excellencie of the Alfurcan from his blasphemous lie that he was so long in the sixt heaven call'd Alahal where this Anthropomorphite sayes hee had the honour to shake hands with the Almighty which he sayes were 70 times colder than Ice and that being upon th' earth to make the people credit him he commanded the Moone to descend halfe of which he put into his own sleeve and the other halfe serv'd as a zone or girdle to Mortis Ally and to their like amazement after so rare a complement peec't it and placed it in the same Orbe whence first he drew it During this Ramdam all the day long they abstaine from all sorts of viands or refection he being counted the veriest heretique in the world dare ryot it But Don Phoebus is no sooner inveloped with his dark mantle the earths interposition and Dame Cynthia arrayed with brightnesse in their Hemisphere then they gormundize and let loose the reines of their unbridled appetite Epicurising in all kindes of delights to be invented or pleasures possible Prosper's saying That to fast from sinne is the best fast is here ridiculous So soone as the nine and twentieth day is past for though the Alcoran command forty yet by those of the late reformation it was limited to one Moone they begin the Byram as we doe Easter and continue their merriment and sports till the third day be ended the two dayes after the Byram are commonly call'd Chutsi-baaram Char-bahram or Byram The last houre of the last festivall many vow a zealous pilgrimage to their Prophets Sepulchre not magnetically attracted nor intombed in an iron coffin as some report but laid under a faire marble polisht and ingraved with Arabique sentences out of the Elesalem But in the way wallow in all kind of swinish turpitude villany and lothsomnesse yet no where persecuted being palliated with a Pilgrims coat and hypocritique sanctity The Buccarie they solemnize in November or Chodad-maw by Turks Silcade by Arabs Rabiel owl in commemoration of the Ram sacrificed by Abraham such time as Izmael they say should have beene killed Many other Festivalls they celebrate The Oud Hussan Nowrouz Imamy Caddyer-Ally Iedt-Ousant Auwpatsian the Sophyan the Roses Daffadillies c. The Oud-Hussan is from Hocem or Hussan soone of Ally slaine with eleven of his sonnes by Mavi the Chalyph Lord of Damascus and Nephew to Ozman A Festivall begun by Syet Gunet followed by Aydar and commanded by Sha-Izmael as a Triumph against the Ben-Humyans who tho they thought to have extirpt Ally's root yet by divine providence St. Azmully brancht secretly Anno Hegirae 90. and from him this Siet of Ardoveil reviver of the Sophian dignitie For the Syet not onely sleighted the Turkish opinion of Mahomets three successours Abubocher and the rest but cursed all such as honor them yea and foure other great Hodgees or Doctors of the Alcoran contemporarie friends and helpers of Mahomet those foure if I be not deceiv'd whom Mahomet in a feare for his presumption beholding God in Paradize wip't from the sweat of his brow and by divine myracle metamorphiz'd into foure learned men thus named Achmet Sembelim Abu-hamet Melec-zeddah and Sheck Vaffaim a tenet so offensive and exasperating to the Turks that of late the Muphti condemning an innocent Persian swore a great oath he thought it a better act and a more meritorious sacrifice to kill one Persian than seventy Christians But to our Storie All agree that Hussan was slaine trecherously by Chuse a slave to Mnavi Mavi was an Actor they therefore punish him yearely though rotten 1000 yeares since First framing a deformed Image his face blackt his nose pierc't with a Dart and clad in straw which done they hurrie it through the streets in a hurly-burly of thousands of people who when they have dragd it enough within the City hale it to some rising hill without wher to all mens view they elevate this supposed living Caytiffe The Caddy bawles out a pathetique Oration to this purpose That after much search Ally had directed them where to apprehend this Traytor unworthy the least pittie or procrastination this being that same villaine who slew Hussan and his sons Ceresin only escaping that every good man is bound in conscience to curse him yea to help to torment him in the vilest manner possible In shew of joy and assent they unanimously sing Epicinia a song of victorie and crie aloud Yough Ally yea strive to rend the clouds with their ceaselesse clamours At a set time they cease roring and fire is given to a trayne of Gunpowder which sets divers squibs a fire and at length dissipates and blowes up the detested Syrian by a hideous noise making the ayre eccho at his smokie Funerall Hussans ghost now sleepes quietly each Persian commends one anothers zeal haste home spend that night in merriment The Nowrouz is in imitation of our New-yeares day but they begin after the old manner in March such time as Phoebus in his equall shine to either Pole makes the Aequinoctium A festivall of jovialitie for one prayer preying upon varietie of wanton pleasures the Talismanni piping now to Bacchus Ceres and Madam Venus For I have observ'd that in manie parts for 11 months in the yeare we could see verie few women and those vailed but impossible in the streets or gardens to converse with anie without danger yet these twelve dayes of the Nowrouz all places were full of them yea their naked faces openly discovered frisking in amorous postures and drawing the eye by a forced Magique Gifts also and reciprocall presents are retorted up down with garments of silk gold horses fruits and piscashes of other sorts nothing but riding the great horse drinking cock-fighting fortune-telling singing courting and the like observed to the last minute of that Festivall The Imamy has some dependance on the Buckaree This a Camell that a Ram that for Ismael this for Mahomet In November the Meccan Protomist sends a sanctified Camell by an adopted sonne sometimes naturall who is welcom'd to Spahawn by many thousand Mussulmen who shew th'extream of joy for so holy a Present After they have tried tired their voices the Hodgee from an exalted place acquaints them with the cause of his long journey perswades them to a thankfull remembrance and blesses them The zealous multitude without anie respect of men or danger throng about the Beast who is no sooner in the field where Death arrests him but that they fall upon him and pluck off his haires with an admirable dexteritie keeping them as sanctimonious reliques praevalent against sudden death though manie die in the assault and thousands returne maymed hunger thirst povertie and the like After which the tormented Camell is by the Hodgee againe signed for a sacrifice The Darroguode first transfixes his Javelin The Visier beheads him and gives it the King The carkasse is torne peece-meale by the foole-hardie multitude so greedie to obtaine this charme of long life and plentie
