The Moplahs being now deprived of their old occupation, have addicted themselves, in some places, to gang-robbery and smuggling. The principal contraband articles are tobacco and salt, both of which are government monopolies.[125] To strengthen their bands, they will associate to themselves small bodies of Nairs and villains of the lowest Hindoo castes, who shrink from no species of cruelty and outrage. But, generally speaking, especially in the quieter districts of Malabar, the Moplahs and the Nairs are on terms of deadly enmity. The idolaters, who have been taught to hate the Faithful by many a deed of blood, would always act willingly against them, provided that our rulers would ensure subsistence to their families, according to the ancient custom of the country.[126] Both are equally bigoted, violent, and fond of the knife. In few parts of the world there are more deadly feuds than in this province; and whenever a Nair is killed by a Moplah, or vice versâ, the relations will steep a cloth in the dead man’s blood, and vow never to lose sight of it till they have taken revenge upon the murderer.
Near the coast, the Moplahs are a thriving race of traders, crafty, industrious, and somewhat refined by the influence of wealth. Those of the interior cultivate rice and garden lands. Some few of the latter traffic, but as they do not possess the opportunities of commerce enjoyed by their maritime brethren, their habitations and warehouses are not so comfortable, substantial, and spacious. Both of them have a widely diffused bad name. Among the people of Southern India generally, the word Moplah is synonymous with thief and rascal. All are equally celebrated for parsimony, a Hindoo, as well as an Arab, quality, and for rigid observance of their religious rites and ceremonies. The desire of gaining proselytes is one of their ruling passions; consequently Islam is steadily extending itself. The zeal of its followers is well supported by their means, and the willingness with which they admit new converts, even of the lowest and most despised classes, to perfect social equality with themselves, offers irresistible attractions to many wretched outcastes of Hinduism. They transgress the more laudable ordinances of their faith, and yet cling fondly to its worse spirit. They will indulge to excess in the forbidden pleasures of distilled waters and intoxicating drugs, in immorality and depravity; at the same time they never hesitate to protect a criminal of their own creed, and, to save him, would gladly perjure themselves, in the belief that, under such circumstances, false oaths and testimony are not only justifiable, but meritorious in a religious point of view.[127]
The faith professed by the Moplahs is the Shafei form of Islam. All their priests and teachers are of the same persuasion; and such is their besotted bigotry, that they would as willingly persecute a Hanafi[128] Moslem as the Sunni of most Mussulman countries would martyr a heretic or schismatic. No Sheah dare own his tenets in Malabar. We doubt whether the mighty hand of British law would avail to save from destruction any one who had the audacity to curse Omar or Usman at Calicut. They carefully cultivate the classical and religious branches of study, such as Sarf o Nahv, grammar, and syntax; Mantik, or logic; Hadis, the traditions of the Prophet; and Karaat, or the chaunting of the Koran. They seldom know Persian; but as they begin the Arabic language almost as soon as they can speak, and often enjoy the advantage of Arab instructors, their critical knowledge of it is extensive, and their pronunciation good. The vernacular dialect of the Moplah is the Malayalim, into which, for the benefit of the unlearned, many sacred books have been translated. The higher classes are instructed by private tutors, and appear to be unusually well educated. The priest has charge of the lower orders, and little can be said in praise of the schoolmaster or the scholar.
As regards testaments and the law of inheritance, the Moplahs have generally adhered to the Koran; in some families, however, the succession is by nephews, as amongst the Nairs.[129] This custom is palpably of Pagan origin, like many of the heterogeneous practices grafted by the Mussulmans of India upon the purer faith of their forefathers. Of course they excuse it by tradition. When Cherooman Rajah, they say, became a convert to Islam, and was summoned by Allah in a vision to Mecca, he asked his wife’s permission to take his only son with him. She refused. The ruler’s sister then offered to send her child under his charge. The Rajah adopted the youth, and upon his return from the Holy City he instituted the custom of murroo-muka-tayum, in order to commemorate the introduction of Islam into the land of the Infidel.
The Mokawars, Mokurs, or as we call them, the Mucwars, are an amphibious race of beings, half fishermen, half labourers:[130] generally speaking Moslems, sometimes Hindoos. Very slight is the line of demarcation drawn between them, and they display little or no fanaticism. It is common for one or two individuals in a family to become Poothoo Islam, or converts to the faith of Mohammed, and yet to eat, sleep, and associate with the other members of the household as before.[131]
In appearance these fishermen are an uncommonly ill-favoured race; dark, with ugly features, and forms which a developist would pronounce to be little removed from the original orang-outang. Their characters, in some points, show to advantage, when contrasted with those of their superiors—the Nairs and Moplahs. They are said to be industrious, peaceful, and as honest as can be expected. A Mucwa village is usually built close to the sea; the material of its domiciles consisting of wattle or matting, roofed over with thatch; the whole burned to blackness by the joint influence of sun, rain, wind, and spray.
Servitude amongst the Moslems partook more of the nature of social fraternity, and was dissimilar in very essential points, to that of the Hindoos. The slaves were always domestic, never prædial: instead of inhabiting miserable huts built in the centre of the paddy fields, they lived in the houses of their proprietors. They were efficiently protected by law, for in case of ill-treatment, duly proved before the Kazee, the complainant was either manumitted or sold to some other master, and so far from being considered impure outcastes, they often rose to confidential stations in the family. This is the case generally throughout the Moslem world.