NAO-AIT, a small unwarlike race, who, but for a slightly zanthous tinge, would have an almost English fairness. They are called Nao-ait, new comers, and arc said to have emigrated from Arabia about 300 years ago, and are now' to be found in considerable numbers in Southern India. They are slender, fair men, with very fair, hand some women, and are engaged in civil avocations, never becoming soldiers. Their history is vari ously given. But the term is literally new-corners. They are supposed to be of Persian origin. But in the beginning of the 8th century, the governor of Sink drove some members of the house of Hashina into exile. They embarked with their families and effects, in the Persian Gulf, and lauded some on the west side of the Peninsula of India, in the Konkan, and others to the eastward of Cape Comorin. The descendants of the former are the Nao-aits, and those of the latter the Labbai. The Labbai thus claim a common
origin with the Nao-aits, though their colour and other physical features are not Persian but Assyrian. This supports the account of the Nao aits, who maintain that the Labbai are descend ants of their domestic slaves. By avoiding marriages with the Indians, and even with the highest Muhammadan families, the Nao-aits have pre served the original purity of their blood, and there are still some amongst them with corn plexious as fair as those of Englishmen. They were famed, at the Muhammadan courts of the Carnatic, for uniting the qualities of the soldier and the gentleman. In the present day the Nao-ait are a class engaged in civil life. The Nao ait, the Labbai, the Moplah of Southern India, the Moormen of Ceylon, and the Arab settlers of Sumatra, are direct from Arabia and Persia.