will such terms find a place in vernacular speech and in familiar writing. Pure Hebrew is, however, still a sacred language to the Jews in general, though forgotten in some of the isolated colonies of China, India, and Africa.

The written characters used by the Jews are, in like manner, descended from their national script. The square Hebrew originated as a distinct character during the exile, though it has undergone much modification. The common script of the Spanish Jews differs greatly from that of the Ashkenazim, and a cursive character has grown up in Morocco; but scholars have been able to show that all the various types are derived from the alphabet which was used in Asia and in Italy about the second century of our era. The Jews have, however, also learned the various alphabets of the countries in which they dwell, and their caligraphy is devoted mainly to their sacred writings.

6

The ordinary occupations of the Jews are financial and mechanical, much as in the days of the Roman domination. The Mishna or Second Law' shows us that in the second century they were engaged in agriculture and in the rearing of cattle, and this is no doubt also the case still where they form a landed population; but medieval law deprived the Jews of the right to purchase. land, and forced them to turn their attention to other means of gaining a living. They then became traders and bankers, or worked as tailors, dyers, shoemakers, weavers, bakers, tanners, smiths, porters, barbers, and butchers. In the Middle Ages they were famous as dyers and glass-makers-trades which they still follow in Palestine-and also as physicians, on account of their supposed superiority in magical arts, astrology, and cabbalistic knowledge. Above all in finance and trade, the shrewdness and business capacity of the Jew has been remarkable, under the most discouraging restrictions.

The Jews are very abstemious in eating and drinking, and their ability to live on the most scanty subsistence is noticed by Orientals, even though these, as a rule, are also small eaters. Unlike the Moslem, the Jew drinks wine, and, if we may trust the Talmudic accounts, drunkenness was not unknown

among them. It is, however, unusual to see a Jew intoxicated, and their success has no doubt been due in great measure to the moderation of their habits. The less reputable among them are often keepers of taverns, on which the Moslem looks with disgust; and a Jew who has lost caste, or who has been expelled from the synagogue, often becomes more shamelessly degraded than the lowest class of other nations; but from such cases no impartial observer would draw a picture of the character of the nation as a whole.

The Jews retain their ancient lunar year and their ancient festivals: the Passover in April; the Feast of Weeks in June; the New Year in October, in which month falls also the Fast of Atonement, and the festival of Tabernacles. The feast of the Hanukah, commemorating the Dedication of the Temple, in December, dates only from the time of Judas Maccabæus; and Purim, in March, commemorates the deliverance of the nation by Esther. Of these anniversaries, the Passover and Tabernacles are most remarkable in the eyes of strangers.

The Passover ceremony is the same in character with the feast as held in the Roman period, except that the lamb is no longer eaten, but represented only by a leg bone placed on the plate. The bitter herbs' and the bitter sauce eaten with the unleavened bread are mentioned in the Mishna, together with the four cups of wine drunk at stated periods of the ceremony, which are not mentioned in the Law. The feast is a purely domestic ceremony, which each household celebrates at home. The special psalms are sung in a high screeching falsetto, which must be very trying to the voice, and to a Western ear quite devoid of any musical or harmonious effect. The curious swaying of the body while singing or praying has also a very remarkable appearance to those unaccustomed to see it. The Passover is eaten sitting, and at a certain point in the ritual the lounging attitude, which is purposely assumed, indicates the 'rest' of Israel in the inheritance.' The Samaritans alone now eat the Passover standing, with girded loins. A portion of the unleavened bread is laid aside for the invisible Elijah,' for whom also an empty chair is placed at wedding festivities,

and whose presence is ever supposed by the devout to watch over the daily life of the Hebrews.

The celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in crowded cities presents great difficulties, for during its continuance the Jews must remain in booths set up under the open sky. These booths must often be erected in small courts and alleys, and the proper materials are not always easily obtained. The lugubrious sound of the cowhorns blown at this feast may be heard in Jerusalem, but many of the ancient rites connected. with the festival are no longer possible to observe.

