eares but no rings on their fingers Both men and women weare long garments with wide sleeues The men weare shooes of silke with curious workes and knots none weares of leather but the basest yea their soles they make of cloth The learned men weare square caps or hats others round They bestow long time euery morning in trimming their haire They vse no shirts but weare their inmost garment of white cloth and vse often washing They haue visants or vmbrellas to keepe off the sunne or raine borne ouer them by their seruants the poorer carrie them of lesse forme themselues The generall colour of the Chinois is white more or lesse according to the climate Their beard is thin long before it comes of a few staring haires in some none noses little scarse standing forth eyes prominent blacke little of egge-fashion many dreames they had of Pantogia's eyes of a darke gray colour as if iewels and precious things might thereby be knowne where they were hidden their eares are small If they would paint a deformed man they giue him a short garment great eyes and beard with a long nose like to vs Their custome of names is very strange The surname is ancient vnchangeable and significant of which there are not a thousand in all China The name is also significant and arbitrary at the fathers pleasure if a sonne For daughters haue no names besides the surname but are called after their age and order the sonnes also are so called by others first second or otherwise with their surname the parents onely and ancestors calling them by their names and themselues in their writings It would bee accounted an iniurie if any other should call them thereby or if he should call his father or kinsman by his name When first a childe betakes himselfe to studie his Master giues him another name which hee and his schoole-fellowes may call him by and no man else When he puts on his Mans hat and marries a wife some chiefe man giues him another name more honorable by which all men may call him but his seruants or such as are subiect to him This they call the Letter Lastly when he is of full ripe age some graue man giues him his most honorable name which they call Great and by this any one may stile him which yet his parents and elders doe not but onely by the Letter If any make profession of Religion in any of their Sects his ghostly Father or Authour of his profession giues him a new name which they call of Religion When one visits another if hee doe not write in his letter of which afterwards his honorable name or surname the Visitee askes him of it that he may call him thereby without iniurie And the Iesuites did also take to themselues in China-fashion such honorable names They are studious of Antiquities Pictures artificially drawne with inke without other colours they haue in highest price the characters also and writings of the Ancients with their Seales annexed For many will seeke to gull men with counterfeits All Magistrates haue the Seale of their office deliuered to them by Humvu which if they lose they are both depriued and punished most diligently therefore preserued carrying it with them to all places and laying it vnder their heads at night Men of good sort goe not in the streets on foot but are carried in a close chaire by foure men the curtens drawne on all parts but before to distinguish them from Magistrates whose chaires are euery way open The Matrons are also carried in chaires closed euery way by the forme easily knowne from those of Men. Coaches and Chariots the law forbids Dice and Cards are common playes in China Chesse also somewhat vnlike ours for the King goes not out of foure places next him and the two Bishops haue their Queenes two men also goe before the Knights besides the ordinary pawnes They haue another play which makes the skilfull therein well esteemed though he can doe nothing else with two hundred men some white some blacke on a table of three hundred diuisions This is vsed by the Magistrates Women goe not abroad except seldome to see their neerest kindred or some of basest condition In their offices of vrbanitie and courtesie they goe beyond all others haue many bookes thereof and reckon it one of those fiue vertues which they call Cardinall I feare to be in the relation as they in action tedious and will but salute their salutations They vncouer not the head to any nor stirre the knee or foot or vse embraces or kissing the hand Their hands are hid and ioyned in their wide sleeues except they doe some worke or with a fanne coole themselues and in salutations first lift vp both sleeues and hands aloft in a modest manner and then let them fall againe standing face to face and saying Zin Zin which word is a rituall interiection without any signification When one visits another or when friends meet in the streets they doe thus bowing also their bodies with their heads almost to the ground they call this Zo ye the inferiour placing the superiour and the visited the visitor on the right hand in the Northerne Prouinces on the left and then turne themselues both to the North. In solemner salutations on high dayes or after long absence after the first bowing they kneele and touch the ground with their forehead and then rise and doe it againe three or foure times ouer In visitations after other officious ceremonies they offer him Chia to drinke of which we haue spoken with other iunkets Except there bee great familiarity he which will salute a friend must at the doore deliuer to the seruant a letter before for his harbenger to signifie his name in modest termes and affection towards him with termes answerable to his estate He is hereby warned to prepare himselfe for entertainment clothing himselfe with apparell for that purpose as must the guest also If they were vnknowne to each other they prostrate themselues and knocke the ground diuers times with their foreheads If they send a Present they send withall a Letter contayning the Inuentorie of the things sent with termes very complementall which he must answere with another Letter of thankes and a Present of like or greater value besides a recompence to the messenger Their parting 's from each other are as full of ceremonie In their feasts they set each guest to tables one furnished with flesh and fish the other with fruits and iunkets They send a Paitre or Letter the day and sometime fiue or sixe dayes before to inuite them and he which cannot come with another Letter must excuse himselfe On the day with the first light he sends new inuitations and againe a little before the time or else his guests will not come Much curtesie is in the meeting exceeding much strayning and striuing about the place of sitting as much solemne ceremonie in eating as if they were bidden to be witnesses of their
be washed and if hee should touch his eyes hee would be blinde his eares deafe his nose dropping his mouth stinking his hand scabbed with these vnwashed and therefore venemous hands and when hee washeth he must powre water three times on his right hand and as oft on the left before one hand may touch the other hee must not bee sparing in his water for store of water store of health after the hands the mouth and face must bee washed because they were created after the Image of God and how should the name of God be vttered out of a foule mouth hee must wash ouer a bason not ouer the ground he must drie his face very well for feare of wheales and wrinkles and that with a cleane Towel not with his shirt for this would make them blockish and forgetfull After all this followeth his Brachah or blessing Blessed bee thou O God our God King of the whole world who hast commanded vs to wash our hands Their hands they must alwayes wash on these occasions in the morning at their returne from the stoole from bathing when they haue cut their nayles haue scratched their naked bodie hauing pulled off their shooes with their hands haue touched a dead bodie haue gone amongst the dead haue companied with their wiues or haue killed a louse If hee respect not washing after these if he bee learned he shall forget his learning if vnlearned he shall lose his sense §. II. Of their Zizis and Tephillim and Holy Vestments THey haue a foure-cornered garment which some put on with the rest when they rise others then when they will pray The foure cornered parts thereof are made of linnen silke tyed together with two winding bands of such length that they may draw through their head betwixt them so that those two quadrangular pieces may hang downe one on his brest the other on his backe In euery of those foure corners hangeth a labell made of white woollen threds by a little knot downewards to the ground and the same is foure or eight or twelue fingers broad These labels they call Zizis Those which are deuout weare this garment euery day vnder a long outward coat in such sort that those labels may appeare out a little so that they may alwayes see them as monitories of the Commandements of God When they put them on they praise God that hath commanded them to weare these Zizis Hee say they that keepeth duely this Precept of Zizis doth as much as if hee kept the whole Law for there are in all fiue knots compared to the fiue bookes of Moses eight threds added to them make thirteene And the word Zizis maketh sixe hundred altogether amounting to sixe hunded and thirteene the number as you haue heard of Gods Commandements They ascribe the continencie of Ioseph in Potiphars house and of Boaz when Ruth slept by him to the Zizis May it please your patience a storie out of the Talmud One Rab. Iochanan saw a boxe full of Iewels which one of his Schollers Bar-Emorai purposed to steale but was forbidden by a voyce sounding out of the ayre Let it alone Bar-Emorai for it belongeth to R. Chaninas wife which in the other world shall put into the same violet wooll to make thred for Zizis that of them the iust men there may haue their fringed garments sewed Once hee which weareth this garment without intermission is fortified against the Deuill and all euill Spirits Besides this memorable Vestment they weare a certaine knot neare their nose out of Deut. 6.8 They shall bee frontlets betweene thine eyes They make it thus They take a little blacke foure-square calfe-skin which they fold eight times that it may haue foure double folds and distinct breadths They put into these distinct Scriptures the same being fourefold of parchment These Scriptures are taken out of Exod. 13. and Deut. 6. Then take they haires out of a Cow or Calues tayle and wash them cleane and binde them about those writings of Scripture so that any one may see that they are good by the ends of them appearing out of the skin This skinne they sew with cleane and fine strings taken out of Calues or Kines bodies or made of Bulls sinewes or if such strings cannot bee had with strings of Calue-skin-parchment Then doe they sew a long and blacke thong to that thick hide or skin and knit a knot about it This piece of worke they call Tephillim to put them in minde of often prayer and tye it so about their heads that the thicke knot wherein the Scriptures are may hang betwixt the eyes After this they take another foure-cornered skin which they fold as the former and write certaine verses out of Exodus in parchment and put it into a little hollowed skinne and sew it vpon the thicke-folded skin to which they adde a long thong and call it the Tephillim of the hand This they tye to the bare skin aboue the elbow of the left arme that so that which is written may bee ouer-against the heart which may hereby be the more enflamed to prayer That long string is so fastned that it commeth to the fore-part of the hand thus fulfilling that Commandement The words which I command thee this day shall bee on thine heart and thou shalt tye them for a signe in thy hand They tye on first this Tephillim of the hand and then that of the head and make their brachah or prayer saying Blessed bee thou O God our Lord who hast sanctified vs in thy Commandements and hast commanded vs to put on Tephillim looking while hee speaketh diligently on the knot on his fore-head In folding sewing knitting and tying them they verie subtilly frame the name of God Schaddai Other their manifold ceremonies about these Tephillim I willingly omit Their sanctitie is such that he which weareth them must be pure within and without and if hee lets them fall on the ground all that shall see them so lying must fast with him one whole day they must not bee hanged vp bare but in a bagge nor may they be left in a chamber where a man and his wife lye together except in a triple chest or bagge A man must not sleepe while he hath them on nor may hee breake winde and if he haue list to the stoole he must lay them foure ells from the place of his easement or lay them against his heart in a double bagge Their women seruants and sicke folkes are free from wearing them It is sufficient for women to say Amen to their prayers And all this Moses learned in Mount Sinai §. III. Of their Schoole or Synagogue Rites and their Mattins WEE haue beene tedious in furnishing our Iew to his Mattins at Sun-rising is their houre as you haue heard but their Rabbins haue inlarged and lengthened that time to about nine of the clocke Where many of the Iewes liue together they resort at a set houre to their Synagogue Thither they must
should finde that and bee forced to burne it That which they finde they curiously couer lest some Mouse by carrying it should make them haue new worke and for this cause suppe also in a corner with great care that nothing fall to the ground When hee hath ended his search Whatsoeuer Leauen saith hee is vnder mine hands which I haue not seene let it bee tossed too and fro like the dust of the earth In the morning they make their vnleauened Cakes of meale grownd three dayes at least The kneading-trough must bee lined with Linnen lest some of the leauened Meale should cleaue thereto the goodman himselfe must draw the liquor that it is kneaded with and that at Sunne-setting The Cakes are made with as much scruple round and pricked full of holes in a cold place c. to keepe them from leauening They eate little and the first-borne nothing till night that then they may haue the better Paschall-stomacke At the Eeuen-song they obserue much-what the same ceremonies as at the Sabbath They make at home the fairest shew of their plate and riches and seate themselues on Chaires as it were of State and account now of themselues as great Lords triumphing ouer their late Aegyptian seruitude at their returne from the Synagogue they haue a Dish with three Cakes set before them representing the high Priest the Tribe of Leui and the people of Israel another Dish hath in it a loine of Lambe or Kidde with a hard Egge another containeth a Gallimawfrey of Apples Nuts Figges Almonds c. dressed with Wine in Bricke-fashion with Cinamon strewed on it in remembrance of the Aegyptian Fornace They haue also a Sallet of hearbs and a Sawcer of Vineger set on the Table Then sit they downe and euery one to the child in the Cradle hath his cup filled with wine And here with a carowse after a blessing begins the feast with a scrupulous vse of these things mentioned then followeth the supper it selfe with much riot till midnight with such cheere as they haue with diuers ceremonies cursing their enemies calling for Elias praying for the reedifying of the Temple vsing many Diuine Attributes as Mercifull God Great God Bountifull God High God Faire God Sweet God Mightie God and God of the Iewes now build thy Temple shortly very soone very soone in our dayes very soone very soone Now build now build now build now build now build thy Temple quickly Strong God liuing God c. ouer and ouer with such bartologies This night they thinke themselus secure against men and Diuels they leaue their doores open all night to entertaine Elias and one to their solace playeth Elias in a white linnen garment Each man drinketh foure cups full of the blessed wine in regard of foure deliuerances which the Rabbins finde in Exod. 6. ver 6 7. The ceremonies of Moses they are not yet tyed to forsooth because they are not in Canaan In the morning they visit the Synagogue with their Sabbath-rites They bring two Bookes out of the Arke and call forth fiue men and if this feast be on the Sabbath seuen to reade out of the same Nice are their determinations what workes they may doe on this day and what not they may dresse no more meat then is this day eaten If they beate spice the morter must lie side-wise for distinctions sake of the day c. fasting and weeping must be auoided if any farse a Hen the needle must be threeded the day before and the threed must be burned not bitten or broken asunder In such trifles the Schoole of Schammai licenseth to eate the same day an Egge laide on a festiuall day Hillel denies it and betwixt them they haue set the Rabbins by the eares in this such profane questions Their Eeuen-song hath a short dispatch and then the next day they reiterate the same ceremonies and that for certaintie because they doubt of the first day of the moneth and therefore obserue two The foure daies following are halfe-holy daies Some workes may be done in them not some what they do to make a difference must be done otherwise as writing crooked c. that which cannot without losse be deferred may now be done The seuenth day they obserue in more complete holinesse and the eight too for the reason before alledged to be more secure of the true day After the feast ended they satisfie with fasting their feasting-riots and that on two Mundaies and one Thursday vnto the three and thirtieth day after they are sad heauy in remembrance of R. Akiba of whose Disciples foure twenty thousand died in that space and were buried by women in the night and therefore after Sunne-set all this while the women lay aside their worke on the three and thirtie day the men bath them and shaue their beards and are merrie because then his Disciples ceased dying §. II. Of Pentecost FRom the second night of their Pisach they number to their Pentecost fifty dayes inclusiuely and say Blessed be thou c. which hast sanctified vs by thy precepts and commanded vs to number the dayes before haruest of which this is the first or second c. they number the same standing praying withall for the restitution of Ierusalem They let not bloud on the Eeuen of the Pentecost because of a supposed winde Tabbach which should haue slaine all the Israelites if they had refused next day to accept of the Law They keepe it two dayes for the former doubt They take the Booke twice out of the Arke and reade there-out the precepts concerning this Feasts sacrifices now that they cannot performe the things In remembrance of receiuing the Law they strew the pauement of their houses streets and Synagogues with grasse They eate meates made of milke and cakes One Cake they make seuen times folded in thicknesse in remembrance of the seuen Heauens by which GOD descended to Mount Sinai Now they must haue good cheere because at this time the King married his daughter that is the Law vnto them §. III. Of the Feast of Tabernacles THe Feast of Tabernacles is obserued eight dayes the two first and two last more solemnely the middle foure are halfe holy They mutter ouer their prayers with such haste that hee is the perfectest who speakes most with a breath They make them Tabernacles with boughes of foure kinds of Trees more scrupulous then the Law in which they sup but doe not lodge The Praecentor in the Synagogue taketh a bundle of boughes and blesseth and shaketh them for it is written The trees shall clap their hands and mooueth them three times to the East and as often to the West and to the North and South and then vp and downe like a Fencer and then shaketh them againe as hauing now put the Diuell to flight Then one taketh out the booke and layeth it on the Pulpit which they all with their boughes compasse seuen times a day during
Hadrianople the seat Royall of the Turkes in Europe before Constantinople was won He built also besides a Palace another Temple with a most sumptuous Abbey and a publike Schoole adioyning endowing the same with great reuenues He also gaue great summes of money to be distributed yeerely at Mecca and Medina for the reliefe of poore Pilgrims Solyman erected in memoriall of Mahumet his eldest sonne a stately Tombe a sumptuous Church a Monasterie and Colledge with other things for the health of his soule He was buried himselfe in a Chappell which hee had in his life time built most stately with a Colledge and Hospitall his wife Roxolana and some of his murthered children lying intombed by him his Scimatar also hanging by him in token that hee dyed in warres which honour they grant not otherwise to their Princes The reuenues of the Country about Sigeth in Hungary lately wonne from the Christians were giuen to the maintenance of those houses which his deuotion had founded Neither is it lawfull for them to conuert any Lands to such sacred vses except they haue first with their owne sword wonne them from the enemies of their Religion the most acceptable seruice to their Prophet And therefore Selym the second sonne and successour of Solyman intended to build a Magnificent Temple and Munificent Colledge Monasterie and Almes-house at Hadrianople where hee intended his Sepulchre brake his league with the Venetians wan Cyprus from them that thence he might endow the same with maintenance But it were tedious to insist further in declaring their expences which deuotion in all Turky hath procured their Emperors and Bassaes esteeming nothing of more honor in the world or merit for heauen Let vs come to their Church-rites and Ceremonies §. III. Of their publike Prayers and Church-Rites THE Temples in Turkie are as hath beene said innumerable both publike and priuate of meaner bauildings on which is a Tower as with vs a Steeple whereupon on the Muetden or Thalisman ascendeth and it being open with Pillars or foure Windowes first he goeth to that on the East-side and calleth the people to prayer with a loud voyce stopping his eares with his hands crying There is no God but one and Mahumet his Messenger come to make prayer for remission of your sins and know that there is no stronger then the God of Mahumet his Messenger This hee saith in order on euery side of the Steeple If there be in the Citie any Moschees the Cathedrall beginneth and then all other Parishionall follow This they doe fiue times a day and on Friday their Sabbath sixe times First at Sun-rising with foure bendings to the earth and twice praying The second about noone with ten bowings and fiue prayings The third at afternoone before Sun-set with eight inclinations and foure prayings The fourth with fiue bendings and three prayings about Sun-set The fifth longer then the rest with fifteen bowings and eight prayings This bending or bowing they call Erket which is a double bowing with prostrating himselfe their prayer they call Czalamet which they make sitting after euery Erket with a salutation on the right hand and on the left and the impression or signe of peace which is done with bringing both hands ouer the face Euery Busurman is bound to resort to these their Liturgies at his Parishionall Meschit except hee haue some lawfull impediment and if not at all of them yet at least at one to be well washed for which purpose they haue innumerable Baths in Turkie fairely built nor may any enter into the Temple especially in the morning but first well washed in the Bath as is said before and if hee keepeth him not cleane the rest of the day that washing will serue but if he haue committed any carnall sinne or be any way soyled or haue eaten any vncleane thing then in some secret place he washeth his hands and armes to the elbow his hinder parts and priuities and this sufficeth without going to Bath except he be otherwise polluted For defect herein they haue inquisitions and appointed penalties respect or pardon being giuen to none that faile especially on Friday and in their Lent Such a one is carried about the Towne with a boord fastned to his necke all be-hanged with Foxe-tayles besides a penaltie according to his state in money and he that will not thus order himselfe shall not be allowed their buriall rites After they are thus washed they put off their shooes in imitation of Moses and then enter into the Meschitta where the floore is couered with Mats or Carpets nor is any other thing seene but white walls and great store of burning Lamps and in golden Arabike letters those words before mentioned There is a Pulpit on which the Choza or Focqui ascendeth and the first thing he doth is to stretch out his hands at large and then ioyning them together he kneeleth and kisseth the ground then he lifteth vp his head and stopping his eares with his hands standing a good space as it were distracted or rauished in his prayers after lifting vp his hands hee againe kisseth the ground so many times as the houre of prayer according to that former rule requireth and then lifting vp himselfe againe he stretcheth out his hands againe so standing about a quarter of an houre and againe kneeling with his mouth to the ground so continueth mouing it euery way about a Pater noster while and then lifting vp his head and setting his hands to his eares falls to his praying another quarter of an houre and then licenseth the people to depart There is no noyse heard as if there had beene nothing within Not so religious is their course and yet that religion admits it which Martin Braidenbach reporteth to be practised by them in a Moschee on Mount Sinai where Moses receiued the Law for the Saracens vse to get therein Prophets thinking the issue there gotten is holy and full of the Propheticall spirit Menauino thus describeth their Rites After their mysticall washing as before they goe with a sober pace to the Meschit not like one which runneth away and if he happen to breake winde by the way his former washing is vnsufficient and hee must returne to renue it Being assembled in the Meschit they all turne their faces Southwards and the Meizin or Muetden Clerke Sexton Priest Bell-ringer or Bell rather standeth vp and readeth that Psalme which before hee had cried to them in the steeple and euery one standeth vp holding his hands fastned to his waste and bow their heads to their feete with great reuerence and without stirring Then ariseth another Priest of another order called Imam and readeth a Psalme aloud the Meizin as his Clerke answering which being ended they fall on the ground and say Saban alla Saban alla Saban alla that is God haue mercie on vs most wretched sinners abiding prostrate till the Priest Imam singeth againe his Psalme and then they rise
Hosts ostentation to view and a little to taste his meates but after sixe houres spent in this banquet they may goe home to fill their bellies In this officious trifling the Chinois spend a great part of their liues but especially at the beginning of the new yeere fifteene dayes together and at their birth-dayes When seruants salute their Masters or the baser people their Superiors they fall on their knees and thrice touch the ground with their foreheads iust as they doe to their Idols and when the Master speakes to his seruants they stand at his side and at euery answere fall on their knees and so doe the people to the great men When one speakes to another they neuer vse the second person nor the first when they speake of themselues except Masters and Superiours to their seruants or inferiours Many formes of complementall modestie in termes they haue but the lowest to call himselfe by his proper name as we vse the pronoune I and if they speake of any they vse some more honorable name and circumlocution if of themselues some modester termes The Iesuites obserue a state and keepe within doores not easie to be spoken with because the Chinois contemne such as obserue modestie and price men by their maiestie and solemne reseruations When they send presents to each other they may without inciuility take some and refuse others they also vse to send presents in money If a man be not within when one comes with his Letter to visit they leaue the Letter at the doore to signifie his purpose and this is enough also for the visited partie when in reuisiting he findes him absent For euery one that visits must within three dayes be visited in which respect the Iesuites were forced to cause their Porter or Seruant to keepe a note of them all lest they should forget to repay these offices If one meet another which hath not on his salutatory habite he may not performe these rites till the other be vested for it for which cause their seruants attend them with these robes or else he that was attired must put off and both salute in ordinary habit In drinking the Inuiter beginnes holding vp his cup in a dish with both hands all the guests turning to him and pledging him together at once supping vp their liquor at foure or fiue times although it be water and not at one draught No bread is brought into their feasts nor Rice None are compelled to drinke more then they please The maiestie of feasts is in variety of dishes none being taken off the table that are once set on till the feast ended and then bestowed on the guests seruants Their bookes are full of precepts of obseruance to Parents and Superiours which outwardly is there performed more then in all the world besides They neuer sit in equall site or ouer-against their betters but on the lower side This the Scholers performe to their Masters speaking to them with great reuerence and if they bee poore nourishing them whiles they liue with their owne labour And when one is admitted Scholer to another the Master sits in the higher end of the Hall which is ordinarily to the North all the Temples and priuate buildings if it may be opening to the South with his countenance to the doore The Scholer comes before him and foure times bowes his body and as often kneeles downe and toucheth the ground with his forehead euer after though higher preferred sitting at his side in euery meeting although he hath beene his Scholer but one day §. V. Of the mechanicall Arts in China their Printing c. WHere Nature is so prouident of Materials Art is easily induced to triall of experiments of which we will name such as to vs seeme rarest They generally are not so curious for exquisite workmanship as to make things saleable at easier and cheaper rates where Nobilitie is wanting the Mandarines pay what they please and sometime force their employments They build for themselues not minding continuance to posteritie nor will they beleeue without much astonishment the magnificence and antiquitie of European buildings Foundations they lay not deepe vsually not at all within the earth which makes the greatest buildings short liued and their Citie walls to be often repaired The roofes of their houses euen where the walls are bricke are sustained with pillars or posts of wood and not on those walls Printing is with them of ancient vse at least fiue hundred yeeres some say more then a thousand and sixe hundred Their manner differs much from ours and is rather an expression then impression they prouide a table of Peare-tree or other smooth wood and vpon the same lightly glue the whole sheet or written copie which being dried is cunningly taken off so as the characters remayne on the same table which is p esently carued and cut with Iron instruments that nothing but the draughts or lineaments of the letters are eminent and standing vp Then with incredible celeritie and facilitie they print off the same one man sometimes fifteene hundred in one day And in cutting their tables they are so ready and expedite that one of our Composers seemes to mee as long in setting a sheet of ours as they in cutting theirs The reason is the greatnesse of their characters for so small as our letters could not easily bee engrauen in their tables This commoditie they haue that they may be layd by for as many impressions as they please and in the meane time be may print off for number of copies as he findes sale both which are wanting in our manner of printing This makes their bookes so many and so cheape and this easinesse made the Iesuites print at their owne houses what bookes they liked They haue also another way of printing An Epitaph or other copie being cut in stone or wood they lay thereon a leafe of moist paper and on the same a woollen cloth and then beat it on with a hammer till the thinne paper insinuate it selfe into the emptie spaces of the mould or forme and then lightly lay on inke or what other colouring they please so that the Epitaph or Copie remaynes in an elegant white prouided that this be vsed where there is vse of greater characters That which some hold of sleeping and burning the earth of which their Porcelane is made an hundred yeeres in the earth remouing it euery eight dayes others gainsay and our Iesuite is silent Linschoten affirmeth that the earth is naturally hard beaten small steeped often stirred and of the finest swimming in the top the finest made Painting is much vsed but not in such perfection as with vs which is true also of grauing and caruing To adorne their pictures with oyle or shadowes and landskips they know not and in statues they haue no other rule of symmetrie but the eye Their bells haue woodden clappers and seeme not able to indure Iron and therefore not comparable in sound to ours Musicall
