Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/538

JEW ritual, and religious observances are the same. Their synagogues are so alike that it needs some keenness of eyesight to detect that two pictures are not of the identical building. The only great (?) difference is that the White Jews have theirs tiled with rare old blue tiles, over which newspaper correspondents wax eloquent. They say the tiles are old Dutch, but really they are genuine Chinese [blue and white Canton China], * whereby hangs a tale. The synagogue was built nearly 200 years ago in a corner of the Rājah's palace-yard. At that time, the Dutch were in possession of what is now British Cochin, and they were the only people trading with China. The Rājah, through his allies the Dutch, had imported a large quantity of the best China tiles to pave his Darbar hall, but the Jews, says Mr. Thurston, thought they would just do for the synagogue they were building, so they told the Rājah that he could not possibly use them, inasmuch as bullock's blood had been employed in their manufacture. His Highness, much perturbed at the indignity to so sacred an animal, bade them take the tiles away, and never let him see them again. Hence their presence in the synagogue. The other synagogue has tiles also, but they are of gleaming white." The synagogues, it may be added, are square whitewashed buildings, surmounted by a bell-tower. It is said that the Kadyabagan synagogue of the Black Jews is admitted by the White Jews to be the oldest at present existing, having been built in the 12th century. It is recorded by Governor Moens that "in the Jewish quarters (situated) next to the palace of the king of Cochin at Cochin de Sima there are two synagogues,