of Wheaten Ears Scatter'd about Teeth brayded on her Crown And broken Ivory hung The Wood-Elephants in the Kingdom of Senega especially near the River Gamba feed together in a Heard like wilde Swine in some parts of Europe Of which thus Petronius Quaeritur in silvis Mauri fera ultimus Ammon Afrorum excutitur ne desit bellua dente Ad mortes pretiosa suas The Lybian Sands we seek and th' utmost South To finde a Monster out whose precious Tooth Proves its own bane The Lybian or Mauritanian are lesser than the Indian and as Polybius writes can not endure the Voice or Cry of the Indian Elephant The Indian though the largest of all differ in size much amongst themselves They shew'd one at Constantinople that was eleven Foot betwixt his Eyes and the utmost of his Trunk from his Eye eight Foot in length many are nine Foot high some above eleven Aloysius Camustus saw one whose flesh weighed more than five of our Stall-fed Oxen They are all black except the Ethiopian yet the Relaters of the East-Indian Voyages say that the King of Narsinga had a white Elephant Their Skin is rough and hard but more on the back than the belly they have four teeth that are Chawers besides their Tusks which stick out of their Mandible and are crooked but the Females are streight some of these Tusks are of an incredible bigness Vertomanus saw two at the Isle of Sumatra that weigh'd three hundred thirty six pound Polybius says that in the borders of Ethiopia they are us'd for Jaums of Gates and Door-posts and in Beasts-stalls for stakes For a Nose or a Snout they have a long small hanging part call'd a Trunk reaching the ground and open being sinewy and bending every way it serves him for a Hand with which he gathers both his Food and Potation conveying so to his Mouth through this he also breathes and smells Aristotle says they have Joynts in their hinder Feet below but others write variously concerning the flexure of their Knees some say they have Joynts in their Legs others the contrary and that if fallen they cannot rise Plinie says which experience allows that they have short Joynts in their hinder Legs bending inwards like a Mans their Feet are round like Horses Hooffs but larger Vertomanus compares them to a round Table their broad soal being eighteen inches over their Toes being five look as if all one piece being black and squadded an unlick'd piece so little cloven that they scarce make any separation This creature hath two Teats not on her Breasts but backwards and more concealed His Pizzle little comparing his huge Bulk and like a Stallions his Stones appear not but abscond about his Reins which apts him more for Generation Their sustenance is Water-Herbs browsing on Trees * This grows upon a small Tree with great leaves and is of the bigness of a Cucumer and by the Mahumetan Doctors is affirmed to be the forbidden Fruit because so exceedingly pleasant Musae fruit and Indian Fig-Tree Roots sometimes they swallow Earth and Stones but such food proves obnoxious to them as Pliny judges unless well chaw'd when tam'd they feed most on Barley and drink untroubled Water delighting in Liquors made of Rice other Fruits and European Wine One at Antwerp guzzel'd down seven of our Wine Gallons at once and took such large potations often yet are they not impatient of thirst but will suffer eight days well and not languish under Drowth Their ingenuity is wonderful as appears by that Elephant which Emanuel King of Portugall presented Pope Leo who seeing him at a Window made formal Congees to his Holiness with bended knees Metellus says that in the Isle of Zeilan they understand the Language of the Natives Pliny reports that an Elephant he knew could write Greek and often set down in that Character this signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I my self writ this and offer'd up to the Celtick spoil Elian tells us that they us'd to eat handsomly and sit mannerly like men not tearing or devouring their Victuals when they drank they took their Cup delivering it to the next draining the Goblet moderately sprinkling the remainder as in a Joke upon the beholders when they would pass any water that is scarce fordable the tallest of them enters first the rest passing by him as it were a Bridge to whom they cast Branches of Trees to help out at last Some affirm that they are Religious adoring the most Eminent Lights the Sun and Moon and also hospitable directing wandring Passengers when out of their way observe Murtherers and other Criminals and will detect such Guilty Offenders how they will toss a Pike and Fence one with another playing out their several Weapons and Dance after a Warlike manner Augerius Busbeek writes in his Turkish Letters how he saw a young Elephant that Danc'd to a Song and play'd at Stool-Ball striking and retorting with his Trunk as we with our hands one at Rome would tye and untye hard knots by Moon-light so cunningly complicated that none else could unloose them and patiently receive correction from his Master when he fail'd and was out The female excels the Male in strength and hardiness yet Aristotle makes the Female more timerous Oppianus tells that they will beat down with their Teeth Beech Olive and Palm-trees and whole Houses as Aristotle relates Vertomannus Stories that an Elephant threw down a Tree whose body four men could not Fathom and that three Elephans drew a great Vessel on shore Aristotle saith they fight desperately charging with their Teeth and worsted flye the menacing voyce of the Conquerour an innate abhorring they have to Lyons Serpents Tygers Rams Swine and the Rhinoceros and also to some Colours and Fire Authors vary concerning their Copulation Pliny will have the Male fit at Five years the Female at Ten but Aristotle allows Twenty years to both of Twelve to the Female if forwards if slow fifteen they conjoyn usually in the water which is easier for both for the water supports the Male and lightens so great a burthen and fetches him after the Encounter more nimbly off they deal in love-affairs very private and but once in three years choosing every Triennial a new Mistress which work concluded they grow wild and almost stark mad throwing down their Stalls and Stables their time of production is also uncertain some say they go Eighteen Months others Three Years a few stretch it to Ten and these reduce it to Eight years in Travel their pangs are great squatting down on their hinder Legs bringing but one at a birth though others say four their young see and go as soon as born Sucking with his Mouth not his Trunk Eight years They are taken several ways both in Africk and India The Ethiopians knowing the Elephants Night-reposes where he alwayes withdraws to sleep catch him in a strong Palisado made of Timber in a close Covert a Trap-Door left open lying on the
Clergy to the very Eteche and Bishops dwell in Cloysters in the Cities and in the Wildernesses they go bare-foot never eat Flesh nor drink Wine and do besides unusual severe Penance for besides Fasting they torment themselves terribly by being bound to a Cross and so set for a whole day broyling in the Sun Others go stark naked up to the neck into a cool Brook and stay there till they are half dead Some which they call The Clergy of Libela for a Penance carry two four-square pieces of Lead of fifty or sixty pound weight which hang before their Breasts and behind their Backs with which so about them they fall upon their Knees with their Foreheads upon the Ground so that many times their Heads swell and their Bodies grow all black and blue Others sit with a great Stone about their Necks which so bows down their Heads that they cannot look up to Heaven nor move themselves from the places where they are All the Abyssines Circumcision as well Clergy as Temporality are Circumcised the eighth day after their Birth and Baptiz'd the fortieth but the Daughters the sixtieth and afterwards in their sixth year are Re-baptiz'd with Fire in this manner They take a sharp Iron which cuts on both sides and making it red hot in the Fire set therewith upon the very tip of their Nose two Marks to distinguish them from Mahumetans who are also Circumcised The Water of Baptism they Consecrate with many Ceremonies and Benedictions with which they renew their Baptism every year upon the Day of the Three Kings because upon that day Christ was Baptized The Confession of their sins they say they have by Apostolical command which they make standing after which they receive Absolution Godignus avers that they neither make known the particulars nor the number of their sins but say onely in general Habessen Habessen which signifies I have sinn'd I have sinn'd They hold onely five mortal sins fixing upon the last Chapter of the Revelations which excludes out of the holy City Sorcerers Fornicators or Adulterers Murderers Idolaters and Lyars They acknowledge but five Commandments imply'd by Christ in these Negatives I have been hungry and ye have not fed me I have been thirsty and you have not given me drink I have been a stranger and you have not let me in I have been naked and you have not clothed me I have been sick and you have not visited me I have been in prison and you have not come to me Believing that Christ will say to Reprobates onely these words at the last Day They perform Mass daily yet no more but one in every Church and that usually in the Evening an hour and a half before the going down of the Sun except on Saturdays and Sundays They ordinarily bury their Dead with a Cross and Prayers reading over them the Gospel of St. John the next day give some Alms for the benefit of their Souls They Fast every Wednesday Damian Goez in remembrance of the Council of the Jews upon the Death of Christ which was held upon that day and every Friday in Commemoration of the Death of Christ eating nothing before the going down of the Sun observing besides with other Christians several other times of Abstinence Some of the Clergy in the Cloysters always eat Flesh because they lie far from the Sea and have no Lakes nor Rivers out of which to take Fish Others eat on Fasting-days but onely an Apple with Bread and Water or else some Herbs boyl'd without Oyl or Butter and some onely Bread and Water Such as eat Fish in some Places will touch nothing that hath any Bloud but content themselves with Grashoppers Oysters Lobsters and the like Also they use upon Fasting-days a Grain call'd Camfa and another Tebba both prepar'd and made ready like Mustard Most of the Abyssines have made defection from their antient Opinions acknowledging the Roman Church to have the true Doctrine and the Pope to be Christ's Vicar for in the time of Pope Clement the seventh Prester-John sent to acknowledge him High-Priest with promise of obedience to him and his Successors and all that have succeeded him have done the same till the Year Sixteen hundred and nine when the Prince of Narel Jacob infected with the Errors of Dioscorus and Eutiches got the Crown After him the Son of Zaga-Christ who in the Year Sixteen hundred thirty and three stept into the Throne embraced the same Opinions so that he put out of the City all those that acknowledged and obeyed the Pope But Cosme Son of King Haste Jacob about the Year Sixteen hundred and thirty caused in the Kingdom of Dambea near his Court a Church to be built after the European manner of Cedar-wood and Zaga-Christ his Brother and all his Family heard Mass openly in the Kingdom of Goyame And moreover being a singular Votary of the Catholick Religion established among others those Laws That no Clergy-man that is Marry'd may administer the Lords Supper upon pain of death That no temporal Person may have any more but one Wife and That none should draw near to the Lords Table before he had made satisfaction to all whom he had wronged In the Year Sixteen hundred and twenty in the Territory of Agoas a spacious Countrey and fruitful five thousand Souls were Baptiz'd by the Portuguese Jesuits The several states of the Countreys relating to Religion are as followeth In Tigre the Turks possess the Places lying near the Sea Peter Davity Estats du Grand Kegus but the Bowels of the Kingdom are fill'd with Idolaters mixed with Christians Those of Angote are Christians without mixture so those of Xoa and Amara Damut according to Sanutus contains a mixture Leka remains wholly Christian but Bagamedi hath some Christians and some Heathens so Dambea Mahumetans wholly possess the City of Aukaguerle But Dahali contains Christians Moors and Mahumetans Gecie Moors and Idolaters Ario and Fatigar wholly Christians Those of Zingaro and Roxa are Idolaters but they of Ronazegus all Christians Goyame comprehends Heathens and Christians but Marea Goroma Zeth Concho and Mahaola lie totally involved in Idolatry Sua hath Mahumetans and Christians Bora Calava and Aga in show Christians but in heart Idolaters Dubane and Xaucale Caffers a People without any Religion Xincho Aris Evara and Arbo none but Mahumetans Daraita all Christians and lastly Agoas are most Idolaters but some Christians who have many Monasteries and Convents both of Men and Women They have a great number of Churches Churches the first and principal of all is call'd Delia Libanos that is The Mountain of Liban in the Kingdom of Goyame wherein formerly the Kings of Abyssine us'd to be buried the second Marcoza Mariam that is The Misery of Mary in the same Kingdom the third Dima or St. Maries in Goroma the fourth Macana Celacen that is The Seat of the Trinity in Amara the fifth Laboca that is Mountain of Gold dedicated to St. Michael in
