L'llerary Discoveries in India. 239 



easily discovered. The places which have been aheady 

 ascertained are sixty-five in number. These tribes have in 

 general (particularly those who have passed the Indus) assi- 

 Oiilaled much to the customs of the countries iu wiiich they 

 live ; and niav sonietinies be seen by a traveller, without 

 being recognised .is .lews. The very imperfect resemblance 

 of their countenance to the .lews of Europe, indicates that 

 they have been detached from the parent stock in Judea, 

 many aa;es before the race of Jews in the West. A fact cor- 

 roborative of this is, that certain of these tribes do not call 

 themselves Jews, but Beni-Israel or Israelites ; for the 

 name Jew is derived from Judah ; whereas the ancestors of 

 these tribes were not subject to the kings of Judah, but to 

 the kings of Israel. They have in most places the book of 

 the Law, the borjk of Job, and the Psalms ; but know little 

 of the Prophets, Some of them have even lost the book of 

 the Law, and only know that they are Israelites from tra- 

 dition, and from their observance of peculiar rites. 



A copy of the Scriptures belonging to the Jews of the 

 East, who might be supposed to have no communication 

 with the Jews in the West, has been long a desideratum 

 with Hebrew scholars. In the coffer of a synagogue of the 

 Black Jews, in the interior of Malayala, there has been 

 found an old copy of the Law, written on a roll of leather. 

 The skins are sewed together, and the roll is about fiftv feet 

 in length. It is in some places worn out, and the holes 

 have been patched with pieces of parchment. Some of the 

 Jews suppose that this roll came originally from Senna, in 

 Arabia ; others have heard that it was brought from Cash- 

 niir. The Cabul Jews, who travel annually into the inte- 

 cior of China, say, that in some synagogues the Law is still 

 found written on a roll of leather; not on velkmi, but on a soft 

 flexible leather, made of goats' skin, and dyed red ; which 

 agrcc;i with the description of the roll above mentioned. 



.Such of the Syriac and Jewish manuscripts as may, on 

 examination, be foimd to he valuable, will be deposited in 

 the public libraries of the British universities. 



The princes of the Dcccan have manilested a liberal re- 

 gard for the cxttnsit'n of Shan^crit learning, bv furiubhing 



list* 



