Of the Jews, Black and White.
One of your letters, dated from Harlinger, has at length reached me. It seems that place is more favoured than Westkappel, for the letters you sent from thence have never come to hand. Perhaps they were sent by sailors who found no opportunity to deliver them safely, so that they were passed on from one ship to another without ever entering the bay, or perhaps the letters have been thrown into the great bag at Penang or elsewhere, where, after being kept a year unclaimed, they would be burnt.
Jews are found here, and in many other places on the vast coast of India, as they are almost all over the world. They are not, however, to be met with in the neighbouring islands, nor at Java, Sumatra, Celebes, Amboyna, Banda, or Ceylon. A colony of them is domiciled on this coast, who, according to their own account, came here after the destruction of the second temple, which is the era from which they date: thus this present year (1723), is with them the year 1657.*
Since this period about a thousand Jews, men, women, and children, have settled in Malabar, fixing their abodes at Cannanore, Nagorne, Malai, and Porivarem. For some centuries they were unfortunate enough; but their situation improved in the reign of Cheramperoumal, that monarch having granted them certain privileges, which were inscribed on copper, and are still preserved. I have seen a copy of them; they consist of certain frivolous grants, such as permission to use trumpets and drums, sedans, and similar trifles, which are much thought of in this country. He also placed over them a Jew named Joseph Rabban, who as well as his successors received the title of Chiramand Mappela: i. e., the merchant whose office it is to furnish the Emperor’s lamps with wicks, which must be regarded as a tribute paid to the monarch in acknowledgment for the dignity. The word Mappela does not express any supreme or independent authority.
I have been told, but I will not vouch for the truth of the story, that these merchants wished to purchase with a large sum of money, from one of the princes of Malabar, the entire supremacy over their own nation; and that the bargain was nearly completed, when the monarch hearing from other quarters that the Jews had no large independent possessions in any part of the world, refused their demand. These white Jews made several black proselytes, and in process of time, a great division took place between them, and they spread out in different directions. A party of the white Jews came to a place called by the Portuguese Sinhora Savodé, about half a league distant from the town of Cochin, where they maintained themselves for fifty years; but being unable to endure any longer the offensive vicinity of the Moors, and still more of the Christians, who keep unclean animals in their houses, they obtained from the Rajah of Cochin a piece of ground near his palace, on which to build their houses. Here they have dwelt now for 202 years, but the place being small, their houses are poor and huddled together; they are chiefly built of stone, and covered with tiles.
At the present time they have a Jewish chief, appointed by the Rajah of Cochin with the title of Modeliar who bears as a sign of his dignity, a wand with a silver knob; a kind of staff which both the Rajah and the Company give to any one whom they wish to honour, or who is appointed to certain offices, such as that of merchant to the Company. The Modeliar has power to enforce some punishments, and to impose and remit fines, subject to the Rajah’s judgment; but great and capital causes are tried by the Rajah himself. The Company has however some jurisdiction over them.
I have enquired of the principal persons among these Jews the reason why they have kept so few records of the history of their nation here. Their answer has been that their records had been torn from them by the Portuguese in the year 1662, when that people devastated their synagogue, and deprived them of their privileges, because they had supplied the Dutch with provisions during their unsuccessful siege of the city.
The Black and White Jews inhabit the same district, the latter occupying the banks of the river. The white are much richer and more powerful than the black, who are mostly of slave race, and amount, I have been told, to 2,000 souls in Malabar. The number of white Jews who have of late come here from Europe, Bagdad, and Cairo, is small; but there are some also who have been settled here for many centuries. They try as much as possible to prevent inter-marriages with the black Jews, although these sometimes take place. The two races possess also separate synagogues; and the blacks have a dark coloured Rabbi, who must stand back if a white one enters, and must resign to him the honour of performing divine service in the synagogue. On the other hand, when the black Rabbis enter the synagogue of the whites, which is a very superior one, they must only be hearers. There has been lately a great dispute between the two races: the black wishing to compel the white Jewesses to keep their heads uncovered, like their own women, and trying to persuade the Rajah to enforce such a rule. The dispute ended, however, with permission given to every one, both men and women, to wear what they chose.
The Jews make no objection to selling their slaves who are not of their own religion to other nations, obliging them, however, when sold, to abandon the use of the Jewish cap, which they had before worn on their heads. But slaves, male or female, once fully admitted into their religion by the performance of the customary rites, can never be sold to a stranger. The black Jews trade chiefly in poultry, eggs and butter; but the whites, who trade with the Company, sell more valuable commodities.
Thus, my brother, you see the Divine prophecies confirmed in the far East, where the curse upon this stiff-necked people is heavy upon them, as it is in Europe, and the veil is still before their face; while they look in vain for a Messiah, and now begin to despair of their expectation, for there are some here who venture to say that possibly the Messiah for whom Israel has been longing for so many centuries, was never promised at all.
And now, my worthy brother, I long sorely to see you and our dear parents once more. Oh, when will that day arrive! perhaps never. My desires to revisit my beloved fatherland are ceaseless, and all the enjoyments I have here cannot satisfy them. Others may say, our country is wherever we are well off; but the force of nature goes beyond all that. It would seem as though our frames have a perpetual attraction to the land where we first drew breath, and that being formed of the very dust which is found there, they seek it as their own element, and are mysteriously thus drawn to it. You will say perhaps that in some respects this ardent wish of mine is unreasonable, as I have here every requisite for temporal comfort. It would be ingratitude to deny it. Yet, my brother, our happiness does not depend on these things, as is sometimes imagined. It is true I find my house filled with slaves, my table loaded with delicacies; but I am not the happier for it, for the multitude of slaves breaks the head, and twenty do not now serve me so well as six or seven did formerly. And why? because they put their work off upon each other’s shoulders, and those who are sent to put things straight only make matters worse. Can you expect anything else from savages? and yet, oh foolish vanity! the law of fashion forces us to submit to all this. Our food, delicately dressed in various ways, is generally insipid, and a dish from our old fatherland would be considered a banquet here. And how can any kind of food help us, when appetite, its only sauce, is wanting, as is the case with me and with thousands besides, for the heat of the sun and the climate is such that we seldom know the feeling of hunger. But of all these grievances I think but little, compared to that of the absence of my dear parents. You know that love despises everything but its object. Meantime may every Divine blessing attend you.