2«* S. VIII. Nov. m '59.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



419 



" But, some days afterwards, they sent one of theirs to 

 me, begging for a copy of what I had read to them, which 

 I accordingly gave." 



As somewhat akin to the above, I make free 

 still to add a transcript from Diary of a Tour 

 through Southern India, Egypt, and Palestine in 

 the Years 1821-22, by a Field- Officer of Cavalry 

 (8vo. pp. 366., Lond. 1823, Hatchard and Son). 

 I have it from the Literary Gazette for 1823, 

 p. 664. : — 



" The black Jews are supposed to be the descendants of 

 proselytes made to Judaism on the first settlements of 

 white Jews in the country; but nothing certain seems 

 to be known concerning them : they still exist in large 

 numbers along the Malabar coast, from the ruins of 

 the Synagogue we returned to the Church ; and there, 

 while Mr. Fenn was speaking to the Syrians, I had a 

 long and interesting conversation with Moses, in the 

 Portuguese language, of which, fortunately, he under- 

 stood a little. The sum of what he told me was, that the 

 Jews, those at least who had studied the Sacred Writings, 

 all agreed that the 53d chapter of Isaiah related to the 

 Messiah ; that the accounts given of Jesus of Nazareth 

 exactly correspond with the description of him given 

 therein : but that there is one material point in which 

 he fails, which is, that having publicly declared He came 

 to fulfil the law of Moses, He nevertheless permitted his 

 followers to dispense with the rite of circumcision, and to 

 change the day of the Sabbath, — acts which positively 

 violated the law of Moses ; and such, therefore, as the 

 true Messiah would never have allowed. This was, he 

 said, the common opinion of the Jews ; but he admitted 

 that, for his own part, the undeniable conformity of Jesus 

 to the predicted Messiah, the long and dreadful disper- 

 sion and suflferings of the Jews, and the present returning 

 kindness of the nations towards them, in seeming con- 

 formity with the time pointed out in the prophecies of 

 the 1260 days ; all combined to throw his mind into an 

 indescribable state of ferment. He almost believed — but 

 then the unaccountable change of the most holy Sabbath- 

 day ! He allowed the total confusion of tribes, so that, if 

 Messiah were yet to come, He could not be known to be of 

 the tribe of Judah, unless b^ a miracle. Still he thought 

 God would perhaps vouchsafe a miracle to restore the iden- 

 tity of families and tribes, and that this was a general belief 

 among his brethren. He says he has read the New Tes- 

 tament with attention, and thinks it a most excellent 

 work ; but if its accounts had been true, how was it pos- 

 sible that so many thousands of Israelites, living witnesses 

 of the miracles therein related, could yet refuse to believe, 

 and even punish the supposed Messiah with death ? I 

 have purposely abstained from recapitulating the argu- 

 ments usually employed against what Moses Azarphati 

 advanced, as they are well known to every Christian of 

 common intelligence, who has at all studied the grounds 

 of his own belief; but I thought it might not be unin- 

 teresting to know from the fountain head what the Jews 

 think and say for themselves ; and Moses is really a fair 

 specimen of the most liberal among them." 



The second error I have to correct is, that the 

 piece of wood now kept in the Zealand Society's 

 Museum is inscribed inazarrexivde, the letters 

 inverted, and to be read from left to right, as if 

 they were types composed for printing. It was 



" Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek 

 the Lord their God, and David their king : and shall fear 

 the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." 



supposed to be the remainder of a Romish crucifix 

 erected by the Portuguese before the year 1662, 

 when Cranganore was taken from them by the 

 Dutch. The manner in which the letters are 

 placed makes us surmise that the Roman Catholic 

 priests hit upon this invention as more likely to 

 attract the Hebrew-reading eyes of their Jewish 

 Malabar subjects. 



I dare say Dr. Todd will be pleased to hear 

 that there exists a Portuguese pamphlet, 15 pages 

 in 4to., containing an account about some Jews 

 who, having left Amsterdam in November, 1685, 

 had been on the continent of Cochim from No- 

 vember the 21st to November the 25 th, 1686, and 

 had been received and treated, there in a very 

 kind and solemn way. This happened under 

 Commander Vosburg. The title is, Notisias dos 

 Judeos de Cochim, mandadas por Mosseh Pereyra 

 de Paiva, Acuya Custa se imprimirao. Em Am- 

 sterdam, Estampado em caza de Vry Levy em 9 

 de Ilul, 5447 (being our year 1687). Preceded 

 by the imprimatur of Ishack Aboab. 



Though small, this little book gives much in- 

 formation regarding the Cochim Jews of that 

 time, as for instance, — 



" The situation of both the place of abode and the Sy- 

 nagogue ; A List of the Heads of Families ; The Condition 

 of the people at that Period ; The number of Families in 

 sundry quarters of the Town ; Their History, Religious 

 Customs, principal Learned Men or Chachams ; A Trans- 

 lation of the Privilege accorded by Cheram Perimal 

 \_sic'] ; The Replies to about 50 Questions, concerning 

 their Rituals ; with their opinions and conduct in the 

 case of the famous Impostor or false Messiah, Sabathai 

 Sevi : of whom they know nothing else but that, at the 

 time when he was said to be Messiah, the Commander of 

 Cochim had received his portrait, to which no one of 

 them had shown any respect, and that, not very long 

 afterwards, they had been informed by way of Mecca 

 that Sevi had suffered himself to be made Turk." 



See A. 's Gravezande, in the Zealand Society's 

 Worhs, vi. p. 524. and note (11.). 



As an appendix I, inquiringly, copy the follow- 

 ing from the Literary Gazette for 1832, p. 733.: — 



"The Jews. — It is stated in tYiQ Anglo- Germanic Ad- 

 vertiser (but we know not if on sufiicient authority, or 

 merely a rumour picked up from an eastern ( I ) attendant 

 at Leipsic fair), that the descendants of the lost ten tribes 

 of Israel are to be found in Li Bucharia. They are said to 

 amount to ten millions, to speak the language of Thibet, 

 to observe the rite of circumcision, to keep the Kipour, 

 and to have readers and elders like the original Jewish 

 people." 



J. H. VAN Lennep. 



Zeyst,~near Utrecht, 

 Oct. 29, 1859. 



TITLES CONFERRED BT OLIVER CROMWEIX. 



(2°'> S. vii. 476. 518. ; viii. 382.) 



At the end of a small work. The Perfect Politi- 

 cian ; or a full View of the Life and Actions (Mili' 

 tary and Civil) of O. Cromwell, 12mo., London, 



