1 DESCENT OF THE AFGHAUNS FROM 1 HE JEWS. 157
2 The third ia founded on the Jewish iiomc; .>}" the Atghauuv ; but thiyse they probably
3 bcve derived from the Antbc) like all oth«:r Mahututnedan natioiw. Their ouMt aactent
4 names have no mwinilihnfn to dxwe of the Jews.
5 The last argunKUt k feon^d <hi a supposed resemblance between the Pushtoo and
6 Chalduic languages ; of which the reader will hereafter be enabled to judge. Many points
7 ot reMUublance between the maiuiers of the A^hauns and those of the Jews ui^ht be
8 Adduced, bet ndi a ■tmOarilj is usual between nations in the same stage of society;
9 and if it were admitted as o proof of identity, the Tartars an<l the Arab«s the Germans
10 and the Rusaiansy migjbt be pcoved to be the sauie. It is also maintained hy more than
11 one European writer, that the A%hauns are a Cancasian tiibe^ and pwlienlariy that
12 they are descended from the Arnutiians. In the extent sometimes allowed to the name
13 of Caucasus, tlie Afghsiuns still inhabit that celebrated tnotmtatn ; but if it be meant that
14 they ever lived to the west of the Caspian the assertion a}>pettri» lu be ujii>uppoil«d
15 kfrproof. Their Amenhn doNCftt M vilei^ uiioioim to thtmidvV) th^
16 in the ircu tti^ of the Arnicnians; and the story told by tlie latter people, of the A^haoM
17 having bec«>me Muwiilmans to avoid the long iksts prescribed by their uwn churdv
18 k too hmuiirfeltiit with history to .dcaerre » monMOi^e ooosideiiMioD. I may add, that
19 I have compared a short Amflliin vocabulary with the Pushtoo, and cotdd perodwno
20 resemblance between the huigusges; and that I once read a good deal of a Pushtoo Tt)ca*
21 bulary tp a well informed Armenian, who, though he strenuously asserted the descent
22 of the A^omw flroai his couuLryuwn, yet owned that he oonid not diooower a wad
23 common to their language and his own. I have not had the some advantage with the
24 languages of other Caucasian tribe», but I compared about two hundred and fifty Geor>
25 fftn words with the corresponding ones in Pushtoo, and nothing coidd be more di^itent;
26 and I know no ground far oonnecdng the A%faaun« with the western Cauca-^iis, cxcsft
27 tfke assertion oi' li C' rtmtri traveller, who-^r ti mie I facgC^ thatho mor A%haiUia tlMK
28 Aoting the last century, which proves too much.
29 Digitized by Google