thing at once revolting and affecting in their humiliation and despair. December 13.-I went to see the street which the Jews of Shiraz inhabit, and I think that I could not give you a better and a more exact description of the state of the Jews at Shiraz, than by telling you the description which Sheik Ahmed Abu Khamees, a Persian Mussulman, from Shiraz, gave to me, when I met him on the banks of the Haffar, the country of the Chaab Sheik, when I was there with Captain Taylor, the British resident at Bussorah. 'Sheikh Ahmed called one evening on Captain Taylor, and drank tea with us; I asked him about the state of the Jews at Shiraz? he said :"1. Every house at Shiraz, with a low narrow entrance, is a Jew's. 2. Every man, with a dirty woollen, or dirty camel-hair turban, is a Jew. "3. Every coat much torn, and mended about the back, with worn sleeves, is a Jew's. "4. Every one picking up old broken glass, is a Jew. "5. Every one searching dirty robes, and asking for old shoes and sandels, is a Jew. "6. That house into which no quadruped but a goat will enter, is a Jew's." In giving you this description, given to me by that Muhammedan, I wish you to know that I do not joke about the misery of my brethren-but really this is exactly the condition of the Jews at Shiraz! On my enter ing the Jewish quarter at Shiraz, I saw old and young men, and old and young women, sitting in the street, and begging; their heads were bowed to the ground, and fainting, and stretching out their hands, they cried after me, with a fainting voice:-" Only one pool (penny), only one poolI am a poor Israale I am a poor Israale!" "I distributed some trifle among them, and several of the Jews said to me :-" Are you arrived; we have heard that you are a son of Israel, and have brought with you the Gospel in Hebrew-give us the Gospel!" I told them that I intended to visit them in their houses. And whilst I was speaking with them, I heard the poor Jews and Jewesses crying "I am an Israale-I am a poor Israale-one pool (penny), only one pool-I am a poor Israale!" And others sat in the street, and ate onions, and begged bread, and exclaimed, "Only one pool-I am a poor Israale!" 'I went home, and said to myself, What have I seen! and, with tears, I repeated the words of my brethren: "Only one pool-I am a poor Israale !" At Bussorah and Bagdad, where the Jews are not so much oppressed, they are fine and tall men, and their daughters are handsome and beautiful; but here at Shiraz they are pale, yellow, and of little stature. They are indeed poor, poor Israale, and from their daughters all beauty is gone; they are a poor Israale. I wonder not that the harp is silent and mute among them; and their only song is now, "Only one pool-I am a poor Israale!" Their daughters hang down their heads and cry, Only one pool-I am a poor Israale!" The swooning mother hath her swooning babe in her hand and cries, Only one pool-I am a poor Israale!"'-vol. iii, pp. 36, 37, The high-priest of this place, poor as he may be supposed to be, is sometimes compelled to pay a sum of money to the Shah-Zadeh or prince. They have a proverb in Scotland, which says, that it is "ill (difficult) to tak the breeks aff a hielan'man,"-(who wears none) but in Persia there is practised a magical operation, which extorts rupees even from the poor Israale of Shiraz. When the high-priest is invited to pay from fifteen or twenty thousand rupees into the treasury of the prince, he is soundly bastinadoed. This, of course, could not be attended with any immediate effect; for no one man in Shiraz possesses so large a sum of money but the Shah-Zadeh, foreseeing the difficulty to which the holy man would be reduced, benevolently grants him permission to adopt the same course with his own flock; the bastinado goes round through the whole Jewish population, and the rupees, somehow or other, come forth. In Georgia, the state of the Jews is deplorable. The following are the melancholy statistics given by Mr. Wolff. They live in the following towns of Georgia: 1. Karel, where they are the property, with their body, wife, children, and every thing they have in their house, of their Russian Prince Zizianoff, for whom they must labour, and who may sell them as slaves, like the other Georgians. 2. At Beret, where they are likewise the slaves of the Georgian Prince, who resides there. 3. At Zinwal, where they are likewise slaves. 4. Sooram. There they are not slaves, but subjects of the Emperor, and protected by him.-They have there a high-priest called Daniel Ben David; his father David loved his nation, and tried to redeem his sons from the captivity, and especially one of his own daughters, who was taken by the Circassians: he traversed the land down to the river Don, but in vain. "The trembling father along the shore returned, Till, safe at a distance, to his God he prays, His daughter was restored. Old David said finally, If the slavery of my flock does not cease, I go to Petersburg, and fall down upon my knees before Alexander Pawlowitsh, Emperor of Russia. And thus he set out for his journey several years ago, but died on the road. 5. At Kiatayesh, where they are slaves of the Georgian Prince, who is residing there. 