the Dutchmen, were caught in a trap themselves; for suddenly, as they were creeping up a water-course, the Dutchmen, with their long rifles, started up on every side, and opened a murderous fire most unceremoniously. Many of the red men fell dead, the remainder attemped to escape; some successfully, but some were taken prisoners.

Sam threw himself flat upon his face to sham dead, that people might not shoot at him. When the skirmish was over he got up, and, walking up to one of the Boers, he said, "That was a werry pretty mess that I got into, I should think;" and taking the Dutchman familiarly by the arm, he was beginning to tell his tale.

When the Dutchman felt Sam's arm on his, he started as if he had been bit by an adder, and drawing a pistol from his belt he deliberately took a shot at Sam's head. It was natural that he should not like being seen walking arm-in-arm with a man of Sam's present appearance, but Sam thought this rather a short way of showing his displeasure.

Luckily for Sam, he ducked his head quick enough to save his life with the loss of the tip of his left ear. Sam's dismay was increased by perceiving that the Boers gave no quarter, but were butchering the wounded and prisoners right and left.

The fact was, that about a fortnight before, a Boer of the name of Hans Schrecklebottom had been caught wandering by himself by the Kaffirs, who murdered him and cut his body into small pieces, for the purpose of intimidating the Dutchmen; who were now taking the first opportunity of returning their compliment.

Sam, however, standing quite still, and telling them a long story in English, which they did not understand, puzzled them a little; they could not make him out at all. However, after some confabulation together, they had his hands tied behind him, and drove him before them to their encampment. After which they held a counsel of war,

in which Sam's fate was discussed.

"It's a queer animal. Is it English it talks ?" said Peter Stump in High Dutch to his fellow counsellors.

"It has an English twang about it," answered Johan Knickerbocker, taking his pipe from his mouth. "Where's Skipper Snook? he can speak English a little."

Sam and Skipper Snook were sent for. In the course of examination, Sam informed Skipper Snook that he 'ad met with a wery great lot of haccidents since he 'ad been hin Hafrica, where he 'ad come a 'unting helephants and hostriges, for which purpose he 'ad left 'is 'ouse and 'ome in Lunnun.

Skipper Snook at once, without hesitation, pronounced his verdict that the prisoner was decidedly not an Englishman, though he had picked up some of the language which his organs were incapable of pronouncing properly. Sam had told him that he was a white man, only the Zooloos painted him. Peter Stump took a cloth and rubbed a bit of his shoulder, the grease and the brown earth came off easily enough, but the dye beneath still retained its nut-brown hue. Peter Stump shook his head, and there was a general shaking of heads through the assembly. What was to be done? nobody spoke, but all continued smoking their pipes. Some took short whiffs. -some took long whiffs, according to the thoughts that were passing through their

minds.

Knickerbocker at length observed that there would be no harm

VOL. XXVIII.

M M

in flogging Sam in the mean while. "Niell Tottledam," said he, blowing a long wreath of smoke out of the corner of his mouth. "Niell Tottledam is a neat hand with the cat, and will be pleased at an opportunity for display." The other senators nodded their heads, and Sam was tied to a waggon. They did not indeed strip him, for there was nothing to strip.

Niell Tottledam took off his coat and waistcoat, and rolled up his shirt-sleeves carefully. He then spit on his hands and took up the cat, and began leisurely, “Een-twee-drei!" Then slap went the cat, and Sam hollaed. Niell then began again, "Een-twee —drei !" Slap went the cat, and Sam hollaed again. Half a dozen lashes were given in this manner, when Niell stopped to rest a little, and then began again," Een-twee-drei!" apparently taking as much pleasure in the performance as Sam had pain.

Old Knickerbocker now came up, and putting on a large pair of spectacles, began to examine Sam's back. "He flogs white," observed the old gentleman. In fact the cat, along with the outer skin, had brought away some of the brown dye with it. This gave an appearance of veracity to part of Sam's story, and Knickerbocker told Niell to desist, which he appeared to do with great regret,

Sam, being now turned loose, began to think of washing himself white again, as well as he could. But he was speedily stopped by old Knickerbocker, who told him that, as long as his skin was brown, he might walk about wherever he liked, with no clothing beyond a few strips of skin round his waist; but that it would be the height of indecency for a white man to walk about in that airy dress. So they not only prevented Sam from washing, but they actually made him brown over again the stripes upon his back; and as no one would give him any clothes, Sam was obliged to continue in his Zooloo brown attire, till, after the lapse of some days, Knickerbocker's young wife remarked to her husband, what fine whiskers Sam had for a red man (the Kaffirs being beardless), and expressed some interest in his wellfare. Old Knickerbocker now came forward, and presented Sam with a suit of clothes, gave him leave to scrub himself, and took an early opportunity of sending Sam off to the British colony.

