The Talmud for centuries formed the nucleus of the whole Jewish literature, and never, perhaps, was a book studied with so much ardor and enthusiasm. The learning and the teaching of it the latter always done gratuitously—were deemed acts of religion. Besides the official Rabbis, there were, till the beginning of this century, thousands of private persons who devoted their lives or their leisure to its study. They had no emolument: it is a maxim of the Talmud not to make the Thora "a spade to dig with" (to gain money by it): they learned, and they taught others, for the love of God. That time. is gone, and the very fact that it is gone is that which makes us contemplate it with a feeling of reverence. "The back of a man," says Jean Paul somewhere, "has something touching." But in the books of those times we find the same spirit still. There is in them a piety, an enthusiasm, a spirit of holiness, which could not easily be found elsewhere. In opening one of these volumes we have the feeling of entering a temple, and the authors appear to us as priests who keep watch over the sacred fire from generation to generation.

We have made mention of a certain Rashi. Rashi was, in the eleventh century, the Rabbi of the congregation in Troyes, but, like the other Rabbis of that time, without salary.* He wrote a commentary on the whole Bible (a few books excepted), and another highly esteemed commentary upon nearly the whole Talmud. Although revered as of the highest authority, he was so modest as to undertake such a secondary labor, and so full of enthusiasm as to perform a task so gigantic. There were only a few treatises remaining to be commented upon when he died. It happened that in the last sentence which Rashi wrote the word "purity" occurred. His son-in-law continued the commentary. It begins with the words: "Our teacher is no more. His last word was 'purity'; his soul left his body in purity. What follows are the words of his disciple, R. Jehudah, son of R. Nathan."

In conclusion, it is to be remarked, as a prominent feature of the Talmud, that, while in itself an historical monument, there are no historical points given in it. Besides its manifold anachronisms, the Talmud is, if we may so say, achronis

* Grätz, Geschichte, VI. 78.

tical (axpovos), without distinction of time. Although the work of many centuries and various lands, the impression it produces is as if it had been wrought out in a single day and in one place only. Even the few events of Jewish history mentioned in it are only incidentally referred to, à propos of some casuistical question, and generally with more or less confusion of persons and circumstances. But the Talmud is, nevertheless, a mirror of time, although a broken one. In times of oppression and seclusion the Jews confine themselves to the Halacha. In times and places of greater liberty, we see them engaging in other studies. Such was the case in Spain, before the fifteenth century, and in Holland, where the expelled Jews had found an asylum, in the sixteenth. There the Thora, the "tree of life," was twined about with the ornamental ivy of philosophy and the natural sciences; there, besides the Holy Law, the "joyous science" of poetry was cultivated; poems in various languages appeared, called by an author of that day "The Lights and Flowers of the Holy Law" (Luzes y Flores de la Ley Divina), at the same time that the Halacha was extending its dry ramifications all over Germany. The various phases of history are reflected also in the way in which the Talmud has been treated. In times of darkness it was persecuted and burned. It was isolated from the world by the Dark Sea of ignorance and narrow-minded fanaticism. Horrible stories were told of the Land of the Talmud, and the "Rabbis" of the Talmud had the same fate as the hags and witches: they had their Advocati Diaboli, but hardly one Advocatus Dei. Those who were best qualified to pass judgment on the Talmud, the Jews, kept within their Ghettos. It was with the Jewish literature as with the Jewish woman of old, to whom were applied the words, "All the glory of the king's daughter is within" (Ps. xlv. 13), as if to say that she was to live only in her house, not in the world: the books written by Jews were written only for Jews, not for mankind at large.

All this is now changed. And if we go back to the point from which we started, if we draw a parallel between the time of Columbus and our own time, we shall find that the Talmud also has its share in the general advancement. Be

tween the time when Columbus in his letter to Queen Isabella expressed the hope that no Jew, no Moor, that no other than a Catholic foot would ever tread the new-discovered soil,* and the year 1869, when another Isabella is dethroned and liberty of religion is proclaimed in Spain, how immense the interval ! Our century has made other discoveries; it has removed other boundaries, crossed another dark ocean; it boasts greater Conquistadores than those of the sixteenth century; its scholars have discovered and conquered the intellectual and religious world of the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Hindoos, the Parsees, the Buddhists. The Talmud also is admitted into the great circle of human efforts and tendencies: it is no more a fabulous country full of monsters. † Humanity has broken down the walls of the Ghetto; it has crossed the seas of darkness which separated the nations from one another; it has discovered one world in the place of the many that existed before. And if we, from this new world, look back on the dark ages of the old, we may say, with some feeling of satisfaction, Indeed, there is no more Dark Sea in the whole world!

