The Inquisition affrighting honest men to come among ' em Grand Canarie is the residence of the Inquisitor whither all the other Iles repaire for Justice and other businesse Canarie has 120 miles circumference full of many good things Goats Beeves Asses Hoggs Barly Rye Rice variety of Flowers Grapes and other excellent fruits The I le as I tooke it thus seemes at 8 leagues distance Grand Canaria Teneriffa in multitude of Inhabitants compares with great Canary Exceeds it in Grapes yeelding yearely eight and twenty thousand Butts of Sack out-braves all the earth for supereminence Her high peak Teyda towring so loftily into the ayre as seemes not only to penetrate the middle Region but in a sort to peepe into heaven it selfe from whence Laerius metaphorically calls it Atlas and Olympus 'T is accounted 15 miles high and seene in faire weather six-score some say 300 English miles distant and serves as an excellent Pharoe exceeding those at Cayro on the otherside of Nylus The shape I thus present badly formed Teneriffa Teneriffa is 20 leagues from Grand Canaria Hyerro or Ferrum gave it selfe very high and beares from grand Canary South and by West which I le as be the rest such time as Phoebus is to us vernall growes insufferable scortching Famous in one tree it has but one which like the miraculous rock in the Desart affoords sweet water to all th' Inhabitants by a heavenly moisture distilling constantly to the peoples benefit Heare Sylvester In th' I le of Iron one of those same seven Whereto our Elders happy name have given The savage people never drink the streames Of Wells and Rivers as in other Realmes Their drink is in the Ayre their gushing spring A weeping Tree out of it selfe doth wring A Tree whose tender bearded root being spred In dryest sand his sweating leafe doth shed A most sweet liquor and like as the Vine Vntimely cut weepes at her wound the Wine In pearled teares incessantly distills A royall streame which all their Cesterns fills Throughout the Iland for all hither by And all their vessells cannot draw it dry Of these Iles Lancaerota was taken by that English Leonidas the Earle of Cumberland anno 1596. and Teneriffa 4 yeares after by the Dutch the first pillaged the other burnt since when both are better fortified The ninth of Aprill wee crost the Tropick of Cancer Tropic Cancri of like distance from the Aequator the utmost limit of the temperate Zone is from the Pole called Cancer from Apollo's Crablike retrogradation moving back in Iune from that signe in the Zodiac The 12 day wee had the wind high and large so that in two dayes saile we made the Sunne our Zenith or verticall point his declination at that instant 14. degrees North where note that only then when we are Nadyr to the Sunne wee have no shadow as also whereas to all in the temperate Zone in the Sunnes Meridian their shadowes cast North having past the Zenith the shade or umbra becomes contrary An Observation forcing wonder in the Sunne-burnt Arabs upon their descent into Thessaly As Lucan notes Ignotum vobis Arabes venistis in Orbem Vmbras mirati Nemorûm non ire sinistras An unknowne world Arabians you invade Wondring to see the Groves yeeld right-hand shade And because we have nilnisi pontus et Aer to observe upon let us theorize a little upon the Mathematiques The Inhabitants within this Zone the torrid we are now in are call'd Amphiscij in respect they cast their shadowes both wayes according as the Sunne is in declination and Ascij or shadowlesse when Sol-is Zenith from which point when it fleets either North or South the shadow ever darts contrarily as falls out when ever the gnomon or coelated body is interposed The periscij have their shadow circulating their meridionall shadowes having no existence from the vertice but oblique and extended to the plaine of the terrestriall Horizon glomerating the gnomon or body opacous these sort of people freezing within the polar circles of like distance from the pole the Tropicks are from the Aequinoctiall the pole being their vertex and Aequator 90 degrees their direct Horizon The Heteroscij are such as live in the temperate Zone whose shadowes at noone day turne but one way And this the Mathematicks teach us that the Heteroscij comprehend 41 parellells the Amphiscij seven the Periscij those in the frozen Zone halfe the yeare With these goe others as they stand comparatively the Periaeci Antoeci Antichthones The first being such as dwell in two opposite points of a like circle one from the other a semicircle or 180 degrees so they be numbred after lesser parellells The Antoeci are also opposite but vary neither in Meridian nor aequidistance from the Horizon respecting either Hemisphere The Antipodes are such as be feet to feet a precise straight line passing thorow the Center from one side to another differing frō the Periaeci by degrees of a smaller circle whence we observe that such as be to us Periaeci be Antoeci to our Antichthones each inverted to other in a perfect contrary Nor doubt wee that there be Antipodes the vaile of stupid ignorance being rent away the sphericity of the world and that every place in the earth tho opposite is habitable now so well knowne as nothing seemes more familiar Notwithstanding it was not so of old when Boniface Bishop of Mentz a Clerke well learned in that blockish age was excommunicated by Pope Zachary Anno 745. for maintaining such a paradox yea was sentenc'd to be burnt for a heretick except hee had re canted the holy Father bringing in Saint Augustin against it in his 16. book de civit Dei Qui Antipodas esse fabulantur c. nullo modo credendum est and Lactantius another great Scholler deriding it in his third booke of Institutions Very strange such famous men to bee so ill read in Chorography especially since such a tenet was proved before them by many by Euclyde by Cicero in his 4. lib. de Academ question by Tyberianus who records an old letter beginning Superi inferis Salutem by Strabo and of all others most ingeniously by Lucretius lib. 1. Illi cum videant Solem nos sydera noctis Cernere alternis nobiscum tempora coeli Dividere noctes pariles agitare diebus Sed vanus stolidis haec omnia parturit error When they see Sunne we see the lamps of night And with alternall courses times do change Dividing equall darke with equall light But error vaine in fooles makes these seeme strange To returne in changing so many parellels the weather increast from warme to raging hot the Sunne flaming all day insomuch that Calentures begun to vexe us A sailer either by accident or infection falling from the shrowds into the mercilesse waves aggravating our extremity increased by a violent gust and storme of wind and raine which in 6 degrees suddenly affrighted us the squiffe fastned to the upper deck in
in a dark Chaos of confusion But though deceit ryot and tyrannie sway a while an all-seeing Majesty sits above who in his owne time retaliates in the extremity of justice And so it now hapned for upon a sudden when they were most busied in their villany and least dreame of account God roab's himselfe with clouds and flashes terrour whereat the seas multiply their noise and swell so formidably that they threaten an universall deluge and destruction In the interim the amazed people are confounded with such horrible cracks of thunder and such thick flashes of flame and lightning that the entrailes of the earth seemed to gaspe and quake with terrour and feare which done in a moment the sea breaks ore her bounds and sweepes away in eternall darknesse and silence all creatures on the earth purging away that nasty smell of their late wickednesse and pollution But God who delights in Mercy and grieves at any mans confusion repents him of his severity and resolves againe to furnish the earth with a new generation of men repleat with more purity mercy and perfection To which end he descends and upon a very high mountaine call'd Meropurbateé commands Bremaw to rise up who though till then not created obeyed and worshipped his Maker In like sort at two other calls came up Vistney and Kuddery who performed equall obeysance Bremaw to avoyd sloath has power to create all other creatures Vistney has order given to preserve them and Ruddery has strength to massacre and be Gods executioner by way of death plague famine diseases warre or the like And according to this appointment these three new created Lords performe and regard their particular affaires to each of them a set period of time being