the tip of the little Beares tayle the Sunne at this time was in the 19. degree of Taurus in Artick declination 17. degrees 31. minutes May 6. We had some thunder and lightning or corpo sanctos such as seeme good Omens to the superstitious Portugalls and at night past by Santo croix the holy crosse every houre expecting the Monzoon Monzoons an anniversary wind that blowes one way six moneths and the other halfe yeer the contrary way constantly which if Sea-men neglect they lose their happy passage into India But how preposterous the yeere and wind proved elsewhere I know not doubtlesse it is the Emblem of inconstancy experience taught it us so long time proving our Antagonist that our passage to the Cape of good Hope became sixe weekes longer than we looked for forc't to runne into much more longitude than we desired An Inhabitant of Angola The slaughter of a man doth not suffice These caniballs we see but breasts armes eyes Like dainty meat they eat Aspicimus populos quorum non sufficit itae Occidisse aliquem sed pectora brachia vultum Crediderint genus esse cibi Nothing commendable in them but their Archery in which they excell shooting a dozen shafts ere the first touch ground their Amazonian neighbours forcing their care and diligence The only ornament they have is slashing and cutting their skinne and faces the Sunne and Moone are man and wife the Starres their children in their religion the divell is their Oracle May 24. We had 19 degrees and a halfe from whence to the thirtieth degr the wind was large and prosperous nothing in that great distance observable save that on the 26 day our Admirall the Mary in which one Hall commanded early discryed a saile which he made after with his barge long boat and 80. men at two leagues distance they perceived her a Carrack of 1500 Tun who durst not adventure her hulk against our shot and therefore made all sailes draw and that night escaped tho to grapple her our fleet divided all night but saw her not till the 27. day and but saw her her velocity so much excelled ours till the 7. of Iune she againe deluded us after two houres chase as a phantasma vanishing towards God Vpon May day we crost the line and last of May the Tropick of Capricorne Tropicus Capricorni the utmost limit of Apollo's progresse towards the Antartick and 53 dayes we swet within the burning Zone ere we past under both the Tropiques The first of Iune our observation was in 24 degrees 42 minutes South latitude Iunij 1. the Sunne then in 23. degrees 8l. North in the 20. degree of Gemini In which height we had many sudden and violent gusts and stormes contrary to our desires unable thereby to direct our course being driven to Lee-ward 100 leagues upon the coast of Brazeel to 25. degr latitude and 27. of longitude from the Lizard Howbeit post multos sequitur una serena dies for on the 13. day in the first watch our long lookt for Favonius blew sweetly upon us The West wind most men know From the vast sea is ever felt to blow Semper lenis aura Favoni Spirat ab Oceano At which time some Boobyes weary of flight made our Ship their pearch an animall so simple as suffers any to take her without feare as if a stupid sense made her carelesse of danger which to sympathize I have as simply for your sport depicted A Boobie T is not long since I told you how favourably Aeolus entertained us but his other adjunct is inconstancy for veering into another quarter he began to puffe and bluster yea so furiously that Neptune sweld with rage in such impatience that the Tritons Marriners grew agast not without reason the Cape land thought not neere enough and yet too neere us for foure dayes and nights not daring to beare any saile but lay ahull driving whither the storme compelled us all that while the sea surges so sublime and impetuous that wee were tost up into the Ayre and forth with throwne downe as into an Abisse sometimes dancing upon the liquid ridge of a dreadfull wave and anon inveloped with many others all seeming to swallow us heaven and sea roaring and commixing in an undivided manner yet the Lord be praised having Sea roome and good tite Ships his providence saved us in 16 dayes more meeting together joyfully at the Cape of good hope and I confesse ingeniously not till then did I feele that Ironic Satyre of Iuvenal biting us I nunc ventis animam committe doloso Confisus ligno Digitis â morte remotus Quattuor aut septem si sit latissimataeda Goe now and to the winds thy life commit Trust the smooth wood foure or seven fingers set From death the broadest heart of Pine admit Iune 24. Wee rais'd the Pole Antartick six and thirty degrees our longitude from the Meridian of the Lyzard five and twenty degrees wanting three to the Cape variation three degrees our course E. S. E. the Sunnes declination two and twenty degrees twenty sixe minutes and as many seconds North in the 17. degree of Gemini The same time mid-summer in England and mid-winter with us in those South clymats The 7. of Iuly betimes wee descried land and tho threescore miles distant from its height seemed very nigh us proving the place wee aimed at that famous promontory now no longer Tormentozo but of good Hope Howbeit we could not flie upon the wings of desire the wind withstanding our hast wherby we let fall our Anchor 14 leagues short of the Bay of Soldania and went a shore upon a little Ile 3 miles round corruptly cal'd Cony I le from the Welsh Cain-yne or white Ile where we kil'd many Conies or Cats rather great and rammish bad and waterish commended for dainty meat by hungry Sailers Ie junus raro stomachus vulgaria temnit It also superabounds with Seales piscis marinus as big as Lyons and though doggedly visaged can out barke them yea bellow like Bulls and from such as not till then see any may challenge wonder They turne to oyle and give their skins for buffe coates soft and serviceable Here are also birds cal'd Pen-gwins white-head in Welch like Pigmies walking upright their sinns or wings hanging very orderly downe like sleeves a creature fish and flesh participating sea and shore feeding in the one breeding in the other easie to be caught on land but that their undermining the sandy ground for habitacles makes the passage bad at sea diving like a Duck swift as a Dolphin fat but oylie some dare eat them curiosity may invite a taste but to make a meale on unsapory and offensive to which May-game of nature I may inculcate that made on her acquaintance Divide her I desire but neck and brest They savour well the Cooke may eat the rest Tota quidem ponatur anas sed pectore tantum cervice sapit caetera redde coquo