M. GRÜNBAUM.

* A. von Humboldt, Examen Critique sur l'Hist. de la Géogr., Vol. III. p. 259. † In the light of modern investigations, the ideas formerly current regarding even the Leviathan of the Talmud are considerably modified, since we find the same mythological being in the myths of the Hindoos, the Parsees, and the Phoenicians, and even in the Bible itself (Job, xxvi. 13; Isai. xxvii. 1; Ps. lxxiv. 12). The Rabbinical fables on the subject are collected in Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Judenthum (Vol. II. p. 872). In some passages the Leviathan seems to be identified with the Ocean. In a similar way the Teutonic Mythology speaks of an immense serpent, the Midgards-Orm (World's-Worm), which infolds the earth.

ART. III.—1. A Relation of the REVEREND FATHER FRIAR MARCO DE NICA, touching his Discovery of the Kingdom of Cevola or Cibola. 1539. (Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages. Vol. III. London. 1600.)

2. The Relation of FRANCIS VASQUEZ DE CORONADO, CaptainGeneral of the People which were sent in the Name of the Emperor's Majesty to the Country of Cibola. 1540. (Hakluyt, Vol. III.)

3. The Rest of this Voyage to Acuco, Tiguex, Cicuic, and Quivira,

etc. By FRANCIS LOPEZ DE GOMARA. (Hakluyt, Vol. III.) 4. A Brief Relation of Two Notable Voyages: the first made by

Friar Augustin Ruyz, a Franciscan, in the Year 1581; the second by Antonio de Espejo, in the Year 1583, who together with his Company discovered a Land, etc., which they named New Mexico. (Hakluyt, Vol. III.)

5. Relation du Voyage de Cibola entrepris en 1540. Par PEDRO DE CASTAÑEDA DE NAGERA. (Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. IX. Paris. 1838.)

6. Relation du Voyage fait à la Nouvelle-Terre sous les Ordres du Général Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Commandant de l'Expédition. Rédigée par le Capitaine JUAN JARAMILLO. (Coll. H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. IX.)

7. Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, in 1846-47. By LIEUT.-COL. W. H. EMORY. Together with the Reports of LIEUT. J. W. ABERT and LIEUT.-COL. P. ST. GEORGE COOKE, and the Journal of CAPT. A. R. JOHNSTON. (United States Senate Executive Document No. 41, Thirtieth Congress, First Session. 1848.)

8. Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Navajo Country, in 1849. By LIEUT. JAMES H. SIMPSON. (U. S. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 64, 31st Congress, 1st Sess. 1850.)

9. Report upon the Colorado River of the West, explored in 1857 and 1858, by LIEUT. JOSEPH C. IVES. (U. S. House Ex. Doc. No. 90, 36th Congress, 1st Sess. 1859-60.)

SMALL problems are not always to be disregarded because of their insignificance. In some cases they become connected, in

their solution, with other problems of recognized importance. To this class belongs the question with respect to the sites of the so-called "Seven Cities of Cibola," which have not been satisfactorily identified, although made a subject of speculation by different investigators. It is known that they were in the province of New Mexico, westward of the Rio Grande and its tributaries; but in what section of the territory they were situated has not been definitely determined. Upon this question it will be the purpose of this article to present some facts and suggestions, and to point out, in connection therewith, some of the distinctive characteristics of the architecture of the Village Indians of North America.

*

Coronado's expedition was undertaken in 1540, under the authority of Don Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain, for the subjugation of these imaginary cities, which were reputed to possess great riches in vessels of gold and silver, and in precious stones. A rumor of the existence of a people with such possessions was quite sufficient to arouse the Spanish adventurers of that period to organize an invasion for the laudable purpose, first, of relieving heathen Indians of such superfluous trifles, and, secondly, of imparting to them a knowledge of the true religion, ever near to the Spanish heart. But the prudent Viceroy sought to fortify himself against fallacious rumors by sending a monk, Friar Marcos de Niza, to explore New Mexico, and report to him concerning the "Seven Cities," rumors of the existence and wealth of which had reached Mexico through Nuñez Guzman, the founder of Culiacan, and Cabeça de Vaca,† one of the companions of Narvaez in the expedition to Florida. Upon the faith of the Friar's Relation, Mendoza incurred the expense of the expedition. Niza started from San Miguel, in the province of Culiacan, now Cinaloa, in March, 1539, and, travelling northward into

officers and companions of After their return to Ha

* In his first letter to the Viceroy before leaving Culiacan, Coronado naïvely observes: "They have great store of gold, which is, as it were, lost, because they know not what use to put it to."- HAKLUYT, Vol. III. 362. p. † Alvarez Nuñez, or Cabeça de Vaca, was one of the Panfilo de Narvaez in the Florida expedition of 1528. vana was cut off by the departure of the fleet, Cabeça succeeded in crossing the continent to the Pacific coast, reaching Culiacan in 1536, with three survivors, at the expiration of eight years.