It flyeth so swift saith Ouiedo that the wings cannot be seene It hath a nest proportionable I haue seene saith he one of those birds together with her nest put into the scales wherein they vse to weigh Gold and both weighed but two Tomins that is foure and twenty graines Haply it is therefore called Tomineios as weighing one Tomin The feathers are beautified with yellow greene and other colours the mouth like the eye of an Needle It liueth on dew and the juice of herbs but sitteth not on the Rose The feathers specially of the necke and brests are in great request for those feather-pictures or portraitures which the Indians make cunningly and artificially with these natural feathers placing the same in place and proportion beyond all admiration The Indian Bats should not flee your light and are for their rarity worthy consideration but that wee haue spoken before somewhat of them They haue Birds called Condores of exceeding greatnesse and force that will open a sheepe and a whole Calfe and eate the same They haue abundance of Birds in beautie of their feathers farre surpassing all in Europe wherewith the skilfull Indians will perfectly represent in feathers whatsoeuer they see drawne with the Pensill A figure of Saint Francis made of feathers was presented to Pope Sixtus Quintus whose eye could not discerne them to be naturall colours but thought them pensill-worke till he made tryall with with his fingers The Indians vsed them for the ornaments of their Kings and Temples Some Birds there are of rich commoditie onely by their dung In some Islands ioyning to Peru the Mountaines are all white like Snow which is nothing but heapes of dung of certaine Sea-fowle which frequent those places It riseth many Ells yea many Launces in height and is fetched thence in Boats to hearten the Earth which hereby is exceeding fertile To adde somewhat of the Indian Plants and Trees Mangle is the name of a Tree which multiplyeth it selfe into a wood as before we haue obserued of it the branches descending and taking root in the Earth The Plane-tree of India hath leaues sufficient to couer a man from the foot to the head but these the Coco and other Indian Trees are in the East-Indies also and there we haue mentioned them Cacao is a fruit little lesse then Almonds which the Indians vse for money and make thereof a drinke holden amongst them in high regard They haue a kinde of Apples called Ananas exceeding pleasant in colour and taste and very wholesome which yet haue force to eate iron like Aqua fortis The Mamayes Guayauos and Paltos be the Indian Peaches Apples and Peares But it would bee a weary wildernesse to the Reader to bring him into such an Indian Orchard where he might reade of such varietie of fruits but like Tantalus can taste none or to present you with a Garden of their Trees which beare flowres with other fruit as the Floripondio which all the yeere long beareth flowres sweet like a Lilly but greater the Volusuchil which beareth a flowre like to the forme of the heart and others which I omit The flowre of the Sunne is is now no longer the Marigold of Peru but groweth in many places with vs in England The flowre of the Granadille they say if they say truely hath the markes of the Passion Nayles Pillar Whips Thornes Wounds exceeding stigmaticall Francis For their Seeds and Craines Mays is principall of which they make their bread which our English ground brings forth but hardly will ripene it growes as it were on a Reed and multiplyeth beyond comparison they gather three hundred measures for one It yeeldeth more blood but more grosse then our Wheat They make drinke thereof also wherewith they will be exceedingly drunke They first steepe and after boyle it to that end In some places they first cause it to be champed with Maids in some places with old women and then make a leauen thereof which they boyle and make this inebriating drinke The Canes and leaues serue for their Mules to eate They boyle and drinke it also for paine in the back The buds of Mays serue in stead of Butter and Oyle In some parts they make bread of a great root called Yuca which they name Caçaui They first cut and straine it in a Presse for the iuyce is deadly poison the Cakes dryed are steeped in water before they can eate them Another kinde there is of this Yuca or Iucca the iuice whereof is not poison It will keepe long like Bisket They vse this bread most in Hisponiola Cuba and Iamaica where Wheat and Mays will not grow but so vnequally that at one instant some is in the grasse other in the graine They vse in some places another root called Papas like to ground Nuts for bread which they call Chuno Of other their roots and fruits I am loth to write lest I weary the Reader with tedious officiousnesse Spices grow not there naturally Ginger thriueth well brought and planted by the Spaniards They haue a good kinde of Balme though not the same which grew in Palestina Of their Amber Oiles Gums and Drugs I list not to relate further Out of Spaine they haue caried great varietie of Plants herein Americo exceeding Spaine that it receiueth and fructifieth in all Spanish Plants that are brought thither whereas the Indian thriue not in Spaine as Vines Oliues Mulberies Figs Almonds Limons Quinces and such like And to end this Chapter with a comparison of our World with this of America Our aduantages and preferments are many Our Heauen hath more Stars and greater as Acosta by his owne sight hath obserued challenging those Authors which haue written otherwise of fabling Our Heauen hath the North-Starre within three degrees and a third of the Pole their Crosier or foure Stars set a-crosse which they obserue for the Antarticke is thirtie degrees off The Sunne commucateth his partiall presence longer to our Tropike then that of Capricorne remaining in the Southerne Signes 178. dayes one and twenty houres and twelue minutes in the Northerne 186. dayes eight houres and twelue minutes B. Keckerman System Astron L. 1. Tycho Brahe L. 1. reckoneth these a hundred fourescore and sixe dayes houres eighteene and a halfe dayes eight and one third part fere plus quam in Australi c. This want of the Sunne and Stars is one cause of greater cold in those parts then in these Our Earth exceeds theirs for the situation extending it selfe more between East and West fittest for humane life whereas theirs trends most towards the two Poles Our Sea is more fauourable in more Gulfes and Bayes especially such as goe farre within Land besides the Mid-Land-Sea equally communicating her selfe to Asia Africa and Europa This conuenience of traffique America wanteth Our beasts wilde and tame are farre the more noble as the former discourse sheweth For what haue they to oppose to our Elephants Rhinocerotes Camels Horses
Father of Lights himselfe thus conuinceth vs of darknesse Where is the way saith he where light dwelleth And By what way is the light parted And if we cannot conceiue that which is so euidently seene and without which nothing is seene and euident how inaccessible is that Light wherein the Light of this light dwelleth Euen this light is more then admirable life of the Earth ornament of the Heauens beautie and smile of the World eye to our Eyes ioy of our Hearts most common pure and perfect of visible creatures first borne of this World and endowed with a double portion of earthly and heauenly Inheritance shining in both which contayneth sustayneth gathereth seuereth purgeth perfecteth renueth and preserueth all things repelling dread expelling sorrow Shaking the wicked out of the Earth and lifting vp the hearts of the godly to looke for a greater and more glorious light greatest instrument of Nature resemblance of Grace Type of Glorie and bright Glasse of the Creators brightnesse This Light GOD made by his Word not vttered with sound of syllables nor that which in the beginning and therefore before the beginning was with GOD and was GOD but by his powerfull effecting calling things that were not as though they were and by his calling or willing causing them to be thereby signifying his will as plainly and effecting it as easily as a word is to a man That vncreated superessentiall light the eternall Trinitie commanded this light to bee and approued it as good both in it selfe and to the future Creatures and separated the same from darknesse which seemes a meere priuation and absence of light disposing them to succeed each other in the Hemisphere which by what motion or reuolution it was effected the three first dayes who can determine Fond it is to reason a facto ad fieri from the present order of constitution to the Principles of that institution of the Creatures whiles they were yet in making as Simplicius and other Philosophers may I terme them or Atheists haue absurdly done in this and other parts of the Creation And this was the first dayes Worke THE SECOND DAYES WORKE IN the second GOD said Let there bee a Firmament The word Rakiah translated Firmament signifieth expansum or expansionem a stretching out designing that vast and wide space wherein are the watery clouds here mentioned and those lights which follow in the fourteenth Verse by him placed in expanso howsoeuer some vnderstand it only of the Ayre The separating the waters vnder this Firmament from the waters aboue the Firmament some interprete of waters aboue the Heauens to refresh their exceeding heat or of I know not what Chrystaline Heauen some of spirituall substances whom Basil confuteth Origen after his wont Allegorically Most probable it seemeth that Moses intendeth the separation of those waters here below in their Elementarie Seat from those aboue vs in the clouds to which Dauid alluding saith Hee hath stretched out the Heauens like a Curten and laid the beames of his Chambers in the waters This separating of the waters is caused in the Ayrie Region by the Aethereall in which those forces are placed which thus exhale and captiuate these waters That matter before endued with lightning qualitie was now in this second day as it seemeth attenuated extended aboue and beyond that myrie heape of Earthywaters and both the Aether and Aire formed of the same first matter and not of a fift Essence which some haue deuised to establish the Heauens Eternitie both Twins of the Philosophers braines And wherein doe not these differ from each other touching the Celestiall Nature Roundnesse Motion Number Measure and other difficulties most of which are by some denyed Diuersitie of motions caused the Ancients to number eight Orbes Ptolemie on that ground numbred nine Alphonsus and Tebitius ten Copernicus finding another motion reuiued the opinion of Aristarchus Samius of the Earths mouing c. Others which therein dissent from him yet in respect of that fourth motion haue added an eleuenth Orbe which the Diuines make vp euen twelue by their Empyreall immoueable Heauen And many deny this assertion of Orbes supposing them to haue beene supposed rather for instructions sake then for any reall being And Moses here saith expansum as Dauid also calleth it a Curtaine which in such diuersitie of Orbes should rather haue beene spoken in the plurall number The Sidereus Nuncius of Galilaeus Galilaeus tels vs of foure new Planets Iupiters attendants obserued by the helpe of his Glasse which would multiply the number of Orbes further A better Glasse or neerer sight and site might perhaps find more Orbes and thus should we runne in Orbem in a Circular endlesse Maze of Opinions But I will not dispute this question or take it away by auerring the Starres animated or else moued by Intelligentiae A learned Ignorance shall better content me and for these varieties of motions I will with Lactantius ascribe them to GOD the Architect of Nature and Co-worker therewith by wayes Naturall but best knowne to himselfe Neither list I to dance after their Pipe which ascribe a Musicall harmonie to the Heauens THE THIRD DAYES WORKE ANd thus were the Aethereall and Ayrie parts of the World formed in the Third Day followeth the perfecting of the two lowest Elements Water and Earth which as yet were confused vntill that mightie Word of GOD did thus both diuorce and marry them compounding of them both this one Globe which he called Dry Land and Seas I call it a Globe with the Scriptures and the best Philosophers for which respect Numa built the Temple of Vesta round Neither yet is it absolutely round and a perfect Spheare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather Strabo affirmeth hauing saith Scaliger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depressed Vallies extended Plaines swelling Hillockes high-mounting Mountaines long courses of Riuers and other varieties of Nature and Art which all in so huge a masse rather beautifie the roundnesse then take it away The Eclipse of the Moone later seene in the East then in the West the round shaddow of the Earth which darkeneth it the rising of the Sunne and Starres sooner in the East then West the vnequall eleuation of the Pole and the Northerne Constellations appearing to vs the Southerne continually depressed all these obseruing due proportions according to the difference of places and Countries yea the compassing of the Earth by many Mariners argue the round compasse thereof against Patritius his difformitie or that deformitie which other Philosophers haue ascribed thereto The equalitie or inequalitie of dayes according to the neerenesse or farrenesse from the Equinoctiall holding proportion as well by Sea as Land as doth also the eleuation of the Pole and not being longer wher 's a quarter of the World is Sea then if it were all Earth doe confute the
interprete but others in order not of the Elders alone but of the inferiour rankes also if any thing were reuealed to them which Tradition of theirs Saint Paul saith hee applied to the Christian Assemblies of those times They vsed to pray in their Synagogues standing as did also the Primitiue Christians Besides these Temples and Houses consecrated to God Ambition the Ape of deuotion founded some of other nature Herod the Great erected a sumptuous Temple and Citie in the honour of Caesar which sometime had beene called Stratonis turris and after Caesarea The Temple of Caesar was conspicuous to them which sailed farre off in the Sea and therein were two Statues one of Rome the other of Caesar The sumptuousnesse of Herods ambition in this Citie Temple Theater and Amphitheater c. Iosephus amply describeth He built another Temple at Panium the fountaine of Iordan in honour of Caesar and lest this should stirre vp the peoples hearts against him to see him thus deuoutely prophane and prophanely deuout he remitted to them the third part of the tributes Hee consecrated Games after the like Heathenish solemnitie in honour of Caesar to be celebrated euery fifth yeere at Caesarea He built also the Pythian Temple at Rhodes of his owne cost Hee gaue yeerely reuenue to the Olympyian Games for maintenance of the Sacrifices and solemnity thereof Quis in rapacitate auarior Quis in largitione effusior He robbed his owne to enrich or rather vainely to lauish out on others He spared not the Sepulchers of the dead For the Sepulchre of Dauid had lent before to Hyrcanus three thousand talentts of siluer which filled him with hope of the like spoyle and entring it with his choise friends hee found no money but precious clothes and whiles he in a couetous curiositie searched further he lost two of his company by flame as fame went breaking out vpon them Herevpon he left the place and in recompence in the entry of the Sepulchre built a monument of white Marble He built also Sebaste in the Region of Samaria wherein hee erected a Temple and dedicated a Court of three furlongs and a halfe of ground before it to Caesar Thus Caesar was made a God by him who would not allow Christ a place among men but that hee might kill him spared not the infants of Bethleem no not his owne sonne amongst the rest as this his god ieasted of him saying That hee had rather bee Herods Swine then his Sonne For his Iewish deuotion prohibited him to deale with Swine but not Religion not Reason not Nature could protect those Innocents from slaughter CHAP. IIII. Of the Iewish computation of time and of their festiuall daies THE day amongst the Iewes was as amongst vs Naturall and Artificiall this from Sunne-rising to Sunne-setting to which is opposed Night the time of the Sunnes absence from our Hemisphere that comprehended both these called of the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containing one whole reuolution of the Sunnes motion to the same point of the Horizon or Meridian in twenty foure houres This Naturall day the Babylonians began at the rising of the Sunne the Athenians at the setting the Vmbrians as the Astrologians at Noone the Egyptians and Romane Priests at Midnight The Iewes agreed in their reckoning with the Athenians as did the Galli in Caesars time reporting Pluto to be the author of their Nation and some relickes hereof is in our naming of time by a seuen-night and a fort-night although otherwise wee reckon the day betweene two midnights The most naturall computation of this naturall day is to follow that order of Nature wherein darkenesse had the prioritie of time and the euening and the morning were made one day or the first day which saith Hospinian the Italian and Bohemian Clockes doe yet obserue The day was not diuided of the first Hebrewes before the Babylonian captiuity into houres but was distinguished by Vigiliae or Watches of which they had foure the first began at euening the second at mid-night the third in the morning the fourth at noone Neither is there any Hebrew word signifying an houre although some interpret the degrees of the Dyall of Ahaz to be houres some as Tremell halfe houres Afterwards it was diuided into houres twelue in the night and as many in the day not equall as ours but longer or shorter according to so many equall portions of the day or night so that with them the first second third fourth fift sixt seuenth eighth ninth tenth eleuenth and twelfth houre was answerable with our houres of seuen eight nine ten eleuen twelue one two three foure fiue and sixe if we consider them in the Equinoctiall otherwise they differed from our equall houres more or lesse according to the vnequall lengthening or shortning of the daies but so that an easie capacitie may conceiue the proportion These houres sometimes they reduced into foure the first containing the first second and third or with vs the seuenth eighth and ninth houres the second the fourth fift and sixt or after our reckoning ten eleuen and twelue of the clock and so forwards This was the Ecclesiasticall Computation according to the times of Prayers and Sacrifices imitated still in the Church of Rome in their Canonicall houres Thus is Marke reconciled to the other Euangelists in relating the time of Christs passion the first calling it the third houre when they crucified him or led him to be crucified whereas Iohn saith That it was about the sixt houre when Pilate deliuered him Thus may the parable of the Labourers in the Vine-yard bee vnderstood Matth. 20. and other places of Scripture The night also was diuided into foure Watches each containing three houres accordingly They had three houres of Prayer the third the sixt the ninth as both the Iewish and Euangelicall Writers mention the first of which they say Abraham instituted the second Isaac it began when it was halfe an houre past the sixt houre and continued till halfe an houre after the ninth at this houre the Disciples of the Wisemen tooke their meate which before this Prayer tasted nothing the third began when the former left and continued till the Euening And this was obserued both for their publike and priuate Prayers although it bee not likely that the whole time was that way spent especially in priuate deuotions for then their particular callings had beene frustrate and cancelled by this exercise of the generall Seuen daies were a weeke whereof the seuenth was called the Sabbath others had no particular name but were called the first day of the weeke or the first day of or after the Sabbath and so of the rest The Christians called them Feriae as the first second or third Feria for Sunday Munday Tuesday the reason whereof was the keeping of Easter weeke holy For that being made in their Calender the first weeke of the yeere and by Law being wholly feriata
freed from working and sanctified to holy vses therefore the daies also of other weekes receiued that name from this first weeke Touching which there is a Law of Constantine the great to keepe both it and the weeke before it also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without working which for the later was by custome obtained and by a Canon enioyed to spend it wholly in the Church with Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall Songs Yea the antient Christians obserued a continuall festiuall from Easter to Whitsuntide in which they neither kneeled nor fasted Their Moneths as with vs and the Grecians tooke their name of the Moone and with them also their measure reckoning the order of their daies according to the age of the Moone and by course they contained one thirty dayes the next twenty nine and therefore were constrained euery second or third yeere to intercale or adde as in a Leape-yeere one moneth of two and twenty daies and in euery fourth yeere of three and twenty daies This they called Veadar because it followed the twelfth moneth Adar for the supply of ten daies one and twenty houres and two hundred and foure scruples which the twelue moneths of the Moone came short of the yeere of the Sunne And this they were forced to doe for the obseruation of the Passouer and their other feasts Before their Babylonian thraledome foure onely of these moneths were knowne by proper names the first called Ethauim the second Bul the seuenth which after was made the first Abib the eighth Zif but afterwards the rest receiued names which had beene before distinguished only by order and the former names also were altred that being reckoned the first moneth of the yeere in which befell the fifteenth day of the Moone after the Equinoctiall Vernall and their names follow Nisan Iar Sinan Thamuz Ab Elul Thischri Marcheschuan Cisleu Tebeth Schebath Adar Thus Hospinian but Scaliger and Ar. Montanus in his Daniel or ninth booke of Iewish Antiquities say That the antient yeere had twelue moneths as appeareth by the Historie of Noah but those moneths had no proper names but of their order the first second third moneth c. Those names which after they were knowne by were Chaldean and so Elias in Thesbi They were all Chaldean or Persian names not mentioned in any of the Prophets before the captiuitie and they also name but seuen But in Thargum Hierosol they are all expressed in their order The Iaponites Chinois and Indians haue no names yet for their moneths but name them by their order and number The Romanes also named some of their moneths by their order others after their Emperours as Iulius and Augustus to which Domitian added Germanicus for September his owne name for October Commodus made an Edict for the naming of August Commodus September Herculeus October Inuictus Nouember Exuperatorius December Amazonius The Hebrew yeere before Moses began at the new Moone next before the Autumnall Equinoctiall that being supposed by some to be the time wherein the World was first created euery Plant and Tree hauing the fruit and seede ripe and this reckoning of the yeere in ciuill affaires is obserued of the Iewes vnto this day and from hence they began their Iubilee and seuenth Sabbatticall yeere lest otherwise they should haue lost two yeeres profits not reaping the fruit of the olde yeere nor sowing in the next Their Ecclesiasticall or festiuall yeere began at the Spring as wee haue said afore by the commandement of GOD at and in remembrance of their departure out of Egypt at the same time Exod. 12. as with vs wee haue an Ecclesiasticall yeere moueable according to the fall of Easter differing from the Ciuill beginning at our Lady as with others at Christmasse or New-yeeres day Scaliger thus obserueth concerning the Iewish yeere The Iewes saith he vse a double reckoning of their yeere one after the course of the Moone the other after the Tekupha's or course of the Sunne Tekupha anciently was that moment in which the passed yeere ended and the following began But the later Iewes diuided the yeere of the Sunne into foure equall parts each whereof consisted of ninety one dayes seuen houres and a halfe And they diuided the said yeere into twelue equall parts each containing daies thirty houres ten and thirty minutes They began at the fifteenth of Aprill moued by the authority of R. Samuel an antient Criticke who ascribed the first Tekupha to that moneth which before they began in Autumne the reason was because at that time Moses led the Israelites out of Aegypt The moderne Iewes are so superstitious in the obseruation of their Tekupha's that they esteeme it danger of life to alter their reckoning of them They also attribute to each of them his proper Element as to the Tekupha Tamuz the Summer Solstice the Fire and he which should drinke or eate in the moment of that Tekupha they thinke should bee taken with a burning feuer Tekupha Nisan is on the fifteenth of Aprill Tekupha Tamuz on the fifteenth of Iuly Tekupha Tisri on the foureteenth of October Tekupha Tebeth on the fourteenth of Ianuarie In times past they obserued superstitiously the beginnings of euery moneth thinking that then the Sun entred into that Signe which was attributed to that moneth Now they onely obserue the foure Tropicall Signes Such is their folly as though now the entrance of Aries were not more then fiue and thirty dayes before the Tekupha of Moses But their leaden braines know not what Tekupha is not why nor when it was instituted So much Scaliger If the new Moone happened afternoone then the moneth and their New-Moone-Feast began the next day and the yeere likewise which began at the New-Moone They were so scrupulous concerning the Moone that Clemens Alexand. out of another Author obiects the worship thereof vnto them They thinke saith he that they alone know GOD not knowing that they worship Angels and Arch-angels and the Moneth and the Moone and if the Moone appeare not they keepe not that Sabbath which they call The first nor the New-Moone nor the Vnleauened nor the Feast nor the great Day This fabulous Author cited by Clemens vnderstood not himselfe saith Scaliger for they still obserue the appearance or first sight of the Moone not to ordaine the solemnitie thereby which was done by a certaine rule but to sanctifie it and therefore as soone as they saw the New-Moone they say Good lucke or a good signe be it to vs and to all Israel The same also do the Muhamedans obserue By the first Sabbath he meaneth the New-yeeres day called a Sabbath because it was holy-day by the Feast Pentecost by the great-Day that of Tabernacles Although in regard of vse some daies were more holy then other yet had euery day appointed sacrifices morning and euening Their Feasts were either weekely of which was the Sabbath or monethly euery New-Moone or yeerely of which were the Easter or
