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Rachael stole from her father Laban, were nothing 
more than Teraphim, which were kept for the purpose 
of invoking the guardian spirits, who were supposed 
to go in the night with messages or petitions to the 
Divine Being, and bring back answers. This is the 
use ascribed to them by the Jewish cabalists; and 
it exactly corresponds with that assigned by the 
Madegasses to the Oli. The Jews were strictly 
forbidden to follow the examples of the nations around 
them (and indeed their own ancestors) in this 
superstitious practice, which they could not be de¬ 
terred from, though frequently reproved by their 
prophets on account of it. The reader’s mind will 
doubtless recur to the instance of Micah, (see the 
18th and 19th chapters of Judges,) who had in his 
house two images, an Epod and a Teraphim, which 
shews that they did not confine themselves to the use 
of the two latter, but connected other idolatrous rites, 
borrowed from the heathen around them. 
The chief difficulty, which presents itself in the way 
of this opinion, is, the question how the descendants 
of Ham, or of Abraham, could get to Madagascar at 
that early period, when the art of ship-building could 
be but very imperfectly known. But this difficulty 
will vanish, when it is considered that the ark was in 
existence in Ham’s time, and for many ages after, 
and consequently his children had a model to work by. 
It is certain, that the children of Japheth peopled the 
islands in the Mediterranean, as early as Abraham’s 
time; and the children of Ham also were dispersed 
