Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/11

 ENCYCLOPEDIA BEITANNICA F AL-F AL FALABA, a town of West Africa, about 190 miles N.W. of Freetown in Sierra Leone, at the foot of the Kon- koclugor, and on the Fala river, a tributary of the Little Scar- cies. It was founded by the Sulinias, who revolted from the Mahometan Foulas, and its warlike inhabitants soon attained supremacy over the neighbouring villages and country. The defences consist of a lofty stockade, and a moat about 20 feet deep and as many in breadth. From a distance the town appears like a grove of silk-cotton trees, and only at intervals are the brown roofs seen peering through the foliage. Major Laiug about 1823 estimated the number of huts at about 4000. They are arranged in clusters round squares or court-yards, and though only built of clay are neat and even elegant. Winwood Reade, who was detained in the town during his Niger journey in 1869, has given a graphic description of life in Falaba in his African Sketch Jiouk, vol. ii., 1873. See also Laing, Travels in W. Africa. 1825. FALAISE, a town of France, the capital of an arron- dissement in the department of Calvados, is situated on the right bank of the Ante, 21 miles S. by E. of Caen. It was formerly a place of some strength, and is still surrounded by old walls. The principal object of in terest is the castle, now partly in ruins, but formerly the seat of the dukes of Normandy, and the birthplace of William the Conqueror. Near the castle, in the Place de la Trinite, is an equestrian statue in bronze of William the Conqueror, by Louis Rodel. Falaise has two large and populous suburbs, one of which, Guibray, rivals in size and importance the town itself, and is celebrated for its annual fair, which lasts from 10th to 25th August. The town contains a town-hall, a hospital, a theatre, several ancient churches, and a public library. The manufactures are chiefly cotton goods, hosiery, leather, and paper. The population in 1872 was 7749. FALASHAS (i.e., Exiles), the degenerate Jews of Abys sinia, found in considerable numbers in the provinces west of Takazze, namely, Semien, Wogara, Armatshoho, Walkait, Tchelga, Dembca, Tenkel,Dagusa, Alafa, Kunsula, Aschafer, Agarv-Medcr, and Quara. It is doubtful whether they are to be ethnologically identified with the seed of Abraham, or regarded, like the Khazars of the 8th century, as, for the most part, mere proselytes to Judaism. As to the date 007 when the race or the religion was introduced there is no authentic information, one account carrying it back to the days of Solomon and his hypothetical sou Menelek by the queen of Sheba, another to the time of the Babylonian captivity, and a third only to the 1st century of the Chris tian era. That one or other of the earlier dates is probably correct may be gathered from the fact that the Falashas know nothing of either the Babylonian or Jerusalem Tal mud, make no use of the tepfiilin, and observe neither the feast of Purim nor the dedication of the temple. They pos- sesS not in Hebrew, of which they are altogether ignorant, but in Ethiopia (or Geez) the canonical and apocryphal books of the Old Testament; a volume of extracts from the Pentateuch, with comments given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai ; the Te-e-sa-sa Sanbat, or laws of the Sabbath; the Ardit, a book of secrets revealed to twelve saints, which is used as a charm against disease ; lives of Abraham, Moses, &c. ; and a translation of Josephus called Sana Aihud. A copy of the Orit or Mosaic law is kept in the holy of holies in every mesgeed or synagogue. Various pagan observances are mingled in their ritual : every newly- built house is considered uninhabitable till the blood of a sheep or fowl has been spilt in it ; a woman guilty of a breach of chastity has to undergo purification by leaping into a flaming fire ; the Sabbath Las been deified and, as the goddess Sanbat, receives adoration and sacrifice, and is said to have ten thousand times ten thousand angels to wait on her commands. There is a monastic system, introduced it is said in the 4th century A.D. by Aba Zebra, a pious man who retired from the world and lived in the cave of Hoharewa, in the province of Armatshoho. The monks must prepare all their food with their own hands, and no lay person, male or female, may enter their houses. Celibacy is not practised by the priests, but they are not allowed to marry a second time, and no one is admitted into the order who has eaten bread with a Christian, or is the son or grandson of a man thus contaminated. Belief in the evil eye or shadow is universal, and spirit-raisers, soothsayers, and rain-doctors are in repute. Education is in the hands of the monks and priests, and is confined to bop. Fasts, obligatory on all above seven years of age, are held on every Monday and Thursday, on every new moon, and at the pass- over (the 21st or 22d of April). The annual festivals aro IX. i