which Seamen pull up and fetch for Fuel and Coloquintida which grows in so great quantities that it cannot be destroy'd There are many Tortoises very good in taste and so big that the Sea-men who touch at this Island for fresh Water are compell'd to hale them Aboard with Ropes They come every night in June and July out of the Sea to the Land when the Inhabitants casting them upon their backs by reason of their weight they cannot turn themselves again The Countrey hath many Rocks but little Water The Goats they kill for their Skins which they send yearly to Portugal in great quantities Their Inhabitants are Blacks who live there very soberly without Recreation fetching their Water in Leather Sacks made of Goats Skins in the Year Sixteen hundred twenty three they were onely nineteen persons eight Men seven Women and four young Girls Ilha de Mayo a Rocky and dry Land with little Grass affords onely some few Figg-trees which by the heat of the Climate and dryness of the Ground never bear any ripe Fruit for though the Figgs have a promising colour yet they are insipid or tastless But Goats or Cabriets or Sheep breed so numerously that above five thousand Skins are carry'd thence yearly They have also some little Horses Asses Oxen and Cows Turkeys and Hens of the bigness of a Pheasant with white and black mix'd and speckled Feathers but all wild and in a manner untameable There are many Salt-Pans which after they have let in the Salt-Water being shut up the heat of the Sun consolidates and brings to a Gray-Salt but 't is a toilsome work to gather it and yet more troublesome to get on Ship-board because the Boats are not without great danger of being swallow'd up by the Whirlpits The Inhabitants are Whites and Blacks usually sent thither from St. Jago In the Year Fifteen hundred and five they were two hundred and five and twenty Whites and Blacks Old and Young Exiles and Slaves but in the Year Sixteen hundred twenty and eight there were onely fifty besides Women The Inhabitants have neither Corn nor Clothing unless brought them from St. Jago but there are many Goats which the Portuguese and Blacks there resident catch up with Dogs partly for the Skins and partly for the Flesh St. Anthonio has many Woods and therein several sorts of Fruits as Oranges Lemons Dates Pomegranates Sugar-Canes Bakovens and Melons One Orchard lieth in this Island of which nothing can be seen from Sea but a high Palm-Tree which the people of the Ships in the Bay of St. Vincent discern plainly and commonly send their Boats to barter Knives and other such small Toys for Fruit with the people who have a Portuguese Governor their number generally about five hundred most of them Blacks who from another Orchard bring the Fruits upon Asses to the Shore side to sell to the Sea-men In the latter end of December they have great ripe Citrons Lemons and Oranges many Bananoes but unripe Potatoes and Melons very large and singular good The Island Goree THe Island Goree lieth in fourteen degrees and fifteen minutes North-Latitude about a Stones throw from the firm Land of Cape de Verd in South South-East about half a Canon shot in length and a Musket shot in breadth This Island hath one little Bay with a Road for Ships from whence the Sea-men go Ashore no other place affording that conveniency neither hath it any Brooks or Rivers of fresh Water but fetch all they use from Cape Verd. In the Year sixteen hundred and seventeen King Biram of Cape Verd gave it to the Netherlanders who in a little time erected a Fort there The Fort SNASSAO ORANGE upon the Island GOEREE Het FORT NASSOU van Binnen met ORANJE op â— EILANT GOEREE INSULAE CANARIAE alias FORTUNATAE dictae In the Year Sixteen hundred sixty three both these Forts together with the whole Island were taken by Captain Holmes so the Royal African English Company but the year following on the four and twentieth of October by Admiral de Ruyter regain'd It was at that time possess'd with about sixty English Souldiers under Sir George Abercromy Chief Governor of the Island all which with convenient Boats for their hire were carry'd to the River Gamboa Then both the Forts together with the whole Island was left possessed with about an hundred and fifty Hollanders Commanded by Johannes Cellarius who presently caus'd the fall'n Batteries to be made up raising the upper Fort with a Breast-Work of three Foot higher and fully repairing the lower The Canary Islands or Islands of the Canaries THe Canary Islands by the consent of most eminent Geographers are held to be the Insulae fortunatae or Fortunate Islands of Ptolomy and Pliny though Ptolomy placeth them not far enough to the North setting the most Northerly part of them but at sixteen degrees North-Latitude whereas they extend to the thirtieth degree and therefore we may suppose that they mistook them for the Islands of Cape Verd last before mention'd Some will that the Canaries receiv'd that name from the Spaniards who attributed to all the proper Denomination of the most Eminent which they call'd Canary from the many Dogs found at the first discovery thereof Can signifying a Dog in Spanish whereas the name of Canary was known a long time before by Pliny and Ptolomy the Moors of Barbary call it Elbard from the Pike-Mountain of Teneriff Ptolomy computes the number of these Islands to six and names them Gramage lib. 9. c. 3. Apropite Here or Autolala Pluitalia Casperia Canaria and Centuria Pliny makes the same number but differences their names thus Ombrio great and small Junonie Capraria Niraria and Canaria There are that make Ombrio and Junonie the same with Porto Santo and Madera Pluitalia for Lancerote Casperia or Capraria for Fuerte-ventura Canaria for the Grand Canary which still holds its name At this day the Canary Islands the Holy Haven and Madera being included are seven and known to all by the same names viz. As the Island of Palma Fierro or Ferro Gomere Teneriff Grand Canary Fuerta-Ventura Lancerota or Lanceroto to which number Purchas adds Lobos Rocha Gravosa Santa Clara Alegranca and Inferno by Sanutus reckon'd in this order Vecchio Marino Sante Clare Rocho Gravosa and Alegoranca Ortelius brings among them one that he calleth Selvaia or Savage the most Northerly of all plac'd in the same rank with that of Alegranca and besides Gravosa and Coro which Thevet calleth the Heart Island But these small Spots are of such little concern that many do not so much as name them These Canary Islands whereof Lasaretto Fuerte-Ventura Grand Canary Situation and Teneriff are the chiefest they have their scituation between six and twenty degrees and thirty minutes and twenty degrees and thirty minutes North-Latitude opposite to Cape Nun in Morocco seventy or eighty Miles from the Main-Land of Barbary and nine or ten distant from each other They were for many
ground which when the Elephant is in they sculking in a Tree draw up and shut with Ropes when they have him sure in the Trap they descend and shoot him to Death with Arrows but if he chance to escape rending their Gins he spares none killing all he meets Others Saw a great Tree half in sunder making a pit on the side then covering it which the Elephant suspecting nothing being weary retires to his old resting place to which he leaning his weight oversets the half-cut Trunk which failing he falls into the covered Hole and finds himself their Prisoner In Zenega near Cape de Verd the Inhabitants sixty in a Company draw forth each Arm'd with six small and one great Arrow so finding his haunt they stay till he resorts thither which by the loud rusling noise he makes bursting through opposing Branches and overthrowing whole Trees keeping his march they know then they follow him shooting continually till their so many infixed Shafts may bring him to his end which the Blacks observe by the loss of Blood and the stronger resistance of his confining Palisado against his feebler charge The African Lyon called by the Arabians Aced Lyon is the most couragious and cruel of all other devouring not only Beasts but Men yea a Mauritanian Lyon sometimes dares attaque a * The Empire of these Desarts I obtain'd And under me Kings Petty Lyons reign'd On Expeditions Armies I could raise Nor plotted we for spoil clandestine ways Lying whole Nights in silent Ambuscades But took the Field by day in bold Brigades And like a falling Deluge swept up all Emptying at once both Pasture Coat and Stall Nay more on Skirts of Cities we durst prey Ships Boarding at Low water in the Bay Aesopic Audroclem Sect. 11. Gesner Paraph. Troop of 200. Horsemen and though mortally wounded will fight it out to the last gasp defending his young ones Those which are bred upon cold Mountains are less stout and dangerous for the hotter their habitation the more fierce and cruel they are such are those to be seen between Tremesen and the Kingdom of Fez or in the Wilderness of Anguep or Angad and about Tremesen Also between Bone and Tunis are found the cruellest and strongest Lyons of all Africk The Lyons forehead according to Aristotle is of a middle size and four-square his Eyes not strutting out nor yet hollow his Nose rather thick than thin his upper and under Jaws meet yet open very wide when gaping his Lips or closing of his Mouth thin his Neck great and rough moderately thick his Breast strenuous Belly slender Legs strong and sinewy Hair of a dark yellow not falling in hard but looser curles his Feet before have five claws his hinder but four the Majesty and Grandeur of his shaggy Mayn differences him very much from the Lionnesse who more signally may be known by the exuberances of her two Teats according to the number of her young ones Galen says that the Lyons temples are very strong that he may bite the harder his Tongue rough strangely red as if fire and speckled having but one bone in his Neck as Aristotle holds but Scaliger maintains that it consists of many Joynts his Complexion extremely hot and dry caused by the sharp boyling of his heart Gesner writes that his foreparts are hot but his hinder cold and defective he feeds sometimes on * As Mountain Lyons whom their Mother bred In shady Coverts by their fury led Kill folded Sheep and Cattel in the Stall Till by revengeful Shepherds Steel they fall c. Hom. Iliad 5. Cattel especially on Camels and where straitned for Victuals foraging he adventures to fall upon men Polybius saith he saw many of them standing there that had suffered Crucifixion to terrifie others from the like cruelty and humane slaughter Writers differ concerning their preying on the dead Vide Gesner which Elian affirms saying that they feed on them and bury the overplus lest other Beasts should prey after them They drink little if Aristotle and Elian say true enduring thirst three days especially in Summer but in Winter they drink often The Lyon loves the Dolphin but is an enemy to Swine Wolves Wild Asses and Bulls Eccles 13. from a Woman that dares shew her Nakedness and boldly discover her intimacies strangely abashed at her immodesty and quite out of countenance he flyes sayes Leo Africanus The Greeks of old make him afraid at the Crowing of a Cock but Camerarius affirms that a Lyon in the Duke of Bavaria's Court leap'd up to the adjoyning houses a wonderful height seizing the Pullen roosted in the roofs Some Writers say the Lyon Lowes like an Oxe which perhaps the Whelps may when they get a prey a few imagine that they grunt and whine like a Boar others and they the most that they roar which is most likely if we will take fancy for truth Hear the Lyon himself Describing his own Language Thus formidable grown being wondrous strong I roar'd Leontick lost th' Egyptian Tongue Though Beasts and Birds use several Dialects Apollonius they report to have understood the Languages of Beasts and Birds That less than humane voyces have defects Uttering soul-dictates both more clear and brief Hatred and Love Fear Hope their Joy and Grief Yet Leo Lingua who not understands Words Edicts are each Syllable commands The Lyons Fiat 's quicker than his nods Like Angels Tongues or Language of the Gods Aesopic Androcleus Sect. 11. His true valor appears when in most danger for then though he neither fears Weapons nor Enemies contending long in his own defence yet finding himself overpowred he makes an honourable retreat loosing his posts with like courage they were maintained oft boldly charging on the least seeming advantage so recovering the Champaigne observ'd well by Virgil in the Ninth Book of his Aeneis on his retreat of Turnus ceu saevum turba Leonem Cum telis premit infensis ac territus ille Asper acerba tuens retro dedit neque terga Ira dare aut virtus patitur nec tendere contra Ille quidem hoc cupiens potis est per tela virosque Haud aliter retro dubius vestigia Turnus Improperata refert mens exaestuat ira As when a Troop a Lyon hath beset With cruel Spears he makes a brave retreat Although forbid by Valour and by Rage Nor can though willing ' gainst such Power engage So unresolv'd bold Turnus did retire Step after step his Bosom swoln with ire When he pursues his prey he leaps but in retiring he walks only he knows whom he receives a wound from and will single him out from all his Enemies that spent their shafts in vain and take his life only in satisfaction if possible That these fierce Beasts may be tame appears by Onomarchus King of Castane who entertained and treated them as his Guests In the Temple of Adonis in Elemea they drest and comb'd such as tamely resorted thither in civil manner