the Sea of Edom the Hebrewes call it Zuph or Saph or Mare Algosum from Sea weeds or Sargassoes here abounding Some Mare Elanixicum from Aelana a neighbouring Port and Towne and others the Gulph of Mecca and Arabia fictitious Thevet calls it Zocoroph Bohar Colzun the Arabs Zahara some and others Brachia a Sea most memorable for the miraculous passage Almighty God gave Moses and the Israelites neere the Sues of old Arsinoe and for Solomons fleet at Ezion Geber or Moha thence setting out for the gold of Ophyr To returne when the Portugalls had got Socotora and a hundred other places in India and Araby Albuquerque their Golias by much adoe anno 1520 took Aden boasting that he was then sole Emperour of India Qua victa saith Osorius putabat Indiae Imperium fore sempiternum Humanum est errare or else Albuquerk might be blemished for in few yeares they not only lost this but many other Forts of greater consequence in India October 18 we had the wind pretty faire Our observation that day being 17 degrees our longitude 19 from Mohelia the wind less'ned and weather grew flaming hot no Stove or Sudatory exceeding it it made us very faint yet having past through as bad it seemed lesse torment to us But Mahomet the Persian Merchant whose father Hodgee Suare died in London the yeare before could hold out no longer a Feaver drawing him through the path of death Mahomet converted a happy man if throwing away the raggs of Mawmetry hee roab'd his soule with true faith in Christ they say he call'd upon him twice happy man if unfaignedly At his putting into the Sea the Captain honour'd his funeral with the sky rending clamour of foure Culverin shot leaving his carcasse to the mercy of the Sea and Fish a sure treasurie till the resurrection The seventeenth of November to our comfort we descried terra ter ex optata the coast of India in fifteene degrees latitude and 32 of longitude the ill weather having driven us to Lee-ward many leagues that very place where Goa Barigaza of old is seated the bravest best defended Citie in the Orient the Magazeen refuge seat of Justice of the insolent and gold-thirsty Portugall The Citie is not visible to such as Navigate in the Ocean being built three houres journey within the land in Tilsoare an I le of 30 miles circuit surrounded by a river streaming from the mighty mountaine Bellaguate Goa is compast with a strong and beautifull wall proud in her aspiring Turrets dreadfull in many sorts of tormenting Cannons her strength and beauty begun from the Decan Emperours Zabaym and Idalcan Goa from whom anno 1509 Albuquerque conquer'd it but agrandiz'd from the Lusitanian the great Buzzar or Market is in center of the Towne richly built pleasant and capacious The other streets are after the Indian mode narrow and nasty the buildings in generall are spatious and comly dark within tarrassed and sutable to the seasons 't is watered with a delicious streame which by benevolence of the ayre refreshes the fields forcing Flora to dismantle the gardens be also fill'd with variety of sweet and eye-pleasing flowers the whole I le abounds with grasse corne groves cattell fruits and such sence ravishing delights a reasonable man can require above 20 little Townes are seene in this 30 miles compasse In Goa is nothing more observable than the fortifications the Viceroy and Archbishops Pallaces and the Churches Field peeces here are numbred above 300 the Pallaces are strong of good stone furnisht within with rich Arras and painting the Churches of best rank are that dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mother of God in which is kept the bones and skull of Saint Thomas the Apostle holy Reliques brought 50 yeares agoe from Meliapore by Emanuel Frias at command of Iohn successour to Emanuel Kings of Portugall St. Pauls St. Dominie St. Katherine St. Savior and others in which are prest downe the bones of restlesse Albuquerque buried in the yeare 1516 of d' Acugnia of Don Francisco and that late canonized Chyna St. Francis Shyvier the Navarrean Jesuit who died anno 1552. 4 December aged 55 and rubricated by Pope Gregory 15. 12 March 1622 when many more were Sainted We hasted hence towards Swally judging the worst past the Indian shoare all our way in view us and the sea every where 20 leagues from land anchorable But sure all peace comes from above and mans heart abounds with vanity for upon a sudden the element grew dreadfull the wind to rore the sea sublime and wrathfull for three dayes space raging incessantly with such fury that we verily beleeved a Tuffon or Herocane was begun a Tempest of 30 dayes continuance so terrible that houses and trees are like dust afore it many great ships having beene blowne a shoare and shattered once in nine yeares it uses to thunder among them presag'd by birds and beasts who three or foure dayes before it bluster cry out and runne under ground for shelter as if an overture of all the world were ensuing But praised be God wee were deceived we mist a Tuffon but not a second disadventure this storme forcing a Mallabar Junck a Pirat in view of us our Ordnance could not reach them though the longest Saker we had vomited the fire of defiance at them whereby we were forced in way of honour to chase her with Barges mann'd with fifty Musquetiers But Vela damus quamvis remige Navis eat We made too much haste in boarding her being entertain'd with such store of Fire-works and Granados a volley of cruell shafts in a word we were opposed with so much desperate courage that after small hurt to them wee retreated with shame the better halfe slaine hurt and scalded our ships all the while being made an unwilling Theater of this Affront the wind forbidding them to retaliate The 22 of November the wind abated and wee found ground at forty fadomes many Snakes swimming about our ships which with the waters changing colour assured us we were neere the shoare the last storme had puzled us and soone after we discerned land in 19 degrees 35 minutes latitude and 29 in longitude which by its towring height we knew to be Dabul and then St. Iohn de vacas a Towne subject to the Portugall at the South end especially mounting in an ambitious piramid of Natures work named Saint Valentin's peake the land continuing high from thence to Gundavee a hill six leagues short of Swalley road a round hillock and bay of importance unto Mariners St. John The seven and twentieth day of November we hal'd an Indian piscadoro abord us never was Antick better habited he told us of many enemies but we were fearelesse after long toyle tiding up with streame anchors every sixt houre weighing and dropping in short time we got to Choul and then against Daman a lovely towne lorded by the Portugalls and conspicuous to passengers at the North end it has a Castle large strong and daring the
