra (third tract of the fourth order) 
 declares (§ i, p. 10, also repeated in another part 
 of the same tract) that all alms given by Jews are 
 acceptable to God, whereas those of the Gentiles 
 are so many sins because their objects are ostenta- 
 tion and the preservation of their children. If, 
 however, the Jew declare that his alms-deeds are 
 meant to save his family and to win Paradise, still 
 they are grateful to Jehovah — a privilege allowed 
 only to the children of Israel. In the same tract 
 we are also informed that Esau, the son of Isaac, 
 sinned five times in one day, by committing adultery 
 with a heathen, by slaying his neighbour, by pro- 
 faning the name of his God, by insulting the resur- 
 rection of the dead at the coming of the Messiah, 
 
88 
 
 Zhc Jew 
 
 and by degrading the rights of primogeniture. 1 Rabbi 
 Shalomon argues, from the fact of Ishmael laughing 
 when his brother Isaac was born, that Sarah con- 
 cluded therefrom, either that he held her to be an 
 adulteress, or that she saw him commit a murder ; 
 thus he draws the deduction that Ishmael had 
 broken the Seven Commandments, and that con- 
 sequently his descendants cannot bear witness 
 against Jews (p. 16). 
 
 Tract Bechoroth (on Primogeniture, fourth of the 
 fifth order, Seder Kodashim, Of Holy Things) 
 gives (i. 17) the formula of the Scribes' prayers, 
 and tells us that there are two things which hinder 
 men from keeping the law of God — the action of 
 demons and dependence upon Gentiles. The Lord 
 explains to the angels that usury is permitted only 
 to the Hebrews, who, being ordered to give thanks 
 after food, praise their Creator even when they 
 have eaten only an egg or an olive (p. 20). A 
 Jew may not pray before a naked Gentile, though 
 the latter be in the category of a wild beast (p. 25). 
 This tract relates that a Jew, beaten by a Scribe 
 when detected in adultery with an Egyptian woman, 
 complained to a Gentile ruler that the law had 
 been taken into private hands. The Scribe pleaded 
 
 1 The Targum of Palestine says (chap, xxv.) : " He had worshipped 
 with strange worship, he had shed innocent blood, he had gone 
 into a betrothed damsel, he had denied the life of the world to 
 come (nowhere taught in the Law), and he had despised his 
 birthright." 
 
Uhe JewfanO tbe Ualmufc 
 
 89 
 
 that he had surprised the criminal with a she -ass, 
 and called the prophet Elijah to bear witness. " Why 
 didst thou not slay hini? " asked the magistrate. 
 The reply was that, since the children of Israel had 
 been driven from their own country, such a punish- 
 ment could not be inflicted by them, but that the 
 judge could do as he pleased. When both left 
 the court, the Jew charged the Scribe with having 
 called Elijah as a witness to a lie. " Wretch ! " 
 exclaimed the learned man, " and are they not 
 the same as she-asses ? " But as the Jew was 
 about to return and report this explanation, the 
 Scribe slew him with his staff (i., p. 58). Hence 
 it appears that this tenet is a religious secret whose 
 violation merits death. When a Jew looks upon the 
 grave of a brother Jew, he must say : " Blessed is He 
 who hath created us by law, who has promised to 
 raise us again by law, and who knoweth our number ; 
 blessed is He who revives the dead." But if the 
 tomb be that of a Gentile, he must say : " Shame 
 upon thy mother, cursed be she that bare thee ; 
 for the end of the heathen shall be dry and desolate 
 as the soil of the desert " (p. 58). It also explains 
 earthquakes by the lamentations of the Lord, who 
 bewails the miseries of the Jews (p. 59). If a Jew 
 find an object lost, we will say, by a Muslim, he 
 must not restore it, even though he knew the pro- 
 prietor. Also, if a Gentile make any mistake in 
 accounting with the Jew, or leave property in his 
 
90 
 
 Zbc Sew 
 
 house, the latter, when not in fear of the authorities, 
 
 must rob him. At all times, in fact, the Jew should 
 
 spoil the Gentile as much as possible. If one Jew 
 
 injure another, though even his personal enemy 
 
 and the greatest villain in the world, especially 
 
 if such injury be to the advantage of a Gentile, 
 
 the Jew shall surely die (chap. 388 of the Khalehah 
 
 Orah Haim Meshat, one of the most accredited 
 
 parts of the Oral Law). All those present are bound 
 
 to put the denouncer to death before he can do 
 
 the deed; and if he has done it, they must remove 
 
 him from this world, every Israelite in the place 
 
 contributing to pay the assassin. The oath of a 
 
 Gentile or a Samaritan cannot be taken in evidence 
 
 against a Jew. If a dispute occurs between two 
 
 Israelites, they must go before their own judge. 1 It 
 
 is sinful to have recourse to foreign tribunals, and 
 
 all the decisions of the latter, when adverse to 
 
 Jews, must be quashed. Although the heathen 
 
 court pass sentence according to Hebrew Law, 
 
 the plaintiff or denouncer becomes impious, sacri- 
 
 1 The system of the Beth-din (house of judgment) is kept up 
 even in the British Islands. The Chief Rabbi is called Bab or Ab 
 Beth-din, and he nominates his two Dayanrm, or associates. Its 
 jurisdiction is civil, social, and religious ; but its powers extend only 
 to levying fines and to excommunicating recusants. In Damascus 
 the jurisdiction is much more extended. The building is in the 
 street of the Scribe called by courtesy Rabbi Yakiib Perez, and 
 half the intrigues in the city are here hatched. The well-known 
 Khagal of the Russian Jews is a similar institution, not recognized 
 by the Government, but exerting immense and injurious power 
 over the people. 
 
ZTbe 5e\v anfc tbe ZTalmufc 
 
 91 
 
 legious, and religiously excommunicated, whilst the 
 Rabbi is bound to make him lose his cause by 
 every possible contrivance, even by suborning 
 false witnesses against him. And at last due 
 punishment must be dealt out. The latter is not 
 a Biblical command, but it results from the com- 
 mentaries on the Talmuds. When these works 
 were written Muhammadanism did not exist ; 
 Muslims therefore are now included amongst the 
 Gentiles. They are not, however, like the Christian 
 idolaters. 
 
 In tract Keritoth (or Excision, the seventh of 
 the fifth order, Kodashim) the learned R. Moshe 
 Meimunah, after describing a fight between two 
 bulls, 1 the one belonging to a Jew, the other to 
 an Egyptian, declares (p. 36) that, in case of a 
 dispute between men of these different races, the 
 Hebrew, if in the right, should go to the local 
 authority and say, " See, such is the Law ! " But 
 he must not do so if he prefer the Jewish tribunal. 
 The Rabbi adds that no one should be astonished 
 
 1 Our modern versions which use the word " ox " in such places 
 lead to error. The Hebrews did not castrate their cattle, and 
 similarly their mules and their eunuchs were imported from Egypt 
 and elsewhere. Nothing of this is hinted at about the bull in 
 the most popular modern books ; so, for instance, the article " Ox " 
 in Smith's Concise Dictionary of the Bible. And here it may be noted 
 that if a bull killed a slave the owner of the former paid a fine 
 of thirty shekels to the owner (Josephus, Ant. Jud., IV. viii. 36) ; 
 hence possibly the sum offered to and accepted by Judas as the 
 value of a bought servant. 
 
92 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 at such a condition, for all who do not keep the 
 revealed commandments are not men, but beings 
 whose sole purpose upon earth is to serve men. 
 Tract Muad Katon (Little Feast, eleventh of the 
 second order) forbids Jews to salute Gentiles unless 
 in fear of them, and even then never twice. When 
 it was observed to the author that many Scribes 
 had so done, he replied that doubtless it was with 
 some such mental reservation as this, " I salute 
 thee, A., son of B.," meaning the Rabbi who had 
 taught the speaker to read the Scriptures (p. 62). 
 El Ruzich, in his commentaries on the Talmudic 
 tract Abodah Zarah, speaking of Hebrew accusers 
 of Hebrews and eaters of flesh not ceremonially 
 killed, declares their death to be a necessity. 
 
 At this point it may be advisable to offer a short 
 view of the two Great Schools of the Holy Land 
 which have influenced Jewish thought in Christian 
 times. These are, first, that of Tiberias, whence 
 issued the Talmud of Jerusalem, followed by the 
 Talmud of Babylon ; and, second, the School of 
 Safed, which rendered itself remarkable by the 
 extreme opinions of its commentaries and glossaries. 1 
 
 We read in a Jewish writer (M. J. Cohen on the 
 
 1 For the other great centres of learning, see Jerusalem and Tiberias ; 
 Sora and Cordova : A Survey of the Religious and Scholastic Learning 
 of the Jews. Designed as an Introduction to the Study of Hebrew 
 Literature. By J. W. Longmans, M.A. (London : Longmans). It is 
 curious to see how neglected has been the Safed School, which is 
 most erroneously included in that of Tiberias. 
 
Zhc 3ew> anfc tbe TTalmufc 
 
 93 
 
 authority of the Talmud, Archives Israelites, 1841) 1 : 
 " When after two hundred years of energetic struggles 
 against an empire which was fated to be universal 
 the Hebrew race found its political nationality in 
 peril, the first want felt was to lighten, as much 
 as possible, the bonds of personality, so as morally 
 to preserve by identity of belief that unity which dis- 
 persion was about to dissolve. And the plan which at 
 once suggested itself was to determine, by an invari- 
 able method, the principles of the Mosaic Law, to 
 develop their sense, and to fix their interpretation. 
 
 " But in those times, if I may so speak, the lights 
 of Israel were eclipsed ; ages had elapsed since the 
 voices of the prophets had delivered to this people 
 the Oracles of God; and divine inspiration, the 
 heightening of the national faculties by supernatural 
 means, seemed to have returned to its home in 
 heaven. Moreover, after the destruction of Jerusalem 
 and the expulsion of the Jews, all authority had 
 disappeared with national power, and, social organiza- 
 tion no longer existing, man could not magisterially 
 impose his opinion upon others. The only rational 
 step in this state of things was to assemble all the 
 Israelites, or those who represented them, and to 
 form a sovereign synod." 
 
 1 Most of these remarks are taken from the Introduction to the 
 Traite des Berakhoth (Benedictions) du Talmud de Jerusalem et du 
 Talmud de Babylone, traduit pour la premiere fois en Frangais par 
 Mo'ise Schwab, attache a la Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris : Imprimerie 
 Nationale, mdccclxxi.)- 
 
94 
 
 Ube Jew 
 
 The Jewish Senate, Sanhedrin (SwcSpww), 1 or 
 national council, was first transferred from the ruins 
 of the Holy City to Javneh, and after many removes 
 to Saffuriah, 2 the Sephores which in the days of 
 Josephus was ever faithful to the Romans. Finally, 
 about the middle of the second century, during the 
 reign of Antoninus Pius (a.d. 138 — 161), it was trans- 
 ferred to Tiberias, another city of Galilee. Rabbi 
 Yahuda, universally known as ha-Kodesh, or the 
 saint, was the Nashi (Prince) of his nation and the 
 President of the Sanhedrin. He lived at Saffuriah, 
 where there is a cave through which the Romau 
 
 1 The word clearly shows the immense effect of the Hellenic 
 Conquest. There were two forms of Sanhedrin — the Greater, 
 numbering seventy-one souls ; and the Lesser, consisting of twenty- 
 three. Both were composed of the three orders Priests, Levites, and 
 common Israelites. The Greater Council claimed, and would again 
 claim, supreme jurisdiction over the king, the high priest, the 
 prophets, and the people, and "strangulation was the mode of 
 execution for any learned man who rebelled against their words" 
 (Hilchoth Mamrun, i. 2). Anti-Talmudic writers strongly object 
 to this upstart aristocracy, when Moses (Deut. xvii.) ordained a 
 supreme council consisting of the " Priests the Levites " (not the 
 Priests and the Levites), together with the judge, or chief civil 
 governor ; the ecclesiastical element remaining in the family of 
 Aaron, whilst the magistracy fell to the lot of Joshua. But when 
 they assert, " It is quite absurd, and if the subject were not so grave 
 it would be ludicrous, to hear the Rabbinists exclaiming that the 
 Law of Moses is unchangeable, when they themselves have changed 
 all its main provisions and made an entirely new religion," the 
 Jew may fairly retort that the Pauline modifications extending 
 to radical changes had the same effect upon Christianity. 
 
 2 According to the system of Sir William Jones, this name would 
 be written Saffuriyeh, but not, as travellers generally do, Saffiireh 
 or Saffuriyyeh. 
 
TLhc Jew ant) tbe Ualmufc 95 
 
 Emperor, whose reign in history is almost a blank, 
 used to visit him from Tiberias ; this tunnel is now 
 blocked up. The modern Jews residing in Galilee 
 are not agreed whether the Great Rabbi died at 
 Saffunah, or at Turean, a neighbouring village, 
 where two large caves exist ; but neither of them 
 shows traces of a tomb. When this Prince of Israel 
 died, it was Friday evening, and the sun stood still 
 whilst his corpse was carried to its distant grave, 
 lest even the body might break the Sabbath. 1 
 
 " The work of this Sanhedrin consisted in com- 
 mitting to paper that which had before been entrusted 
 to memory and had perpetuated itself by tradition — 
 the jurisprudence of the Jews, the various interpreta- 
 tions of the Law by the principal doctors, and the 
 rules of man's duty ; in other words, all that was called 
 the Oral Law. Thus the Synod began by transgress- 
 ing a principle of Israelitism, which until those days 
 had decreed that the supplementary code should 
 never be written, and hence indeed its vulgar name. 
 In this point the (Ecumenical Council followed the 
 
 1 The sun has often stood still in history ; but how often did 
 the historian understand what the sun standing still really means 1 
 As Spinoza remarked, "Not even in their dreams had they ever 
 thought of parhelia " ; and one of his editors quotes the French 
 drummer-boy in Switzerland, " Nous sommes ici au bout du monde ! 
 Ici on touche le soleil de la main ! " In the twelfth century Eabbi 
 Benjamin of Tudela found the grave of Eabenu Hakkadosh 
 (R. Yahiida) near "Suffurieh, the Tsippori of antiquity," and evi- 
 dently never heard the legend, " They are buried in the mountain, 
 which also contains numerous other sepulchres." In his day Tiberias 
 contained only fifty Jews. 
 
96 
 
 example of Hadrian (a.d. 117 — 138), the adopted 
 father of Antoninus Pius, who also commanded the 
 jurist Salvius Julianus to draw up the Edictum 
 Perpetuum, or fixed code, and the Responsa 
 Prudentium, which before his time formed an un- 
 written corps of doctrine embodying legal decisions 
 and precedents. The book, which was compiled by 
 R. Yahuda, with the adhesion of the Jewish majority, 
 received the name of Mishnah, ' doubling,' or repetition 
 of the Law, and its principles became obligatory upon 
 all men." The great work was completed, according 
 to some, about a.d. 119 ; David Ganz prefers a.d. 219, 
 or a short time before the compiler's death ; whilst 
 others contend that R. Yahuda collected the prin- 
 ciples of the code, and that the nation accepted it 
 by order of Gamaliel, his son, and successor in 
 the princely dignity of Nashi and presidency of the 
 Sanhedrin ; 1 u and others again make it of still 
 later date. At all events, it is the most ancient 
 composition known to the Jews after the Law and 
 the Prophets." 
 
 By almost imperceptible degrees the notes and 
 commentaries upon this text grew to formidable 
 proportions, and became a special science, whose 
 technical name, found in the Book of Chronicles 
 (2 xiii. 22 and xxiv. 27), is Midrash, from darash ; in 
 Arabic, dars, a lesson. Of the innumerable methods 
 of studying these Holy Writs, the three principal are 
 1 See Cernach David, Editio princeps (Prague, 1592), fol. 43. 
 
XTbe Jew anfc tbe Ualmufc 97 
 
 embodied in the Persian Paradis, the Arabic Firdaus, 
 and the Greek IlapaSeicros, written Semitically with- 
 out vowels PRDS, and the mysterious letters were 
 assumed mneumonically as the initial of a technical 
 word. Thus P (Peshat, the simple rendering of 
 words) recorded the elementary law of Talmudic 
 exegesis, " No verse of Scripture practically admits 
 any sense but the literal sense," 1 although in a 
 different or familiar signification it may be explained 
 in a host of ways. R (Remiz, the Arabic Ramz, 
 a secret, intimation, insinuation, or suggestion of 
 meaning) illustrates certain letters and signs appa- 
 rently superfluous and explained only by tradition ; 
 in a more general manner, it gave rise to a memoria 
 technica and a stenography resembling the Roman 
 Notaricon. Points and notes were added to the 
 margins of manuscripts, and thus was founded the 
 Massorah (tradition), or diplomatic conservation of 
 the text, intended to preserve its purity. D (Derush, 
 illustration) was the familiar application of historical, 
 
 1 Similarly the Mormons "pointedly condemn those who make 
 the contents of the Bible typical, metaphysical, or symbolical, 1 as if 
 God were not honest when He speaks with man, or uses words in any 
 other than their true acceptation,' or could 'palter in a double sense.' " 
 This return to Hebrew lines of thought is not a little curious, and 
 it may be remarked that every fresh branch put forth by the tree 
 of "Protestantism," as it is called, invariably reverts more and 
 more to the old type. Indeed, whenever in these days we hear 
 of a new "religion" having been born into the world, we may 
 determine, a priori, that it is more Jewish than its predecessors 
 And traces of the same operation may be found amongst the Hindu 
 Sikhs and the Muslim Babees. 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 Uhc Jew 
 
 traditional, anecdotical, allegorical, and prophetical 
 sayings to the actual state of events ; it was a 
 sermon aided by ethics, logic, poetry, parable, pro- 
 verb, apologue, and the vast mass of legendary lore 
 known as the Hagadah (plural Hagadoth), as opposed 
 to the Halakah, 1 or dogmatic part — perhaps it was 
 suggested by the New Testament. Finally, the fourth 
 and last, S (Sod, secret, mystery), included the 
 mystical and esoterical sciences of theosophy, meta- 
 physics, angelology, and a host of supernatural visions, 
 brilliant and fantastic. It borrowed with impartial 
 hand from the magic of Egypt, the myths of Hermes 
 Trismegistos, the works of the Platonists and Neo- 
 Platonists, and the labours of the Christian Gnostics. 
 Few were initiated into " the Creation," or " the 
 Chariot," as it was called, alluding to the vision of 
 Ezekiel ; yet its attractions were such that at last 
 u Paradise " was confined to this special branch of 
 esoteric science, even as later in Gnosticism it came 
 to signify the Spiritual Christ. 
 
 Yet the Talmudic authors lay down the principle 
 that their decisions are in no wise absolute, but 
 can always be modified by a power equal to that 
 which lay them down. 2 Their sole object was to 
 
 1 Hagadah, from Hagah, to declare or describe, to invent or 
 imagine, is applied to any illustration, historical or fabulous. 
 Halakah, from Halak, to walk, is a rule of conduct, anything pre- 
 scriptive of the peculiarities of Jewish life. 
 
 2 See the Mishnah, fifth part, tract Edonyoth. i., §§ 5 et seq. 
 This is a fair answer to the host of contradictions and the general 
 charge of inconsistency levelled by anti-Talmud writers against 
 
Uhc Jew an& tbe TTalmufc 
 
 99 
 
 fix the sense and the rules of Written Law ; for as 
 Moise de Coucy says in his S'mag, or Great Boole 
 of Precepts : "If the interpretation of the Oral Law 
 had not been added to the Written Law, the whole 
 code would have been obscure and unintelligible, 
 because Holy Writ is full of passages which seem 
 to oppose and contradict one another." Rambani 
 Maimonides of Cordova declares (Introduction to his 
 Guide, Vol. I., p. 29) : " Thus we, find continually 
 written in the Talmud, ' The beginning of the chapter 
 differs from the end ' ; and the explanation is given, 
 ' Because the first part emanates from such-and- 
 such a doctor, and the last from another.' Further- 
 more, we read, 'Rabbi Yahuda the! Holy approved 
 the opinion of that doctor in that case, and merely 
 records the opinions of this doctor in this case, 
 without even naming him." The following formulas 
 are also frequent: " To whom belongs this anonymous 
 assertion ? " R. " To A. B., the doctor ! " and, " To 
 whom belongs our paragraph of the Mishnah ? " 
 R. " To such-and-such a person ! " 
 
 To resume the history of the Talmud. 
 
 Some years after the publication of the Mishnah 
 
 in the third century (a.d. 230 — 270), R. Yochanan, 
 
 who for eighty years had been President of the 
 
 the Oral Law, and it enables the modern Rabbi to make almost 
 any assertion that he pleases concerning disputed points. Thus 
 one will find in the Talmud that Christians should|be put to death, 
 the other that they should be treated like brothers. This is 
 certainly very convenient. 
 
100 
 
 Ube Jew 
 
 Sanhedrin, undertook a commentary on the text like 
 the Sharh, which accompanies the Arabic Matu. 
 Aided, it is said, by Rab and Samuel, the disciples 
 of Gamaliel, son of R. Yahuda, he produced about 
 a.d. 390 a book which, united with the Mishnayoth, 
 received the title Talmud (doctrine or learning) of 
 Jerusalem, though written at Tiberias. The pro- 
 duct of the Schools of Palestine, it was composed 
 in the West Aramaean tongue ; and it calls the 
 Mishnic text by the simple name of Halakah (rule), 
 or dogmatic part. The School of Tiberias flourished 
 apparently in the days of St. Jerome, and passed 
 into oblivion during the fourth and early fifth 
 centuries. 
 
 In a.d. 367 Askhi, President of the Babylonian 
 Sanhedrin, whilst teaching the Mishnah, annually 
 commented upon two tracts of that work, which, 
 being concise, and as it were axiomatic, like all 
 books that announce legislative principles, required 
 explanation of the author's exact intention. He was 
 aided by the opinions of many doctors omitted in 
 the Mishnah, either those who died before R. Yahuda 
 the Holy had finished his labours, or the many 
 who followed during the ensuing years. In order 
 that his learning might not be lost to the world, 
 he compiled and transcribed thirty-five tracts, and 
 died a.d. 427. His son Mar and Marimon his 
 disciple continued the work, and after seventy- 
 three years appeared the Gemara, complement or 
 
TLbc 5ew anfc tbe ITalmufc 
 
 101 
 
 conclusion. It was written in the Eastern Aramaean 
 tongue, and it corresponds with the Hasheyah of 
 Arabic standard works. 
 
 The Mishnah and the Gemara, now forming a 
 single code, became known to history as the Talmud 
 Babli (of Babylon) ; and when the Talmud is 
 mentioned, the second work, being the fuller and 
 the more minute, is always meant. 1 Presently the 
 Talmudists separated into two great and rival schools 
 in ante -Christian times : that of Hillel, 2 remarkable 
 for his learning, his humility, and his charity, ex- 
 tending even so far as to forbid usury (Tract Baba 
 Metzin, folio 17 b ) ; and that of Shammai, inflexible 
 in principles and often inclining to severity. 
 
 Both of these voluminous compositions are 
 essentially a corpus juris, to be compared with the 
 Edictum Perpetuum and Responsa Prudentium, with 
 the Pandects, the Novellce,* and the Institutes. They 
 
 1 It is still a disputed point whether the two Targums (versions 
 or translations of the Pentateuch) on the Pentateuch, attributed 
 to the proselyte Onkelos, or Ankelos, and to the Jew Jonathan 
 bin Uzzul, were written by contemporary students in the Rabbinical 
 Schools of Jerusalem within the half-century before Christ, or 
 were worked out like the Septuagint by the Babylonian Matur- 
 gemanin (interpreters) of the fourth century. The later the date 
 the better in order to account for such Grsecisms and Latinisms as 
 Ardiphene (Rhodaphne, oleander), Polimarkm (UoXefxapxos), Sapuk- 
 latoria (Speculatores), and Oktaraia (Octariones, prsefecti militares). 
 In the Targum of Jerusalem we read " a band of Saracens." 
 
 2 Vie de Hillel, par M. le Grand Rabbin Trinel (1867). 
 
 [* The Novellas or Novel Constitutions were so called because 
 they were posterior in time to the Institutes and other digests of the 
 Roman Emperors, especially Justinian.] 
 
102 
 
 Uhc Jew 
 
 form an encyclopaedia of Judaean Law, divine and 
 human, national and international, laical and eccle- 
 siastic, civil and criminal ; a doctrinal, judicial, 
 and sentential digest, dealing in exegesis and her- 
 meneutics ; a huge compilation of what Muslim 
 divines call Fatwa, or decisions upon legal sub- 
 jects ; and a thesaurus of ceremonial observances 
 borrowed from the Oral Law and the traditions 
 of the heads of schools from Rabbi Gamaliel down- 
 wards. 1 Composed in the East, that classic land of 
 the supernatural, they abound in Hagadistic matter, 
 wild and picturesque legends sometimes inculcating 
 moral lessons, like the four nocturnal spectres Lilith, 
 Naama, Aguerith, and Mahala, 2 at other times puerile 
 tales of the great angels Patspatsiah, Tashbach, 
 Hadarniel, Enkatham, Pastam, Sandalphon, Shamsiel, 
 and Prasta. Its historical, topographical, ethno- 
 graphical, and geographical information must be 
 
 1 Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder flourished about the end of the first 
 century. Some suppose that he added a nineteenth prayer to the 
 Shamunah Ashara, the " eighteen " composed by Ezra and the men 
 of the Great Congregation, and which is still used by the British 
 and other Jews. Others attribute it to Rabbi Samuel the Lesser, 
 a disciple of Gamaliel, whilst others make it of even more modern 
 date. 
 
 2 The derided myth has been amply vindicated by the Rev. John 
 Mills (The British Jews, p. 409) and by N. M. Schwab (Introduc- 
 tion, p. xxviii). The latter writer would be valuable, if he could 
 only be impartial. Unfortunately he writes with all the animus 
 of a Hebrew (pp. xxxviii and xxxix), and not a few of the prejudices 
 of a Frenchman (p. xxvii). This is the more regrettable, as the 
 reading public will be wholly in his hands and he can make the 
 Talmud say what he pleases. 
 
Ube Jew ant) tbe TTalmufc 
 
 103 
 
 received with the greatest reserve, coming from 
 authors of different ages and of several values. For 
 instance, the Gemara (Sanhedrin, vi. 2) informs us 
 that our Lord, having vainly endeavoured during 
 forty days to find an advocate, was sentenced, and on 
 the 14th of Nisan was stoned and afterwards hanged. 
 It is a storehouse of curious allusions to the products 
 of various countries, the occupations of races, agri- 
 culture, gardening, professions and trades, arts and 
 sciences, connubial relations, manners and customs, 
 the interiors of houses, and even dress. It portrays 
 the cosmopolitanism and the luxury of Rome in her 
 later days, thereby filling up the somewhat meagre 
 sketches of the post-classical school. We find in the 
 Mishnah allusions to the fish of Spain, the apples of 
 Crete, the cheese of Bithynia, the zythus, # lentils, and 
 beans of Egypt, the citrons of Greece, the wines of 
 Italy, the beer of Media, the garments of India 
 and Pelusium, the shirts of Cilicia, and the veils 
 of Arabia. 
 
 " At five years of age," says the Mishnah, " let the 
 child begin to study the Scriptures ; let him continue 
 so doing till the age of ten, when he may begin to 
 study the Mishnah ; at the age of fifteen let him begin 
 the Gemara" (T. Aboth, chap. v.). This passage in 
 the " vast work or ocean of learning," as some call 
 
 [* It is the (vdos or Egyptian beer mentioned by Herodotus, 
 ii. 77. Later the term was extended to the cerevisia and other 
 beers of European nations ; hence the obsolete word zyihepmry 
 ((vOos, and f^o>, to boil), a brewery.] 
 
104 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 it, could not but be distasteful to Christianity. The 
 tone adopted in speaking of the Almighty is anthro- 
 pomorphic and anthropocentric in the extreme. 1 God 
 spends a fourth part of the day in studying the Law. 
 At every watch of the night He sits and roars like a 
 lion, saying, "Woe is Me that I have laid desolate 
 My house and burned My sanctuary, and sent My 
 children into captivity among the nations of the 
 world " (Berachoth). He plays for three hours every 
 day with the leviathan. And bear in mind there are 
 far more objectionable representations than these in 
 the writings of the Rabbis. It revels more than 
 any known faith in the degradation of women; the 
 Rabbinic court declares women "disqualified by the 
 Law from giving testimony"; the Talmud excludes 
 them from the public worship of God, and teaches 
 that they are under no obligation to learn the re- 
 vealed will of their Creator, — peculiarly antipathetic 
 doctrines to those who believe in an Immaculate 
 Virgin and in a St. Mary Magdalen. Moreover, the 
 large space given to cursing the Jew and the non- 
 Jew, and to the unhallowed practices of magic and 
 
 1 Here, however, we can hardly find the Talmud alone guilty. 
 Its anthropopathisms are merely exaggerations of what is found 
 in the books of Moses when the Creator is subject to wrath, sorrow, 
 repentance, jealousy, and other human passions of the baser kind. 
 In fact, it would be difficult to detect in the Rabbinical ordinances 
 anything which is not built upon the Mosaic text ; they have greatly 
 added to the Law, which, methinks, is their great sin in the eyes 
 of Christians, and they have in many cases carried it out to 
 absurdity — corruptio optim'i fit passima. 
 
XTbe 3ew anfc tbe XTalmufc 
 
 105 
 
 necromancy, the summoning and conversing with 
 devils and spirits, the advocacy of astrology, charms, 
 and philters, served as a pretext for Pope and Inquisi- 
 tion to attack it. In a.d. 553 Justinian proscribed 
 it by Novella 146 as a " tissue of puerilities, of fables, 
 of iniquities, of insults, of imprecations, of heresies, 
 and of blasphemies " ; it was destroyed by Gregory IX. 
 in a.d. 1230; it was burnt in Paris by Innocent IV. 
 (a.d. 1244) ; and it was proscribed by Clement IV., by 
 Honorius 1 IV., and by John XXII. The first printed 
 edition (Venice, 1520) saved it, and not until the 
 third had appeared (Basle, 1578) did it come under 
 the eye of the censor. 
 
 In 1553 and 1555 Julius III. promulgated a 
 proclamation against what he called grotesquely 
 the Talmud Gulnaroth; and this proceeding was 
 repeated by Paul IV. in 1559, by Pius V. in 1566, 
 and by Clement VIII. in 1592 and 1599. 
 
 A well-known anti-Talmudical writer remarked in 
 1836: "The promised German translation of the 
 Talmud, if ever completed, must without any dis- 
 cussion overthrow Talmudism. Its exhibition in 
 any European language is the most fatal attack that 
 
 1 This Pope in a.d. 1286 wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 directing him to have a care lest any one read a book from which 
 all evils flow. Pope Pius IV., when authorizing a new edition, 
 expressly stipulated that it should be published without the title 
 of Talmud, which appears to have been a kind of Shibboleth, "Si 
 tamen prodierit sine nomine Talmud, tolerari deberet." Such was 
 the terror which it inspired in the ecclesiastical mind. 
 
106 
 
 XZhc 3ew 
 
 can be made on its authority." This is utterly 
 unphilosophical ; the Book of Mormon, with all its 
 Americanisms and its internal evidences of futile 
 forgery, confirmed instead of destroying Mormonism. 
 The Mishnah was translated into Latin by Surenhusius 
 (Amsterdam, three vols. 4°) as early as 1698 — 1703, 
 and into German by the Chaplain J. J. Rabi 
 (Onolzbach & Ansbach, first to sixth part, 4°) in 
 1760 — 1763. Without any knowledge of Hebrew or 
 Aramaean, those who read Latin, French and Italian, 
 German and English, will find in any great library — 
 that of the British Museum for instance — a translation 
 of almost every part, and they may be assured that 
 the small remnant still untranslated contains nothing 
 of importance. The modern verdict is that the 
 Talmuds are a " spotted orb," and that they contain 
 two distinct elements — the sacred light in the true 
 interpretation of the word of God, and the purely 
 human darkness in its folly and infirmity. But it 
 does not confirm the following assertion of the 
 Initiation of Youth (Rabbi Ascher) : " The Talmu- 
 dical writers enjoin upon us to treat Christians as 
 our own brethren in every social matter." 1 
 
 The second great Rabbinical School arose at Safed, 
 also a city of Galilee, and rising within sight of 
 Tiberias. Benjamin of Tudela (a.d. 1163) visited 
 
 1 An ad captandum, vulgus verdict. It is thus modified by the 
 next sentence : " All the latter Gavnirn [luminaries of the Jewish 
 Law] agree that Christians are reckoned as our own brethren, and 
 are not included in the term Nakhrim [strangers]." 
 
XTbc 5ew anfc tbe TTalmufc 
 
 107 
 
 the tombs of Hillel and Shammai, "near Menin, 
 which is Maron," supposed to be the Beth-maron of 
 the Talmud ; but he says nothing about Jews being in 
 Safed, then a fortress held by the Templars. " The 
 city set upon a hill " is also ignored by travellers of 
 the next three hundred years, and appears in history 
 only about the sixteenth century. 1 It then became 
 the great centre of Jewish learning — in fact, another 
 Jerusalem. The children of Israel dwelt there in 
 great numbers, and had a vast Khan, a square lead- 
 roofed fortress, where many of them lived, and which 
 contained a fine synagogue. Besides the schools in 
 which the sciences were taught, they counted eighteen 
 synagogues, distinguished by the names of the several 
 nations which possessed them, as the Portuguese, 
 Spanish, Italian, and others. The printing-press, of 
 which there are remnants at the north-eastern village 
 Ein el Zeitiin, issued many volumes, now becoming 
 exceedingly rare because so much in request amongst 
 European bibliophiles. The College (Madrash) of the 
 Rabbis still remains, a two-arched hall, of which no 
 part is ancient except the eastern side. All the rest 
 has been shaken down by earthquakes, which are 
 supposed to destroy the city as each Sabbatical year 
 comes round. In the cemetery below the settlement 
 are the whitewashed graves of Joseph Caro, of 
 Shalomon Alkabez, and of other notables. 
 
 The peculiar ferocity of the Safed School resulted 
 
 1 Dr. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, iii. 331. 
 
108 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 partly from the domination of the sons of Ishmael, 
 which, however mild, is everywhere distasteful to the 
 children of Israel. 1 If " Esau hateth Jacob because 
 of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him," 
 Jacob returns the hate with at least equal heat, 
 adding fear and contempt — he would willingly, to use 
 the words of Rashi, " blot out Esau and his seed " 
 But doubtless the harshness and cruelty which distin- 
 guished its doctors must be explained by the nature 
 of the place and its surroundings. Situated in the 
 bleak and windswept, the stony and barren highlands 
 of Upper Galilee, shaken by earthquakes, and exposed 
 to terrible storms, Safed is one of the least amene 
 sites in the whole of Syria. The climate is ever in 
 extremes, the water is hard and full of constipating 
 lime, the earth is cold and fruitless, and the people 
 are crafty and cruel as Simeon and Levi. After a 
 few days' residence, strangers complain of sickness, 
 cramps, and malaise, and their only desire is to 
 escape from the gloom and seclusion of this town 
 upon the hillside. Even the Muhammadans contrast 
 the facile manners of their own women at soft and 
 low-lying Tiberias with the asperity and the violence 
 of those who inhabit the upland settlement. " Safad 
 fasad" (Safed ever giveth trouble) is the jingling 
 saw of the neighbourhood, and it contains abundant 
 
 1 After the second expulsion of the Templars, Sultan Bibars 
 repeopled Safed with a colony from Damascus, and local tradition 
 asserts that of these many were Kurds. 
 
Zhc 3ew anfc tbe Ztalmufc 
 
 109 
 
 truth. The amount of intrigue and plotting is 
 excessive even in a Syrian settlement, the charges 
 bandied about by men against one another are 
 atrocious — this doctor is a murderer, that scribe is an 
 adulterer, and the third is a swindler and a thief. If 
 the visitor were to believe half what he hears, he 
 would find himself in a den of brigands. That not 
 a few of these charges are founded on fact may be 
 gathered from what travellers have printed concern- 
 ing certain sons of this Holy City, some of which 
 are too revolting for publication. The rich divines 
 are accused of shamelessly embezzling the Hahikah, 
 large sums sent from Europe for the maintenance 
 of the community ; and the poor are ready with com- 
 plaints upon the most trivial occasions — the breaking 
 of a hen's leg sends them on a hurried official visit 
 to their Vice-Consuls. It is not too much to say 
 that if Safed again produced a theological school, it 
 would rival in its narrow bigotry and peculiar ferocity 
 that which disgraced the sixteenth century. 
 
 The Talmud had spoken its last upon the inter- 
 pretation of the Torah, it had closed the discussions 
 which arose from the sacred text, and it had ex- 
 hausted the traditional lore and the rules established 
 by the Rabbis of Palestine and Babylon till the 
 fifth century after the Christian era. Still, the 
 Talmud itself required after the course of ages to 
 be interpreted, and this gave rise to a variety of 
 mediaeval abridgments and to a vast series of glosses 
 
110 
 
 Xlhc Sew 
 
 and commentaries. The more modern Rabbis 
 especially resolved that no uncertainty should rest 
 upon the Halakah, or doctrinal part of the work, 
 and they strictly applied themselves to codify the 
 whole body of the Talmud. 
 
 To cite only the best-known names. We have to 
 begin with Rabbi Ishaz al Fasi, who first resumed 
 the Talmud, and who had the boldness to expel from 
 the text everything not strictly bearing upon the 
 discussion. Then came the celebrated Maimonides of 
 Cordova (a.d. 1150), whose Yad ha-Hazaka (Hand of 
 Power) is a compendium of Talmudic lore valued 
 almost as highly as the original. He was followed 
 by Ascheri, a powerful dialectician, who knew how to 
 conciliate with the Talmudic argument the observa- 
 tions of the Tossaphists, or Glossarians, represented 
 before and after him by Rashi, Rabbenu Tam, Coucy, 
 and a host of others. His son succeeded him, 
 and made a new attempt at a codification, in which 
 the opinions of Ascheri naturally occupied the place 
 of honour. 
 
 About this time rose the Safed School. The 
 first and greatest commentator was the Rabbi by 
 some called Rabanu Jacob Be-Rab, an exile from 
 Spain, and subsequently Chief Rabbi of Fez and 
 Safed, where, after long teaching, he died in a.d. 
 1541. This Baal ha-Turim (Lord of the Books), 
 as he is called, wrote four works, which, being 
 considered in the light of " religious laws," were 
 
Ube 5ew ant> tbe ZTalmut) 
 
 111 
 
 known as the Dinim. The first of the Arbah 
 Turim, Orach Chatiin (Urah ha-Yiim, the Way 
 of Life), treats of observances enjoined upon the 
 Jews. The second is Jore Deah (Yurah daah, the 
 Teacher of Knowledge) ; it describes the ceremonious 
 observances of butchering, eating, making vows, 
 circumcising, and so forth. The third is Eben ha- 
 Azar, the Stone of Assistance (to mankind). And in 
 the fourth, Hoshen Mishpat (Breastplate of Judg- 
 ment), law, civil and criminal, is discussed. 
 
 The School of this commentator was kept up 
 by Moses of Trani in Apulia, who lectured during 
 fifty-four years to a.d. 1580, the year of his death. 
 The next name of repute was R. Joseph Karo, or 
 Caro, a Jew of Spanish descent, born at Constanti- 
 nople, who died in a.d. 1575. He was a voluminous 
 writer. In the Shoulkhan Aroukh, a code of religion 
 adopted universally by the Israelites, he analyzed 
 and resumed the opinions of his predecessors. His 
 magnum opus is the Beth Yusuf (House of Joseph), 
 in four folios, first printed at Venice, and repeatedly 
 republished ; it consists of commentaries upon the 
 four Dinim of Rabanu Jacob, on the Talmudic 
 writings of the R. Ishaz al Fasi, and on the labours 
 of Rabbino Yakiib ben Rosh, not to be confounded 
 with Rashi the glossarian. The fourth great name 
 is R. Shalomon Alkabez, also of Constantinople, 
 who wrote in a.d. 1529, and who was still living 
 in a.d. 1561. This theologian has left the worst 
 
112 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 name amongst the Christians, whom he seems to 
 have hated from his very heart. A pupil and 
 colleague of Caro and Alkahez was Moses of Cordova, 
 the most famous Cabalist since the days of Simeon 
 ben Jochai ; he died Chief Rabbi of Safed in a.d. 
 1570. Moses Galante, a native of Rome, was 
 somewhat later, dying in a.d. 1618. But the 
 academy was not indebted for its fame to strangers 
 alone ; Samuel Oseida and Moses Alsheikh, both 
 natives of Safed, contributed to its celebrity during 
 the sixteenth century. The latter died between 
 a.d. 1592 and 1601. 
 
 Of the mediaeval Rabbis and their successors 
 generally, it may be observed that the later the 
 school the more prominent became its bigotry and 
 violence. This is easily explained. Anna Comnena * 
 describes the Crusades, which were guided by a giant 
 and a goose, with truly Eastern relish, as having 
 left a " very admirable mound of bones, high, deep, 
 and broad." But they left something more — a 
 tradition which presently enabled the Christians 
 to recover power in the Holy Land, and their 
 abomination of the Jew inspired him with kindred 
 sentiments. Nor can we wonder that the later 
 and more fanatical writings are preferred by the 
 Israelites to those of the earlier schools. Religious 
 exclusiveness and the ambition of being a peculiar 
 people, set apart from and raised above the rest 
 
 [* The Empress of Constantinople.] 
 
XEbe Jew anfc the ZTalmufc 113 
 
 of humanity, appeal to the heart of every man 
 through the sure channel of his passions. And 
 thus in the youngest faith of the world we find 
 the same phenomenon as in one of the most ancient 
 — the Book of Doctrines and Covenants is read at 
 Salt Lake City whilst the Book of Mormon is 
 neglected. 
 
 R. Jacoh Be-Rab, in the second part of his Jore 
 Deah (Yurah daah), asserts that it is unlawful to 
 draw a Gentile out of a well into which he may 
 have descended or fallen. He also declares that the 
 scrupulous Jewish physician who thoroughly conforms 
 to Talmudic Law will not attend a Gentile without 
 honorarium, because this will be his sole reward. He 
 may do so gratuitously, if he wishes to study medi- 
 cine by that means ; but he should usually kill such 
 patients whilst pretending to cure them. This, 
 however, must be attempted only when there is no 
 chance of detection. R. Joseph Caro of Safed, one 
 of the most pestilent of that School, in his com- 
 mentary upon the Way of Knowledge, enables the 
 doctor to do additional harm by calling Gentile 
 fees Kashmad, that is to say, the wages of sin — 
 a term applied to the price of a woman's honour ; 
 and in speaking especially of Christians, he declares 
 that if the Jewish physician takes his fee without 
 poisoning them it is as the gift to the wicked 
 woman. On the other hand, should the mediciner 
 be unwilling to be paid, he must absolutely poison 
 
 8 
 
114 Ube Jew 
 
 his patient. He also forbids the doctor who has 
 not thoroughly studied the healing art to attend one 
 of his own faith, lest his ignorance cause death ; 1 
 but he may practise amongst all others, because if he 
 kill them it is lawful and no matter (commentary of 
 Gittin, the sixth tract of the third order). Others 
 declare that the Hebrew physician must not treat a 
 stranger even for fees ; but if he fear the Gentile, and 
 the latter know him to be a Jew, he may do so for 
 money. Rubbi argues the question by reference to 
 the Gittin, in which it is related that R. Richmi 
 bin Askhi had prepared a dose for a stranger ; he 
 explains that the drug may have been given by way 
 of experiment, or for the purpose of study. 
 
 The Safed School continued its labours into the 
 seventeenth century, and Quasimus (writing about 
 a.d. 1625) speaks of it [Safed] as inhabited chiefly by 
 Hebrews, who had their synagogues and schools, and 
 for whose sustenance contributions were made by the 
 Jews in other parts of the world. After that it 
 gradually sank under the oppression of the Muham- 
 madans, who probably took the place by degrees. 
 
 1 The treatment of the Jewish sick, even in these degenerate days, 
 is very scrupulous. When the patient is evidently moribund, not 
 a drop of medicine or even a drink of water must be given to 
 him unless he ask for it himself, lest such act hasten dissolution, 
 and make the giver guilty of having caused the death of a brother 
 Hebrew. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CONTINUITY OF TRADITION IN THE EAST 
 
 \BVIOUSLY such cruel and vindictive teaching 
 
 as that recounted in the previous chapter 
 must bear fruit in crime and atrocities. The 
 occurrence of such deeds explains much of what 
 appears to have been the mere results of super- 
 stition and greed of gain amongst semi-barbarous 
 peoples. From the earliest ages to these modern 
 days, and not in one place, but all the world over, 
 the hatred of the Jew against the n on- Jew has been 
 of the fiercest. Those who are so ready to admit 
 and deplore the mighty provocations which roused 
 a spirit of retaliation in the Rabbinical mind should 
 equally make allowance for the natural feelings 
 of the unfortunate Gentiles and heathens when the 
 " People of the Synagogue " had their wicked will. 
 In the fifth century the Hebrew colony, which, flying 
 from Syria and Palestine after the wars of Titus and 
 Hadrian, settled near Yathrib (Medina), was power- 
 ful enough to murder the Viceroy of the Tobbaa, or 
 
 115 
 
116 
 
 ttbe Jew 
 
 Himyarite King, and to convert to Judaism, Du-nawas 
 (a.d. 480), one of the last of that dynasty. He 
 acquired the title " Lord of the Fiery Pit," by burn- 
 ing alive, in a trench filled with combustibles, 
 thousands of the Christians of Nejeran at the instiga- 
 tion of the Jews. In later times the " People of the 
 Synagogue " brought upon themselves a war of exter- 
 mination by insulting an Arab woman, and after the 
 siege of Kheibar they attempted to poison Muhammad. 
 In a.d. 614 the Hebrews of Galilee, according to 
 Eutychius, joining the Persian army under Chos- 
 roes II., caused a great slaughter of the Nazarenes. 
 When the Holy City was captured, they bought at a 
 cheap rate those taken by the Persians, especially from 
 the Greek monastery of Mar Saba, for the sole purpose 
 of butchering them. Even in Abyssinia, when the 
 Falashas, or black proselytes, established a powerful 
 kingdom, this quasi- Jewish race, under their King 
 Gideon and their Queen Judith, was a scourge to all 
 the nations around. These are but a few instances of 
 the many which would fill a volume. It is absurd 
 to suppose with the " liberal " writers of the nineteenth 
 century that whole colonies have been expelled, driven 
 away half naked, from England and France, from 
 Germany, Spain, Portugal, and other Christian 
 kingdoms ; that communities were imprisoned in 
 Ghettos, and subjected to tumultuous and wholesale 
 massacres ; and that thousands of individual Jews and 
 Jewesses, old men and children, were roasted with 
 
Ube Continuity of Urafcitton 117 
 
 dogs over slow fires, were skinned alive, tortured, 
 dismembered, and slain like savage beasts for the 
 mere frenzy and the ignorance of superstition, for 
 simply diabolical barbarity, and for clipping coin 
 or for claiming more than two shillings per week as 
 interest on a loan of twenty shillings. 
 
 We must seek for a solid cause underlying these 
 horrible acts of vengeance ; we find ample motive in 
 the fact that the Jew's hand was ever, like Ishmael's, 
 against every man but those belonging to the Syna- 
 gogue. His fierce passions and fiendish cunning, 
 combined with abnormal powers of intellect, with 
 intense vitality, and with a persistency of purpose 
 which the world has rarely seen, and whetted more- 
 over by a keen thirst for blood engendered by defeat 
 and subjection, combined to make him the deadly 
 enemy of all mankind, whilst his unsocial and 
 iniquitous Oral Law contributed to inflame his wild 
 lust of pelf, and to justify the crimes suggested by 
 spite and superstition. Because under the present 
 enlightened Governments of the West the Jews have 
 lost much of their ancient rancour, and no longer 
 perpetrate the atrocities of the Dark Ages, Europe 
 is determined to believe that the race is, and ever 
 has been, incapable of such atrocities. The conclusion 
 is by no means logical. We have seen them even 
 now repeated in the Holy Land, and presently we 
 shall see that they are still not unknown to Western 
 Europe, Asia Minor, and Persia. 
 
118 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 And what can we expect from a system which 
 teaches men to believe and to act as follows ? 1 " A 
 tradition of the Talmud says (Talmud, Book Baba 
 Kama, Chapter Haggozel) if an Israelite and a 
 Gentile come before thee to judgment, if thou canst 
 absolve the Israelite according to the Jewish Law, 
 absolve him, and say, ' This is our way of judging.' 
 But if thou canst absolve him by Gentile Law, 
 absolve him, and say, ' This is your way of judging.' 
 But if not, then they are to come upon him with 
 cunning frauds. R. Samuel says the error of a 
 Gentile is also lawful. For, behold, Samuel bought 
 a piece of gold for four small coins, and added one 
 more (that he might go away the sooner, and not 
 perceive the fraud). Chahana bought a hundred 
 and twenty casks of wine for the price of a 
 hundred ; he said, ' My trust is in thee.' So far the 
 Talmud. From these and similar passages Jews 
 infer that they may and ought to deceive Christians 
 and others who are not Jews. Thus also from other 
 passages they infer that they may and ought to kill 
 Christians, of which the following example is found 
 in the book Mechilta : Exod. xiv. 7, And he took six 
 hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of 
 Egypt. From whom did he take them ? If you 
 say from the Egyptians, is it not said already, Exod. 
 