alotted to live on earth Bremaw at the end of the second Age in a fiery chariot was elevated Vistney stayes double his time and then departs leaving the issue to Ruddery at the end of three times so long commorance to destroy the world and to translate the soules of good men into a garden of most ravishing delights and glory But ere this were accomplished It is fit to acquaint you that how Bremaw came to furnish the earth with more Inhabitants The Shaster or their Cabalisticall Thalmud tells us that as Bremaw was ruminating how to act it suddenly he fell into a trance and upon recovery felt his body troubled beyond measure purporting some immediate chance or alteration Nor did his thoughts deceive him for loe forthwith his body begun to swell yea so great anguish to afflict him that in all points it resembled a womans travaile and indeed it had Analogie in that his bowels began to extend more and more and his dolour to encrease till after much toyle the second swellings found vent broke and deliver'd their burthen two faire Twins one of each sex whom hee needed not to give suck unto in that by like miracle they immediatly grew up to a perfect stature furnisht with language and many symptomes of education Bremaw the Parent named them Manaw and Ceteroupa whom after hee had blessed he sent East to the great mountaine Mounder purvool where strait way Mistresse Ceteroupa brought forth three sonnes and so many daughters The Boyes she call'd Priauretta Outanapautha and Soomeraut The Girles Cammah Sounerettaw and Sumboo The eldest sonne and daughter went West to a huge mountaine Segund The two seconds North to Bipola The two last of each sex to Suparr where they so generated that they quickly peopled each their quarter Which done God perceiving the hearts of men enclined to vice and all sorts of vilenesse to give them directions how to live vertuously and avoyd temptation he left heaven a while and alighted on the high Mount Meropurbatee whither he call'd Bremaw to whom hee spake many things out of a dusky dark cloud or mist now and than flashing some glimpses of his Majesty acquainting him why he destroy'd the first world their sinnes provoking him and how desirous he was never to doe so againe and to that end deliver'd Bremaw a Book the Shaster by name fill'd with excellent stories divided into three Tracts dedicated to the three great Casts or Tribes the first containing Morall precepts the second the ceremonies of their Worship the third a division of them into three with peculiar notes and instructions to each Cast or Tribe Their Morall law read and taught them by Bremaw out of the Shaster has eight commandements 1. Thou shalt not kill nor destroy any living creature for thou and it are both my creatures 2. Thou shalt not sinne in any of thy five senses thy eyes not beholding vanity thy eares to be stopt in hearing evill thy tongue not to utter any filthinesse thy pallat hating wine flesh and all other vive things thy hands abhorring things defiled 3. Thou shalt duly performe the set times of devotion praying washing elevating prostrating c. 4. Thou shalt not lie nor dissemble 5. Thou shalt not be hard hearted but helpfull to others 6. Thou shalt not oppresse nor tyrannize 7. Thou shalt observe certaine Festivalls and fasting dayes 8. Thou shalt not steale These eight precepts are sub-divided into foure each of the foure old Casts retaining them Bramon and Shuddery i.e. the Braminy and Bannyan are tyed to most severe and strict observance in the decorum of their worship Cuttery and Wyse i.e. the Justice and Labourer agree in theirs From whence the Priest and Merchants appropriating the first and second to themselves are more superstitious than the two other Casts of Souldiers and Mechanicks who assume a great liberty in meats and wine Notwithstanding all of them beleeve the Metempsychosis of Pythagoras whose conceits we will parallel by and by with these Bannyans In this place drawing your judgement to a remembrance of what is already related wherein we may perceive the delusion Sathan charmes them with whose custome it has ever been to erect to himselfe worship and Idolatry in some things to make 'em more authenticall cohering with the Story of our Bible and in imitation of the Jewes and that this Cabala or Shaster of the Bannyans is a depraved Story of the Bible either obtain'd by some Jewes such time as Solomon traded to Ophyr neere these parts or from the father of lyes who peradventure did dictate it for his servants For in the Shaster speaking of the Creation of the world out of a Chaos and forming of Pourous and Parcoutee successively who is so blind that sees not the making of Adam and Eve the other of the Creation delivered by Moses shadowed in 't the universall deluge and destruction of mankind pointing out that of Noah By Bremaws receiving the Law from God in a dark cloud and lightning upon the high Mount Meropurbatee 't is doubtlesse from Moses his being on Mount Syna in Arabya where was given the Decalogue for the Israelites instruction And in Bremaws departure from earth to heaven is meant the translation of Elias The Bannyans are
pens of the Aegyptians and Greeks who for want of true matter invented a thousand Fables The first threfore we can honour as sayes Osorius is Vasco de Gama or Bartolo de Dios Lusitanians anno 1497. from Adam 5467. by importunity of that excellent Prince Iohn 2. coasting hither and so into the Orient The Country is rich and fruitfull in her womb but owned by an accursed Progeny of Cham who differ in nothing from bruit beasts save forme a people by some call'd metonimically Caffarrs or Atheists Anarchy confounds order no Prince of power or policie awing them each Canton commanded by a Captaine not chosen by voice but as force urges it Captain Fitz-Herbert some yeares since ceremoniously devoted the Title to our King in a memoriall new naming two little rising Mounts 'twixt the Sea and Sugar loafe King Iames and Prince Charles their Mounts our now dread Soveraigne Give we an exact Idaea of the Inhabitants The People described Their colour is ugly black are strongly limbd desperate crafty and injurious Their heads are long their haire woolly and crispt no apparell in any place shewing more variety Some shave one side and leave the other long and curled Another cuts all away a little tuft atop excepted a third thinking his invention best shaves here and there the bald scull appearing in many places and othersome not unlike Occasion shave away all save a lock before of no use save ornament Such as have tufts or haire plait brasse buttons spurre-rowells pieces of pewter or what else the mirthfull Sayler exchange for Beefe Mutton Woodsorrell Oestrich egge-shells little Tortoises c. their eares are long made longer by ponderous Bables they hang there some using links of brasse of iron others have glasse-beads chains blew stones bullets or Oyster-shells And such as cannot reach to such jewells rather than be without have singles of Deare beaks of birds Doggs or Cats stones Egg-shells or the like their noses are flat crusht so in their infancie great lips description cannot make them greater quick crafty eyes and about their necks in imitation of the Dutch Commandores chaines have guts and raw-puddings serving both for food and complement eating and speaking both together Yet of late they have got hoopes of iron and long links of brasse grasse wreathes or greasie thongs of stinking leather Their armes are loaden with voluntary shackles of iron Jvory rusty brasse or musty copper The rest of their bodies are naked save that a thong or girdle of raw leather circles them a square peece like the back of a Glove is fastned to it serving to cover their pudenda But I cannot commend their modesty the women upon receipt of any thing returning her gratitude by discovering her shame a curtesie taught them by some ill-bred Boore our men I hope have more civility The grand Seigniors among them have better cloathing a nasty untand hide or skin of a Lyon Leopard Calfe Baboon or Sheep the haire inverted is as a roabe put about their shoulders reaching to their waste thighes and legges never covered their feet fastned to a broad peece of leather tied by a little strap resembling the Roman crepidula not alwayes worne their hands for the most part hold them not that they feare to weare them out but that their feet may have their liberty to steale which with their toes they can doe most daintily all the while looking