attention to the distinct adoption of the Chinese
"Hall of Ancestors" among these Jews, and
of a place for showing hospitality to strangers
as an appendage to their place of worship. It is
in this way that, without violating their own
opinions, they became assimilated more
completely to their neighbours. Father Gozani
also notes that their accounts of sacred history
were grossly disfigured with Talmudical
legends, or other stories of that class—a fact
not to be lost sight of by the speculator. The
Jews, in the time of Father Gozani, composed
seven families—Phao, Kin, Che, Kao, The-Man,
Li, Ngai—including in all about one
thousand souls. They intermarried with each
other, and had their own fashion of
haircutting. These seven families of Kai-foung-fou
were the remains of seventy who had of old
established themselves in that capital. Now
for the inundation. That event took place
in the year 1642, and it occurred as follows:—
Li-cong-tse, a rebel, with a big army, besieged
the city. The inhabitants, after defending
themselves for six months, still refused to
succumb, because they expected rescue from
the Emperor. The Emperor did come, a
vastly clever fellow, who determined to
destroy the enemy by a great master-stroke.
"I'll drown every man-jack!" he said, and
broke the dikes that confined the Hoang-ho,
or Yellow River, a league distant from the
city. Out poured the stream and drowned
the besiegers, and besieged the city in its turn,
knocked down its walls, and destroyed thirty
thousand of its inmates. The Emperor, a
cockney sportsman on the largest scale, shot
at the pigeon and killed the crow. It was in
this inundation that the number of the Jews
was thinned; diluted by the waters of the
river, their Pentateuch was damaged and
some other portions of their scripture
altogether lost.

Before passing down from Father Gozani,
we must extract his rough picture of the
Jewish synagogue, as it existed in his day.
He says of the Jews—

"They have no other synagogue but this, in
the capital of the province of Ho-Nan. I
perceived in it no altar, nor any other furniture,
but the chair of Moses, with a censer,
a long table, and large chandeliers, in which
were placed candles made of tallow. This
synagogue has some resemblance to our European
churches; it is divided into three aisles;
that in the middle is occupied by the table of
incense, the chair of Moses, the painting, and
the tabernacles already mentioned, in which
are preserved the thirteen copies of the
Pentateuch. These tabernacles are constructed
in the form of an arch, and the middle aisle is
like the choir of the synagogue; the two
others are set apart as places of prayer, and
for the adoration of the Supreme Being.
Within the building there is a passage which
runs quite round.

"As there formerly were, and still are,
among them Bachelors and Kien-sens, which
is a degree different from that of a Bachelor,
I took the liberty of asking them if they
rendered homage to Confucius; they replied,
that they honoured him in the same manner
as the rest of the literati, and that they
assisted them in solemn ceremonies, which
are performed in halls dedicated to their
great men. They added, that in spring
and autumn they practised certain rites in
honour of their ancestors, according to the
manner of Chinese, in the hall next to
their synagogue; that they did not present
them the flesh of hogs, but of other animals;
that in other ceremonies they were contented
with offering them porcelain dishes filled with
dainties and sweetmeats, which they accompanied
with perfumes and profound reverences
or prostrations. I asked them, likewise, if in
their houses or Hall of Ancestors, they had
tablets in honour of their departed relations:
they replied, that they used neither tablets,
images, nor anything else, but only a few
censers. We must, however, except their
mandarins, for whom alone they place in the
Hall of Ancestors a tablet inscribed with
their name and rank,"

Father Gozani adds, that "these Jews, in
their inscriptions, call their law the Law of
Israel, Yselals-Kiao, which they name also
Kon-Kiao, Ancient Law; Tien-Kiao, Law
of God, and Tien-Kin-Kiao, to signify that
they abstain from blood, and cut the nerves
and veins of the animals they kill, in order
that the blood may flow more easily from
them."

This custom gives to the Jews in China, at
the present day, the name of Cut-Nerves.
To the present day our story now descends;
for, after the time of Father Gozani, blank
follows in the way of action. Father Etienne,
who meditated a work upon the Sacred Scriptures
in reply to the Critici Sacri, was eager
to push on investigations. From the letter of
Father Gozani, and from those which Father
Domingo and Gambil wrote upon it, material
was obtained for the memoir published under
the direction of M. L. Aimé Martin, in which
he remarks that the detail would be regarded
with the more curiosity, as it had been
often demanded, and as Father du Halde
had contented himself with merely promising
it in his great work, "Description de
la Chine." So we have fairly got out of the
past into the present, where our story thus
runs on.

In the year 1815, the Chinese Jews endeavoured unsuccessfully to communicate with
Europe by means of a Hebrew letter addressed
to London, which seems not to have been delivered.
Last year the Jewish Society of
London determined, however, to communicate
with them. Miss Cooks, an energetic and
devoted Jewess, placed her purse in the
hands of the Society; nothing impeded fresh
research; the English Bishop at Hong Kong
co-operated, Dr. Medhurst was consulted,
and two Chinese Christians were at length