 1 The passage is from the Pugio Fidei (Part III., c. xxii., § 22) 
 of the learned Raymund Martin (a.d. 1284), quoted in a pamphlet, 
 of which more presently. 
 
XTbe Continuity of TTraMtton 119 
 
 ix. 6, And all the cattle of Egypt died ? If you 
 say Pharaoh, then there is a difficulty ; for it is said 
 already, ix. 3, Behold, the hand of the Lord shall 
 be upon thy cattle. But if you say they were from 
 the Israelites, it is said already, x. 26, Our cattle 
 shall go with us. From whom then were they ? 
 It is plain that they must have been from those who 
 feared the word of the Lord. Hence we learn that 
 those of the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word 
 of the Lord were a stumbling-block to Israel, and 
 hence R. Simeon ben Jochai says, 'Slay thou the 
 best amongst the Gentiles, and of the best of serpents 
 bruise the head.' 1 Thus far the Talmud ; and by 
 this they mean to say, that as of serpents he 
 especially is to be killed that is the greatest and 
 best of its kind, so Christians are to be dealt with 
 in the same way. For killing Christians and 
 throwing their children into pits, and even for killing 
 them when they can do it secretly, they derive an 
 argument from that which is said in the book Abodah 
 Zarah, Chapter En Maamidin : ' As to Gentiles and 
 robbers, and those that tend small cattle, they are 
 neither to be helped out of a well nor to be thrown 
 into it. But heretics and informers and apostates 
 are to be thrown in, but not to be helped out.' The 
 commentary of Rashi says: ' Heretics mean the 
 priests of idols ; informers mean calumniators who 
 betray the wealth of their brethren into the hands of 
 1 This has passed into an Arabic proverb. 
 
120 
 
 Zhc Sew 
 
 the Gentiles.' R. Shesheth says : i If there he a step 
 in the pit, let him find an excuse, and say, Lest an 
 evil beast descend upon him.' Rahba and R. Joseph 
 both say: ' If there be a stone upon the mouth of 
 the well, he is to cover it, and say, I do it that the 
 beasts may pass over it.' R. Nachman says : ' If 
 there be a ladder in the well, he is to take it away, 
 and say, I wish to get down my son from the roof.' 
 Thus far the Talmud. Thy prudence, 0 reader, may 
 perceive that the Talmud, which so perniciously 
 teaches them to lie and to kill Christians, is not the 
 law of God, but the figment of the devil." 
 
 We can hardly be surprised, after reading such 
 atrocious doctrines, at what history tells us con- 
 cerning the Jews, their crimes, and their con- 
 demnations. For instance : 
 
 In a.d. 419, according to Socrates {Eccles. Hist., 
 Lib. VII., chap, xvi.), some Jews of Inmestar, 
 between Chalcis and Antioch, as a drunken frolic, 
 tied a Christian child 1 upon a cross and mocked 
 it, and that, hurried on in their wickedness, they 
 afterwards scourged it until it died. 
 
 In a.d. 560 a Jew was stoned for carrying away 
 and profaning an image of the Saviour. The same 
 happened at Odessa in a.d. 1871, where the 
 
 1 The annals of the world are full of reports concerning children 
 being kidnapped, crowned with thorns, flogged, crucified, and pierced 
 with sharp instruments. Of course the child is chosen because it is 
 more easily mastered than a man. 
 
XTbe Continuity of TTrafcition 121 
 
 Hebrews were charged with stealing the image of 
 the " miraculous Madonna of Kutperova." 
 
 About a.d. 787 the Jews of Beyrut repeated the 
 offence. The result was the conversion of almost all 
 their number, and the consecration of their syna- 
 gogue by the bishop. 
 
 a.d. 1010. Massacre of the Jews in France. 
 
 a.d. 1017. Certain Jew T s beheaded by order of Pope 
 Benedict at Rome. 
 
 a.d. 1135. The Jews crucified a boy at Norwich. 
 According to the general report, they hired a 
 Christian lad aged twelve as a leather-sewer, and 
 converted him into a Paschal offering ; they placed 
 a bit in his mouth, and after a thousand outrages 
 they crucified him, and pierced his side in order to 
 mock the Redeemer's death. The corpse was borne 
 in a sack to be burned outside the town gates ; but 
 a surprise caused the murderers to fly, leaving the 
 remains hanging upon a tree. 
 
 a.d. 1166. The Jews at Ponthosa crucified a lad 
 aged twelve. 
 
 a.d. 1185. For similar outrage upon a girl and 
 others, King Philip Augustus confiscated the goods 
 of the Jews, and banished them from his realms in 
 the April of the following year. 
 
 a.d. 1189. The Jews were massacred at London 
 and in other parts of England. 
 
 a.d. 1190. The Jews were massacred at York. 
 
 a.d. 1250. The Jews of Saragossa nailed a child 
 
122 
 
 XTbe 3ew 
 
 named Dominic to the wall in the form of a cross, 
 and then pierced his side with a spear. During the 
 same century those of Toledo also killed a Christian 
 youth. According to the Cronica Serafica (della 
 Vita di S. Francesco d' Assisi, Opera del Padre 
 Damiano Cornejo, 1721, Lib. L, chap. L), the Jews 
 superstitiously used the blood of Christians in child- 
 birth, and sent it in a dried state to Chiua and other 
 places, where they had synagogues, but where worship- 
 pers of Christ 1 are not to be found. Hence the Jews 
 were eventually expelled from Spain and Portugal. 
 
 a.d. 1255. " Jappen," one of the chief Jews of 
 Lincoln, and others of his faith, kidnapped a lad 
 eleven years old (August 27), beat him with rods, 
 cut off his nose and upper lip, broke some of his 
 teeth, and pierced his side. King Henry III. and 
 his Parliament at Reading condemned the murderers 
 to be dragged to death at horses' heels, and gibbeted 
 their carcases. 
 
 1 The Chronicles are right in believing that the Jew hates the 
 Christian more than he does the Muhammadan. " As to those Gentiles, 
 who, like the Ishmaelites, are not idolaters, their wine is unlawful 
 to drink, but is lawful for purpose of profit, as is taught by 
 all the Gaons ; but Christians are idolaters, and their wine, even 
 such as has not been used as wine of libation, is unlawful even 
 for purposes of profit" (Hilchoth Maakhaloth Asuroth, c. xi. 7). 
 "Statuimus," says the Talmud (Order L, Dissert. 4, quoted by 
 Lucio Ferraris), " ut quilibet Judseus ter in die omnem Christianorum 
 gentem ac Deum precetur ut confundat, interimatque ipsam cum 
 regibus et principibus suis ; atque hoc maxime faciant sacerdotes 
 Judaeorum in synagoga ter quotidie orantes in odium Jesu Nazareni." 
 This curse is not ordered against Muhammadans. 
 
XTbe Continuity of TTrafcition 123 
 
 A.D. 1271. The Jews of Pforzheim murdered a 
 girl seven years old. 
 
 a.d. 1287. The Jews of Wesel murdered a boy 
 named Werner. 
 
 a.d. 1288. The Jews of Pacherat [?] (Wurtzburg) 
 murdered a Christian, and extracted his blood " as it 
 were with a winepress, and which they are said to 
 use as a medicine." About the same time the Jews 
 of Munich murdered a Christian child. 
 
 a.d. 1290. A Jew was burnt in Paris for insulting 
 a consecrated wafer. In the same year, during the 
 reign of Edward I., fifteen to sixteen thousand 
 Jews were banished from England ; nor were they 
 allowed to return till the days of Cromwell, the first 
 Liberal (a.d. 1660). 
 
 a.d. 1299. Many Jews were put to death for 
 insulting a consecrated wafer at Roettingen of 
 Franconia. 
 
 a.d. 1303. The Jews of Thiiringen murdered a 
 child, and were slain in numbers. 
 
 a.d. 1306. King Philip of France was induced by 
 a multitude of accusations, involving magic, sacrilege, 
 and murder, to expel the Jews from his country, to 
 confiscate all their goods except what was wanted 
 for the journey, and to forbid their return under 
 pain of death — all were arrested on the same day, 
 July 22. 
 
 a.d. 1330. The Jews of Gustow in Vandalia 
 [Pomerania] insulted a Host. 
 
124 
 
 XTbe Jew 
 
 a.d. 1348 — 1350. The Jews were accused of poison- 
 ing the wells and rivers, and of causing the plague 
 which then devastated Europe. Many were slain and 
 thousands were driven away from Germany, where 
 the cry of " Hep " was first raised. At length the 
 Papal power was compelled to defend their lives by 
 threats of excommunicating their destroyers. 
 
 a.d. 1379. The Jews of Belgium insulted a conse- 
 crated Host. 
 
 a.d. 1399. The same was done by the Jews of 
 Poland. 
 
 a.d. 1468. The Jews of Toledo in Spain crucified 
 a Christian boy. 
 
 a.d. 1475. The Jews again insulted the Host, 
 and were expelled the territories of the Bishop of 
 Passau. 
 
 a.d. 1492 — 1498. The Jews were expelled from 
 Spain, in consequence of popular clamour, by Isabel 
 the Catholic. Many retired to Portugal, where asylum 
 was granted to them under the conditions, first, that 
 each should pay a certain sum of gold for admission, 
 and, secondly, that if found in Portugal after a certain 
 day, they should either consent to be baptized or be 
 sold for slaves. At the expiration of the appointed 
 time many remained. " The King therefore gave 
 orders to take away all their children under fourteen 
 years of age, to distribute them amongst Christians, 
 to send them to the newly discovered islands, and 
 thus to pluck up Judaism by the roots." This expul- 
 
ZTbc Continuity of ZTrafcition 
 
 125 
 
 sion, which has been strongly commented upon by 
 modern historians, is still fresh in the memory of the 
 Jews, and an Eastern Rabbi can hardly conceal the 
 hatred with which even in these days he regards a 
 Spanish official. 
 
 a.d. 1495. The Jews of Trent, by means of one 
 of their number, a physician, decoyed to his house, 
 whilst the Christians were at church, it being 
 Maunday Thursday, a boy two years and a half old, 
 by name Simeon, the son of a tanner. Before the 
 Paschal festival commenced, the principal Jews 
 collected in a room near their synagogue. The child, 
 gagged with a kerchief, was extended in the form 
 of a cross, and was held down by his murderers. 
 The blood, pouring from heavy gashes, was collected 
 in a basin, and when death drew near the victim 
 was placed upon his legs by the two men, and the 
 others pierced his body with sharp instruments, all 
 vying in brutality and enjoying the torture. The 
 corpse having been found in the Etsch river, which 
 flows through the city, led to the detection of the 
 crime ; the murderers were put to death, the syna- 
 gogue was razed to the ground, and a church was 
 built over the place where the horrid deed was done. 
 A sculpture was put on the Bridge Tower in Frankfort- 
 on-the-Maine, and a picture of a " Christian Infant 
 murdered by the Jews" was placed in one of the 
 galleries in the Hotel de Ville. Of late years it has 
 been removed, in deference to the feelings of the 
 
126 
 
 Hebrew community, which, of late years, has formed 
 a large and important section of the commercial 
 population. This murder has been abundantly com- 
 mented upon. Dr. John Matthias Tiberinus, in Trent 
 at the time, and Jacobus Philippus Bergamensis, of 
 the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, who was 
 then living at the neighbouring town of Bergamo, 
 gave accounts of it ; whilst an engraving was pro- 
 duced in the Chronicles of John Louis Gottfried, 
 edited by Mattheeus Merianus. On the other hand, 
 Pietro Mocenigo, the Doge of Venice, and his Senate 
 asserted : " Credimus certe rumorem ipsum de puero 
 necato commentum esse et artem ; ad quern finem, 
 viderint et interpretentur alii." 
 
 a.d. 1518. The Jews ill-treated consecrated Hosts 
 and murdered Christian children in the Electorate of 
 Brandenburg. 
 
 a.d. 1669 (September 25). A child was bar- 
 barously slaughtered by one Raphael Levi, and the 
 cause was publicly tried at Metz. The Nuremburg 
 Chronicle produces, in the same year, three other 
 cases of kidnapping — one in England and two at 
 Fiesole. Baronio (Raccolta delle Cause Celebris 
 p. 288, etc.) supplies many similar instances of 
 child stealing and murder. 
 
 M. Tustet, a Lazarist priest, used to relate what 
 he had heard when living at Turin from the lady 
 who nearly fell a victim to Jewish superstition, 
 even in the early part of the present century. A 
 
Ube Continuity of UrabMon 127 
 
 certain Signor Antonio Gervalon, born at Castiglione 
 d'Osta, and settled in business at Turin, happened, 
 when walking with his wife Giulietta Bonnier, 
 to enter the Jewish quarter. This Ghetto used 
 to be closed at night, as in Hamburg and Frank- 
 fort. Whilst he was talking business with one of 
 his Hebrew acquaintances, Madame Gervalon left 
 him, and strolled on a short way. Suddenly she 
 was mobbed by a crowd of Jews, who hustled her 
 forwards, and at last forcibly thrust her into a 
 souterrain closed by a trap-door. She was stripped 
 to the waist, and presently visited by two Rabbis, 
 who, after reading their books for about half an 
 hour, retired, saying, Vol dovete morire. The 
 husband, after the conversation ended, followed his 
 wife, whom all the Ghetto folk denied having seen ; 
 and thinking that perhaps she had gone home, he 
 returned there to seek her, but in vain. Thence he 
 went to various houses, till a relative said to him in 
 jest, " Have a care ! You know how the Jews treat 
 us Christians." The words struck him. He hurriedly 
 collected a party of policemen, and whilst these 
 searched the Ghetto he went about shouting, " La 
 mia moglie ! La mia moglie " (My wife ! my wife !). 
 Though half dead with fear, the lady at length 
 screamed a reply, and was saved. The affair was 
 hushed up with money, which made the Jews as 
 powerful at Turin as they are at Aleppo and 
 Damascus ; but the tale was long told by the children 
 
128 
 
 of Madame Gervalon. In this section of the nine- 
 teenth century the subject has passed into the domain 
 of politics, and is no longer submitted to reason 
 and judgment. The Italian Liberal denies and 
 derides the charges, whilst the Conservatives or 
 Retrogrades are almost ashamed to support them. 
 
 a.d. 1811. A Christian woman disappeared in the 
 Jewish quarter of Aleppo. 1 
 
 a.d. 1821. The Jews sacrificed a man at Beyrut. 
 
 a.d. 1824. The Jews of Beyrut made away with 
 Fatallah Sayegh, an Aleppine Muhammadan. 
 
 a.d. 1829. The Jews of Hamah murdered a 
 Muhammadan girl, and were expelled the city. 
 
 a.d. 1834. The Jews of Tripoli were accused of 
 murdering an Aleppine Christian. 
 
 a.d. 1838. The Jews of Jerusalem attempted to 
 murder a Muhammadan. 
 
 a.d. 1839. A flask of blood passed through the 
 Custom-house of Beyrut. 
 
 a.d. 1840. The Jews murdered Padre Tomaso and 
 Ibrahim Amarah at Damascus. In the same year 
 they made away with a Greek boy at Rhodes, a 
 Greek boy disappeared from Corfu, and an attempt 
 was made to murder a Muhammadan. 
 
 a.d. 1847. The Jews crucified a Christian boy in 
 Mount Lebanon. 
 
 1 This skeleton list is continued in order to show chronologically 
 the continuity of tradition concerning atrocities and sacrilege 
 practised by the Jews. 
 
Ubc Continuity of TTrafcttfon 129 
 
 a.d. 1853. The Jews of Caiffa murdered the wife 
 of an Alger ine Jew. 
 
 a.d. 1865. The Jews of Safed put to death a 
 Spanish Jewess. 
 
 Do not these things remind us of that " generation 
 of vipers," certain of the Jews, who handed together 
 and bound themselves by a curse, saying that they 
 would neither eat nor drink till they had killed 
 Paul ? And was not the Apostle justified in asserting, 
 " They please not God, and are contrary to all men " ? 
 
 How vain it is, in presence of all these horrors, to 
 quote the testimony of Grotius, who, speaking of 
 the Jews since the Dispersion, says : " Et tamen tanto 
 tempore Judaei, nec ad falsorum deorum cultus de- 
 fluxerunt, nec de adulteriis accusantur"; and, "Apud 
 Batavos Judaei suspecti talium facinorum non sunt." 
 Yet these men excommunicated Spinoza and at- 
 tempted his life because he wrote the truth that was 
 in him. Granting, however, that the Jews of Holland 
 were like the mild and unoffending Karaites of the 
 Crimea and Aden, it does not follow that all the 
 widely parted families of the house of Israel deserve 
 an equally favourable verdict. At any rate, sufficient 
 has been advanced in these pages to open the eyes 
 of the student and the ethnographer ; it will stand 
 on record " until Elijah." 
 
 9 
 
II 
 
 THE GYPSY 
 
 131 
 
"A people proscribed by opinion, and doomed by the laws to 
 opprobrium and ignominy ; a race which, driven from all liberal 
 professions, has been for ages, and still is, robbed of its right to 
 hold landed property ; which, subjected to special and severe regula- 
 tions, has learned at once to obey and yet to preserve a manner of 
 independence ; which, despite the contempt that it inspires and the 
 hate that it awakes and the prejudices wherewith it is received and 
 judged, still resists this contempt, this hatred, and finally all those 
 causes which ought to disunite, loosen, and annihilate the family, the 
 race, the nation ; — such a people, I say, deserves the observer's 
 attention, if only from the fact of its existence." 
 
 Jaubert de Passa. 
 
 132 
 
TO THE READER 
 
 F general works upon the subject of the Gypsies 
 
 we have perhaps enough, and more than enough ; 
 this objection, however, cannot be urged against 
 specialities, which still are highly desirable in every 
 department of " Chinganology." I use the latter 
 term in preference to the French Tsiganologie, of 
 which more presently, and the " Romanology," a term 
 of dubious import, lately introduced into English. 
 
 I wish to place in ex tens o before the public the 
 following conclusions which the study of some years 
 has, it is hoped, justified me in drawing with 
 regard to the relation of the Gypsies and the Jats : 
 
 1. The mediaeval Gypsies of Europe were the last 
 wave of Aryan emigration that flowed westward 
 during the early fifteenth century ; and this wave was 
 possibly preceded by more than one similar exodus. 
 
 2. The mediaeval Gypsies show family resem- 
 blances, physical and moral, ethnological and 
 linguistic, with the modern Jats, a highly important 
 race, which extends from the mouth of the Indus 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 to the head of the great Valley, thence ramifying 
 over Turkistan and the far North. 
 
 3. There are solid reasons for believing the Jats 
 and the Jin-tchi of Tatary to be the modern repre- 
 sentatives of the classical Getae and the Goths of 
 later days. 
 
 4. The language of both tribes (Jat and Gypsy) 
 is of Indo-Persian type, the Indian ingredient not 
 being so much decomposed as in the modern varieties 
 of Prakrit. An absolute isolation of speech, especial 
 reasons for secrecy, and the fact of being oral and 
 never written have preserved its purity among the 
 Gypsies ; while the Jats, in close contact with alien 
 tongues, have made those secular linguistic changes 
 which are familiar even to English and French. 
 
 5. The most ancient name of the race is Chingdneh, 
 a term still used in Persia and Turkey, and neces- 
 sarily corrupted by the Arabs, who have no ch, 
 to Jingdneh. 
 
 6. Concerning the origin of the Gypsy article 
 (o — os y a — as, etc.), which is unknown to both 
 Sanskrit and Prakrit, the suit is still pending. 
 Possibly it is original and peculiar to the dialect ; 
 more probably it is an European and especially a 
 Greek innovation. Briefly, until we have gram- 
 matical and vocabularian sketches of the Central 
 Asian and the Turkoman -Gypsy tongues, we are 
 not in a position to draw conclusions. 
 
 I propose to discuss the Indian affinities of the 
 
Uo tbe IReafcer 
 
 135 
 
 Gypsies. I begin with a detailed critique of the 
 various reviews proceeding from the prolific pen of 
 M. Paul Bataillard, who claims the merit, such as 
 it is, of having first identified the Gypsies and 
 the Jats. I end with topographical notes on both 
 tribes throughout their extension from the Indus 
 to Morocco and even to the Brazil. 
 
fl>art I 
 
 NOTES ON MODERN STUDIES OF 
 " CHINGANOL OGY" 
 
 — 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE INDIAN AFFINITIES OF THE GYPSIES 
 
 rpHE following letter to the Academy (March 27, 
 1875), which opened the discussion between 
 M. Paul Bataillard and its author, speaks for itself 1 : 
 
 "In the Academy of February 27, 1875, I had 
 these words : 
 
 " ' Professor de Goeje, of Leyden, has printed some 
 interesting Contributions to the History of the 
 Gipsies (sic). He accepts the view propounded by 
 Pott, 2 as early as 1853, that the Gipsies are closely 
 
 1 In this reprint of the original letter the only changes are a few 
 verbal corrections and suppressions of the parts elsewhere enlarged 
 upon. 
 
 2 The famous work Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien, 2 vols. 
 8vo (Halle, 1844-5). It was followed by two Nachtrags (which I 
 have not seen). The first contains a Syro-Gypsy vocabulary; and 
 the second, notices of their manners and customs in Turkey and 
 other countries. See Zeitschrift d. Dent. Morgen. Gesell., III., 
 pp. 321—335, of 1849 ; and Ibid., Vol. VII., p. 393. 
 
 136 
 
3nMan Bffintttes of tbe Gipsies 137 
 
 related to the Indian Jatt (a name which the Arab 
 historians transform into Zott). . . . Dr. Trumpp 1 
 has already pointed out the close resemblance between 
 the European Gipsies and the Jatt of the banks of 
 the Indus.' 
 
 " I venture to hope that you will permit me to 
 show the part taken by myself in this question. 2 
 Sindh and the Races that inhabit the Valley of the 
 Indus (London: Allen), my volume written between 
 1845 and 1849, and published in 1851, thus treats 
 of the peoples of the plains : 
 
 " ' The Jat, or as others write the word, Jath, Juth, 
 or Jutt, was, in the time of the Kalhora dynasty, one 
 of the ruling classes in Sindh. It was probably for 
 this reason that the author of the Tohfat el Kiram 
 (a well-known book of Sindhi Annals) made them of 
 kindred origin with the Belochis, who now repudiate 
 such an idea with disdain. The Jat's account of 
 his own descent gives to Ukayl, the companion of 
 Muhammad, the high honour of being his progenitor ; 
 but what class of Muslim people, however vile, do 
 not claim some equally high origin? 
 
 " ' As Jataki, the dialect peculiar to the people, 
 proves, they (i.e. the Sindh division of this exten- 
 sive race) must have come from the Panjab, 
 
 1 Dr. Ernest Trumpp's Sindhi Grammar. (Triibner, 1872. 
 
 2 The literati of Europe form a guild into which none but members 
 are admitted. At times their absolute disregard of meum and 
 tuum, especially when they plunder an obscure name, is a fine study 
 of trade morality — or its reverse. 
 
138 
 
 and the other districts Ubho or Baladasht, Jhang- 
 Siyal, Multan, and other regions dependent upon 
 the great Country of the Five Rivers. Driven by 
 war or famine from their own lands, they migrated 
 southwards to Sebi (Sibi or Siwi, Upper Sindh) 
 and to the hills around it. They are supposed 
 to have entered Sindh a little before the accession 
 of the Kalhora Princes, and shortly afterwards to 
 have risen to distinction by their superior courage 
 and personal strength. At present they have lost 
 all that distinguished them, and of their multitude 
 of Jagirdars, Zemindars, and Sardars now not a 
 single descendant possesses anything like wealth or 
 rank. The principal settlements are in the provinces 
 of Kakralo, Jati, Chediyo, Maniyar, Phulaji, and 
 JohL [Those of Umarkot speak, it is said, a 
 different dialect from the Indine Jats, and not a 
 few migrating tribes graze their herds on the great 
 Delta. 1 ] They are generally agriculturists or breeders 
 of camels, and appear to be a quiet, inoffensive race. 
 Throughout the eastern parts of Central Asia, the 
 name Jat is synonymous with thief and scoundrel. 
 
 " ' The Sindhi Jats have many different Kamus 
 or clans, the principal of which are the following: 
 Babbur, Bhati, Jiskani, Kalaru, Magasi, Mir -jat, 
 Parhiyar, Sanjarani, Siyal, and Solangi.' 
 
 " To this text were appended the following notes : 
 
 " Jat u in the Sindhi dialect means : 1. A camel-driver 
 1 These words were afterwards added to my MS. copy. 
 
Jnfcian affinities ot tbe (Bspsies 
 
 139 
 
 or breeder. 2. The name of a Beloch clan. Generally in 
 the lower Indus Valley it is written Jat u , and pronounced 
 Dyat u . It has three significations : 1. The name of a 
 tribe, the Jats. 2. A Sindhi, as opposed to a Beloch ; it 
 is in this sense an insulting expression, and so the Beloch 
 and Brahins of the hills call the Sindhi language Jathki. 
 3. A word of insult, a 'barbarian,' as in the expression 
 do-dasto Jat u , 1 an utter savage.' 
 
 " Lt. Wood's work shows that the Jats are still found 
 in the Panjab and all along the banks of the Indus. 
 
 "Under the name Jat no less than four races are 
 comprised. 
 
 " I continued : 
 
 "'It appears probable from the appearance and 
 other peculiarities of the race that the Jats are 
 connected by consanguinity with that peculiar race 
 the Gypsies. Of 130 words used by the Gypsies 
 in Syria, no less than 104 belong to the Indo-Persian 
 class of language. The rest may be either the 
 remains of the barbarous tongues spoken by the 
 aboriginal mountaineers who inhabited the tract 
 between the Indus and Eastern Persia, or the in- 
 vention of a subsequent age, when their dispersion 
 among hostile tribes rendered a " thieves' language " 
 necessary. The numerals are almost all pure Persian. 
 There are two words, "kuri" (a house) and "psih" (a 
 cat), probably corrupted from the Pushtu " kor " and 
 "pishu." Two other words are Sindhi "manna" 
 for " mani," bread, and " hui " for " hu," he. As 
 might be expected from a tribe inhabiting Syria, 
 
140 
 
 Arabic and Turkish words occasionally occur, but 
 they form no part of the groundwork of the 
 language.' 
 
 " It was my fortune to wander far and wide, during 
 four years of staff service, about the Valley of the 
 Indus ; and to make personal acquaintance with 
 many, if not all, its wild tribes. I saw much of the 
 Jats, lodged in their huts and tents, and studied the 
 camel under their tuition. They are the best t Vets/ 
 and breeders known to that part of the Indian 
 Empire. My kind friend, now no more, then Colonel, 
 and afterwards General, Walter Scott, of the Bombay 
 Engineers, had a Jat in his service ; and the rough 
 old man's peculiarities afforded us abundant diver- 
 sion. Thus I was able to publish in 1849 the first 
 known notice of Jataki and its literature. The 
 author of the famous ' Dabistan ' 1 applies the term 
 'Jat tongue' to that in which Nanah Shah, the 
 Apostle of the Sikhs, composed his Grauth 2 and 
 other works. Throughout the Panjab Jatlci but 
 ('Jat tongue') is synonymous with the Gunwdr M 
 boli or ' peasants' jargon ' of Hindustan. 
 
 " I wrote the word Jataki with two italics. The 
 first denotes the peculiar Sindhi sound, a blending 
 of j and t; the second is the familiar cerebral of 
 Sanskrit and Prakrit, which survives to a certain 
 
 1 The full title is Dabistan-i-Mazahib, or School of Faiths (not " of 
 Manners ") : there is a translation by David Shea and Anthony 
 Troyer for the Oriental Trans. Fund, 3 vols. 8vo (Paris, 1843). 
 
 2 Adi Grauth : the Sacred Book of the Sikhs. 
 
JnMan affinities of tbe Gipsies 
 
 141 
 
 extent in our modern English tongue, though 
 unknown to the Latin and the Teutonic languages. 
 The tribal name is Ja£ u , with the short terminal 
 vowel which in Sindhi, as in Sanskrit, follows the 
 consonant ; its plural, Jat£,n y ends with a well- 
 marked nasal. 
 
 "At that time I divided this rude race of semi- 
 Bedawin into four great tribes ; namely : 
 
 " ' The Panjabi Jat, who is neither a Hindu nor a 
 Hindi (Muslim). He first appears in Indian history 
 as a nomad, alternately shepherd, robber, and tem- 
 porary tiller of the ground. Many became Sikhs, 
 and did good service to Nanah Shah's faith by their 
 zealous opposition to Muhammadan bigotry. As this 
 was their sole occupation for many years, they 
 gradually grew more and more warlike, and at one 
 time they were as fighting a race as any in India. 
 They have been identified by Colonel Sleeman and 
 others with the ancient Getae and their descendants 
 the Goths. 1 
 
 " ' The Jat or Dyat of the Hazarah country, Jhang- 
 Siyal, Kach (Kutch) Gandava, and Sindh gene- 
 rally, where they may number two hundred and fifty 
 thousand out of a total population of one million. 
 They are all Muslims, and are supposed to have 
 
 1 Jornandes, " De Getarum sive Gothorum Origine et rebus Gestis." 
 The learned Abbate Fortis (Dalmatia, I. 1, § 1) includes among the 
 Slav peoples the Scythians, Getae or Goths, Slavini (Slovenes), 
 Croats, Avars, and Vandals. Our grandfathers derived the term 
 " Goths " from Gog (and Magog). 
 
142 
 
 emigrated from the north during or shortly after the 
 Kalhora accession ; hence their dialect is commonly 
 called Belochki. In those days the Belochis were very 
 little known to Sindh, whose aristocracy, the Amirs, 
 Jagirdars, and opulent Zemindars, was either Sindhi 
 or Jats. Ahout Peshawur " Jat" is still synonymous 
 with Zemindar or landed proprietor ; at times, how- 
 ever, it is used as a term of reproach. 
 
 " ' The third is a clan of Belochis, who spell their 
 name with the Arabo-Persian, not the Sindhi j. In 
 the lower Indine Valley they hold the province of 
 Jati, and other parts to the south-east. The head 
 of the tribe is entitled Malik (literally "King "), e.g. 
 Malik Hammal Jat. 1 
 
 "'The next is a wandering tribe, many of whom are 
 partially settled in Candahar, Herat, Meshhed, and 
 other cities of the Persico-Afghan frontier. They are 
 found in Meckran ; and they sometimes travel as far 
 as Maskat, Sindh, and even Central India. They are 
 held to be notorious thieves, occupying a low place in 
 the scale of creation. No good account of this tribe 
 has as yet appeared ; and the smallest contributions 
 upon the subject would be right thankfully received.' 
 
 " The fifth which must now be added is the Jin-tchi 
 of Central Asia. These people are not, as Mr. 
 Schuyler 2 seems to think, ' Kafirs from Kafiristan ' ; 
 
 1 The account given by Mr. Hughes of the Jat in Belochistan will 
 be found in a future page (215). 
 * Turkistan. (Sampson Low & Co., 1876.) 
 
3nfcian affinities of tbe <3spsies 143 
 
 they are apparently true Jats — an idea once advanced 
 by Mr. Andrew Wilson of the Abode of Snow. 1 
 
 " These tribes are looked upon as aborigines, which 
 simply means that their predecessors are unknown. 2 
 
 " Such were the notices collected by me in manu- 
 script some years before 1849. At that time the 
 Orientalists of Europe were almost unanimous in 
 identifying the Gypsies with the Nafh, a scattered 
 Indian tribe of itinerant tinkers and musicians, the 
 * poor players 1 of the great Peninsula, utterly 
 ignorant of horse-couping, cattle-breeding, and even 
 poultry-snatching. And the conviction still holds 
 its ground ; only lately my erudite correspondent, 
 Dr. J. Burnard Davis, reminded me of it. 
 
 ' ' Of course the humble linguistic labours of a 
 perpetual explorer can hardly be familiar to the 
 professionally learned world ; but I cherish a hope 
 that you will aid me in resurrecting my buried 
 and forgotten work." 
 
 1 Academy, October 14, 1876. 
 
 2 The letter here contains a sketch of J&tdiki literature in Sindh. 
 I have also suppressed a paragraph noticing their migration and 
 tribal name ; both these subjects will be discussed with more detail. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CLAIMS AND PRETENSIONS OF M. PAUL 
 BATAILLARD 
 
 THE following letter, which bears the author's 
 signature and the date Paris, May 28, 1875,* 
 was the result of my communication to the 
 Academy} As I had objected to my thunder being 
 stolen by Professor Pott and De Goeje, so M. Paul 
 Bataillard charges me with having purloined his 
 artillery : 
 
 " The Academy of March 27 last published an 
 interesting letter which only came to my knowledge 
 a few days ago. In this letter Mr. Richard Burton, 
 F.R.G.S., claims the priority in identifying the 
 Gipsies or Tsigans with the Jat of the banks of 
 the Indus, whose name, he adds, is pronounced 
 Dyat. The question has lately been treated at 
 length (25 pages in 8vo, almost entirely consecrated 
 to this subject) by Professor J. de Goeje, of Leyden, 
 who attributes the first idea of this identification 
 
 [* This letter appeared in the Academy, June 5, 1875.] 
 1 The notes appended to this letter are by me. 
 144 
 
Claims anfc pretensions of Batatllarfc 146 
 
 to Mr. Pott in 1853, as is stated in the Academy 
 of February 27, in a short article mentioning this 
 Dutch Contribution to the History of the Gipsies. 
 
 " Mr. Burton, who has wandered far and wide in 
 the Valley of the Indus, and has much frequented 
 the Jats, published in 1849 a grammar of the Jataki 
 dialect (41 pages), which contains an interesting 
 classification of this race, reproduced in his letter, 
 and, in 1851, a volume upon Sindh — Sindh and the 
 Races that inhabit the Valley of the Indus — in 
 which he starts the theory of a probable relation- 
 ship between the Jats and the Gipsies, as proved 
 in the extracts which he commences by giving of 
 this work. 
 
 " Allow me to claim a still earlier priority (dating 
 from 1849), and to begin by establishing exactly 
 the share belonging to each. 
 
 " Professor Pott, in his great work, Die Zigeuner, 
 Vol. I. (1844), p. 62, had spoken of the tradition 
 mentioned by Ferdoussy, by the Tarikh-Gusydeh, 
 and ' by another . . .' that is to say, by the Modj- 
 mel-al-Tevarylch, according to which Bahram-Gur, 
 King of Persia, had caused ten or twelve thousand 
 musicians, designated in two at least of these three 
 texts under the name of Luri y l to come from India. 
 One or two other names, of which it is not necessary 
 
 1 It has still to be proved of what tribe these Luri are : all 
 that we can say is that they are the natives of modern Luristan 
 (Elymais), 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 to speak, are added to this one. (See pp. 41, 42 
 of my memoir, published in 1849, and mentioned 
 by-and-by.) 
 
 " Five years later, Professor Pott, coming back to 
 the subject in his article ' Ueber die Zigeuner,' 
 published, as a second supplement to his great work, 
 in the Zeitschrift der Deut. Morgenl. Gesellsckaft, 
 Vol. III., 1849, said (p. 326) : 
 
 " Concerning the tradition of which I spoke, Vol. I., p. 62, 
 of the transmigration of Indian musicians into Persia, 
 ordered by Bahram-Gur, and set forth in the Ska/mame/i, 
 a tradition which is applied perhaps rightly to the Zigeuner, 
 I owe to Fleischer a very interesting notice, and wholly 
 unknown to me hitherto, drawn from Hamza Ispahani, 
 Gottwaldt edition, 1834 (p. 40 of the translation of Gott- 
 waldt), according to which Bahram-Gur, for the pleasure 
 of his subjects, caused twelve thousand musicians, those 
 designated by the name of Zuth, to come from India. They 
 are called Luri in the Shaknameh* which is a proof that 
 Hamza did not simply copy this fact. But Fleischer adds 
 what follows relative to the name of Zuth, which I have 
 not yet met with anywhere, and which was a complete 
 enigma to me : ' The Kamuz says that the Zotth are a 
 race of men of Indian origin, and that the true pronuncia- 
 tion of this word is Djatt, but that the Arabs pronounce 
 it Zottk.' (See notes 3 and 4 at p. 43 of my memoir 
 of 1849, concerning the rather free translation of this 
 passage of the Kamuz.) In the French and Arabic Dic- 
 tionary, by Ellious Bocthor, we find : ' Bohemien, Arabe 
 vagabond, Tchinghiane, qui dit la bonne aventure, vole, etc., 
 is called Zotti at Damascus, plural Zotte? 
 
 1 A valuable authority, but still a poem. 
 
Claims anfc pretensions of JSataillarfc 147 
 
 "Nothing more. It is clear that, in the identifica- 
 tion of the Djat of India with the Tsigans, Professor 
 Pott's share is very small up to the present. The 
 great Indianist of Halle is rich enough in his own 
 learning to be content with what belongs to 
 him, and the respect I entertain for him and his 
 kind feeling towards me form a sure guarantee that 
 he will not be offended at my setting forth my 
 claim. 
 
 " I think I may say that it is I (thanks, it is 
 true, to M. Reinaud) who first treated the question. 
 I had published, in 1844, in the Bibliotheque de 
 VEcole des Chartes, a rather long memoir upon 
 the Apparition des Bohemiens en Europe (the 
 tirage a part, which is long ago exhausted, has 
 59 pages octavo). In 1849 I contributed to 
 the same collection a second paper upon the same 
 subject, examining especially Eastern Europe, and 
 establishing for the first time that the Gipsies were 
 in this region at an epoch far anterior to the date 
 (about 1417) of their appearance in the West. I 
 may add, incidentally, that nearly all those who 
 have since spoken of the appearance of the Gipsies 
 in Europe have done little more than draw upon 
 these two memoirs, without always exactly saying 
 what part belonged to me, so that I have often had 
 the annoyance of seeing such or such an author, 
 Francisque Michel more especially, mentioned after- 
 wards in third-hand notices as the original source 
 
148 
 
 of what I had written. Now my second memoir 
 {Nouvelles Becker ches sur V Apparition des Bohe- 
 miens en Europe, 48 pp. in the tirage a part, Paris, 
 1849: Franck, rue de Richelieu, 67) ends with an 
 ' Additional Note ' of ten very compact pages, the 
 principal object of which is precisely to identify the 
 Gipsies and the Indian Djath. 
 
 " In this note, or appendix, I begin by collecting 
 and giving, in French, in order that they may be 
 compared, the accounts that Professor Pott had only 
 pointed out, relating to the ten or twelve thousand 
 musicians that Bahram-Gur, King of Persia (420 — 
 440 of our era), had sent for from India, that is to 
 say, the tradition related by Ferdoussy in the Shah- 
 nameh (about 1000), by the Modjmel-al-Tevarykh 
 (about 1126), by the Tarikh-Guzydeh (about 1329, 
 for this last I have not been able to give the text), 
 and lastly, by Hamza Ispahani, the Arabian author 
 whom Professor Fleischer had just made known to 
 Professor Pott, and who is the oldest of all, since 
 he belongs to the tenth century, while Professor Pott 
 supposed him to have been posterior to Ferdoussy. 
 It is to be remarked that Hamza mentions the 
 descendants of the twelve thousand musicians as 
 still existing in Persia in his time under the name 
 of Zuthy and that Ferdoussy says the same of the ten 
 thousand Luri, whom he represents as vagabonds 
 and thieves. But the new and important point is 
 the name of Zuth given to them by the Arabo- 
 
Claims anfc pretensions of Bataillarfc 149 
 
 Persian author of the tenth century ; and it is here r 
 as I remark in my work (p. 42 of the tirage a part), 
 ' that the real interest commences.' 
 
 " I again find this name (p. 44) under the form 
 of Djatt and Djatty in a fifth account of the same 
 matter hy the Persian Mirkhond (fifteenth century) ; 
 and, after having remarked that the same name is 
 given by the Kamuz under the form Zotth as the 
 Arabian equivalent of Djatt, an Indian race, and 
 that, according to Ellious Bocthor, it serves precisely, 
 under the form Zott, to designate the Gipsies at 
 Damascus, I start from thence to gather from the 
 important Memoire, etc., sur FInde, by M. Reinaud, 
 a few data upon the history of the Zath or Djatt 
 of India, and to establish, pp. 45—48, the probable 
 identity of this race and the Gipsies. I repeat 
 that this is precisely the essential object of my 
 ' Additional Note.' 
 
 "I am not an Orientalist, and besides, as I have 
 not failed to mention, this note of ten large pages 
 was written when my memoir was already in the 
 press. But I had the kind assistance of the learned 
 and lamented M. Reinaud, to whose memory I am 
 glad here to render my tribute of gratitude. 
 
 "Also, the eminent scholar of Leipzig, the same 
 who had first opened the way for discovering the 
 connexion between the Gipsies and the Djatt, Pro- 
 fessor Fleischer, in a general account embracing 
 the scientific publications of three years (the same 
 
150 
 
 XTbe (Bspss 
 
 Zeitschrift, Vol. IV., 1850, p. 452), has not disdained 
 to mention my work in these terms : 
 
 " Bataillard, the author, etc., taking up the supplement 
 to Pott, published in our journal, III., pp. 321 — 335, has, 
 with the aid of Reinaud, shown the great probability of 
 the opinion that the Zigeuner descend from the G'at or 
 G'et, the most ancient inhabitants of the north-west of 
 India ; and might not the name Zigeuner, Zingani, Zingari, 
 T^vyyavoi, etc., by the intermedium of the form Gitanos, 
 be derived from the name of this people ? 
 
 " This last supposition of Professor Fleischer's does 
 not appear to me admissible, for there is no doubt 
 that Gitanos is derived from Egipcianos y as Gipsies 
 is from Egyptians. 
 
 " I come at last to Professor Pott's article ' Last 
 Contributions towards the Knowledge of the Gipsies 
 and their Language,' in the same Zeitschrift of 1853 
 (Vol. VII., pp. 389 — 399), mentioned in the Academy, 
 quoting Professor de Goeje, as the starting-point for 
 the identification of the Gipsy and the Jat. What do 
 we find there upon this subject? The following 
 lines (p. 393) : 
 
 " I am indebted to the obliging friendship of Professor 
 Fleischer, of Leipzig (see our Zeitschrift, III., p. 326), for 
 an important passage upon the Zuth of Hamza Ispahani, 
 whose Annals are anterior to the Sha/mame/i, as M. 
 Bataillard demonstrates in his Nouvelles Recherches, p. 42. 
 For the origin of the Gipsies we ought to consider very 
 attentively these Zotth, who, according to what Rodiger 
 communicates to me, are also confounded with the Zengi 
 
Claims ant> pretensions of BatatllarO 151 
 
 (called also Aetkiopes, and whose name is even sometimes 
 employed for Zingari : see my Zigeuner, i., p. 45). In 
 fact, the Znth appear to be the same as the Jats, or, 
 according to the Turkish Kanmz, Tchatt, concerning whom 
 we find in Elliot, Biogr. Index, i. 270-27 (sic) (and 
 especially, Ibid, in Masson, Journey to Kelat, pp. 351 — 353), 
 an interesting article. See, moreover, Reinaud, Mem. sur 
 VInde, 1849, p. 273, note 3 upon the Dschats, which may 
 also be compared with the Proverb. Arab, of Freytag, 
 Vol. II., p. 580 (communicated also by Fleischer, to which 
 I must add the further statement of Bataillard). Above 
 all, it would be very important for us to have some details 
 concerning their language. 
 
 " Thus the learned professor of Halle here contents 
 himself with the fresh mention of the passage in 
 Hamza, for which he was indebted to Fleischer, and 
 with pointing out some fresh sources to be consulted 
 for the Zotth, Jats, etc., which had been made known 
 to him by the same savant, and refers besides to my 
 ' further statements (weitere Auseinandersetzung) ' ; 
 and, as he afterwards devotes a long page to the 
 analysis of the principal part of my Nouvelles 
 Recherches, which he had mentioned at full length 
 (pp. 389 — 390), and which he quotes again in 
 several other places, one would think that he had 
 done enough. 
 
 " This mention has none the less escaped, according 
 to all appearances, Professor de Goeje, of Ley den, 
 who nevertheless was acquainted with this passage 
 of Pott (since he mentions it, p. 16, so as to induce 
 
152 
 
 the belief that the learned professor of Halle was the 
 first to establish a connexion between the Zott or 
 Djatt and the Tsigans), and who quotes in several 
 places my long articles in the Revue Critique on 
 ' Les derniers travaux relatifs aux Bohemiens dans 
 l'Europe Orientale ' (of which the tirage a part 
 forms an octavo volume of 80 pages, 1872), but who 
 says not a word of my work of 1849. This is an 
 omission such as the most conscientious savants 
 sometimes make ; and I do not intend to address a 
 reproach to the learned professor of Leyden, whose 
 work must besides have all the superiority belonging 
 to a deep study made twenty-five years later by a 
 most competent Orientalist. But since the question 
 of priority upon this subject has been raised in your 
 paper, you will, I think, perceive, in perusing what 
 I wrote in 1849, which I send you with this letter, 
 that I have a right not to be completely forgotten, 
 especially when it concerns an interesting point in 
 the history of the Gipsies upon which I have hitherto 
 published only some fragmentary works, but to the 
 study of which I have devoted so many years. 
 
 " My letter is already long : allow me, nevertheless, 
 to add yet a few more words. Although I have in 
 my possession the work of Professor de Goeje (the 
 author has had the kindness to send it to me), I 
 cannot say that I am acquainted with it, because I 
 cannot read Dutch, and have not yet found an oppor 
 tunity of having it translated, which I doubly regret 
 
Claims anfc pretensions of Bataillarfc 153 
 
 under the present circumstances. I think, however, 
 that I may say that the point treated by the professor 
 of Leyden, and twenty-five years ago by myself, 
 although it be already sufficiently complex, is only 
 one side of the very much more complicated question 
 of the origin of the Gipsies, considered in all its 
 bearings. I hope to be able to show that the 
 historical documents of Eastern Europe, of Western 
 Asia, and of Egypt itself furnish very important 
 data, hitherto very insufficiently considered, upon the 
 question. I think I have also the means of giving 
 an explanation of the word tsigan, and of the other 
 names approaching to it, more certain and more 
 interesting than those proposed by Professor de 
 Goeje and Mr. Burton. 
 
 "It is not the less interesting to examine any 
 point of the very complex question of the origin 
 of the Gipsies, and especially one so important as 
 this appears to be of their connexion with the Jats 
 or Djatt. But this point itself has, so to speak, 
 several faces. There is the part belonging to erudi- 
 tion in the strict sense, and I think that Professor 
 de Goeje has treated it very ably ; but there is the 
 ethnological, anthropological, and even the linguistic 
 part of the subject, which does not appear to me 
 to be very far advanced up to the present time. 
 It is this part that Mr. Burton has handled ; and 
 as he has lived in the midst of the Jats, he was in 
 some respects in the best condition for throwing 
 
154 
 
 great light upon it ; but, on the one hand, he ought 
 perhaps to have been better acquainted with the 
 Gipsies, and, on the other, it does not appear that 
 the connexion between the Gipsies and the Jats has 
 occupied him much. He has perceived a probable 
 relation between these two tribes of men, and he has 
 expressed it in half a page ; but this is not suffi- 
 cient} No doubt in occupying himself specially 
 with the Jats, in giving in 1849 a grammar of 
 their language (of which I cannot appreciate the 
 value, but which did not prevent Professor Pott, in 
 1853, from saying that we were wanting in informa- 
 tion respecting this idiom), 2 in collecting some very 
 summary data concerning their division into four 
 tribes, and upon their history and manners, he has 
 furnished some materials, but materials quite in- 
 sufficient, 3 for a comparison, which is still unmade, 
 between this race and the Gipsies. He tells us, for 
 example, that the appearance and other peculiarities 
 of this race authorize as probable the supposition 
 of a relationship between it and the Gipsies. But 
 he does not give us even the smallest information 
 respecting the type (appearance) of the Jats ; and 
 
 1 The italics are mine. What does the author know about my 
 acquaintance with the Gypsies, especially the Burton Gypsies ? 
 The " half a page " will be answered in another place. 
 
 a This means simply that Professor Pott never saw my paper 
 printed at Bombay. 
 
 3 Evidently a premature statement : the author knew only my 
 communication to the Academy (Chapter I.). 
 
Claims ant> pretensions of Bataillart) 155 
 
 the other ' peculiarities ' which he does not explain, 
 and which we are obliged to seek in scattered traits, 
 furnish such fugitive comparisons that one can 
 conclude nothing from them. In reality nearly every 
 tribe in India (not to speak of certain tribes in 
 other countries) will furnish, when compared with 
 the Gipsies, quite as many, if not more, points of 
 resemblance. Indeed this is, more or less, the defect 
 of nearly all the comparisons which have been made 
 between the Gipsies and such or such populations 
 of India ; the authors of these comparisons are not 
 sufficiently acquainted with the Gipsies, and their 
 study of the resemblances is not sufficiently specific. 
 
