ted his religion.

To most observers the Afghan has a most remarkably Jewish cast of
features, and often in looking round the visitors of our out-patient
department one sees some old greybeard of pure Afghan descent, and
involuntarily exclaims: "That man might for all the world be one of
the old Jewish patriarchs returned to us from Bible history!" All
Muhammadan nations must, from the origin of their religion, have
many customs and observances which appear Jewish because they were
adopted by Muhammad himself from the Jews around him; but there
are two, at least, met with among Afghans which are not found among
neighbouring Muhammadan peoples, and which strongly suggest a Jewish
origin. The first, which is very common, is that of sacrificing an
animal, usually a sheep or a goat, in case of illness, after which
the blood of the animal is sprinkled over the doorposts of the house
of the sick person, by means of which the angel of death is warded
off. The other, which is much less common, and appears to be dying out,
is that of taking a heifer and placing upon it the sins of the people,
whereby it becomes qurban, or sacrifice, and then it is driven out into
the wilderness. The Afghan, more than most Muhammadans, delights in
Biblical names, and David, Solomon, Abraham, Job, Jacob, and many other
patriarchs, are constant inmates of our hospital wards. New Testament
names, such as King Jesus (Mihtar Esa) and Simon are occasionally met
with. The ceremonies enacted at the Muhammadan "'Id-i-bakr," or Feast
of Sacrifice, have a most extraordinary similarity to the Jewish
Passover; but as these have a religious, and not a racial, origin
and signification, and can be read in any book on Muhammadanism,
it is unnecessary to describe them here. The strongest argument
against their Jewish origin is the almost entire disappearance of
any Hebrew words from their vocabulary; but this may be partly,
at least, explained by their admixture at first with Chaldaic, and
subsequently with Arab, races. The Wazirs have a tradition as to their
origin, which, although its Biblical resemblance may be accidental,
is yet certainly remarkable when found among so wild and barbarous
a race. The tradition is that a certain ancestor had two sons, Issa
and Missa (probably Jesus and Moses). The latter was a shepherd, and
one day while tending his flocks on the hills a lamb strayed away and
could not be found. Missa, leaving his other sheep, went in search of