Their collective name is the Katariya."]
Some indications point rather to a connection of the island's Christianity
with the Jacobite or Abyssinian Church. Thus they practised circumcision,
as mentioned by Maffei in noticing the proceedings of Alboquerque at
Socotra. De Barros calls them Jacobite Christians of the Abyssinian stock.
Barbosa speaks of them as an olive-coloured people, Christian only in
name, having neither baptism nor Christian knowledge, and having for many
years lost all acquaintance with the Gospel. Andrea Corsali calls them
Christian shepherds of Ethiopian race, like Abyssinians. They lived on
dates, milk, and butter; some rice was imported. They had churches like
mosques, but with altars in Christian fashion.
When Francis Xavier visited the island there were still distinct traces of
the Church. The people reverenced the cross, placing it on their altars,
and hanging it round their necks. Every village had its minister, whom
they called Kashis (Ar. for a Christian Presbyter), to whom they paid
tithe. No man could read. The Kashis repeated prayers antiphonetically in
a forgotten tongue, which De Barros calls Chaldee, frequently scattering
incense; a word like Alleluia often recurred. For bells they used wooden
rattles. They assembled in their churches four times a day, and held St.
Thomas in great veneration. The Kashises married, but were very
abstemious. They had two Lents, and then fasted strictly from meat, milk,
and fish.