 "The Jats must belong, I suppose so at least, to 
 the Hamite (Chamite), and more particularly to the 
 Kuschite stratum of the Hindoo populations, 1 and 
 for my part I do not doubt that the Gipsies, 
 although their idiom is connected with the Aryan 
 languages of India, belong to this same branch of 
 the human species. — I remark, by the way, in the 
 division made by Mr. Burton of the Jats into four 
 tribes, that one of the districts inhabited by the 
 second is called ' Kach (Kutch).' 2 — But this branch 
 is widely spread in Asia and in Africa. It would 
 be necessary, in the Kuschite family, to remark 
 
 1 Of this stupendous Kushite theory I have something to say in a 
 future page. (194) 
 
 2 Proh pudor ! I said Kach {Kutch) Gandava ; and here it is 
 confounded with Kach (Cutch) near Gujrat (Guzerat). 
 
156 
 
 the particular traits which distinguish, on the one 
 hand, the Jats, on the other, the Gipsies, in all 
 the very complex affinities allowed by ethnography, 
 and start thence to compare them. This is what 
 remains to be done in order to throw light upon 
 this part of one side of the question of Gipsy 
 origin. It is useless to say that, in following out 
 more particularly this comparison between the Gipsies 
 and the Jats, the other points of comparison that 
 may be furnished by other tribes, related or not to 
 the Jats, such as that of the Tchangar, for example, 
 pointed out by Dr. Trumpp in the Panjab (Mittheil. 
 der Anthrop. Gesellschaft in Wien, T. II., 1872, 
 p. 294, quoted by Miklosich in his third memoir 
 on the Zigeuner, 1873, p. 2), and several others, 
 which it would be too long to mention, must not 
 be neglected. But all this can only be well done in 
 India, and by a person who has specially studied 
 the Gipsies of Europe, of Eastern Europe especially, 
 and, if possible, those of Western Asia and even 
 of Egypt. Unfortunately these conditions are very 
 difficult to find. 
 
 " (Signed) Paul Bataillard." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A REVIEW OF M. PAUL BATAILLARD's REVIEWS 
 
 _1_V_L. w h 0 has thus offered me battle in the 
 
 Academy , is apparently an indefatigable Tsig- 
 
 anologue, 1 to use his own compound; and he 
 
 seems to have been studying Chinganology since 
 
 1841. Of bookmaking on the Gypsy theme there 
 
 1 The following are his advertised works ; he kindly supplied me 
 with copies of all, except the first two, which were out of print : 
 
 1. De V apparition et de la dispersion des Bohemiens en Europe. 
 Reprinted from the Bibliotheque de V&cole des Chartes, 1844, in 8vo 
 of 69 pages ; and again in 1849 by M. Franck. I understand that 
 in this, his first paper, the author knew the " Zott," but ignored 
 the "Jats." 
 
 2. Nouvelles Recherches sur Vapparition des Bohemiens en Europe 
 (particulierement dans VEurope Orientale, — avec un appendice sur 
 Varrivee de dix ou dome mille Louri, Zuth, ou Djatt en Perse entre 
 les annees 420 et 440). From the same Bibliotheque, 1849, in 8vo of 
 48 pages, a petit travail (as the author calls it) containing his first 
 notice of the Jats. 
 
 3. Les derniers travaux relatifs aux Bohemiens dans VEurope 
 Orientate. From the Revue Critique, Vol. II. of fifth year 
 (1870-71). Reprinted Paris : Franck, 1872. In treating of the 
 Gypsies the Jats now become an important element. 
 
 4. Notes et questions sur les Bohemiens en Alger ie. From the 
 
 § 1. Preliminaries 
 
 PAUL BATAILLARD— ominous name!— 
 
 157 
 
158 
 
 XTbe 6£p$s 
 
 is no apparent end ; even the mighty " Magician 
 of the North " proposed, we are told, adding his 
 item to the heap. The reading public, indeed, seems 
 to hold these Hamaxobioi an ever virgin subject ; 
 and since the days of " Gypsy Borrow's " Translation 
 of St. Lulce (1838), 1 The Zincali, The Bible in 
 Spain (1841), and other popular works, it has 
 ever lent an ear to the charmer, charm he never 
 so unwisely. A modern author was not far wrong 
 when he stated : " A great deal of what is called 
 genius has been expended upon the Gypsies, but 
 wonderfully little common sense." 2 
 
 And the subject has its peculiar charms. These 
 1 'outlandish persons calling themselves Egyptians 
 or Gypsies " ; these cosmopolites equally at home in 
 the snows of Siberia and in the swamps of Sennaar ; 
 these Ishmaelites still dwelling in the presence of 
 their brethren, at once on the outskirts and in the 
 
 Bulletin of the Societe d? Anthropologic de Paris, Seance du 17 JuUlet, 
 1873. Keprinted Paris : A. Henmeyer, 1874. 
 
 5. Sur le mot Zagaie ou Sagaie, et accessoirement sur le nom du 
 souffiet de forge primitif. From the Bulletin of the Societe d' Anthro- 
 pologic de Paris, Seance du 21 Mai, 1874. 
 
 6. Sur Vorigine des Bohemiens ou Tsiganes, avec Vexplication du 
 mot " Tzigane" Lettre a la Revue Critique. Paris : Franck, 1875. 
 This last publication criticises my identification of the Gypsies and 
 the Jats, etc. 
 
 1 Embeo e Majdro Lucas, etc., now rare. This version preserved 
 intact many of the Spanish words used by Padre Scio, instead of 
 converting them into pure " Romani." See Borrow. 
 
 2 For instance, when Borrow makes Chai denote the men of Egypt 
 or the sons of Heaven, when it simply signifies children, being a 
 dialectic variety of the Hindi Chokra, Chokri. 
 
H tRevfew of Eatatllarfc's ttevtews 159 
 
 very centres of civilized life ; this horde of bar- 
 barians scattered over the wide world, among us 
 but not of us ; these nomads of a progressive age 
 isolated by peculiarities of physique, language, and 
 social habits, of absolute materialism, and of a 
 single rule of conduct, " Self-will," all distinctly 
 pointing to a common origin ; this phenomenon of 
 the glorious epoch which opened a new thorough- 
 fare to the " East Indies," and which discovered 
 the other half of the globe, is still to many, 
 nay, to most men, an inexplicable ethnic mystery. 
 Englanders mostly take the narrow nursery view 
 of the " Black Man " ; at the highest they treat 
 him picturesquely in connexion with creels and 
 cuddies, hammer and tongs, the tin -kettle and the 
 katuna or tilt-tent. Continental writers cast, as 
 usual, a wider and a more comprehensive glance. 
 M. Perier, with French " nattiness," thus resumes 
 the main points of interest in the singular strangers : 
 " Une race extraordinaire , forte, belle, cosmopolite, 
 err ante, et cependant (?) pure, curieuse par con- 
 sequent, a tant de titres." The Rumanians have 
 deemed the theme worthy of poetry ; witness the 
 heroic-comic-satyric " Tsiganida," or Gypsy-Camp, 
 of Leonaki Diancu. 1 
 
 The " wondrous tale" of the old Gypsy gude-wife 
 concerning the " Things of Egypt " is more won- 
 
 1 A second "Tsiganida" was in the hands of the late M. Pierre 
 Assaki, possibly composed by one of his kinsmen. 
 
160 
 
 derful, observe, than aught told of Jewry. Certain 
 of the learned credulous, as we read in the 
 Evidences of Christianity and other such works, 
 essentially one-sided, point to the dispersion and 
 the cohesion of the self-styled " Chosen People " as 
 a manner of miracle, a standing witness to certain 
 marvellous events in its past annals. They ignore 
 or forget the higher miracle of the " tinklers." 
 Whilst the scattering abroad of the Israelites arose 
 naturally from the same causes which in the present 
 day preserve their union, the powerful principle of 
 self-interest and wealth- seeking, the deeply rooted 
 prejudices, social and religious, fostered by a theo- 
 cratic faith and by a special and exclusive revelation, 
 the lively tradition of past glories and the promises 
 of future grandeur confirmed by the conviction of 
 being a people holy and set apart, the barbarous 
 Roma 1 are held together only by the ties of speech 2 
 and consanguinity, and by the merest outlines of 
 a faith, such a creed as caste, or rather the out- 
 cast, requires. Still the coherence is continuous 
 
 1 Rom (man), masc. sing. ; Roma (men), masc. plur. Romni, 
 Romnia, woman, women ; Roman!, adjectival, belonging to man. 
 Hence our phrases 11 rum fellow" and "pottering Rommany." 
 Lorn is a mere popular mispronunciation of Rom, and Ro is a 
 vulgar abbreviation. The latter word I would derive from the 
 Coptic pco/xe (rome), a man. 
 
 2 The bond of language has perhaps been exaggerated by M. 
 Alexandre G. Paspati, J^tude sur les Tchinghianes en Bohemiens de 
 V Empire Ottoman (Constantinople, 1870), and others, where they 
 assert " Vhistoire entiere de cette race est dans son idiome." 
 
B 1Re\>iew of Batatllatft's IReviews 161 
 
 and complete ; still, like the rod of Moses, this 
 ethnological marvel out-miracles the other, and 
 every other, miracle. 
 
 Hardly less peculiar is the historical relation of 
 the Jew and the Gypsy. They have many points 
 in common. Both have had their exodus, and are 
 dispersed over the world. Both have peculiarities 
 of countenance which distinguish them from the 
 " Gentiles," whom they hate, the Goyim and the 
 Busne. Both have their own languages and preserve 
 their racial names. 1 Similarity of conditions, how- 
 ever, which should breed sympathy, as usual amongst 
 men has borne only hatred. But the Jew was wealthy, 
 like his cousin the Morisco. Hence the horrible 
 persecution of the Israelites in Spain (a.d. 1348-98), 
 when a prevailing pest was attributed to their 
 poisoning the water, and which endured till the 
 Hussites drew down upon themselves the earthly 
 " anger of Heaven." During those dreadful years 
 many of the Hebrews fled to the mountains, the 
 Alpuj arras and the Sierras — Morena and de Toledo — 
 and to the wild banks of the Upper Ebro, the 
 Guadiana, and the Tagus. Meanwhile the Gypsies 
 suffered under the conviction that they were Jews 
 
 1 As the Jews all have especial Hebrew names for the Synagogue 
 besides the Gentile family-names known to the world, the Gypsies 
 are also binominal. Thus the Stanleys are Bar-engres (stony fellows) ; 
 the Coopers, Wardo-engres (" wheel fellows," coopers) ; the Hemes, 
 Balors (hairs, hairy fellows) ; the Smiths, Petul-engres (" horseshoe 
 fellows," blacksmiths) ; and the Lovells, Camo-mescres (amorous 
 fellows). See The Zincalu 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 who, denying their forefathers, represented them- 
 selves to be of Egyptian blood. Presently, when 
 the revenues of the Catholic kings, Henry III. and 
 John II., amounting to 26,550,000 reals (dollars) 
 reduced to our present value, fell under Henry IV. 
 to 3,540,000, the plethoric money-bags of the 
 Israelites led to the establishment of Holy Office and 
 its inquisitorial tribunal (January, 1481). Finally, 
 as if persecution and death were not sufficient, a 
 wholesale expulsion took place in March, 1492. 
 These horrors are still, after the lapse of ages, fresh 
 in the Jewish mind. I have seen at Jerusalem a 
 Khakham (scribe) so moved by the presence of a 
 Spanish official, that the latter asked me in astonish- 
 ment how he had managed to offend his host. 
 
 But what could the Santa Hermandad alias 
 La Bruja (the witch) find to plunder and pillage 
 in the tent of the Rom ? During three centuries 
 of loose wild life, often stained by ferocious crime, 
 and made bestial by the Draconian laws of mediaeval 
 Christianity, the Gypsies had their seasons of banish- 
 ment, torture, and execution ; but their poverty and 
 isolation saved them from the horrors of a deliberate 
 and official persecution. Mas pobre que cuerpo de 
 Gitano (Nothing poorer than a Gypsy's body) is 
 still a proverb in Spain, where men also say, 
 Tan ruin es el conde como los Gitanos. All 
 these barbarities ended in Europe with the close of 
 the eighteenth century, where the new Religion of 
 
H 1Rev>iew of ^ataiUatft's 1Rex>iews 163 
 
 Humanity had been preached by the encyclopedists 
 whose major prophets were Voltaire and Rousseau, 
 Diderot and D'Alembert. 
 
 No Disraeli has hitherto arisen to vindicate the 
 nobility of these " masterful beggars " ; and to 
 chronicle their triumphs in court and camp, in arts 
 and arms ; to trace them in the genealogies of titled 
 houses, or to strip off the disguises assumed during 
 the intolerant times when the Jew was compelled to 
 swear himself Gentile and the Muslim a Christian. 
 Yet the Gypsies have had their great men, whilst 
 their pure blood has leavened much dull clay and 
 given fresh life to many an effete noble vein. 
 Witness the "King Zindl" or "Zindelo"; the 
 Dukes Michael and Andrew ; Counts Ion (Juan) and 
 Panuel (Manuel) of Little Egypt ; the Waywodes 
 (Vaivodes) of Dacia ; the noble cavalier Pedro, 
 and the chief, Tomas Pulgar, who in a.d. 1496 
 aided Bishop Sigismund to beat off the Turk in- 
 vader. Witness, again, the Hungarian Hunyadis, the 
 Russian Tolstoys, and the Scotch Melvilles, not to 
 speak of the Cassilis and the Contis under Louis XIV. 
 Certain Gypsies became soldiers of renown ; and 
 John Bunyan, one of the immortals of the earth, is 
 shrewdly suspected of Gypsy descent. Borrow men- 
 tions an archbishop and "four dignified ecclesiastics"; 
 while some of the most learned and famed of the 
 priesthood in Spain have been, according to a 
 Gypsy, of the Gypsies, or at least of Gypsy blood. 
 
164 
 
 Such is the Gypsy summed up in a few lines. 
 
 These pages have no intention, I repeat, of treat- 
 ing the subject of the Roma generally. My humbler 
 task is confined to showing the affinities between 
 the Gypsies and the great Jat tribe, or rather 
 nation, which extends from the mouths of the Indus 
 to the Steppes of Central Asia. And my first ob- 
 jection must be to a question of precedence with 
 M. Paul Bataillard. 
 
 The Tsiganologue claims, as has been seen, "a 
 still earlier priority " in the identification of Gypsy 
 and Jat ; and he proposes to " establish exactly the 
 share belonging to each of us." This is the normal 
 process of the cabinet savant, who is ever appearing, 
 like the dens ex machind, to snatch from the 
 explorer's hand the meed of originality. The former 
 borrows from his books a dozen different theories ; 
 and when one happens to be proved true by the 
 labours of the man of action, he straightway sets 
 himself up as the " theoretical discoverer " of the 
 sources of the Nile, or of any other matter which 
 engages popular attention. But in the present case 
 I deny that my rival has any claim whatever. My 
 personal acquaintance with the Jats began in 1845, 
 and my Grammar and Vocabulary were sent to the 
 Royal Asiatic Society in 1848 before my departure 
 from India. On the other hand, M. Paul Bataillard, 
 I understand, knew nothing of the Indine Jats when 
 he wrote his first paper Be V apparition, etc., in 1844. 
 
H TReview of Bataillarfc's 1Re\news 165 
 
 He honestly owns that he is no Orientalist ; and that 
 he required the assistance of the late M. Reinaud, 
 who was a scholar, to identify the Zuth of Hams a 
 Ispahani (tenth century), the Luri musicians of the 
 Shahnameh (eleventh century), and the Zoth or Zutt 
 of the Kamiiz dictionary (fourteenth century) with 
 the Zatt or Dyatt of India. This was in 1849. His 
 expose etendu was accepted by Professor Pott in the 
 same year, and appeared in the Nachtrag before 
 mentioned, which completed the grand travail — Die 
 Zigeuner. Such was the extent of my claimant's 
 discovery. He had even to learn from Professor 
 Fleischer, of Leipzig, that " the Zigeuner descend 
 from the G'at or G'et, the most ancient inhabitants 
 of North- Western India," 1 a second-hand opinion, 
 derived from " Gypsy Borrow," Colonel Sleeman, and 
 other Englishmen. I need hardly say that Professor 
 Pott, the distinguished member of that heroic band 
 which founded comparative philology, knew nothing 
 practically or personally about either the Gypsies or 
 the Jats. And it is evident that Professor de Goeje 
 is in outer darkness when he speaks of " the view 
 propounded by Pott as early as 1853." 
 
 At that time, and indeed until I wrote to the 
 Academy in 1875, M. Paul Bataillard evidently 
 ignored " M. Burton " ; and no blame be to him for 
 not knowing a paper published by a colonial society 
 a quarter of a century ago. But he also ignored 
 
 1 Getse, Goths. 
 
166 
 
 far more important facts. He applies the term 
 petite population Djatte to the great scattered nation 
 called Jat. He was of course not aware that this 
 people preserve in the Indine Delta, the " Salt 
 Country " of the Sindhis, the purity of its tongue, 
 which, farther north, is corrupted by an admixture 
 of Sindhi, Belochki, and Panjabi. Nor could he be 
 alive to the fact that many points of similarity, 
 anthropological and linguistic, connect the Gypsy 
 and the Jat. There are men who are personally 
 averse to new things, and the easy alternative is to 
 depreciate their value. "He," lam assured by my 
 rival claimant, " has perceived a probable relation 
 between these two tribes of men, and he has ex- 
 pressed it in half a page ; but this is not sufficient." 
 
 Such an assertion, however, is more than sufficient 
 for estimating and appreciating the Bataillard system 
 of treating a literary question. For " half a page " 
 read a dozen pages, 1 which might easily have been 
 extended to many a dozen. But I had hoped that 
 the statement of a traveller who had met the Gypsies 
 at Oxford (Bagley Wood), in England, and on the 
 Continent, and the knowledge of their racial charac- 
 teristics, general amongst educated Englishmen, 
 justified a conciseness imperiously demanded whilst 
 treating in one volume the geography, history, and 
 
 1 History of Sindh, pp. 246, 247, and Notes, p. 411 ; Scinde, or the 
 Unhappy Valley, Vol. II., pp. 116-19 ; Journal of the Bombay 
 Asiatic Society, pp. 84—90 ; without including the Grammar and the 
 Vocabulary. 
 
H IReview of JSatatllarb's 1ReY>tews 167 
 
 ethnology of a country nearly equalling England in 
 length. Again, when M. Bataillard assures his readers 
 that I have " not given even the smallest information 
 respecting the type (appearance) of the Jats," he 
 once more makes it evident that he should have read 
 me before pretending to write about me. I will 
 quote my description in full, 1 so that the public may 
 judge between him and me : 
 
 " We are now in the provinces inhabited by the 
 Jats. Your [i.e. Mr. John Bull's] eye is scarcely 
 grown critical enough in this short time to see the 
 tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee-like difference between 
 their personal appearance and that of their kinsmen 
 the Scindians ; nor can I expect you as yet to dis- 
 tinguish a Jat wandh (village) from a Scinde 
 goth (village). You are certain to take some 
 interest in a race which appears to be the progenitor 
 of the old witch in a red cloak, whose hand, in 
 return for the cunning nonsense to which her tongue 
 gave birth, you once crossed with silver ; and of 
 the wiry young light-weight, whose game and sharp 
 hitting you have, in happier days, more than once 
 condescended to admire. 
 
 " Our authors 2 probably err when they suppose 
 the Jat to be the original Hindu of Scinde con- 
 verted to Islam. Native historians and their own 
 
 1 Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley, Vol. II., pp. 116-19. 
 s Alluding chiefly to Captain Postans' Personal Observations on 
 Scinde, chap. iii. 
 
168 
 
 traditions concur in assigning to them a strange 
 origin ; their language, to this day, a corrupt dialect 
 of that spoken throughout the Indine provinces of 
 the Panjab, gives support and real value to the 
 otherwise doubtful testimony. 1 It is probable that, 
 compelled to emigrate from their own lands by one 
 of the two main causes that bring about such 
 movements in the East, war or famine, the Jats of 
 Scinde travelled southward about the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century of our era. 
 
 " Under the quasi-ecclesiastical Kalhora dynasty, 
 when Scindians composed the aristocracy as well 
 as the commonalty of the country, the Jats, in 
 consequence of their superior strength, their courage, 
 
 1 Both of these statements have been modified by subsequent 
 experience. The Jats are not immigrants, nor is their language 
 corrupt Panjabi. It is connected with the Sindhi ; but it wants those 
 intricacies and difficulties, and that exuberance of grammatical 
 forms, which, distinguishing the latter from its Prakrit sisters, 
 renders it so valuable for the philological comparison of the neo- 
 Aryan tongues. The vernacular of the Sindh Valley has preserved 
 many forms for which we vainly look in its cognates, and it is 
 notably freer from foreign admixture than any other of the North 
 Indian dialects, the Panjabi, Hindi, and Bengali of our day. It 
 has, in fact, remained tolerably steady to that first stage of de- 
 composition which attacked the Prakrit of the ancients. Hence 
 Dr. Trumpp (loc. cit.) holds it to be an immediate derivation from 
 the Apabhranshob) which the old grammarians placed lowest in the 
 scale of Prakrit speech. ''While all the modern vernaculars of 
 India," he says, " are already so degraded that the venerable mother 
 tongue (Sanskrit) is hardly recognizable in her degenerate daughters, 
 the Sindhi has, on the contrary, preserved most important fragments 
 of it, and erected for itself a grammatical structure which far 
 surpasses in beauty of execution and internal harmony the loose 
 and levelling construction of its sisters." 
 
H 1Re\>iew of 3Bataillart)'5 1Re\news 169 
 
 and their clannish coalescence, speedily rose to high 
 distinction. The chiefs of tribes became nobles, 
 officials, and ministers at court ; they provided for 
 their families by obtaining grants of ground, feoffs 
 incidental to certain military services, and for their 
 followers by settling them as tenants on their broad 
 lands. But the prosperity of the race did not last 
 long. They fell from their high estate when the 
 Belochis, better men than they, entered the country, 
 and began to appropriate it for themselves ; by 
 degrees, slow yet sure, they lost all claims to rank, 
 wealth, and office. They are now found scattered 
 throughout Scinde, generally preferring the south- 
 eastern provinces, where they earn a scanty sub- 
 sistence by agriculture ; or they roam over the barren 
 plains feeding their flocks upon the several oases ; 
 or they occupy themselves in breeding, tending, 
 training, and physicking the camel. With the 
 latter craft their name has become identified, a 
 Jat and a sarwan (camel-man) sounding synony- 
 mous in Scindian ears. 
 
 " The Jats in appearance are a swarthy and 
 uncomely race, dirty in the extreme, long, gaunt, 
 bony, and rarely, if ever, in good condition. Their 
 beards are thin, and there is a curious (i.e. Gypsy - 
 like) expression in their eyes. 1 They dress like 
 
 1 Every observer has noticed the Gypsy eye, which films over, as 
 it were, as soon as the owner becomes weary or ennuye ; it has also 
 a remarkable " far-off " glance, as if looking over and beyond you. 
 
170 
 
 Scindians, preferring blue to white clothes ; but they 
 are taller, larger, and more un-Indian in appearance. 
 Some few, but very few, of their women are, in 
 early youth, remarkable for soft and regular features ; 
 this charm, however, soon yields to the complicated 
 ugliness brought on by exposure to the sun, by 
 scanty living, and by the labour of baggage-cattle. 
 In Scinde the Jats of both sexes are possessed of 
 the virtues especially belonging to the oppressed and 
 inoffensive Eastern cultivation ; they are necessarily 
 frugal and laborious, peaceful, and remarkable for 
 morality in the limited sense of aversion to intrigue 
 with members of a strange Kaum. 1 I say in Scinde ; 
 this is by no means the reputation of the race in 
 the other parts of Central Asia, where they have 
 extended (or whence possibly they came). 2 The 
 term ' Jat ' is popularly applied to a low and servile 
 creature, or to an impudent villain ; and despite of 
 the Tohfat el Kiram, 3 a Beloch would consider 
 himself mortally affronted were you to confound his 
 origin with the caste which his ancestors deposed, 
 
 Borrow {The Zincali) describes it as a " strange stare like nothing 
 else in this world." And again he says that "a thin glaze steals 
 over it in repose, and seems to emit phosphoric light." It is cer- 
 tainly a marvellous contrast with the small, fat-lidded eye of the 
 Jew, the oblique and porcine feature of the Chinese, and the 
 oblong optic of the old Egypt which in profile looks like full face. 
 
 1 In the language of the Jat a Kaum is a clan. 
 
 2 The italicised words are in the second edition. 
 
 3 The author of this well-known Persian history of Sindh asserts 
 that the Jats and the Belochis are both sprung from the same 
 ancestors. 
 
H IRevtew of :BataUlarfc>'s 1Rev>iews 171 
 
 and which he despises for having allowed itself to 
 be degraded. The Brahins, Afghans, and Persians 
 all have a bad word to say of them." 
 
 Thus far M. Paul Bataillard has shown himself 
 only the carpet-slippered litterateur de cabinet, who 
 laboriously borrows from others, and who evidently 
 expects his second-hand labours to /aire epoque. 
 
 But my rival claimant, let me hasten to own, has 
 solid merits. His theory that Gypsy emigrations 
 are of ancient date, and probably of high antiquity, 
 deserves consideration. His later notices of the 
 Jats correct the vulgar error which made Taymur 
 the Tatar cause the first exodus of our " sorners." 
 He notes the especial hatred, possibly racial, nourished 
 by these Gentile vagrants against the other scattered 
 nation, the Jews. Other minor but still interesting 
 matters of which he treats are the history of the 
 Gypsies especially with respect to their slavery and 
 serfdom — Crown captives, not chattels personal ; 
 their periodical wanderings and visitings ; their 
 vestiges of faith ; their vernacular and humble 
 literature ; their private and tribal names suggesting 
 those of the modern Israelitic Synagogue ; and 
 their supplying the dancing-girls of the nearer 
 East, while in the lupanars of Europe a Gypsy girl 
 is unknown. 
 
 I now propose to run as rapidly as the subject 
 permits through M. Paul Bataillard's four papers 
 seriatim. The critique will not only notice 
 
172 
 
 XTbe <3£psg 
 
 novelties, but will also attempt to correct what 
 to a practical man appears to want correction in 
 connexion with the Gypsies. 
 
 § 2. " Dernier s Travaux, etc" 
 
 This paper treats chiefly of South-Eastern Europe, 
 which has been estimated to contain at least six 
 hundred thousand of the Roma — a number, by-the-bye, 
 wholly inadequate. The author's self-imposed limits 
 would be the western Slav frontier, a meridian 
 drawn from the southern bend of the Baltic to 
 the Adriatic head. Topographically disposed, upon 
 a line trending from east to west, the review deals 
 in its progress with writers mostly modern ; and 
 it forms an excerptive rather than an exhaustive 
 or even a summary bibliography. 
 
 The first of the two component parts travels 
 with the authorities who treat of Russia, Poland 
 and Lithuania, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Tran- 
 sylvania, the Banat, the Rumanian Principalities, 
 and Turkey, or rather Constantinople. The lands 
 about the Balkan Range, so unknown not many 
 years ago and now so much talked of, are justly 
 considered a second Gypsy patria, the " old home " 
 being India. The review is accompanied and 
 followed by side -glances at those who treat of 
 Finland and Norway, of Persia and Basqueland, 
 of Scotland and Holland, of Sicily and Italy, 
 which once owned an exceptional castrum Giptice. 
 
H 1Re\>iew of BatatllarVs tfteviews 173 
 
 This section ends with linguistic and ethnographic 
 remarks borrowed from many sources and specifying 
 a considerable number of requisites. 
 
 In the second part the critic reviews M. Alexandre 
 G. Paspati, D.M., a famous name in Gypsydom. This 
 learned Greek physician — one of the few children, 
 by-the-bye, who escaped the " gentle and gallant" 
 Turk in the foul Chios massacre of 1822 — was 
 educated in America, and is as highly distinguished 
 for his Indian and Byzantine as for his Gypsy studies. 
 The Etude, etc., of 1870, which continued and com- 
 pleted his elaborate memoirs (1857 — 1862), is the 
 work of a scholar who knew the Roma personally, 
 not of a mere litterateur. The book teemed with 
 novelties. For instance, it suggested that the article 
 (o or u ; i and e), as unknown to the Asiatic 
 Gypsy (?) as to the Sanskrit and the Prakrit, 
 had been borrowed by his European congener from 
 the Greek 6 and rj, thus suggesting long residence 
 in Hellas and familiarity with its people. Might 
 it not, however, have been a simple development 
 of ihd and uha, the demonstrative pronouns in 
 Jataki — this and that becoming the? But as all 
 Germanic, neo-Latinic, and Slav tongues have either 
 produced or borrowed an article, the same may have 
 been the case with the Gypsy, which comes from the 
 same root. 
 
 M. Paspati satisfactorily proved that the wandering 
 tribes of the Roma, e.g. the wild Zaparis or Dyaparis 
 
174 
 
 (Szapary P), 1 have preserved in Kumelia the langue 
 mere of their ancients, whereas the " domigence," 
 the sedentary dwellers in cities and towns, have 
 "falsified" the tongue. The same is said by the 
 Bedawin concerning the " Jumpers of Walls," the 
 settled Arabs. This part of the subject leads to 
 notices of Gypsy tales and legends, in which, by the 
 way, Gypsies rarely figure, and to other productions 
 of la pauvre Muse tsigane. 
 
 After some discursive matter, our critic passes 
 from M. Paspati to M. Bartalus, who has quoted 
 from certain very rare tracts {La Veritable origine, 
 etc., a.d. 1798 and 1800) on the rise of the 
 Gypsy nation. The Bohemiens, it appears, are 
 descendants of Cham or Ham, " which is ad- 
 missible " ; and, like their brethren, they were 
 damned by Noah. But, on the destruction of the 
 Plain cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, Adama and 
 Saboim — Segor being honourably excluded — Zoar and 
 its inhabitants were saved because they harboured 
 one Lot. The lands, however, were assigned to this 
 " patriarch " ; and the Hamites, being dispersed, 
 became Gypsies. Once more that myth of Noah ! — 
 for how much false anthropology is it not respon- 
 sible ? Again, we do not fail to meet another 
 old friend. The wicked king of Egypt appears 
 
 1 I cannot but suspect some connexion between the Gypsy tribal 
 name and that of the Counts Szapary, one governor of Fiume, and 
 the other commanding a corps d'armee in Bosnia. 
 
H 1Rex>tew ot :BataUlarfc's IRemevvs 175 
 
 in a famous " Pharaoh Soog," whilst in Iceland 
 he gave his name to a cavalry of seals. The 
 oath formula of the Hungarian Gypsies prescribed 
 by the courts was : " As King Pharaoh was engulfed 
 in the Red Sea, so may I be accursed and swallowed 
 up by the deepest abyss if I do not speak the truth ! 
 May no theft, no traffic, nor any other business 
 prosper with me ! May my horse turn into an ass 
 at the next stroke of his hoof, and may I end my 
 days on the scaffold by the hands of the hangman ! " 1 
 The critic then passes to a second and a remark- 
 able characteristic of the Gypsy race, the musical, 
 which is now becoming known throughout Europe. 
 At the Paris Exposition of 1878 the "nightin- 
 gales of Koursk," a troop of forty Roma from 
 Moscow, followed the Hungarian Cziganes, and 
 were equally admired. Even the celebrated Catalani 
 appreciated the Chinganeh girl of Moscow, "who 
 performed with such originality and true expression 
 the characteristic melodies of the tribe " ; and threw 
 over her shoulders a papal gift in the shape of a 
 rich Cashmere shawl. Most Englishmen now know 
 that Mr. Bunn's "Bohemian Girl," thus unhappily 
 translated from La Bohemienne of St. George, was 
 a Romni girl. The far-famed Abbe Liszt 2 attributed 
 to these "tinklers" the chief role in treating the 
 
 1 Die Einwandewng der Zigeuner in Europa. Ein Vortrag von 
 Carl Hopf. (Gotha, 1870.) 
 
 2 Des Bohemiens et de lew Musique en Hongrie. (Paris, 1859.) 
 
176 
 
 musical epopee ; but this opinion of the great master 
 is opposed by the artistic M. Bartalus. I, however, 
 incline to Liszt's view. Let me note that the popular 
 Romani word for musician, Lautar (plural Lautari), 
 may either be the Persian Luti, 1 or more probably 
 a deformed offspring of the Arabic El 'Aud, which 
 gave rise to our " lute." Our critic holds that 
 the Gypsy's music, like his tales and poetry, is his 
 own ; whilst the matter of the songs and ballads is 
 borrowed from Hungarians, Rumans, and even the 
 unimaginative Turk : he also points out that many 
 of the legends are cosmopolitan. When the Catalan 
 Gypsy, met by the author in 1869 at St. Germain, 
 told him that the etat (Dharma or religious duty) 
 of the Romni-chel, the "sons of women" {i.e. their 
 mothers), is to cheat their neighbours ; that they 
 learned this whole duty of man from St. Peter, 
 who as our Lord's servant habitually tricked and 
 defrauded his Master ; that le dieu Jesus, who 
 established all human conditions on the creation 
 day, had taught them, by example as well as precept, 
 to beg and to vagabond naked-footed ; that his tribe 
 were veritable Christians " who knew only God and 
 the Blessed Virgin " ; and that all these things were 
 written in the "Book of the Wanderings of our Lord," 
 — we recognize the old, old tale. The ancient Rom, 
 like a host of other facetious barbarians, was solemnly 
 
 1 Literally, a descendant from Lot ; popularly, a loose fellow, 
 a cad. 
 
H 1Rev>tew of Batatllarfc's 1Rev>iews 177 
 
 hoaxing a simple student, a credulous " civilizee." 
 Still the joke has its ethnological value ; it shows 
 that the pseudo-Christian saints of the Gypsy 
 Evangel are thieves and " sorners." Highly charac- 
 teristic also is the address to the Gypsy deity : 
 " Good, happy God of gold ! " On the other hand, 
 such laical legends of the Apostles are current 
 even amongst Christian peoples, from whom they may 
 have been kidnapped by the Roma. Witness the 
 French peasant's tale of Jesus and St. Peter, the 
 horseshoe and the cherries, which has for moral 
 the market value of thrift. 
 
 The supplementary article analyzes the scholarly 
 work of M. Franz Miklosich. 1 This erudite Slavist 
 whose only reproach is that he finds Slavism in 
 every place, distributes the Gypsies into twelve 
 linguistic groups, to which he assigns an in- 
 adequate total of six hundred thousand head. 
 Amongst the highly conservative Roma of Northern 
 Russia he detects, besides Russian and Polish, Ruman 
 and Magyar words, expressions borrowed from the 
 neo-Greek of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
 As these Hellenisms are also adopted by the Spanish 
 Gypsies, the natural deduction is that Greece gene- 
 rally formed an older home long inhabited by the 
 wanderers, who thence passed on vid Poland to Russia. 
 
 1 Ueber die Mundarten und Wanderungen der Zigeuner Eur opals. 
 Von Dr. Franz Miklosich Denkschriften der k. Akademie der 
 Wissenschaften. (Wien, 1872-77.) 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 But this theory, if proved to be fact, would not 
 invalidate the general belief that some Gypsy 
 tribes migrated through Egypt and Morocco into 
 Spain without crossing the Pyrenees. The Roma, 
 being " sturdy vagabonds," rather than true nomads, 
 would borrow from one another during their frequent 
 and regular meetings the terms wanting to their 
 scanty and barbarous speech. It appears rich enough 
 in material and sensuous expression, and the same 
 is notably the case with the wandering Arab and 
 the Turkoman. M. Paspati 1 notices that " the 
 [Rumelian] wanderer has more than forty words 
 for his tent and the implements of his trade." A 
 " Thieves' Latin " would not be required by these 
 bilinguals ; but for the purposes of concealment and 
 villainy they would readily adopt strange vocables. 
 Thus in the Scottish Lowlands they make their 
 English speech unintelligible by French and Gaelic, 
 Welsh and Irish insertions. As will appear, they 
 have invented in Egypt and Spain, and I believe 
 there only, a regular argot. Such irregularities 
 prevent our attributing much importance to the 
 general remark that the Gypsy dialect does not 
 return ; i.e. that the Polish Roma do not use Russian 
 terms, nor the Turkish Roma Magyar words. 
 
 Finally, M. Miklosich puts to flight the " Tamer- 
 lane tenet " of popular belief which would place 
 the last Gypsy exodus after a.d. 1399. He adduces 
 1 Etude, etc, p. 15 ; see also Dernier s Travaux, p. 37. 
 
B IReview of Batatllarfc's 1Rex>ie\vs 
 
 179 
 
 documentary evidence, the well-known donation 
 instruments of a.m. 6894 (= a.d. 1386-87) issued 
 by the Kings of Wallachia ; noting that during the 
 fifteenth century, and even between 1832 and 
 1836, the Principalities, which have still preserved 
 the Jewish disabilities, held the Gypsies to be a 
 Slav race. 
 
 The Dernier s Travaux has the merit of bringing 
 prominently forward the " hypothesis of Hasse," 
 advanced in 1803 and presently forgotten. It would 
 explain the purity of the Gypsy tongue by the 
 fact of these tinklers being settled in Europe ab 
 antiquo. It has often been remarked that the 
 farther we go eastward, and the nearer we approach 
 the cradle of the race, Sindh or Western India, the 
 more completely the language changes and degrades. 
 This is to be expected. The Jats living in close 
 contact with other dialects would necessarily modify 
 their own after the fashion of their neighbours ; such 
 is the rule of the world. The Roma have only two 
 ties : one is of blood, the love of " kith, kin, and 
 consequence " ; the other is of language which serves 
 to conceal his speech. During the dispersion of 
 centuries the Gypsies, surrounded by alien and hostile 
 races, would religiously adhere to the old tongue ; and 
 having a vital interest in preserving a secret instru- 
 ment, it would war against change. It is the 
 more necessary to insist upon this view, as our critic 
 expects to find after a separation of some four 
 
180 
 
 centuries the Jats or other tribes speaking pure old 
 Gypsy. The modern Gypsy may still represent the 
 ancient Jataki. Hence also the dialect of their 
 ancestors is dying out amongst the sedentary Roma. 
 M. Paul Bataillard has carefully separated, and 
 perhaps too curiously, the historical arrival of the 
 Gypsies in Western Europe and their establishment 
 in the south-eastern regions, Thrace, Dacia, etc. An 
 abuse of his theory makes him urge the identity of 
 his Tsigane with the mysterious Sicani who held 
 Sicily before the Siculi. These and other prehistoric 
 identifications have not yet been generally adopted. 
 
 Had M. Paul Bataillard reflected a little more, 
 he would not have advocated, considering the 
 extensive habitat of the Jats, the insufficient 
 theory of M. Ascoli — namely, that the Gypsies are 
 Sindhis who dwelt long in Hindustan ; nor would 
 M. Ascoli have omitted the widely spoken Jataki 
 from his list of neo-Indian tongues, which he unduly 
 reduces to seven. We should have been spared the 
 " conviction " that the Roma dwelt in Mesopotamia, 
 which was only one station on their way, Asia 
 Minor and the Lower Danube being the general 
 line of Aryan emigration ; that they are aborigines 
 of Kabul, in fact primitive Afghans, as supposed by 
 another French litterateur, whose lively imagination 
 strips him of all authority ; and, finally, that they 
 are " descendants of those ancient peoples of Bactriana 
 and Arya, successively conquered by Persians, Greeks, 
 
H 1Re\>iew of BataUlarfc's 1Rev>iews 181 
 
 Indogetae, and Afghans." A most trivial comparison 
 is made between Segor, the biblical city, and the 
 Gypsy name Cingani (Singani). When Professor 
 Pott and M. de Saulcy find " relationship " and 
 " close connexion " between Sanskrit and Romani- 
 chib, they should have explained that the latter is 
 a Prakrit or vulgar tongue with an Aryan vocabulary 
 reposing upon the ruins of a Turanian base. The 
 former, as its name shows, was a refined and city 
 language, never spoken, nor indeed understood, 
 by the peoples of India in general ; in fact, a 
 professor's speech, like the present Romaic of 
 the Athenian logiotdtoi. 
 
 The word Berber (Barbar), again, applied to the 
 Gypsies in Persia, means, according to its root, a 
 chatterer, patterer, or speaker of unintelligible cant. 
 It is the Sanskrit Varvvara, ^fr, a low fellow, a 
 savage, the Barbaros of the Greeks and Romans ; the 
 Berber, or Berber, of modern Hindustan ; 
 and the racial name of that great scattered people 
 the Barabarah, who stretch from the Nile Valley 
 to North-Western Africa. The lunar god, Raho, of 
 the Norwegian Gypsies is a palpable reminiscence 
 and survival of the demon Rahu. The Ghazieh of 
 Egypt are not " also called Beremikeh " ; 1 the 
 Baramikah are a substitute of the Ghagar. The 
 " Chungalo," the " Jungalo," and the " Zungalo " of 
 
 1 Here the mincing French pronunciation has done its very worst 
 wholly denaturalizing the Perso- Arabic word. 
 
182 
 
 Paspati, signifying a non-Gypsy, is evidently Jangali, 
 wild or sylvan (jungle) man, the popular title of 
 Europeans, especially of Englishmen, in India. Das 
 also, the term applied by the Roma to their Bul- 
 garian and Wallachian neighbours, bears a suspicious 
 resemblance to the Hindu Dashya and Dasa, vulgarly 
 Doss, a low caste or rather a no-caste man, supposed 
 to represent the original Turanian lords of the land. 
 
 Moreover, why assume with M. Paspati that 
 y, 0, and x are "Greek importations into the 
 Gypsy tongue"? Of these letters two are Arabo- 
 Persian : x * s = Kha, £ ; and y is = Ghayu, f ; the 
 gamma pronounced Ghamma in Romaic parlance 
 when preceding the open vowels, d and o. The third 
 generally corresponds with the Arabic Sa, <^>, pro- 
 nounced in Persian and Hindi as a simple Sin (s). 
 The critic, however, should not have told us, 
 " Le 6 repond asses bien au i th ' Anglais." Our 
 sibilant has two distinct sounds : one soft, as in thy, 
 answering to the neo-Greek S ; the other hard, as 
 in theme, = 6. The Gypsy Owa, Va (yes) bears 
 a suspicious resemblance to the vulgar Arabic 
 Aywa, contracted from Ay w' Allah — aye by Allah ! 
 A man must have absolutely no practical know- 
 ledge of the Rom or of his congener the " mild 
 Hindu " who can ask, " Les esprits grossiers 
 sont-ils done plus subtils que les nbtres ? " This 
 is the mere morgue and outrecuidance of Euro- 
 pean ignorance. Let the author try the process of 
 
H iRevrtew of Bataillarfc's IRetfewa 183 
 
 " finessing " upon the first lad, Jat or Sindhi, who 
 comes in his way, and he will readily be made to 
 understand my meaning. Finally, I venture to 
 throw out a hint that the " barbarous helot " may 
 preserve the tribal name Nath, ^nr, a mime. This 
 caste, with which the Gypsies used formerly to be 
 identified, 1 certainly did not represent the " wild 
 aboriginal inhabitants of India " ; they may have 
 Dravidian affinities, but they are certainly not of 
 Turanian blood. 
 
 § 3. " Origines, etc" 
 
 This paper was published in 1875, when M. Paul 
 Bataillard had the benefit of my letter to the 
 Academy ; and apparently its main object is to 
 prove that he preceded me in identifying the 
 Gypsies with the "Djatte" (Jats). It is divided 
 into three parts, which are four. No. 1 contains 
 the author's reclamation and his notice of Professor 
 de Goeje ; No. 2 works out more fully his own 
 theory of Gypsy origin ; No. 3 contains a " certain 
 and definitive explanation of the word Tsigane " ; 
 and No. 4, by way of colophon and endowment of 
 research, thrusts forward certain preachments upon 
 the direction of future inquiries for the benefit of 
 us rude practical men. 
 
 Of No. 1, I have already treated, and content 
 
 1 Asiat. Bes., VII. 451. 
 
184 
 
 myself with energetically objecting to the statement 
 that all who have treated about the peoples of the 
 Indine Valley have imagined either a possible or 
 a probable rapport between the Jats (not Juth) 
 and the Gypsies. M. Paul Bataillard again shows 
 that in 1850, when my paper was published in 
 1849, neither he nor Professor Fleischer knew 
 aught concerning the modern Sindhi Jats, a mere 
 section of the race, save the corruption of a 
 name. They were ignorant of its extensive habitat 
 scattered between the Indus mouths and the Tatar 
 Steppes. They had never learned that it speaks its 
 own peculiar dialect, which is like that of the Gypsies 
 and the Sindhi to a certain extent, Persico-Indian. 
 
 Part No. 2 becomes much more sensational. We 
 find that our critic's ideas have grown, and that the 
 antiquity of the Gypsies in South-Eastern Europe 
 extends deep into the misty regions of the past. In 
 1872 he merely alluded to the high importance 
 of the ethnic name Sindho or Sinto (feminine 
 Sindhi ; plurals Sindhe and Sindhiyan), " meaning 
 the great." Now he would identify them with the 
 aborigines of Lemnos, those " lords of Vulcan " 
 the SiVries — a word generally understood to signify 
 robbers (criVofuu). The connexion is brought about 
 because Homer describes these metal-workers as 
 speaking a wild speech (aypiojxovoi), and because 
 Hellanicus of Lesbos derives them from Thrace. 
 Two independent authorities — the original hypothesist 
 
H 1Re\>iew of :JBataUlar£>'6 1Rev>tews 185 
 
 Dr. Johannes Gottlieb Hasse in 1803, and M. Vivien 
 de Saint-Martin in 1847 — had suggested an idea 
 which M. Paul Bataillard borrowed and adopted. 
 The Tsigane represent, we are assured, not only 
 the Sicani of Sicily, but also the Siywcu, Siywoi, 
 Xiyivvoi, whom Herodotus places in the Caucasus, 
 Asia Minor, and Thrace. The broad gap of years 
 is bridged over, in the teeth of M. Paspati, by 
 means of certain mediaeval Byzantine heretics, the 
 'Adiyyavoi, Manicheeans like the Albigenses, the 
 Paulicians, and especially the dwellers in Bosnia 
 and its neighbourhood, also called Athigarii, Atin- 
 garii, Anthingarii, and Atingani ; and this only 
 because certain of the modern Greeks call their 
 Gypsies Athinganoi (' kdlyyavoi). Brosset 1 notices 
 that in the eleventh century, when King Bagrat 
 visited Constantinople, he there heard a marvel- 
 lous and wholly incredible thing ; namely, that 
 a tribe of the Samaritans descended from Simon 
 Magus, and called Atsinkan, were still infamous 
 for their evil-doings and sorceries. And then we 
 have a silly story of how the monk St. George of 
 Athos rendered all their poisons of no account. 
 
 Moreover, we are told, if the modern Tsigane 
 represent the Sinties and the Siginnoi, they must, 
 ergo, stand in the same relationship to certain 
 
 1 Histoire de la Gdorgie, Part I., p. 338. The modern Armenians 
 call the Gypsies Boscha, possibly from Bokcha, by which the 
 Bussian Gypsies denote Hungary. 
 
186 
 
 mysterious tribes inhabiting the Caucasus and 
 Western Asia, Egypt, the Levantine Islands, and the 
 Danubian basin. Thus we see the origin of the 
 Telchini, the Chalybes, and other " Cabiric peoples." 
 The latter has the disadvantage of being purely 
 Semitic, Kabir meaning " the great " applied to the 
 twelve Dii majores of the Phoenicians who sent 
 forth Kadmos (El Kadin) = the old or the great. 1 
 But let that pass. Our author proves his fact by 
 showing that these races, like the modern Roma, 
 were makers of weapons, especially the assegai or 
 javelin; whilst the Cabiri and the Telchini were 
 renowned for music and soothsaying. And how not 
 recognize the Troglodytic Sibyls of Asia Minor and 
 Egypt, of Greece, and especially Thrace, in the pure 
 Gypsy, when Si/^vWa is only a form of tcfivvr) or 
 Zifivvr], which naturally derives from Siyv*^, Siyiwos 
 = Tsigane? How not perceive that the Egyptian 
 prophetesses turned into black pigeons by Herodotus, 
 and the doves of Dodona, were not identical with 
 the Romni? 
 
 This becomes a disease — Tsigane on the brain ; 
 from which our author evidently suffers in an 
 acute form — so acute as to render his imagination 
 
 1 I am not a little surprised to see a scholar like Mr. Gladstone 
 declaring that "Kadmos signifies a foreigner" {Homer: Primer.) 
 The "Old One" with his sixteen letters is supposed by M. 
 Freret {Canon Chronologique) to have settled at Boeotian Thebes 
 in b.c. 1590, or some century and a half before Troy was founded 
 (b.c. 1425). 
 
H 1Rev>tew of UBataillar&'s IRevnews 187 
 
 most lively. To the unimaginative ethnologist 
 the " Sindhi " are simply the Sindh tribes of 
 Gypsies, so called from the Sindhu, that mighty 
 stream which gave to Europe a name for the 
 Indian Peninsula. Hence, indeed, some philologists 
 would derive the Spanish word Zincale (Zinkale), 
 making it a compound of Sindh and Kalo (plural 
 Kale, black) = dark men of Sindh. Rejecting this 
 treatment, we must consider it a tribal name like 
 Karachi (= lower Sindhian), Helebi (Aleppine), Luri 
 (from Luristan), and many others into which the 
 great Jat nation is divided. 
 
