5. Contributions to the History and Ethnology of 
North-Eastern Iridia—III ! 
By H. E. Srar.eron, 1.8.8., Special Officer, Dacca University. 
THE ORIGIN OF THE CATHOLIC CHRISTIANS OF 
EASTERN BENGAL 
(Together with an Appendix on the History of the aman 
in Eastern ug by the late Dr. JAMES 3 
il Surgeon of Dacca). 
(Plates 1 and 2). 
Little hitherto peppeges fp to have been published regarding 
the origin of the holic Christians in Eastern Bengal who 
bear Portuguese names, and Dr. Wise’s researches on the sub- 
ject have, up to now, only bere available in the extremely 
rare volume entitled ‘‘ Notes on the Races, Castes, and Trades 
of Eastern Bengal.” of which twelve copies were privately print- 
ed in London in 1883. Owing to the fact that these Firingis (as 
they are called by their Hindu and Muhammadan neighbours) 
bear Portuguese names. it is generally supposed that they are 
descended from the Portuguese pirates who infested the Delta 
of the Ganges in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Portuguese 
annals constantly refer, however. to the baptism of Indians 
Lats Portuguese names, and it is noteworthy, as I pointed 
out in 1907 in a Monograph published in the Quinquennial 
aici on Education for Eastern Bengal and Assam, that 
their own priests do not regard these Christians as anything 
else but Indians. They speak usually nothing but Bengali ; 
they are indistinguishable from Bengalis in dress and means 
of livelihood ; and until quite recently they made no claim to 
be of Portuguese descent. The following notes on the names 
in common use amongst them attempt to deal with the sub- 
ject from a point of view which, I believe, has not hitherto 
been discussed. 
uring a visit in 1913 to a school for these eee? 
children that is attached to the Portuguese church at 
abaid (locally pronounced Hashnabad) in the Ravabgant 
Thana of Dacca District, I was struck, firstly, by the absence 


second paper in this series is to be found in J.A S.B., Vol. | 
vi (1910), ries 619-648. th internal evidence will suggest to the reader 
the materials of the present paper were chiefly collected before the war 
but the enforced delay i 0 ite publiantion has enabled much further infor- 
mation to be incorporated, especially in the historical portions of the 
writer’s own paper and in the notes to Dr. Wise’s account of the Portu- 
