Shoulders their Bows are curiously and strongly made with Horn and for that reason better in Dry than Wet Weather Among the many Moschs to and again Their Moschs only two are famous with long Spires by the Wall where is a stately Dwelling for the Xeriff They have Three other Places for Strangers called Caravan Serawes Caravans or Inns intended by the Donors gratis but since perverted and let out to Foreigners Near the Governor's Stables were Forty Camels housed Stables ready for War and half a dozen Elephants These Stables are rather Sheds or Booths of Hair-cloath to remove on occasion than any Building fixed for that purpose and were it not for the manner of treating their Horses not worth the mentioning They have no Racks but feed as Nature intended them from the Ground if they get Hay for their Corn it is usually Garavance a sort of Pease which they put into an Hair Bag and by a String clapping their Mouths into it fastned behind their Ears is kept from the Ground out of this they have their daily Allowance beside Butter Sugar and Jaggaree or Mulasso's made into Past with the Meal of Garavance which fattens all their Beasts of War and makes them slick and fine they cover them very warm with a kind of Felt or Flock-work two or three double and tye them by all their Feet stretched out at length in which posture they always stand When they make their Beds they sift the Dung they make after it is dried in the Sun and make a soft lying for them of it they court them with all the gentleness and kind Speeches imaginable seldom or never speaking to or using them harshly every Horse has one Man wholly imployed about his Service and pretends to no other business so that as good Horses are chargeable to purchase they are also chargeable in keeping The Governor about this time taking occasion to quarrel with the Dutch The Governor quarrels with the Dutch offering several Abuses both of Body and Purse the Commodore was resolved no longer to endure it and therefore had sent for their Fleet and in the mean time threatned to remove the Factory to Gogo a Port over-against Swally which with Diu Point makes Swally Hole To prevent which a Decoy was put upon all Fringi's that we could not go out of the Gates of the City but by especial Commission from the Governor CHAP. II. Shews the Tombs Outwalks Ceremonies and Austerities of the Gentiles with the Ships and River about Surat HAving obtained Leave of the Governor The Raspoots take Toll with the Mogul we went out of the Walls by Broach-Gate they taking Names from the chief Places they lead to where as at every Gate stands a Chocky or Watch to receive Toll for the Emperor and which is a shame a Raspoot also for the Raspoots otherwise they would infest the Villages adjacent and drive away the Cattel for all which it is unsafe to be far out of the Town late at Night unless well guarded This way was all strewed with Moor-men's Tombs and one of especial Note of a Persian Ambassador who returning from England with Sir Anthony Shirley is reported to poyson himself here rather than answer some ill Management of his Office to his Master Not far from whence on a small Hill on the left hand of the Road lies Tom Coriat our English Fakier as they name him together with an Armenian Christian known by their Graves lying East and West He was so confident of his Perfection in the Indostan Tongue that he ventured to play the Orator in it before the Great Mogul In his return from him he was killed with Kindness by the English Merchants which laid his rambling Brains at Rest From hence we passed over to the Dutch Tombs Dutch and Armenian tombs many and handsome most of them Pargetted Adjoining to which the Armenians have a Garden where on a Terras Forty Yards in Length and Five in Breadth are reared several Monuments Coffin-Fashion with a place to burn Incense at the Head like the Moors only over it a Cross One of more Eminency had an Arch over it at the upper-end Thence we took a Round though the Inclosures are contiguous to the English Tombs short of which the Portugals have a Burial-Place The Ground the English Dead are inhumed in The English Burial-Place is stocked not with so many Tombs as the Dutch though in one of Sir George Oxendine's it excels the Proudest The French have a separate Place to deposit their Dead overagainst the English with only one single Tomb and that a small one In every place up and down the Fields are Tombs of Musslemen The French Tomb The Burfta's or Heathen Wanderers A Mile from the City buried like Diogenes with their Heels upwards stand a Row of Sepulchres of the Muttany or Burfta's Pilgrims with the Soles of their Feet imprinted on the middle some under a Foursquare others Round rising Tombs by the side of a Tank on an ascending Mount. A Mile and a half further is Pulparra Pulparra an Heathen Seminary a Town separated for the Banyans to exercise their Funeral and Festival Rites This is a Seminary of their Heathen Doctors or Brachmins many of whom were in the River doing their Devotions which consists in Washing and Praying The Elder sate in a Row where the Men and Women came down together to wash having Lungies about their Wastes only which before they put on they select a Brachmin of their proper Cast to hold their Vest which they shift so cleaverly that the quickest Eye can discover nothing more than decent At their coming up out of the Water they bestow their Largess of Rice or Doll an Indian Bean and the Brachmin his Benediction by impressing a Mark answerable to their Casts on their Forheads which is the way they live purely on Benevolence Here they have Two Pagodâ— remaining Two Pagods of excellent Loam but defaced by the Moors One of them however still shews a Crust of Plaster with Images Antick enough but of excellent durance and splendour like Alabaster made of a white Loam calcined and then called Arras which they powder and steep in Water Three or Four Years before it be fit for their purpose the longer the better Here are many Monuments of their misled Zeal The Burning of their Dead the most dreadful to remember is an extraordinary one erected by the River side where they Burn their Dead in Honour of a Woman who Burnt her self with her dead Husband Several Corps were Flaming in their Funeral Piles which after the Fire has satisfied its self with they cast the Ashes up into the Air and some upon the Water that every Element may have a share Some of the Devoutest desire to expire in this Water giving in charge to their Relations to lay them up to the Chin in it at the Article of Death Those whose Zeal transport them no farther than
48 Sir Anthony Shirley 100 256 Shoot backwards as the Parthians 398 Shroffs try all Metals 413 Siads only wear green 92 93 Siegmonjaffa a Great Minister of Gulconda his Gratitude and Policy 28 Silver Bait procures all things 297 Singers in Siras are the best in Persia 247 Sinus Persicuâ— and the Red Sea Keys to the Worldâ—s Treasury 221 Siras is an University 247. Glasses are made there as well as Wine Spirits of Wine Rose-Water and there are the best Copper-smiths 248 Snakestones a remedy against their Bites 53 Water-Snakes warn the Pilots of their approach to the Indian Shores 77 Snow called White Rain by the Indians 298 Sodomy common yet Revenge on the Aggressor common 〈…〉 97 112 Soldiers Maxim◠〈…〉 Compliments expected fro◠〈…〉 126 Solomon's Throne 139 293 South of the Sun's â—â—clination a North Sun makes the same time of Day a South Sun does on the contrary side 11 Spice-Trade all but Pepper in the hands of the Dutch 51 Spies under disguise of a Fakier 193 Spirit of Sulphur where best 238 Sports of the Moors 110 Spouts very frequent 10 Stab or a Slash which most mortal 137 Stars Ascension and Descension 186. North Star seen in a South Horizon 11 Statists keep Princes Judgments in Minority 347 Stones in the Body generated by bad Water 241 Straw chopped used instead of Fodder 292 Strength void of Counsel sinks with its proper Weight 45 Suffee a great Hoarder 293 Suffees in contradiction to the Siads wear Red 358 Sumptuousness the consequence of Trade 124 Sunday observed by the Indians 186 Sun where Vertical 186. Sun 's Ecliptick Motion determining the Seasons contradicted 317. Sun at the Line twice at each Tropick but once Perpendicular in a year 11 Superstition makes men lose their Reasons 179 Surat advanced from a Fishing Town within this Century 120. Surat Seva Gi 's Treasury 163 T. TAskmasters most severe of the same Tribe 67 Tears the Sluggards helpless and last Effort 211 Temperance a cause of long Life 200 St. Thomas buried in India on whose Mount grows the Arbor Tristis 43 St. Thomas Christians have one Leg bigger than the other see the Cause 53 Time of Heats healthiest at Mechlapatan 35. Time of Rains sickly 35 Time wears all things 251 Timurlan enters India with his Scythians 185 Tobacco and Walnuts the best at Maijm in Persia 254 Toleration in Religion consistent with the Rules of Gain 68 Tombs of Emperors why not durable 332 Tomb of a Persian Ambassador sent into England 100. Tom Coriat's Tomb Ib. Tortoise-shells from the South-Seas only made transparent 122. Tortoise weeps its large Heart cause of its Pusilanimity Ib. Tortoise or Turtle-flesheaten a Month together specifical for the Cure of Diseases gotten in long Voyages 425 Trade to Euphrates laid open by the English 353. Trade of India over Land 55. Trade not understood by Seva Gi 170 No travelling in India without a Guard 120 Treasure centres in India 112. Treasure amass'd by Trade 170 Trees bending indicate the Constancy of the Wind 295 Trumpets of the Moors sound dreadfully 83. Trumpets of Seva Gi more tuneable than the Moors 126 Turnadoes productive of Storms 10 Twilight in the Torrid Zone but little the reason 55 Tyrannical Government in India as necessary to keep them under as abstaining from Flesh and washing their Bodies to keep them in health 197 Tyrants trust those least are most allied 347 V. VAinglory of an entire Founder 226 Vasquez de Gama the First Discoverer of the East-Indies 62 Venetians raised their State and Grandeur by Over-land Trade from Calicut 55 Venetians decline in Trade since the Portugals Discovery to the East-Indies 55 Venon of Malice and Insinuation 173 Viceroy of Goa 151 Victory dearly purchased 164 Vâ—â—â—anage exercised by the Portugals 71 Virgil's Account of Dido is false 152 Visiapour the greatest Mart for small Diamonds 155. Visiapour Kingdom its Extent 166 Vortobeds Armenian Monks profess Celibacy 270 Voyages made in Six Months by observing the Trade-Winds which were wont to require so many Years 4 W. REligious Wars are cruel when to kill our Fellow-Creatures is thought a Service to God 220 Washings too much presumed on to purify Sins 344 Washing the Feet an hospitable Entertainment 71. Washing before Meals 32. Wash at Easements 33 Watch in Garisons call on one another 126 Water made sitting 200. Water defiled if any dead Carkass have fallen into it 226. Water reckoned good or bad as we do Air 53. Water the clearer the better 304. Water characterized 310. Thames Water apt to take Fire keeps longest 17 Water-Snakes on the Coast of India 45 Wealth of the Subjects falls into the Kings hands at their Death 28. Wealth a necessary Adjunct attained by a few 70 Wealth centres in India 188 Dancing Wenches common Whores 152 Dancing Wenches sacred to their Gods 44 Wheat the best at Esduchos 257 Wheelbarrows sail laden with Salt on the Isle of Maio 6 Whirlwinds from the Mountains hurl Men and Oxen to the bottom 128. White Men expect observance 156 Whoring in India a point of Manhood 28 Wild Beasts entrapp'd 56 Winds sent before the Rains to qualify the Heat 120. Winds why they shrink on the Coast of Guinea 10 Wine odious to Musselmen 168. Wines turn Vinegar for want of Cure 242. Wine in Hot Countries makes ill Nurses 69 Winter at the South Cape 12. Winter and Summer how varied Ib. Winter at the Mauritius 58 Wives burn with their dead Husbands 33 117 152 Women in India◠〈◊〉 in Labour 115 Women of Reputâ— converse not with the Men but transact their Affairs by themselves 277. Women ride astride 279. Women coop'd up 287. Women that burn not with their dead Husbands despised 198. Women set on to complain 400. Women cabal not in Persia 396. Women held to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 393. Women how purified 94. Women married but once 110. Women strictly guarded 31 133. Women carry Water and do the Drudgeries of the House 199. Indecent to strike a Woman 383. Worms breed in Human Bodies 229 Y. YEar its Seasons varied by the Specifick Determinations of Winds c. 317 Yearly Seasons in India 186 187 Z. ZAmerhin not brooking the Portugals as Inmates they removed to Goa 55 Zeal blinds and warms 160. Zeal of former Ages thought no Labour enough to express their Love to the Deity 138 FINIS
Government transferred to the East-India Company The old Soldiers stomach the Yoke of the Company 's Servants Governors for the Company Strength of the Island The Fort ill contrived The Town Fresh-water Springs scarce Woods of Cocoes Portugal Churches Salt-Pans Maijm Salvesong Malabar-Hill Bigness of the Island A mixt People English Government Power and State of the President An unhealthy Climate English Women no good Nurses The Air agreeable to the Country People Few return home What Credit it bears with its Neighbours CHAP. II. A Survey of the Island Canorein near Bombaim THE Superior of the Jesuits complimented Their Convents serve for Castles A fine Prospect on the Water A Journy of Pleasure and Civility of the Jesuits Delightful Aldeas Magnaâ—ana a Country-Seat The City of Canorein formerly an Heathen Fane Reported to be dug out of the Rocks by Alexander Tanaw the chief Place Mein a great Town Happiness of the Soil CHAP. III. A Visit to Baçein a Portugal City in India Our Return by Elephanto c. with Observations on the Island Bombaim THE Capitaneos of the Portugals alternate A Message to Baçein The City is round Six Churches within the Walls The Dwellings of the Fidalgoes The Devastations made by the Arabs about Baçein The ground of their Quarrel The Arabs care not to engage the Portugals Their last Efforts Elephanto another Idolatrous Temple cut out of the solid Rock The Heats The Mogul's Fleet winter at Bombaim The Ingenuity of the Toddy-Bird The Brab-Tree The Rains set in CHAP. IV. Narrative of an Embassy to Seva Gi and Journey to Rairee the Court of the Raja HOW the Subidar is treated Proceed on their Journey Seva Gi gone a Pilgrimage Officiousness of the Chief Minister of State Who procured a Pass up to the Castle Rairee a strong Hill The Engâ—ish have Audience of Seva Gi. What Presents were made Rajah Seva Gi weighed in Gold Grants the Request of the English The Ambassador summon'd to the Coronation The Rajah marries a Fourth Wife No Nation eat Flesh like the English CHAP. V. Our Passage to Swally and Relation of the English Presidency at Surat ARrival at Swally The Sands full of Fleas and Banyans The Banyans pay Money to keep a Mart. Travel to Surat The Coaches and Guards The English Factory Full of Noise The Four Chief Offices The Company 's Servants and their Salaries The Under-Factories modell'd by this The Presidency The Advantage of being of the Council The Baseness of the Banyans Number of Persons in the Factory State of the President All places in India subject to the Presidency with their Commodities The Investments set on foot in the Rains The Trade managed by a Company better than a Free Trade Their Freemen greater Slaves than their Servants The Charges of the English Company not so great as the Hollanders Their Charter put in force The Course of the Presidents The English defended themselves against Seva Gi with Honour The ill Success of the first Adventurers imputed to want of Government and War with Portugal The Company enrich this Port. The Diamond-Trade better in the hands of the Company 's Servants than in theirs LETTER III. CHAP. I. Animadversions on the City and People of Surat THE Rudeness of the Devotes And Seamen The Buildings The Heathen Rites more suppressed here than in Gulconda Moguls and Chias disagree Sects of the Moguls Their Diet. Way of Entertainment Their Attire is rich The Women wear Jewels Strict Observers of the Hours of Prayer Great Revellers at Circumcisions and Marriages Quick in Labour Great Lamentations when any dye The Duty of their Priests The Xeriff their High-Priest Extravagancies of their Fakiers They make every place their home and all their own How clad The Governor not able to quell them The Villany of the Governor's Servants and Tragical Event Some exemplary Punishments Delinquents of another nature The Crime of growing rich The Sheriff The chief Customer The Mint Markets The Castle built by Timurlan The Wall and Gates Number of Soldiers Their Mosques Caravans Stables The Governor quarrels with the Dutch CHAP. II. Shews the Tombs Outwalks Ceremonies and Austerities of the Gentiles with the Ships and River about Surat THE Rashpoot takes Toll with the Mogul Dutch and Armenian Tombs The English Burial-place The French Tomb. The Burftaes or Heathen Wanderers Pulparra an Heathen Seminary Two Pagods of excellent Lome The burning of their Dead They carry them to Pulparra The Postures and Severities of the Heathen Fakiers Paunch Augy or the Penance of Five Fires Whether it be an Imposture A Devote that had not sat down in sixteen Years A great Tank Gardens Grottoes The Cotton-Tree Bang Alluh No great Variety of Flowers The sensible Plant and Arbor de Rais. Milk-Bushes Sugar-Canes and Tobacco The River commodious for Ships The Dutch learn the Natives nothing Their Navy The Young King of Baâ—tam His Story Their Junks and Seamen CHAP. III. Of their Solemnities Sports and Pastimes Marriages of the Parsies their Strength by Land and Sea their abundant Wealth and fitness for Trade THeir New-Moons Ramazan or Lent Grandeur of their Governor and Great Men. The Moors Aede Their mourning for Hosseen Gosseen The Emperor a great Zealot for his Religion How they behave themselves in Eclypses Ceremonies in Marriage Dually of the Heathens The Women have a time of Freedom Feast of Flies Hospitable to Dogs Their Exercise or Recreation Hunting Buffolaes and Rams set to fight The Master-piece of the Banyans Education of Youth The Sloth of the Moor a Whet to the Banyan All the World brings Treasure to India The Bassa of Bussorah Their Jewellers may be improved The City kept nastily The Diseases Remedies outward and inward The Country Physician The several Tribes how known The English have the respect of their Ombrahs Rarities in the English House Venomous Creatures The Surat Governor forced to comply with the Dutch The Parsies Worship the Sun They expose their Dead to Ravenous Fowls Their way of living Large Milk-white Oxen. A Buffola The Marshes breed Cattel The Growth of this place The Colum-Bird Wine and Strumpets set the Soldiers and Seamen by the Ears Four Arab Ships Left Surat and Sâ—â—dly Mahmud Emir Caun Son of 〈◊〉 Governor of the Province CHAP. IV. Brings me with a New Deputy-Governor from Surat to Bombaim and sends me to the Mogul's General at Jeneah CAptain Shaxton sent home A Sea-Tortoise taken The Fable of its having three Hearts confuted The Flesh restorative Take Boat for Duccan Landing and Reception at Gulean Set forward for Intwally The Countrey all burnt and destroyed Thence to Moorbar Forced to keep Watch. The Guides lead us about Come to Dehir a garison'd Town of Seva Gi 's at the foot of the Gaot Awaked a Fakier drunk with Bang Seva Gi 's Horses kept here His Forts all about State of the Havaldar Got clear of Dehir A troublesome Passage over the Gaot The Monkeys affrighted Flurries from the Hill carry Men and Oxen down the Precipice
