No. 36. — 1888.] THE MOOKS OF CEYLON. 



251 



The initiatory rite rendered relapse impossible, and made the 

 proselyte and his posterity true believers for ever." 



In the early part of this Paper 1 I said that about one-half 

 of the number of those whom the Ceylon Census returned 

 as Moors were " Coast Moors," that is, " Chojiyas," or, as the 

 English call them, " Lubbays." In the District of Batticaloa, 

 which is the premier district of Islam in the Island, the 

 Muhammadans call themselves " Soni," or " Choni," which 

 appears to be only another form of Choli. Indeed, Mr. Pybus, 

 who was accredited in 1762 by the Government of Madras 

 to the court of the King of Kandy, speaks of the inhabitants 

 of the Eastern Province, where he landed, as " Choliyars and 

 Malabars." He evidently believed that all those whom we 

 call Moors were " Choliya," for he says : — " Such trade as the 

 Island affords (exclusive, I mean, of what the Dutch reserve 

 to themselves) is carried on by Choliyars, of whom there are 

 great numbers at all the principal settlements belonging to 

 the Dutch and along the sea-coast ; many at Candia and 

 others interspersed in villages in different parts of the 

 country." 2 



We are now in a position to deal with the question 

 whether the " Ceylon Moors " have a history different from 

 that of the " Choliyas " (" Lebbes," " Coast Moors ") which 

 I have just outlined. In the Transactions of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society Sir Alexander Johnston says : — " The first 

 Muhammadans who settled in Ceylon were, according to the 

 tradition which prevails among their descendants, a portion 

 of those Arabs of the house of Hashim who were driven from 

 Arabia in the early part of the eighth century by the tyranny 

 of the Caliph Abd-al-melek Ben Merwan, and who, proceed- 

 ing from the Euphrates southward, made settlements in the 

 Concan, in the southern parts of the peninsula of India, on 

 the Island of Ceylon, and at Malacca. The division of them 

 which came to Ceylon formed eight considerable settlements 



See p. 241. 



49—89 



2 Mission to the King of Kandy, pp. 36 and 41. 



D 



