made noise enough to deliver the Moon out of an Eclipse Their ignorance in this as in many-many other things is much to be pitied as the knowledg and learning of many others which by their not improving of it is to them as the Letters which Uriah sometimes carried against himself it condemns the bearer But though the Hindoos or Heathens there have no learning yet they want not opinions for their divided hearts are there distracted into four-score and four several Sects each differing from others very much in opinion about their irreligion which might fill a man even full of wonder that doth not consider how that Satan who is the author division is the seducer of them all Those many Sects as I conceive among them consist of people there of several Trades Occupations and Conditions of Life which several sorts of people as before I observed marry into their own Tribes and so unite and keep together amongst themselves that they have not much correspondency with any other people These without doubt have several ways of worship within themselves which makes them so separate from others as that they will not eat with any but those of their own Tribes The illiterate Priests of all that people for the generality of them are called Bramins who derive themselves from Bramon whom they say was one of the first men that inhabited the World and after the sin of that first World brought the Flood the race of that Bramon whose very name they highly reverence was continued in Bremaw who as they say out-lived that deluge and is honoured by them likewise as one of their great Prophets and Law-givers Those Bramins as I conceive are they which the ancient stories call Brachmans but with this difference that those Brachmanes were accounted learned men for the learning of those times wherein they lived But these Bramins are a very silly sottish and an ignorant sort of people who are so inconstant in their Principles as that they scarce know what the particulars are which they hold and maintain as truths As anciently amongst the Jews their Priest-hood is hereditary for all those Bramins Sons are Priests and they all take the Daughters of Bramins to be their Wives Of which somthing before They have little Churches they call Pagods standing near or under their green Trees built round but as their ancient Brachmans were said not to endure these on the contrary have Images in their Pagods made in monstrous shapes but for what end they have them I know not Now from the manner of those Heathens which I believe hath been for many-many years retained in their Idolatrous worships I conceive that the Jews long ago borrowed that unwarrantable custom of worshipping God in Groves or under green Trees Both men and women before they go to their devotions which are very frequently performed wash their bodies and keep off all their cloaths but the covering of modesty till they have done led hereunto by a Precept as they say commanded them to be perform'd by their Law-giver â—remaw which requires them daily to observe their times of devotion expressed by their washings and worshippings and prayer to God which must be all done with purity of hearts And it is the manner of this people before they take their food to wash their bodies then which I much observed while we lived in Tents they make a little Circle upon the ground which they seem to consecrate after which they sit down within that compass and eat what they have provided and if any come within that Circle before they have ended their meal they presently quit the place and leave their food behind them That outward washing as this people think avails very much to their cleansing from sin not unlike the Pharisees who were all for the out-side of Religion and would not eat with unwashen hands Mark 7. 2. unless they washed themselves up to the Elbows as Theophylact observes hence those Hindoos ascribe a certain divinity unto Rivers but above all to that famous River Ganges whither they flock daily in troops that there they may wash themselves and the nearer they can come to the head of that River the more virtue they believe is in the water After they have thus washed they throw pieces of Gold or Silver according to their devotion and ability into that River and so depart from it Thus Reader thou hast somewhat of the carriages of this people in life Now after death some of them talk of Elyzian fields such as the Poets dream'd of to which their souls must pass over at Styx or Acheron and there take new bodies Others of them think that ere long the World will have an end after which they shall live here again on a new earth Some other wild conceivings of this people follow afterward Some Bramins have told me that they acknowledge one God whom they describe with a thousand eyes with a thousand hands and as many feet that thereby they may express his power as being all eye to see and all foot to follow and all hand to smite offenders The consideration whereof makes that people very exact in the performances of all moral duties following close to the light of Nature in their dealings with men most carefully observing that Royal Law in doing nothing to others but what they would be well contented to suffer from others Those Bramins talk of two books which not long after the Creation when the World began to be peopled they say were delivered by Almighty God to Bramon before spoken of one of which Books they say containing very high and secret and mysterious things was sealed up and might not be opened the other to be read but only by the Bramins or Priests And this Book thus to be read came after as they further say into the hands of Bremaw of whom likewise somthing before and by him it was communicated unto Ram and Permissar two other fam'd Prophets amongst them which those Heathens do likewise exceedingly magnifie as they do some others whose names I have not Now that Book which they call the Shester or the Book of their written word hath been transcribed in all ages ever since by the Bramins out of which they deliver Precepts unto the people They say that there are seven Orbs above which is the seat of God and that God knows not small and petty things or if he do regards them not They further believe that there are Devils but so fettered and bound in chains as that they cannot hurt them I observed before the tenderness and scruple which is in very many of that people in taking the lives of any inferiour and meerly sensible yea and of hurtful creatures too And those which are most tender-hearted in this case are called Banians who are by far more numerous than any other of those Indian Sects and these hold Pythagoras his Metempsychosis as a prime Article of their Faith Which that untaught people come up very
near unto thinking that all the souls both of men and women after they leave their bodies make their repose in other Creatures and those Souls as they imagine are best lodged that go into Kine which in their opinion are the best of all sensible creatures and therefore as before they give yearly large sums of money unto the Mogol to redeem them from slaughter And this people further conceit that the Souls of the wicked go into vile Creatures as the Souls of Gluttons and Drunkards into Swine So the Souls of the Voluptuous and incontinent into Monkies and Apes Thus the Souls of the Furious Revengeful Cruel People into Lions Wolves Tygres other beasts of prey So the Souls of the Envious into Serpents and so into other Creatures according to peoples qualities and dispositions while they lived successively from one to another of the same kind ad infinitum for ever and ever by consequence they believing the immortality of the World And upon that same mad and groundless phansie probably they further believe that the Souls of Froward Peevish and Teachy Women go into Wasps and that there is never a silly Fly but if they may be credited carries about it some Souls haply they think of light Women and will not be perswaded out of their wild conceivings so incorrigible are their sottish errours The day of rest which those Hindoos observe as a Sabbath is Thursday as the Mahometans Friday Many Festivals they have which they keep solemnly and Pilgrimages the most famous briefly spoken of before in those short descriptions of Nagraiot and Syba observed in my first Section Now there are