 But whilst we reject particulars, we must beware 
 how we treat the general theory. Tradition and 
 ethnological peculiarities, far stronger than philo- 
 logical resemblances or coincidences, tend to prove 
 that the earliest metal-workers and weapon-makers 
 were an Indine race whose immigration long pre- 
 ceded the movement of the last ethnic wave, the 
 Gypsy of history. Herodotus notices a caste or 
 corporation of ambulant founders and metal-workers 
 which came from Asia, possibly belonging to the 
 age called by M. de Mortillet de la chaudronnerie, 
 when the hammer took the place of simple fusion. 
 Modern research has shown that these prehistoric 
 artisans affected Gypsy habits like the caldereros 
 (coppersmiths) of the Roma in later ages. They 
 had no permanent abodes: their ateliers were not 
 inside the towns, but en plein champ near inhabited 
 
188 
 
 centres ; here they fashioned their new and recast 
 their old metal, bartering their works for furs, hides, 
 amber, and other articles of local provenance. Hence 
 M. Emile Burnouf 1 assumes these wandering work- 
 men of the Bronze Age to have been a Gypsy race ; 
 while the remarkable similarity, I may almost say 
 the identity, of the alloy suggests that it was the 
 produce of a single people. We must, however, be 
 careful how we accept his derivation from Banca 
 and Malacca of the prehistoric tin required for bronze. 
 It would first be supplied by the Caucasus mines to 
 a race of workmen migrating along the southern 
 base from the West to the East. The next source 
 of supply, before passing to Southern France, Spain, 
 and the Cassiterides, would be North -Western Arabia. 
 The Book of Numbers* distinctly mentions the 
 metal, placing it between iron and lead, as part 
 of the spoils taken by the children of Israel from 
 their cousins the Midianites (circ. B.C. 1450) ; 
 and the two Khedivial expeditions (a.d. 1877-78) 
 have brought home proofs that it may still be 
 found there. Indeed, I have a suspicion that the 
 " broken" people of Western Arabia are descended 
 from the ancient Gypsies who may have worked 
 the gold mines of Midian. 
 
 Part No. 3 corrects Professor de Goeje, M. Fagnan, 
 and myself in our several explanations of Tsigane. 
 
 1 44 L'Age de Bronze," Revue des Deux Mondes, July 15, 1877. 
 [* Chap. xxxi. 22.] 
 
H IRevtew of IBataUlarfc's 1Re\>iews 189 
 
 The exaggerated value attributed by M. Paul Bataillard 
 to bis own " typical proof and the material con- 
 firmation of all his system " seems to have hindered 
 his revelation ; and he insists upon it naively as if 
 it were proof of Holy Writ. Its venerable " hypothe- 
 tical origin " must be sought in the root chinav, 
 meaning to thrust, throw, fight, cut, kill, write, 
 and eject saliva. It survives in the word Sagaie 
 or Zagaie (our assegai) : the latter, when split in 
 two, contains a first part similar to sa^-itta, and a 
 second like gais (gee-sum), the heavy, barbed Gallic 
 javelin ; whilst the whole resembles the Amazonian 
 Sagaris, an axe. 
 
 In the name of the Prophet — figs ! This dreamery 
 is ushered in as usual by a whole page of dis- 
 cursive matter. The debased Romaic KaT&fieXos, 
 a " maker of javelins," used by a Byzantine poet of 
 the middle fourteenth century, is shown = Sigynos 
 = Tsigane. Kilinjirides, a Graecised form of the 
 Turkish Kilij-ji, or sword-maker, is the same word. 
 Let me here note that the " pure Turkish term 
 Kaldji," still used at Rhodes, is not the same as 
 Kilij-ji ; it is the bastard compound Arabic and 
 Turkish Kala'-ji, a tinsmith. Such are some of 
 the linguistic will-o'-the-wisps which have, I fear, 
 habitually misled our critic. 
 
 I must now consider the origin of the corrupted 
 " typical term " Tsigane, which M. Paul Bataillard 
 has converted into a " generic name." The old 
 
190 
 
 and obsolete derivations of the Zingaro, which with 
 various modifications prevails throughout Europe, 
 are the following. 1 Ciga or Siga, the seaport of 
 Mauretania Caesariensis, or the Ciga or Cija River 
 mentioned by Lucan ; the Magian Cineus ; Zeugitania 
 Regio (Zeugis) ; Singara, the Mesopotamian city ; 
 Zigera, a Thracian settlement ; the Zinganes, a 
 tribe inhabiting the Indus Delta (?) ; the Zigier 
 Province in Asia Minor ; and " the bird Cinclo " 
 (motacilla or wagtail), a " vagrant bird which 
 builds no nest," and therefore gave rise to the term 
 Cinli or Cingary. Less absurd is the derivation 
 from Singus, or Cingus, the chief of a horde 
 under " Tamerlane," who employed these men, not 
 as combatants, but camp-followers and to export 
 trains 2 (a.d. 1401). Arabshah, the biographer of 
 the great Tatar Amir, recounts a contrivance by 
 which in a.d. 1406 he rid his city (Samarkand) of 
 the rebellious Zingaros ; and the account of this 
 race shows a certain correspondence with the Gypsies. 
 Hence, probably, Borrow (The Zincali) tells us 
 that " the Eastern Gypsies are called Zingarri." 
 The word is quite unknown to Turkey and Persia. 
 In 1402 they accompanied the Sultan Bayezid on 
 
 1 Borrow ; El Gitanismo. 
 
 2 Tamerlane is our corruption of Taymur— i.e. long, limping 
 Taymur. The Gypsies call Asmodeus Bengui lango, the lame 
 devil, the devil on two sticks. Not a few Hungarian Chinganeh 
 accompanied the Napoleonic armies to Spain. 
 
H 1Rex>lew of EataUlarfc's tReviews 191 
 
 his invasion of Europe along the Danube, and thus 
 settled in Bulgaria and Old Servia. 
 
 What we know for certain is that the Gypsies 
 have been known in Persia from time immemorial 
 as Chinganeh, Professor de Goeje writes the 
 
 word Tsjengan (Chengan), and would explain it by 
 the Persian plural of Tsenj, a musician, a dancer. 
 Is this word intended for Chang, a harp, or for 
 Zang, in Arabic Zanj, a Kalo, a " black man," as 
 the Gypsy is still called in England ? Chinganeh 
 in Syria becomes Jinganeh, the Semites having no 
 ch ; and the term now applies, not to the Gypsies 
 generally, but to a small and special tribe. The 
 Greek and Romaic 'Ar&yyavos and '&diyyavos y cor- 
 ruptions of Chinganeh, are, as we have seen by 
 Atsinkan, as old at Constantinople as the eleventh 
 century. In Turkish the word is written as in 
 Persian, but the pronunciation changes to Chingyaneh ; 
 M. Paspati adopts Tchinghiane, the Turco-French 
 corruption, with the e = eh. Hence evidently the 
 Hungarian Czigan (Czigany, Cziganyok, Czingaricus, 
 etc.), and the Transylvanian Cingani, which appears 
 in writings of the fifteenth century ; the former 
 evidently engendered M. Bataillard's bastard Tsigane. 
 The Poles turned Chinganeh into Cygan (Cyganaeh, 
 Cyganskiego, etc.), and the Russians into Zigan. 
 Here we see the Italian Ciano, Cingano, and Zingano, 
 the older forms of Zingaro and the Portuguese 
 Cigano. 
 
192 
 
 The Spanish Zincali is derived by Borrow from 
 two Gypsy words meaning " Kale " (the black 
 men) of Zend (Sind or Ind), a theory perfectly 
 inadmissible. The Iberian Gitano, now a term 
 of opprobrium, is probably a survival of the racial 
 name, and not a corruption of the older Egyp- 
 ciano, the Basque Egipcioac. The latter, evidently 
 from Aigyptos, iEgyptus, Egypt, an " Egyptian," 
 is itself a corruption of Kupt, kj, in modern 
 parlance a Copt. Hence the Turks also call their 
 vagrants Kupti or Gupti. Hence also r^ros in 
 Romaic applies indifferently to a Gypsy or a black- 
 smith, and hence finally our Gypsy, which should be 
 pronounced with a hard g, and written as by the older 
 writers Gypsy. All four derive from a different root, 
 the Egyptian. 
 
 As regards the German Zigeuner and its older 
 forms Secane and Suyginer (fifteenth century), Pro- 
 fessor de Goeje would derive it from Sjikari (Syikari), 
 as he writes Shekari, a huntsman, much reminding 
 us of that diction which confounds " srimp " with 
 " shrimp." The word means a wanderer, and seems 
 to derive from the root that gave us zig-zag. The 
 Dutch call these Indians Heiden af Egyptiers ; the 
 French Egyptiens, but preferably Bohemiens, show- 
 ing what they believed to be the last halting -place 
 of the tribe before it passed on to Western Europe. 
 A curious irony of fate has connected in the Gallic 
 mind the old land of the Boii with all that is wild 
 
B IReview of :JBataUlarfc's 1Re\>iews 193 
 
 and unsettled, when its sons are the stiffest and 
 the most priggish of the Austro-German beamier 
 class. 
 
 Not a few commentators on the Bible 1 have 
 believed the Gypsies to be that "mixed multi- 
 tude " which has done so much for romantic 
 ethnology. This medley, the Hebrew's ha- 
 saphsuph, corresponding with the Arabic Habash 
 (Abyssinian), we are told "went up also with 
 the Jews out of Egypt." The learned add that 
 they marched eastward to India, became veritable 
 Aryans, retraced their steps to Misraim, the two 
 Egypts, upper and lower, and thence spread over 
 Europe. 
 
 For the first set of words, Tsigane included, I hold 
 Chinganeh to be the origin, owning at the same time 
 my inability to determine the root or history of the 
 word. For the second, whose type is Gitano, I think 
 it probable that the wanderers may have modified 
 their racial name J at and its adjective Jaidni into 
 the semblance of Egyptian at the time when they 
 represented themselves to be descendants of the old 
 Nile dwellers and to speak? an ; Egyptian (Coptic) 
 dialect. The Jugo-Slav tongues abound in similar 
 instances of conversion, vernacular and significant 
 terms being often applied to the older terms of 
 conquered or occupied countries. For instance, 
 
 1 For instance, Roberts on\Ezekiel (chaps, xxix. and xxx.). 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 Aurisina, the Roman station near Trieste, became 
 Nabresina, from na-brek = ad montem. 
 
 Returning to M. Paul Bataillard, we find him 
 declaring that the Gypsies are generically Chamites 
 (descendants of Ham !), and specifically Kushites, 
 " who lived long enough under the 'Aryas in 
 the Indus region to lose their Kushite tongue 
 and to adopt an Aryan dialect." This immense 
 assertion, made perfunctorily, as it were, and without 
 acknowledgment of its source, is worthy of the 
 eighteenth century and its " mixed multitude " 
 borrowed from the Book of Exodus. What the 
 learned Movers (Geschichte d. Phcenicier) said of the 
 " Kushites " was that, originally from India, they 
 migrated in prehistoric days westwards, allied them- 
 selves with the Semites, and became the peoples 
 speaking such Aryo-Semitic tongues as the Egyptian 
 and Coptic, Himyaritic and Ghiz. To believe that 
 this also was the history of the Gypsy movement is 
 to hold that, whilst other " Kushites " changed their 
 physique and their morale, their eyes and hair, 
 their cheekbones and figures generally, the Gypsies 
 have remained pure Indians without a trace of 
 other blood. 
 
 A word here upon this " Kushite" theory, which 
 has been accepted by men of the calibre of Heinrich 
 Brugsch Bey. It appears to be simply a labour- 
 saving institution, in fact what algebraists call 
 supposer un inconnu, a pure assumption which spares 
 
H lRe\>tew of JSataillar&'s 1Rev>tew9 195 
 
 the pains of working out the origination of the 
 so-called Aryo-Semitic races. These Kushites, who 
 were they? Where are they mentioned in history 
 or legend as emigrants from the plains of Hindustan 
 to the north-eastern angle of Africa ? What traces 
 have they left upon the long route across Western 
 Asia which connects the Indus with the Nile ? How 
 came it that, without marking their exodus by a 
 single vestige of civilization, they began at once to 
 hew the obelisks and build the pyramids in their new 
 home, the chef-tfceuvres of artistic Egypt's golden 
 age ? No answer to such objections as these. 
 
 In Part No. 4, concluding the paper, M. Paul 
 Bataillard attempts to conciliate his " principal 
 thesis " with the views of M. de Goeje. The Leyden 
 professor opines that the first colonies of Djatts 
 (Jats) were founded amongst the Persians and 
 -Arabs of the seventh century ; and M. Fagnan also 
 speaks of inscriptions in Buddhist characters treating 
 of the Jats in the fourth and fifth centuries. The 
 tribal name, corrupted by Arabization, appears in the 
 " Canal of the Zott " (Zutt) near Babylon, and in 
 the " Zott-land." Families of " Zotts " were trans- 
 planted to Syrian Bosra, Bostra, or Old Damascus 
 during the earliest Muslim conquests in the seventh 
 century (circ. a.d. 670), not in the ninth (a.d. 855), as 
 our author had determined. About a.d. 710 " Zotts " 
 and Indians were transferred from the Indus to the 
 Tigris (Khuzistan) ; and between a.d. 714 and 720 
 
196 
 
 a certain number were sent with their four thousand 
 buffaloes — " which make the lion fly (!) " — to colonize 
 the Antioch regions. Hence possibly the name of 
 the large tribe which is known in Egypt and else- 
 where as "El H'aleb," or "Helebi, the Aleppine." 
 They waxed powerful enough in their new posses- 
 sions to contend with the Caliphat till a.d. 820 
 — 834, when they were subjugated, and some 
 twenty-seven thousand were transplanted to Bagdad. 
 Thence they were sent north-eastwards to Khanikin 
 and westwards to Ayin-Zarba (?) in Syria, a place 
 subsequently (a.d. 855) captured by the Byzantines ; 
 and finally the "Zott" and their belongings were 
 carried off and dispersed throughout the empire. 
 
 So far so good. But our critic appends a rider 
 to Professor de Goeje's tale. He owns that this race, 
 Zott or Jats, may have transformed itself into Gypsies 
 — not difficult, as they were Gypsies. But he con- 
 tends that they formed a feeble modern addition to 
 his " Kushites," to the race which was represented ab 
 antiquo by the Sicani and Sinties et hoc genus omne. 
 
 Further let me note en passant the vulgar error 
 now obsolete which, confounding Hindi with the Urdu- 
 Zaban or camp dialect, 1 made the former a bastard 
 modern tongue when its literature is as old as the 
 earliest English and French. And here we may note 
 
 1 An Urdu-Zaban has been formed in Italy, where the soldiers 
 drawn from a multitude of provinces, each speaking its own dialect, 
 not to say patois, have developed a special speech. The officers are 
 obliged to study this " pidjin-Italian." 
 
H 1Rcvic\x> of Sataillarb's 1Re\ne\vs 197 
 
 that, while the Romni-chib is in point of vocabulary 
 a sister of the Hindi, the grammar of the noun 
 with its survival of regular cases belongs to a 
 more remote age. It is partly Prakrit and partly 
 Sindhi, a dialect whose numerous harsh consonants 
 make us suspect, despite Dr. Trumpp, a non -Aryan 
 element. Besides the prehistoric occupation of the 
 trans-Indine regions by the Indo-Scythians noticed in 
 Alexander's day, we find another dating from far later 
 times. The Bactrian kingdom which became indepen- 
 dent sixty-nine years after the great Macedonian's 
 death lasted one hundred and thirty years, and 
 was destroyed about B.C. 126 by the " white Huns," 
 Chinese Tatars, who crossed the Jaxartes. Hence 
 possibly the Dravidian Brahins still dwelling in the 
 midst of Aryan populations. The apparent anomaly 
 that the wild and vagrant Gypsies have preserved 
 in Europe ancient forms which have died out in the 
 old home has already been accounted for ; I may 
 also number amongst the causes of conservation the 
 total want of a written character, which also proves 
 the early date of the Gypsy exodus. 
 
 § 4. u Notes et Questions , etc." " Sur le mot 
 Zagaie, etc." 
 
 I treat of Nos. 4 and 5 out of order of date 
 because they are mere ausflugs illustrating Nos. 3 
 and 6. From the first we learn that w r hen the 
 
198 
 
 French occupied Algiers in 1830 they found the 
 city and its territory partly occupied by Gypsies, 
 who did not mix with the Arabs or the Kabyles 
 (Kabail or the Tribes), with the Jews or the 
 Europeans. They spoke their own tongue, and they 
 were often visited by their congeners of Hungary 
 and other parts of Europe. It is conjectured that 
 these Roma may have passed over from Spain, and 
 possibly that they travelled eastward from Morocco, 
 as Blidah contains many of the race. The question 
 becomes interesting when we find the Egyptian 
 Ghagar claiming to be emigrants from the West. 
 According to the Librarian of Algiers, the late 
 M. Berbruger in 1846, they were known as Guesani, 
 pronounced G'sani or G'zane (Gezzani), the feminine 
 singular being Gezzana (Gezzaneh). 1 Here of course 
 M. Paul Bataillard finds no difficulty in detecting, 
 through Dzana and Ts&na, " a corruption of the 
 true name Tsigani or Tchingani" The latter 
 form, I would observe, retaining the nasal of the 
 original Chinganeh and the Arabized Jinganeh, is 
 far preferable to the mutilated Tsigane adopted 
 afterwards (1875) with so much pomp and such a 
 flourish of trumpets. 
 
 A family dislodged from a house in the present 
 Rue de Chartres was found lying upon the straw 
 surrounded by human skulls, serpents, and other 
 
 1 The feminine plural is not given ; analogy would suggest it to 
 be Ghanazineh. 
 
H IReview of Batatllarfc's 1Re\>iews 199 
 
 instruments of their craft. Whilst being evicted 
 they noisily threatened their molesters with all 
 manner of devilry; but as usual they ended by 
 submitting. The men apparently had no occupation ; 
 the women used to wander about the streets in small 
 parties, generally a matron followed by four or five 
 girls, crying, " Gezzaneh ! who wants to know the 
 future ? " 1 The Durke, 2 or pythoness, carried a 
 tambourine ; and when divining she placed upon her 
 drum-head a bit of alum and of charcoal, with 
 pebbles, beans or grains, wheat and barley ; these 
 represented the " elements," water, fire, and earth, 
 thus showing that the process was a rude form of 
 the Arab's geomancy. Sometimes the " spae-wife " 
 made passes over the consultee's head, holding in 
 her hand a lump of sugar ; this reminds us of 
 the magicians in Morocco and Egypt and their 
 mesmerized " clear-seers." Between 1837 and 1838 
 these Gypsies retired into the Sahara or Desert ; and 
 now they visit the city only in caravans. Their 
 women, tattooed and painted like the Bedawiyyah, 
 are generally robed in rags and tatters, and decorated 
 with the usual tinsel, rings, and hangings. 
 
 An interesting subject, but by no means easy of 
 treatment, would be the order of Dervishes known as 
 
 1 The same cry used by the Egyptian Gypsies : see Von Kremer's 
 Notes. 
 
 3 Literally, a far-seer. The Persian word diir, far or distance, 
 Germ, dart and Engl, forth, is familiarly used in Hindustani, and its 
 compound forms are frequent in Turkish. 
 
200 
 
 Aissaoua, also " called Adrd, from the name of one 
 of their festivals." 1 They have been noticed by a 
 multitude of writers each more ignorant than the 
 other. These men are probably Gypsies, to judge 
 by analogy with the Rifa'i Dervishes, who will be 
 noticed under the head of Egypt. The same may 
 be said of the Nailette, the Almah (Alimeh) or 
 dancing-girl of Algiers, who affiliates herself with 
 the Aulad Na'il, the large and wealthy Bedawin tribe 
 occupying the inner regions. Similarly the Nawar 
 Gypsies farther east derive themselves from the Beni 
 Nawar. These Nailettes are public when young, yet 
 in after-life they become faithful wives ; the same 
 is said of the Egyptian Ghagar and the nach-girls 
 of India. According to one authority, there are 
 among the Mozabites two or three Gypsy tribes that 
 live by prostituting their women to caravans. It 
 is curious to compare the rigid chastity of the 
 Gypsy girls in England and Spain, indeed in Europe 
 generally, where a lapse would lead to certain death, 
 with their looseness of life elsewhere. But the Roma 
 is une race curieuse entre toutes, and both extremes 
 may be expected from it. 
 
 It remains only to treat of No. 5, which discusses 
 the origin of the word Zagaie or Sagaie, the Spanish 
 and Portuguese Azagaia, a small kind of Moorish 
 spear which we have named assegai, transferring it to 
 
 1 The Id el Zuhd, alias Kurban Bayram, the festival of the yearly 
 pilgrimage to Mecca. 
 
H 1Re\>few of Batatllarfc's 1Re\news 201 
 
 the~ throwing dart of the Basetu or Kafir race. We 
 have seen (§3) that M. Paul Bataillard has fathered 
 upon this term the mysterious racial name Tsigane 
 (Chinganeh), and there is no reason to repeat what 
 has been said of his derivation. We may accept 
 his dictum : " There are words whose history would, 
 if known, throw vivid light upon human migrations 
 and the affinity of peoples in very ancient ages." But 
 here we find, in lieu of illumination, outer darkness. 
 The comparison of Zagaie, Gaesum, and Gais is bad 
 enough ; but it is worse to transport the assegai 
 into South American speech. Demersay, describing 
 the Paraguayan tribe of " Payagas " (the Payaguas 
 or Canoe Indians), calls their lance Pagaie, " which," 
 remarks our author, " may, it appears, be permitted 
 to me to identify with Sagaie." This is again 
 transcendental etymology applied to ethnic misuse. 
 Pagaie here is simply the popular European, and 
 especially French, corruption of Tacape or Tangape, 
 the paddle-club of ironwood sharpened to serve as a 
 sword, and used by all the maritime tribes of Eastern 
 South America. Finally Korik, the bellows, so called 
 by the Gypsies of Asia Minor, is not Turkish, but a 
 corruption of the Arabic Kor. 
 
 Here ends my long notice of M. Paul Bataillard's 
 four papers ; the novelties introduced into them will, 
 it is hoped, be held to justify the prolixity. 
 
part II 
 
 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE GYPSIES 
 AND THE J ATS 
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE GYPSY IN EUROPE 
 
 3EFORE proceeding to the topographical portion 
 
 -L^ of my subject, it may be well to review summarily 
 the historical accounts of the Roma who overspread 
 Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 Grellman, a classic upon the subject of " Chingano- 
 logy," 1 proved that the last movement to Western 
 Europe set out, not from Bohemia, but from Hungary 
 and the adjacent countries, including (Old) Rumelia 
 and Moldavia. In 1417 some three thousand settled 
 in Moldavia, whilst late in the same year hordes of 
 Tatars, then so called, appeared before the gates 
 of the Hanseatic towns on the Baltic coast, first 
 Luneburg, and then Hamburg, Lubeck, Wismar, 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 1 Histoire des Bohemiens, French Translation of 1810. 
 202 
 
Historical Survey of tbe 6spss in Europe 203 
 
 Rostock, and Stralsimd. 1 Next year they migrated 
 to middle Germany, to Meissen, Leipzig, and Hesse ; 
 and presently turned their steps towards Switzerland, 
 entering Zurich on August 1, 1418. There they 
 divided their forces. One detachment crossed the 
 Botzherg, and suddenly appeared as " Saracens " 
 before the Provencal town of Sisteron. The main 
 body, led by " the dukes, the earls, and a bevy of 
 knights," * turned towards Alsace, swarmed through 
 Strasburg, and halted under the walls of Nuremburg. 
 
 It is not easy to determine the date of their 
 arrival in Spain, where they may have dwelt in 
 far more ancient times ; indeed, during the fifteenth 
 century the Iberian Peninsula was popularly sup- 
 posed to be their birthplace. 2 On the other hand, 
 many Spaniards believe them to be Germans, and 
 called their tongue " Germania," Gypsy German. 
 
 In 1433 they invaded Bavaria; and thence they 
 spread over Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. 
 
 Their first appearance in French Christendom 
 
 1 The Edinburgh Bevietv, " Origin and Wanderings of the Gypsies," 
 July, 1878, adopted the opinion of P. Bataillard that a single scout- 
 ing-party was in Europe between 1417 and 1427. 
 
 [* " They appeared in various bands, under chiefs, to whom they 
 acknowledged obedience, and who assumed the titles of dukes and 
 earls " ( Weissenburch).] 
 
 2 The opinion is refuted by Francisca de Cordova ; yet the Histoire 
 de Los Gitanos, by J. N., published in Barcelona 1832, expressly says 
 that the Gitanos, whom he has specially distinguished from the 
 Gypsies descended from the Arab or Moorish tribes, came from 
 the coast of Africa as conquerors at the beginning of the eighth 
 century. 
 
204 
 
 seems to be when a tribe of one hundred and thirty- 
 two souls, under " a duke," " a count," and ten 
 " knights," startled the people of Paris, August 17, 
 1427. Pasquier, an eye-witness, who records the 
 arrival of these " Christian penitents " at Paris, 
 where they lodged in La Chapelle, outside the city, 
 gives them ugly features, with crisp black hair.* If 
 he be correct, the horde either must have sojourned 
 long in Africa, or must have had intercourse with 
 negro and negroid. There is no more constant 
 characteristic of the modern Gypsy, after his eye, 
 than the long, coarse, black Hindu-Tatar hair. 
 
 From an old work 1 it would seem that the Gypsies 
 drifted to England about 1500, though this is 
 uncertain. The writer, in his book published in 
 1612, says: "This kind of people about a hundred 
 years ago began to gather an head about the 
 southern parts. And this I am informed and can 
 gather was their beginning : Certain Egyptians [sic] 
 banished their country (belike not for their good 
 condition) arrived here in England ; who for quaint 
 tricks and devices, not known here at that time 
 among us, were esteemed and held in great admira- 
 ls* Hoyland writes : " When they arrived in Paris, nearly all of 
 them had their ears bored, with one or two silver rings in each, 
 which they said were esteemed ornaments in their own country. 
 The men were black, their hair curled ; the women remarkably black, 
 and all their faces scarred " (Historical Survey of the Gypsies).] 
 
 1 A quarto work by S. E., published to detect and expose the 
 " art of juggling " in 1612. 
 
historical Survey of tbe C&spss in Europe 205 
 
 tion; insomuch that many of our English loiterers 
 joined with them, and in time learned their crafty 
 cozening. The speech which they used was the 
 right Egyptian [sic] language, with whom our 
 Englishmen conversing at least learned their 
 language." 
 
 We first hear of them in Italy in the early part 
 of the fifteenth century. On July 11, 1422, a horde 
 of fully one hundred, led by a "duke," encamped 
 before Bologna, passing by Forli, where some of them 
 maintained they came from India. At Bologna these 
 " mild Hindus " represented that they were bound on 
 an expiatory visit to the Pope. 
 
 Elsewhere they became " penitents," who, expelled 
 by the Saracens from their homes in Lower Egypt, 
 had confessed themselves to his Holiness, and had 
 been condemned to seven years' wandering and dis- 
 persion by way of penance. Thus was visited upon 
 their heads the crime of those " perverse pagans " 
 their forefathers, who refused a drink of water to 
 the Virgin and Child flying from the wrath of 
 Herod. This was only fourteen centuries after, and 
 we know that lenta ira deorum est. There was 
 quoted concerning them the forty years' dispersion 
 of Ezekiel : " And I will make the land of Egypt 
 desolate in the midst of the countries that are 
 desolate, and her cities among the cities that are 
 laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will 
 scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will 
 
206 
 
 xrbe Gepss 
 
 disperse them through the countries" (xxix. 12). 
 The prophet's minatory ravings against the old 
 Egyptians, who had been a " staff of reed to the 
 house of Israel," were also recalled to explain their 
 bondage and vagabondage. Hence some declared 
 that it was sinful to maltreat these pseudo -pilgrims. 
 
 The Gypsies travelled to Rome and secured a 
 papal safe-conduct twenty years after their first 
 appearance at Bologna. Hypocritical legend secured 
 them passes and passports from the European powers 
 who were then engaged in the perilous Ottoman 
 Wars. They were more or less supported by the 
 Emperor Sigismund and the bishop of the same 
 name, who, a.d. 1540, at Fiinf-Kirchen employed 
 them in casting iron and cannon-balls for the 
 benefit of the Turks ; by Ladislas II., King of 
 Hungary, and other potentates. The Gypsies doubt- 
 less imitated the Jews in hedging between the two 
 belligerents, and in betraying both of them for 
 their own benefit ; and this doubtless was part of 
 the cause of the persecution which the two scattered 
 races endured. Purely religious movements of the 
 kind are rare in history; but they are numerous 
 when religion mixes itself, as it ever has and always 
 will, with politics. 
 
 Presently public opinion changed, and the natural 
 reaction set in. Lorenzo Palmireno, a.d. 1540, 
 declared in one of his books " that the Gypsies 
 lie," and the lives they led were not of penitents, 
 
fbtetortcal 5un>es of tbe (Sspss in Europe 207 
 
 but of "dogs and plunderers." They were now 
 loaded with all the crimes of the Middle Ages — 
 espionage in the cause of the infidel, incendiarism, 
 professional poisoning and other forms of assassina- 
 tion, cannibalism, sorcery and bewitching, blasphem- 
 ing God and the saints, and personal intercourse 
 with the foul fiend in the shape of a grey bird. 
 
 In 1499, shortly after the institution of the Holy 
 Office, a.d. 1481, and the expulsion of the Jews, 
 a.d. 1492, the " Great Pragmatic," signed by 
 Ferdinand and Isabella at Medina del Campo under 
 the influence of Jimenez de Cisneros, the archbishop 
 who disgracefully broke faith with the Moors of 
 Grenada, formally attacked the vagrant race. 1 It 
 decreed that the Egyptians and stranger tinkers, 
 caldereros, should settle as serfs for sixty days, 
 and after that time leave the kingdom under severe 
 personal penalties. This decree was renewed under 
 Charles V. by the Cortes of Toledo, in 1523, and 
 of Madrid, in 1528, 1534, and 1560, with the 
 condition that " those found vagabonding for the 
 
 1 For the special persecutions in Spain and Portugal under 
 Philip III. (1619), Philip IV. (1633), Charles II. (1692), and Philip V. 
 (1726), whose decrees prevailed until 1749, see El Gitanos. [" German 
 writers say that King Ferdinand of Spain, who esteemed it a good work 
 to expatriate useful and profitable subjects — Jew and even Moorish 
 families — could much less be guilty of an impropriety in laying hands 
 on the mischievous progeny of the Gypsies. The edict for their 
 extermination was published in the year 1492. But instead of passing 
 the boundaries, they only slunk into hiding-places, and shortly after 
 appeared in as great numbers as before " (Hoyland).] 
 
208 
 
 third time should become the life slaves of their 
 captors." Under the timorous Philip III., 1619, the 
 Professor of Theology to the Toledo University, 
 Dr. Sancho de Moncada, addressed a discourse to 
 the king justifying the wholesale slaughter of the 
 race, even women and children, by the dictum, " No 
 law pledges us to bring up wolf-cubs." 
 
 Following the lead of the Catholic kings, the Diet 
 of Augsburg, 1500 — 1548, revoking all previous con- 
 cessions, banished the Gypsies from the Holy German 
 Empire under similar conditions. This ordinance 
 was also revived in 1530, in 1544, in 1548, in 1551, 
 and in 1577, the last time confirmed by a police 
 regulation at Frankfurt. In 1545 the Superior 
 Tribunal of Utrecht punished a Gypsy who had 
 disobeyed a decree of exile^ by flogging until blood 
 was drawn, by splitting his nostrils, and by shaving 
 his head before he was driven to the frontier.* 
 
 In England the liberal and Protestant Henry VIII. f 
 sanctioned an Act of Parliament persecuting the 
 
 [* <k Even at the present day a Gypsy in many parts of Germany 
 is not allowed to enter a town ; nor will the inhabitants permit 
 him to live in the street in which they dwell " (Simson).] 
 
 [t " An outlandish people, calling themselves Egyptians, using no 
 craft nor feat of merchandise, who have come into this realm, and 
 gone from shire to shire, and place to place, in great company ; and 
 used great subtlety and crafty means to deceive the people— bearing 
 them in hand that they, by palmistry, could tell men's and women's 
 fortunes ; and so have deceived the people for their money ; and 
 also have committed many heinous felonies and robberies" (22 
 Henry VIII., c. 10).] 
 
historical Survey of tbe (Bspss in Europe 209 
 
 Gypsies to extermination; and it was renewed by- 
 Philip and Mary, and by Elizabeth. 
 
 Francis I. of France followed the example of his 
 neighbours ; and under Charles IX. the persecution 
 was renewed by the States- General assembled at 
 Orleans, 1561, who decreed extermination by steel 
 and fire. Another and similar edict appeared in 
 1612. Charles V., besides his proclamations in Spain 
 and Germany, condemned the Gypsies of the Nether- 
 lands to enrolment under pain of death, and this 
 was confirmed by the States-General in 1582. 
 Fanatic Poland in 1578 issued a law forbidding 
 hospitality to Gypsies, and exiling those who received 
 them. Pius V. showed himself equally inhuman, 
 and the Roma were driven from the duchies of Parma 
 and Milan, from the republic of Venice, and the 
 kingdom of Denmark. Sweden distinguished herself 
 by the severest laws of expulsion in 1662, 1723, 
 and 1727. 
 
 From these barbarities arose the Gypsies' saying, 
 " King's law has destroyed the Gypsy law." The 
 latter consisted of fidelity to one another ; the code 
 contained only three commandments, of which the 
 first two were addressed to women : 
 
 "Thou shalt not separate from the Rom (Gypsy 
 law)." 
 
 "Thou shalt be faithful to thy Rom." 
 " Thou shalt pay thy debts to the Rom." 
 These Draconian laws against the Gypsies died out 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 during the development of civilization, and received 
 their death-blow at the hands of the great and glorious 
 French Revolution, 1789. 
 
 I propose now to collect a series of notices upon 
 the subject of the Gypsies and the Jats which are not 
 readily procurable by students ; many are obtained 
 from books little known to the public, and not a few 
 are gathered by myself. And with a view of intro- 
 ducing some order into the scattered tribes, we will 
 begin from the farthest East, the old home. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE GYPSY IN ASIA 
 
 § 1. The Panjabi Jats 
 E find the Jats well and copiously described 
 
 " * as early as 1835 by Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. 
 Sleeman. 1 He called them " Jats," with a long vowel, 
 and treats them everywhere as low caste, or rather 
 no-caste, Hindus. Their original habitat was upon the 
 Indus about Multan, one of the headquarters of Hindu 
 fable, and thence they spread to the Jumna and the 
 Chumbul Valleys. They were alternately robbers 
 and peaceful peasants until about a.d. 1658, when 
 they plundered the ill-fated Dara Shikoh, son of 
 Shah Jehan, the Moghol. Enriched by this feat, 
 they became the nobles and rajahs of the land ; and 
 they expended vast sums in building forts like 
 Bharatpur, Matras, and Gohud, and on public works 
 like the quadrangular garden at Dig. Incited by a 
 love of conquest and plunder, and united by a feeling 
 of nationality, which may be called patriotism, they 
 would have become, but for the Marattas and for the 
 
 1 Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Officer, etc. (London : 
 Hatchard.) 
 
 211 
 
212 
 
 English, the dominant race in India. Fate, however, 
 was against them, and those dwelling between the 
 Indus and the Jumna merged into the Nanah-Shakis 
 or Sikhs. As regards the origin of his " Jats," 
 Colonel Sleeman reminds us that Sultan Mahmoud 
 carried back with him to Hindustan in a.d. 1011 
 some two hundred thousand captives, the spoils of 
 his expedition. 
 
 The way of the new faith presently converted 
 powerful subjects and industrious peasantry into a 
 fighting caste, and every Jat became a soldier. On 
 the other hand, those lying along the Jumna and 
 the Chumbul, never having been inspired with the 
 martial spirit or united under any conqueror, con- 
 tinued to drive the plough. Thus external influence 
 combined to make the Jats restless, and gradually 
 they turned their steps westward. 1 
 
 Again, Ghenghis Khan, in a.d. 1206, and his 
 descendant Turmachurn, who in a.d. 1303 invaded 
 India and carried off hosts of prisoners, may have 
 given impulse to the current westward. Lastly, 
 about two centuries after, the great Conqueror whom 
 Europe has apparently determined by sectarian nick- 
 name, " Tamerlane," swept over Northern India in 
 a.d. 1398 — 1400, and his horde must have caused 
 a wide scattering of the weaker tribes. 
 
 The Jats, I may here notice, inhabited the Indine 
 
 1 Colonel Sleeman. however, fails to identify his "Jats" with 
 the Gypsies. 
 
XTbe ®gpss in Bsta 
 
 213 
 
 Valley, whence emigration westward is easy; the 
 other tribes, like the Nats, fancifully connected with 
 the Gypsies, were by no means so favourably situated 
 for an exodus. Originally the Gypsies must have 
 been outcasts, not Hindu Pariahs, as some have sup- 
 posed them to be ; although they may have borrowed 
 from those Aryans the horse-sacrifice and the 
 burning of the dead — the latter custom has become 
 obsolete in Europe, and now only a few of the 
 deceased person's clothes are thrown into the fire. 
 They had words for God (Deob) and the Devil (Bad 
 God — Benga), "Ja li benga " (Go to the Devil) 
 being a popular curse. They were unalphabetic : so 
 clever a race would certainly not have lost a written 
 character, and they became nominal Christians and 
 Muslims in imitation of those among whom they 
 settled. 
 
 The Jats are still half nomads, and perhaps of old 
 they were wholly nomadic. They are breeders of 
 cattle and rude veterinary surgeons. They are fond 
 of music, as are all these races ; and their dances are 
 exactly represented by those of the Egyptian Gypsies, 
 a similarity which has yet to be insisted upon. Their 
 iron-smelting, like that of the Mahabaleshwar tribes, 
 is exactly like that of the Roma. Their sword 
 play is that of the Hindu, whereas the Gypsies in 
 Scotland use a direct thrust straight to the front, # 
 
 [* " As I have frequently mentioned, all the Gypsies were regularly 
 trained to a peculiar method of their own in handling the cudgel in 
 
214 
 
 TTbe ®W$V 
 
 certainly not learned in India. The village Jats are 
 said to mould the babies' heads ; perhaps the idea 
 arose by the shampooing of the younger children by 
 the mothers. Divination seems to be the growth of 
 the soil, and palmistry palpably derives from India. 
 Snake-charming is also common amongst them. As 
 their history in the Panjab proves, they are disposed 
 to robbing and to violence. Lastly, though the 
 history of the country universally derives them from 
 the Land of the Five Rivers, the modern date of 
 Muslim annals would not be proof against their 
 being a race of remote antiquity. 
 
 Believing that the Jats may fairly have sent forth 
 the last wave of Aryan emigration, the Gypsies, a 
 western flood which was probably preceded by many 
 others, I attempted during my last trip through Sindh 
 in the spring of 1856 to enlist fellow-workmen in 
 the task of illustrating their ethnology and philology. 
 Able linguists like Lieutenant-Colonel Dunsterville, 
 Collector of Hydrabad, and others, were willing to 
 assist me. But I was much disappointed by the 
 incuriousness of a certain professor who met me 
 at Milan before my visit to Western India and 
 Sindh. He had never seen my Grammar and 
 Vocabulary, of which he desired the republication ; 
 
 their battles. I am inclined to think that part of the Hungarian 
 sword exercise at present practised in our cavalry is founded upon 
 the Gypsy manner of attack and defence, including even the direct 
 thrust to the front, which the Gypsies perform with the cudgel." 
 — Simson, A History of the Gypsies.] 
 
Ubc $spss in B5ia 
 
 215 
 
 but he accepted with enthusiasm my offer to enlist 
 collaborators in the Valley of the Indus for the 
 purpose of proving or disproving his favourite 
 theory that the Gypsies are Sindhis who have 
 long dwelt in Afghanistan. 1 This professor had 
 of course no personal experience ; anything he had 
 written on the subject was derived from theory only. 
 Object lessons are not yet popular in Italy ; it is 
 easier to visit the camel of the Jardin des Plantes 
 than the camel of the desert, and we can hardly 
 expect a litterateur to take interest in gathering 
 together raw new facts. 
 
 § 2. The Jats of Belochistan. 
 
 The following interesting extract is borrowed from 
 The Country of Balochistan* by A. W. Hughes 
 (London, 1877): 
 
 " In returning to a consideration of the Jat race of 
 Kachh Gandava, it may be mentioned that wherever 
 they are found — and they may it seems, from what 
 Masson states, be seen not alone in the Pan jab and 
 Sindh and in those countries lying between the 
 Satlej and Ganges Rivers, but even at Kabul, 
 Kandahar, and Herat — they preserve their vernacular 
 tongue, the Jatki. Of this language many dialects 
 are believed to exist, and it may well be suggested 
 
 1 Inadmissible, because there are Afghan Jats. 
 [* Balochistan, Balochis., etc, sic Hughes.] 
 
216 
 
 by Masson that the labour of reviewing would not 
 be found altogether unprofitable. It appears to be a 
 fact that the Jats in some places preserve the calling 
 of itinerant Gypsies, and this more particularly in 
 Afghanistan ; and it is not unlikely that some affinity 
 in their language and habits might very possibly 
 be traced between them and the vagabond races of 
 Zingaris which are spread over so large a portion of 
 Europe. The Jats of Eastern Kachhi, the supposed 
 descendants of the ancient Getae, form the cultivating 
 and camel -breeding classes, and are of industrious 
 and peaceable habits, but are dreadfully harried and 
 plundered by the marauding Balochis of the neigh- 
 bouring hills. They are, so to speak, the original 
 inhabitants of this district, the Rinds, 1 Balochis, and 
 Brahuis having settled in the country at an 
 apparently recent period. The Jats are numerously 
 subdivided among themselves, some tribes amounting, 
 it is said, to nearly forty in number. Some of these 
 are known under the names of Aba, Haura, Kalhora, 
 Khokar, Machni, Manju, Palal, Pasarar, Tunia, and 
 Waddera. In general they are all Muhammadans of 
 the Suni persuasion." 
 
 As El Islam was established in these countries 
 before our tenth century, and the Hinduism of the 
 Lower Valley of the Indus and of Multan dates 
 from the days of Alexander the Great, the original 
 
 1 A celebrated Beloch tribe which considers itself the flower of the 
 nation. 
 
TLhc <3£P0£ in Bsta 
 
 217 
 
 emigration of Gypsies, who hardly preserve a trace 
 of Hinduism, must either have been outlying pagans 
 or a race of extreme antiquity. 
 
 § 3. The Gypsies of Persia. 
 
 Captain Newbold, after visiting the Gypsies in 
 Sindh, Belochistan, and Multan, found them in the 
 " great plain of Persepolis ; in the blossoming Valley 
 of Shiraz in the Butchligar Mountains ; on the 
 scorched plains of Dashtistan and Chaldea." He 
 thinks that they may be traced to, and probably 
 far beyond, the Caspian, and easterly to the deserts 
 of Herman and Mekran. They affect but little the 
 scanty fare and the uninteresting life of the desert. 
 Perfectly distinct from the pastoral " Iliyat," the 
 Bedawin of nearer Asia, the Turkomans, Kurds, and 
 other nomads who camped far from the abodes of 
 settled men, these tribes wander from town to town 
 and village to village, always pitching tents near 
 the more industrious, on whose credulity they partly 
 subsist, here and elsewhere. 
 
 The ostensible trades of the Persian Gypsies are 
 those of the blacksmith and tinker, the tinner of 
 iron, makers of winnowing sieves, cattle doctors, and 
 fortune-tellers ; they are also workers in gold, and 
 forge the current coins of Persia and Turkey. Others 
 are Zingar (saddle-makers); and Newbold adds, 
 evidently without sufficient basis : " Hence the 
 
218 
 
 Zinganeh, a Kurdish tribe who are supposed to be 
 of Gypsy origin, the Italian, Spanish, and German 
 word for Gypsy, Zingari, etc." Finally, they are 
 vendors of charms and philters, conjurers, dancers, 
 mountebanks, and carvers of wooden bowls. 
 
 The professors of these arts wander about in 
 separate bands; but they must not be confounded 
 with independent tribes of vagabonds and outcasts 
 of various tribes who lead a roving, thieving Gypsy 
 life, but are not Gypsy. Their Persian neighbours 
 hold them to have a separate origin ; but identity 
 of feature and language prove them to be one and 
 the same stock. They divide themselves into two 
 classes, the Kaoli or Ghurabti, the Kurbat of Syria 
 and the Gavbar. Both names are of disputed 
 origin, and even the Persians and the Gypsies are 
 at variance. Kaoli is generally supposed to be a 
 corruption of Kabuli (a man from Kabul). From 
 this old and venerable city, Sir John Malcolm states, 
 the Dakram-i-Gur imported into Persia twelve thou- 
 sand singers and musicians ; and the dancing girls 
 of Persia are to this day called Kaoli. Khurbat, of 
 which Kurbat is a corruption, involves, it is said, 
 the idea of wandering. Gavbar is equally obscure ; 
 the meaning would be " one who takes pleasure in 
 cattle"; but the Persians call a herdsman " Gan-ban," 
 never " Gav-bar." The true Kaoli and Gavbar, who, 
 like their brethren in Sindh, Syria, and Egypt, out- 
 wardly profess El Islam, rarely, if ever, intermarry 
 
XTbe 6£p8£ in Bsia 
 
 219 
 
 with Persians, Turks, or Arabs. And whilst the 
 latter regard them as distinct in origin from them- 
 selves, in fact as Hindus, would their wretched 
 Pariahs, the Gao-bar, claim the honour of being 
 Sayfids, or descendants of the Apostle? 
 
 § 4. The Gypsies of Syria. 
 
 According to Newbold, the Gypsies of Palestine 
 and South Syria * are called Nawer ; while in Asia 
 Minor and North Syria they style themselves Kurbat, 
 Rumeh, and Jinganeh (Chinganeh). The significa- 
 tion of Kurbat is doubtful, but is only supposed 
 to mean a wanderer from his own land, a stranger, 
 derived from the Arab root Gharaba, "he went 
 far away." The two last terms he holds related to 
 the Spanish Romani (?) and Zincali, and the German 
 Zigeuner. They are true to the character of their 
 race ; they disdain to be shepherds or tillers of the 
 soil; and they feed like vultures and carrion upon 
 the credulity and superstitions of mankind. Bedawin 
 of the intellectual world, they juggle the simpler 
 sons and daughters of cities by pretended skill in 
 
 [* " Bishop Pococke, prior, to 1745, mentions having met with Gypsies 
 in the northern part of Syria, where he found them in great numbers, 
 passing for Mahommedans, living in tents or caravans, dealing in 
 milch cows when near towns, manufacturing coarse carpets, and 
 having a much better character than their relations in Hungary or 
 England " (Simson).'] 
 
220 
 
 the occult, more especially chiromancy. Some are 
 dancers and minstrels, while others vend charms, 
 philters, and poisons. Like their English brethren, 
 the men are profound adepts in horseflesh, in donkey- 
 dealing, and in game-snaring; but instead of tinkering 
 pots and kettles, they spin cotton and woollen yarns 
 for their clothes and tents, and they make and mend 
 osier-baskets. This and making wooden boxes were 
 the favourite handicrafts of the Gypsies when they 
 first entered Europe. 
 
 In winter they camp on the outskirts of large 
 towns, in a sort of half tent, half hut, which is 
 readily removed. During the fine months they go 
 forth into the plains or mountains, where they affect 
 tents or ruins, but never far from the haunts of their 
 prey, mankind. Their migrations, if regular, are 
 not of a great extent ; and they never wholly forsake 
 a country unless driven away by absolute persecution. 
 
 Shaykh Rasscho, the head of the Aleppine Gypsies, 
 and responsible for their poll tax, informed Newbold 
 that his tribe was divided into thirty houses, of 
 whose names he could only remember twenty-eight. 
 It is not material to give these names, but they 
 are evidently Muslim names of men who probably 
 belonged to " heads of houses." The old Gypsy 
 declared that Kurbat, Nawar, Rumeli, and Chinganeh 
 were all of the same family, and had lived in Syria 
 and Asia Minor since the creation. 
 
 These people in no way differ physically from the 
 
Ube <5eps\? in Hsia 
 
 221 
 
 European tinkers. They have the same slender, 
 well-knit figures, rather below middle size, tawny 
 skins, rather prominent cheekbones, and straight 
 black hair. The facial angle is rather Hindu and 
 Tatar than Turkoman, and they have the Hindu's 
 long horse-tail hair. Dark eyes are not invariable ; 
 in the mountains of Antioch the colour is sometimes 
 grey or blue, and the same occurs occasionally among 
 the Arabs of Petra and Palmyra, among the Syrians, 
 the Zebeks, and other races of Asia Minor. A 
 great mixture of blood is the cause. The Zebeks 
 of Smyrna have now been deputed to represent the 
 bandit regular troops of Turkey as opposed to the 
 bandit police. The Asiatic Gypsy has also that 
 peculiar indescribable appearance and expression of 
 eye which is so strongly developed in the Roma 
 of Morocco and Moorish Spain, " a feature which, 
 like the brand on the forehead of the first murderer, 
 stamps this marked race over the whole globe, and 
 when once observed is never forgotten. The ' Evil 
 Eye ' is not the least of the powers with which this 
 people is superstitiously invested ; and if there be 
 any truth in the overstrained (?) doctrines of animal 
 magnetism, one could not possibly frame to the 
 imagination an eye so well calculated, so intense 
 a magnetic force." 1 
 
 1 The Spaniards describe this peculiarity of the race, the remark- 
 ably brilliant eye, as opposed to the small fat-lidded organ of the 
 Jew and the pig's eye of the Chinaman. 
 
