The Brahmans, Nairs, and Tiars are well proportioned, handsome, and of olive com plexion. The Mohammedans, called Moplays, are about one-fourth of the populaiion, and are descendants of Hindu mothers and Arab fathers who settled in 3lalabar in the 7th or 8th century. The aboriginal natives generally live in separate houses, surrounded with gardens; but the villages are the work of foreigners, the houses being built of mud, neatly smoothed, and whitewashed or painted. The chief towns are Calicut, Telliehery, Cananare, and Ponauy. Beypoor, 7 rn. s. of Calicut, where Gama landed in 1498, is connected by a railway with Madras. The Portuguese then settled in Malabar, and the Dutch in 1663. The original name for 3Ialabar in Sanskrit was Kevala. It is supposed that Malabar was very early conquered by a king from beyond the Ghauts, and that the Nairs were established there by the conqueror or brought in by the Brahmans as a militaq body to support the government; that in time they obtained settlements, and the chiefs became rajahs who governed the country like independent princes, until the invasion of Hyder Ali in 1763. He conquered and plundered the country, and expelled all the rajahs except those who submitted to him. In 1782 he appointed a deputy who made further progress in subduing and settling the country. In 1788 his son Tippoo proposed to the
Hindus to accept the faith of the prophet, and began to levy large contributions on them, eompelling many Brahmans, Nairs, and others to be circumcised. This produced a rebellion which his vizor soon suppressed. When the war broke out between Tippoo and the English in 1790, the rebellious rajahs and Nairs, who had fled from his persecu tion to the jungles, joined the British army, and Tippoo was driven from the country. In 1803 Malabar was incorporated in the 3fadras presidency. Christianity early made considerable progress in this part of India. The Nestorians established churches there in the 5th or 6th century. Wheu the Portuguese landed in 1500 they found not only a Christian king, but a large body of professing Christians, and upwards of 100 churches. Buchanan at his visit in 1807 found 44 churches. The Romanists from Goa established themselves here in the beginning of the 16th century, The whole number of Christians on the Malabar coast, including the Nestorians or Syrians at the present time, is com puted at 200.000. There are also about 30,000 Jews. The population in 1850 was 1,514,909. The country is tranquil and `prosperous.