a race of other Heathens I named before living amongst those Hindoos which in many things differ very much from them they are called Persees who as they say originally cameout of Persia about that time Mahomet and his followers gave Laws to the Persians and imposed a new Religion on them which these Persees not enduring left their Country and came and setled themselves in East-India in the Province of Guzarat where the most part of them still continue though there are some of them likewise in other parts of India but where-ever they live they confine themselves strictly to their own Tribe or Sect. For their Habits they are clad like the other people of that Empire but they shave not their hair close as the other do but suffer their beards to grow long Their profession is for the generality all kinds of Husbandry imploying themselves very much in Sowing and Setting of Herbs in Planting and Dressing of Vines and Palmeeto or Toddy-Trees as in Planting and Husbanding all other Trees bearing fruit and indeed they are a very industrious people and so are very many of the Hindoos as before I observed and they do all very well in doing so and in this a due and deserved commendation belongs unto them For There is no condition whatsoever can priviledge a folded arm Our first Parents before their fall were put into the Garden of Edemto dress it Certainly if idleness had been better than labour they had never been commanded to do work but they must labour in their estate of innocency because they were happy and much more we in our sinful lost estate that we may be so It was a law given before the Law that man should eat brâ—ad by the sweat of his brows and it is a Gospel-precept too that he who will not work should note The sluggard desireth and hath nothing saith Solomon because he doth nothing but desire and therefore his desires do him no good because his hands refuse to labour That body therefore well deserves to pine and starve without pity when two able Hands cannot feed one Mouth But further for those Persees they use their liberty in meats and drinks to take of them what they please but because they would not give offence either to the Mahometans or Banians or other Hindoos amongst whom they live they abstain from eating Beef or Swines flesh It is their usual manner to eat alone as for every one of them to drink in his own Cup and this is a means as they think to keep themselves more pure for if they should eat with others they are afraid that they might participate of some uncleanness by them Alas poor Creatures that do not at all understand themselves and their most miserable condition for to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure Yet I observed before the Mahometans and Gentiles there are very strict in this particular so that they will not eat with any mixt company and many of the Gentiles not eat with one another And this hath been an ancient custom among Heathens It is said Gen. 43. 32. that the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that was an abomination to the Egyptians For those Persees further they believe that there is but one God who made all things and hath a Soveraign power over all They talk much of Lucifer and of other evil spirits but they say that those and all Devils besides are kept so under and in aw by two good Angels that have power over them as that they cannot hurt or do the least mischief without their leave and license As many of the Hindoos ascribe to much unto water as before so these to fire and the reason of it is this because they have had this tradition from many ages and generations past that their great Law-giver whom they call Zertoost was rapt up into Heaven and there had fire delivered unto him which he brought down thence and he ever after commanded his followers to worship it and so they do and further they love any thing that resembles fire as the Sun and Moon and therefore when they pray in the day time they look towards the Sun and so towards the Moon in their night-devotions and from that so over-high esteem they have of fire they keep fires continually burning in their Eggarees or Temples in Lamps fed with Oyl which are always attended by their Priests and they talk of many of these which have burned without extinginshment from many foregoing generations And by the way that wild and mad phansie of theirs that their Zertoost did fetch fire from Heaven is as certainly true as that ancient Fiction and Fable of Prometheus that he did steal fire thence But to proceed their Priests they call Daroos or Harboods above both which they have a Chief or High-Priest they call the Destoor who not often appears openly but when he doth he meets with much Reverence and Respect given unto him by the common people and so do those other Church-men which are his inferiours unto all which they allow free maintenance for their more comfortable subsistance Those Church-men by their Law are commanded to dwell near and to abide much in their Eggarees or Temples to give advice or direction to any that shall repair unto them for it They observe divers Feasts and immediately
Customs and Rites of the Indians he calls them even at that time Ancient things And though Pythagoras and the Consulship of Brutus may precede not onely Eumenes who was one of Alexander the Great 's successors but Alexander himself by about two ages according to the Chronology of Bellarmine which to me seems good enough yet the space of two hundred years or somewhat more is not such as that those things may be call'd Ancient which had their beginning within so short a term as it should be infallibly if Pythagoras whom they take to be their Brachma were the first Author to the Indians of their Learning and consequently of their Rites Customs and Laws But since I have already made frequent mention of the Brachmans and perhaps shall have occasion to do the same hereafter to the end it may be understood what they are I shall here subjoyn so much as I have hitherto 〈…〉 ain'd to know concerning them and all the other Indians The whole Gentile-people of India is divided into many sects or parties of men known and distinguisht by descent or pedigree as the Tribes of the Jews sometimes were yet they inhabit the Country promiscuously mingled together in every City and Land several Races one with another 'T is reckon'd that they are in all eighty four some say more making a more exact and subtle division Every of these hath a particular name and also a special office and imployment in the Common-wealth from which none of the descendents of that Race ever swerve they never rise nor fall nor change condition Whence some are Husbandmen others Mechanick as Taylers Shoemakers and the like others Factors or Merchants such as they whom we call Banians but they in their Language more correctly Vanià Others Souldiers as the Ragia-puti And thus every one attends and is employ'd in the proper Trade of his Family without any mutation ever hapning amongst them or Alliance of one Race contracted with another Diodorus and Strabo almost with the same words as if the one had transscrib'd the other affirm that anciently the Races of the Indians were seven each addicted to their proper profession and for the first of all they place that of the Philosophers who no doubt are the Brachmans Into seven kinds of men with their particular and by Generation perpetuated Offices Herodotus in like manner writes and Diodorus confirms it though he disagrees in the number the people of Aegypt was divided in those days whereby 't is manifest what correspondence there was between Aegypt and India in all things Nor do I wonder at the division into seven Races onely because what is observ'd at this day must then also have hapned namely that the so many Races which they reckon are reduc'd to four principal which if I mistake not are the Brachmans the Souldiers the Merchants and the Artificers from whom by more minute subdivision all the rest are deriv'd in such number as in the whole people there are various professions of men In the substantial points of Religion all agree together all believe the Transmigration of Souls which according to their merits and demerits they think are sent by God into other bodies either of Animals more or less clean and of more or less painful life or else of men more or less