their Church Their Funerals The Burial of Self-murderers Their Antiquity The Georgians of a different Temper from the Armenians The way of Salute Nunneries at Jelfa CHAP. VII Gives us a Sight of the Palace and Rarities there Our Entertainment by the French Artizans in the Emperor's Service The Diversions of the Place and its Product And the Close of the Year with its Seasons THE greaâ— Garden at the end of the Charbaâ—g Wild Beasts for the Emperor's Diversion The Rhinoceros not the Indian Onager The Abassin Ass mistaken for the Sabean The Flower of Ispahaun meet a-nights in the Walk belonging to the Palace The French Artizans divert us River-Fishes The Hedghog Water-Fowl Muscovia-Hawks Greyhounds No Woods or Forests about Spahaun An Eclypse of the Sun The Suburbs A Third Bridge We were two days in compassing Spahaun Change of Weather Catalogue of Plants growing at Spahaun Sharp Winters here Use of Stoves in Persia A pure Air without Soil The Death of the President The Agent succeeds at Surat Artifices of the Dutch CHAP. VIII Brings us to Gombroon in the midst of Winter The Caun's Pranks there The Hot Baths at Genoe The Aequinox and Seasons attending Some Parallel betwixt this Coast and the Indian A New Agent arrives VAllies filled with Snow We defend our selves with Furs At Chuldâ—star a Camel mad with Lust Obedah a Town of Vinyards Conacaraw and Dehid Conacurgu and Mushat The cold Weather makes our Indian Servants useless We begin to lose the Winter The Air grows thick Our English Mastiffs master their Lions We returned to Gombroon The English President affronted by the Caun The Banyans fly his Tyranny Going to Asseen we visit the Hot Baths of Genoe Their Virtues Two Hospitals built at the Charge of two Banyans All Waters partake of the Conditions of the Earth through which they pass Mineral Waters Their differences The Medical Benefits of these Baths Noe-Rose The Air moist Indian Plants grow here The Portugal Fleet and our new Agent arrive CHAP. IX We go up in the Spring with our New Agent to Ispahaun Two Irish Greyhounds sent as a Present to the Emperor We leave the Agent there and return in the Fall THE hasty Removal of the Agent the Cause of his Sickness and his Followers A notable Robbery Diary Fevers Colocynthis The Tarantula Pains in the Joints and putrid Fevers occasion'd as well by the Water as Air. Drinking in Ice a destructive Custom The Agent leaves Siras I fall sick On my Recovery I set forward for Spahaun Polygore and Aubgurrum Imaum Zadah Want of Rain Heste Behest Paradise upon Earth Murmuring against the Government The King's Steward restored to Favour The Physician hanged Irish Greyhounds a Present for the Emperor Colums the Forerunner of the Winter Crows of several Colours Monuments of Robbers The Air as well as Food the Cause of Birds keeping one place The Old and New Moon visible in twelve hours time in hot Countries to the North. The Years centre in our Winter CHAP. X. A Voyage to Congo for Pearl A Discourse of their Generation Departure from Persia and Return to India WE come to Congo A Dearth in the Water as well as on Land We come again to Bunder Abassee The Pearl The Adulteration Its Names The kinds of Pearl Cheripo or Seed-Pearl Chanquo or Mother of Pearl Scallop Its Properties It s Dignity and Value The Prices and Sizes We undergo difficulties in our passage back to India through Negligence of the Pilots The Present State of PERSIA CHAP. XI Gives the various Names Situation c. ITS Names Situation and Bounds Temper of the Air. High Mountains Their Four-footed Beasts Wild-Fowl Fishes The Valleys made fruitful by the Snow from the Hills Plants Tobacco Manufactories Persian Pearls the best Gombroon Earthen Ware the best next to the China Lapis Lazuli Tutiae Manatae Bole. Marble Naptha Minerals Rivers Springs Little Rain Showers of Sand. Dew turn'd to Manna Cities Houses Spahaun proposed as a Patern of their Politicks Shaw Abas well advised in the choice of it for the Imperial City The Cauns Etimundoulet or Chancellor A Janiseen Deputy Caun The Droger The Calenture The Cadi or Cazy Spahaun the chief Empory The Citizens humbled Courtiers and Soldiers great Their Caravans No Priority at Church Bath or Caravan The Gelabdars not so esteemed in Persia as the Caphala Bashee in Turâ—y Their Temples Colleges Hummums or Balneo's The Coffee-houses CHAP. XII Of the present Inhabitants c. THE present Persians Scythians Jews here ever since the Captivity On the Death of the Emperor the new one causes his Brothers and near Relations Eyes to be put out Nobles by Birth among the Persians The Government Hierarchical Whereon is grounded the Emperor's Security His Wealth His Course of Life His Name and Genealogy The Suffees introduced from whom Spahaun is called Suffahaun Oppositions made by the Turkish Sect. The English sack Ormus by Surprize Articles of Agreement between the English and the Persians Vengeance pursues the Enterprizers Shaw Abas kills his Son Mirza The present Emperor given up to Debauchery The way of receiving Ambassadors The Procession of the Seraglio or Haram The Cruelty of the Black Eunuchs The Cavalry Their Arms and manner of fighting The Suffees Church-Militants Their Order created to check the Saieds Their Habit and the Persians Standard White and Red. Their Privileges Other Knights The Watchmen The Navy CHAP. XIII Of their Book-men and Books Of their Religion and Religious Worship Of their Notions in Philosophy Of Heaven and Hell Their Astronomers Physicians and Lawyers A Learned Clerk rare The School-Language Their Books written with a Pen not printed Pens made of Reeds Education of Youth Preposterous way of learning Emulation in gaining Disciples Logick Their Physicks Metaphysicks Books in esteem Mahomet's Revelations Assisted by Sergius the Monk His blasphemous Opinions Friday his Sabbath Polygamy The Mufti His Revenue His Authority The Talman or Mullah Their Funerals more pompous than the Turkish Sects are Their Tribes clarified by Pilgrimage Their Names given by the Parents No Garb to distinguish their Clerks How they are maintained Their Limners Historians Alchymy Mathematicks Necromancy Astrologers Astronomy A Pithonissa Several sorts of Daemons Longitude and Latitude Dialling Musick Medicks Anatomy rejected The Suffees Death required of his Physician Their Prescripts What Purges approved What Authors in esteem They are unskilful in Chyrurgery Endemial Diseases Large quantities of Opium eaten at a time Their Lawyers The Cadi A Corrupt Judge Lex Talionis Drubbing on the Soles of the Feet They buy their Wives Are often divorced All Contracts made before the Cadi Usury forbid by Mahomet Yet his Disciples are cruel Extortioners The Cheik The Codre Guilty of Bribery and Injustice Their Paradise Their Hell The Progress of their Religion The Souls of Men superior to Brutes Cannot embrace a Carnal Religion but an Holy Pure and Spiritual which is no where to be found but in Christianity Success no Argument CHAP. XIV The
like Artichokes Among other Trees there is one 14 Fathom round But above all there is a Tree famed for being 14 Fathom compass it resembles most a small Ivy Leaf the Body seems to be many smaller incorporated into one huge one of no other use than to be admired Hederâ formosior albâ unless in opposition to the Heathen who adore it they throw the Dead Bodies of their Slaves under it when Justice is executed on them to expose them for Terrour to others many Bones of Humane Bodies lying there at this time There is also a Gourd esteemed of them more for the large Shell than Meat it will hold a Pailful in Figure like a Man's Head and therefore called a Calabash Rivers they have not many Their Rivulets the best Water next the Thames Water but Rivulets good store and of such Water that next our Thames it is the best which is justly preferred I mean our Thames Water because it bears a Body beyond others and therefore kept till the last to be spent always reserving a stock thereof to serve them home for though it stink like puddle-Puddle-water when opened first and have a Scum on it like Oil which the Coopers affirm they are as cautious to strike with their Adds on the Cask for fear of taking fire as of Brandy it self yet let it stand unbunged on the Deck twenty four hours it recovers its goodness and is the only Water they rely on in an East-India Voyage and therefore they are careful to save it till the last Towns some few they are Masters of but for Sumptuous Fabricks none will be found here Their Chiefest Town bears the Name of the Island Their Town and Buildings which is seated along the Strand under an high Hill on one side refreshed with a gentle gliding Stream on the other side recreated with a fine Plain prodigal of its Fertility The Town it self is to look on an heap of Ruins nothing remaining but the Marks of former Industry probably the Portugals here being left Walls of an huge thickness composed of Stone and cemented with Lime To every House a Portal but miserably defaced with Age the Planks of their Doors sewed together their Buildings not exceeding one Story against these Laziness has suggested them to lean their Flaggy Mansions Flags especially in their Villages by them called Cajans being Co-Coe-tree Branches upheld with some few Sticks supplying both Sides and Covering to their Cottages They commonly order their Model so as to make a Quadrangle with only one Entrance all the rest being closed outwards without any Windows in which every House of Note on the Right-hand has a shady Contrivance like the Walks to our Tennis-Courts but not so long on the upper end of which sits the Master of the Family on a Bed of Rattans a kind of Cane Here he with the Steward of his House are observed by his Slaves who stand aloof to spend the heat of the day Among these Two Mosques but at some remoteness from any of their Dwellings are two Mosques or places for Devotion built after the manner of our Churches but for Magnificence much like their other Structures with Isles and Naves walled up to the very top within them only a place left for entrance at the West end They are decently Matted on the Floor though not hung so much as with a Cobweb on the Walls which they keep and in that to be commended very clean In the Piatzos for such their Porches had stands on the Right-hand a square Stone Cistern full of Water and the whole without any Doors always open The Nobler of the Two has at the West-end a round Tower not very high to this likewise belongs a more spacious Yard filled with Tombs reared Man's heighth covering them with a falling Ledge atop leaving open a Port-hole at the North-end where the Head lies for a Lamp To inrich them they are bestuck with China Ware of good value Having given you the Description thus far The King 's Court. I must crave leave for my Error in not giving it the Style of Regal before now For it proves to be the Seat of one of their Kings which I had almost forgot had not my greedy Eye espied a House more eminently seated and more decently covered than the rest but the Materials not much different only they have allotted him a little more Air to breath forth his swelling Title King of Johannah Town Wherefore after a small Enquiry it was manifest it was the Palace Royal nor did I much doubt it after we had gained admission where did sit the King in state at the upper end of such a Place as before was taken notice of on a Cott or Bed strewed with a Quilt On a Bench at each Elbow were placed two of his Nobles by him We being introduced instead of Kissing his Majesty's Hand he took us one after another most graciously by the Fist and by the Mouth of his Interpreter pronounced us heartily welcome and bad us take our Seats according to our Qualities which after we had put our Hats on we did and the Interpreter with great Respect took his on the Floor crouching in the midst of us In this manner without shew of dread or fear of being misconstrued we talked freely of matters relating to both our States as he first examining if we had any Gunpowder or Compass-Glasses to spare him We seconded his Demands with what regarded Provisions for our Voyage for which License our Captains are obliged to make him Presents of Scarlet-cloth and other Europe Rarities that they may unmolested buy the Bullocks Cows Goats and Hens of his Subjects Both being at length out of Discourse or not very well understanding one another he speaking Arabick we as good English as we could we had liberty in this interval to survey the Gorgeousness of his Attire On his Head he wore a large White Turbat and had as good a White Shirt on his Back from his Girdle half way his Legs a Blue Silk Vest fringed with Purple without Shooes or Stockins to his Feet which he often pulling up into his Cott or Couch would smilingly cross them and with his Nails claw off the Dirt. By him lay a Purple Silk Robe attended with a Black-guard of some a Dozen Slaves compared with whom he looked great and was a comely well Limb'd Person though a Woolly-pated Coffery His Nobles because we are not to meet with many of them pray take them in their best Liveries Their Nobles On their Crowns they wear Caps of Arabian Needle-work intermixed with divers Colours which notwithstanding no bigger than Skull-caps they move not to the best Man in the Company it being their Custom only to Salam giving a bow with their Hands across their Breasts Their Bodies clad in White also about their Loins Cloth of Arabia Checquered as our Barbers Aprons but not so good pace tantorum virorum over all a thin Robe both King
Earth to be heaped on the Mouth of his Cave whereon was to be sown a certain Grain which ears in Nine Days which accordingly being done eared before his being taken thence I saw him presently after his Resurrection in great State raised on a Throne under a Canopy before which was a Fire made in the Pit he had been where he put his Hands being anointed with Oyl untouch'd by the Flames Which whether this may discover the Cheat of both this and the other that such an Unction may be to resist Fire Naturalists have not agreed in and therefore I judge this rather a Delusion I having not been present at this Experiment But that this is none I am assured That the Banyans gave him Divine Honours and saluted him prostrate offering before him Rice and throwing Incense into the Fire He had a Red Trident in his hand and is enrolled one of the Heroes or Demi-Gods in their Superstitious Kalender From this place of Pulparra to Surat a Row of Trees on each hand shade the way it being constantly filled with all sorts of people either for Worship or Pleasure The only thing of Grandeur extant of the Devotion of the Ancient Heathens A great Tank is a great Tank without the Walls of Surat a Mile in Circumference walled all about with descending Stone Steps In the middle an High Place of the Heathens Many sumptuous Mausoleums are erected near its Brink with Aqueducts to convey Water with which were it filled the best Ship that swims in the Sea might ride in it It looks now more like a Circus or Gymnaseum able enough to contain as many as such Spectacles would delight In their great Solemnities it is usual for them to set it around with Lamps to the Number of two or three Lecgues which is so many Hundred thousand in our Account The Citizens by the King's Favour have good store of Gardens neighbouring Surat Gardens the biggest of all is the Queen's though some Private Men have neater where we often go to take the Air and feast in pleasant Choultries or Summer-Houses spread after the Moors manner with Carpets refreshed with various Figures of the Rising Water out of several Spouts from square Tanks Pargetted All the time of our durance here Water is sprinkled to mitigate the Fieriness of the Sun Here are Grottoes descending also under Ground by huge Arches and Stone Steps shaded by Trees on each hand Grottoes till it come to the deep Well at bottom from whence by Leathern Bags drawn upon Wheels by Oxen the Water is carried up and in Gutters streams about the Gardens In these by the help of a Brachmin skilled in Simples The Cotton-Tree I have found the Silk Cotton-tree distinguished by us from the Vulgar beneficial one by its being a Tree the other a Shrub it is most like a Maple in Leaf and Branch only the Bark is not furrowed it brings forth between three Leaves first a Bud or Button then a white Flower last of all Seed about which the Cotton grows in three distinct Cells answering the three Leaves As also the Plant of which Bang is made Bang it grows as our Hemp the Juice of whose Seed ground in a Bowl like Mustard-seed and mixed with any other Liquor is that they equivocate with their Prophet instead of the Grape and that which follows agrees to what Mr. Ray notes out of LOB in Ado Lacustris aqua cui cannabis intabuerit tantopere viro nocet ut epotasit praesentissimo sitientibus veneno this with Dutry as has been said is the inebriating Confection of the Post Here he discovered to me his beloved Alluh Alluh the Bark of a Tree the present remedy against all manner of Fluxes Though these People delight much in Gardens No great Variety of Flowers yet are they but rude compared to ours of Europe they make a noble Entrance a Banquetting-house in the middle eying the four Quarters of the Garden beset with Trees like Wildernesses in every Quarter or else planted with Potatoes Yawms Berenjaws both hot Plants and their Coolers as Pompkins Cucumbers Gourds and such like they are only divided by Gravelly Walks and Water-courses not curiously adorned with Flowers Bismalvas and some Wall-flowers or Stock-Gillyflowers being the height of what they aim at Only the Culga so famed for the Silk in imitation of its Paint I take it for our Amarillis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Tree Mallow which is red as Scarlet in the Morning and at Noon faints into a pale Colour and towards the Evening is pure white some few Lysimachias which besides their several sorts of Jessamins is all the choice Roses would grow here if they would but cultivate them A Mile from the City grows the humble Sensitive Plant The Sensible Plant and Arbor de Rais. common in the Fields Eastward of Surat two Courses i. e. a League we pitched our Tent under a Tree that besides its Leafs the Branches bear its own Roots therefore called by the Portugals Arbor de Rais For the Adoration the Banyans pay it the Banyan Tree by whom it is held as sacred as the Oak to our Old Druids who paint it daily and make Offerings of Rice and pray to it It has Leafs like an Ivy and is the same with that at Johanna only that was incorporated into one Body and this by often taking Root is capable of overspreading a whole Field so that it is said there are of them able to shade an Army of 30000 Horse and Men singly however it is possible to be so contrived if it be lookt after to make a Wood alone of it self The Hedges and Lanes are chiefly set with two sorts of Bushes Milk Bushes called by us Milk-Trees because of a succulent Juice like Spurge white and of the consistency of the best Milk but if it comes near the Skin or Eyes it is not so benign according to the Experience of the Famous Verulam Nat. Hist Cent. 7. Exp. 39. Omnem succum lacti similem ex plantis incisis acrem esse and my Observation here for if by chance it stick upon any part of the Body it frets like an Escarotick and I have seen an unruly Horse rushing through it both blind himself and Rider both their Heads being swoln to an extraordinary bigness I believe it to be a kind of Tithymal quod tenerum lac non secus ac Manna effundit the first sort of which has broader and jucier Leafs and has four or five together not jagged but somewhat oval a Finger's length and half as broad one only thick Stalk arises from the Root and several Branches proceed from thence they are all Green and Tender springing up a Man's height full of Prickles as our Carduus of whose Milk inspissated is made Euphorbium The other grows up into the Body of a Tree and is Woody above which it sends forth several tender smooth Stalks which sprout out into