day of the same Maldonatus for the Feast day of Pentecost which was the second of the chiefe Feasts But Ioseph Scaliger saith That the second day of the Feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the sixteenth day of the Moneth called Manipulus frugum and the Sabbaths which fell betwixt that and Pentecost receiued their denomination in order from the same Secundo-primum Secundo-secundum c. And hence doth Luke call that first Sabbath which fell after that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second day of the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this we shall haue occasion to say more when we come to the Samaritans The name Sabbath is also taken for the whole weeke But I list not to stand on the diuers significations of the Word Iosephus and Plinie tell of a Riuer in Syria in the kingdome of Agrippa called Sabbaticus which on other daies ran full and swift on the Sabbath rested from his course Petrus Galatinus alledgeth the ceasing of the Sabbaticall streame for an argument of the abrogation of the Iewish Sabbath The Iewes were superstitiously strict in the obseruation of their Sabbath Ptolomey without resistance captiuating their Citie and themselues by this aduantage as did Pompey afterwards And in the dayes of Matathias father of Iudas Maccabeus a thousand were murthered without resistance till that by him they were better aduised Which appeared by the Pharises that cauelled at the plucking and rubbing of a few eares of Corne by the hungrie Disciples and at their Master for healing on that day though by his Word which their superstition the Iew that fell into a Priuie at Maidenbourg An. 1270. on his Sabbath and another at Tewksburie 1220. and were the one by the Bishop of the place the other by the Earle of Glocester constrained to abide the Christian Sabbath whence on their owne they would not be freed testified to the world by a stinking penance and the later leauing also his stinking superstitious soule behinde to seale his deuotion They added of their owne fasting that day till noone their Sabbath daies iourney which was saith Saint Ierome by the institution of Barachibas Simeon and Hellis Rabbines not aboue two thousand paces or two miles Thus did this holy ordinance which GOD had instituted for the refreshing of their bodies the instruction of their Soules and as a type of eternall happines vanish into a smoky superstition amongst them The Sacrifices and accustomed rites of the Sabbath are mentioned Num. 28 Leu. 23. 24. Where we may reade that the daily burnt-offering and meate-offering and drinke-offering were doubled on the Sabbath and the Shew-bread renued c. The sanctification of daies and times being a token of that thankefulnesse and a part of that publike honor which we owe vnto GOD he did not onely enioyne by way of perpetuall homage the sanctification of one day in seuen which GODS immutable Law doth exact for euer but did require also some other part of time with as strict exaction but for lesse continuance besides accepting that which being left arbitrarie to the Church was by it consecrated voluntarily vnto like religious vses Of the first of these the Sabbath we haue spoken of the Mosaicall Feasts the New-Moones are next to be considered The institution hereof we reade Numb 28. and the solemne Sacrifice therein appointed so to glorifie GOD the Author of Time and Light which the darkened conceites of the Heathens ascribed to the Planets and bodies Coelestiall calling the Moneths by their names Besides their Sacrifices they banquetted on this day as appeareth by Dauid and Saul where the day after was festiuall also eyther so to spend the surplusage of the former daies sumptuous Sacrifice or for a further pretext of Religion and Zeale as Martyr hath noted Sigonias maketh these New-Moone daies to bee profestos that is such wherein they might labor the Sacrificing times excepted but those couetous penny-fathers seeme of another minde When say they will the New-moone be gone that we may sell Corne and the Sabbath that we may sell Wheate And Esay 1. the Sabbaths and New-moones are reckoned together Their PASSEOVER called of them Pasach so called of the Angels passing ouer the Israelites in the common destruction of the Aegyptian first-borne For Pasach the Grecians as some note vse Pascha of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer fitly in regard of the body of that shadow Christ himselfe who was our Paschal Lambe in his suffering sacrificed for vs The institution of this Feast is set downe Exod. 12. as Hospinian hath noted in the yeere after the creation of the world 2447. after the stoud 791. after the promise made to Abram 430. It was celebrated from the fifteenth to the one and twenty day of the moneth Abib or Nisan those two daies being more specially sanctified with a holy Conuocation and abstinence from worke except the dressing of their meate the other being obserued with vnleauened bread and the foureteenth day being the Parasceue or preparation in the euening of which foureteenth day as some men hold opinion after Sun-set in the twy-light others in the fourth houre or fourth part of the day as containing three houres space before the going downe of the Sun the Paschal Lambe was slaine about which time the ninth houre Christ the true Pascha yeelded vp the ghost hauing eaten the Passeouer on the night before which was the true time and was then altred by the Iewes which corruption continued to the destruction of their Temple Christ suffered saith Scaliger on the third of Aprill the fourth yeere compleate after his Baptisme From which ninth houre the Iewes began their Vespera or Euening and therefore it was inioyned them inter duas Vesperas to kill the Passeouer In these Vespers as also in the Eeuen of euery Feast and Sabbath after the euening Sacrifice they which do any worke saith the Iewish Canon shall neuer see good signe of a blessing which was the cause that they hastened so much the death of the theeues which were crucified with Christ This Lambe or Kidde was chosen a male of a yeere old the tenth day of the Moone which they kept till the foureteenth day tyed after their traditions to the foote of some bench or fourme so to minister occasion to their children of questioning about it to themselues of Preparation and Meditation and to espie in this meane while if any default were in the Lambe It was first a priuate Sacrifice to be performed in euery house after in that place onely where the Tabernacle or Temple was they were dispersed by companies according to Iosephus not fewer then tenne sometime twentie in a companie with Christ there were thirteene and of these sacrifices and companies in time of Cestius were numbred two hundred fiftie six thousand and fiue hundred so that reckoning the least number there were ten times so many
the Babylonian dispersion The Asian Iewes were most of this Babylonian sort to these Saint Peter wrote from Babylon which therefore he nameth not in the inscription The Hellenists were so called of hellenizing or vsing the Greeke tongue in their Synagogues in which they had the Scriptures translated in Aegypt Greece and Italie By reason of this translation the Hebrews and Hellenists often disagreed for the Hebrewes called it a backward reading because it is read from the left hand to the right which sometime brake forth into open violence R. Eleazar assaulted the Synagogue of the Alexandrians at Ierusalem and committed therein much outrage And Christian Charitie could scarce combine them as Luke mentioneth Act. 6.1 This Greeke translation was vsed by them throughout Europe they had it in Hebrew Letters as Tertullian testifieth in the Serapium at Alexandria Thus Philo and other of these learned Hellenists were ignorant of the Hebrew Likewise of those Hebrewes there was small reckoning had of the Galilaeans by their supercilious and superstitious brethren of Iudaea as the Gospell hath taught vs §. II. Of the Karraim and Babbinists and of the Hasidai THE opinions of the Iewes may be reduced into these two generall heads the one were such as contented themselues with the Law of God and were called Karraim or Koraim of which sort there are diuers at this day in Constantinople and other where The other Rabbinists Supererogatorie as Doctor Hall calls them and Popish Iewes called Hasidim professing a more strict holinesse then the Law required Yet at first these both pleased themselues and did not by opposition of Science displease each other and disagreeing in opinion they yet in affection agreed But when these voluntarie seruices beganne to bee drawne in Canons and of arbitrarie became necessarie they were rent into sundrie Sects Of these and their originall let vs heare Scaliger speake There were saith he before the times of Hasmonaei two kinds of Dogmatists men holding differing opinions among the Iewes the one onely accepting the written Law the other Tradition or the addition to the Law Of the former kinde arose the Karraim of whom came the Sadduces of the latter the Pharises These Pharises were the issue of the Hasidees The Hasidees were a Corporation Guild or Fraternitie which voluntarily addicted themselues to the Offices of the Law 1. Macchabees chap. 2. verse 42. Their originall was from the times of Ezrah or Esdras Haggai and Zacharie the Prophets being Authors of this Order These in regard of their institution were called Holy Hasidin and in regard of their Combination Hasidaei And besides that which the Law enioyned which is iust debt they supererogated and of their owne free accord disbursed vpon the Temple and Sacrifices They professed not onely to liue according to the prescript of the Law but if any thing could by interpretations and consequences be drawne thence they held themselues bound to satisfie it and when they had done all to seeme to haue done nothing but accounted themselues vnprofitable seruants notwithstanding Euery one paid a tribute to the reparations of the Temple from the times of Esdras and Nehemias The Hasidaeans added further of their owne free-will to the Sanctuarie Walles and Porches neuer almost going from the Temple which they seemed to hold peculiar to themselues and by which they vsed to sweare By this Habitacle or By this house Which the Pharises their posteritie also did as likewise they learned of them to build the Sepulchres of the Prophets They were therefore called Hasidim either because their Colledge was instituted of the Prophets or of their holy and religious workes and the sacred buildings by them eyther repaired or reared from the foundations And therefore when wicked Alcimus had killed threescore men of this Corporation or Guild the people thought their death was prophesied in the Psalme such reputation was there of their holinesse These Hasidaei were not in proper sense a Sect but a Fraternitie which euery day assembled in the Temple and offered in daily Sacrifice a Lambe which was called the sin offering of the Hasidim One day was excepted the eleuenth of Tisri in which that Sacrifice was omitted They offered not themselues for they were not Priests but the Priests in their name Abraham Zacuth saith That Baba the son of Buta daily of his owne accord offered a Ram for a sin-offering except one day which was the day after the Expiation And this was called the Sacrifice of the Saints for Sin And he sware By this Habitacle that is the Temple Of this kinde or much like thereto Scaliger thinketh the Rechabites were which Ieremia mentioneth whose immediate father he accounteth Ionadab not him which liued in the daies of Iehu but another of that name and that their austere order began but a little before it ended namely in the same Prophets time quickly ending because of the captiuitie After the Captiuitie these sonnes of Ionadab renuing their former obseruations were called Hasidaei which went not from the Temple and obserued the orders aboue mentioned so Scaliger interpreteth Ieremies Prophesie that Ionadab should not want one to stand before the Lord that is to minister attend holy duties in the temple like to Anna the Prophetes This saith he is the true beginning of the Hasidaei which abstained from wine as did also the Priests as long as they ministred in the temple Thus much Scaliger As for that which Serarius hath writtē against Scaliger and Drusius in this argument both in his Trihaeresium and his Mineruall or elsewhere I refer the Reader to himselfe choosing rather to expresse what I thinke probable then entertainmen with long vnnecessarie disputes Drusius proueth that diuers of the Pharises and Essees also were of these Hasidaei wherby it appeareth that it was rather a Brotherhood as Scal. calleth it then a Sect He sheweth their Rites and Discipline out of Iuchasin They spent 9. houres of the day in praier They beleeued that a man might sin in thought therfore they had care thereof their will was not without the will of Heauen that is of God Ten things were peculiar to them Not to lift vp their eyes aboue ten cubits 2. Not to goe bare-headed 3. To establish three refections 4. To dispose their hearts to Prayer 5. Not to looke on eyther side sixtly To goe about that they might not bee troublesome to any companie Seuenthly Not to eate at the Tables of great men eightly If they had angred any man quickly to appease him ninthly To haue a pleasant voyce and to descend to the interpretation of the Law tenthly to accustome themselues to their Threads and Phylacteries Rab one of his Fraternitie did not lift vp his eyes aboue foure cubits Tenne or twentie daies before their death they were diseased with the Collicke and so all cleare and cleane they departed into the other life To returne vnto Scaliger touching the originall
or their Religion at least Somewhat also may be hence coniectured touching the deportation of the ten Tribes the Hebrew pricks and moderne Characters which I leaue to others discussing Once it is by all Historie manifest that by the inundations of Saracens Tartars Turkes c. both the Iewish and Christian Religions sometimes frequent haue beene by degrees consumed and almost worne out of many parts of Asia The late miseries inflicted on the Iewes in Frankfort and Wormes may here be inserted In Aug. 1614. at the same time which they solemnize with fasting for the destruction of Ierusalem their little Ierusalem so they call the Iewes streete in Frankfort was spoiled by the vnruly Citizens and gaue them a new cause of mourning The Iewes at first defended themselues and the Magistrates sought to allay the furie of the people but at last consented to depart the Citie one thousand and foure hundred presently passing downe the Maene in boates and the rest following them the next day It seemed a prodigious and dismall signe vnto them that the Oxe which they vse to keepe all the yeere in their Church-yard or buriall place now being shut vp for the slaughter brake away from them The Mother gaue fatal example to the Daughter for Frankfort they account the Mother of Israel which led the way to Wormes in expulsion of the Iewes This should haue hapned the seuenth of April 1615. being good Friday but was deferred till Munday following when early in the morning they sent word to the Iewes into their streete that trussing vp their choisest goods they should within one houre depart which with much lamentation they did Neither could the Magistrates preuayle in their defence so odious had their vsurious exactions of long time beene to the Citizens Thus the Iewes take their way to the Rhene And the same day was the roofe of their Synagogue pulled downe and a Decree made not to leaue one stone thereof vpon another six hundred of them presently putting the same in execution These spared not the monuments and graue-stones but brake them in peeces notwithstanding some of them seemed scarce possible to be raised from the Earth The Iewes hearing this ruine of their Synagogue which they say if you beleeue it had continued one thousand and eight hundred yeeres rent their garments and mourned in sackcloth and ashes §. VII Of the Iewes sometimes liuing in England collected out of ancient Records by Master Iohn Selden of the inner Temple ALthough I haue had already a long tedious iourney wearisome to my Reader and my selfe whilest I haue accompanied these miserable Iewes in their dispersions yet did I conceiue this following relation would rather seeme as a welcome recreation then irkesome progresse because wee shall containe our selues in our owne Countrie Wherein I must acknowledge the laborious industrie of our learned Countriman and Antiquarie Master Selden who out of ancient Records hath thus traced the foote-prints of this antiquated and out-worne people mine is but the transcribing and abbreuiating Of the Iewes first comming to this Land is vncertaine It seemes that some little notice was taken of them before the Conquest after which we haue diuers testimonies and besides others the Statute de Iudaismo both before and after their state and condition was very seruile as appeareth in legib Confess cap. 29. Iudaes omnia sua Regis sunt c. The Iewes and all they had was the Kings What they suffered in succeeding ages our common Stories discouer There was one amongst them which had the office of Presbyteratus omnium Iudaeorum totius Angliae which I take to be their chiefe Priest-hood in their Synagogues For if it had signified a meere Lay Eldership I ghesse I should haue met with it in the pleas of their Excheker and this lay in the Kings grant as by King Iohns Charter of it may be seene In Rot. Chart. 1. Iohan. Reg. ch 171. memb 28. Omnibus fidelibus suis omnibus Iudaeis Anglis salutem Sciatis nos concessisse praesenti charta nostra confirmasse Iacobo Iudaeo de Londonijs Presbytero Iudaeorum Presbyteratum omnium Iudaeorum totius Angliae habend tenend quamdiu vixerit liberè honorificè quietè integrè ita quod nemo ei super hoc molestiam aliquam aut grauamen inferre praesumat Quare c apud Rothomagum 31. die Iulij Anno Regni nostri primo Therein is also mention of a former Charter granted by Rich. 1. Certaine Iustices were appointed ad custodiam Iudaeorum before whom pleas twixt them and others and them were held and matters adiudged secundum legem consuetudinem Iudaismi as the entry often is In most Townes of note were two Christians and two Iewes or one of both sides appointed as publique Notaries for all their Deeds of contract and those Notaries had one chest and seuerall keyes for the safe-keeping of such Deeds and they were called Cyrographarij Christiani Iudaei arcae Cyrographicae Oxoniae or other such Towne And hence must you interpret les houches Cyrograffes in statuto de Iudaismo And by these Notaries or Cyrographers the Deeds of the Iewes were tried These Deeds and such like they called vsually starra of their Hebrew word shetar that is a Deede or contract as Salomon de Stanford agnouit per starrum suum and the like And howeuer land was not subiect to execution for debt â—ill 13. Ed. 1. yet it seeme by 52. Hen. 3. That for debts of the Iewes land was was seized by writ for the debtor Constat Iustitiarijs per inspectionem rotulorum de Scaccario nostro Iudaeorum quod Aaron c. When any man had dealt much with them and after all discharges doubted further ill measure by any such Starres or Deeds lying hid the course was to send out a processe to the Sheriffe of the County or Constables of the Castles of great Townes to make proclamation on their Sabbaths Summoning all Iewes of this or that Synagogue to be at their Exchequer to account with such as doubted in that kinde Thus 52. Hen. 3. praeceptum est vice-comiti Essex quod clamari faceret per seholas Iudaeorum Colcestriae per duo vel triâ— Sabbata si aliquis Iudaeus vel Iudaea aliquod debitum exigere poterit de Rogero filio Petri c. that then he or she should come ad computandam Et Vice-comes mandauit tam literae Latina quam Ebraica quod nullus Iudaeus nec Iudaea aliquod debitum exigit de praedicto Rogero So do all other Sherifes and Constables returne in Hebrew and Latine For in those times both Languages were vsed not only in Deeds of the Iewes which I haue often seene with the Hebrew on the one side and the same in Latine on the other but also in Records of Law as in 43. Hen. 3. in regist Monasterij de Boxgraue in Sussex c. And as both tongues were vsed so in trialls twixt Christians and them the
by the finger of God being more ancient giuing confirmation to the Scripture not subiect to wresting and containing all truth whereas poore Scripture for no better defending of the Iesuiticall Iebusiticall Iezabelicall assertions is condemned first of her meane originall as being written but by the Apostles not the finger of God Secondly as a later vpstart and thirdly as receiued vpon the Churches authoritie and fourthly a dead letter written in paper or parchment with Inke subiect to wresting like a sheath which admits any blade whether of leade wood or brasse as well as the true one And lastly not containing all the mysteries of Religion explicitly as being not therefore giuen to prescribe an exact forme of Faith but written by some vpon some occasions to some Churches and therefore in controuersies as of Images Inuocation of Saints and the like where Scripture seemes to speake for heretikes wee must haue recourse to the other kind of Scripture written in the heart of the Church as Interpreter of all Scriptures Iudge of all opinions and whatsoeuer else foule-mouthed blasphemie with faire pretext can arrogate to this or derogate from the other O that men would therefore hate that Whore which these impudent Panders prostitute thus decked with the spoyles of diuine Scriptures which haue another testimonie of themselues and therefore the testimonie of God that All Scripture is giuen by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for Instruction in righteousnesse yea and hereunto sufficient that the man of God whose men whose emissaries are these gaine-sayers may bee perfect throughly perfected vnto all good workes But leaue wee Simeon and Leui brethren in euill together Yet before wee leaue their Talmud though highly esteemed amongst them I thought meet also to speake more largely both of that and of their learned Rabbins out of Petrus Galatinus Sixtus Senensis Paulus Ricius Rambam and others that write thereof The Traditionall Law they call Tora scebealpe that is the Law which is in the mouth or deliuered by word of mouth Rabbi Moses Aegyptius telleth the passages thereof thus Ioshua receiuing it of Moses deliuered it to Phineas the sonne of Eleazar the Priest Phineas to Heli the Priest hee to Samuel the Prophet Samuel to Dauid hee to Achias the Prophet who deliuered the same to Elias the teacher of Elisha Elisha or Elisaeus to Ioiada the Priest this Ioiada to Zacharias Zacharias to Hosea and hee to Amos Amos to Esay of whom Micheas receiued it and of him Ioel Nahum from him and from him againe Habacuck who taught it Sephanie the Instructer of Ieremie of whom Baruch the Scribe learned it Baruch taught it Ezra Vntill this time the Iewes had none other but the written Scripture Now for their Scriptures they call the same Arbaa Veefrim that is the foure and twentie of the number of the bookes after their computation all which they reduce to foure parts The first of which they call Tora the Law or Humas the Pentateuch or fiue bookes and they call euery booke after the first words in the beginning thereof The second part hath foure bookes Ioshua Iudges Samuel and Kings The third part comprehendeth foure other which they call the last Prophets Esay Ieremie Ezekiel and the booke of the twelue smaller Prophets The fourth part is called Chettuuim and hth eleuen bookes Paralipomenon or Chronicles the Psalmes the Prouerbes Iob Ruth Ecclesiastes Lamentations Canticles Ester Daniel Ezra which they make one with Nehemia Ecclesiasticus Iudith and Tobias and the first booke of Maccabees they haue but reckon not among the foure and twentie The third and fourth bookes of Ezra I haue not seene saith Galatinus in Hebrew but some of them say that they are lately found at Constantinople but the second of Maccabees and the Booke of Philo called the Wisedome of Salomon I neuer saw but in Greeke nor those additions to Daniel But after the Babylonian captiuitie Ezra writing out the Law which had beene burned in the destruction of the Citie other Wisemen writ out the Exposition of the Law lest if another destruction should happen the same might perish And from that time all the Wise-men which are called the men of the Great Synagogue in their teaching the Law deliuered the same both in word and writing vntill the Talmud was written It was then saith Picus in seuentie bookes after the number of the seuentie Elders These mens authoritie hath the next place to the Prophets And are in this order mentioned in their Talmud Ezra deliuered the same to Simon the Priest called Iaddus who was honoured of Alexander This Simon deliuered this explaination to Antigonus Antigonus to Iosephus the sonne of Iohn and to Iosephus the sonne of Iehezer They to Nuaeus Arbulensis and Ioshua the sonne of Peratria whose Auditor the Iewes falsly affirme that Iesus our blessed Sauiour was which liued an hundred and ten yeers after Those two deliuered the same to Iuda the son of Tibaeus and Simon the sonne of Sata These to Samaia and Abatalion and they to Hillel and Samaeus Hillel flourished an hundred yeeres before the destruction of the second Temple and had eightie Schollers or Disciples all of excellent wit and learning thirtie of them for their excellence had the Diuinitie descending vpon them as Moses and other thirtie obtained that the Sunne should stand still for them as Ioshua the rest were accounted meane Of these the greatest was Ionothas sonne of Vziel the least Iohn the sonne of Zacheus which yet knew the Scripture and Talmud and all things else to the examples of Foxes and Narrations of Diuels Hillel and Samaeus deliuered this explaination to this Iohn and to Simeon the Iust sonne of the said Hillel who after receiued Christ in his armes and prophesied of him in the Temple Rabbi Moses proceedeth and saith that Simeon taught Gamaliel Pauls Master and Gamaliel instructed his sonne Rabban Simeon who was slaine of Hadrian the Emperour after he had taught his sonne Iudas whom the Iewes for his Learning and Holinesse call Rahbenu Haccados that is our holy Master of which honourable name there had beene another in the time of the Roman Consuls These for the most part besides almost infinite others of their hearers haue left many things written of the explaination of the Law of which the Talmud was compacted Of the vnreasonable absurdities and impious blasphemies of the Talmud howsoeuer abominable in themselues yet let it not be irkesome to the Reader to see some mentioned therein to obserue the depth of diuine vengeance which in this blinded Nation wee may heare and feare For who would thinke it possible that any could entertaine in his heart that which there they haue written of GOD as that before the creation of this world to keepe himselfe from idlenesse hee made and marred many other worlds that he spends three houres euery day in reading the Iewish law that Moses one day ascending to Heauen