Captain Capper and the remainder of the expedition fared much better than Sims; and, although they did not make the tremendous fortunes that they expected, they had saved all their capital, and made some little addition to it.

The portion that came to Sam's share was sufficient to enable him to stock his old shop, and right savoury to him was the old-fashioned smell of red herrings and tallow, to which he had been so long a stranger; and he sat himself down in his old shop again, if not a much richer, a much more contented man.

THE LAND OF MY FATHERS.

A MORE taking title we have rarely met with than "A Hebrew's Pilgrimage to the Land of his Fathers: "* it is a title that so instantly engages the attention, and that so entirely enlists our sympathies and best feelings on behalf of the writer. The difficulty with us Christians is ever to get an insight into Jewish life-we can never gain access to a Jew's house, or to his heart; he wraps himself up in his own strong feelings and prejudices and will not allow us the least clue to his opinions on his present condition, or to his hopes of the future; we know nothing of his prospects, his purposes, or his polity.

During his pilgrimage, Mr. Margoliouth visited all these, to us, hidden communities; speaking their language, knowing intimately their law, well read in all their rabbinical books; a learned man in what they consider as the chief learning; one, in fact, of themselves, he found access where no one else could; and has given to us in his volumes a very large amount of most valuable information concerning the Jews in France, Africa, and Asia. To compress his facts and anecdotes within any reasonable limits is perfectly hopeless; nor could we do otherwise here than to sketch out, very briefly, some of his observations.

He first throws light on his subject in his remarks on the Jews in Paris, whom he estimates at 13,000, with two principal synagogues and about twenty conventicles. Religion, among all classes of them, we regret to find he considers at a very low ebb.

Of Christian Jews there are about 350, the great majority of them very wealthy, and of these he says they are the most consistent Christians, ruling their households in the fear of the Lord, and making the Bible their code of laws for their conduct through life.

An adventure he met with at Paris, enabled him to state some curious particulars of the Jews in Portugal and Holland, and to his narrative concerning these we may add, that the Dutch Jews number about 40,000, and that what are called the Portuguese Jews among them are probably, as a body, the most learned, the most consistent, and the most respectable Jews in the world.

În England, it seems, the Jews number about 26,000; but there are in England upwards of a hundred families, very wealthy and very learned, who are Hebrew by nation and Christians by creed.

In Mr. Murray's "Hand-book for France," it is said, "there are more Jews in Metz than in any other city of France, except Paris; and in Metz is the central rabbinical school, the most important establishment which the Jews possess in that country." The writer's letter to his father, whose ancestors a century and a half since filled the professional chairs in its colleges and seminaries, is of great interest; and especially that portion of it which speaks of the course of study pursued in that school, through the six years necessary to qualify the pupil for the title of rabbi.

The story in the eleventh letter of the Protestant Romish Priest, once a Jewish rabbi, an Obadiah in the household of Jezebel, is very curious. We have heard before of such things, but could scarcely credit them. The twelfth letter is pardonable for wandering from its proper subject, A Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers. By the Rev. Moses Margoliouth. 2 vols., with illustrations. Bentley, 1850. London.

since it introduces us to an object of the highest antiquarian interest; which is a large square stone, lately disinterred at Marseilles, and covered with inscriptions in the Phoenician character, relating to the law concerning offerings in the Temple of Baal. This, and the sketch and history of the Taurobole, also at Marseilles, give this chapter a peculiar historical value.

We are sorry to hear, of the 1200 Jews of Marseilles, that the generality of them are imbued with the principles of Voltaire and Volney, and that the rabbi himself is a rank rationalist. And certainly it tends to make good the words of the principal Jewish teacher in that city, that "the Jews of Marseilles seem to have but one object in view, namely, the worship of the golden calf, when we find that at the great fair held there, many of the stalls were kept by Jews: and what does the reader suppose these same Jews sold?-even crosses, crucifixes, and all sorts of Roman Catholic household gods.

