CHAPTERIV.THE JEWS IN BARBARY.The conversation reported two or three pages back respecting the origin of the Brebers, was among the most interesting incidents of my trip. What would it be to open a tomb, and find the sling of David or the arrow of Jonathan, the bones of Joshua, or the sword of Gideon? But what is it to find the very people, firing as they spoke of the Jebusite and the Hittite—not the traditions of the Holy Land, but of what were ancient days to Jeremiah and Ezekiel!The Jews that inhabit the sea-ports are the remnants of those expelled from Spain at successive periods during the last twelve hundred years, and they are but a step by which to approach the Jews of the mountains, who have undergone less change, but have become savage and illiterate. Amongst them lie concealed treasures of ancient lore, and by them are presented varieties of human existence worthy of inviting adventurous research.A lady at Tangier told me of a Jew who some years ago had come to inquire his way at the door, and who was quite unintelligible to either Jews or Arabs. He was from the mountains above Tâfilêlt, wore a different dress—which she could not describe, but said it was black—and had upon his feet sandals, tied in the antique fashion, the cords passing between the toes. I found in the journal of Mr. Davidson, sent here after his death, and who crossed the Atlas to the south of Morocco, and spent six months in Sus, some slight but interesting details.“I went in the evening to dine with the Jews, here called the sons of Yehúdi: they are a most extraordinary people. I never met with such hospitality, or such freedom of manner in any Jews. They had dancing and music, and the ladies mixed in society without the least restraint.”—(p.58.)“I received a visit from some Jews, who stated, that they have here the tombs of two rabbis who escaped from theseconddestruction of Jerusalem. Over the mountain opposite there is a valley equal to the plain of Morocco, where dwell, say the Jews, those who escaped from Nebuchadnezzar.”—(p.61.)“In both Riff and Sus the Jews go armed; they are, however, the property of the Moors, who arm, and send them out as a sort of substitute, and by whom they are supported, and allowed a greater liberty than at Tangiers. In the mountains in the neighbourhood of Tangiers, the Jews act as guards to conduct the Moors. They have a master, whose shoe they carry, which serves as a protection. They pay tribute, not in money, but in work, the Moors finding the former. The principal trade is in grain and oil. The masters are Brebers, all of whom ride mules. Every douar has its sheikh and caïd, who are Moors, and possess each a jurisdiction, but not the power of punishing in all cases. Their religious worship is the same as the other, but little cared about. In the whole valley there may be about five hundred. They have their sacred books, synagogue, and rabbis; and they make a pilgrimage to the tombs, distant two and three days’ journey. All the douars have large vineyards, and manufactories of haïks, carpets, &c., which are sent to Tangiers. They do not speak Arabic, but Breber or Shelluh.”“He (a rabbi) informed me, that in this place (Coubba) there are no less than 3000 or 4000 Jews living in perfect freedom, and following every variety of occupation; that they have mines and quarries, which they work; possess large gardens and extensive vineyards, and cultivate more corn than they can possibly consume. That they have a form of government, and have possessed this soil from the time of Solomon; in proof of which he stated, that they possess a record bearing the signet and sign of Joab, who came to collect tribute from them in the time of the son of David; that the tradition of their arrival here runs thus:—“‘Crossing the great sea to avoid the land of Egypt, they came to a head of land with a river; that here they landed, and following the course of this, leading westward, but going towards the south, they came to a spot where they found twelve wells and seventy palm-trees. This, at first, led them to suppose that they had by some means got to Elim; but finding the mountains on the west, they were satisfied that they had reached a new country. Finding a passage over the mountains, they crossed, and took up their dwelling in this valley, first in caves, which exist in great numbers, then in others which they excavated; and after this began to build towns. That, at a distant period, they were driven across the mountains by a people that would not acknowledge them, and that some remained at Diminet, Mesfywa, and other places on the western side of the range.’“Looking at the map, and following this man’s observations, it is perfectly easy to trace them. They must have reached the Gulf of Tremesen, and taking the river Muluwia, or Mahala, have reached Tâfilêlt, where, to this day, are twelve wells, planted round with seventy palm-trees, and which many of the Jews call Elim; and from this they must have taken the pass, to which I attempted to get.“I was most anxious to know the meaning of the names of some of the towns. He told me, that what the Moors call Mesfywa is Oom Siwá, the mother of Siwá, one of their families which crossed the mountains; that Ouríka of the Moors, distant thirty miles, was Rebka (Rebecca), founded by one of their daughters, and that most of these places had originally Hebrew names. At Ouríka he left me. I continued for eight days to visit the towns inhabited by the Jews, to the number of above one hundred, and I should say, that on this side there are more Jews dwelling with the Brebers in the mountains, than resident in Morocco. They have all the same account of Coubba, and have a great belief in the Cabalists, who, they say, still exist, and who receive direct communication from heaven.”