The remaining literature of the Samaritans is un important. They have two collections of hymns, Durran and Defter. The collector of the Durran, in which the Defter is also contained, is said to have been Amran-ez-zeman, who lived before Christ. The hymns are written almost entirely in the Samaritan dialect, and in rhyme. There are also alphabetical poems. Others are in strophes, Arabic and Samaritan alternating. Gesenius pub lished a selection in his Samaritana,' 1824. The number of their prayers is large. The oldest are said to be the prayers of angels, which they sang after the tabernacle was finished, and after the death of Aaron. The prayers are for Sabbath days, festivals, etc. M. Heidenheim has given various notices of MSS. in the British Museum, containing prayers, hymns, and other liturgical literature of the Samaritans (Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, Hefte 2-5) ; but he has made many mistakes in explaining the fragments, as Geiger shows (see Zeitscrift der deuirchen mor genlandischen Gesellschaft, Band xviii. p. 59o, etc.)
In addition to the above, they have a short chronicle, partly prophetic and partly historical, written, as they allege, by Moses in their own dialect, and reaching from Adam to the end of the world. The high-priest possesses an old codex of it consisting of about 16 leaves. There is an Arabic commentary upon it in the British Museum, No. 1140 add. They possess, too, another work of the same kind in Arabic, purporting to be written by Jacob Besini. The greatest part of their litera• ture is in Arabic ; because most of their earlier Hebrew and Samaritan books were destroyed by the emperor Commodus. But they have still fragments relating to the reading of the law, gram matical pieces, commentaries on the Pentateuch, controversial writings against the Jews, and a book on the birth of Moses, etc. etc. (see Petermann's article Samaria' in Herzog's Encyklapattlie, vol. xiii. ; and Mills's Nablus, chapter xi.)—S. D.