considered which was his plot for Apostasie but that the Devill and Sergius who helpt him could not blaspheame nor bee suffered to derogate from their Majesty and to whom we say in the words of our Saviour to the Demoniack hold thy peace and ex ore tuo laus sordet The residue of the Book consists of Heresiarchyes against our blessed Saviour with Arrius it denies the Divinity with Sabellius the Trinity with Macedonius the holy Ghost proceeding with Manicheus the death of Christ and such like errours as to them and Satan seemed plausible In the 32 Azoara hee commands that no man be so impious to question any particle of his Law nor to dispute about it and yet in another chapter confesses that t is full of lyes 1 Commandement There is one and but one great God and Mahomet is his Prophet Sung every fourth houre both by the Muyezins Talismanni from the steeple tops of every Mosque in a cleare note Llala y-lala Mohummed resullula and the Persians by Syet Gunets direction to the honour of their Prophet Llala y-lala Mortus Ally vel-hillulla 2 Comman 'T is neither good nor just that any Mussulman live unmarried lest the professors of the Alcoran or Mahomet be thereby diminished Whence it arises that Poligamy is tolerated yea that such are thought the most honourable and brave men who super-abound in wives and concubines The chast Prophet Mahomet in the Azoara of Bacara boasts much of his owne delight and singularity therein and that he had strength at most times to satiate the lust of forty women In that chapter of Attahrim he also confesses that he oft had violated his faith and troth but it grieved him not in that hee had received pardon from God and had to witnesse it his good friends Rachel and Gabryel two holy Angels But who sees not that in this precept of his like a polite Machiavillian he had respect to the naturall disposition of the Arabians pleas'd with freedome and voluptuousnesse rather than to any vertue not caring how so by any magick he could yoak them to obedience and affectation of his Alcoran 3 Comman It behooves all Mussulmen to bee charitable and to hate contention From this command issues most good to Travellers for whereas Innes are not to be had in heathen countries stately buildings call'd Imarets in Turkie Carravans-raws in Persia Serrays in Indya are purposedly built and open for all commers never questioning their Country businesse nor religion the roomes are sweet and well kept the stables be convenient and not any is to pay ought in that t was founded from the charity of some Mahomitans who have beene knowne to spend in one of those common receptories fifteene thousand pound sterling such are in Shyraz Cashan c. they also erect Hospitalls for lame men and diseased yea for aged starved or hurt birds beasts and such like creatures 4 Conaman It behooves all Mussulmen to invocate their Prophet every day five times at least with sobriety and to attend his comming patiently Which they carefully accomplish and with such regard that when the Muyezin is heard to cry aloud from the Mosque they fall to prayer though then busied in prophane talk drinking drabbing or the like And in praying to help their memorie use Beads stop their eares and shut their eyes lest any thing might divert them in their zealous Orizons which they actuate in a quiet and silent murmur bending prostrating and kissing the ground or some relique of holy earth brought from Medina the Haram or Alcaba two holy Chappels in Mecca erected sayes the Alcoran by Abraham from the true Idea of that which Adam built in Paradize albeit some hold that he stayed there not above a day carried by Angels into heaven at the generall Deluge in every El-fata or prayer sizedaing or kissing the earth at each Epethite or name of God and Mahomet and after they have battologuiz'd Ilalay-lala they iterate another to this effect following In the name of the good and holy God Praised be the Soveraigne of all worlds the only mercifull God of Doom ' thee we serve thee wee call upon shew us the best way that which thou hast revealed to Mahumet but not that wherby thou punishest the Ungodly This also as I have noted amongst them being a meere Tautologie of the names of God and Maâ—met Bizmillah raugh mawn a raugh-heam Allhundill Alley Etto byatto almo barakatto assulwatto Attayo batto Leyla heessalem Aleyka I Iaanna nebeen rough meet Wallough heeweeber-catto Essa-lamalena Wallah Ebadulla hesolaheem Eshaddo Awla-El aha El-Allaho Eshaddai Mahummed resull-Allogh L'alla Essalamalena Ebadulla Solaheem Essalamaleekam Essalamaleeka Allyhomma Sul-hillulla Allaw Mohummed don Wallaw Wassaleem-chamma Salleata Alhumderalley Whoddaw said by all Mahomitans in Arabia Persia Indya Iava c. And though this be the most usuall yet they are not without other set formes of prayer compiled by Osman in his Parody for in the 17 Azoara Mahomet confesses that he could neither read nor write and by that famous Almotannabby who fell in his learned conceits to make his Name more venerable than Mahomet Their Elfataes are either for the safety of their Kings a happy issue the welfare of their Country thanks that they are Mussulmen Bosarmen or true beleevers and the like five times in foure and twenty houres praying or rather balbutiating orderly The houres are day-breake noone three in the afternoone sunne-set and at midnight recorded by these titles Ashaera Magreb Adelesher Kalamath and Erketh Arabically thus Dahour Lashour Mogrub Sallit Sabaha L'hair The first houre is acted by foure Tessalems or prostrations and two prayers 2. by ten times kissing the earth and five El-fataes 3. houre requires eight grovelings and foure ejaculations 4. has five Sizedaes and three orations and the last houre for a farwell has fifteen tesselems and eight repetitions after that houre to day breake t is held an ungodly thing to invocate The Persians since their reformation think it enough to pray thrice in foure and twenty houres at sob dor magareb Arabick words and which signifie morning noonee and night On the Gynmaa or Sabbath by the Persians call'd Y'owma and D'siuma by Turks Zuma-g'iuny Dumaad by the vulgar Arabs they assemble in the Mosques without seats and bells each first washing then kneeling with his face to Medina not speaking one to another spetting nor coughing scapes unpardonable 5. Command See thou observe yeerely a Month Lent a Byram c. The Lent or Ramdam call'd also Ramadan Ramazan and Ramulan begins commonly at the Sunnes entrance into Aries Libra other times no time certaine and is an imitation of our Lent or rather the forty dayes Moses was in Horeb and by some said in memory of Mahomets forty dayes hiding himselfe in the Desart flying from the rage of Mecca's Inhabitants and that in that moneth he divulg'd the Alcoran but most likely as in the 47 Azora of himselfe and 25 in which he treats of the
