INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 17 



Mussalman tribe, composed of immigrants from Arabia, 

 or the descendants of Hindus possibly converted by their 

 conquerors to Islam. The divisions are each under their 

 own chief, who is hereditary, and his business is to settle 

 caste disputes and other trifling matters, also to conduct 

 the religious ceremonies connected with marriages and 

 deaths. In Bombay, as in the Deccan and Carnatic, they 

 claim to be a sub-division of the Mahrattas ; while in the 

 Madras Presidency, headmen to the fishing castes exist ; in 

 some localities they are hereditary, in others elective ; or, 

 should there be no headmen, matters are laid before certain 

 wealthy individuals of their own caste, whose decision is 

 final. In places where the fishermen are native Christians, 

 the priest is frequently appealed to in order to settle such 

 disputes as arise. 



In olden times the fishing castes were commanded by 

 their own chiefs, who appear to have been constantly ready 

 to engage in military expeditions. The Samorin, in 15 13, 

 sent a deputation to Portugal, and his ambassador, who 

 turned Christian, was knighted, under the name of "John 

 of the Cross," by John III. On his return to Malabar, he 

 was banished from the Samorin's court, as a renegade from 

 the faith of his fathers. In 1532 he joined the fishermen, 

 by whom he appears to have been installed as their chief, 

 as he headed a deputation of eighty-five of them to Cochin, 

 soliciting the assistance of the Portuguese against the Ma- 

 homedans. The whole of the embassy are said to have 

 become converts to the truths of Christianity, so a Portu- 

 guese fleet was sent to their relief, and 20,000 are reputed 

 to have immediately consented to be baptized. Ten years 

 subsequently, Xavier instituted a church for these people. 



It appears probable that the present organisation of the 

 fishing classes is the remains of some ancient system, for 



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