found him writing accents therein that GOD euery day maketh deuout prayers that GOD hath a place a-part wherein hee afflicteth himselfe with weeping for bringing so much euill on the Iewes that euery day hee putteth on their Tephilin and Zizis and so falleth downe and prayeth that as oft as hee remembreth their miseries hee lets fall two teares into the Ocean and knocks his brest with both his hands that the last three houres of the day hee recreateth himselfe in playing with the Fish Leuiathan which once in his anger he slew and powdred for the feast whereof you shall after heare that hee created the Element of fire on the Sabbath day that the RR. one day reasoning against R. Eliezar because GOD with a voyce from a heauen interposed his sentence for for Eliezer the other RR. anathematized GOD who thereat smiling said My children haue ouer-come me But I am weary to adde the rest of their restlesse impieties against the Almightie Neither haue the Creatures escaped them Thus the Talmud telleth That GOD once whipped Gabriel for a great fault with a whip of fire that as Adam before Eue was made had carnally vsed both Males and Females of other Creatures So the Rauen which Noe sent out of the Arke was iealous of Noah lest hee should lye with his Mate that Iobs storie was fayned that Dauid sinned not in his murther and adulterie and they which thinke hee did sinne are Heretikes that vnnaturall copulation with a mans wife is lawfull that he is vnworthy the name of a Rabbine which hateth not his enemie to death that GOD commanded them by any manner of meanes to spoyle the Christians of their goods and to vse them as beasts yea they may kill them and burne their Gospels which they entitle Iniquitie reuealed Iniquitie reuealed indeed is the declaration of these things as of their opinion of the soule if it sinne in one body it passeth into a second if there also into third if it continue sinning it is cast into Hell the soule of Abel passed into Seth and the same after into Moses the soules of the vnlearned shall neuer recouer their bodies Two RR. euery weeke on Friday created two Calues and then did eate them Nothing ought to be eaten by euen numbers but by vneuen wherewith GOD is pleased Perhaps they had read in Virgil Numero Deus impare gaudet but this is common to all Magicians And what doe I weary you and my selfe anticipating the following discourse wherein wee shall haue further occasion to relate the like absurdities which yet if any deny they say hee denyeth GOD. §. II. Of the ancient Iewish Authors and their Kabalists AFter the Times of Christ Philo and Iosephus are famous and after the Resurrection of Christ the Iewes were of three sorts some true beleeuers others absolute denyers the third would haue the Christian Religion and the Iewish Ceremonies to bee conioyned in equall obseruation against which third sort the first Councell Act. 15. was summoned The moderne Iewes insist principally on the litterall sense of Scripture the Elder sought out a spirituall and mysticall sense accounting this a great matter the literall but small like to a candle of small value with the light whereof the other as a pearle hidden in a darke roome is found The Talmudists followed the allegoricall sense the Cabalists the Anagogicall As concerning this Cabala in olde times they communicated not that skill to any but to such as were aged and learned and therefore nothing thereof or very little is found written of the Ancient except of Rabbi Simeon Ben Iohai But the Doctors of the later Iewes lest that learning should perish haue left somewhat thereof in writing but so obscurely that few know it and they which doe account it a great secret and hold it in great regard So saith Elias in the bookes of the Kabala are contained the secrets of the Law and the Prophets which man receiued from the mouth of man vnto our Master Moses on him be peace and therefore it is so called and is diuided into two parts Speculatiue and Practike But I am not worthy to explaine this businesse and by reason of my sinnes haue not learned this wisedome nor knowne this knowledge of those Saints The word Cabala signifieth a receiuing and in that respect may bee supplyed to all their Traditionall receipts but in vse which is the Law of speech it is appropriated to that facultie which as Ricius describeth it by the type of the Mosaicall law insinuateth the secrets of diuine and humane things and because it is not grounded on reason nor deliuered by writing but by the faith of the hearer receiued it is called Cabala Or if you had rather haue it in Reuchlines words it is a Symbolicall receiuing of diuine Reuelation deliuered to the wholesome contemplation of GOD and of the seperated formes and they which receiue it are called Cabalici their Disciples Cabalaei and they which any way imitate them Cabalistae The Talmudists therefore and the Cabalists are of two faculties both agreeing in this that they grow from Tradition whereunto they giue credite without rendring any reason herein differing that the Cabalist as a super-subtill transcendent mounteth with all his industrie and intention from this sensible World vnto that other intellectuall but the grosser Talmudist abideth in this and if at any time hee considereth of GOD or the blessed Spirits yet it is with relation to his workes and their functions not in any abstract contemplation bending his whole study to the explaination of the Law according to the intent of the Law-giuer considering what is to bee done what eschewed whereas the Cabalists most indeauour themselues to contemplation leauing the care of publike and priuate affaires to the Talmudists and reseruing onely to themselues those things which pertaine to the tranquillitie of the minde As therefore the minde is more excellent then the body so you must thinke the Cabalist superiour to the Talmudist For example In the beginning God created Heauen and Earth saith Moses Heauen here after the Talmudist is all that part of the World which is aboue the Moone and all beneath it Earth also by Heauen hee vnderstandeth forme and by Earth matter the composition whereof hee effected not by labour of the hand but by that nine-fold Oracle of his word for so often is it mentioned and God said likewise hee findeth the foure Elements in those words Darkenesse Spirit Waters drie Land But the Cabalist frameth to himselfe two Worlds the Visible and Inuisible Sensible and Mentall Materiall and Ideall Superiour and Inferiour and accordingly gathereth out of the former words God created Heauen and Earth That hee made the highest and lowest things meaning by the highest the immateriall by the lowest this materiall and this is gathered out of the first letter Beth which in numbring signifieth two and insinuateth there these two Worlds Yea they also
the very middle of the world That in the Messiahs dayes Wheate shall grow without renewing by Seed as the Vine But of these and the like more then enough in this booke following L. Carretus a Conuert from the Iewes setteth downe these size as the maine differences betwixt them and vs The Trinitie the Incarnation the manner of his comming whether in humilitie or royaltie the Law ceremoniall which the Iew holdeth eternall saluation by and for our owne workes which the Christian ascribeth to Faith in Christ crucified and lastly of the time of his comming whether past or present To these he thinketh all other may be referred But let vs examine the particulars CHAP. XIIII Of the Iewish opinions of the Creation their Ceremonies about the birth of a Child Of their Circumcision Purification and Redemption of the first-borne and Education of their Children §. I. Of their Exposition of Scripture a taste in Gen. 1.1 THeir Exposition of Scripture is so absurd that wee haue hence a manifest argument that as they denyed the Sonne that Eternall Word and Truth whose written word this is so that Spirit which indited the same the Spirit of Truth hath put a vayle on their heart and iustly suffered the spirit of errour to blind their eyes that seeing they should see and not vnderstand This will appeare generally in our ensuing Discourse but for a taste let vs begin with the beginning of Moses whereon R. Iacob Baal Hatturim hath left to the world these smoakie speculations The Bible beginneth with Beth the second letter in the Alphabet and not with Aleph the first because that it is the first letter of Beracha which signifieth blessing this of Arour that is a curse Secondly Beth signifieth two insinuating the two-fold Law written and vnwritten for Bereshith hath the letters of Barashetei first hee made secondly Lawes thirdly Bereshith the first word of Genesis hath as many letters as Aleph be Tishrei that is the first of Tishrei or Tisri on which the Iewes say the world began fourthly Bereshith hath the letters of Baijth roshe that is the first Temple which he knew the Iewes would build and therefore created the world fiftly it hath the letters of Iare shabbath that is to keepe the Sabbath for God created the world for the Israelites which keepe the Sabbath sixtly also of Berith esh which signifieth the Couenant of fire to wit Circumcision and the Law another cause of the creation seuenthly likewise it hath the letters of Bara iesh that is hee created as many worlds as are in the number Iesh that is three hundred and ten that the Saints might reioyce therein Now if I should follow them from these letters and spelling to their mysticall sententious exposition of greater parts of the sentence you should heare Moses tell you out of his first words that the world was created for the Talmudists for the sixe hundred and thirteene precepts because hee loued the Israelites more then the other people Againe that hee foresaw the Israelites would receiue the Law but hee is now an Asse saith he which beareth Wine and drinketh water There are in the first verse seuen words which signifie the seuen dayes of the weeke seuenth yeere of rest seuen times seuenth the Iubilee seuentimes seuen Iubilees seuen Heauens seuen lands of Promise and seuen Orbes or Planets which caused Dauid to say I will praise thee seuen times a day There are 28. letters in it which shew the 28. times of the World of which Salomon speaketh Eccles 3.1 There are in it sixe Alephs and therefore the world shall last sixe thousand yeeres So in the second verse The earth was without forme and voyde are two Alephs which shew the world should bee two thousand yeeres voyde now in the third verse are foure Alephs which shew other foure thousand yeeres two of which should bee vnder the Law and two vnder Messias §. II. Their Dreames of Adam NOw for the first man his body saith R. Osia in the Talmud was made of the earth of Babylon his head of the land of Israel his other members of other parts of the world So R. Meir thought hee was compact of the earth gathered out of the whole earth as it is written Thine eyes did see my substance now it is elsewhere written The eyes of the Lord are ouer all the earth There are twelue houres of the day saith R. Aha in the first whereof the earth of Adam or earthly matter was gathered in the second the trunke of his body fashioned in the third his members stretched forth in the fourth his soule infused in the fift hee stood vpon his feet in the sixt hee gaue names to the Creatures in the seuenth Eue was giuen him in marriage in the eighth they ascended the bed two and descended foure in the ninth hee receiued the Precept which in the tenth he brake and therefore was iudged in the eleuenth and in the twelfth was cast out of Paradise as it is written Man continued not one night in honour The stature of Adam was from one end of the world to the other and for his transgression the Creator by laying on his hand lessened him for before faith R. Eleazar with his head he reached a reacher indeed the verie firmament His language was Syriacke or Aramitish saith R. Iuda and as Reschlakis addeth the Creator shewed him all generations and the wise-men in them His sinne after R. Iehuda was heresie R. Isaac thinketh the nourishing his fore-skin He knew or vsed carnall filthinesse with all the beasts which GOD brought vnto him before Eue was made as some interpret R. Eleazar and R. Salomon but Reuchline laboureth to purge them of that sense who affirmeth that hee had an Angell for his Master or Instructor and when he was exceedingly deiected with remorse of his sinne GOD sent the Angell Raziel to tell him that there should be one of his progenie which should haue the foure letters of Iehouah in his name and should expiate originall sinne And heere was the beginning of their Cabala and also presently hereupon did hee and Eue build an Altar and offer sacrifice The like offices of other Angels they mention to other Patriarchs and tell that euery three moneths are set new watches of these watchmen yea euery three houres yea and euery houre is some change of them And therefore wee may haue more fauour of them in one houre then another for they follow the disposition of the starres so said the Angell Samael which wrestled with him vnto Iacob Let mee goe for the day breaketh for his power was in the night But let me returne to Adam of whom they further tell that he was an Hermaphrodite a man-woman hauing both Sexes and a double bodie the Female part ioyned at the shoulders and backe parts to the Male their countenances turned from each other This is proued by Moses his words So GOD created man
the Feast in hope of like destruction to the Christians as befell Iericho and then renew the shaking of their boughes The seuenth day is most solemne called by them Hoschana rabba the great Hosanna as if one should say the great feast of saluation or helpe because then they pray for the saluation of all the people and for a prosperous new-yeere and all the prayers of this Feast haue in them the words of sauing as O God saue vs and O God of our saluation and as thou hast saued the Israelites and such like the prayers are therefore called Hosannoth Then they produce seuen bookes and in euery of their seuen compassings lay vp one againe This night they know their fortunes by the Moone for stretching out their armes if they see not the shadow of their head by Moone-light they must dye that yeere if a finger wanteth hee loseth a friend if the shadow yeeld him not a hand hee loseth a sonne the want of the left hand portendeth losse of a daughter if no shadow no life shall abide with him for it is written Their shadow is departed from them Some Iewes goe yeerely into Spaine to prouide Pome-citrons and other necessaries for the furnishing this feast which they sell in Germany other places to the Iewes at excessiue prices They keepe their Tabernacles in all weathers except a very vehement storme driue them with a heauie countenance into their houses Their wiues and seruants are not so strictly tyed hereto §. IIII. Of their New Moones and New-yeeres day THe New-Moones are at this day but halfe festiuall to the Iewes accounting themselues free to worke or not in them but the women keepe it intirely festiuall because they denyed their Eare-rings to the molten Calfe which after they bestowed willingly on their Tabernacle The deuouter Iewes fast the day before Their Mattins is with more prayers their dinner with more cheere then on other dayes and a great part of the day after they sit at Cardes or telling of Tales That day when the Moone is eclipsed they fast When they may first see the New-Moone they assemble and the chiefe Rabbi pronounceth a long Prayer the rest saying after him The Iewes beleeuing that GOD created the world in September or Tisri conceit also that at the reuolution of the same time yeerely hee sitteth in iugdement and out of the bookes taketh reckoning of euery mans life and pronounceth sentence accordingly That day which their great Sanhedrin ordayned the New-yeeres festiuall God receiuing thereof intelligence by his Angels sent thither to know the same causeth the same day a Senate of Angels to bee assembled as it is written Daniel 12. All things prouided in the solemnest manner the three bookes are opened one of the most Wicked who are presently registred into the Booke of Death the second of the Iust who are inrolled into the Booke of Life and the third of the meane sort whose Iudgement is demurred vntill the day of Reconciliation the tenth of Tisri that if in the meane time they seriously repent them so that their good may exceed their euill then are they entred into the Booke of Life if otherwise they are recorded into the Blacke Bill of Death Their Scripture is produced by R. Aben Let them bee blotted out of the Booke of the liuing and not bee written with the Iust Blotting points you to the Booke of Death Liuing that of Life and not writing with the Iust is the third Booke of Indifferents All the workes which a man hath done through the yeere are this day examined The good workes are put in one ballance the bad in the other what helpe a siluer Chalice or such heauie metall could affoord in this case you may finde by experience in Saint Francis Legend who when the bad deeds of a great man lately dead out-weighed the good at a dead lift cast in a siluer Chalice which the dead partie had sometime bestowed on Franciscan deuotion and weighed vp the other side and so the Diuels lost their prey GOD say they pronounceth sentence of punishment or reward sometime in this life to bee executed sometime in the other In respect hereof their Rabbines ordaine the moneth before to be spent in penance and morning and Eeuening to sound a Trumpet of a Rams-horne as Aue Marie Bell to warne them of this Iudgement that they may thinke of their sinnes and besides to befoole the Diuell that with this often sounding being perplexed hee may not know when this New-yeeres day shall bee to come into the Court to giue euidence against them The day before they rise sooner in the morning to mutter ouer their prayers for remission and when they haue done in the Synagogue they goe to the graues in the Church-yard testifying that if GOD doe not pardon them they are like to the dead and praying that for the good workes of the Saints the iust Iewes there buried hee will pitty them and there they giue large almes After noone they shaue adorne and bathe themselues that they may be pure the next day for some Angels soyled with impuritie heere below are faine to purge themselues in the fierie brooke Dinor before they can prayse GOD how much more they and in the water they make confession of their sins the confession containeth two and twentie words the number of their Alphabet and at the pronouncing of euery word giue a knocke on their brest and then diue wholly vnder water The Feast it selfe they begin with a cup of Wine and New-yeere Salutations and on their Table haue a Rammes head in remembrance of That Ramme which was offered in Isaacks stead and for this cause are their Trumpets of Rams-horne Fish they eate to signifie the multiplication of their good workes they eate sweet fruits of all sorts and make themselues merry as assured of forgiuenesse of their sinnes and after meat all of all sorts resort to some bridge to hurle their sinnes into the water as it is written Hee shall cast all our sinnes into the bottome of the Sea And if they there espie any fish they leape for ioy these seruing to them as the scape-goate to carrie away their sinnes At night they renew their cheere and end this feast §. V. Of their Lent Penance and Reconciliation Fast. FRom this day to the tenth day is a time of Penance or Lent wherein they fast and pray for the cause aforesaid and that if they haue beene written in the Booke of Death yet God seeing their good works may repent and write them in the Life-Booke Thrice a day very earely they confesse three houres before day and surcease suits at Law c. And on the ninth day very earely they resort to the Synagogue and at their returne euery male taketh a Cocke and euery female a Henne if she be with childe both and the housholder saying out of the hundred and fift Psalme verses 17 18 19
20 21 22. and out of Iob chapter 23. verse 23 24. 25. swingeth the Cocke three times about his head euery time saying This Cocke shall make an exchange for me he shall dye for mee and I shall goe into life with all the people of Israel Amen He doth it three times for himselfe for his children for the strangers that are with him Then hee killeth him and cutteth his throat and hurleth him with all his force to the ground and roasteth him signifying that he himselfe deserueth death the sword stoning and fire the inwards they hurle on the top of the house that the Crowes may with it carrie away their sinnes A white Cocke for this purpose is principall a red Cocke they vse not for they are full of sinne themselues by Esaias authoritie If your sinnes were red as scarlet c. Antonius Margarita saith That this propitiatory creature should bee an Ape as most like to man but they vse a Cocke for the names sake a man in Hebrew is Gebher which is the Talmudicall or Babylonish name of a Cocke Thus those that with a Rams horne beguile the Deuill and with a Cocke beguile GOD iustly beguile themselues who refuse that sacrifice of Christ in whose stripes they might be healed They haue another fable of a Cocke mentioned by Victor Carbensis thinking that as often as a Cocke stands on one leg and his combe lookes pale that GOD is angry which hapneth they say euery day and onely in the day time and that but the twinckling of an eye And therefore they praise GOD which hath giuen such vnderstanding to a Cocke After the performance of this Cocke-sacrifice they goe to the buriall place vsing like Ceremonies there as on New-yeers eeuen and after noone bathe them likewise After Eeuensong he which hath offended others askes them forgiuenesse which if he obtaine not at first then the offender taketh with him three other and asketh the second and third time if all this bee in vaine he taketh ten others and renueth his suite if he obtaine it is well if not GOD will hold him excused and the other partie shall be guiltie If the partie offended be dead the offender with ten other goeth to the graue there confesseth his faults They confesse one to another also and that in a secret place of their Synagogue where each receiueth mutually at his fellowes hand with a leather belt nine and thirty blowes at each blow the partie beaten beateth himselfe on the brest and saith one word of his Confession taken out of the seuentie and eight Psalme and eight and thirtieth Verse being in the Hebrew thirteene words which he thrice repeateth then the striker lyeth downe and receiueth like penance at the hands of the former you may iudge with what rigour This done they runne home and make merry with the Cockes and Hens before mentioned supping largely because of the next dayes fast Their Supper must be ended before Sunne-set for then begineth their fast They put on their cleanest rayment and ouer the same a great and large shirt downe to the shooes to testifie their puritie They resort to their Synagogues with waxe candles in Germanie they haue for euery man one and then light them The women also light Candles at home as on the Sabbath It is ominous if the Candles burne not cleerely They spread the floore with Carpets for soyling their purest cloathes Their humiliations at this feast are fiue first foure and twentie or seuen and twentie houres fast whereunto children are subiect the Males after twelue yeeres the Females after eleuen Secondly they weare no shooes Thirdly they must not annoint them Fourthly nor bathe them no not put a finger into the water Fiftly nor companie with no not touch their wiues Before they begin prayers thirteene of the principall Rabbies walking in the Temple giue licence to all both good and bad to pray And the Praecentor or Reader fetcheth the booke out of the Arke and openeth it singing a long Prayer beginning all compacts vowes and oathes c. insinuating that all the vowes promises oathes and couenants which euerie Iew had that yeere broken bee disanulled and pardoned and that because now all haue power to pray and prayse GOD. They continue singing till late in the night Some remaine all night in the Synagogue yea the deuouter some stand vpright singing and praying without intermission all that feast the space of seuen and twentie houres in the same place Those that departed the Synagogue returne in the morning before day and there stay all that day Often they prostrate themselues with their face couered at euery word of their Confessions knocking their brest When it beginneth to bee night the Priest draweth his Tallies a large cloath made of haires before his eyes and pronounceth the blessing Numb 6. holding his hand towards the people who meane-while couer their faces with their hands for they may not looke on the Priests hand because the spirit of GOD resteth thereon Then hee singeth a Prayer seuen times together sometimes higher sometimes lower with his voyce because that GOD now ascendeth from them into the seuenth Heauen and they with their sweet melodie bring him on the way Then they make a long and shrill sound with their Rams-horne-trumpet and there followeth presently a voyce from Heauen Goe eate thy bread with ioy and gladnesse c. After this they returne home some carrying home their lights to distinguish the holy Times as you haue heard from the prophane some leaue them in the Synagogue all the yeere at certaine times lighting them Some Saint-Iewes prouide to haue a waxe-light continually burning all the yeere long in the Synagogue In their returne they wish to each other a good yeere For the bookes before mentioned are now closed nor may they expect any alteration They sup largely and betimes the next morning returne to the Synagogue lest Sathan should complaine at so soone a cooling of their zeale But the Deuill may bee quiet for when the Law was giuen Samael the euill spirit complained that hee had power ouer all people but the Israelites GOD answered That he should haue power ouer them if on the Reconciliation-day hee found any sinne in them But he finding them pure sayd That this his people were like the Angels liuing in vnitie without eating or drinking The Iewes haue a ceremonie to giue the Deuill gifts on this day either not to hinder them or else because Gifts blinde the wise §. VI. Of their other Feasts THe Iewes diuide the Law into two and fiftie parts and reading euery Sabbath one the last falleth on the next day after the Feast of Tabernacles about the three and twentieth day of September In this day they leape dance and make much ioy They assemble in their Synagogue and take all the bookes of the Law out of the Arke leauing in it meane-while that it bee not left emptie a burning light