you in the face as if they knew not how to deceive any Most of the men are Semi-Eunuchs one stone ever being tane away by the Nurse either to dististinguish them from ordinary men or that Mistresse Venus allure them not from Pallas The women also excise themselves not from a Notion of religion but as an ornament Both sex hideously cut and gash and pink in sundry works their browes nose cheeks armes brest back belly thighes and legges in Acherontick order in a word are so deformed that if they had studied to become antick they might be praised for invention Antrae lares dumeta thoros caenacula rupes They have no houses Caves and holes they delight to dwell in or Lyons dennes unfurnished but perfum'd I warrant you a whole Tribe commonly keeping together equally villanous coupling without distinction the name of wife or brother unknowne among these incestuous Troglodites feeding sleeping speaking all together without order or law in the night sleeping round a fire a Centinell regarding the Lyons their adversaries 'twixt whom is such hate and stratagems Vivitur ex rapto that one eat other the Lyon suddenly tearing some of them and they other times trayning the Lyons over cover'd pits which catches them and so retaliating slaying and eating them to day who perhaps were Sepulchres to their friends or parents the day before Other times they dawb and rub their skinne with grease and coale and so indent it drying them in the Sunne by that trick becomming Monsters to all civill eyes that look them upon By what I have said you may imagine their pallats are not very delicate Solinus calls the tawny Africans Agriophagi or Panther and Lyon-eaters we now call them Icthio and Anthropophagi a degree more barbarous than the Lyons of whom 't is said Mortuorum cadavera non gustant quod vivit corripiunt et ex comedunt But these Savages eat men alive or dead as in both kinds many poore men have lamentably made experience of Which whē they faile of dead Whales Seales Pengwins grease or raw Puddings diet them Safety is scarce among themselves for when the frost of old age benums their vigour unapting them to provide their owne food they either eat them or leave them destitute of defence upon some Mountain pittied by none where famine kills them or the ravening Lions With these no violent death nor ' stroying rage Of Lust is halfe so dreadfull as old age Non praematuri cineres nec funus acerbum Luxuriae sed morte magis metuenda senectus The lesse to be admired at for where God is not knowne what villany is unwarrantable Aristotle a Heathen I remember could make it a maxime 1 lib. de coelo Omnes homines Notionem Deorûm habent c. And another Vniversum genus humanum ubique Terrarum colit Deum verum vel falsum Which is beleev'd by most men and I dare not oppose it Notwithstanding though I made all signes and tried each way possible to discover some spark of devotion of the knowledge of God heaven hell or imortality I could not finde any thing that way no place of worship no day of rest no order in Nature no shame no truth no ceremony in births or burials meere brutishnesse and stupidnesse wholly shadowing them The women give suck the Vberous dugg stretched over her naked shoulder the shape of which Soldanias with a landskip of the Table and other Mounts loe here presented A man and woman att the Cape of good Hope Their language is apishly sounded with whom t is thought they mixe
in imitation of those recorded by the Prophet Amos 6.10 or in way of pitty and piety lest the enemy should offer it villany or if buried it would stink an improper thing in a Bannyan and so putrifie the grasse and make Kine unhealthy besides out of their carcasses would issue wormes who would starve when the dead body was consumed a sinne unpardonable The Braminy or Priests to speake in common are of 82 Casts or Tribes the Vertaes are of higher note and fewer their habit is a girdle of an Antilops skinne tied about their middle a thong of the same hide from the necke to the left arme and elsewhere naked some of them weare a threefold thred from the right shoulder to the left arme as a badge of their profession and in memory of the 3 sonnes of the second creation The Cutteries are more prophane men of warre shedders of blood flesh-eaters and libidinous they are for the greater part called Rajas or Kings have six and thirty Casts among themselves from some of which none of them but is descended of these are the Tribes of Dodepuchaes some Chawah some Solenkees some Vaggelaes and some Paramors of long times owners of Indostant till Aladin a patan King of Delly wrested Guzzarat from them and since then most is taken away by the issue of Tamerlange at this day they call themselves Rashpootes or sonnes of Kings and live lawlesse to the Moores the chiefe of which at this day are Rana Radgee Mardout Radga Surmul-gee Raia Berumshaw Mahobet-chan Radia Barmulgee Radgea Ramnagar Radgea Iooh ' Iessingh Tzettersing and Mansuigh c. The Shudderyes or Bannyans are Merchants and contrary to their name which significs harmlesse are the most crafty people throughout India Full of flegmatick feare and superstition they are indeed very mercifull grieving to see other people so hard-hearted to feed upon fish flesh Raddish and such things as have life or any resemblance They will not kill a Louse Flea or Kakaroch or the like for 1000 pound but contrariwise buy their liberty of such Saylers as of necessity must crush them yea they have Hospitalls for old lame sick or starved creatures birds beasts Cats Rats or the like and have no worse men to oversee them than the Pushelans the greatest and best respected sorts of Brammins of all Casts whatsoever they are of Pythagora's doctrinating not only in beleeving the Metempsychosis of the soule of each man into a beast as for example the soule of a drunkard and Epicure into a Swine the lustfull and incestuous into Goats and Dogs the dissemblers into Apes Crocodiles and Foxes the lazie into Beares the wrathfull into Tygers the proud into Lyons the bloud thirsty into Wolves Ounces Snakes the perjur'd into Toads and the like but the soules of good men abstemious pittifull and courteous into Kine Buffalaes Sheepe Storks Doves Turtles c. An opinion memoriz'd by Ovid 15 Metamor Heu quantum scelus est in viscere viscera condi Congestoque Avidum pinguescere corpore corpus Alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto Parcite vaticinor cognatas caedenefanda Exturbare Animas nec sanguine sanguis alatur Flesh fed with flesh oh what impiety Thy greedy corps with corps to fat thereby One living thing to live by others death Oh spare I warne you to disturbe the breath Of kinsmen by fool-slaughter for your blood With others blood to feed is no wayes good The last Sect or Cast of Gentiles are the Wises a name albeit derived from Wise the youngest sonne of Pourous and Parcootee yet in their tongue properly signifying a labouring man these be of two sorts the Wise and Coolee the first agreeing with the Bannyan in abstinence the other not forbearing to eat any manducable creature the purer sort are subdevided into 36 Casts or Families The conclusion is that all these 4 Casts in time grew so impious and unthankfull that God commanded Ruddery to command a blast of wind to sweep away this wretched generation which accordingly he did that tempest raging so violently that the mountaines and rocks were hurled to and fro like dust or tennis-balls the seas out of their course yea Ganges out of her holy channell wherein all save a few honest men and women left to replenish perished this was the second confusion Soone after God gave them a King propagate from the seed of the Bramyns cald Ducerat who begat Ram a King so famous for piety and high attempts that to this day his name is exceedingly honoured so that when they say Ram Rame 't is as if they should say all good betide you But to shew the imbecillity of mans nature his weak condition and frailty in processe of time the world again grew abominable and treacherous so that Ruddery commands the earth to open and swallow down quick those ungodly wretches a few excepted who the third time peopled the earth with humane inhabitants and then as Bremaw had formerly Vistney the mediator of mercy ascended into heaven leaving cruell Ruddery to over rule this age of Iron at the end of which he also shall be rapt into paradise these 4 ages they call Curtain Duauper Tetrajoo and Kolee Touching the last Iudgement they hold it shall be more