392 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Oriental Israelites ; and in Morocco, a region least liable 

 to that kind of adulteration, the women in particular 

 being to this day generally grey eyed. The family of 

 Heber was, therefore, not Chaldean nor Assyrian. It 

 came from the East, and might be of the same stem 

 as that which subsequently invaded the Suleimanic 

 range, west of the Indus, for here was an early national 

 centre, whence colonies penetrated to India, where 

 Hebrew congeners may now be believed to exist ; as 

 tribes of Rajpoots, and others, passing on to the borders 

 of Indo-China, may be the present Mugs, for all of 

 these have the peculiar Hebrew aspect and conforma- 

 tion; have even rites and customs similar to that 

 people, as well as traditions and reminiscences, which 

 now assume the aspect of actual descent from the lost 

 tribes of Israel.* These facts establish an affinity too 

 positive for utter rejection. Although we will not 

 carry the conditions of Hebrew consanguinity farther 

 than to hint, that perhaps the promised high destiny of 

 the race embraced alliances which should include the 

 three great typical forms ; first by connection with the 

 rufous stem, through the Asiatic Finn tribes, who were 

 the Scythian conquerors, at one time in Armenia, and 



* The assertion that these Affghans expelled a nation 

 of Kaafirs or idolaters since the Hegira, is more unlikely 

 than that they themselves are converted idolaters; for 

 mountain tribes are not expelled by passing conquerors who 

 have themselves Jewish rites. It is more likely, that ori- 

 ginal consanguinity carried Jewish fugitives among them, 

 whose books and wondrous history caused the whole clan 

 to adopt them as their own 