a Visit with all his Pomp to our Deputy-President still at Swally though the Europe Ships were gone others from the South-Seas being expected Thus repassing the River after this Great Man in order to repair aboard Ship I beheld whole Droves of all Sexes and Ages coming to wash in the River which is done twice a day and the Finest Dames of the Gentues disdained not to carry Water on their heads with sometimes two or three Earthen Pots over one another for Houshold service the like do all the Women of the Gentiles On this side the Water are People of another Off-spring than those we have yet mentioned The Parseys these be called Parseys who were made free Denizens by the Indians before the Moors were Masters and have continued to Inhabit where they first set Footing not being known above Forty Miles along the Sea-coast nor above Twenty Mile Inland It is likely these upon the overflow of the Scythians and their Irruption into Persia were driven from thence as Fugitives to seek fresh Habitations which those furnished with Boats from the Persian Gulf might easily escape thither where they complying with some Propositions as not to Kill any Beasts or living Creatures and Conform to many of the Gentue Ceremonies were Entertained and allowed to live among them Since the Moors have Subdued the Country they think themselves not obliged by the former Capitulation they Feeding on both Fish and Flesh and for that reason were in hopes of exemption from the present Poll pretending their Law agreeable to the Moors but that would not free them from the Tax These drink Wine and are of the Race of the Ancient Persians They Worship the Sun Worship the Sun and keep at Nunsarry a Delubrium where is always a Fire first kindled by the Sun kept alive as the Holy Vestal Nuns were wont they Adore all the Elements and if at any time they go a Voyage will not exonerate in the Sea or on the Water but have Jarrs on purpose if their Houses be on fire they quench them not with Water rather chusing to load them with Dust or Sand. These Bury not their Dead They expose their Dead to Ravenous Fowls but expose them in round Tombs made on purpose open on top and walled high around in distinct Apartitions to the Vultures and ravenous Fowls to Entomb them and to that end in the middle of this Enclosure is a Well for the Filth to drain away the next of Kin after the Body is put in Watch aloof to know what Part these Birds of Prey lay hold on and from thence make their report of the future Bliss or ill State of the Deceased These are somewhat Whiter Their manner of Living and I think Nastier than the Gentues and Live as they do all of a Family together as if the Father be Living then all the Sons that are Married and Men grown with their Wives and Children house it with the Father and have a Portion of his Stock if he die or be absent the Eldest Brother has the Respect of the Father shewn and so successively they all Rising up at his Appearance and Sit not till he be Seated These are rather Husbandmen than Merchants not caring to stir abroad they supply the Marine with Carts drawn by Oxen the Ships with Wood and Water the latter of which is excellent drawn out of a Well at old Swally where and at others the Women put me in mind of Jacob's Well and the Custom of old for them to draw Water which though here it is fetch'd up by Oxen yet elsewhere the Women draw in Jarrs or Earthen Pots The Moors have it brought on Buffola's Backs or else on Oxen which here also they use as all over India instead of Pack-horses their greatest Caphala's consisting of them Horses being only for War or Pleasure and the best of them Foreigners and of great Prices so that 300 l. is but an easy Rate for a good Persian or Arab. Here are brought up large gallant Milk-White Oxen with Circling Horns Large Milk-White Oxen. artificially Modelled in Cases which they Tip with Silver Gold or Brass and make them shine like Jet putting a Rope through their Nostrils and an Headstal on them of London Cloath surrounding their Necks with Collars for Bells Feeding them delicately as their Horses and one of these fitted for a Coach will Sell for 30 or 40 l. The other Oxen are Little but all have a Bunch on their Neck and how they become Oxen is on this manner Their Religion not allowing them to Castrate them they Bruise their Testicles not Geld them by Cutting them off when Young which answers the intention as fully as the other This kind of restraint upon Nature is exercised on no Brutes but these they never offering to deprive their Horses of their Stones or Tails which they alway suffer to grow a Bobtailed Nag or Gelding being as rare here as a Crop-eared Horse which never was seen A Buffola is of a Dun Colour A Buffola and are all as big as their largest Oxen they love to wallow in the Mire like an Hog there are of them Wild which are very Fierce and Mischievous Trampling a Man to Death or Moiling him to Pieces with their Foreheads their Horns are carelesly turned with Knobs around being usually so ordered or rather disordered for they retain no certain Form that they lie too much over their Heads to do any harm with them Their Flesh is reckon'd Hotter and Courser than Beef which is the most common Sustinence of the Moors as their Milk and boiled Butter is of the Gentues for did they not boil their Butter it would be Rank but after it has passed the Fire they keep it in Duppers the year round On which Dr. N. G. in his Account of the Rarities of the Royal Society has sufficiently enlarged Here in the Marshes are brought up great store of Cattle of all sorts The Marshes breed Cattle and though there lie store of Aligators to and again they are seldome known to Prey either on them or their Young so that what stir they make of Charming them is but a pious Fraud of the Brachmins they being a lazy sort of Amphibious Creature feeding on Grass as well as Fish and I question whether ever their Appetite stand towards Flesh The Mutton here is not much inferior to the Mutton of England for the Pallat though as to its Wool there is no compare Cows Butter sometimes will be hard in the Cold Season and look yellow but they arrive not to the making of Cheese unless it be soft Cheese which pickled our Seamen keep a good while as they do their Achars Here grow Carrots The Growth of this Place Turnips Rhadishes Cabbage rarely though Coleworts frequently Melons of all sorts and Betes Wheat as good as the world affords Rice Barley Millet and Nuchanny Pease and Beans Oyl-Trees and Rape for Lamp Oyl only Wax-Candles for the Rich by
with him the Governor of Jeneah undervaluing his Authority in an Expepedition not long enough ago to be thoroughly forgot however did the President immediately apply himself to him he was inclinable enough to let him Settle Factories which I gave him to understand without a mutual Benefit on both sides was not the present Design but for the esteem we bore to Men of Honour and that made account of their Word it was wished the Moguls were possessed of those Parts which was never to be cultivated either with good Manners or Profit whilst Perfidy reigned there This being the substance of our Discourse after he had related the Business to his Council he replied he would intimate what might be effected in it to the President in answer to his Letter At Night it was dismally Tempestuous Mischief done by Thunder Killing Two of the Watch on Duty and carrying a Tower of the Hill at one Clap below it brake one Man's Arm the Prologue to the Rains The Day after the Nabob's Brother The Governor's Brother of the Hill descends for Cure of the Castle was received kindly here bringing a noble Train and Piscash to bespeak his Welcome he was Lodged in a Palace adjoining that where I was The Eleventh of May I went abroad to a Garden left by a common Strumpet A Strumpet's Benefaction in which was a noble Tomb built in remembrance of her with a Well belonging to a lovely Spring which by Aqueducts supplied the City with Water Who when she died like Flora Fair Did make the Commonwealth her Heir Hence we went to a ruined Palace The Emperor's Palace where Auren Zeeb the present Emperor was hospitably received in his Father's Reign and lived a pretended Fakier Cotton in its season is Planted all hereabouts The Fields no sooner Sowed than set on Fire The Fields produce Wheat in abundance and other Grain but are often served as the Philistine's were by Sampson the Foxes from the Mountains with Firebrands consuming them which made us bethink of retiring they descending sometimes in Parties to Prey on Straglers that often Troopers are sent home disrobed and dismounted to be laught at for their Misfortune Having tarried now till the Rains had made their first onset Fourteen days together Dungeness another Heathen Fane with horrid Thunder at the end thereof I set apart a day to take notice of the adjacent Rarities among which is a City called Dungeness of like Antiquity and Workmanship as Canorein cut out of a Mountanous Rock with a Temple and other spacious Halls by no means inferior to it both for Water and other Refreshments and much more entire Time having not dealt so cruelly with it but the Lines of its ruined Beauty are still legible though in old Characters however it is left a desolate Habitation for Batts and Wasps to disturb which it is dangerous being overgrown and desperately revengeful following their Aggressors till they have Whealed them into Contrition for their unadvised Provocation To be out of the Noise of these buzzing Hornets and to secure our selves from the surprize of any disturbed Idolater who might bellow the report of our being here we hasted to the safer Plain and ended the rest of the day in a pleasant Garden on the brink of the River which glides hence to Surat The Governor of the Gur hearing I was preparing for to return to Bombaim The Request of the Governour of the Hill for my Ascent requested before my departue to accept of my choice either to ascend the Gur or else to meet him at his Garden below being the prescribed Limits of his Walk I signified my readiness to comply with the former wherefore he sent Four Palenkeens his Kinsman an Ingenuous Mogul and his Brother to attend me We Travelled Two Miles before we came to the Foot of it The Suburbs a shelter to the Castle where is a Garison or Fortified Town walled with strong Chockies or Watches and a Troop of Five hundred Horse and as many Camels of War here are great Stacks of Hay and Corn all their Droves of Beasts being sheltered here anights Seva Gi has distressed this often and put them to the rout but that whose Top we are endeavouring to gain is inaccessible unless by Seven winding Gates which are very strong and able to clear one another as they rise the Way being lined with Murtherers and they themselves defended with good Pieces of Ordnance The last is a Piece of excellent Work and Strength and the place filled with Soldiers Hence it is painful Riding The Hill inaccessible but by Seven Gates and requires a strong Back to keep State in a Palenkeen it being carried almost bolt upright over slippery Marble steps cut out of the shining Rock as smooth as Glass and reflecting the Sun-beams as much After we had mounted near an Hundred Stairs we were received into the Neck of the Castle which is collared about with a Wall rather to keep them from falling down than needful to prevent Assailants from whence an easy Ascent leads to a Level which is the Circus to train the Infantry where are conspicuous Tombs of their former Kings being firmly Built and a Mosque of polished Marble which on Festivals only they repair unto No Houses here are able to resist the Storms of Wind or the Sun's Heat for which conveniency they have made the Eastern side of the Hill most Inhabited it serving instead of a Bank where they live in little low Huts the Governor 's not exceeding in height though a pretty neat Dwelling fenced with Trees no where else to be found who had expected me Two whole Hours but being impatient of delay and the Sun growing too hot he betook himself to his Haram having ordered his Kinsman whose Civil Deportment met with his Commands to Entertain me he is but Poor so that he threatens the Nabob to turn Fakier yet Generous of a free open Temper neither Jealous nor Lazy as the Moors most are but applying himself to several Handicrafts which he has learned of the Europeans he is learned too in the Persian and Arabick Languages though not to Vain-glory being so Humble Facetious and Merry that nothing but Spight and Envy can disagree with him His Name is Nishambeak such another I have not met with so general a lover of Franks which he specified in an especial manner to me receiving me in an Airy Banquetting-house Embellished and Adorned on purpose and notwithstanding the Governor's Son was to pay his Compliments would not suffer me to give him Place but diverted me with several Interludes of Morisco Dancing That which took most with them I perceived was a Jester or Mimick the Ancient Salt at publick Banquets as we may gather from Statius Non ego Mercatus Phariâ de puppe Loquaces Delicias doctumque sui convicia Nili Infantem Linguâque simul salibusque protervum And from Lucan to Piso Sed Miserum clientem parvâ stipe numerat
this time had not we fallen out with them and given them the first blow at Ormus upon which the Dutch fell in and took from them the best of their Conquest and all their Spice Trade notwithstanding they have added some Christians to those formerly Converted by St. Thomas but it is a fond report to say all India no more than to have Conquered all the Inland Country where they never pierced their Possessions being most by the Sea-side yet at this day they bear the Port of a Vice-Roy at Goa who has his Council and Governs after the Mode of Portugal His Reign is Triennial as are all their Capitaneas The Dutch Though a Commonwealth in Europe find it properest to bear the face of a Monarchy here appointing a General at Batavia whose Power is extensive over all India These begin to be taken notice of and are esteemed as Men of War among these Nations for obliging and fair Means prevail not here they being of a less Ingenuous Temper than to be won by any other ways than Force so that a Tyrannical Government in India is as necessary to keep them under as abstaining from Flesh and Washing their Bodies to keep them in Health wherefore they have wisely Ordained Religious Rites And this is the reason they have a value for The English Who they see are content with Bombaim The English much valued and a peaceable way of Trade square with the Humour and meet with the Praise of the Banyans but command not that Awe by which these People are best taught to understand themselves The Parsies As they are called The Parsies expose their dead to the Fowls of the Air. are of the old stock of the Persians Worship the Sun and Adore the Elements are known only about 〈◊〉 where they are famous for what all other Nations deem infamous the exposing their Dead to the Fowls of the Air And these coming in by permission are obliged to Conformity with the Heathen Customs being almost as the Gibeonites to the Israelites Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water having been curbed formerly by the Gentiles and now by the Moors used as perfect Slaves yet they endure this that so they may enjoy their Religion and that benefit which is tolerated to the Indians more than any where the liberty of getting Children and an indulgence for Poverty The Indians are Tall of Stature Large Boned their Colour varies according to the diversity of the Region the Parsies are Straw Coloured as Hyppocrates witnessed for them Aethiopians are Black and Frizled the Indians here are a mixture of these but long Haired The heat of the Sun alters our Europe-Men to a dark Brown such as Sail to and again constantly in these Climates by going Naked and exposed to the Sun being almost as Swarthy as the Natives with this difference that by Cloathing the Sunburnt wears off but contrariwise it remains indeleble on the Indians Infants when newly Born have the same Flesh Colour as ours but in a few Days by the inbred Humour and the Sun's Heat declare their Hew to be of the same with their Parents The Women are Small The Women of the same Species as others the Position of their Veins being the same and most an end Plump and Short in respect to the Men as to the order which Nature observes in them they are more forward than ours in Europe and leave off Child-bearing sooner It is reported the Menstruums of the Africans are pernicious but there is no such slander here these being Neat Well-shaped and Obsequious to their Husbands for the different Positions of their Veins it 's a silly Query they being of the same Species of the rest of the World bating their Education which is agreeable to them and bear as good a Meen naturally as ours instructed by the Masters of Behaviour they keep their Breasts bound up carefully and on that account are no more extended than they should be they are quick in Labour and Affectionate to their Children Bearing them Naked on their Hips a straddle are well Proportioned and for that reason not ashamed to shew the Motion of their Bodies all their Limbs being visible yet love to hide what should not be seen They are Cleanly as well in their Cookery as in their Bodies Pruning themselves by plucking the budding Hairs off their Privities up by the Roots they being all as smooth there as the back of their Hands though they suffer the Hair of their Heads to grow in Tresses which the Rich Embroider with Gold Coronets and Rich Jewels the Poor Brade with Strings of Jassamin Flowers and make Necklaces of the same the Rich have their Arms and Feet Fettered with Gold and Silver the meaner with Brass Glass or Tuthinag besides Rings at their Noses Ears Toes and Fingers Their Attire alters not into new Modes nor need they a Taylor a Lungy being tied loose over their Shoulders Belt-wise and tucked between their Legs in nature of short Breeches besides a short Wastecoat or Ephod to keep up their Breasts being all their Garb going constantly without Shooes or Stockins Shoes being allowed their Midwives only which are like the Mens only a few Silk Tufts upon them for distinction sake Those that have Buried their Husbands or rather Burnt them are rifled of all their Jewels and Shaved always wearing a Red Lungy whereby to be known that they have not undergone the Conflagration for which cause they are despised and live more Uncomfortably than the meanest Servant The Moors Women are all Cloathed like the Men as has been said elsewhere only Vailed when they go abroad and thus the Indian Women are Habited They use no swathing to their Babes Few Crooked or Deformed and have very few deformed or Dwarfs among them are Temperate and live to a good Old Age when their Hair also turns from Black to Grey What Ovid relates of the Glaucus Fish Aestivo nunquam conspectus Sydere Glaucus is true in these Hot Countries of the Colour of the Eyes of these Sun-burnt people for I never saw but one Grey-ey'd and therefore I suppose them rare unless they should tincture them with some Fucus it may be of Antimony which we read in the Sacred Page the Jews used especially the Women both to preserve them from Filth and to procure a graceful Blackness 2 Kings 9. Jer. 4. Ezek. 23. Nor but one Dwarf which was a Brachmin 109 Years old well limb'd and of a quick Apprehension being not Three Foot high free from the Infirmities of Age. In general they are melancholy inclined The Cause of their Blackness left in suspence and love a sedate Life more than Action and whether that may not add to their Dye I leave to the Sceptical and conclude in this Point of these Asiaticks as Naso did of his Africks Sanguine tum credunt in corpora summa vocato Aethiopum populos nigrum traxisse colorem The Indian Wives dress their Husbands Victuals fetch Water