that egge R. Papa answereth that he would neuer haue beleeued it but that hee saw it I hope they will pardon vs if wee be of the same minde But would you not faine heare of a man holding like proportion then let R. Saul tell you of his aduentures in the burying of a dead corps where hee encountred with a bone of a man into which there flew a Rauen and the Rabbi would needs follow after to see what became of her and so he went he went three leagues in the hollow of the same bone and could find no end therof and therfore returned so he perceiued it was one of the bones of Og the Giant whom Moses had slaine Perhaps you will maruell how Moses could atchieue such an exploit Forsooth you must vnderstand that Moses was ten cubits high and had an Axe ten cubits long and leaped other ten cubits in the ayre and so gaue the deadly blow to Og who it seemes was layde along in some deepe Trench or else you will thinke the Rabbine lyed Tush your incredulitie makes you vnworthy to heare their storie of R. Osua who beguiled the Angell of Death of whom when hee came to smite him hee would in kindnesse needs learne his future place in Paradise wherewith the deadly Angell was content and went with him yea for his securitie at his request resigned his deadly weapon into his hands Thus at last they came at Paradise where hee shewed him his place which he desirous to take better view of required his helpe to lift him higher and then with a quicke deliuerie leapt into Paradise Thus did the poore coozened Angell misse his prey and was glad with much a-doe to recouer his sword from the Rabbine And that you might see their skill no lesse in Cosmographie then Theologie Another was carryed to the place where Heauen and Earth meete and kisse each other where whiles hee might take the more diligent view in obseruing those parts which the Frier of Oxford neuer saw nor Faustus with his Mephostophilos hee hanged his Cloake on a window in Heauen and suddenly it was conueyed out of sight Hereat amazed that there should bee theeues in Heauen a voyce told him it was the heauens motion and at such an houre the next day he might attend and againe obtaine his Cloake which hee did accordingly But to take view of other strange creatures make roome I pray for another Rabbi with his Bird and a great deale of roome you will say is requisite Rabbi Kimchi on the 50. Psalme auerreth out of Rabbi Iehudah that Ziz is a bird so great that with spreading abroad his wings hee hideth the Sunne and darkneth all the world And to leape backe into the Talmud a certaine Rabbi sayling on the Sea saw a bird in the middle of the sea so high that the water reached but to her knees whereupon he wished his companions there to wash because it was shallow Doe it not saith a voyce from heauen for it is seuen yeeres space since a Hatchet by chance falling out of a mans hand in this place and alwaies descending is not yet come at the bottome I perceiue by your incredulous smiles you will scarce beleeue that a Lyon in the wood Ela roared suddenly that all the women in Rome foure hundred miles from thence for very horror proued abortiue and when he came an hundred miles neerer his terrible noyse shooke the teeth out of all the Romans heads and the Emperour himselfe that caused the Rabbi to obtaine of GOD by his prayer to make this triall of the Lion fell downe from his Throne halfe dead and with much importunity requested his helpe to cause him retire to his denne But this roaring hath al most marred our Feast §. III. Their Messias his Feast OVr Wine you haue heard of fetched out of Adams Celler Esay 27.2.3 and Psal. 75.9 Before the Feast Messias will cause these prety creatures Behemoth and Leuiathan to play together and make them sport but when they haue wearied themselues in the fight Messias with his sword shall kill them both Esa 27.1 Then followeth the Feast and afterwards his Marriage Kings Daughters shall bee among thine honourable women at thy right hand standeth the Queene in the golde of Ophir Amongst the Messias his excellent women Rabbi Kimchi expoundeth shall bee Kings Daughters for euery King shall repute it to his owne glory to bestow a daughter on the Messias But the true Queene shall bee one of the fairest Israelites daughters and shall continually conuerse with him whereas the others must come onely at call He shall thus beget children which shall raigne after him Esay 53.10 when he is dead Now the state of the Iewes in his time shall be such that the Christians shall freely build them houses and Cities and till their grounds and bestow on them their goods yea Princes shall serue them and they shall walke in faire garments Esa 60.10 11 12. and Esa 61.5 6. The ayre also shall be new and wholesome Esa 65.17 by the benefit whereof they shall abide sound and liue long and in their age bee as fresh as if they were yong Psal. 92.14.15 The Wheat once sowne shall alway grow vp of it selfe no otherwise then the Vines Hosea 14.8 And if any shall desire any raine for his field or garden or one hearb by it selfe he shall haue it Zach. 10.11 Then shall be peace among men and beasts Hos 2.19 Esa 11.7 If there arise any warre among the Gentiles the Messias shall accord them Esa 2.4 They shall liue in great felicitie full of the knowledge and praise of GOD The earth shall be full hereof c. The Talmud also speaketh of a thousand yeeres wherein the world shall be renewed somewhat like the opinion of some Ancients in the Primitiue Church in which time the iust shall haue wings giuen them like Eagles whereby they may flie ouer the face of the waters But the bodies of the iust which shall rise againe shall neuer returne to dust Ricius in this and many other of their absurdities seekes to giue an allegoricall interpretation but which of the Heathen haue not so patronized their superstitions and Idolatries as appeareth in the Poets Philosophers Chaldaean and Egyptian Priests whose mysticall learning cannot free their religions from being mysteries of iniquitie Sixe thousand yeeres the world endureth saith R. Katina and a thousand yeere shall be a desolation and GOD onely shall be exalted in that day for one thousand yeeres is one day of the Lord as it is written A thousand yeeres in thy sight are as yesterday and this is a Sabbath wherein shall be the feastings aboue mentioned And thus did Elias affirme as is said two thousand yeeres the world was emptie two thousand the Law and two thousand Messias but for the sins of men that is wanting which we see wanting This last clause Ricius saith is added by the Talmudists which
Red because either the ground or the sand or the water thereof is Red as Bellonius hath obserued for none of them are so The people thereabouts take care for no other houses then the boughes of Palme-trees to keepe them from the heat of the Sunne for raine they haue but seldome the cattell are lesse there then in Egypt In the ascent of Mount Sinai are steps cut out in the Rocke they beganne to ascend it at breake of day and it was afternoone before they could get to the Monasterie of Maronite Christians which is on the top thereof There is also a Meschit there for the Arabians and Turkes who resort thither on pilgrimage as well as the Christians There is a Church also on the top of Mount Horeb and another Monasterie at the foot of the Hill besides other Monasteries wherein liue religious people called Caloieri obseruing the Greeke Rites who shew all and more then all the places renowmed in Scriptures and Antiquities to Pilgrims They eate neither flesh nor white meates They allow food vnto strangers such as it is rice wheat beanes and such like which they set on the floore without a cloth in a woodden dish and the people compose themselues to eate the same after the Arabian manner which is to sit vpon their heeles touching the ground with their toes whereas the Turkes sit crosse-legged like Taylors There is extant an Epistle of Eugenius Bishop of M. Sinai written 1569. to Charles the Arch-duke wherein hee complaineth that the Great Turke had caused all the reuenues of the Churches and Monasteries to bee sold whereby they were forced to pledge there Holy Vessels and to borrow on Vsurie Arabia Foelix trendeth from hence Southwards hauing on all parts of the Sea against which it doth abutt the space of three thousand fiue hundreth and foure miles Virgil calls it Panchaea now Ayaman or Giamen This seemeth to bee the Countrie wherein Saba stood chiefe Citie of the Sabaeans whose Queene visited Salomon for so the Iewes reckon howsoeuer the Abassines challenge her to themselues Aben Ezra on Dan. 11. calls this Saba Aliman or Alieman and Salmanticensis Ieman which is all one for all is but the Article signifying the South as the Scriptures also call her Queene of the South For so it was situate not to Iudaea alone but to the Petraean and Desart Arabia The name Seba or Saba agreeth also with the name of Sheba Gen. 10.7 As for Sheba the Nephew of Abraham by Ketura it is like he was founder of the other Seba or Saba in Arabia Deserta the elder posteritie of Chush hauing before seated themselues in the more fertile Southerne countrie and because both peoples these in Arabia and those in Africa were comprehended vnder one generall name of Aethiopia hence might those of Africa take occasion to vsurpe the Antiquities of the other Yea it is more likely that these Abassens in Africa a thousand yeeres after that the Queene was buried were seated in Arabia and thence passed in later ages into Africa subduing those Countries to them For so hath Stephanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Abassens so we now call those Aethiopians in the Empire of Presbyter Iohn are Nation of Arabia beyond the Sabaeans and the Nubian Geographer diuers times mentions Salomons wife in Arabia which I cannot interpret but of that Queene so that out of Arabia they carried this Tradition with them as it is likely into Africa where want of learning and plentie of superstition had so increased their Legend of this Queene as we shall after heare Beniamin Tudelensis writeth likewise that the Region of Seba is now called the Land of Aliman and that it extendeth sixteene dayes iourneys alongst the Hills in all which Region there were of those Arabians which had no certaine dwellings but wandred vp and downe in Tents robbing the neighbour Nations as is also reported of the Saracens neere Mecca which gouernment of Mecca both Beniamin and Salmanticensis adioyne to that of Aliman or the Kingdome of Saba for so saith he the Iewes in those parts still call the chiefe Citie of that Kingdome It hath store of Riuers Lakes Townes Cities Cattell fruits of many sorts The chiefe Cities are Medina Mecca Ziden Zebit Aden Beniamin addeth Theima or Theman a Citie walled fifteene miles square enclosing ground for tillage in the walls Tilmaas also Chibar and others There is store of siluer gold and varietie of gemmes There are also wilde beasts of diuers kindes As for the Phoenix because I and not I alone thinke it a fable as neither agreeing to reason nor likelihood and plainely disagreeing to the Historie of the Creation and of Noahs Arke in both which God made all Male and Female and cōmanded them to increase and multiply I thinke it not worthy recitall One wonder of Nature done in Abis a Citie of this Region will not I thinke bee distastfull cited by Photius out of Diodorus Siculus written in some part of his workes which is now wanting One Diophantus a Macedonian being married to an Arabian woman in that Citie Abis had by her a daughter called Herais which in ripe age was married to one Samiades who hauing liued a yeere with her did after trauell into farre Countries In the meane time his wife was troubled with an vncouth and strange disease A swelling arose about the bottome of her belly which on the seuenth day breaking there proceeded thence those parts whereby Nature distinguisheth men from the other sexe which secrets shee kept secret notwithstanding continuing her womans habit till the returne of her husband Who then demanding the companie and dutie of his wife was repelled by her father for which he sued him before the Iudges where Herais was forced to shew that which before her modestie had forbidden her to tell and afterwards naming himselfe Diophantus serued the King in his warres with the habite and heart of a man and leauing her feminine weaknesse as it seemed to her husband who in the impatience of his loue slue himselfe Our Author addeth also that by the helpe of the Physicians such perfection was added to this worke of Nature that nothing remained to testifie hee had beene a woman he annexeth also like examples in some others Ludouicus Vertomannus or Barthema as Ramusius nameth him tells at large his iourney through all this threefold Arabia he trauelled from Damasco to Mecca Anno 1503. with the Carauan of Pilgrimes and Marchants being often by the way set vpon by Armies of those Theeuish and Beggerly Arabians This iourney is of fortie dayes trauell trauelling two and twentie houres and resting two for their repast After many dayes they came to a Mountaine inhabited with Iewes ten or twelue miles in circuit which went naked and were of small stature about fiue or sixe spannes high black of colour circumcised speaking with a wominish voice And if they get a Moore in their power they flay
betweene Euphrates and Nilus he inuaded Persia where the Persians lost both their King Hormisda their State Religion and Name of Persians being conuerted into Saracens This victorious Homar made Ierusalem his Royall seat and while he was praying was murthered by his seruant Ozmen the succeeding Caliph sent a great Armie into Africa vnder the leading of Hucba who ouercomming Gregorius Patritius and destroying Carthage subiected all that Prouince to their Empire making Tunes the Mother-citie but soone after translated that honour to Chairoan which he built thirtie six miles from the Sea and a hundred from Tunes In the third yeere of his raigne Muauias the Deputie of Egypt with a Nauie of seuen hundred or as others say of a hundred and seuentie saile assailed Cyprus and taking Constantia wasted the whole Iland and hauing wintred his Armie at Damascus the next yeere besieged Arad in Cyprus and won it and dispeopled all the I le Thence hee inuaded the continent of Asia and carried away many prisoners and after in a Sea-fight with Constans the Emperour dyed the Lycian Sea with Christian bloud Hee wan Rhodes and sold to a Iew the brazen Colosse or pillar of the Sun which laded nine hundred Camels sometimes reckoned one of the worlds seuen wonders made in twelue yeeres space by Chares After this hee afflicted the Cyclides Ilands in the Archipelago and then sent his Fleet against Sicilia where they made spoile with fire and sword till by Olympius they were chased thence Muauias himselfe with an Armie by land entred into Cappadocia Iaid hauing ouer-run all the neighbouring Armenia vnto the hill Caucasus But meane while Ozmen besiged in his house by Ali his faction slew himselfe when hee had liued eightie and seuen yeeres and raigned twelue The Saracens could not agree about their new Prince Muaui and Ali with great armies being Corriuals of that dignitie and Ali being treacherously murthered by Muauias meanes in a Temple neere Cufa a Citie of Arabia was there buried and the place is of him called Massadalle or Alli his house for if you beleeue the Legend his corps being laid on a Camell which was suffered to goe whither hee would he staid at this place Of this Ali or Hali Mahomets Cousin the Persians deriue their sect and tell of him many Legendary fables Bedwell calls this place in his Arabian Trudgman Masged Aly that is the Mesged Mosque or Temple of Ali. Alhacem the sonne of Ali and Fatima Mahumets daughter was by Muauia his owne hands crowned and by him soone after poysoned Thus was Muaui sole Caliph who granted peace to the Emperour on condition that hee should pay him euery day tenne pounds of gold and a Gentleman-seruant with a horse Damascus was now made the Seat-Royall Of which Citie although wee haue said somewhat in our first booke yet let vs bee a little beholden to Beniamin Tudelensis to shew vs the Saracenicall face thereof In his time it was subiect to Noraldine as hee termeth him King of the children of Thogarma that is the Turkes The Citie saith hee is great and faire containing on euery side fifteene miles by it slideth the Riuer Pharphar and watereth their Gardens Amana is more familiar and entreth the Citie yea by helpe of Art in Conduits visiteth their priuate houses both striuing in emulous contention whether shall adde more pleasure or more profit to the Citie by Naaman therefore in the heate of his indignation preferred before all the waters of Israel But no where is so magnificent a building saith Beniamin as the Synagogue of the Ismaelites which is therein the people call it the Palace of Benhadad There is to be seene a wall of Glasse built by Art-Magicke distinguished by holes as many as the yeere hath dayes and so placed that euery day the Sunne findeth them fitted in order to his present motion each hole hauing therein a Diall with twelue degrees answering to the houres of that day so that in them is designed both the time of the yeere and of the day Within the Palace are Baths and costly buildings so rich of gold and siluer as seemeth incredible I saw there hanging a ribbe of one of the Enakims or Giants nine Spanish palmes long and two broad on the Sepulchre was written the name of Abchamaz After this in the time of Tamerlan the magnificence of their Temple was not quite extinct but as is reported it had fortie great Porches in the circuite thereof and within nine thousand Lamps hanging from the roofe all of gold and siluer For the Temples sake at first he spared the Citie but after prouoked by their rebellion he destroyed it and them Neither were the walls of Damascus rebuilded till a certaine Florentine for loue of the Gouernours daughter denying his faith became Mahumetan and after that both Gouernour and repairer of the Citie in the walls engrauing a Lyon the Armes of Florence He was honoured after his death with a Moskee and worshipped after the manner of their Saints the Saracens visiting his tombe and hauing touched the same stroking their beards with their hands There did our Author see a large house compassed with high walls which was inhabited with Catts The reason forsooth is this Mahomet sometime liuing in this Citie made much reckoning of a Cat which he carried in his sleeue by lucky tokens from her ordred his affaires From this dreame the Mahumetans make so much of Catts and hold it charitable almes to feede them thinking that he should prouoke the iudgement of God which should suffer a Cat to starue And many of them are found in the shambles begging or buying the inwards of beasts to nourish Catts a superstition more likely to descend from the Egyptians who for the benefit they receiued by Catts in destroying their vermine of which that Countrey yeelds store in a Heathenish superstition deified them But let vs returne to Muaui hee subdued the Sect of Ali in Persia and after inuaded Cil icia and sent to aide Sapores a band of Saracens which afflicted Chalcedon and sacked Armaria a City of Phrygia and with a Fleete inuaded Sicill tooke Siracuse and carried away with them the riches of Sicilia and of Rome it selfe lately fleeced by the Emperour and here horded Another Armie of Saracens ouer-running the Sea-coast of Africa led away eight hundred thousand prisoners Muamad and Caise on the other side subdued to Muaui Lydia and Cilicia and after with Seuus another Saracen Generall besieged Constantinople from Aprill to September and taking Cizicum there wintred their forces and in the spring returned to their siege which they continued seuen yeeres but by Diuine assistance and force of tempest they were chased thence And Constantine slew three hundred thousād Saracens in a battell not long after against Susia the Nephew of Muaui and compelled the Saracens to pay a great tribute Iezid raigned after the death of Muaui his father a better Poet then Souldier
writ seuen bookes reconciling these Sect ries and the Lawyers together which reconciliation continued till the comming of the Tartars and Asia and Afrike was full of these Reformers of their Law In old time none but learned men might be admitted Professors hereof but within these last hundred yeeres euery ignorant Idiot professeth it saying That learning is not necessary but the holy Spirit doth reueale to them which haue cleane hearts the knowledge of the truth These contrary to the Alcoran sing loue-songs and dances with some phantasticall extasies affirming themselues to be rauished of diuine loue These are great gluttons they may not marry but are reputed Sodomites The same our Author writeth of some which teach that by good workes fasting and abstinence a man may attaine a Nature Angelicall hauing his minde so purified that he cannot sinne although he would But he must first passe through fifty degrees of Discipline And although he sinne before hee be past these fifty degrees yet GOD doth not impute it to him These obserue strange and inestimable Fasts at the first after they liue in all pleasures of the world Their rule was written in foure volumes by a learned and eloquent man Esschrauar and by Ibnul-farid another Author in exact and most learned Verse That the Spheres Elements Planets and Starres are one God and that no Faith nor Law can be erroneous because that all men in their mindes intend to worship that which is to bee worshipped And they beleeue that the knowledge of GOD is contained in one man who is called Elcorb elected and partaker of GOD and in knowledge as GOD. There are other forty men amongst them called Elauted that is Dunces because of their lesse knowledge When the Elcorb or Elcoth dyeth his Successour is chosen out of these and into that vacant place of the fortie they chuse one out of another number of seuentie They haue a third inferiour number of a hundred threescore and fiue their Title I remember not out of which they chuse when any of the threescore and tenne die Their Law or Rule enioyneth them to wander through the World in manner of Fooles or of great Sinners or of the vilest amongst men And vnder this cloke many are most wicked men going naked without hiding their shame and haue to deale with women in the open and common streets like beasts Of this base sort are many in Tunis and farre more in Egypt and most of all in Cairo I my selfe saith our Author in Cairo in the street called Bain Elcasraim saw one of them with mine eyes take a beautifull Dame comming out of the Bath and laid her downe in the middest of the street and carnally knew her and presently when hee had left the woman all the people ranne to touch her clothes because a holy man had touched them And they said that this Saint seemed to doe a sinne but that hee did it not Her husband knowing of it reckoned it a rare fauour and blessing of GOD and made solemne feasting and gaue almes for that cause But the Iudges which would haue punished him for the same were like to bee slaine of the rude multitude who haue them in great reputation of sanctitie and euery day giue them gifts and presents There are another sort that may be termed Caballists which fast strangely not doe they eate the flesh of any creature but haue certaine meates ordained and appointed for euery houre of the day and night and certain particular praiers according to the dayes and months numbring their said Prayers and vse to carry vpon them some square things painted with Characters and Numbers They affirme that the good Spirits appeare and acquaint them with the affayres of the world An excellent Doctor named Boni framed their rule and prayers and how to make their squares and it seemeth to me who haue seene the worke to be more Magicall then Cabalasticall One booke sheweth their prayers and fastings the second their square the third the vertue of the fourescore and ninteene names of GOD which I saw in the hand of a Venetian Iew at Rome There is another rule in these Sects called Suuach of certaine Hermites which liue in Woods and solitary places feeding on nothing but hearbs and wilde fruites and none can particularly know their life because of this solitarinesse Thus farre Leo. Beniamin Tudelensis telleth of a Nation neere to Mount Libanus which hee calleth Hhassissin which varied from the ordinary sort of Ismalites and followed a peculiar Prophet of their owne whose word they obeyed whether for life or for death They called him Hheich al Hhassissin his abode was at Karmos They were a terror to all about them sawing asunder euen the Kings if they tooke any They warred with the Frankes the Christians which then held Ierusalem and the King of Tripolis Their dominion extended eight dayes iourney Zachuth mentioneth one Baba which about the 630. yeere of the Hegira fained himselfe a Prophet sent of God vnder which colour hee gathered together a great Armie wherewith he filled all Asia with slaughter and spoile slaying Christians and Ismaelits without difference till Giatheddin King of Gunia ouerthrew and destroyed him and his Host Besides the former they haue other Heremites of another sort one is mentioned by Leo who had fiue hundred Horse a hundred thousand Sheepe two hundred Beeues and of offerings and almes betwixt foure and fiue thousand Duckets his fame great in Asia and Afrike his Disciples many and fiue hundred people dwelling with him at his charges to whom he enioyneth not penance nor any thing but giueth them certaine names of God and biddeth them with the same to pray vnto him so many times a day When they haue learned this they returne home he hath a hundred Tents for strangers his Cattell and Family hee hath foure wiues besides slaues and by them many children sumptuously apparrelled His fame is such that the King of Telensin is afraide of him and he payeth nothing to any such veneration haue they towards him reputing him a Saint Leo saith hee spake with him and that this Heremite shewed him Magick-bookes and he thought that this his great estimation did come by false working of the true science so the Heremite termed Magicke But these Heremites we cannot so well reckon a Sect as a Religious Order of which sort there are diuers in these Mahumetane Nations as in our ensuing discourse shall appeare To returne therefore to the consideration of the meanes vsed to preuent the varietie of Sects among them The Caliphs sought to remedie these inconueniences by their best policie Moaui about the yeere of our Lord 770. assembled a generall Councell of their learned men to consult about an Vniformity but they disagreeing among themselues hee chose six men of the most learned and shut them vp in a house together with their Scriptures commanding them that out of those Copies disagreeing as you haue heard they should