that immortalitie and the place where meat and drinke is needlesse oft praecipitates them The Caddier Ally is for Ally's victorie over the three old Caytiffs of Mecca by death not Ally conquered and his joy in heaven which after some threnodies many prayers are muttered songs chanted and almes bestowed the King being at most charge the greatest honor reflecting him The Iedt Ousant is from a Cabala that Housant was lost in a terrible great wildernesse where thirst killed him Nine dayes they wander up and downe shaving all that while neither head nor beard nor seeming joyfull incessantly crying out Hussan Hussan in a melancholy note so long so fiercely that many can neither howle longer nor for a moneths space recover their voyces The tenth day they find an imaginarie Hussan that Nunquemque satis quaesitus Adonis whom they eccho forth in Stentorian clamors till they bring him to his grave where they let him sleepe quietly till the next yeares zeale fetch him out Semper enim perdunt semper inveniunt and force him againe to concomitate their merry devotion The Auwptpatsion or Owdt-baptsion is from Mahomets baptisme by cursed Sergius and seemes to deride our customes to make their circumcision lovelier A rascall troop of circumcis'd Mahomitans assemble and after the Darroguod has put a period to his rustick Oration promiscuously besprinkle one anothers faces then soile their flesh with durt and filth the great ones many times to please the King acting among them Lastly they cleanse themselves with purer water supposing all contaminated deformitie washt off and their bodies wholsomer The Sophian is a solemnitie of fasting feasting and praying for the prosperitie of their King of the Sophian pedegree The feast of Roses and Daffadillies is begun by a Procession of holy men at the first budding of those sweet flowers and for thirtie dayes is celebrated with all manner of sports and recreations to be imagined continued from the great feasts of the old famous Monarchs of Persia tents in abundance men women boyes girles with Armes musick songs dances and such as may revive the Olympick memories 6 Com. Reverence thy Parents Which how ill they performe many Tragick stories daily informe us of 7 Com. Cursed be the slayer This is so well practis'd in Persia that what by rigour of the Lawes and what from this one may travell in any place at any time without all danger and although they be generally Martialists and affect much wine yet I never saw any quarrell nor strife amongst them 8 Com. Do so to Others as thou wouldest Others should do to thee From whence they are humane and curteous but bribery is lately crept amongst them and deceit too too easily discerned The Alcorar is a miscellany of other prodigious things It tracts in the 33 that Dagial or Shytan i. e. the Devill shall be saved by Mahomet in the 72 Azoara that all Elgehenni or infernall ghosts shall after I know not how many yeares bee freed The other Azoaraes of his Kurrawn are of Arithmetick fights dangers truth falshood tyranny warre peace prophesie c. The 85 Azoara treats of the Zodiac the 90 of the Sunne the 91 92 93 of the Moon of night of morn the 113 of the Firmament but is Philosophy of such coursenesse that I may well say Discum potius quam Philosophum for how can it well be otherwise since in his 17 Azoara hee confesses that hee could neither read nor write but that all his learning was super-naturall In one chapter hee is bold to say that Solomon was a great Magician and that hee learnt it from Marot and Arot two great black Devills with more reason we may say that Mahomet was skild in that infernall wisdome if halfe of those miracles bee true hee records of himselfe one is this In a great assembly of Arabian Pagans he pointed at the Moone with his thumb and long finger it seemes it knew his mind for the Moone immediatly clove asunder and in two peeces fell upon the hill of Mecca on which hee at that time stood Mahomet with a peece of his linsey-wolsey coat patcht it and made it whole againe and after it had also say the Persians circumvolved Mortis Ally in way of imbrace or complement it re-ascended and from that day became the badge or coat armour of all Bosarmen In another hee assures his Proselites that Mecca Medina and Ierusalem be holy Cities built by Adam in Paradize but fram'd in heaven thence it is that Ierusalem is by Turks as well as Christians honoured foure Cities sprung out of hell at the birth of Mahomet at which time all Idolls fell and Lucifer was throwne into hell so deep into that abisse as hee was some yeeres ere he could get up againe the names of those devillish Townes are as pleases Mahomet to say Elmedin in Caldea Antioch in Syria Vastat in Aegypt and Eh-beram in Armenia Places it seemes which had refused him and his learned Doctrine But lend your eares a while and listen to the most serious subject of his Alcoran In the 47 Azoara he records hiâ— pilgrimage into the highest heavens where he saw rare things and thence brought a certain description of the severall Spheares Heavens Hells and Paradises as also of Angells and Saints of judgement the resurrection joy and paine c. of which I will afford you a compendium for Mussulmen to beleeve for us to laugh at One eve as Mahomet was sporting privatly in 's chamber at Mecca with Aysce his young wife Gabryel Seraphyel the Persians call him the same that fosterd Mahomet and Ally three yeares and was peradventure such a Malus Genius as haunted Brutus in a flash of fire entred their bed-chamber and saluted Mahomet with this message Haile thou beloved man I come to fetch thee the God whom thou so zealously worshippest desires to see thee at his owne station Mahomet rejoyces and going to mount upon the Angells wings of which hee had seventy pâ—ire is hindred he asks which way he should take towards heaven the Angel shewes him a huge Asse Albarack by name and bids him mount upon him which Mahomet essaying could not doe till hee had prayed for him From Mecca hee posted in the twinckling of an eye for Barack at foure steps had done it to Hierusalem there the Angell dismounted him and took him into his owne protection In few minutes Mahomet ascended heaven and was let in by Gabryel the Porter there From one heaven to another is a travell of five hundred yeares howbeit The Heaven Mahomet glanc't through the seven in a moment In all which Orbs hee saw many strange things but first take notice what mettall the Orbs are made of The first is of refined silver and wherein all the glittering starres are fixt with chains of burnisht brasse in this heaven he saw a Cock so great that standing upon the Moon his cox-comb reacht into the imperiall heaven many millions of miles altitude every
