pigeon, and these cross the River Sambation and the pigeons come to
their Kings and their Princes.The now-familiar notion of the invisibility of the lost tribes is given a new
meaning, perhaps so as to safeguard an otherwise not-so-coherent story. “They
see no man and no men see them,” explains Eldad, fearing perhaps that the
Qayrawanis might attempt a trip south to visit the nearby tribes and fact-check
his story. There is a designated place where they can meet and in times of need,
they use special pigeons to cross the Sambatyon:
The breadth of that river is 200 cubits bowshot, and the river is full of
large and small stones and the sound of them rumbles like a great
storm, like a tempest at sea and, in the night, the sound of it is heard
for a day’s journey and they have with them six wells and they all unite
into one lake and therefrom they irrigate their land, and therein are
clean edible fish. The river runs and the stones and sand rumble
during the six working days, but on the seventh day it rests and is
tranquil until the end of Sabbath. And on the other side of the river on
the side where the four tribes dwell, is a fire which flames on Sabbath
and no man can approach within a mile.^6Eldad is clearly familiar with the rabbinic information on Sambatyon up to
his time. A careful reader would even note Eldad’s echo of the Talmudic
passage that speaks of one group of tribes “in” Sambatyon and another “be-
yond” it. It is quite likely that Eldad is also mixing in Islamic traditions, which
speak of a river of sand.^7 This description of the Sambatyon—with roaring
water, stones, and sand—became the model for numerous folktales and
stories. A Midrash from the eleventh century incorporates Eldad’s version of
the river verbatim into its discussion of the ten lost tribes, making it part of the
recognized rabbinic literature as well.^8
Before turning to the rest of the story, let us look first at its most basic
geographic specifics. Eldad tells the Qayrawani Jews that he was originally
from around the area of Ethiopia, where the tribe of Dan, and possibly Asher,
resides. After his rescue from the cannibals, he ended up in a place called
Assin. (This Assin [al-Sin] intrigued scholars until 1946 , when Louis Rabino-
witz, chief rabbi of Johannesburg, identified it as China.)^9 Eldad then relates
that, after his rescue by the merchant from the tribe of Issachar, he spent his
time visiting the rest of the tribes in Central Asia and Arabia. Finally, he arrived
in al-Qayrawan on his way “to Spain.” His purported travels cover the known
world’s corners, from China in the east to Spain in the west. Here, China
appears in the context of the ten tribes’ story for the first time, underscoring