noble and handsome and more or less pure of Race wherein they place not a little of their vain superstition accounting all other Nations and Religions besides themselves unclean and some more then others according as they more or less differ from their Customs All equally believe that there is a Paradice in Heaven with God but that thereinto go onely the Souls of their own Nation more pure and without any sin who have liv'd piously in this world Or in case they have sin'd that after divers Transmigrations into various bodies of Animals and Men having by often returning into the world undergone many pains they are at length purg'd and at last dye in the body of some man of Indian and noble Race as the Brachmans who amongst them are held the noblest and purest because their employment is nothing else but the Divine Worship the service of Temples and Learning and they observe their own Religion with more rigor then any others 'T is true the Brachmans who amongst the Indians in my opinion much resemble the Levites of the Jews are divided too into several sorts one more noble then another and according to nobility more rigorous also in matter of eating and in their other superstitious Ceremonies for some of them are Astrologers some Physitians some Secretaries of Princes and so of other sorts of Scholars which I know not well but the most esteem'd and most sublime amongst the Brachmans and consequently the most rigorous of all in point of eating and other observances are those who perform the Office of Priests whom they call Boti Ordinarily they never admit into their Sect any man of another Religion nor do they think that they do ill herein or contrary to the zeal of saving Souls since believing the Transmigration they conceive it not necessary to salvation to change Religion although one be of a false Sect but judg that if this Soul shall be worthy to have pardon from God it shall after death and after being purg'd sundry ways pass into and be born in the body of some Indian amongst them and live excellently and so by this way at last arrive at Paradice and live with God although in the beginning it was in the world in the body of the worst sinner and miscreant whatever With people of other Religion they never eat nor will have any communication of food and as much as possible they avoid even to touch them conceiving themselves polluted by communicating with others And herein they are so scrupulous that even amongst the Indians themselves one of more noble Race not only neither eats nor makes use of the same clothes or vessels nor communicates in any thing with one less noble but also endures not to be touch'd by him which if it fall out by chance that he be he must purifie himself from the defilement by washings and other arrogant Ceremonies And hence 't is a prety sight to behold the great respect which upon this account the ignoble bear to the more noble then themselves and how upon meeting in the street the ignoble not onely give place but dance wildly up and down for fear of rushing against the noble and polluting them in any measure which if they should not do the Noble and especially the Souldiers would make them do it to the Musick of blows From this averseness to communicate one with another particularly in the use of eating and drinking-vessels concerning which they are most strict is sprung a strange Custom which I was delighted not onely to see but also sometimes out of gallantry to imitate in conversation It happens very often during hot weather both in Travelling and
modesty easily happen And I would to God that in our Countries in sundry cases as of marrying or not and the like matters we had not frequent examples which Women not seldom give of great resolutions not forc'd in appearance but indeed too much forc'd in reality for avoiding displeasure and other inconveniencies In the Territories of Christians where the Portugals are Masters Women are not suffer'd to be burnt nor is any other exercise of their Religion permitted them Moreover the Indian-Gentiles believe that there is a Devil in the world almost of the same conditions wherewith we conceive him but they think too that many wretched Souls unworthy ever to have pardon from God as the last of the great punishments which they deserve become Devils also than which they judge there cannot be a greater misery The greatest sin in the world they account shedding of blood especially that of men and then above all the eating of humane flesh as some barbarous Nations do who are therefore detested by them more then all others Hence the strictest amongst them as the Brachmans and particularly the Boti not onely kill not but eat not any living thing and even from herbs tinctur'd with any reddish colour representing blood they wholly abstain Others of a larger conscience eat onely fish Others the most ignoble and largest of all though they kill not nevertheless they eat all sort of Animals good for food except Cows to kill and eat which all in general abhor saying that the Cow is their Mother for the Milke she gives and the Oxen she breeds which plough the Earth and do a thousand other services especially in India where through the paucity of other Animals they make use of these more then any for all occasions So that they think they have reason to say That Cows are the prop of the world which perhaps would signifie by that Fable common also to the Mahometans and by me formerly mention'd That the world is supported upon the Horns of the Cow Moreover they have these creatures in great Veneration for Cows being kept well in India and living with little pains and much ease therefore they believe that the best Souls to whom God is pleased to give little pain in this world pass into them All the Indians use many washings and some never eat without first washing the whole body Others will not be seen to eat by any one and the place where they eat they first sweep wash and scoure with water and Cow-dung Which besides cleanliness is to them a Ceremonial Right which they think hath the virtue to purifie But having observ'd it too in the houses of Christians I find that indeed it cleanses exquisitly and makes the floores and pavements of houses handsome smooth and bright And if the Cows and Bulls whose dung they use eat grass it gives a prety green to the pavement if straw a yellowish But for the most part the floores are red as those of Venice are and I know not with what they give them that colour But these and other Ceremonies which I have not seen my self and know onely by Relation I willingly pass over I shall conclude therefore with saying that by the things hitherto mention'd it appears that in the substance of Religion and what is most important all the Races of the Indians agree together and differ onely perhaps through the necessity which is caus'd by the diversity of humane conditions in certain Rites and Ceremonies particularly of eating more or less indistinctly Wherein the Ragia puti Souldiers with the wonted military licentiousness take most liberty without thinking themselves prejudic'd as to the degree of Nobility Next to them the meanest and most laborious professions are more licentious in eating then others because they need more sustinenance some of which drink Wine too from which the others more strict abstain to avoid ebriety and so from all other beverage that inebriates But those of other Races whose employments admit more rest and a better life are also more sparing and rigorous in the use of meats especially the Brachmans as I said dedicated wholly to Learning and the Service of Temples and the most noble of all In testimony whereof they alone have the priviledge to wear a certain Ensign of Nobility in their Sect whereby they are distinguisht from others 't is a fillet of three braids which they put next the flesh like a Neck-chain passing from the left shoulder under the right arm and so round This fillet hath a mystery and is given to all persons of that Race and to a few of one other for a great favour with many superstitious Ceremonies of which I forbear to speak because I have not yet any good information thereof There was a long dispute in India between the Jesuits and other Fathers whether this fillet which the Portugals call Linha was a badge of Religion or onely an Ensign of piety and whether it