He foretold of the Spaniards comming This Pedro Fernandez de Quiros fourteene yeeres busied himselfe to no small endamagement of his state and person about this Discouerie The length thereof he equalleth vnto all Europe and as much of Asia as thence extendeth to the Caspian Sea and for the wealth and riches he cals it a Terrestriall Paradise The Inhabitants hee affirmeth are innumerable some white some like the Mulatos and some otherwise in colour and habit of body diuersified They neither haue King nor Lawes nor Arts They are diuided and warre one vpon another with Bowes Arrowes and other weapons all of wood They haue their Oratories and places of Buriall Their Bread is made of three sorts of Roots They haue varietie of Fruits Cocos Almonds of foure sorts Pome-citrons Apples Dates there are also Swine Goats Hens Partriches and other Fowles and as the Indians report Kine and Buffals Hee saw amongst them Siluer and Pearles others added Gold and the Coast Countries seemed to promise great wealth within Land Many Riuers Sugar Canes Bayes Hauens and other commodities of Lands and Seas making shew of another China the ayre very wholesome and temperate He tooke possession thereof in the name of the King and set vp a Crosse and a Chappell in the name of the Lady of Loretto These Regions trend euen as high as the Aequinoctiall When this Discouery was made he mentioneth not onely hee sueth to the King for employment therein It is rightly called Terra Australis Incognita and therefore I will not take vpon me to be your Guide in another sense one of our Countrimen hath wittily and learnedly according to his wont described this Countrey and paralelled therewith the Countries of Europe and hath let vs see that wee are acquainted in those Coasts too much and need a Pilot or Guide to conduct vs out of them But let vs come backe to our Straits of Magellan that we may coast from thence and visit the Countries of Chili and Peru for of the Westerne borders of Chica girt in betweene the salt waues and cold Hils little can be said fitting our purpose Hauing sailed out of the Straits we haue a wide Sea before vs and on our right hand the Countrey is so barren and cold that I would not hold the Reader in any cold or tedious Narration thereof Iohn Ellis which was with Sir Richard Hawkins in his South-sea Voyage reporteth That being past the Straits they sayled North-west and by North forty leagues into the Sea and then due North till they came at Mocha in 38. degrees 30. minutes and thence held their course Northerly to Saint Maries in thirtie sixe and so to Val Paresa in thirtie three Where they made good purchase and prize if they could haue kept it From hence they came as farre as Arecca in two and twentie and so passed the Line to Tacame where they were taken But our trauell must bee by Land as was theirs after against their will where wee first encounter with Chili This name some extend euen to the Straits where we haue placed Chica and the Patagones others straiten it in shorter bounds betweene Chica on the South Charchas and Collao on the North Plata on the East and the Sea on the West it is called Chili of the chilling cold for so the word is said to signifie The Hils with their high lookes cold blasts and couetous encrochings driue it almost into the Sea onely a narrow Valley vpon lowly submission to her swelling Aduersaries obtayneth roome for fiue and twentie leagues of breadth where it is most to extend her spacious length of two hundred leagues on that shore and to withstand the Oceans furie shee payes a large tribute of many streames which yet in the Night-time shee can hardly performe the miserable Hils in their Frozen charitie not imparting that naturall bountie and dutie till that great Arbiter the Sunne ariseth and sendeth Day with his Light-horse-troupe of Sun-beames to breake vp those Icie Dungeons and Snowie Turrets wherein Night the Mountaynes Gaoler had locked the innocent Waters Once the poore Valley is so hampered betwixt the tyrannicall Meteors and Elements as that she often quaketh with feare and in these chill Feuers shaketh off and loseth her best Ornaments Arequipa one of her fairest Townes by such disaster in the yeere 1582. fell to the ground And sometimes the Neighbour Hils are infected with this Pestilent Feuer and tumble downe as dead in the Plaine thereby so amazing the fearefull Riuers that they runne quite out of their Channels to seeke new or else stand still with wonder and the motiue heate failing fall into an vncouth Tympanie their bellies swelling into spacious and standing Lakes the tydes seeing this hold backe their course and dare not approch their sometime beloued streames by diuers miles distance so that betwixt these two stooles the ships come to ground indeed The sicke Earth thus hauing her mouth stopped and her stomacke ouerlayed forceth new mouthes whence she vomiteth streames of oppressing waters I speake not of the Beasts and Men which in these Ciuill warres of Nature must needs be subiect to deuouring miserie These are the strange effects of cold and Earthquakes not strange in Chili where we are now arriued The people are fierce and cruell and some as is reported Giants Almagro one of the first Conquerours of Peru in hope of Gold passed from thence hither but was deceiued by the Indians which led him the wrong way In passing the Deserts of Chili the Aire is so piercing as before is obserued that men fall downe dead or else lose their members suddenly in manner without feeling Ierome Costilla the General one of Acostaes Acquaintance had lost three or foure toes which fel off without any paine many of his Armie dyed whose bodies at his returne he found lying there without stinke or corruption and one Boy remayned aliue which had mayntained himselfe by eating Horse-flesh The Horses also were found whole as Apollonius writeth and the men sitting on them as if they had beene aliue with the Bridles in their hand In six and thirty degrees is that famous Valley of Arauco which defend their persons and freedome maugre all the force and furie of the Spaniards These killed two of Sir Francis Drakes men and wounded himselfe they destroyed also three and twenty Hollanders of the company of Cordes both which they did in detestation of the Spaniards of whom they esteemed the English and Dutch because of their Apparell They haue destroyed many of the Spaniards they tooke the City Baldiuia in the yeere 1599. and slue the Spaniards Twice before if not oftner they had burnt and spoyled it Yea Baldiuia himselfe the first Conquerour of Chili for Almagro stayed not and of whom that Citie receiued name was taken by these Indians his Horse being slaine vnder him They bid him feare nothing hee should haue Gold enough and making
of Sects and to leaue those Hosidaean obseruants As long saith he as Supererogation onely was vsed there was no Sect in the people of GOD But when the precepts thereof were brought into Canons and committed to wrighting then arose many doubts disputations altercations growing and succeeding daily from whence sprang two Sects differing in opinion the one admitting onely the Law the other embracing the interpretations and expositions of their Rabbines The former in processe of time was diuided into two For at first the Karraim were only such as obserued the Law and the Prophets till the times of Sadok and Boethi or Baithi who first doubted of the punishment of sinnes and rewards of good works from whom sprang the heresie of the Sadduces The Karraim were not before this diuided in Sect from the Hasidim but onely in those voluntarie Functions and Supererogations wherein the Law by Iniunction ruled the former and these as is said supererogated But when Canons and Iniunctions began to bee written then of these Hasidim arose Dogmatists which called themselues Perushim Holy and Separated both from the other Hasidim and from the Vulgar making a necessitie of that obseruation which before was voluntarie This sort was againe diuided into those which retained the name Perushim or Pharises and the Essens both receiuing from their Authors the Rules and Precepts of their Sect After this the Pharises were diuided into many kindes The Iewes reckon seuen The Essens also were diuided first into Cloysterers or Collegians which liued in a common societie and Eremites or solitarie persons and those former into such as married and others which remained continent § III. Of the Pharises NOW let vs consider of these more particularly and first of the Pharises Drusius deriueth the name from the Syrian as most of the names of the new Testament are and not from the Hebrew for then it should not bee Pharises but Pharuses as after the Hebrew it should rather be Masias then Messias The Etymologie some fetch from Phares which signifieth Diuision as Epiphanius and Origen with others against which Drusius excepteth because in Phares the last Letter is Tsaddi here it is Schin Others deriue it from Parash signifying to explaine because they did all things openly to be seene of men it is not likely for Hypocrisie loues her works should be seene but not her Humor then should it be hypocrisie she would not be seene in her affection to be seene And this name in this sense would haue beene to their infamie and not to their reputation which they most aymed at A third deriuation of this name is from another signification of the same Verbe to expound But to expound the Law was more ptoper to the Scribes and some of the Pharises were not expositors Howbeit the most probable opinion is that they were so called of Separation because they were or would seeme to be separated from others first in cleannesse of life secondly in dignitie thirdly in regard of the exquisitenesse of those obseruations whereto they were separated fourthly in their habit wherein they were as our Monkes distinguished from the people yea they did abhorre the garments of the people Their opinions are gathered by Iosephus and others out of whom Drusius Serarius Scaliger and others They attributed saith Iosephus all things to Fate Abraham Zacuth interpreteth their opinion thus They beleeue that God knoweth and disposeth all things and the Stars helpe yet so as free-will is left in the hand of man And if a man by his free-will chuseth the good God will helpe him in his good way They say That there is no Hearb in Earth which hath not his proper Planet in Heauen The ascribe immortalitie to the Soule holding that iudgement passed on it vnder the Earth and that if it had done euill it was adiudged to perpetuall prisons if well it had easie returne vnto life by a transmigration or going into another body So Zacuth The good Soules take delight of their good workes the bad descend and ascend not They beleeued that there were both Deuils and good Angels They conceiued that he which kept the most of the commandements although he transgresse in some is iust before GOD against which opinion Burgensis thinketh that Iames alledged that saying in his Epistle He that fayleth in one is guiltie of all He citeth Rab. Moses for his Pharisaicall opinion That GOD iudgeth according to the pluralitie or paucitie to vse his owne words of merits or demerits Like stuffe haue I read in S. Francis Legend of the ballance wherein mens deeds are weighed and the Deuil lost his prey by the weight of a Chalice which one had giuen to the Saint which heauie metall caused the Scale wherein his good deedes were put before too light to weigh heauiest They the ancienter Pharises confesse the Resurrection of the flesh Here of are three opinions one That all good and bad shall rise againe another That the iust onely shall rise a third That the iust and part of the wicked shall rise They call their Traditions the Law giuen by Word and the vnwritten Law which they equall to the written deriuing both from Moses as more fully else-where shall bee said These Traditions they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as both Epiphanius and Hieronymus witnesse the Teachers thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wise-men and when they lectured they were wont to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wise-men teach Traditions Of these Traditions were concerning the Sabbath That they might iourney from their place two thousand cubites Hierome accounteth feete Origen Elnes That none might carry any burthen that day but they interpreted if one carried on one shoulder it was a burthen if on both it was none if his shooes had nailes they were a burthen otherwise not Concerning fasting the Pharise boasteth Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the weeke which they obserued sayth Theophilact on the second and fifth day Mundaies and Thursdaies Happily our Wednesdaies and Fridaies succeeded in this Penance that we might not seeme to be behinde them in dutie howsoeuer we disagree with them in their time And yet Mercerus saith The Iewes fasted the fourth day Wednesday because they held that vnluckie in which children are taken with the Squinancie Further the Pharises eate not vnwashed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marke 7.3 Except they wash with the fist as Beza translateth Scaliger expoundeth it not by washing one fist in the other but composing the fingers into such a frame that all their ends meete on the top of the thumbe which for want of another name is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Fist although it be not properly so In this forme they hold vp their hands in washing that the water may slide downe to the elbow and thence fall to the ground as the Iewes vse to this day They washed when they came from Market because sinners vncleane
persons were there whose touch might pollute them They washed also Cups and Brasen vessels and Beds not Chamber-beds to lie on Drusius expoundeth but dining-beds which they vsed in stead of Tables They would not eate with Publicans or sinners yea they accounted themselues polluted with their touch Their hypocrisie in prayer Christ mentioneth that it was long and open in the streetes c. It was thrice in the day at the third sixt and ninth houre Their words submisse and softly as of Hannah 1. Sam. 1. and toward the Temple They Tythed all Luke 18. Math. 23. euen the smallest matters For Tythes saith Akiba are the Hedges of thy Riches And another Prouerbe learne it Tythe that thou maist be rich Epiphanius addeth they paid first fruits thirtieths and fiftieths Sacrifices and Vowes Their Phylacteries or Seruatories Defensiues so the word signifieth in Hebrew Totaphoth they vsed as Preseruatiues or Remembrancers of the Law and ware them larger then other men Hierome calls them Pittaciola resembling to them herein some simple superstitious women wearing little Gospels and the wood of the Crosse and such like of zeale not according to knowledge strayning a Gnat and swallowing a Cammell This superstition then complayned of by Hierome yet remaineth saith Scaliger among Christians and Mahumetans which weare about them the Gospell of S. Iohn Christ condemneth not the Rite but their ambition for dilating not for wearing them to which all the Iewes were bound and all the Iewes and Samaritans obserued They vsed the like ambition in their Fringes or twisted Tassels which the Iewes call Zizis and vse them still as after shall appeare Their Oathes were By Ierusalem the Temple the Heauen Earth their Head by the Law Fagius obserueth that the Iewes in swearing lay their hand on the booke of the Lawe at this day Other Oathes are little esteemd Hence it seemeth came our corporall oathes on a book The Iewes saith Capito thinke it no Oath if one forsweare by Heauen or Earth vnlesse he say by him which dwelleth there c. And none is subiect to that Curse in which the name of God is not added That of Corban pertayneth to this place mentioned Math. 15.5 Marke 7.11 which some interprete as if a Iew should say to his Parents That he had alreadie dedicated all that to God to whom vowes are to be performed wherewith he might haue helped them Doctor Rainolds saith That the Iewes as they were prone to vngodly vowes so this was an vsuall vow amongst them and they would binde it with an Oath That such or such a man should haue no profit by them The Oath which they herein vsed as most solemne was By the Gift for so they were instructed That if any sware by the Altar it was nothing but if by the Gift he was a debtor The Pharises therefore taught if any had said to his father By the Gift thou shalt haue no profit by me then he might in no case doe them any good against the Commandement Honour thy Father c. The Iewes vsed to binde their vowes with a curse as they which vowed Paules death vsing yet to suppresse the curse it selfe as If they shall enter into my rest So these By the gift if they haue any profit by me meant they should haue none Thus the Talmud saith he the Booke of their Canon Law and Schoole-Diuinitie saith That a man is bound to honor his Father vnlesse he vow the contrary Masius explaineth it thus That they did consecrate by saying Corban all where-with they should haue benefited their parents as if they had said Let it be Anathema or deuoted whatsoeuer it be with which I may profit thee And therefore those Rabbines vnder pretext of Religion allowed not to spend on his parents that which he had thus vowed to God Scaliger thus interpreteth the place as if a sonne being by his parents admonished of his dutie should put them off with this exception vnlesse that which I haue offered for thee free me of this burthen But let the more curious reade it in himselfe and what Masius Serarius and others haue written hereof The Pharises were esteemed pitifull The Sadduces more cruell They were much addicted to Astrologie and the Mathematikes whose names of the Planets Epiphanius rehearseth as also the twelue Signes There were seuen sorts of the Pharises which the Talmud reckoneth first Sichemita which measure pietie by honour and profit as the Sichemites which for the marriage of Dina endured circumcision Secondly Nacphi which lifted not his feete from the ground the third Kisai Draw-blood which smiteth his head to the wall to cause the bloud to come and also shutteth his eyes that he behold not a woman The fourth that standeth on his perfection called Mahchobathi What is my sinne as if there wanted nothing to his Righteousnesse The fift Meduchia which goe lowly and stooping The sixt The Pharisee of Loue which obeyeth the Law for loue of vertue or reward The seuenth the Pharisee of Feare which is holden in obedience by feare of punishment This they call Iobs Pharisee the former Abrahams Epiphanius describeth their strict obseruations Some saith he prescribed to themselues ten yeeres or eight or foure yeeres continence Some lay on plankes which were onely nine inches broad that when they slept they might fall to the pauement so to be awakened againe to prayer and keepe themselues waking Others put stones vnder them for the same end by pricking to awake them Others lay on Thornes for that purpose Scaliger reproueth Epiphanius for affirming that the Pharises ware womans attire as not agreeing to their austeritie which despised all beds beate themselues against walles and put thornes in the fringes of their garments to prick them he thinketh him deceiued by some Iewes report and addeth that the moderne Iewes haue little or no knowledge of those ancient Pharises but as they learne it of the Christians or of Pseudo-Gorionides so hee calleth the Hebrew booke ascribed to Ioseph Ben Gorion whom Drusius esteemeth and Scaliger proueth to be a counterfeit wherein Serarius and Ribera concurre with them The Pharises in a selfe-conceit and singularitie called all but themselues in a disgracefull scorne Other men so said he Luke 18. I am not as other men whereas they accounted themselues Masters of others on whom also they bound heauie burthens in their Rules and Cases the breach whereof they iudged Sinne in the people but yet held not themselues bound thereto For example Euery Israelite ought euery day by their Rule to say ouer the ten Commandements and that in the first Watch which might not be deferred for danger of sinne and yet amongst themselues they esteemed it lawfull at any houre of the night But vpon the Proselytes they imposed more then on the other Israelites all which they were bound to in their censure vnder paine of Hell fire and therefore
you may see in Buxtorfius In this booke were contayned the Traditions and ordinances of the Elders according to the prescript whereof the Iewish Synagogue was to bee ordered and it was receiued and approued of the Iewish Synagogue in the yeere of Christ 219. Some yeeres after Rabbi Iochanan Rector of the Vniuersitie of Ierusalem for the space of eightie yeeres enlarged that booke and called it the Talmud of Ierusalem being fitted for their vse which dwelt in the land of Israel as the other for Forreners which for the difficultie and obscuritie thereof was not had in such estimation as the former nor is it at this day After him Rabbi Asse read in the Schooles those Tractates handling euery yeere two of them so in the sixtie yeeres of his Rector-ship hee went twice through it all but finished in writing onely fiue and thirtie Tractates After him in the yeere 427. Maremar was made Rector to whom Mar the sonne of Rabbi Asse adioyned himselfe These perfected that which Rabbi Asse had left vnfinished And that which they thus added was called Gemara or the complement Thus the Mischnaios and Gemara made vp the whole Talmud These two spent in their labours threescore and thirteene yeeres And so in the yeere of our Lord 500. the Talmud was perfected receiued for authenticall and called the Babylonian Talmud according to which the Iewes to this day behaue themselues in cases spirituall and temporall accounting it as their ciuill and cannon Law The Iewes ascribe the Ierusalem Talmud to the yeere of the World 4229. the other 4265. This is called the Talmud of Ierusalem saith Serarius not because it was written there But was compiled not in the Babylonian Vniuersitie but in one of Israel and in the Ierusalem language which at that time was very corrupt and confused with Greekish Persian and Roman mixtures This was both begun and ended by R. Iochanan aforesaid betweene the times of the Misna and Gemara About the yeere 4860. and 1100. yeeres after Christ R. Isaac ben Iaccb in Spaine writ so it is called The little Talmud And in the great and true Thalmud are the additions of R. Barkaphra Eldad Danius fableth that it is in Hebrew amongst his enclosed Iewes Note also that the name Thalmud or Talmud is giuen sometimes to the whole worke sometimes and often to the Gemara noly calling it the booke of the Misna and Talmud And this is that Law verball or deliuered by word of mouth which is equalled to the other without which the written law cānot be conceiued or vnderstood The ioy of the hart saith Aben Ezra and refreshing of the bones betwixt which and the written Law hee can finde no difference but being deliuered to them from their Elders In one of their bookes printed at Cremona 1556. is this sentence Thinke not that the Law written is the foundation but rather the Law Traditionall is the right foundation and according to this Law did God make couenant with the Israelites for God foresaw their captiuitie in time to come and therefore lest the people among whom they should dwell should write out and interpret this Law as they did the other God would not haue it written And although in processe of time this Law be now written yet it is not explained by the Christians because it is hard and requireth a sharpe wit That which is spoken of the Law is applyed to commend their Talmud If you can frustrate saith the Lord my Couenant with the day and the night that is according to their booke Tanchuma when you will no longer learne and obserue the Talmud And in the Talmud is thus recorded To studie and reade in the Bible is a vertue and not a vertue that is a small vertue but to learne their Mischna or Talmud text is a vertue worthy reward and to learne by heart Gemara the complement of the Talmud is a vertue so great that none can be greater The Wise men say they are more excellent then the Prophets and the wordes of the Scribes more louely then those of the Prophets and therefore the one forced to confirme them with miracles the other simply to bee beleeued as is said Deut. 17.10 When some of his Schollers visited R. Eliazer in his sicknesse and said Rabbi teach vs the wayes of life that we may finde euerlasting life his answer was Giue honour to your fellow Students and turne away your Children from the studie of the Bible and place them betwixt the knees of the wise Neither can hee saith the Talmud in other places haue a quiet conscience which returnes from the studie of the Talmud to the studie of the Bible And Nothing is more excellent then the most holy Talmud And it is impossible to stand on the foundation of the written Law but by the traditionall And to dissent from his Doctor is as to dissent from God to beleeue the words of the wise is as to beleeue God himselfe They say The Law is like to water the Misna to wine the Gemara or Talmud to Preserues the Law like to Salt the Misna to Pepper the Talmud to Spices They blaspheme that God studies the Bible in the day time and the sixe orders of the Talmud by night Hence it is that the Rabbins are more exercised in their Talmud then in the Bible as on which their Faith is founded more then on the other and according to this doe they expound the Scripture And as their Talmud is most certaine so also is that whatsoeuer exposition of their Rabbins according to the same Thus saith Rabbi Isaac Abhuhabh whatsoeuer our Rabbins in their Sermons and mysticall explainations haue spoken wee are no lesse firmely to beleeue then the Law of Moses And if any thing therein seeme repugnant to our sense we must impute it to the weakenesse of our conceit and not to their words as for example it is written in the Talmud that a Rabbin once preached that the time would come when a woman should euery day bee deliuered of her burthen according to the saying Iere. 31.7 Concepit statimque peperit One not beleeuing this the Rabbin answered that hee spake not of a common woman but of a Henne which should euery day lay an egge Such are their expositions I know not whether fitter to be heard of Heraclitus or Democritus more lamentable or ridiculous and yet is it there said that their wordes are the words of the liuing God whereof not one shall fall to the ground and must not bee derided either in word or thought whether yee respect the persons or workes of their Rabbins Therefore in a Dutch booke printed in Hebrew characters at Cracouia 1597. it is written that the Iewes are bound to say Amen not onely to their Prayers but to all their Sermons and Expositions according to the Prophet Esay Open the gates the people commeth schomer amunim which keepeth righteousnesse that is say
then biggest when they haue nothing but wind to fill them Euen their glorious Titles so much insisted on in this Discourse then seeme to haue had beginning or at least to be in greatest vse when they were neere the end and Sun-set of their glorie and since haue encreased to this rabble of Rabbinicall stiles here deliuered and that which in these dayes is of greatest reckoning the Title Morenu our Doctor hath beene hatched saith Buxtorfius in Germany within these two hundred yeeres and thence passed into Italy in imitation of our Academicall degree of Doctors say some or else as others it was ordayned to be a speciall Title of honour with a kind of Iurisdiction ouer other R R. to preuent their lauish loosenesse in granting Bils of Diuorce that this power should bee appropriated to the Morenu The first which enioyed this Title in this proper sense for in a common it was common before as in Rambams Moreh Nebuchim appeares were Maharasch and his Scholer Maharil who dyed Anno Dom. 1427. §. IIII. Of the Scriptures and their Interpretations BEfore we shake hands with the Learned Writers of the Iewes it is not vnmeete in my opinion heere to meete with some question which some haue mooued concerning them and their dealing in and with the Scriptures For since that the Councell of Trent hath decreed in the yeere 1546. both the diuine authoritie of Scriptures Canonicall to the Apocrypha-bookes which the Iewes receiue not nor euer did and hath made the vulgar Translation Authenticall in publike Lectures Disputations Preachings and Expositions that none vnder any pretence whatsoeuer shall presume to reiect it it is wonder to see how eagerly that I say not impudently diuers of them haue sought to slander the originall Text and haue blamed as Authors thereof in the New Testament Heretikes and in the Old Iewes couering their malice to vs with pretence of the malice of Heretikes and Iewes and forgetting the true Rule That it is a shame to belie the Diuell Thus haue Canus and Pintus and Gregorius de Valentia Sacroboscus and others traduced the Iewes in this behalfe themselues refuted by their owne which yet by consequent ouerthrow that former Decree Sixtus Senensis Ribera Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe Andradius Andreas Masius Arias Montanus Isaac Leuita c. Besides of ours many and especially our owne learned Countrimen Whitaker Reynolds Morton c. Bellarmine hath both taught vs the vanitie of their opinion that hold That the Scriptures were all lost in the Babylonian Captiuitie and were by Ezra renewed miraculously who is rather commended for his industrie in interpreting and obseruing them and for ordering and compacting them in one Volume then for such needlesse reuelation to finde that which was neuer lost an Author rather as Hierome hath obserued of the present Hebrew Letters then of their ancient Scriptures and hath also prooued the absurditie of their conceit that imagine the Hebrew Fountaines corrupted First by the Argument of Origen and Hierome That such corruption must haue beene either before or after Christ if that Christ would haue reproued and not commended the Scriptures to their search if this how commeth it that the Testimonies cited by him and his Apostles are found now in Moses and the Prophets as they were then cited Secondly out of Augustine That it is not likely they would put out both their eyes in depriuing their Scriptures of truth that they might put out one of ours nor was it possible that such a generall conspiracie could be made Thirdly from their more then reuerent estimation of their Scriptures for which they would die if it were possible an hundreth deaths and euen still as Isaac answereth B. Lindan his Scholler they proclaime a Fast to expiate if by some accident that Booke but falls to the ground Fourthly some places in the Hebrew are more strong against the Iewes then our Translations are and the Prophesies which make most against them remaine there vncorrupted And lastly the prouidence of GOD would neuer herein faile his Church but hath left them with their bookes to bee dispersed through the world to beare witnesse to that Truth which they hate and persecute These are Bellarmines Arguments which because they are the Truth are also ours and therefore we haue beene bold with the Reader to insert them Leuita addes that the Hebrew Texts concerning Christ are more cleere and perspicuous then in any translation whatsoeuer who affirmes also of himselfe that reading the fiftie third Chapter of Esaias 1000. times by which he was conuerted to the Christian Faith and comparing it diligently with many translations he found a hundred times more touching the mysterie of Christ in that then in these Many Prophesies are in the Hebrew which make for the Christians and yet in the 70. are omitted The Iewes hold it a crime inexpiable to alter any thing therein which if any say they should doe but in one word of ignorance or malice it would bring the whole world in danger of perishing They will not lay their Bible but in a pure place nor touch it but with pure hands and are not religious alone but superstitious also in respect thereto As for that Emendation or Correction of the Scribes which Galatinus mentioneth wherein they haue corrupted the Text hee proueth it to bee a late dreame of the Talmud and answereth the Arguments of his fellowes herein not so Catholike as himselfe Now although this may seeme more then enough to conuince that folly yet it shall not bee impertinent to adde out of Arias Montanus somewhat touching the same because it openeth another mysterie touching the Hebrew Learning and the Masoreth When the Iewes saith he returned into their Country after the Captiuitie threescore and ten yeeres in Babylon it befell them partly by occasion of their long troubles which did distract their mindes partly by corruption of their Natiue Tongue which was growne out of kinde first into the Chaldee and afterward into the Syriacke that they neither knew nor pronounced so well the words of the Scripture written as the manner was without vowels Whereby it came to passe that in the writing of them there crept in some fault either through iniurie of the Times or by reason of troubles which fell vpon the People or by negligence of some Scriueners But this inconuenience was met withall afterward by most learned men such as Esdras was and afterward Gamaliel Ioseus Eleazar and other of great name who prouided by common trauell with great care and industrie that the Text of Scripture and the true reading thereof should bee preserued most sound and vncorrupt And from these men or from their instruction being receiued and polished by their Schollers in the Ages following there came as wee iudge that most profitable Treasure which is called Masoreth that is to say a Deliuerie or Traditionall because it doth deliuer aboundantly and faithfully all the diuers Readings that