where in the beginning of these tumults hee had beene put who first feared death and the next thing was hee begged water whom they presently proclaimed Emperour Osman consulted with Huzein Bassa late Vizier in the Polish warre and the Aga of the Ianizaries both faithfull to him sent to haue strangled Mustapha in the Seraglio but a new vproare happened and hee was remoued and guarded The next day the King with the Mufti went to them where after much intreatie their hearts somewhat relenting yet with new furie possessed they slew Huzein Bassa and the Aga the Mufti was conueyed away secretly and Osman led to Mustapha pleads for his life and at last is cast into the Seuen Towers prisoner Daout Bassa the new Vizier enquires and findes that Osman had two brothers liuing one about twelue the other seuen yeeres old and thereupon goes to the prison with a packe of executioners which finde him new falne asleepe and by their intrusion awaked and discontent At first they are amazed and hee made shew to defend himselfe till a strong knaue strooke him on the head with a battle axe and the rest leaping on him strangled him with much adoe And soone after they mourned for their dead King as freshly as they had raged vnseasonably this being the first Emperour they had betrayed and hauing set vp one which in all likelihood they must change for disabilitie The first of Iune following the Capiaga had receiued secret order to strangle Osmans brethren which going to doe they cry out and he by the Pages was slaine The Ianizaries mutinie afresh and will haue account of this treason whereof the King denies knowledge so did Daout who was suspected but to please them is degraded and Huzein Bassa late Gouernour of Cairo put in his place There is later report of the said Daout to bee strangled in the same place where hee had caused Osman to die Neither can wee expect otherwise then monstrous and portentuous births after such viperean conceptions CHAP. X. Of the Opinions holden by the Turkes in their Religion and of their Manners and Customes HOw the Turkes from so small beginnings haue aspired to this their present greatnesse you haue seene bought indeed at a deare price with their temporall Dominions accepting of a spirituall bondage becomming the Lords of many Countries and withall made subiect to those many Mahumetan superstitions The occasion and chiefe cause of Sects in the Saracenicall deuotions yee haue heard in the fourth and seuenth Chapters to which wee may adde here out of Bellonius He saith that besides the Alcoran they haue another booke called Zuna that is the Way or Law or Councell of Mahomet written after his death by his disciples but the readings thereof being diuers and corrupt the Caliph assembled a generall Councell of their Alphachi or learned men at Damasco wherein six Commissioners were appointed namely Muszlin Bochari Buborayra Annecey Atermindi and Dent to view and examine these bookes each of which composed a booke and those six bookes were called Zuna the other copies being two hundred Camels-lading were drowned in the Riuer those six onely made authenticall esteemed of equall authoritie among the Turkes with the Alcoran and after by one of their Diuines contracted into an Epitome which booke was called the Booke of Flowers But this Zuna being not Vna one as the Truth is but full of contrarietie hence haue risen Sects amongst them the Turkes differing from other Mahumetan Nations and diuided also amongst themselues §. I. Of their Eight Commandements ANTHONY MENAVINVS who liued a long time in the Turkish Court saith that the Booke of their Law is called Musaph or Curaam which Georgiouitz reckoneth another booke not the Alcoran it is in Arabike and they hold vnlawfull to translate it into the vulgar If any like not of Georgiouitz his opinion but thinke it to be the Alcoran for al is but the Article and the name little differs as before is shewed I could thinke it likely that this containeth some Extracts and Glosses thereof or is to their Alcaron as our Seruice booke to our Bible hauing some sons and proper methodes but grounded on the other Some things I finde cited out of the Curaam that are not in the Alcoran as that of the Angels mortalitie which perhaps may bee the mistaking of the Interpreter The ignorance of the Arabike hath caused much mis-calling of words and names They haue it in such reuerence that they will not touch it except they be washed from top to toe and it is read in their Churches by one with a loud voyce the people giuing deuout attendance without any noyse nor may the Reader hold it beneath his girdlested and after he hath read it he kisseth it and toucheth his eyes with it and with great solemnitie it is carried into the due place Out of this booke are deriued eight principall Commandements of their Law The first is GOD is a great God and one onely God and MAHOMET is the Prophet of God this Article of the Vnitie they thinke maketh against vs who beleeue a Trinitie of Persons in detestation whereof they often reiterate these words Hu hu hu that is He he he is onely GOD who is worthy to be praised for their limbes health c. and for that he hath prouided sustenance for euery one fortie yeeres before his birth The second Commandement is Obey thy Parents and doe nothing to displease them in word or deed they much feare the curses of their parents 3. Doe vnto others as thou wouldest bee done vnto 4. That they repaire to the Meschit or Church at the times appointed of which after 5. To fast one moneth of the yeere called Romezan or Ramadan 6. That they giue almes to the poore liberally and freely 7. To marry at conuenient age that they may multiply the sect of Mahomet 8. Not to kill Of these Commandements is handled at large in Menauino and in the booke of the Policie of the Turkish Empire and in others Their times of prayer according to the fourth precept are in the morning called Salanamazzi before Sun-rising the second at noone called Vlenamazzi The third about three houres before Sun-set called Inchindinamazzi The fourth at Sun-set Ascannamazzi The fifth two houres within night before they goe to sleepe Master Sandys nameth seuen times of prayer enioyned daily the first Tingilnamas two houres before day not mentioned by Septemcastrensis and another Giumanamas at ten in the morning duely obserued on the Fridayes by all at other times by the more religious When the Priest calls to prayer they will spread their garments on the earth though they bee in the fields and fall to their deuotions Moreouer I haue seene them conioyntly pray in the corners of the streets before the opening of their shops in the morning They spend but a part of Friday their Sabbath in deuotion and the rest in recreations but that so rigorously that a Turke
vanitie they gathering that good could not bee either cause or effect of euill found out this remedy worse then the disease to hold two Authors of all things calling Orimazes a God and Arimanius the fountaine of euill a deuill the one cause of light the other of darkenesse Betwixt these two they placed Mithres as Mediator or Intercessor Zoroastres was author of this opinion To the first of these was praise and vowes offered to the later mournfull deuotions For rubbing a certaine hearbe called Omomi they call on Dis Pater Orcus then they wash it with the bloud of a slaine Wolfe and carry it into a shadowie place where they powre it out They assigne plants partly to the good partly to the bad God as they doe also quicke creatures the earthly creatures to the good the watery to the bad and therfore esteem him happy that hath killed most of them Oromazes say they begotten of pure light and Arimanius the childe of darknesse warre one against another Tho first created six Gods Beneuolence Truth Politie Wisdome Riches Honest delight the later as many contrarie When Oromazes had thrice enlarged himselfe he was as farre beyond the Sunne as the Sunne is from the Earth and formed the Starres Of which one he fixed as a Gardian and Watch-man the Dogge-starre hee made other twentie foure Gods which hee closed in an Egge Arimanius did as much but his twentie foure brake their shell and so became good things and euill mingled But a fatall time shall come when Arimanius the Author of plague and famine shall perish and then shall bee one societie of all mankinde in happinesse vsing but one language Theopompus saith according to their opinion that one of these Gods shall raigne three thousand yeeres the other being discomfited and other three thousand they shall fight and labour to destroy one another at last Dis Pater shall be destroyed and men shall bee happy This opinion of the Magi the Chaldeans haue applied to their Astronomy in the seuen Planets making two good two bad three indifferent The Grecians to their Iupiter Dis Pater and Harmonia Empedocles to his Friendship and Discord Aristotle to his Forma Priuatio Pythagoras to his One and Two Plato to his Idem Alterum Manes to his deuilish heresie as before is said The Persians in this respect as some expound their mysteries called Mithra triplex as a third person and reconciler of the other two And there haue not wanted which ascribe this threefold Mithra to that threefold day as they interprete that Signe of the Sunnes going backe ten degrees in the dayes of Hezekiah which if there were houres made the day twice ten beside the ordinarie twelue houres But as in Hercules his generation a threefold night attends these mistie mysteries which I could as willingly construe of some misconstrued notice of the blessed Trinitie Dio Chrysostomus telleth of Zoroaster the Author of this science that enflamed with the loue of vertue hee forsooke the world and went apart into a mountaine And afterwards leauing that habitation he seemed to those to whom hee would shew himselfe which was onely to the Magi to shine with a fire which came downe from heauen vpon him This perhaps was borrowed and peruerted from the shining face of Moses Onely Persians saith Gramay were chosen into their number The name Magi is among Authors applied also to the Chaldeans which in Babylon professed the same Arts and superstitions the Disciples saith Lucian of Zoroastres of whose cunning in charmes you may reade in his Necromantia a pleasant discourse Mithrobarzanes a Chaldean Magus and Menippus whom hee washed twentie nine dayes in Euphrates by the Moone and in the morning sets him against the rising Sunne with long charmes after that spitting three times in his face hee brings him backe againe not once looking aside Their meate was Acornes their drinke Milke Mulse and the water of Choaspi their lodging on the wide field on the grasse After all this he brought him about midnight to Tygris where washing him hee purifieth him with a Torch and the herbe Squilla and other things c. which howsoeuer Lucian suteth to his scoffing humour yet I haue inserted as somewhat expressing their superstitions obserued in charming and diuinations CHAP. VII Of the religious and other rites of the ancient Persians §. I. Of their Gods and superstitions out of HERODOTVS LEauing these Magi let vs take a view of the Persian religious rites which Herodotus thus describeth The Persians neither erect Images nor Altars nor Temples and impute it to madnesse in such as doe therefore as I thinke because they are not of the Greekes opinion that the Gods haue risen from men Their custome is ascending vp the highest Hils to offer sacrifice to Iupiter calling the whole circle of heauen Iupiter They sacrifice to the Sunne and Moone and Earth to the Fire and Water and Winds to these onely they haue accustomed to sacrifice from the beginning They sacrifice also to Vrania which they haue learned of the Assyrians and Arabians The Assyrians call Venus Militta the Arabians Alitta the Persians Metra Their rites in sacrificing are these Being to sacrifice they neither set vp Altar nor kindle fire nor vse vestments pipes cakes or libaments but he which intendeth to sacrifice placing the sacrifice in a cleane place calleth vpon that God wearing their Tiara girded about with myrtle The sacrificer prayeth not for himselfe alone but generally for all Persians and especially for the King And after that the sacrifice is cut into small pieces he streweth vnder the sudden flesh small herbes chiefly Trisoly and setting the flesh in order thereon the Magus standing by singeth some hymnes of the generation of the Gods which they hold to be a most effectuall inchantment Without one of their Magi no sacrifice is accounted lawfull After all this the sacrificer vseth the flesh at his pleasure Of all daies euery man accounteth his owne birth-day to be most solemnly obserued and then maketh greatest cheare The richer sort then set whole Beeues Camels Horses Asses baked in an ouen or furnace on the Table the poorer smaller beasts The Persians are small eaters but in their drinking consult of the weightiest affaires Of which they deliberate fasting but pronounce sentence after they are well in drinke To vomit or make water openly is vnlawfull to them Those that are equall salute when they meete each other with a mutuall kisse which is fastened on the cheeke only if they be of vnequall degree They hold themselues the best of all men their neighbors so much better how much neerer them they dwell They are much addicted to Venerie with both sexes Next vnto Martiall valour they repute excellent the procreation of many Children the King allowing annuall presents to him who hath begotten most Children and therefore they vse many women The childe commeth not in his fathers sight till hee be fiue yeeres old
haue heard before in the eight Chapter of this Booke These three sorts of Tartars which we haue hitherto mentioned are all for the most part Mahumetans There are some yet as Michouius affirmeth neere the Caspian Sea which are not Mahumetans nor shaue their haire off their heads after the Tartarian manner and therefore they call them Calmuch or Pagans §. IIII. Of the Cathayan and Mogol Tartars c. THE fourth are those which in greatnesse are first namely the Cathayans called Carabas that is Black-heads of their Turbants as the former Ieselbas But of their Religion further then that which hath beene before expressed we can say little And it seemeth by the relations mentioned in the former Chapters that they are Gentiles or Christians and not of Mahomets errour Chaggi Memet a Persian Merchant related as in part is said before to Ramusius that he had beene at Campion Damir Can then raigning and that vnto Camul the Westerly part of Tanguth they were Idolaters and Ethnikes from thence Westwards Musulmans or Saracens In the Epistle of Carualius the Iesuite it is reported by a Mahumetane Merchant that they were Christians for those reasons is seemes yee haue heard before By Benedictus Goes his obseruations yee haue seen them so deuoted to Mahomet that a tender Lady of the weaker sexe in the strength of sect from the remote parts of Cascar bordering on China visited Mecca in Pilgrimage And their zeale or pretence thereof put him into often perils for his faith shall I say or his goods yet doth he make a difference between the Saracens and the Tartars these it seemes professing robbery and little minding any religion They worship in those parts to the West for that way stands Mecca The fifth and last forme of our Tartars are those which abide in those places whence the Tartars first issued to ouer-whelme all Asia with their Armies of which is related at large in the eleuenth Chapter of which for want of probable intelligence I can say little more Our Maps place there the Hords of the Danites Nephthalites Ciremissians Turbites and other which some deriue from the dispersion as is said of the ten Tribes Here is Tabor also whose King was by Charles the fifth Emperour in the yeere 1540. as before is said burned at Mantua for soliciting to Iuduisme Pope Innocent King Lewes of France by meanes of William de Rubruquis and the King of Armenia solicited as you haue partly heard both the great Can and his chiefe Princes to become Christians and it is likely that the Tartars might if diligence had beene vsed and some Superstitions had not darkened the Christian profession haue thereunto beene perswaded which many also of them were as appeareth in Haiton Mat. Westmonast and Vincentius But the Saracens which had before polluted those Countries where the Mahumetan Tartars now abide by that sutablenesse of their Law to their lawlesse lusts of Rapine and Poligamie preuailed as Michouius reporteth with Bathi and those other Tartars to embrace Mahumet and refuse Christ They say Eissa Rocholla that is Iesus is the Spirit of the Lord Mahomet Rossollai that is Mahomet is the Iustice of GOD. They obey saith hee the Pentateuch of Moses are circumcised obserue the legall Ceremonies they haue no Bels but euery day crie La illo illo loh which signifieth that there is but one GOD. They professe themselues Ismaelites the Christians they call Dzintzis that is Pagans and Gaur Infidels They obserue three Feasts the first Kuiram to which they prepare themselues with their thirtie dayes Lent and in that Feast offer Rammes Birdes c. The second they celebrate for All Soules for which they fast a moneth visit the graues and doe workes of mercie The third they keepe for themselues and their owne saluation and fast twelue dayes Iosafa Barbaro a Venetian which liued among the Tartars about the yeere 1437. saith That they embraced not the faith of Mahomet generally but as euery man liked vntill about that time in the dayes of Hedighi a Captaine vnder Sidahameth Can who first compelled them thereunto being before free vnto their Idolatries if they pleased And of the other Tartars neere the Zagathayans he saith That many of them were Idolaters and carried Idols in the Carts yea some of them vsed to worship whatsoeuer Beast they first met with after they went abroad in the morning This Docter Fletcher reporteth of the Mordiuit Tartars adding that they vse to sweare by it all that day whether it bee Horse Dog or whatsoeuer else And when his friend dieth hee killeth his best Horse and flaying off the skin carrieth it on high vpon a long Pole before the corps to the place of buriall The Moxij at a certaine time in the yeere take a horse which they set in the field with his foure legges tyed to foure posts and his head to another post fastened in the ground This done one of them standing in a conuenient distance shooteth him to the heart Afterwards they flay him and obseruing certaine ceremonies about the flesh eate the same The skin they fill with chaffe and in each of his legges thrust a straight stick that hee may stand vpright as if hee were aliue Lastly they goe to a great Tree and loppe there from as many boughes as they thinke good and make a Roome or Sollar in that tree where they set this horse on his feet and worship him offering vnto him Foxes and diuers Beasts which beare rich Furres of which offerings the Trees hang full Master Ienkinson mentioneth a Nation liuing among the Tartars called Kings which are also Gentiles as are also the Kirgessen of whom wee haue spoken and the Colmackes which worship the Sunne as they doe also a redde Cloth fastened to the toppe of a Pole and eate Serpents Wormes and other filth Neere to which hee placeth in his Mappe of Russia certaine Statues or Pillars of Stone which sometime were Hords of Men and Beasts feeding transformed by diuine power if it bee not humaine errour into this stonie substance retayning their pristine shape These Nations are eyther Tartars or in manner of life like vnto them and may therefore passe vnder that generall appellation And this may suffice touching the Tartarian Nation and Religion which in the West and South parts of their abode is Mahumetane in the more Northerly and Easterly partly Heathenish partly Iewish or Moorish or mixed or as may best aduantage them and most please them wandring in opinion in like sort as in their habitation Doctor Fletcher reckons these things as generall to all the Hords of Tartars First to obey their Magistrates whatsoeuer they command about the publike seruice Secondly Except for the pulique behoofe euery man to bee free and out of controlement Thirdly No priuate man to possesse any Lands but the whole Countrey to bee common Fourthly To neglect all daintinesse and varietie of meates and to content themselues with that which commeth next to
China whereby they haue passage to Suceu and to the Metropolitane Citie of Chequian Hamceu This Riuer is so cloyed with ships because it is not frozen in winter that the way is stopped with multitude which made Ricius exchange his way by water into another more strange to vs by wagon if we may so call it which had but one wheele so built that one might sit in the middle as it were on horse-backe and on each side another the wagoner putting it swiftly and safely forwards with leuers or barres of wood those wagons driuen by wind and saile he mentions not and so he came speedily to Suceu and Hamceu which are of the Chinois esteemed Paradises They haue a prouerbe thien Xam thien tham ti Xam su Ham that which the Hall of heauen or Presence-chamber is in heauen that on earth are Sucen and Hamceu And first for Suceu the beautie plentie frequency situation make it admirable It is seated as Venice but better in a pleasant Riuer of fresh water if it may not rather be called a Lake for the stilnesse They may passe quite through it either by water or land all the streets and houses are founded vpon piles of Pine-tree and the merchandise brought from Marao and other parts and ports are here sold as the fittest centre for dispersion It hath one gate into the land other passages by boat innumerable bridges very stately and durable but in those narrow rills hauing one only arch butter and milke-meates no where more spent nor better wine of rice which is carried thence to Paquin by the frequencie of the Hauen and multitude of ships almost denying faith to the eyes which would thinke all the ships of the Kingdome here assembled and notwithstanding the continuall going out so supplied as if they neuer weighed the hand-made Riuers that are made from Nanquin-ward hither so peopled with Townes Cities Villages as no where in the Kingdome more as from hence also to Hamceu It is scarsely two dayes iourney from the Sea and the head of that Region in which are eight Cities When Humui expelled the Tartars this Region held out longest against him and therefore to this day payes an excessiue tribute euen halfe of all which the earth brings forth some two small Prouinces not paying so much as this one Region and the Citie alone as in the printed Booke of the Kings tributes is extant payes twelue millions to the King more then the greatest Kingdome in Europe if some haue not accounted falsely and he which knowes this Citie will not maruell at it It is still kept with a strong Garrison for feare of innouation But Hamceu or Hanceu the Metropolitane of Chequian is perhaps more to be admired situate South-east from Nanquin almost nine dayes iourney not two dayes from the Sea in 30. degrees This Prouince of Chequian is the chiefe of the thirteene washed on the East with the Sea hauing Nanquin and Kiamsi on the West Fuquian on the South Xanton on the North numbring twelue greater Cities the chiefe of sixtie three lesse besides innumerable Townes Castles Villages the best wits and most learned students in the whole Kingdome it yeelds a fertile soyle Art contending with Nature for varierie of Riuers so many as may seeme impossible to humane industrie adorned with numberlesse Bridges of many arches made of huge stones equall to the Europaean workmanship and so abounding with Mulberie trees and Silke-wormes that all the China Markets besides other Countries are hence furnished and ten vests of Silke may bee here had at a cheaper price then one of Cloth in Europe Hamceu is the chiefe Citie of this Prouince yea in all this Kingdome lesse perhaps somewhat in compasse of walls then Nanquin but better peopled no place in the Citie emptie nor occupied with Gardens but all builded and all the buildings almost with diuers stories which in other Cities of China is not vsuall The Inhabitants are so many and the Tribute so much that the Iesuites durst not relate that which hereof they had heard by graue testimonie for the incredibilitie the description would aske a whole volume The chiefe street is almost halfe a dayes iourney in length and cannot be lesse then admirable For whereas the Chinois vse to erect triumphall Arches as Monuments to wel-deseruing Magistrates and ornaments to their Cities this one street hath at least three hundred such besides very many others in other parts of the Citie of massie stones and exceeding curious workmanship that if the houses on both sides yeelded the like splendour the world could not shew such a spectacle But they occupie it all with shops and build the most magnificence of their houses inwards and yet those not like the Europaean Palaces There is also a Lake close to the Citie which the eye can scarcely measure which sliding into a valley encompassing embossed with diuers hillockes hath giuen occasion to Arte to shew her vtmost in the adorning the same beautifying all those spacious bankes with houses gardens groues a very labyrinth to the bewitched eyes not knowing whereat most in this maze to be most amazed wherein most to delight And in delights doe they spend their dayes filling the Lake with vessels furnished with feasts spectacles and playes on the water There is a pleasant Hill in the middle of the Citie whereon is a faire Tower or Steeple where they measure their houres by a strange deuice Out of huge vessels water droppeth from one to another the lowest being very large in the middle whereof is perpendicularly raised a rule distinguished with houre-spaces which by the ascent or descent of the water diuide the rising and declining day and declare the houres euery halfe houre some men appointed by tables with cubitall letters to giue notice of the time to all men From this Hill is a prospect ouer all the Citie All the streets being set with trees make shew of pleasant gardens It is so full of Riuers Lakes Rills Ponds both in the Citie and Suburbs as if a man would frame a Platonicall Idaea of elegancie to his minde The Idoll Temples are many and stately which Idolatrie where it is wanting in China hath a worse successour Atheisme Let vs stay a while and gaze for where haue you such an Obiect Is not Quinsay whilome the Royall Seat of the Kings of Mangi as Venetus recordeth supposed by our moderne Geographers to be swallowed vp with some Earthquake or in Bellona's all-consuming bellie here raised vp from the graue The Lake situate on the one side so Paulus reports of Quinsay the Name Quinsay signifying the Citie of Heauen and this called a Heauenly Paradise by the Chinois and Han signifies Lactea via in Heauen and Ceu perfect yea Quinsay or as Odoricus calls it Canasia and Han or Chanceu not so disagreeing in sound as different Dialects are wont the excellency being chiefe Citie in the Kingdome and this Prouince sometimes royall