222 
 
 XTbe <&£ps£ 
 
 These Gypsies have never been seen to pray or 
 perform any religious rite ; some of their elders, like 
 the Druzes and other Syrian tribes, circumcise their 
 children, and conform to the exterior observances 
 of El Islam. 
 
 Shaykh Rasscho could repeat with sundry mistakes 
 the Arabic Faith Formula, omitting the second half, 
 " Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah." He said that 
 he and his tribe acknowledged one supreme, ever- 
 lasting, omnipotent Being, and believed in an exist- 
 ence after death, a state of reward and punishment 
 connected with metempsychosis. He denied the 
 charges made against the Kurbat by Syrians, 
 Muslims, and Christians that they worshipped the 
 stars or the creative principle under a symbol. 
 He also denied that they abhorred the eel and 
 the celebrated black fish of the Antioch Lake, like 
 the Jews, to whom the Mosaic Law — which, by- 
 the-bye, is equally binding upon Muslims — makes it 
 unclean, because it lacks fins and scales. 1 Newbold, 
 however, was assured that the Kurbat, who, like the 
 India Pariahs, are the flayers of animals dying a 
 natural death, devour the carcases of all animals 
 except the man and the hog. 
 
 According to the Turks and Syrians, the Kurbat 
 girls are not so chaste as their European sisters; 
 
 1 " And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat ; it 
 is unclean unto you " (Deut. xiv. 10). 
 
Zbc ®eps£ in Hsia 
 
 223 
 
 yet they wear till marriage the " lacto diklo," a 
 certain cloth, in token and in pledge of spotless 
 virginity, which the bridegroom alone is permitted 
 to take off. The women dress like the lower orders 
 in Syria ; but they affect more ornaments of silver 
 and brass, ear- and nose -rings, armlets and bracelets, 
 anklets and bangles. They spin, take care of the 
 poultry, ducks, cats, and children, and cook exactly 
 like the English Gypsy women. Especially they tell 
 fortunes, which practice, confined to a certain caste 
 but forbidden to others, seems to be a kind of 
 sacerdotalism. 
 
 The Kurbat, like their brethren all the world over, 
 have no written characters or symbols for letters or 
 words. Their Shaykh told Newbold that, although 
 they themselves could not write, two men in the 
 tribe could write. As, however, neither the men nor 
 specimens of their writing were produced, the in- 
 ference drawn from this, and other similar inquiries, 
 was that " the written characters, or symbols, of 
 their language, or rather jargon, have either been 
 lost, or are known to only a few, who superstitiously 
 keep them secret." 1 In the bazars of Syria they 
 speak Arabic or Turkish ; at home they use their 
 own tongue. 
 
 The following scanty list of Kurbat words was 
 obtained viva voce from the Aleppo tribes, and 
 
 1 The same is the case with the Bedawin tribal marks. 
 
224 
 
 were subsequently checked by comparison with the 
 tribe near Antioch: 
 
 Vocabulary : Kurbat-Duman. 
 
 Kindred. 
 
 English. Kurbat. Duman. 
 
 Father babur babur. 
 
 Mother aida aida and ana. 
 
 Brother bhairu beravau. 
 
 Sister bhanu kochi. 
 
 Natural Objects. 
 
 Sun gaham gaham. 
 
 Moon heiuf heiuf. 
 
 Star astara astara. 
 
 Air val and vai kannad hava. 
 
 Heavens khuai ghennader. 
 
 The earth bar, ard (Arab.) or bar. 
 
 turra 
 
 Fire ag ar. 
 
 Water pani hou (Pers. ab, do). 
 
 Rain bursenden baran. 
 
 Snow khlf surg. 
 
 Cloud barudi bulliit. 
 
 Light tshek ar and aidinlik. 
 
 Sea dunguz (Turk.) daireh and dunguz. 
 
 Mountain thull (Ar. tall) ghiella. 
 
 A spring khani khani. 
 
 Stone vuth kawer. 
 
 Salt lou khoi. 
 
 Milk klr (Sansk. Pers.) and shir (pure Persian), 
 lebben (Ar.) 
 
 Barley jou (jau) jou. 
 
 Wheat gheysuf ghiannam. 
 
 Iron nahl khallik. 
 
 Night arat shou (Pers. shub, 
 
 shao). 
 
 Day bedis ghiundez. 
 
 Onion lussun, piyaz piyaz. 
 
XTbe (Bspss in Beta 
 
 225 
 
 English. Kurhat. Duman. 
 
 Dhurra (Holcus, Sor- ak ar. 
 ghum) 
 
 Rice brinj silki 
 Animals, etc. 
 
 A hare kunder kunder. 
 
 Dog surunter kuchek. 
 
 Cat pslk kadizor. 
 
 Horse ghora or aghora asp. 
 
 Mare rnlno mlno. 
 
 Ass kharr kharri. 
 
 Sheep bakra khaidii. 
 
 Cow g6ru kaikuz. 
 
 Bull grouf, or maia g6ru meshjuk. 
 
 Fowl jeysh-chumari mirrishk. 
 
 Pig d6nguz (Turk.) d6nguz. 
 
 Camel aubba, asht ashtur. 
 
 Crow kil,hashzeika?ic?tanuk sereh. 
 
 Snake sanb, samp marr (Pers.). 
 
 Fish machchi machchi. 
 
 Parts of the Human Body. 
 
 Finger anglu, dngul pechi. 
 
 Hand kustum, kustur dast. 
 
 Eye akki and ankhi jow. 
 
 Hair val or bal khalluf . 
 
 Ear kan and kannir priiik. 
 
 Neck gurgur kdntlagu. 
 
 Knee luluk, chokyum koppaku. 
 
 Teeth dandeir ghiolu. 
 
 Head sir, chir murras. 
 
 Flesh marsi g6sht. 
 
 Miscellaneous Nouns. 
 
 A well astal, chal chal. 
 
 An egg an6 heili. 
 
 A ring angushteri dasturi. 
 
 God Khanarje Allah. 
 
 A ship ghemmi, durongaye ghemmi. 
 
 Boat shatiir shatiir. 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 English. 
 
 Kurbat. 
 
 Duman. 
 
 War 
 
 laglsh, kawye 
 
 kawye. 
 
 A Christian 
 
 kuttur (dog 1) 
 
 nosaru (Nazarene). 
 
 Door 
 
 Kapi (Turk.) 
 
 kapi. 
 
 Boy 
 
 chagu 
 
 lawak. 
 
 Girl 
 
 lafti 
 
 kechikeh. 
 
 Thief 
 
 kuft 
 
 khaiuk. 
 
 Tent 
 
 chader (Pers.) 
 
 chader. 
 
 Knife 
 
 chlrf 
 
 khair. 
 
 Rope 
 
 kundori 
 
 kund6ri and sijum. 
 
 Book 
 
 kital 
 
 kitah, mushulleh. 
 
 City 
 
 viar 
 
 viar. 
 
 Village 
 
 deh, diyar 
 
 deh, diyar. 
 
 Bridge 
 
 kienpri (Turk.) 
 
 kienpri. 
 
 Castle 
 
 killa 
 
 kalla. 
 
 Paper 
 
 kaghaz 
 
 kaghaz. 
 
 Bread 
 
 manna 
 
 nan. 
 
 House 
 
 kuri or kiri 
 
 mala. 
 
 King 
 
 padshah 
 
 beghirtmish. 
 
 Love 
 
 mankamri and kamri 
 
 kamri. 
 
 Month 
 
 muh, mas 
 
 viha, mas. 
 
 Colour 
 
 tawul 
 
 tawul. 
 
 Year 
 
 das di mas, varras or 
 
 deh di mar or dah di 
 
 
 barras 
 
 viha. 
 
 Personal and Possessive Pronouns. 
 
 I man man. 
 
 Thou t6 to. 
 
 He hiii hiii. 
 
 Mine maki or man ki maki or man ki. 
 
 Thine to ki or toi ki to ki or toi ki. 
 
 His hui ki hui ki. 
 
 Cardinal Numbers. 
 
 One ek. The Duman is the 
 
 Two di. same, except sih for 
 
 Three turrun. " three," and deh for 
 
 Four char or shtar. " ten." 
 
 Five penj. 
 
 Six shesh. 
 
 Seven heft. 
 
Zbc ©spas tn Hsia 
 
 227 
 
 English. Kurbat. Dvman. 
 
 Eight hesht. 
 
 Nine na or nu. 
 
 Ten das. 
 
 Eleven das ek. 
 
 Twelve das di 
 
 Thirteen das turrun. 
 
 Fourteen das char. 
 
 Fifteen das penj. 
 
 Sixteen das shesh. 
 
 Seventeen das heft. 
 
 Eighteen das hesht. 
 
 Nineteen das na. 
 
 Twenty vist or bist. 
 
 Twenty-one vist ek 
 
 Twenty-two, etc. vist di, etc. 
 
 Thirty si. 
 
 Forty chhil. 
 
 Fifty penj eh. 
 
 Sixty turrun vist. 
 
 Seventy turrun vist das. 
 
 Eighty char vist. 
 
 Ninety char vist das. 
 
 One hundred sad. 
 
 Two hundred di sad. 
 
 A thousand hazar. 
 
 Adjectives. 
 
 Sick numshti bimar, ruar. 
 
 Bad kuninarrey ki6na. 
 
 Good gahay arunder. 
 
 Great dur6nkay, burro mazin. 
 
 Small turontay, thoranki chiichuk (Pers. 
 
 kuchik). 
 
 Black kala, kalo kani, shippia. 
 
 White pannarey suffeid. 
 
 Bed lorey, loley kunnu. 
 
 Yellow zard zara, kulp. 
 
 Green kark sukkul. 
 
 Blue niley nila. 
 
 Cold sia suki. 
 
 Hot tottey khunney. 
 
228 
 
 XTbe (Bspss 
 
 English, 
 
 Much 
 A little 
 Enough 
 Here 
 
 Kurbat. 
 
 Adverbs. 
 
 bhuyih 
 thoraki 
 basey 
 
 veshli, itan, idhur 
 
 Duman. 
 
 phurga. 
 ennika. 
 nar. 
 
 bundeh. 
 
 Verbs. 
 
 To come 
 
 To go 
 
 To eat 
 
 To drink 
 
 To bring 
 
 To tell fortune 
 
 ^ | imperative 
 khm \ 
 
 piun J- imperative 
 nan J 
 
 fal wunnakerim. 
 
 pa. 
 jo. 
 
 kham. 
 pium. 
 winni. 
 
 [The above list is printed exactly as written by Burton ; but it 
 has been found impossible to verify it from other sources.] 
 
 § 5. The Gypsies of the Haurdn, South-Eastern 
 
 Syria. 
 
 In January, 1871, I accompanied the Damascus 
 Pilgrim Caravan some marches ; and at Mazarib in 
 the Hauran, the well-known station near which Ali 
 Beg el Abbasi, the Spaniard, was poisoned, I found 
 three Gypsy tents. The inmates called themselves 
 Nawar, a popular term throughout the country. In 
 the same way as the Roma of Spain affected to be 
 devout Christians " living in a peaceable Catholic 
 manner," so the head of the little party I discovered 
 insisted upon all his people being born Muslims, 
 evidently disliking the suspicion that they belonged 
 
Ube <3eps£ in Bsfa 
 
 229 
 
 to the " obsolete faith," Christianity, with which the 
 ignorant faithful confused all later creeds. (These 
 people thus saved themselves from exile when Sultan 
 " Bayezid " expelled all Gypsies from the Ottoman 
 Empire.) In proof of his assertion he recited a verse 
 of the Koran with peculiar twang. The headquarters 
 of the tribe and the abode of the chief Shaykh were 
 at Ghazzeh, and Muhammad and his " lamentable 
 retinue " had wandered northwards, intending to 
 stay four or five days at Mazarib — in fact, whilst 
 the caravan was passing. Their peculiar industries 
 were metal-work and making sieves, so they stated ; 
 but to these their neighbours added plundering and 
 petty larceny, together with trading in asses and 
 horses. According to my informant, many of his 
 people attend the Haj, doubtless to throw dust into 
 Muslim eyes. 
 
 My Syrian companions compared the general look 
 of the dark-skinned, tanned dwellers with the Ashdan, 
 whilst they found a certain resemblance between the 
 Roumis and the women of a certain Arab tribe who 
 camped about near Damascus ; but the long, coarse, 
 lank hair, with the duck-tail under curl, the brown 
 white eyes, whose peculiar glance is never to be 
 mistaken, the prominent Tatar-like cheekbones, 
 and the irregular -shaped mouths, suggested Hindu 
 origin and physiognomy. The beard was long and 
 somewhat wavy, possibly the result of inhabiting 
 for generations a hot dry land. Some have gashed 
 
230 
 
 faces like the " Bohemians " when they first entered 
 Paris. Their women, adorned with ear-rings and 
 necklaces, bracelets and anklets of brass and tinsel, 
 were Macbethian witches ; and both sexes, like the 
 outcasts of India generally, seem to abhor cold water. 
 I tried them with a few words of Sindhi, introduced 
 into Hindustani, when their faces assumed the normal 
 puzzled expression, and their eyes appeared to close 
 and film over. Of magic and divination they would 
 not speak to a stranger ; but they readily gave me 
 the following words : Ag, fire (pure Hindi) ; Ake, 
 eye (Aukh) ; Chiri, knife (Churi) ; Goray, horse 
 (Ghora) ; Kala, oracle (pure Hindi) ; Munam, bread 
 (an Arabic corruption?) ; Panay, water (Pani) ; Zari, 
 mouth (?). Conversing with one another they spoke 
 fluently, and introduced few Arabic words. 
 
 The Nawar make their appearance with the Eastern 
 Bedawin, Wuld Ali, and others about the beginning 
 of summer, and occupy huts built of cane, sticks, 
 and mud. The roofs are hides weighted with sticks. 
 They work at getting in the harvests, and they are 
 said to work much harder than the average husband- 
 man. Of course they are charged with plundering 
 poultry. They speak bad Arabic, and talk together 
 in their own tongue ; wherefore the peasants affect 
 to despise them. In fact, here, as elsewhere, they 
 constitute a strange sort of commonwealth amongst 
 themselves — wanderers, impostors, and jugglers. 
 
XTbe <3£P8£ in Bsla 
 
 231 
 
 § 6. The Gypsies of Damascus. 
 
 Consul E. T. Rogers, my predecessor at Damascus, 
 made the following brief notes, and obliged me with 
 permission to publish them. His long period of 
 residence led him to study subjects which escaped 
 the passing traveller. 
 
 " I remember quite distinctly that the Gypsies 
 of Syria, or people resembling them, were divided 
 into three distinct families, not supposed to inter- 
 marry, and, as I was told, supplying two distinct 
 languages : 
 
 " (1) The Nawar 1 follow the ordinary Gypsy 
 vocations, stealing, fortune-telling, tinkering, attend- 
 ing fetes and marriages as itinerant musicians, 
 jugglers, etc. ; 
 
 " (2) The Zutt were generally seen with trained 
 animals, goats, donkeys, etc., performing in the 
 streets ; and 
 
 " (3) The Baramaki, who give more attention to 
 horse-dealing. They are farriers and blacksmiths, 
 and are generally found on the outskirts of isolated 
 villages, or near the camps of small Arab tribes, 
 
 1 The tribal name in Syria is Nawar. During two years' residence 
 and long travelling I never heard the terms "Dumi" and "Zutt." 
 The latter also escaped a most careful observer, Captain Newbold. 
 As regards that officer's distinction between Jat and J£t, he heard 
 the former term from me at Karachi in 1848 when he looked over 
 my Grammar and Vocabulary, while he borrowed J&t from Captain 
 Sleeman and others who have written on the Panjab with perceiving 
 that the two tribes are one and the same. 
 
232 
 
 where they let out stallions for breeding purposes. 
 They buy broken-down horses and mares of good 
 breed, and are very clever at doctoring them up 
 and rendering them fit for sale.*' 
 
 Mr. Consul Rogers also showed me a sketch he 
 had made of a Zutti boy with a performing goat 
 borne upon sections of bamboo — a common sight 
 in India. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GYPSY IN AFRICA 
 
 § 1. The Egyptian Ghajar or Ghagar 
 F there is anything persistent in Gypsy tradition, 
 
 it is the assertion that the Gypsies originally 
 came from the banks of the Nile — that Egypt, in 
 fact, gave them a local habitation and a name. 
 Yet, curious to say, this is the country, and the 
 only country, where a tribe of the Roma, preserving 
 the physiognomy and the pursuits of its ancestors, 
 has apparently lost its old Aryan tongue, or rather 
 has exchanged it for a bastard argot, mostly derived 
 from Arabic. 1 Nor does this phenomenon seem to be 
 of modern date. A very rare Italian comedy of the 
 middle sixteenth century, La Cingana, pronounced 
 " Tchingana," was expected to yield treasures of 
 philological lore ; but on investigation it proved 
 that the Gypsies spoke only a corrupt Arabic. 
 
 1 In Spain this is called " Germania," which, however, refers not 
 to the true Gypsy, but to the cant slang, or " Thieves' Latin " ; the 
 French argot and the Italian gorgo, a mere farrago, which con- 
 tained only a few words of Eomani. 
 
 233 
 
234 
 
 XTbe <B£PS£ 
 
 The following pages are mostly taken from the 
 well-known work Aegypten, etc. (Leipzig : Brockhaus, 
 1860), by the famous Orientalist, Alfred von Kremer. 
 As will be seen, he made a careful study of the 
 " Zigeuner " or " Aegypten," the " Ghagar " ; whereas 
 these interesting families, of the Gypsy race, a 
 people of wanderers, who have nowhere a house, and 
 who have everywhere a home, are most perfunctorily 
 treated of by Lane. 
 
 " On the banks of the Nile," says Von Kremer, 
 whose words I shall now quote, as in other places, 
 "the Ghagar men, like the Polloi of Herodotus, 
 are tinkers, ape-leaders, rope-dancers, and snake- 
 charmers ; whilst the women are Ahnahs, prostitutes, 
 and fortune-tellers. They are very numerous ; they 
 trade in asses, horses, and camels, and, as pedlars 
 (Baddaah), they manage almost all the petit com- 
 merce of the country. The Ghagar buy goods whole- 
 sale in Cairo, and frequent the two annual fairs of 
 Tanta; that of May was instituted about 1853, and 
 entitled the Maulid El Shilkani (birth-festival of 
 the Shaykh El Shilkani), who is buried some three 
 hours' march from Beni Suef. Thus they not 
 unfrequently become rich. 
 
 " The Hawi 1 (snake-charmers) and the snake-eaters 
 
 1 Lane (chap, xx.), generally so correct, falls, according to Kremer, 
 into an error when he explains Hawi simply by " performer of sleight 
 of hand tricks" {Taschenspieler) ; the origin of the word, Hayyeh, 
 "a snake," shows its signification. Amongst the Sinaitic Bedawin 
 almost every tribe has an official called the Hawi, who is supposed 
 
XTbe (Bspss in Bfrica 
 
 235 
 
 (Rifaijjeh) live at Cairo ; and many travellers have 
 seen the disgusting spectacle without suspecting that 
 the Dervish's frock covered the 1 tinkler/ These 
 classes are useful to the naturalist, as they have 
 always a supply of live or dead serpents, with and 
 without poison-fangs, lizards, uromastix, jerboas, 
 jackals, wolves, ferrets (Stinkthiere), and so forth. 
 They find and catch serpents with surprising 
 dexterity : armed with a bit of palm frond to tap 
 the walls and ceilings, and w T ith a pipe whose tones 
 draw the reptiles from their hiding-places, they 
 rarely fail to make captures, as the older houses 
 of Cairo are mostly haunted by harmless snakes. 
 This proceeding of course awes the ignorant, and 
 none dare to engage a room when the Hawi has 
 declared it to be snake-possessed. 
 
 "The term ' Ghagar ' or 'Ghajar' is general; the 
 people, according to their own account, are divided 
 into tribes, who all, however, represent them- 
 selves to be pure Arabs and wandering immigrants 
 from the West. 1 The date of this movement is 
 apparently unknown ; but its reality is confirmed 
 by the fact that all, without exception, belong to 
 
 to be poison-proof, and to have the power of stanching wounds 
 and curing hurts by his breath. The necessary qualification for this 
 office is that the mother should make her babe swallow, before he 
 has tasted other food, a cake composed of seven barleycorns, seven 
 grains of wheat, a small scorpion, and a hornet, all pounded and 
 mixed together (The Desert of the Exodus). 
 
 1 Algeria as well as Morocco is full of Gypsies, including the 
 'Aysawi Dervishes. 
 
236 
 
 XTbe Gspsg 
 
 the Maliki school, prevailing in Morocco and in 
 North-West Africa. They are vagrants by profes- 
 sion, and obtain written permission to travel, either 
 from the police or from the Guild Shaykh of the 
 Rifai Dervishes. 
 
 " The most numerous tribe everywhere in Egypt 
 is the Ghawazi ; 1 in every city, town, and village 
 there are representatives of these arch-seductresses, 
 whose personal beauty makes them dangerous. They 
 call themselves Baramaki, 2 and derive themselves 
 from the Persian Barmekides, the historical house 
 ruined and annihilated by the Khalif Harun-er-Raschid. 
 Yet they are very proud of their Bedawin descent ; and 
 they lead the lives of the sons of the desert, dwelling 
 in tents, which they carry from fair to fair. The 
 
 1 Ghazi (plural Ghawazi) would mean in Arab " one who fights for 
 the Faith," or "a conqueror of infidels." Europe has learned this 
 much during the Eusso-Turkish war (1877) ; but our papers ridicu- 
 lously misused the term " Ghazi Mukhtar," for Mukhtar Pasha 
 Ghazi is w r orse than any amount of " Sir Smith." According to some 
 authorities, the Egyptian Gypsies took this title to gratify their 
 Oriental crave for grandiloquence. But, I would remark, in Persian 
 it is synonymous with rope-dancer or courtisan ; and perhaps both 
 are derived from the Ghagar " Ghaziyah," meaning a woman (?). 
 
 2 The origin of the term is a Persian jeu de mots. " Bermek'am " 
 -would mean / am a Barmak ; Bar-maken, / sup it uj). These were 
 the words spoken by Ja'afar the " Barmekide " when his poisoned 
 ring caused the stones upon the arm of the Ommiade Caliph (Abd el 
 Malik) to rattle — a general and popular superstition. It is quite 
 possible that this memorable family belonged to the Gypsy tribe 
 so common in Persia. According to Ibn Khalikan, the first great 
 ancestor was the principal, or the grand prior, of the convent in 
 Balkh called Nan-buhar (young spring), a palpable corruption of 
 Nava bihara, in Sanskrit the " new monastery." 
 
XTbe 6spss in Bfdca 237 
 
 maidens are dancers, the old women spae -wives ; 1 
 the girls rarely marry before securing a competency, 
 and they often take their slaves to husband. The 
 Ghaziyah's goodman is generally nothing more than 
 a servant, who brings her new acquaintances, and 
 who pipes or drums when she dances. There are 
 cases of these girls marrying village chiefs ; and 
 their after-lives are as correct as their youth was dis- 
 solute (compare p. 145, Burckhardt's Arabic Proverbs : 
 London, 1830). The Ghawazi speak the Gypsy 
 jargon which is in use amongst all the other tribes. 
 
 "The Gypsies of the Sa'id (Upper Egypt), who 
 call themselves 'Saaideh,' have purely Asiatic, not 
 African, features, with dark brown skins, piercing 
 black eyes, and lank hair, also black. The women 
 tattoo their lips, hands, and bosoms generally in 
 blue, wear heavy brass ear-rings, and hang round 
 their necks strings of blue and red beads. They 
 divine by muscle-shells, broken bits of glass, coloured 
 stones as agates and jaspers, pieces of stained 
 wax, and so forth, carried upon the shoulders in a 
 kirbah, or bag, generally of gazelle-skin. After 
 taking her seat on the mat or carpet, the woman 
 empties her sack, and, choosing one article which 
 shall represent the person who pays, draws her 
 revelations from the grouping. Money is required 
 at various stages of the process ; and at the end the 
 
 1 Hence an Englishman denned the Gypsy religion as "faith in 
 fortune- telling." 
 
238 
 
 Gypsy presents some bits of stone or coloured wax 
 by way of charms to her employer. 1 
 
 " These people may be seen in the streets of Cairo, 
 dressed like the Fellahah (peasant woman), in taubs, 
 or long shirts of home-made indigo-dyed cotton, 
 but lacking the shintiyan (drawers) and the burka' 
 (nose-bag). Their features at once distinguish them 
 from the Muslims and the Copts ; and they are noted, 
 moreover, by the sheep-skin or gazelle-skin thrown, 
 besides the bag, over their shoulders. They frequent 
 the bazars, and stroll about the principal thorough- 
 fares of the great towns, especially in summer-time, 
 as the Nile begins to rise ; and their favourite 
 cries are ' Nibejjin-ez-zein ! ' (We show the good, 
 i.e. luck), i Taal ! shuf el Bakht ' (Come and see 
 your fortunes), and ' Nidmor el Ghaib ! ' (We find 
 the lost). 
 
 " The capital contains a large company of Ghagar 
 women, who speculate upon public credulity ; and 
 their quarter is the Hosh Bardak, once a fine quarter, 
 now a squalid hole behind that noble pile the Sultan 
 Hasan Mosque. I visited it in November, 1877, and 
 found the courts still occupied. The people, tinkers 
 and blacksmiths, who sell ear-rings, bracelets, amulets, 
 
 1 Captain Newbold (p. 288) tells a curious tale of a Fehemi (wise 
 woman), who threw a cowrie into a basin of clear water, and muttered 
 an invocation over it ; when the pot began to boil, the shell was 
 shot out — doubtless by some chemical substance — to the distance 
 of several feet. Some of the w T ater accompanied it, with a slight 
 explosion like that of a percussion cap thrown into the fire. 
 
XTbe Ospss in Htrica 
 
 239 
 
 and other metal articles, exactly resembled Fellahs 
 to a superficial glance. Apparently they had for- 
 gotten their favourite craft, fortune -telling. More- 
 over, they did not like the term Ghagar. There is, 
 or rather was, another colony at Masr el 'Atikah 
 (Babylon or Old Cairo). A third used to camp 
 chiefly during winter and spring near a village on 
 the right of the Cairo-Shubra road, and I believe 
 they are still there. Their rivals, the Maghribi 
 (North- West African) magicians, and those from the 
 central regions, of which Darfur 1 supplies the greatest 
 number, are known by their sitting in the streets 
 and performing upon cards or sand. 2 Predicting 
 by marks drawn on the sand (Ilm el Rami) is old 
 in the East, and plays a great part in the Arabian 
 Nights. 
 
 " Other tribal names are H'aleb or Helebi 
 (Aleppine), Schahaini, and Ta^ar (T'at'ar). The 
 men of the last class, almost all farriers or tinkers, are 
 also termed A'wwadat or Mua'merratijjeh. 3 Amongst 
 the other Ghagar there are many smiths, who make 
 
 1 The word should be written Dar-For, the abode or region of the 
 For tribe. 
 
 2 The latter material is that originally used in the Arab Darb 
 el Rami (throwing of the sand), briefly called El Rami (the sand), 
 that is, geomancy. 
 
 3 In conversation Von Kremer quoted the name Sabaijeh, a 
 " broken plural," of which no singular is known, as alternating with 
 Zutt in old Arab historians. Newbold enumerates among the 
 " distinct classes " of Ghagar the Meddahin, Gharradin, Barmeki 
 (Barmekides), Walad Abu Tenna, Bayt el Rifa'l (?), Hemmeli, 
 and Romani (p. 292). 
 
240 
 
 XTbe (Bspse 
 
 the brass rings worn on the fingers and arm -joints, 
 in the ears and nose, and around the neck. 
 
 "The monkey-leaders so numerous in Cairo, 
 especially about the Ezbekijjeh quarter, 1 the Kuray- 
 dati, 2 so called from Kird, an ape, also belong to 
 the Gypsy tribes ; and these mostly supply the 
 Bahlawan, 3 gymnasts or strong-men, athletes, and 
 especially wrestlers, who frequent fairs and festivals. 
 During the 'Id ed Dahijjeh 4 they swarm in the 
 capital. 5 
 
 " All these subdivisions speak the same Rothwelsch, 
 or 'Thieves' Latin,' which they call El Sim. It 
 explains the idea prevailing in the middle of the 
 last century ; namely, that the Gypsy language was 
 an invented tongue ; a ' Germania,' as the Spaniards 
 say ; a conventional jargon ; a jail -bird's speech, 
 varying with every horde. 6 The origin and full 
 
 1 This was written before 1863 ; in 1877 the old camping-ground 
 of the Uzbeg Tatars had become a kind of Parisian quarter. 
 
 2 Kremer gives " Kurudati " ; the word is generally in the diminu- 
 tive form Kurayd, a little Kird (baboon). 
 
 3 From the Persian Pahlewan, a brave, a wrestler, an athlete. 
 
 4 Generally written Td el Zuha, the great Meccan festival when 
 the victims are offered. 
 
 5 Their active habits make them a fine race. Newbold says that 
 " one of the most magnificent women he had ever seen in the East " 
 was a Ghagar rope-dancer at the palace of one of the Cairene Beys ; 
 he complains only that she had disfigured herself by tattooing her 
 under lip and chin— a practice very common among the Arab women 
 of Syria and Egypt. 
 
 6 At the end of 1763 the Gazette of Vienna printed a letter 
 from the Hungarian captain, Szekely de Doba. The latter related 
 how a Protestant pastor, when studying at Ley den, made the 
 
Ubc (Bspss in Hfrica 
 
 241 
 
 import of the term Sim are undetermined ; but it 
 is understood to mean something hidden or secret ; 1 
 and it is applied to the impure and gilt c gold- 
 wires ' imported from Austria. It is said, however, 
 that the Bahlawan above use another speech ; of this 
 I have been unable to collect proofs, nor do I hold 
 the information wholly credible." 
 
 The following vocabulary was compiled by Von 
 Kremer at Cairo, where he persuaded many of 
 the Ghagar to frequent the Consulate, especially 
 Muhammad Merwan, who pompously styled himself 
 " Shaykh of all the Snake-charmers of Egypt." 
 He also consulted many Gypsy women from Upper 
 Egypt ; these appeared to speak a somewhat different 
 
 acquaintance of some Malabar youths, who spoke of a province 
 Zingania (of course Zigeuner), and whose language was that of the 
 Gypsies. He made a vocabulary of about a thousand words, and 
 returning home to Almasch or Almas, near Komorn, he found, to 
 his surprise, that the " tinklers " understood them. The Hindustani 
 grammars published in England (1773) and in Portugal (1778) en- 
 abled Grellman, Richardson, Marsden, Ludolf, and others to trace 
 the resemblance with a firm hand. See Mayo and Quindale, who 
 in p. 45 fall into the vulgar error that the "Mongol-Hindustani 
 jargon " began to be used in India only after the Moghol Conquests. 
 These authors declare that when the celebrated Mezzofanti, of 
 Bologna, became deranged in 1832, he never confused Gypsy with his 
 other thirty-two tongues. Borrow's Translation of St. Luke is also 
 said to have retained several Spanish words from Padre Scio. As 
 regards the " Germania " argot of Spain, a vocabulary was published 
 about the middle of the last century by Juan Hidalgo ; and though 
 mostly obsolete, the useless farrago was textually reproduced in the 
 Diccionario de la Academia. 
 
 1 It is usually explained as an abbreviation of Siiniya, a word 
 formed in imitation of Kimiya (alchemy). 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 dialect, and the words taken from them are dis- 
 tinguished by an S. The numerals, all save one 
 corrupted Arabic, are as follows : 
 
 Numerals. 
 
 1, Mach 1 (Etruscan, Max): according to Newbold (loc. 
 
 cit.), Helebi, Ek ; Nawer, Yek. 
 
 2, Machayu (evidently a dual form purely Arabic) : HeL 
 
 Dui ; Naw. Du. 
 
 3, Tulit (S), or Telat (Salas) Machat (three ones) : Hel. 
 
 Dui-ek (i.e. 2 + 1), or Sih (Pers.); Naw. Suso(Sih). 
 
 4, Rubi' (S), or Arba'ah Machat (four ones), and so forth : 
 
 Hel. and Naw. Char, or Dui fi dui (the fi being pure 
 Arabic " in "). 
 
 5, Khumis (S), or Shammaleh (i.e. the hand) : Hel. Penk, 
 
 Peng ; Naw. Fowi. 
 
 6, Sutet (S) : Hel. and Naw. Penk-ek (5+1). 
 
 7, Subi' : Hel. and Naw. Penk-i-dui (5 + 2). 
 
 8, Trunin (S) : Hel. and Naw. Ister or Heshter (Nasht, 
 
 Pers.). 
 
 9, Tiwa' (S) : Hel. and Naw. Enna, Nau, or Peng-i-dui-fi 
 
 dui (5 + 2 in 2). 
 10, tJshir (S) : Hel. Das, Des, Desh ; Naw. Halaheh. 
 
 Evidently Von Kremer's numerals are altered just enough 
 to be hardly intelligible in a sentence hurriedly spoken ; 
 whilst Newbold's are Persian and Hindi. 2 
 
 1 Curious to say, this word is pure Etruscan, and appears in no 
 other language known to me. 
 a Newbold adds : 
 
 20, Yuksi or Yeksi ; 21, Yirksi wa, etc. 
 
 30, Yuksi wa des (30 and 10) ; 31, Yuksi wa des wa, etc. 
 
 40, Kamaki or Kumaki. 
 
 50, Kamaki wa des, etc. 
 
 60, Kamaki wa yuksi. 
 
 70, Kamaki wa yuksi wa des. 
 
TLbc ©sps£ in Bfrica 243 
 
 Vocabulary. 1 
 
 Water, Moge (evidently Maych, Moyyeh), Himbe (S). 
 
 Newbold : H. Hembi, Sheribni (Pers.), or Pani 
 
 (Hindi) ; G. Pani ; and N. Oah. 
 *Bread, Skenub, Bishlek (S). 
 
 Father, Ab (Arab.) or A'rub ; 2 my father, Abamru or A'rubi. 
 * Mother, Kodde, plur. Kaddid ; my mother, Koddeti ; it 
 
 also means generically woman : H. Ammamri ; G. 
 
 Kuddi. 
 
 *Brother, SerrCa or Khawij (from Akkawi, adj. brotherly ?) ; 
 
 my brother, Sem'ai ; thy brother, Sema'ak or Kha- 
 
 wijak ; 3 also generically a boy, lad, youth : H. 
 
 Hnwiji ; G. Bnrdi. 
 Sister, Sema'ak 4 or Ukht (pure Arabic) ; thy sister, 
 
 Sem'atak : H. Khawishti ; G. Marash ; N. Maras : 
 
 80, Du Kam&ki (2 forties). 
 90, Du Kamdki wa des. 
 
 100, Hel. Bank, Sad (Pers.), or Diii Kamaki wa yuksi 
 (2 forties + 20) ; Naw. Beni. 
 1000, Des Bank (10 hundred) ; das Sad. 
 
 1 I have marked with a star the words which appear original, or 
 rather unconnected with Arabic. The list is compared with New- 
 bold's vocabularies, H. (Helebi), G. (Ghagar), N. (Nawer). 
 
 2 They are not likely to have two words for " father." so A'rub is 
 probably dialectic. Newbold gives the Helebi word Garubi ; Ghagar, 
 BAlo, Mansh ; Nawer, Bayabl 
 
 3 The two affixed pronouns — i (my) and ak (thy) — are also pure 
 Arabic. 
 
 4 This form of feminine (opposed to Maia, masculine), Sem'ah, 
 from Sem', is also Arabic. Newbold adds : 
 
 Wife : H. Kudah ; G. Gaziyeh ; N. Gad. 
 
 Husband : H. El-baraneh ; G. Marash ; N. Maras. Of these the 
 latter two are evidently corrupted from the Sansk. Manu- 
 shya ; Prak. Manus. 
 Boy : H. Lambun, Sumgun ; G. Chabo ; N. Sowaiti* 
 Girl : H. Lambunih, Samgunih ; G. Somah, Chabo, or Chai ; 
 N. Bubur. 
 
244 TLbC 6£P8£ 
 
 also generically a girl, lass, e.g. Sema'ah bakileh, a 
 pretty girl. 
 
 •Night, 1 Ghalmuz'a : H. Damud ; G. Ratse. 
 
 *Horse, Softie (Sohl, neighing), Husdndish (S) (from Husan, 
 
 a stallion) : H. Sohli ; G. Ghera (Hind.). 
 *Ass, Zuwell : H. Zowilli ; G. Kharis (Pers. Khar). 
 •Camel, Hantifi H. Huntif ; G. Hunt (Hind.), Ashtr 
 
 (Pers.). 
 
 Buffalo, En Naffdkheh (from the Arab Nafkh, blowing, 
 the blower ?). 
 
 *Lamb, Mizgkdl, Mingcfesh (from classical Arabic Naja'ah) 
 
 (S), Khurraf (Arab. Kharuf) (S). 2 
 Tree, Khudrumdn (Akhdar, green ?), Shagardish (Arab. 
 
 Shajar) (S). 
 Flesh, A'dwaneh Mahzuzah (S). 
 
 Fowl, En-Nebbdsheh (Nabsh, scratching the ground) : H. 
 
 Churiya (Hind.) ; G. Kagmiyeh ; N. Burah. 
 *Fat (subst.), Baruah. 
 
 Ghost, angel, devil, Astrum (Shum, Arab, ill-omened ?). 
 
 Hell, Ma-anwdra, ma, the thing which is light, i.e. fire, 
 from nur, an war, light, lights (e.g. add el-ma-anwara, 
 light the fire) ; not the Sa'idi, El-Muganwara (S). 
 
 1 Day : H. Merrakrish ; G. Chebish. 
 
 Rain : H. Matr (Arab.) ; G. Bursunden (Pers.), Moga ; N. Aug. 
 
 The two latter may be Sansk. Megha, a cloud. 
 Snow : H. Telj (Arab.) ; G. Gharabi. 
 Cloud : H. Reim (Arab. Ghaym); G. Bariid. 
 Light : H. and G. Nur. 
 
 2 Sheep : H. Hahaiya ; G. Bakra (Hind.). 
 Hare : H, Emeb (Arab.) ; G. Kundu. 
 Cat : H. Ghutta (Arab.) ; G. Berkuka. 
 
 Mare : H. Schliyeh ; G. Aghorai. The first is the Arabic form 
 
 of feminine from Sohli, a stallion ; the second is Hind. 
 Hog : H. Khangir (Arab.) ; G. Halluf (Arab.) ; N. Segel harmin (?). 
 Crow : H. Grab (Arab.) ; G. Mentuf, Kil. 
 Snake : H. Tabun (Arab. Thu'uMn ?) ; G. Samp (Hind.). 
 Fish : H. Semek (Arab.) ; G. Machchiyeh (Hind.). 
 
Ube <3£P8£ in Bfrlca 
 
 245 
 
 Date, Ma'akli, Mahalli (S) (the thing sweet). 
 Gold, El-ma-asfar (the thing yellow for El-ma-asfar, a 
 transposition), Midhabesh (S) (corrupted from Dahab). 
 *Silver, BMg. 
 
 Iron, Hadidaish (Arab. Hadid) : H. Megan ; G. Sista ; 
 N. Shir. 
 
 *Corn, Dakubi, Dukiiba (S) : H. Dahuba ; G. Ghiu ; N. 
 
 Ghiudem (Pers. Gaudnm). 
 Hunter, Dabaibi (from Dib, a wolf-hunter ?). 
 *Magician, Tur'ai. 
 
 Stone, Hogger (Arab. Hajar, Hagar ; dimin. Hujayr) : H. 
 
 Hajar ; G. Path. 
 *Land, region, Anta, plur. Andti. 1 
 *Uncle, A* rub ; and Aunt, A'rubek. 
 
 Milk, 2 Raghwdn, Hirwdn (S) (Arab. Raghwah, foam of milk). 
 Onion, Musanum, Mubsalcheh (S) (Arab. Basal) : H. 
 
 Musmunum ; G. Piyaz (Pers.). 
 Cheese, El-Me/iartemek, Mahdrteme (S). 3 
 # Soured milk, Atreske?it, Misksh (the Arabic Laban). 
 Millet, Handawil, Mugaddiriyyeh (S) (the dish Mnjadderah, 
 
 rice and lentils mixed, from Judra, the small-pox). 
 *Beans, Buhus} 
 
 *Dog, Sanno : H. and G. Sunno. 
 Wolf, Dibaish (Arab. Dib). 
 
 1 Sea : H. Buhr (Arab.) ; G. Pani (Sansk.). 
 
 A Spring (fount) : H. Ain (Arab.) ; G. Moga (Mayet, corr. Arab ?). 
 A Well : H. Bir (Arab.) ; G. Ghibini. 
 
 2 Milk : H. Millanish, Helwah (Arab. Halwa, the sweet ?) ; G. 
 
 Kagun, Baghebi, Chuti ; N. Rawan. 
 
 3 In this, as in other cases, the Sa'idi dialect appears to throw back 
 the accent. 
 
 * Barley : H. Muharish ; G. Jan (Sansk. Pers.). 
 Dhurra-grain : H. Meghidhurra ; G. Darineh. 
 Kice : H. Ruz (Arab. Pers.) ; G. Barnu, Fukiyeh, Udbukh (i.e. 
 
 tetbukh, cook thou ! ?). 
 Bread : H. Shemun, Mushmul ; G. Marey ; N. Nan (Pers.). 
 
246 
 
 Knife, El-Khusah : H. Tillumeh ; G. Matwa, Churi (Hind.) ; 
 N. Chiri. 
 
 Foot, Darrdgeh (Arab. Daraj, a step), er-raghaleh (Arab. 
 
 rijl, rigl) (S), Mumeshaydt (S) (Mashi, walking). 
 Head, Kamukkah, Dumdkheh (S) (Pers. Daniagh, brain) : 
 
 H. Ras ; G. Sir (Hind.), Sherit, Kamokhti. 
 Eye, Bassdseh (Bassaseh, she that sees ?), Huzzdrak (S) : 
 
 H. Hazara ; G. Ankhi (Hind.). 
 *Thief, Damdni : H. Gowati ; G. Dumani, Kalo ; N. 
 
 Showusti. 
 
 Hand, 1 Shammdleh (Arab. Shamala, he collected ; Shimal, 
 the left-hand ?), also two number five : H. Kuma- 
 shteh ; G. Gadno, Knstur (Angushti ?), Chang 
 (Pers.) ; N. Fowitak. 
 
 North, Bakaraish (from Bahar, the sea, i.e. towards the 
 Mediterranean). 
 
 South, Kiblaish (Kibleh, Arab, the fronting-place, i.e. 
 Mecca). 
 
 East, Sharkaish (Arab. Shark ; hence probably Saracen). 
 
 West, Gharbaish (Gharb, whence probably Maurus, a Moor). 
 
 Coffee, Magdswade (Ma aswad, that which is black). 
 
 *Clothes, 2 Sarme (S). 
 
 Shoe, Merkubdish (Arab. Merkub). 
 
 Nose, Zenundish. 
 
 Ear, Widu (Arab. Uzu); thy ear, Widuamrak 1 (S) or 
 Muddusheh (S) : H. Wudu ; G. Kirkawiyeh. 
 
 1 Finger : H. Sabua (Arab.) ; G. Augushti (Hind.). 
 Neck : H. Ptekl (Arab.) ; G. Sheriti. 
 
 Knee : H. Euggal or Kumayhtu ; G. Shang. 
 
 Teeth : H. Sinnan (Arab.), Suvan ; G. Ddndi (Hind.), Sinnam. 
 
 Flesh : H. Udwan ; G. Maas (Hind.). 
 
 Perd, mas. : H. Lib ; G. Kiah. 
 
 „ neut. : H. Budi ; G. Minchia ; N. Bud. 
 Belly : H. Batu (Arab.) ; G. Burri ; N. Bosah. 
 
 2 Ring : H. Khatim (Arab.) ; G. Augustir (Hind.). 
 
TLhc <&£PSB in Hfrtca 247 
 
 Cow, Mubgdrskeh (S) (Arab. Bakar) : H, Mubgursha ; G. 
 
 G6m (Goa, Pers. ?). 
 Bull, Mutwdresh (S) (Arab. Tanr) : H. Mutwarish ; G. Maia, 
 
 Gono (male cow ?). 
 River, Mistabkar (S) (from Bahr, sea or river). 
 Palm (tree), Minkhalesk (S) (Arab. Nakhl). 
 Tent, El-Mikkwdskesk (S) (Arab. Khaysheh). 
 Wood, Makhshabesh (S) (Arab. Khashab). 
 Straw, Tibudisk (Arab. Tibu). 
 Christ, El-Annawi (el-Nabbi, The Prophet ?). 
 *Egg, Mugakrada (S) : H. Mejahalecl ; G. Wain. 
 Fire, 2 El-Mug duwara, (S) : light the fire, Walldish el- 
 
 Mugduwara. 
 *Food, esh-Skimlek. 
 
 Sack, Migrdbesh (Arab. Kirbeh, Girbeh). 
 
 Arm, El-Kemmdshek ; my hand hurts, Kemmasktic wagajo.ni 
 
 (Arab. Kamasha, he collected, picked up ; the last 
 
 word pure Arab.). 
 Hair, Shcfardisk (S) (Arab. Sha'ar) : H. Hara ; G. Bal or 
 
 Val (Hind.). 
 
 *Tobacco, Tiftaf(S) (possibly formed like the Turk. Tutun). 
 Mountain, Migbalish (S) (Arab. Jebel, Egypt. Gebel, 
 
 whence Monte-Gibello) : H. Gebel (Arab.) ; G. 
 
 Melush, Durum ; N. Koh (Pers.). 
 *Nasty (adj.), Shalaf. 3 
 
 1 The terminal, amrak, may be they work, business, property ; in 
 fact, synonymous with the vulgar bitd'k. 
 
 2 Every Arabic dialect has some euphonistic form of expressing 
 fire; the simple word Nar would be inauspicious, suggesting the 
 dea of hell-fire. 
 
 3 Newbold adds : 
 
 Nouns. 
 
 God : H. Allah ; G. Allah ; N. Allah. 
 
 Devil : H. Shaytan (Arab.) ; G. Iblis (Arab.) ; N. Harmir 
 (Harami 1). 
 
248 
 
 Verbs. 
 
 *Go, Fell ; I went, Felleit (Arab, termination — ayfcer, ayt). 
 
 To go : H. Fil ; G. Ja (Hind.). 
 Come, E'utib (S) ; he came, Gddat. To come : H. Ig ; 
 
 G. Utelo or a* (Hind.). 
 *Say, Agmu ; I said, Agemtu. 
 
 Strike, IV big ; he struck, H'abash, Habash (S) (Himya- 
 ritic ?) ; he still strikes, Hay yihbig (Ha fa haza el 
 wakt ; vulgar Egyptian). 
 
 *We ate, Rakkhaynd or Shamalna (Arab, we gathered). To 
 eat : H. Eshna, Shemb ; G. Khaba, Jala ; N. Arkus. 
 
 Sit, Watib. 
 
 We drank, Mawwajnd (from Manj, a wave ?) ; I drank, 
 Mawwagt, Hamball (S). To drink : H. Hunnib ; 
 G. Mowwak. 
 
 He cut, Shafar. 
 
 He called, cried, NabbaVa. 
 
 *He died, Entena. 
 
 Christian : H. Ghiraie ; G. Balamu. 
 
 Gentile, i.e. non-Gypsy : H. Hushno ; G. Chaju ; N. Keghaneh. 
 
 Luck (fortune) : H. Bakht (Pers.) ; G. Buji ; N. Sohri. 
 
 Poison : H. Sun (Arab. Sum ?) ; G. Zungali ; N. Mubahah (Arab. 
 
 the permitted ?). 
 Love : all use Hebb (Habb, Arab.). 
 
 Harlot : H. Beskanan ; G. Besignan, Gabu ; N. Gad el-haram. 
 Zone of chastity : H. Hug ; G. Dilk ; N. Fowi (Futah, a napkin). 
 Name : H. Ism (Arab.) ; G. Rubon {i.e. your name) ; N. Minas. 
 Year : H. Shahr (Arab.) ; G. Yuk Sadish. 
 
 King : H. Dazi, Zilk ; G. El-reibo, el-burro (Hind. Bara, gnat 1). 
 City or village : H. Gavuti (Hind.); G. Gav (Hind.); N. Desi(Hind.). 
 Bridge : all J untava (error or corruption of Kantaral ?). 
 House : H. Nizb ; G. Kir (Ghar, Hind ?). 
 Door : H. Bal (Arab.) ; G. Kapu (Turk.). 
 Rope : H. Hebl (Arab.) ; G. Dori (Hind.). 
 Paper : all use Warkeh (Arab.). 
 Book : all use Kitab (Arab.). 
 
XTbe 6£pss in Bfrica 
 
 249 
 
 *He killed, slew, Tena ; he kills, YitnL 
 
 *He sleeps, Yidmukk ; I slept, Dammackt. To sleep : H. 
 