from the religion they suckt from their cradle amongst Panyms from that rule of Nature Use others as thou would'st others should use thee The Christians in these parts differ in some things from us and the Papacie yet retaine many principles of the Orthodox and Catholick doctrine Le ts enter their Temples Their Churches are low and but poorely furnished their vassalage will reach no further whether from their subjection or that so the Temples of their bodies bee replenisht with vertue the excellency of buildings conferre not holinesse I know not neat they are and sweetly kept matted without seats and insteed of Images have some select and usefull texts of holy Writ obviously writ or painted They assemble and haste to Church each Lords day with great alacrity at their entring they shut their eyes and contemplate the holinesse of the place the exercise they come about and their owne unworthinesse as they kneele they look towards the Altar or Table neere which the Bishop or Preist is seated whom they salute with a low and humble reverence who returnes his blessing by the up-lifting of his hands and eyes at a set houre they begin prayers above two houres seldome continuing first they have a short generall confession which they follow the Priest in and assent in an unanim Amen then followes an Exposition of some part or text of holy Scripture during which their attention dejected lookes and silence is admirable they sing an hymne and at parting out of Church re-salute the Minister who ceases not till all be gone out to elate his hands and blesse them When they are come home they read a chapter in either Testament both which they suppose they have incorrupt after the Originalls and translated for them by Saint Thomas the Apostle and patron of the Orient they have it also in the Chaldy but none save the Clergie understand it every first Sonday in the Month the Priest reads a Sermon out of an old Homily writ as they say by the Apostle or some of his Disciples they Baptise commonly at the 40 day if the Parents do no sooner desire it they first signe the Infant on the forehead with the Crosse and then wash it all over with water the Sacrament of the Lords holy Supper they administer in both kinds the Communicants receive it reverently kneeling they observe two dayes strict preparation during which they eat no flesh revell not accompanie with no women in the Church they confesse their sinnes and demerits with great reluctancy They marry as wee do the Clergie marry but once the Layety but twice widdowes if they marry before the yeere be expired after which their husbands dyed are ill reported of and hazard their joyncture none save for adultery have lycence to part till death sever them In sicknesse the Priest is sent for to comfort them and to give the Eucharist if it bee heartily desired that done they take farwell of their wife and children and all others and so rid themselves of carnall distractions which too oft hinder the desired meditation of the misery of worldlings and by a holy contemplation of the ineffable joyes of heaven strive to mitigate the pangs of their disease yea the grim aspect of approaching Death and the survivers rather joy than mourne as they solemnize his funeral they first wash then wrap the Corps in clean linnen a few selected friends concomitate it to the grave wherein they place it looking not East but West towards Ierusalem five dayes after that they visit his Family They feast and fast as we their Lent or abstinence from flesh and the like begins each spring and is strictly observed fortie dayes without banquet or bravery their yeare is Soli-genian our three cheefe Feastivalls they celebrate in July they commemorate the martyrdome of Saint Thomas they have many Patriarchs or Protomists the cheife resides at a house built upon a high mountaine nine miles from Cranganor Since the Portugalls traded Indya they have shaven their heads the Layicks pay Decimae or Tythes willingly they affect justice truth peace humility obedience c. and acknowledge Saint Thomas some the Eunuch of Arabia converted by Philip their Tutelary Saint and Patron They beleeve no Purgatory May 7 we had 8 degrees and ere Sunne-set darted our eyes upon that high mountaine commonly called Brin Iohn i. e. the Mount of Iohn and revives the British Antiquity Next day we had 7 degrees 30 minutes variation 14 degrees than which that famous Promontory of East-India extends no further towards the Aequator Next day wee sailed by the Maldyvae Iles memoriz'd by Pyrard de Laval who lived there and reports that the King there styles himselfe Emperour of thirteene Provinces and 12000 Ilands most and least any King in the world is owner of Neere these are other Iles Candu Nicubar and Sumbrero by name in the view of Zeyloon and Sumatra to which place and many other I must guide your patience of Zeyloon ZEyloon or Ceylon one of those five Iles Ptolomy calls Barussae was not innominate to the Antients By Ptolomy cald Panigarensis since him in Arab. Authors Sisuara Tenarisis and Nanigeris At this day Zeyloon by us Chingall by the inhabitants an I le spatious rich and famous severed from the Asiatick continent by a small sea not forty Leagues over It is limitted from 8 to 11 deg of latit North the length is about 70 leagues breadth 40 and circuit 250 or thereabouts an I le famous in some old conjectures as that Paradise was here that K. Salomon had hence his obrize gold or gold of Ophyr but I beleeve neither in regard most writers fix the ruines of the one in Mesopotamia and the other rather in Pegu Iava those wealthy places The most memorable is this That Meleck or Melchior Pyramal King of this Iland is thought one of those wise-men premonisht by that prophesy of Balaam the Edomite in Num. 24. 17. that brought as to a King a Priest a Prophet Gold Frank-insence and Myrrh unto our blessed Saviour foretold also by the Persian Sybill and by a new made Starre guided by the finger of God miraculously directed and who at his returne made knowne the mystery of Gods Incarnation for mans redemption by his laborious teaching made many Proselites some to this day by tradition memorising him and reteining somewhat of Christian knowledge though the greatest part bee Apostats and drunk with abominable demonomy and superstition But whether Melchyor returned upon Saint Thomas his arrivall and with the other two came into Europe and whether those three buried in Cullen be fictitious or no it is not pertinent to a Travellers curiosity to insist upon But this is obvious in History That Candaces Noble Eunuch baptised by Philip left her service to preach Christ whom very fruitfully he made knowne to many parts of Araby and sundry Iles as Socotora this and Tabrobane or Sumatra as Dorotheus Bishop of Tyre in the dayes of the great