dreadfull than the other the Moone to look blood red the Sunne to shed his light like purling brimstone an universall flashing of fire with loudest thundring then a flammy rednesse will orespread the heavens and the 4 Elements of which the world consists shall maintaine a dreadfull fight so long so fiercely one against another that at last all shall be revolved into a dark confusion the soules of such as were good men Ruddery will transport to heaven the wicked perish but the bodies of both rise no more being too incredulous of the resurrection Now albeit these people in a continued series of wilfulnesse and ignorance beleeve that their Shaster or Cabala was immediately from God yet that it is wholly grounded upon tradition and parched out of many Histories Iewish and Gentilisme I have already shewed what is in imitation of the holy Scripture and from the rule and practise of other Nations and we may adde that their burning the dead is borrowed from the 6 of Amos 10. their marriage after death from Cerinthus and Marcyon old hereticks who used to baptize after death in case they were not pre-baptiz'd the thred tripartite hung about their neck is a misterious denotation of the Trinity rice and painting in their forehead is not only as a symbole of Baptisme but in imitation of the Starre Rempham fixed in the brow of the Idoll Moloch or of Iul. Caesar who had one in his forehead as an embleme of immortality And also let us see in how many things they concurre with the rules of Pythagoras to this day famous among them These Bramins or Bannyans in their schooles and other places affect silence for 5 yeeres are not suffered to speake in the Schooles understand one another by
City is taken at one end But these mutations did not so eclipse her as Selechus Nicanor did by envy and policy Anno Mundi 3645 building a City in the conflux of Tigris into Euphrates where Coch first stood and then Alexandriae new naming it Seleucya 50 miles thence 300 stades sayes Marcellien and to add lustre to his owne by the decay of the other illured from Babylon six hundred thousand soules in small time making that late triumphant Empresse of Townes sit naked and disconsolate the reward of her incomparable pride and tyranny Ieremiahs prophesie in the 50 51 then being accomplished The violence done to mee and mine be upon Babylon Behold I am against thee O thou most proud c. The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken her high gates shall be burnt with fire she shall become a heap a dwelling place for Dragons and it shall be said how is Babylon become an astonishment a hissing and a desolation among all Nations Alexander when he took it inricht his coffers with two hundred thousand Talents of gold betrayed by Bagophanes the Eunuch and here Terrarum fatale malum sydus iniquum gentibus as a Critick calls him Alexander the worlds great victor disroab'd himselfe out of his life by quaffing too much Oxe blood to Hercules his emulated Progenitor Anno Mundi 3647 337 before the Incarnation at the age of 32 having troubled the world 12 yeeres and 8 months his death foretold him by a Calanus or Bracman Thus much concerning Babylon not that Al-Cayro in Aegypt neere old Memphis in the same place where Latopolis stood built by Cambyses the Persian and new named El-cayro by Gehoar Leiftenant to El-Cayn the Kalyph as I finde in the first and eight books of Leo's History of Afrique by the Hebrews call'd Mezraim by the Caldees Alcabyr Myzir by the Arabs and Massarr by all Armenians BAGDAT rais'd out of old Babells ruines is in 36 deg 20 min. North in 82 of longitude built in that part of Meso-potamia the Persians call Yrakein the Turks Diarbec the Arabs Iazirey the Armenians Meridin It receives the name Bagdat I suppose from Bag-Deh i. e. a Lordly Citie or from Bawt-dat i. e. a Princely garden some say from Bugiafer the Babylonian Kalyph who disburst two millions of gold to reedifie it after that cruell devastation made there by Almerick King of Iewry But long shee enjoyed not this glory for Chyta a Tartar Prince gives order to Alako his brother to divest her who accordingly sackt it with a barbarous rage and greedinesse cruelly tortured the then Lord or Chalyph Mustaed-zem but in the yeere of our Lord 762. Heg 142. Almansor or Abviapher the Calyph pittied her delapidations and taking a precise time when by a good influence of the heavens it might in future times be fortunate he begun to reare her up againe and builded the Mosq ' in that place where one Bagdet an Eremit had made his hermitage and from whom it may be 't was so called Almansor gave it another name Medina-Isalem i. e. the City of peace or as Ben-Casen thinks Deer-Assla i. e. the Church of peace An ill spirit it seemes hanted it for after shee begun to breath anew and to adorne her head with Majesty another cold Northern blast benummed her Tangrolipix or Sadoc Lord of the Zelzuccian family and father of the Ottemans takes it in despight of the Arab and Persian An. Dom. 1031 Heg 411 and forced her to bow under the yoak of miserable bondage Howbeit once more an Arabian Chalyph re-comforts her Negmeddin-Fidall-ally by name sonne to Emyr-Elmummyn after whom Addaë-daul And Siet Saife-Daddaul did their best to inlarge her and to them according to Acmad-Abu-beker followed Almostacer-bilah sonne to Almoctadi-bila Anno Dom. 1100. Heg 480. all which severall Calyphs were rich and liberall such as spared neither cost nor paine to redintigrate her bulk and memory Ismael-Sophy conquer'd it from Bajazeth but Solyman regained it from Sha-Tahamas from him the Persian King Mahomet sonne to Tamas wrested it Anno Domini 1566. Heg 946. by a neat stratagem he entred unsuspected in disguize of a Merchant fifteene hundred other Noble warriors in like habit driving into Bagdat a Carravan of three thousand Camells but upon the watch-word throwing off their gownes they brandisht their glittering blades in the eyes of the astonisht garrison The Persians kept it till the yeere of our Lord 1605. Heg 985. when it reverted to Turkish thraldome but Abbas could not suffer it for An. Dom. 1625. Heg 1005. most bravely he beat the Turqs thence and the Tartars from Van in Armenia and to this day holds both though ten times the inraged Turqs have attempted to recover it Let us now into the Towne Bagdat at this day scarce equalls Bristow in bulk or beauty the circuit may be three miles and better including fifteene thousand familes It is watered by Tigris call'd Diglat and Dyguilah somewhat broader than the Thames but not so navigable nor gentle In all this City is nothing worthy the present observation save the Bridge the Mosque the Sultans Pallace the Coho house the Buzzar and the Gardens The bridge resembles that at Rohan in Normandyl it has a plain easie passage over 30 long boats concatenated and made to separate at pleasure The Mosque is builded in the West side large round and very pleasantly rais'd of white free-stone brought from Mosul old Ninivy The Sultans house adjoynes the great market it is large but low and neere it are some brasse peeces the Turks left there against their will a little Chappell also Panch-Ally by name is note-worthy memorable in the impression of five fingers Mortis Ally by a trick that he had made in the solid stone there The Coho house is a house of good fellowship in the evening many Mussulmen assemble to sip a sort of Stigian liquour a black thick bitter potion brewed out of Bunchie or Bunnu berries more reputed of in that it increases Venus and purges melancholy but most of all from a tradition they have that Mahomet sipt no other sort of drink save this which was first invented and brewed by Gabryel in the Coho house they also inebriate their braines with Aracc and Tobacco The Buzzar in Bagdat is square and comely The Gardens are sweet and lovely all put together shew no more artificiall strength wealth nor bravery than do many neighbouring and late up-start Townes about her Twelve miles lower is seene a grosse confused Mount by some thought the rubbish of Nimrods Tower slimy bricks and mortar may be digd out of it I rather imagin it the ruine of that monstrous Temple which was erected by Semyramis in honour of Bell or Iupiter Belus Grand-father to Nynus At some distance it Is better perceiv'd than when neerer hand the insensible rising all the way it may bee occasions it what more or more properly can I apply than in our owne tongue what an old Poet warbled in