allow when Mahomet received the Alcoran his Soul was carried by the Angel Gabriel into Gods presence But the Turks that his Soul and Body were both so carried The Persians pray but thrice a day The Arabians five times besides many other differences about the interpretation of the Alcoran as may be read in Camerarius Bovius and others which for brevity we omit What Mahomet contrived designing his Foundation for this as they call it his Law appears in the Alcoran wherein speaking of Christ the Virgin Mary the Gospel and himself he says That God Jesus and Mary wrought Miracles before men And in another place The Word of God Christ Jesus the Son of Mary was sent by the Creator of the World to be the face of all people in this and the Ages to come Elsewhere he confesses That Christ is the power of God the Word Wisdom Soul Breath and Heart of God born by a Divine inspiration of the Virgin Mary that he raised the Dead to life made the Blind to see the Lame to go and wrought many other miracles That he was more excellent than all the Prophets and that the Jews had no more Prophets after him He prefers Jesus before all men and Prophets and Mary above all Women but averreth withall that the * The Heresie of the Anthropomorphites Traitor Judas was Crucified in stead of Christ being changed into his likeness and apprehended in his likeness in the Garden Speaking of himself in the Alcoran he useth these words That he did no miracle nor should that he was ignorant of most things that he was a meer man though sent and inspired by God and could not forgive sins He forbad people to worship him confessing that the truth of some things extant in his Books may be doubted He acknowledges the power of the Gospel in that he calls in a Light a Guide and Perfection And much diminished the Authority of his Alcoran in saying Every one that worshippeth the true God and liveth honestly and uprightly be he Jew Christian or Saracen shall obtain mercy and salvation His Disciples believe the Creation of the World that Adam was made of earth all the Hebrew Histories and Christs Doctrine in part They acknowledge a Resurrection of the Dead the last Judgment Rewards and eternal Punishment in Hell and that Christ shall sit next to God in judgment which are points so seemingly consonant to the truth that weak Christians mistaking those general notions think it no great error to submit to it but all those fair shews and formal species are quickly overthrown and dash't to pieces by Mahomet's assuming too much to himself where he saith that Christ had profit by him in these words I declare unto you from the Messenger of God who shall come after me whose name is Mahomet that is written from eternity in the sight of Gods Throne on his right hand 'T is true he commends Moses highly and owns Christ greater than Moses but himself the greatest of all He further adds that the Christians have corrupted the Gospel and the Jews the Law of Moses But yet both together makes up the same and as much truth as is in his Alcoran That he was sent and directed by God to settle his Law by force of Arms but Christ in the power of Miracles At eight years of age Circumcision the time of their Circumcision the Children ride to the Mosque with a Turbant on their heads and a Torch carried on a Spear before them After the Circumcision the Child by the Priests direction saith aloud La Illah Illella Muhemet re sul Allah that is God is one God and Mahomet his Prophet and so after some Prayers and Offerings returns The Mahumetan Law contains eight Commandments The first commands to acknowledge one onely God and but one Prophet The second contains the Duty of Children to their Parents The third the love of Neighbors one towards another The fourth the times of their Sala or Prayer in the Mosque The fifth their annual Fasts by all to be observed thirty days The sixth the love and alms to the Poor The seventh of Matrimony And the eighth against Murther A Paradise of all pleasures is promi'sd to the observers of these commands but for the Offenders a Hell with seven gates is prepared wherein they shall eat and drink liquid Fire be laden with Chains and punish'd with hot seething Water The grounds or rise of Mahomet's promised sensual Paradice first appears in Homer which he makes no more but a shady place of quiet retirement concerning which Ulysses congratulating Achilles seeming to him as great a Prince there as when alive and the primest Heroe in the Grecian Camp he much contrary to his expectation thus answers Thou of the Dead a weak discourse dost make Hom. Od. 11. Trather would a Rustick be and serve A Swain for hire ready almost to sterve And living be ' mongst all misfortunes hurl'd Than Dead be Emperor of this shady world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Virgil raises his Elizium to a higher pitch giving them pleasant slowry walks and shadows of Fruit Trees for delight passing their time in Singing Dancing Wrastling and such like Entertainments For which take a part of himself thus described His demum exactis Virg. Aen. lib. 6. perfecto munere divae Devenere locos laetos sedesque beatas Largior hic campos aether lumine vestit Purpureo solemque suum sua sidera norunt Pars in Gramineis exercent membra palaestris Contendunt ludo fulva luctantur arena Pars pedibus plaudunt choreis carmina dicunt Necnon Treicius longa cum veste sacerdos Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum Jamque eadem digitis jam pectine pulsat eburno This done they came to Seats of Joy and Rest Groves happy Mansions of the ever blest Which larger Skyes cloth with a Purple gray New Stars attending their own God of Day Some in green Meads their time in wrestling spend And gallantly on Golden Sands contend Some graceful footing with a Song present In a long Robe the Thracian Poet went On seven sweet strings descanting sacred Lays His hand now strikes his Ivory quill now plays c. But Tibullus drove it up almost to this our Mahomet's height Tibul. El. lib. 2.3 of which he thus says Sed me quod facilis tenero sum semper amori Ipsa Venus campos ducet in Elysios Hîc choreae cantusque vigent passimque vagantes Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aves Fert casiam non culta seges totosque per agros Floret odoratis terra benigna rosis Ad juvenum series teneris immista puellis Ludit assiduè praelia miscet amor Venus her self shall by the hand convey Me her Gall-ant to seats of lasting joy Where Revels never cease where Birds their throats Extending ravish with delicious Notes Cassia
journey through the African Wildernesses and therewith when they are by the heat of the Sun inflamed and thirsty it admirably cools comforts and quenches their Drowth a special Blessing nay sometimes they cure burning Feavers The Liquor wherein these Leaves have been steeped a Week sweetned with Sugar and drank is good against Malignant and putrid Agues Lastly they use them in all Inflammations of the Liver and Reins and also to cure the Gonorrhaea In these parts about Cairo Calaf especially in moist places grows a little shrubby Tree like a Willow the Egyptians call it Caleb or Calaf The Leaves are of a fingers length and two fingers broad at full growth The Flowers grow in form of a little ball between the Body and Stalks of the Leaves they are white of a pleasant smell grow plentifully the Flowers commonly equallizing the Leaves on the Tree From the Blossoms they extract a water call'd Macahalaf The use of it accounted very powerful against all Putrifaction and Poyson and also a great Cordial whence happily the Plant gained its name Joan. Vesting in lib. Alphin de Plant. Egypt Caleb or Calub in the Arabian tongue signifying a Heart The water of it is also specially commended against all Malignant or Quartan Agues and is given to young Children with some Graines of the Bezoar Stone to drive out the Small Pox and the Measles About seven thousand paces from Cairo El-Mattharia lyeth a Hamlet or Village call'd Mattarea and El Mattharia by some thought to be the antient Hermopolis but untruly yet by consent of most Writers is esteemed to have been the Residence of the Virgin Mary and Joseph The place whither the Virgin Mary fled with Christ from Herod's persecution with our Saviour when they fled thither from the persecution of Herod There is still to be seen a Wall with a little Window where the Christian Priests celebrate Mass upon a small Wooden Altar and on the right side of the same Wall the Turks have erected a Mosque There also springs a Fountain wherein they say the Virgin washed our Saviours Swadling-cloths the water whereof is yet in great esteem having as they say a special power for the Curing of Agues Close by this Village is a Tree known to the Antients by the name of Sycamore Sycamore Tree or Pharaoh's Fig. and by the present Christians of Egypt is call'd Tin El Pharaon Pharaohs Fig but by the Natives Giamez The Body of this Tree is low and broad parting it self into two or three spreading Branches from which again spring others strong and large close one by another * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies a Fig. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mulberry which in Summer afford Travellers a pleasant cool shade to keep off the scorching Sun-beams The whole Tree in its Stock Branches Fruit Milk roughness of Leaves and Colour resembles our Fig-tree but in form and bigness of Leaves which never fall off all Winter like the Mulberry It is as many aver so fertile that it 's never without Fruit it growing on the Stock and thick Branches and never on the uppermost as Dioscorides hath mis-reported The Fruit of it call'd Figs. This Fruit they call Figs growing out of a Milk that issues from slits in the Bark without which it would be barren for each slit sends forth a small Branch bearing sometimes three five seven or more Figs hollow within and full of a yellowish small dust which commonly turns to little Worms These Figs eaten are very hurtful to the Stomach making it faint weak and subject to vomit but they are good to cool and moisten such as walk in the heat of the Sun being moderately taken they have a purging quality and cure all heat and hard Swellings if applied by way of Plaister or Pultiss The Learned Ulpian speaking of the Miscarriages of strangers says Vlpian It is not to be pluck'd up by the Roots It is commanded that none should presume to pluck up a Sycamore by the Roots because growing upon the Trenches at the foot of Nile they binde the Earth fast together with their Roots It grows not of the Seed for the Fruit has no Seed in it but is propagated by Slips set in the Earth suddenly springing up and growing in a little while to great largeness and continues very long That which now grows in Mattharea A Sycamore in Matarea the Inhabitants believe and held to be the very same in whose Concave formerly the Virgin Mary Mary the Virgin and Jesus hide themselves therein flying from Jerusalem to avoid Herods Persecution hid her self and her Childe our Savior for some days and ever since it is held in great esteem especially the Hollow of that Tree wherein Christ lay conceal'd which the Turks themselves say proceeded from the Spirit of the great God whereupon they also shew great Devotion at this Place and Tree accounting Christ next Mahomet for a great Prophet Others affirm that this Tree by a Miracle was split in two parts between which the Virgin Mary with her Childe JESUS and Joseph put themselves to dis-appoint the Persecuting Pursuers whereinto they were no sooner entred but it immediately by like Miracle closed again till the Herodian Child-slaughterers passed by and then suddenly re-open'd to deliver its charge so as at this day is to be seen They report also The Illegitimates cannot walk under it that none unlawfully begotten can walk along under this Tree It is encompassed with a low Ditch on whose edge a bank of Earth is cast up for the ease of the Beholders the top-branches are still green and lovely though the Body toward the Root is miserably spoiled it having been observed that who ever comes out of zeal to visit or kiss this Tree commonly cuts off a piece of the Trunk to keep it in remembrance These kindes of Trees grow in several other places of Egypt in great plenty some of that largeness that three men can scarce fathom them about They are found also in the Island of Cyros Tripoli and at this day in several Gardens of Europe being brought hither out of Egypt though our Sycamore never bears Fruit but onely puts forth flourishing Branches and Leaves It was this kinde of Tree upon which Zacheus climbed to see Christ By St. Luke it is call'd Sycomoraea by St. Luke in his nineteenth Chapter and fourth Verse call'd in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Sycomoraea and the same which our Translation renders a Fig-tree which seeing fruitless he cursed that it should never bear Fruit more whereupon it presently withered Close by El-Mattharia in a Marshy and moist place caused by the long lying of the water of Nile upon it groweth a Plant call'd Beid-El-Ossar Beid-El-Ossar but by Arabian Physitians Ossar El-Usar It hath been brought and planted in Europe in several Gardens where it groweth very great and blossometh Vesting in Lib. P.