was not to be permitted or not to Indian Converts who were very loth to lay it aside Much hath been said and with great contest by both parties and at length the cause is carried to Rome and I was inform'd of it two or three years ago in Persia. For I remember Sig Matteo Galvano Gudigno a Canon and Kinsman to the then Archbishop of Goa pass'd by Sphahà n and continu'd there many days being sent by the same Archbishop who favour'd the side contrary to the Jesuits purposely to Rome with many writings touching this affair which he out of courtesie communicated to me I know not whether the final determination of it be yet come from Rome some say it is and in favour of the Jesuits But at Goa we shall know these things better The truth is the Jesuits prove on one side that the honour of wearing this Ribban is frequently granted not onely to the Indians but also to strangers of different Nation and Sect as to Mahometans who by condescension of that King who among the Indians hath authority to do it as Head of their Sect in spirituals have in recompence of great and honourable services enjoy'd this priviledge without becoming Gentiles or changing their Religion but still persisting to live Mahometans which indeed is a strong Argument On the other side they prove that many Brachmans and others of the Race priviledg'd to wear it intending to lead a stricter life and abandon the world by living almost like Hermits amongst other things in humility lay aside this Ribban being a token of Nobility which 't is not likely they would do if it were a Cognizance of Religion yea they would wear it the more But this second Argument seems not to me so cogent because amongst us Christians if a Knight of the order of Calatrava or the like which are Ensignes of Nobility in order to a more holy life enter into some Religion either of Fryers Monks or other Regulars 't is clear that taking the Religious Habit he layes aside the body of his
first we pass'd by a ruinous Castle call'd Hheir which I had formerly seen only by night when I went from Aleppo to Baghdad I took a better view of it now and found it to be a great Building all of good and large white Marble Stones the form of it is a long Square with walls round about here and there distinguish'd with small round Turrets within are many contrivances of Rooms all likewise of white stone but so ruinous that it cannot be known what they were From hence we travell'd about three hours further and at night arriv'd at Taiba a Town which I had formerly seen and lodg'd in a by-place amongst the walls of the Houses near the Gate Iuly the twenty second This day was spent in paying the usual Gabels which every day are enhaunc'd in these Countries and are now become insupportable Though I had nothing of Merchandise but only goods for my own use yet I could not come off under twenty Piastres between Gabels and Donatives to the Officers which they demanded as equally due Here I found an Arabian nam'd Berekiet who spoke a little Italian and pass'd for Factor or Procurator of the Franks saying he had authority so to be from the Consuls of Aleppo He presently offer'd himself to speak to the Officers in our behalf gave us an Entertainment and invited us to lodg in his House and if we had been so minded would have conducted us thither but his services tended only to get some money of us and by his speaking with the Officers to make us pay more then perhaps we should otherwise have done Iuly the twenty third Two hours after Sun-rise we departed from Taiba whence the said Officer sent an Arabian with us to conduct us first to Emir Mudleg who they said was at Hhamah between Aleppo and Damascus and afterwards to Aleppo they having done the same to the great Cafila of Bassora which had pass'd by Taiba a little before us This going to the Emir was a troublesom thing both in regard of the great diversion out of the way and the inconveniences we imagin'd the Emir himself would put us to after all the Tyrannies we had hitherto met with in the Desart We travell'd till past Noon and after a short rest till Sun-set having a continu'd ridg of little Hills always on the left hand Iuly the twenty fourth We travell'd again from day-light till past Noon and two hours more in the Evening taking up our Quarters an hour before Sun-set Iuly twenty fifth We set forth an hour before Sun-rise travelling till Noon when the Arabian assign'd to us by the Officers of Taiba to conduct us to the Emir being so perswaded as I believe by the Cameliers who alledg'd that the Camels were very weary as indeed they were and ovet-laden in regard that many of them dy'd by the way so that they could travel but gently resolv'd to go alone before us by a neerer way over the mountains and leave us to follow him leisurely as the Cameliers said they would I was glad of his going and intended to take a different course from what the Cameliers imagin'd but because it was not yet seasonable I held my peace After two hours rest we travell'd till an hour before night when we took up our Station neer certain Pits a little distant from the reliques of certain ancient Fabricks call'd Siria by me formerly seen and describ'd in my journey to Baghdad Iuly the twenty sixth Setting forth by day-light we came to rest after Noon near a water which springs up in a place full of small Canes whence we remov'd not this night partly that ourt ir'd and over-laden Camels might recover themselves a little and partly because the Cameliers were minded to eat a Camel there conveniently which falling lame of one leg they knockt on the head in the morning and indeed they had eaten all the others which fail'd by the way either through Disease or otherwise Of this which was not infirm I was willing to take a trial and lik'd the roasted flesh well enough only it was something hard Iuly the twenty seventh Setting forth early we wav'd the directest way to Aleppo which was by the Town of Achila and took another more Southwards and to the left hand which led to the place where the Emir resided intending to leave the Camelier at a certain Town upon the way from whence he was to go alone to the Emir to carry him a Present and excuse our going to him by alledging the death and weariness of our Camels Hereby we endeavour'd to avoid if possible the troubles and disgusts which we were likely to meet with from the Emir and his Arabians in case we should have gone to him our selves At Noon we came to the design'd Village call'd Haila they account it a Mezar that is a place to be visited and of devotion in regard of some perfons buried there whom the Mahometans hold for Saints yet it consisted only of four poor Cottages and those un-inhabited and abandoned as is credible by reason of the Tyrannies which the Arabians of the Desart especially the Soldiers exercis'd in these troublesom times upon the poor Peasants The Camelier because he could not leave us here by reason the Village was without people purposed to carry us to the Emir doubting lest if he did otherwise it might turn to his prejudice Whereupon considering what disgusts and perhaps dangers too I might meet with there both by reason of the women whom I carri'd with me and of whom the Mahometans use to be very greedy and also by reason of the body of Sitti Maani and upon other accounts I set my foot against the wall and resolutely told the Camelier that I would by no means go to Emir Mudleg with whom I had nothing to do now I had pay'd all his Gabels I would go directly to Aleppo whither if he would not carry me with his Camels I would go on foot with my people leaving all my Goods there on the ground to his care of which if any were lost he should be responsible to me for the same at Aleppo And indeed had the Camelier been obstinate I was resolv'd to do as I said having little heart to trust to the mischievousness of the Emir which was very infamous or to expose to so great danger not onely the few goods I had but also the body of Sitti Maani our lives and the Women's both Liberty and Souls which was a great consideration and little caring to present to the Emir the Letter which I had for him from the Basha of Bassora in my recommendation because I had found by experience what little good the two former did me which I had presented to Sceich Abdullah at Cuvebeda and to Sceich Abitaleb the Son of Nasir in the Desart The chief Camelier try'd a good while to prevail with me to go with him to the Emir but at length seeing me obstinate and some other Cameliers of his companions
