Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1932-01-07
HISTORY'S
MYSTERIES


The Lost Tribes of Israel
THE mystery of the Ten Lost
1 Tribes" has been a subject of abb
sorblng interest for many centuries.
but, despite the investigations of
countless historians and the excava-
lions of Psychologists in all parts of
the globe, the question of what became
of this great mass of people is still
unsolved.
Hundreds OF volumes have been
written on the subject and many ex-
plantations have been advanced as TO
the probable fate of the people
who severed their alliance with the
| tribes of Benjamin and Judah. the
latter remaining in southern Palestine
and establishing Jerusalem as their
| capital. The Israeltes who seeded
went northward. Some into Samaria
and others into the country which lay
outside the narrow stretch of land
which then made up the known world.
AS to the fate OF those who populated
| Samarla some little Is known, for,
about eight centuries before Christ.
Sargon. king of Assyria. swept down
upon Samaria and carried many thou
sands OF Its population into captivity,
replacing them with Babylonian and
Syrian colonists and scattering the
former residents throughout the king
| dom so that their identity as a nation
was completely lost
With their captivity. the remaining
members OF the ten tribes disappeared
AZ completely as II they had been
swallowed up by the earth and no
| definite trace OF them has ever been
discovered. The descendants of the
!, two remaining tribes were also con-
quered at later period and while
| they. too. were finally driven away.
| they possessed SO strong a person
atty and racial cohesion that they
| have endured, despite the bitter OPP
preston to which they have been sub
! jected. throughout the centuries
keeping intact their religion. their his
tory and their customs.
This being the case. 1t Is doubly
remarkable that the other ten tribes.
numerically greater than the tribes
!, OF Juda and Benjamin, should have
vanished so completely. They could
not all have been slain or persisted In
captivity, leaving no descendants and
/ 1t is to be presumed that they mi
grated somewhere-hut where? This
is the question which has puzzled
Psychologists and historians for cen.
! lures. Some writer's are of the
| opinion that the lost tribes" long
! afterwards appeared as the lawless.
gallant Anglo Saxons. race whose
origin Is still more or less obscure.
Other European nations have also
! been traced" to the missing Israel
| ties, while a few commentators believe
that they became merged into the ma
tlonnlities OF other conQnerors and
those OF the peoples among whom they
settled.
or special interest to Americans Is
that the lost tribes in some way
/ probably by means Of the vast over
land "brIdge" which later sunk below
the surface OF the paelhe--fonnd their
way to this country and became what
| were later known as Indians" and
"Aztecs' Among those who most
firmly believed this were the early
! Spanish priests who settled in Amer
lea, as also did Roger Williams. Cot
| ton Mather and many later theologians
and scientists who found Indian din
lects which had words and phrases
| singularly suggestive >of Hebraic origin.
1 In TICS Charles Beatty. a mission
| airy. wrote that he was certain that he
had found traces OF the "lost tribes
among the Delaware Indians, declnr-
Ing that he had seen an ancient
scroll that contained portions Of the
original Hebrew law.
But. despite all the theorizing and
| guessing az to the "ten lost tribes"
no really authentic discoveries have
| been made with respect to their fate.
! There are many sections of the globe
/ NIltTP tHtS NuHlN NAVE sSttltu bHu
| flourished as an independent nation.
| yet the archives Of no known people
| describe such settlement and-bar-
| ring the as yet unexplained origin OF
such races ms the Indians. the Ha-
waiians and the Aztecs-no trace Il to
| be found anywhere of the missing
| Israelites.