And I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, In the same prophet, in the thirty-first chapter, and at the eighth verse, we have a confirmation of this as relating to the remnant of the Ten Tribes "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the coasts of the earth;" and that it is restricted to these tribes is apparent by the verse which follows- "I am a father to Israel, And EPHRAIM is my first-born." THE DISPERSION OF THE TEN TRIBES. (CONTINUED.) Of the many modern writers upon the subject of the lost tribes of the house of Israel, none seem to have approached so near the truth as Dr. Giles Fletcher, envoy from Queen Elizabeth at Moscow. He supposed the Tartars near the Caspian sea to belong to the Ten Tribes. The reason he assigns is, that the cities and places in that region are called by the same names as those in the land of Canaan; and because the Tartars are divided into ten tribes, as were those of the captives of Israel: he supposes them to be the descendants of the whole house of Israel. He mentions that Tamer lane boasted that he was descended from the tribe of Dan.* Had Dr. Fletcher followed up his inquiries, he would undoubtedly have succeeded in his research, in tracing the remnant to the very spot of their present existence. But since it seems from his dissertation that neither he nor his informants were in that part of the world, nor possessed personal knowledge of the customs and manners of the people about whom he wrote, it is to be regretted that a work of such importance was rendered useless, to other writers and travellers. The Tartars are the descendants of the Syrians who were transplanted seven hundred years before Christ, when Rezin king of Syria made war, in company with Pekah king of Israel, against Judah. Tilgath-pilneser came, subdued Syria, Galilee, and all the territory east of the Jordan, and sent the inhabitants of Syria to the river Kur, (into which the Araxes emptied itself.) * The present deposed king of Georgia, who is a pensioner of Persia, and whose family is kept as hostages by Russia, told me that he considered that he and his family were descended from the Danites. The Jews in Persia believe that Georgia was formerly governed by Jews. And these people, supposed by Dr. Fletcher to belong to the Ten Tribes, are known in the present day as the Usbeck Tartars. And except among the Circassian tribes, which profess the Mussulman religion, circumcision, that great seal of the seed of Abraham, is nowhere practised. The Cossacks have not the least vestige of Israelitish descent; nor are their features in the remotest degree of Jewish character. As for the similitude of the names with those in the land of Israel,* their existence, which continues to the present day, only serves to prove that the remnant were formerly in possession of these quarters; and is a collateral proof of their existence in these regions, doubtless from a period not long subsequent to their captivity and dispersion. The Jews of the town of Androva, which is on the north-west of the Caspian, have informed me that they were in possession of those countries as late as the twelfth century, as described by Benjamin of Tudela; and were only finally driven from them in the time of Nadir Shah, when thousands were compelled to embrace the Mahomedan faith. According to their traditions, those * Yerico and Thabor. C inhabiting the mountain regions, called by the inhabitants Jeordico and Tubar, by the Jews Yerico and Thabor, are the descendants of the two and a half tribes, the first portion of the captivity of the whole house of Israel. Since the invasion of Nadir Shah, the Lesgyan tribes have surrounded them more completely than ever and in their isolated condition they have remained distinct even from their brethren in the adjacent provinces of Armenia and Georgia. The evidence on which I conclude them to be in reality the remnant of the Ten Tribes, will presently be stated. The Jews in Imiriti and Gahatia I consider to bear a strong affinity to the remnant; but in many respects, from intercourse with their brethren elsewhere, have lost that caste which would identify them with the Jews of the mountain regions of Daghistan. The Jews of Imiriti and Gahatia present the singular spectacle, unknown elsewhere throughout the world, of being slaves; an article of commodity to their masters in whose country they dwell. We will briefly refer to the countries of the captivity of the Twelve Tribes. Assyria and Media are among the places most familiar to the readers |