—(p.193.)Here the Jews are an agricultural, industrious, and warlike race. Here is each township distinct, preserving its distinct traditions. Here are the settlements at successive periods. There are the emigrants after the second destruction, as distinguished from those of the first. Then there are those who came by sea, and those who came through Egypt, who “did not go to the Babylonish captivity.”When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, he was compelled by the Egyptians to retire, and the Jews looking to Egypt for support, and fearing the return of the Chaldeans, Jeremiah denounced the vengeance of Heaven against them, and prophesied that those who went to Egypt never should see their own land again.[253]Jeremiah himself was taken to Egypt. He again announced the destruction of that country by the Chaldeans, which he typified by burying the stones over which the throne of Nebuchadnezzar was to be raised. On the invasion of Egypt by the Chaldeans, the Jews would naturally have fled a second time. It was from the “north country” that fear was coming. They must have fled towards the west. The prophet had announced that they were not to see the land of their fathers again; and the Jewish peasants inhabiting Mount Atlas, at a distance of two thousand four hundred years, tell us, that they left Jerusalem before the Babylonish captivity. While this is a remarkable confirmation of the accuracy of the Jewish records, and of the fulfilment of a prophecy the accomplishment of which had not been recorded, it gives at the same time to the traditions of these people the weight and force of historical record.One of their traditions is, that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Spain, attacked the Tyrians at Cadiz, and carried with him in his armies many Jews to Spain, who were afterwards colonized in these countries. This account has hitherto been disregarded because there is no historical evidence for it. The tradition is, however, confirmed by the name of the ancient capital, Toledo—Toledoth, or the generations with Ascalon, so often repeated in the names of old Spanish cities, Jaffa, and the others enumerated by Mariana. The translator of A1 Makhari mentioned to me the discovery at Toledo of an old manuscript, in Jewish character, but not Hebrew, and which he supposed to be a sign of the Jews, who had settled in Spain previous to the Carthaginian conquest, having adopted the original language of Spain, as their successors have the Spanish. Mr. Davidson found great disinclination to speak on the dispersion of the tribes. I have also remarked it in a Jew from Fez; and it suggested to me a new explanation of the supposed loss of the ten tribes.The Barbary Jews all profess themselves to be of the tribe of Benjamin. When I asked the Jew, how a tribe almost extinguished, and the least of the tribes of Israel, should, to the exclusion of all the rest, have supplied the whole of the Jewish population now in the west, he answered by referring to the promise to the seed of Benjamin, and, as if inwardly recurring to the other promise to the tribe of Judah, he added, “But we are also of the tribe of Judah, and the two are mixed together.” It immediately occurred to me, that they made a point of asserting the tribe of Judah still to exist, as preserving the future application of the prophecy regarding the Messiah, and that they brought in the kingdom of Judah, and the two tribes of which it was composed, as the source from which they sprang, and that thence arose the habit of speaking of the ten tribes as being lost. There can be no doubt that the successive emigrations to Spain and to Barbary while the two kingdoms still remained distinct, were composed of all the tribes, but in the loss of their several inheritances and separate governments, they had become confounded in their new settlements.When this Jew was asserting his descent from Judah, it occurred to me to ask him to sayshibboleth. He was confounded, but attempted again and again, and could not accomplish it. He was very angry.The resemblance to ancient Canaan is thus described by the illiterate master of a vessel, shipwrecked upon the coast and carried into the interior:—“After leaving the Great Desert, and coming to the country of Sus, we entered on an extensive plain; and we were struck at the same moment with the sight of several villages, surrounded with high stone walls, with gates and towers; and I was told that each of these was an independent state, and under the command or government of its own chief, who generally gave himself the title of Prince. When I learnt the destruction of Widnoon, and the other devastations of the wandering Arabs, I could not help reflecting—and I made the remark to my companions—that the province of Sus was what Canaan must have been in the time of Joshua, in respect to its numerous walled towns, the fertility of its soil, and several other respects; and that the eruptions of the Arabs of the Desert resembled much the conduct of the ancient Israelites when they came out of the Desert into the cultivated country.”[253]“When ye shall enter into Egypt, ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, and ye shall see this place no more.” Jeremiahxlii.18.