strange Lands comming thither by holes vnder the Earth shall come forth And for this cause I my selfe saith our Author haue heard the Iewes say That sometime some of the wealthiest and deuoutest amongst them goe into the Land of Canaan that their bodies may there sleepe and so be freed from this miserable passage vnder so many deepe Seas and rough Mountaynes There be three sorts of men sayth Salmanticensis in the Booke Iuchasin which see not the face of Hell those which are extremely poore those which are in debt those which are troubled with the Collicke the Hasidaei chastised themselues tenne or twentie dayes before their death with this paine of the bowels that so they might clense all and goe pure to the other World some adde in this exemption from Hell or comming to Iudgement him which had an euill Wife and some also Magistrates But in Pauls time they themselues did allow saith he a Resurrection of the dead both of the Iust and Vniust They did then hold also a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which sense it is likely the Iewes thought Christ to be Elias or Ieremie or one of the Prophets and the Disciples somewhat sowred with this Leauen asked of the blind man whether he had sinned vnderstanding as it seemeth according to the Iewish Errour when his soule had beene in some former bodie And the Cabalisticall Authors sayth Elias Leuita are of opinion that euery soule is three times created they meane it rolleth or passeth thorow three mens bodies according to that of Iob GOD worketh all these things with a man thrice So the soule of the first man saith hee rolled it selfe into the bodie of Dauid and shall thence returne into the bodie of the Messias So they say that the soules of Sinners passe into the bodies of beast as if a man committeth Sodomie his soule passeth into a Hare because that creature is somtimes Male sometimes Female the soule of the Adulterer passeth into a Camell Now to come from their Faith to their Workes The wise Rabbines perswade the silly people That they are the only Elect people of God who easily can keepe not the Decalogue or ten Commandements alone but the whole Law of Moses They diuide the whole Law into sixe hundred and thirteene Commandements and them againe into Precepts and Prohibitions Of the commanding Precepts they number two hundred fortie and eight iust so many as according to the Rabbines Anatomie a man hath members in his bodie Of the prohibiting Commandements they reckon three hundred threescore and fiue as many as are dayes in the yeere or as in the Booke Brandspiegel veines in a mans bodie Therefore if euery member of a man doe euery day performe one of the Precepts and omit one of the things prohibited the whole Law of Moses shall be euery yeere and so for euer fulfilled Their wise Rabbines say further That the men only are to obserue those sixe hundred and thirteene Commandements the women are onely subiect to the Prohibitions yea of those prohibitorie Mandates onely to threescore and foure are they obliged by some and to sixe and thirtie of the former and this because of their other houshold-businesse and subiection to their Imperious Husbands Some of their deeply-wise Rabbines adde to those sixe hundred and thirteene seuen other Commandements making vp the number of sixe hundred and twentie iust so many as are p Letters in the Decalogue and as arise of the word Keter signifying a Crowne for were it not for the Law God would not haue created the World and for the obseruation thereof it yet subsisteth And they which keepe all the Commandements doe set a Crowne on the head of God and hee vpon the head of those which crowne him shall set seuen Crownes and make them to inherit seuen Chambers in Paradise and will keepe them from the seuen Infernall Dungeons because they haue obtayned the seuen Heauens and the seuen Earths Their Wise-men affirme that euery veine of the bodie of a man doth prouoke him to omit that which is forbidden and he which doth omit such their vaine veine-warning hath no good veine in him euery of his members also doe prouoke him to performe those iussory Inuentions But as veine should I be as they if I should not make some end where they can find none We would now from these generalities proceed to the particulars of their Superstitions tracing them herein from their birth to their graues Religion being in the pretence of their Law the square of all their otherwise ciuill actions at least to speake of their Superstitions in the same But first seeing Sebastian Munster hath written a whole Booke both in Hebrew and Latine of those sixe hundred and thirteene Precepts taken out of Moses with the Exposition of their Rabbines as also P. Ricius hath done and Philip Ferdinand likewise out of Ben Kattain I thought good to cull out some which seeme most remarkeable and strange to entertayne our Reader §. II. Of the negatiue Precepts expounded by the Rabines 1. THou shalt haue no strange Gods in my sight Exod. 20. The Name of God is forbidden to be communicated to any creature 2. Thou shalt not violate mine holy Name Thou shalt not destroy a Synagogue or Temple bee it neuer so old nor shalt blot out one of the holy names wheresoeuer thou findest it written The Rabbines say If any doe against any Affirmatiue Precept and repent his sinne is forgiuen him but hee which transgresseth a Negatiue Precept is not clensed by repentance but it remaineth to the day of Expiation which is the day of their solemne Fast and Reconciliation But hee which committeth a sinne whereby he deserueth Death or Excommunication is not then purged but must abide thereunto the diuine chastisements and hee which violateth the Name of GOD cannot bee absolued from that sinne but by death 5. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart He which is wronged by another should not hate him and hold his peace but reproue him openly and if hee repent he ought not to be cruell to him But if any be often reproued and will not amend it is lawfull to hate him This Christ confuteth 12. No Idoll as to bee adored If a man haue a thorne in his foot hee may not bow before an Image to pull it out and if money fall out of his hand hee may not there before an Image stoope to take it vp lest he might seeme to adore it but he must sit downe on the ground to doe it And if the water of a Fountaine be caused to passe thorow the mouth of an Image he may not drinke thereat lest he should seeme to kisse the Image 22. An Image may not bee made viz. The Image of a man in siluer or gold if it be embossed or set out but if it bee stamped in metall in manner of a seale it is lawfull
is King of the whole world hauing in the word Echad many superstitious subtilties that the letter Daleth in regard of his place in the Alphabet signifieth foure and the word Echad contayneth in numerall letters two hundred fortie and fiue whereunto adding three hael elohechem emes God our Lord is true they make vp the number of two hundred fortie and eight and so many members there are in mans bodie for euerie member a prayer secures them all And this verse thrice recited secureth against the ill spirit They esteeme it a holy prayer by which miracles may bee wrought and therefore vse it morning and euening They haue another prayer called Schone esre that is eighteene because it contayneth so many thankesgiuing which they say twice a day and the chiefe chanter of the Synagogue singeth it twice by himselfe They thinke by this prayer to obtaine remission of their sinnes They must pray it standing so that one foot must not stand more on the ground then the other like the Angels And their foote was a right foote When they come to those words in it Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts they leape vp three times aloft And hee say their Chachamim which speaketh a word during this prayer shall haue burning coales giuen him to eate after his death These eighteene thanksgiuings are for the eighteene bones in the chine or back-bone which must in saying hereof be bended After this followeth a prayer against the Iewes reuolted to Christianitie and against all Christians saying These which are blotted out that is reuolters shall haue no more hope and all vnbeleeuers shall perish in the twinkling of an eye and all thine enemies which hate thee O GOD shall be destroyed and the proud and presumptuous Kingdome shall quickly be rooted out broken layd euen with the ground and at last shall vtterly perish and thou shalt make them presently in our dayes obedient to vs Blessed art thou God which breakest and subduest them which are rebellious They call the Turkish Empire the Kingdome of Ismael the Roman Edomiticall proud c. They are themselues indeed exceeding proud impatient and desirous of reuenge The Talmud sayth That the lying spirit in the mouth of Achabs Prophets which perswaded him to goe and fall at Ramoth Gilead was none other but the spirit of Naboth whom hee had before flaine And Victor Carbensis a Christian Iew testifieth That there are not vnder heauen a more quarrelsome people themselues acknowledging the Christians farre meeker then themselues when they haue this Prouerb that the modestie of the Christians the wisedome and industrie of the Heathens and faith of the Iewes are the three pillers which sustaine the world But to returne to their deuotions After those other before mentioned followeth a prayer for the good sort for Proselytes reedifying of the Temple for sending the Messias and restauration of their Kingdome In the end they pray GOD to keepe them in peace and when they come to these words Hee that makes peace aboue shall make peace ouer all Israel Amen they goe backe three paces bow themselues downewards bend their head on the right hand then on the left if some Christian bee there with an Image they must not bow but lift vp their heart This they doe for honours sake not to turne their hinder parts on the Arke and thus they goe like Crabbes out of the Synagogue vsing certaine prayers not running but with a slow pace lest they should seeme glad that their Mattins were done Other their niceties in praying as laying the right hand on the left ouer the heart not spetting nor breaking winde vp or downe not interrupted by a King to cease prayer to shake his bodie this way and that way not to touch his naked bodie and to say Amen with all his heart for they that say Amen are worthie to say it in the world to come And therefore Dauid endeth a Psalme with Amen Amen signifying that one is to bee said heere and the other in the other world also in a plaine eminent place purged from all filth freed from the sight of women his face to the East standing his feet close together fixing his eyes on the ground eleuating the heart to heauen c. I hold it enough thus to mention Their praying to the East must be vnderstood from our Westerne parts because Ierusalem standeth that way for otherwise Rambam sheweth that Abraham prayed in Mount Moriah toward the West and the Sanctum Sanctorum was in the West which place also Abraham set forth and determined And because the Gentiles worshipped the Sunne toward the rising therefore Abraham worshipped Westward and appointed the Sanctuarie so to stand The Talmud saith Praying to the South bringeth wisdome toward the North riches I might heere also adde their Letanie and Commemoration of their Saints almost after the Popish fashion As thus for a taste Wee haue sinned before thee haue mercie on vs O Lord doe it for thy names sake and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for Abraham thy perfect one and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for him which was bound in thy porches to wit in Mount Moriah where the Temple was afterward builded and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for him which was heard in the ladder Iacob from thy high place and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for the merit of Ioseph thy holy one c. Lord doe it for him which was drawne out of the waters Moses and spare c. Lord doe it for Aaron the Priest with Vrim and Thummim Lord grant it for him that was zealous for thy name Phineas Lord doe it for the sweet Singer Dauid Lord doe it for him which built thine house They name not any but expresse him after this sort And then proceed in like manner with the titles attributes and workes of GOD. Doe it for thy Name Doe it for thy Goodnesse for thy Couenant thy Law thy Glorie c. in seuerall versicles And then to their Saints in a new passage Doe it for Abraham Isaac and Iacob Doe it for Moses and Aaron for Dauid and Salomon as if their combined forces should effect more then single Doe it for Ierusalem the holy Citie for Sion for the destruction of thy house for the poore Israelites for the bare Israelites for the miserable Israelites for the Widdowes and Orphans for the sucking and wained and if not for our sake yet for thine owne sake Then in another forme Thou which hearest the poore heare vs thou which hearest the oppressed heare vs Thou which heardest Abraham c. With renuing a commemoration of their Saints larger then before and after some repeating the diuine titles in another tune they oppose their Saint and wicked ones together as Remember not the lye of Achan but remember Iosua forgiuing him and remember Heli and Samuel and so on in a tedious length CHAP. XVI Of their Ceremonies at home after
new opening of hell for the returne of the soules or else to keepe them from swowning at the departure of one of their soules For they are of opinion that themselues haue a superfluous Sabbatharie soule which on that day is plentifully sent into them to in large their heart and to expell care and sorrow Antonius Margarita affirmeth that they dreame of three soules in each man besides the Sabbatharie soule two of which leaue him in his sleepe one mounting to Heauen where it learneth things to come the other called brutish contemplating sinne and vanitie The viewing of their nailes at the candle is in remembrance of Adams nakednesse all sauing where the nailes couered his fingers and toes ends The wine they powre on the ground to refresh Corah and his complices vnder the ground For their Sabbath-workes they are determined Rabbinically a horse may haue a halter or a bridle to leade but not a saddle to lade him and he that leadeth him must not let it hang so loose that it may seeme he rather carrieth it then leadeth the horse A Henne may not weare her hose sewed about her legge but this marke must on friday be taken off And if any cattell fall into a pit yet may they not helpe it out on the Sabbath so spitefully haue their Talmudicall Rabbins endeuoured to make where they could not finde a falshood in the wordes of Christ testifying the contrary But from the beginning it was not thus The Iew may not milke his cattell nor eate of the milke when he hath procured a Christian to milke them except he first buy it but at his owne price A Taylor may not weare a needle sticking on his garment The lame may vse a staffe the blind may not Clogges or Pattens to keepe them out of the durt they may not burthen themselues with It is lawfull to carrie a plaister on their sores but if it fall off they may not lay it on againe nor may they binde vp a wound a new nor carry money in their purses or garments nor rubbe their durtie shooes against the ground though they may wipe it off against a wall nor wipe their hands fouled with durt on a Towell but with a Cowes or Horse-taile they may doe it If a Flea bite hee may remoue it but not kill it a Lowse hee may But their Doctors disagree in this lowsie question for R. Eluzer saith One may as well kill a Camell If a File light on meate or a Spider runne thereon it may not bee remoued they will let men take their money vpon pawnes but not deliuer it themselues as the Franciscan hath his boy to take your almes which his vow will not suffer his holy fingers to touch He must take heede of leauing more corne to fowles that day then they shall eate if it be in an open place lest it may there grow and hee be said to sowe corne on the Sabbath To whistle a tune with his mouth or play it on a instrument is vnlawfull as also to knocke with the ring or hammer of a doore and therefore the Clarke knocks with his hand when he calleth them to the Synagogue To knocke on a Table to still a childe to draw a Letter in dust or ashes or a moystned Table is vnlawfull in the ayre not so Of these Sabbath-labours they haue nine and thirtie chiefe Articles whereto the smaller as these are referred with much ridiculous nicetie as the first Article is of tilling ground wherein is reserued digging filling vp ditches c. and to this going ouer a fallow rubbing his durtie shooe on the ground c. T is time this ditch be now filled and wee proceed further CHAP. XVIII The Jewish Passe-ouer as they now obserue it and other their Feasts and Fasts §. I. Of their Passe-ouer OF the Iewish Feasts as they were celebrated before the comming of Christ wee haue alreadie spoken In these dayes they blindly and stubbornly persist in like Obseruation of times though with some variation of ceremonie Their Talmud reckoneth foure New-yeeres dayes one in March and another in September whereof wee haue spoken The first of August beginneth their yeere of breeding Cattell accounting from thence their time of Tything In Ianuarie the first or as R. Hillel would haue it the fifteenth began their new yeere for Trees in reckoning the time of lawfulnesse to eate or tythe their fruit Their moneths and moueable feasts are guided by the Moone of which they tell this storie The Moone say they expostulated with God because the Sunne shined with her whereas no Kingdome could endure a partner whereat God being angry darkened her light that from the fourth day wherein shee was created till man was made on the sixth she shined not Hence it comes to passe that at the change in two dayes space she is neuer seene This is the Rabbinicall custome if they cannot vntie the knot they haue not a cutting-sword as Alexander for that Gordian but some leaden Legend or fable Rabbinic-all-ly to determine it Hieronimus a s Fide who about two hundred yeeres since was the Popes Physician and turned from Iudaisme to Christianitie thus relateth it The Moone before equall with the Sunne expostulated with God for the reason aboue recited and therefore was commanded to goe lessen her selfe Shee like some shrewish Iewesse replyed she had wrong and had spoken but reason hee to satisfie her said the Sunne should not shine by night and yet should she appeare in the day What saith she is a candle before the Sunne He then promised that his people Israel should obserue their solemne festiuals according to her designement But when all this would not content her as yeelding himselfe guiltie hee enioyned a peculiar meate-offering euery New-Moone for indulgence of that sinne Thus doe they both dreame ridiculously and blaspheme also beyond all names of impietie in their Talmudicall Tract Holyn And this they prooue out of Num. 18. as truely as in another place out of Esa 40. that God hauing polluted himselfe with burying of Moses purged himselfe with fire the water not being sufficient thereto The richer Iewes prepare thirtie dayes before for their Passe-ouer dentem non mentem good Wheate for their vnleauened Cakes The Sabbath before the Passe-ouer is solemne and sacred wherein they haue a Sermon concerning the Paschall Lambe Two or three dayes before the Passe-ouer they scowre their houshold implements of Wood and Mettall with much curiositie and varietie of Rites For hee that in this Feast vseth an impure vessell is as he that hath layne by an vncleane woman The night before the Feast the good-man of the house with a Waxe Candle a Dish and Wing beginneth his search for vnleauened bread and with other men or boyes to helpe him after their Amen to his blessing with Waxe Candles in their hands they leaue not a Mouse-hole vnsearched and hide that bread which they meane to eate that night lest they
the Persians losse and with lightnings to shew that indignation against the Turkes which in their thundering Dialect they aloud vttered there grew such horror to their mindes from aboue and such sicknesse to their bodies from those putrified carkasses beneath that Mustapha was forced to remoue missing forty thousand of his first Musters After hee had fortified the Armenian Castle of Teflis his Armie being driuen to shifts for lacke of victuals ten thousand of his forragers were slaine by the Persians who were recompenced with like slaughter by Mustapha that came vpon them whiles they were busie about the spoyle and spoyled the spoylers In passing ouer the Riuer Canac he lost fourescore thousand Turkes which the Riuer seemed to take for Custome as it had many of the Persians in the late conflict whereof his violent current was a greedy and cruell exactor Mustapha erected a Fortresse in Ere 's and tooke Sumachia chiefe Citie of Siruan Derbent offering her selfe to the Turke and then returning into Natolia But Emir Hamse Mirise the Persian Prince recouered after his departure both Ere 's and Sumachia slew and captiued the Tartars thirtie thousand of whom were newly come to the Turkes ayde He rased Sumachia euen with the ground The next yeere Mustapha fortified Chars in three and twentie dayes wherein they were hindered with Snowes on the fiue and twentieth of August although it standeth in fortie foure Degrees Anno 1580. Sinan Bassa was chosen Generall for the Persian Warre who as hee departed from Teflis lost seuen thousand of his people besides such as the Georgians and Persians together with the spoyle carried away This was earnest the rest was but sportfull shewes of warre in trayning his Souldiers after which he returned In 1583. Ferat Bassa was sent Generall but little was done till Osman Bassa a new Generall 1585. tooke Tauris the ancient Ecbatana as Minadoi is of opinion But the Persian Prince carried with indignation reuenged this losse on the Turkes with his owne hands slaying Caraemit Bassa Generall in the place of Osman then sicke and gaue his head as opima spolia to one of his followers and afterwards at Sancazan slew twentie thousand Turks Osman dyed of sicknesse and the Persian Prince the Morning-starre of that Easterne State was soone after murthered In that dismall yeere 1588. Ferat tooke Genge fifteene thousand houses seuen Temples and fiue and twentie great Innes were burned in Constantinople the tumultuous Ianizaries not suffering the fire to be quenched An Impost was leuied of the subiects to satisfie the pay due to the Souldiers for the Persian warre which raised these stirres Yea the Priests disswaded the people from those new payments and perswaded them to maintaine their ancient Liberties shut vp their Meschits intermitted their Orisons and the great Turke was forced to call in his Mandates and deliuer the Authors of that counsell wherof the Beglerbeg of Grecia was one to the Ianizaries furie who made Tennis-balls of their heads In the 1592. Wihitz chiefe Citie of Croatia was yeelded to the Turke The next yeere Siseg was besieged but relieued by the Christians who slew eighteene thousand Turkes and tooke their Tents yet was it soone after taken by the renewed forces of the Turkes Sinan tooke Vesprinium in Hungarie and Palotta but their losse was farre greater then their gaines which continuing and a broyle of the Ianizaries added thereto brought Amurath into malancholy and sicknesse whereof he dyed the eighteenth of Ianuarie 1595. Transyluania Valachia and Moldauia hauing before reuolted from him to Sigismund who was entitled their Prince This Amurath in a letter to Queene Elizabeth entituleth himselfe By the Mercie of God free from all sinne with all height of Grace made possessor of great blessednesse aboue the 72. Lawes of the world §. III. Of MAHOMET the Third MAHOMET his sonne succeeded who inuiting his nineteene brethren to a Feast sent them to learne his fathers death in the other world accompanied thither with ten of Amuraths women from whom issue was feared which with drowning them he preuented Much adoe he had with his Ianizaries at home much losse in his Dominions abroad for which cause he sent for Ferat Bassa out of Hungarie and strangled him and sent Sinan his emulous corriuall in his roome whom the Transyluanian Prince ouerthrew in battell and after chased him ouer a Bridge which he made a mile in length for his Armie to passe ouer Danubius with great losse of his people His Bridge the fire and water diuided betwixt them and the conceit of this ill successe as was thought procured his death soone after In the yeere 1597. Mahomet in his owne person enterprised these warres and not farre from Agria on the sixteenth of October fought a cruell battell with the Christians wherein had not Couetousnesse rightly called the root of all euill hindered had beene atchieued the most glorious victorie against those Barbarians that euer Christendome was blessed with Mahomet himselfe for feare seeing his Ordnance an hundred fourescore and tenne great Peeces taken and his men slaine in multitudes fled with Ibrahim Bassa towards Agria shedding teares by the way which he wiped off his bloudie face with a piece of greene silke supposed to be a piece of Mahomets garment carried with him as a holy Relique But whiles the Christians were now halfe Conquerours by greedie turning to the spoile their victorie was wholly lost and twentie thousand of them slaine who had slaine threescore thousand Turkes Mr. Barton the English Embassador was present in the fight and Mr. Thomas Glouer also who in a large iournall of this Expedition testifieth that the great Turk was in great feare but being animated by some about him he tooke his bow and arrowes and slew three Christians therewith Those former reports hee mentioneth not Not long after the Bassa of Buda was taken and the Bassa of Bosna with some thousands of Turkes slaine Anno 1599. Yet did not all his losses in the West by the Christians vexe the Great Sultan so much as a rebellion raised in the East which many yeeres continued Cusabin Bassa of Caramania rose in armes against his Master and hauing now done great matters his Souldiers before false to their Prince became now also false to him hee flying was after taken and tortured to death His rebellion out-liued him and was maintained by one called the Scriuano who ouerthrew Mehemet Bassa in the field and the second time in the yeere 1601. ouerthrew him with his Armie of fiftie thousand and foraged all the Countrey almost as far as Aleppo proclaiming himselfe the defender of the Mahumetan faith and soon after gaue the Bassa a third ouerthrow The Turkes Embassadour sent into Persia to demand the Sophies sonne in hostage for the assurance of the peace betweene those two Monarchs was for his proud message put to the Bastinado and grieuously threatned sent backe to the Grand Signior The Scriuano's proceedings was much furthered by the dissentions betweene
againe Aleppo ouerthroweth him and the Bassaes of Tripolis and Gazara his companions with their Armie of threescore thousand men tooke Tripolis the Bassa whereof againe hee ouerthrew and added to his garlands Damasco the treasurie of the Turks reuenue and chief Citie of Syria The Beglerbeg of Natolia sent his Lieutenant with a great Armie against him but to their own ruine He intercepted a Ship laden with the tributes of Egypt The Persian sent him in token of loue a present worth fiftie thousand Crownes Achmat is hereby forced to peace with the Christians and to recall his forces out of Hungarie for this employment Anno 1606. The Emperour yeeldeth satisfaction to the Discontents in Hungary with free vse of religion to all and Transyluania to remaine to Botscay and his heires male for euer A fire at Constantinople kindled in a Iewes house by the Tartars burnt many houses and Iewes and foure millions of goods Achmat in great magnificence went to his Moschee to render thankes to Mahomet for a peace concluded with the Emperour Hee now looketh Eastward with his power and as Master Henrie Lello in his letter from Constantinople dated April 2. 1606. testifieth of him he would needes at first be a Souldier but the last Winter hauing felt the cold windes from the tops of the hils in Bursia which are all the yeere long couered with snow and receuing some hurt in his stomacke by drinking those cold waters hee proued stomack-sicke to this expedition also and giuing ouer his enterprise against the Rebels is become one of Venus Knights therein surmounting his Grand-father Murad or Amurath Anno 1607. hee sent the Visier Bassa with an hundred and thirtie thousand against the Rebels who preuaileth more by discreet appeasing of them then by force The Bassa of Aleppo three times withstood his whole forces the fourth time fleeth towards Persia with his treasure Aleppo is left to be taken and the Garrison put to the sword But the Bassa himselfe obtained pardon with restitution of his goods taken from him in Syria Another fire arose at Constantinople and consumed two millions of goods and 3000. houses to the ground The Duke of Florence doth much harme to the Turks by the sea 1608. The rebels make new commotions in Asia Matthias the Arch-Duke standeth outwith his forces against the Emperor and commeth with his army toward Prague obtaineth the Crowne and Royalties of Hungarie by composition comes King to Vienna but the Protestants refuse to sweare alleageance till free vse of Religion in Austria by King Matthias was granted Hee was crowned at Presburg And in the yeere 1612. the Emperour Rodolph being dead he was chosen in his place Anno 1610. the Persians ouerthrew the Turkes in diuers battels wherein many thousands of them were slaine In the yeere 1613. The Turke had prouided a great Army at Adrianople to passe into Transyluania and his Garrisons began some stirs in Hungarie and a new warre was there feared but new occurrents in Asia altered that course For the people in Natolia rose againe in rebellion committing spoile and rapine and in Arabia a certaine Rebell vsurped the title of a King and gathering together aboue fiftie thousand followers had possessed himselfe of Aden a commodious Citie for the Indian Merchandize and fitly seated for the command of the Red-sea The Persian King put his Embassadour to death because hee had capitulated with the Turke that his Master vnder colour of gifts should pay him a yeerely tribute and sent the Turkish Legate which was sent with the Persian Legate backe to Constantinople hauing first cut off his hands and put out his eyes Heereby the Turke was forced to employ his forces this way which he had intended for Transyluania and by the Bassa of Buda hath promised to keepe peace hath sent also his Embassadour into Poland with a great present to the King swearing by his God his Horse and Sword to conserue the peace This yeere also about Aprill was a great fire at Constantinople which burned two thousand houses the Merchants meane while labouring to conuey and saue their goods the Bassa Nassuffensis pretended that a certaine Merchant of Aleppo whom vpon that occasion hee found there weaponed intended violence against him and confiscated his goods the chiefe cause of the quarrell which amounted to an hundred thousand Chekins which I mention to shew the miserie of Turkish subiection In September the Duke of Arragon hauing intelligence that the Turkish Admirall had departed from Constantinople with seuentie Gallies with intent to send aide against the Rebells in Syria with his Nauie of ten Sicilian Gallies fell vpon ten of the Turkish and tooke seuen of them with three Bassaes and the Beg of Cyprus freeing out of seruitude a thousand Christian slaues These at Palermo went in procession with Oliues in their hands the Turkes also following chained and the Beg of Cyprus when a huge summe was not accepted for his ransome killed himselfe Of the Emir of Said or Sidon wee haue spoken elsewhere Hee about the same time came with three Gallies to Liuorno bringing with him his foure wiues tenne children and much treasure Hee presented the Great Duke at Florence a Turkish sword richly set with stones and the Dutchesse with two Pearles esteemed at 60000. Crownes Newes also came from Cyprus that the Bassa of Damasco making an expedition against the Emirs sonne which he had left in Sayd was by him ouerthrowne and forced to flee leauing 20000. slaine in the field The Emirs request was assistance of shipping These broiles in Syria continuing forced the Turke to seeke peace with the Emperour the sonnes of Emir hauing slaine the Bassa of Damasco and receiuing succour from the Persian The Heiducks also in Hungary in the yeere 1614. hauing done the Turkes much scathe besides the vprores in Transyluania where the Prince Gabriel Bathore was by a wile of the Imperials brought into an ambush and slaine and Gabriel Bethlin Gabor obtaining to succeed was by the Turke assisted molested by the Imperials The Persian also dispossessing the Georgians of most of their country for taking part with the Turke and the sonne of the Bassa Nussuffensis before mentioned who was lately strangled after the manner of the Turkish execution of their Great ones arose in rebellion and committed much spoile by fire and sword in Asia the Cossaks being as troublesome in the European frontiers All these things forced him to seeke conclusion of a peace to which purpose the twelfth of May 1615. Achmet Chiaia his Embassadour entred Vienna with rich Presents to the Emperour and obtained a confirmation of the same for twentie yeeres ensuing The Turkes strength at Sea is so small that the Florentine with six Ships onely hath these three yeeres kept the bottome of the Streits in despight of them the whole Armado not daring the onset the Admirall employing the Pyrats of Tunis and Algiers who by our fugitiue Pyrats are instructed to the spoile
