﻿36s ACCOUNT OF THE ST. THOMe' CHRISTIANS 



ferent musical instruments playing before tliem, as also 

 of flags of different colours carried before them, &c. 

 They all wore swords and targets, and some of them 

 had firelocks; they were great marksmen, and, from 

 their eighth year, used to frequent their hring schools: 

 husbandry and trade were their principal occupations, 

 and, next to the Bramins, the St. Thome Christians^ 

 used to furnish the greatest quantity of pepper to the 

 Fortitguesc cargoes. 



The girls were precluded from all inheritance, even 

 if no sons were in the family; in which case the in- 

 heritance went to the next male cousin or uncle on 

 the father's side. This singular law, which is so con- 

 trary to all Malabar customs, has unquestionably" 

 been imported from Syria, and serves as an additional 

 proof of the St. Thome Christians being originally 

 Syrian colonics. 



As to their religious tenets, they followed general- 

 ly the doctrine of Nestorius. 



They rejected the divine nature of CHRIST, and 

 called the Viuoiisf A1aii\^ only the mother of 

 CflRIST, not of GOD. They also maintained that 

 the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father, 

 and not from the Father and Son. 



They admitted no images of saints in their 

 churches, where the Holy Cross alone was to be seen. 



TiiEY had only three Sacraments, Baptism, 

 Eucharist, and the Orders ; and would not ad- 

 mit trausubstantiation in the manner the Roman 

 Catholics do. They kne^v nothing of purgator}', and 

 the saiiits they said were not admitted to the pre- 

 sence of GOl), but were kept in a third place till 

 the day of judgivicr.t. 



Their priests were permitted to marry, at least 

 once in their life. Tiieir rite was the Chaldcmn or 

 Syrian^ 



They were married in the presence of their priests, 

 wlio are called Cajj'anas, and the whole ceremony 

 consisted in tying a string round the girfs neck, as 

 is the common practice of all the different casts on 

 the Malabar coa..<t. 



The 