Alpin de Plant Aegypt but never beareth Fruit. The Roots grow in great clusters out of which sprout Stocks up to the height of a man The Leaves stand in couples being thick firm broad at the Stalk and oval at the end As well from the young Leaves as the ripe The form of it which are of a pale light Green and also from the Stalks and Branches broken there drops an exceeding sharp and bitter Milk which in those Countreys growing hard from its whiteness is call'd Manna or Saccar El-Usar The Saffron coloured and purple Blossoms grow in bunches at the tops of the Branches and hang by tufts on long Stalks bowing towards the Earth and yielding Bees a pleasant food The Fruit when ripe is large resembling the Cods of a Camel The reason of the Name Ossar whence it might possibly take the Name Beid-El-Ossar Ossar in the Arabian Tongue signifying the Cod of a Beast In the Seed is Wooll as soft as Silk which is used in stead of Tinder being apt to take fire from the least spark The outermost Skin is overgrown with a thin hairy Wooll call'd by the Arabians Escera and Scerara The stamped Leaves unboyled The use of it or else boyled in water and applied in form of a Plaister cure Diseases coming of Cold of the Wooll are made Beds and Quilts Alpin de Plant Egypt The Milk which many keep in Vessels fetches off the Hair from the Hides of Beasts lying awhile steeped therein Dried it makes a violent Purge causing a deadly Bloody-Flux but it is an excellent Remedy for the curing all Freckles and Spots in the Skin the parts affected being anointed therewith In some Gardens or Orchards of the same El-Mattharia The Balsam-tree grows in Arabia grow several Balsam-trees trees Theophrastus Dioscorides Pliny Justine Strabo though their proper Countrey is onely Arabia the Happy as Theophrastus Dioscorides Pliny Justine Strabo and other antient Writers have asserted The Balsam-trees are strangers in Egypt onely preserv'd in those Gardens never growing wilde but brought from Mecha in Arabia beyond the Red-sea by the Turkish Pilgrims visiting Mahomets Tomb there They continue not long but fade or wither by the alteration of the Soyl or negligent looking after in whose room others of the same brought over the same way are planted anew These Trees say those Pilgrims grow in vast numbers close by Mecha and Medina upon the Mountains and flat Grounds as also in sandy and barren places though indeed such as grow in barren Land produce little or no Balsam but much Seed which is sold into Europe and the Inhabitants to make them the more fruitful remove them into fatter Soyls That Arabia is the native Place and proper Countrey of Balsam-trees is not onely testified by the said Pilgrims but many antient Writers especially Josephus Josephus lib. 8. Hist Jud. in his Eighth Book of the Jewish History who says That the Queen of Saba brought out of Arabia to Judea a Balsam-tree and presented it as a Gift to Solomon whence afterwards others were produced But Homer celebrates Egypt for a Countrey abounding with all sorts of Medicinal Plants and Herbs among which take this his wondrous Cordial Joves Daughter Hellen Hom. Od. 4 Lib. then her self bethought Straight sending for a Cordial to compound Would Rage and Grief both in Oblivion drown'd Who ere drinks this commixt with Wine though dead He saw his Parents not one Tear would shed In a whole day nor him his Brother more Or Son would trouble weltring in their gore On her this Medicine to appease all woe Did Polydamna Thonus Wife bestow Rich Egypts Product many Simples there Make wondrous Compounds some that deadly are The Natives great Physitians prove and all From * Apollo Paeon boast their high Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sykomorus Kalâ—t Tamarind-boom Balzâ—m-boom The Balsam-tree shoots very high with few Leaves which as Dioscorides saith The Form of a Balsam-tree are of a green colour whitish and do not fall off in winter The Wood is gummy cleaving to the fingers smelling well and light outwardly of a reddish colour the Branches are long straight rough and full of Leaves without order and some like the Leaves of a Mastick-tree The Blossoms are small growing in form of a Coronet five on every Stalk of a pleasing Scent though fading in a little time After the Blossoms follow yellow sweet-scented Seeds inclosed in a reddish-black bladder wherein is a moisture like Honey It is bitterish and a little sharp upon the tongue and of the same shape and bigness with the fruit of the Turpentine-tree in the middle thick and at the ends pointed Opo-balsamum in the summer drops from the slit of the insected Barks of these Trees as soon as it cometh into the Air it becomes whitish afterwards green Opa-balsamum what it is then of a Gold Colour lastly paler The strained Balsam is at first clear but becomes instantly thick and cloudy and when old groweth like Turpentine when it first drops it is of so strong a smell as causeth in many the Head-ache and in some causes a sudden bleeding at the Nose but this sharp and strong savour at length changes into a pleasant scent which in old Balsam is so weak that you can hardly discover any smell at all Observe here All Balsams comes not out of the Bark or Rinde That all the Balsam brought over from Cairo in Flaskets and Leathern-bottles though it be very odoriferous yet it is no pure Liquor or Gum issuing from the bark of the Tree as aforesaid but is drawn out of the Wood and green Branches by boyling which yet is not all retained pure but frequently adulterate with Cyprus Turpentine They press another sort of Balsam out of the Seed which is many times sold for right though not so strong-scented and bitter in taste There is no Medicine in more esteem It s use or greater use with the Egyptians than this for they apply it almost against all Diseases proceeding from Cold Moisture or Poison curing with it all Wounds that are not deep and accompanied with fractured Bones or cut Sinews in a short time It heals also all venomous bitings of Serpents and Scorpions A Universal or Catholick Medicine either taken inwardly or spread upon the Wound It is an extraordinary Preservative against the Plague taking half a quarter of an Ounce inwardly It drives away all inveterate Agues and Feavers that proceed from Putrifaction cleanseth all unconcocted and cold Humors and inward Obstructions if daily a quarter of an ounce be taken inwardly Very operative in opening
enclosed the Dead Body committing it to the fire till it were consumed to ashes while in the same flames this Linnen shrowd as if it had onely been wash'd became more white and refined by the fire Salmas Exercitat Plinian Kircher tells us that himself had in his Lamp a Wiek of * Kircher de Lucernis Aegyptiorum Asbeston burning two years without any loss or alteration All the difficulty to make a perpetual lighted Lamp consists in extracting Oyl out of the Abestion which who can do may easily perfect the rest Several Chymists have in vain attempted and spent much fruitless time and labour about it for the Oyl either affords no fire more resembling water than Oyl or else it is so thick that it is altogether uncapable of affording flame whereby it appears that the mystery of extracting such an Oyl far surpasseth humane Skill and Industry And if any should yet say that the two fore-mention'd examples and as several Authentick Writers affirm that the manner of making such Lights was known to the Antients and consequently by our sublimer Wits or Virtuosie might now be again recovered it may be answered that the above-mention'd Lamps were not perpetual but onely long-continuing Lights which might naturally be thus effected The Inclosed Air by continuance of time being incrassated by the fatness of the Bodies long pent up may easily as a new Coal draws Air by an Antiperistasis get a flame So in the Winter Water in Cisterns by the circum-ambient Air becomes warm Such * Igâ—is fatuus flames many times appear glimmering in Church-yards and fat marshy grounds The like is also asserted by the Workers in Mines that they seldom open a new Vein but there burst out such flames seeming of themselves consistent Notwithstanding all these disputes The Egyptians had perpetually enduring Lamps that the Egyptians have had perpetual burning Lights in their Sepulchral Caves under-ground which indeed were not made of Asbeston but supplyed from another Fountain appears by several Arabian and other expert Writers who were Eye witnesses Their words are to this purpose The Egyptian Sages who were of a sublime spirit and singularly experienc'd in the course of Natural-causes * Salmuth in his Comment upon Paâ—cirollus de rebus perditis affirmeth that one Podocaterus a Cyprian shewed at Venice some incombushble Cloth and his Materials were from Cyprus where indeed Dioscorides placeth them the same is ocularly confirm'd by Vives upon Austiâ— and Maiolus in his Colloquies And thus in our days do men practice to make long lasting Snasts for Lamps out of Alumen Plumâ—sum and by the same read in Pausanias that there always burnt a Lamp before Miuerva's Image Schianga an Arabian Historian did place by the Corps of the Dead in token of their acknowledgment of the Immortality of the Soul several Lamps or Tapors which they so far as was possible sought with a discontinued durance to animate in this manner There are many places in Egypt that afford plenty of Bitumen and Petrole or Stone-oyl which the Learned among them who were great Naturallists discovering lay'd from these Wells secret Channels or Pipes to the Sepulchres where they set in a convenient place a Lamp with a Wiek of Asbeston which moistened and fed thereby continually and the Wiek of it self unconsumable it must of necessity follow that the light also endured perpetually Here comes to minde that which Schianga an Arabian in his History of Egyptian Remarks asserted being in English thus There was in Egypt a field with Ditches full of Pitch and Bitumen from which their Learned men all Naturallists lay'd certain Pipes to the Caves under ground wherein they placed a Lamp joyn'd to the Pipes which Lamp had a Wiek incombustible like the * Salamanders Wool is not desumed from any Aâ—imal but a Mineral substance Metapliorically so call'd from the received opinion of its incomâ—uâ—ibleness Salamanders Wool by which means they burned being once kindled perpetually because of the continual influx of Bitumen The intent of the Egyptians setting these Lights near the Sepulchres seems to signifie that as the nature of fire is like the Operations of the Gods so also the Numens appointed for the protection of the Corps thereby as by a visible similitude of their own likeness for the continual glorifying of the Soul are drawn thither as they believe Perhaps some will wonder Why the Egyptians so carefully Bury their Corps and ask for what cause the Egyptians have with such diligence taken care to preserve their Corps from perishing and to adorn them with such exquisite Ornature To resolve which Quaere it is to be observed first that the Egyptians firmly believed that the first state of the world after the course of six and thirty thousand or as others of forty thousand years must return to its pristine state and condition again Secondly that according to that Position the Government of the Seven Superior Tutelar Guardians of Egypt at every seven thousand years end return to the first again so continuing for the space of * Annus Platonicus or Maginus nine and forty thousand years viz. when the Sabbath or Rest of all things shall come That the change of these Rulers caus'd the alteration of the condttion of the Body That the Soul which after the course of seven thousand years transmigrating from one Body to another should return to its own Body left in the Grave but clean from all corruption and protected by the presence of the Gods yet still advanc'd till having travell'd through all the Heavenly Residencies at length it is brought to the Great * Protoplastus that is Deus for although the Heathens did multiply to themselves such innumerable orders of Deities yet they ended in one onely God as Virg. Aen. lib. 1. O Socii neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum O Passi graviora dabit Deus his quoque finem Dear Friends for we have many dangers past And Greater God these too will end at last Examplar or Idea of it self and so live eternally and unchangably happy The Egyptians then believing this and being wonderously diligent to lead an honest and vertuous life seem to insinuate by their Embalming of their Corps and to desire that those Souls after this their departure may finde their next transmigrated habitations worthy of their deserts till they be fully united with God for it is certain that the Egyptians from the beginning of all Memorials have so constantly maintained the Souls Immortality The Egyptians have always strongly maintained the Immortality of the Soul that not onely themselves believed it as delivered to them from Antiquity but have taught and inculcated this Doctrine also to their other Neighboring Idolaters though learned Among others Pythagoras who first brought this Opinion among the Greeks Thus far of the Pyramids and Burying-places of the Antient Egyptians We shall now return to describe the other Cities lying in Sahid and begin
