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reception a city without a Governor would give us the Governor having died this very morning. On coming within sight of the gate, we perceived a numerous company of females, who were singing in a kind of recitative, far from melancholy, and beating time with their hands. If this be mourning, I thought, it is of a strange kind. It had indeed, sometimes, more the air of angry defiance. But on our reaching the gate, it was suddenly exchanged for most hideous plaints and shrieks, which, with the feeling that we were entering a city at no time celebrated for its hospitality, struck a very dismal impression upon my mind. They accompanied us a few paces: but it soon appeared that the gate was their station; to which, having received nothing from us, they returned. We learnt, in the course of the evening, that these were only a small detachment of a very numerous body of cunning women, who were filling the whole city with their cries-taking up a wailing, with the design, as of old, to make the eyes of all the inhabitants run down with tears, and their eyelids gush out with waters (Jerem. ix. 17, 18). For this good service, they would, the next morning, wait upon the government and principal persons, to receive some trifling fee.

On entering the city, we reached, in a short space, the quarters of the Greek Priest; where we obtained a room, a very dirty one indeed, but the best that was to be had.

The Christians in this city are all of the Greek Communion. The Priest's name is Baba Ysa. They are, in number, between twenty and thirty families there are between seventy and eighty males who pay the capitation-tax. We found them

to be in mean circumstances, but very friendly, They purchased a few Arabic Testaments.

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SAMARITANS.

In the evening we visited the Samaritan Priest, Shalmor Ben Tobiah. He seemed surprised that we should know his name, and asked us how we had heard of him. When we informed him that we knew him through previous travellers, he shewed us the Letter of a French Gentleman, who had travelled three or four years ago this way, and had sent to make certain inquiries of him.

In a little time, we were joined by various others of his people, in number about twelve. I was struck to observe that the character of the Priest's physiognomy was far from Jewish: that of some of the party was Jewish. He informed us, that, among their people here, some were of the Tribe of Levi; namely, his own family, consisting of four boys and a girl: only this family, however, as he is the only man of that tribe. He said that there are four or five families of the Tribe of Manasseh, and that all the rest are of Ephraim; excepting one of the Tribe of Benjamin, who, while we were speaking, came in. In all, they are between twenty and thirty houses. About sixty males pay the capitationtax. We asked him, how they would supply the priesthood, in case his family should fail: several replied, together, "It never fails." The Priest, and his sons, alone, have the privilege of standing on the raised step before the Torah in their Synagogue.

They said there were in Nablous a few Jewish Houses, fewer than their own. To our inquiries, whether there were any other Samaritans in the

world, he replied there were-some in England; some in America, some in Benderbeshire* near India: there had been very many in France; but they were now reduced to three or four: and, finally, there were some at Sabbation. His replies were given in a manner, which implied a desire to represent the numbers of his people as considerable; rather than in a way, which at all convinced us of his knowing the condition, or even the existence, of his brethren in other countries, concerning whom he offered this information. He stated the fact of the Babylonish Captivity; and said that they were of the remnant which remained in the land, and of those who subsequently returned; but the narrative in 2 Kings xvii. 24 &c. they reject as a fabrication.

On producing the Hebrew New-Testament, we asked if it was lawful for them to read it: the Priest said that there was no restraint upon their reading any books whatever, and accepted the copy which we offered. We also gave him an Arabic NewTestament.

He said they were all in expectation of the Messiah-that the Messiah would be a man, not the Son of God-and that this was the place, which he would make the Metropolis of his kingdom: this was the place, of which the Lord had promised, He would place his name there. We asked what passages of the Pentateuch, according to their views, spoke of the Messiah. He quoted, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me &c. This

I suppose him to mean Bushire, in the Persian Gulf, west-southwest, about 100 miles, from Shirâz. Bender is a Persian word, signifying a Mart or Emporium.

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promise of the Messiah was not fulfilled in Joshua, for he was not a prophet.

We begged to see the celebrated Manuscript. He made many difficulties, though he readily allowed us to see the Synagogue. We pressed our wishes, however; when he said there were many things previously requisite: he must go first to the bath he must light up many candles, &c. We

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knew what this meant, and said that we would pay for all the candles†; on which he consented to shew us the Manuscript the next morning.

We then went down into the Synagogue with his Son and many of the company; but he did not accompany us. They made us take off more of our dress, than I had ever been despoiled of before-both my outer and inner shoes; and my " ferwi," a warm dress lined with fur. We saw several Samaritan Manuscripts on a shelf, wrapped up in cloth: they were written on skin. On our asking their price, a young man said that they were not to be sold; that to sell them was "Harâm" "prohibited;" and that every letter was worth a sequin. The Samaritan Character they call Ebrâni; and refuse the type which we call Hebrew, as an innovation.

Thursday, Nov. 20, 1823-Early this morning, according to appointment, we visited the Samaritan Priest. We waited for him some time; during which we placed in order our Bibles, and selected some texts on which we desired to converse with him. At length he made his appearance, and accompanied us into the Synagogue. With great reverence, he produced the venerable Manuscript, which he said

+ Candles, being very much used in Places of Worship in the East, are almost a standard of ecclesiastical fees.

was written by Abisha*, Grandson of Aaron thirteen years after the death of Moses, now three thousand, four hundred and sixty years agot. We were not permitted to touch the sacred book, but only to look at it, at about a foot distance: the page at which he opened shewed, certainly, a very ancient Manuscript, with the characters yet sufficiently distinct. He then shewed us another of a similar form-apparantly an exact copy-which he said was eight hundred years old. He also produced a few tattered leaves of Walton's Polyglott-part of Genesis. We asked if they did not consider the Books of Joshua and Judges as sacred, in the same manner as the Torah he replied, "By no means: these two Books we have, and we reverence them; but the Torah is our only Sacred Book. Joshua was not a Prophet, but the disciple of a Prophet, that is, of Moses."

We inquired in which direction they turn their faces, when they pray: he waved his hand in the direction a little right of the angle behind the altar, that is nearly southward. In this direction is the city of Luz, which afterwards was called Bethel; the place which the Lord appointed to set His Name there.

We went out, and he directed his hand toward the Hill Gerizim, to a point, a little beyond which is the spot whither they go "to bless." It It may be observed, that the Samaritans here, according to the account which the Priest gave of their Tribes,

*We understood him to say Grandson; but Abishua was Great Grandson. See 1 Chron. vi. 4.

+According to our computation, it should be 3261 years ago. Probably the mistake was ours in hearing him.

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