Hosts ostentation to view and a little to taste his meates but after sixe houres spent in this banquet they may goe home to fill their bellies In this officious trifling the Chinois spend a great part of their liues but especially at the beginning of the new yeere fifteene dayes together and at their birth-dayes When seruants salute their Masters or the baser people their Superiors they fall on their knees and thrice touch the ground with their foreheads iust as they doe to their Idols and when the Master speakes to his seruants they stand at his side and at euery answere fall on their knees and so doe the people to the great men When one speakes to another they neuer vse the second person nor the first when they speake of themselues except Masters and Superiours to their seruants or inferiours Many formes of complementall modestie in termes they haue but the lowest to call himselfe by his proper name as we vse the pronoune I and if they speake of any they vse some more honorable name and circumlocution if of themselues some modester termes The Iesuites obserue a state and keepe within doores not easie to be spoken with because the Chinois contemne such as obserue modestie and price men by their maiestie and solemne reseruations When they send presents to each other they may without inciuility take some and refuse others they also vse to send presents in money If a man be not within when one comes with his Letter to visit they leaue the Letter at the doore to signifie his purpose and this is enough also for the visited partie when in reuisiting he findes him absent For euery one that visits must within three dayes be visited in which respect the Iesuites were forced to cause their Porter or Seruant to keepe a note of them all lest they should forget to repay these offices If one meet another which hath not on his salutatory habite he may not performe these rites till the other be vested for it for which cause their seruants attend them with these robes or else he that was attired must put off and both salute in ordinary habit In drinking the Inuiter beginnes holding vp his cup in a dish with both hands all the guests turning to him and pledging him together at once supping vp their liquor at foure or fiue times although it be water and not at one draught No bread is brought into their feasts nor Rice None are compelled to drinke more then they please The maiestie of feasts is in variety of dishes none being taken off the table that are once set on till the feast ended and then bestowed on the guests seruants Their bookes are full of precepts of obseruance to Parents and Superiours which outwardly is there performed more then in all the world besides They neuer sit in equall site or ouer-against their betters but on the lower side This the Scholers performe to their Masters speaking to them with great reuerence and if they bee poore nourishing them whiles they liue with their owne labour And when one is admitted Scholer to another the Master sits in the higher end of the Hall which is ordinarily to the North all the Temples and priuate buildings if it may be opening to the South with his countenance to the doore The Scholer comes before him and foure times bowes his body and as often kneeles downe and toucheth the ground with his forehead euer after though higher preferred sitting at his side in euery meeting although he hath beene his Scholer but one day §. V. Of the mechanicall Arts in China their Printing c. WHere Nature is so prouident of Materials Art is easily induced to triall of experiments of which we will name such as to vs seeme rarest They generally are not so curious for exquisite workmanship as to make things saleable at easier and cheaper rates where Nobilitie is wanting the Mandarines pay what they please and sometime force their employments They build for themselues not minding continuance to posteritie nor will they beleeue without much astonishment the magnificence and antiquitie of European buildings Foundations they lay not deepe vsually not at all within the earth which makes the greatest buildings short liued and their Citie walls to be often repaired The roofes of their houses euen where the walls are bricke are sustained with pillars or posts of wood and not on those walls Printing is with them of ancient vse at least fiue hundred yeeres some say more then a thousand and sixe hundred Their manner differs much from ours and is rather an expression then impression they prouide a table of Peare-tree or other smooth wood and vpon the same lightly glue the whole sheet or written copie which being dried is cunningly taken off so as the characters remayne on the same table which is p esently carued and cut with Iron instruments that nothing but the draughts or lineaments of the letters are eminent and standing vp Then with incredible celeritie and facilitie they print off the same one man sometimes fifteene hundred in one day And in cutting their tables they are so ready and expedite that one of our Composers seemes to mee as long in setting a sheet of ours as they in cutting theirs The reason is the greatnesse of their characters for so small as our letters could not easily bee engrauen in their tables This commoditie they haue that they may be layd by for as many impressions as they please and in the meane time be may print off for number of copies as he findes sale both which are wanting in our manner of printing This makes their bookes so many and so cheape and this easinesse made the Iesuites print at their owne houses what bookes they liked They haue also another way of printing An Epitaph or other copie being cut in stone or wood they lay thereon a leafe of moist paper and on the same a woollen cloth and then beat it on with a hammer till the thinne paper insinuate it selfe into the emptie spaces of the mould or forme and then lightly lay on inke or what other colouring they please so that the Epitaph or Copie remaynes in an elegant white prouided that this be vsed where there is vse of greater characters That which some hold of sleeping and burning the earth of which their Porcelane is made an hundred yeeres in the earth remouing it euery eight dayes others gainsay and our Iesuite is silent Linschoten affirmeth that the earth is naturally hard beaten small steeped often stirred and of the finest swimming in the top the finest made Painting is much vsed but not in such perfection as with vs which is true also of grauing and caruing To adorne their pictures with oyle or shadowes and landskips they know not and in statues they haue no other rule of symmetrie but the eye Their bells haue woodden clappers and seeme not able to indure Iron and therefore not comparable in sound to ours Musicall
in pompous Processions through the streets which the chiefe Inhabitants at certaine times obserue at the common cost of the Neighbours all about This Sect hath a Prelate called Ciam which dignitie these thousand yeeres together hath descended by inheritance and seemes to haue receiued originall from a Southsayer which liued in a Caue in the Prouince of Quiamsi where his posteritie still continue and with them his iuggling sorceries This their Prelate liue for the most part at Paquin in estimation with the King being admitted into the Palace for hallowings and chasing away ill spirits Hee is carryed through the Citie in a chayre otherwise accomplished as the chiefe Magistrates and receiues a large salarie of the King I haue heard that in these times the Prelates are so ignorant that they know not their owne Deuillish charmes and rites This Prelate hath no iurisdiction ouer any but those of his profession Many of these doe worke by Alchimy to obtaine the Precepts of longer liuing of both which their Saints they say left certaine rules There are the three Sects of the Chinois which are since by their vaine Sectaries so diuersifyed that they may seeme rather three hundred Hum-vu that raised his now raigning Family to the Scepter was himselfe professed Religious in one of these Sects and authorised all three Sects admitting onely the first to the Gouernment Hence it is that One seekes not the ruine of the Other Sect and the Kings themselues foster all as they see occasion building and repairing their Temples The Queenes are more prone to the Idoll Sects and bestow much almes on the Priests maintaining whole Monasteries to be helped by their prayers The multitude of Idols is seene not onely in the Temples but in priuate houses in a place appointed after the fashion of the Countrey in the Market-place in Streets Ships publike Palaces and yet it is certaine that few beleeue their Legends but thinke if these things do them no good they yet will doe them no harme The wisest in these times thinke that all these three Sects may concurre and bee all obserued together and esteeme varietie most acceptable From this hotchpotch vniting and separating perhaps haue risen those confused and various reports of these confusions and varieties of rites wherin if any haue like pleasure in varietie and be wearie of hearing Ricius and Trigautius the latest spectators I will not defraud them of those things which out of former Authors I had more confusedly before gathered They haue if Mendoza be not mendar many Monasteries of foure differing orders of Religion distinguished by the seuerall colours of their habit black yellow white and russet These foure Orders are said to haue their Generalls whom they call Tricon which reside in Paquin These ordaine Prouincials who againe haue subordinated to them the Priors of seuerall Houses or Colledges in those their houses acknowledged chiefe The Generall is clothed with silke in his owne colour and is carryed on mens shoulders in an Iuorie chaire by foure or six men of his habit They liue partly of reuenues giuen them by the King partly by begging which when they do they carry in their hands a certaine thing wherein are prayers written whereon the almes are laid and the giuer thereby cleered of his money I should haue said of his sinne They are shauen vse beades eate together and haue their Cells assist at burialls arise two houres before day to pray vnto the Heauen and Sinquian who they say was the inuenter of that their manner of life and became a Saint in which their deuotion they continue vntill breake of day singing and ringing of bells They may not marry in the time of their Monkish deuotion but they may acquainting the Generalls therewith at there pleasure relinquish their vow The eldest sonnes may not enter into Religion because they are bound to sustaine their aged Parents At the admittance of any is a great feast made by their friends At the lanching of any ship they dedicate the same to the Moone or some Idoll and besides there resort thither these Monkes to make sacrifices in the poope and reuerence the Deuill whom they paint in the fore-castle that he may doe them no harme Else would shee make an vnfortunate voyage The people weare long haire in combing whereof they are womanishly curious these hoping by their locks to be carryed into Heauen the other professing a state of greater perfection refuse any such helpe There be of their religious more austere which liue in desarts and solitary places the liues of Hermites with great abstinence and austeritie of life Nancan is a Citie at the foot of Mount Liu on which are many Anchorets which haue each a house by himselfe and there exercise themselues in voluntary chastisements There are said to be as many of those houses on this Hill as are dayes in the yeere they obserue it as a prodigie that when it is elsewhere cleere sun-shine there it is cloudie and mystie alway so that the Hill cannot be seene from a Lake neere it which Lake also deserues mention being great and as farre as the eye can discerne crowned with innumerable Townes Castles and Habitations They haue Hils consecrated to Idols whither they resort in heapes on pilgrimage hoping hereby to merit pardon of their sinnes and that after their death they shall be borne againe more noble and wealthy Some of these will not kill any liuing creatures especially such as are tame in regard of this their Pythagorean opinion of the transanimation or passage of soules into beasts The Iesuites conuerted one man neere vnto Nanquin which had thirtie yeeres together obserued a fast not strange among the Chinois neuer eating flesh or fish and on other things feeding temperately Vsurers are punished in China with the losse of that money so imployed Their fast is not a totall abstinence but from flesh and fish Of their Priests is before shewed that they haue both secular and regular the one weareth long hayre and black clothes and hath priuate habitation the other liue in Couents and are shauen Neither may marrie though both doe and not here alone farre worse They much commend in their bookes the consideration and examination of a mans selfe and therefore doe esteeme highly of them which sequester themselues from humane societie to diuine contemplation that as they say they may restore themselues to themselues and to that pristine state wherein the Heauen created them And therefore haue not onely Colledges of learned men who leauing the affaires of state and secular distractions doe in priuate Villages liue together obseruing these contemplations with mutuall conferences but euen women also haue their Nunneries liue a Monastical life vnder their Abbesses after their manner although euen such as are marryed liue closely enough their feet to this end so straitly swadled in their infancie that they grow but little and to haue little feet is with them great
serue one thousand of them a day When the wormes by reason of that chaine breeding in his flesh fell off he would place it there againe and aske if it had nothing to gnaw His carkasse is still kept there to which are pilgrimages out of all the Kingdome and this Temple built to his honor The Regulars are diuided into twelue stations and each hath a Superior besides One supreme ouer all the rest They professed chastitie but their house was both a stewes for whoredome and a denne of theeues and robbers Here were many huge Idols of brasse and other metall and of wood gilded in one station fiue hundred They had diuers steeples and bells in them one so great that they had neuer seene so great a bell in Europe The Corpse of Lusu was shewed them which they worship but many doubt whether it be the true for could it escape the wormes which had seised on it aliue kept in the midst of the Temple in a high place where hang fiftie lamps which burne at appointed times The Abbot of this Monasterie confessed that in ancient times the Chinois had worshipped no Idols but that they were politically appointed by Magistrates lest the vulgar should bee without all Religion They haue their Chappels in great mens houses But we will take view onely of the Kings Temple at Nanquin and so end This is a Royall one indeed for greatnesse and statelinesse It is built in a groue of Pine-trees neere the Citie which is compast with a wall twelue miles in circuit The Temple after the China manner of building is most of timber the wals of brick diuided into fiue Iles with rowes of pillars on both sides which are of round timber as big as two men can fathome the roofe is carued and guilded verie faire hauing lost nothing of the beautie though not vsed by the Kings for sacrifice in this their two hundred yeeres absence In the midst is an eminent place of precious Marble in which are two Thrones of Marble one for the King to sacrifice in the other left emptie for him to whom he doth sacrifice The Cloisters without the Temple are beautified with elegant turnings and all the windowes netted with yron to keepe out birds which is vsed also in all the Palace All the doores of the Temple are couered with plates of brasse guilded and richly carued without the Temple are many Altars of red Marble which represented the Sun Moone Starres and China Mountaines whereby they inferre that the god there worshipped created all things which are therefore set without the Temple as acknowledged not to be gods No man vnder grieuous penalties may cut a bough off any of the trees in that groue which makes them great and old About the Temple are many Cels which were baths in which the Kings and Ministers washed before sacrifice There Altars are of the Dutch fashion that one may goe round about them §. IX Of their Funeralls THe Chinois are very superstitiously conceited of Death and are exceeding loth to haue any die in their house Linschoten writeth That when a man lies on his death-bed they present vnto him the picture of the Deuill with the Sunne in his right hand and a Poniard in his left bidding the sicke man looke well on him that hee may be his friend in the other world How euer the sicke be visited let vs now performe our last office to these Chinois and follow them to their graues Many are the Ceremonies which they there obserue in Funerals As they honor their parents in their life time being otherwise lyable to grieuous punishments yea some of their chiefest Mandarines will sue for the Kings licence to leaue their publike function to giue priuat and more diligent attendance to their parents so after their death they mourne three yeeres in white Hats and Garments although they beare the highest Magistracies in the Kingdome as the Colai c. the militarie Magistrates excepted The first moneths they gird vnto them a rough Vesture with a rope like the bare-foot Friers This is not onely obserued of the meaner sort but the mightiest Mandarines after newes of their fathers death leaue their function and in their priuate houses bewaile their losse The wealthier sort keepe them aboue ground two or three yeeres in a Parlour fitted for that purpose whither they daily resort vnto them to salute them and to burne Incense and set meates before them Sometimes also the Bonzij or Priests resort thither with their Dirges and holy things Their wiues children and neighbours come likewise to bewaile them being admonished of the death by the sonne or neerest of the kindred in a solemne Libell mournfully composed The Hall is spread with white Clothes or Matts in the midst thereof is an Altar and thereon the Coffin and Image of the dead To that Hall within foure or fiue dayes all the kindred come in mourning attyre one after another euery houre of the day and burne odours and set two Wax-lights to the dead making foure bowings and kneelings after their fashion before deliuered the sonne meane while standing by and modestly lamenting Behind the Coffin are the women of the house hid behind a curtaine in mourning weedes and howling behauiour They burne Paper and white Silkes so thinking to minister apparell to the dead They will not vse their wonted lodging diet and delights but lye on Straw Mattresses on the bare ground neere the Coffin eate no Flesh or Dainties drinke no Wine Bathe not companie not with their Wiues come not at Feasts nor for certaine moneths space abroad alwaies remitting more of this austeritie as the three yeares grow neerer an end They vse not the same apparell house-hold furniture salutations They colour part of the Paper in which they write with another colour They obserue not their wonted proper names but call themselues otherwise as Disobedient or such like Musick is banished their dyet is hard When the corpes is to bee buried all the kindred come together being re-invited with another Libell in mourning habit The pompe is in manner of Procession diuers Statues of Men and Women Elephants Tygres and Lyons all of Paper diuers-coloured and gilded goe before which at the graue are burned A long rancke of Priests also attend which performe many Rites by the way pattering their prayers and playing on Tymbrels Pipes Cymballs Bells and other Instruments Likewise huge Censers of Bell-metall are carried on mens shoulders Then followes the Coffin adorned sumptuously carried of forty or fifty Bearers vnder a great Canopie of Silke The children come after on foot leaning on their staues as fainting Then then the women vnseene vnder a white curtaine and then other women further in bloud carryed in mourning chayres They assemble as many Priests as they can which on musicall Instruments and with their voyces tune their mournefull Ditties The place whither the corps is carried is adorned with diuers Images The Coffin is very large the
strict orders they may not nourish Hennes because of their female Sexe To drinke Wine is punished in their Priests with stoning They haue many Fasts in the yeare but one especially in which the people frequent the Temples and their Sermons They haue their Canonicall houres by day and night for their holy things They hold that the World shall last eight thousand yeares whereof sixe thousand are passed and then it shall be consumed with fire at which time shall bee opened in Heauen seuen eyes of the Sunne which shall drie vp the Waters and burne vp the Earth In the ashes shall remaine two Egges whence shall come foorth one Man and one Woman which shall renew the World But there shall be no more Salt but fresh Riuers and Lakes which shall cause the Earth without mans labour to abound in plenty of good things The Siamites are the sinke of the Easterne Superstitions which they deriue to many Nations Gasper de Cruz testifieth that the Bramenes in Siam are Witches and are the Kings principall seruants They worship one god called Probar Missur which say they made Heauen and Earth and another called Pralocussur who obtained of a third named Praissur that power vnto Probar Missur Another called Praput Prasur Metrie Hee thinketh the third part of the Land to be Priests or Religious persons These Religious are proud the inferiour worshipping their superiours as gods with prayer and prostrating They are reuerenced much of the people none daring to contradict them so that when our Frier Gasper preached if one of those Religious came and said This is good but ours is better all his Auditors would forsake him They number in their opinion seuen and twentie Heauens holding that some of them are like Mahomets Paradise fraught with faire women with meates also and drinkes and that all liuing things which haue soules goe thither euen Fleas and Lice And these lousie heauens are allotted to all secular persons which enter not into their rule and habit of Religion They haue higher heauens for their Priests which liue in wildernesses ascribing onely this felicitie to them there to sit and refresh themselues with winde And according to the higher merits they assigne other higher heauens among their gods which haue round bodies like bowles and so haue these that goe thither They hold also that there are thirteene Hells according to the differing demerits of mens sinnes Of their Religious men some are supreme and sit aboue the King called Massauchaches a second Order they entitle Nascendeches which sit with the King and are as Bishops a third and lower ranke sit beneath the King named Mitires which are as Priests and haue the Chapuzes and Sazes two inferior degrees vnder them all reuerenced according to their place Except the Priests and Religious all are slaues to the King and when they die their whole state deuolueth to him how hardly soeuer the wife and children shift which was caused through a rebellion against the brother of the King which then reigned when the Frier writ this In the yeere 1606. Balthasar Sequerius a Iesuite landing at Tanassary passed from thence partly by goodly Riuers partly ouer cragged and rough Hills and Forrests stored with Rhinocerots Elephants and Tigres one of which tare in pieces one of their company before his eyes vnto Odia Conferring with the Talipoies or Religious men he learned their conceits That there was now no God in the world to gouerne it Three had beene before now dead and a Fourth is expected which deferreth his comming In the meane while lest this huge Frame should want a Ruler it is ordered by a certaine Bubble or Brooch which some of the Former Gods had left The vulgar people heare these bubbles bables and fables with great reuerence and silence holding vp their ioyned hands They obserue their Festiualls according to the course of the Moone and then open their Temples whither the people resort to doe their deuotions These are built strong and stately with Art and Beautie hauing their Porches Cloisters Quires and lower Iles great Chappels being annexed on both sides and large Church-yards In one of these hee saw a Statue of eighteene Cubites length dedicated to the great God They are of marueilous abstinence and thinke it a great sinne to taste wine In their Quires they haue singing men which after the Europaean fashion sing there especially in the shutting in of the Euening and about midnight Very early in the morning warning is giuen for them to goe to beg from doore to doore They haue their funerall Holies and Obits for the dead The carkasses are burned being put into painted Coffins with great solemnitie if they be great men with Musicke and dances and great store of victuals to be bestowed on the Talipoys Thus farre Sequerius The Inhabitants of this Kingdome are much giuen to pleasure and ryot they refuse the vse of Manuall Arts but addict themselues to Husbandry They haue publike Schooles where they teach Lawes and Religion in the vulgar Language other Sciences they learne in a more learned Tongue They worship innumerable Idols but especially the foure Elements according to which his Sect each man maketh choise of his buriall They which worshipped the Earth are therein buried the Fire burneth the dead carkasses of them which obserued it in the Ayre are hanged to feast the airy-winged people with their flesh those which adored the Ayre being aliue The Water drowneth those which had aliue beene drowned in that Waterie Religion Euery King at his first entrance to the Crowne erecteth a Temple which hee adorneth with high Steeples and innumerable Idols In the Citie of Socotay is one of mettell fourescore spans high The Kingdome of Siam comprehendeth that Aurea Regio of Ptolemey by Arrianus in his Periplus the Map whereof Ortelius set forth 1597. called Aurea Continens nigh to which is placed that Aurea Chersonesus then it seemeth by a necke of land ioyned to the Continent since supposed to be by force of the Sea separated from the same and to bee the same which is now called Sumatra which Tremellius and Iunius iudge to bee Salomons Ophir The Land trendeth long and narrow and containeth fiue hundred leagues of Sea-coast compassing from Champa to Tauay But of this space the Arabians or Moores haue vsurped two hundred with the Townes of Patane Pahan Ior and Malacca now in possession of the Portugals and the Kingdomes of Aua Chencran Caipumo and Brema haue shared also therein Odia is the chiefe Citie thereof containing foure hundred thousand housholds and serueth the King with fiftie thousand Souldiers and to the Riuer Caipumo on which it standeth belong two hundred thousand vessels This King hath nine Kingdomes subiect to him and thirtie thousand Elephants whereof three thousand are trained to the warres His Nobles hold their Lands in a kinde of Knights-seruice like the Turkish Timars yet onely for terme of life without the Kings pay serue him whensoeuer
