FALASHAS or "Jews of Abyssinia," a tribe of Hamitic stock, akin to Galla, who profess the Jewish religion and claim to be descended from the ten tribes banished from the Holy Land. An other tradition assigns them, as ancestor, Menelek, Solomon's alleged son by the queen of Sheba. It is uncertain when they be came Jews : one account suggests in Solomon's time ; another, at the Babylonian captivity; a third, during the 1st century of the Christian era. One of the earlier dates is in all probability correct since the Falashas know nothing of either the Babylonian or Jerusalem Talmud, make no use of phylacteries (te fillin), and observe neither the feast of Purim nor the dedication of the tem ple. They possess—not in Hebrew, of which they are altogether ignorant, but in Ethiopic (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, etc. ; 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 synagogue. 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 has been deified, and, as the goddess Sanbat, re ceives adoration and sacrifice and is said to have ten thousand times ten thousand angels to wait on her commands.
Under the monastic system, founded 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. Priests are allowed to marry once only, and no one is admitted into the order who has eaten bread with a Christian, or is the son or grand son 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 boys. Fasts, obligatory on all above seven years of age, are held on every Monday and Thursday, on every new moon and at the passover (April 21 or 22). The annual festivals are the passover, the harvest feast, the Baala Mazalat or feast of taber nacles (during which, however, no booths are built), the day of covenant or assembly and Abraham's day. It is believed that after death the soul remains in a place of darkness till the third day, when the first sacrifice for the dead is offered ; prayers are read in the synagogue for the repose of the departed, and for seven days a formal lament takes place every morning in his house. No coffins are used, and a stone vault is built over the corpse so that it may not come into direct contact with the earth.
The Falashas live for the most part in villages of their own, or, if settled in a Christian or Mohammedan town, occupy a separate quarter. Their own kings, they pretend, were descended from David, but in 1800, the royal race became extinct, and they then became subject to the Abyssinian kingdom of Tigre. They do not mix with the Abyssinians, and never marry women of alien re ligions. They are even forbidden to enter the houses of Chris tians, and from such a pollution have to be purified before entering their own houses. Polygamy is not practised; early marriages are rare and their morals are generally better than those of their Christian masters. They have no liking for trade, but are skilled in agriculture, in the manufacture of pottery, ironware and cloth and are good masons.