Burton, Richard Francis: Goa, and the blue mountains: or, six months of sick leave (London, 1851)

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GOA AND THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.

CHAPTER XIII.

the moslem and other natives of malabar.

We are informed by the Moslem historians that
their faith spread wide and took deep root in
the southern parts of Western India, principally
in consequence of the extensive immigration of
Arabs. It may be observed that the same cause
which provided the Hindoos with serfs, supplied
the stranger with proselytes : a Rajah would often,
when in want of money, dispose of his outcastes
to the Faithful, who, in such cases, seldom failed
to make converts of their purchasers.

The Moplahs, or Mapillahs,*—the Moslem in-
habitants of Malabar—are a mixed breed, sprung

* There are three different derivations of this word. Some
deduce it from the pure Hindostani and corrupted Sanscrit
word ma (a mother), and the Tamul pilla (a son), ".sons of
their mothers," the male progenitor being unknown. Others
suppose it to be a compound of mukkul (a daughter) and pilla
(a son), " a daughter's son," also an allusion to their origin.