of price they seldome ride abroad without bow and arrow the quiver and case wrought and cut ingeniously the bow is short and not unlike a crosse bow bended and albeit some thinke incomparable in mischiefe to a gun yet the time has beene they have got with that as we in France in many parts of Asia most memorable battels as when Crassus lost his life Valerian and others occasioning those dirgees of the Roman Poets Terga coversi metuenda Parthi and Ovid thus Gens fuit terris equis tuta sagittis c. at this day of no credit in archerie unlesse they can in a full carreer cleave an Orenge hanging in a string athwart the Hippo-drome and when past the mark with another ready arrow as surely hit the rest turning in his short stirrips and Morocco saddle backwards A Persian Woman Coat Armor of Persia Many other things give themselves note-worthy In Armes and Armories fix therefore your next observation The Persian Armes of old and at this day are somewhat doubtfull Zonaras in his first book and nineteenth Chapter out of an ancient Monument observeth that the Persians bore in old times Luna an Eagle crowned of the Sunne displayed Saturn continued for many discents their royall Ensign till Cyrus made as in the Empire in Escheucheon also an alteration Xenophon shall guide you to the view of it Erat Cyro signum aurea Aquila in longa hasta suspensa nunc etiam id insigne Persarum Regibus manet c. borne till Crassus perisht by them at that time a Sagittarie being blazon'd in their Royall Standard alluding to their excellent skill in riding and hope of good fortune from whence also that coyne of Dariques came fifteene shillings of our money a round peece of gold Darius the common name being stampt on one side a Sagittarie his coat Armour on the other side memoriz'd by Plutark in the life of Agesilaus complaining that his ambitious designe of Asia's conquest was prevented by thirtie thousand Sagittaries or Archers meaning a bribe of so many peeces of gold which were given to betray his enterprise But when Mahomet had insnar'd their soules and yoakt their necks under Saracenic bondage the other were rejected as impertinent to this new conquest advancing as a Symbol of more excellencie and mystery in their banner Mercury a Crescent Luna with this impreza Totum dum impleat orbem alluding both in bodie and soule to an universall command but how unfitly and meanly borrowed by the French may easily appeare to such as go to Fountain-b'leau where this heathen device is in every hall iterated But Mahomets prediction failed him when that memorable Saint of Ardaveil Gunet both obliterated many fundamentall texts of the Alcoran and invented a new Ensigne in honour of his successor viz. Venus a Lyon couchant Sol the Sun orient in his face of the same minted also in their brasse meddalls and as a tye of amity accepted of by the great Mogull and some other Princes in Indya The Cawns Beglerbegs Sultans Agaes Soldagars and Coosel-bashes indeed beare no Armes not that they are intituled slaves but from their ignorance in pedegrees and heraldrie and in regard no honour there is hereditarie but this I can say truly they are of very humane and noble natures civill mercifull and liberall yea differ in their ingenuity and love to any Gentleman that is a stranger as much from the Turks and their brazen barbarism as gold is in comparison from iron for the Persians distinguish degrees amongst themselves and of other Nations honor high birth and qualitie in any man yea and give him respect agreeable to his meriting without any inquirie of his religion Let us go a little further In old times they were Idolaters such as the Gowers be now The old Persians the Persees a sect in Indya the Pegouans c. but by converse with Greeks and Romans abolisht their celestiall worship and as Strabo relates received Demonomanie continued till Mahomet The transparent Firmament they called Iupiter the primum mobile of other gods him they feared but Apollo the Sonne or Mithra as they term'd him they doated on and dedicated to him many gallant Temples attiring him with many Epethites of honour health and gentlenesse a good opinion then and not yet cancelled as yet memorizing his image in the stamp and coat Armor of their Emperours The Moone no doubt had due respect and adoration amongst them supposing her espoused to Apollo Venus had equall reverence the Earth also the Water Ayre and Fire wanted not the names of Dieties especially the Fire and Water Zertoost their Law-giver in imitation of Moses charged them to keepe a perpetuall fire not to bee fed with common cumbustibles nor to be kindled or inflamed with prophane Ayre but such as came from the beames of that glorious eye of heaven the Sunne lightning flints or the like The water also by no means was to be corrupted with dead carkasses durt urine raggs or what shewed sordiditie or nastinesse They loved images but indifferently usually actuating their holy rites in groves in mounts and conspicuous places Their marriages were commonly celebrated in the spring such time as Phoebus makes the Aequinoctium the Bridegroome the first day juncketting on nothing save apples and Camels marrow a dyet proper for that dayes festivall Poligamy they liked of the King giving the example and honouring them with most applause and gratuities who prov'd Fathers of most children They seldome saw their Infants till past foure yeeres old from which age to twenty they learnt to ride shoot jaculate and to speak the truth as also to fare meanely lodge hard to watch to till the earth and to bee content with small things The old men went plaine the young mens habit was rich but in nothing so notable as when their armes and legs were fettered with voluntary lincks and chaines of burnisht gold whose fulgor they adored from its conformitie with the Sunne in warre their attire was steely or mailed work curiously concatenated their breast-plates skald their Targets of Oxe hides large and round their cap or helmet was a Tyara of linen multiplicated their Armes were darts bowes swords and axes all which in admirable equipage and order through long practice they could manage gallantly Their meales the great mens tables I invite you to were splendid in rich furniture dishes of gold but in meats verie ordinary and sparing Bacchus their countriman taught them the Art of drunkennesse Noah some imagine him of whom a moderne writer sayes boldly Omnia vero Bacchanalia eorumque ritus a Noae ebrietate originem habent c. followed greedily by these epedemic drunkards delighted in with no small redundancie insomuch that like the Duch at this day no matter of moment past currant and with applause save what relisht of Bacchisme yea their frequent consultations and private bargaines we too much ape them were rarely ratified unlesse negotiated and consolidated in froath
hyerogliphick of our salvation which in the primitive and purest age was of such honour amongst the Christians as not only they used it in baptisme but upon their foreheads to despight the Jewes and Heathens and to glory in that thing the more they so branded them with as a calumnie I hate superstition in my heart but that so holy an example should be derided is miserable and to be pittied To returne the Renegado in token of more defiance spets thrice at it making him beleeve Christ never suffered but Iudas did and then is to exult in this Battalogue La la La-illah Hyllulla Allough aybyr Mahumed resul-Allough God is first and next him is Mahumet he then elates his finger as denying a Trinity and three Mussulmen dart three staves three times towards heaven which ere any touch the ground hee is new-named then led slowly upon an Asse about the Citie that every one there may note him for a Denizin a Beleever and Proselite to Mahumet But praised be God I never heard of any Europaean Christian who of late times renyed his Faith in Persia Their weddings have not much variety to dwell upon observe therefore that Poli-gamie is tolerable Mahomet to excuse his owne infirmity Marriages and borrowing it from the Romans honours such most as have most wives and beget most children to furnish the Emperour with souldiers for defence Paradize with Saints and to resound the meritorious praises of great Mahomet the Deruisse an order of begging Frier excepted who from a transcendent conceit of their owne purity abhor matrimony but suppose Sodomy and Natures blackest villanies no sinne or sins pardonable producing Mahomet their prototype or example who both by precept and custome