these quelque chose was that entertainment made up And it was better a great deal than if it had consisted of full and heaped up dishes such as are sometimes amongst us provided for great and profuse entertainments Our Bread was of very good and excellent Wheat made up very white and light in round Cakes and for our Drink some of it was brew'd for ought I know ever since Noah his Flood that good innocent water being all the Drink there commonly used as before and in those hot Climates it being better digested there than in any other parts it is very sweet and allayes thirst better than any other Liquor can and therefore better pleaseth and agreeth better with every Man that comes and lives there than any other Drink At this entertainment we sat long and much longer than we could with ease cross-leg'd but all considered our Feast in that place was better than Apicius that famous Epicure of Rome with all his witty Gluttony for so Paterculus calls it ingeniosa Gula could have made with all provisions had from the Earth and Air and Sea My Lord Ambassadour observed not that uneasie way of sitting at his meat but as in his own House had Tables and Chairs c. Served he was altogether in Plate and had an English and Indian Cook to dress his dyet which was very plentiful and cheap likewise so that by reason of the great variety of provisions there his weekly account for his House-keeping came but to little The meaner sort of people there eat Rice boyled with their green-Ginger and a little Pepper after which they put Butter into it which is their principal dish and but seldom eaten by them But their ordinary Food is made not of the flowr of Wheat but of a coarse well tasted Grain made up in round broad and thick Cakes which they bake upon their thin iron plates before spoken of which they carry with them when as they travel from place to place when they have bak'd those Cakes they put a little Butter on them And doubtless the poor people find this a very hearty Food for they who live most upon it are as strong as they could be if they had their diet out of the King's Kitchin I shall here say no more of this but proceed to speak SECTION XI Of the Civilities of this People Of their Complements and of their Habits ANd here the People in general as before was observed are as civil to Strangers as to their own Country-men for they use when they meet one another or when they meet strangers to bow their Heads or to lay their right Hands on their Breasts and to bow their Bodies as they pass saluting them further with many well-wishes They use not to uncover their Heads at all as we do in our Salutes from which custom of ours the Turks borrow this imprecation for their Enemies wishing their Souls no more rest after death than a Christians hat hath which is alwayes stirred but the meaner sort instead of uncovering their Heads to their Superiours use these abject Ceremonies by putting their right Hand to the Earth and then laying it on their Heads or by falling down on their Knees and then bowing their Heads to the Earth both signifying that those unto whom they shew these reverences and respects may tread ortrample on them if they pleased When we visit the people there of better quality they entertain us with much humanity first rising up to us they bow their Bodies and then entreat us to sit with them on their Carpets where they are free in their discourse which we usually exchange with them by an Interpreter If we have any business with them they return very civil and fair Answers and for our further entertainment give us Beetle or Paune to chew before spoken of In their near and more close and hearty Salutes they do not joyn Hands as we but do that which is hateful to the Spaniard and not at all in use with us for they take one another by the Chin or Beard and cry Bobba which is Father or Bij which is Brother And this appears to be a very ancient Complement for thus Ioab long ago saluted Amasa 2 Sam. 20. 9. But this they do in love not as Ioab did there in Treachery In their Complements they express many good wishes to one another as Salam Allacum God give you health the reply Allacum Salam The same health God give you And Greb-a Nemoas I wish you the prayers of the poor And Tere gree gree kee Bulla doore which made-English speaks thus I wish one good to come unto you after another every Gra which is a space of time a little more than a quarter of an hour and they have many more Complements like these handsome and significant As inferiour people who have their dependance on others use to say unto them I eat your Bread and Salt as much to say I am your Servant I live by you and you may do with me or to me what you please Now as this People of East-India are civil in their speeches so are they civilly clad for there are none who wear their own skin alone for their covering as very many in the western India do For the Habits of this People from the highest to the lowest they are all made of the same fashion which they never alter nor change their Coats sitting close to their Bodies unto their Wastes then hanging down loose a little below their Knees the lower part of them sitting some-what full those close Coats are fastned unto both their Shoulders with slips made of the same Cloth which for the generality are all made of coarser or finer white Callico and in like manner are they fastned to their Waste on both sides thereof which Coats coming double over their Breasts are fastned by like slips of Cloth that are put thick from their left Arm-holes to their middle The sleeves of those Coats are made long and some-what close to their Arms that they may ruffle especially from their Elbows to their Wrists Under this Coat they usually wear another sleight one made of the same Cloth but shorter than the other and this is all they commonly wear upon the upper part of their bodies But some of the greater sort in the cooler seasons of the day there will slip on loose Coats over the other made either of quilted Silk or Callico or of our English Scarlet-broad-cloth for that is the colour they most love Under their Coats they have long Breeches like unto Irish-trouses made usually of the same cloth which come to their Anckles and ruffle on the small of their legs For their feet they keep them as was before observed always bare in their shooes Some of their Grandees makes their Coats and Breeches of striped Taffata of several colours or of some other silk stuff all of the same colour or of slight cloth of Silver or Gold all made in that Country But
please so to do may take to themselves each four Wives and that filthy liberty given unto them by their fleshly Mahomet allows them in it I have heard of some in this Nation of late times who have been married here to more than so many at once but that wickedness here is not as amongst them committed by a Law but by Law made Capital and so punished The eldest Son they have by any of their married Wives hath a prerogative above all the rest whom their other Children call Budda by their great Brother And so much of their Marriages of their Children and of their Births In the next place I shall speak SECTION XVIII Of their Burials of their mourning for their Dead and of their stately Sopulohres and Monuments FOr the Mahometans it is their manner to wash the Bodies of their Dead before they interr them An ancient custom as it should seem among the Iews for it is said of Dorcas that after she was dead they washed her Body as a preparative to her Burial They lay up none of the Bodies of their Dead in their Misquiâ—s or Churches as before but in some open place in a Grave which they dig very deep and wide a Jewish custom likewise to carry the Bodies of their Dead to bury them out of their Cities and Towns Their mourning over their Dead is most immoderate for be-besides that day of general lamentation at the end of their Ram-jan or Lent before-mentioned they houl and cry many whole days for their friends departed immediately after they have left the world and after that time is passed over many foolish women so long as they survive very often in the year observe set days to renew their mourning for their deceased friends and as a people without hope bedew the graves of their husbands as of other their near relations with abundance of seemingly affectionate tears as if they were like those mourning women mentioned Ier. 9. 