6. Meretea, where they are likewise slaves. •7. Khalzikh, where they are likewise slaves. 'I have received this account from a Georgian Jew himself, who called on me; and he told me that he would have told many things to me if he was not afraid of the government. They are dressed like Georgians, and speak the Georgian and Hebrew tongues. Their Rabbi, Daniel, is considered to be a very learned man. They do not intermarry with the Polish Jews, and if the case should happen that a Georgian should give his daughter in marriage to a Polish Jew, the daughter must be divorced again, for she is not allowed to leave Georgia. Although Rabbinites, the Talmud is still very little known among the Georgian Jews, but they seem to be more honest than the Polish Jews.'-pp. 197, 198. We should say that the King of Persia is by no means so intolerant as the subordinate princes. This worthy monarch requires nothing from his subjects but money; and if they only gratify this reasonable desire, Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and Guebre, are alike to him. 'The state of of the Jews at Teheran is not so bad as the state of the Jews in other parts of Persia. The reason is, that the King is here, and he is tolerant towards all sects. He only wants peace, and if they give him money, they may profess what religion they like. His Majesty counts his jewels, and lives in peace with every body. He is said to be very fond of money and jewels. This accounts in some degree for his leaving the Jews in peace at Teheran. He allows them to make money, and to give it to him and when they bring him a Peishkesh, i. e. a present, as they sometimes do, his majesty is exceedingly pleased. Send him even a pound sterling, and he will thank you for it.'-107. : The Jews of Teflis exhibit very prominently the leading feature in the moral character of that people; but we are pleased to find that they want at least one of the bad qualities of the human heart. They have all the vices of men and Jews in perfection, except hypocrisy. The first day of my arrival at Teflis I heard the sound of musical instruments in the quarter opposite the house in which I lived. And the following song was continually heard : "The voice of joy, the voice of mirth, The voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride!' “Two literal children of Zion were joined together by the bonds of marriage. It was a wedding day among the Jews at Teflis. I sent for some of them. Rabbi Pinehas Boblosky fram Krimenzug, and Moses Nathan Mitprinz came. “Jews. Why have you sent for us, can you give us something to gain? we are taylors, and seek our parnassa, (livelihoood)." "W. I shall give you something to gain." "Jews. We know you already—this is not what we want, what you will give us to gain we might have had already by the Missionaries at Odessa, and Astrachan; we are Jews, who care only for our daily bread." ""W. Do you not care for heaven, and for the riches of heaven?" "Jews. About this we have no time for conversing now, for we have to do in our shop-a gentleman is there, who wants a coat. Georgian Jews are here, who are quite of different customs and habits from us Polish Jews, they perhaps will talk with you about the subject you like." With such an ignominy was I received, or rather the word of God. They invited me to attend one of their wedding-days; for, they said, Here are many wedding-days, for Yermaloff the governor protects us, and we gain our livelihood with the labour of our hands. The Polish Jews here, I learn, are for certain reasons highly protected by government; they can be made use of for every thing. They do not want to go to Jerusalem- I asked them about it-they say, No, but we give money to those Jews who come from Jerusalem, in order that they may sit down quietly in the holy city and read, and dig, and dig in the Talmud.'-pp. 196, 197. The missionary adds, that the character of the Polish Jews at Teflis, is very bad-'They are made use of for every thing with money.' In other places, however, the virtue of sincerity, for which we have given them credit, is overcome by fear, as the following anecdote (scene Ooromea) will testify. Haji Mullah Youssuf Ali, one of the chief Mullahs of this place, and beside him several Chaldeans and Jews called on me. I had a long conversation about the divinity of Jesus Christ, with the above-mentioned Mullah. 