for fruit all so greene so sweet so pleasant as may well be term'd a compendium of sense-ravishing delights or King Abbas his Paradise Monuments should come now to our description Monuments but I found few to feed my eyes upon Rustans Tomb must be one two miles from Spahawn behind the Garden wee last spoke of a Tomb scarce discern'd by shape but by the Gowers Cabala preserv'd from Oblivion To see it wee foot it to the very top of an Imperious Mount where is only a hollow Cave whether cut by Art or Nature scarce discernable His grave is here his Image at a place neere Shyraz from his gigantive shape ingraven of old in a black-marble precipitious mountaine Noctae or Nogdi Rustan a brave Cavalier such time as Artaxerxes Queen Hesters husband wore that Diadem A.D. 3500. but envie the heyre of perdition so burnt in the wrathfull heart of his unnaturall brother Shawgad that when Rustan was hot in chase he fell into a dreadfull pit cover'd with boughes as if it had hatcht no danger but in prosecuting his hate was also slaine by a Dart Rustan flung up to retaliate him Such was the end of valiant Rustan of whom the Gowers the old Persians fable more than we of Bellyanis or Ogero the Dane Neere which and neerer the Citie is Darius or rather Xerxes mount a rising hillock and whence Xerxes viewd the innumerable Army he had in that large Plain weeping upon a meditation that in so few yeeres none should be living a Notion true and sooner than he predicted for what by Themistocles ashore and Leonidas at sea at Salamys and Thermopilae his huge Armie melted away and quickly became numerous Not farre thence ride we to the Acroceraunian hills I meane not those of Epire knowne to Ptolomy hard and loftie Through which bold daring Abbas is forcing passage though he effect it not under twenty yeeres and by th' incessant toyle of 40000 somtimes 200000 men to invite a sweet river to Spahawn that runnes contentedly to it selfe fifty miles thence and is by this I beleeve effected which when it is may well compare with that old wonder intended by vaine-glorious Nero 'twixt Ostia and Avernus now call'd Licola Within Spahawn I found none save that Columne or Pillar of heads of men and beasts erected as a Trophy of the Kings oath and as a Monument of the peoples levity At the base t is twenty foot round and threescore high or there-abouts for to my shame I confesse it I forgot to measure it The occasion this of erecting it Anno 1500. Heg 880. such time as Tamas shaw ruled Persia and Guinza added to the lustre of that Diadem this Citie surfetting with luxurie for Vbi uber ibi tuber sayes Apuleius refus'd not only to contribute reasonably to the Kings occasions at that time troubled with Turk and Tattar but most audatiously with stood his desired entrance a rebellion so insufferable as made him sweare a revenge scarce to be paralleld With fury he assaults in rage enters firing a great part and in all hostile severity pillaging each house and to conclude regarding neither the outcries of old men weak women nor innocent children in two dayes be made headlesse 300000 of those late Spahawnians and from Tamberlan's rigid example at Damascus erects a Trophy this pillar of their heads as a memoriall of their basenes En quò discordia cives perduxit miseros Another followes The Piller of Heades in Spaâ—â—awne Ielphey is the last part wee propos'd concerning this great Citie the scite resembles Pera to Constantinople or Southwark to London the river Syndery interposing T is call'd a Suburb as be Gower-abaut Abbas-ebaut Chanzabaut Azenabaut and Cheigh-Saban Though indeed they are peopled with men of one religion admitting very little mixture Ielphy is govern'd by a peculiar Podestate an Armenian Prince Hodge Nazar by name indeed a Christian Merchant hee and his enjoy freedome of conscience but for mony matters are at the disposition of the avaritious King In Ielphea nam'd from another of that name in Armenia old Ariaramnes I beleeve mentioned by Tortelius the people are numbred ten thousand in Azenabaut foure thousand families Ielphè is by some writ Golfa and Chiulfa but I think I have better hit our Dialect The Jelphelyns are habited like the Persians but differ in face most of these and the Georgians having brighter haire and more modest eyes than the Mahomitans They are generally Merchants and to say truly but Factors for the King who exacts an account at their death and inherits their posessions They professe Christianity taught them erroniously by Iacobus the Syrian Monothelite They have two Protomists one here in Ielphey th' other resides somtimes at Sib neere Tharsus other-times at Ecmeasin not farre from Rivan or Ervan Their religion I have already spoken of An Old Inhabitant of Persia. We entred Spahawn the tenth of April and on May day departed thence for the Court then at Asharaff in Mozendram about foure hundred English miles distant North. Our first nights journey was to Reegue or Reig an houres riding from Spahawne Thence-forward we made by reason of the intollerable heat pale Cynthia and Arcturus our night guides all day refreshing in the Carravans-raws good resting places if gnats forbid it not From Reigue we travell'd to Sardahan sixteene English miles next nght we made Whomg our Manzeil being seven and twenty miles from Sardahan Next night to Towgebawt a house and garden of the Kings for beauty add sweetnesse comparable to any other in Parthya the more observable being seated in a barren cursed sandie soile champaigne and terrible to inhabit in But The blushing Rose growes here the Violet And Parthyan Mirtle in choise order set Hic rosa purpureo crescit rubicunda colore Et Viole omne genus hic est Parthyca mirtus for five hundred paces it every way gives a series of all sorts of Persian fruits and flowers Pomgranads Peaches Apricocks Plums Apples Peares Cherries Chesnuts Damask red and white Roses and other flowers innumerable fructified by a crystall rivolet intermixt with many delicate naturall and artificiall Grottoes Labyrinths Meanders and Volliers with Sudatories or Hummums of good stone pav'd with choise white Marble the Mohull or Summer Lodge bragging of a dozen chambers delicate in view rich in gold imbosments and proud in th'Architect all safeguarded from sand and stealth by a defensive wall that hinders save in one rising hillock in midst of the six descents the affrighting sight of the circumvolving Wildernesse Who calls himselfe a Traveller must not imagine pleasure his Object 't is paine and miserie must entertaine him oftnest Otherwise I could have lull'd my selfe in this last Paradise but on wee must and try the difference From Tawgebagh wee got next night to Bawt six farsangs or 18 miles distant nothing memorable save an old Castle in the way which by Cynthia's palenesse we could hardly discover From Bawt wee got by break of day to