the Sea refresh the Fiery Plain The most unhealthy of these are the South-East for that then the Air is thicker by reason of the Seas Vicinity and the Sun's departure towards its Southern Progress for upon its return the Skies do clear and the Clouds which used to hang about the Mountain-tops till Mid-day vanish earlier at the Sun's approach whereupon this Climate is not subject to the greater part of Distempers a more Watry Country may abound with though it be to some to wit to Rheumatisms Numbness and Periodical Fevers such as are Tertians and Quartans but chiefly to Quotidians rarely incident to Dropsies oftner obnoxious to Jaundice Obstructions of the Spleen Mesentery and Windiness of the Hypochondrias They dread not a Lask but are concerned when they cannot go to Stool The Fury of these were not over at our Arrival The Inland stifling hot to avoid which I was forced in the beginning of May to betake my self to Asseen a Country Village Three Miles from Gombroon than which it is not much better only remoter from the Sea wherefore it labours under the Incommodity of a stifling Air it being so near the Hills that the free Blasts are thereby intercepted only it enjoys a greater benefit of limpid Water for which it is highly valuable and by the Industry of the Hinds some things do sprout here and the Date-Trees are nourished by the unwearied drawing of Water which flourish the better for their Pains The constant Din of a great many at this Work together like the creeking of so many Cart-Wheels ungreas'd afford the Sick little Rest and without this obstreperous Noise no Water could be had for they use only the Indian Wheel drawn up and let down by Oxen with as little Intermission Day or Night as Sysiphon's repeated Trouble is reported In the day Locusts come in Armies besides the Heat and Sands the Winds brought with them another Plague the Locusts to benight the day and fly in Armies to devour the Greens wheree're they find them gnawing the Palms and other Trees both Leaf and Fruit spreading where they alight as thick as Bees drove out to swarm a new Colony no other Charm than Fire can expel this Pest when kindled with Wisps and withered Boughs they run up and down from Tree to Tree making an hideous Clamour yet scarcely make them leave where they once beset Thus Salamander-like these People live in Fire making a Remedy of their Disease for here all things seem as if they had undergone a General Conflagration or that Phoebus with his Solar Rays had like another Phaeton scorched this part of the World or rather this unhappy Soil retains the Curse of Adam's Fall This Earth accurâ—t for the sake of Adam for being once so nigh that Terrestrial Paradise concerning which I am not ignorant that it is left undetermined among Divines and for that cause there is always administred matter of dispute to the Interpreters of Genesis Elias the Thesbite is positive that the Garden of Eden is still in being not doubting many still go thither and that the Passage to it lies easy and open but that overcome with the Delights thereof they never care to return Origen and Philo tenacious of their Allegories have fancied a Mystical Paradise the true Ideas of Plato and are imitated therein by Psellius who says that Chaldean Pardyse so he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing else but a Choir of the Heavenly Virtues which illustrate the Aetherial Father and the Rays of Holiness flowing from the first Creator Some situate this contended-for Place in Mesopotamia others in India between both which we now are but there remains the difficulty of reconciling the Four Rivers which admits of no other subterfuge than to have recourse to the General Inundation But I leave this and proceed to acquaint you that nothing is left here but a sensible Map of Purgatory if that may please some to be a Road to Paradise to see how the Fiery Element makes the Mountains gape the Rocks cleft in sunder the Waters stagnate to which the Birds with hanging Wing repair to quench their Thirst for want of which the Herds do low the Camels cry the Sheep do bleat the barren Earth opens wide for Drink and all things appear calamitous for want of kindly Moisture in lieu of which hot Blasts and Showers of Sand infest the purer Air and drive not only us but Birds and Beasts to seek remoter dwellings or else to perish here for which purpose 't is familiar to behold the Crows and Sparrows take their flight to Upland Countries as also Dogs and other Vermin to remove to avoid the Tyranny of this Season The Caun and Shawbunder were gone before us at length by their Example we left the Port tho it was not before the latter end of June The Governor of this Province is stiled the Caun of Bunder Abassae The Caun of Bunder either for the store of Abasses shipped off here or that it more immediately respects the Abasseen Countrey than any other The adjacent Islands with the Soldiery are annexed to his Jurisdiction though Northwest beyond Gombroon his Rule extends not far nor much Inland yet along the Gulph to its very Mouth he possesses a large Tract of Ground for many Leagues together His Metropolis is Gombroon where he resides till the soultry Summer makes him fly beyond the Hills to breathe in cooler Air. Which we betook our selves to after I had returned from Asseen whither I went for the sake of the Water as welcome to our parched Throats as a drop of that cool Liquor to the importunate Dives who was involved in the Center of those Flames which we on the Brink of the Abyss only had a Taste of Nor was a Present at this time from the Caun Sent us a Present of Apples candied in Snow in the middle of the Heats of Apples candied is Snow less grateful though more feasible the Messenger being impowered for all the scorching Gulph interposed at Night to bear them to us and by Break of Day we drank a Glass of Wine quenched with a Lump of Snow and Ice to the Caun's Health Nor had we less hope to pass this dreadful Lake of Sulphur since he had sent us a Token of his discovery of a more Temperate Climate by a Fruit not unknown to us Genetins being Natives of a calmer Region with these we cheated our Thirst for a while In the mean time it fared not much better with us than with those groaning under a burning Fever who by large Draughts endeavour to quench their Appetite till it enrage the Distemper to an higher Fit for now we saw what before we believed the tardy Fowls pay for their lingring here and leave their dead Bodies to be mummied in the Sands Nor does this proceed from Heat alone but the Seas nearness which now furrs the Shore with discoloured Foam poysons the Air as well as its own Inhabitants
their Forefathers for more than Three Days Journy together the Fields are every where filled with Graves And now we began to be acquainted with the shift they make for Water in these dry Countries What shift they make for Water where there is little Rain and no Rivulets they Dig for Springs and when they have found one they follow the Water-Course which way it directs under Ground Hollowing the Ground and at every Thirty or Forty Yards cast up a Mole-Hill where they make a Pit to Ventilate and let in the Air to Purify the Water as well as to Cleanse and Channel and this Course holds on many Pharsangs together for the advantage of the Vallies and this I look upon to be as much the cause of the Generation of the Bezoar-Stone in the Animals aforesaid as the reasons alledged there by Bontius for their Production for by the consent of all Physicians nothing contributes more to the Breeding of the Stone in Men than such things as are Undigested and create Obstructions nor can any thing be more Obstructing than such Water as is drawn from Wells and deep Caverns where the Sun has little influence as we may have occasion to manifest afterwards and therefore we may probably Conjecture these Unconcocted Waters to be a main instrument of their production since where these are in use this Accident is more general than in other places From Bonaru to Mousar Mousar the utmost extent of the Province of Lhor another Eight-square Caravan are Fifteen Miles fine plain and easy way near the Caravan Ser Raw was a pleasant Garden the utmost extent of the Caun of Lhor's Dominions on this Road. And as a Boundary thereto is opposed the steepest Hill we have yet met with insomuch that we found it a notable Task to gain the Top by the Morning of the following Day contenting our selves to sit down at Chawtalk but Nine miles from Bonaru being advised of a more troublesome Day 's Journy the Munsel after this not so difficult for Access as this but a more continued Labour by the multitude of Mountains we were to Master and on that account it was highly necessary to Feed our Caphala's well before we undertake so great a Work Chawtalk by the most valuable Munificence of the Benefactor yet living to Oversee this good Deed compleated is a noble newe Caravan an Ample and Princely Building Naer to it was not long since only a Well of Bitter Water which gives Name to the Place but by the Cost and Inquest of this Pious Benefactor Sweeter Waters are at this time produced something more remote for Men to Drink though the Cattel refuse not generally the other On these Mountains the Mastich Tree brings forth plenty of that Gum Manna of which the Country People make good Profit Nor does less Benefit accrue by the Mellifluous Dew a-Nights turn'd into Manna from the Leafs and Shrubs as well as Plants upon the sides of these Mountains which are not altogether so Barren as those we have hitherto passed this Manna is White and Granulated and what I have found my self I think not inferior to the Calabrian As for the Mastick Trees they bore Red Berries and if wounded would spew out the liquid Resin from the Branches they are not very tall Mastick of the bigness of our Bully Trees Whether they bring forth a Cod or not this Season would not inform me nor can I say it agrees in all respects with the Lentisk Tree of Clusius Here also grows the Wild or Bitter Almond The Bitter Almond the Wands or Sticks of which are in Esteem for that Tradition of their being of the same Tree with those of Aaron's Rod which budding brought forth Almonds and for that reason are worn by those of the highest Rank among them More of this anon And now the time approaches we must pass over in one Day as many Mountains as we have hitherto been conquering some of whose Clifts could never be gained had they not been joined together by vast Arches from Rock to Rock their dismal Pits otherwise being rendred impassable Thus by inexpressible Endeavours we strive to clear this formidable Chain of Hills all in the Heat of the Sun not daring to trust our selves in the Night whereby we had our Skins flead off of those Parts exposed to the Solar Rays and those that fared best had Bladders raised as if scalded or burnt by the Fire for which when we had travell'd One and twenty Miles we found at Gerom a ready Medicine of the Butter of the Seed of Gourds made into an Ointment which appeased the Inflammation by its cooling Virtue and immediately asswaged the Pain by Basting our selves herewith being half Roasted We refreshed our selves one entire Day at Gerom Gerom where a small White Grape without any Stone was an excellent Cordial the Wine pressed from it is white also and the strongest by Natural Fermentation only that I ever drank they are called Kismas Grapes and the Wine is known by the same Name farther than where they grow it being of so stout a Body that it is not subject to decay presently though their best Wines when they begin to turn are fit for nothing but Vinegar they being inexpert either in their Cure or to preserve them that which we drink is pure without any Sophistication There grow no where better Dates than at this Town The strongest Wine and best Dates here and packed up dry are preferred before others all the World over The People that dwell here are for the most part blind for of Three you meet Two shall not see and it may be a Third shall have but half an Eye The Occasion whereof The Cause of their Blindness as they report is because little pretty coloured Mice and Weasels by their poysonous Stale infect the Trees so that they produce Worms the Parent of this Distemper more truly fancying than proving this Secret for want of that Microscope whereby Kepler assisted this enquiring Age to discover That no kind of Plant whatsoever but procreates of its superfluous Juice some putrid Humour which by active Nature is enliven'd into Vital Motion forming to every one their proper Insects Whether any Virulency may be ascribed to these or the immoderate eating of Dates ought to be accused of their excessive Heat as we do Wormwood which for that reason we account offensive to the Eyes I know not following herein the Prince of Physicians Calidis enim qui saepè multumque utuntur nervorum infirmitatem adferunt in Aph. 16. Hyp. lib. 5. who says They who accustom themselves to eat Hot things bring on themselves the Weakness of the Nerves and consequently decay their Eyesight the Optick Nerves being signally affected through which Organs Spirits ought to be conveyed principally for the service of the Eyes To which Evil no doubt Sympathy makes a great Addition whether in the Individual or in respect of others Wherein the Poet
many days before it be dissolved And then it proves fatal to the Houses built only of Mud for whilst they seek to secure the Roof many times by sweeping it thence the Snow melts at the bottom and undermines their Foundations that oftentimes they become mixt with the Dirt in the Streets In this Season Stoves are no less in use in Persia Use of Stoves in Persia than in the extremest Cold Parts of the World by which they cherish the innate Heat otherwise like enough to be opprest which they do after a peculiar manner In the middle of a Square close Room they dig an Hearth Foursquare not raised as in our College-halls over which is set a Square Low but Large Table whereon is thrown a Quilt and upon the Hearth is only set an Earthen Pot of Charcoal all the rest of the Room is spread with Beds and Quilts into which whoever comes after his Slippers are put off he thrusts his Feet under the Quilt covering the Table which way though it keep them warm is prejudicial to the Nerves and Brain by reason of the Mercurial Fumes arising from the Charcoal being obliged to use that for want of plenty of Wood to Burn in Chimnies the Conveniency whereof they are unacquainted with having never seen any Chimney but what is in the English Factory Their Kitchins are all over of a Smoak like our Malt Kills with such ventilating Tiles as they have they rounding their Cook Rooms with small Furnaces such as our Chymists make in their Laboratories setting their Earthen or Copper Pots thereon not hanging them on Pothooks as we do And last of all A pure Air without Soil for a final and undeniable Experiment of the Pureness and Clearness of the Air here let a Sword never so well Polished and they have the best Damascened Swords lie unsheathed a whole Night or longer in Snow or Water take it thence and never wipe it and it shall not Rust Besides now at Christmas time the Grapes sold for Food in the Market are so dry they may be powdered Carry these individual Grapes down to Port and you shall in Four or Five days short of the Bunder sensibly perceive them to imbibe the thicker Air and contract a Clamminess which proceeds from the remoteness of Spahaun from any Sea Navigable River Lake or Fenn the Caspian Sea being the nearest which is Five hundred Miles off besides its being environed with dry barren Mountains whence come fine rare and thin Blasts insomuch that could Bodies ever be in an Equilibrium as to their Temperament certainly it might be preserved here rather than in any other place for whatsoever Stranger comes hither with an Healthy Constitution it is very lasting and the Natives who live Temperately witness a good old Age with a continued state of Health the Endemial Diseases of this Country being rather Acute than Chronical We must close up this Year with the sad News of the Death of our President at Surat Death of the President He was a Mecaenas of Honest Studies a great Cherisher of Ingenuity of a Generous and Free Access Masculinely Candid a Master of all Languages and Sciences as well as Skilled in Military Virtues as if Mars had undertaken the Protection of the Muses But so envious are the Fates that the best things are snatch'd away first To this lover of Arts and Learning This Agent Succeeds in the Chair at Surat our Agent now at Port by the Appointment of the Honourable Company is to Succeed and accordingly he is preparing for his departure to supply that Vacancy And Artifices of the Dutch as if it were not fit one Mischief should pass unattended at the same time we had an Account of the Villanous and Barbarous Attempt of the Molagans at Bantam on the English Agent and the Factors there who were only supposed to Espouse the Old King's Quarrel against the New as they were in their Boats diverting themselves with their Ladies unawares were set upon and Assassinated by Ruffians hid in the Flags and Osiers on the Rivers sides and all Cut off Chap. VIII not without some reasonable Reflections that the Dutch were Accessaries being but false Neighbours to them at Batavia having a jealousy of the English Trading for Pepper in those Parts and for that cause have promoted Animosities betwixt Father and Son taking this opportunity to send Forces to the Son's Assistance but in reality to secure Bantam for themselves while they have forced the Old King up the Country to expect his Majesty of Great Britain's Strength in vain by Embassador's sent thither to Reinstate him Thus watchful and vigorous are the Hollanders to get all the Spice Trade of East-India into their own Hands that they may solely enjoy it without any Competitors CHAP. VIII Brings us in the midst of Winter from Spahaun to Gombroon The Caun's Pranks there The Hot Baths at Genoe The Equinox and Seasons attending are somewhat parallel betwixt this Coast and the Indian A New Agent arrives THE Agent of Persia having left Gombroon to go to fill up the Chair at Surat the Second at Spahaun was obliged to repair thither to take care of the Company 's Concerns there with whom I being now Recovered on the 10th of January with a French Chirurgeon in our Company in the depth of Winter we set forth for the Persian Gulf. We return'd the same way Valleys filled with Snow Travelling only in the Day time till we came to Esduchos where because the Snow had shut up the Valleys we were forced to leave it on the right and go about by the high Road not frequented in Summer time so much by light Horsemen as now there being no Passage the other way wherefore our Entertainment this Journy is less Hospitable and the Caravan generally more rude it being the usual Tract for Camels and their Drivers they most an end providing only for themselves and better Guests being seldom or never expected so that in all probability we might expect to encounter Hardships but the Silver Bait procured all things that Man could furnish us with and we met with no other Difficulties than what the Weather created us Against which we guarded our selves by good warm Furs We defend our selves with Furs which are some of Sables Fox-Furs or Sheeps-Wool artificially Crisped and others for Servants of Sheep Skins undressed and their Coats lined therewith the shaggy Fleece remaining untouched and over all to prevent the sharp Winds deglubating us we Housed our selves Cap-a-pee under Felts or Yaupengees kneaded into Coats with Sleeves with a Scapular to pull over our Heads and Face a well fixed Nose being hardly Proof against such cutting Cold. Whether these Coats we wore against this Season might not be such as our Saviour is said to have on these being Seamless and the Wear of the Poor People I remit to our Casuists From Esduchos to Chuldestan At Chuâ—destan a Camel Mad with Lust
