Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/669

 EAFIRISTAN

591

KAFIRS

the place of the second, etc. ; (2) the Gemalriah (Gr. 7<^- €TpIo), which consists in the use of the numerical values of the letters of a word for purposes of compari- son with other words, which give the same or similai combinations of numbers: thus in Gen., xlix, 10, "Shiloh come" is equivalent to 358, which is also the numerical value of Mashiah, whence it is inferred that Shiloh is identical with Messias; (3) the N otarikon (Lat. nolariiis), or process of reconstructing a word by using the initials of many, or a sentence bj' using all the let- ters of a single word as so many initials of other words; for instance, the word Agla is formed from the initials of the Hebrew sentence: "Thou(art) (a) Mighty (God) forever." The theurgical, or last cliief element of the "Zohar", needs no long description here. It forms part of what has been called the practical Kabbala, and supplies formulas by means of which the adept can enter into direct commimication with in- visible powers and thereby exercise authority over demons, nature, diseases, etc. To a large extent it is the natural outcome of the extraordinary hidden meaning ascriijed by the Kal>bala to the words of the Sacred Text, and in particular to the Divine names.

Of course, the " Book of Creation " does not go back to Abraham, as has been claimed by many Kabbal- ists. Its ascription by others to Rabbi Akiba (d. A. D. 120) is also a matter of controversy. With regard to the " Zohar ", its compilation is justly referred to a Spanish Jew, Moses of Leon (d. 1305), while some of its elements seem to be of a much greater antiquity. Sev- eral of itsdoctrines recall to mind those of Pythagoras, Plato, -\ristotle, the neo-Platonists of Alexandria, the Oriental or Egyptian Pantheists, and the Gnostics of the earliest Christian ages. Its speculations concern- ing God's nature and relation to the universe differ materially from the teachings of Revelation. Finally, it has decidedly no right to be consitlered as an excellent means to induce the Jews to receive Chris- tianity, although this has been maintained by such Christian scholars as R. Lully, Pico della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Knorr von Rosenroth, etc., and although such prominent Jewish Kabbalists as Riccio, Con- rad, Otto, Rittangel, Jacob Franck, etc., have em- braced the Christian Faith, and proclaimed in their works the great affinity of some doctrines of the Kabbala with those of Christianity.

Kalisch, The Book of Creation, text and tr. (New York, 1877): Edersheim. Booh of Creation, Eng. tr. in Life and Times of Jesus, II (New York. 1884); von Rosenroth, Kabbala Denu- data, I (Sulzhach, 1677). II (Frankfort, 1684). The latest edi- tion of the Zohar appeared at Brody (3 vols., 1873). Consult Frank. La Kabbale (2nd ed., Paris, 1889); Joel, Midrash Ha~ Zohar (Leipzig, 1S49); Drach. /^a Cabale des Hebrenx (Rome, 1864): GiNSBURo, The Kabbalah (London, 1865): Ide.m in Diet. Christ. Biog., s. v. Cabbalah; Bloch, Gesch. der Entwicklung der Kabbala (Triest, 1894): Karppe, Etude sur les Orii/ines et la Nature du Zohar (Paris, 1901); Flugel, Philosophie, Quabbala, und Vedanla (Baltimore, 1902): Kohler and Ginzberg in Jewish Encyclop., Ill (New York, 1902), s. v. Cabala: Bischoff, Die Kabbalah (Leipzig, 1903); Bareille in Vacant and M.angenot, Diet, de Thcologie Catholiquc (Paris, 1905),s. V. Cad'i/c.

Fhancis E. Gigot.

Kafiristan and Kashmir, Prefecture Apostolic OF, created (1SS7) by Leo XIII in the extreme North of India. As regards India proper, the district was, prior to 1887, part of the Capuchin Diocese of Lahore. In that year it was confided to the Fathers of the Eng- lish Foreign Missions (Mill Hill). The Prefecture in- cludes some of the most important British military stations of Northern India, Peshawur at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, Nowshera and Rawalpindi, the latter place being the array headquarters of the lieutenant- general commanding the N'orthern .\rmy in India. Rawalpindi is also the residence of the Prefect Apos- tolic, the Very Rev. Dominic Wagner, nominated 13 March, 1900. He was born in 18(53 in Friesland and ordained in Salford Cathedral by Cardinal Vaughan in February, 1889. He was educated at the Jesuit Col- lege of Culemburg in Holland and at St. Joseph's For-

eign Missionary College, Mill Hill, London. In the prefecture there are two important convents: the first is at Murree in the charge of the nuns of the Con- gregation of Jesus and Marj'. This institution com- prises a boarding school for young ladies, a military orphanage, and a day school for outsiders. The other convent is situated at Rawalpindi, and is in charge of the Presentation nuns. They have recently received a number of new postulants from Ireland and hope to found a convent in Kashmir. They will also help Doctor Elizaljeth Bielliy, who under the guidance of the prefect Apostolic, is about to open (1909) a Cath- olic hospital for the native women and children of Northern India. At Baramulla, in Kashmir, Father Simon, assisted by a staff of twelve lay teachers, con- ducts an important school for native Kashmir bo.ys. The pupils number three hundred. The prefecture comprises about fifteen million inhabitants. Twelve million five hundred thousanrl of these are Mohamme- dans, two million are Hintloos, five hundred thousand are Buddhists and about five thousand are Catholics. J. A. Cunningham.

Kafirs, a term popularly applied to nearly all the natives of South Africa. It was originally imposed by the Arab traders of the East coast, and means " vmbeliever". The natives do not use the word, but distinguish themselves by the names of their many tribes. Even in legal phraseology there is some con- fusion; but the following is a serviceable list of the native races of South Africa as known to the law; Kafir, Zulu, Basuto, Bechuana, Pondo, Fingo, Gri- qua, Damara, Koranna, Bushman, and Hottentot. ■The almost universal language of the South African natives is the Bantu, of which the Kafir group has four subdivisions, Xo.sa, Zulu, Tabele, Mfcngu. It is likely that many of the tribes evangelized by the Jesuits and Dominicans from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries were the ancestors of our Kafirs. when the CathoUc missionaries were driven out, the native converts could not stand alone, and relapsed into barbarism, although individuals had risen high in the scale of civilization. The terrible Zulu chief Chaka carried on an aggressive war against the other tribes, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and over a million are said to have perished. Thence untQ 1879 came a series of wars between the Kafirs and the British or Dutch. To-day there are, south of the Zambesi, some five million natives, chiefly Kafirs. In Cape Colony, the state which has the largest European population, Europeans are to non- Europeans as 100 to 316. The greatest number of Kafirs occupy the land by tribal or communal tenure, under their own laws and the suzerainty of Great Britain. Some are squatters on private or govern- ment lands. There are also mission locations and labour locations. A few have individual titles to land, and some are scattered as servants among the whites. In Cape Colony there are about 5500 regis- tered voters out of a total of about twenty thousand non-European voters. In the other South African states the native voter is a neghgible quantity.

The importance of missionary work among the Kafirs may be gauged from the following remarkable words of the Native Commission, 1903-5, appointed by all the South African States: "The commission considers . . . that no merely secular system of morality that might be applied would serve to raise the native's ideal of conduct, or to counteract the evil influences that have been alluded to, and is of opinion that hope for the elevation of the native races must depend mainly on their acceptance of Chri.stian faith and morals." The triljal system is in many ways an impediment to missionary enterprise, but it is a safeguard against political combination. The native is incapable of being a moderate drinker, and abolition is the policy in all native reserves. Polyg-