The conversation reported two or three pages back respecting the origin of the Brebers, was among the most interesting incidents of my trip. What would it be to open a tomb, and find the sling of David or the arrow of Jonathan, the bones of Joshua, or the sword of Gideon? But what is it to find the very people, firing as they spoke of the Jebusite and the Hittite—not the traditions of the Holy Land, but of what were ancient days to Jeremiah and Ezekiel!
The Jews that inhabit the sea-ports are the remnants of those expelled from Spain at successive periods during the last twelve hundred years, and they are but a step by which to approach the Jews of the mountains, who have undergone less change, but have become savage and illiterate. Amongst them lie concealed treasures of ancient lore, and by them are presented varieties of human existence worthy of inviting adventurous research.
A lady at Tangier told me of a Jew who some years ago had come to inquire his way at the door, and who was quite unintelligible to either Jews or Arabs. He was from the mountains above Tâfilêlt, wore a different dress—which she could not describe, but said it was black—and had upon his feet sandals, tied in the antique fashion, the cords passing between the toes. I found in the journal of Mr. Davidson, sent here after his death, and who crossed the Atlas to the south of Morocco, and spent six months in Sus, some slight but interesting details.
“I went in the evening to dine with the Jews, here called the sons of Yehúdi: they are a most extraordinary people. I never met with such hospitality, or such freedom of manner in any Jews. They had dancing and music, and the ladies mixed in society without the least restraint.”—(p.58.)
“I received a visit from some Jews, who stated, that they have here the tombs of two rabbis who escaped from theseconddestruction of Jerusalem. Over the mountain opposite there is a valley equal to the plain of Morocco, where dwell, say the Jews, those who escaped from Nebuchadnezzar.”—(p.61.)
“In both Riff and Sus the Jews go armed; they are, however, the property of the Moors, who arm, and send them out as a sort of substitute, and by whom they are supported, and allowed a greater liberty than at Tangiers. In the mountains in the neighbourhood of Tangiers, the Jews act as guards to conduct the Moors. They have a master, whose shoe they carry, which serves as a protection. They pay tribute, not in money, but in work, the Moors finding the former. The principal trade is in grain and oil. The masters are Brebers, all of whom ride mules. Every douar has its sheikh and caïd, who are Moors, and possess each a jurisdiction, but not the power of punishing in all cases. Their religious worship is the same as the other, but little cared about. In the whole valley there may be about five hundred. They have their sacred books, synagogue, and rabbis; and they make a pilgrimage to the tombs, distant two and three days’ journey. All the douars have large vineyards, and manufactories of haïks, carpets, &c., which are sent to Tangiers. They do not speak Arabic, but Breber or Shelluh.”
“He (a rabbi) informed me, that in this place (Coubba) there are no less than 3000 or 4000 Jews living in perfect freedom, and following every variety of occupation; that they have mines and quarries, which they work; possess large gardens and extensive vineyards, and cultivate more corn than they can possibly consume. That they have a form of government, and have possessed this soil from the time of Solomon; in proof of which he stated, that they possess a record bearing the signet and sign of Joab, who came to collect tribute from them in the time of the son of David; that the tradition of their arrival here runs thus:—
“‘Crossing the great sea to avoid the land of Egypt, they came to a head of land with a river; that here they landed, and following the course of this, leading westward, but going towards the south, they came to a spot where they found twelve wells and seventy palm-trees. This, at first, led them to suppose that they had by some means got to Elim; but finding the mountains on the west, they were satisfied that they had reached a new country. Finding a passage over the mountains, they crossed, and took up their dwelling in this valley, first in caves, which exist in great numbers, then in others which they excavated; and after this began to build towns. That, at a distant period, they were driven across the mountains by a people that would not acknowledge them, and that some remained at Diminet, Mesfywa, and other places on the western side of the range.’
“Looking at the map, and following this man’s observations, it is perfectly easy to trace them. They must have reached the Gulf of Tremesen, and taking the river Muluwia, or Mahala, have reached Tâfilêlt, where, to this day, are twelve wells, planted round with seventy palm-trees, and which many of the Jews call Elim; and from this they must have taken the pass, to which I attempted to get.
“I was most anxious to know the meaning of the names of some of the towns. He told me, that what the Moors call Mesfywa is Oom Siwá, the mother of Siwá, one of their families which crossed the mountains; that Ouríka of the Moors, distant thirty miles, was Rebka (Rebecca), founded by one of their daughters, and that most of these places had originally Hebrew names. At Ouríka he left me. I continued for eight days to visit the towns inhabited by the Jews, to the number of above one hundred, and I should say, that on this side there are more Jews dwelling with the Brebers in the mountains, than resident in Morocco. They have all the same account of Coubba, and have a great belief in the Cabalists, who, they say, still exist, and who receive direct communication from heaven.”—(p.193.)