to return and asked a reason for their Desertion they gave the Tyrant the same Answer the Fox did the Lion Quia me vestigia terrent Omnia te adversum spectant sed nulla retrorsum For the Caun in his Cups which indeed being sober he has more than His Tyranny once repeated transgressed not only the Bonds and Ties of Government but even of Humanity perpetrating those Wickednesses which are only essential to Salvages though never but once called to reckon for them which once had like to have forfeited his Head as well as Place The Story is this Having cruelly butchered one of these Heathens to possess himself of his Wealth by ripping up his Belly insomuch that his Entrails issued forth with his Blood he was so brutish and hard-hearted as to sport at the Misery of this helpless Wretch fallen into the bloody Hands of this Merciless Hellhound His Friends not being able to deliver him by Force made use of a directer way to Revenge and engaged by their Money the great Favourites at Court thinking no other means so proper to restore to them the Loss of their Assassinated Relation as by procuring the Overthrow of the Caun Which while they were endeavouring and had cast him under a Cloud yet they failed in that Power whereby he was able to fight against them with their own Weapons he squeezing them here while the Great Men drained them like Courtiers letting their Suit fall in the Mid-way so that while they flagged in their Bribes he recovered on their Ruin The King being only informed of some Misdemeanor but never instructed with Truth enough to ordain a total Deprivation or a Punishment equal to the blackness of the Crime On which score it is the Banyans at this time shun his Dominions as a Pilot would Charibdis or any â—â—ock he is certain to split on We being at Asseen Going to Asseen the busy Birds in Rearing and Contriving their Nests and Tenements became Emblems of Self-preservation nor were we less taken with productive Nature that lets not the most unfit Soil want her influence as far as it is capable to bring forth she not being Idle even in this place which as it delighted our Minds this being the moderatest Season so we had some pleasure afforded for the exercise of our Bodies as Hunting the Wild Boar which fatten themselves chiefly on Dates and are therefore worth the Toil and Danger of Assailing and for to secure the Flâ—cks it is no less meritorious to Chase the Wolf for which not only Bows and Arrows Sword and Gun but Spears Pikes and Dogs are called in to gain the Conquest these are Martial Exploâ—s the Timerous Hare and Antilope require not all these Weapons but only giving them the Law of the Field At Genoe are wholsome Hot Baths We Visit the Hot Baths at Genoe whose Fame made us pierce Twenty Mile nigher the high Mountains than Asseen yet seeming to overshadow Gombroon these Baths arise between the Promontories facing India half a Mile out of the great Road to Carmania out of several places in a deep Bottom rather than a Valley and where they have their source also As they slide along they Line the Earth with a Mossy Slime tinctured with a yellow Sulphureous Green under which are Stones of live Brimstone exhaling a Nitrous Scent stinking like that Water the Mariners call Bilge Water their Taste was a Brackish Sweet not Nitrous to the sight they are Clear and Perspicuous of a Citrine Colour or like Lie well Boiled from their Transparency by the reflecting of the slimy Matter at the Bottom for otherwise taken up in a Vessel not subject to be tainted by them they are Diaphanous Extracted by Fire there remains a Salt both Vomiting and Purging more violent than Vitriol or Antinomy For as Galen Teaches Lib. Nat. fac 2do Salt things Elaborated by immoderate Heat are troublesome to the Stomach They are not so hot as Boiling Water but rather by the mildness of their Heat they cause Transpiration that if you please to stay longer in them Sweat may be raised to the highest degree The most usual space of tarrying in them is from Half an Hour to an Hour and then betaking themselves to a Warm Bed lie an Hour oâ— Two longer well covered or as the Spirits serve which is repeated Three Seven or Nine times as if God delighted in an Odd Number as may be observed in the Pool of Bethesda or of Naaman's Washing in Jordan They are held good against all humoral Chronical Distempeâ—s Their Virtues and Remedy inveterate Ulcers Cleanse and Heaâ— Old Sores Ease Aches and Pains of the Limbs Joints and Membrances for which they are much frequented In places where they bubble up they cast a Spume of many Colours which those troubled with Scabs or 〈…〉 the part affected which they say works Miracles If Silver be cast into it or receive the Vapours it looks like Coppers which 〈…〉 like the Steam from a Pot of Water sâ—â—thing over the Fire 〈◊〉 chief Spring seems to flow out of an hollow 〈…〉 the Earth which whether it be 〈…〉 required to make it so I 〈…〉 height capable of 〈…〉 but the â—ides are jagged and 〈…〉 always cautioned to have a 〈…〉 Hole 〈◊〉 Well a Square 〈…〉 that are most 〈…〉 rapid and pellucid 〈…〉 Saltness and swift Stream On its Banks grow Palm-Trees not so long liv'd as elsewhere if by the decayed Trunks any guess may be made Hounds-Tongue 〈…〉 and little Fishes live in them Nokada Biram Two Hospitals Built at the Charge of Two Banyans the 〈…〉 Broker and Tocâ—â—sey our Banyan have 〈…〉 an handsome Hospital That of the 〈…〉 Square Capped with Four round 〈…〉 the middle with Two Rows 〈…〉 made his more close upheld by Nine 〈…〉 in the middle with a stately 〈…〉 a close Gell behind commodious to 〈◊〉 in 〈…〉 for Rain Water they being both neat and durable Worâ—â— Here 〈◊〉 large 〈◊〉 of Discourse which we will only touch upon 〈◊〉 that little leisure afforded us before our Return concerning these Natural Baths and those Artificial ones every wherein use among the Eastâ—rn People As for the first Principles of things though among the 〈◊〉 Contentions of Philosophers there be 〈…〉 we shall at present insist on the Fourfold one of 〈…〉 nor can 〈◊〉 from hence apprehend any of them 〈…〉 but as the Searchers into Naâ—â—res Secrets have delivered it defined unto us Water 〈…〉 Cold 〈◊〉 Moist Body All Waters partake of the Conditions of the Earth they pass through in which principally 〈…〉 living Creatures Swim and have their Being and receive 〈…〉 much Glearer and more Lympid it is by so 〈◊〉 it is the 〈…〉 to all 〈◊〉 From whence the Approbation of 〈◊〉 Aph. 24. Lib. 5. the lightest Waters â—â—e soonest 〈…〉 whence he concludes them the Clearest 〈…〉 since all Waters except â—ain-Water which also is the 〈◊〉 exhaled are inclosed or at least 〈◊〉 by the Earth
they are subject to a perpetual agitation of Particles in greater or lesser quantities or in different places as they flow through the several Caverns or Cavities so they partake of several conditions in their passage which distinguishes them as Sea-Water River-Water Rain-Water Spring-Water Well-Water Salt Bitter Vinous or Warm Waters deriving their Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constantly arising Hot out of the Ground from the nearness of some Hot Minerals and for this reason it is almost all of them have an Hot and Dry quality whereby they help Moist and Cold Tempers most of all which Faculty Platerus attributes to the nature of Lime which leans on the Sentence of Aristotle who in his Second Part Chap. 2. says there is left in Lime a kind of Mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adusta fere omnia habent aliquid caliditatis ut calx cinis c. Almost all Burnt things have remaining in them something of Heat But to let that pass as not being much to the purpose All Waters in general participate of the Mixture and Nature of those Places through which they take their Current though all do not alike strike the Senses because some have a lesser Tincture than others and Heterogeneous Particles confounded or confused in a larger Vehicle are not so easily perceived by the Tongue which proves no more than this That whatever Water has a singular propriety from the common Water must come under the denomination of Mineral Water Which Mineral Waters distinguished from Common with Varenius we draw from a threefold Fountain viz. from Corporeal Spiritual and a Mixture of either those which run through Subterranean Meanders in which the Metalline Earths are not over dense they carry with them the Grains of those Minerals and therewith beget the first Corporeal Waters If the Ores are less dense as Vitriol Sulphur and Salts which dissolve of themselves in Water these create the second Class of Corporeals or Mixed And those in their passage which are impregnated with the Fumes of these Minerals are as it were rectified Spiritual Waters and make the most refined Order of them all Out of these Three proceed Mineral Waters which are either Golden Silver Tin Lead or Iron Waters Waters of common Salt Aluminous Vitriolated Bituminous Sulphurious or Antimonial Waters of several Earths Stones Lime Chalk and Ochre Cinnabar Marble Alabaster and last of all Mercurial Waters The differences are to be referred to the individual Species of every Water Their differences as far as relates to their Essence but because to inferior Capacities such do not so readily occur they are made more familiar by Sower Bitter and the like The Explanation whereof both as to their Causes and Generation is the Business in hand Sea-Waters Salt or Bitter Bitterness being only an exalted degree of Saltness come rather from the Pores through which they are strained than from the grosser Particles remaining after the heat of the Sun has Boiled off the Flegmy parts Rain-Waters extracted by Rarefaction are again Condensed and become Sweet in their falling River-Waters vary according to their Colour and Taste from the Qualities of those Conduits through which they take their Course as do Spring-Waters which have a double Origination either from the Deep or from Above the one from the Ocean the other from Snow or Rain for by an obscure Conveyance the Water of the Sea issues through the Bowels of the Earth leaving both Salt and Bitter Taste behind and forces it self in nature of a Syphon up to the highest Clifts as is demonstrated by those Hydraulick Engines commonly known among us supposing at the same time the Sea to equal the Tallest Peak the Land can brag of Sower Waters have for their Progenitors Vitriol and Alum not the Smoke of Sulphur either of which are imbued with Acidity or Acerbity whereas Sulphur enjoys neither which is found true however the Chymical Spirit of Sulphur drawn off as also of Salt become so sharp But to obviate that If Sowerness must be beholden to the Sulphurious Vapours how comes it to pass that all Hot Baths have not that very Taste Which both sufficient Authority and Experience prove to have their Entity from these Two Causes 1. By the Admixture of Sulphurious Effluviums while the Water creeps through these Mines for to break out of the Fountains from which they are strained 2. From Fumes Vapours or Exhalations within the Earth where the Brimstone is Pure or Impure as from Pit-Coals Amber c. But these Waters of Genoe as far as I could gather by Spagyrical Solutions have to their Sulphur an Addition both of Antimony and Nitre whence arise their sweet Salt and fore-recited Operations Besides these Baths The Medical Benefits of their Baths or Hummums which are rare there are more commonly Balneo's to be hired at easy Rates of which I shall say no more than of the Benefits received by them not to note the Injunction of their Law when Bodies are parched by intolerable Heat and the Dust galls and frets the Skin by Travel then are they not only cleansed but highly refreshed by bathing in sweet Water so that they are convenient both in Dry and Moist Airs for in Dry without these they could no more breathe than those Aristotle testifies of could without Bags of Water on the Top of Olympus and in Moist they are as necessary to wash Dirt and Sand out of the Pores of their Bodies As for the Medical Intent many Distempers caused by Fulness of Humours or ill-bred Chyme are expelled by this Exorcism but the Grand Expectation relating to Venereal Diseases is baffled and defeated by a groundless Fallacy On the Day of the Vernal Equinox Noe Rose we returned to Gombroon when the Moors introduce their New-Year Aede or Noe Rose with Banquetting and great Solemnity The Air The Air moist which at Spahaun is â—o Serene that it leaves no Impurity upon Metals is of another Temper here all things contracting Soil and Tarnish be they never so carefully preserved from the daily Increase of a thick corrupting Air. Which proceeds from the Reign of the South Wind usual at this Season from whence the Brain and Nervous Offspring suffer under an unnatural Moisture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Capiti aqua est perniciosa Hern. Paraph. in Part. Hyp. Aph. 22. Lib. 5. Sicut Aph. 5. lib. 5. The South Wind dulls the Hearing and Quickness of Sight brings Listlessness and an Unweildiness over the whole Body To which Inconveniences not only of the Wind Sand and eating of Dates we may add the constant feeding upon Fish also as an Enemy to the Eyes for by such Food the Body is filled with putrid Humours whence proceed Malignant Fevers Gout Falling-sickness and an Iliad of Distempers The reason to be rendred for all this may be Because the Strength of the Nerves consist in a Mediocrity of Heat for what comes nearest to Heat agrees better with their Constitution but what brings
Moisture is most prejudicial according to the Mind of the great Author of Physick Aph. 16. lib. 5. Which notwithstanding as every Nature is disposed so it is affected with this or that Disease For the Fountain of all Maladies with their several kinds spring either from the Irregularities of Air or of Diet since we are nourished by both and can no longer live than while we breathe and suck in Air than we can subsist without Food Such therefore as the Air is such are the Spirits and Humours generated thereby such as the Humours such are the solid Parts of the Body and in general the whole Microcosm By Repletion therefore of the Brain the Optick Nerves are debilitated and clouded by the Impurity of the Innate and Adventitious Air The beginning of the Nerves being filled with Humidity not only the forementioned Sicknesses but Ulcerous and Foul Sores by the aptness of the Air at this Juncture combining with other concurring Accidents make an open Way for their Procreation Hence the Maritime Coasts from the filthy Exhalations and nasty Vapours diffusing themselves impress a Dyscrasy or undue Mixture over the Mass of Blood To wit As if the Sulphurous Saline Particles should be exalted a Rankness of Temperament follows by which means the Spirits are depress'd and the Blood alter'd into a sickly corroding Habit for want of liberal Evacuation through the Emunctuaries and so are quite degenerated As we see for instance now daily the Clouds hovering about the bottom of the Mountains so the Humours profligated no other way settle in the extreme Parts till they break out into ungovernable Ulcers Scurvy and the like To avoid therefore the Stench of the Port as well as Communication with the Caun we often exchange Gombroon for Asseen which now is perfumed with Jasmine of all sorts Roses Violets and Primroses with other fragrant Flowers here grow also the Black Horehound Spurge Catminth or Nepe Liverwort the lesser Centaury Hedg Mustard Wintercress Grunsel Field-Poppy Broom Goose-foot Arach Cichory and Dill The Barley growing here is now fit for the Scythe being their first Harvest In this Place as we rode to take the Air through Stony and Barren Places we met a Channel of living Waters brought from the Mountains whence it breaks forth by an Aquaduct sometimes over little Bridges sometimes piercing the very Mountains at the Cost of the Dutch Banyan the first of this Tribe of Men that deserves Praise for his Contempt of Money lavished in many Places for the Publick Utility to the Dutch Garden where it disembogues its self into a great Stone Cistern for the use of the Farms on that side of the Town All these Plains bear Indian Shrubs Indian Plants grow here such Milky ones as we have described there but near the Head of the Channel in an Hollow made by the falling of the Water in the Rains grows Willow-wort Lysimachia cum flore albo quinque foliis expanso è rubescente calice prognato floret which discovers a Participation or Communication of this side of Persia with India But that which farther confirms it is that as in our Way home we made Nabond our Road a Fishing-Town a Pharsang to the Eastward of Gombroon on the Brink of the Gulph we found two Temples after the Custom of the Idolatrous Indians where a Devote of theirs had drawn a great Concourse at the Report of his Fasting Nine Days which being ended the rich Banyans made a Feast and Presented him with Gifts for which he returned them an Ear of Grain spiked in that time Sown before their Mammon or God with a Silver Head which they bore away as a thing Sacred Here are many Tombs of their Religious Men who are wholly devoted to their Superstitions and because of the diversity of inhuming them I shall give you the manner as I received it A round Pit in fashion of a Well being made they place a stone of Ormus Salt for him to stand on and another weighty one is put on his Head a Lamp being lighted they lay Bread and a Jarr of Water by him and give him a Staff in his Hand with some Deneiros for his Journy then they cover the Hole with Molds and build a Turbinated Tomb without any Hollow more than for a burning Lamp Thus as this part bears the fruits of their Superstition so the Earth brings forth the Weeds of their Idolatrous Worship the Arbor de Rais by the Portugals by the Banyans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Reverence paid by them to it the Banyan-Tree Besides this this Soil yields good Mango's Water Melons and Sweet Onions with that rank Poyson Dutry nighest our Solanum Lethale At our return from our Country Delights to Gombroon we found it clear of the Caun he being absent otherwise no Grist was like to come to the Shaw Bunder for during his stay no Banyans could be invited hither but no sooner was he gone than they came to their Stalls as Sheep do after the fear of the Wolf is over to their wonted Pasture About the beginning of April Fifteen Tall Ships The Portugal Fleet and our new Agent arrive with Gallies of the Portugals appeared in this Gulf to terrify the Arabs and about the middle of the same Month the same Ship that carried off the President brought us a New Agent who being sickly was willing to leave the Port with all expedition to be at Spahaun before the Heats which Journy commenced after an almost total Eclipse of the Moon notified to us by the loud Musick and constant Hubbub continued all the while CHAP. IX We go up in the Spring with our New Agent to Ispahaun Chap. IX Two Irish Greyhounds sent for a Present to the Emperor We leave the Agent there and return in the Fall WE set out the Last of April The hasty Removal of the Agent the Cause of the Sickliness of him and his Followers and reached Lhor the 8th of May which City was vehemently warm through which Intemperance whatever we eat turned into Choler for the Air being Hot and Dry in respect of that we left at Gombroon rendred the Bile thicker and sharper whereby most of us fell sick of Cholera Morbus and Three of our Company were taken from their Horses not being able to sit them and carried on Indian Litters Others in Kedgways or Wooden-Houses one on each side of a Camel tied like Panniers by which Conveyance we carried two Irish Buck-hounds for Presents to the Emperor a Dog and a Bitch as large as ever I saw but they being cramped by this Contrivance we were persuaded to let them loose after we had conquered the Soultry Sandy Ways but then it was as irksome to them to foot it over the Rocks and Stony Paths for this the Company had provided Shooes for them which they found more troublesome than is reported of the Jackanapes's caught by such Apishness so that at last they were left to their Liberty These are such