suffer him to perish therefore leaue and very shortly shall strange things happen in the Empire Achmet contrary to all expectation the next morning after his Dreame sent for him into the roome of State where he lay on a stately Pallet with all his Vice-Roys and Bashaws groueling on the ground and the principall Mustie kneeling before him reading on a booke It should seeme that glad tidings came first to the Citie For he was taken out of the prison with great respect and obseruation he was admitted to his galley with high Ceremonies and yet solemne countenances hee was accompanied on the Sea with thousands of boats and ten thousand of weeping eyes hee landed at the Emperours owne Caska with great respect and modest stilnesse hee walking through the Garden of Cypres trees and at last came to an Iron gate where his owne company left him except two Bashawes who led him by the armes the gate opens and he must through a Guard of Cupogies they bend to the ground and yet looke cheerefully they brought him into the roome where the Mutes stood whose presence did more appale him then the rest but that hee saw the crueltie confirmed and their very sight was worse then an vnreuersable iudgement but when he perceiued no violent hands laid vpon him and that he must yet goe further he was the more astonished and the more vexed to endure such a procrastination At last he came where the Emperour lay sicke on his Pallet before whom his prostitution was as the ordinary slaues but contrary to all expectation he bad him rise and commanded certaine Persian Carpets to be spread and rich Cushions to be laid on which according to their manner hee sate crosse legged by him and when the Muftie had raised the Emperour vp a little with a faint voyce he discouered an vnlooke for louing heart and bequeathed to him the succession He had no sooner done but he began to faint and so read them all a lesson of mortalitie by opening a booke wherein they saw death writ in Capitall letters and himselfe sinking past recouery which made them recouer new Spirits and presently bring his brother out into the Sophia where the principall Muftie proclaimed Mustapha Emperour intimating to the Ianizaries the charge of Achmat to the discharging their duties and the pleasure of Mustapha to giue them a larges which equalling the bountie of other Princes ouerswayed nicer exceptions and so with great acclamations they ratified the Election and cried out Liue and raigne great Mustapha Thus is Mustapha Emperour and they had two yeeres triall of his disposition whereby they found him harmelesse if innocent in both senses Encomions of no great and stirring Spirit Scander and Mehemet Bashaw take the young Osman after this out of the Seralio and present him to the Ianizaries a comely sweet young youth of nine or ten yeere old demanding withall if such an heire of the Othoman Family were to bee reiected without cause or why they should bring an harmelesse Prince as they reputed Mustapha into the danger of vsurpation and differing no further from a Traytor but that it was not imputed to him as for Achmats Will Empires are not so translated and what could they tell but priuate men for their owne ends had wrought vpon his weaknesse making a diseased tongue speake that which a healthfull heart and perfect sense would not consent to For it was probable that a Father would disinherit his children for any brother in the world Besides there was no triall or cause either of insufficiencie or disabilitie and therefore they could not beleeue it Last of all for any thing they saw Mustapha himselfe was not stirring or strong enough to play the Steeres-man in such an high built Ship considering the Seas were tempestuous and many dangerous shores and rockes were to be passed by These speeches to the turbulent Ianizaries were like fewell to fire and the presence of the louely youth made them amazed at their inconstancie so that by way of penitencie and satisfaction they quickely altered the acclamation of Liue Mustapha into the cries of God saue young Osman and so without further disputing hee was aduanced into the Throne and brought into the Seralio when Mustapha least thought of the alteration But now there is no remedie hee must needs bee deposed and sent prisoner once againe into the seuen Towers Now doth Osman begin his Phaetons flourish and runneth the course of pleasures with his youth spending foure or fiue yeeres in wantonnesse and iollitie while his Bashawes spent the time in couetousnesse and ambitious ouer-ruling others yet not without carefull ouer-looking the Ianizaries and prouident preuenting their discontents turbulent disposition but all doth helpe for they ouer-accustomed to actiue imployment and liuing vpon the spoile of forraine Nations as much as the Emperours entertainment cried out to the warre and when answer was made that the Persians had contracted a new league and the Emperours of Germanies old couenants were not yet determined or ended They presently replyed the indignities which the Russians had offered vnto their neighbors the Tartarians were not to be endured for they need goe no further then the piracies of the blacke Sea and the iniuries of the Cossacks and Polonians Nay why should they not march to the expugnation of Loepolis and the foraging of the Countries of Moldauia and Bogdonia and so forward to teach Poland a better lesson then to displease the Othoman Family and mightinesse The Bashawes knew there was no replying nor now the fire was kindled no other quenching it then letting it consume to cinders whereupon they presently answered they were glad that the Souldiers were so memorable of the glory of the Empire and so readie to imploy themselues for the dignitie of the Nation and therefore they would not by any meanes hinder them or the cause But they should finde the Emperour as carefull to satisfie their demands as they were willing to augment his Greatnesse so that if they would giue way vnto time for the preparing of all things fit for the Armie and the sending for the Tartarians to accompany them in the iourney the Emperour should goe in person into the field and Poland soone finde what it was to exasperate such a Maiestie The King of Poland sent to the Emperour to the French King to the Pope for assistance as also to his Maiestie of England with intimation of the terrour and his well deliuered discourse made such impression on his Maiesties Princely heart that he had a present supply In a word his Armie was soone readie and his Cossacks prepared by the end of Iuly hee was encamped in the fields of Bogdonia and within eight dayes entrenched with twentie Peeces of Ordnance mounted but the Cossacks quartered by themselues and after their accustomed manner lying between two Riuers were the more emboldened to make their daily excursions vpon the Tartars For hauing a bridge in the reare of their Campe with
And this they doe foure or fiue times according to the order of their seruice After this they all kneele and prostrate themselues on the ground the Meizin obseruing a long Ceremonie in which with a loud voyce hee prayeth GOD to inspire the Christians Iewes Greekes and generally all Infidels to turne to their Law This being said euery man lifteth his hand to heauen crying aloud Amin Amin and then they touch their eyes to wipe them with their hands which is as crossing among the Papists a blessing of themselues bringing their hands ouer their face and so they depart In the English Treatise of the Turkish Policie these things are related with some other Ceremonies as that they say together with the Priest the first Azoara or Chapter of the Alcoran c. Bartholomaeus Georgiouitz saith that onely the chiefe sort are bound to assemble to the daily deuotions which they obserue fiue times a day others which cannot spare the times are not tyed On their Sabbaths it is otherwise §. IIII. Of their Sabbaths and of their Lent and Easter THE women enter not their Mesquitas but on Fridayes at nine a clocke or at Easter and then they are in a Gallery or Terasse apart where they may see and not bee seene and this is not common to all but the wiues and mothers of the chiefe of the place And as we haue said of the Priest so it is to be vnderstood that all the men and women there doe the same without failing in any point They suffer not a Christian to enter therein and yet will they enter into the Churches of the Christians to heare the Church-musicke The women abide in their Churches from nine of the clocke to midnight continually praying with certaine motions and strange cries continuing so long in this act that they fall vpon the ground as in a swoune through wearinesse and if any feele her selfe at that time to bee with childe the Turkes hold that they are conceiued by the holy Ghost and presently vow that childe to God and call such Nefecs Ogli that is sonnes of the holy Ghost And on Friday at nine or ten of the clocke the Priest vseth to preach to the people and these their discourses last aboue two houres That which is said is not verie manifest yet they say that he preacheth the miracles of Mahomet sometime exalting their faith sometime commending obedience and sometime rehearsing fabulous tales to terrifie the bad as that such mens soules are carried of certaine Camels there being some sixe thousand flying about in the ayre for this purpose into the Sepulchres of wicked Christians and that the good Christians are put in their emptie Sepulchres inueighing against the blasphemers of Mahomet Christ and the Saints exhorting to Almes rehearsing their commandements of the law And if they preach scandalous doctrine the Mufti and the Cadlilescher depriue them and correct them as Heretikes yea some of them for preferring Christ before Mahomet are put to death of which one Ibraim Schec a Priest of Constantinople reported to haue wrought miracles amongst the Turkes in the dayes of Soliman was stoned to death his head cut off and his bodie burned of his Disciples some were beheaded others thrust into the Gallies for preferring Christ and denying Mahomet And were it not for the terrour of the sword there would be more innouations of religion and some haue perswaded the Grand Signior not to suffer the Alcoran to bee so common to be read and interpreted of euerie one guiltie of the absurdities therein contained But to returne After this preaching ended two young Clerkes goe vp to him and sing certaine prayers which ended the Priest againe beginneth to sing with the people in a base voyce with wrigling euery way for the space of halfe an houre saying nothing but Lailla illellah that is there is but one God And these Ceremonies are done onely on their Lenten Fridayes Their Lent is one Moone or Moneth in the yeere which if this yeere it be Iuly the next it shall bee August and so in order that in twelue yeeres they haue fasted all times of the yeere making no other difference of meates then at other times but eating onely in the night They prepare themselues by diminishing their fare not as the Christians at Shrouetide that they may the better endure it for on the day in which they fast they will not so much as taste a cup of water or wash their mouthes therewith till the Starres appeare And eight or ten dayes after it beginneth some Officers ride about the towne crying Such a day beginneth the Fast prepare yee prepare yee and when it is begun the Cadi and Subassi if they finde any shops open or any body eating in the day set him on an Asse backwards with the tayle in his hand as Adulterers are punished and to drinke wine at this time is death Neither will they suffer Iewes or Christians to scandalize their Turkes this way And when their Lent is neere the end they goe all to the Baths and plucke off all their haires but of the head and beard with an oyntment for that purpose they colour their nayles red with an enduring colour called Chua with which they dye also the tayles and feet of their horses and the women their hands feet and priuie parts This they doe in honour of their solemnitie which lasteth three daies with great feasting in which nothing else but meates and drinkes may be sold They goe to the Sepulchres of the dead there to eate full of gladnesse and salute each other saying Baaram glutiotzong that is God giue you a good Feast and if they meete with a Iew or a Christian woe vnto them On the first day of their Bairam the Sultan rideth to S. Sophia with all pompe and then did we see saith Master Sandys a sight full of horror many mourne with age yet dead before death and reuolting from their Christianitie therefore throwing away their bonets and lifting vp their fore fingers to which the Tyrant bowed himselfe as glorying in such conuersions The Turks keepe another Easter especially in Mecca more solemne to the Tartars Moores and Arabians then to the Turkes except the Pilgrims which resort thither §. V. Of the Turkish Circumcision THE Turkes say they are circumcised because they are the sonnes of Ismael and because they may be cleane when they goe to their Temples no filth lying hid vnder the skinne At seuen or eight yeeres of age or later this Ceremonie is performed The first thing they doe is to inuite many thither both Turkes Iewes and Christians besides the friends and kindred to make the greater gaine euery one giuing somewhat according to his abilitie When the day is come they which are inuited mount on horse-backe for else it is no solemnitie and goe to the house of the childe who being mounted on a faire horse richly clothed with a great Tulipant on his head
in his Seale ingrauen words of like effect as is alreadie shewed Mandeuill hath the same report Will. de Rubruquis saith that they haue diuided Scythia amongst them from Danubius to the Sunne rising euery Captaine knowing the bounds of his pastures which they feede in the Winter descending Southwards ascending in the Summer Northwards Their houses are moueable remoued on great Carts which containe twentie foot betweene the wheeles their houses on each side ouer-reaching fiue foot drawne by aboue twenty Oxen. When they take them downe they turne the doore alwaies to the South Ouer the Masters head is an Image of Felt called the Masters brother and another ouer the head of the good wife or Mistres called her brother fastened to the wall and betwixt both of them is a little leane one which is the keeper of the whole house Shee hath also at her beds feet a Kids skin filled with wooll and a little Image looking towards the Maidens and Women Next to the doore on the Womens side which is the East as the mans side is on the West there is an Image with a Cowes Vdder for the Women whose office it is to milke the Kine on the other side another with a Mares Vdder for the Men. When they make merrie they sprinkle their drinke vpon these Images in order beginning at the Masters Then goeth a seruant out of the house with a cup full of drinke sprinkling thrice toward the South and bowing the knee at euery time and this is done for the honour of the Fire Then performeth he the like superstition toward the East for the honour of the Ayre next to the West for the honour of Water and lastly to the North in the behalfe of the Dead When the Master holdeth a cup in his hand to drinke before he tasteth thereof hee poureth his part vpon the ground if he drinketh sitting on horse-backe hee first poureth part thereof on the Mane of the Horse After the seruant aforesaid hath discharged his cups to the foure quarters of the world hee returneth to the house and two other seruants stand readie with two cups and two Basons to carry drinke vnto their Maister and that Wife which lay with him the last night sitting together on a bedde Their Sooth-sayers or Inchanters are their Priests To this may bee added out of the Manuscript aboue mentioned their Diuination by three bones thorough which being first burned blacke the Diuinor lookes and if the sight passeth straight and right it is a good token but if it be inwardly crooked or broken hee then vpon this euill presage ceaseth from his enterprise Master Ienkinson trauelled with certaine Tartars which diuined by the blade-bones of sheepe sod and then burnt to powder which being mingled with the bloud of the sheep they writ therewith certaine Characters with diuers words and Ceremonies and thence diuined of their successe which they found true to their cost They vsed Diuination also by foure swords Mangu Can desired a conference betwixt the Christians Saracens and Idolaters to see which of them could make best proofe of his Religion The Moal Tartars professed to beleeue one onely GOD the Author of life and death but as the hand which is one hath diuers fingers so thought he and they that this one GOD was pleased with diuers waies of deuotion Their Priests were diuiners they were many but had one Captaine or chiefe Bishop who alwaies placed his house or tent before that of the great Can about a stones cast distant Hee had charge of the Waine which carried the Idols the other Priests had their places appointed them Some of them were Astrologers specially that High-Priest which foretold the Ecclipses of the Moone All the people prouided them their meat that they might not go out of their Tents When an Ecclipse happens they sound their Organs and Timbrels and make a great noyse and when it is past they make great feasting drinking and mirth They foretell Holy-daies and those which are vnluckie for enterprises No warres are begun or made without their word They cause all presents which are sent to the Can to passe through the fire they purifie the houshold of the dead by the like rite which before may not bee touched On the ninth day of May they assemble all the white Mares and hallow them at which the Christians must be present with their Censors They then cast on the ground new Cosmos and make a great feast They foretell the destinies of Infants newly borne and when one is sicke they diuine by charmes whether the disease bee naturall or proceed of Sorcerie They are themselues Witches Sorcerers Inuokers of the Deuill this they doe in the night setting flesh in the midst of the house readie boiled vsing charmes Timbrells and falling into mad fits are bound Then comes the Deuill and giues them answeres Thus much Rubruquis M. Paulus thus reporteth of their Religion They say that there is a GOD on high in heauen of whom lifting vp their hands smiting their teeth three times together euery day with Censer and Incense they desire health and vnderstanding They place a Table aloft in the wall of their house in the which is written a name that representeth this god They haue another which they call Natigay or Itogay of Felt or other stuffe in euerie house They make him a wife and children and set his wife on the left hand and his children before him which seeme to doe him reuerence This they call the God of earthly things which keepeth their children beasts and corne and when they eat they annoint his mouth with the fat and the mouthes of his wife children and then cast out the broth out of the doore vnto other spirits And when their God hath had his part they take theirs Of this Natigay they with like Ceremonies of lifting vp their hands and smiting of their teeth desire temperature of the ayre fruits of the earth children and such like Their wiues are exceeding chaste and obseruant and though they bee many yet can Rachel and Leah yea ten or twentie of them agree with a maruellous vnion intent vnto their houshold and other businesse whereby they are gainefull and not chargeable to their Husbands When they marry the Husband couenanteth with the Father of the Maide who hauing giuen him power to take her wheresoeuer hee shall finde her hee seeketh her among some of her friends where shee hath then of purpose hidden her selfe and by a kinde of force carrieth her away They marry with any except their owne Mother and Sister Their Widdowe 's seldome marry because of their seruice to their former Husbands in another world except the sonne marrie his fathers wiues or the brother his brothers because they can there in the next world bee content to resigne them to their former Husbands againe The women buy sell and prouide all necessaries into the house the men intending nothing but their Armes
they liued in great ease and pleasure euerie day hunting that for worldly pleasure he neuer any where enioyed such a life with such loue and liking of his Tartar-Host as if he had beene his sonne These vsed to make sudden inrodes vpon the Polachs the Gentlemen of Poland not dyning without their Peeces and Souldierly-seruing-men readie to giue them entertainment If the Christians make head against them they know not where to find them Resolute they are and will ride with their Bowes in the face of a Peece §. II. Of Tartaria Deserta THE second part in this diuision is attributed to Tartaria Deserta so called of the Desart huge tract of the Country betweene Tanais the Caspian Sea and the Lake Kitay sometime knowne by the name of Sarmatia Asiation It containeth many Tribes of which the principall are Zunelhensis called Burgar Tartars of Volga betweene which Riuer and Iaich they haue their abode This they called the great Hord and the Emperor thereof Vlucan in the yeere 1506. subdued by the Crim-Tartars before mentioned and after that by Basilius the Muscouite to whose large stile Bulgaria is added taking that name of Volga as it were Volgaria or of Bulgar a Towne vpon that Riuer Gazan and Astracan Hords of these Zauol-Tartars haue bin subiect also many yeeres to the said Great Duke who caused the Prince of Cazan being taken prisoner when hee was young to bee baptized Neere vnto Cazan is Vachen the people whereof are Gentiles and the Cheremizes halfe Gentiles halfe Tartars and Mangat or Nagai Mahumetan Tartars which in the yeere 1558. were thorow ciuill warres famine and pestilence destroyed to the number of aboue a hundred thousand These Nagayans haue their diuers Hords subiect to their seuerall Dukes whom they call Murzes hauing no vse of Money Corne or Arts They in the time of their distresse would for one Loafe of bread worth sixe pence haue sold Sonne or Daughter to Master Ienkinson if hee would haue bought a thousand although other-whiles they deride the Christians as liuing on the tops of weedes so they call our Corne This our Author and Country-man trauelled downe the Riuer Volga to Astracan which Riuer after it had runne aboue two thousand English miles hath threescore and ten mouthes or falls into the Caspian Sea Through this Sea hee passed to Manguslaue another part of the Desart Tartaria The Prince whereof Timor Soltan he found and saluted in a little round house not hauing Towne or Castle made of Reeds couered without with Felt within with carpets accompanied with the great Metropolitane of their country esteemed of amongst that field-people as the Bishop of Rome is in most parts of Europe And had he not presented himselfe to him with the Great Dukes Letters he had been spoyled of all that he had They passed thence with a Carauan of Merchants twentie dayes not finding water but as they drew out of old deepe Wells brackish and salt and passed sometimes two or three dayes without the same After that they came to a Gulfe of the Caspian Sea againe where the water is fresh and sweet Not so the people for the Customers of the King of Turkeman tolled of euery fiue and twentie one and seuen ninths for the said King and his brethren Into this Gulfe the Riuer Oxus did sometimes fall but is now intercepted by the Riuer Ardock which runneth toward the North and as it were loath to view so cold a Clime and barbarous Inhabitants after he hath run with a swift race a thousand miles as it were in flight hee hideth himselfe vnder ground for the space of fiue hundred miles and then looking vp and seeing little amendment drowneth himselfe in the Lake of Kithay Thence they had three dayes iourney to Sellizure where finding Azim Can to whom hee presented a ninth hee receiued there the like festiuall entertainment as before with Timor that is the flesh of a wilde Horse and Mares milke without bread Hee and his brethren ruled all from the Caspian Sea to Vrgence and had continuall warres with the Persians which space is called Turkeman for the other Hords of that huge Tartarian Desart the Kirgessen Melgomazan Scibanski Thumen which still is said to remaine vnder the obedience of the Grand Can Bascheridi Heseliti harsh names of harsher people in those most harsh and horrid Desarts will hasten my pen and your eares to some more pleasing subiect The Thumen and their Neighbours are great Inchanters and by their Art they say raise tempests and ouerthrow their Enemies The Kirgessen obserue these stinking holies their Priest mixeth bloud milke and Cow-dung together with earth and putting them in a Vessell therewith climeth a tree and after his deuout exhortation to the people hee besprinkleth them with this sacred mixture which they account diuine When any of them dye they hang him on a tree in stead of buryall The Tartars in Turkeman vse to catch wilde Horses with Hawks tamed to that purpose which seising on the necke of the Horse with his beating and the Horses chasing tyreth him and maketh him an easie prey to his Master who alwayes rideth with his Bow Arrowes and Sword They eate their meate and say their prayers sitting on the ground crosse-legged spending the time very idlely As Master Ienkinson with his company trauelled from hence towards Boghar they were assayled with fortie theeues of whom they had intelligence somewhat before and therefore certaine holy men for so they account such as haue beene at Mecca caused the Carauan to stay while they made their praiers and diuinations touching their successe They tooke certaine sheepe and killed them and tooke the blade-bones of the same which they first sod and then burnt mingling the bloud of the said sheepe with this poulder of their bones with which bloud they wrote certaine Characters vsing many other Ceremonies and words and thereby diuined that they should meete with enemies which after much trouble they should ouercome which accordingly proued true Of the faithfulnesse of these holy men he had good proofe both heere and elsewhere they refusing not to expose themselues to danger and faithlesly-faithfull to forsweare themselues rather then betray him and the Christians to their theeuish Country-men For these robbers would haue dismissed the Bussarmans so they call their Catholikes if they would haue deliuered the Caphars that is Infidels as they esteeme the Christians vnto their power One of their holy men which the enemies had surprized by no torments would confesse any thing to the preiudice of his fellowes But at last they were forced to agree and giue the theeues twentie ninths that is twentie times nine seuerall things and a Camell to carry the same away This Countrey of Turkeman or Turchestan is the first habitation of the Turkes and the people were called by that name both in Haithons time and in the time of Mauritius as in the Turkish Historie you haue heard Pliny nameth the Turkes neerer
haue heard before in the eight Chapter of this Booke These three sorts of Tartars which we haue hitherto mentioned are all for the most part Mahumetans There are some yet as Michouius affirmeth neere the Caspian Sea which are not Mahumetans nor shaue their haire off their heads after the Tartarian manner and therefore they call them Calmuch or Pagans §. IIII. Of the Cathayan and Mogol Tartars c. THE fourth are those which in greatnesse are first namely the Cathayans called Carabas that is Black-heads of their Turbants as the former Ieselbas But of their Religion further then that which hath beene before expressed we can say little And it seemeth by the relations mentioned in the former Chapters that they are Gentiles or Christians and not of Mahomets errour Chaggi Memet a Persian Merchant related as in part is said before to Ramusius that he had beene at Campion Damir Can then raigning and that vnto Camul the Westerly part of Tanguth they were Idolaters and Ethnikes from thence Westwards Musulmans or Saracens In the Epistle of Carualius the Iesuite it is reported by a Mahumetane Merchant that they were Christians for those reasons is seemes yee haue heard before By Benedictus Goes his obseruations yee haue seen them so deuoted to Mahomet that a tender Lady of the weaker sexe in the strength of sect from the remote parts of Cascar bordering on China visited Mecca in Pilgrimage And their zeale or pretence thereof put him into often perils for his faith shall I say or his goods yet doth he make a difference between the Saracens and the Tartars these it seemes professing robbery and little minding any religion They worship in those parts to the West for that way stands Mecca The fifth and last forme of our Tartars are those which abide in those places whence the Tartars first issued to ouer-whelme all Asia with their Armies of which is related at large in the eleuenth Chapter of which for want of probable intelligence I can say little more Our Maps place there the Hords of the Danites Nephthalites Ciremissians Turbites and other which some deriue from the dispersion as is said of the ten Tribes Here is Tabor also whose King was by Charles the fifth Emperour in the yeere 1540. as before is said burned at Mantua for soliciting to Iuduisme Pope Innocent King Lewes of France by meanes of William de Rubruquis and the King of Armenia solicited as you haue partly heard both the great Can and his chiefe Princes to become Christians and it is likely that the Tartars might if diligence had beene vsed and some Superstitions had not darkened the Christian profession haue thereunto beene perswaded which many also of them were as appeareth in Haiton Mat. Westmonast and Vincentius But the Saracens which had before polluted those Countries where the Mahumetan Tartars now abide by that sutablenesse of their Law to their lawlesse lusts of Rapine and Poligamie preuailed as Michouius reporteth with Bathi and those other Tartars to embrace Mahumet and refuse Christ They say Eissa Rocholla that is Iesus is the Spirit of the Lord Mahomet Rossollai that is Mahomet is the Iustice of GOD. They obey saith hee the Pentateuch of Moses are circumcised obserue the legall Ceremonies they haue no Bels but euery day crie La illo illo loh which signifieth that there is but one GOD. They professe themselues Ismaelites the Christians they call Dzintzis that is Pagans and Gaur Infidels They obserue three Feasts the first Kuiram to which they prepare themselues with their thirtie dayes Lent and in that Feast offer Rammes Birdes c. The second they celebrate for All Soules for which they fast a moneth visit the graues and doe workes of mercie The third they keepe for themselues and their owne saluation and fast twelue dayes Iosafa Barbaro a Venetian which liued among the Tartars about the yeere 1437. saith That they embraced not the faith of Mahomet generally but as euery man liked vntill about that time in the dayes of Hedighi a Captaine vnder Sidahameth Can who first compelled them thereunto being before free vnto their Idolatries if they pleased And of the other Tartars neere the Zagathayans he saith That many of them were Idolaters and carried Idols in the Carts yea some of them vsed to worship whatsoeuer Beast they first met with after they went abroad in the morning This Docter Fletcher reporteth of the Mordiuit Tartars adding that they vse to sweare by it all that day whether it bee Horse Dog or whatsoeuer else And when his friend dieth hee killeth his best Horse and flaying off the skin carrieth it on high vpon a long Pole before the corps to the place of buriall The Moxij at a certaine time in the yeere take a horse which they set in the field with his foure legges tyed to foure posts and his head to another post fastened in the ground This done one of them standing in a conuenient distance shooteth him to the heart Afterwards they flay him and obseruing certaine ceremonies about the flesh eate the same The skin they fill with chaffe and in each of his legges thrust a straight stick that hee may stand vpright as if hee were aliue Lastly they goe to a great Tree and loppe there from as many boughes as they thinke good and make a Roome or Sollar in that tree where they set this horse on his feet and worship him offering vnto him Foxes and diuers Beasts which beare rich Furres of which offerings the Trees hang full Master Ienkinson mentioneth a Nation liuing among the Tartars called Kings which are also Gentiles as are also the Kirgessen of whom wee haue spoken and the Colmackes which worship the Sunne as they doe also a redde Cloth fastened to the toppe of a Pole and eate Serpents Wormes and other filth Neere to which hee placeth in his Mappe of Russia certaine Statues or Pillars of Stone which sometime were Hords of Men and Beasts feeding transformed by diuine power if it bee not humaine errour into this stonie substance retayning their pristine shape These Nations are eyther Tartars or in manner of life like vnto them and may therefore passe vnder that generall appellation And this may suffice touching the Tartarian Nation and Religion which in the West and South parts of their abode is Mahumetane in the more Northerly and Easterly partly Heathenish partly Iewish or Moorish or mixed or as may best aduantage them and most please them wandring in opinion in like sort as in their habitation Doctor Fletcher reckons these things as generall to all the Hords of Tartars First to obey their Magistrates whatsoeuer they command about the publike seruice Secondly Except for the pulique behoofe euery man to bee free and out of controlement Thirdly No priuate man to possesse any Lands but the whole Countrey to bee common Fourthly To neglect all daintinesse and varietie of meates and to content themselues with that which commeth next to