17. who seemed to have tears at command and therefore were hired to mourn and weep in their solemn lamentations And when they thus lament over their dead they will often put this question to their deaf and dead Carkasses Why they would die they having such loving wives such loving friends and many other comforts as if it had been in their power to have rescued themselves from that most impartial wounding hand of death Which carriage of theirs deserves nothing but censure and pity though if it be not Theatrical we may much wonder at it and say of it as it was said of the mourning in the floor of Atad Gen. 50. 11. That it is a grievous mourning or as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. 11. if we take those lamentations only in a literal sence But now further concerning their places of Burial many Mahometans of the greatest quality in their life-time provide fair Sepulchres for themselves and nearests friends compassing with a firm wall a good circuit of ground near some Tank before spoken of about which they delight to bury their dead or else they close in a place for this use near springs of water that may make pleasant fountains near which they erect little Mosquits or Churches and near them Tombs built round or four-square or in six or eight squares with round Vaults or Canopies of stone over-head all which are excellently well wrought and erected upon Pillars or else made close to be entered by doors every way under which the bodies of their dead lye interred The rest of that ground thus circled in they plant with Fruit-trees and further set therein all their choicest flowers as if they would make Elysian fields such as the Poets dream'd of wherein their souls might take repose There are many goodly Monuments which are richly adorned built as before was observed to the memory of such as they have esteemed Paeres or Saints of whom they have a large Kalender in which are Lamps continually burning attended by votaries unto whom they allow Pensions for the maintaining of those lights and many transported there with wild devotion daily resort to those Monuments there to contemplate the happiness those Paeres as they imagine now enjoy And certainly of all the places that Empire affords there are none that minister more delight than some of their Burying places do neither do they bestow so much cost nor shew so much skill in Architecture in any other Structures as in these Now amongst many very fair Piles there dedicated to the remembrance of their dead the most famous one is at Secandra a Village three miles from Agra it was begun by Achabar-sha the late Mogols Father who there lies buried and finished by his Son who since was laid up beside him The materials of that most stately Sepulchre are Marble of divers colours the stones so closely cemented together that it appears to be but one continued stone built high like a Pyramis with many curiosities about it and a fair Mosquit by it the Garden wherein it stands very large planted as before and compassed about with a wall of Marble this most sumptuous Pile of all the Structures that vast Monarchy affords is most admired by strangers Tom Coryat had a most exact view thereof and so have many other English-men had all which have spoken very great things of it And now Reader I have done with this and shall proceed to speak more particularly SECTION XIX Of the Hindoo's or Heathens which inhabite that Empire c. AND for these the first thing I shall take notice of is that they agree with others in the world about the first Roots of Mankind Adam and Eve and the first of them they call Babba Adam or Adamah Father Adam and the second Mamma Havah Mother Eve And from Adam they call a man Adami For Adam they further say that when his wife was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit she took it and chaw'd it and then swallowed it down but when her husband was swallowing it the hand of God stop'd it in his Throat and from hence they say that every man hath there an hollow bunch which women have not The names they give to distinguish one man from another are many and amongst them these following are very common As Iuddo or Midas or Cooregee or Hergee and the like Casturia and Prescotta are Womens names amongst them but whether these as those names they call their men or women by are names of signification or only of sound I know not Those Hindoo's are a very laborious and an industrious people these are they which Till and Plant the Ground and breed the Cattle these are they which make and sell those curious Manufactures or the Cloath and Stuff which this Empire affords This people marry into and consequently still keep in their own Tribes Sects Occupations and Professions For instance all Bramins which are their Priests the Sons of all which are Priests likewise are married to Bramins daughters so
be made sensible of that their basest bondage But to return again to the place from whence I have made some excursion When I was in India there was one sentenced by the Mogol himself for killing his own father to dye thus first he commanded that this Parricide should be bound alive by his heels fastned to a small iron chain which was tied to the hind-leg of a great Elephant and then that this Elephant should drag him after him one whole remove of that King from one place to another which was about ten miles distant that so all his flesh might be worn off his bones and so it was when we saw him in the way following that King in his Progress for he appeared then to us a Skeleton rather than a body There was another condemned to dye by the Mogol himself while we were at Amadavar for killing his own Mother and at this the King was much troubled to think of a death suitable for so horrid a crime but upon a little pause he adjudged him to be stung to death by Snakes which was accordingly done I told you before that there are some Mountebanks there which keep great Snakes to shew tricks with them one of those fellows was presently called for to bring his Snakes to do that execution who came to the place where that wretched Creature was appointed to dye and found him there all naked except a little covering before and trembling Then suddenly the Mountebank having first angred and provoked the venemous creatures put one of them to his Thigh which presently twin'd it self about that part till it came near his Groin and there bit him till blood followed the other was fastned to the out-side of his other Thigh twining about it for those Snakes thus kept are long and slender and there bit him likewise notwithstanding the wretch kept upon his feet near a quarter of an hour before which time the Snakes were taken from him But he complained exceedingly of a fire that with much torment had possessed all his Limbs and his whole body began to swell exceedingly like Nasidius bit by a Lybian Serpent called a Prester Now much after this manner did the stinging of those Snakes work upon that wretch and about half an hour after they were taken from him the soul of that unnatural monster left his groaning Carkass and so went to its place And certainly both those I last named so sentenced and so executed most justly deserved to be handled with all severity for taking away the lives of those from whom they had receiv'd their own Some of our family did behold the execution done upon the later who related all the passages of it and for my part I might have seen it too but that I had rather go a great way not to see then one step to behold such a sight After the example of that King his Governours deputed and set over Provinces and Cities proceed in the course of Justice to impose what punishment and death they please upon all offendors and malefactors That King never suffers any of his Vicegerents to tarry long in one place of Government but removes them usually after they have exercised that Power which was given unto them in place for one year unto some other place of Government remote from the former wherein they exercise their power and this that King doth that those which be his Substitutes may not in any place grow popular