THIS AFGHANS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 493, 19 December 1878, Page 3

THIS AFGHANS.

The following pasasge Dn the ethnology of the Afghans is ( says the ' Sydney Echo') from the unpublished sheets of a work by Mr. Ta I boys Wheeler:—"To all appearance the Afghans are of a Jewish origin—not Jews of the orthodox type, the outcome of Jerusalem and the Temple worship, but Jews ofthe old, turbulent, stiff-necked type, who revolted at Shechem against liehoboam, and set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The Afghans elnim to be descendents of Saul, the son of Kisb. They are divided into tribes, clans, and families. They distribute conquered lands by lot, perform the ceremony of the scapegoat, and build shrines on high places. Tiieir features are unmistakeably 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 militates against this theory, and it is impossible to verify the identity. la modern times they are Mahommedans of the Sunni religion, and traditional foes ofthe Persians or Shiahs." In a footnote referring to the Jewish type of feature exhibited by the Afghan, the author remarks that this, to his mind, o-ilwoiglis the evidence of language. He goes on to sav that " the fac Shs«re Aii Khan, the present Ameer of Afghanistan, reveals not only the Jewish features, but the melancholy mania that belongs to the character of Saul." In the fou'-rh volume of his '• History of India," M .-. Talboys Wheeler mentions the spirit of revenge in which the hereditary feuds of early Afghan history were carried on. He observed 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 A fghan."