at this time is Idolatrous and Pagan wherin the common people are somewhat superstitious but the King himselfe the Mandarines or Magistrates as seeing the vanitie thereof and not able to see the truth are in manner irreligious and profane the first worship that which is Nothing in the World and these find nothing in the World but the World and these momentany things to worship Ricius reports that the ancient Chinois worshipped one only great GOD which they called the King of Heauen or otherwise Heauen and Earth wherby he gathers that they thought Heauen and Earth to be endued with life and the Soule thereof to be the greatest GOD. Beneath which they worshipped also diuers Spirits Tutelares preseruers of the Mountaines of Riuers and of the foure parts of the World They held that Reason was to be followed in all actions which light they confessed to receiue from Heauen They neuer conceiued yet such monstrous absurdities of this god and these spirits as the Egyptians Grecians and Romanes haue done whence the Iesuite would haue you thinke euen in this Idolatry many of them to be saued by I know not what congruitie which merits not the mention In succeeding ages this Idolatry became more manifold in some whiles other became Atheists of which their King and Magistrates are blamed And yet this King when some few yeeres since his Palace was fired with lightning being guiltie of his owne vnworthinesse he commanded his sonne to pray to Heauen for reconciliation Fryer Gasper de la Crux being in Canton entred a certaine Religious house where he saw a Chappell hauing therein besides many other things of great curiositie the Image of a woman with a child hanging about her necke and a Lampe burning before her The mysterie hereof so like the Popish mysterie of iniquitie none of the Chinois could declare The Sunne the Moone Starres and especially Heauen it selfe are gods of the first forme in their Idol-schoole They acknowledge Laocon Tzantey the Gouernour of the great god so it signifieth to be eternall and a spirit Of like nature they esteeme Causay vnto whom they ascribe the lower Heauen and power of Life and Death They subiect vnto him three other spirits Tauquam Teyquam Tzuiquam The first supposed to bee Author of Raine the second of humane Natiuitie Husbandrie and Warres the third is their Sea Neptune To these they offer Victualls Odors and Alter-clothes presenting them also with Playes and Comoedies They haue Images of the Deuil with Serpentine lockes and as deformed lookes as here he is painted whom they worship not to obtaine any good at his hand but to detaine and hold his hand from doing them euill They haue many Hee and Shee-Saints in great veneration with long Legends of their liues Amongst the chiefe of them are Sichia the first inuenter of their religious Votaries of both Sects Quannia an Anchoresse and Neoma a great Sorceresse Frier Martin in one Temple in Vcheo told a hundred and twelue Idols They tell of one Huiunsin in the Prouince of Cechian which did much good to the people both by Alchimy making true Siluer of Quick-siluer and by freeing the Metropolitan Citie from a huge Dragon which hee fastened to an yron pillar still shewed and then flew into Heauen with all his House Mice and all lye and all and there they haue built him a Temple the ministers whereof are of the Sect Thausu Trigautius writes of certaine Gods called Foe which they say goe a visiting Cities and Prouinces and the Iesuites in one Citie were taken for these Idols Foe At Sciauchin they in time of drought proclaimed a Fast euery Idoll was sollicited with Tapers and Odours for Raine A peculiar Officer with the Elders of the people obserued peculitr Rites to these purpose the Priests went on Procession all in vaine When the Citie-Gods could doe nothing they fetched a Country-Idoll called Locu which they carrie about worship offer to But LOCV is now growne old thus they said of his deafenesse At last they goe to a Witch who told them Quonin a Goddesse was angry that her backe was burned meaning the Conuerts which burnt their Idols which insensed them against the Christians Hoaquam is the name of an Idoll which hath rule ouer the eyes which they carry about in Procession and beg in his name In time of trouble they haue familiaritie with the Deuill Pedro de Alfaro obserued being in a Ship with the Chinois in this sort They cause a man to lye on the ground groueling and then one readeth on a Booke the rest answering and some make a sound with Bells and Tabors The man in short space beginneth to make visages and gestures whereby they know the Deuill is entred and then doe they propound their requests to which he answereth by word or Letters And when they cannot extort an answere by word they spread a red Mantle on the ground equally dispersing all ouer the same a certaine quantitie of Rice Then do they cause a man that cannot write to stand there themselues renuing their former inuocation and the Deuill entring into this man causeth him to write vpon the Rice But his answeres are often full of lyes In the entries of their houses they haue an Idoll-roome where they incense their Deities morning and euening They offer to them the sweetest odours Hennes Geese Duckes Rice Wine a Hogs-head boyled is a chiefe offering But little hereof falleth to Gods share which is set in a dish apart as the tippes of the Hogs-eares the bylls and feet of the Hennes a few cornes of Rice three or foure drops of Wine Their Bookes tell much of Hell their deuotions little Their Temples are homely and filthy no Oracle is in any of them They haue fables of men turned into Dogs or Snakes and againe metamorphosed into men And they which beleeue the paines of Hell yet beleeue after a certaine space that those damned soules shall passe thence into the bodies of some beasts But their Idolatries and religious Rites will better appeare if we take view of their different Religions and Sects §. III. Of their three Sects and first of that of CONFVTIVS THey reckon in the World and obserue amongst themselues three Sects the first of the Learned the second Sciequia the third Laucu One of these three euery Chinois professeth as doe their Neighbours also which vse their Characters the Iapanders Corians Lequians and Cochin-Chinois The Sect of the Learned is peculiar to the Chinois very ancient and famous which they drinke in together with the Studies of Learning all their Students and Magistrates professing the same obseruing Confutius the Author thereof These worship not Idols nor haue any One God they worship as preseruer of all things certaine Spirits also in an inferiour honour The chiefe of them neither acknowledge Author Time or Manner of the worlds creation Somewhat they discourse of Rewards of Good and Euill but such as are bestowed in this life vpon the
is wayed against siluer and gold Through this Kingdome runneth the Riuer Mecon into the Sea which the Indians name Captaine of all the Riuers for it hath so much water in the Summer their Winter that it drowneth the Countrey as Nilus doth The people of Camboia beleeue that all Creatures both Men and Beasts of all sorts doe here receiue reward for their worke whether it be good or bad Vpwards in the Land are the Laos a great and mighty people the Anas and Bramas also which dwell further vp by the Hills and the Gueos vpon the Hills which liue like wilde men eate mans flesh marke all their bodies with a hote iron in gallant brauery Gaspar de Cruz mentioneth that People called Laos Northwards from Camboia which come thither downe a Riuer which hath his beginning in China and is of eight fifteene and twenty fadoms depth it passeth thorow desarts where are Elephants and Bados or Rhinocerotes the males of which beasts haue a horne arising out of their snowt accounted good for the Piles This Riuer comming to Cudurmuch twelue leagues from the principall Citie of Camboia makes a passage to another Riuer which descendeth from a great Lake in the midst of which one cannot see Land When the great waters come downe from the Laos Riuer they enter that other Riuer with such violence that it reuerseth and turneth backe the streame with a swift current and ouerfloweth all Camboia leauing no passage for Trauellers but by Boat their houses also being in the lower roomes ouerflowen themselues remaining in the higher roomes with their houshold This Riuer runneth vpward from Iuly to September The Portugals shewed our Author a great Hill ouer which a ship had sailed being of sufficient burden to haue passed from India to Portugall These Laos bring Musk from Camsi being the flesh and blood as he saith of a certaine beast They goe naked from the waste vpwards trussing vp their haire like a cappe Their Priests weare yellow cloaths and yellow Copes with certaine folds and seames Their Religion is as in Siam Iarric writes of these Laos or Laios that they liue about the springs of Mecon in Cottages of Timber and in open boats neere the banks and Lakes of the Riuer which is said to extend foure hundred Leagues within the Land neere the Tartarian and China confines These Laios about the yeare 1578. descended the Riuer in great multitudes with an army of two hundred thousand which all were slaine drowned or captiued in fight with the Camboyans In this battell the King of Camboia was slaine also He left behind him a yong sonne which became vassall to the King of Siam This Kingdome hath great Townes and many Temples which haue Bonzij Priests or Religious Men after the maner of Iapan and China but lesse superstitious then the Iaponians As for the Laios they are rude and barbarous but rich in Gold The King of Camboia in the yeare 1598. sent to the Iesuites for some of their Society to liue and preach amongst his people and bestowed vpon Iames Veloso a Portugall which had serued him in the warres against the Siamites a Peninsula stretching three Leagues into the Sea which hee offered to the Portugall subiection vpon condition of conuerting the Inhabitants There are not as in other Maritime parts of the Indies any Saracens amongst them they are courteous and milde people and haue trade with the Iaponians §. II. Of the Kingdome of Siam ON this side of Camboia is Siam Sion or Silon Mother-City of a Kingdome bearing the same name in which are reckoned thirty thousand families of Moores besides the Naturals In these parts are huge Woods harbours of Lions Tigres Ownces and they tell also Mariches which haue Maidens faces and Scorpions tailes Here runneth Menan out of that huge Lake Chiamay which yeeldeth this and other Riuers of like Nature to Nilus in Egypt For this cause Balbi affirmeth that they build their houses in Silon so hee termeth it very high and euery house hath a boat belonging thereto for passage and transportation of the familie in that their Winter-time or annuall deluge And some poore porsons haue slight houses of Reed or timber set vpon plankes tied together or Liters which they can remooue whither they please as moueable shops to buy and sell which is there done most by the women This name of Sion Silon or Siam may worthily mooue a Quaere to Geographers whether this bee not the Sinae mentioned by Ptolemey Marcianus and other Ancients the rather because China is a name vnknowne to the Chinois and their Countrey abutts on the Sea E stward and the Cities thereof haue more Northerly Situation then those by them ascribed to the Sinae which name is heere little altered and in other things this seemeth rather to agree thereunto But let the curious enquire and the learned iudge They haue amongst them many Religious Men which leade an austere life and therefore had in great reputation of Holinesse These liue in common they may not marrie nor speake to a Woman which fault is punished with death they goe alway bare-foot in poore array eating nothing but Rice and greene herbes which they begge from doore to doore They craue it not nor take it with their hands but goe with a wallet at their backes alwayes with their eyes modestly fixed on the ground and calling or knocking stand still till they receiue answere or some thing be put in their wallets Many times they set themselues naked in the heate of the Sunne notwithstanding that himselfe with such direct beames together with his frie whole armies of Gnats doe their vtmost malice on them They rise at midnight to pray vnto their Idoles which they doe in Quires as the Friers doe They may not buy sell or take any Rents which if they should doe would bring on them the imputation of Heretiques Some Merchants of Siam being at Canton and hearing that Frier Martin Ignacio and his companions were there imprisoned for entring that Chinian Kingdome without License they visited them and seeing their poore Friers Weedes they besides other almes offered to pay their ransome if money would doe it The Siamites commonly hold that God created all things rewardeth the good punisheth the bad That Man hath two Spirits one good to keepe and the other euill to tempt continually attending him They build many and faire Temples and place in them many Images of Saints which sometime liued vertuously and now are in Heauen They haue one Statue fifty paces long which is sacred to the Father of men For they thinke that he was sent from aboue and that of him were borne certaine persons that suffered Martyrdome for the loue of God Their Priests are clothed in yellow long garments This colour is esteemed holy and euery yellow thing for the resemblance which it hath with Gold and with the Sunne is hallowed to God Besides that which is before said of their
Christian Faith especially the Trinitie and Incarnation Hee hath addmitted the Iesuites there to preach and would haue had them by miracle to haue proued those things to him which they elswhere so much boasting of Miracles wisely refused For hee demanded that the Mulla's or Priests of the Mogores and they should by passing thorow the fire make tryall of their Faith Hee hath many Bookes and Images which the Christians there doe vse and seemeth to haue great liking to them vsing the same with great reuerence But his Religion is the same it seemeth with that of Tamerlane his predecessor to acknowledge One God whom varietie of Sects and Worshippings should best content Hee caused thirtie Infants to bee kept like that which is said of Psammetichus King of Egypt setting certaine to watch and obserue that neither their Nurses nor any else should speake vnto them purposing to addict himselfe to that Religion which they should embrace whose Language these Infants should speake which accordingly came to passe For as they spake no certaine Languge so is not hee setled in any certaine Religion Hee hath diuers Idols sometime brought before him among which is one of the Sunne which early euery morning and three other times a day at noone euening and in the night he worshippeth He worshipped also the Image of CHRIST and our LADY which hee set on the crowne of his head and wore Relikes about him He is addicted to a new Sect as is said wherein he hath his followers which hold him for a Prophet The profit which they haue by his gold addicteth them to this new Prophet Hee professeth to worke Miracles by the water of his feet curing diseases Many Women make Vowes vnto him either to obtaine children or to recouer the health of their children which if they attaine they bring him their vowed Deuotions willingly of him receiued yea euery morning as he worshipped the Sunne so he delighted to be worshipped himselfe of the people to whom hee made shew of himselfe at a window and they kneeling performed like Ceremonie to him as to their Idols and he was thought to entertaine men skilfull in diuers Sects and Religions that of euery one he might take somewhat to the constitution of a new one He hath three sonnes Sciec the eldest which is honoured with the title Gio and called Sciecigio that is the Soule or Person of Sciec he much fauoureth the Iesuites the second Pahari Dan or Daniel is the youngest Some call them by other names His Presents are exceeding besides his Tributes and Customes Hee mentions One which in their presence offered his Vassalage and withall a Present valued at two hundred thousand crownes and more a Horse with furniture of Gold and Iewels two Swords and the Girdles of like worke Camels Carpets c. taking himselfe dignified in the acceptation of his Present Himselfe after often bowings and touching the ground with his head comming neerer was searched whether hee had any weapons and then was admitted to touch his foot Echebar laying his hand on his necke and allowing him to stand with his other Nobles The Kings sonne Sultan Morad at the same time offered a Present of fiftie Elephants worth a hundred and fiftie thousand Duckats one Chariot of Gold another of Siluer others of Mother of Pearle with other things of great value The Vice-Roy or Gouernour of Bengala followed with another Present esteemed worth eight hundred thousand Duckats viz. three hundred Elephants Almost dayly hee receiueth such Presents especially at a certaine Feast called Nerosa in which one Great Man was thought to present him with neere the worth of one Million of Gold §. II. Of the Conquests and death of ECHEBAR and of his Sonne and Successour SELIM now reigning OVr Relations of Echebar or Achebar his Rites Humane and Diuine as also of his Possessions and Greatnesse wee haue alreadie seemed long yet cannot be so satisfied without further satisfaction to the Reader if he be such as he of whom wee write curious and desirous to know remote Affaires and farre distant Occurrences Great Echebar added vnto that Greatnesse which his Father left him the Kingdome of Caxemir of Sinda of Guzzarat of Xischandadan and a great part of Decan with all the Tract of Bengala Such was his felicitie that it grew into a Prouerbe As happie as ECHEBAR seldome attempting any thing without prosperous successe I speake of worldly happinesse Euen in Natures treasures hee was rich both Wit and Memorie this so happie that of many thousands of Elephants which hee had hee knew the names yea of his Horses to each of which hee gaue names of his wilde Beasts and Harts that hee kept in a place appointed and euen of his Pigeons which hee kept for sport Yet was not this happinesse so perpetuall but that he had some especially domesticke Crosses His second sonne Sultan Morad being sent into Guzzarat against Melic King of Decan sometime Lord of Chaul was slaine with many other Commanders which newes was then brought to Echebar when hee was celebrating their New-yeeres Festiuall the day that the Sunne enters into Aries whereupon hee sent thither another of his sonnes Another time when hee was solemnizing the Sunnes Festiuall on Easter day 1597. about which time the King of China sustained the like Casualtie Fire fell from Heauen vpon his Tent richly adorned with Gold and Iewels and consumed it to ashes with all the Tents adioyning together with his Throne of solide Gold valued at 100000. Duckats consumed or melted from whence it proceeded to the Palace which being of Timber was for the most part brought into ashes Some millions of Treasure there reserued could not bee there preserued from this flame which made a Streame of Gold and Siluer mixed with other Metalls runne alongst the streets For this cause hee forsooke Lahor where hee had built the Iesuites a Church and where hee kept his Court as hee did before at Fatepore and sometimes at Agra and went to Caximir or Cascimir a Kingdome which a little before he had subdued This yeelds not to any Indian Region in goodlinesse and wholesomenesse being encompassed with very high Mountaines couered most part of the yeere with Snow the rest a delicate Playne diuersified with Pastures Fields Woods Gardens Parkes Springs Riuers euen to admiration It is coole and more temperate then the Kingdome of Rebat which adioyneth to it on the East Three leagues from Caximir is a Lake deepe and beset round with Trees in the midst thereof an Iland and thereon hee built a Palace The Countrey hath store of Rice Wheat and Vines which they plant at the foot of the Mulburie the same Tree seeming to beare two Fruits Had they not beene at Contentions amongst themselues hee could neuer haue conquered so strong a Kingdome In times past they were all Gentiles but three hundred yeeres before this the most of them became Mahumetane This Countrey he left when Summer was past
Men departed doe most of all enter into these beasts They haue many bookes of their superstition neere the Augurall discipline of the Hetrurians and fond fables of the Graecians and diligently conceale the same from vulgar knowledge except some Bramene Proselyte doe detect those mysteries They beleeue one God maker of Heauen and Earth but adde that he could haue no pleasure in so weighty a charge of gouerning the world and therefore hath delegated the same to the Deuill to reward euery man according to his workes Him they call Deumo they name GOD Tamerani The King hath in his Palace the Chappell of Deumo carued full of Deuils and in the middest sitteth this Image of metall in a Throne of the same matter with a triple Crowne like the Popes and foure hornes with teeth eyes and mouth wide and terrible hooked hands and feet like a Cocke In each corner of this square Chappell is a Deuill set in a fiery Throne wherein are many Soules the Deuill putting one with his right hand into his mouth and taking another from vnder him with his left hand This Idoll is washed by the Bramenes with sweet water incensed and worshipped euery morning Somtime in the weeke they sacrifice on this manner They haue an Altar strewed with flowers on which they put the bloud of a Cocke and coales of fire in a siluer Chafing-dish with much perfumes incensing about the Altar and often ringing with a little Bell of siluer They hold in their hands a siluer Knife with which the Cocke was killed which they dip in the bloud and put into the fire with many Apish gestures All the bloud is thus burned many Waxe-candles burning meane-while The Priest hath on his wrists and legs as it were Morrice-bels which make a great noise a certaine Table hanging at his necke and when he hath ended his Sacrifice he taketh his hands full of Wheat goeth backward from the Altar on which hee alwaies fixeth his eies to a certaine Tree and then hurleth the Corne vp ouer his head as high as he can after which he returneth and vnfurnisheth the Altar The King of Calicut eateth no meate before foure principall Bramenes haue first offered thereof to the Deuill which they do lifting both their hands ouer their heads and shutting their fists draw back the same with their thumbe presenting of that meate to the Idoll and then carrie it to the King on a great Leafe in a Treene Platter The King sitteth on the ground at his meate without any thing vnder him attended with Bramenes standing foure paces off with their hands before their mouthes in great reuerence And after the King hath eaten those Priests carry the Relikes into the Court where they clap thrice with their hands whereat presently certaine Crowes resort thither to eate the Kings leauings which Crowes are hereunto accustomed and may not bee hurt of any When the King marrieth a wife one of the principall Bramenes hath the first nights lodging with hee for which he hath assigned him by the King foure hundred or fiue hundred Ducats The King and his Gentlemen or Nayros eate not flesh without license of the Bramenes The King committeth the custodie of his Wife to the Bramenes when he trauelleth any whither and taketh in too honest part their dishonest familiaritie But for this cause the Kings Sonne succeedeth not in the Crowne but his sisters Sonne as being certainly of his blood These sisters of the King choose what Gentleman they please on whom to bestow their Virginitie and if they proue not in a certaine time to be with child they betake them go these Bramene-stallions The Gentlemen and Merchants haue a custome to exchange Wiues in token of great friendship Some women amongst them haue sixe or seuen Husbands fathering her children on which of them shee best pleaseth The Men when they marry get others to vse them if they bee Virgins fifteene or twentie dayes before they themselues will bed them This Author affirmeth that there were a thousand Families of Christians in Calicut at the time of his being there a hundred and twentie yeeres since If a Debtor breake day with his Creditor and often disapoint him hee goeth to the principall of the Bramenes and receiueth of him a Rod with which he approcheth to the Debter and making a Circle about him chargeth him in the name of the King and the said Bramene not to depart thence till he hath satisfied the Debt which if he do not he must starue in the place for if he depart the King will cause him to be executed The new King for one yeeres space eateth neither Fish nor Flesh nor cutteth his Haire or Nailes vseth certaine Prayers daily eateth but one meale and that after he hath washed neither may hee looke on any man till he hath ended his repast At the yeeres end hee maketh a great Feast to which resort aboue ten thousand persons to confirme the Prince and his Officers and then much Almes is giuen Hee entertaineth tenne thousand Women in diuers Offices in his Palace These make to the King after his fasting yeere is out a Candlemasse Feast each of them carrying diuers lights from the Temple where they first obserue many Idoll idle Ceremonies vnto the Palace with great Musicke and other iollitie §. II. Of the King of Calicut OF the election and erection of the Zamoryn we haue spoken in the beginning of the Chapter let vs here adde out of Castaneda concerning his deuotion Hee saith that this King of Calicut is a Bramene as his Predecessors also And for that it is a custome that all the Kings die in one Pagode or Idoll Temple hee is elected for that cause For alwaies there is and must be in that House a King to serue those Idols and when hee that serueth there dieth then must the King that then raigneth leaue his Empire and goe serue in that place as the other did another being elected to succeed him in the Kingdome And if any refuseth to forsake his Court for the Pagode they enforce him thereunto The Kings of Malabar be browne men and goe naked from the girdle vpward and from thence downward they are couered with cloth of Silke and of Cotton adorned with Iewels For their Children the Sonnes inherit not but the Brother or if there bee none the Sisters Sonne When their Daughers are ten yeeres old they send out of the Kingdome for a Nayro and presenting him with gifts request him to take her Virginitie which hauing done hee tieth a Iewell about her necke which she weareth during her life as a token that from thenceforth she hath free power of her bodie to doe what she will which before she might not After their death these Kings are carried forth into a plaine Field and their burned with sweet wood very costly their kindred and all the Nobilitie of the Countrey being present which done and the ashes buried they shaue themselues without leauing
their books that there had beene in these parts foure Lawes or Sects three of which the Bramenes still obserued to wit of Vesmu of Brama of Rubren the fourth meerely spirituall partly mixed with others and partly lost tending to the saluation of the Soule which he said that He brought now vnto them their Almes and Bodily chastisements without this not being effectuall to their saluation Any might learne and choose a Doctor for any of the other three but none was able to teach this When they become Schollers to such Doctors they doe a triple reuerence vnto the ground lifting vp their hands aloft then letting them downe to their heads and must like the Pythagoreans of old which was learned of the Indians rest satisfied with his Masters bare Assertion without questioning or further disputing He was once brought before a Consistorie of the Bramenes and accused for his new Doctrine Some Articles were That he should affirme that the washing in Remanancor and Ganges were to no effect That the Bramenes are inferior to the Raij or Princes That they should be all damned notwithstanding there were of them many Nhanisij and Sanasses the Nhanisij also vow chastitie and to forsake the World The President of this Councell cleered the Iesuite vpon the Apologie of another Bramene For that of Remanancor it is a corner of the Fishing Region wherein is a Temple famous through all the East which hee that shall visit and wash himselfe in the Sea iust by shall bee cleered from all his sinnes aswell as if it were done in Ganges Id Madura and the Territorie thereof are numbred a hundred thousand Bramenes the chiefe of which is Chocanada as their Bishop or Pope He would haue this Iesuite expelled the Countrie for that this Franke so euer since the Expedition to Ierusalem vnder Duke Godfrey of Bullen all Westerne Christians are called in all the East a name it seemes which the Saracens communicated to the Ethnikes had eaten with another Franke. Hee meant Fernandes another Iesuite that had not thus acted the Sanasse and Gurupi amongst them He alleadged also that His Temple was built in the ground of His Pagode But this Iesuite with Gold stopped this Bramenes mouth and had the soyle of the Church granted him in peace with promise of all fauour One thing that holds them intangled in this errour is that they hold it vnlawfull to copie out their Lawes and Religion in writing so that they which wil learne them must like the Druydes from their youth learne them of some Doctour and commit them to memorie in which they spend tenne yeeres and more And if any should write them they would pull out his eyes Emanuel Leitanus another Iesuite comming to Madura in the like Sanassian Habit obserued the Gorupian order and fell downe before Sforce to the ground Hee sitting in a Chaire couered with red because some of the Madurians were present The Bramenes in the Kingdome of Bisnaga are of such power that nothing is done without them and of the fiue Counsellours of State foure are Bramenes yea with their face to the earth all men and the King himselfe adore the Bramen-Pope nor doth the King admit any to conference in the morning before hee hath seene two Bramenes In Chandegrin is a Clocke that strikes not foure and twentie houres but sixtie and foure according to their diuision of the Night and Day each into foure parts and those subdiuided into eight The Iesuites conceiue that thefe Bramenes are of the dispersion of the Israelites and their Bookes called Sameseretan doe somewhat agree with the Scriptures but that they vnderstand them not They haue some propheticall phrases and some of them affirme that God made Adam the first man and being pressed acknowledge one God The King and his Nobles speak the learned and sacred tongue of the Bramenes Anno 1609. One of his Great men rebelling against him and fortifying the Castle of Vellur the King besieged him and on his submission pardoned him but so as hee turned his Fort which had stood the Rebell in an hundred thousand Crownes into a Palace besides twentie Fannes each worth an hundred thousand * Pardowes and innumerable Horses and Elephants The same yeere did the King write to the King of Spaine in commendation of the Iesuites with promise to assist the Vice-roy against the Moores and Hollanders which had obtained to build a Fortresse of the Naichus of Tanauapatan desiring the same friendship that since the King of Narsing as dayes had beene betwixt both their Ancestors subscribed King Ventacaxa Thus you see the same King diversly entituled according to the Citie Royall yea I finde him called of the castle before named King of Vellur so Floris stiles him saying that in Iune 1614. He granted trade to the English as likewise did Obiana Queene of Paleacatte One of his Wiue's which it seemes gouerned that Citie On Iuly the nine and twentieth his Abeskian was sent being a white cloth where his owne hand is printed in Sandall or Saffron and another the like from the Queene of Paleacatte The Kings Letter was written vpon a leafe of Gold wherein hee made excuse of former wrongs gaue them libertie to build a House or Fort with other priuiledges He gaue Floris the English Merchant a Towne of foure hundred Pardawes yeerely reuenue notwithstanding the Hollanders his Countrimen did what they could to hinder it Wâ—ngalâ— Floris his man had beene in the Kings presence who laid his hand vpon his head But on the eight and twentieth of October following newes came that this King was dead hauing raigned aboue fiftie yeeres His three wiues of which Obiana Queene of Paleacatte was one burned themselues with his corpse and great troubles were expected The Hollanders had presented this King with two Elephants of Seilan Cotabaxa the King of Badaya and Lellengana his Neighbour died not long before Mahmoud Vmin Cotabaxa his Brothers Sonne succeeded Musulipatan is in his Dominion Golconda is the Metropolitan Citie But hee is a Moore of the Sophi his Sect Golconda is the Citie Royall With the Naicho or King of Gingi vassall to the King or Emperour of Bisnagar the Iesuites found good entertainment Heere some of the Iogues distributed the water of Ganges out of certaine vessels couered with foule and filthie clothes which yet the people for deuotion kissed These Iogues with admirable patience endured the Sunnes heate and one among the rest enclosed himselfe in an Iron Cage with his head feet onely out of the Cage that he could neither sit nor lie downe at any time and on the Cage were hanged an hundred Lampes which foure other Iogues his companions lighted at certaine times And thus walked he in this his perpetuall Prison as a Light vnto the World in his vaine glorious opinion They reasoned with certaine Bramenes some of which held the Sunne for God and yet sometime to haue beene a man and for his merits so