 Dumak ; G. Sobelar ; N. Suk. 
 *He rides, Yita?alwan. 
 *He gives, Yikif; he gave, Kaj\ 
 
 *He steals, Yiknish ; he stole, Kanash. To rob : H. 
 
 Gunwani ; G. Churabi (Hind.) ; N. Lahis. 
 *He cooks, Yittabig ; he cooked, Tabag (Arab. Tabaxa). 
 He saw, Haseb. 
 *He laughs, Biarr'a. 
 *Sit, Ukriz. 
 Stand up, Utib. 
 *He married, Etkaddad. 
 
 " From these philological facts," says Von Kremer, 
 in conclusion, " I draw no inference, the material 
 being perhaps too scanty to warrant deductions. It 
 is very regrettable that the old original words are 
 dropping out of use, being replaced by a cant or 
 
 Adjectives. 
 
 Sick, tired : H. Tabau (Arab.). 
 
 Bad : H. Battal (Arab.); G. Bilbey. 
 
 Good : H. Tayyib (Arab.) ; G. Sasho (pure Gypsy). 
 
 Great : H. Kabir (Arab.); G. Bara (Hind.) ; N. Bari. 
 
 Small : H. Sughayyar (Arab.) ; G. Thoranki (Hind.). 
 
 Black : H. Aswadish (corr. Arab.) ; G. Kalo (Hind.). 
 
 White : all use Alyar (Arab.). 
 
 Cold : H. Melladish (corr. Arab.) ; G. Memudrih. 
 
 Hot : H. Mahrarish (corr. Arab.) ; G. Garu (Pers.). 
 
 Advekbs. 
 
 Much : H. Ketir (Arab.) ; G. Bhut (Hind.). 
 
 A little : H. Meframrush ; G. Theraki, Thukrani (corr. Hind.). 
 
 Enough : H. Keffi (Arab.) ; G. Bas (Pers.), Nunniya. 
 
 Here : H. Hene (Arab.) ; G. Syde. 
 
 There : H. Hunah (Arab.) ; G. Aurileh. 
 
250 
 
 jargon from Arabic according to a purely conven- 
 tional plan, a changing of the ending, like Kiblas 
 for Kibla. It is also evident that the Ghagar have 
 sunk in favour of the vernacular their own peculiar 
 names for colours, for the sun and moon, for earth 
 and fire, and for other terms of universal use." 
 
 In Newbold's vocabulary, on the other hand, we 
 have distinct signs of an Eastern, not a Western pro- 
 vincialism, as the author says : " There is a marked 
 difference in the three dialects, or jargons ; that of 
 the Ghagar most resembles the language of the 
 Kurbat, or Gypsies of Syria. The Gypsy dialect in 
 Borrow's work contains more words of Indian origin 
 than the Helebi and Nawar jargon. The Helebi 
 comprises a large number of words of Arabic root, 
 indicating a long sojourn in Yemen, or other parts 
 of Arabia. Its numerals, which are also used by 
 the Ghagar when secrecy is required, bear strong 
 marks of Eastern, or Persian, origin. Usually the 
 Helebis adopt the vulgar Arabic numerals in use 
 throughout Egypt. 1 . . . The numerals of the Nawars 
 are evidently of Persian origin. ... All the tribes 
 disclaim having any written character peculiar to 
 themselves, 2 and it is rare to find one among them 
 
 1 This proves one of two things : first, that the Gypsies left India 
 before the Hindus had borrowed a Western character from the 
 Phoenicians ; or two, the Gypsies were a low caste, which, like the 
 Pariahs and others, ignore writing. 
 
 2 When travelling, for instance, they place on prominent rocks 
 and remarkable trees pebbles, bits of thread, and similar articles, 
 showing the road they have taken. 
 
XTbe <3£PS£ in Hfrica 
 
 251 
 
 who can write the common Arabic of the country. 
 I have been informed, however, by a respectable 
 Copt that they have secret symbols which they 
 sedulously conceal. It seems to me probable that 
 the whole of these tribes had one common origin 
 in India and the adjacent countries on its western 
 frontier, and that the difference in the jargons they 
 now speak is owing to their sojourn in the various 
 countries through which they have passed. It is 
 certain that the Gypsies are strangers and outcasts in 
 the land which has given them a name, and which 
 has long been supposed to have given them birth." 
 
 In Sindh I met Captain Newbold, and, assisted 
 by my late friend James Macleod, then Collector 
 of Customs at Karachi, supplied him with a short 
 vocabulary. His studies gained breadth by noting 
 the manners and habits of a singular wandering tribe 
 called the Jats, whose remarkable physical appearance 
 reminded him strongly of the Gypsies of Egypt and 
 Syria. He saw a tribe living in tents and rude 
 movable huts in the wood of Balut, near Jujah, 
 between Karachi and the Indus. Hence he drew the 
 following conclusions : 
 
 " Since my visit to the banks of the Indus, I am 
 more than ever convinced that from the borders 
 of this classic river originally migrated the horde 
 of Gypsies that are scattered over Europe, Asia, and 
 the northern confines of Africa. The dialects spoken 
 by the numerous tribes which swarm upon the 
 
252 
 
 territories adjacent to the Indus, from the sea to 
 the snowy mountains of Himalaya and Tatary, have, 
 with those spoken by the Gypsies, a certain family 
 resemblance, which, like their physical features, 
 cannot be mistaken. I find it impossible at present 
 to place my hand on any particular tribe, and say, 
 4 This is the parent stock of the Gypsies ' ; but as far 
 as my researches have gone, I am rather inclined to 
 think that this singular race derives its origin, not 
 from one alone, but from several tribes that constitute 
 the family of mankind dwelling on, or adjacent to, 
 the banks of the Indus." 
 
 Captain Newbold's studies in Egypt, where he was 
 assisted by the Shaykhs of the Roma, complete those 
 of Von Kremer, and prove that the latter had chiefly 
 noticed the Ghawazi and Ghagar families. The 
 former would divide the vagrants into two — the 
 Helebis and their wives, the Fehemis (wise women), 
 who practise palmistry and divination, and look down 
 with supreme contempt upon their distant kinsmen 
 the Ghagar or Ghajar, whose better halves are 
 musicians and rope-dancers. The Helebis, who 
 evidently derive their name from Habel (Aleppo), 
 claim to be derived from El Yemen, and declare 
 that in the early history of their race a great king 
 persecuted and expelled them. The tribe then 
 wandered over Syria, Egypt, Persia, and Europe 
 under some brother-chiefs, whose tombs are still 
 held holy to this day. The Helebis confined their 
 
Zhc Gypsy in Hfrtca 
 
 253 
 
 wandering to the Rif or Nile Valley and the Delta. 
 They rarely go deep into the desert, except when 
 they sally forth to sell cattle medicines, or to buy 
 jaded beasts from the returning pilgrim caravans, 
 and a few perform the pilgrimage in order to win 
 the title of Hagi. 
 
 The Shaykhs speak of four tribes scattered about 
 Egypt, and each comprising fifty families, a number 
 of which Newbold had reason to believe is much 
 and designedly underrated. According to the Helebis, 
 the sworn chiefs obtained from the sovereign of 
 Egypt the right of wandering unmolested about the 
 country, and the privilege of exemption from taxes. 
 Muhammad Ali Pasha compelled them, however, to 
 pay a poll tax, which accounts for their numbering 
 only two hundred instead of perhaps five thousand 
 families. In 1847 the pasha had ordered the people 
 not residing in their native villages to return to them, 
 causing great distress and scenes of violence and 
 misery. The Gypsies took the hint, struck their 
 tents by night, decamped bag and baggage, and 
 disappeared altogether. They are expert in disguises, 
 and do not yield the palm to European brethren in 
 cunning and deception. Remarkably intelligent and 
 quick in gaining information, they would make 
 capital spies in an enemy's camp. The women during 
 their halts on the outskirts of towns and villages, 
 and in running about the streets, bazars, and coffee- 
 houses, pick up with wonderful tact and accuracy all 
 
254 
 
 requisite information concerning the private history 
 of those on whom they may be expected to exercise 
 their vocation of fortune-telling. In this secret 
 intelligence department they are aided by the men, 
 who, it is said, are numerous in official employ- 
 ment, although unknown to be Gypsies. At all 
 events they mingle with residents on the spot, and 
 with strangers in the caravanserais and other public 
 places. 
 
 The Helebis, leading a vagabond, wandering life, 
 usually pitch tents or portable huts on the outskirts 
 of towns and large villages. The former resemble 
 in all points those of the pauper Bedawin, and 
 contained little beyond wretched horse and ass 
 furniture, mats, cooking-pots, and similar necessaries. 
 Everything denotes externally the most squalid 
 poverty, except only the enormous mass of fowl, 
 mutton, and savoury vegetables seething in the large 
 caldron suspended from the familiar crossed sticks 
 over the embers of a large fire, thus proving to 
 more senses than one that the care of the flesh-pots 
 of ancient Egypt has not devolved upon a race 
 insensible to their charms. All deny the common 
 charge of eating dogs, cats, and other meat held 
 impure by Muslims. 
 
 The male Helebis are ostensibly dealers in horses 
 and asses, camels and black cattle. They pretend to 
 great skill in the veterinary art ; but their character 
 for honesty does not stand high with those who know 
 
Zbc 6to in Bfrtca 
 
 255 
 
 them best. Without known religion, priests, or 
 houses of prayer, this tribe, like the Ghagar and all 
 others, conform to El Islam, or to the predominant 
 religion whenever policy or convenience demands. 
 They bury their dead, but have no fixed places of 
 interment. The men will marry Ghagar damsels, 
 but will not give their daughters to Ghagar. The zone 
 of chastity is even made, they say, of plaited things 
 like that of the Nubian, and is cut off on the wedding 
 night. The women, though chaste themselves, will 
 act as Mercuries to the Gentile male and female ; and 
 they have been charged with sundry indecencies for 
 money. The Muslims and Copts declare that they 
 kidnap children, and they of course swear they do 
 not. The women never intermarry with strangers, 
 and in this respect they are as rigid as the Hindus. 
 They are not remarkable for cleanliness either of 
 person or apparel. In this respect, and in their 
 passion for trinkets of brass, silver, and ivory, they 
 remind one of certain native women of India. 
 Their special privilege is the practice of palmistry 
 and divination. The Fehemi takes the inquirer's 
 right hand by the finger tips, and bends them gently 
 backward so as to render the lines more visible. She 
 mutters a spell while with all gravity she reads the 
 book of destiny, and then reads the result ; of course 
 her hand must be crossed with silver. Palmistry, 
 I must add, is one of the many superstitions to 
 which India gave birth, and all the world over the 
 
256 
 
 lines and mounts and spaces and other distributions 
 of the hands are the same. 
 
 Newbold says comparatively little of the Ghagar, 
 who claim to be of the same stock as the Helebis, 
 and who speak of brethren in Hungary, while the 
 original tongue is preserved. Comparatively poor in 
 physical appearance and in vagabond habits, they 
 bear a family resemblance to the Helebis and to the 
 Syrian Kurbat. During the summer months they 
 wander about the cultivated land, and pitch tents 
 and Kaysh. A favourite way of gaining a livelihood 
 is by carrying water-jars, and by singing at the 
 birthday fetes of saints, etc., during the fine season. 
 In wandering they prefer the towns. In ancient 
 Arabia they have Ghettos, as at Old Cairo and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Being subject to the poll tax, they have an interest 
 in understating their numbers, which can scarcely 
 be less than sixteen thousand. When the publican 
 is abroad, they quietly abscond across the Nile, and 
 take refuge in some village on the skirts of the desert. 
 After paying a first visit to them, which aroused 
 their suspicion, Newbold returned the following day, 
 and to his surprise found the quarter quite deserted. 
 Subsequently, however, a better acquaintance was 
 established. 
 
 With few exceptions the Ghagar are all thieves. 
 Ostensibly the men are athletes, monkey-leaders, 
 and mountebanks attending several fairs. They 
 
XTbe <B£P5£ In Hfrtca 
 
 257 
 
 are also metal-workers and horse-dealers. The 
 women are not allowed to practise palmistry and 
 divination, consequently they are despised by the 
 Fehemis. Many of them are excellent rope-dancers ; 
 others are musicians, playing chiefly on the talla, 
 a kind of castanet. They also practise female 
 circumcision upon Muslim girls, bore ears and 
 nostrils, and tattoo lips and chins. 
 
 The Nawar of Egypt were hereditary robbers, like 
 certain tribes in India. They were protected and 
 even employed by the Billi tribe of Arabs, and the 
 relations of patron and client were those of the High- 
 land chiefs and the crofters upon their properties. 
 Muhammad Ali Pasha succeeded in taming this law- 
 less tribe, which for generations had given immense 
 trouble to his predecessors, upon the principle of 
 setting a thief to catch a thief. He employed them 
 as police and watchmen upon his country estates, 
 and he allowed them 50 per cent, on property 
 recovered from plunderers brought to justice. Since 
 that time they have seldom broken the law, except 
 at Cairo, where there is less chance of detection. 
 They intermarry with the Fellahin, or Egyptians 
 of the soil, from whom in physique and raiment 
 they can hardly be distinguished. Outwardly they 
 profess Muhammadanism, and they have little inter- 
 course with the Helebis and Ghagar. In 1847 their 
 chief was a certain Shaykh Yusuf, one of the most 
 notorious thieves in Egypt. 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 § 2. The Gsane of Algeria and Morocco. 
 
 This race is interesting because it shows the origin 
 of the Darb el-mendel, the Magic Mirror of Egypt, 
 known to the Hindus as Aujan. It was first 
 noticed in India by the learned Dr. Herklots, who 
 in 1832 published a most valuable volume on the 
 manners and customs of the Hindi Muslims. Unfor- 
 tunately the British public misjudged its title, and held 
 it to be a cookery-book. The next to notice it was 
 Mr. Lane (Modern Egyptians, Vol. II., chap, xii.) in 
 1835. He tells us that two Europeans, an Englishman 
 and a Frenchman, learned to induce the phenomenon ; 
 and he concludes with the normal deprecatory formula 
 of his age : " Neither I nor others have been able to 
 discover any clue by which to penetrate the mystery ; 
 and if the reader be alike unable to give the solution, 
 I hope that he will not allow the above account to 
 induce in his mind any degree of scepticism with 
 respect to other portions of this work." Since that 
 time the Zoist, the Journal de Magnetisme, and 
 similar publications took up the subject, and traced 
 it from Cornelius Agrippa and Dr. Dee to the most 
 degraded of existing savages, the Australians: 
 
 The following is Dr. de Pietra Santa's account 
 of the two modes of fascination employed by the 
 " magicians " of French Africa (Algiers) 1 : 
 
 1 Letter written from Algiers, and published in the Union Medicate 
 of January 2, 1860. 
 
XTbe (Beps£ in Bfrica 259 
 
 " The first forms part of the baggage of all Arab 
 Gzanes, Gypsies, sorceresses, and fortune-tellers. 
 When one wishes to strike the imagination of the 
 multitude, it is absolutely necessary to find phenomena 
 which are both intelligible to all and which each 
 one can instantly verify for himself. Amongst such 
 there is not one more evident than sleep. It is 
 therefore important for the Gzane, in order to prove 
 in an undeniable manner her moral power and super- 
 natural influence, that she should be able to send to 
 sleep at a given moment the person who has recourse to 
 her occult science. She employs the following means : 
 
 " Upon the palm of the hand she describes, with 
 some blackish colouring matter, a circle, in whose 
 centre is marked a spot equally black. After looking 
 fixedly at the latter for a few minutes, the eyes 
 grow heavy, they blink, and the sight is confused ; 
 the heaviness is presently succeeded by sleep, and 
 sleep by a sort of insensibility, 1 of which the Gypsy 
 profits to exercise her manoeuvres more securely. I 
 give you the simple fact without commentaries ; and 
 abjuring any pretensions to determine its importance. 
 
 " Let us now pass on to the second mode of fascina- 
 
 1 This is evidently the hypnotism so called by Dr. John Braid, of 
 Manchester, the Braidism of Continental writers. The discovery was 
 made in 1841. See Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Slee]^ 
 Considered in Relation ivith Animal Magnetism. About 1849, 
 profiting by the studies of Doctors J. B. Dods and Philips, a certain 
 Mr. Stone introduced into England a modification of hypnotism, 
 which he absurdly called Electro -biology ; his zinc and copper discs 
 were the civilized succedanea of the ink-blot. 
 
260 
 
 tion. Upon a table covered with a white cloth is 
 placed a bottle, usually filled with water and backed 
 by a small lamp lighted. The subject is comfortably 
 seated on a chair, and told to look at the bright 
 point placed before him at the distance of a few 
 steps. After a few minutes the eyelids grow heavy, 
 then they gradually smile, and sleep is induced. 
 With nervous temperaments palpitation of the heart 
 and headache also manifest themselves. 
 
 " In order to give an odour of the supernatural to 
 these phenomena, the Moroccan, Gypsy or Marabout, 
 has a certain quantity of benzoin burnt behind the 
 table ; and while the vapour spreads itself through 
 the room, the person undergoing the process falls 
 into a complete state of anaesthesia. " 
 
 Borrow mentions in Barbary sundry " sects of 
 wanderers," which he shrewdly suspects to be 
 Gypsies, and whom he provides with the worst of 
 characters. The first are the " Beni Aros " (?), 
 who wander about Fez, and have their homes in 
 the high mountains near Tetuan. A comely, well- 
 made race, they are beggars by profession, notorious 
 drunkards, addicted to robbery, murder, and effemi- 
 nate crimes. They claim to be Moors, and their 
 language is Arabic. The second are the " Sidi 
 Hamed au Muza," so called from their patron saint. 
 In many respects they not a little resemble the 
 Gypsies ; but they speak the Shilhah, or a dialect of 
 that tongue. They earn their livelihood by vaulting, 
 
XCbe Ospse In atrica 
 
 261 
 
 tumbling, and tricks with sword and dagger, to the 
 sound of wild music, which the women, seated on the 
 ground, produce from their uncouth instruments. 
 
 § 3. The Gypsies in Inner Africa. 
 
 It is generally believed that the Roma have 
 extended far southwards from Morocco and Barbary. 
 Borrow remarks of the Dar-bushi-fal (fortune- 
 tellers), that if they are not Gypsies, the latter 
 people cannot be found in the country. Numerous 
 in Barbary, they wander during the greater part 
 of the year, pilfering, fortune-telling, and dealing 
 in mules and donkeys. Their fixed villages are 
 known as " Char Seharra," witch hamlets. They can 
 change the colour of an animal, and transform a 
 white man into a negro black as a coal, after which 
 they sell him as a slave. They are said to possess 
 a peculiar language, which, being neither Arabic nor 
 Shilhah, is intelligible only to their own caste. 
 Borrow often conversed with them ; but he neglected 
 to apply his favourite Shibboleth, Pani (water). 
 Their faces are described as exceedingly lean, their 
 skins swarthy, and their legs are reeds ; " when they 
 run, the devil himself cannot overtake them. ,, 
 Their vehicles of divination are oil, a plate full of 
 flour, or a shoe placed in the mouth. They are 
 evil people, and powerful enchanters, feared by the 
 emperor himself. 
 
262 
 
 M. Paul Bataillard (Notes et Questions) refers, 
 for information concerning the Gypsies, to the 
 Voyage dans le Nord et dans les Parties Centrales 
 de PAfrique, the journey of Denham and Clapperton, 
 translated by Eyries and another (Paris, 1826, 3 vols. 
 8vo). These authors, he says, pretend to assimilate 
 the " Chouaa " Arabs of Bornou with the Gypsies. 
 Indeed, they expressly declare that their Arabic 
 is almost pure Gypsy. This is, however, incom- 
 patible with another passage, which declares that 
 these " Chouaas " have imported into Bornou the 
 Arabic, which they speak purely. 
 
 I can only find 1 that the women of the Chouaa 
 Arabs are described as " a very extraordinary race, 
 with scarcely any resemblance to the Arabs of 
 the north : they have fine open countenances, with 
 aquiline noses and large eyes; their complexion is 
 a light copper colour ; they possess great cunning 
 with their courage, and resemble in appearance some 
 of our best-formed Gypsies in England, particularly 
 the women ; and their Arabic is nearly pure Egyptian." 
 Major Denman afterwards found the " Shouaas of 
 the tribe of Waled Salamat, extending eastward quite 
 as far as the Tchad." He notes their difference from 
 the Fellalahs, and their practice of sending plundering 
 parties to Mandara. We also hear of their skill in 
 the chase and their use of the spear on horseback. 
 
 1 Narrative of Travels in 1822-24. The folio edition shows two 
 women with the crisp African hair. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE GYPSY IN EUROPE 
 
 § 1. The Gypsy in Hungary 
 
 THE Czigany, as they are called, appeared early in 
 the fifteenth century, and were supposed to have 
 fled from Moghol persecution. King Sigismund, father 
 of the heroic John Hunyadi, 1 allowed them to settle in 
 his realm, and the law called them " mere peasants. " 
 In 1496 Bishop Sigismund at Funf-Kirchen ordered 
 iron cannon-balls from the Gypsies to be used against 
 the Turkish invaders of Hungary ; and he was 
 doughtily supported against the Turks by King 
 Zindelo, Dukes Miguel and Andrew, by Counts 
 Manuel and Juan, by the " noble knight " Pedro, 
 and by the chief Tomas Polgar. 
 
 1 Hence probably the Hungarian Himyadis are popularly supposed 
 to have Gypsy blood. John's mother (a.d. 1400) is said to have been 
 a fair Wallach, Elizabeth Marsinai, possibly of Romani blood. The 
 legend of the boy recovering his unknown father's ring from a 
 plundering jackdaw, his appearance at Buda, and his receiving the 
 gift of Hunyad town and sixty villages, is well known. The 
 Turk's bell was first heard in invaded Hungary during the reign of 
 Sigismund. John Hunyadi drove them from Servia and Bosnia, and 
 vainly proposed a league of Christian powers. When Corvinus passed 
 away after a reign of forty-two years, the lieges said of him, and still 
 say, "King Matthias is dead, and Justice died with him." 
 
 263 
 
264 
 
 The reforms of 1848 found them in a state of 
 slavery, adscript! glebce, who could not legally take 
 service away from their birthplace. Their condition 
 was worse than that of the Wallach peasant, who says 
 of his haughty Magyar Magnate, " A lord is a lord 
 born in hell." Some forty years ago Mr. Paget 1 
 says Gypsies were exposed for sale in the neighbour- 
 ing province of Wallachia. In the Hungary of the bad 
 old regime the relation of the landowning peasant, 
 however oppressive might have been his obligations, 
 was never that of master and slave. If the agri- 
 culturist chose to give up his session-lands, the 
 ground he occupied by hereditary use, he could go 
 where he pleased. Practically this was rare ; it was 
 equivalent to giving up his means of subsistence, 
 and he preferred the tax-paying while all the nobles 
 went free, and the odious burden of the " Robot " 
 corvee, or forced labour, two and in some cases 
 three days a week. Hence he hated the military 
 conscription, the only means of civilizing him 
 established by Austria in 1849. 2 But the Czigany, 
 however deep-rooted is his love of liberty, never 
 
 1 Hungary and Transylvania, 1839. Before 1848 the Church, the 
 State, and the nobles were the only landowners ; the peasant, however, 
 had leave to occupy certain tracts (session-lands) under his lord. 
 
 2 Mr. Andrew F. Crosse, Bound about the Carpathians (Black- 
 woods, 1878), declares (p. 146) that this " conscription was enforced 
 with every species of official brutality." Austria was dealing with 
 a conquered and a peculiar, stiff-necked people. Lord Palmerston's 
 hatred of Austria was, we are told, the best passport to Hungarian 
 sympathy. 
 
Ubc (Bspss in Europe 265 
 
 preserved the modicum of freedom to which the 
 Hungarian clung. 
 
 Though now legally free, the Czigany's deep 
 respect for everything aristocratic attaches him to 
 the ruling caste. In Transylvania " Magyar " is a 
 distinctive term for class as well as race. The 
 Czigany who do not assimilate with the thrifty 
 Saxons prefer to be mere hangers-on at the castle 
 of the Hungarian Magnate, as in England of old 
 they take his name ; and they profess the same 
 faith — Catholic, Protestant, or nothing. Notwith- 
 standing their incurable propensity for pilfering, they 
 are trusted as messengers and carriers ; like the 
 old Spanish arriero, they form a general " parcels- 
 delivery company." And they are ubiquitous, for 
 never a door is left unlocked lest a Gypsy will slip 
 in and steal. In old days they were most efficient 
 spies upon Christian and Muslim, and they trimmed 
 between the twain to their own advantage. They 
 also made the best of smugglers ; they dug for 
 treasure, and they washed for paillettes of gold the 
 Transylvanian affluents of the Danube. At times 
 they set out upon plundering excursions, which 
 extended to Italy, France, and Spain. They are 
 still accused of incendiarism by the Wallachs, who 
 apparently thus seek to hide the malpractices result- 
 ing from their inordinate lust of revenge, the ugly 
 survival of the savage character. These people 
 forget that " curses, like chickens, come home to 
 
266 
 
 roost," and will play with fire even when it damages 
 themselves. 
 
 The settled Gypsy's dwelling is even more primi- 
 tive than the Wallachs. The hut is formed, like 
 the African's, with plaited sticks, and swish is 
 plastered into the gaps. Before the hut entrance often 
 stands the nomad cart, two wheeled and tilted, and 
 always stands the tripod supporting the iron pot — a 
 sight, like the scarlet cloak, once familiar to us, but 
 now disappeared from England. In time the earth is 
 grass-grown ; and as the hovel is rarely more than 
 seven feet high, it looks rather like an exaggerated 
 ant-hill or a tumulus than a habitation for man. 
 Yet the ragged inmate, whose children go about in 
 nature's garb, is clever with his hands. He is the 
 best blacksmith in the country, and he fashions 
 simple wooden articles for household use with 
 dexterity and even with taste. Despite his wretched 
 surroundings, he keeps his good spirits, he sings to 
 his work, and he plays the violin in his leisure 
 hours. 
 
 I need hardly repeat the commonplaces about 
 the music of the Hungarian Gypsy, and the legends 
 concerning Catalani and Liszt. Strolling bands, in 
 civilized attire, and performing upon divers instru- 
 ments, are and have been for some time well known 
 to the capitals of Europe. So great is the contrast 
 between their art and their surroundings, that 
 more than one traveller has suspected this mar- 
 
Ube <Bsp0£ in Europe 267 
 
 vellous gift of pathetic strains to be a " language 
 brought with them in their exile from another and 
 a higher state of existence." I find in it only the 
 marriage of Eastern with Western melody, the high 
 science of the former, so little appreciated by the 
 ignorant Anglo-Indian, with the perfect practice of 
 the latter. 
 
 Though utterly unalphabetic, these people have a 
 strange power of stirring their hearers' hearts. They 
 play by ear, in style unsurpassed by the best training, 
 the violin, the 'cello, and the zither, with which 
 London is now familiarized. The airs, often their 
 own, tell a thrilling national tale in a way that 
 makes an indelible impression upon the stranger. 
 Now it is the expression of turmoil, battle, and 
 defeat, followed by a long wail of woe, of pas- 
 sionate grief, mostly in the minor key. Then it 
 suddenly passes to the major in a wild burst of joy, 
 of triumph, of exultation, of rapture, which carries 
 along with it the hearer in irresistible sympathy. 
 It has all the charm of contrast ; of extremes, excite- 
 ment and depression ; subjection and deliverance, 
 delight and despair. The strains rob the excitable 
 Hungarian of his reason ; he drinks in the music- 
 till he is drunk. 
 
 The Gypsy is capable of a noble self-sacrifice, and 
 Mr. Crosse tells a tale which proves it. He passed 
 in a wild, romantic glen a steep, overhanging rock 
 known throughout the land as the " Gypsy's stone." 
 
268 
 
 About the middle of the last century, it is supposed, 
 there was a famine ; and the Czigany, poorer than their 
 neighbours, were reduced to beg or starve. When 
 turned away by certain hard-hearted villagers, one 
 poor fellow refused to go, declaring that his children 
 were dying of hunger. "Then," said one of the 
 boors in a mocking tone, "I will give your family 
 a side of bacon, if you will jump from that rock." 
 " You hear his promise ! " cried the Czigan, ap- 
 pealing to the crowd. Without another word he 
 rushed from amongst them, clambered up the rock, 
 and took the leap, which was — death. 
 
 This is exactly what we might expect under the 
 circumstances from a Hindu. The system of Badli — 
 in plain English, paying a man to " take blame " and 
 to be hanged for you — is the best proof. 
 
 It should be remembered that a Hungarian was 
 the first to publish the " Indie origin " of the Romani 
 tongue. At the end of 1765 an interesting com- 
 munique was addressed to the Vienna Gazette by 
 Captain Szekely de Doba. He related that the 
 Protestant parson Stephen Vali while studying at 
 Ley den made acquaintance with certain Malabar 
 youths sent there by the Dutch Government, and 
 their vernacular reminded him of the Gypsy tongue 
 which he had heard in his home at Almasch. 
 They also assured him that in Malabar there 
 is a district called Zigania (?), which suggested 
 a comparison with the German Zigeuner. At their 
 
XTbe (B£PS£ in Europe 269 
 
 dictation he wrote down almost a thousand words, 
 and returning to Almasch he was surprised to find 
 the Czigan understanding them. 
 
 Then set in the first period (1775—1800) of San- 
 skrit and Zend study, accompanied by publications 
 of Bengali, Urdu, and others of the eighteen Prakrit 
 tongues still spoken in the great Peninsula. This 
 led to careful study of Romani. The celebrated 
 Mezzofanti did not hesitate to assign it high rank 
 amongst the thirty-two languages he had studied ; 
 and when he lost his mind (1832) he never con- 
 founded it with other idioms. Then followed in 1837 
 the Gospel of St. Luke translated into Spanish Ca 16 
 by " Gypsy Borrow," who, however, inserted Castilian 
 words from Father Scio instead of forming them from 
 Gypsy roots. 
 
 § 2. The Gypsies of Spain. 
 
 We have ample material for studying the Spanish 
 Gypsy, or Flamanco, as he is contemptuously called, 
 probably because he entered Andalusia in the train 
 of the Flemings during the first third of the fifteenth 
 century. Yet it is somewhat remarkable that Europe 
 believed up to the end of that century the purely 
 Spanish origin of the Gypsies. 
 
 Pasquier, describing the arrival of these " penitents " 
 in Paris a.d. 1427, adds that from that time all 
 France was infested by these vagabonds, but that the 
 
270 
 
 XTbe 6spss 
 
 first horde was replaced by the Biscayan and other 
 peoples of the same origin. This suggests an early 
 occupation of the Peninsula; although Francisca de 
 Cordova in his Didasculia declared they were first 
 known in Germany, and the general belief now is 
 that the last horde entered Europe by the high- 
 roads of Andalusia and Bulgaria, or rather Greece, 
 and they must have been settled for many years 
 in these countries. 
 
 Northern Spaniards find in Andalusian blood a 
 distinct Gypsy innervation. 
 
 In Spain, as elsewhere, the Gypsy made himself 
 hated by his systematic contempt of the laws of meum 
 and team ; whilst he was protected by two widely 
 different conditions : the first was his poverty (" As 
 poor as a Gypsy " is still a proverb) ; secondly, he 
 was a spy equally useful to Christian and unbeliever. 
 Yet action was not wanting. In 1499 was published 
 the Gran Pragmatica (Royal Ordinance) of Medina 
 del Campo, under the influence of a fanatic arch- 
 bishop, banishing on and after the term of sixty 
 days the Egyptian and foreign tinkers (caldereros), 
 and forbidding return under pain of mutilation. This 
 Pragmatica was renewed under Charles V. by the 
 Cortes of Toledo and of Madrid, with the additional 
 punishment of perpetual slavery for those found 
 wandering a third time. Yet in 1560, on his 
 marriage at Toledo with Isabelle of France, Gypsy 
 dances formed part of the festivities. He was com- 
 
TLhc (Bspse in Europe 271 
 
 paratively mild, and after moderating the old rigorous 
 laws he ordered the outcasts to live in towns. In 
 1586 the same king allowed them to sell their goods 
 at ten fairs and markets under certain conditions. 
 
 These nomads picked up information from all 
 classes, and the women, with their black magic, 
 sorcery, and devilry, palmistry, love-potions, and 
 poisons, penetrated into every secret. The Holy 
 Office, established in January, 1481, disdained to 
 persecute such paupers ; and the strong arm of the 
 law could not do more than hang a few witches. 
 Ticknor remarks : " Encouraged by the expulsion 
 of the Jews in 1492, also by that of the Moors 
 in 1609-11, Dr. Sancho de Moncada, a professor in 
 the University of Toledo, addressed Philip III. in 
 a discourse published in 1619, urging that monarch 
 to drive out the Gypsies, but he failed." 
 
 Another authority says that he himself, 1618, 
 had prepared a memorial to that effect, adding, " It 
 is very vicious to tolerate such a pernicious and 
 perverse race." Cordova, writing in 1615, accused 
 them of preparing, some years before, an organized 
 attack upon Sogrovo town when the pest raged, and 
 declares that it was saved from such by the arts 
 of a certain wizard who had mysterious relations 
 with the vagabonds. 
 
 The charges of cannibalism became universal, 
 founded probably upon the fact that Gypsies do not 
 disdain the flesh of animals poisoned by them. 
 
272 
 
 That many of the persecuted outcasts were com- 
 pelled to fly the country we shall see presently in 
 the Morerias of Brazil ; and when religious zeal 
 cooled down, political interests took its place, 
 and led to the great legal persecution. Philip IV. 
 in 1633 prohibited the Gypsy dress and dialect, 
 expelled them from the Ghettos, and by rendering 
 intermarriage illegal aimed at fusing the vagrants 
 with other subjects. In 1692 Charles II. ordered 
 them to practise nothing but agriculture. The decree 
 was renewed in 1695, and article 16 threatened 
 punishment to all, gentle and simple, who aided 
 and abetted them. Philip V. in 1726 banished from 
 Madrid certain Gypsy women who had petitioned in 
 favour of their persecuted husbands. Nineteen years 
 afterwards (1745) he ordered the fugitives to return 
 to his dominions under pain of fire and steel, denying 
 to them even the right of asylum in sacred places. 
 This terrible decree was renewed in 1746-49. 
 
 Better days now began to dawn. The racial 
 hatred and brutality suffered by the Gypsies became 
 by slow degrees to be considered the abrogations of 
 past ages. Already, in 1783, Don Carlos of Spain 
 followed the Emperor Joseph of Germany, 1782, 
 and revoked the ultra-Draconian laws which aimed 
 at the extinction of a people, and substituted decrees 
 contrasting strongly with the Pragmatica of 1499 ; 
 he even threatened pains and penalties to those who 
 hindered the Gypsies in their occupations. In fact, 
 
TTfoe 6£pss in Europe 
 
 273 
 
 the Gitano, no longer the Egipciano, was allowed 
 intermarriage with his caste, his family rights were 
 recognized, and he was allowed to choose his own 
 trade. He was forbidden only to wear any special 
 dress, to display his language in public, or to exercise 
 the ignoble parts of his calling. Briefly, after having 
 been for centuries of persecution a social pariah, 
 he became a subject. The change must be attri- 
 buted only to the French philosophical school, and 
 the works of the encyclopedists, which presently 
 led to the greatest benefits of modern ages, the first 
 French Revolution of 1789. It made men and 
 citizens where it found serfs and slaves. 
 
 These humanitarian measures bore their natural 
 consequences. Under the effect of toleration the 
 Gypsies lost much of the savage wildness which distin- 
 guished them in the depths of the Toledo Mountains, 
 the Sierra Morena, and the wild Alpuj arras. They 
 flocked to the valleys of the Ebro, the Tagus, and 
 the Guadiana, where many, waxing rich and caring 
 little for a community of goods, lost much of their 
 devotion to caste and their fear and horror of their 
 Christian fellow-citizens. And the grey-beards did 
 not fail to complain that the Zincalo was speedily 
 becoming a Gacho or a Busno, opprobrious terms 
 applied to non-Gypsies. 
 
 The Gitanos of Spain are supposed to number from 
 fifty to sixty thousand, and the increased toleration of 
 society is rapidly concentrating them into the great 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 towns. They abound in Madrid, Cadiz, Malaga, 
 Granada, Cordova, Ciudad Real, Murcia, Valencia, 
 Barcelona, Pamplona, Valladolid, and Badajoz. In 
 parts of Upper Aragon and the Alpujarras Mountains 
 they are troglodytes rather than nomad hordes. 
 Even in the northern provinces, Old Castile, Asturias, 
 and Galicia, where they formerly were most hated 
 and feared, they are now freely allowed to settle. A 
 complete assimilation is expected from the position 
 which they have acquired in places like Cadiz and 
 Malaga. They are beginning to educate themselves 
 in a country where hardly 20 per cent, can read, and 
 where a grandee of the last generation was a kind 
 of high-caste chalan (horse-cooper) or torero (bull- 
 fighter) — the Gitano's peculiar trades. Though they 
 preserve the Gypsy tradition, some of them traffic 
 largely in cattle and own extensive butcheries ; they 
 keep inns and taverns ; they deal with the chief 
 merchants ; and they live in luxury. Gitanos of 
 the poorer classes buy and barter animals ; act 
 jockeys and race-riders; people the bull-ring (espe- 
 cially in Andalusia) ; work nails and ironmongery, 
 as at Granada and Cordova ; and plait the coloured 
 baskets for which Murcia, Valencia, and Barcelona 
 are famous. Their women sell poultry and old 
 rags; prepare buns (bunuelos) and black puddings 
 (morcillas de sangre) ; engage themselves as tavern 
 cooks ; are excellent smugglers ; and find in inter- 
 preting dreams, in philter-selling, and in fortune- 
 
Zbc Gspss in Europe 275 
 
 telling the most lucrative industries. They sing and 
 play various instruments, accompanying the music 
 with the most voluptuous and licentious dances and 
 attitudes ; but woe to the man who would obtain 
 from these Bayaderes any boon beyond their pro- 
 vocative exhibition. From the Indus to Gibraltar 
 the contrast of obscenity in language and in songs 
 with corporal chastity — a lacha ye drupo, "body 
 shame," as they term it — has ever been a distinctive 
 characteristic. No brothel in Europe can boast of 
 containing a Gypsy woman.* The mother carefully 
 watches and teaches her child to preserve the 
 premices for the Rom, the Gypsy husband. At 
 marriages they preserve the old Jewish and Muslim 
 rite, that disappeared from Spain only with the 
 accession of the house of Austria. Even Isabella of 
 Castile, when she was married at Valladolid to 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, allowed her "justificative 
 proofs " to be displayed before the wedding- guest* 
 Gypsy marriages, like those of the high-caste Hindus, 
 entail ruinous expense ; the revelry lasts three days ; 
 the "Gentile" is freely invited; and the profusion 
 of meats and drinks often makes the bridegroom 
 a debtor for life. I have explained this practice 
 in Hindustan as the desire to prove that the first 
 marriage is the marriage. 
 
 The Spanish Gypsies are remarkable for beauty 
 
 [* The brothels of Buda-Pesth and other large cities of Austro- 
 Hungary have often one Gypsy woman among their inmates.] 
 
276 
 
 in early youth : for magnificent eyes and hair, 
 regular features, light and well-knit figures, easy gait, 
 and graceful hearing. Their locks, like the Hindus, 
 are lamp-hlack, and without a sign of wave ; and they 
 preserve the characteristic eye. The form is perfect, 
 and it has an especial look to which is attributed 
 the power of engendering grandes passions — one of 
 the privileges of the eye. I have often remarked its 
 fixity and brilliance, which flashes like phosphoric 
 light, the gleam which in some eyes denotes mad- 
 ness. I have also noted the " far-off look " which 
 seems to gaze at something beyond you, and the 
 alternation from the fixed stare to a glazing or 
 filming over of the pupil. 1 Hence the English song: 
 
 A Gypsy stripling's glossy (?) eye 
 Has pierced my bosom's core, 
 
 A feat no eye beneath the sky 
 Could e'er effect before. 
 
 And in Spain it is remarked that the Gypsy man 
 often makes a conquest of the Busno s wife. 
 
 The women are more voluble in language and 
 licentious in manners than the men. These char- 
 acteristics, combined with the most absolute repul- 
 sion for other favours, even to the knife, explain 
 
 1 I find my opinion confirmed by an older observer : " The 
 peculiarity of the Gypsy eye consists chiefly in a strange, staring 
 expression, which, to be understood, must be seen, and in a thin 
 glaze which steals over it when in repose, and seems to emit phos- 
 phoric light " (The Gypsies, by Samuel Roberts). 
 
Ube 6spss in Europe 
 
 277 
 
 how many sons of grandees and great officials took 
 part in the nightly orgies and by day favoured 
 the proscribed caste. Moreover, the Gitana protected 
 herself by the possession of family secrets. Besides 
 soothsaying and philter-selling, she had a store of 
 the Raiz del buen Baron (the goodman's, i.e. the 
 devil's, root), alias Satan's herb, which relieved in- 
 commodious burdens. At fairs, while the husbands 
 were chapping and chaffering, the good-wives made 
 money by the process called coger d la mano (to 
 catch in hand) ; that is, pilfering coins by sleight 
 during the process of exchanging. Amongst other 
 malpractices is one called in Romani Youjano bdro 
 (the great trick), translated gran socalina (great 
 trick) by Jermimo de Alcala in his novel the 
 Historia de Alonzo, mozo de muchos amos (a youth 
 with many uncles), written in the early seventeenth 
 century. Rich and covetous widows were persuaded 
 to deposit jewels and money in dark and unfre- 
 quented places, with the idea of finding buried 
 treasure. Useless to say that the Gypsy woman was 
 the only gainer by the transaction. 
 
 We read that the old Gypsy dress was repeatedly 
 forbidden by law ; but Spanish tradition preserves 
 no memory of what the dress was. I have little 
 doubt that the immigrants of the fifteenth century 
 had retained to some extent the Hindu costume, 
 the Pagri (head-cloth) and the Dhoti (waist-cloth). 
 So in Moscow I have seen the Gypsy dancing-girls 
 
278 
 
 assume the true toilette of the Hindustani Nachni, 
 the Choli, or bodice, and the Peshwaz, or petticoat of 
 many folds. Some writers imagine that the " pictur- 
 esque vagabonds," Cal6s, had borrowed their peculiar 
 garb from the Moors. 
 
 In these days the well-to-do Spanish Rom affects 
 the Andalusian costume, more or less rich. He 
 delights in white linen, especially the " biled shirt," 
 often frilled and embroidered. The materials are 
 linen and cotton, silk, plush, velvet, and broadcloth. 
 The favourite tints are blue, red, and marking 
 colours. The short jacket or pelisse (zamarra) 
 is embroidered and adorned with frogs (alamares) 
 or large silver buttons ; the waistcoat is mostly red, 
 and a sash of crimson silk with fringed ends supports 
 the waist; the overalls narrow at the ankle, where 
 they meet boots or buskins (borcegmes) , slippers 
 or sandals (alpargatas). Finally, the long lank 
 locks, which hang somewhat like the Polish Jew's 
 along the cheeks, are crowned with the Gypsy 
 sombrero or porkpie, and sometimes with the red 
 Catalan gorro (bonnet), not unlike the glengarry. 
 
 The Romi also has retained the dress worn till 
 lately in Andalusia, and now gradually becoming 
 obsolete. The gleaming hair is gathered in a Diana 
 knot at the neck, and lit up with flowers of the 
 gaudiest hue ; it lies in bands upon the temples, and 
 the whole is often covered with an embroidered 
 kerchief. A cloak of larger or lesser dimensions 
 
TLbc Ow*V tn Europe 279 
 
 thrown over the shoulders hardly conceals the bodice 
 and the short, skimpy petticoat {say a), which is 
 embroidered, adorned with bunches of ribbons, trim- 
 mings, and other cheap finery. 
 
 The Spanish Gypsies have not preserved, like the 
 Hungarian, their old habit of long expeditions for 
 begging and plundering purposes. Consequently 
 they have lost the practice of the Pateran or Trail, 
 the road-marks by which they denote direction. 
 These are fur twigs, or similar heaps of newly 
 gathered grass disposed at short distances. At 
 cross-roads the signs are placed on the right side 
 of that followed. Sometimes they trace upon the 
 ground a cross whose longer arm shows the way, 
 or they nail one stake to another. The Norwegian 
 Gypsies trace with their whips a mark on the snow 
 called Faano ; it resembles a sack with a shut mouth. 
 In the course of ages they have lost that marvellous 
 power of following the spoor which their kinsmen 
 on the Indus preserve to perfection. They retain a 
 peculiarly shrill whistle, for which the Guanches 
 were famous. By the signs and the whistles two 
 parties could communicate with each other ; and 
 if anything particular occurred, messengers were 
 sent to report it. 
 
 The Gypsy language was looked upon as a mere 
 conventional jargon, and its Indian origin, as has 
 been shown elsewhere, was not recognized before the 
 middle of last century. It was, moreover, con- 
 
280 
 
 XTbe Gspsy 
 
 founded with the Germania (Thieves' Latin), whose 
 vocabulary, collected by Juan Hidalgo of Saragona, 
 has found its way into the Diccionario de la Academia. 
 The only Gypsy words it contains are those borrowed 
 from the Calo by the bullies and ruffians of the days 
 of Quevedo. Many corruptions and barbarisms, 
 however, have been introduced into books by pseudo- 
 literati of " white blood," who prided themselves 
 upon their knowledge of Romani. For instance, 
 Meriden means Coral ; and as in Spanish redupli- 
 cation of the consonant changes the word, an 
 inventor, in order to express Corral (Curral, Kraal, 
 cattle-yard), produced the most barbarous term 
 Merridden. This was the work of aficionados (fanciers) 
 like the Augustine friar Manso de Sevilla in the 
 Cartuja or Carthusian convent of Jirez, whose 
 famous breed of horses brought them into direct 
 communication with the Gypsies. Happily, however, 
 the language was spoken, not written ; and thus, as 
 Mr. Buckle held of legend and tradition, its purity 
 was preserved. 
 
 Gypsy verse is generally improvised to the twang- 
 ing and tapping of the guitar, sometimes to the 
 guitar and Castanet, and oftentimes without music. 
 Much that has been printed appears to be of that 
 spurious kind unintelligible to the Gypsies themselves. 
 The favourite form is in quartettes, more or less 
 carefully rhymed ; they are impressed upon the 
 hearers' memory ; and thus they pass from mouth 
 
Zhe $sp9£ in Europe 281 
 
 to mouth throughout Spain. Borrow gives a few 
 translations of Gypsy songs in Romani. The Cantes 
 Flamancos of Demofico, in phonetic Andalusian, 
 chanted at the fairs and markets, in the cafes and 
 ventas, the streets and alleys of Seville, date from 
 the last century. The poetry is weak, the moral 
 is not always irreproachable ; but the sentiment is 
 strong and touching. These Cantes are sung by 
 many a tailor and many a barber who have not 
 a drop of Gypsy blood in their veins. They can 
 hardly be accepted as genuine Gypsy work. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE GYPSY IN AMERICA 
 
 The Gypsies of the Brazil 
 IHE Roma of the North American Republic are 
 
 well known, and their emigration is of modern 
 date. During the wars between England and France 
 which followed the great Revolution many of them 
 exchanged a wandering life for the service of the 
 country, having been either kidnapped or impressed, 
 or having taken the shilling. Of course, after obtain- 
 ing a passage to the American colonies, they deserted 
 the army, found friends, and settled in the country. 
 The half-bandit bands of Scottish Gypsies were 
 mostly broken up in this way. 
 
 On the other hand, South America is very little 
 known ; and yet the part with which I am most 
 familiar, the Brazil, is full of Gypsies. When 
 Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (a.d. 1492) 
 issued the exterminating edict against Moors, Jews, 
 and Gitanos, the latter slunk into hiding-places ; they 
 were again proscribed by Charles V. (a.d. 1582); 
 and Philip III. (a.d. 1619) issued from Belem in 
 
 282 
 
Ubc Oepss in Bmertca 283 
 
 Portugal an order for all the Gypsies to quit the 
 country within six months — an order renewed by 
 Philip IV. in a.d. 1633. There was some reason 
 for this severity. The " masterful beggars " had 
 made themselves infamous by turning spies to the 
 Turks and Saracens ; and if the general prejudice 
 against them was unfounded, it rested at least upon 
 a solid foundation — their hatred of the Christian 
 Busno, Gacho, or non-Gypsy. Thus every maritime 
 city of the Brazil to which the exiles were shipped 
 presently contained a Gypsy bairro, or quarter, the 
 Portuguese Moreria (Moorery) corresponding with 
 the Spanish Gitaneria, and not a little resembling 
 the Ghettos of the Italian Jews. For instance, the 
 Rocco, now the handsomest square in superb Rio de 
 Janeiro, was of old the Campo dos Ciganos — the 
 Gypsies' Field. The " Egyptian pilgrims " thence 
 spread abroad over the Interior, where their tents 
 often attract the traveller's! eye ; and some of them 
 became distinguished criminals, like the Gypsy Beiju, 
 one of the chief Thugs, whose career, ended by 
 hanging for the murders which long disgraced the 
 Mantiqueira Mountains, I have described in the 
 Highlands of the Brazil (i. 63). 
 