I told you before that this people are very neat shaving themselves so often as that they feel the Rasor almost every day but when that King sends any of them unto any place of Government or upon any other imployment they cut not their hair at all till they return again into his presence as if they desired not to appear beautiful or to give themselves any content in this while they live out of the Kings sight and therefore the King as soon as he sees them bids them cut their hair When the Mogol by Letters sends his Commands to any of his Governours those Papers are entertain'd with as much respect as if himself were present for the Governour having intelligence that such Letters are come near him himself with other inferiour Officers ride forth to meet the Patamar or Messenger that brings them and as soon as he sees those Letters he alights from his horse falls down on the earth and then takes them from the Messenger and lays them on his head whereon he binds them fast and then returning to his place of publick meeting for dispatch of businesses he reads them and answers their contents with all care and diligence The King oft times in his own person and so his Substitutes appointed Governours for Provinces and Cities Judge in all matters Criminal that concern Life and Death There are other Officers to assist them which are called Cut-walls whose Office is like that of our Sheriffs in England and these have many substitutes under them whose business it is to apprehend and to bring before these Judges such as are to be tried for things Criminal or Capital where the offender as before knows presently what will become of him And those Officers wait likewise on other Judges there which are called Cadees who only meddle with Contracts and Debts and other businesses of this nature 'twixt man and man Now these Officers arrest Debtors and bring them before those Judges and their Sureties too bound as with us in Contracts confirmed as before under their hands and seals and if they give not content unto those which complain of them they will imprison their persons where they shall find and feel the weight of fetters nay many times they will sell their Persons their Wives and Children into bondage when they cannot satisfie their debts And the custom of that Country bears with such hard and pitiless courses such as was complain'd of by the poor Widow unto the Prophet Elisha who when her husband was dead and she not able to pay the Creditor came and took her two sons to be bond-men 2 Kings 4. 1. The Mogol looked to be presented with some thing or other when my Lord Embassadour came to him and if he saw him often empty handed he was not welcome and therefore the East-India Company were wont every year to send many particular things unto him in the name of the King of England that were given him at several times especially then when the Embassadour had any request unto him which made a very fair way unto it Amongst many other things when my Lord Embassadour first went thither the Company sent the Mogol an English Coach and Harness for four Horses and an able Coach-man to sute and manage some of his excellent Horses that they might be made fit for that service The Coach they sent was lined within with Crimson China Velvet which when the Mogol took notice of he told the Embassadour that he wondred the King of England would trouble himself so
a Merchants son marries a Merchants daughter and so men of several Trades marry to the same Trade Thus a Coolee who is a Tiller of the Ground marries his son to a Coolees daughter and so in all other professions they keep themselves to their own Tribes and Trades not mixing with any other by which means they never advance themselves higher than they were at first They take but one wife and of her they are not so fearful and jealous as the Mahometans are of their several wives and women for they suffer their wives to go abroad whither they please They are married very young about six or seven years old their Parents making Matches for them who lay hold of every opportunity to bestow their Children Because confin'd to their own Tribes they have not such variety of choice as otherwise they might have and when they attain to the age of thirteen or fourteen or fifteen years at the most they bed together Their Marriages are solemnized as those of the Mahometans with much company and noise but with this difference that both the young couple ride openly on horse-back and for the most part they are so little that some go on their horse sides to hold them up from falling They are bedeck'd or strewed all over their cloathing with the choice flowers of that Country fastned in order all about their Garments For their Habits they differ very little from the Mahometans but are very like them civilly clad but many of their women were Rings on their Toes and therefore go bare foot They wear likewise broad Rings of Brass or better metal upon their Wrists and small of their Legs to take off and on They have generally I mean the Women the flaps or tips of their ears boared when they are young which holes daily extended and made wider by things put and kept in them for that purpose at last become so large as that they will hold Rings hollowed on the out-side like Pullies for their flesh to rest in that are as broad in their circumference some of them I dare say as little Sawcers But though those fashions of theirs seem very strange at first sight yet they keep so constantly to them as to all their other habits without any alteration that their general and continual wearing of them makes them to seem less strange unto others which behold them And for their Diet very many of them as the Banians in general which are a very strict Sect will eat of nothing that hath had or may have life And these live upon Herbs and Roots and Bread and Milk and Butter and Cheese and Sweet-meats of which they have many made very good by reason of their great abundance of Sugar Others amongst them will eat Fish but of no living thing else The Rashboots will eat Swines-flesh which is most hateful to the Mahometans some will eat of one kind of flesh some of another of all very sparing but all the Hindoo's in general abstain from Beef out of an high and over-excellent esteem they have of Kine and therefore give the Mogol yearly besides his other exactions great sums of money as a ransom for those Creatures whence it comes to pass that amongst other good provisions we meet there but with little Beef As the Mahometans bury so the Hindoos in general not believing the Resurrection of the Flesh burn the bodies of their dead near some Rivers if they may with convenience wherein they sow their ashes And there are another Sect or sort of Heathens living amongst them called Persees which do neither of these of whom and how they bestow the bodies of their dead you shall hear afterward The Widows of these Hindoos first mentioned such as have lived to keep company with their Husbands for as before there is usually a good space of time 'twixt their wedding and bedding The Widows I say who have their Husbands separated from them by death when they are very young marry not again but whether or no this be generally observed by them all I know not but this I am sure of that immediately after their Husbands are dead they cut their hair and spend all their life following as creatures neglected both by themselves and others whence to be free from shame some of them are ambitious to dye with honour as they esteem it when their fiery love carries them to the flames as they think of Martyrdom most willingly following the dead bodies of their Husbands unto the fire and there embracing them are burnt with them A better agreement in death than that of Eteocles and Polynices the two Theban brothers of whom it is said that they were such deadly enemies while they were alive that after when both their bodies were burnt together in the same fiery Pile the flame parted and would not mix in one of which Statius thus Nec furiis post fata modus flammaeque rebelles Seditione Rogi But those which before I named agree so well in life that they will not be divided by death where their flames unite together And although the woman who thus burns with her Husband doth this voluntarily not by any compulsion for the love of every Widow there is