meere fabler And Casper Swenckfield a Physician testifieth of the common Vnicornes horne that it is inferiour to Harts horne in efficacie against poysons and therefore not likely to bee it I could bee of opinion that the hornes in Venice and other places kept as Iewels are of the Sea Vnicorne a fish which hath a horne in the forehead or nose thereof Linschoten thinkes the Rhinoceros is the onely Vnicorne That the Rhinoceros is onely male and the Vulture onely female as Baubinus sheweth many Authours conceit is not only absurd but impious to hold Of the Tygers hath beene spoken and the harme they doe in Pegu Nicholas Pimenta reporteth That the Tygers Crocodiles and a certaine Lizzard or Newt Lerius saw the like in Brasile as great and as cruell as the former doe wonderfull spoyle in Bengala both by land and neere the shoares Hee tels of one strange escape of a man in a vessell neere the shoare assaulted at once by a Tyger from Land and by a Crocodile from the water and the Tyger with more swiftnesse and fury ayming at his prey passed ouer him into the Crocodiles mouth The admirable swiftnesse of this beast is recorded by Pliny Authours agree That both in Asia and Africa they rather prey on black people then on the white Europaeans A certaine Negro dreaming that he was torne of a Tyger the next night lodged in a safer place of the ship but there had his Dreame verified The Bengalans doe not feare them that superstitiously they giue diuers names vnto them thinking if they should call them by the right name they should be deuoured of them Gods Prouidence hath yet appeared in creating a little beast not bigger then a little Dogge which no sooner espieth this beast the most dreadfull of any in the World but presently assaults him and with barking makes him run away both beasts and men conueying themselues into places of safetie so that sometimes this rauener dyes of hunger Muske is made of a certaine beast called Gudderi which liueth as Polo sayth in Thebeth and hath a kinde of swelling neere the nauell which once in the Moone sheddeth his muskie bloud the most say it is a beast in China which feedeth onely on a sweet root called Camarus him they take and bruize all to pieces with blowes and lay him where he soonest putrifieth and then cut it out skinne and flesh together and tye it vp like balles or coddes Pantogia affirmeth That it is the stomacke of a beast somewhat greater then a Cat which liueth in the Woods in Countreyes adioyning to China How-euer our greatest sweete wee see is but rottennesse and putrifaction There bee in Malacca Sion and Bengala some Goats whose hornes are esteemed excellent against Poyson which Linschoten affirmeth of his owne experience As for Fowles they haue Parrots of many kinds some reckon fourteene and Noyras more pleasing in beauty speech and other delights then the Parrot but they cannot be brought out of that Countrey aliue Of Bats they haue as bigge as Hennes about Iaua and the neighbour Ilands Clusius bought one of the Hollanders which they brought from the Iland of Swannes Ilha do Cerne newly stiled by them Maurice Iland it was aboue a foote from the head to the tayle aboue a foot about the wings one and twenty inches long nine broad the claw whereby it hung on the trees was two inches the pisle easily seene c. Here they also found a Fowle which they called Walgh-vogel of the bignesse of a Swanne and most deformed shape In Banda and other Ilands the Bird called Emia or Eme is admirable It is foure foot high somewhat resembling an Ostrich but hauing three clawes on the feete and the same exceeding strong it hath two wings rather to helpe it running then seruiceable for flight the legges great and long they say it hath no tongue and that it putteth out the pisle backwards as the Camell that it deuoureth Oranges and Egges rendring the same in the ordure nothing altered It strikes with the heeles like a Horse will swallow an Apple whole as bigge as ones fist yea it swalloweth downe burning coles without harme and in a contrary extreme pieces of Ice Of the Birds of Paradise elsewhere is shewed the falshood of that opinion which conceiue them to want feet whereas they goe as other birds but being taken the body for the most part together with the feet are cut off and they being dryed in the Sunne are so hardened and closed as if Nature had so formed them This is testified by Pigafetta and the Hollanders and my kind friend and louing Neighbour Master Henry Colthirst hath had of them whole Of this Clusius in his Auctarium hath a large Discourse shewing diuers kindes of them a greater and lesse and sayth that Iohn de Weely of Amsterdam sold one of them which had feete to the Emperour 1605. But I would not herein be tedious Of the Birds and Beasts of India Acosta Linschoten Clusius besides Gesner and others can informe the studious They haue Crowes so bold that they will come flying in at the windowes and take the meate out of the dish as it standeth on the Table before them that are set thereat and are such vexation to the Buffles that they are forced to stand in waters vp to the necks that they may be rid of them Pyrard tels of the like Crowes in the Maldiues both dreadlesse and numberlesse and of great trouble which they haue there by the Gnats Rats Mice Dormice and Pismires noysome beyond credit as also Snakes and Sharkes He tels of Pingueys foules as bigge as Pigeons which so fill the Aire and Earth in some Ilands that they can scarsly set their foot free their Egges are hatched by the Sands which are white and subtile like that of an Houreglasse by reason of the heat They haue Rats which the Cats dare not touch as bigge as young Pigges which vndermine the foundations of houses in such sort with their diggings that they sometimes fall to the ground There are other little red Rats which smell like Muske Incredible is the scathe which they receiue in Goa by the Pismires which with such huge multitudes will presently assayle any thing that is fattie or to be eaten that they are forced to set their cupboords and chists wherein are their victuals and apparell with a woodden Cisterne of water vnder euery of their foure feete and that in the middle of the roome And if they forget to haue water in the Cisterne presently these Ants are all ouer and in the twinkling of an eye sayth Linschoten they will consume a loafe of bread The like Cisternes haue they for their Beds and Tables and for the Perches whereon they set their Canary birds which else would bee killed by Pismires yea though it hung on a string from the roofe of the house The poorer sort which want cupboords hang their
their Religion is lost Concerning their marriages in these parts we reade that the Bride is carryed not on her feet but in the armes of two yong men with her eyes closed and being marryed is in like sort without stirring her eyes or feet conueighed to the Bridegroomes house where she enters first with the right foote in token of prosperitie the left foote first touching ground would portend sinister successe as proceeding from a certayne Constellation and ineuitable destinie with musicke shee is entertayned and conducted to the Bride-chamber where shee sits downe as taking possession of her house all the other women standing about her after which shee is led with great pompe by women to the Hall the men accompanying the Bridegroome to another roome The Bride is set on a bed couered with a white veile the women standing by and many gifts and presents are offered to her two women being her instructers in the rites and ceremonies which shee is to obserue called Magitae to whom the Bride giueth the money which is offered The men which offer if they bee of neere kinne may vpon request see her face her eyes still closed Neither may shee speake but by those Magitae is shifted and gallantly adorned and brought to banquet with the women They haue a dinner and a supper furnished with exceeding varietie of dishes of Honey and Raysins diuersly compounded their flesh is not tasted before oyle be powred on it There are neere as many pots boyling as guests and much superstition is obserued in killing their flesh towards the Sunne with pronouncing certaine wordes or else all is cast on the dung-hill The Bride being conueyed to bed may not signifie any griefe for smart or losse there sustayned The next morning before day the husband riseth not saluting his wife and taking a pot for water and a vessell for meate at his returne beates vpon the doore with a stone many times till shee then first speakes to him and ordering the said meate and water beginnes to looke to her houshold-charge The Magitae presently come and congratulate her last nights dalliance and desire issue thereof and then cut her haire hanging downe on her backe euen with her neck that it should not hinder her husbands embraces The gouernment of these parts is as is said Turkish The Boglerbog hath chiefe title but the Diuano hath chiefe power of Iudgements and Iurisdiction The Corasan or Captaine of the Ianizaries being in many matters as great as the Beglerbeg The Beglorbegs of Algier and Tunis make their principall profits of their places which they hold three yeers hauing first bought them at a deare rate by their piracies which with ioynt consent they exercise on these Seas all in manner being fish that comes to net if they meete them conueniently notwithstanding any league or peace holden with the Grand Signior They also giue entertainment to such Pirats of other places as resort to them either to sell their ill-gotten goods or to ioyne their strength with them As of late Dansker and Warde haue beene famous in this infamie the first after his seruice with them and for them receiuing his reward by them suddenly killed at Tunis where he was knowne notwithstanding his disguising himselfe with purpose to haue surprised their fleet the other a shame to our Countrey of which he was grew so rich by his Piracies that hee shewed at one time to the Authour of these reports Iohn Pountesse a bagge of Iewels contayning almost halfe a bushell besides his other purchases And at last that the end might manifest the wickednesse of these proceedings he became an Apostata and Renegado from his faith and soone after as some haue reported for others say he is still aliue and Captaine of the Turkes Gallies dyed at Tunis leauing his goods for his goodnesse he had left before vnto the Turks his body vnto a forren sepulchre and his soule let pirats and robbers if they think they haue any soule say whither Algier was by Barbarussa subiected to the Turke about the yeere 1534. Tunis An. 1574. Three and twentie yeeres after that Tripoli in Barbarie another Cage of like birds and seat of a Boglerbeg was taken from the Knights of Malta by Sinan Bassa These Kingdomes the Turke hath in Africa besides the great kingdome of Egypt and what hee hath taken from Prester Iohn In Egypt are said to be an hundred thousand Timariots or Horse-mens fees which for that tenure of their Land without any charge to the great Turke are to serue where it pleaseth him to employ them In this kingdome of Algier are fortie thousand CHAP. X. Of the Kingdome of Fez part of Mauritania Tingitana §. I. Of the Poeticall and Historicall Antiquities and part of Temesma MAuritania Tingitana so called of Tingis now Tanger at the mouth of the Streits is by Ptolemey bounded on the West with the Westerne and Atlantike on the North with the Mediterran Seas on the East with the Riuer Muluia or Malua which diuideth it from Casariensis on the South with the inner Nations of Libya Niger saith it was after called Setinensis of the Citie Setia more truly Sitiphensis of Sitiphis which Procopius saith was the mother Citie of Tingitana In this Prouince are now the famous kingdomes of Fez and Marocco The ancient Inhabitants besides the Maurusij of which wee haue spoken were the Massaessuli Autololes Bannurri and the Gaetulians which liued here and in other parts of Africa as the Tartars doe in Asia and the Arabians in Africa remoouing their dwellings if Tent-wandring may bee so called as their pastures faile them So Silius writeth of them Nulla domus plaustris habitant migrare per arua Mos atque errantes circumuectare Penates House they haue none but wandring still in Waynes They cart their houshold-gods about the Playnes The westerly point of Mauritania Pomponius beginneth at the Promontorie called of their store of Vines Ampelusia now Cabo de Cantero as Oliuarius affirmeth In it was a Caue sacred to Hercules and beyond the same Tingi supposed to bee built by Antaeus for proofe whereof they shew his Target made of an Elephants hide too huge and vnweildy for any man of later times and holden in great veneration Next to this Tingi which gaue name to the Countrey after by Claudius Caesar who sent a Colonie thither called Traducta Iulia was a high Mountayne called Abyla to which on the Spanish coast was opposed Calpe which two Hills bare the name of Hercules pillars Hercules himselfe if wee beleeue fabulous antiquitie making there a passage to the Ocean and Mediterran Seas for mutuall view and entertainment They are now called Seuta on that side and Gibraltar on this side A little hence was Iulia Constantia a Colonie of Augustus and Lixus a Colonie of Claudius In this was Antaeus his Palace and his combate with Hercules and the Gardens of the Hesperides which some as is said
there an Idol called Gumbiri and a holy House called Munsa Gumbiri kept and inhabited by an old woman where once a yeere is a solemne Feast which they celebrate with Drummes Daunces and Palme-wines and then they say hee speaketh vnder the ground The people call him Mokissa Cola or a strong Mokisso and say That he comes to stay with Chekoke the Idol of Banza That Chekoke is a Negro-Imoge made sitting on a stoole a little house is there made him They annoint him Ticcola which is a red colour made of a certaine Wood ground on a stone and mixed with water wherewith they dayly paint themselues from the waste vpwards esteeming it great beauty otherwise they account not themselues ready It is for like purpose carried from hence to Angola Sometimes it fals out that some Man or Boy is taken with some sudden Enthusiasme or rauishment becomming mad and making a whooping and great clamours They call them Mokisso-Moquat that is taken of the Mokisso They cloath them very handsome and whatsoeuer they bid in that fit for it lasteth not very long they execute as the Mokissos charge Morumba is thirty leagues Northwards from hence in the Mani Loango's Dominion where he liued nine moneths There is a House and in it a great Basket proportioned like to a Hiue wherein is an Image called Morumba whose Religion extendeth far They are sworne to this Religion at ten or twelue yeares old but for probation are first put in a House where they haue hard diet and must be mute for nine or ten dayes any prouocation to speake notwithstanding Then doe they bring him before Morumba and prescribe him his Kin or perpetuall abstinence from some certaine meat They make a cut in his shoulder like to an halfe Moone and sprinkle the bloud at Morumbas feet and sweare him to that Religion In the wound they put a certaine white powder in token of his late admission which so long as it continueth doth priuiledge him to take his meat and drinke with whomsoeuer he pleaseth none denying him the same at free cost They also haue their fatall Tryals before this Image where the accused partie kneeling downe and clasping the Hiue saith Mene quesa cabamba Morumba signifying That he comes thither to make tryall of his innocence and if he be guiltie he fals downe dead being free he is freed Andrew Battell saith hee knew sixe or seuen in his being there that made this tryall §. II. Of the Anzigues BEyond the Countrey of Loango are the Anzigues the cruellest Canibals which the Sunne looketh on For inother places they eate their enemies or their dead but here they take and eate their kinsfolkes and Country-folkes They keepe Shambles of mans flesh as with vs of Beefe and Muttons They eate their enemies Their slaues if cut out they will yeeld them more in the seuerall Ioynts or Pieces then to bee sold aliue they kill though it be but to saue a halfe-peny Some of them for wearinesse of life and some oh crueltie of vaine-glory euen for valour of courage in contempt of Death and esteeming it an honorable proofe of their fidelitie and manhood will offer themselues to the Butcherie as faithfull subiects vnto their Princes of them to bee consumed and eaten that with their death and after their death they may doe them seruice These Anzichi stretch from Zaire to Nubia They haue many Mines of Copper and great quantitie of Sanders red and gray wherewith mixed with the Oyle of Palme-tree they anoint themselues The Portugals temper it with Vineger for the healing of the French Pocks by the smoke thereof they driue away the head-ache It is incredible or at least would so seeme to vs which Lopez reporteth that they carrying their arrowes which are short and slender of very hard Wood in the Bowe-hand will shoot off eight and twenty so many they hold at once before the first of them fall to ground and with a short Hatchet with a sudden whirling themselues about breake the force of the enemies Arrowes and then hanging this Hatchet on their shoulder discharge their owne Arrowes They are of great simplicitie loyaltie and fidelitie and the Portugals more trust them then any other slaues They are yet sauage and beastly and there is no conuersing with them but they bring slaues of their own Nation and out of Nubia to Congo to sell for which they recarrie Salt and Shels which they vse for Money Silkes Linnen Glasses and such like They circumcise themselues and besides that both men and women of the Nobility and and Comminaltie from their childhood marke their faces with sundry slashes made with a knife I asked saith Lopez of their Religion and it was told mee that they were Gentiles which was all I could learne of them They worship the Sunne for the greatest God as though it were a man and the Moon next as though it were a woman Otherwise euery man chuseth to himselfe his owne Idol and worships it after his own pleasure The Anzichi haue one King principall which hath many Princes vnder him Of Ambus and Medera Northerne Regions little besides the names is knowne Biafar is inhabited with people much addicted to Enchantments Witchcrafts and all abominable Sorceries §. III. Of the Giacchi or Iagges OF the Giacchi we haue made often mention and of their incursions into Congo These in their owne Language are called Agag as Lopez testifieth and liue on both side of Nilus in the borders of the Empire of Mohenhe-Muge They vse to marke themselues about the lip and vpon their cheekes with certaine lines which they make with iron instruments and with fire Moreouer they haue a custome to turne their eye-lids backwards so that their blacke skins white eyes and cauterized markes seeme to conspire a dreadfull and gastly deformitie in their faces They hold warre with the d supposed Amazones and of late yeeres haue inuaded the neighbour-Nations Their weapons are Darts their food humane flesh without all humanity deuoured Thus Lopez reporteth by reports Andrew Battel liued by occasion of the Portugals treachery with the Iagges a longer time then euer any Christian or White Man had done namely sixteene moneths and serued them with the Musket in their warres neither could Lopez saith he haue true intelligence whence they came For the Christians at that time had but vncertaine coniectures of them neither after had the Portugals any conuersing but by way of commerce but he being betrayed fled to them for his life and after by stealth escascaped from them the onely European that euer liued in their Campe He saith they are called Iagges by the Portugal by themselues Imbangolas which name argues them to be of the Imbij Galae before mentioned and came from Sierra Liona That they are exceeding deuourers of mans flesh for which they refuse Beefe and Goats whereof they take plenty They haue no setled habitation but wander in an vnsetled course They rise in
by the Queenes commandement in her Wardrobe of Robes and is still at Windsore to bee seene They went on shore and had some encounter with the Inhabitants which were of so fierce and terrible resolution that finding themselues wounded they leapt off the Rockes into the Sea rather then they would fall into the hands of the English The rest fled One woman with her child they tooke and brought away They had taken another of the Sauages before This Sauage in the ship seeing the Picture of his Countriman taken the yeere before thought him to be aliue and beganne to be offended that he would not answere him with wonder thinking that our men could make men liue and dye at their pleasure But strange were the gestures and behauiour of this man and the woman when they were brought together which were put into the same Cabbin and yet gaue such apparant signes of shamefastnesse and chastity as might bee a shame to Christians to come so farre short of them Where they could haue any Trade with the Sauages their manner of Traffique was to lay downe somewhat of theirs and goe their way expecting that our men should lay downe somewhat in lieu thereof and if they like of their Mart they come againe and take it otherwise they take away their owne and depart They made signes that their Catchoe or King was a man of higher stature then any of ours and that he was carried vpon mens shoulders They could not learne what became of the fiue men they lost the yeere before onely they found some of their apparell which made them thinke they were eaten They laded themselues with Ore and so returned And with fifteene Sayle the next yeere 1578. a third Voyage for Discouery was made by the said Captayne and Generall Hee went on shore the twentieth of Iune on Frisland which was named by them West England where they espyed certayne Tents and People like those of Meta Incognita The people fled and they found in their Tents a boxe of small nayles Red Herrings and Boords of Firre-tree well cut with other things artificially wrought whereby it appeareth that they are workmen themselues or haue trade with others Some of them were of opinion This was firme land with Meta Incognita or with Gronland whereunto the multitude of Ilands of Ice betweene that and Meta Incognita induced them In departing from hence the Salamander one of their Ships being vnder both her Courses and Bonets happened to strike on a great Whale with her full stemme with such a blow that the Ship stoode still and neither stirred forward nor backeward The Whale thereat made a great and hideous noyse and casting vp his body and tayle presently sanke vnder water Within two dayes they found a Whale dead which they supposed was this which the Salamander had stricken The second of Iuly they entred in with the Straits the entrance whereof was barred with Mountaines of Ice wherewith the Barke Dennis was sunke to the hinderance of their proiects For in it was drowned part of a house which they had intended to erect there for habitation The men were saued The other Ships were in very great danger the Seas mustering Armies of ycie souldiers to oppresse them vsing other naturall stratagems of Fogges and Snowes to further these cruell designes These ycie Ilands seeme to haue bin congealed in the winter further North in some Bayes or Riuers and with the Summers Sunne being loosed and broken out of their naturall prisons offer themselues to all outrages whereto the swift Currents and cold Windes will conduct them Strange it is to see their greatnesse some not lesse then halfe a mile about and fourescore fathomes aboue water besides the vnknowne depth beneath the vsuall rule being that onely the seuenth part is extant aboue the waues strange the multitude strange the deformed shapes if this be not more strange that they sometimes saue with killing and suffer men to moore their Anchors on them and to get vpon them to worke against them for the safegard of their Ships That bloody enemies should entertaine them with disports to walke leape shout fortie miles from any Land without any Vessell vnder them according to M. Bests Riddle and a hundred and ten miles from Land should present them with-running streames of fresh Waters able to driue a Mill. The Flood was there nine houres the Ebbe but three A strong Current ranne Westwards The people resemble much the Tartars or rather the Samoeds in apparell and manner of liuing It is colder here in 62. then 9. or 10. degrees more Northerly toward the Northeast which it seemeth comes to passe by the Windes East and Northeast which from the yce bring so intolerable a cold The people are excellent Archers a thing generall throughout America Besides Seales-skins they vse the skinnes of Deere Beares Foxes and Hares for apparell and the cases also of Fowles sowed together They weare in Summer the hairy side outward in Winter inward or else goe naked They shoote at the fish with their darts They kindle fire with rubbing one sticke against another They vse great blacke Dogs like Woolues to draw their Sleds and a lesse kinde to eate They haue very thin beards In the best of Summer they haue Haile and Snow sometimes a foote deepe which freezeth as it falles and the ground frozen three fathome deepe They haue great store of Fowle whereof our men killed in one day fifteen hundred They haue thicker skins and are thicker of Downe and Feathers then with vs and therefore must be flayed The Sunne was not absent aboue three houres and a halfe all which space it was very light so that they might see to write and reade Hence is it that those parts neere the Pole are habitable the continuance of the Sunnes presence in their Summer heating and warming with liuely cherishment all Creatures and in the Winter by his oblique motion leauing so long a twilight and the increased light of the Moone the Sunnes great and diligent Lieutenant the brightnesse of the Starres and whitenesse of the Snow not suffering them to be quite forlorne in darkenesse The Beasts Fowles and Fishes which these men kill are their houses bedding meat drinke hose thread shooes apparell and sayles and boates and almost all their riches Besides their eating all things raw they will eate grasse and shrubs like our kine and morsels of Ice to satisfy thirst They haue no hurtfull creeping things but Spiders and a kinde of Gnat is there very troublesome Timber they haue none growing but as the vndermining water doth supplant bring them from other places They are great Inchanters When their heads ake they tye a great stone with a string into a sticke and with certaine words effect that the stone with all a mans force wil not be lifted vp and sometimes seemes as light as a feather hoping thereby to haue help They made signes lying groueling with their faces vpon the ground
together may no way compare with this Countrey either for commodities or goodnesses of soyle This sparke kindled in their hearts such constancie of zeale and forwardnesse that they furnished out Sir Thomas Gates who had happily returned with the rest from Bermudas with six ships 300. men and a hundred Kine with other Cattle Munition and prouision of all sorts Sir Thomas Dale hauing newes that it was a Fleet of enemies prepared himselfe and the rest to an encounter but it ended with a common ioy in the shaking of hands and not of Pikes Lawes are now made for lawlesnesse had marred so much before for the honour of God frequenting the Church obseruation of the Sabbath reuerence to Ministers obedience to superiours mutuall loue honest labours and against Adultery Sacriledge wrong and other vices Harbengers of Gods wrath and mans destruction The Colony consisted of seuen hundred men of sundry Arts and Professions few of them sicke which hauing left the Fort at Cape Henry fortified and kept by Captaine Dauies and the keeping of Iames Towne to that Noble and wel-deseruing Gentleman Master George Perole is remoued vp the Riuer fourescore miles further beyond Iames Towne to a place of higher ground strong and defencible by nature with good Ayre plenty of Springs much faire and open grounds freed from Woods and wood enough at hand Here they burnt brickes cut downe wood and euery man fals to somewhat they haue built they say competent houses the first story all of bricke that euery man may haue his lodging and dwelling by himselfe with a sufficient quantity of ground allotted thereto Here also they were building an Hospitall with fourescore lodgings and beds already sent for the sicke and lame as the Booke called the New life of Virginia relateth Master Whitaker in his Letter and Booke from Henrico 1612. testifieth the health and welfare of the Colonie Samuel Argal in the yeere 1613. affirmed likewise that hee found the state of Virginia farre better then was reported In one Voyage they had gotten 1100. bushels of Corne they found a slow kind of Cattle as bigge as Kine which were good meate and a medicinable sort of earth They tooke Pokohuntis Powhatans dearest daughter prisoner a matter of good consequence to them of best to her by this meanes being become a Christian and married to Master Rolph an English Gentleman Thus I haue beene bold somewhat largely to relate the proceedings of this Plantation to supplant such slanders and imputations as some haue conceiued or receiued against it and to excite the diligence and industry of all men of ability to put to their helping hand in this Action so Honourable in it selfe Glorious to God in the furtherance of his Truth and beneficiall to the Common-wealth and to the priuate purses of the Aduenturers if the blooming of our hopes be not blasted with our negligence As for the want of successe hitherto Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab euentu facta notanda putet Reason should preuaile with Men leaue sense and euent of things as an argument for Beasts That reason which sheweth Virginia's more then possibilities probabilities doth also point out the causes of those ill Successes Discontents at Sea Ignorance of the Country and of their Language Diuision in the Councell Commanders some of them not skilfull Souldiers nor forward Aduenturers Care to relade the Ships before they could prouide Houses of Victuals Ambition Cruelty Neglect of the Seasons for Fish and Land-commodities Brackish slimy Water at Iames Fort Riot Sloth False information in England Sending ill People that consumed the rest with idlenesse Want of Authority to punish them That kind of Aristocraticall Authority first established occasion of their Quarrels Iniuries to and from the Saluages and yet a necessity of their vse and helpe Sicknesse caused by the grosse and vaporous Aire and soyle about Iames Towne and drinking water The theeuish trucke and exchange which some secretly held with them The treachery of Fugitiues Falshood of the Sauages and the Many many faults as they report of Mariners in priuate truckings and night marts both with our Men and Sauages Their long stay and spending the Colonies reliefe besides Extraordinary casualties of fire cold shipwracke and if wee beleeue Ouiedo and obserue the like amongst the Spaniards the very Aire of the Indies seemes to be of inclination and disposition to contentions which easily ruine and dissolue the greatest and best enterprises that I speake not of the Deuils malice to Christian hopes Experience hath now made men wiser both to preuent and remedie these euils and to order their proceedings accordingly And although Fame fils not our eares with so often and many Virginian rumors as aforetimes yet we know that still waters are deepest and wee cannot but hope that those worthy Virginian-Consuls cunctando restituunt rem rather with carefull prouidence and watchfull diligence working sure then with humerous hastinesse laying foundations to a leisurely repentance seeking more the common good there then to be the common talke heere Once they there maintayne themselues now a long time without the wonted charge to the Company and diuers of our Nobility and Gentry doe now as after a long slumber while we are writing these things againe bethinke them of this Virginian Plantation whereunto the profitable Neighbour-hood of the Summer Iles or Bermudas may be good furtherance God Almighty prosper both that the Word may goe out of Bermuda and the Law of the Lord from Virginia to a truer conuersion of the American World then hitherto Our Humorists or Spanish insolencies haue intended §. III. Of the Soyle People Beasts Commodities and other Obseruations of Virginia FOr the description of the Countrey Master Hakluyt from Others Relations in his third Volume of Voyages hath written largely of those parts discouered for Sir Walter Raleigh Concerning the later Captaine Iohn Smith partly by word of mouth partly by his Map thereof in print and more fully by a Manuscript which hee courteously communicated to mee hath acquainted mee with that whereof himselfe with great perill and paine had beene the Discouerer being in his discoueries taken Prisoner as is before said and escaping their fury yea receiuing much honour and admiration amongst them by reason of his Discourses to them of the motion of the Sunne of the parts of the World of the Sea c. which was occasioned by a Diall then found about him They carried him Prisoner to Powhatan and there beganne the English acquaintance with that sauage Emperour The summe of his obseruation in that and other Discoueries since concerning the Countrey is this Virginia is situate betweene 34. and 44. degrees of Northerly latitude the bounds whereof on the East side are the great Ocean Florida on the South on the North Noua Francia the Westerne limits are vnknowne But that part which began to bee planted by the English Southerne Colony in the yeere 1606. is vnder the degrees 37.