Here the Jews are an agricultural, industrious, and warlike race. Here is each township distinct, preserving its distinct traditions. Here are the settlements at successive periods. There are the emigrants after the second destruction, as distinguished from those of the first. Then there are those who came by sea, and those who came through Egypt, who “did not go to the Babylonish captivity.”
When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, he was compelled by the Egyptians to retire, and the Jews looking to Egypt for support, and fearing the return of the Chaldeans, Jeremiah denounced the vengeance of Heaven against them, and prophesied that those who went to Egypt never should see their own land again.[253]Jeremiah himself was taken to Egypt. He again announced the destruction of that country by the Chaldeans, which he typified by burying the stones over which the throne of Nebuchadnezzar was to be raised. On the invasion of Egypt by the Chaldeans, the Jews would naturally have fled a second time. It was from the “north country” that fear was coming. They must have fled towards the west. The prophet had announced that they were not to see the land of their fathers again; and the Jewish peasants inhabiting Mount Atlas, at a distance of two thousand four hundred years, tell us, that they left Jerusalem before the Babylonish captivity. While this is a remarkable confirmation of the accuracy of the Jewish records, and of the fulfilment of a prophecy the accomplishment of which had not been recorded, it gives at the same time to the traditions of these people the weight and force of historical record.
One of their traditions is, that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Spain, attacked the Tyrians at Cadiz, and carried with him in his armies many Jews to Spain, who were afterwards colonized in these countries. This account has hitherto been disregarded because there is no historical evidence for it. The tradition is, however, confirmed by the name of the ancient capital, Toledo—Toledoth, or the generations with Ascalon, so often repeated in the names of old Spanish cities, Jaffa, and the others enumerated by Mariana. The translator of A1 Makhari mentioned to me the discovery at Toledo of an old manuscript, in Jewish character, but not Hebrew, and which he supposed to be a sign of the Jews, who had settled in Spain previous to the Carthaginian conquest, having adopted the original language of Spain, as their successors have the Spanish. Mr. Davidson found great disinclination to speak on the dispersion of the tribes. I have also remarked it in a Jew from Fez; and it suggested to me a new explanation of the supposed loss of the ten tribes.
The Barbary Jews all profess themselves to be of the tribe of Benjamin. When I asked the Jew, how a tribe almost extinguished, and the least of the tribes of Israel, should, to the exclusion of all the rest, have supplied the whole of the Jewish population now in the west, he answered by referring to the promise to the seed of Benjamin, and, as if inwardly recurring to the other promise to the tribe of Judah, he added, “But we are also of the tribe of Judah, and the two are mixed together.” It immediately occurred to me, that they made a point of asserting the tribe of Judah still to exist, as preserving the future application of the prophecy regarding the Messiah, and that they brought in the kingdom of Judah, and the two tribes of which it was composed, as the source from which they sprang, and that thence arose the habit of speaking of the ten tribes as being lost. There can be no doubt that the successive emigrations to Spain and to Barbary while the two kingdoms still remained distinct, were composed of all the tribes, but in the loss of their several inheritances and separate governments, they had become confounded in their new settlements.
When this Jew was asserting his descent from Judah, it occurred to me to ask him to sayshibboleth. He was confounded, but attempted again and again, and could not accomplish it. He was very angry.
The resemblance to ancient Canaan is thus described by the illiterate master of a vessel, shipwrecked upon the coast and carried into the interior:—
“After leaving the Great Desert, and coming to the country of Sus, we entered on an extensive plain; and we were struck at the same moment with the sight of several villages, surrounded with high stone walls, with gates and towers; and I was told that each of these was an independent state, and under the command or government of its own chief, who generally gave himself the title of Prince. When I learnt the destruction of Widnoon, and the other devastations of the wandering Arabs, I could not help reflecting—and I made the remark to my companions—that the province of Sus was what Canaan must have been in the time of Joshua, in respect to its numerous walled towns, the fertility of its soil, and several other respects; and that the eruptions of the Arabs of the Desert resembled much the conduct of the ancient Israelites when they came out of the Desert into the cultivated country.”
[253]“When ye shall enter into Egypt, ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, and ye shall see this place no more.” Jeremiahxlii.18.