238 Literary Discoveries in India. 



aiul to transmit copies to the learned societies in Plindosfan 

 a»id in Europe : for this purpose an engraver is now eniplovcd 

 on the plates at Cochin. The Christian and Jewish plates 

 together will make tourteen pages. A copy has been sent, 

 in the first instance, to the pundits at the Shanscrit college 

 at Trichiur, by direction of the rajah of Cochin. 



W hen the White Jews at Cochin were questioned re- 

 specting the antient copies of their Scriptures, they answered, 

 that it iiad been usual to bury the old copy read in the sy- 

 nagogue, when decayed by time and use. This, however, 

 does not appear to have been the practice of the Black Jews, 

 who were the thst settlers ; for in the record-chests of their 

 synagogues, old copies of the law have been discovered ; 

 some of which are complete, and for the most- part legible. 

 Neither could the Jews of Cochin produce any historical 

 manuscripts of cousequenec, their vicinity to the sea-coast 

 having exposed their conmiunity to frequent revolution ; 

 hut many old writings have been found at the remote syna- 

 gogues of their antient enemies the Black JcwSj situated at 

 Tritooa, Paroor, Chenott;*, and Maleh, the last of which 

 places is near the mountains. Amongst these wvitinirs are 

 some of great length, in Rabbinical Hebrew j but in so 

 antient and uncommon a character, that it will require 

 much time and labour to ascertain their contents. There 

 is one manuscript written in a character resembling the 

 Palmyrene Hebrew on the brass plates: but it is in a de- 

 cayed state, and the leaves adhere so closely to each other, 

 that it is doubtful whether it will be possible to unfold tlieni 

 and preserve the reading. It is sufficiently established by 

 the concurring evidence of written record and Jewish tra- 

 dition, that the Black Jews had colonized on the coasts of 

 India long bert)re the Christian osra. There was another 

 colony at l^jijr.poor, in the Mahratta territory, which is not 

 yet extinct: and there are at this time Jewish soldiers ami 

 Jewish native officers iu the British service. That these ara 

 a renmant of the Jews (jf the first dispersion at the Babv- 

 lonish captivity, seems highly probable. There are many other 

 tribes seltk-d in Persia, Arabia, Northern India, Tartary, 

 an<l Chiim, whose respective places of residence may be 



easily 