is one betweene Agra and Amadauar which commands as much Land as a good Kingdome he is strong twentie thousand Horse and fiftie thousand Foot and keepes on the Mountaines Men can scarcely trauell for Out-lawes The often shifting of men from their lands makes them exact more cruelly in the time they hold them grinding the face of their poore Tenants in ruefull manner If they continue but sixe yeeres they raise a great state sometimes they hold not halfe a yeere If any be employed in warres or businesses in another place he must forgoe his land here and be assigned it there The Kings allowance otherwise is exceeding as for euery Horse twentie Ropias a moneth for the warres and for so many more which hee hath of Fame hee is allowed two Ropias a moneth for the maintenance of his Table Concerning the Kings Religion and behauiour it is thus In the morning about breake of day hee is at his Beades his face to the Westwards in a priuate faire roome vpon a faire Iet-stone hauing onely a Persian Lambe-skinne vnder him Hee hath eight Chaines of Beades euery of which containeth foure hundred they are of Pearle Diamants Rubies Emeralds Lignum aloes Eshen and Corall At the vpper end of this Iet-stone are placed the Images of Christ and our Lady grauen in stone Hee turneth ouer his Beades and saith so many words to wit three thousand and two hundred and then presenteth himselfe to the people to receiue their Salames or good morrow for which purpose multitudes resort thither euery morning This done hee sleepeth two houres more then dineth and passeth his time with his women at noone he sheweth himselfe again to the people sitting till three or foure a clocke to view his pastimes by Men and Beasts euery day sundry kindes At three all the Nobles in Agra whom sicknesse detaineth not resort to the Court and the King comes forth in open audience sitting in his Seat-Royall euery man standing in his degree before him the chiefe within a Red raile which was allowed to our Author hauing but fiue before him the rest without This Red raile is three steps higher then the place where the rest stand Men are placed by Officers there are others to keepe men in order In the middest right before the King standeth an Officer with his master Hang-man accompanied with fortie others of the same profession with hatches on their shoulders and others with whips Here the King heareth causes some houres euery day and then departs to his house of prayer which ended foure or fiue sorts of well dressed meates are brought him whereof hee eateth what hee likes to stay his stomacke drinking once of his strong drinke After this he comes forth into a priuate roome where none may come but such as himselfe nominates Two yeeres together our Author was one of the Attendants In this place he drinkes other fiue cups which is the portion that the Physicians allow him after which he eateth Opium then layes him downe to sleep euery man departing home When he hath slept two houres they awake him and bring his supper to him thrusting it in his mouth not being able to feed himselfe This is about one of the clocke at night and so hee sleepeth the rest of the night In this cup-space he doth many idle things but nothing without writing be he drunken or sober For he hath writers by course which write all not omitting his going to the stoole or how ought he lieth with his women and with whom to the end that when he dieth those writings may be brought forth and thence what is thought fit may be inserted in their Chronicles When any poore men come to demaund Iustice of the King they goe to a certaine rope fastened to two pillars neere where the King sits this rope is full of Bels plated with gold and with shaking the rope the King hearing the sound sends to know the cause and doth Iustice accordingly While our Author was with him hee made his brothers children Christians not for zeale as the Iesuites thought but in policie to disappoint a Prophecie of certaine learned Gentiles which fore-told their succession in the Kingdome to make them odious to the Moores God take the wise in his craftinesse and conuert this peruerse policie to their true Conuersion One of his sonnes Sultan Sharier of seuen yeeres could not by diuers cruelties purposely inflicted on him by his father be forced to cry pretending his Nurses instructions to the contrary Hee keepes many Feasts in the yeere but some principall one called Nourous or New-yeeres day Then hath he a rich Tent pitched curiously and costly wrought two acres of ground in compasse so richly spread with silke and gold Carpets and preciously hanged as is more admirable then credible There are roomes also for his Queenes to see vnseene round about so that in all it may bee fiue acres Euery Noble-man makes his roome each striuing to excell other in cost The King will come to which of them he effects and is sumptuously feasted and presented But because hee will not receiue any thing as a Present he allowes as much as the Treasurer values it which is halfe the worth Thus all prouide and present At this Feast commonly euery mans state is augmented it beginneth at the beginning of the Moone in March Some foure months after is the Feast of his Birth-day which euery one striueth to honor with his richest Apparel and Iewels after many Palace-pastimes hee goeth with the greatest pompe to his Mothers to whom euery Noble-man presents a Iewell After banket ended hee weigheth in a ballance of gold against himselfe in one scale other things of diuers sorts to the worth of ten thousand pound which is giuen to the poore but his richer Subiects present him that day tenne times as much On his Fathers Funerall-day is solemnized a Feast at his Sepulchre where himselfe meaneth to bee buried with all his posteritie at which time much meate and money is giuen to the poore It hath beene fourteene yeeres in building and is thought will not bee finished in seuen yeeres more notwithstanding three thousand at least be daily at worke thereon But one of our workemen will dispatch more then three of them It is by his description three quarters of a mile about made square hath seuen heights each narrower then other till the top where his Hearse is At the vtmost gate before you come to the Sepulchre is a stately Palace in building the compasse of the wals ioyning to the gate c. may be at least three miles it is foure miles from Agra The Kings custome is euery yeere to make a hunting progresse of two moneths but when hee comes forth of his Palace if he mounts on a horse it is a signe of his going to the war if on an Elephant or Palamkin it is but a hunting iourney §. IIII. Of the setling of the English Trade in these parts and of the
or Indus Here was Pitchte Can his Tents pitched like a little Citie he was Embassadour into Persia On the foure and twentieth they came to Lahore Their Report of this agrees with Master Coryats whose Relation thereof is lately published They say it is the best of India plentifull of all things or in Master Coryats words such a delicate and euen Tract of ground as I neuer saw before and hee hath seene a great deale besides his Europaean sights at Venice since at Constantinople hauing added more Asian Titles to his before Admired Name then the ancient Roman Scipio's or Caesars dreamt of yea more then Iustinian in the Prooeme of his Imperiall Institutions hath marshalled and mustered together the furthest foot English-Traueller that our dayes haue had and the longest English stile which our eares haue heard with many rests for your wearied breath by the way a stile indeed so high you can hardly get ouer HIEROSOLYMITAN SYRIAN MESOPOTAMIAN ARMENIAN MEDIAN-PARTHIAN-PERSIAN INDIAN LEGGE STRETCHER OF ODCOMB Euen this our Odcombian Foot-Pilgrime which makes your Pen-Pilgrime in I know not what liking or likenesse at the very mention of his Name to sympathize and his braines to fall in Trauell as learnedly mad scarsly able to containe wonted words and wits in this extaticall gaze and maze of that Propatetike Foot ready to admire adore and kisse and yet O braines No braines to enuy that his lowest part For who is able to know his better parts He doubts whether the like be to be found within the whole Circumference of the habitable World A row of Trees extends it selfe on both sides the way from the Towns end of Lahore twentie dayes iourney to the Townes end of Agra most of them bearing saith Still a kinde of Mulbery The way is dangerous by night for Theeues by day secure Euery fiue or sixe Course there are faire Seraes of the Kings or Nobles for beautifying the way memory of their Names and entertainment of Trauellers where you may haue a Chamber and a Place to set your Horses with store of Horse-meat but in many of them little prouision for Men by reason of the Banian Superstition When a man hath taken vp his lodging in one of these no other man may dispossesse him About day-breake all make readie to depart together and then the Gates are opened till then shut for feare of Theeues After the Sun hath beene vp two houres the heat makes trauell irksome Lahore is one of the fairest and ancientest Cities in India standing on Indus It containeth at the least M. Coryat tells you sixteene miles in compasse Twelue daies before hee came there he passed Indus there as broad as the Thames at London In the mid-way betwixt Lahor and Agra ten miles out of the way on the left hand a Mountainous people are said to haue but one Wife to all the Brethren of one Family as wee haue elsewhere spoken of the Arabians Merchants resort to this Citie out of all parts of India imbarking their goods here in great Boats for Tutta the chiefe Citie in Sinda a Trade of much importance in times of Peace to the Portugals which by this way Traded to Ormus and Persia and this way also furnishing India with Pepper Twelue or fourteene thousand Camels lading yeerely passeth from hence to Persia by Candahar before the Wars with the Portugalls but three thousand this mountainous way being in Winter cold in Summer hot The Carauans spend sixe or seuen moneths betwixt Lahor and Spahan Spices are deere in Persia by reason of the long land-carriage from Mesulapatan this way Still and Crowther departed from Lahor May the thirteenth and on the two and twentieth came to Multan a great and ancient Citie within three Course of Indus but poore for which cause they detaine the Carauans there diuers dayes eight ten or twelue to benefit the Citie They entred the Mountaines the second of Iune where they had brackish water the third and fourth daies they trauelled all night climing high Mountaines and following water-courses and so continued till they came to Chatcha on the tenth In all these eight dayes trauell is no sustenance for Man or Beast except in some places a little grasse and therefore at Lacca in the beginning of this way they hyred an Oxe to carry Barly for their Horses On the nineteenth they came to Duckee another Fort of the Mogols and the seuen and twentieth passed the Durwas or straits of the Hils dangerous narrow wayes on both sides menaced by high Rocks from whence a few with stones may stop great multitudes and diuers Carauans are thus cut off For the Agwans or Puttans the Mountaine Inhabitants are a theeuish people The second of Iuly they came to Pesimga another Fort and passing thence ouer a mightie Mountaine on the seuenth came to Candahar The Agwans are white stout strong rob Carauans sell all stragglers but now with feare and the gaine they get by selling their Cattell to the Carauans they are more tractable Couert saith they weare their beards long are not Mahumetans their Priests weare Sackcloth with great chaines about their middles falling downe and praying in Sack-cloth and Ashes At Candahar they hire Camels for India or Persia hence into Persia the Countrey is barren and therefore they go in smaller companies sometimes in two or three dayes trauell not seeing a greene thing at their lodging-places water but often brackish and stinking Hence they departed Iuly the three and twentieth and on the fiue and twentieth came to Cushecunna the vtmost Garrison in the Mogols Frontiers thirtie Course from Candahar On the seuen and twentieth they came to Grees a Castle of the Sophies a Course from the Riuer Sabba which separateth the Persian and Mogoll Confines The people of Grees are Theeues and the Captaine little better then a Rebell From hence they reckon their way by farsangs parasangae fiue of which make two Courses They trauelled August the sixth to Farra a Towne walled with Sun-dryed Brick and stored with Water without which here is no store and therefore they carry it in some places if there be good ground three or foure miles vnder ground Heere they vse men kindly as they goe into Persia for feare of complaint but in their returne to India very hardly searching them to the skin for Gold which to carry out or any Siluer coyne but the Kings is death On the twelfth day they were faine to dig for water On the two and twentieth they came to Deuzayde where they pretend all to be Religious people On September the fifteenth I still follow Still they came to Spahan where they found Sir Robert Sherly then dispatched in Embassage for Spaine from the King of Persia by the way or Ormus for Goa and thence to Lisbon Hee procured the Kings Great Seale to all his Gouernours of Sea-Ports kindly to entertaine the English at Iasques c. dated Sertember the thirtieth 1615. the same day that
superstition They marry but one wife and admit no second succeeding marriage The Bramenes must descend of the Bramene Tribe and others cannot aspire to that Priesthood but some are of higher account then other For some serue for messengers which in time of warre and among theeues may passe safely and are called Fathers They will not put a Bramene to death for any crime Heurnius reporteth that they haue bookes and Prophets which they alledge for confirmation of their opinions that they thinke God to be of blacke colour that they worship the herbe Amaracus or Marioram with many superstitious Ceremonies that they haue in their writings the Decalogue with the explanation thereof that they adjure all of their Society vnto silence touching their mysteries that they haue a peculiar language as Latine in these parts wherein they teach the same in their Schooles that their Doctors hallow the Sundayes in diuine worship adoring the God which created heauen and earth often repeating the sentence I adore thee O God with thy grace and aide for euer to take food from the hands of a Christian they account as sacrilege When they are seuen yeeres old they put about their necke a string two fingers broad made of the skinne of a beast called Cressuamengan like a wilde Asse together with the haire which he weareth till he is fourteene yeeres old all which time he may not eate Betelle That time expired the said string is taken away and another of three threeds put on in signe that hee is become a Bramene which hee weareth all his life They haue a Principall amongst them which is their Bishop which correcteth them if they doe amisse They marrie but once as is said and that not all but onely the eldest of the brethen to continue the Succession who is also heire of the fathers substance and keepeth his wife straitly killing her if he finde her adulterous with poison The yonger brethren lie with other mens wiues which account the same as a singular honour done vnto them hauing libertie as Balby affirmeth to enter into any mans house yea of the Kings no lesse then of the Subjects of that Religion the husbands leauing the wiues and the brethren their sisters vnto their pleasures and therefore departing out of the house when they come in And hence it is that no mans sonne inheriteth his fathers goods and I knowe not whether they may inherite that name of father or sonne but the sisters sonne succeedeth as being most certaine of the bloud They eate but once a day and wash before and after meate as also when they make water and goe to stoole They haue great cournuâ—s belonging to their Churches besides offerings and at set houres of the day resort thither to sing and doe other their holy Rites Twice in the day and as often in the night their Pagode is taken out of the Altar and set on the Bramenes head looking backward and is carried in Procession three times about the Church the Bramenes wiues carrying lights burning euery time they come to the principall doore of the Church which is on the West side thereof some Churches haue two doores on a side they set it downe on their offering-stone and worship it Twice a day they bring it to eate of their sod Rice as often it seemeth as the Bramene is hungry When they wash them which is often they lay a little ashes on their heads foreheads and breasts saying that they shall returne into ashes When the Bramenes wife is with childe as soone as he knoweth it he cleanseth his teeth and abstaineth from Betelle and obserueth fasting till shee bee deliuered The Kings of Malabar will scarce eate meate but of their dressing They are of such estimation that if Merchants trauell among theeues and robbers one Bramene in the companie secureth them all which Bramene will eate nothing of another mans dressing and would not become a Moore for a Kingdome Nic. di Conti saith he saw a Bramene three hundred yeeres old hee addeth that they are studious in Astrologie Geomancie and Philosophie To be short they are the Masters of Ceremonies and the Indian Religion in whose precepts the Kings are trained vp The Bramenes haue it seemeth much familiaritie with the Deuill so strangely doe they foretell things to come though they bee contingent They also interpret Prodigies Lots Auguries and thereby growe into great credit the people depending on them and the Kings becomming of their Order They perswade the people that their Pagodes doe often feast together and therefore would haue such dainties offered which they and theirs deuoure threatning if they be sparing and niggardly plenty of Plagues and diuine wrath Besides these Secular There are other Religious or Monasticall Bramenes which are called Iogues anciently called by the Greekes Gymnosophists because they went naked and so they still doe professing much austeritie of life at least for a time with long Pilgrimages and much bodily exercise little profiting the soule possessing nothing but want and beggarie seeking thereby to winne credite to themselues and their Sect The Verteas I take to bee another Sect the religious Votaries of the Banians or Pythagoreans Both those and these are kindes of Ethnike Monkes which professe by strict penance and regular obseruations to expiate their sinnes and procure saluation to their soules There are also some that liue as Heremites in Desarts some in Colledges some wander from place to place begging some an vnlearned kind are called Sanasses some contrary to the rest nothing esteeme Idols obserue chastitie twenty or fiue and twenty yeeres and feed daily on the pith of a fruit called Caruza to preserue in them that cold humour neither doe they abstaine from flesh fish or wine and when they passe along the way one goeth before them crying Poo Poo that is way way that women especially may auoid for their vow will not permit the sight of a woman These weare not the three threads which the other Bramenes weare neither are their bodies burned after death as of the rest yea the King himselfe honoreth them and not they the King some liue inclosed in iron Cages all filthie with ashes which they strew on their heads and garments some burne some part of their body voluntarily All are vain-glorious and seeke rather the shell then the kernell the shew then the substance of holinesse Xauerius once in conference with the Bramens demanding of them what their God commanded to those that would come to Heauen was answered Two precepts one to abstaine from killing of Kine in whose shape the Gods were worshipped and the other to obserue the Bramenes the Ministers of their Gods But they haue more mysticall learning which one of them secretly disclosed to the Iesuite This was of a famous Schoole College or Vniuersity of those Bramenes all the Students whereof at their first Admission he said were sworne by solemne Oath vnto
their books that there had beene in these parts foure Lawes or Sects three of which the Bramenes still obserued to wit of Vesmu of Brama of Rubren the fourth meerely spirituall partly mixed with others and partly lost tending to the saluation of the Soule which he said that He brought now vnto them their Almes and Bodily chastisements without this not being effectuall to their saluation Any might learne and choose a Doctor for any of the other three but none was able to teach this When they become Schollers to such Doctors they doe a triple reuerence vnto the ground lifting vp their hands aloft then letting them downe to their heads and must like the Pythagoreans of old which was learned of the Indians rest satisfied with his Masters bare Assertion without questioning or further disputing He was once brought before a Consistorie of the Bramenes and accused for his new Doctrine Some Articles were That he should affirme that the washing in Remanancor and Ganges were to no effect That the Bramenes are inferior to the Raij or Princes That they should be all damned notwithstanding there were of them many Nhanisij and Sanasses the Nhanisij also vow chastitie and to forsake the World The President of this Councell cleered the Iesuite vpon the Apologie of another Bramene For that of Remanancor it is a corner of the Fishing Region wherein is a Temple famous through all the East which hee that shall visit and wash himselfe in the Sea iust by shall bee cleered from all his sinnes aswell as if it were done in Ganges Id Madura and the Territorie thereof are numbred a hundred thousand Bramenes the chiefe of which is Chocanada as their Bishop or Pope He would haue this Iesuite expelled the Countrie for that this Franke so euer since the Expedition to Ierusalem vnder Duke Godfrey of Bullen all Westerne Christians are called in all the East a name it seemes which the Saracens communicated to the Ethnikes had eaten with another Franke. Hee meant Fernandes another Iesuite that had not thus acted the Sanasse and Gurupi amongst them He alleadged also that His Temple was built in the ground of His Pagode But this Iesuite with Gold stopped this Bramenes mouth and had the soyle of the Church granted him in peace with promise of all fauour One thing that holds them intangled in this errour is that they hold it vnlawfull to copie out their Lawes and Religion in writing so that they which wil learne them must like the Druydes from their youth learne them of some Doctour and commit them to memorie in which they spend tenne yeeres and more And if any should write them they would pull out his eyes Emanuel Leitanus another Iesuite comming to Madura in the like Sanassian Habit obserued the Gorupian order and fell downe before Sforce to the ground Hee sitting in a Chaire couered with red because some of the Madurians were present The Bramenes in the Kingdome of Bisnaga are of such power that nothing is done without them and of the fiue Counsellours of State foure are Bramenes yea with their face to the earth all men and the King himselfe adore the Bramen-Pope nor doth the King admit any to conference in the morning before hee hath seene two Bramenes In Chandegrin is a Clocke that strikes not foure and twentie houres but sixtie and foure according to their diuision of the Night and Day each into foure parts and those subdiuided into eight The Iesuites conceiue that thefe Bramenes are of the dispersion of the Israelites and their Bookes called Sameseretan doe somewhat agree with the Scriptures but that they vnderstand them not They haue some propheticall phrases and some of them affirme that God made Adam the first man and being pressed acknowledge one God The King and his Nobles speak the learned and sacred tongue of the Bramenes Anno 1609. One of his Great men rebelling against him and fortifying the Castle of Vellur the King besieged him and on his submission pardoned him but so as hee turned his Fort which had stood the Rebell in an hundred thousand Crownes into a Palace besides twentie Fannes each worth an hundred thousand * Pardowes and innumerable Horses and Elephants The same yeere did the King write to the King of Spaine in commendation of the Iesuites with promise to assist the Vice-roy against the Moores and Hollanders which had obtained to build a Fortresse of the Naichus of Tanauapatan desiring the same friendship that since the King of Narsing as dayes had beene betwixt both their Ancestors subscribed King Ventacaxa Thus you see the same King diversly entituled according to the Citie Royall yea I finde him called of the castle before named King of Vellur so Floris stiles him saying that in Iune 1614. He granted trade to the English as likewise did Obiana Queene of Paleacatte One of his Wiue's which it seemes gouerned that Citie On Iuly the nine and twentieth his Abeskian was sent being a white cloth where his owne hand is printed in Sandall or Saffron and another the like from the Queene of Paleacatte The Kings Letter was written vpon a leafe of Gold wherein hee made excuse of former wrongs gaue them libertie to build a House or Fort with other priuiledges He gaue Floris the English Merchant a Towne of foure hundred Pardawes yeerely reuenue notwithstanding the Hollanders his Countrimen did what they could to hinder it Wâ—ngalâ— Floris his man had beene in the Kings presence who laid his hand vpon his head But on the eight and twentieth of October following newes came that this King was dead hauing raigned aboue fiftie yeeres His three wiues of which Obiana Queene of Paleacatte was one burned themselues with his corpse and great troubles were expected The Hollanders had presented this King with two Elephants of Seilan Cotabaxa the King of Badaya and Lellengana his Neighbour died not long before Mahmoud Vmin Cotabaxa his Brothers Sonne succeeded Musulipatan is in his Dominion Golconda is the Metropolitan Citie But hee is a Moore of the Sophi his Sect Golconda is the Citie Royall With the Naicho or King of Gingi vassall to the King or Emperour of Bisnagar the Iesuites found good entertainment Heere some of the Iogues distributed the water of Ganges out of certaine vessels couered with foule and filthie clothes which yet the people for deuotion kissed These Iogues with admirable patience endured the Sunnes heate and one among the rest enclosed himselfe in an Iron Cage with his head feet onely out of the Cage that he could neither sit nor lie downe at any time and on the Cage were hanged an hundred Lampes which foure other Iogues his companions lighted at certaine times And thus walked he in this his perpetuall Prison as a Light vnto the World in his vaine glorious opinion They reasoned with certaine Bramenes some of which held the Sunne for God and yet sometime to haue beene a man and for his merits so