warranted it but I have tyed your chast eares too long to so impure a subject Such therefore as dare wed they need not feare in Asia the women in those parts never predominate they provide a sum of mony and buy her good-will her parents being no further charged than to bathe and purifie her They marry more from report than knowledge the friends of either party commonly commending perswading and effecting it The day appointed being come the Bride is vailed with a fine lawne of callico her armes and hands are only naked they mount her bravely and a great troop of friends and kin accompany her to Church in the mid-way being met with an equall number of friends all together agrandizing the ceremonie after a joynt assent of him and her they alight and enter the Mosque where the Mulay takes the protest of their good liking she demanding three things as did the Jewish women of old bed-right food and cloathing their Fathers also speak themselves contented the Priest circles them with a sacred cord conjoynes their hands takes a reciprocall oath and calls Mahomet to witnesse the Caddy inrolls their names the houre day month and yeere of their nuptialls and with an Eugè dismisses them The first day vapors away in Tobacco feasts and other ordinary feastivalls the men and women being severed at night the Bride enters a stove and is soundly washt and perfum'd that her degree may the better appeare and her person be more accepted of next night they bathe together and seven dayes after in which time if hee discover her to be no Virgin she is return'd to her parents with no small dishonour otherwise is kept till death part them The Alcoran allowes incestuous mariages pretending that thereby true love is better contracted and longer conserved in families in case also the man be weary of her or that she is barren he acquaints the Mulay with his distemper who eases him upon his giving her a dowry after which it may be hee will require her againe and if she agree are secondly married yea five six seven times rejecting and revoking as hate or lust can stimulate by that disorder love vanishing jealousie budding rage advancing clamours roaring and by which many times the Fathers neither know their own Children nor they their parents Their Burialls revive some ceremonies of old us'd amongst Jewes and Gentiles At his farewell to the world the next of kin closes his eyes Burialls as did Ioseph in the 46 of Genesis and Telemachus in Ovid Ille meos oculos comprimat ille tuos they then wash him with cleane water as was Tabitha Acts 9. and carrie him to his grave with admirable silence a gesture well-becomming Funeralls they lodge the Carcasse where none lay formerly supposing it a vile part to disturb the dead whom in the grave they think sensible of torment they place his head towards Medyna and after the old mode septem ad Luctum septem ad convivium for seven dayes his next of kinne watches to keep the evill Angell from his Tomb during which he incessantly warbles out his Elegiac Threnodies as the last expression of love he can shew him Other burialls Others are thus buried In the first place go those of his own blood and family next them his slaves and other domestic varlets naked to their waist the rest in troozes who to expresse their zeale the better burne and scratch their armes and breasts cutting their flesh and printing circles a trick borrowed from the rebellious Jewes and prohibited by Moses Levit. 19.28 and in Deut. 14.1 so effectually that the blood trickles out in many places Next them are ranckt fifty young Gallants whose shoulders are made to beare some texts taken out of the Alcoran mixing with them selected Eulogies which they sing and ingeminate Next these follow a hundred or two hundred men of note each holding the cord that drawes the Corps or Hearse on every side throng the multitude some bearing in their hands Lawrel or Cypresse boughs others Coronets of flowers fruits or what best befits the season some semi-naked horsemen play along and oft times to demonstrate their love spare not to wound themselves and in the last place go the Preficae or women hyred to weep to howle to teare their periwiggs to smell to onyons hinc illae Lacrymae and to do such impostures as did the antick Romans noted in Livy and Jewes as Ieremy speaks 9.17 In this Decorum they march slowly and with great silence but at his Dormitory ululate Lala-Hillulla there uncloathing and mundifying the carcasse his sins thereby also vanishing they anoynt him with odours and pretious unguents and so wrapt in fine linnen they burie him in the earth and place his head towards Arabia his face looking up to heauen I note it in regard they put the other sex their faces downwards his armes spread as prepar'd to imbrace Mahomet above him they fix two stones at 's head and feet which in Arabiq ' characters ingrav'd and colour'd denotates his name quality religion and time of buriall there they leave him but give not over twice every day to come and sing his Requiem beseeching Mahomet to succour him against his bad Angells of whom they nourish this opinion That
considered which was his plot for Apostasie but that the Devill and Sergius who helpt him could not blaspheame nor bee suffered to derogate from their Majesty and to whom we say in the words of our Saviour to the Demoniack hold thy peace and ex ore tuo laus sordet The residue of the Book consists of Heresiarchyes against our blessed Saviour with Arrius it denies the Divinity with Sabellius the Trinity with Macedonius the holy Ghost proceeding with Manicheus the death of Christ and such like errours as to them and Satan seemed plausible In the 32 Azoara hee commands that no man be so impious to question any particle of his Law nor to dispute about it and yet in another chapter confesses that t is full of lyes 1 Commandement There is one and but one great God and Mahomet is his Prophet Sung every fourth houre both by the Muyezins Talismanni from the steeple tops of every Mosque in a cleare note Llala y-lala Mohummed resullula and the Persians by Syet Gunets direction to the honour of their Prophet Llala y-lala Mortus Ally vel-hillulla 2 Comman 'T is neither good nor just that any Mussulman live unmarried lest the professors of the Alcoran or Mahomet be thereby diminished Whence it arises that Poligamy is tolerated yea that such are thought the most honourable and brave men who super-abound in wives and concubines The chast Prophet Mahomet in the Azoara of Bacara boasts much of his owne delight and singularity therein and that he had strength at most times to satiate the lust of forty women In that chapter of Attahrim he also confesses that he oft had violated his faith and troth but it grieved him not in that hee had received pardon from God and had to witnesse it his good friends Rachel and Gabryel two holy Angels But who sees not that in this precept of his like a polite Machiavillian he had respect to the naturall disposition of the Arabians pleas'd with freedome and voluptuousnesse rather than to any vertue not caring how so by any magick he could yoak them to obedience and affectation of his Alcoran 3 Comman It behooves all Mussulmen to bee charitable and to hate contention From this command issues most good to Travellers for whereas Innes are not to be had in heathen countries stately buildings call'd Imarets in Turkie Carravans-raws in Persia Serrays in Indya are purposedly built and open for all commers never questioning their Country businesse nor religion the roomes are sweet and well kept the stables be convenient and not any is to pay ought in that t was founded from the charity of some Mahomitans who have beene knowne to spend in one of those common receptories fifteene thousand pound sterling such are in Shyraz Cashan c. they also erect Hospitalls for lame men and diseased yea for aged starved or hurt birds beasts and such like creatures 4 Conaman It behooves all Mussulmen to invocate their Prophet every day five times at least with sobriety and to attend his comming patiently Which they carefully accomplish and with such regard that when the Muyezin is heard to cry aloud from the Mosque they fall to prayer though then busied in prophane talk drinking drabbing or the like And in praying to help their memorie use Beads stop their eares and shut their eyes lest any thing might divert them in their zealous Orizons which they actuate in a quiet and silent murmur bending prostrating and kissing the ground or some