ABYSSINIAN JEWS

Evening Star, Issue 20129, 20 March 1929, Page 11

ABYSSINIAN JEWS

It would bo in I cresting lo know bow (he recent coronation festivities, which placed the sill mysterious empire of Abyssinia m Hie limelight, are affertng a certain strange tribe of mountaineers in what was once pari of Hie kingdom of .Slioah, in (be north of the Negus's country (says a correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph’). These tribesmen, Fa lashes, as they call themselves, are, according to I heir own profession, .Jews —the only Jewish mountaineers known on earth. They have the typical Jewish appearance physically, but none of the conventional habits or attributes. Neither they nor their ancestors have ever engaged in trade, being hunters and trappers who rarely mingle with the Abyssinians proper in the towns and villages of the lowland. They perform a rude imitation of the ancient Palestinian Passover ceremonies, otherwise they have neither priest nor temple. In the fastnesses of thcr mountains, however, they preserve in a quaint teak-wood casket a venerable parchment copy of (he Pentateuch, which (heir head men allege came down to fh.em direct from King Solo mon through (he Queen of Sheba. Prob ably these people’s ancestors at one lime intermarried with Palestinian Jews, and have handed down certain. Semitic attributes to (her modern representatives.