About 1,100 years ago, a Hebrew-speaking man named Eldad Ha-Dani appeared before the Jewish community of Tunisia and gave it the remarkable news that he belonged to the biblical tribe of Dan, one of the fabled 10 lost tribes of Israel.

In fact, the Kuki are one of several groups in Manipur and neighboring Mizoram - the Mizo and the Chin are the main others - who not only believe themselves to be descendants of the biblical lost tribes but believe themselves to be Jews as well.

The African heritage dates to the original biblical Hebrew tribes in Egypt before the birth of Moses and the exodus and dispersion of Hebrews.

His immediate plans include transporting an entire biblical lost tribe from northeastern India to the Holy Land and starting a Spanish-language ministry for the Pentecostals of Latin America.

Several groups around the world practice Judaic rites or claim to be descended from biblical tribes without having any ancestral Jewish connection.

In the last chapter I have tried to show that the evidence from anthropology concurs with history in refuting the popular belief in a Jewish race descended from the biblical tribe.

But the 71 immigrants, who arrived in June with the firm conviction that they were descended from one of the biblical lost tribes of Israel, feel they have completed a spiritual homecoming.

In some cases it is a Jewish surname, derived from the Jewish biblical tribe of Levi, whose descendants the Levites had distinctive duties in the Temple period.

The incredible golfing Turnesas were sometimes spoken of like a circus act or a biblical tribe, but actually they were a natural product of Westchester, which at the time was the country's major hub of golf, home to many of the country's top golfers.

It is certainly a different attitude from the coldness shown to the Black Hebrew movement, a 1,300-member community that was founded in Chicago and is now centered in the Negev, claiming roots in the biblical tribes of Israel.