relique of holy earth brought from Medina the Haram or Alcaba two holy Chappels in Mecca erected sayes the Alcoran by Abraham from the true Idea of that which Adam built in Paradize albeit some hold that he stayed there not above a day carried by Angels into heaven at the generall Deluge in every El-fata or prayer sizedaing or kissing the earth at each Epethite or name of God and Mahomet and after they have battologuiz'd Ilalay-lala they iterate another to this effect following In the name of the good and holy God Praised be the Soveraigne of all worlds the only mercifull God of Doom ' thee we serve thee wee call upon shew us the best way that which thou hast revealed to Mahumet but not that wherby thou punishest the Ungodly This also as I have noted amongst them being a meere Tautologie of the names of God and Maâ—met Bizmillah raugh mawn a raugh-heam Allhundill Alley Etto byatto almo barakatto assulwatto Attayo batto Leyla heessalem Aleyka I Iaanna nebeen rough meet Wallough heeweeber-catto Essa-lamalena Wallah Ebadulla hesolaheem Eshaddo Awla-El aha El-Allaho Eshaddai Mahummed resull-Allogh L'alla Essalamalena Ebadulla Solaheem Essalamaleekam Essalamaleeka Allyhomma Sul-hillulla Allaw Mohummed don Wallaw Wassaleem-chamma Salleata Alhumderalley Whoddaw said by all Mahomitans in Arabia Persia Indya Iava c. And though this be the most usuall yet they are not without other set formes of prayer compiled by Osman in his Parody for in the 17 Azoara Mahomet confesses that he could neither read nor write and by that famous Almotannabby who fell in his learned conceits to make his Name more venerable than Mahomet Their Elfataes are either for the safety of their Kings a happy issue the welfare of their Country thanks that they are Mussulmen Bosarmen or true beleevers and the like five times in foure and twenty houres praying or rather balbutiating orderly The houres are day-breake noone three in the afternoone sunne-set and at midnight recorded by these titles Ashaera Magreb Adelesher Kalamath and Erketh Arabically thus Dahour Lashour Mogrub Sallit Sabaha L'hair The first houre is acted by foure Tessalems or prostrations and two prayers 2. by ten times kissing the earth and five El-fataes 3. houre requires eight grovelings and foure ejaculations 4. has five Sizedaes and three orations and the last houre for a farwell has fifteen tesselems and eight repetitions after that houre to day breake t is held an ungodly thing to invocate The Persians since their reformation think it enough to pray thrice in foure and twenty houres at sob dor magareb Arabick words and which signifie morning noonee and night On the Gynmaa or Sabbath by the Persians call'd Y'owma and D'siuma by Turks Zuma-g'iuny Dumaad by the vulgar Arabs they assemble in the Mosques without seats and bells each first washing then kneeling with his face to Medina not speaking one to another spetting nor coughing scapes unpardonable 5. Command See thou observe yeerely a Month Lent a Byram c. The Lent or Ramdam call'd also Ramadan Ramazan and Ramulan begins commonly at the Sunnes entrance into Aries Libra other times no time certaine and is an imitation of our Lent or rather the forty dayes Moses was in Horeb and by some said in memory of Mahomets forty dayes hiding himselfe in the Desart flying from the rage of Mecca's Inhabitants and that in that moneth he divulg'd the Alcoran but most likely as in the 47 Azora of himselfe and 25 in which he treats of the
time that this Cock crowed all other Chanticlears upon earth re-ecchoed him The second heaven is of gold such gold as has beene seven times tried in the fire The third is of pearle in this heaven hee saw innumerable troops of Saints and Angells each of them saluted him by his name and he prayed for them Amongst the rest he took notice of Adam Enoch Abraham Samuel David Salomon c. all whom he knew by revelation and of which some he taxed others hee commended as occasion served him The fourth heaven is of Smaragd and where he saw infinite companies of other Angells who made a mighty noise and incessantly praised God and well they might make a noise for sayes Mahomet every Angell there was a thousand times bigger than the globe of the earth and each had ten thousand heads every head threescore and ten thousand tongues and every tongue praised God in seven hundred thousand severall languages amongst them he noted one especially Phatyr or the Angell of Mercie a creature of that vast frame that every step he trod was twelve times more than the distance is twixt both the Poles Mahomet inquired of him why he wept so fiercely the Angell replied that it was out of his compassion to see the deplorable estate and vanity of man This is that same Angell that has the Holy Quill or pen in keeping a pen of orient Pearle so long that an excellent Arabian Courser in five hundred yeeres continuall galloping can hardly reach to the further end of it with this pen God registers all things past present and to come the Inck he writes with is pure Light the Character so misterious that none but he and Seraphael can understand it All the hundred and foure holy Books are written by this Quill viz. those ten which Adam received Seth had fifty Edris or Enoch thirty and Abraham had the rest it also writ Moses his Law Davids Psalmes Christs Gospell and Mahomets Alcoran The fifth heaven was of Diamonds where hee saw a mighty Angell and of all others the wisest hee had as many heads and tongues and voyces as any two others had in the inferior Orbe and had the keeping of that Book wherein all men in the world have their names written he did nothing but turne over the leaves and blot out one name or another for by that as by the arrow of death they died suddenly The sixth was of Turquoisse the Seventh of Alahal some interpret it fire others pure light or breath congealed All these circumvove one another like Pearles or Onyous but herein is the miracle they be translucent and yet of mettalls a rare Philosophy above all is the heaven of heavens full of light and silence immense and within which all other bodies are comprised but it incomprehended there Mahomet saw the throne of God rich beyond expression very great also for it was supported by seven Angells each of them so wonderfully great that a Faulcon if he were to flie a thousand yeeres incessant flight could scarce go so far as is the distance of one eye from another about the Throne hung foureteene candles everlastingly burning the length of every of those candles as Mahomet measured was from one end to another as much space as a good horse can ride in five hundred yeeres there hee saw the Almighty who bad him welcome and laid his hand upon Mahomets face his hands sayes this blasphemous deluder were a thousand times colder than Ice for all which Mahomet in shame of his owne basenesse blusht for shame and swet with feare but with his long finger hee swept away the sweat from his brow and threw it into Paradise rare sweat Each drop he notes them to be six turn'd into some rare thing or other one drop into a Rose another into a graine of Rice the other foure into foure learned men Ac'met Sembelin Abuhamed Melec-zed and Seh-vaffin After hee had sufficiently instructed himselfe in many mysteries and was assured of Gods favour he descended with his Alcoran but how he got it entertained how notoriously it has blasted the earth and poysoned most parts and Iles of Asia and Africk Angells it requires another place to have it spoken here only let us note the mad conceits he fancies of Angells the last judgment Paradize hell c. Angells are either good or bad both are subject to death the good because they consist of flame an Element to sin because Lucifer an Angell by ambition was expulst Paradise The bad Angells are imprisoned in Doggs Swyne Toades Wolves Beares Tigres After the day of Doom they shall be tormented in hell some millions of yeers but must in the end by vertue of Mahomets law be delivered Day of Doome The great and generall Judgement is as certaine as the day of Death and will happen suddenly such time as all the world is wrapt in a carelesse security the Angells know not the time till Mahomet point it out by a great and fearfull Duell twixt death and him whom in the end hee makes to fly away but by that combat becomes so inraged that he destroyes all living creatures in the world suddenly for new arming himselfe in flaming brasse in each quarter of the world hee sounds his dreadfull Trumpet whose