honor they erected such Spires The bigness of the Obelisks were several some no higher than ten or twelve foot while others did climb to the height of twenty thirty seventy an hundred or a hundred and forty foot Upon every side the antient Egyptian Priests carv'd Figures and Images almost in the same manner Hieroglyphick Figures carved upon the Needles or Spires as those delineated upon the Covering-Clothes and Winding-sheets of the Mummies and sometimes the very same There were also plain ones erected by the Kings that conquer'd Egypt Neeldes or Spires without Figures for the Egyptian Priests would not reveal the Mystery of their Charactering to any strangers As this Hieroglyphical manner of writing was very mysterious Of what stone the Needles or Spires are made so the Stone they chose for that purpose was most excellent which the Greeks call'd * A Fire-stone Pyroboilon the Latines Theban Stone and by the Italians Granito Rosso It is a kinde of Marble sprinkled and speckled as it were with Drops of several colours and as durable and hard as Porphiry The Quarry out of which these were cut lyeth close by the antient City Thebes among the Hills extending to Negro-land and the Cataracts of Nilus to the South And though Egypt abound in Quarries of other sorts of Marble yet the Egyptian Priests chose this for the erecting of Obelisks no other Stone being us'd to that purpose for although they had the like Veins of Marble in the Island Ilia and other places in Italy and Sweden yet it could no way compare in hardness and variety of Grains and Specks with that of Egypt Now why the Egyptians made the Obelisks of those streak'd Marbles this may be the reason They that erected Obelisks in honor of the Sun Why they do so whose beams their spiring tops seemed to represent would not take every kinde of stone but such onely as did most analogize with that glorious Body which in their opinion this Marble doth By nature it consisted of a four-fold Existence viz. First a glistering Red among which here and there are found some mixed other clear Christal-colour'd Spots then Violet-colour after that Blew and Ash-colour with some streaks or dashes of Black between which the Egyptians seeing they chose it as most fit to represent their hidden Mysteries so that by the aforesaid Mixture of the Colours without doubt they intend to signifie the four Elements and particularly by the Red Fire by the Christaline Air by the Blew Water and lastly by the Black the Earth Hereby appears with how great judgement the Egyptians chose fit Materials for their Mysteries and that for the better representing their deep Notions they have us'd nothing but what might make them more conspicuous And if any find older Obelisks of another sort certainly they were not true Egyptick but either erected by Strangers in imitation of the true or in the late times when by the Destruction and Banishment of the Priests by Cambyses the Sacred Egyptian Letters were utterly lost Such was the Obelisk rais'd by the Phenicians to the Honor of the Sun which being depressed low flat and leaning very much differ'd from the right Such a one also Herodian says the Emperor Heliogabalus brought from Syria to Rome ¶ ALL the great Obelisks In what manner the Obelisks were brought out of the Stone Quarties to the place appointed Plin. lib. 36. c. 9. were brought from their Quarries to their appointed place in this manner First there was a great Trench Digged beginning under the already hewen Obelisk and running into the Nile where two great Ships deep laden with Stones exceeding the weight of the intended Freight were Sunk and then towed quite underneath it the two ends of the Obelisks hanging on the opposite Banks of the Ditch The Ships there setled and the Stone Ballast being cast out the Vessels finding themselves eas'd Buoying up receiv'd their Lading the hanging Obelisk which they brought through the same cut into the Nilus and so to the appointed place where it was to be erected ¶ THere are yet to be seen at Thebes Egyptian Greek and Latine Inscriptions and without the Gates old Ruines and Columns all the remaining tokens of its antient Glory The City according to Diodorus in circuit had an hundred and forty Stadia or Furlongs That is five miles eight and twenty Stadia accompted for a Mile As to the number of an hundred Gates that accompt seems to some as Diodorus reports to intend onely the gross number of the Avenues and Passages though others as Mela confirm it adding that Thebes was so exceeding populous that it could draw out of * That is a Million of men every Gate ten thousand Armed men And that the Greek word Hecatompilos which signifyeth an hundred Gates according to which Thebes was call'd by Homer is not to be understood literally but is rather to be explained to relate to an hundred Palaces in which so many Princes had their residence Plin. lib. 36. c. 14. Pliny will have the whole City stand upon Arches so made on purpose that the Egyptian Kings might draw their Armies this way under the Houses of the City without being discovered Round about this decayed and desolate City are Desarts wherein formerly very many Hermits dwelt Two days Journey from Cairo lyeth a Wilderness wherein it is said is the Cave wherein St. Paul remaining was visited by St. Anthony Six miles from the City Munsia or Munza lyeth a Cloister of Georgian Christians heretofore very famous and inhabited by above two hundred Monks who having much Goods and a great yearly Revenue imparted the same to all needy Strangers sending the overplus to the Patriarch to Cairo who distributed it among poor Pilgrims in his Diocess But two hundred and sixty years since all these Monasticks dying by a Pestilence the Bashaw of Munsia wall'd in the Cloister and made it into Houses for Artificers and Tradesmen to dwell in Chiam or El Chiam Chiam now a heap of Rubbish but heretofore the Seat of the Jacobite Christians Livy and Sanutus seem to be of Opinion that this is Ptolomy's old Diospolis because both of them lay in the same Latitude More toward the South from Cairo Barbanda lyeth another City upon the Banks of Nile call'd Barbanda destroyed by the Romans whose ruinous heaps were for the most part brought to Asna among which sometime they finde Gold and Silver Coin and pieces of Smaragdus or Emeralds Against Barbanda lyeth Cana erected by the Egyptians near the Nile Cana. and Walled The Inhabitants use no Trades but rely all upon Husbandry and Tillage by which means this place which is divided from the Red-Sea by a vast sandy and dry Desart is very rich in Corn which the Inhabitants of Medina where the Tomb of Mahomet is and also of Mecha Transport in great abundance for Asia Opposite to Cana on the Red Sea lyeth Cossir a Haven whither they usually
Jealous of their Wives that they dare not go open-fac'd to their Parents They have many pernicious Customs Evil Customs being greatly addicted to Sorcery and Witchcraft Whoever at any time falls sick makes an address to a Wiseman or Wise-woman as we term them who oftentimes cure them by Charms taken out of the Alcoran or Amulets or else Specifick Medicines for they have neither Physician Apothecaries or other Druggists but onely some inexpert Chyrurgeons The greatest Zealots amongst them when sick go where one of their Marabouts or Saints lie buried to whose Sepulchre they bring a great many things to eat fondly fancied to a belief that if by chance a Beast eat thereof it gets the Disease and the sick person will recover When their women are in Labor Great Superstition of the Barbarians when they bring forth they send to School to fetch five little children whereof four are employ'd to hold the corners of a Cloth in each whereof they tie a Hens Egg wherewith these Children presently run along the Streets and sing certain Prayers one answering the other In the mean while the Turks and Moors come out of their Houses with Bottles or Cruises full of Water which they throw into the midst of the Cloth by which means they believe the Woman who is in Labour is luckily deliver'd To this idle Fancy they adde another no less ridiculous to cure the Pain in the Head by taking a Lamb or young Kid which they hunt and beat about the Field so long till it fall down whereby they perswade themselves that the pain will pass out of the mans head into the beasts To countervail these bad and foolish Two commendable Customs they have some commendable Customs Pierre Dan. descript Barbar One is That how angry soever they are they never swear by the Name of God nor have in their Language whether Arabick Turkish or Morisk any particular words wherewith they can curse or blaspheme 'T is true the Renagadoes Swear desperately in their own Tongues but because they do it in contradiction of the Turks they are presently most severely punished for it The second is That how great a contest soever they have one against another they seldom come to Hand-blows but never kill The Inhabitants of the City of Barbary are very ingenious The Condition of the Inhabitants in Cities and singularly zealous in their Religion but no people more jealous for they had rather lose their lives than have a blemish on their Reputation which especially they look upon as best preserved by their Wives Chastity They covet Riches above measure but are very modest in speech The Inferiours behave themselves towards their Superiours with great humility and submission But Children shew wonderful Reverence and Obedience towards their Parents The Countrey People dwell in Tents or Booths upon the Hills and Fields The manner of the Countrey People generally dealing in Cattel they are not fierce of Nature yet very couragious they live but poorly yet are great pains-takers and liberal Whereas the Townsmen on the other side are quarrelsome vindicative inhospitable covetous setting their whole thoughts upon scraping together Money and Goods They are continual Traders but so suspicious that they will not trust any Foreigner They are great boasters but dull of wit giving easie belief to common reports and doubtful hear-says yet so cunning and false in their dealing that they will deceive the most vigilant Some of the better Sort have great inclination to Arts and Sciences They are inclin'd to Skil and Knowledge delighting chiefly in Histories and the Exposition of their Law Heretofore extraordinarily addicted to Southsaying Magick and Astrology all which about five hundred years since were absolutely forbidden by their Princes They Ride well after their manner and know with a singular dexterity to mount and dismount The chiefest Weapons of such as dwell up in the Countrey are long Launces or Javelins in the throwing of which they are wonderful ready but all that coast upon the Sea use Guns Powder and Shot The whole Countrey is very healthful The Age of the People in Barbary so that the people by the ordinary course of Nature seldom dye before sixty five or seventy years of Age In the Mountains peradventure some be found reaching a hundred years remaining to the last very strong and active but chiefly upon the Sea-Coasts where the Air is constantly refresht and agitated by the frequency of cool Breezes which have the same efficacy working upon their Constitutions so that they are seldom sickly Barbary hath a great abundance of Merchandise Barbary affords much Merchandise which are transported by Foreigners to the enriching of the Inhabitants such are untann'd or raw Hides Linnen and Cotton-Cloth Raisins Dates Figs and the like of which we will speak more particularly in its proper place Evident Signs of the great Wealth of this Kingdom in former times may be drawn hence that the Kings of Fez as they say Signs of the Antient Power of Barbary formerly spent four hundred and eighty thousand Crowns in the building a Colledge Leo Africk Peter Aviley Barbary and seven thousand in erecting a Castle and little less in founding a City besides his continual standing Pay to his Militia No less are the Riches thereof at this day Signs of the present Power as appears by the great Revenue of the Kings of Morocco and Fez the Bashaws and other great Lords of Tripolis Algiers and Tunis and the infinite Trade and Merchandise which the English Venetians Genoas Hollanders French Hamburgers and other people drive there without taking notice of the rich Spoils the Pyrates of Barbary carry in from all parts especially Spain and Italy with too much connivance of their Governours though seemingly against their Command Another signal proof of its exceeding Wealthiness are the great number of Mosques and the yearly Revenues belonging to them For in Algiers onely there are a hundred and in Tunis three hundred as many also in Fez and in Morocco seven hundred among which the chief have two hundred Ducats Annual Rent Adde thereto that the Plunder of Fez when those of Algiers became Masters of it was valued at two hundred and sixty Millions and the Spoyl of Tunis under the Emperor Charles the Fifth which he gave to the Soldiers for a Reward as much when the three chiefest Field-Officers gave each of them for their Heads Thirty Millions of coyned Ducats Moreover the Jews who have their chiefest Refuge there as in the Center of the World bring no small advantage by the liberty of their Usury The Dominion of Barbary is various as the Countrey The Government of Barbary some are absolute unlimited Kings as those of Morocco and Fez. Others acknowledge a Superior Lord as the Kings of Algiers Tunis and Tripolis who are no other than Bashaws or Viceroys or under the obedience of the Great Turk who at his Pleasure may alter the
hundred and fourteen set forth a Fleet to scour the Seas and also chase away the Pyrates that sculking sheltered in those Parts and in the same Spot raised a new Fortress which with the assistance of the Citadel Larache kept all the neighboring Coast and Countrey in awe and also improved the Haven for safer riding of Shipping Mequinez Mequinez and by some call'd Mecknesse and Mechnase and by the English Mikernez seventy Spanish Miles from Salee twenty from Mahmore twelve from Fez and six from the Great Atlas close by a River it is an old City by Ptolomy as Marmol says Leo Afric call'd Silde formerly furnish'd with Six thousand Houses and very strong Walls fair Churches Three Colledges twelve great Bannia's large and spacious Streets and a commodious Stream Tifelfelt Tefelfelt or Tefelfelt a small City Ptolomy's Tamusige in a Valley four Miles distant from Mahmore and three from the Ocean now nothing but Ruines and a Receptacle for wilde Arabs and the like Robbers Gemaa el Hamem Gemaa el Hamem or Gemei Elchmen or Elchmel is an old City on a Plain four Miles from Mequinez Southward East from Fez and three from Mount Atlas but much harm'd by the late Wars insomuch that the Churches and Houses stand all bare the Roofs lying on the Floors which confusion makes it rather a Den of Thieves than a City being nothing else but lurking holes for those inhumane Purchasers Hamis Metagare or Kamis Metgare Hamis Metagare close by the way that goeth from Morocco to Fez between the City Gemaa el Hamem and Fez four Miles from either of them lay formerly waste and uninhabited but afterwards by the Moors banisht out of Granada Peopled and brought to its pristine State and Condition Beni Becil or Beni Basil another City lately wasted by the Wars Beni Becil but now Repaired situate between Fez and Mequinez on the Banks of the small River call'd Heud Nye which with the Fountain Ain Zork half a Mile above the aforesaid City takes it Original out of the same Place Makarmede by Marmol taken to be the Erpis of Ptolomy Makarmede lyeth six Miles from Fez Eastward and is wasted by the same Civil Wars Habad or Rabat by some call'd Hubbed is a Castle Habad environ'd with strong Walls built by Mahumetan Priests opposite to Sale so standing that from thence they have a large Prospect of all the adjacent Countrey The Opinion is that this Town or Citadel formerly was large and very Potent but now in a low and miserable condition