1922.] History and Ethnology of N. E India. 37 
Badar, one of the Patron saints of boatmen, whose shrine is 
at Chittagong). The man’s mother was so fair that she was 
ey called Rani. Jamail is a corruption of the Musal- 
name Jamal. 
sgn sixty items appear to show fairly sscaanenrat that in 
the great majority of instances the Christians of Hashnabad 
are not descended from Portuguese at all but are merely con- 
verts from Hinduism and Islam. Additional proof of this is 
afforded by the fact that all the Christians near Hashnabad 
belong to one or other of four sub-castes between which little 
intermarriage has hitherto taken place. These, in approximate 
order of social standing, are :— 
(1) CHAsHa ( cultivators ) ; 
(2) JoLA or JoLAHA ( weavers 
(3) NrKkA (descendants of a ‘chattel widow ) ; 
(4) CHardt (Chandals, who now call themselves 
Namasudras). 
The first two chiefly claim to he of Mussalman descent 
though some of the Jola class are known to have been Hindu 
in origin. Father Altenhofen informed me in 1913 that the 
proportion of Musalman to Hindu Feringis at Hashnabad and 
the neighbouring Dacca Mission station of Golla is roughly 3 to 
1. Though in no way superior in character to the Christians of 
Hindu descent, the Musalman Chasha Christians consider them- 
selves much superior in social status and only for a third or — 
fourth marriage, if no other woman can be obtained, will one 
of them condescend to marry a Hindu Chasha Christian. Jolas 
marry ia more frequently with Charal Feringis ; but absolute- 
ly arriage is said to occur between the Nikas and other 
Christian castes. The name Chasha suggests that even this 
class may have been originally Chasi Kaibartta (the Hindu 
caste which now prefers to call itself Mahishya ) and that before 
Hashnabad Kaibarttas became Christian there was an inter- 
mediate stage of Muhammadanism. The inclusion of persons 
of both Musalman and Hindu descent among the Christian 
Jolas also points to the accuracy of Dr. Wise’s remark that 
even the Muhammadan Jolahas were probably once low caste 
Hindus, though the classification adopted by the Hashnabad 
Christians seem to indicate that their original caste must have 
been of somewhat higher status than Namasudras 
All this tends to support the evidences of hist ory it 
affirming that the Portuguese missionaries of the 16th and 17th 
centuries did not chiefly deal, as Dr. Wise seems to have con- 
cluded, with the descendants of Portuguese, but dist their main 
work was to minister to converts from both the Muhammadan 
and Hindu fold. Prior to the advent of the British, Musalman 
converts were compelled to remain ‘ Hidden Christians,’ as 
open conversion involved the capital penalty both for convert 