'After the conversation was over, the Mullah asked one of the Jews, how many prophets they believed to have been in the world? The Jews, knowing that the Muhammedans believe that there have been one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets, said, that they believe that there have been one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets in the world. I said to the Jews, in the presence of the Muhammedan Mullah, You lie like your Talmud, if you say that you believe the existence of one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets: you know that Haji Mullah Youssuf Ali, here present, believes that there have been one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets, and on account of the fear of men, you set aside the fear of God; and you speak here against your own conviction, for you acknowledge only those as prophets, who are mentioned in the scripture, and no more. Haji Mullah Youssuf Ali said to me, I know the Jews; they are a hypocritical people; but as you are present, I shall just ask them another question, for the Jew present told me, that Muhammed our prophet was to be found in their scripture, and predicted as a prophet. He then asked them in my presence again, whether Muhammed was to be found in their scripture? He said with great hesitation (for he was now afraid of the Mussulman and of me) yes. I took the Hebrew Bible, and told him that he should show it to me; he brought forward Genesis xvii. 20.'—(and brought the numbers contained in the letters to the amount contained in the name Muhammed :)— 'I showed to the Mullah, (not to the Jew, for he himself did not believe his own interpretation) the absurdity of that interpretation. The Mullah observed, He (the Jew) himself does not believe it. I said then to the Jew, If you do not repent of your hypocrisy, God shall smite you. The Mullah said then to them, If you believe, as we do, the existence of one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets, and the Ibn Abd Allah (the comfort and peace of God upon him) has been predicted in your book, why do you not accept him, and why do you not turn Mussulmans? They became white like snow :--The Mullah could not have used a better argument against them !'—p. 163. Mr. Wolff obtained some information at second hand, with regard to the black Jews of Abyssinia; but the reader would perhaps be disposed to receive with caution the statements of his informant, when he hears one of them, which is, that the towns-people of Beniaklab have faces and tails like dogs. Credat Judæus! exclaims our missionary. It is not the least interesting part of the volume before us, which refers to Prince Alexander Hohenlohe, a personage who has made some noise in the world. As the account which the missionary gives of his highness, besides being curious in itself, is important as throwing light on the history of religious imposture, we are tempted to throw the substance of the story into our pages. In the year 1814, Mr. Wolff had the honour of becoming acquainted with this celebrated man. The prince spoke like a saint, and made of course, a corresponding impression. He dwelt with unction on the corruption and decay of the Austrian clergy-on his lectures to the potentates assembled at Vienna-and on his visits to the rich in the hospitals. He spoke also of his canonry of Olmitz; and, finally, invited Mr. Wolff to attend him every day at his lodging, to instruct him in the Hebrew tongue. One day when Mr. Wolff called on him as usual-Prince Alexander was drunk. And he was not only drunk, but anti-papal-and not only anti-papal, but blasphemous-not to talk of his exhibiting in conversation a degree of lasciviousness, which the missionary thinks it would be improper to describe to the public. After this strange scene, Mr. Wolff very properly conceived it to be his duty to go to father Hoffbauer, the gentleman in whose house he had met Prince Alexander, to warn him against such an acquaintance. The ecclesiastic, however, confessed candidly, that he had already discovered his highness to be an enormous liar. Dorothea Shlegel, the daughter of Moses Mendelsohn, threw still more light upon his character; Frederick Schlegel (himself a Catholic) asserted that he never had any confidence in Prince Hohenlohe; and the celebrated canon, Johannes John, said roundly, that his highness was a liar, inasmuch as he was not canon of Olmitz, having been rejected by the emperor when he was proposed for the office. The archbishop of Vienna, however, Count of Hohenwart, was still more decisive. He told Mr. Wolff that Prince Hohenlhoe was with him one day for an hour and a half, during which time every word he spoke was a lie. The archbishop added very sensibly, that he felt extreme astonishment that a man should not have been able to speak one word of truth in an hour and a half. Among the princely lies told on this occasion, was one, that his highness had voluntarily left the seminary of Zyonan on account of the heretical doctrines which were taught there-the story-teller little thinking that his auditor was aware of his having |