not thus fired and though the poor creature who thus dies may return and live if she please even then when she comes to the Pile which immediately after turns her into ashes yet she who is once thus resolved never starts back from her first firm and setled resolution but goes on singing to her death having taken some intoxicating thing to turn or disturb her brains and then come to the place where she will needs dye she settles her self presently in the middest of that combustible substance provided to dispatch her which fuel is placed in a round shallow trench about two foot deep made for that purpose near some River or other water as before and though she have no bonds but her own strong affections to tye her unto those flames yet she never offers to stir out of them And thus she being joyfully accompanied unto the place of her dying by her Parents and other friends and when all is fitted for this hellish sacrifice and the fire begins to burn all which are there present shout and make a continued noise so long as they observe her to stir that the screeches of that poor tortured creature may not be heard Not much unlike the custom of the Ammonites who when they made their children pass through the fire to Molech caused certain Tabrets or Drums to sound that their cries might not be heard whence the place was called Tophet Now after their bodies are quite consumed and lie mixed together in ashes and those ashes begin to grow cold some of them are gathered up by their nearest friends and kept by them as choice Relicks the rest are immediately sowen by the standers by upon the adjacent River or water But for those poor silly souls who sing themselves into the
extremity of misery and thus madly go out of the world through one fire into another through flames that will not last long into everlasting burnings and do it not out of necessity but choice led hereunto by their tempter and murderer and consequently become so injurious and merciless to themselves certainly they deserve much pity from others who know not how to pity themselves For nemo miserior misero non miserante seipsum There are none so cruel as those which are cruel and pitiless to themselves But though I say there are some which thus throw away their own lives yet if we consider those Hindoos in general we may further take notice SECTION XX. Of the tenderness of that people in preserving the lives of all other inferiour Creatures c. FOr they will not if they can help it by any means take but on the contrary do what they can to preserve the lives of all inferiour Creatures whence as before I told you they give large money to preserve the lives of their Kine a reason for this you shall have afterward and I have often observed that when our English boyes there have out of wantonness been killing of Flies there swarming in abundance they would be very much troubled at it and if they could not perswade them to suffer those poor Creatures to live they would give them money or something else to forbear that as they conceived Cruelty As for themselves I mean a great number of them they will not deprive the most useless and most offensive Creatures of Life not Snakes and other venomous things that may kill them saying that it is their nature to do hurt and they cannot help it but as for themselves they further say that God hath given them Reason to shun those Creatures but not liberty to destroy them And in order to this their conceit the Banians who are the most tender-hearted in this case of all that people have Spittles as they say on purpose to recover lame Birds and Beasts Some ground for this their tenderness haply proceeds from this consideration that they cannot give Life to the meanest of the sensible Creatures and therefore think that they may not take the Lives of any of them for the poorest worm which crawleth upon the face of the Earth tam Vita vivit quam Angelus as one of the Ancients speaks live for the present as much as the Angels and cannot be willing to part with that Life and therefore they imagine that it is most injurious by violence to take it But as I conceive the most principal cause why they thus forbear to take the lives of inferiour Creatures proceeds from their obedience unto a precept given them by one of their principal and most highly esteemed Prophets and Law-givers they call Bremaw others they have in very high esteem and the name of one of them is Ram of another Permissar I am ignorant of the names of others and I conceive that my Reader will not much care to know them But for him they call Bremaw they have received as they say many precepts which they are careful to observe and the first of them This Thou shalt not kill any living Creature whatsoever it be having Life in the same for thou art a Creature and so is it thou art indued with Life and so is it thou shalt not therefore spill the Life of any of thy fellow-Creatures that live Other Precepts they say were delivered unto them by their Law-giver about their devotions in their washings and worshippings where they are commanded To observe times for fasting and hours for watching that they may be the better fitted for them Other directions they have about their Festivals wherein they are required To take their Food moderately in not pampering their Bodies Concerning Charity they are further commanded To help the poor as far as they are possibly able Other Precepts they say were given them likewise in charge as Not to tell false Tales nor to utter any thing that is untrue Not to steal any thing from others be it never so little Not to defraud any by their cunning in bargains or contracts Not to oppress any when they have power to do it Now all those particulars are observed by them with much strictness and some of them are very good having the impresssion of God upon them but that scruple they make in forbearing the lives of the Creatures made for mens use shews how that they have their dwellings in the dark which makes them by reason of their blindness to deny unto themselves that liberty and Soveraignty which Almighty God hath given unto Man over the Beasts of the Field the Fowls of the Air and the Fishes of the Sea appointed for his Food given unto him for his service and sustenance to serve him and to feed him but not to make havock and spoil of them However the tenderness of that people over inferiour Creatures shall one day rise up in judgement against all those who make no scruple at all in taking the Lives not of sensible Creatures but Men not legally to satisfie good and known Laws but violently to please their cruell and barbarous Lusts. SECTION XXI Of other strange and groundless and very gross Opinions proceeding from the blackness and darkness of Ignorance in that people ALl Errour in the World proceeds either from Ignorance commonly joyned with Pride or else from Wilfulness This is most true as in natural and moral so in spiritual things For as Knowledge softens and sweetens Men's manners so it enricheth their Minds which Knowledge is certainly a most divine a very excellent thing otherwise our first Parents would never have been so ambitious of it This makes a Man here to live twice or to injoy here a double Life in respect of him that wants it But for this Knowledge it certainly must be esteemed better or worse by how much the object of this Knowledge is worse or better Now the best object of this Knowledge is a right Understanding and Knowledge of the true God which that people wants Now touching this people they are altogether ignorant of God as they ought to know him and they have no learning amongst them but as much as enables them to write and to read what they have written and they having no insight into the reasons and causes of things I mean the ruder sort both of the Mahometans and Gentiles when they observe things which are not very ordinary as when they see any Eclipses but especially of the Moon haply some of them sacrificing to her and calling her the Queen of Heaven as those Idolaters did Ier. 44. 18. they make a very great stir and noise bemoaning her much which helps as they conceive to free and bring her out of it Iuvenal observing that custom which appears to be very ancient among the Heathens reproves a very brawling clamorous Woman in his sixth Satyre thus Una laboranti poterit succurrere Lunae that she