Inhabited by Moors and wilde Arabs that only live from hand to mouth by Forrage and Plunder having no Commerce pretending Vassalage to the Kings of Morocco Zavie or Zaquie held to be Ptolomy's Volusse built by Joseph the Second Zavie a King of the Marine Family lyeth four Miles from Fez almost wholly Ruin'd the chief remaining part being now converted into an Hospital Halvan or according to some Chanban a Wall'd Village Halvan lying two Miles Eastward from Fez at the River Sebu or Subu having without the Walls a Hot Bath with very fair Inns. But the most Eminent City of all is Fez call'd by the Mahumetans The City Fez. Western-Court and by some held to be Silde by others the Volubilis of Ptolomy This City was first founded Anno Eight hundred and one by one Idris the natural Son of Idris by his Handmaid he being a dispossessed Arabian Patriarch The Original of the Name Fez is by some brought from the Arabian word Fez signifying Gold because at the first breaking of the Ground to lay the Foundation there was Golden Oar found but others will have it from the River Fez which Waters the City It stands remoted from the Sea a hundred Miles The Form of it with rough and almost inaccessible ways to it The Form is a Quadrangular Oblong hedg'd in on every side with Suburbs all encompast with high and stately Walls wrought artificially with Brick and Free-Stone fortifi'd round about with Towers but few Redoubts according to the Modern but onely Flanker'd at the Gates which are in all eighty six some of them Water-Gates a Stream running through them So near surrounded with Hills that there remains no more Level but what the City stands upon It is divided into twelve Wards or Precincts containing sixty two spacious Markets set with Artificers and Tradesmens Shops round about above two hundred Eminent Streets together with a great number of cross and by-Lanes all which are adorn'd on both sides with large and stately Edifices besides seven hundred Mosques a great number of Colledges Hospitals Mills and common Bannia's This as to the general we shall now make a more particular Inquisition The River Fez which Paulus Jovius calls Rhasalme passes through the City in two Branches one runs Southward towards New Fez and the other West each of these again subdividing into many other clear running Channels through the Streets serving not onely each private House but Churches Inns Hospitals and all other publick Places to their great Conveniences Round about the Mosques are a hundred and fifty Common-Houses of Easement built Four-square and divided into Single-Stool-Rooms each furished with a Cock and a Marble Cistern which scowreth and keeps all neat and clean as if these Places were intended for some sweeter Employment Here also are two hundred and fifty Bridges Like London-Bridge before the Fire many of which are built on both sides that they are not onely Thorow-fares but of all Trades there There are eighty six publick Springs or Wells which afford the Citizens abundance of Water besides six hundred other in Palaces Hospitals and great Buildings The Houses are artificially built of Bricks The Houses and Stones their Fronts Carved out with all sorts of Imagery the Rooms and Galleries of Brick and Tile and pourtray'd with Flowers and variety of Colours and for the greater lustre they shine with a rare Varnish The Cielings and Beams of the Rooms are commonly Gilt Carv'd and Painted with delightful Colours the Roofs are flat and artificially laid with Pavements which in Summer are cool Reposes Here their Houses are two or three Stories high with Galleries the middle of the House lying always open with Rooms on each side having high and broad Doors furnish'd to the whole Length with a great Press or Chest of Drawers in which they lay up their Habits or what ever else they have a great esteem for The Galleries rest upon Pilasters made either of Brick or Marble painted and varnished over after the manner of a Piazza or Terrast-Walk Many Houses have Stone Cisterns ten or twelve Cubits long six or seven broad and six or seven Foot deep handsomely painted and varnished over under which stands a Marble Trough receiving the redundant Water of the Cistern They are kept pure and clean though never kept cover'd but in Summer when Men Women and Children bathe in it The Houses have also
into a little Pot or Horn and filled up with the Urine of a young man that had never known a woman This done they scrape in a little Bonda that is red Dying-weed Lastly daubing the four sides of the Pot with Mannoone chawed in the mouth it is ready to be set on the fire which must be made under the open Heaven in the morning at Sun-rise or in the evening at Sun-set of green Wood. As soon as the water begins to boil the Bollimo takes a piece of Domboo being a Tree that bears fruit like a Medlar and puts it under the Seething Pot in the mean time trying whether the Ingredients have boyl'd enough and repeating secretly the names of the suspected persons or of other matters How this Sorcery-water is used to which the Witchcraft must be applied When all is ready the Bollimo takes the arms or legs of the suspected persons and washeth them clean with fair water At length he puts his Divining-Staff which is bruised and tufted at the end into the Pot and drops or presseth the water out of it upon the arm or leg of the suspected person muttering these words over it Is he guilty of this or hath he done this or that if yea then let it scald or burn him till the very skin come off Now if the person remain unhurt they hold him innocent and proceed to the trial of another till the guilty be discovered and this is done so long till the name of the guilty or the person be found out The Criminal thus found is without any long procrastinating put to death The manner of which according to the variety of Places is different but the most usual thus The Executioner takes the Offender and leads him with his Hands tied behind and his Eyes blind-folded either into an open Field or a Wood whither being come the Offender upon his Knees his Head bowed down he first runs through the Body with an Assagay or Simiter and afterwards chops off his Head with an Axe for they do not believe he is dead till his Head be cut off The Carcase cut into four quarters after great lamentations they leave in the Field as a Prey to the Beasts and Fowl but the Friends take away the Head as a great Present and boiling it in a Kettle drink up the Broth but hang the Scull by their Fetisso or Idol The like Trial is also made of other Offences among the Blacks in Quoia and also in Gala Hondo Bolm Cilm and many other Places so that every one had need to be circumspect and careful to prevent suspicion especially the Women who are for every trifling Caprichio of their Husbands brought in question of their Honesty Now if one of the King's Women lash out The Punishment of chief Women for Adultery or go abroad after other Men and the King be enraged against it then he causeth them to be so possessed that if they touch any Masculine person small or great they suddenly fall into a kind of Epileptick Fit according to which three Wives of the present King Flamboere suffered one of which receiving her Daughters Child not knowing it was a Boy fell into a Swoon and might therein have died if the other Women had not run to the King and beseeched him that the Bollimo might release her from the Curse But because this is an extraordinary thing no other but the King himself may put it in execution and that very seldom ¶ ANd as the Men have the Marks of Belli The Marks of Nesogge so here the Women have a Mark of Obligation which they call Nesogge which first took original from Goula and done in manner following They bring ten twelve or more Maids of full Age as also Women into a peculiar place in the Wood not far from the Town where first Huts are made for them then a Woman comes out of Goula whom they call Soghwilly to be the chiefest in this Work of the Garnoer or Vala Sandyla as they term it This Soghwilly or Priestess gives the Assembly Hens to eat with the Obligation to stay with her in that place which she names Sandy-Latee that is Hens of the Agreement After that she shaves off their Hair and the next day brings them to a Brook in the Wood where the aforesaid Soghwilly by Incision cut out the Mother not without great pain and terror then washing and healing the Wound with green Herbs which sometimes requires ten or twelve days time They stay there afterwards three or four Moneths to learn Dances and Verses of Zaudy which are not onely difficult to learn but contain very little that can be sung with honesty by any that do but pretend to be chaste and modest During their abode together in recess they go as naked as they were born their Clothes being taken away at the first coming of the Soghwilly When the time draws near that they shall be brought from thence they make a kind of Garments of the Rind of Trees Dy'd red and yellow and their Friends are permitted to bring them Arm-Rings Beads Bells to put about their Legs when they Dance and other things to adorn themselves at their coming forth When they enter the Town or Village where the People gather together as if it were some Holiday the Soghwilly leads to the Sporting-place where one sits Drumming with two Sticks on a round hollow piece of Wood. By the ill-tun'd Musick of which if so we may call it Instrument the Simodiuno or Sandi-Simodiuno that is Children of Sandy every one understands his time and they all seek to exceed one another in Dancing This Solemnity ended they make these Women to swear by Noe-Soggo that is by their Faithfulness and thenceforth all people must give credit to their words They have no select Days set apart for their Ceremonies They have no Holy-days nor do they keep holy the seventh but the first Day of the New-Moon when they see it appear for then they do no manner of work neither do they any work in Planting on that day when any one drinks Quony nor when any one dies in the same Town for they believe if they should that the Mille and Rice would grow red seeing as they say it is a day of Blood but they may freely go a Hunting Thus far we have thought fit to give an account of what concerns the Kingdom of Quoia now we shall for the better connexion and understanding of what before is mention'd and that which is yet to be related give you the Narrative in what manner the Karou's were dispossest of their Countrey by the Folgia's and Vey Puy and Quoia-Berkoma subjected A Relation in what manner the Karou's subdued by force of Arms by the assistance of the Folgians the Countreys of Vey Puy and Quoia-Berkoma THe Karou's when they inhabited by Rio Junk and Aquado The Contention and Quarrel between the Karous and Folgians had for their Prince one Sogwalla whose
the Sea-Coast comes the Lordship of Bani wherein is seated a pretty large Town by Name Kuleba the Residence of a Deputy-Lieutenant who Commands over eight or ten adjacent Townships All the Blacks inhabiting the Easterly-shore of the greater Calabare Those of Calabare are Cannibals towards the North are Cannibals for they eat up whatever Enemies they kill but their Prisoners they sell for Slaves The Number One they call Barre Two Ma Three Terre Four Ni Five Sonny c. The Women here have a peculiar way of Circumcision with Pismires as before related in Arder and therefore we shall not repeat it In Moko they have Coin'd Money made of Iron in form of a Roach the Rundle as big as the Palm of a Hand with a Handle about an Inch long The Whites give here in Barter for Slaves Trade great Copper Armlets long-fashion'd and with a round Bowe very neatly made else the Blacks who are very curious therein will not buy them also red and smooth Copper Bars the smoother the better every Piece of a Pound and a quarter weight and about an Ell long for fourteen of those they purchase a good Slave The Blacks fashion these Bars longer and thinner which they divide into three parts and then bray'd or twist them together like a Rope made of three Strings which they fashion into great and small Armlets and Collers or Neck-bands for the Armlets term'd Boctu brought thither by the Whites they use onely in stead of Money The Blacks in this River use great Canoos Canoos wherein twenty Row on each side can carry sixty or eighty Men and are cut out of the entire Body of a Tree by burning and cutting it hollow and some near sixty nay seventy Foot long sharp before and behind but wide in the middle having Planks laid cross from side to side and fastned which lie a hand-breadth over on which Planks and on the edges of them such as manage the Boat sit which they drive forward not with Rowing but with Padling On each side hang two great Shields How they are Arm'd with some Bowes and Wooden Assagays or Launces to defend themselves against the Assaults of their Enemies Every Canoo hath also a Hearth near which the chiefest of the Boat have their Sleeping-places When they stay out a Nights with their Canoos How they make Tents over their Canoos they make a Tent over them with Mats hang'd upon Polls set up in holes of the sitting-Planks under this covert they lay small flat Sticks bound together with Rushes whereupon they lie down to rest and sleep but the Slaves lie dispers'd about the bottom of the Boat The Slaves brought by the Blacks to sell at the River Calabare From whence the Slaves come which the Netherlanders buy come most from the East and are the same which they take Prisoners alive in the Wars for those that are kill'd they eat as we said before Eastward of Great Calabare about two miles from its East Point The River Loitomba glides the River Loitomba otherwise Rio Sante Domingo whose East corner a petty Town shews it self large and full of Merchants who Travel into the Countrey to buy Slaves which they sell again to the Whites After Loitomba follows Old Calabare by some stil'd Old Kalhorgh The River of old Calabare passing through a Plain but Woody Countrey from the East Point of Rio Reael to this the Coast spreads East South East sixteen miles Next you come to Rio del Key a very great and wide River Rio del Key with three Fathom Water and a Muddy Ground neither troubled with Sandy Shoales nor Rocks At the Northerly Shore thereof lieth a Township over which some years since one Samson had the Command but driven out by those of Ambo he hath ever since maintain'd himself by Robbing for his Village was so wasted by Fire that very few Houses remain'd and those all made of Palm Canes from the top to the bottom as well the Sides as the Roof The Countrey far and near is all low and marshy Ground Constitution of the Countrey