FAL'ASIIAS (i.e., Exiles), the degenerate Jews of Abyssinia, found in considerable numbers in the provinces w. of Takazze. It is doubtful whether they are to be ethnologically identified with the seed'of Abraham, or regarded, like the Khazars of the 8tn c., as, for the most part, mere proselytes to Judaism. As to the date 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 son Menelek by the queen of Sheba, another to the time of the Babylonian captivity. and a third only to the 1st c. of the Christian cra. That one or the 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 Talmud, make no use of the tephilin, and observe neither the feast of Purim nor the dedication of the temple. 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 as they think from God to Moses 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 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 has 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 c. by Aba Zebra, a pious man who retired from the world and lived in the cave
of Iloharewa, in the province of Armatsholio„ 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 practiced by the priests, but they are not allowed to marry a second time, and no one is admitted into the order who has eaten 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 arc in repute. Education is in the hands of the monks and priests, and is given only 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 (the 21st or 22d of April). The annual festivals are the passover, the harvest feast, the Baala Mazalat or feast of the tabernacles (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 taskar or sacrifice for the dead is offered; prayers are read in the mesgeed 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 are an industrious people, living for the most part in their own villages, or, if they settle in a Christian or Mohammedan town, occupying a separate quarter. They engage in agriculture, manu facture pottery, ironware, and cloth, and are especially sought after for their skill in mason-work. Their numbers are variously estimated at from 80,000 to 200 000. [Largely from Pncyclopadia Britannica, ninth edition.]