much respect to our Bibles When the Weroans was sicke he sent vs to pray for him Some were of opinion that we were not mortall nor borne of Women but that wee were men of an old Generation many yeeres past then risen againe to immortalitie some would likewise seeme to prophecie that there were more of our Generation yet to come to kill theirs and take their places which were now in the Aire inuisible and without bodies and that they by our entreatie did make men to die which had wronged vs They haue their Idoll in the innermost roome of their house of whom they tell incredible things They carrie it with them when they goe to the warres and aske counsell thereof as the Romans did of their Oracles They sing songs as they march towards the battell in stead of Drummes and Trumpets their warres are bloudy and haue wasted much of their people A certaine King called Piemacum hauing inuited many men and women of the Secotans to a Feast whiles they were merry and praying before their Idol came vpon them and slew them When one of their Kings had conspired against the English a chiefe man about him said that we were the seruants of God and not subiect to be destroyed by them and that we being dead men could doe more hurt then while we were aliue They vse to solemnize certaine months-minds in their Sauage manner for any great personage dead Iames Rosier from the relation of Owen Griffin an eye-witnesse thus tels of their ceremonies One among them the eldest as hee iudged riseth right vp the other sitting stil and looking about suddenly cryed with aloud voice Baugh Waugh then the women fall downe and lye vpon the ground and the men all together answering the same fall a stamping round about the fire with both feet as hard as they can making the ground shake with sundry out-cries and change of voice and sound Many take the fire-sticks and thrust them into the earth and then rest a while Of a sudden they begin as before and continue so stamping till the yonger sort fetched from the shore many stones of which euery man tooke one and first beat vpon them with their fire-sticks then with the stones beat the earth with all their strength And in this manner they continued about two houres After this ended they which had wiues tooke them apart and withdrew themselues seuerally into the wood This seemed to be their euening deuotion When they haue obtained some great deliuerance from danger or returne from warre they obserue a publike and solemne reioycing by making a great fire encompassed with the men and women promiscuously all of them with Rattles in their hands making a great noise They hold one time in the yeere Festiuall and then they meet together out of many Villages euery one hauing a certaine marke or Character on his backe whereby it may be discerned whose Subiect he is The place where they meet is spacious and round about are set posts carued with the resemblance of a Nuns head In the mids are three of the fairest Virgins louingly embracing and clasping each other about this liuing Center and artificiall Circle they dance in their Sauage manner Their Idoll called Kiwasa is made of wood foure foot high the face resembling the Inhabitants of Florida painted with flesh-colour the brest white the other parts blacke except the legges which are spotted with white he hath Chaines or strings of Beads about his necke This Idoll is in Socota as it were the keeper of the dead bodies of their Kings In their Temples are houses of publique deuotion they haue two three or more of them set in a darke place The dead bodies of their Weroances are kept on certaine Scaffolds nine or ten foot high this Kiwasa their guardian being placed with them and vnderneath dwelleth a Priest which night and day there numbreth his deuotions §. II. Obseruations of their Rites by Captaine SMITH and others BVt let vs take view of our last Colonies obseruations Capt. Smith was taken by the Virginians and while hee stayed amongst them obserued these their Magicall Rites Three or foure dayes after his taking seuen of their priests in the house where he lay each with a Rattle setting him by them began at ten of the clock in the morning to sing about a fire which they enuironed with a circle of meale at the end of euery song which the chiefe Priest began the rest following laying downe two or three graines of Wheat and after they had laid down sixe or seuen hundred in one circle accounting their songs by Graines as the Papists their Orisons by Beads they made two or three other circles in like manner and put at the end of euery song betwixt euery two or three or fiue Graines a little sticke The High Priest disguised with a great skinne his head hung round with little skins of Weasils and other Vermine with a Crownet of Feathers painted as vgly as the Diuell at the end of each song vseth strange and vehement gestures casting great Cakes of Deere-suet and Tobacco into the fire thus till sixe of the clock in the euening they continued these howling deuotions and so held on three dayes This they pretended to doe to know if any more of his Country-men would arriue and what hee there intended They so fed this our Author that he much mis-doubted that he should haue been sacrificed to the Quoyoughquosicke which is a superiour Power they worship then the Image whereof a more vgly thing cannot be described To cure the sicke a certaine man with a little Rattle vsing extreme howlings shouting singing with diuers anticke and strange behauiours ouer the patient sucketh bloud out of his stomacke or diseased place Not much vnlike to that rattling deuotion of their exorcising Priests at least in absurditie was that entertainment which Powhatans women gaue the same Captaine then being free and President of the company at Werowocomoco where thirtie of them came out of the woods naked onely couered behinde and before with a few greene leaues their bodies painted but with some difference each from other the Leader of these Nymphs resembled both Actaeon and Diana hauing on her head a faire paire of Stagges hornes and a quiuer of arrowes at her backe with Bow and Arrowes in her hand The rest followed all horned alike weaponed with vnlike instruments these as if they had beene the infernall guard comming with Cerberus to welcome Proserpina to her Palace rushed from the trees with hellish shouts and cryes dancing about a fire which there was made for that purpose and after an houre thus spent they departed Then did they solemnly inuite him to their lodging where he was no sooner come but all rounded about him with tedious kindnesse crying Loue you not me This salutation ended which Pan and all his Satyres would haue accepted they feasted him with plenty and varietie some singing and dancing
which are not fully knowne otherwhere it is washed with a dangerous Sea which separateth Chichora Bahama and Lucaia from the same Iohn Ponce aforesaid hearing a rumour of a prodigious Well which as the Poets tell of Medea would make old men become young againe plaid the yongling to goe search it sixe monethes together and in that inquiry discouers this Continent and repayring into Spaine obtayneth this Prouince with the title of Adelantado He returned with a Nauy and band of Souldiers but at his landing was so welcomed by the Floridians that many of his men were slaine and himselfe wounded vnto death Pamphilo de Naruaes had no better successe hee entred Florida 1527. Aluaro Nunnez called Capo di Vacca or Cabeca de Vaca and some of his company after long captiuitie escaped Pamphilo carried with him sixe hundred men about the Riuer of Palmes his ships were wracked and most of the Spaniards drowned A few escaped drowning but twelue fell mad and like Dogges sought to woorrie each other Scarcely tenne returned into Spaine These comming to Mexico reported that they had restored three dead men to life I rather beleeue saith Benzo that they killed foure quicke men Don Ferdinando de Soto enriched with the spoiles of Atibaliba King of Peru in which action he was a Captain and Horseman heere found place to spend that which there hee had gotten For hauing obtained the gouernment of Florida and gathered a band of sixe hundred men for that Expedition in it he spent fiue yeares searching for Minerals till hee lost himselfe Iulian Samado and Ahumada made sute for the like grant but could not obtaine it Fryer Luys de Beluastro and other Dominicks had vndertaken by the way of preaching to haue reduced the Floridians to Christianity and the Spanish obedience and were sent at the Emperours charge but no sooner set foot on shore then hee and two of his companions were taken by the Sauages and cruelly slaine and eaten their shauen scalpes being hanged vp in their Temple for a monument This hapned in the yeere 1549. In the yeere 1524. Francis the first the French King had sent Iohn de Verrazano hither but because hee rather sought to discouer all along the Coast then to search or settle within Land I passe him ouer In the yeere 1562. That Worthy of France Chastillon Champion of Religion and of his Countrey sent Captaine Iohn Ribault to discouer and Plant in these parts which his Voyage and Plantation is written by Rene Laudonniere one employed therein Hee left Capt. Albert there with some of his company who built a Fort called Charles Fort but this Albert was slaine in a mutiny by his Souldiers and they returning home were so pursued by Famine the Pursuiuant of Diuine Iustice that after their Shooes and Leather Ierkins eaten their drinke being Sea-water or their owne Vrine they killed and ate vp one of their owne company Laudonniere was sent thither againe to inhabite Anno 1564. and the next yeere Ribault was sent to supply his place But vncouth Famine had so wasted and consumed the French before his arriuall that the very bones of most of the Souldiers pierced thorow their starued skinnes in many places of their bodies as if they would now trust the emptie hands no longer but would become their owne Purueyers and looke out for themselues And yet better it is to fall into the hands of God then of mercilesse men Famine being but a meere Executioner to Gods Iustice but these executing also a Diuellish malice Such were the Spaniards who were sent thither vnder the conduct of Don Pedro Melendes which massacred all of euery sexe and age which they found in the fort and Ribault being cast by shipwracke on the shore and receiued of Vallemandus the Spaniard with promises of all kindnesse was cruelly murthered with all his company except some few which they reserued for their owne employments The manner of it is at large handled by Laudonniere by Morgues by Challusius which were as brands by diuine hand plucked out of the Spanish combustion The Petition or Supplication put vp by the Orphanes Widowes and distressed kindred of that massacred number to Charles the Ninth mentioneth nine hundred which perished in this bloudy deluge The Spaniards hauing laid the foundations of their habitation in bloud found it too slippery to build any sure habitation thereon For their cruelties both to the French and Floridians were retorted vpon themselues in the yeere 1567. by Monsieur Dominique de Gorgues and his Associates assisted by the Natiue inhabitants and Florida was left destitute of Christian Inhabitants Thus hath Florida beene first courted by the English wooed by the Spanish almost wonne by the French and yet remaines a rich and beautifull Virgin waiting till the Neighbour Virginia bestow on her an English Bridegroome who as making the first loue may lay the iustest challenge vnto her Her riches are such that Cabeza de Vaca who was one of Naruaes wracked companie and Sotos Corriuall in this Floridian sute and had trauelled thorow a great part of the In-land affirmed to Charles the Emperour that Florida was the richest Countrey of the World and that he had therein seene Gold and Siluer and Stones of great value Besides there is great varietie of Trees Fruits Fowles Beasts Beares Leopards Ounces Wolues wilde Dogges Goats Hares Conies Deere Oxen with woolly hydes Camels backs and Horses manes Sir Iohn Hawkins his second Voyage published by Master Hakluyt mentioneth Vnicornes hornes amongst the Floridians which they weare about their necks whereof the French-men obtained many pieces and that they affirme there are many of those beasts with one horne which they put into the water before they drinke Haply this might be a tale of the French to sell such pieces deare to the English or the horne of some other beast or of the Sea-Vnicorne Our Discourse hath most right vnto their Rites For their many Cities the manner of their building the manners of their Inhabitants I would not bee so long Morgues hath let vs see them in the Pictures They wall or impale them with posts fastned in the ground the circle as of a Snaile comming within that point where it began and leauing a way but for two men to enter at either end of that double empaling or entrance stand two Watch-towres one within the other without the Citie where Watch-men alway are set for defence their houses are round their apparell nakednesse except a beasts skin or some ornament of Mosse about their secret parts They paint and raze their skins with great cunning the smart makes them sicke seuen or eight dayes after they rubbe ouer those rased workes with a certaine herbe which coloureth the same so as it cannot be done away They paint their faces and their skins cunningly this Morgues a Painter being Iudge euen to admiration They let the nailes on their toes and fingers
charmes were the cause that made the earth bring forth her fruit and that he might the easier perswade them he retired himselfe once or twice a yeere to a certain house accompanied with two or three of his friends where he vsed inchantments If any man offered to see what he did it cost him his life Euery yeere he offereth a man in the time of Haruest which was kept for that purpose and taken of such Spaniards as had suffered shipwrack on that Coast They which further desire to know the riches and commodities of these Countries may resort to the Authors in this Chapter mentioned Sir Francis Drake in the yeere 1586. besides his worthy exploits in other places tooke the Forts of S. Iohn and Saint Augustine whence he brought Pedro Morales and Nicholas Burgoignon whose relations concerning that Countrey Master Hackluit hath inserted among other his painfull labours Dauid Ingram reported many strange things which he saith he saw in these parts Elephants Horses and beasts twice as big as Horses their hinder parts resembling Greyhounds Buls with eares like Hounds beasts bigger then Beares without head or necke but hauing their eyes and mouthes in their brests and another beast Cerberus he cals him Colluchio which is saith he the Deuill in likenesse of a Dogge and sometimes of a Calfe with many other matters wherein he must pardon me if I be not too prodigall of my Faith He tels also of punishment of adultery by death the woman cutting the adulterers throat and the neerest kinsman hers after many prayers to the Colluchio and a further punishment in that they haue no quicke bodie buried with them to attend them into the other world as all others haue But they that list to beleeue may consult with the Author Anthony Goddard another of Ingrams company left by Sir Iohn Hawkins going another way at Panuco yeelded himselfe to the Spaniards with whom was Miles Philips and Iob Hortop whose discourses of their disaduentures with the Spaniards and Indians Master Hakluit hath published and hath Goddards also written CHAP. VIII Of the Countreys situate Westward from Florida and Virginia towards the South-Sea §. I. Of Cibola Tigues Quiuira and Noua Albion WE haue hitherto discouered those parts of this Northerne America which trend along the North Sea which the English and French Nations haue most made knowne vnto vs further Westward the mid-land countreys are not so well knowne yet following our Spanish guides wee here present them from their relations to your view When as Cortez had conquered Mexico as after followeth to be related he was made Admirall of the South-Seas but the gouernment of Mexico and New Spaine was with the title of Vice-roy giuen to Antonio de Mendoza These two partly in emulation of each others glory partly in hope of enriching themselues sought to discouer vnknowne Lands the one by Sea the later both by Sea Land The Viceroy sent as he himselfe testifieth Francis Vasquez de Coronado and Frier Marco de Nisa with Stephen a Negro by land out of whose relations we haue inserted that which concerneth our purpose Marke the Frier and Stephen set forth with certaine Indians in this Discouerie and Stephen going before came to Ceuola as Marke related where hee was slaine the Frier followed with his Indian guides and passed thorow one place where was small store of Victuall because it had not there rained as the Inhabitants affirmed in three yeares space The Indians call him Hayota that is a man come from Heauen Hee passed on further led by the same of Ceuola which with other sixe Cities were reported to be vnder the gouernment of one Lord and to haue houses of stone consisting of diuers stories where were many Turqueses with many other strange reports of their Markets multitudes and wealth But because the Frier came not there for feare of the Negros entertainment let vs listen to Francis Vasquez who came saw and ouercame An 1540. He went with his Army from Culiacan which is 200. leagues from Mexico and after a long and tedious iourney he at last arriued in this Prouince and conquered almost with the losse of himselfe the first Citie of the seuen which he called Granado Twice he was striken downe with stones from the wall as he offered to scale the same He saith that their houses were of foure or fiue stories or lofts to which they ascended on ladders and that they had Cellers vnder the ground good and paued But those seuen Cities were small Townes all standing in the compasse of foure leagues all called by that generall name of Ceuola or Cibola and none of them particularly so called but hauing other peculiar names they were of like building In this Towne which he conquered stood 200. houses walled about and 300. others not walled The Inhabitants had remoued their wiues and wealth to the Hill Hee reporteth of beasts there Beares Tygres Lions and Sheepe as bigge as horses with great hornes and little tayles Ounces also and Stagges That which the Indians worshipped as farre as they could learne was the Water which said they caused the Corne to grow and maintained their life Hee found there a garment excellently embroidered with needle-worke Vasquez went hence to Tiguez to Cieuic and to Quiuira as Lopez de Gomara reporteth This way is full of crooke-backed Oxen. Quiuira is in 40. degrees and the Countrey is temperate They saw Ships in the Sea which bare Alcatoazes or Pelicans of Gold and Siluer in their Prowes laden with Merchandise which they tooke to be of China or Cathay The men in these parts cloath and shoo themselues with leather they haue no bread of any kind of graine their chiefe food is flesh which they often eate raw either for custome or for lacke of wood They eate the fat as they take it out of the Oxe and drinke the bloud hot which of our buls is counted poison and the flesh they warme for they seethe it not at a fire of Oxe-dung They rather may be said to rauin then to eate it holding the flesh with their teeth cut it with rasors of stone They goe in companies as the Scythian Nomades Tartarian floords and many other Nations following the seasons and best pasturings for their oxen These Oxen are of the bignesse and colour of our Buls but their hornes are not so great They haue a great bunch vpon their shoulders and more haire on their fore-part then on the hinder and it is like wooll They haue as it were a horse-mane on their backe bone and much haire and very long from their knees downwards They haue great tufts of haire on their foreheads and haue a kinde of beard vnder their chins and throats the males haue very long tayles with a great knob or flocke at the end so that in some respect they resemble a Lyon in other the Camels Horses Oxen Sheepe or Goats They push with their hornes and in their rage
Sacrifice of Men whereof they now sacrificed more then at other times for this was their solemnest Festiuall The Sacrifices being ended all the young men and Maydes came out of the Temple attired as before and being placed in order and ranke one directly against another they danced by Drummes which sounded in praise of the Feast and of their God To which Song all the ancientest and greatest men did answere dancing about them making a great Circle as the manner is the young men and Maids remayning alwayes in the middest All the Citie came to this spectacle and throughout the whole Land on this day of Vitziliputzli his Feast no man might eat any other meate but this paste with Honey whereof the Idoll was made and this should be eaten at the point of day not drinking till the afternoone the contrary was sacrilegious After the Ceremonies ended it was lawfull for them to eat any thing During the time of this Ceremony they hid the water from their little Children admonishing such as had the vse of reason to abstaine The Ceremonies Dances and Sacrifices ended they went to vnclothe themselues and the Priests and Ancients of the Temple tooke the Image of paste and spoyled it of all the Ornaments making many pieces of it and of the consecrated Rolls which they ministred in a kind of Communion beginning with the greater and continuing vnto the rest both men women and children who receiued it with teares feare reuerence and other both affects and effects of deuotion saying That they did eate the flesh and bones of their God Such as had sicke follies demanded thereof for them and carried it with great reuerence and veneration All such as did communicate were bound to giue the tenth part of this Seed whereof the Idoll was made The solemnity of the Idoll being ended an old man of great authority stept vp into an high place and with a loude voice preached their Law and Ceremonies This History deserueth the longer Relation because it so much resembleth the Popish Chimara and monstrous Conception of Transubstantiation and of their Corpus Christi Feast with other their Rites to which Acosta also the Relater compareth it blaming the Deuill for vsurping the seruice and imitating the Rites of their Church whereas their Church deserueth blame for imitating the Deuill and these his Idolatrous Disciples in their stupendious monsters of opinion and ridiculous offices of Superstition But you shall yet see a further resemblance Next to this principall Feast of Vitziliputzli was that of Tezcalipuca of chiefe estimation This fell on the nineteenth day of May and was called Tozcolt It fell euery foure yeeres with the Feast of Penance where there was giuen full indulgence and remission of sinnes In this day they did Sacrifice a Captiue which resembled the Idoll Tezcalipuca Vpon the Euen of this Solemnitie the Noblemen came to the Temple bringing a new garment like to that of the Idoll which the Priest put vpon him hauing first taken off his other Garments which they kept with great reuerence There were in the Coffers of the Idoll many Ornaments Iewels Eare-rings and other Riches as Bracelets and precious Feathers which serued to no vse and were worshipped as the God himselfe Besides that Garment they put vpon him certaine Ensignes of Feathers with Fannes shadowes and other things Being thus attired they drew the Curtayne from before the doore that all men might see Then came forth one of the chiefe of the Temple attired like to the Idoll carrying Flowre in his hand and a Flute of Earth hauing a very sharpe sound and turning toward the East hee sounded it and after that to the West North and South hee did the like This done he put his finger into the Aire and then gathered vp the Earth which hee put in his mouth eating it in signe of adoration The like did all that were present weeping and falling flat to the ground inuocating the darknesse of the night and the winds not to forsake them or else to take away their liues and free them from the labours they endured therein Theeues Adulterers Murtherers and all other Offenders had great feare and heauinesse whiles the Flute sounded so as some could not hide nor dissemble their offences By this meanes they all demanded no other thing of their God but to haue their offences concealed powring forth many teares with great repentance and sorrow offering great store of Incense to appease their Gods All the Martialists and resolute spirits addicted to the Warres desired with great deuotion of God the Creator of the Lord for whom we liue of the Sun and of other their Gods that they would giue them victory against their enemies and strength to take many Captiues for Sacrifice This ceremonious sounding of the Flute by the Priest continued ten dayes from the ninth of May to the nineteenth with eating of earth praying eueryday with eyes lifted vp to Heauen sighes and grones as of men grieued for their sinnes Yet did not they beleeue that there were any punishments in the other life but did these things to auert temporall punishments they accounted death an assured rest and therefore voluntarily offered themselues thereto The last day of the Feast the Priests drew forth a Litter well furnished with Curtaynes and Pendants of diuers fashions this Litter had so many armes to hold by as there were Ministers to carry it all which came forth besmeared with blacke and long haire halfe in tresses with white strings and attired in the Idols liuery Vpon this Litter they set the Image of Tezcalipuca and taking it on their shoulders brought it to the foot of the staires Then came forth the young men and Maydens of the Temple carrying a great cord wreathed of chaines of rosted Maiz with which they enuironed the Litter and put a chaine of the same about the Idols necke and a Garland thereof on his head The young men and Mayds weare chaines of rosted Maiz and the men Garlands the Maydes Mytres made of Rods couered with the Maiz their feet couered with Feathers and their armes and cheekes painted The Image being placed in the Litter they strewed round about store of the boughes of Manguey the leaues whereof are pricking They carried it on Procession two Priests going before with Incense in the circuit of the Court and euery time the Priest gaue Incense they lifted vp their armes as high as they could to the Idoll and the Sun All the people in the Court turned round to the place whither the Idoll went euery one carrying in his hand new cords of the threeds of Manguey a fadome long with a knot at the end wherewith they whipped themselues on the shoulders euen as they doe heere saith Acosta on Holy Thursday The people brought boughes and flowres to beautifie the Court and Temple This done euery one brought their Offerings Iewels Incense sweet Wood Grapes Maiz Quailes and the rest Quailes were the
forme as he appeareth to them which is of diuers sorts They offer Bread Smoke Fruits and Flowres with great deuotion Any one may cut off his arme which stealeth Mais Enciso with his Armie of Spaniards seeking to subdue these parts vsed a Spanish tricke telling the Indians That hee sought their conuersion to the Faith and therefore discoursed of One God Creator of all things and of Baptisme and after other things of this nature lesse to his purpose he told them That the Pope is the Vicar of Christ in all the world with absolues power ouer mens Soules and Religions and that hee had giuen those Countries to the most mightie King of Spaine his Master and hee was now come to take possession and to demand gold for tribute The Indians answered That they liked well what he had spoken of one God but for their Religion they would not dispute of it or leaue it And for the Pope he should be liberall of his owne neither seemed it that their King was mightie but poore that sent thus a begging But what words could not their Swords effected with the destruction of the Indians §. II. Of Vraba Carthagena and the Superstitions of Dabaiba THe soyle of Vraba is so fatned with a streame therein that in eight and twentie dayes the seeds of Cucumbers Melons and Gourds will ripen their Fruits There is a Tree in those Countries whose leaues with the bare touch cause great blisters the sauour of the wood is poyson and cannot be carried without danger of lift except by the helpe of another herbe which is an Antidote to this venomous Tree King Abibeiba had Palace in a Tree by reason of the moorish situation and often inundation of his Land Vasques could not get him downe till he began to cut the Tree and then the poore King came downe and bought his freedome at the Spaniards price Carthagena was so called for some resemblance in the situation to a Citie in Spaine of that name Sir Francis Drake tooke it The Indians thereabout vsed poisoned Arrowes the women warre as well as the men Enciso took one who with her owne hands had killed eight and twenty Christians They did eate the Enemies which they killed They vsed to put in their Sepulchres gold feathers and other riches Betweene Carthagena and Martha runneth a swift Riuer which maketh the Sea-water to giue place and they which passe by may in the Sea take in of this water fresh It is called of the Inhabitants Dabaiba the Spaniards haue named it Pio Grande and the Riuer of Saint Iohn it passeth with a Northerne discouerie into the Gulfe of Viaba before mentioned They which dwell on this Riuer obserue an Idoll of great note called by the name of the Riuer Dabaiba whereto the King at certaine times of the yeere sends slaues to be sacrificed from remote Countries from whence also is great resort of Pilgrims They kill the slaues before their God and after burne them supposing that odour acceptable to their Idoll as Taper-lights and Frankincense saith Martyr is to our Saints Through the displeasure of that angry God they said that all the Riuers and Fountaines had once failed and the greatest part of men perished with famine Their Kings in remembrance hereof haue their Priests at home and Chappels which are swept euery day and kept with a religious neatnesse When the King thinketh to obtaine of the Idoll Sunne-shine or Raine or the like he with his Priests gets vp into a Pulpit standing in the Chappell purposing not to depart thence till his suit be granted They vrge their God therefore with vehement prayers and cruell fasting the people meane-while macerating themselues also with fasting in foure dayes space not eating nor drinking except on the fourth day onely a little broth The Spaniards asking what God they worshipped thus they answered The Creator of the Heauens Sunne Moone and all inuisible things from whom all good things proceed And they say Dabaiba was the Mother of that Creator They call them to their Deuotions with certaine Trumpets and Bels of gold The Bels had clappers like in forme to ours made of the bones of Fishes and yeelding a pleasing sound as they reported which no doubt was a pleasing sound and musicke to the Spaniards couetous hearts howsoeuer it agreeth with the nature of that metall to ring in the eares One of them say they weighed sixe hundred Pensa Their Priests were enioyned chastitie which vow if they violated they were either stoned or burned Other men also in the time of that fast likewise contained themselues from those carnall pleasures They haue an imagination of the soule but know not what substance or name to ascribe vnto it to which yet they beleeued was assigned futured ioyes or woes according to their demerits pointing vp to Heauen and downe to the Center when they spake thereof Many of their Wiues for they might haue many followed the Sepulchres of their husbands They allow not marriage with the Sister of which they haue a riduculous conceit of the Spot which they account a Man in the Moone that for this Incest was thither confined to the torments of cold and moysture in that Moons-prison They leaue trenches on their Sepulchres in which they yeerely powre Mays and some of their Wine to the profit as they thinke of the Ghosts If a Mother die while she giueth sucke the poore nursling must not bee Orphan but bee interred with her being put there to her brest and buried aliue They imagined that the Soules of their great men and their familiars were immortall but not others and therefore such of their seruants and friends as would not be buried with them they thought should lose that priuiuiledge of Immortalitie and the delights of those pleasant places where was eating drinking dancing and the former delicacies of their former liues They renue the funerall pomps of these great men yeerely assembling thither with plentie of Wine and meats and there watch all night especially the women singing drerie lamentations with Inuectiues against his Enemies if he dyed in the warres yea cutting the Image of his Enemy in pieces in reuenge of their slaine Lord This done they fall to drinking of Mays Wine till they be weary if not drunken Yet after this they resume their Songs to his commendation with many dances and adorations When day appeareth they put the Image of the deceased into a great Canoa a Boat of one Tree capcable of threescore Oares filled with drinkes herbes and such things as in his life he had loued which some carrie vpon their shoulders in Procession about the Court and set it downe there againe and burne it with all the contents After which the women filled with Wine and emptied of all modestie with loose haire secrets not secret and varietie of Bacchanal gestures sometimes goe somtimes fall somtimes shake the weapons of the men and conclude with beastly sleeping on the ground The young men
widest and to vomit out betweene these cleauing morsels into the Oceans lap so many streames and so farre is it from the Northerne and Southerne extremes three hundred miles distant The Inhabitants on the Northerne branches are the Tiuitiuas a goodly and valiant people which haue the most manly speech and most deliberate saith Sir Walter that euer I heard of what Nation so euer In the Summer they haue houses on the ground as in other places In the Winter they dwell vpon the trees where they build very artificiall Townes and Villages for betweene May and September the Riuer of Orenoque riseth thirtie foot vpright and then are those Ilands ouerflowne twenty foot high except in some few raised grounds in the middle This waterie store when the clouds are so prodigall of more then the Riuers store-house can hold whereby they become violent intruders and incrochers vpon the Land and not the violence of cold giueth this time the Title of Winter These Tiuitiuas neuer eate of any thing that is set or sowne Natures nurslings that neither at home nor abroad will be beholden to the Arte or Labour of Husbandry They vse the tops of Palmitos for bread and kill Deere Fish and Porke for the rest of their sustenance They which dwell vpon the branches of Orenoque called Capuri and Macureo are for the most part Carpenters of Canoas which they sell into Guiana for gold and into Trinidado for Tobacco in the excessiue taking whereof they exceed all Nations When a Commander dieth they vse great lamentation and when they thinke the flesh of their bodies is putrified and fallen from the bones they take vp the carkasse againe and hang it vp in the house where he had dwelt decking his skull with feathers of all colours and hanging his gold-plates about the bones of his arms thighs and legs The Arwacas which dwell on the South of Orenoque beat the bones of their Lords into powder which their wiues and friends drinke As they passed along these streames their eyes were entertained with a Pageant of Shewes wherein Nature was the onely Actor here the Deere came downe feeding by the waters side as if they had desired acquaintance with these new-come guests there the Birds in vnspeakeable varietie of kinds and colours rendering their seruice to the eye and eare the Lands either in large plaines of many miles bearing their beautifull bosomes adorned with Floraes embroidery of vnknown Flowres and Plants and prostrating themselues to the eye that they might be seene or else lifting vp thēselues in Hils knitting their furrowed brows and strouting out their goggle eyes to watch their treasure which they keepe imprisoned in their stony walls and now to see these strangers the Waters as the Graces dancing with mutuall and manifold embracings of diuers streames attended with plenty of Fowle and Fish both Land and Water feasting varietie of senses with varietie of obiects onely the Crocodile a creature which seemeth Vassall now to the land now to the Water but to make prey on both wel-nigh marred the Play and turned this Comedie into a Tragedie euen in their sight feasting himselfe with a Negro of their company One leuell passed hence to Cumana an hundred and twenty leagues to the North wherein dwell the Sayma the Assawai the Wikiri and the Aroras a people as blacke as Negros but with smooth haire Their poisoned Arrowes like cruell Executioners doe not onely kill but with vncouth torments make death to be as the last so the least of their fury especially if men drinke after they are wounded At the Port of Morequito they anchored and the King being an hundred and ten yeeres old came afoot fourteene miles to see them and returned the same day They brought them store of fruits and a sort of Paraquitos no bigger then Wrens and an Armadilla which seemeth to be all barred ouer with small plates somewhat like to a Rhinoceros with a white horne growing in his hinder-parts as big as a great hunting horne which they vse to winde in stead of a Trumpet They after eate this beast Monardus saith it is in bignesse and snout like a Pigge liues vnder the earth as a Moule and is thought to liue on earth They passed further till they came in sight of those strange ouer-fals of Caroli of which there appeared ten or twelue in sight euery one as high ouer the other as a Church-Tower They had sight at Winicapora of a Mountaine of Cristall which appeared a farre off like a white Church-Tower of an exceeding height There falleth ouer it a mighty Riuer which toucheth no part of the side of the Mountain but rushing ouer the top falleth to the ground with so terrible noise as if a thousand great bels were knocked one against another No maruell of these roaring out-cries if we consider that double penalty of Sense and Losse which this Riuer seemeth to sustaine the one in that dreadfull downfall bruising and breaking his vnited streames into drops and making it foming and senselesse with this falling-sicknesse the other in leauing behinde his Cristall purchase further enriched with Diamonds and other Iewels which euen now hee embraced in his waterie armes but himselfe such is the course and curse of couetousnesse will not suffer himselfe to enioy Now for the Monsters of Men there are said to be not seene by our men but reported by the Sauages and other an Amazonian Nation further South which Gomara thinkes to bee but the wiues of some Indians a thing common as you haue euen now read shooting and following the warres no lesse then their husbands Once about Iucatan about Plata about the Riuer called of this supposition Amazones about Monomotapa in Africa our Age hath told but no man hath seene this Vnimammian Nation Yet here they speake not of searing of the brest and what need they if there bee such seeing the women are so good Archers in other places their brests notwithstanding Againe they tell of men with mouthes in their brests and eyes in their shoulders called Chiparemoi and of the Guianians Ewiaponomos very strong and of others headed like Dogges which liue all the day time in the Sea These things are strange yet I dare not esteeme them fabulous onely as not too prodigall of faith I suspend till some eye-intelligence of some of our parts haue testified the truth §. II. Relations and discoueries thereof by other Englishmen FRANCIS SPARREY left in Guiana by Sir W. Raleigh 1595. hath also written of these parts He relateth of a place called Comalaha Southwards from Orenoque where at certain times they sell women as at a faire He saith he bought eight the eldest of which was not eighteene for a Red-hafted Knife which in England cost a halfe-peny he gaue them to the Sauages Hee was afterwards sent Prisoner into Spaine Anno 1604. Captaine Charles Leigh set saile from Woolwich on the one and twentieth of March for Guiana May 10. he came
