scenity which is implied in scripture in the history of the dispersion. Moses wrote to a people who were well acquainted with the rites and ceremonies of the temple-worship of the heathens; and they as much understood that these enormities, to which we are alluding, formed a part of the religion of Paganism, as we should infer that the liturgy was read to the people, when we were informed of the erection of a cathedral.

AFRICAN FRAGMENTS.

BY JAMES GREY JACKSON.

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No. II. [Continued from No. XLVI. p. 286.]

"The inattention of men in general to the fulfilment of the divine predictions, does not proceed so commonly from principles of infidelity, as from ignorance of facts;-pure ignorance of historical facts."-Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia, 11th Ed. p. 196.

THE following prophecy concerning the Jews is remarkably verified in the several regencies of Barbary, and particularly in the empire of Marocco.

"Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee; among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest." Deut. xxviii. 37, 65.

The Jews were to become an astonishment and a proverb, and a reproach among all the nations, because they shed the blood of the Saviour of the world, and called down the vengeance of heaven upon their heads by exclaiming, "His blood be upon us and upon our children." Now, it is not surprising, as Dr. Buchanan observes, that Christians should reproach them for such a crime, but we behold the Muhamedan at this day (who does not believe in our Saviour, as the Saviour, but as a prophet only) punishing the Jew without any other cause or motive, than, because he is a Jew!

In the cities, towns, and provinces of the empire of Marocco, the life of the Jew can be compared to nothing so aptly as to Egyptian bondage. The greatest, the richest Jew in the country, is liable to be, and often is, insulted and buffetted by the meanest Muselman with impunity; they are obliged to carry a distinguish

! Vide his Christian Researches, p. 214. 11th Ed,

ing mark of their own degradation, by walking barefooted even in wet and cold weather, whenever they pass any mosque, sanctuary, cemetery, or even the house or residence of the Alkaid or Governor. Nay, in the city of (Fas el Bâly) Old Fas, even this toleration of wearing their sandals occasionally, is not permitted, but they are, high and low, rich and poor, obliged immediately on passing the threshold of their own door, to walk through the unpaved streets of Old Fas, which, in the rainy season, are notorious, and even proverbial, for dirt and mud, naked and barefooted! so that without any metaphor, but literally, the sole of their feet hath no rest. I have frequently been quite astonished to witness the indignities and stripes which these debased people suffer from their unrelenting task-masters; and when I have inquired for the motive for this cruel treatment, the answer is uniformly, Wash mâ houâ lehudy, ash brighty muzzel. Is he not a Jew? what would you more? or what further reason would you have? Thus is this extraordinary prophecy literally accomplished, and accomplishing daily, in Africa!

Daniel foretels that the Christian church shall be oppressed by the persecuting powers, until a time, times, and the dividing of a time. Dan. vii. 25.

The same period he assigns for the accomplishment of the indignation against the holy people Israel.

"One said, how long shall it be to these wonders ? and I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half, and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be fulfilled." Dan. xii. 7. Now the same form of words is used by St. John in the Revelations, to express the duration of the Papal and Muhamedan powers; oppressed by them, the church of Christ was to remain desolate in the wilderness "for a time, times, and half a time." Rev. xii. 14.

Every one who is erudite in sacred prophecy will understand that the great period of Daniel and St. John commences at the same æra, viz. the rise of the persecuting powers, and that its duration is 1260 years. See this prophecy also in Rev. xi.

2.

"The holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months," which, at a day for a year, calculating 30 days to a month, is 1260 days, which means 1260 years: this marks the period of the Muhamedan power. See a full discussion of this subject in Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia, 11th Ed. p. 216. 194, 195. &c.

Here then, as the learned doctor observes, are three great events hastening to their period.

1st. The extinction of the Papal dominion.

2d. The subversion of the Muhamedan power.

3d. The accomplishment of the Divine indignation against the Jews.

It is a great mistake to suppose that the Muhamedans are not acquainted with this prophecy; it is perhaps more generally known and anticipated among them than it is in Christian countries. They believe that their country will be invaded and conquered by the Christians, and that that event is not far distant: they add also, that the attack will be simultaneous in many places, and that it will be made on a Friday (the Muselman Sabbath), and during the Dohor service of prayer; that is to say, between half-past one and two o'clock P. M. They are so generally impressed with the truth of this prophecy, that at that time and on that day the gates of all the towns on the coast are shut and bolted, for fear of an attack when unarmed and occupied at their devotions. I have often inquired the origin of this prophecy, which has never been doubted by any one of them; but I never could obtain any satisfactory answer, further than that it has been transmitted by their forefathers from time immemorial! Perhaps their forefathers, being themselves convinced of the truth of this prophecy of Daniel, were unwilling to give it in that prophet's name, he having been a prophet of the Jews, a people execrated by the Muhamedans as a debased race,

