appointed to proceed to Kai-foung-fou. The
elder of these two was a . bachelor; the
younger was a student from the Missionaries'
College at Batavia; but the junior was
named to head the enterprise, because he had
previously displayed zeal and ability, and also
because he could write English fluently, and
would journalise in that language. His
journals, therefore, could be laid before Miss
Cooks, uninjured by translation.

Our heroes—for so we will call the two
adventurers—set out from Shanghae, on the
15th of last November, by boat to Toing-kiang-tou.
In a car, drawn by mules, they
were then jolted along, following the track
of the Hoang-ho, rising at three o'clock on
winter mornings, to save time—a proceeding
which involves almost supererogatory self-denial.
Population near the Yellow River
they found rare and unhealthy. Localities
which figure in the geographical charts of
the empire as principal places, or as towns
of the second class, are but huge piles of
rubbish, surrounded by crumbling walls.
Here and there a gate, with its inscription
half effaced, informs the traveller that he is
entering a mighty town.

Perseverance, and a mule car, brought the
travellers at last to Kai-foung-fou. They
found there many Mahometans, openly exercising
right of conscience, and flying their
religion on a flag displayed over their gate.
These Mahometans are, for the most part,
hotel-keepers, and with one of them our
heroes lodged. Of him they began asking about
Cut-Nerves. Mine host of the Crescent said
there were still some Jews in Kai-foung-fou,
and offered himself as cicerone to their synagogue.
Thither they went; they found its
outer wall in ruins; briars and dirt filled the
grand entrance; "the pillars of the building,
the inscribed marbles, the stone balustrade,
before the peristyle of the temple, the ornamental
sculpture—all were cracked, broken,
and overturned." Under the wings of the
synagogue, the chapels built in honour of the
patriarchs—nestled together, cold and naked,
sleeping on the bare stones, those objects
of our European interest, "the Jews in
China." Poor and miserable as they are,
they had begun to sell the stones of their
temple for bread, and a portion of land
within their sacred enclosure had been
already sold to an adjacent temple of the
Buddhists.

Still, there were the cylinders enclosing the
sacred rolls of the Old Testament, which,
luckily, had not proved eatable. In number
these rolls were about a dozen, each thirty
feet long by three feet wide. They are of
white sheep-skin, inscribed with very small
Hebrew characters.

For fifty years these poor Jews have been
without the guidance of a rabbi, and there is
not one left who can read a word of Hebrew.
In a dozen years, probably, the last trace of
the Jews in China will expire. The travellers
gave money to the mournful congregation in
the synagogue, and received leave to copy the
inscriptions, about which the Jesuits had
previously informed us. Moreover, they obtained,
and have brought home, eight Hebrew
manuscripts; six contain portions of the Old
Testament; namely, of Exodus, chapters 1—6,
and 38—40; of Leviticus, chapters 19. 20; of
Numbers, chapters 13. 14. 15; of Deuteronomy,
chapters 11—16, and chapter 32;
with portions of the Pentateuch, the Psalms,
and Prophets. The other two manuscripts
are of the Jewish Liturgy. The leaves of
these manuscripts "are of a species of
cardboard, on which the words, as it were, are
engraved with a point; the binding is in silk,
and bears evident marks of being of foreign
origin. Two Israelitish merchants, to whom
these books were shown at Shanghae, spoke
to having seen similar ones at Aden, and the
presence here and there upon the margins of
Persian words, interspersed with Hebrew
annotations, seemed to indicate that the books
came originally from some western country of
Asia, perhaps Persia, or some of the high
provinces of India, where Persic has from
time immemorial been the language used
among people of education. Although the
annotations mentioned are numerous, and
apparently referring to different epochs, no
trace of any Chinese character is to be
discovered, nor any of those marks or signs
which immediately betray Chinese origin.
No date exists by which the age can be
determined."

"We hope the statement is correct which
tells us that these manuscripts are to be
deposited in the British Museum. Fac-similes
are at the same time promised, printed in
Hebrew, accompanied with a plan of the
synagogue, made on the spot by the Chinese
travellers, and the journal of our junior hero,
written in English and Chinese. The journal
in English would not be a very ponderous
affair, the entire expedition having occupied
only two months; the residence at Kai-foung-fou,
five days. We may usefully remember
how the good Chinese, rising so fearfully
betimes, did justice to the generosity and zeal
of their patroness. Are there not men of
might at work upon investigations for the
public, who, at their ordinary rate, might
have come to abandon this business in forty
years, after eliminating fifty pounds of blue
book?

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