Obigarmy both of them houses of the Kings who has at every twelve miles end a severall Lodge betwixt Spawhawn and the Caspian Sea like these and wherein our Ambassadour had the honour to repose And now we are past the danger let me tell it you Most part of the last night wee crost a miserable inhospitable sandie Desart ten long miles broad in length a hundred where we beheld mountaines of loose sand accumulated by the winds fury in such heaps as upon any great wind the tract is lost and passengers too oft involv'd and stifled by that impetuous mercilesse Tyrant yea Camels Horses Mules or other beasts though strong swift and steady perish without mercy Albeit the King to do as much as may be for prevention has rais'd at every 3 miles end a Castle but by the unstable foundation is in March September in despight of their best props yeerely peece-meale torne asunder without any remaines of their late standing This our last nights travell was thirty miles Next night wee rode one and twenty miles to Suffedaw an old rotten weather-beaten Inn or Carravans-raw and placed in part of an unsociable Desart Our next nights lodging was at Syacow ten farsangs or parassangs as Pliny calls them thirty miles English notable in her Carravans-raw built from the ground of good free stone white and polisht and was the first building of that materiall I saw in eight hundred miles riding a word of our last nights journey The most part of the night we rode upon a causey broad enough for ten horse abreast built by incredible labour and expence over a most dreadfull Desart eeven and affoording a plaine Horizon of boggy loose ground cover'd a top a yards depth with pure salt as white as snow a miserable passage for if either the wind force the salt abroad like dust or that by any accident Horse or Camell mistake the way the quaggy bogg upholds them not but suffers them to sinck past all recoverie a passage more feared from some forlorne hopes that pillage passengers God be blest wee escaped this but not another little lesse formidable for wee had no sooner past the salt Desart but of necessity wee must climb over and about hills so high and glomerating as if Olympus had beene cut out into Dedalian labyrinths From Syacow wee rode next night 22 miles most part was over other salt vast Desarts wherein thousands have perished and would yet did not a like large deepe grounded causey secure the passage And here we pitcht our Tents old god Terminus in this place limitting Parthya from further branching North from whose high tops looke wee back and memorize her that was once Mistresse of Asya and formidable to the Roman Emperours In the Scythick tongue shee meanes a stranger as Iustin in his twelfth book given by the rude Tartar as to us the name Welch by the barbarous Saxon. The Parthyan Diadem was once garnisht with two and twenty Kingdomes encircling most part of Asya From which lustre shee fell but after long eclipse by vertue of the Sophyan stemme has recover'd a great part of her former bravery T is now call'd Hyerac sirnam'd Agemy to distinguish it from that including Babylon Her old Shires were Rhagaea Apamea Tapira Choama Araciana Semina and Mizia her mountaines Orontes Abicoronii Mardoranii and Parchoatri not eight hundred miles in circuit hilly and barren yet breeding men both wise and valiant Next night Diana running cheerfully through her Zodiac wee rode eighteene long miles to Gezz a pretty Lodge belonging to the King the greater part of this nights journey was through the bottoms of transected Taurus whose stupendious forehead wets it selfe in the ayery middle region the fretum or lane is abut forty yards broad even below and bestrew'd with pibbles either side is wall'd with an amazing hill higher than to reach up at twice shooting and for eight miles so continues agreeing with the relation Pliny and Solinus make of it a prodigious passage whether by Art or Nature questionable I allude it unto Nature Gods hand-maid But if it bee the same which Pliny calls Caspiae portae Bertius Caspiarum Claustra Strabo and Ptolomy Pilae Caspiae Mediae vel Zagriae and Zarzaeae by Dio. Siculus I then grant Semyramys who did what she could to eternize her name effected it and from her was call'd Pilae Semyramidae as Niger has it Howbeit the Persians appropriate it to Mortys-Ally who with his slicing Shamsheer for the ease of his people made it a sword after their Cabala a hundred cubits long and wherewith at one blow he beheaded ten or as some say a hundred thousand Christians of no credit in that Pliny ere Mortis-Ally was horne thus writes of it Ruptura est Montis longitudine octo mill pass angustissima c. But though they ratifie their story of Ally with an oath from mee they get no other beliefe concerning it than this Hanc fabulam longi temporis mendacia finxit Of more certainty is this a Persian in our company told me That a dozen yeeres ago a valiant thiefe with five hundred horse and three hundred Musquets defended this narrow roade against all passengers none passing nor re-passing without Tribute The King of Larry-Ioon and other mountaneers frown'd at his sawsinesse and threatned his banishment but such stormes made good musick to his eares Abbas growes cholerick to bee so bearded by an ordinary fellow and scornes to honour his overthrow by an Army for knowing he had many Cavalleers about him he doubted not by their courages to fetter him he moves it and proposes a reward but they had heard the thiefe was of incomparable fortitude and dexterity so as by long silence Abbas findes their feare and grows pale at it yet ere hee could give his rage a vent a bold Armenian under-takes it the King embraces him and breaths fresh courage into the hardy Christian who excellently mounted singles out the gladded thiefe that doubted not to master so faire a beast with small opposall It was his custome to give good play usually commanding his company to look on if one or lesse than five entred the strait such high confidence had he in his valour and dexterity in short space they met but parlee in Mars his language the Armenian in all points fitted for a sterne encounter followed his blowes with such skill and fury that after long fight and much bloodshed on either party upon close hee made death a passage a victory so irksome to his men whose lives depended on his safety that like robd Beares they fell upon the victor Armenian who had doubtlesse there expired had not an Ambush of many brave Coosel-bashaes broke out and relieved him by whose sudden assault the wretched theeves were quickly sacrifiz'd unto their Master The Christian returnes to Court crown'd with a glorious Laurell Abbas addes to his lustre and gives him a brave command so insupportable to the weak soule of this too-strong Champion that to