affrighting clangor not only makes men beasts fishies birds and like creatures dy but the Angells also give over living and lastly Adriel himselfe whom God commanded to follow the rest in the ineviâ—aâ—le path by wrapping his iron wings about him and strangling himselfe with such a dreadfull noyse as is scarce imaginable After this ensues a terrible and universall Earth-quake followed by a violent shower of purling brimstone which must devoure all grasse trees and vegitable Creatures yea the Pallaces of the proudest Tyrants and turne topsi-turvie the earth water and other elements into a confused lump Forty dayes it must rest in a disordered Chaos in which time Almighty God shall grasp it in his fist and beholding it say to this effect Where are now the haughty Princes the cruell Tyrants lacivious wantons and greedy earth-wormes of the earth which said he will for forty dayes and nights space incessantly raine downe a gentle shower of mercy and by a gratious breath reduce the world into a most glorious estate after that hee will call up Seraphyel and bid him take his Trumpet in his hand the Trumpet is of purest gold and above five hundred yeeres travell from one end to another at the first sound will ensue a revivification of Angells and Men at the second the Angells re-assume their glorious roabs and men their naked flesh againe Iudgement Michael the Arch-Angell perceiving the Tribunall rais'd upon a high mount in Iehosaphats vale he approaches with his mighty ballance and poyses every man their good and bad deeds in either cale such whose good deeds out ballance their evill actions are put upon the right hand the other on the left after that they are loaden with
of his religion and makes him heire to all his offrings Many deformed Pagatho's are here worsshipped they say they adore not the Idolls but the Deumos they represent and who sometimes enter and Oraculize the Chappel where the grand Caco-Deumo sits is uncovered and about three yards high the wooden entrance is ingraven with infernall shapes within their beloved Priapus is imperiously inthroniz'd upon a brazen Mount they advance his head with a resplendent Dyadem from whence issue foure great Rams hornes denotating some especiall mysterie his eyes squint his mouth opens like a Port-cullice and from thence branch foure monstrous tusks his nose is flat his beard like the Sunnes rayes of an affrighting aspect his hands are like the clawes of a Vulture his thighes and legs strong and hayrie his feet and taile resemble a Monkeys which put together renders the devill wickedly deformed and the idolaters beyond all measure grosse Demonomists Other Temples have other Pagods ugly all yet all differ in invention some of them are painted or smeered black others red some bright others devouring soules hell fictitiously tormenting white ones These Gods of theirs are of the old stamp they seeme to threaten and to take notice of mens offrings but what They cannot doe their Baalyms effectuate Each morne the Priest a Jogue perfumes and washes them it seemes the Devill ever pollutes and leaves a base smell behind him he departs not without a benediction humbly he prostrates his corps and has it granted him Every new Moone they solemnly sacrifice a live Cock as a Symbol of lust and courage in themselves predominating the Priest is pontifically attyred in pure fine Lawne arm'd with a sharp long silver knife his armes and leggs garnisht after the Morisco mode with bells round silver plates and other jangling trifles after he has bravely sacrific'd the yeelding Cock he fills his hands with Ryce goes retrograde not daring to looke on any other object save his Idoll till being come neere an Acherontique lake he then turnes there embowells his offring advancing his hands some set times above his head and so returnes crown'd with applause and blessed in other mens opinions The Samoryn eats not till it be first offred and so acknowledges his food sent him from the Deumo i. e. by the devills permission what he leaves is not for the poore the Crowes expect it good reason too They think them the Devils serviteurs The people to this day retaine some commendable customes amongst 'em they commonly exchange their Wives one for anothers nor seeme the women angry at it Poligamy is sufferable but in this they differ from other libidinous Law-givers as the men have many wives so one woman may here have many husbands the issue is bequeathed as she nominates COVVLAM is a Towne and Province call'd Sopatpa in Arrhyan in 9 degrees North and included in the Travanzorian Kingdome Once it obeyed the Narsingan Monarch once the Mallabar at this day neither 200 yeares agoe the Towne was rich and great and populous traded to by many Indyans augmented by the Samoryn and able to number a hundred thousand inhabitants of such value was the scituation for trade security for anchorage and fidelity of the Coolamites But now whither her glasse is runne the period of her excellence out-runne or that Callicut first and then Goa have attracted her custome and resort I cannot say this I may at this day shee is vailed with a sable habit desolate and disconsolate shee contemplates the mutability of Times and other's disasters and then comparing them with her owne sees they conclude in a like Center And albeit I have in many places memoriz'd the Bannyans here also I may name them where they swarme in multitudes and suck in the sweetnesse of gaine by an immeasurrble thirst and industry but Sic vos non vobis it is ravisht from them by Drones the lawlesse Moores and Gentiles who Lord it over them Alas the Bannyan is no swaggerer no royster he hates domineering and fighting yea will suffer himselfe to be fleec't by any man rather than shed blood by any unhappy contention they love no tumult no innovation but wish that all men were of their mind that is to say courteous in behaviour temperate in passion moderate in apparell abstemious in dyet humble mercifull and so innocent as not to undoe the silliest vermin doubting that if they should destroy any living thing thereby they might dispossesse their parents or deare friends of a peacefull Mansion but by eating such may peradventure devoure the soules of such as once were dearest to them Ovids conceit is partly for them inque ferinas Possumus ire domos Pecudumque in corpora condi Corpora quae possunt animas habuisse Parentûm Aut Fratrûm aut autaliquo junctorûm faedere nobis Aut hominûm certe Le ts home and in bruit Beasts our bodies hide Where happily our Parents may abide Our Brothers or some by Allyance tide One man or other sure And in as many places are Christians or relicts of that holy profession for no doubt the Apostles propagated the glad tidings of salvation to all Nations prophesied by the Prophet David Psalme 19. Their sound is gone into all lands and their words into the ends of the world Mantuan also celebrates it in these verses Sicutaquis quondam Noë sua misit in orbem Pignora sedatis ut Gens humana per omnes Debita caelituum Patri daret orgy a terras Sic sua cum vellet Deus alta in regna reverti Discipulos quosdam transmisit ad ultima mundi Littora docturos Gentes quo Numina ritu Sint oranda quibus Coelum placabile sacris As when the Flood ore-spred old carefull Noe His sons disperst throughout the world to showe The Law of God and sacred rites to pay So when our Saviour would no longer stay On earth a mission of his Schollers he To th' utmost bounds of th' earth with Charter free Doth make to instruct the world both how to pray And to appease Gods wrath with sacred Lay. In both Asiaes the Gospell was throughly preached but now the subtlety of Satan and that carnall law of Mahomet have infected these soule-sick Nations for all which Christ has his flock there which though at this time scattered yet in due time shall be gathered and made one blessed company In Persia are many thousand Christians in India a no lesse multitude compared indeed to other Idolaters but a hand-full yet that does not discourage them 't is better go to heaven alone than to hell with an innumerable multitude Arnobius of old times could say Nationibus cunctis nos sumus Christiani In many marittim Townes of India that name is honoured In Meliapore Narsinga Coolan Gucurran Curigan Bipur Tanor Battacala Onor Cranganor Goa and other places are Christians yea in many Indian Iles some are numbered among Mahomitans they have freedome of conscience from that Azoara in the Alcoran That none are to be diswaded