sentences:  Although the Essenic society was divided into four strictly hierarchic orders, they rebelled against the establishment, lived a radically communal life, kept a vegetarian diet and supported themselves by manual labor, usually agricultural.New initiates to Essenism took some vows, including an oath not to force personal views or authority on others.Eldad ha-Dani was a merchant and traveler of the ninth century, who professed to have been a citizen of an "independent Jewish state" in eastern Africa, inhabited by people claiming descent from the tribes of Dan (hence his name, "ha-Dani" = "the Danite"), Asher, Gad, and Naphtali.