LOST TEN TRIBES, The. After the death of Solomon the 10 northern tribes of Israel seceded and established the separate kingdom of Israel. It existed for 200 years, until it was finally brought to an end when Samaria was overthrown by Sargon of Assyria in 722 B.C. At that time 27,000 people were taken to different parts of the Assyrian Empire. It was formerly one of the puzzles of history to know what finally became of the Ten Tribes. There were several theories. Because of the fact that some Jewish monuments were found in China some writers traced them to that land. Others found their descendants in India. The theory that the Anglo-Saxons were the descend ants of the Ten Tribes had many propagators, and the Anglo-Israelite theory, as it is called, produced a large literature. The general con sensus of scientific opinion, however, is that the tribes became absorbed, as subsequent van ished races have, in neighboring nations, and thus were not lost in the real significance of the term. In the Palestinian Talmud and Midrach Gen. Rabba lxiii, the region of the exile of the 10 tribes is recorded as around the river Sabbation (q.v.), the Sabbatic River, so named from the sacred Sabbath of the Jews, identified in modern times with the stream running from the seven-days intermittent spring Fauwar ed-Deir in the Lebanon. In the 'Eldad ha-Dani,' the narrative of Eldad the Danite which appeared in northern Africa about the 9th century, and the source of con siderable medimval legend and speculation, the lost children of Moses are described as a pow erful Utopian race whose territory was sur rounded by this wonderful river. Among re cent recensions of his text are Epstein's edi tion (Pressburg 1891) and Muller, D. H., in the Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy (Phil hist. cl. xli, I p. 41). Dr. Giles Fletcher (1548 1611) identified the Tartars with the lost 10 tribes; consult his 'The Tartars,' printed in Israel Redux,' edited by S. Lee (1667). Dr. Whiston (1667-1752) revived this identification. Dr. Francois Bernier (1620-88), French physi cian for 12 years to the Great Mogul of India, in 'Les voyages de Bernier contenant la de scription des Etats du Grand Mogul de l'Hin (1699), speculates on the Kashmiris as descendants of the lost 10 tribes from cer tain customs and rites, and the prevailing type of facial features, as also of the neighboring Afghans and the Tajiks of Badakshan, being distinctly Hebraic. Numerous authors propa
gated the doctrine that the British races are descendants of the lost 10 tribes. (See ANcto ISRAELITE THEORY). Consult Streator, M. L., 'The Anglo-Alliance in Prophecy, or the Promises to the Fathers> (2 vols., New Haven, Conn., 1900). The relation of the lost 10 tribes to the *white* Indians of North Amer ica, reputed descendants of Madoc (q.v.), the Welsh prince who with his followers, accord ing to tradition, emigrated to America in 1170, has also been a source of fruitful discussion, for which consult Henshaw, H. W., Fallacies respecting the Indians* (in American Anthropology n. s. Vol. VII, pp. 104-113, 1905) ; American Anthropology •Vol. IV, pp. 3-394, 1891)i Mallery, G., 'Israelite and Indian: A Parallel in Planes of Culture' (in 'Proceedings) of American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 287-331, 1889) ; The 'Book of Mormon' (q.v.) (1830) is typical of a recurrent phase of the theory.
LOT, according to the book of Genesis, the son of Haran, and the nephew of Abraham. In order to avoid dissensions between his follow ers and those of Abraham, he went east into the plain of Jordan, toward Sodom, while his uncle dwelt in Canaan. After being taken cap tive by some marauders (styled kings in Gen. xiv), Lot was delivered by Abraham. Having received two angels into his house in Sodom, an attack was made upon it by the inhabitants, who were struck blind, and the impending de struction of the city was announced to Lot He escaped with his family; but his wife, look ing back, °became a pillar of The name "Lot's is still given to a detached pillar about 40 feet high, on the Jebel Usdiim, a height near the Dead Sea. According to Gen esis xix, 31-38, from Lot's incestuous inter course with his daughters originated the Moa bite and Ammonite nations.
LOT (ancient Loda or Otitis), France, one of the largest tributaries of the Garonne River, rises at Mount Lozere, one of the Cevennes, near Mende, department of Lozere. It flows west by south across the departments of Lozere, Aveyron and Lot, and joins the Garonne at Aiguillon, in the department of Lot-et-Garonne. Total course about 250 miles, of which 180 miles, commencing at Entraigues, are navigable.