Carriages as their Women travel in and those Passengers that wander the Deserts of Arabia Queis tentant arantes arenas Littoris Assyrii viatores Several new Caravans on this Road have been lately overturn'd by Earthquakes and all along they cry for Rain both to fill their Water-stores and to bedew the Earth which is most miserably parched till we come to Bonaru in whose Plain Wheat and Barley are newly mow'd but the Oyl-Seed for Lamps were standing In the Thickets along the Brooks sides grew Bitter-Sweet and among the Corn such Weeds as choak ours in England Chawtalk is become famous A notable Robbery at Chawtalk not only for its new and spacious Caravan but for an Exploit lately committed on the Rhadars or Watch by half a dozen Highwaymen who had certain Intelligence of a Prize of some Merchants having a great Charge of Money Wherefore they set upon the Rhadars as they were on Duty in the Caravan Gate and beheaded their Captain and the Caravandar or Warden of the Caravan Seraw and assaulted the rest unawares slaying Eight more outright but promised Mercy to the rest if they did not resist Four more were wounded in making their Escape and died of their Wounds before they could gain Gerom Thus having secured their Prey they carried it off in the sight of Four hundred Men faint-hearted and timerous Companions only one Armenian discharging a Gun not one else either Merchants or Cowardly Drovers daring to make any Defence but resigned themselves tamely to their Wills while they rifled and took away above a Thousand Thomands which amounts in our Coin to Four thousand Pound in Silver and are hitherto undiscovered I cannot but reflect on this Faint-heartedness with some Astonishment Only when I consider the Merchant is Insured by the Shawbunder it abates something of the Wonder for he must restore the whole Sum to the right Owner it being his business to find out the Thieves and recover the Money Hence we came to Gerom Diary Fevers and by labouring in the Heat of the Day to get over the Mountains we were persecuted with Diary Fevers In this Munsel we found Aven's Mother of Thime Mullen Roman Wormwood with a Scarlet Flower divers sorts of Thistles especially the Holy Thistle a Remedy for the now raging Diseases as I am of Opinion Nature has provided all Regions with Medicines peculiar for their Distresses Coloquinta Colocynthis Apples grow like a small round Gourd on the Ground Here in the Gardens were the first true Beans and Pease I saw since I left England The old Caravan Ser Raw at Mocock Sugta is deserted by the Caravan Dar The Tarantula who has shifted to a new one built by the same Hand as that lately at Chawtalk and abandoned the declining one to Serpents Chameleons and Tarantulaes which are not so venomous as in the Straits Centipedes and Scorpions it lying an open Receptacle for all Wild Beasts The North Winds about the middle of May raised many a Whirlwind Pains in the Joints and Putrid Fevers and before we came to Caifar we found a sensible Alteration from scorching Heat to a searching Cold by which Change our Garments that before hung loose about us are gathered together to wrap us close for all which few escaped without complaining of a sudden Pain in the Joints and many were incident to putrid Fevers who had indulged too largely on Raw Fruits This sudden Mutation of the Air Occasioned as well by the Water as Air. brought not only on Mankind but Beasts also Catarrhs and Defluctions of all sorts to wit from Hot and Moist whereby we were bedew'd all over with Sweat into Hot and Dry in the Day and at Night Cold and Dry by reason of Impetuous Blasts from the North East by which the Pores being shut the inclosed Humours are put into a Fluor there being not a Man among us nor hardly an Horse but ran freely at the Nose Here as the Air varied we left off drinking rain-Rain-Water which might have some Influence upon us it being preferred before all others as having the Sun and Ocean for its Parents The River-Water here is muddy and is often carried under Ground by Pits wherefore it passes not without leaving some Putrefaction behind but the most indigested is Well-water which is wholly deprived of the Sun Nor must we slip without Remark what happen'd in our Winter-March as we there carried the Winter with us so now we bring the Summer for Harvest is beginning every where where we arrive Though here the Barley be mowing yet the Wheat stands to endure a farther ripening being kept back by the Chill Winds which still attend us whereby we found Fevers of all sorts except Pestilential at Siras Rheums distilling from the Head Falling down of the Vvula Aches and Pains Hoarseness and violent Coughs as Hypocrates foretold from this Quarter 5. Aph. lib. 3. Si autem Aquilo terram perflat if the North-wind blows on the Earth which it has done a long time it brings Colds Swelling of the Face Sore Throats difficulty of Breathing Stitches and Pleurisy the Body is bound and Urine flows with cold shaking which are constantly to be expected while this Wind rules The Water of this Place also contributes to the Endemial Distempers The destructive Custom of drinking Ice for it is weightier than other which by Experience is found to offend the lower Belly or Hypochondria breeding Obstructions and the Ills arising thence nor can I excuse that destructive Custom of drinking Ice with their Liquors which the Old Gentleman takes notice of to be of no good Consequence Aph. 24. lib. 4. Frigida cujusmodi sunt Nix Cold things such as Snow and Ice are Enemies to the Stomach and Lungs and so on On which the Learned and Skilful Heurnius makes this Paraphrase Those People that use these are troubled with Swellings in their Throats as on the Alps are afflicted with Catarrhs and live not long But the most pernicious of all is the cramming themselves with much Fruit which is a Temptation hardly to be denied where such Plenty and so Excellent are offered however they fill the Body with crude and rebellious Humours From all which therefore to come home to what concerns us who had undergone some part of a Southern Winter if it may be so called at Gombroon the Author of Salt Phlegm the subsequent Spring entring with the North Winds which are Dry made us retain that Phlegm by which means we are followed by pertinacious and continued Fevers as well as those that accompany Catarrhs from the Intemperament of the Spirable Parts whereby the Humour expressed from the Brain distills upon the Lungs by translation of Evacuation from the Habit of the Body where it was wont to perspire but now those Channels being stopt it drops from the Head to the disturbance of the whole Frame This Comment relates only to us for the Natives make light of such things as we
Temperate Zone by reason of the indeterminate Horizon every where occasioned by the interfering Mountains The Crows here are like our Royston Crows Grey on their Backs and Wings Crows of several Colours at Jerom their Beaks and Feet are as Red as Vermilion where also at our appearance Barley is ripe and new Barley sow'd and as we travelled we now and then let fly an Hawk at Hoberaes a Bird larger and of the same Colour with our Kites at first being brought to the Ground by the Hawk it parries and makes some false Shew of Defence brisking up its Plumes about the Neck as a Cock does when going to engage but the Controversy is soon decided after the Hawk seizes it with his direful Talons and instead of denouncing farther War it resigns its self an humble Victim to the Conqueror The inward Coats of the Gizzard are stuffed with Wormseed of which it smells strong which dried and beaten to Powder and given with Sugar is a Panacaea for an Asthma or difficulty of breathing and the whole Body is delicate Meat On the right hand of the King's Highway between Siras and Gerom at Derab on the side of a Mountain issues the Pissasphaltum of Diascorides or Natural Mummy into a large Stone Tank or Storehouse sealed with the King's Seal and that of the Calentures and all the Noblemen of that City and kept with a constant Watch till at a stated Time of the Year they all repair thither to open it for the King's Use to prevent its being stole Which notwithstanding though it be Death if discovered yet many Shepherds following their Flocks on these Mountains by chance light on great Portions of the same Balsam and offer it to Passengers to Sale and sometimes play the Cheat in adulterating it The First of November entring upon the Plains of Dedumbah we found it all frosted with Salt for the Waters from the Mountains mixing with the Superficies of the Earth together with the Sun and drying Winds incrustate nor have I met with sharper Colds than here for that the invironing Hills as well as Dales are full of Salt and the Sun rising with horrid Winds presses the Ambient Air from the high Tops by its Circular Motion so that it hurricanes us with such dismal chilling Gusts that had we not been active here in coursing Hares and Wild Goats we might sooner have frozen than kept our Innate Heat entire the Sun being constantly attended all the Day with blustering Weather leaving a quiet Calm at setting From this Plain to Lhor both in the Highways and on the high Mountains Monuments of Robbers were frequent Monuments of Thieves immured in Terror of others who might commit the like Offence they having literally a Stone-Doublet whereas we say metaphorically when any is in Prison He has a Stone Doublet on for these are plastered up all but their Heads in a round Stone Tomb which are left out not out of Kindness but to expose them to the Injury of the Weather and Assaults of the Birds of Prey who wreak their Rapin with as little Remorse as they did devour their Fellow-Subjects Beyond Lhor The Air as well as the Food the Cause of Birds keeping one place Water-Fowl that make not their Abode on the Sea are seldom seen for want of Fresh-Water nor do Hoberaes fly on the other side so far as Siras whether for the sake of its beloved Food or by reason the Subtilty of the Air may fail them in their due Poise making them delight more in one place than another I know not as it is evident in the Nature of Fishes to p 〈…〉 one Water before another as being better fitted for their freer Respiration We set out of Spahaun the first day of their great Fast The Old and New Moon visible in twelve hours time which was the 8th of October all which time it was grievous to the Moors to Travel because they might not eat nor swallow their Spittle in the Day-time it being denied the Muliteers and those accustomed to Labour but the Hodges and those who lead a delicate Life are permitted to eat for which they plead their being unaccustomed to Labour which exempts them from an Imposition they lay on the more hardy not touching such heavy Burthens with the least of their Fingers Wherefore the poor Mule-men made hard shift to get to Lhor the Morning before the Evening the New Moon appeared on viz. the 4th of November when I saw the Old Moon go out on the Hills at Lhor and the Night following the Horns reversed the whole Body or Circumference having only as it were a dark Veil or Curtain of Air drawn over it that part alone which was Crescent being illuminated But it was some Damp to their designed Mirth when by too much haste to come to this Capital City they perceived they had lost a Mule with its Lading by driving in the Dark all Night whereupon I was employ'd to inform the Caun who immediately dispatched the Rhadary in quest and before Night restored the Lading which was Shagreen Leather such as they make their best Boots of but the Mule was found dead under its Burthen strayed a little way out of the Road such Care is there taken to satisfy Merchants This Night passed with great Rejoicing among the Musselmen and retarded us three Days before we could make our Muliteers settle to their Gears again Here the doubtful Autumn inclines towards Winter resigning the Dates Citrons Oranges and Lemons to the expecting Planter Here grows the Emblem of Peace the Olive-Tree and though the Leafs are fallen yet here is an uninterrupted Spring all things keeping a perpetual Green though they observe the appointed Times of bringing forth their Increase And now we begin to enjoy Temperate and Shorter Nights In Hot Countries to the North the Year centers in our Winter in exchange of Cold and Longer and although the Goat is not yet ascended with his Constellation yet I pronounce it Winter since all Terrestrial Things move with a Pace as if they were just almost at the Centre of the Year but after the Sun carried by the rapid Course of the Heavenly Impulse in order with the other Glorious Stars has reached its utmost Southern Bounds then a new Face of things returns and the alternate Accretion and Diminution render an Everlasting Constancy which with the admirable Frame and manifold Courses of the Celestial Spheres witness and declare That the Praise of so great and wonderful Works are not to be attributed to Chance and Fortune but to an All-wise Creator who constituted the Universe from the Beginning and will govern and preserve the same to all Eternity who also brought us safe to Gombroon the 13th of November To whom be Honour now and for ever CHAP. X. A Voyage to Congo for Pearl a Discourse of their Generation Departure from Persia and Return to India TWO days after our Arrival at Gombroon I went to Congo leaving only
the George a Ship our Agent had built in this Port I was rowed in one of their Boats till the Wind grew strong enough to Sail These Boats have been in use time out of mind the Keel is made of one piece of Timber and the Planks are sewed together with an high Prow and a low Poop The next Morning we had brought Loft on the left hand of the Island Kismash leaving a Woody Island uninhabited between Kismash and the Main At Noon we came to Bassatu an old ruined Town of the Portugals fronting Congo where we touched till the Turning of the Tide and the Sea-Breeze were forcible enough to deliver us to that Port where were Five Merchant Ships and Two Trading to Mocha for Religion Congo is something better built than Gombroon Come to Congo and has some small Adâ—antage of the Air and is about Twenty Leagues nearer the Mouth of the River Euphrates As upon Land we have observed the Fruit and all things flag for want of Rain A Dearth in the Water as well as on Land so we found the same Cry to respect the Sea for want of frequent Showers the Oysters neither bringing forth nor are any Pearls produced such Influence does common Fame allow the Heavenly Moisture to have in their Generation insomuch that little Choice is to be had and whatever is of any Value is very dear Here is great Plenty of what they call Ketchery a Mixture of all together or Refuse of Rough Yellow and Unequal which they sell by Bushels to the Russians who carry them over Land to Archangelo and disperse them through the Northern Coasts for Ornaments to their Furr Caps which being no Purchase I returned Sailing abreast of Kismash Come again to Bunder Abassee I put in at Loft the chief Place of the Island and loaded with Oysters which were the nearest our English I had yet tasted here are Creyfish Crabs Shrimps Place Soles and Smelts besides Mountains of Salt-fish for Sale From hence Gombroon is furnished with Wood where arriving we saw the Phaenix another English Ship on which before I embark I shall premise somewhat material according to my Promise of Pearls in general The Pearl is a Jewel supposed to be the Geniture of a Shell-fish called Margaritifer The Pearl congealed into a very fair transparent Diaphanous beautiful Stone which is the Partus or Birth of this Fish As concerning their Original and Conception there is some difference among Authors as betwixt Pliny and Anselmus Boetius and between them and Cardanus Pliny saith that they are conceived in Oysters by a certain Maritime Dew which these Fish and so likewise Scollops do at a Set Time of the Year most thirst after and according as the Heavens are more Cloudy or Clear in the time of the taking in of this Dew so they are generated more Fair or Obscure as may be seen in his Book where he speaks of those Pearls called Vnions and of the Shell-fish in which they are found lib. 9. c. 28. But this Opinion of Pliny concerning their Conception is not by Anselmus Boetius thought consentaneous to Truth For saith he I have taken out of these Shell-fish many Margarites and they are generated in the Body of the Creature of the same Humour of which the Shell is formed which Viscous Humour is expelled sometimes not always for the Fabrick of another Shell for whenever this little Creature is ill and hath not strength enough to belch up or expel this Humour which sticketh in the Body it becometh the Rudiments or beginning of the Pearls to which new Humour being added and assimulated into the same Nature by concreting and congealing begets a new Skin or Film for the former Rudiments the continual Addition of which Humour generates an Vnion or Pearl even as Stones are generated in the Gall or Bladder of a Man and after the same manner the Bezoar is generated in the Persian Goat Cardanus lib. 7. de Lapidibus saith It is a Fabulous thing that the Pearl should be generated by the Dew of Heaven seeing the Shell-fishes in which they are conceived have their Residence in the very bottom of the Deep That which is reported of them That they are soft in the Water and grow hard like Coral as soon as they are taken out is not true saith Boetius p. 84. For the first not only common Fame but common Experience avouches for the latter I know not why it may not be as probable as for an Egg newly laid to have the Shell harden'd as soon as dropped into the Air when before in the Ovarium it participated of a Slippery Tough Glewy Substance not otherwise to be supposed to come forth than by endangering the Foetus Vnions are so much the more esteemed It s Adulteration because they cannot easily be adulterated There are fictitious Jewels made of double Glass which being set in Gold Jewellers cannot discern from Pearl except they take them out Some will adulterate them with the Powder of the Shell of the Margarite and others with Chalk covered with Leafs of Silver and then anointed with the White of an Egg. Some adulterate them with the Powder of Pearl mix'd with the White of an Egg and dried and then polished but these will easily be discovered from the True by their Weight and Colour The Vnion is in Hebrew called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Its Names as Job 28. 20. And so the Word Gabish is interpreted by Rabbi Sevi Gerson It is also taken for Margarita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in the Proverbs it is interpreted by Junius Carbunculi Prov. 11. If they be great they are called Vnions because then they are found single in a Shell If they be small they are called Margaritae many of which may be found in one Shell together In Greek they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Latin the great Pearls are called Vniones Margaritae simplicitèr Lucian calleth the Pearl Lapis Erithreus Arrianus Lapis Indicus Statius Erithreus Lapillus Virgil Bacca Bacca Conchea Pliny Vnio Câ—cero Margarita St. Jerom Granum maris rubri and others call it Perla The Germans call it Perlin In Italian Perle In Arabick Indostan Phursistan Sulu The Indians call them Moti in Malabar Mutu Letter V. The Lusitanians call it Aljofar which in Arabic sounds as much as Julfar the Port in Sinu Persico where the most excellent Pearls are caught The kinds of Pearl are no otherwise distinguished The kinds of Pearl but either first from their Greatness or Littleness that is either as they are Vnions or Margarites or Seed-Pearl and secondly as they are of transcendent Purity Beauty and Glory or Cloudy Reddish and so less beautiful The best are found in the Persian Gulph The Places where caught shared between the Persian and Arab they farming the Fishery yearly to those that bid most between the Island Ormus and Byran and were heretofore
