Of Baptism And Other Sacraments They
Had No Knowledge.
There were two races:
One, black with crisp hair; the other, less black,
of better aspect, and with straight hair. Each family had a cave in which
they deposited their dead. They cultivated a few palms, and kept flocks;
had no money, no writing, and kept tale of their flocks by bags of stones.
They often committed suicide in age, sickness, or defeat. When rain failed
they selected a victim by lot, and placing him within a circle, addressed
prayers to the moon. If without success they cut off the poor wretch's
hands. They had many who practised sorcery. The women were all called
Maria, which the author regarded as a relic of Christianity; this De
Barros also notices a century earlier.
Now, not a trace of former Christianity can be discovered - unless it be in
the name of one of the villages on the coast, Colesseeah, which looks as
if it faintly commemorated both the ancient religion and the ancient
language ([Greek: ekklaesia]). The remains of one building, traditionally
a place of worship, were shown to Wellsted; he could find nothing to
connect it with Christianity.
The social state of the people is much as Father Vincenzo described it;
lower it could scarcely be. Mahomedanism is now the universal profession.
The people of the interior are still of distinct race, with curly hair,
Indian complexion, regular features. The coast people are a mongrel body,
of Arab and other descent. Probably in old times the case was similar, and
the civilisation and Greek may have been confined to the littoral
foreigners. (Mueller's Geog. Gr. Minores, I. pp. 280-281; Relations, I.
139-140; Cathay, clxxi., ccxlv. 169; Conti, 20; Maffei, lib. III.;
Buesching, IV. 278; Faria, I. 117-118; Ram. I. f. 181 v. and 292;
Jarric, Thes. Rer. Indic. I. 108-109; P. Vinc. 132, 442; J.R.G.S.
V. 129 seqq.)
NOTE 3. - As far back as the 10th century Socotra was a noted haunt of
pirates. Mas'udi says: "Socotra is one of the stations frequented by the
Indian corsairs called Bawarij, which chase the Arab ships bound for
India and China, just as the Greek galleys chase the Mussulmans in the sea
of Rum along the coasts of Syria and Egypt" (III. 37). The Bawarij were
corsairs of Kach'h and Guzerat, so called from using a kind of war-vessel
called Barja. (Elliot, I. 65.) Ibn Batuta tells a story of a friend of
his, the Shaikh Sa'id, superior of a convent at Mecca, who had been to
India and got large presents at the court of Delhi. With a comrade called
Hajji Washl, who was also carrying a large sum to buy horses, "when they
arrived at the island of Socotra ... they were attacked by Indian corsairs
with a great number of vessels.... The corsairs took everything out of the
ship, and then left it to the crew with its tackle, so that they were able
to reach Aden." Ibn Batuta's remark on this illustrates what Polo has said
of the Malabar pirates, in ch.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 408 of 701
Words from 212031 to 212549
of 370046