lye in their hanging beds will make an Oration of the vertue of their Predecessors and of their sustained wrongs and so excite the yonger to take armes These Orations last sometimes sixe houres Their armes are clubs or woodden swords fiue or sixe foot long and a foot broad a finger thicke and very sharpe One of these men being throughly moued would trouble two of our Fencers Their bowes are as long as ours the string made of the herbe Tocon little yet able to endure the strength of an horse their arrowes an ell long which they will shoot twice as fast as our men they haue leather shields their elder men lead the rankes if they may be so called which haue none to marshall or order them and with great shouts and shewing the enemies the bones of their slaine friends they enter into a fierce battell Their captiues they conuey in the middest of their armie home to their Territories vnto whom the men will not sticke to giue their Sisters or Daughters to performe all the duties of a Wife and feed them with the best till they redemand the same out of their flesh the men are employed if it be long before the slaughter in hunting fowling fishing the women in gardening or gathering Oysters When that dismall day approacheth knowledge is giuen and the men women and children assemble to the place appointed and there passe the morning in drinking and the captiue although he knoweth the dreadfull issue danceth drinketh and frolicks it with the best After sixe or seuen houres thus spent two or three of the strongest fasten a rope about his middle leauing his armes at liberty and so lead him vp and down the Village in triumph Neither doth he for all this hang down his head as men heere going to be hanged but with incredible courage emblazoneth his own worthinesse Thus thus saith he haue I sometimes bound your kindred and thy father saith he to one haue I deuoured and thy brethren to another haue I boucaned and eaten and what innumerable numbers of you Touau Pinambausij haue these hands taken this throat swallowed Neither will the Margaiates suffer this my death vnreuenged Then they bring him stones and bid him reuenge his death He hurleth them at those which stand about him whereof there are some foure thousand and hurteth diuers I saw one saith our Author whose legge I had thought had beene broken by the violence of one of those blowes After this comes one which all this while had bin hidden with the fatall club and Art thou not one of the Margaiates saith he and hast thou not deuoured our kindred the other answereth O how lustily I haue done it how prompt haue I been in taking them how greedy in eating And therefore replyeth the other shalt thou be killed and rosted on the Boucan What then saith he my death shall not bee vnreuenged The club ends their Dialogue with one blow striking him dead His wife if he had any as they sometimes vse to bestow on their Captiues comes to the carkasse and spends a little time and passion in mourning but her Crocodiles teares are soone dried and the humour fals into her teeth which water for the first morsell The other women especially the elder which are most cruell and greedie bring hot water and wash the body and rub it till it looke like the skin of a Pigge then comes the Master of the Feast which owed the Captiue and cuts it out as readily as any Butcher with vs can doe a Weather They daube the children with the bloud foure women carrie about the armes and legs for a shew with shouts and cries The trunke is diuided into two parts the vpper part being cut and separated from the lower the inwards are left to the women which seethe and make the broth of them called Mingau which they sup vp with their children they eate also the flesh about the head The braine tongue and that which within the head may serue for meate is the childrens share The Author of the Feast hath a new name added to the former for they haue so many names as they haue slaine Captiues the chiefe of the Cottage branding him on the arme with an honourable marke for the memory thereof and all that day he must spend in quiet The Wayganna are a kind of Brasilians which hold confederacie with no other Nation but kill all which come to their hands and that so cruelly that they will cut off their armes and legges while they are aliue These liue in the Mountaines They cut them with stones and those which haue trade with the Christians vse Kniues Their Boucan is a Grediron of foure cratches set in the ground a yard high and as much asunder with billets laid thereon and other stickes on them grate-wise On this they rost the flesh putting fire vnder all the people standing about the same and euery one gets a little piece of him But me thinkes I see horror expressed in the countenance of him that reades this and euery one wearie of viewing this Tragedie loathing this inhumane feasting with humane flesh I will therefore leaue their shambles and which better beseemes a Pilgrime will visit their holies and holy places But alas where or what are they Maffaeus hath alreadie told vs that they obserue no Gods and Lerius confirmes the same yet sheweth that they acknowledge a Deuill whom they call Aygnan not that they worship him but are tormented by him Euen in speaking of him they tremble and the remembrance breedes a compassionate amazement in the hearer an amazed passion in the speaker while he applaudes our happinesse free from such tyrannie and deplores his owne miserie Hee sometimes in the forme of a beast sometimes in forme of a Bird and otherwhiles deformed in some monstrous shape doth grieuously torment them Euen whiles the Christians were in conference with them they would pitiously cry out Hei Hei helpe Aygnan vexeth me Nor could this bee counterfeit in the iudgement of any that conuersed with them They beleeue the immortalitie of the soule and that the soules of the vertuous that is in their sense of such as haue killed and eaten many enemies shall flie beyond the highest Mountaines and be gathered to the soules of their Progenitors and there liue in pleasant Gardens and perpetuall dancings and delicacies The cowardly Ghosts shall be carried vnto torment by Aygnan without end They haue no name whereby to signifie God vnto them but wondered to heare what the Frenchmen told of the Creator of Heauen and Earth And because they are afraid of Thunder which they call Toupan they told them that God was Author thereof the foolish Indians reply that he was then naught which would make them afraid But the feare of Aygnan made them sometimes flexible to embrace the Christian Religion hearing that this Deuill was inferiour to the Christians God So that euen in these the most degenerate of all
know not with what authoritie hee auerreth against the former witnesses whereas Theuet sometimes taken in lying deserueth lesse credit in the rest When there is any tempest in the water hee saith hey attribute it to the soules of their Progenitors and cast something into the water to appease it They haue a Tradition That one in habite like to the Christians had long since told their Progenitors of Diuine matters but with so little effect as he forsooke them and euer since had those bloudy Warres continued amongst them How little the Iesuites can preuayle in bringing the Brasilians to Christianitie Maffaeus hath written somewhat and Pierre du Iarric a Iesuite very largely which is not so pertinent to our present purpose Master Kniuet to whose Relations our former Chapter is so much indebted telleth of a Rocke in Brasill called Etooca with an entrance like a doore where the Indians say it is like they borrowed it of some fabulous Frier that Saint Thomas preached It is within like a great Hall hard by it is a stone as bigge as foure Canoes supported by foure stones like stickes little bigger then a mans finger The Indians say it had beene wood and by Miracle was thus altered They shew vpon great Rockes many foot-prints of one bignesse and tell that the Saint called the fishes of the Sea and they heard him preach This smels of a Franciscan Cowle The Portugall Friers Treatise mentioned in the former Chapter deliuereth many things worthy our obseruation They haue some Tradition of the floud in which they say all were drowned one only escaping on a Ianipata with a Sister of his which was with childe from whom they had their beginning They haue no knowledge of the Creator nor of paine and glory after this life and therefore vse no Ceremonies of worship Yet doe they acknowledge that they haue soules which die not but are conuerted into Deuils and goe into certaine fields where grow many Figge-trees alongst the bankes of a goodly Riuer and there dance They are greatly afraid of the Deuill whom they call Curupira Taguain Pigtanga Matichera Auchanga insomuch that often they haue dyed with the imagination of him Yet doe not they worship it nor any other creature or Idoll onely some old men say that in some wayes they haue certaine posts where they offer him some things for feare and because they would not dye Sometimes but seldome the Deuill appeares to them and some few among them are possessed There are Witches which vse Witchcrafts rather for health then deuotion Some Witches are called Carayba or holinesse but like his holinesse of Rome are of bad life these would seeme to do strange things raysing some to life which had fained themselues dead they are their Oracles for their husbandry and other affaires sometimes causing them to dye for hunger whiles they promise to make the Mattockes worke alone §. III. Of other their Rites and a new Mungrell Sect amongst them THey haue no proper name for God but say Tupan is the Thunder and Lightning which gaue them Mattockes and food Their Mariages are diuorced vpon any quarrell In times past they tell no young man married before he slue an Enemie nor the woman before she had her termes which time was therefore festiuall At Marriages also they vsed great Drinkings and the Feast ended they were laid in a cleane Net after which the Father tooke a wedge of stone and did cut vpon a stake or post which they say was to cut the tailes from the grand children who were for this cause borne without them After they were married they began to drinke for till then their Fathers brought them vp in sobrietie of dyet and modesty of speech and then with a vessell the old men gaue him the first Wine holding his head with their hands for feare of vomiting which if it happened was a signe he would not be valiant They eate at all times in the night and day and keepe no meate long being no niggards of their store this name were the greatest disgrace you could offer them and count it an honour to be liberall They are patient of hunger and thirst will eate Snakes Toads Rats and all fruits which are not poyson drinke not ordinarily whiles they eate but after meate will drinke drunke They haue some particular Festiuals in which two or three dayes together they eate not but drinke and goe about singing calling all to the like fellowship sleepe not haue their Musickes and sometimes fall to quarrels They wash not before meate they eate sitting or lying in their beds or on the ground They goe to bed betimes and rise not early In the morning one chiefe man makes an Oration to them lying in his Net which continueth the space of an houre about labouring as their forefathers did with the substance and circumstances thereof When he is vp hee continueth his preaching running through the Towne This custome they borrowed of a bird which singeth euery morning by them called the King and Lord of birds When a man speakes with a woman he turnes his backe to her They shaue their haire with a halfe Moone before which they say they learned of Saint Thomas Being angry they let their haire grow women when they mourne or when their Husbands goe a farre iourney cut their haire They go naked and when any weare apparell it is for fashion rather then honesty as on the head or no further then the nauell Some houses haue fiftie threescore or threescore and tenne Roomes and some are without partition ordinarily in one House they are of a Kindred and one is principall In Child-birth the Father or some other whom they take for their Gossip takes it vp and cuts the Nauell-string with teeth or two stones and fasts till it fals off and then makes drinkings The women presently after trauell wash themselues in their Riuers giue sucke a yeere and halfe without any other thing to eate carrying the child on her backe in a Net to the place of her labour they rocke them on the palmes of their hands They neuer strike their wines except in times of drinking and sometimes will be willing to take this opportunitie Their children play without scurrilitie or quarrels imitating the voyces of Birds and the like They will spare a Captiue that is a good Singer When one dyeth they of that Kindred cast themselues vpon him in the Net sometimes choking him before he be dead and those which cannot cast themselues on the bed fall on the ground with such knockes that it seemeth strange they dye not also for company and sometimes they proue so feeble that they dye likewise If the party dye in the Euening they weepe all night with a high voyce calling their Neighbours and Kindred to societie of their griefe If it be one of the principall all the Towne meets to mourne together and they curse with plagues those which lament not
nothing to say to him from that Renowmed Queene of England the Myrrour of all the Queenes that euer reigned yet he did so much honour and admire her excellent vertues and graces that he would also hold me in the reputation of her Maiesties Ambassadour and that it was in his Supreame power and pleasure to allow or not allow of the King his Letters Patents for my passage thorow that great Principalitie his Inheritance and differing from the Crowne of Poland That his Subiects might thinke I negotiated with him he tooke me with him to his Church heard Diuiue Seruice Psalmes fling and a Sermon the Sacrament also was administred as in the Reformed Churches whereat his Brother Cardinall Ragauill did murmure His Highnesse inuited me to Dinner honoured with fifty Halbardiers thorow the Citie Gunners placed and fiue hundred Gentlemen his Guard to bring me to his Palace where himselfe accompanied with many young Noblemen receiued me vpon the Terras and then brought me into a very large Roome where were Organs with singing A long Table was set with Lords and Ladies Himselfe vnder a Cloth of State and I was placed before him in the middest of the Table With sound of Trumpets and Kettle Drummes the first Seruice was brought in and after Prayer sayd by his Almoner Iesters and Poets dicoursed merrily Instruments of lowd and other of lower Musicke were added twenty Dwarfes men and women attired curiously made sweet harmony with mournfull Pipes and Songs vsing also Dauids Tymbrels and Aarons Bels as they called them and danced deuidng themselues man and woman hand in hand His Highnesse dranke for the Maiestie of the Angelicall Queene of England her health illustrating her greatnesse and graces with many good words The Princes Ladies euery one with their glasses of sweet Wine pledged I did the like for his Highnesse health Then were serued in strange portraytures of Lions Vnicornes Spread Eagles Swannes c. made artificially of Sugar past gilded with Spickets in their bellies filled some with Sacke others with Rhenish or Hungarian Wines euery one thence to fill his Glasse others also had Suckets to be taken out of their bellies with their Siluer Forkes It were tedious to relate all the particulars After sixe houres spent in this Feast I was conducted to my lodging in manner as I had beene brought and afterwards had my Letters Parens and a Gentleman to conduct mee thorow his Countrey I passed by Smoleuske to Musco 1200. miles from Vilna My entertaynment at Vilna and negotiating with the King of Poland now made me suspected to the Russian Nobility The Bishop of Susdales House was appointed for my lodging where I was guarded and attended by meane Gentlemen the pretence was lest I should haue conference with the Polish Embassadour The Protector was not present when I had audience of the Emperour and after priuately sent for me professed himselfe sorry he could not bee so fauourable as in former times to me but promised that a haire of my head should not fall to the ground c. I perceiued many of my good Friends were gone and made away had warning of many Articles framed against me which against their wils being divulged I answered so as I gained reputation thereby Yet the water which was daily brought mee from the Riuer was poysoned as also my drinke Herbs and Muske Melons sent to my House my Landresse was hired likewise to poyson me which she confessed with the circumstances I had a Seruant a Lords Sonne of Danzike which brake out with Blaynes and escaped narrowly my Cooke and Butler both dyed of poyson I writ to the Lord Protector hereof but receiued no answere I must remoue to Yeraslaue till the Polish Embassadour was gone and the third night after I came to this Towne I commended my Soule to God expecting death One tapped at my gate at midnight and I with my Seruants well appointed came to enquire the cause Alphonasie Nagoy Brother to the Emperour Mother of Demetrius which were placed at Onglets fiue and twenty miles off cryed out and sayd O sweet Yereme the Charowich Demetrius is dead his throate was cut about the sixt houre by the Deaks Sonne one of his Pages confessed vpon the Racke by Boris his setting on and the Empresse poysoned and vpon point of death her haire nayles and skinne fall off helpe helpe with some good thing for the passion of God This out cry did not a little astonish me till I saw his face ouer the wall I durst not open my gates sayd I had nothing worth the sending yet gaue a little Viall of Balsam which Queene Elizabeth had giuen me as an Antidote against Poysons giuen her by Sir F. Dr. with a boxe of Venice Treacle Some three dayes before the Suburbs of Musco were set on fire and 12000. houses burned Boris his guard had the spoyle It was giuen out that Demetrius his Mother her Brother and that Family of the Nagoies had practised to kill the Emperour and Protector and to burne the whole Citie of Musco Fiue desperate Souldiers were suborned to indure the Racke and confessed there that they were the men which should doe this exploit This was published to make the name of Demetrius hatefull to the people with that whole Family The Bishop of Orutesca was sent accompanied with fiue hundred Gunnes and diuers Nobles and Gentlemen to see Demetrius buried vnder the high Altar of Saint Iohns in Ouglets in Ouglets Castle Little did Boris thinke that his Ghost should after root out him and his Family The sicke poysoned Empresse was presently shorne a Nunne all her Allies her Brother Vncles Friends and Officers dispersed in displeasure to diuers secret Dens not to haue communitie with men or see the light I was hasted away also I had Letters from Boris he could not doe as he would but time would worke me more grace as amply as euer If I wanted money or prouision hee would impart of his owne Some secrets he had committed to mee which now made a dangerous impression in his memory I arriued in England deliuered my Letters to the Queene which I found much more fauourable then I expected the Company of Merchants payd me 1845. pounds in ready money for my goods in their hands a generall release past on both sides c. I furnished Master Hakluyt and Doctor Fletcher with Intelligences c. Thus the Race of Iuan Vasiliwich which had continued aboue 300. yeeres was raced out and extinguished in bloud the Emperour soone following as I receiued by Letters from thence from my worthy friends and haue since had conference with two Embassadours and a Fryer of good intelligence Boris had made away most of the chiefe and ancient Nobility and now remooued the Emperour Theodor placed his Sister the Empresse in a Monastery causeth the Patriarches Metropolites Bishops and new sprung Nobility his Officers Merchants and other his owne creatures to petition him to take the Crowne
August September and October the raines are predominant which with their frequent violent and long cnntinuing showres cooles the Earth and reuiues the partcht Roots of the Sun burnt Plants of the Earth sometimes rayning so long together and with such fiercenesse that Houses loose their foundations in their currants and fall to the ground from whence also followes great Land-flouds to this Countrey no lesse commodious then the inundation of Nilus to the Egyptians by receiuing the Flouds into their Rice grounds and there retayning it vntill the Earth drinking it in becomes the better enabled to endure an eighth moneths abstinence for in eight moneths it neuer rayneth Nouember December Ianuary and February they account their cooler times and are so indeed compared to the former yet as hote as it is here in England in May. From which constant heate all Trees are heere continually greene and their Fruites ripe in their seuerall Seasons The Earth in some places affoords two Croppes of Rice in a yeere rarely three Croppes and in most places but one yet there with very great increase they so we other sorts of Pulse different from ours and farre vp into the Country they haue good Wheate but not much for it is little eaten of the Gentiles Rootes they haue of most sorts which we haue heere and good store of Potatoes yet but few Hearbs or Flowres which defect they supply in their Betele whose frequent vse amongst them many haue already discoursed In briefe it is a very fruitfull Countrey and occasioned by many of the Inhabitants abstinence from any thing that hath life all kind of victuall are very cheape and plentifull as eight Hens for twelue pence a Goate or Sheepe for ten pence and for eighteene pence or two shillings a very good Hogge the like of fish and all other prouisions in the Towne but in the Countrey much better cheape This Kingdome as most others in India receiueth its denomination from the chiefe City or Residence of the King called by the Natiues Golchonda by the Moores and Persians Hidraband distant from Musulipatnam eight and twentie Gentiue leagues euery such league contayning nine English miles and in the common course of trauel ten dayes iourney A Citie that for sweetnesse of ayre conueniencie of water and fertility of soyle is accounted the best situated in India not to speake of the Kings Palace which for bignesse and sumptuousnesse in the iudgement of such as haue trauelled India exceedeth all belonging to the Mogull or any other Prince it being twelue miles in circumference built all of stone and within the most eminent places garnished with massie Gold in such things as we commonly vse Iron as in barres of Windowes bolts and such like and in all other points fitted to the Maiesty of so great a King who in Elephants and Iewels is accounted one of the richest Princes of India He is by Religion a Mahumetan discended from Persian Ancestors and retayneth their opinions which differing in many points from the Turkes are distinguished in their Sects by tearmes of Seaw and Sunnes and hath beene at large and truly to my knowledge particularized in your Pilgrimage whereunto I onely adde in confirmation of their mutuall hatred what in conference I receiued from a Meene one of Mahomets owne Tribe if wee may beleeue his owne Heraldry who openly professed hee could not finde in his heart to pray for a Sunnee for in his Opinion a Christian might as easily bee saued a Charitie well befitting his Religion that would not pray for those hee might not pray with This King as all other his Predecessors retaines the title of Cotubsha the original whereof I remember to haue read in Linschoten He maried during my being in his Country the daugter of Adelsha King of Viziapore and hath besides her three other Wiues and at least 1000. Concubines a singular honour and state amongst them to haue many women and one of the strangest things to them I could relate and in their opinions lamentable that his excellent Maiesty our Gracious Souereigne should haue three Kingdomes and but one Wife The Cotubsha Adelsha and Negaim Sha oppose the Mogull in a perpetuall league of mutuall defence yet so as their yeerely Presents proue their best weapons chusing rather to buy peace then to hazard the euent of war against so mighty an Enemy His Reuenewes are reported to bee fiue and twenty Lackes of Pagodes a Lacke beeing an 100000. and a Pagoda equall in weight and alloy to a French Crowne and worth there seuen shillinge six pence sterling which huge Treasure ariseth from the large extent of his Dominions 〈◊〉 Subiects being all his Tenants and at a rackt Rent for this King as all others in India is the onely Free-holder of the whole Countrey which being deuided into great gouernments as our Shires those againe into lesser ones as our Hundreds and those into Villages the Gouernment is farmed immediately from the King by some eminent man who to other inferiours farmeth out the lesser ones and they againe to the Countrey people at such excessiue rates that it is most lamentable to consider what toyle and miserie the wretched soules endure For if they fall short of any part of their Rent what their Estates cannot satisfie their bodies must so it somtimes happens they are beaten to death or absenting themselues their Wiues Children Fathers Brothers and all their Kindred are engaged in the debt and must satisfie or suffer And sometimes it happeneth that the Principall fayling with the King receiues from him the like punishment as it befell to one Bashell Raw Gouernour at Musulipatnam since the English Traded thither who for defect of full payment was beaten with Canes vpon the backe feet and belly vntill hee dyed Yet hold they not these their Gouernments by Lease for yeerely in Iuly all are exposed in sale vnto him that bids most◠from whence it happeneth that euery Gouernour during his time exacts by Tolles taken in the way and other Oppressions whatsoeuer they can possibly extort from the poorer Inhabitants vsing what violence within their gouernments they shall thinke fit for in them during their time they reigne as petty Kings not much vnlike the Bashawes and ◠the Turkish Monarchy There are in the Confines and heart of this Kingdome sixtie six seuerall Forts or Castles all of them commanded by Naicks and guarded by Gentiles Souldiers of the Countrey vnto which Souldiery these is allowed but foure shillings the moneth and that also ill payd they are for the most part situated vpon very high Rockes or Hils vnaccessible but by one onely way three of which I haue seene viz. Cundapoly Cundauera and Bellum Cunda Cunda in that Language signifying a Hill and in the Towne of Cundapoley hauing occasion to visit the Gouernour it was so curious as to require the sight of the Castle who replyed that euen himselfe although the Gouernour of
their Pagodes or Idoll Temples common to all but not of all equally affected some inclining in their deuotions to one Saint some to another of which Pagodes I haue seene many some of them for the materials and structure worth the gazing vpon and may well bee as they report the ancient works of great Kings within they are very darke as hauing no other lights but the doores and they stand alwayes open and prooue in some places the best Receptacles for Trauellers one small Roome onely reserued which the Bramene that keeps it will with small intreaty vnlock and shew a Synod of Brazen Saints gilded the tutelar Saint of the place being seated in most eminencie vnto which the Heathens themselues performe very little adoration wel knowing their substances and wanting those distinctions which some Christians find out to coozen themselues withall onely once a yeere on their Anniuersary day they keep their Festiuals and to some of them repaire many thousands of people as I my selfe haue seene some for deuotion and they fast 24. houres wash their bodies and burne Lamps within or as neere the Pagode as they can get some to see their friends children or kindred which will not faile to meet them in such a generall liberty others for profit as Pedlers to a great Faire the Whoores to dance Puppet-players and Tumblers with their exquisite tricks one whereof I will mention with the admiration of such as saw it or vnderstanding shall reade it A Tumbler fetching his run did the double Sommersel without touching the ground with any part of his body vntil he fel againe on his feet keeping his body in the aire vntil hee turned twice round a strange actiuity and with me and others which saw it shall not loose the wonder it carried with it Others bring charmed Snakes and Vipers in baskets which they let loose and with their hands put in againe piping vnto them and receiuing their attention very many Beggers there be and they practise seuerall wayes to moue compassion for such as haue not naturall defects as blindnesse lamenesse c. Some lie vpon Thornes with their naked bodies others lie buried in the ground all but their heads some all but their hands diuers other such trickes they put vpon the poore peoples charity whose reward is for the most part a handfull of Rice or a smal piece of mony that may be the halfe part of a farthing About midnight the Saint is drawne forth in Procession handsomely carted and well clothed with much clamour of Drummes Trumpets Hoboyes and such like that Country Musicke and very artificiall fire-workes wherein they haue a singular dexterity followed without order or distinctiō of place sex or person hauing circled their limits they draw him back againe and there leaue him without guard or regard vntil that time tweluemoneth come againe One Saint they haue and none of the least neither in their account whom they expresse by a plaine round stone not much vnlike the block of a high crowned Hat and their reason is because the incomprehensible subsistence of this Deity admits no certaine shape or description they liken it to him which hath the likenesse of nothing building thus a Temple as those of Athens an Image to the vnknowne God Foure Feasts in the yeere they celebrate to the Sea and in the Sea many people at those seasons resorting to the appointed places washing their bodies in the salt waues and receiuing the Bramenes benediction who being with them in the Sea poure water on their heads with his hands mumbling certain Orisons ouer them they know not what then takes their reward apply themselues to the next cōmers Where the great Pagodes are there are commonly many little ones which they report to be the worke of one day or no long time the Founder after some dreame or Satanicall suggestion vowing not to eat vntil it should be begun and finished and to some of these the Bramanes perswade the people there belongs some miraculous power I haue seene the Image of a man in black storie standing vpright not aboue a yard high vpon which if a whole bushel of Rice should be cast it would all stick vpon the Image and not one corne fal to the ground and this the country people had rather beleeue then part with so much Rice to practise it Another before whom if a man should eat out his tongue it would presently grow again yet had they rather venter for a blister in the relation then the whole tongue in the experiment These two I haue bin with a third I haue seene at distance as I trauelled that way whereof they report that whatsoeuer Milke Sharbol or faire water is brought thither by the deuout Visitant and poured into a little hole by the Saint he will take iust halfe would doe so if it were a Hecatombe of Hogsheads but takes no more though it be but a pint yet is fully satisfied and will receiue no more but it runs ouer the hole an excellent sociable quality and well becomming an Ale-house Kanne Another Saint they haue or rather Deuill for in their opinion it is a maligne Spirit and brings vpon them such diseases as befall them especially the small Poxe which fury the better to expresse they forme it a great angry woman hauing two heads and no doubt as many tongues with foure armes yet is she hospitable to strangers for in her house two other Englishmen and my selfe reposed part of one night for want of other harbour where whilst we staid the Founder told vs that to appease her angry Deity he built this house to her seruice and so the small Poxe ceassed in his Family others lesse able promise in their sicknesse if they may escape they will be hanged in her honour which with the two Englishmen formerly mentioned I went purposely to behold It hapned vpon a day it seemes marked in their Calender for her seruice and this exploit to which purpose they haue a long beame of timber placed on an axletree betwixt two wheeles like to the Brewers beames by which they draw water and can so let it downe rayse it vp vpon the vpper end whereof are tied two hooks vnto which the Vow obliged patient is fastened hauing first with a sharp Knife two holes cut thorow the skin and flesh of each shoulder thorow which the hooks are thrust and a Sword and Dagger put into his hands he is lift vp and drawne forward by the wheeles at least a quarter of a mile thus hanging in the aire and fencing with his weapons during which time the weight of his body so teareth the flesh and stretcheth the skin that it is strange it yeelds so much yet it is tough enough to hold them and after this manner were fourteene drawne one after another not once complayning during the time of their flight but being let
they are sowre and hang too high h Creation i Of the Angels k Belzebub said he was made of fire therefore better thē he which was made of earth Azoar 17. l Paradise The Turkes Paradise a beastly carnall one l Of Hell m Of Purgatorie n Of the Prophet Mahomet o Mahomet guiltie of his witchcraft often speaketh of it that he may not bee thought such a one p Of the Prophets in Scripture q Such tales as these of Abraham Salomon c. you shall finde both in the Iewish and Popish Legends as if the Iew Papist Mahumetan had contended for the whetstone which any one that readeth shall finde r Alexander Mahomets fittest Saint to follow ſ Of the Resurrection and last Iudgement Morals and Iudicials t Azoar 33.34 u See more in the Title of Women following x Pilgrimage to Mecca y Contrarie to which is the word common in Scripture for that which is lawfull in common vse Mecha saith Scal. alwaies in the Alcoran is called Haram and the Pilgrims Hurmun that is votaries z Abraham Author of pilgrimage rites His oathes Inheritances and Iust dealing Courtesie Mortall Sentences Sententias loquitur Carnifex Washings and Prayer Almes Tradition Meates vncleane Drinkes and Games Women Marriage Diuorce Swearing Forcing to baleeue Vsurie Repentance Friendship Infidels a Magdeburgenses in Centuria 7. haue so gathered some heads of this headlesse Monster the same is done by Cantacuze nas in summula sectae Sarac. c. but not thus fully b Anonymi in Alcoran Annotat c M. Bedwels Mahammedis imposturae in the preface c Relat. Master Harb a F. Sansov Bellar. lib. 3. b Ierusalem was rased of them An. 1219. yet durst they not destroy the holy sepulchre because of that Testimony of Iesus in their Alcoran yea they kisse the Gospels in reuerence especially Luc. 1. missus est Gabriel which they will often reiterate Vitr. l. 3. They call it not Ierusalem but BEITAALMIKDAS that is the house of the Sanctuary and Cudsi Mubarrak that is the blessed Sanctuarie Bed Trud. c The Turkes reckon Greene the Prophets colour h Arab. Nob. in Consut. Alcor i Of Mahomets Lent k Richardus Confut. Alcor l Pietro Messia tradotto per F. Sanso vino lib. 4. cap. 1. m Bell. Obseru lib. 3 cap. 9. Methodij Constitut in Bib. Pat. vbi Abucara disput cont Sar. See of this in the next Chapter and in the second Chapter Cateches Myst pro aduenis ex Secta Mahom. Thesaur sapientiae diuinae in salute om gent. procuranda Easterne languages Arabike Authors Moslemans Creed Mosleman Precepts are Circumcision Fiue houres Prayer Almes Fast Pilgrimage Fighting Note Washings Order of visiting the sicke of Wils Restitutions and Burials Mescuites or Moschees and their Ceremonies in them Mosleman women dis-respected Hence some ascribe to the Turites falsly that women haue no soules Easterne attire A note for trauellers in these parts not to prouoke them without liberty in vrine c. a cause of quarrell often to Christians a Ap. Breidenbach Sup. cap. 5. b Pilgrimage to Mecca M. Hak. tom 2. c Vertoman lib. 1. cap. 14. d Alcorr Italie m Pilgrimage to Mecca Hak. n L. Bar. with the Carouan of Damasco trauelled two and twentie houres of foure and twentie o Description of the Mosquita at Mecca p The house of Abraham described q Of this stone see sup c. 2. r Vertoman lib. 1. cap. 15. A. D. 1503. ſ The Pilgrims going to the Mountaine of Pardons t Barthema saith Isaac u Description of Medina the word signifies the people x In Barthema it is said that it was a graue fossa vnder the earth and there were also Hali Othman Bubecher and Homor with the bookes of their ordinanes and Sects y Which some are reported to doe indeed after their so holy pilgrimage-sights not further polluting their eyes m They pretend visions and miracles c. But haue not Antichrist and all Idolaters their miracles faith hath euer relation to the word of God n Agg. 2.12 13 o Caluino-Turcismus Giff. Turec Papismus D. Sut. p Because at Trent nothing might bee decreed but what was first sent and ordered from Rome hence grew this Prouerbe q When the Soldans raigned in Egypt they had a Ceremonie after the Pilgrimage to cut in pieces a Camel which had carried their Alcoran in great solemnitie to the Soldans Palace euery particle of the beast and of his furniture being esteemed and reserued as a holy Relique the same is now performed saith Dousa at Constantinople The like was in Beniamins dayes at Bagedat I know not what Camel superstition is often ment oned in the Alcoran Mecca and the Temple Rabe like to the house at Loretto in Angel legends The blacke stone Zam Zam Ismaels Well Mahumetan sacrifices Lying Tradition Territorie of Mecca Balsam brought from Gilead to Cairo thence to Mecca Scerif of Mecca Medina Mohameds birth and life a Arab. Nob. ref b Leo. l. 1. c Odmen 12. Hali. 4. ye Alhacen fiue m neths and twenty dayes Moaui 17. yeeres Iezid three yeeres eight moneths who say that the Prophet commanded not to blame but to pray for and to obey rulers though wicked for yee shall haue mercy they punishment d Ref. Ara. Nob. e G. Bot. Ben Curio calleth these Sects Melici followed in Africa Asafij professed in Arabia and Syria Arambeli in Armenia and Persia Buanisi in Alexandria and Assyria all foure are followed in Cairo lib. 5. 1. f Scal. E. T. l. 4. g 68. Sects Sarrac h Moreb Neb. l. 1. c. 70. l. 3. c. 18. 24. i God is a co-worker in euery worke of whom and in whom all things are and moue not a sparrow nor a haire from our head falleth to the ground without diuine prouidence Vid. Zanch. de Nat. D. 5. c. 1. c But two principall factions Mahumetan at this day d I. Leo. l 3. e What difference herein betweene the Mahumetane our Seperatist f Tronchi g In Itinerario Assassines of these see l. 2. c. 22. h A. Zach. Chro. Serac i Leo lib. 4. k Io. Bot. Ben. l Fr. Richard cap. 13. m This difference is in the Latine translation not in the Arabike as Erpenius hath obserued t Sup. c. 2. Io. Bot. Ben. a Lib. 18. c. 30. b Turci quasi Teucri Richer de reb. Turc Mart. Barletius de Scodrensi expug lib. 1. mention this opinion Andr. à Lacuna c Lonicer Chr. Turc to 1. l. 1. d Pom. Mela. l. 1. c. vlt. Plin. l. 6. c. 7. e Laon. Chalcondyl lib. 1. Io. Bapt. Egnatius Nic. Euboic Sagun Ep. Knolls c. f I. Leunel hist Musulm g P. Bizar hist Pers lib. 5. h Knoll Turc Hist Hieron Megisarus Ling. Turc. Institut literae sunt ijs 31. a Hist Musulman lib. 1. Theodor Gaza de Orig. Turcar. Epist. Io. Bapt. Egnat de Orig. Turc But see also sup c. 2. which is more likely For I read