The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-01

 far from farm which Abraham owned, and about on the spot where Joshua gath cred the tribes of Israel together and read them the law of Moses.
 Our conversation took place in the heart of the city in the synagogue of the Samaritans. I had to go through vaulted passageways and cavelike streets to reach it. had an interpreter with me, end as we talked together the high priest shol cd me the original parchments of the five books of Moses as they were written by Abou, the son of Ben Hassan, the son of Eleazar, who, you remember, was one of the two sons of Aaron by Eli sheba, his wife. The high priest tells me that these five manuscripts were writ ten only F years after the Israelites came into the Holy Land, and that they are now 3575 years old. They are the oldest Bible manuscripts in existence. They are written in the Hebrew of the times of Moses, upon long sheets of parchment about two feet in width. The scrolls are rolled upon three rods, each tipped with silver knob as big as a teacup. and they are so arranged that they can be rolled and unrolled as they are read. The ink is
  though the parchment is yellow with age. The manuscript is treasured by the Samaritans, being kept in brass case inlaid with gold. It is said to have been dug up about 300 years ago, and 1t has formed a subject of controversy among oriental scholars. The Samaritans be- lieve that it was written by the grandson of Aaron, as the high priest here claims; but the Jews reject it as false, denounc- ing the Samaritans as pagan outcasts from the children of Israel.
 The samaritans of 1910
 I was surprised to find that there were any Samartans living. I supposed that they had been swallowed up by the Mo- hammedans, and other Syrians who have absorbed everything in Palestine except- ing the Jews. find. however, that there are about 200 in Nablous, and that they practice the same religion as they had when Christ, came. They annually cele- brate the feasts of the Passover and Pentecost on Mount Gerizim. These feasts are different from those of the latter-day Jews. At the time of Christ the Feast of the Passover was eaten reclining and as though at the end of journey rather than at the beginning.
 The Samaritans eat their Passover with their shoes bound upon their feet and slaves in their hands though ready to start out on their wanderings in the will derness. They do this on the top of the mountain, camping in tents They smear the blood of the sacrifice upon the tents to commemorate the passage of the angel of death over the houses of Israel. They dress in white garments, and they kill the animals which are burnt according to the methods which were in use when Aaron lived The sacrifice consists of buck lambs, each of which is carefully examined that 1t may be without wound or blemish. At given signal the throats of the lambs are cut. and at the same time some of the blood is caught in tn cup and smeared over the tent. As the blood flows the people shout out the words "There is but one God" and tbey shout this sentence again and again. At the same time there is a service. be- ginning with hymn praising Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and followed by prayer of thanksgiving.
 The meat for the sacrifice Is cooked over a fire in the earth. As soon as the animals are killed they are scalded and the wool is pulled off. The entrails are removed and salted. Then pole is thrust through each lamb, and 1t is laid on the hot coals of a fire made in trench. The meat is then covered with brush and earth. The people continue to pray as if cooks, and keep on praying until the sunset approaches. At 10 minutes after sunset they begin to eat the meat throw ing the bones into the fire without break ing them.
 Tn my talk with the high priest he con- tended that the Samaritans were the only true Israelites. and spoke of the prophet Samuel as a sorcerer He paid his re- spects to the Jews in no measured tones He gave me a little book he had written concerning the religion of the Samari- tans, and at the close was by no means averse to a present of silver for which he thanked mo in a dignifed way. After 1 returned to my camp. which is on the outside of Nablous. some of his follow CTS brought me his photograph, and .