the Asiatic Society, vol. iv. p. 246), reject it; and from Lieutenant Leech's valuable vocabulary of the languages west of the Indus (Proceedings of the Bombay Geographical Society for 1838), we learn that the Afghans were "originally a Turkish or Moghal nation, but that at present they are a mixed race, consisting of the inhabitants of Ghaur, the Turkish tribe of Khilji, and the Perso-Indian tribes dwelling between the eastern branches of the Hindu Kush and the upper parts of the Indus." Respecting the tribe of Joseph, noticed among them, we are expressly informed that they have been settled only about 300 years on the upper parts of the Indus, having been originally emigrants from the country of the Beluches, about Kelati Nassir. If therefore this tribe or family of Joseph are descendants of the Israelitish tribe, all those cognate people above-mentioned must be entitled to the same distinction also , though their traditions, appellations, manners, and institutions afford decided proofs to the contrary. In respect of language, we find that this Afghan tribe of Joseph shows no affinity to the Hebrew; but, as might be expected from their historical origin, it is "a dialect of Hindee, containing Sanscrit and Persian words." Under these circumstances we may unhesitatingly pronounce the hypothesis of the Afghans being descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, to be little more feasible than that propounded of the Americans.
Other writers, Buchanan, Wolff, Samuel, the American missionary Grant, and others, have offered other suppositions as to the localities in which the lost tribes may be traced. But if the arguments herein suggested of their real history be well-founded, it will be quite unnecessary to enter into any lengthened discussion as to their respective theories, inasmuch as before they are entered upon, the basis of the inquiry should be first determined, whether these tribes can be said to have ever been lost at all! The tradition that they had gone bodily into some distant and unknown region, has been so generally and so unhesitatingly admitted by grave historians, philosophers and divines, as well as by speculative theorists, that it seems scarcely necessary to quote evidences of such hallucinations, though the facts must in fairness be stated which are intended to be questioned.
Turner, in his 'Sacred History of the World,' says, "From this time we hear no more of the ten tribes, nor is it known whether any of their descendants are in the world at present, though it is thought by many that there is a remnant in some region yet unvisited." (Vol. iii. p. 430.)
Milman, in his 'History of the' Jews,' writes, "From this
