The portrait of D ost-M ohammed84
blends Semitic features with those
of the true Affghan ; and suffices to
illustrate the similitudes perceived
by tourists who, partial to a theory
#of the “ ten tribes’ ” journey into
Tartary, have been blinded to the
palpable diversities of osteological
structure, which even Arab blood
has not obliterated.
We have thus gone over the physical
history of the Jewish race; and,
although the argument is very far
from being exhausted, we think
enough has been said to satisfy any
unprejudiced mind that this species
has preserved its peculiar fype from
the time of Abraham to the present day, or through more than one
hundred generations; and has therefore transmitted directly to us
the features of Noah’s family, which preceded that of Abraham, according
to the so-termed Mosaic account, by only ten generations.
If, then, the Jewish race has preserved the type of its forefathers for
3500 years, in all climates of the earth, and under all forms of government—
through extremes of prosperity and adversity—if, too, we add to
all this the recently developed facts (which cannot be negatived), that
the Tartars, the Negroes, the Assyrians, the Hindoos, the Egyptians,
and others, existed, 2000 years before the Christian era, cts distinct cls
now; where, we may ask, is to be found the semblance of a scientific
argument to sustain the assumption of a common Jewish origin
for eveiy species of mankind ?
Accounts of the Gipsies offer such curious analogies with those
of the Israelites, that it may not be out of place to add a word respecting
them.
“ Both have had an Exodus; both are exiles, and dispersed among the gentiles, by whom
they are hated and despised, and whom they hate and despise, under the names of Busnees
and Goyim; both, though speaking the language of the gentiles, possess a peculiar tongue,
which the latter do not understand; and both possess a peculiar cast of countenance, by which
they may be without difficulty distinguished from all other nations; but with these points the
similarity terminates. The Israelites have a peculiar religion, to which they are fanatically
attached; the Romas (Gipsies) have none. The Israelites have an authentic history;
the Gipsies have no history— they do not even know the name.of their original country.”
This isolated race is involved in mystery, owing to absence of traditions
; though, from their physical fype, language, &c., it is conjectured
that the Gipsies came from some part of India, but at what time, and
why, cannot now be determined. It has been said that they fled
from the exterminating sword of the great Tartar conqueror, Timur
Leng (Tamerlane), who ravaged India in 1408-9 a . d . ; but there will
be found, in B orrow’s work, very good reason for believing that they
might have migrated, at a much earlier period, north, amongst the
Sclavonians, before they entered Germany and other countries where
we first trace them. However, we know with certainty that, in the
beginning of the fifteenth century (about the time of Timur’s conquest),
they appeared in Germany, and were soon scattered over
Europe, as far as Spain. They arrived in France on the 17th of
August, 1427 a . d . Their number now, in all, has been estimated at
about 700,000, and they are scattered over most-countries of the
habitable globe — Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and some
few in North America. 0 Their tents are pitched on the heaths of
Brazil and the ridges of the Himalaya hills; and their language is
heard in Moscow and Madrid, in London and Stamboul.” “ Their
power of resisting cold is truly wonderful, as it is not uncommon to
find them encamped in the midst of the snow, in slight canvass tents,
where the temperature is 25° to 30° below the freezing point according
to Reaumur; ” while, on the other hand, they withstand the sultry
climes of Africa and India.85
The Gipsies are the most prominent of numerous and diverse tribes
diffused in little groups over the four continents, to whom Prichard’s
term “ Allophylian races” would properly apply. A list might
be made of them; their occurrence in islands, remote valleys and
mountain-fastnesses, or even amid dense populations, being far more
frequent than is generally supposed. In the absence of all record beyond
that of modern days, (their existence known only by their discovery,)
we refrain from the labor of enumeration, with the sole remark, that
to us they all are mementos of the permanence of type, athwart vicissitudes
certainly endured, but unrecorded by themselves: each being
a relic of some primitive type of man, generally displaced from its
geographical centre of creation, that, having served in days of yore
the purposes of the Creator, is now abandoned (with so many others,
now lost like the Guanches) to its fate, scarcely affording history sufficient
for an epitaph.88
But it is time to illustrate the subject monumentally; and the words
of an illustrious countryman will usher in the facts with which none
are better conversant than himself. After alluding to changes
wrought by climate on domestic animals and plants, D r . P ic k e r in g
maintains: —
“ Not so however with the human family. Notwithstanding the mixtures of race during
two centuries* no one has remarked a tendency to a development of a new race in the