and Cold. The whole Region is very fruitful of Barren Mountains High Mountains inclosing the Valleys being Excrescencies of the Mountain Taurus nor can I disbelieve in many places but that the Plains do more than enough abound with Plenty since no Place is unprovided with store of all good things but on the contrary like the Promised Land it overflows What Archiseles relates of the Island Ithica may be applied to this Country 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fragosum esse quidem sed juvencularum optimum nutritorem That it was craggy indeed but an excellent Breeder of Cattel the Sheep it brings forth are prodigiously large trailing Tails after them of the Weight some of them of Thirty Pound full of Fat they being stalled to that pitch that Hogs fed among us with the most Care and Skill cut not thicker than these do especially after Vintage and the Cotton-Harvest when they are turned in to crop the Leafs and tender Branches of the Vine and gather up the scattered Seeds of the Cotton with which they thrive so infinitely that little Flesh is to be seen it all being converted to Suet At other times for want of Pasture they brouze on Shrubs and Thistles spread to and again and in Winter are foddered with Barley-Straw and now and then with a little Barley Their Neat though small are sleek and well-liking whose Milk is very good for present spending but it 's better to make Butter on than Cheese This Country has Goats in Herds Tame ones as well as both Sheep and Goats on the Mountains which are Fierce and Wild producing Bezoar which together with Stags and Antelopes are caught by Hawks instructed for that purpose Their Horses Their Four-footed Beasts though they have degenerated from their Primitive Race inest enim Equis patrum virtus for even in Horses the Virtue of their Sires are communicated to their Breed still are they the best of all the East unless the Arabian be preferred for swifter Coursers and light Horses However for Charging Horses and Stout Warlike Steeds they are valued above all others The Asses though little yet will they amble with a quick Pace over Mountains where Horses cannot pass and those used to Packs are such as no other Nation can equal The Mules and Camels are their over Land Ships by which they transport their Merchandise over all the Earth Hyrcania brings forth Wild Beasts such as Foxes Wolves and Tygres but for want of Dens and Lurking-places and by reason of the untilled and waste Desarts being devoid of Food is less infested with them than other places wherefore in long travelling here they go more unconcerned than in those parts where they are constantly alarmed by them and are forced to be on their Guard lest at unawares they should be surprized they snorting every where securely under the wide Canopy of Heaven and those that set upon the Flocks by chance are easily mastered by the Shepherds Curs which are sharp Biters Wild Fowl both for Wing and Water Wild Fowl are brought forth in great Plenty of all sorts near the Fountain-heads and Inundations of the melted Snow falling not into Channels but overspreading the Bottoms where they dissolve whereby they seldom stretch into Rivers at length but stagnate in the Low Grounds which they wash In which Washes sometimes are spawned Mud-Fish Fishes and such as Fens and Lakes are famous for The Caspian Sea nourishes Salmon Trouts and Sturgion and the Persian Gulph sends abroad much Fish for salting the Rivers are not very full nor are they stocked with great Variety Breadâ—Corn in many places admits a threefold Crop The Valleys made fruitful by the Snow from the Hills and generally without that Toil by Water-Courses as between the Tropicks the Rains in most places bestowing a more welcome Nutriment but more especially from the white Spume of the Celestial Waters with which the Hills are coated all the Seasons of the Year in Winter crusted by Frost in Summer by reason of the Sun's Heat and more exalted Motion thawed thereby constantly distilling on the humble Vales an inexhausted Store as wealthy as what flows from Aemus Tops to enrich the Thessalian Fields Where these Supplies are not so lasting or altogether wanting as nearer the Zodiac there often under Ground a Vault is continued for many Leagues with open Pits at a fit distance to let in the Air and the Water carried deep to keep it from tasting of the Salt Surface after the manner of common Sewers in our great Cities which it would do were not the Wells Mouths left open For Houshold Service Rain-Water is only used In all this Country neither Oats nor Grass are found because longer Time is required to their springing up than either the Intervals of Heat or Cold will grant for no sooner does the Spring enter than the Sun defaces their Verdure by parching up the Blades of either and when Autumn claims Preeminence at its Equinox then no sooner do they peep out than they are nipped by the Recess of the Innate Heat Wherefore no Green Meadows or spangled Fields are here expected but such as are created by indefatigable Labour unless they be hoped to be seen in Vintages or under Groves or Orchards or by Rivulets sides gliding from the declining Hills The first are set generally on Fruitful Ridges of the Eastern Mounts Denique apertos Bacchus amat Colles Virg. Georg. 2. The latter are the frequent Advantages to Villages and the sweet Pleasure of the larger Towns where Trees and Flowers grow up together that the one may yield a safe shelter to the other against the Extremes of Heat or Cold in both whose Prime a fragrant Blandishment conspire no less than to entice the willing Senses But for Elegancy of Culture and choice of Slips I see them not over emulous which Neglect gives just occasion of Wonder since their Worldly Happiness is placed in fine Gardens which no Nation appears to me more to Idolize For Fuel Plants the combustible Heath is more common than flourishing Trees for Timber but for Sallads it yields all that are desirable both Herbs and Roots and some of the most Medicinal Plants are of the Natural Growth of this Country There is an heavy Tax laid upon Tobacco Tobacco though it be the choicest in these Parts To these Blessings for Pleasure Manufactories Necessity and Physick are added others for Profit Gums the most Rich distil every where From Carmania Goats-Wool as much to be prized as Jason's Golden Fleece with which our Hatters know well how to falsify their Bevers and the Natives how more honestly to weave both Cloth and Carpets very fine which they sell at dear Rates The Flocks and courser Wool of their Sheep stand them in some stead they kneading it into Felts for Seamless Coats for the ordinary sort of People for their common wearing and their Skins with the Wool on are both an Ornament and Safeguard against the roughest
Water-Courses Since the greatest part of this Empire is not far off the Northern Tropick it is therefore no wonder it should complain of Heat especially in the Summer at which Season the Sun strikes the Earth more directly with its Rays for which cause amongst all of them Aquaducts and Fountains in the very Rooms below Stairs are mightily prized with Water-works playing to cool the burning Particles of the incensed Air and the whole Structure is constituted so that it may receive these Refreshments every way it is capable Wherefore they defend their Dwellings from the Sun and are constantly sprinkling Water around their Seats from these Currents and from their Tops have many Breathing-places to receive the Wind which are so fixed that whatever Breezes stir they shall suck them in and transmit them to all the Rooms of the House as they list In Winter if they be remote from the Sea they shut up their open Halls and Parlours and make them close Apartments by letting-down those Umbrelloes that shaded them in Summer to keep them warm in the cold Winter till its Severity be past spreading all the Floor with Quilts thick and warm and kindling Stoves in all their Bedchambers These also are of a different Model from those nearer the Sea They being mostly flat These arched Their Roofs are made of Wood fetch'd from India with transverse Beams upon Clay walls or Stone with untempered Mortar till they come to the just Altitude of their Houses when the Interstitia or Spaces between Beam and Beam are filled with Palm-Leafs neatly laid and painted which serve for Cieling It is universally common to Spherical Arched or Plain Buildings to lay vast Loads of Mud at top and what is more wonderful only with Mud and Clay they will rear most spacious Arches without other matter of Assistance whereupon either against Snows or Rains should they continue which they never do long they would make but faint Resistance for being soaked thoroughly they would resolve into their first Entity Whence in great Snows to defend and keep their Dwellings standing they shovel it all from the Tops of their Houses into the Lanes and thereby obstruct the Passages of their most Publick Streets when the Snow has not fallen above two days and also endanger the Foundations which the Rich better secure by Brick Bottoms than the Poor whose Fabricks often totter on such occasions However they have a better Opportunity against Fire their Mansions affording little combustible Substance for that to feed on The Citizens are not so sumptuous as the Nobles and the Villages are content with Cottages with either Plain or Arched Roofs neither presuming to exalt them to an unbecoming Height in regard of either of their Stations Their Casements are latticed not going to the Price of Glass which is Foreign and for that reason scarce Concluding then with these Tenements we are brought to view on what Basis their Government stands For the Welfare and Support of Cities are the Observation of their Laws Salus Civium in Legibus consistit Wholsome Laws the City's Safety are Against all Violence the surest Bar. Justitia una alias virtutes continet omnes Justice alone all other Virtues holds And as a Patern of all their Politicks I shall propose Spahaun or rather Suffahaun Spahaun proposed as a Patern of their Politicks as by and by shall be declared not only the Head of Parthia but of the whole Nation which Region by Mercator is named Arac placed between Media Persia Carmania and Hyrcania By some is is called Charasan by the Inhabitants Airoon it lies almost under the Fifth Climate in Thirty seven Degrees of Latitude North and Eighty six of Longitude East the Days differ Three Hours in the Course of the Year Nor are the Seasons so calm and sedate that they should be esteemed temperate so as not to exceed in either Extreme where in Summer they must use Caves Vaults and Grottoes and in Winter Stoves and Hot-houses The Air is very rare at Spahaun and the Wind drying The City has no need of Walls where so many Marble Mountains stand as a Guard or Bulwark of Defence it has indeed a Tower but it is a Mud one rather serving as an Armory than to be relied on as a place of Strength so that I shrewdly suspect whether ever this were the Hecatompylos of Ortellius as is related by more than one The Circumference of the Body of the City I guess may measure Seven Miles but if the dispersed Gardens and Seats of the Great Men with the Palace Royal be brought into that Computation we must allow it as many Pharsangs The Journy to it is difficult in Bands Troops or Companies by reason of the uneven Way encompassing every side for many Miles together therefore to attempt coming to it with an Army or Warlike Force must not be ascribed to Prudence of Conduct or Valour unless there should arise another Alexander which must be imputed to his good Fortune rather than Prowess or Virtue hairbrain'dly resolute to undergo no Repulse tho the Exterprize surpass all human Probability For it must unavoidably fare with him literally as it did hyperbolically only with Xerxes his Host who are reported to have been so numerous as to drink whole Rivers dry as they passed what then would Cisterns of Rain-water do or now and then a small Brook to quench the Thirst even of an ordinary Detachment not likely to put so Populous a City in the least Consternation But to find Food in such Bye and Desolate Paths for any considerable Force would be past possibility unless at the Expence of a Miracle By these Bars whereby the Passes are easily secured an Handful of Men being able to withstand an Host and the Avenues inaccessible the Hostile Arms of the Turks have been put to a stop who otherwise would have set no Bounds to thâ—â—r Desires could they have conquered these Obstacles whereby they would at the same time have carried the Empire too The small Attendance we carried up to Spahaun was demonstration enough of this Truth for though we fared well yet it was tiresome and few else meet with the like Conveniences they being assured that we would more than reward their readiness to provide for us whereby we the better overcame those Straits which prepared an Entrance into the large Field where this invincible City lay open to us deriving its Annual Nutriment from a clear River which it bestows plentifully from its hollow Womb But that which it bears the Bays away for is its being seated in the very Heart of the Empire For sake whereof Shaw Abas well advised in his Choice of Spahaun for the Imperial City its Founder or at least Adorner Shaw Abas the Great advisedly chose it for his Imperial Throne that thence he might more readily disperse his Mandates and be assisting by his Auxiliaries to any suffering Part assaulted by the bold Incursions of his Enemies irradiating like the Sun in
sufficient Sacrifice as if any River or Sea could purify their Lusts included in their Hearts These Houses are beneath the Earth only some little round Globes embellish'd with Painted Glass peep out above the Ground to give Light and are well clos'd lest the ambient Air should offend by too forcible a Ventilation through any neglected Crevise They are built with divers distinct Cells one from another in which Men sit are rubbed and cleansed Immediately within the Porch is the greatest Cell or rather a large Room where they d'off their Cloaths and being undressed leave their Garments in the middle of this Place is a Cystern of cold Water coming into it by several Pipes All the other Cells are so conveniently framed that every one may breathe a different Air as to the degrees of Heat such as may suit with the divers Temperaments of several Bodies since every Constitution requires not the same Bath For as Galen has left it written in lib. 7. Morb. Med. Some want an Hot others a Tepid and others a Cold Bath as Hectical Habits declare The Pavements are all Marble on which the more Hot Water is thrown the more it increases the Heat although at the same time the Subterranean Fire be as Hot as it can be On these Marble Floors they at last extend themselves when they think they have tarried in long enough that the Barbers whose business it is should wind and turn every Limb and Joint of the Body before behind and on every side with that Dexterity and Slight that it is admirable to behold them perform it whereby they leave no Muscle Nerve or superficial Joint either unmov'd or not rubb'd Then with a course Hair-cloth and Hot Water they scrape off all the Filth and Sweat and last of all by a Depilatory they take clean away all manner of Hairs growing either in Secret Parts or any Emunctuary to cause either nasty Smells or troublesome chasing When they retire to put on their Cloaths this is to be only understood of Great Men there waits them a Collation of Fruit Sweetmeats and variety of Perfumes as Rosewater Rackbeet and the like with all befitting Attendants besides the usual Servitors to administer either Coho Tea Tobacco or Brandy if faint When they are dress'd they emplaister their Feet and Hands with a Red Paste which wonderfully helps sweaty and moist Palms as also stinking Feet These things being premised the Benefits coming from the use of these are when the Body is inflamed and dried by immoderate Heat it is finely refreshed by sweet Water and the Pores become moisten'd the farther prosecution of which Advantages having been spoken of before I refer you thither and proceed to the other Houses of Resort which are only for the Men and not for the Women Their Coffee-houses Their Coffee-houses where they sell Coho better than any among us which being boiled has a Black Oil or Cream swimming at top and when it has not they refuse to drink it Hither repair all those that are covetous of News as well as Barterers of Goods where not only Fame and common Rumour is promulged but Poetry too for some of that Tribe are always present to reherse their Poems and disperse their Fables to the Company so true is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex Otio Negotium That their Business proceeds from Idleness They are modell'd after the Nature of our Theatres that every one may sit around and suck choice Tobacco out of long Malabar Canes fasten'd to Chrystal Bottles like the Recipients or Bolt-heads of the Chymists with a narrow Neck where the Bole or Head of the Pipe is inserted a shorter Cane reaching to the bottom where the long Pipe meets it the Vessel being filled with Water After this sort they are mightily pleased for putting fragrant and delightful Flowers into the Water upon every attempt to draw Tobacco the Water bubbles and makes them dance in various Figures which both qualifies the Heat of the Smoke and creates together a pretty Sight At Night here are abundance of Lamps lighted and let down in Glasses from the Concave Part of the Roof by Wires or Ropes hanging in a Circle The Buzzars having been mentioned before I shall only add That however Great all their other Buildings are yet these carry away the Glory from them all as much as the Halls of the Citizens of London exceed Noblemens Houses about the City being the Work and Business of Joint-Stocks and their Shews and Entertainments are as Pompous as Princes however sparingly they live at their own Homes For these being the joint Advantage both of the Emperor and his Subjects he encourages their forwardness in adorning these though he suppresses all their Extravagancy of Garb or Exorbitancy in Building if it bears not with it the becoming Design of giving him the greatest Share of Honour in the Foundation Their Bridges are made either of Brick or Stone and want neither for Skill or Ornament in their Contrivance and are chiefly built for Ostentation or to preserve their Memories as their other great Buildings are They are of more Use to join divided Rocks for Passengers than to lay over Rivers the former of which are more frequent in the Road to the Port than the other CHAP. XII Of the present Inhabitants of the Jews being interspersed ever since the Captivity of Babylon the Custom of exoculating their Princes Nobility among the Persians the Esteem they have of the Emperor's Person being Divine his Name and Succession Of the English overthrowing the Portugals at Ormus the Procession of the Court its Grandeur and Reception of Ambassadors Of the Suffees of their Cavalry Infantry Seamen and Navy THE Inhabitants of this City The present Persians Scythians as well as of all Persia the Ancient Stock being as it were extinct spring from the Overflow of the Northern Scythians by whom the Native Persians were either totally expell'd or so suppress'd as to remain of no Account among them These notwithstanding by the Benefit of the Climate have chang'd so much of their innate Roughness as they have acquired the more coruscant Beauty inherent in the Temper of the Air for they are of a delicate Composure of Body Tall and Strait especially the Women who though not generally so proper yet excel in Softness of Texture and Comeliness of Form Their Outside is no false Indication of their Natural Ingenuity which exceeds all the Eastern People both for Facetiousness of Wit Civil Behaviour and Gallantry in Appearance as much as they do the Barbarous Africans They cohabit generally with their Relations together in one House or at least as near one the other as it is possible Jews are among them of the same Antiquity as the Exportation from Jerusalem to Babylon Jews here ever since the Captivity who live in the same Cities though in distinct Streets and with less Mark of Reproach here than elsewhere But how far their Liberties extend I pretend