 Wandering about the provinces of S. Paulo and 
 Minas Geraes, I often met Gypsy groups whose 
 appearance, language, and occupations were those of 
 Europe. They are here perhaps a little more violent 
 and dangerous, and the wayfarer looks to his revolver 
 
284 
 
 as he nears their camp at the dusk hour ; yet they 
 are hardly worse than the " Morpheticos " (lepers), 
 who are allowed to haunt the country. Popular 
 books and reviews ignore them ; but the peasantry 
 regard them with disgust and religious dread. 
 They protest themselves to be pious Catholics, 
 yet they are so far the best of Protestants, as they 
 protest, practically and energetically, against the 
 whole concern. Their religion, in fact, is embodied 
 in the axiom : " Cras moriemur — post mortem nulla 
 voluptas." We may well believe the common rumour 
 which charges them with being robbers of poultry 
 and horses, and with doing at times a trifle in the 
 way of assassination. 
 
 On May 3, 1866, when riding from Rio Claro 
 to Piracicava Sao Paulo, I visited a gang of these 
 " verminous ones " ; and attended by my armed 
 servants, I spent a night in their tents. The scene 
 was familiar: the tilt-tent swarmed with dark 
 children, the pot hung from the triangle, and horses 
 and ponies for carriage, and perhaps for sale, were 
 picketed about. The features and complexion were 
 those of the foreign tinkler ; the women, besides 
 trumpery ornaments of brass, coral, and beads, wore 
 scarlet leg-wraps ; and some of the girls were pretty 
 and well dressed as the memorable Selina, of Bagley 
 Wood, Oxford. Apparently they were owners of 
 negro slaves, possibly runaways. According to the 
 Brazilians, they are fond of nomes esquisitos (fancy 
 
XTbe 6£ps£ in Hmerica 
 
 285 
 
 names) ; Esmeralda and Sapphira are common, and 
 they borrow from trees, plants, and animals. 
 
 Their chief occupations are petty trade and fortune - 
 telling, when they reveal for a consideration all the 
 mysteries of " love and law, health and wealth, 
 losses and crosses." They also " keen " at funerals 
 during the livelong day, and drink, sing, and dance 
 through the night — a regular wake. I could not 
 induce them to use their own tongue, yet they 
 evidently understood me. This desire to conceal 
 their Gypsy origin I have frequently noticed else- 
 where. It is probably a relic of the days of 
 their persecution. Fortunately in most civilized 
 countries to-day the Gypsy can count equal rights 
 with other men. 
 
Ill 
 
 EL ISLAM 
 
 267 
 
EL ISLAM 
 
 OR 
 
 THE RANK OF MUHAMMAD ANTSM AMONG- 
 THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD 
 
 GREAT philosopher in days of yore informs 
 
 us that we may search the world throughout, 
 and that in no region where man has lived can we 
 find a city without the knowledge of a god or the 
 practice of a religion (Plutarch). 
 
 This apophthegm embodies a dogma somewhat too 
 rash and sweeping. The necessity of a Demiurgos 
 — a Creator — so familiar to our minds is generally 
 strange to savages. The wilder tribes of Singhalese 
 Veddahs, for instance, have no superstition ; these 
 savages have not even attained the fear of demons. 
 It has but scant hold upon the imagination of 
 barbarous men. The Buddhists and Jains ascribed 
 after Sakya-Muni the phenomena of the universe to 
 Swabhava, or force inherent in matter, Matra, and 
 independent of an Ishwara-Karta, or Manufacturing 
 
 289 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 El 3slam 
 
 God. Aristotle and Spinoza believed with Pythagoras 
 the world to be eternal, and that a God cannot exist 
 without the world, as height without breadth. Hence 
 Hegel's " eternal nihilum " — creation being every- 
 thing for created beings — in direct opposition to 
 Calvin, who opined that creation is not a transfusion 
 of essence, but a commencement of it out of nothing. 
 In the present day, the Kafirs of the Cape, the ancient 
 Egyptians, and African races generally, barbarians 
 and semi-barbarians, by no means deficient in 
 intellect and acuteness, have never been able to 
 comprehend the existence or the necessity of a One 
 God. With them, as with a multitude of civilized 
 philosophers — the Indian Charvakas, for instance — 
 Nature is self-existent, Matter is beginningless and 
 endless ; in fact, the world is their God. Ex nihilo 
 nihil Jit is the first article of their creed. Absolute 
 ignorance of any God, then, was the earliest spiritual 
 condition of the human family. 
 
 But veneration is inherent in the human breast. 
 Presently mankind, emerging from intellectual in- 
 fancy, began to detect absurdity in creation without 
 a Creator, in effects without causes. As yet, how- 
 ever, they did not dare to throw upon a Single Being 
 the whole onus of the world of matter, creation, 
 preservation, and destruction. Man, instinctively 
 impressed by a sense of his own unworthiness, would 
 hopelessly have attempted to conceive the idea of a 
 purely Spiritual Being, omnipotent and omnipresent. 
 
JEl 3slam 
 
 291 
 
 Awestruck by the admirable phenomena and the 
 stupendous powers of Nature, filled with a sentiment 
 of individual weakness, he abandoned himself to a 
 flood of superstitious fears, and prostrated himself 
 before natural objects, inanimate as well as animate. 
 Thus comforted by the sun and fire, benefited by 
 wind and rain, improved by hero and sage, destroyed 
 by wild beasts, dispersed by convulsions of Nature, 
 he fell into a rude, degrading, and cowardly Fetissism, 
 the faith of fear, and the transition state from utter 
 savagery to barbarism. 
 
 In support of this opinion it may be observed 
 that this religion — if indeed Fetissism merit that 
 sacred name — in its earliest form contains no traces 
 of a Godhead or a Creator. 1 It is a systematic 
 worship of the personified elements, productions, and 
 powers of Nature, male and female, and supported 
 by a host of associates and subordinates. Its triad 
 is Indra, the iEther-god ; Varuna (ovpavos), the 
 Sun-god ; and Agni, the Fire-god. The polytheistic 
 
 1 Existence of God is not "the common and almost universal 
 belief of mankind." The truth that there is a God is usually thus 
 demonstrated : 
 
 1. Physical argument, in which effects and events are traced to 
 causes, till arrival at a First Cause, uncaused. 
 
 2. Argument from final causes and design, of which innumerable 
 evidences in physical and mental worlds point to a Great Original 
 Designer. 
 
 3. Moral argument, based upon innate feeling of obligation and 
 responsibility. 
 
 4. Historical argument and the consensus of mankind. 
 
292 
 
 triad of the Puranas being then unknown, the Creator, 
 Brahma, appears in the Vedas ; the Preserver, 
 Vishnu, inferior to Indra, represents the firmament ; 
 and Siwa is proved by Lassen to have been a local 
 god, subsequently admitted by the Brahmans into 
 their vast Pantheon. Still further from man's belief 
 in those early days is the bold and original thought 
 of the Upanashids and Yedantas, destined so soon to 
 fall before the formulae of the schools and law-books, 
 the Puranas and other traditions. There Brahm, 
 or the One Almighty, is made the pinnacle of the 
 gorgeous pagoda of belief ; the whole universe, 
 matter and spirit, is represented to be the very 
 substance and development of the Demiurgos. In 
 support of their grand Pantheism the Brahma -Sutra 
 declares the human soul to be a portion of the Deity 
 — divines particula anrce — " the relation not being 
 that of master and servant, but that of the whole and 
 part." Creation was assumed to be the extension 
 of the Creator's essence, as the mathematical point 
 produces by its increase length, depth, and breadth 
 by endowing empty space with the properties of 
 figure. From this refined and metaphysical dogma, 
 this theoretical emanation of being from, and its 
 corollary, refusion into, the Soul of the World, springs 
 the doctrine of Metempsychosis, " implying belief in 
 an after-state of rewards and punishments and a moral 
 government of creation." The votary of Hinduism 
 has now progressed so far as to symbolize the vulgar 
 
293 
 
 idolatry of the people. Beneficent animals are ex- 
 plained as symbols of Brahma's creative and Vishnu's 
 preserving functions ; wild and ferocious beasts 
 are typified as the Deity's destroying power. They 
 revere men of splendid abilities and glorious actions 
 as having more of the divine essence and a directer 
 emanation than the vulgar herd. Hence the senseless 
 idol worship of the unlearned. Select forms also, 
 as the cleft of a tree, are chosen to represent 
 materially — oculis subjecta jidelibus — the passive 
 power of generation, an upright rock expressing the 
 active. 
 
 Thus semi-civilized man explains away the follies 
 of his childhood, and excuses himself for leaving the 
 ignorant in the outer glooms of a symbolical faith. 
 But does knowledge precede ignorance — the explana- 
 tion the fable ? Or is it reasonable to suppose that 
 a symbol, a type, a myth, was ever worshipped, or 
 that men were ever ashamed of their gods ? The 
 Hindu, and indeed many a Christian, still adores 
 the bull and cow, the rock, the river, the idol, the 
 relic, and the actual image ; they do not kneel before 
 its metaphysics. The learned explain them into 
 mere deifications. They are, however, still deities 
 to the layman and the esoteric ; and any attempt to 
 allegorize them would be held, as in ancient Greece, 
 like the reform of Epicurus, mere Atheism. We 
 must, however, justly to appreciate these ancient 
 dogmas, rebecome the primitive children of earth 
 
294 
 
 £1 Jslam 
 
 — man in his infancy. 1 The wisdom of Egypt, the 
 learning of the East are now puerility. But " who 
 knows what luminous proofs were propagated under 
 the disguise of their old idolatry ? Who cannot 
 see that imagination, first active faculty of the mind, 
 was fostered by myth, the moral sense by fable, 
 and the first vacillating steps of knowledge were 
 encouraged by precepts now seemingly childish and 
 absurd ? " (Dabistan). Confucius was as disposed 
 to primarize secondary causes as his predecessors. 
 Owning that he knew nothing about the gods, he 
 therefore preferred to avoid the subject. 
 
 The ancient Persians, according to Herodotus, who 
 conversed with them, ignored Dualism, their later 
 scheme. Rejecting the images of gods and angels, 
 they worshipped without personification or allegory 
 aethereal fire drawn from the Sun. The universe 
 was their temple, their altars Pyraetheia, or circles 
 of stones, in the centre of which stood the kiblah 
 of their simple ignicolism. The very Puritans of 
 heathenry, they hated the grandiose fanes of the 
 Egyptians, they plundered their magnificent tombs, 
 slew their bestial deities, and devoured their garden 
 gods. Presently symbolism began to intrude upon 
 the simple and primitive faith of Iran. Light and 
 
 1 The idea that man is a compound being, consisting partly of spirit 
 and partly of matter, mysteriously linked together, and acting and 
 reacting upon each other, is a neocosmic dream. Savages hold mind 
 to be a property of matter, like philosophers. 
 
El 3slam 
 
 295 
 
 fire, according to Strabo, were worshipped as the 
 fittest emblems of spirit and subtile intelligence. 
 Zoroaster was made to believe in a God, " the 
 Best, Incorruptible, Eternal, Unmade, Indivisible, 
 and most Unlike everything " ; in fact, an abstrac- 
 tion, a negative. Yet Hyde, Anquetil du Perron, 
 and other moderns make the Parsee sect to 
 represent with their complicated system of rites 
 and ceremonies, their legion of supernatural beings, 
 powers, and influences, and abstruse Dualism, the 
 pure ignicolism of the old Guebre. 
 
 But the dark epoch of savage Atheism having 
 fulfilled its time, already in the Fetissism, the 
 Polytheism, the Pantheism, the Metempsychosis 
 dogma, and the Idolatry of the early East may be 
 descried the dawning of an enlightened Theism. 
 Like the dogma of a future state of rewards and 
 punishments in Moses' day, it was not unknown 
 though unexplored. The Hindus had their Vedas 
 Shashwata, and the Guebres their Akarana Zarwana. 
 The former ruled the triads ; the latter was superior 
 to Hormuzd, the Sun, and Ahriman Ahura-mana, the 
 Evil Principle personified. So the Greeks had a 
 ©eos, and the Romans a Deus, ignored except as a 
 theory. The Arabs and the Mexicans in their vast 
 Polytheism still distinguished Al, the Supreme Being, 
 from the crowd of subaltern gods, angels and devils, 
 mediators, subordinate intelligences, incarnations, 
 transmigrations, emanations, manifestations, and 
 
296 
 
 1BI 3slam 
 
 similar earthly representatives. Here, then, was the 
 thought- germ of an eternal, unmade, incorruptible, 
 and creative Deity. Enveloped in the mists and 
 shades of priestly fraud and popular ignorance, still 
 the dogma did exist ; and so comforting has been 
 its light to the soul of man, that no earthly power 
 has ever availed to extinguish it. 
 
 The Vedas Shashwata has been interpreted by 
 philologists to signify the Sun. Akarana Zarwana 
 (boundless time) is clearly synonymous with vener- 
 able Chronos. So the Mulungu of East Africa 
 and the Uhlungu of the Kafirs mean equally a 
 spirit, the sun, or the firmament. Amongst the 
 Masai race, near Kilimanjaro, Engai, the Creator, is 
 feminine, God and rain being confounded. 
 
 The similarity of belief, of manners and customs, 
 and even of the coincidence of lawful and unlawful 
 food, between India and Egypt is too striking to be 
 accounted for by mere chance. The Fetissism of 
 the one exactly resembled that of the other. Both 
 worshipped personified Nature, or Manushya-Ohakta ; 
 they exalted into godhead and adored the objects 
 of gratitude and reverence, of hope and fear. The 
 " great holy family " of India became, on the banks 
 of the Nile, Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Osiris, after- 
 wards typified as the " incarnate Goodness of the 
 Supreme," perished to overcome Evil, was raised to 
 life once more, and became the Judge of the quick 
 and the dead. Isis again is the giver of Death, and 
 
El 3slam 
 
 297 
 
 Horus, or Hor, the entrance or re-entrance into Life. 
 Every male deity in both systems had his Sakti, 
 or passive energy, symbolized by a woman. Both 
 mythologies had sacred cattle. Eggs, onions, and 
 beans — favourite articles of diet among the present 
 Muslims — were forbidden to both for mystical reasons. 
 The lotus flower, an aboriginal of India, and con- 
 nected with the superstitions of either country, has 
 perished out of Egypt with the Muslims, who have 
 no object in preserving the exotic. In Indian 
 mythology was the Trisiras, in Egypt the Tevnon, 
 in Greece and Rome the Cerberus, that three-headed 
 dog in Hades, whose existence must have been 
 communicated from one people to another. India 
 worships the Sacred Serpent, the modern Muslim of 
 Egypt adores that of Jebel Shaykh Haridi. Hindu 
 Yogis and Saunyasis still wander to the banks of 
 the Nile, and prostrate themselves before its ruined 
 fanes. Society in India was divided into four great 
 separate bodies — priests, soldiers, tradesmen, and 
 serviles. The Egyptians numbered a sacerdotal 
 order, a military caste, husbandmen, tradesmen and 
 artificers, and, lastly, the shepherds, their abomination. 
 Diodorus Siculus enumerates five castes. The fifth, 
 however, or shepherds, probably did not belong 
 to society ; they were outcasts, corresponding with 
 the Hindu mixed bloods. In ancient Persia the 
 rigid castes were also four in number. And 
 as the Aryas or Hindus of Aryavarrta, the Land 
 
298 
 
 IBI Sslam 
 
 of Men, are aborigines of Ariana and cognates of the 
 Arian race, perhaps this system of artificial and 
 unnatural distinctions arose in the regions of Mid- 
 Asia. Indeed, Sir W. Jones came to a broader 
 conclusion ; namely, that the three primitive races 
 of mankind must originally have migrated from a 
 vast central region of earth, and that that region 
 was Iran. 
 
 As time wore on, Pantheism, which sees a deity 
 everywhere, even within ourselves, regarded the 
 terrestrial gods as earthly vessels animated with a 
 spark of the Universal Soul. The subaltern deities, 
 the objects of Sabaean worship, as the sun, the 
 moon, and the fixed stars, were held to be superior 
 mediating powers with the Almighty Power. A thou- 
 sand interpretations, physical, symbolical, mystical, 
 and astronomical, were framed by the wise of 
 Memphis. And as amongst the Hindus, so the Deity 
 of Egypt was, though revealed to the initiated, 
 sedulously obscured to the vulgar by a host of Avatars 
 and incarnations, of transmigrations and subordinate 
 intelligences. 
 
 History is silent upon that most interesting sub- 
 ject, the early connexion of India and Egypt. There 
 are, however, still traces of its existence through 
 Arabia, although Wilford greatly exaggerated the 
 subject. Throughout Oman and Eastern Arabia 
 there are traces to the present day of castish pre- 
 judice. No Kabili, or man of noble tribe, however 
 
2£i 3slam 
 
 299 
 
 poor, will become a Haddad (blacksmith), a Shammar 
 (shoemaker, in Hindustani Chamar), a Dabbagh 
 (tanner), and a Nayyal (dyer). The Hindus of 
 Maskat have an Avatar. Ever)* Pandit knows that 
 Shiva and his wife, under the names of Kapot- 
 Eshwara and Kapot-Eshwari, visited Mecca, and were 
 there worshipped under the form of male and female 
 pigeons. This notes a direct communication along 
 the coast of the Shepherd Kings. Again, it is 
 possible that in ages now forgotten the ^Ethiopians 
 may have received from the Hindus their arts, 
 sciences, and civilization, which would naturally 
 float northwards with the Nile. 
 
 From Egypt these dogmas passed over to Greece, 
 from Greece to the Rasenian people of ancient Etruria. 
 This diffusion, proved by the similarity of their belief, 
 is supported by old tradition. Herodotus explains 
 the fable of the black pigeon that fled to Dodona, and 
 there established the oracle on the ground that it was 
 founded by a female captive from the Thebaid. The 
 manifest resemblance of the rites and ceremonies, the 
 processions and mysteries, together with the historic- 
 fact that the greatest minds in Greece had studied 
 with the priest -philosophers of Helispotes and 
 Memphis, are the main points of circumstantial 
 evidence whence rose Warburton's luminous theory 
 that the knowledge of the " Secret One " was pre- 
 served by the esoteric, but concealed for fear of the 
 profane. He was an atheist who believed in a Single 
 
300 
 
 Deity because he thus degraded and dishonoured the 
 vulgar gods ; and the ancients, most pious men, 
 solemnly tore to pieces all guilty of similar impiety. 
 The Arcana, however, were sacred ; under their 
 shadow any dogma might flourish. 
 
 Some ethnologists have wondered at the remark- 
 able coincidences between the Etruscan cosmogony 
 and that of Moses. The marvel is easily explained. 
 Both systems were borrowed from the Egyptians 
 "skilled in ancient learning" (Apuleius). 
 
 India and Persia, we have seen, left their Deity an 
 abstruse and philosophical doctrine, a mere abstrac- 
 tion, " infinite and eternal Nothings." Simple efforts 
 of the mind and intellect, they were probably added 
 by after-thought to perfect and complete the Pantheon. 
 They were involved in the deepest gloom, whilst man's 
 vision was engrossed by the stars and other objective 
 creations familiar to his eyes, and through them to 
 his sensuous mind. The most ancient philosophers 
 then theorized concerning an Almighty Creator, 
 believed in him by stealth and theory, but in practice 
 left him to oblivion and neglect. The vulgar bowed, 
 not to a deity, but to deifications of his attributes, 
 which they had rendered material and congenial. 
 
 It is to be presumed that Egypt advanced a step 
 beyond India and Persia, otherwise so many of her 
 dogmas would not have been incorporated with the 
 Mosaic Code. Doubtless Egyptian priestly seers 
 made their Demiurgos not a mere being of the 
 
JEl Jslam 
 
 301 
 
 intellect, but a dominant idea in religious theory, 
 whilst the grovelling Fetissism of the people received 
 from them a mystic and abstruse interpretation. 
 But herein lay their fatal error. The priests were 
 not only ministers of religion, they were the reposi- 
 tories of every branch of useful knowledge, from 
 medicine to philosophy. The king was by law a 
 priest. If a member of the second or military 
 caste was raised to the throne, he was at once 
 initiated ; for the " sons of God," as the sovereigns 
 were called, could belong to none but the holy 
 order. The learned respected and revered as types 
 and symbols what the vulgar worshipped and adored 
 with heart and soul. But they kept to themselves 
 the benefits of their reason, and invented mysteries 
 and gnostic ceremonies — the purple robe of religion 
 — to veil that Holy Truth the contemplation 
 of whose unadorned charms belongs to mankind. 
 They left their fellow-creatures, " the most religious 
 of men," utterly ignorant of divine knowledge, the 
 abject worshippers of the Nile and the desert, of 
 the ichneumon and the cat. True they secured to 
 a caste the knowledge which is power amongst semi- 
 civilized races. But an ecclesiastical order, even in 
 the most extensive hierarchies, is only the fraction 
 of a people ; they divided therefore their brother-men 
 into priests and slaves. Woe to him who thus bids 
 the human mind go into darkness! 
 
 We have seen, then, that Fetissism supplanted 
 
302 
 
 El 5slam 
 
 Atheism in the developing mind of man. Even as 
 alchemy preceded chemistry, magic physics, and 
 astrology astronomy, in fact as ignorance and error 
 have ever paved the way for true learning, so was 
 the worship of Nature the fit preliminary to the 
 worship of Nature's God. The fulness of time now 
 came for the revelation of Theism, the religion of 
 Love, and the only dogma that has taken firm root 
 in the hearts and minds of the nobler types of man. 
 It matters little what was the modus operandi of this 
 inspiration. Any information above the common 
 understanding of the age is justly called a revelation, 
 and every nation has received some by which the 
 human family has benefited (Dabistan). We may 
 leave Zealots and Thaumaturgists, Sceptics and 
 Atheists to dispute ad libitum a point unsolvable, 
 and which, if solved, would be of little advantage 
 to mankind. 
 
 Moses, whose mighty mind drew from obscurity 
 Theism, or a belief in the One God, to become the 
 corner-stone of the creed, not of a few initiated sages 
 and esoteric students, but of a whole people — who 
 shared out to mankind their birthright, a knowledge 
 of divine truth — fully understood the fatal error 
 of his preceptors, the priestly sages of Egypt. His 
 history, elaborately dressed in the garb of fable by 
 after-ages, appears to be this. Circumstances of an 
 accidental nature drove him from the banks of the 
 Nile into the eastern deserts. Whilst feeding the 
 
J£l 3slam 
 
 303 
 
 flocks of his Bedawin father-in-law amid the awful 
 scenery and the silent, solemn wolds of Shur, he 
 nerved his mind to the patriotic task, the gigantic 
 scheme of converting into a great nation and a 
 Chosen People a mere handful of degraded slaves. 
 There, too, he made those local observations which, 
 seen through the mists of antiquity and exaggerated 
 by the additions and traditions of subsequent ages, 
 became the groundwork of what is never wanting in 
 the East — wonders and signs and miracles from 
 heaven. His powers and energies concentrated by 
 solitude — and there is no such strengthener of the 
 soul when the soui is strong — he returned to Egypt 
 for the purpose of carrying into execution his 
 stupendous scheme. 
 
 But Moses found it impossible, with no stronger 
 hold upon his people than certain obsolete tenets 
 almost forgotten by the unworthy descendants of 
 patriarchal ancestors, in the atmosphere of super- 
 stition around him and under the baneful shadow 
 of a hostile and priestly rule, to elevate to the dignity 
 of manhood the spirits of an enthralled, despised, 
 and therefore a degraded race. What better proof 
 of their degeneracy than their demanding to know 
 the name of a God? 
 
 This is the spiritual state of the Indian Pariah, who 
 has his idols, but no idea of an Almighty Godhead, 
 and who deems his dead deities inferior in dignity 
 to a live Brahman. What more indicative of their 
 
304 
 
 JEl 3slam 
 
 mental subjection to the superstitions of Egypt than 
 their imaging the One Supreme by a calf or young 
 bull, the emblem of Priapus all over the ancient 
 world P They were equally inferior in physical force. 
 Manetho numbers them at 80,000 — a prodigious rate 
 of increase, considering their circumstances and social 
 state, for the descendants from seventy persons in the 
 short space of 430 years. The compilers of the Book 
 of Numbers # give 603,550 fighting men from twenty 
 years old and upwards; this, with women and 
 children, would amount to nearly three millions of 
 human beings— an extravagant estimate. 
 
 From this state of degradation the thousands of 
 Israel must be raised — must return to the condition 
 of their ancestors the bold free chiefs of the Bedawin. 
 They must therefore depart from Egypt, and must 
 prepare themselves, morally as well as physically by 
 the discipline of the vast and terrible wilderness, to 
 enter as conquerors the holy Promised Land. Many 
 must perish under the hardships, privations, and 
 fatigues of desert-travelling. According to Ibn 
 Khaldun, the Hebrews, debased by slavery, were unable 
 to oppose the Philistines or Arabs of Canaan until 
 the old generation had died off and a new one had 
 grown up in the hardy life of the wilderness. 
 
 The great Lawgiver, a man of angry temper, as 
 are all who accomplish wonderful actions, and master 
 of the learning of Egypt, displayed in effecting the 
 
 [* Chap i. 46.] 
 
305 
 
 deliverance of his compatriots a work of itself 
 wonderful, a strength of will, a power of contrivance, 
 a might of words and deeds, which, seen by after-ages 
 through the dim atmosphere of tradition and the 
 mists of national vanity, has caused him to stand 
 forth in the eyes of later ages a giant amongst his 
 kind. He has been made the subject of fable, 
 physically as well as spiritually. Josephus speaks 
 of his divine form and vast stature. To the present 
 clay the Arabs of Sinai show traces of gigantic feet 
 and indentations made by a rod which must have 
 been taller than a mast. The monuments of Egypt, 
 so full of minute information, allude neither to Moses 
 nor to the Exodus. The migration of a few brick- 
 making slaves was, amongst a people surrounded by 
 nomadic tribes, an event too common, too uncon- 
 sequential, to claim a line of hieroglyph. But the 
 people of old, in this point reversing our modern 
 style of national genealogy, ever strove to dignify 
 and to adorn their birth ; and the Hebrews, who 
 claimed the most ancient as well as the noblest of 
 pedigrees, could not tell the tale of their origin 
 as a nation without elevating its simple estate by 
 a hundred fables, and embellishing it with signs 
 and marvels and wonders tending to the honour of 
 the Chosen People and of their great leader. 
 
 In one main point the Lawgiver miscalculated his 
 powers. He had proposed making of his Hebrew 
 followers a race of pure Theists, a kingdom of 
 
 20 
 
306 
 
 El 3slam 
 
 priests, a holy nation, reverencing nothing but the 
 One Supreme, worshipping him without medium or 
 mediator, and therefore independent of temples and 
 sacerdotal castes and the long list of ceremonies 
 and sacred paraphernalia by which hierarchies 
 strengthen and perpetuate their sway. But the 
 Hebrew mind was thoroughly unfitted to receive 
 pure truth. Amid the awful preternatural scenes 
 which, according to their own accounts, heralded the 
 proclamation of the God of Israel, with battle and 
 destruction, miraculous plagues and fire and openings 
 of the earth ever ready to punish those who denied 
 their Deity or disobeyed his servants, this wonder- 
 ful people were in a perpetual state of useless gain- 
 saying and impotent revolt. Deeply imbued with 
 the tenacious superstitions of the Nile, the stiff- 
 necked race had become irritable rather than strong 
 under the painful training of the desert, they longed 
 and begged for a return to slavery, and none had 
 eyes to look steadfastly upon the unveiled light 
 of Revelation emanating from their leader and 
 lawgiver. 
 
 Finding, after his return from temporary seclusion 
 and retirement, 1 his chosen people worshipping a 
 molten calf, the god Apis, and playing — in other 
 
 1 Deuteronomy ix. 9. The term was forty days and nights. 
 Amongst Muslims this has become the recognized period of 
 isolation for those who are being initiated in mystical and magical 
 practices. It is, however, directly opposed to the spirit and letter 
 of El Islam. 
 
£1 3slam 
 
 307 
 
 words, a scene of Egyptian debauchery — Moses broke 
 in wrath the first Tables of the Law (Exod. xxxii. 19). 
 These consisted simply of the Ten Commandments, 
 a forbiddal to make gods of gold and silver, 
 easy directions for building an earthen altar 
 of sacrifice, and a brief civil and criminal code 
 embodied in three chapters. After another term 
 of forty days and nights spent in solitude amongst 
 the awful and impressive scenes which had witnessed 
 his meditations when feeding Jethro's flocks, and 
 now saw the disappointment of his early aspirations, 
 Moses returned with a code (Exod. xxxiv.) better 
 fitted to the sickly and diseased condition of the 
 Hebrew soul. Of this the proportion of the ritual 
 to the moral precepts is as ten to two. It is a 
 priestly system, a faith of feasts and sacrifices, 
 of holy days and ceremonies purposely assimilated 
 to those idolatries of Egypt with which the minds 
 of the people were familiar but secured to the 
 worship of Jehovah their God. The Lawgiver no 
 longer disdained to borrow from symbolical religion, 
 especially in the ceremonial worship, which at first 
 he appears to have avoided. The ark and the 
 tabernacle were old types amongst the Egyptians, 
 memorials of their Northern migration. The Urim 
 and Thummim (Ra and Thenei) were the Sun and 
 personified Justice — Light and Truth. The Elohim 
 were Kneph and Pthah, the presiding spirit and the 
 creative intellect of the Supreme. The Spirit of God 
 
308 
 
 j£l Jslam 
 
 that moved upon the face of the waters is again the 
 Deity Kneph. The silence with which Jehovah was 
 to be adored appears to be an idea borrowed from 
 Amun Ra, the Unutterable Word, similar to the 
 Hindu " Aum," which never must be spoken of man. 
 The Tree of Life, whose fruit made gods of those who 
 tasted it, was a mere symbol, long before the day 
 of Moses incorporated in the Indian and Egyptian 
 mythologies. It survived in the Christian's early 
 belief, and has even left its traces in the Tuba or 
 Paradisiacal tree of El Islam. 
 
 The cosmogony of Moses may be traced to the same 
 origin. The formation of the globe, so different from 
 modern theory ; the separating of matter into four 
 elements, fiery firmament, air, sea, and earth ; and the 
 derivation of animals from dust, were Egyptian 
 dogmas. The Hebrew historian held to the eternity 
 of matter, the theory of ancient philosophy in 
 general. 
 
 The creation of man (Gen. i.), which we take 
 figuratively, referring divine resemblance to the soul, 
 to righteousness, and to true holiness, the Hebrews 
 believed in literally and physically. As the Lord 
 formed man in his own image, so man in return 
 anthropomorphized the Deity. Theirs was a per- 
 sonal God with mortal shape and human passions, 
 who hated the Canaanites for no sin of their own, and 
 loved the Hebrews for no merit of their own, but 
 for the sake of their ancestors. The " angry God " 
 
JEl 3slam 
 
 309 
 
 and the "jealous God of Moses" stand for the 
 orthodox opinion of even the modern Jews. 1 
 
 In proportion as we return to the ignorance of 
 antiquity and seek out the metaphysics of savage 
 races, so we find the personality of a God, a descrip- 
 tion of his form, and an account of his actions and 
 passions most prominently brought forward. Savages 
 and barbarians cannot believe without anthropo- 
 morphizing their Great Spirit. On the other hand, 
 Muslims reject the tenet. Amongst them some 
 sects, as the Bayzawi, deny, and hold it impiety to 
 assert, that even in a future state the eyes of the 
 beatified shall see Allah. 
 
 Again, the Hebrew Paradise is the vestige of an 
 old legend current throughout the Eastern world. 
 The Hindus had their Satya Yug, the Persians Eriene 
 Vigo, and the Greeks their Golden'Age. It must be 
 observed, however, that, though, we j place the Garden 
 upon earth, learned Rabbis locate it in the first or lowest 
 heaven, which is the exact reflection of this nether 
 world. Sakya Buddha taught that human beings first 
 appeared by apparitional birth. They were glorious 
 and happy, pure and passionless, till one of them 
 tasted a savoury substance produced by the earth. 
 
 1 A modern philosopher was accustomed to say : " And as for that 
 Christianity which is such, according to the fashion of modern 
 philosophers and pantheists, without a personal God, without im- 
 mortality, without an individuality of man, without historical faith 
 — it may be a very ingenious and subtle philosophy, but it is no 
 Christianity at all" (Niebuhr). 
 
310 
 
 JEl Jslam 
 
 The example was followed by the rest ; thus purity 
 decayed, the empire of sense gained the ascendency, 
 excess followed indulgence, and degeneracy excess. 
 The same legend has been preserved in grosser form 
 by El Islam. Adam is made to eat wheat, and 
 thus became subject to human infirmities. The 
 Magian Scriptures contain traditions of a migratory 
 march of the people of Hormuzd, under their 
 patriarch Jamshid, from Eriene Yigo or pure Iran, 
 supposed by the Guebres to be the primeval seat 
 of their race, and located near Balkh, the ancient 
 Bactria. It was the region of all delights till 
 Ahriman the Evil One made in its river the Serpent 
 of Winter. With respect to the inhabitants of 
 Paradise, our first parents, it may be mentioned that 
 many Eastern as well as Western learned men have 
 supposed that Adam prior to the creation of Eve 
 was androgynous ; that is to say, at once male and 
 female (Mirabeau). 
 
 The promulgation of Moses' new code was not 
 popular among the Hebrews. Checked in his 
 patriotic intentions, the Lawgiver, however, bravely 
 persisted in the course of preparation which he had 
 commenced. Long and long years the Chosen People 
 wandered in danger and difficulty round and round 
 a region ever and in every way fitted to produce 
 a hardy, rugged, and warlike race. And when all 
 was prepared for the work of conquest, the great 
 Leader would not head the expedition to the Land 
 
311 
 
 of Promise. In his latest act he displayed the 
 magnanimity which had supported him through a 
 life of labour and disappointment, the real vigour 
 and grandeur of his mind. Casting away the super- 
 stitions concerning man's body which Egypt taught, 
 and resisting the temptation that might have seduced 
 a softer soul, namely, a train of mourners and a 
 mausoleum as a last home, he did for himself what 
 he had done for his followers : he wandered over 
 the desert till his hour approached, he chose as 
 leader of the expedition a younger and more energetic 
 man, and finally he died and left the place of his 
 tomb to this day unknown. He bequeathed, however, 
 to the world a cosmogony, history, and ethnography 
 the essence of old Oriental learning, and to the 
 present day perhaps the most interesting document 
 of the kind ever penned by man. He gave to his 
 followers a code in which the highest intellect is 
 blended with experience and thought in the most 
 trivial things ; the cantonment orders, for instance, 
 cannot be improved in the present century. He 
 left men where he had found slaves, a successor 
 trained to carry out the favourite scheme and hope 
 of his life, and finally a name that will float down 
 the stream of time till merged into the ocean of 
 eternal oblivion. 
 
 But Moses left his dispensation imperfect. He 
 feared the relapse of his followers into the dark 
 idolatries of the Nile. He therefore dealt only in 
 
312 
 
 l£l 3slam 
 
 obscure allusions to a resurrection, to another life, 
 to a futurity of rewards and punishments — the 
 mighty lever with which religion moves the moral 
 world of man. That such was the case is proved 
 by this fact : the prophets and others who succeeded 
 Moses, viewing the future practically and not with 
 philosophical indifference, made in all their schemes 
 the hereafter of man a prominent feature. The 
 dogma, moreover, as we have seen, was known, and 
 well known, to all the semi-civilized races of men. 
 In the creed of Moses, however, a purely temporal 
 system of rewards and punishments supplied the place 
 of that future retribution so elaborated in the Hindu, 
 the Guebre, and the Egyptian systems. This was 
 the great defect in his grand scheme. The hope 
 and fear of a life to come, of a world in which the 
 apparent inconsistencies of the transient mundane 
 state shall be explained and remedied, where suffering 
 virtue shall triumph and triumphant vice shall suffer 
 — a proclivity for this belief is implanted by nature 
 in the very soul and heart of man. Like veneration, 
 it is instinctive rather than reasoning, an exertion 
 of sentiment rather than an effect of intellect. 
 Against a dogma based upon such foundations it is 
 vain to contend. And in the moral government of 
 the world it presents such vantage-ground to all 
 who would discipline and elevate mankind, that it 
 has been cultivated in every system, proscribed by 
 none. The Hebrews, however, were left to learn 
 
JEl 3slam 
 
 313 
 
 this essential article of faith, during the Babylonish 
 captivity, from the Assyrians, the Guebres, and other 
 Pagans. 
 
 The Jehovah of Moses, moreover, was in other 
 points than personality an imperfect conception. 
 The Deity, it is true, was drawn forth from the thick 
 veil of mystery with which the learned of India 
 and Egypt had invested him. His existence was 
 proclaimed not to a caste or a class ; it was published 
 to a whole people. Still, he was the God of Abraham, 
 of Isaac, and of Jacob, not the God of Eternity — 
 the God of all men. A local deity, his cult and 
 knowledge were confined to one people, to a mere 
 fraction of the human kind. Moses, then, was 
 essentially a benefactor to the Hebrews, but he was 
 not a benefactor to man. 
 
 Presently a new Reformer appeared upon the 
 worldly stage. The Hebrew code had long before 
 his day begun to decline ; for forms of faith, being 
 but earthly things, are subject to that eternal law 
 which to every beginning pre-creates and ordains 
 an end. Its decay was hastened by political con- 
 vulsions. The captivity of the Jews had supplied 
 them with a multitude of new and strange articles 
 of belief derived from their Pagan masters. Hence 
 arose heresies and schisms, which further weakened 
 the ancient edifice, tottering as it was from the 
 effects of age, from the new creed- wants of the 
 people, and from the shocks of the passing events. 
 
314 
 
 The Sadducees, adhering to the letter, rejected the 
 spirit of the Books of Moses. Pharisaic superstition 
 founded upon tradition — that earthy alloy ever added 
 to the pure ores of heavenly revelation — was fast 
 undermining the temple of Judaism. Idolatry had 
 perished by slow degrees out of the land; but the 
 contrary extreme, bibliolatry, to use a modern word, 
 sown upon the wide ground of priestly pride and 
 castish prejudice, had spread rankly over the world 
 of Judaism. To clear away this poison growth, to 
 reform the people of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth began 
 his ministry. 
 
 A man of humble fortune, but of proud birth, 
 the Founder of Christianity preached a creed in 
 conformity with his circumstances. His tenets were 
 the Essene, the third sect of philosophizing Jews. 
 " While the Pharisees were heaping traditions upon 
 the original structure of the Mosaic system, and 
 the Sadducees were rigidly preserving and adhering 
 to the simplicity of that structure, the Essene gave 
 their whole mind to the ascertainment and realization 
 of its moral import." They were thus the Sufis, 
 the Spiritualists, and the Gnostics of Judaism. They 
 abounded most at Alexandria, then the grand centre 
 where the Greek and the Roman, the Indian and the 
 Persian, met the Arab and the Egyptian. A species 
 of anchorite philosophers, they called themselves 
 physicians of souls and bodies ; they lived in volun- 
 tary poverty, rigid chastity, and implicit obedience 
 
Bl 3slam 
 
 315 
 
 to the civil power ; they were purists in language, 
 non-resistants, and haters of political action. 
 
 Such tenets, publicly announced as a voice from 
 heaven, were of course offensive to the ruling 
 factions at Jerusalem. The people also that flocked 
 to the preaching of the new Prophet were dis- 
 appointed by his proclaiming to them a spiritual 
 kingdom not the heritage of wealth, splendour, and 
 glory, so distinctly promised to them by the seers 
 of former generations. They were but poorly put 
 off with a type or symbol. A reformer is rarely 
 popular, and reform is a dangerous work among 
 a people so hasty and headstrong as the Jews. 
 But Christ's teaching was not for the Jews only ; he 
 was preparing to spread abroad amongst mankind 
 a knowledge of the One Supreme, when, falling a 
 victim to priestly wiles, the Prophet of Nazareth 
 suffered an ignominious death. But he had given an 
 impetus to the progress of mankind by systematizing 
 a religion of the highest moral loveliness, showing 
 what an imperfect race can and may become ; and 
 by the labour of a devoted life he had instituted 
 a college of successors who after him might preach 
 the glad tidings to all the nations of the earth. 
 
 The Prophet of Nazareth had declared his mission to 
 be for the purpose of establishing and confirming the 
 Law of Moses. As it first appeared, Christianity was 
 rather strong in the weakness around it than strong 
 in its own strength. It was a system for anchorites 
 
316 
 
 El 3slam 
 
 and ascetics. The reformed faith abounded also in a 
 matter usually consigned in the East to bards and 
 mystics; namely, principles of almost superhuman 
 beauty often couched in highly poetical language, 
 principles not the creation of one mind, but the 
 current coinage of philanthropy from time imme- 
 morial. Islam all over the East has left its principles 
 as a heritage to poets, and right well have they per- 
 formed their duty to mankind. From the literature 
 of the Hindus and Persians, the Egyptians and the 
 Arabs, it would be easy to collect a code of morality 
 and a law of benevolence as pure and amiable as ever 
 entered the heart of man. The whole practice of the 
 Sufi consists in seeking the Divinity, not as the 
 " popular prudential and mercenary devotee," but 
 from fervency of love to God and man. He " pro- 
 claims the invisible truth above the visible comfort " ; 
 his entire resignation can face the horrors of eternal 
 death inflicted by divine Will ; " he has something 
 higher even than everlasting gain." 
 
 Eventually, however, this almost supernatural 
 morality, incorporated with a creed to the detri- 
 ment of its practical tendency ; this substitution of 
 love for justice, of mercy for retribution, of for- 
 giveness for punishment ; this purely spiritual 
 system, that first neglected all the most necessary 
 material details of ablution, dietetics, and even 
 formulae and positions of prayer, could never endure 
 in the sensuous and passionate populations of the 
 
JEl 3slam 
 
 317 
 
 East. From its further hold upon the instincts, the 
 affections, and the prepossessions of the Jews, this 
 reformation had neither extension nor continuance. 
 The Ceremonial Law of Moses, adapted to an idle 
 and unoccupied race in a temperate climate and a 
 land of plenty with its operose and time-wasting 
 system of prayer and purification, of festivals and 
 processions, was it is true at first not abolished but 
 confirmed. But a simple and far more catholic 
 system was required for the wants of the universe. 
 Amongst the inspired followers of the Founder of 
 Christianity one was found capable of executing the 
 task. With a daring hand Paul, the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, rent asunder the tie connecting Christianity 
 with Judaism. His efforts were crowned with success. 
 He offered to the great family of man a Church with 
 a Deity at its head and a religion peculiarly of prin- 
 ciples. He left the moral code of Christianity un- 
 touched in its loveliness. But he abolished the civil 
 and criminal law of Moses. And he boldly did away 
 with the long-cherished customs and the ordinances 
 of food and diet which in olden times were used as 
 the means of segregating the Israelites from the races 
 around them. Circumcision was no longer necessary, 
 although his divine Master had submitted to the 
 rite ; the distinction between beings pure and impure, 
 one of the strongholds of Judaism, was broken down ; 
 and finally, as neophytes began to multiply, the 
 Gentile was raised to the level of the Jew. 
 
318 
 
 Bl Jslam 
 
 The last step taken by the stern Apostle suggests 
 the possibility of his having determined to disconnect 
 totally the reformed religion with Judaea. A 
 Roman himself, and therefore well acquainted with 
 that ruling race, and convinced of their physical and 
 psychical superiority over the Asiatic family, he 
 courted conveyance to Rome, and there energetically 
 carried on the work of propagandism. He died a 
 martyr ; but not in vain was his blood shed. From 
 the grain of faith implanted by him in the little 
 dungeon below the Capitol sprang a goodly tree, 
 under whose comfortable shade half the civilized 
 world have found repose. In process of time the 
 offshoots spread amongst the noble barbarians of 
 the North, then beginning to occupy the stage of the 
 world. Christianity, which in Judaea and confined to 
 the East would have been the faith of a few hermits 
 and visionaries, acquired in Europe a depth and fer- 
 vency of popular belief which shortly overthrew all 
 opposition. It is not wonderful that in this course of 
 events the Christian distinguishes the finger of God ! 
 
 When the master-minds had vanished from the 
 scene, their successors in the East introduced other 
 and less defensible changes. Christianity in the 
 East was surrounded by the impurest of influences. 
 Its latitude of belief and absence of ceremonial 
 allowed it to be worked upon by the theurgic 
 incarnations of the Buddhists, the demiurgic theories 
 of the Eastern and Western Gnostics, the Triad 
 
30lam 
 
 319 
 
 of the Brahmans, the Dualism of the Persians, the 
 Pharisaic doctrine of the first Son of the Supreme 
 — Osiris in a new shape — together with the meta- 
 physics of the Ebionites, the Speculatists, and other 
 sects of Grecian or rather of Egyptian origin. From 
 the Straits of Hercules to the coast of Coromandel, 
 it was split up into a legion of heresies and schisms. 
 Syria and Arabia seem to have been the grand central 
 focus. The Church was distracted by the froward- 
 ness of her children, and the Religion of Love was 
 dishonoured by malice and hate, persecution and 
 bloodshed. 
 
 Still the reformed religion throve — and what 
 tenets do not? — under the influence of a moderate 
 persecution. When, however, under the rule of Con- 
 stantine, the sun of prosperity poured its splendours 
 full upon the favoured faith, an ascetic enthusiasm, 
 gloomy ideas of seclusion, celibacy, and self-immo- 
 lation, and a censure on wealth and industry pro- 
 nounced by religious hallucination, in fact the 
 poisonous portions of the Essene School, spread 
 subtilely through the whole body of Christianity. 
 Everywhere in the East these practices require to 
 be suppressed, not to be encouraged. Where the 
 face of Nature is gay and riant, to impressionize 
 mankind gloom and horror in the World of Spirit 
 are contrasted with the glory and^the brilliancy 
 of the scenes of sense. This is the stronghold 
 of the Demonolatry and Witchcraft of the Fetissist, 
 
320 
 
 j£l Jslam 
 
 the abominable paganisms of the Hindu, the 
 superstitious follies of the Guebre, and the terrible 
 Sabaism of the ancient Mexican. All are perfectly 
 suitable to the genius of the people, to the climate, 
 and to the scenery around them. 
 
 Thus in Syria and Egypt Christianity became 
 degraded. It sank into a species of idolatry. The 
 acme of absurdity was attained by the Stylites, who 
 conceived that mankind had no nobler end than to 
 live and die upon the capital of a column. Thus 
 nations were weakened. Self-mortification and reli- 
 gious penances soon degenerate a race, especially 
 in hot climates, where a moderate indulgence in 
 the comforts, the luxuries, and the pleasures of life 
 strengthens the body and with it the mind of man. 
 The founders of Christianity had neglected to insist 
 upon daily prayer at stated times, and ceremonial 
 cleanliness, which is next to godliness. They forgot 
 those dietetic directions and prescriptions so necessary 
 in the East, and allowed the use of inebrients, together 
 with impure and unwholesome meats as pork and 
 rabbit's flesh. Man's physique suffered from their 
 improvidence. Thus, whilst Christianity increased 
 in numbers and powers, some once populous and 
 flourishing countries — Egypt for instance — declined, 
 and fell to the lowest depths of degradation. It is 
 the race of man that exalts the faith in proportion 
 to man's moral and material excellence. The faith 
 fails, on the other hand, to raise a degraded race. 
 
JEI Jslam 
 
 321 
 
 The Armenians and Abyssinians have derived little 
 from the specific virtues of Christianity. Inferior 
 in mind and body to the Turks and Arabs, they have 
 degenerated into a semi -idolatry at once ridiculous 
 and contemptible. With respect to moral conduct, 
 a modern traveller (Curzon, Armenia) has had the 
 courage openly to state that in Turkey not one-tenth 
 part of the crime exists which is annually committed 
 in Christendom. Sectarians are fond of citing in 
 favour of their Reformation the superiority of the 
 Protestant over the Catholic cantons of Switzerland. 
 They forget that the former belong to the hardy and 
 industrious nations of the North, and that the latter 
 are in climate and population indolent Southrons. 
 
 To return eastward. About the sixth century of 
 its era the Christian world called loudly for reform. 
 When things were at their worst, Muhammad first 
 appeared upon the stage of life. It is here proposed 
 to touch briefly upon the points wherein due measure 
 of justice has not yet been dealt by philosophic and 
 learned Europe to the merits and value of El Islam. 
 The Western nations were so long taught to look 
 upon the forcible propagandism of Muhammad as a 
 creed personally hostile to them, they were so deeply 
 offended by the intolerant Deism and Monotheism 
 of the scheme, and finally so rancoured by their 
 fierce wars and deadly collisions with the Muslim, 
 that certain false views have long been, and still 
 continue to be, part or rather essence of the subject. 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 161 Jslam 
 
 And though in this our modern day a wiser and more 
 catholic spirit of inquiry and judgment has not been 
 deterred from manifesting itself, still even in the 
 writings of those who pride themselves most upon 
 candour and freedom from prejudice not a little of 
 the bad old leaven offends the taste. Men do not now, 
 it is true, fear the imputation of " turning Turk " 1 — 
 an expression since become common, and coupled by 
 old writers (Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy) with 
 " betraying father, prince, and country, forsaking 
 religion, and abjuring God." Nor does there survive 
 in Europe the former rancorous hate for the founder 
 and creed, for the apostles and followers of El Islam. 
 Still, it is to be repeated the Saving Faith has not 
 yet been allowed to assume its proper rank and 
 position amongst the religions of the world. And 
 the moderns rather busy themselves in philosophizing 
 over and in detecting flaws and falsehood rather than 
 in seeking out the truth, the merits, and the beauties 
 of a religion which for thirteen centuries has been 
 the light and " life guidance " of one-fifth of mankind 
 (Carlyle, Hero Worship). 
 
