Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It is about the size of England, 460 miles from North to South, and 430 from East to West. On the North it is bounded by Turkestan, East by India, South by Beloochistan, and West by Persia. The population numbers about 7,000,000. They are as wild as the country is broken and irregular. They are chiefly agriculturists. The country is rich in minerals and timber. In time past they have seldom been at peace, being very generally at war among themselves. Afghan is a Persian word, and means that which is wrapped around—no doubt having reference to the mountain chain that hems in the whole land. The people themselves, however, name their country Vilayet, which means the land of our ancestors. They claim that in their country lived Adam and his children, also Noah and his. They say they had in their possession once the ark of the covenant, but they have lost it. While it was with them, if they took it into battle, victory was sure to be theirs. At the present time they have Noah’s ark. It is embedded in the ground, with a portion protruding out, which pilgrims to the top of Dera Ismael Khan—that is, the sacred mountain of Israel—are permitted to see and touch. Many have supposed the Afghans to be the Ten Lost Tribes. It has been the folly of many of the learned, in time past, to hunt for, and actually expect to find, the chosen of God in some out-of-the-way place; to find them few, poor, and deluded—the poorer, the fewer, and the more wretched, the better. Hence, the wild Indians of the continent, the bushmen of Africa, the aborigines of Australia, the Laplanders of the North, and many such have been chosen of men—though not of God. The Afghan country, no doubt, once had intercourse with Palestine. During Solomon’s reign many Jews left the land as merchants. Solomon built store cities in Hamath, Tadmor in the wilderness, and many others. These store cities were on the great highway which he made through the desert, so as to bring the trade of Dedan and Sheba to Jerusalem. That Hebrew names are given to the mountains, places, rivers, and persons, no one can deny; but such does not prove them to be the Lost Tribes—it shows away back Jewish influence and intercourse. They do not speak the Hebrew, but two languages called the Pukhtu and Pushtu. In either language there are few, if any, traces of the Hebrew. No doubt the Lost Tribes, after being scattered into Central Asia, when taken captive about 725 B.C., wandered, some of them into Afghan, and probably for a time settled there, and gave names to the country. The Afghans themselves went into the country from India, and as the Tribes moved Westward they left the Afghans in possession.