Of the Jews at Leghorn, however, better things can be said. Here are three Hebrew printing establishments, an infant school for 180 Hebrew children, a school for 400 older poor children, with twenty-five masters and mistresses; the rich Jews sending their children to Christian schools, or keeping tutors at home. Here, also, a magnificent hospital is erected; but the great attraction is the synagogue, one of the finest, if not the finest, in Europe. This is rich in funds and in ornaments"sixty splendid Torahs, or parchment rolls of the Pentateuch, are enshrined in three magnificent arks, before each of which are curtains beautifully worked in gold; hundreds of chandeliers adorn the interior of this temple, and on an evening of the Jewish feasts, when thousands of candles are lighted, when the arks are opened and the torahs are exposed, when the choir is singing the Hallelujahs, then one is forcibly reminded of those times when the tribes went up to Jerusalem, to adore the Lord in the temple."

At Florence there are two synagogues, with two distinct and wealthy congregations; and at Pisa there is a synagogue and a rabbi, with about 250 Jews.

The Malta synagogue is a small affair; it is an upper room in the third story of a private house, and the writer's interview with the Jews there is one among many hundreds of curious and amusing traits of character that these volumes supply us with. The letters on Malta are of great interest, and are filled with remarks upon the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and congregations; upon the knights' magnificent church of San Giovanni, the new colossal round church at Musta, and the lately discovered Phoenician ruins on the sea shore.

The multiplicity and the novelty of the subjects treated of by the author while at Tunis, render his letters from that city of very peculiar interest; but as we must strictly limit ourselves to very brief observations upon the Jews alone, we can only refer the reader to the work itself-first, for the particulars of an extraordinary trial of a Maltese smuggler for the murder of Sir Thomas Reade's dragoman-then of a Jewish wedding-a Mahommedan wedding-a Jewish circumcisionand a Mahommedan funeral of the reigning Bey's mother, originally a Genoese Christian. There are also some curious details and biographies of the conversion of divers Roman Catholics to Islamism; of Jewish rabbis to Roman Catholic monks; and of thoroughly well educated Hebrews to the English Church.

The Tunisian Jews are divided into two large classes, the Tunisian and the Livornese-the latter the most enlightened. Of their synagogues the largest is small, and in a very poor state indeed; but the exclusive study by the rabbis of the Talmud would seem to narrow their intellects and their charity, since they are among the very fiercest of the persecutors of the Jews who become Christians. There is one trait in their character, however, says Mr. Margoliouth, which is very touching, namely, the undying love which animates them for their holy city, as well as for their hallowed land. No entertainment, no earthly enjoyment is allowed for one moment to cause Jerusalem to be forgotten; and they devise mementos of all sorts to keep that loved spot alive in their memories; and a description of one of these is given, with the very just remark, "what a lesson for a Christian !"

When the war steamer, the "Avenger," was wrecked off the Tunisian coast, Mr. Margoliouth left Tunis for Biserta to render aid, if aid they wanted, to the shipwrecked mariners, and this brings the Biserta Jews under our notice.

Constantinople finds employment and subsistence for, it is said by some, 80,000 Jews, whose chief rabbi has had the dignity conferred upon him of a bashaw of three tails. These Jews are great readers of rabbinical and cabalistic books, and would seem to be far less bigoted, and far more tolerant than their nation in general. "We went from synagogue to synagogue," says the author, " and from school to school, in all of which I had lengthy conversations. It is really surprising how accessible the Jews are to conversation. The moment they are convinced that one knows something of their history and character, and is therefore able to sympathise with them, that moment their hearts draw towards such an one, notwithstanding such an individual happens to be a Christian. I had, therefore, many opportunities of discussing the questions at issue between Jews and Christians, and that on the most amicable terms. Whilst speaking with the principals in the schools on the evidences of Christianity, the students listened with the most profound attention. In the Caraite synagogue I found several Bible Society's Hebrew Bibles, and the Jews there kindly allowed me to take a roll of the law from its sanctum, which I unfolded, and preached the gospel to those present."

In the Sultan's Medical Seminary the chief physician and lecturer is a Jew; and there were twenty-four very intelligent Jewish students in that establishment, who court the society of Christians, especially of Jewish Christians, more than that of any other people.

Of the multitude of Russian and Polish Jews that passed through Constantinople on their pilgrimage to the Holy Land, nothing can here be said further than that the author mingled much with them, and that from the conversations that ensued we have derived great amusement and no little information.

One of the most entertaining letters is that which speaks of the Jews of Smyrna, and of the author's interview with the two chief rabbis there. We can only allude to it, equally as to his letters from Rhodes, in which island are about 1,500 Jews, and from Cyprus, in which he passes an opinion not particularly favourable to Sir Moses Montefiore.

At length the pilgrim touches the land of his fathers, and there, from the wretched condition and the misery of his poor brethren of the House of Israel, the words of the prophet are at once, and powerfully,