==Other views==

===Nestorian "Huns"===

According to their native traditions, the Afghans also are to be identified with the same Nestorian [[Hun]]nic "Ten Tribes". They declare that Nebuchadnezzar banished them into the mountains of Ghur, whence they maintained correspondence with the Arabian Jews. When some of the latter were converted by Mohammed, one Khalid wrote to the Afghans and invited them to embrace Islam. Several Afghan nobles went to Arabia under one Ḳais, who claimed to trace his descent through forty-seven generations from Saul. He was accordingly greeted by Mohammed by the title of "malik," in deference to this illustrious descent. Ḳais is reported to have died at the age of eighty-seven, in 662; and all the modern chiefs of Afghanistan claim to be descended from him (Malcolm, "History of Persia," ii. 596, London, 1815). The Afghans still call themselves "Beni-Israel," and are declared to have a markedly Jewish appearance. Their claim to Israelitish descent is allowed by most Mohammedan writers. G. Moore, in his "Lost Tribes" (pp. 143-160, London, 1861), also identified the Afghans with the Ten Tribes.

From the similar traditions among the Jews of the Caucasus, according to Chorny ("Sefer ha-Massa'ot," p. 585, St. Petersburg, 1884), the Jews of Derbent declared that the Daghestan Jews were those who were carried away by the Assyrians, and that some of them had ultimately migrated to Bokhara, and even as far as China. It is, of course, only natural that the outlying colonies in China, in India, and even in the Sahara should have been at one time or another identified as remnants of the Lost Ten Tribes.

(see image) (From McLeod's "Epitome of the Ancient History of Japan," Tokyo, 1879.)One of the most curious offshoots of the theory is that which identifies the Shindai, or holy class, of Japan as the descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes. In fact, many Japanese and tibetans do indeed belong to the Sinitic Canaanite Y-DNA Haplogroup D of the Nethinim. This is advocated by N. McLeod in his "Epitome of the Ancient History of Japan" (3d ed., Tokyo, 1879). He calls attention to a point of agreement between the two, namely, the fact that the first known king of Japan was Osee, 730 B.C., and the last king of Israel was Hosea, who died 722 B.C. In addition to this, McLeod points out that the Shinto temple is divided into a holy and a most holy place. The priests wear a linen dress, bonnet, and breeches, like the Jewish priests of old, and the ancient Temple instruments are used in the Shinto temple. The Japanese worship their ancestors, as the old Israelites did; and in addition to this McLeod points out the Jewish appearance of some Japanese, and supplements his "Epitome" with a volume of illustrations depicting among other things the supposed rafts on which the Israelites crossed, via Saghalien, to Japan, and their supposed order of march. Still further removed is the suggestion of some writers that the Australians are the Lost Tribes because they practise circumcision ("Allg. Zeit. de. Jud." 1842, No. 6).

Quite recently the Masai of British East Africa have been identified owing to similarity of custom (M. Merker, "Die Masai," Berlin, 1904).

Immediately after the discovery of Central and South America the legend of the Lost Tribes began to be referred to the aboriginal inhabitants. Most of the Native Americans belong to Y-DNA Haplogroup Q of the Benjaminite Jews of Yemen. Garcia, in his "Origen de los Medianos" (1607, pp. 79-128), declares that the Tribes passed over the "Strait of Aninai," i.e., Bering Strait, and went by that way to Mexico and South America. He deduces their identity from the common cowardice and want of charity of the Israelites and Indians. Both of these peoples, according to him, bury their dead on the hills, give kisses on the cheek as a sign of peace, tear their clothes as a sign of mourning, and dance as a sign of triumph. Garcia claimed to have found many Hebrew terms in the American language.

According to Manasseh ben Israel, Antonio Montesinos deposed in 1644 before the bet din of Amsterdam that while traveling in Peru he had met with a number of the natives who recited the "Shema'" in Hebrew, and who informed him through an interpreter that they were Israelites descended from Reuben, and that the tribe of Joseph dwelt in the midst of the sea. He supported their statements by tracing Jewish customs among other inhabitants of Central and South America. The Indians of Yucatan and the Mexicans rent their garments in mourning and kept perpetual fires upon their altars, as did also the Peruvians. The Mexicans kept the jubilee, while the Indians of Peru and Guatemala observed the custom of levirate marriage. Manasseh ben Israel therefore concluded that the aboriginal inhabitants of America were the Lost Ten Tribes, and as he was of the opinion that the Messiah would come when the whole world was inhabited by the descendants of Israel, he directed his efforts to obtaining admission for the Jews to the British Islands, from which they were at that time excluded (see Manasseh ben Israel). The Mexican theory was later taken up by Viscount Kingsborough, who devoted his life and fortune to proving the thesis that the Mexicans were descended from the Lost Ten Tribes, and published a magnificent and expensive work on the subject ("Antiquities of Mexico," 9 vols., 1837-45). Kingsborough's chief arguments are that Mexicans and Israelites believe in both devils and angels, as well as in miracles, and use the blood of the sacrifice in the same way, namely, by pouring it on the ground; also that the high priest of Peru is the only one allowed to enter the inner, most holy part of the temple, and that the Peruvians anointed the Ark, as did the Israelites. He also finds many similarities in the myths and legends. Thus certain Mexican heroes are said to have wrestled with Quetzalcohuatl, like Jacob with the angel ("Antiquities of Mexico," vol. vii.).

Manasseh b. Israel's views were taken up by T. Thorowgood in his "Jewes in America" (London, 1650), and he was followed by the "Apostle" Eliot in a publication ten years later; and their views, referring now to the North-American Indians instead of the Mexicans or Peruvians, were adopted by Cotton Mather, Roger Williams, and even William Penn. S. Sewall also gave expression, in 1697, to the same views in a special publication.

Charles Beatty, in his "Journal of a Two-Months' Tour" (London, 1678), declared that he had found among the Delaware Indians traces of Israelitish origin; and J. Adair, in his "History of the American Indians" (London, 1775), devotes a considerable amount of attention to the same view, which he accepts. Adair was followed by Jonathan Edwards. A special work was written by E. Boudinot ("A Star in the West," Trenton, N. J., 1816); and he was followed by Ethan Smith in 1825, and by Israel Worsley ("View of the American Indians, Showing Them to Be Descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel," London, 1828). Mordecai M. Noah accepted the Israelitish origin of the Indians (1837) in a pamphlet republished in Marryat's "Diary in America" (vol. ii.). J. B. Finlay claimed to have found traces among the Wyandottes in 1840, and the view was even considered by George Catlin in his "Manners . . . of the North American Indians" (London, 1841). Discoveries of alleged Hebrew tablets, as at Pittsfield, Mass., 1815, and Newark, Ohio, about 1860, have given fresh vigor to the theory. Altogether, with the exception of the Anglo-Israelite craze, a larger amount of literature has been written on this identification than on any other.

It was doubtless owing to this belief in the identity of the Lost Ten Tribes with the American Indians that Joseph Smith was led to adopt a somewhat similar view in his celebrated "Book of Mormon." According to him, America was colonized by two sets of people—one being the Jaredites, who came over after the dispersion from the Tower of Babel; the other a group of sixteen, who came from Jerusalem about 600 B.C. Their chief families were destroyed about the fourth century B.C., and descendants of the remainder are the North-American Indians.

==Bibliography==