 These four are briefly the most popular errors of 
 the present day upon the subject of El Islam : 
 
 In the first place, it is determined to be merely 
 a perceptive faith, and therefore adapted only to that 
 portion of mankind whose minds, still undeveloped 
 and uncultivated, are unripe for a religion of prin- 
 1 Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III., scene ii. 
 
El Jslam 
 
 323 
 
 ciples. This is partly correct of the corrupted, 
 untrue of the pure, belief ; it will somewhat apply to 
 the tenets of the Turks and Persians, but not to those 
 of the first Muslims and the modern Wahhabis. The 
 spirit of the religion, its sentiments, and its aesthetics 
 were committed to the poets of El Islam, and 
 right worthily have they fulfilled their task. It is 
 not too much to assert that almost every celebrated 
 metrical composition amongst Muslims is either 
 directly or indirectly devotional. Even the licentious 
 Anacreons of Persia and India, Hafiz and Jafar i 
 Zatalli, disguise their grossness under a garb of 
 mystical double entente. 
 
 But even in their purely spiritual songs and 
 hymns the poets of El Islam do not betray that 
 poverty of invention and puerility of imagination that 
 distinguish the religious rhymesters of Christianity. 
 In the great and noble literature of England, for 
 instance, there is but one poem founded upon the 
 base of revelation — Paradise Lost. Who can arise 
 from its perusal without the conviction that a 
 splendid genius has so fettered himself with his 
 theme that many ballad-mongers have produced more 
 poetical effects upon the reader ? Who rises without 
 disgust at the dialogues of the Father and the Son 
 in which is discussed at length Calvinistic secta- 
 rianism ? And what Christian, who deems his Holy 
 Trinity a sacred mystery of the Spirit beyond, not 
 contrary to, material reason, would not blush to 
 
324 
 
 JEl 3slam 
 
 see his Divinity thus degraded in the eyes of the 
 stern deistical Muslim ? 
 
 The Koran — the only standard of divine Truth 
 universally admitted by El Islam — consists of three- 
 fold matter : of historical and legendary lore, of 
 principles moral and psychical, and of materials for 
 a loose and scattered code of laws. And here, it 
 may be observed, that, with perhaps the exception of 
 the Pentateuch, which we have seen required its 
 tradition, no code embodied in the sacred writings 
 of any race has sufficed to govern it. What Chris- 
 tian nation has ever been ruled by Christian law? 
 Even its codes are either of its own invention or 
 borrowed from ancient custom or translated from 
 Pagan legislation. No divine system yet promulgated 
 to mankind has sufficed for the civil and criminal 
 wants of future and more civilized generations. And 
 thus it was with the Koran. The precepts of the 
 Saving Faith were not fixed and definite enough 
 for the sensuous and objective spirit of the East. In 
 religion, as in politics, wherever public opinion is 
 lax and impotent, law is, and must be, a mass of 
 stringent ordinances so disposed as to provide for 
 every contingency. Such codes cannot deal in 
 principles and spirit ; these must be extracted — by 
 the few that require them — from a well-organized 
 system of practical precepts. Thus the Muslim in 
 the earliest ages sought to supply the imperfections 
 of the code bequeathed to him. A remedy was at 
 
JEI 5slam 
 
 325 
 
 hand. The deceased Prophet's sayings were still 
 fresh in the minds of his wives and immediate descen- 
 dants, of his companions, and his early successors. 
 All lent their best endeavours to the pious task. 
 The earliest traditions were of sensible and useful 
 import. Presently the most trivial precepts and 
 the most puerile practices were either forged or 
 remembered by so-called saints who made this collec- 
 tion the business of their lives. Thus in course of 
 time and by slow degrees appeared that bulky mass of 
 traditional lore popularly known as the Ahadis or 
 Sayings and the Sunnat or Doings of the Prophet. 
 
 By such arts were subtle practices and silly legends 
 grafted by scholasticism upon the primitive annals 
 and laws of El Islam. In that faith almost every 
 tenet or practice to which the philosopher could 
 object may be traced to the Sunnat and Ahadis ; 
 the Koran is wholly free from them. Amongst 
 others, upon these, and upon these solely, must be 
 charged the defect of making the system eminently 
 perceptive. Muhammad, like all other Eastern law- 
 givers, had suited his ordinances to the genius of 
 his people by addressing them as semi-civilized men. 
 The schools degraded their Muslims to the intellectual 
 rank of babes and sucklings. 
 
 Regarding these Sunnat and Ahadis, hoAvever, it 
 must be borne in mind that they are purely sectarian. 
 The four self-called orthodox schools hold to one 
 tradition. The principal heresies, as the Shiahs and 
 
326 
 
 Bl -Jslam 
 
 the Bayzawi, have their own recognized collections, 
 whence all emanations from impure, that is to say, 
 from other sources, have been carefully removed. 
 But El Islam has existed, and can exist, independently 
 of them. Had the Wahhabis, those Puritans or rather 
 Reformers of the Saving Faith, succeeded in restoring 
 to the Arabs their simple primitive belief, little of 
 the Ahadis and the Sunnat would have been left 
 to misguide and offend mankind. 
 
 Secondly, men object that the Saving Faith is 
 one of pure sensuality. It is difficult to divine how 
 this most erroneous estimate could have been formed 
 except by the grossest ignorance. Possibly it was a 
 vicious conclusion thus drawn : that as the Muslim's 
 Paradise is one of sense, consequently there is no 
 limit to his sensuality in this world. But El Jannat, 
 or the Heavenly Garden, has many mansions ; the 
 ignorant and savage, the hungry and sensual Bedawin 
 will taste the flesh of birds, live in a golden house, 
 command any number of angelic wives, and drink 
 the nectars of Kafur and Zingibil. But, as in Chris- 
 tianity so in El Islam, eye hath not seen, nor hath 
 ear heard, nor hath fancy conceived the spiritual joys 
 of those who in mundane life have qualified them- 
 selves for heavenly futurity. The popular error that 
 the Muslim Prophet denied immortal souls to women, 
 and therefore degraded them to the mere instruments 
 of man's comfort and passions, might also have tended 
 to represent El Islam as a scheme of sense. Possibly, 
 
JEl 3slam 
 
 327 
 
 again, the monogamic races of a Northern clime — 
 for monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry are an affair 
 of geography — shocked by the permission to marry 
 four wives and to maintain an indefinite number of 
 concubines, overlooked in characterizing Muhammad's 
 ordinances the strict limits therein laid down for 
 luxury and pleasure. The Muslim may not take 
 to himself a single spouse, unless able to make a 
 settlement upon her, to support, clothe, and satisfy 
 her. He must act with the most rigid impartiality 
 towards the whole household, and strictly avoid 
 showing undue preference. He is allowed four wives 
 with a view of increasing and multiplying his tribe. 
 Man in hot and enervating climates coming to 
 maturity early, and soon losing the powers which 
 he is tempted by moral as well as physical agencies 
 to abuse, would never raise up a large family as the 
 husband of only one wife. Like the Patriarchs, he 
 must have handmaids. Like the Jews, he must be 
 allowed polygamy and power of divorce. These, 
 forbidden by the ascetic Essene, are necessary to 
 the increase of mankind in the East, and no religion 
 can consecrate an ordinance which, directly opposed 
 to the first law given by the Creator to his creatures 
 (Genesis), tends to check that natural increase of 
 population which is the foundation of all progress 
 and civilization. 
 
 Laying aside these considerations as too shallow 
 for discussion, can we call that faith sensual which 
 
328 j£i Jslam 
 
 forbids a man to look upon a statue or a picture ? 
 Which condemns even the most moderate use of 
 inebrients, and indeed is not certain upon the subject 
 of coffee and tobacco ? Which will not allow even 
 the most harmless game of chance or skill ? Which 
 rigorously prohibits music, dancing, and even poetry 
 and works of fiction upon any but strictly religious 
 subjects P Above all things, which debars man from 
 the charms of female society, making sinful a glance 
 at a strange woman's unveiled face ? A religion 
 whose votaries must pray five times a day at all 
 seasons, in joy as in sorrow, in sickness as in health ? 
 A system which demands regular almsgiving and 
 forbids all manner of interest upon money to those 
 who would be saved ? Whose yearly fast often 
 becomes one of the severest trials to which the 
 human frame can be exposed? To whom distant 
 pilgrimage with all its trials and hardships is 
 obligatory at least once in life ? Whose Prophet 
 exclaimed, like the Founder of Christianity, ^js? 
 (Poverty is my pride), and who taught his followers 
 that two things ruin men, " much wealth and many 
 words " ? 
 
 Those who best know El Islam, instead of charging 
 it with sensuality, lament its leaven of asceticism. 
 They regret to see men investing these fair nether 
 scenes with mourning hues ; " the world is the 
 Muslim's prison, the tomb his stronghold, and Paradise 
 his journey's end." But this could not be otherwise. 
 
329 
 
 Asceticism and celibacy are the wonted growth 
 of hot and Southern climates, where man appears 
 liable to a manner of religious monomania. The 
 Brahman householder, after doing his duty to man- 
 kind by becoming a husband and the father of a 
 family, ought by the law of Menu to leave the 
 world and to end life a Sanyasi amongst the beasts 
 of the jungle. No religion is more monastic than 
 Buddhism ; yet it is atheistic. Thus the votaries 
 of this organized system of selfishness, this vast 
 scheme of profits and losses, reduced to regularity, 
 are deprived of all hope in death, and yet live the 
 most comfortless and unnatural of lives. "The 
 world knows nothing of its greatest men," is true 
 in more views than one. To the Muslim, time 
 is but a point in illimitable eternity, life is but 
 a step from the womb to the tomb. He passes 
 from this world directly into the other, but not into 
 a new existence ; its every aspect and circumstance 
 is as familiar to his mind as is the routine of 
 earthly existence. He has no great secret to learn. 
 The Valley of Death has no shadow for him ; 1 
 no darkness of uncertainty and doubt horrifies his 
 fancy. So it came to pass that, although Muhammad 
 expressly and repeatedly declared, "There is no 
 monkery in El Islam," few schemes have produced a 
 
 1 " I think," said Captain Wyatt, " the Red Indians die better than 
 white men ; perhaps from having less fear about the future." An 
 acute conjecture ! 
 
330 
 
 more systematic or rigid asceticism. Even before his 
 death monasticism began to appear ; and now the 
 Muslim world is overrun with Sufis and Kalandars, 
 with Fakirs and Derwayshes, with Santons and 
 recluses. 
 
 The third error is that the Founder of the Saving 
 Faith began his ministry as an enthusiast and ended 
 as an impostor. This is the improved modern fashion 
 of treating the " perjury ose lying Machomete " of 
 our forefathers. We are less gross and dogmatical 
 than they were, though scarcely more charitable or 
 philosophical. The recognized proofs of " imposition" 
 seem to be : 
 
 Firstly, the convenient appearance of the Ayat, or 
 inspired Versets. But what would have been their 
 use had they not descended when wanted to solve 
 a difficulty or convey a precept ? Do we doubt 
 the Books of Moses because Revelation is conducted 
 upon precisely the same principle ? And who will 
 deny that enthusiasm would have produced them 
 more effectually than fraud ? It is a general rule 
 that to deceive others well we must first deceive 
 ourselves. He that would be believed in by others 
 must thoroughly believe in himself. Is it likely 
 that such men as Abubekr and Umar would become 
 the victims of a mere fraud, so palpable to every 
 petty annalist and compiler in this our modern day ? 
 Neither they nor Muhammad even at his dying hour 
 seem to have doubted his inspiration. The Prophet s 
 
161 Jslam 
 
 331 
 
 last words were, " Prayer ! Prayer ! " And, according 
 to the Shiahs, a few minutes before breathing his 
 last he called for an inkholder and a pen to write 
 the name of his successor. Is this the death-bed 
 scene of a hypocrite or an impostor ? 
 
 Secondly, the delivery of the inspiration by the 
 Archangel Gabriel, and the frequent visions of heaven 
 and heavenly beings recorded by the Muslim Prophet. 
 Without having recourse to any other explanation, 
 are not instances of the kind perpetually recorded 
 in the history of mankind ? And granting that 
 such apparitions are purely subjective, shall we charge 
 with fraud all those subject to them? How often 
 has the Founder of Christianity appeared to the 
 highly imaginative races of Southern Europe ? How 
 frequently have fervent Muslims been favoured with 
 " a call " by Muhammad and Ali ? Physicians and 
 men of science have accounted for these seemingly 
 marvellous apparitions by natural causes. Why 
 then, unless by the action of mere prejudice, should 
 we determine the same thing to be imposture in one 
 man and yet regard it with reverence in another ? 
 Who also has even ventured to decide what the 
 modus inspirandi or the divine afflatus really is ? 
 The most ancient theory apparently is that angels 
 (ayyeXoi) were used as messengers between God 
 and man; and thus the Muslims, whose tenets are 
 identical in this point with the Jews, rank angelic 
 below human nature. 
 
332 
 
 JEl Jslam 
 
 Thirdly, the change from peaceful to warlike 
 language, from the arts of eloquence and persuasion 
 to the propagandism of fire and steel. But did 
 not the Founder of Christianity declare, "I came 
 not to send peace, but a sword " (Matt. x. 34) ? 
 And did Moses disdain to place carnal weapons 
 in the hands of his people ? The great Lawgiver 
 of Israel sanctioned the murder in cold blood 
 of women and childish captives. Even kings 
 were hewed in pieces before the Lord. These 
 atrocities were strictly forbidden by Muhammad. 
 Even forcible proselytism was not allowed. The 
 protege of El Islam paid a small capitation tax, and 
 was allowed to practise his faith and to worship 
 his God as his law directed. Had, moreover, the 
 Prophet forged the fresh order to propagate his 
 scheme by the sword, surely he was not so shallow 
 an impostor as to leave behind him those peaceful 
 revelations which might so easily have been cast 
 into the fire. No ; the man honestly believed, like 
 Moses, that the voice of Allah spoke within him. 
 
 The fourth error is that Muhammad, unable to 
 abolish certain superstitious rites and customs of the 
 ancient and Pagan Arabs, incorporated them into his 
 scheme, and thus propitiated many that before 
 avoided him. We have seen that the same might be 
 objected to Moses. But Muhammad may surely have 
 believed in the defilement of Allah's holy places by 
 Pagans, and have restored them to their pure original 
 
El 3slam 
 
 333 
 
 purposes. Thus the Kaabah, that Pantheon of the 
 idolater, was given to El Islam as the house built 
 by Abraham and Ishmael. And what antiquary so 
 wise as to declare that the Friend of God did not 
 visit Mecca and there lay the foundations of a mosque 
 and an abode ? 1 The gigantic tombs of Adam 
 and Eve at Mecca and Jeddah were in the olden 
 times places of litholatry. Yet might not the 
 numerous Arab Christians, in whose religion Mu- 
 hammad believed before the old dispensation was 
 abrogated by a new scheme, have had traditions 
 concerning the meeting of our first parents on the 
 Mount of Arafat, and their sepulture in the Holy 
 Land ? Mecca was at that time consecrated by 
 no less than five religions. The Guebre had 
 established there the Shrine of Saturn. The Hindu 
 had made it the residence of the third person 
 of his triad. The Pagan Arabs had erected there 
 a gigantic Pantheon. The Jews revered it because, 
 as Ibn Shaybat relates, Moses and Aaron performed 
 pilgrimages there ; when the famous Tobba Judaized, 
 he invested the house with a splendid curtain. 
 And, finally, the Christians, according to some 
 authors, had procured admission into the Kaabah 
 for the images of the Virgin and Child. Colonists 
 and expatriated men readily connect the remarkable 
 events and incidents of their religion and history 
 
 1 Some geographers identify Massa, the town and castle of the 
 seventh son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 14), with Mecca. 
 
334 
 
 Bl 35lam 
 
 with the strange objects revered in foreign lands. 
 The Muslims in Sindh, as an instance, have occupied 
 in force most of the sacred places of the Hindus ; 
 often, too, both Monotheist and Polytheist worship 
 at the same shrine. The original Yoni becomes 
 a Da'asah, or footprint of Hazrat Ali ; and the sacred 
 alligator of the Hindus is revered as the creation of 
 a Muslim saint. Thus in Ceylon Buddha's retreat has 
 become Adam's Peak. The description of St. Mary 
 and the Holy Infant resting in the shade of the 
 sycamore tree of Heliopolis in the old apocryphal 
 gospels is clearly borrowed from the old Egyptian 
 symbol, Tsis with Horus in her lap sitting under the 
 Hiero-sycaminon. In the incorporations of tradi- 
 tions then current amongst the Arab Christians there 
 is no valid reason for charging Muhammad with fraud. 
 
 To rank the Saving Faith amongst the religions 
 of the world, it is necessary briefly to relate what 
 its founder did for mankind. A youth of noble 
 origin, but fallen fortunes, as was the Prophet of 
 Nazareth, he was strengthened like the Jewish Law- 
 giver Moses by travel, solitude, and meditation. Jebel 
 Hira was his Mount Horeb. But though surrounded 
 by learned Jew and Christian, his education was 
 defective ; and though, a genuine Arab, he thought 
 strongly and clearly, and he was a perfect master of 
 eloquence, he had none of that knowledge which passes 
 for a preternaturalism amongst a barbarous people. 
 His probity won for him in early manhood the 
 
361 Jslam 
 
 335 
 
 surname of El Amin, or the Trusty, and his noble 
 qualities enabled him to marry the wealthy widow 
 in whose service he had lived a hireling. 
 
 After a long course of meditation, fired with anger 
 by the absurd fanaticism of the Jews, the super- 
 stitions of the Syrian and Arabian Christians, and 
 the horrid idolatries of his unbelieving country- 
 men, an enthusiast too — and what great soul has 
 not been an enthusiast ? — he determined to reform 
 those abuses which rendered revelation contemptible 
 to the learned and prejudicial to the vulgar. 
 He introduced himself as one inspired to a body 
 of his relations and fellow-clansmen. The step was 
 a failure, except that it won for him a proselyte 
 worth a thousand sabres in the person of Ali, son 
 of Abu Talib. With an uncommon mixture of 
 prudence and energy he pursued his task till he 
 overcame the hate, the ridicule, and the persecution 
 of such men as Abubekr, Umar, and Usman. Expelled 
 by the violence of his enemies, he fled his native 
 city — a wonderful contrast to the fierceness and 
 the impatience of his race. But after a long course 
 of meekness and longsuffering in the work of 
 proselytizing, his spirit, like that of Moses, rose high 
 against violence and oppression, and at last — for 
 he was an Arab — abrogating his peaceful precepts 
 he appealed to the God of Battles in his combat 
 for a righteous cause. Heroes and mighty men 
 like Hamzah Khalid and Amru el Ays flocked 
 
336 
 
 361 3slam 
 
 to his standard, and his personal valour and high 
 qualities as a guerilla soldier soon led him on to 
 fortune. After several years' exile, he re-entered 
 as a visitor the walls of his native city, whence he 
 had fled persecuted and proscribed. And he lived 
 long enough to witness the splendid success of 
 his early projects. 
 
 Abolishing all belief in a local or personal 
 God, he announced to his Arabs the One Supreme, 
 now in terms as terrible as man could bear, 
 then in words so lofty and majestic that they 
 sank for ever into the heart-core of his followers. 
 He broke to pieces with his own hand the images 
 of the Kaabah, and he witnessed the total ex- 
 tinction of a gigantic idolatry — a work of itself 
 sufficient to immortalize the memory of one re- 
 former. He said of the Deity, " He is not enclosed 
 by the bonds of space or by the limits of time ; 
 he hath no form which requireth a former from 
 whom he is free ; and whatever concerning him 
 entereth thy mind to that he is the contrary." He 
 preached Allah, the God unapprehensible, incom- 
 prehensible, omnipotent, all-beneficent, spiritual, and 
 eternal. 
 
 He revived the earliest scheme of Mosaicism and 
 the pristine simplicity of Christianity by making 
 every man priest and patriarch of his own household. 
 Preceding faiths had attempted to elevate human 
 nature above itself, and had, as might be expected, 
 
JE\ Jslam 
 
 337 
 
 degraded the object of their endeavours. He incul- 
 cated the dignity of man instead of perpetually 
 preaching human degradation, he respected mortal 
 nature, and therefore he made his scheme eminently 
 practical with something of a higher flight. He 
 did away with the incestuous marriage with a 
 father's widow ; he abolished the Wad el Banat, 
 or the murderous inhumation of female children. 
 He corrected the laxity and immorality of the age 
 by making drinking and gambling penal offences, 
 and by forbidding modest women to appear in public 
 unveiled. Finally, to mention no other great 
 and good works, by the enunciation of a modified 
 Fatalism — they greatly err who confound it with 
 an absolute Predestination — he attempted to check 
 that tendency of self-mortification which he could 
 not wholly expel from the affections of his country- 
 men. He died, not like an enthusiast or an impostor, 
 but as one true to the tenets and practices of his 
 life ; and he bequeathed to the world a Law and 
 a Faith than which none has been more firmly or 
 more fervently believed in by mankind, whose wide 
 prevalence — wider indeed than that of any other 
 creed — alone suffices to prove its extrinsic value 
 to the human family. This much did Muhammad 
 for his fellow-creatures. 
 
 Can we wonder that the Arabian Prophet, finding 
 himself, despite the accidents of fortune, of time, 
 and place, so much in advance of his age, so solitary 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 El Jslam 
 
 a being amongst the fanatic, the superstitious, and 
 the debased, fondly believed himself Allah's Apostle, 
 and the chosen instrument of man's regeneration ? 
 Considering the ardent temperament of the Arab, 
 his high development of veneration, and his dis- 
 cerning the divine hand in every human work 
 and change, can we marvel that he attributed 
 the fire of his soul and the strong workings of his 
 mind to a something preternatural — an inspiration 
 or a revelation ? The celebrated mystic Mansur 
 el Hallaj was stoned by the crowd for using the 
 words, " I am Truth " (i.e. the Lord). But his 
 Sufi confraternity still explain away the apparent 
 irreverence of the saying, and believe him to have 
 been, as was said of Spinoza, a God-intoxicated man. 
 
 Muhammad's mission, then, was one purely of 
 reform. He held that four dispensations had pre- 
 ceded his own, and that his object was to restore 
 their pristine purity. But the Adamical had been 
 obsoletized by the Noachian scheme ; and this by 
 the Mosaic, which, in its turn becoming defunct, had 
 left all its powers and prerogatives to Christianity ; 
 thus also the latter dispensation in the fulness of 
 time had been superseded by the revelations of 
 El Islam, the Saving Faith. All the past was now 
 effete and abrogated. All the future would be 
 mere imposture ; for his was the latest of religions, 
 he the Soul of the Prophets. He accused the Jews 
 and Christians of entire corruption, of spiritual death, 
 
IEI Jslam 
 
 339 
 
 and preached to them with fervour a new faith, 
 a doctrine of life. He openly charged them with 
 having altered and remodelled their sacred writings. 1 
 Nor could this charge be denied. It is now, and 
 was then, impossible to discover what Moses wrote 
 or what was written for him by Ezra the scribe 
 and other compilers. The difference of style and 
 language, the frequent changes from the first person 
 to the third, and finally the account of the Law- 
 
 1 Muhammad probably little thought how much more directly 
 this charge was to be brought against his own revelations. The 
 Ayat, or inspired versets, were jotted down without order or time 
 in the Musnad character, which admitted no "vowel points," upon 
 palm leaves, shoulder blades of sheep, and similar wild substitutes 
 for paper. In this state they were cast into a box, and consigned 
 to the keeping of Hafsah, one of the " Mothers of the Muslims." 
 After the Prophet's death they were drawn from their concealment 
 in a state of disorder, which explains their present confusion. 
 An edition of the Ayat was first published by Abubekr, who called 
 it the Koran, or " What shall be read." This work was full of errors. 
 The second issue was from the hands of Usman, one of whose 
 modern titles is " Scribe of the Koran." His subjects, however, put 
 him to death, though he had surrounded himself with a rampart 
 of sacred writings, for his impiety in meddling with inspiration. 
 Finally, Ali the Khalif, who was more of a scholar than most Arabs, 
 who wrote poetry, indited proverbs, and according to some im- 
 proved the syllabarium by the invention of vowel points, recalled 
 all others, and issued his own. The Shiah schism to the present 
 day declare that a whole Juz, or section, of which the Koran now 
 contains thirty, was omitted and destroyed by the Khalifs hostile 
 to Ali as it was in his praise. Some passages from the lost revela- 
 tion are actually quoted in their theological works. It is true that 
 nothing in the sacred writings of the Muslims, not a jot or tittle, can 
 be altered, added, or omitted. Like the Jews, they have numbered 
 and recorded every letter and vowel point. Unfortunately they have 
 taken this wise step too late ; as the Eastern proverb is, they have 
 looked to halter and heel-ropes after the horse is stolen. 
 
340 
 
 £1 3slam 
 
 giver's death and burial conclusively prove that 
 the Pentateuch had in its present state more than 
 one author. Probably the original draught was 
 concise and short. 
 
 Even the Koran contained little that was new. 
 With the exception of some legends, the addition 
 of some regulations touching the daily prayers and 
 the purification of property, with a few ordinances 
 as that of Diyat or blood-money, disallowed by the 
 Pentateuch (Numb. xxxv. and Deut. xix.), but 
 rendered necessary by the state of Arab society, 
 and some dietetic modifications — the camel for 
 instance and the horse were recognized as pure 
 food, — the Koran might almost be extracted from 
 the Mosaic and Rabbinical writings, from the Evan- 
 gelists and apocryphal ists of the Christian era. 
 There is also but little to commend in it, except 
 its fiery and commanding eloquence. As a code 
 of laws it is eminently defective. He who could 
 write such a work could have written much better. 
 Muhammad, however, relied for the success of his 
 mission upon far higher claims than any book. 
 
 Muhammad laid no claims to prophecy or to 
 miracles. He called himself El Rasul, and El 
 Nabbi, the announcer of good tidings from Allah 
 to the Adamites. He did not give his name 
 to a new system of belief ; his ordinances were 
 designated in a mass as El Islam, the Salvation 
 or the Saving Faith. His night journey to heaven, 
 
361 Jslam 
 
 341 
 
 the subject of so much opprobrious declamation, was 
 either a vision or a dream. The splitting of the 
 moon, a tale so monstrously told by his posterity, 
 rests upon no broader basis than a line in the Koran 
 which might properly be translated : " The hour 
 [of Judgment] shall come, and the moon shall cleave 
 asunder." Probably this absurdity was the invention 
 of followers who determined to dispute for their 
 lawgiver with Joshua's command over the host 
 of heaven. An ignorant Afghan is said to have 
 boasted that his Pir, or spiritual pastor, the cele- 
 brated poet Abd el Kahman, was in the habit of 
 making night journeys like Muhammad to Paradise, 
 and to have bastinadoed the holy man severely 
 when, taxed with impiety, he denied the irreverent 
 assertion. Such a Muhaddis, or relater of the 
 Prophet's sayings, as Abu Hurayrah, the Father of 
 the Kitten, may fairly, to judge him by his recognized 
 writings, be suspected of such a forgery. Muhammad 
 the more especially disdained the claim to miraculous 
 powers which, as those who know Eastern lands, 
 belong to every petty saint and village santon. 
 The " most extraordinary of ordinary men," the 
 historian Hume, inferred that, because he himself 
 had never seen a miracle, no one else ever saw a 
 miracle. The Oriental traveller will disbelieve in 
 miracles for the opposite reason — because he has seen 
 so many. 
 
 The rapid and extensive spread of El Islam, 
 
342 
 
 JEl Jslam 
 
 considered by the Faithful a remarkable instance 
 of divine aid, is to be accounted for without the 
 intervention of a Deity. The Arabs poured forth 
 from their great centre, till the whole surplus popu- 
 lation was exhausted. Everywhere they appeared 
 as liberators of slaves, especially in Turkey and 
 Persia, where an artificial and over-refined state of 
 society had produced tyrannical despots, an innumer- 
 able and insatiable nobility, and a people robbed 
 and spoiled. Another circumstance favoured the 
 growth of "the Religion of the Heavens and the 
 Earth." Whether we consider the Arabs to have 
 been the aborigines of their native wilds, or, as the 
 modern theory is, we derive them from the Highlands 
 of ^Ethiopia, it is certain that their great success 
 lay amongst a kindred people speaking cognate 
 languages. From the earliest times, indeed, Arabia 
 had sent forth several extensive streams of emi- 
 gration. Essentially an Asiatic form of belief, El 
 Islam could not progress beyond the barriers opposed 
 to it by geography. Not having a St. Paul to modify, 
 to change it, the Saving Faith broke upon the rock 
 of a new race. 
 
 But this I claim for El Islam. 
 The recurring purpose which runs through the world 
 is chiefly manifested by the higher esteem in which 
 man holds man. David made him little lower than 
 the angels. Christianity, a system of asceticism, con- 
 firmed this estimate : we are fallen beings, fallen not 
 
JBl 3slam 
 
 313 
 
 through our own fault ; condemned to eternal death, 
 not by our own demerits ; ransomed by a Divine 
 Being, not through our own merits. El Islam, on 
 the contrary, raised man from this debased status, 
 and with the sound good sense which characterizes 
 the creed inspired and raised him in the scale 
 of creation by teaching him the dignity of human 
 nature. Thus modern Spiritualism is giving a 
 shock to Christianity, whereas El Islam has power 
 to resist it. 
 
 But, however El Islam prospered amongst the 
 kindred races, it fell flat elsewhere. No power of 
 propagandism availed in China. In Southern Spain 
 the faith maintained itself for a long time ; its letter 
 and spirit, however, were almost lost. The Zegris 
 and Abencerrages were European knights, not Eastern. 
 And when pushed forward into a Northern people, 
 a single destructive defeat sufficed to set for it 
 bounds which it has never attempted to cross. In 
 Hungary and Austria again, with a tenfold power, 
 it failed to establish a footing ; and when " Holy 
 Russia" became sufficiently united to be powerful, 
 El Islam was cast out like a corpse. 
 
 Again, what reconciled the ancient Muslim and 
 endears the modern to his creed is its noble simplicity. 
 The votary has little or nothing comparatively speak- 
 ing to pay for his moral and spiritual necessary — 
 religion. He has no tithes, and few fees. His places 
 of worship are built and maintained by religious 
 
3M El Sslam 
 
 bequests, carefully guarded by law aud custom. 
 Muhammad Ali, it is true, confiscated the " Wakf " 
 left to many of the Cairene mosques and tombs. He 
 also, following the example of Turkey, substituted 
 at Mecca and El Medinah yearly pensions for the 
 produce of their ancient extensive church lands. But 
 he carried out these measures among Egyptians, a 
 race of men whose languor and apathy require 
 repeated inducements to fight for the faith ; in Kabul 
 and Bokhara the boldest and most powerful extortioners 
 would hardly venture upon such a sacrilege. The 
 Islam Muslim, moreover, has no priesthood ; those 
 whose duty it is to preach and pray to the people are 
 not churchmen ; they temporarily receive from the 
 Wahil, or mosque-warden, a few piastres per month ; 
 but all must live by some honest secular calling. Even 
 the Sultan, the Defender of the Faith, the Representa- 
 tive of the Khalifs, and the Vicegerent of Allah upon 
 earth, does not disdain handicraft, to make and sell 
 toothpicks. Finally, the Muslim has no baptism ; he 
 is circumcised by a barber ; he can marry himself 
 with a reason for deviating from popular custom ; and 
 he can be bathed, buried, and prayed over by any 
 lay fellow-religionist. 
 
 It is generally believed in Europe that El Islam 
 is on the decline ; and the old prejudices bequeathed 
 by Crusades tend to make the assertion popular. It 
 is based upon insufficient grounds. With as much 
 correctness might the Muslim predict the present 
 
El Jslam 
 
 345 
 
 fall of Christianity by the heresies and schisms 
 that distract the Church, from the wide spread 
 of visionary Swedenborgians and of the shallow 
 imposture Mormonism.* Turkey and Egypt may 
 show traces of latitudinarianism, even as France and 
 Germany have done ; no Muslim people, however, 
 has yet ventured to abolish El Islam by law. But 
 Arabia and Afghanistan still stand firm as in the 
 first ages of the faith. Generally it may be remarked 
 that in Eastern religions the propagandism and 
 missioning of the West has tended to strengthen and 
 confirm the tenets against which they have been 
 directed. Thus Hinduism, after giving a few out- 
 casts to Christianity, has entrenched itself behind 
 the stronghold of Vedantism; the learned are pure 
 Deists, the ignorant pure idolaters. Buddhism 
 remains untouched, and the very nature of its en- 
 cyclopedian tenets renders it unassailable. Even the 
 sect of Guebres has been strengthened by polemical 
 arguments, and bids fair to rival its antagonists in 
 disputative theology. In spite of the mighty force 
 brought against it, the Parsee converts to Christianity 
 might be numbered on a man's fingers. Nor can 
 these faiths yield to compulsion. The laws of 
 Menu, of Zoroaster, and of Muhammad have still 
 bulwarks not easily to be battered down. And should 
 
 [* In his City of the Saints, written after his visit to Salt Lake 
 City, and published in 1861, Burton takes a different view of 
 Mormonism.] 
 
346 
 
 ]£l Jslam 
 
 Christianity, as it has often threatened, ever meet 
 the Saving Faith in mortal conflict, and the Cross 
 assail the Crescent in the latest of crusades, the 
 Muslim scimitar, rusty as it is with the rust of ages, 
 will prove the good metal of which it was in the 
 beginning forged. 
 
 Supposing, however, El Islam abolished by civiliza- 
 tion, underminded by the slow action of the Christian 
 Powers closing around it, or become decrepit from 
 old age, what would be the result? Some renewal 
 essentially the same, formally different; some revival 
 of its eternal principle, Monotheism, disguised under 
 a fresh garb of those outward accidents that constitute 
 a religion. Such has ever been the history of the 
 world's creeds. At all times 
 
 emerging from the storm, 
 Primeval faith uplifts her changeful form, 
 Mounts from her funeral pile on wings of flame, 
 And soars and shines another and the same. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
INDEX 
 
 N.B. — Numbers printed in 
 
 Abbott, William, 18. 
 Abyssinians, the, 321. 
 Academy, Burton's letter to the, 
 136-143. 
 
 Academy, Bataillard's letter to the. 
 144-156. 
 
 Africa, the Gypsies of, 233-262. 
 Algeria, the Gypsies of, 258-261. 
 America, the Gypsies in, 282-285. 
 Arabshah, 190. 
 Armenians, the, 321. 
 Arnim, Count, 17. 
 Aruhim, 79. 
 Arya, 180. 
 Ascheri, 110. 
 Ascoli, 180. 
 
 Ashkenazim, the, 46-56. 
 Asia, the Gypsies in, 211-232. 
 Asia Minor, the Gypsies of, 219. 
 Aviabron, 18. 
 
 Bactriana, 180. 
 Baramaki, the, 231, 236. 
 Barbary, 260, 261. 
 Bartalus, M., 174-176. 
 Basnage, 15. 
 
 Bataillard, Paul, letter to the 
 Academy, 144-156 ; list of works 
 by, 157, 158 ; claim to priority 
 in discovering identity of Gypsy 
 
 italics refer to the footnotes. 
 
 and Jat answered, 164-171 ; his 
 reviews reviewed, 171-201. 
 ! Bauer, 17. 
 : Bavaria, 203. 
 
 Bearnary, 17. 
 I Bedawin, the, 174, 199, 200, 217, 
 219, 230, 234, 236, 254. 
 Belochis, the, 139, 142, 169, 170. 
 Belochistan, the Jats of, 215-217. 
 Belochki dialect, the, 142, 166. 
 Beni Aros, the, 260. 
 Berber (Barbar), 181. 
 Berbruger, M., 198. 
 Beth Yusuf, 111. 
 Black Jews, the, 58. 
 Bocthor, Ellious, 146, 149. 
 : Borrow, George (quoted), 158, 161, 
 ! 163, 165, 169, 170, 190, 192, 241, 
 260, 261, 269, 281. 
 Boudin, Dr., 12. 
 Braham, 17. 
 ! Brazil, 282-285. 
 ! Brosset, 185. 
 Bunyan, John, supposed to be of 
 Gypsy descent, 163. 
 I Burnouf, Emile, 188. 
 
 Cairo, 238, 240. 
 Cantemir, Count, 17. 
 I Caraites, the. See Karaites. 
 347 
 
348 
 
 Chinganeh, 134, 219, 220. 
 Ciga, 190. 
 Cingani, 181. 
 Cohen, M. J., 92ff. 
 Cordova, Francisca de, 203, 270, 
 271. 
 
 Crosse, A. F., 264, 267. 
 Cushite theory, the, 155. 
 
 Damascus, 231, 232. 
 Darfur, 239. 
 Das, 182. 
 
 Davis, Dr. J. B., 143. 
 
 Denman, Major, 262. 
 
 Denmark, the Gypsy in, 203, 209. 
 
 Derush, 97. 
 
 "Dinim," the, 111. 
 
 Djat, the, 141, 146, 147, 148, 149, 
 
 152, 165, 183, 195. 
 Doba, Capt. S. de, 268. 
 Dunsterville, Col., 214. 
 
 Eben ha-Azar, 111. 
 Ebionites, the, 54. 
 Egypt, the Gypsy in, 233-257. 
 Egyptian religion, the, 296, 297, 
 
 298, 300, 320. 
 El Islam, 216, 218, 255, 321-346 ; 
 
 popular errors concerning, 322- 
 
 334. 
 
 England, Gypsy in, 208. 
 Essene School, the, 319. 
 Europe, Gypsy of, 202-210, 263- 
 281. 
 
 Excommunication, Jewish forms of, 
 82. 
 
 Fagnan, M., 188, 195. 
 Falashas, the, 116. 
 Ferdoussy, 145, 148. 
 Fetissism, 291, 292, 293, 296, 301, 
 302. 
 
 Fez, 260. 
 
 Fleischer, Prof., 146, 148, 149, 150, 
 
 151, 165, 184. 
 
 France, the Gypsy in, 203, 204, 
 
 209, 265, 269. 
 Frascator, 13. 
 
 Gavbar, the, 218. 
 
 Gemara, the, 100, 101, 102, 103. 
 
 Getee, the, 134, 141, 150, 165, 216. 
 
 Ghagar, the, 198, 200, 233-257. 
 
 Ghawazi, the, 236, 237, 252. 
 
 Ghazieh, the, 181. 
 
 Gill's Notices of the Jews, 3. 
 
 Goeje, Prof, de, 136, 144, 150, 151, 
 
 152, 153, 165, 183, 188, 191, 192, 
 195, 196. 
 
 Goldsmids, the, 18. 
 Gondomar, 18. 
 Goths, the, 134, 141. 
 Grellman, 202, 2 41. 
 Greece, 177, 182, 299. 
 Grisi, 17. 
 
 Gypsy, the, of Africa, 233-262 ; of 
 Algeria, 258-261 ; of America, 
 282-285 ; of Asia, 211-232 ; of 
 Barbary, 260, 261 ; of Bavaria, 
 203 ; of Belochistan, 215-217 ; of 
 Brazil, 282-285 ; compared with 
 the Jat, 133, 134, 137, 139ff; com- 
 pared with the Jew, 5, 17, 161, 
 162 ; of Damascus, 231, 232 ; 
 of Denmark, 203, 209 ; dress of, 
 277 ; of Egypt, 233-257 ; of Eng- 
 land, 208; of Europe, 202-210, 
 263-281 ; famous Gypsies, 163 ; 
 of France, 203, 204, 209, 265, 
 269 ; of Germany, 203-208 ; of 
 Hungary, 202, 263-269 ; Indian 
 affinities of, 136-143; of Italy, 
 205, 206, 265 ; language of, 134, 
 240, 279, 280 ; of Morocco, 258- 
 
349 
 
 261 ; of the Netherlands, 209 ; 
 of the Panjab, 211-215 ; of Persia, 
 217-219 ; of Pome, 206 ; of Said, 
 237 ; of Spain, 203, 207, 265, 269- 
 281 ; of Sweden, 203, 209 ; of 
 Switzerland, 203 ; of Syria, 219- 
 224. 
 
 Ha-frakd fast, 10. 
 Hagadah, the, 98. 
 Halakah, the, 98. 
 Halevi, 18. 
 
 Hamza Ispahani, 146, 148, 150, 151. 
 Hasse, hypothesis of, 179, 185. 
 Hawi, the, 234, 235. 
 Heine, 17. 
 
 Helebis, the, 250, 252, 253, 254, 
 
 255, 256, 257. 
 Herklots, Dr., 258. 
 Hermann, 17. 
 Hillel, 101. 
 Horus, 297. 
 Hoshen Mishpat, 111. 
 Hughes, A. W., 215. 
 Hungary, 202, 263-269. 
 
 India, 296, 297, 298, 303. 
 Indian mythology, 297. 
 Irby, O. P., 22. 
 Ishaz al Fasi, Rabbi, 110. 
 Isis, 296. 
 
 Islam. See El Islam. 
 Ispahani, Hamza. See Hamza. 
 Italy, 205, 206, 265. 
 
 Jataki language, the, 137-140, 180, 
 215. 
 
 Jats, the. See Gypsy. 
 Jerusalem, population of, 68. 
 Jesus, 313-316. 
 
 Jews, the, acclimatization, 13 ; 
 atrocities among, 115-129 ; cause 
 of vitality, 9, 10 ; compared with 
 
 Gypsy, 5, 17, 161, 162 ; consan- 
 guinity, 7; cupidity, 18, 26, 27, 28; 
 fecundity, 5 ; future prospects, 
 62-71 ; general character of, 20- 
 45 ; illustrious, 17 ; immorality, 
 8 ; of the Holy Land, 46-62 ; 
 longevity, 14 ; mental charac- 
 teristics of, 6, 7 ; mutable 
 character and physique of, 
 6 ; physical appearance of the 
 Eastern, 59 ; physique of, 6, 7 ; 
 population, 25 ; vitality, 5, 6, 7, 
 8, 13. 
 
 Jin-tchi, the, 134, 142. 
 " Jore Deah," 111, 113. 
 Joseph Karo, Rabbi, 111. 
 Judophobic opinion of the Jew, 62, 
 63. 
 
 Jurisdiction, Jewish, 90. 
 
 Kamuz, the, 146, 148, 151, 165. 
 Kaoli, the, 218. 
 Karaites, the, 56, 57. 
 Khabad, the, 54, 55. 
 Khasidim, the, 53, 54, 55. 
 Koran, the, 324, 340, 341. 
 Kremer, Von (quoted), 199, 234-250, 
 252. 
 
 Kurbat, the, 218, 219, 220, 222, 
 
 223, 250, 256. 
 Kurbat words, vocabulary of, 224- 
 
 228. 
 
 Kushite theory, 194, 195. 
 
 Lane, 234, 258. 
 Lemnos, 184. 
 
 " Liberal " opinion of Jewish 
 
 future, 62. 
 Luri, the, 145, 146, 165. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, speech of, 18, 
 19. 
 
350 
 
 MacGregor's Rob Roy on the 
 
 Jordan, 31. 
 Mackenzie, G. Muir, 22. 
 Maghribi, the, 239. 
 Maimonides, 110. 
 Massena, 17. 
 Massorah, the, 97. 
 McCaul, Dr. Alexander, 37, 75, 85, 
 
 88. 
 
 Mendelssohn, 17. 
 Mendizelal, Senor, 17. 
 Metempsychosis, 295. 
 Meyerbeer, 17. 
 Mezzofanti, 269. 
 Midrash, the, 96. 
 Miklosich, 156, 177, 178, 179. 
 Mills' British Jeiv, 37. 
 Mishnah, the, 96-106. 
 Montefiore, Sir Moses, 32, SS. 
 Mormons, the, 97. 
 Morocco, 258-261. 
 Moses, 302-313. 
 Moses of Cordova, 112. 
 Moses of Trani, 111. 
 Movers, 194. 
 
 Muhammad, attempt to poison, 
 33, 116; life of, 334-337. 
 
 Nat'h, the, 143. 
 
 Nawar, the, 220, 228, 230, 231, 250, 
 257. 
 
 Neander, Prof., 17. 
 
 Netherlands, the, 209. 
 
 Neufville, De, 14. 
 
 Newbold, Capt., 217, 218, 219, 220, 
 222, 223, 238, 289, 240, 242, 243, 
 247, 250, 251, 252, 253, 256. 
 
 Noachidce, the, 79, 80. 
 
 Noachidae, code of the, 78, 79. 
 
 Nott's Physical History of the 
 Jewish Race, 3. 
 
 Offenbach, 17. 
 
 Orach Chaiiin, 111. 
 
 Oral law, Jewish, 72-92, 99, 102, 
 
 117. 
 Osiris, 296. 
 
 Palestine, 219. 
 Palgrave, 17. 
 
 Panjab, 137, 139, 140, 141, 168, 
 
 211-215. 
 Pantheism, 295, 298. 
 Parushim, the, 53, 55. 
 Paspati, A. G., 160, 173, 174, 178, 
 
 182, 185, 191. 
 Pasquier, 269. 
 Pasta, 17. 
 Paul, 317, 318. 
 Perier, 159. 
 Persia, 217-219. 
 
 Persians, religion of the ancient, 
 
 294, 295, 297. 
 Peshat, the, 97. 
 
 Physician, the Jewish, 113, 114. 
 
 Fococke, Bishop, 219. 
 
 Polytheism, 295. 
 
 Postans Capt., 167. 
 
 Pott, Prof., 136, 144, 145, 146, 147, 
 
 148, 150, 151, 154, 165, 181. 
 Proselytes, Jewish, 79. 
 
 Quasimus, 114. 
 
 Rabanu Jacob Be-Rab, 110, 111, 
 113. 
 
 Rabbinical law, 72-114. 
 Rachel, 17. 
 
 Rasscho, Shaykh, 220, 222. 
 Ratisbonne, De, 17. 
 " Reformed British Jews," the, 58. 
 Reinaud, 147, 149, 150, 151, 165. 
 Religion, earliest forms of, 289- 
 302. 
 
351 
 
 Remiz, the, 97. 
 Ricardos, the, 18. 
 Roberts, Samuel, 276. 
 Rodiger, 150. 
 
 Rogers, Consul E. T., 231, 232. 
 
 Roma, the, 160, 164, 172, 175, 177, 
 178, 179, 180, 182, 186, 187, 198, 
 202, 221, 228, 233, 252, 261. 
 
 Roman Catholic view of Jewish 
 future, 62, 63. 
 
 Romani-chib, 181, 197. 
 
 Rome, 206. 
 
 Rossini, 17. 
 
 Rothschilds, the, 18. 
 
 Rouhers, the, 18. 
 
 Rumeli, 220. 
 
 Russia and the Holy Land, 66, 67, 
 70. 
 
 Sabbath, the Jewish, 74-77, 86. 
 Sabbath Services, the Jewish, 76. 
 Sadik, 11. 
 
 Safed, School of, 68, 92, 106-114. 
 Said, 251. 
 
 Saint-Martin, V. de, 185. 
 Samaritans, the, 57, 58. 
 Sanhedrin, the, 94, 95, 96. 
 Santa, Dr. de Pietra, 258-260. 
 Saracens, 203, 205. 
 Scotland, 172, 178, 213, 282. 
 Segor, 181. 
 
 Sephardim, the, 46, 47, 48, 49, 55, 
 56. 
 
 Shahnameh, the, 146, 148, 150, 165. 
 Shalomon Alkabez, Rabbi, 111. 
 Shammai, 101. 
 Sicani, the, 180, 185. 
 Sidi Hamed au Muza, 260. 
 Siginnoi, the, 185. 
 Sim, El, 240, 241. 
 Sindh, 138, 139. 
 Singani, 181. 
 
 Sinties, the, 184, 185. 
 
 Sleeman, W. H., 141, 165, 211, 231. 
 
 Sochseus, 11. 
 
 Sod, 98. 
 
 Soult, Marshal, 17. 
 
 Spain, 178. 
 
 Spinoza, 17, 70, 95. 
 
 Sweden, 203, 209. 
 
 Syria, 219-224, 228-232, 250, 320. 
 
 Talmud Babli, 101, 102. 
 Talmudic law, 72-114, 118. 
 Tchangar, the, 156. 
 Theism, 302. 
 
 Tiberias, School of, 92-106. 
 
 Ticknor, 271. 
 
 Torlonias, the, 18. 
 
 Trumpp, Dr. Ernest, 137, 156, 168, 
 
 197. 
 Tschudi, 13. 
 
 Tsigans, the, 147, 152, 153, 175, 
 183, 185, 189, 190, 193, 198, 201, 
 263ff. 
 
 Ukayl, 137. 
 
 " White Jews," the, 58. 
 Wohl, 17. 
 Wolf, 17. 
 
 Xapol, 18. 
 
 Yad ha-Hazaka, 110. 
 Yahuda, Rabbi, 94, 95. 
 Yom ha-Kippur, 65. 
 
 Zengi, the, 150. 
 
 Zigeuner, the, 150, 151, 165, 192, 
 
 219, 234, 241, 268. 
 Zincali, the, 187, 192, 219. 
 Zingaro, derivation of, 190. 
 Zuth, the, 146, 148, 150, 151, 152, 
 
 165, 231, 239. 
 
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