so that there is no fresh Water but that which runs from the Village or gathered from the Roof of the Houses The People living up higher call'd Kalbongos are very subtil and cunning Nature of the Inhabitants so that a White must look well to himself Both Men and Women go naked onely a small covering before their Privacies and so barbarously cruel that the Parents sell their Children the Husband his Wife and one Brother and Sister the other and as to decency or order scarce a degree above Beasts The Men tie the top of their Virile part with a piece of Bark Apparel or else put the same in long Callabashes the rest of their Bodies remain Naked onely Painted with Red Colours They wear their Hair Pleited in several Fashions and many have their upper Teeth fil'd as sharp as Bodkins or Needles chiefly supporting themselves by catching Fish When any amongst them stands accus'd Oath he clears himself by taking an Oath in this manner He cuts himself in the Arm and sucks up his own bloud and this they repute a sufficient Purgation and this custom those inhabiting the high Land of Amboises in Ambo and Botery also observe This River affords many Slaves for Copper Bars Trade and likewise for counterfeit Corral Beads and Copper Basons which on the Gold-Coast for their sleightness cannot be sold Akori also and Elephants Teeth against Knives and Assagayes or Lances the Teeth generally so large that three pieces make a hundred weight Between Rio del Key and that of Kamarones narrow but deep Rivers Little Kamaroms makes his way from whence the Coast spreads East South East about three miles with low and Woody Land and a plain Shore The Trade here agrees in all points with that at Rio del Rey Trade but differ in speech for here they call the number One Mo Ba Two Melella Three Meley Four Matam Five The Territory of AMBOSINE or the High Land AMBOISES THis Lordship of Amboisine The Territory of Amboises by the Europeans call'd the High Land of Amboses because they suppose it to be as high as the Pick of Tenariffe and by the Spaniards therefore nam'd Alta Terra de Ambosi takes place between Rio del Rey The Village Bodi and Kamarones At the West side thereof lie divers Villages among others Bodi or Bodiwa otherwise Cesge The Countrey produces great plenty of Grain Nature of the Countrey but no Palm-Wine which want the Inhabitants supply by a Root call'd Gajanlas which they boile in water and make a Drink of pleasant in taste but hurtful for the belly if taken in excess Other Provisions they have in such quantities that Seameâ— esteem it a good and desirable place to refresh in The Islands of AMBOISES FOur miles to the South East of this High Land The Islands of Amboises
wears a four-square Pouch of a Lions skin ty'd round about with a wicker thread and above with a Collar of Leather so hanging about his neck In this Budget they have all sorts of Implements a man can think on A master of Slaves at least that may easily be gotten as all sorts of little Horns Shells small Stones Iron Bells dry'd Sprigs of Trees Herbs Feathers Gums Roots Seeds Keys Patches Shreds Gratings Scrapings Horns Teeth Hair and Nails of white little Dwarfs call'd Doend us In brief cram'd with a whole Pedlars Pack and dress'd with Feathers Strings Cords Snips of Cloth and the like To this they add two Baskets thick cover'd with Shells Feathers Iron Hooks and an Herb fetcht from a far distant Mountain in which they cut a hole where they pour in Wine of which they give often to drink The simplicity of the Maujeres deserves well to be laugh'd at for when they bring any thing upon the account of Trade into another Countrey from home perhaps forty or fifty miles they must have such a Sack of Trumpery which sometimes weighs ten or-twelve pounds aloft upon their Pack though the burden it self makes them ready to sink under it But they say that it rather takes from than adds to their carriage whereby it appears what effects the strength of imagination can do The Ceremonies of their Publick Devotions are strange and ridiculous How the service of these Mokisies is perform'd for in the first place they bring forth a Bag of Jewels then the Ganga sits down upon a Mat and with a Leather Bag thumps upon his Knee having always some little Iron Bells betwixt his fingers then again he strikes upon his breast and paints with red and white upon his Eye-lids Body and Face using many strange motions and postures of their Body Hands Head and Eyes now raising the voice to a high pitch then depressing it frequently speaking the word Mariomena whereupon those that sit round about with all the rest of the assembly answer Ka. After this hath continu'd a great space the Ganga or Conjurer begins to turn his Eyes and look as if he were distracted so that they must hold him but by vertue of a fowr Water or Juyce drawn from Cane wherewith they sprinkle him recovering he tells what he hath receiv'd from Boesy-batta and what must be done in such and such cases as of theft sickness and the like Besides this they use so many other Cheats and Delusions that if we should but name them would swell to a bulk too Voluminous for our Design Lykokoo is a black Woodden Image cut in the shape of a Man sitting and in Kinga a Town lying by the Sea-Coast where they have a common Burial-place they recite a thousand ridiculous Rhymes concerning this Kikokoo As That he preserves them from Death Sorcerers or Doojes That he keeps them from hurt by Sorcerers or Doojes as they call them That he makes the Dead arise out of the Graves in the Night and forces them to labor by going to the Shore and helping to catch Fish and to drive the Canoos in the Water and in the Day hunts them to their Graves again and the like Fictions which the elder Folks make the young believe and imprint it in them from their Infancy It happ'ned once formerly that some Mariners of a Portuguese Ship that went to Lovango in the Night stole Kikokoo out of his House and brought it on Board and in the way an Arm and the Head brake off But having occasions afterwards to go to Lovango again they durst not venture thither without restoring Kikokoo So nailing the Head and Arm again fast to the Trunk and being come upon the Road they set him in the dead of the Night into his House again The next day there arose a Report among the Blacks That Kikokoo was in Portugal and that a Ship with Goods had taken him away Afterwards there came by mishap a Portuguese Ship to strike upon the Rocks of Lovango whereupon they cried That Kikokoo had broken the Ship because the Portuguese had driven a Nail into his Head Thus they are taught at every turn to defend the Honor of the Moquisies and to misapply every Accident for confirmation of their Folly When the Bonfires of Bomba are made they lay many Drums upon the ground which they beat with their hands and feet sitting round about a Post that is set in the middle among which the Daughters of Kimbos-bombos all dance moving their Bodies Eyes and Head like mad Folks and with obscene Postures sing certain Verses wearing upon their Heads a Bush of all sorts of colour'd Feathers and on their Bodies strange fashion'd Garments with a red and white painted Rattle in each Hand In brief The more apishly they behave themselves the freer and braver they are esteem'd to be A thousand more ridiculous and bestial Ceremonies these shameless Gangaes practice at their Bonfires mocking their Moquisies and dare do whatsoever they think convenient Malemba is a Moquisie of great esteem and serves to support the King's Health It is a Mat of about a Foot and half square with a Band at the top upon which hang some small Baskets Scallops Feathers dry'd Pipes of Cassia Iron Bells Rattles Bones and other such like Trinkets all painted red with Takoel The Ceremonies belonging to this are performed with little Drums or Tabers upon which a Boy strikes with his Hand Afterwards some Painting of Takoel and Holy-water taken out of a Pot with a Brush is sprinkled upon the Ganga's and King's Body with a Song of Probation serving to the purpose Also the Nobility which peep have for their pains out of the same Pot a red Streak put upon their Bodies and have afterwards the Honor to carry away Malemba with his Pots Brushes and Cans and to hang them in their Places Moquisie Makongo they solemnize with Rattles Makongo Drums small Wicker-baskets and Red-colour'd Fish-hooks but not worth farther mentioning being all foppery Moquisie Mymy is a little Hut Mymy that stands on the back of a Way planted round with Banano's Bakovens and other Trees having an elevated Tial or Throne upon which a Basket stands full of all sorts of Trumpery not worth naming The chiefest is a Bracelet of Beads with some little Shells found on the Sea-coast by which there hangs a hollowed piece of Wood upon which they knock No Black who hath companied with his Wife that Night dare be so bold as to touch this Moquisie such an Esteem they bear to it Moquisie Kossie is a Sack with some Horns full of Whiting and other Aragh Kossy The Service is performed with Rattles long Sticks singing uncouth Songs in the Night creeping upon their Knees Washing Spitting Shouting tying Rings and Bands about their Bodies and such like things This they boast as an infallible Preservative against Thunder and Lightning and to prevent Sicknesses The Moquisie Kymaye is a Town close by Boarye
be brought before him whom they bind to the Tree and very severely whip all over his Body that the Blood runs down to his Feet After this being turned with his Face towards the King a sort of Gum or Rozin melted in a Pot is poured over his naked Body from his Neck running down upon his Breast so that the Skin immediately peels off then they let him loose and give him some Meat wherewith a little refresh'd they tie him again Neck and Heels and so leave him three days And lastly after the enduring all this pain he is sometimes banish'd and thrust from their Society When any are found in Fornication Incest the Parents force them to Marry immediately if they have a competency of Estate But if that cannot be effected then they wait to know if the Woman be with Child and then they enforce a Conjunction though the Person be so mean that he cannot maintain a Wife When any Person Rich or Poor is discover'd to have committed Incest they believe such People cannot be punished enough because they say it is an unpardonable offence and this from the meer Light of Nature And therefore they punish the Transgressors with death the manner this First of all the Man hath his Hands and his Feet drawn together with a Cord How they are punish'd and so put into a Tub till the next day and the Woman set by it The second day they take him out and so Manacled set him under a Tree fastning his Head to a strong Bough which one pulls and holds down then they cut off one Member after another Afterwards they let the Bough spring up again with the mangled Body upon it for a Spectacle to other Evil-doers The Man thus dead they bring forth the Woman whom bound round about with many dry Shrub-Bavins her Hands and Feet tied fast together they set Fire to the Bushes and so burn her to Ashes A little above five years ago it hapned that a certain Person a great Friend and Acquaintance of the Coehques or King of the Saldanhars committed Incest yet for all that without respect to his Person he did Justice upon him If any Man of Wealth and Quality Punishment for killing and wounding or reputed Wise through fury or rage stab or wound another to death they take him and beat his Brains out against a Tree and put him into the Grave with the murdered Person for they say Such a Person being endued with more Understanding ought to know better and to give a good Example to others Whereas on the other side poor simple People are permitted to ransom their Lives by a Payment of Cattel Some for Offences which deserve Death have their Knees nail'd through and an Iron Pin fast driven into each Shoulder so dying a lingring death They live like the Arabians Their Houses in the Fields in Huts made of slender crooked Poles set round and cover'd with Bulrush-Mats Some of these are so large that conveniently ten or twenty Men with Women and Children may dwell in one of them though others are much less and some so small that they can take them up and run away with them The Fire-place lieth in the midst of the House but they make no Funnels to carry up the Smoke They kindle Fire with an excellent dexterity by rubbing one little hollowed Stick upon another very hard for a great space All these Hottentots speak one and the same Language Language which for the difficulty of the pronunciation cannot be learn'd to the great retarding and hinderance of further Discoveries In all Discourse they cluck like a Broody Hen seeming to cackle at every other Word So that their Mouths are almost like a Rattle or Clapper smacking and making a great noise with their Tongues Some words they know not how to utter but with very much ado and they seem as if they fetch'd it out behind at the bottom of their Throats and as the People in Savoy that live near the Alps who by drinking Snow-water have great Crops or Swellings under their Chins Brokwa in their Language signifies Bread Kahou denotes to sit down Bou is an Ox Ba a Sheep and Kori Iron But now many of them which dwell close to the Fort of Good Hope by daily Converse with the Netherlanders speak Dutch as some who have been with the English in Bantam stammer some broken English They have no inclination to Trading Trade neither hold they any Correspondence with Foreign People iron and Copper were the onely Commodities desired by them the former for Arms the other for Ornament both which they so esteemed that in a Voyage to the Indies in the year Fifteen hundred ninety five the Dutch had in Barter with these People for a Cutting-knife a fair Ox for a Bar of Iron of seventy pounds broken into five pieces two Oxen and three Sheep for one Hook-knife one Bill one Ax one short Iron Bolt and some pieces of Iron three Oxen and five Sheep and for a Knife one Sheep But at this day grown wiser by Converse and the abundance of Commodities carried thither they prize their Cattel at a much higher rate and their former fair dealing is not now found amongst them Tobacco Brandy and Copper they chiefly desire at present but the yellower the better So that for four pieces of Copper as big as the Palm of ones Hand and a piece of Tobacco they usually buy two Cows Some of these People have Elective others Successive Kings or Governors Government but all their Powers not able to make above four or five thousand Men and those living dispersedly in several Plantations far distant from each other Religion is an absolute stranger among all these Salvages Religion insomuch that they never worshipped either God or Devil yet they say and believe there is a Divine Power which they call Humma which causeth Rain Winds Heat and Cold but will not worship him because he sends sometimes too much Heat and Drowth and another time an overflux of Rain contrary to their desires Secondly They imagine that they can stop the Rain and allay the Wind at their pleasure First To cause Rain to cease they lay a small Cole of Fire on a Chip in a little Hole digged in the Ground and upon that Hole they lay a Lock of Hair pull'd from their Heads and cover up the Hole with Sand when the Hair begins to stink then they make Water upon it and so run away shrieking To lay the Winds they hold one of the greasiest Skins upon a long Stick aloft in the Air till the Wind has blown down the Skin and then vainly think the power of the Wind smothered thereby When the New Moon begins first to be discerned they commonly in great Companies turn themselves towards it and spend the whole night in great joy with Dancing Singing and Clapping of Hands They have a Musical Instrument made with a String like a Bowe and a