218 Justice alone all other Virtues holds 236 K. KIndred of Mahomet presume on that Title to enslave his Followers 249 Kindness extorted not so obliging as freely offered 43 King of â—antam Junior espouses the Dutch â—nterest 106. Kings that see by the Eyes of others must have a false Prospect 167. Kings hate where they fear 258. A good King ought to govern that the Laws as well as Arms should be a Safeguard to his People 285. King of Persia's Bounty to the Fryars and Artisans of Europe 288. Kings Slave a Title of the highest Honour 339 Kingdom entirely subjected what advantage 341 Kitchens how 〈◊〉 339 Kites idolized 33 Carpet Knights 140 Knight of the â—â—â—â—erhin distinguished by Golden Manacies to his Wrists 53 L. LAbour to get before allowed to spend 268 Lands in India all the Kings 195 Language at the Persian Court Turkish 402. Language at the Mogul's Court Persian 201. Language of Indostan a mixture of Persian and Sclavonian 201. Language of the Armenians polished by the Greek 269 Lapis Lazuli how attained 332 Laws of Persians still unalterable their Laws therefore never abrogated but always impugned by a fresh Edict 357. Laws swallowed up by the Absolute Authority of dispensing with them 249. Laws of Conchon restore no Wrecks 80 Left Hand Place of highest Honour 107 Legs appearing while sitting ill breeding in the East 93 Letters how sealed 140 Lex Talionis squares not in all points 382 Liberty of the Country not so much insisted on as whose Salt they eat 139 Linguits bury contrary to other Indians who burn 153. Linguits Stalions 179 Linguo a França universally understood in the East 283 Liquors enervating are Arack made of Blubber Jaggaree c. 69 Lizard the most extreme part South of England 2 Logboard gives only the Ships Way not the Course and that uncertainly 3 Lousy Companions fill us with that Vermin 299 Loyalists Colleges would serve for Castles 71 Luxury of the Persians 279 M. MAgellanian Clouds and Crosiers diâ—â—â— the Sailors to the South 1 Magus quo peritior eo detestabilior 192 Mahomet's ipse dixit implicitely relied on 363 Mahometans divided 92 Malabar Monkey 56 Lord Malborough 63 Malabars expert at darting Launces 52 Maldivae Islands 22 Fountain of Maladies are Air and Diet 3â—7 Mangoes best at Goa 182 Marl the Material of Gombroon Pottery 332 Marriage voided by the Armenian Priests 277 Men married often Women but once 110 While Matrimony is celebrated Mortality admonished 277. Matrimony a Bargain 394 395 Marrying by a Justice of Peace borrowed from the Mahometans 94. Whose Cadies can unmarry Ib. Mariners of the Moors are unexpert 24. Mariners of East-India invoke God at their Labour ours more given to cursing than praying 55 Mastiffs of England esteemed for their Valour 292 Mastich-Tree 241 Mats used for Sails 51 No Mean betwixt Poverty and Wealth 397 Meat easily digested in Hot Countries 82 Medicks among the Egyptians came from their exposing their Sick to all Passengers to administer Physick 143 Melancholy more than Magick among the Indians 180 Mendum's Point the English Burial-place 67 Merchandize not scorn'd by the Indian Princes 58 Merchants and Soldiers of a different Temper 64 284. Merchants not countenanced by Seva Gi 174 Meridian why placed in the Azores 426 Meritorious to dye in their Sacred Rivers 101 188 Mesrobe the Refiner of the Armenian and Georgian Language 271 Midwives distinguished by Tufts on their Shooes 94 Minds Excellencies beholden in some measure to the pureness of the Air 403 Mineral Waters touched upon Page 305 Mines of Copper discovered lately in Persia a detriment to the Dutch 333 Miscarriages laid on the King's Favourite 315 Miserable is it where the Members grow too powerful for the Head 164 Mock-Creation of the Mango-Tree 192 Modesty of the Indians 101 Moguls better at standing it out in the Plain than the Mountainers 175 Mogul persecutes the Heathens with Severity and Hatred 416. Mogul's Forces never entire 167. Imposed on by the Officers Ib. His Policy in governing 195. His Ports blocked up by Seva Gi 170. Mogul seated by the Overthrow of his Brethren and Death of his Father Shaw Jehaun 173. Mogul signifies White 195 Monarchy defaced when circumscribed by no Sanction 249. Monarchy more for the Dutch Advantage in India than a Commonwealth 197 Contempt of Money a rare Virtue in a Banyan 307. Money not only the Nerves and Sinews of Trade but the Life it self 26. Money centres in India 112. Money corrupts the most Loyal 172. Money says Seva Gi is inconvenient for the common people 174 Monkeys fabled to be once Men 177 Monsoons blow North and South beyond the Tropicks between them East and West from whence they spring 10. A farther Account of the Monsoons 47 Moon inchanted an old Opinion 364 Moormâ—n beslabber with Rose-water 92. Pull off their Slippers as well out of Complement as Religion 93. Moor-men not content with sipping but drink largely of Strong Drinks when they begin 93. Moormen mourn by neglecting to trim their Beards and shift their Cloaths 109. Moormen illiterate 112. Pray for the Dead 124 Moors in common account signify the same as those of the Mahometan Faith 24 Moors of the Arabian Sect more Puritanical than the Chias 92. Moors are jealous 31. Their foolish Behaviour at an Eclypse 109. Are revengeful 32 Moors forced to use Europe Pilots by reason of their own Unskilfulness 24 Mosques turned into Granaries by Seva Gâ— 124. Mosques kept clean 17 Mountainers Pillagers and fare hard 175 Mountains covered with Snow all the Year in Persia 256. Mountains harder to be overcome than Men 172. Mountains of India cross the Continent North and South as the Taurus East and West 187 Mules defend the Herd 392 Mules and Camels over-land Ships 329 Natural Mummy 318 Captain Munday sent to St. Helens 2 Murder of Wife Child and Paramour connived at apprehending the Adulteress in the Fact 97 Musk from Cochin Châ—â—a 188 Mushat a Country Village where I had like to have been smothered 298 Muscetoes intolerable 35 Loud Musick gives the time of the Day 237 Musick Vox praeterea nihil 376 N. NAstiness evaporated in the Heats and washed out of their Cities in the Rains so that no Plague was ever known 113 Native Soil admired by all 300 Nature abhors Idleness 4. Nature effects Miracles on Bodies not debauch'd 114 Naval Power a Curb to the Indians 115 Navigation perfects Geography 221 Nests of the Toddy-Birds admirably contrived 76 Nobility extinct among the Armenians 270 Noise in their Inns 231. Noise not made they hardly think any intent on their Business 89 North of the Line the Crocâ—ers are not far seen 22 Numbers of the Heathens a thousand to one more than the Moors 109 165 O. OBedience taught before Command 347 Obscenity and Brutality of the Gabers 267 Offices purchased at high Rates indirect Courses must be taken to repay themselves Officers defraud the Soldiers of their Pay 140 Oistershells used instead of Glass for
strong Cinamon and upon the Tongue is as hot as a Clove the Bark of the small Branches also when Green alters nothing in Taste from Cinamon but dried is more slimy and is very good Cassia Lignum It bears little long Whitish Flowers of no Smell nor Taste but the Leafs of the Branch that bear them have a more Aromatick Taste The Thamarind Tree hath a small Leaf like a Vetch The Thamarind Tree bears the Fruit in a Cod like a French-Bean wherein is the Pulp inclosing the Stones and Fibres it is a great spreading Tree the Body thick the Bark rough and brownish bears its Fruit in March the Indians feed on it and grow Fat with it they have not the Art to preserve it with Sugar but Salt it up This is Siliqua Arabica too but not Nigra as the Cassia Fistula is Teke by the Portugueze The Indian Oak Sogwan by the Moors is the firmest Wood they have for Building and on the account it resists Worms and Putrefaction the best for that purpose in the World in Height the Lofty Pine exceeds it not nor the Sturdy Oak in Bulk and Substance the knotty Branches which it bears aloft send forth Green Boughs more pliant in Form Quadrangular fed within by a Spongy Marrow or Pith on which at the Joints hang broad thin and porous Leafs sending from the main Rib some Fibres winding and spreading like a Fan. This Prince of the Indian Forest was not so attractive though mightily glorious but that at the same time I was forced to take notice of the creeping Cow-Itch raising its self upon the Shrubs and Under-woods there spending in lascivious Twines its Verdure leaving nothing but withered Stalks to be the Props of its brindled Offspring which is a small Cod covered with a light and tickling Down within it includes in four Cavities four specked Beans the fallen Leafs make some appearance of a Nobler Stock having a Countenance like those of Lawrel the Root is difficult to find being mixed among other Trees like our White Briony Here grows Nux Vomica on a Tree of indifferent bigness Nux Vomica in a round Shell as big as an Orange filled with White 〈◊〉 where the Nuts are lodged Near the Sea grow Squills or Sea-Onions as also a Species of Sarsaparilla with which they do great Feats with the Juice of the Leafs in Venereal Cases In their Fields they plant besides Rice Nuchery a small Seed they make Bread of as also Cushcush which is Millet Hemp and Flax In the Inclosures Turmerick which rises with a broad Leaf like our Water Plantain bearing a broad flaggy Leaf of a Span long obliquely ribbed till it end in a Spear-Point at top it proceeds immediately from the Root by a winding Stalk which the main Leafs embrace the other Leafs creeping through it till it rises Six Foot Ginger comes up like our Gentian they pickle it well but cannot preserve it with Sugar Potatoes are their usual Banquet And to give the Soil its due Praise it obeys in all things the first Commandment Increase and Multiply For these Blessings A Feast of Priapus as if Men were to lose their Reasons and sink below Brutes by a base Superstition they are ready to acknowledge a Stock for a Deity rather than to go without infatuated by the Delusions of the Devil being captivated at his Will for which cause they not only make Oblations to him but give up their Souls and Bodies to his Devotion As might about this time have been beheld at an Idol Worship of Priapus where the Women prostitute themselves to him and receive the Pleasure of Copulation all that while being as it were possessed at Semissar on the other side of the Water from our House where he lay with Two and twenty who reckon it a great Honour and the Husband thinks himself happy in his Cornucopia There are a sort of Jougies Priests fit for such a God among the Linguits of this Country who practise this daily the Husbands entertain them courteously wash their Feet and the whole Family is at his Beck as long as he stays to do the Wife a Kindness Others slash themselves with sharp Knives and suffer themselves to be hooked by the Muscles of the Back and hang so some Hours upon a Vow Under the Banyan Tree an Altar with a Dildo in the middle being erected they offer Rice and Cocoe-Nuts to the Devil and joining some small Ladders together made of Osiers do the like when the Gomcar or Bayliff of the Town takes a falched Knife for Sacrifice in one Hand and a Dunghil-Cock in the other and cutting off its Head fixes it at top of the Ladder and sprinkling the Blood they all dance and beat Brass Pots with a great Shout saying The Devil must be pacified with Blood God with Prayers Some of these sell themselves to Wickedness The Dregs of the People use Charms or think they do so and these must be endued with the Spirit of Fascination always nourishing a Familiar in their Families which they keep mostly in the forms of Snakes or Serpents appearing to them upon their Command and undergo fiery Afflictions to have the most hurtful Devil and as they wreak their Malice more powerfully esteem themselves more in favour with their Grand Master These are the Dregs of the People who are full of Envy and Ill Designs who glory in their Shame of Incantations and Charms Such as these are those that out of Fear pray to the Devil and Evil Spirits saying God will do them no harm The better sort acknowledge a God and live in the Rules of their Tribes abstaining from Flesh and all things of a Sensitive Being Sicuti Pythagorici qui herbis bellariis tantum vivebant And these Patronize these more Innocent Rites such as the Swains asking Advice of their Deities about Increase and to that end offer Rice Oyl and Cocoe-Nuts in a thick Grove where they piled an huge Heap of long Jars like Mortivans about Figures resembling Serpents before which they present their unbloody Sacrifice by the Priest the People circling the whole Grove in a Ring beating on Brass Instruments and shouting In their Hooly Their Sacrifice for the Fields which is at their other Seed-time I observed they cut a whole Tree down to the Râ—ots and lopped off the under-Branches till it became strait when leaving the upper Boughs they shoulder'd it with great Clamours the Brachmin beginning a Note which they all followed Thus they brought it into the Pale of their Pagods before which easing it down at one end the foremost made a Salam and hoisted it with the same Noise again and about they went three or four times repeating the same which being finished the Arch-Brachmin digs an hole and baptizes it with Holy Water wherein they fix the Tree crowning it with Flags aloft and about the Body up to the Green Boughs they bind Wisps of Straw to which they put
Fire and look earnestly on the Flame according to the Ascent of which the Brachmin pronounces his Auguries then they offer Rice and Flowers painting their Bodies with the Ashes departing with a Mace of Flowers carried before them beating of Drums and a great Noise This resembles the Ambar vallis hostia or Sacrifice for the Fields of which see Scaliger and also Virgil Terque novas circum foelix fuit hostia fruges But to be clear Whether these Wretches do work by the Devil or no. ut Fama ad liquidum producatur let us consider that these Underlings of the People that do these Services to the Devil or are said so to do may be aspersed For the Brachmins and other the Purer Sort as they account themselves may defame them only because shedding of Blood is horrible to them and therefore Diabolical Besides those Diseases that are said to be Devils put into one another which as many as I have met with I have been curiously inquisitive of their Phoenomenaes or Energies are discussed by Natural Causes and as often cured by Natural Means but on the contray it is allowed where they resist them it is suspicious And the Devil without doubt cannot easier work on any than the Weak and Simple wherefore he chose the Woman not the Man and upon that account may probably delude and overawe these People that give themselves up to him wholly out of Fear having not so much Virtue Fortitude and Cunning to resist and check their own Lusts as the Wiser sort As for the visible appearance of a Devil or Daemon which they say is common among them by those that see it I am convinced it may be credible but in the mean while Rage and Melancholy Madness assisted by the Infernal Power may create great Illusions to a Fancy fitted for such an Operation and they may think they see things which in reality are not so Now as these by the low and mean Conceptions they have of a Godhead reach not the great Branch of its Omnipotency and Goodness whereby it is able to defend them from all Assaults and Wiliness of the Devil depressing their Understandings bow under the intolerable Yoak of his Slavery The sublime Wit as much in the wrong as the depressed so there are a sort of sublimated Wits that will own neither God nor Devil and put all things upon Chance so long that the very Notions they framed to themselves after beating of the Air fly out of their Giddy Heads in Fumo Let them place themselves under the Aequator where the Sun is at present and take a Prospect on each hand of the Orderly Course of the Creation How he passes the Ecliptick and dispenses his Irradiations as far as either Pole How within the Tropicks entring the first Degree of the Ram till the second Degree of Taurus it is Summer that is from January till the One and twentieth of March when the Woods are most denuded of their old Leafs by the parching Heat of the Sun though new ones succeeding the Trees keep their perpetual Verdure yet these lying on the Ground makes this time then the most like Autumn of any till the Rains fall which while the Sun is over their Heads make their Winter till which come it would be unsufferable living here did not the Variable Winds gather the Clouds to obscure the Sun After the Rains follows their Spring when by reason of the Remoteness of the Sun it is most pleasant living Thus truly might Ovid be deceived whilst he only reasoned and not experimented when he sang of the Zones and the Climes Vtque duae dextrâ Coelum totidemque sinistrâ Parte secant Zonae quinta est ardentior illis Sic onus inclusum numero dist inxit eodem Cura Dei totidemque Plagae tellure premuntur Quarum quae media est non est habitabilis aestu But what Colour is there for the Ignorance of our Atheistical Young Gallants No Evasion for the Atheist Certainly none Would they abate so much time from living as to see and consider an admirable and well-contrived Providence and not to harp too much on Casualty which I am confident their own Logicians would hiss at as an Absurdity to say That such an exact Progress and Observance ever since the Frame of Nature was instituted should continue such an unalterable Decorum on these Four great Anniversary Wheels fitly adapted to every Climate or that they first proceeded from a Bundle of Nonsensical Fortuitous Atoms conjoined into an Hodg-Podge of confused Nothings For the very Matter being Chance would without doubt produce a rare Stability for the Impressions of any Forms but what must be blowed out of as idle Chimeras I could wish therefore such bold Disputes being waved they would confess an All-wise Creator and Preserver of Heaven and Earth unless they will verify the Proverb Atheus est talpa de die caecutiens Rationi autem paret qui Religionem sectatur The Atheist is a Mole being blind at Noon-day the Man that adores God and follows Religion is the only Master of his Reason Which made Cicero profess in Lib. 2. Divinat Esse praestantem aliquam aeternamque Naturam eam suspiciendam adorandamque hominum genus cardoque rerum Caelestium cogit confiteri Et in Nat. Deor. Lib. 2. Quid potest esse tam apertum tamque perspicuum cum Caelum suspeximus Coelestiaque contemplati sumus quam aliquod esse numen praestantissimae mentis quo haec reguntur The Deputy-Governor of Bombaim being sick I am sent for to Bombaim the Phaenix-Ketch was ordered to bring me up to that Island wherefore the 6th of April 1676. I took my leave of Carwar which hath no peculiar Commodities or Manufactories of its own Product but lies conveniently for the Markets of Pepper Bettle-Nut or Arrach Cloath as Potkaes Suffaguzes from Hubly six days Journy hence Diamonds from Visiapour ten days Journy But the Factory decays by reason of the Embroils of the Countrey Merchants being out of heart to buy or sell Here are good Returns to be made from this Port to Persia and back again as likewise from Mocha from whence are brought Horses for War The Variable Winds kept us six days before we could reach Goa All Butchers Flesh forbidden at Goa in the Heats except Pork though but twelve Leagues At the City all Butchers Meat is forbidden except Pork upon account of the Heats which afford not much Sustenance for the Cattel and the approaching Rains which robs them of that little Flesh they retain and scours them to mere Carrion Wherefore the Religion of the Indians has enjoined them the most Healthy Rule to avoid Sickness the forbidding them to eat Flesh than which nothing now can be more prejudicial At this time the Citizens remove mostly to their Aldeas the Air of Goa being less temperate than the Fields and open Bays The Diseases here are Epidemical Mangoes good to cleanse the Blood