The celebration of the Sabbath is one of the main duties of every true Jew. The day is by no means a time of enforced solemnity, for the Talmudic rules lay down clearly the duty of rejoicing, and of wearing the best garments and the choicest ornaments in honour of the day: only work is forbidden, innocent recreation and rejoicing are not prohibited. The law of the Sabbath-day's journey' is strictly maintained, and in Jewish quarters, when no wall marks the boundary of the town, poles are sometimes erected, and a cord passed from one to the other, to define the limits, beyond which the measurement of a thousand cubits is to be made. The Rabbis doubted whether false teeth, false hair, and wooden legs might be worn on the Sabbath, since to put them on might be regarded as 'work,' but they decided that if put on before the Sabbath dawned, they might be worn as 'ornaments' in honour of the day. This decision, like others which appear almost childish to those who read the Mishna without a true knowledge of the underlying principles on which such discussions were based, finds its origin in the desire to place a hedge about the law,' which might render impossible even an apparent infringement of its least commands. Works on the eve of the Sabbath were forbidden, in order that a wide margin of time might be left, and were permitted only to those who, as barbers, washers, or the like, were engaged in beautifying Israel for the holy day.

The Talmud, and the decisious of the Rabbis on the meaning of its prescriptions, form the basis of all Jewish customs and motives of action. The power of the Rabbis, which is among

the lower classes supreme and despotic, is based on their knowledge of the Law and of the Talmud, and on the rights thereby obtained to judge the people, and to pronounce the dreaded sentence of cutting off,' which expels the offender from the only organisation in which he can trust to aid him in his dealings with the world. Jewish education, except in as far as it is professional or technical, is based on knowledge of Talmudic literature, and on familiarity with the orthodox explanation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Free thought and private judgment is permissible only in those matters concerning which there is no authoritative dictum, and the great power of Jewish organisation lies in the general obedience to the authority so maintained.

To understand the Jew aright it is, therefore, most important to understand the Talmud; and this is a task which presents the greatest difficulty to the non-Jew: for even in our present time no complete translation of this voluminous literature exists in any modern language, while the crabbed diction and strange vocabulary of the original renders an acquisition of its contents difficult for all, save the specially instructed. Hence the ordinary conceptions of those whose knowledge is confined to pretended abridgments and selections are, as a rule, confused and ignorant, and much that has been written breathes a spirit of prejudice and contempt, such as will not enable the student to discover the truth. Under the name Talmud many Rabbinical writings are commonly included which form no part of the actual work, and some of the Rabbinical treatises which date even as early as the second century, are, although older than the Talmudic commentaries, not really Talmudic. The Talmud consists of two parts, the Mishna or 'second law,' which is a digest of Jewish custom penned about 200 A.D., and the Gemara or commentary on the Mishna, which exists in two distinct forms, belonging to the two great schools of Palestine and of Babylon. In the most extreme form of Jewish belief the whole Talmud, as well as the whole of the Hebrew Scripture, is regarded as inspired, but, on the other hand, we have seen that the Karaites reject the Talmud entirely.

The Mishna, which is one of the most valuable and interest

ing of Jewish literary works, is a dry digest of decisions on all matters connected with the law. It is both a record of what had been customary, while yet Herod's Temple was standing, and also an authoritative statement of the duties of the Jew under the new conditions of his existence as a Roman subject, tolerated, indeed, in the land of his fathers, but no longer allowed the service of his temple. It includes regulations as to Agriculture, Feasts, Women, Civil Law, Sacrifices, and Purifications, with records of the decisions of famous Rabbis, and their remembrances as to the customs which prevailed before the Temple was destroyed. One of its most valuable tracts is that which gathers together the maxims and epigrams of the masters in Israel, presenting a noble picture of Jewish ethics. Among the most curious is that concerning ‘strange worship,' which regulates the behaviour of the Jew to the heathen-Greek and Roman-with whom he was brought into contact. The language of the Mishna is Hebrew, but not the pure tongue of earlier days, since already in its pages foreign words, mainly Greek, may be discovered. The dialect thus distinguishes the Mishna from all subsequent writings of the Rabbis in Aramaic dialects.

It is in the Gemara or commentary, however, that the Jewish imagination runs riot. In rambling and often obscure sequence, criticism, philosophy, legend, parable, eager enquiry into physical phenomena, prayers and exhortations, denunciations and anecdotes, follow each other in bewildering confusion. The later writers of the fourth and fifth centuries, seem to have striven to exhaust all their resources in commentary on the sober text of the Mishna. The twenty-four folios which result are a characteristic epitome of Jewish beliefs, customs, and traditions, a great mine in which the student may dig for a lifetime, finding always something new. It is not to be expected that all he finds is either valuable or noble, and there is much that might well have been buried in oblivion. Yet for those who would study a nation in every light, and who desire to know what is most strange and ignorant and displeasing among them, as well as what is noblest and best, no people have provided such material as have the Jews in the Talmud.