When our late ambassador, His Excellency I. M. Matra, performed his last embassy to the court of Marocco at the city of Fas, a strong apprehension prevailed throughout that country that this prophecy was about to be accomplished, and that the French were contemplating an invasion of their country under Bonaparte, with a powerful army. Whatever might have been their conduct, if such an invasion had been actually attempted, I presume not to say; but they certainly were not alarmed at the apprehension, but each man boasted how many Frenchmen he would kill, and what a fine supper they would make of the French army. At this period I was travelling through the country. I was known to be a friend of the ambassador, and was considered as one of his Kaffila (Caravan). Being in the neighbourhood of the renowned sanctuary of Muley Driss Zerone, on the western declivity of the northern Atlas mountains, I order. ed my attendants to proceed and pitch the tents at this sanctuary, where the Muhamedan religion was first planted in West Barbary VOL. XXIV. CI. JI. NO. XLVIII.

R

by an ancestor of the celebrated Shereef Driss, Edriss or Idrissi, the Mograrbeen geographer, but generally called the Nubian geographer. Here I was received in the true spirit of Arabian hospitality, and with a distinction that effaced all that animosity which is such a bar to familiar intercourse between the Muselman and the Christian. This favorable reception by the conclave of Marabts, some of whom were members of the Diwan, enabled me to ascertain their feelings and sentiments respecting the threatened invasion; and I was informed that one of the Marabts, a confidential servant of the emperor, had been dispatched a few days before to Tafilelt, where the treasure is kept, to receive and apply a large sum of money, which had been there accumulating for ages, as a fund to be appropriated exclusively to the repelling of an invasion of the country by the Christians: this money was to be distributed to the troops to encourage their ardor, and to excite their expectation of ca further reward, for vanquishing the Christians composing the army of the expected invasion!

1

Sentiments similar to these were entertained by the Arabs of the mountains, and by the people of Algiers, during the celebrated attack by Lord Exmouth against the city of Algiers; and there can be no doubt that the Turks, conjointly with the three regencies of Barbary and that of Egypt, will now again enter tain similar sentiments, during the contest between the Ottomans and the Greeks.

The present year 1821 answers to the 1236th of the Hejra, so that the 1260 years mentioned by the prophet Daniel and by St. John, will be completed in 22 years, unless these years, being lunar, require to be converted into solar years: in that case the extinction of the Muhamedan power, and the conversion of the Jews, may be expected to take place 36 or 37 years later, or about 58 years from the present time,

Many customs and expressions of the Arabs of the present day serve to illustrate passages of Holy Writ. The Arabic language is cognate with the Hebrew: it has the same idioms and the same expressions, particularly where it is necessary to refer to any thing belonging to the Jews. Some Christians in the East, particularly the Syrian Christians, believe that the gospels were all originally written in Syriac; and this opinion they support on the fact, that the Syriac was the language of the Holy Land at the time of our Saviour; and because our Saviour spoke in this language from the Cross, (see St. Matthew, xxvi. 46.) they admit that the gospels were afterwards translated into Greek. The Syriac language resembles the

Arabic even more than the Hebrew; and Sir William Drummond, in his dissertation on the Punic inscription, thinks the Homerite Arabic, the Phenician, and the Punic, are one and the same language: this will account for the frequent Arabic quotations introduced in the illustration of these customs and expressions. With respect to the originality or antiquity of the Arabic language, they dispute this point with the Egyptians and the Hebrews, and adduce the following circumstance, which they have on record, as a proof of their presumptuous assertion, that the Arabic was the language of Paradise, and that only that will be spoken on the day of judgment. About 12 centuries before (Enneby) Muhamed they relate, that high disputes arose in Egypt concerning the antiquity of nations and languages; and Psammetichus, king of Egypt, imagining that the Egyptians were the most antient nation upon earth, attempted to prove it by the following device.

He commanded two infants to be brought up in [Elkef] a cave, which was to be kept continually closed: they were con mitted to the care of two nurses, whose tongues were first cut out, who were to feed them with goats' milk: they were commanded not to suffer any person to approach the cave, but themselves, and the mutes who accompanied them to the entrance gate. At the expiration of two years from their birth, when the nurses were coming out of the cave, these children cried out to their foster mothers, Khubbos, Khubbos. Surprised to hear this language, they immediately represented to the king that the children had spoken: the king, in order that he might himself be a witness to the words uttered, ordered the children to be brought before him, when they both again uttered the same words, Khubbos, Khubbos. It was ascertained that this word was used by the Arabs for bread. From this time the Arabs were allowed, notwithstanding the jealousy of the Egyptians, to be the most antient nation, and the Egyptians resigned, though reluctantly, the palm of antiquity to the Arabs.'

The Arabs are at this day what they were thirty centuries ago: they have the same customs and language which they had in the days of Abraham: they, like the Jews, have never, during all the various revolutions of empires in the East or in Africa, relinquished any of their customs: nay, even when they have

This appears to be the same story that is related by Herodotus, who probably heard it in Egypt. Herod. ii. 2, 3.