THE AFGHANS.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 311, 4 January 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE AFGHANS.

. !_?! The following passage on the ethnology of the Afghans, is, says the Sydney Echo, from the unpublished Bheets of a work by Mr. Talboys Wheeler:—" To all appearance the Afghani are of Jewish origin ; not Jews of the orthodox type, the outcome of Jerusalem and the Temple worship, but Jews of the old, turbulent, stiffnecked type, who revolted at Shechem again Behoboam, and set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The Afghans claim to be descendants of Saul, the son of Kish. They are divided into tribes, clans, and families. They distribute conquered lauds by lot, perform the ceremony of the scapefoat, and build shrines on high places, heir features are unmistakably Jewish ; but their language is not Hebrew, nor anything akin to Hebrew. It is conjectured that they are the descendants of the ten tribes whom the King of Assyria carried away to the city of the Medes ; but the loss of all traces of the Hebrew language militate* againrt this theory, »nd it v im- ,

possible to verify the identity. In modern times they are Mahommedans of the Sunni religion, and traditional foes of Persians or Shiaha." In a footnote referring to the Jewish type of a feature exhibited by the Afghan, the author remarks that this, to his mind, outweighs the evidence of language. He goes on to say that " the face of Shere Ali Khan, the late Ameer, reveals not only the Jewish features, but the melancholy mania that belongs to the character of SauL" In the fourth volume of the History of India, Mr. Talboys Wheeler mentions the spirit of revenge in which the hereditary feuds of early Afghan history were carried on. He observes that this national characteristic is a proverb in India. "No man is said to be safe from the revenge of an elephant, a cobra, or an Afghan." mmmmm _ mmmmmmmmm