but to the terrestrial Paradice to remain there till the day of Judgment That the Wicked do not go immediately to Hell but to a place near adjacent in which they can see the Punishment prepared for them waiting in the mean while for the day of Judgment Damianus a Goez affirms that they conclude a Purgatory and believe that the Souls of the vertuous are not plagued there on Saturdays and Sundays and that Alms-deeds do exceedingly serve for the mitigating of their pain but deny that their Eteche or Patriarch can grant Souls any liberty to go out judging that onely to belong to God who hath limited or set the time of their punishment Godignus affirms that Children are Baptiz'd with Fire and Water imprinting a Mark upon their Foreheads which they must carefully keep for they hold it fit to follow the Rule which the Forerunner of Christ seems to have Preached when he said I shall baptize you in the Spirit and in Fire but others think that the first Christian Kings of Abyssine did it to distinguish the Believers from Heathens Between the Religion or Worship of the Egyptians Copticks and Abyssines there is no difference at all for both these People perform the Mass in the same manner and consent in the Church Ceremonies which they observe in the Consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ which they perform in this manner The Priest at the appointed hour comes into the Church and when the People are assembled in his Priestly Vestments ascends to the Altar the Deacon crying with a loud voyce in the Coptick Tongue Blessed be the Participation whereupon the Priest turning to the People with a loud voyce often repeats these words Christ be with us all and the the People answer And with thy spirit After several Ceremonies perform'd with Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving and at last Prayers being ended the Priest blesseth the Cover the Chalice or Cup the Spoon and Shrine or Coffer of the Sacrament by which they understand The Ark of the Covenant as by the Spoon The Spear of Christ and begin the Participation with stretched out hands thus O Lord Jesus Christ Partaker of the Divine Substance who art immaculate together with the Father and holy Spirit our Father our Lord our God and our Redeemer Thou art that Bread which descended from Heaven Thou who art come to be a Lamb without blemish for the redemption and life of the World we ask and pray thy Deity that thou wilt set thy Countenance upon this holy Mystery upon this Bread and upon this Cup which we Priests do set upon this Table Bless sanctifie cleanse and transmute this Bread into thy holy Body and this Wine in this Cup into thy holy and precious Blood In like manner says the Abyssine Priest Our Prince Jesus Christ whose Substance is not created but thou art the pure Word Thou art the Son of the Father Thou art the Bread of Life come down from Heaven Thou wert before thou camest in the similitude of an immaculate Lamb for the redemption of Sinners Now O thou lover of Mankind we humbly beseech thy Majesty to shew thy favorable Countenance and Benediction upon this Bread and upon this Cup on this Altar Bless sanctifie purifie and transmute this Bread into thy undefiled Flesh and this Wine into thy precious Blood Concerning the rest they use one and the same manner of Incense and the same words of Consecration the same form of Confession and the same words of Adoration In the Consecration of the Body and Blood of our Saviour both these People observe one and the same Ceremonies The Abyssine expresseth it with a loud voyce thus He stretcheth out his hands to the feeble He is become weak that he may strengthen those that wait upon him who the same Night wherein he was betray'd took Bread into his holy and immaculate Hands looked up to heaven to his Father he gave thanks blessing and sanctifying it and gave to his Disciples saying Take and eat ye all of it This Bread is my Flesh which is given for the remission of sins Amen Whereupon the People say Verily verily verily we believe and trust and love thee O Lord our God This we believe in truth is thy Flesh Then saith the Priest again In like manner he took the Cup and gave thanks blessed and sanctifi'd it and said to them Take and drink ye all of it This is the Cup of my Blood which shall be shed for you for the redemption of many Whereupon the People answer Verily verily verily we believe and trust and love thee O Lord our God This we believe in truth is thy Blood In the same manner it is done by the Copticks That the Coptick and Abyssine Church hath been one and the same from all Antiquity Nicephorus Zonoras Cedrenus and lastly the Abyssine Rituals themselves do testifie for the common Liturgy the Admonition that is made of Praying for the welfare of the Abyssine Church for the King and Princes of the Empire Judges and Subjects there is also in particular made mention of the Patriarch of Alexandria in these words Pray for our Prince and our Patriarch N. N. Lord and Head of the Bishops of the great Territory of Alexandria and for our Reverend Arch-Bishop Mark the Head of our Countrey and for all Bishops Priests and true believing Ministers In other Admonitions the Evangelist Mark Theon Petrus Alexander Athanasius Theophilus Cyrillus and other Patriarchs of Alexandria are remembred which abundantly shew that the Egyptian Coptick and Abyssine are in effect but one Church The Abyssine and Coptick are under one and the same Patriarch who hath his Residence in Alexandria in Egypt and in Abyssine hath a Substitute under him the Head in Ecclesiastical Causes there call'd Eteche as we said before This Man is chosen by the Patriarch of Alexandria or by the Monks of Abyssine and confirm'd by the Patriarch His chiefest Office consists in conferring of holy or sacred Orders though the bestowing of Church-Offices belongs to the Xeques or King and the punishing the obstinate such as stand in contempt Godignus against the opinion of many maintains they have no Bishops but others that the Eteche hath twelve Suffragans under him A Clerk may have one Wife but is not made Priest till three years after that After the death of the first Wife no Priest may Marry again but by special consent of the Eteche yet then he may never celebrate Mass any more a matter so severely observed by them that they do not so much as touch a Candle Consecrated for the Church If a Clerk or Priest get a Bastard-Child they instantly put him out of his Office and if he dies without lawful Children his Goods Escheat to the King They have many Monks which follow the Rules of St. Anthony St. Maccair and St. Basil They accommodate themselves every where to the Clergy which they boldly visit do great Penance live soberly and Fast often All the
Fruit-Trees together with a handsom Palace having many Rooms of Entertainment besides private Recesses and particular Apartments This in regard of its distance is not so much frequented as that of San Gioseppo being nearer whither the Grand Masters and the whole Court often retire for Recreation On the South-Coast and that side towards Tripolis this Island hath nothing but great Cliffs and Rocks but on the other side several Capes convenient for small Boats First passing to the East you come to the Haven of Marza Scola Marza signifies A Haven and a small Mile from thence to the South-West of Sirok to Marza Sirokko that is The South-West Port being very large and capacious From thence turning to the South you may see Golpho de Pietra Santa or Holy Stone Gulph opposite to the small Island Fursula or Forrola But to the Westward appear two great Roads one call'd Antfega but according to the Maltesian Orthography Hayntoffeka and the other Porto del Mugaro Passing thence Westwards you arrive at Meleca a good Landing-place over against which the Island Goze shews it self sever'd from Malta by a narrow Channel intituled Feo The Eastern Coast brings you to Porto delle Saline Vecchie The Haven of the Old Salt-Pit Right out from thence over against Sicily you come to Cala di Sante Paulo The Cape of St. Paul and by that a Bay so call'd because the Inhabitants believe That the Ship wherein the Apostle Paul was brought over Captive by Storm was cast away and Shipwrack'd against this Place though some with what Reason we will not determine imagine that Shipwrack to have been suffer'd not here but upon the Island Melite by Ragousa This Bay sends an Arm well near two Italian Miles up into the Countrey but neither broad nor deep The adjacent Shore being full of Rocks scarcely appearing above the Surface of the Water confirms the Arguments of St. Paul's Shipwrack here In the place where the Viper leap'd out of the Fire to the hand of the Apostle the first converted Christians erected a small Chappel being since decay'd by Wind and Weather but of late renew'd again So that now there stands a handsom little Church rebuilt in the Year Sixteen hundred and sixteen by the Grand Master Alophi Tignacourt Above the Altar in the Church are to be seen divers Images decyphering the Miracle done by the Apostle in flinging off the Viper from his Hand himself kneeling with many Figures of Men and Women bigger than the Life round about in Old Maltesia Garments cut out with excellent Postures to admiration Above this Altar-piece stands this Inscription in Latin Vipera Ignis acta Calore frustra Pauli manum invadit is Insulae benedicens Anguibus Herbis adimit omne virus M. DC V. That is The Viper constrain'd by the Heat of the Fire leap'd in vain upon the Hand of Paul He blessing the Island took away all Poyson from the Serpents and Plants 1605. Close by the Sea is a Rock with a small Pit out of which very sweet and rellishing Water issues which they say came miraculously by the Apostles striking the Rock for want of Water to quench his thirst A little more Southerly lies a Salt-pit call'd Saline Nova and close by it under the Shore the Island Gallis Towards the South you have Cala di Marco and Cala di St. George And lastly Punta di Dragut over against Valetta and the Castle of St. Elmo There are moreover two Havens one stil'd Marza di Musseto and the other call'd Marza or Il Porto Grande The Great Haven between Valetta and Fort St. Angelo whose Entrance call'd Bocca el Porto is defended on the one side by a Redoubt rais'd upon the Point and on the other side by the Great Guns of the Bulwark of Valetta South-Westwards from Old Malta The Garden Boschetto the Grand Master hath his fairest Garden of Pleasure call'd Boschetto seated on the top of a high Rock not without great Charge all the Earth being carried up to it and planted with Orange Lemon Citron Pomegranate Olive and other Trees together with several rare and unusual Plants Near which he hath a Park of Deer a Warren of Hares Coneys and a Wood of Olive-Trees wherein breed Stags and Hinds besides several excellent natural Springs and rare artificial Water-works and a Palace beautified with spacious Halls and Chambers with a flat Roof upon which some Pieces of Ordnance are planted From this Place you will easily believe the Prospect cannot be unpleasant Between this Court Boschetto and Old Malta lies Gardino del Vescone The Garden of the Bishop Not far from Citta Vecchia may be seen a Grot of white but soft Stone wherein the Apostle Paul after his Shipwrack Preach'd And three Italian Miles further The Court Balda the Court Balda or Vassalo extraordinarily frequented for it hath an Orchard so fruitful that the like is not in the whole Island planted with many sorts of very large Grapes white and brown Figs and delicious Peaches with a most delightful Fountain A Mile without Valette lieth a Cloyster call'd St. Mattheo della Makkluba where upon St. Matthias day a great Fair is holden Fifty or sixty Paces from that Cloyster formerly stood the Town Makkluba but now quite swallow'd up in Earth nothing remaining but a Hole forty or fifty Fathom deep and in the opening at the top five hundred Paces in compass Three Miles from thence right over against the Island Forfala you arrive at Gibel Ciantor containing a Garden and small Church under which is a Cave with a very fair Spring furnish'd with a Stone Table and Seat for those that come thither to recreate and take their pleasure From this place runneth a steep winding Way from below to the top of the Mountain and from thence another as rugged and rocky to Boschetto before-mention'd The Ground The strange power of the Stony Rocks or rather the Rocks which are most of them black yellow and soft and therefore easie to be wrought they say that since the Apostle Saint Paul did that Miracle there have been blessed with producing certain great and small Serpents Tongues of several colours and forms as also of round Orange colour'd and black Serpents eyes and Teeth and certain Scaly Stones in the form of a Serpents Skin besides several other rarities so shap'd that they seem to represent the Life These Eyes and Serpents Tongues they say have a wonderful vertue in them against all sorts of Poyson and Bitings of Venomous Beasts not onely to preserve from the hurt but afford a powerfull Remedy to such as have taken Poyson or been bitten by any Venomous Creature yea some have no less commended them than the Bezoar-Stone in Europe The manner of using these Stones is thus The Eyes are commonly worn upon the Ring-finger as a pretious Stone so that it may touch the bare Skin and the Tongues upon the Neck and Arms Water or Wine or some other moysture mingled