so vnconstant watery Element That the Earth and Sea make one Globe we haue elsewhere shewed in the History of their Creation In which the Earth being as it seemeth at the first forming of it more perfectly Spherical and wholy couered with Waters by the power of that Almighty Decree Word Let the waters be gathered into one place that the dry Land may appeare both the Waters as some gather were more condensate which before were more subtle and therefore occupied more roome and the Earth was in some places lifted vp in others depressed with deepe Furrowes and Trenches to make roome and conuenient receptacles for the Sea and withall fit matter yeelded for the eleuation both of Mountaynes aboue the ordinary height of the Earth and of the Earth and Continent also in the higher places whence the greatest Riuers deriue their Originall in comparison of the Lowes and Maritime parts where they empty themselues into the Sea This is the proper seate of the Element or Water called Aqua quast aequa of the equall and plaine face and superficies thereof or as Lactantius with a further fetch obserueth à qua nata sunt omnia because hence all things are bred and nourished Now because Waters are eyther without Motion as in Lakes or of an vniforme Motion as in Riuers or diuers as in the Sea the Heathen ascribed a Trident or three-fold Scepter to Neptune their supposed Sea-god That the Earth and Sea haue one and the same Centre both of Grauity and Greatnesse appeareth by this that the parts of the Earth and Water falling from a high place without other impediment haue the same direct descent a piece of Earth also falleth perpendicularly into the Water with equall and right Angles And that the Water naturally inclineth to a roundnesse appeareth in the small drops thereof which gather themselues into that forme and by the easier discerning things on shore from the tops then from the hatches of the ship in theâ—r Sea likewise by the eleuation or depression of the Pole and Stars no lesse in sayling then land-trauels to the North or South also in preuenting or lengthning the Sunnes light by sayling East or West as before hath beene obserued in the Spaniards and Portugals meeting at the Philippina's and differing a whole day in their reckoning the Portugals losing by meeting the Sunne in their Easterne course that which the Spaniards get by following him in a Westerne Yea euen in one dayes sayling this may be manifest as Record instanceth in a ship sayling West from Island in one of their dayes of twenty houres getting halfe an houre and in the next day returning with like swiftnesse loseth as much of the Sunne Yea in Riuers of very long course besides that descent before mentioned from higher to lower passages some obserue a kind of roundnesse or circular rising in compassing the Globe which else must needs be exceedingly difformed in the Riuers of Nilus Amazones and others which runne neere an eighth part thereof The Sea is great and wide sayth the Psalmist and at first couered the whole earth like a garment till for mans vse the dry land appeared which for mans abuse was againe in the dayes of Noah couered And had not God set the Sea a bound which it cannot passe it would so some translate it returne to couer the earth for euer It is his perpetuall decree who commanded and it was made that though the waues thereof rage yet they cannot preuaile though they roare yet they cannot passe ouer And thus many of the ancient and later Interpreters of Genesis doe auerre that the Earth is indeed lower then the Waters as in the beginning of this Worke is obserued as if God did by a kinde of miracle in Nature bridle and restraine the tempestuous force of the Sea Rerum omnium inualidissima to vse Basils words debilissimaque arena with Sand the weakest of all creatures Thus held Aquinas Carthusianus Catharinus and others Which opinion being granted how easie were it for the Sea to enclose the Earth in her watrie mantle and againe to make a Conquest of the drie Land hauing such forces of her owne and such re-inforcements from the Ayre and the Earth it selfe Her owne powers euen by order of Nature and proportion of the Elements cannot but seeme dreadfull in which as the Ayre exceedeth the Water and is it selfe exceeded of the Fire so the Water to some seemes no lesse to surmount the Earth as the lowest and least of the Elements And what Armies of exhalations doth the Sunne daily muster in the great Ayrie plaine which would succour their Mother in such an attempt Besides that euen the Earth as it is euery where compassed of the Sea doth compasse in it selfe so many Seas Lakes Riuers in the vppermost face thereof as professed partakers and the inward bowels thereof haue daily intelligence and continuall conspiracie with the waters by those secret pores and priuie passages whereby it commeth to passe that albeit All Riuers runne to the Sea yet the Sea is not filled And were it possible that so many worlds of waters should daily and hourely flow into this watrie world and that such a world of time together and yet the Sea nothing increased but that as Salamon there saith The Riuers goe to the place from whence they returne and goe that is they runne into the Sea and thence partly by the Sunnes force eleuated and restored in Raines and other Meteors partly by filling the veynes of the Earth with Springs doe both wayes returne againe in Riuers to the Sea This appeareth by the Dead Sea and by the Caspian which receiue many Riuers without open payment thereof to the Ocean and at the Straits of Gibraltar the Ocean commonly hath a current in at one end and the Euxine Sea at the other besides abundance of other waters out of Europe Asia Africa and yet is no fuller Many indeed are the wonders of the Lord in the deepe and this concerning the height depth and profunditie thereof one of the highest deepest and requiring the profoundest skill to search That the waters are gathered on swelling heapes in round forme compassing the Earth is already proued which to a vulgar capacitie may seeme to enforce a height of the water aboue some parts of the Earth but seeing that the earth and waters haue one Center and height is properly to bee measured by distance from that Center it seemeth vnlikely that the water should be higher then the Earth or altogether equall to the height thereof in whose Channels and concauities it is contayned And though the Sea swelleth and lifteth vp it selfe into that forme which best agreeth to that Globe which is compact of it and the Earth yet is it not capable being a liquid fluible body in the greatest depth and widenesse of such eleuations as wee see in high and Mountaynous Regions whereby the Earth seemeth to
of Barbary the one swelling the other not at all heightned in the East and West Indies I could instance the like not mentioning those currents which hinder all courses of Tides Further the Floud continueth in some places seuen houres in some foure in most sixe In the Straits of Sunda some haue obserued that it flowes twelue houres and ebbes twelue In Negropont it is said to ebbe and flow seuen times a day and Patritius affirmeth that himselfe obserued at Ausser in Liburnia in a hand-made Strait of Sea-water the same to happen twentie times in a day Againe wee see these Tide-motions differ according to their daily weekely monethly and as some adde halfe yearely and yearely alterations All which varieties cannot be attributed to one simple cause neither to any vniuersall whether Sunne Moone or Natiue heat of the Sea or any the like although wee must needs acknowledge which we cannot know one principall cause hindred or altred by manifold accidents and therefore producing effects thus diuersified Other motions also may be obserued in the Sea as that namely which is continuall and if wee call the Tides the breathing this may be tearmed the pulse of the Sea whereby the waters alway wash the shore falling on and off couering and presently vncouering the feet of such as stand by which hath force to expell all Heterogenean or differing natures as drowned carkasses wrackes and the like This as that of the Tides Patritius Peucorus Lydiate and others attribute to a kinde of boyling which as in a vessell of seething water causeth it thus to rise and fall and to expell the drosse and things contrary But the heate which causeth this boyling one ascribes to the Sunne another to fires in the Sea another to the naturall heate of the Sea engendring spirits and causing rarefaction and motion Patritius doth not onely auerre this but that the Sea is as a sublunarie Planet mouing it selfe and moued by the superiour bodies to effect the generation of things for which cause Orpheus calls the Ocean Father of Gods Men and other things The saltnesse thereof is in his opinion the instrument of this motion and the neerest inward and most proper cause of marine mouings as in the two Mexican Lakes appeareth the one whereof is salt and ebbes and flowes which the other being fresh doth not This saltnes saith he with greater heat ingendreth more spirits in moysture the cause of greater Tides he thinketh to be the shallownesse and narrower shores the force of the Ocean thrusting the same most forwards where it findes interruptions and indraughts the certaintie of the motions hee ascribes according to his Philosophie to the soule of the world mouing this as other Planets For my censure it shall bee rather on my selfe then these opinions where silence rather then boldnesse becommeth Euen a foole whiles hee holdeth his peace is accounted wise And to borrow the words of a subtill Disputer Quod vbique clamare soleo nos nihil scire maximè conuenit huic disquisitions quae maris tracta motum Let this also bee arranged amongst the wonders of the Lord in the deepe rather to be admired then comprehended I might heere speake of other Sea-motions either particular or accidentall as that in the open Seas betweene the Tropikes vncertaine whether it may bee termed an Easterly winde or some impetuous violence caused by the superiour motions which draw together with them the inferiour Elements likewise those currents in diuers coasts as at Madagascar on the African and in the great Bay on the American shores From other accidents arise other motions caused by the windes in the ayre which somewhere haue their set seasons by whirle-pooles or rather contrarie currents meeting in the Sea by Capes Indraughts Riuers Ilands of the land by the conceptions and trauelling throwes in the waters in bringing forth some imminent tempest and the like I might speake of strange Currents in many Seas vpon the coast of Africke neere to Saint Laurence and Iohn de Noua and Mayella Captaine Saris hath related that the currents detayned him a long time euen almost to desperation of getting out and one of them so dreadfull that it made a noise like that at London Bridge with a fearefull rippling of the water the more the further from land and there where they founded an hundred fathom depth as it were proclaiming open defiance to winde and sayle notwithstanding their puffing threats and most swelling lookes in foure and twentie houres carrying them a whole Degree and nine Minutes from the course which vnder full sayle with the windes assistance they intended §. III. Of the Originall of Fountaines and other Commodities of the Sea I Might adde touching the Originall of Fountaines which both Scripture and reason finding no other store sufficient deriue from the Sea how they are from thence conueyed by secret Channels and concauities vnder the earth and by what workmen of Nature thus wrought into new fresh waters Scaligers experiment to proue the Sea-water at the bottome fresh by bottles filled there by cunning Diuers or otherwise is by Patritius his experience as hee saith found false And this freshnesse of the springs not withstanding their salt originall from the Sea may rather be ascribed to percolation and straining thorough the narrow spungie passage of the earth which makes them leaue behind as an exacted toll their colour thicknesse and saltnesse Now how it should come to passe that they should spring out of the earth being higher then the Sea yea out of the highest Mountaynes hath exercised the wits of Phylosophers some ascribing it to a sucking qualitie of the thirstie or spungie earth some to the weight of the earth pressing and forcing the waters vpwards some to the motion of the Sea continually as in a Pumpe thrusting forwards the water which expelleth the weaker ayre and followeth it till it finde an out-let whereof both by the continuall protrusion of the Sea and for auoyding a vacuum or emptinesse which Nature abhorreth it holdeth continuall possession some finde out other causes And Master Ladyate in a Treatise of the Originall of Springs attributeth the same to vnder-earth fires which no lesse by a naturall distillation worketh these waters vnder the earth into this freshnesse and other qualities then the Sunne and heauenly fires doe by exhalations aboue Yea such are his speculations of these hidden fires that hee maketh them the causes of Windes Earth-quakes Minerals Gemmes fertilitie and sterilitie of the earth and of the saltnesse and motion as is before said of the Sea But loath were I to burne or drowne my Readers in these fierie and watrie Disputes let vs from these speculations retire our selues to the experimentall profits and commodities which this Element yeeldeth Concerning the commodities of the Sea as the world generally so the little models of the world the Ilands whereof this of Great Britaine is iustly acknowledged the most excellent of
for now he had found this signe thereof the Sabbaticall Riuer shewing this Sand in proofe thereof Credit Iudaeus Apella the Iewes beleeue quickly all but the truth especially in Portugall whither he came with this report Many thousand moued by his words remoued their dwellings and selling their substance would needs goe into these parts of Persia by the Sabbaticall Riuer to fixe their habitation there wayting for their promised Messias One and a chiefe of this superstitious Expedition was Amatus Lusitanus a Physician of great note accounted one of the most learned of his Profession and a Writer therein and Iohn Micas a Merchant of great wealth They passed through France Germany Hungary their company like a Snow-ball encreasing as they went with the addition of other Iewes of like credulity When they came to Constantinople there were of them in many Bands or Companies thirty thousand Cabasomi Bassa the Turkish Commander thought to gaine by this occasion and would not suffer them to passe ouer the water into Asia without many hundred thousands of Duckets except they would passe on horse-backe This example was soone both spred and followed of the other Bassaes and Commanders in Asia as they went their wealth and substance being euery where so fleeced that they came into Syria much lessened in numbers in estate miserable and beggerly new Officers euery where as new hungry Flyes lighting on these wretched carkasses so I may call them some they whipped some they empaled some they hanged and burned others Thus were these miserable Pilgrimes wasted and Don Iohn Baltasar was present when Amato aforesaid being dead with this affliction his Physicke bookes were in an Out-cry to be sold at Damasco and because they were in Latine no man would buy them till at last another Iew became Chapman Micas one of the wealthiest men which Europe held dyed poore in an Hospitall at Constantinople And this was the issue of their Pilgrimage to the Sabbaticall streame which they supposed to finde in this Persian Gulfe where wee haue too long holden you the Spectators of this Iewish Tragedie And yet let me intreate your patience a litle longer in considering the occasion of this error We haue elsewhere mentioned this Sabbaticall Riuer now you shall vnderstand that the Iewes generally haue drowned their wits therein Rambam cals it Gozan Genebrard alleageth many R. R. testimonies of it but of all and of all let Eldad Danius his tale which Genebrard hath translated find some fauourable entertainment the rather because one of our Apocryphall Authors seemes to weaue the same webbe which as the worthier person deserueth first examination Esdras therefore so wee suppose him and this is not all his Iewish Fables reporteth that the ten Tribes which Salmanasar led captiue tooke counsell among themselues to leaue the multitude of the Heathen and goe forth into a further Countrey where neuer Mankind dwelt that they might there keepe their statutes which they neuer kept in their owne Lord And they entred into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the Riuer For the most High then shewed signes for them and held still the floud till they were passed ouer For through that Countrey there was a great way to goe namely of a yeere and a halfe and the same Region is called Arsareth Then dwelt they there vntill the latter time And now when they shall begin to come the Highest shall stay the Springs of the streame againe c. Here you see no lesse Miracle then in Iordan or the Red Sea for their passage which seeing it was through Euphrates yee will pardon our Iew for searching it neere this Persian Gulfe especially seeing his good Masters the Rabbins had increased this Tale with the Inclosure of these Iewes from passing againe into our World not by the continuall course of Euphrates as Esdras insinuateth but by the Sabbatising of the Sabbaticall streame which by Eldads description is two hundred cubits ouer full of sands and stones without water making a noyse like thunder as it floweth which by night is heard halfe a dayes Iourney from it On the Sabbath it is continually quiet and still but all that while ariseth thence a flame that none dare enter or come neere by halfe a mile Thus the fire if not the Religion of the Sabbath then detaynes them no lesse then the stony streame on the weeke dayes and what stony heart can refuse them credit Yet doth not hee and Esdras agree of the Inhabitants both deriuing them from the tenne Tribes but Eldad challengeth no lesse antiquitie then from Ieroboam who contending with Rehoboam the godly Catholike Israelites refusing to fight against the house of Dauid chose rather to attempt this Pilgrimage and so passing the Riuer Physon for the Scriptures had forbidden them to meddle with Egypt Ammon or Amalck they went and they went til they came into Ethiopia There did the foure Tribes of Dan Nepthali Gad Aser settle themselues which continually war vpon the seuen Kingdoms of Tusiga Kamtua Koha Mathugia Tacul Bacma and Kacua fie on the simplicity of our Geographers which know not one of these no better then Esdras his Arsareth they haue a King whose name is Huziel Mathiel vnder whom they fight each Tribe three moneths by course The Tribe also of Moses for they imagine his children claue to their Mothers Religion which was a Madianite or Ethiopian is turned to their truth and they all obserue the Talmud the Hebrew Tongue the Ordinances of the Elders and suffer nothing vncleane amongst them Yea no Vtopian State comparable to theirs He tels the like tales of the other Tribes But how came he thence to tell this newes Truely I wonder no lesse then you yet he saith he goe to the Sea forgetting that before he had compassed his Countrey with the Sabbaticall streame and there was taken captiue and by his leanenesse escaping the Canibals else our fat Storie had beene deuoured was sold to a Iew of whom perhaps this forged Tale procured his redemption Howsoeuer the Tradition holds both for these inclosed Iewes and that Sabbaticall streame that it should be sought here-a-wayes or found no where The reciting is sufficient refuting to a reasonable vnderstanding and yet the Iewes are not onely besotted with these their inclosed brethren imagining their Messias may bee amongst them although they know not whether to ascribe this transportation to Salmanaser or to Alexander the Great or to the dayes of Ieroboam but Christians also tell of them about the Pole and they know not where And I haue seene a printed Pamphlet of their comming out of those their Inclosures in our times with the numbers of each Tribe Yea Postellus Boterus and many other deriue the Tartars from them which dreame they which please may reade at large confuted by Master Brerewood It was about the yeere 1238. when Eldad came from thence into Spaine If any lust to haue another Guide for the Sabbaticall streame Master Fullers
the ground seemed as sharpe as a pointed Diamond The other are lower and want steps to ascend on them They are of marble But I would be loth to burie the Reader in these sumptuous monuments the witnesses of vanitie and ostentation of which besides the Ancient Martyr Bellonius Euesham Villamont and other eye-witnesses haue largely written Mycerinus is reckoned the next King better beloued of his subiects whose daughter was buried in a woodden Bull in the Citie Sai to which euery day were odors offered and a light set by night This Oxe once a yeere was brought out to the people Next to him was Asychis who made a Pyramis of bricks and these bricks were made of earth that claue to the end of a pole for this purpose in a vaine curiositie thrust into a Lake Yet were all these wonders exceeded by the Labyrinth the worke say some of Psammetichus or after Herodotus of the twelue Peeres which raigned in common as Kings partly aboue ground partly beneath in both contayning 3500. roomes Herodotus saith he saw the vpper roomes the lower he might not as being the sepulchres of the Founders and of the sacred Crocodiles all was of stone and grauen The cause of making this Labyrinth is diuersly deliuered by Demoteles the Palace of Mothetudes by Lysias the sepulchre of Meris the most probable opinion that it was consecrated to the Sunne the paterne to Dedalus for that in Crete representing but the hundreth part of this The entrance was of Parian marble pillars The worke was diuided into Regions and perfectures sixteene vast houses being attributed to sixteene of them There were also Temples for all the Aegyptian gods and Nemeses aboue in fifteene Chappels many Pyramides also each of fortie elles and founded on sixe walls After a wearie iourney they come to those inexplicable wayes the Labyrinth of this Labyrinth hauing before ascended high Halls and Galleries each of ninetie steps inly adorned with pillars of Porphyrie Images of their Gods statues of Kings and monstrous shapes Some of the houses were so seated that the opening of the doores caused a terrible thunder As terrible was the darke wayes and most of all without a guide the inextricable windings infolded walls and manifold deceiuing doores making by many passages none at all No cement or morter was vsed in all this huge worke The Lake of Maeris was not lesse wonderfull compassing three thousand sixe hundred furlongs and fiftie fadome in depth made by Meris whose name it beareth in the middest were two Pyramides fiftie fadome aboue and as much beneath water one for himselfe the other for his wife The water flowes sixe moneths out and sixe moneths in from Nilus The fish were worth to the Kings coffers twentie of their pounds a day the first sixe and a talent a day the last sixe moneths Of Necus whom the Scripture calls Pharaoh Necho and of his victorie against the Syrians in Magdolo or Magiddo where he slue King Iosiah Herodotus witnesseth Hee also makes this Necus authour of that Trench from Nilus to the Red Sea which Strabo ascribes to Sesostris Plinie makes Sesostris first Authour seconded by Darius who in this businesse was followed by Ptolemaeus one hundred foot broad seuen and thirtie miles long but forced to leaue the enterprise for feare of the Red Sea ouer-flowing Egypt or mixing his water with Nilus Tremellius thinkes it to be the labour of the Israelites in that seruitude from which Moses freed them He consumed in this worke 120000. Egyptians After him reigned Sammi and then Apries About these times Nabuchodonosor conquered the Egyptians according to Ezechiels prophecie Ezech. 30. But they had also ciuill warres Amasis depriued Apries who being of a base birth of a great bason of gold in which himselfe and his guests had vsed to wash their feete made an Image and placed it in the most conuenient part of the Citie and obseruing their superstitious deuotion thereunto said that they ought now no lesse to respect him notwithstanding his former base birth and offices When hee was a priuate man to maintayne his prodigall expenses he vsed to steale from others and when they redemanded their owne he committed himselfe to the censure of their Oracles Such Oracles as neglected his thefts hee being a King did neglect Hee brought from the Citie Elephantina twentie dayes sayling a building of solid stone the roofe being of one stone one and twentie cubits long fourteene broad and eight thicke and brought it to the Temple at Sai Hee ordayned that euery one should yeerly giue account to the Magistrate how hee liued and maintayned himselfe And he which brought a false account or liued by vniust meanes was put to death Hee was buried as was supposed in that Sphynx abouesaid Psammenitus his sonne succeeded whom Cambyses depriued CHAP. III. Of the Aegyptian Idols with their Legendarie Histories and Mysteries §. I. Of Osiris and Isis their Legends of the Creation c. IF we stay longer on this Aegyptian Stage partly the varietie of Authors may excuse vs which haue entreated of this Subiect partly the varietie of matter which adding some light to the Diuine Oracles not that they need it which are in themselues a Light shining in a darke place but because of our need whose Owlish-eyes cannot so easily discerne that light deserue a larger relation For whether the Histories of the old Testament or the Prophecies of the New be considered both there literally wee reade of Aegyptian Rites practised and here mystically of like Superstitions in the Antichristian Synagogue reuiued therefore spiritually called Sodome and Aegypt No where can Antiquitie plead a longer succession of errour no where of Superstition more multiplicitie more blind zeale in prosecuting the same themselues or crueltie in persecuting others that gaine-said Oh Aegypt wonderfull in Nature whose Heauen is brasse and yet thine Earth not Yron wonderfull for Antiquitie Artes and Armes but no way so wonderfull as in thy Religions wherewith thou hast disturbed the rest of the World both elder and later Heathen and Christian to which thou hast beene a sinke and Mother of Abhominations Thy Heathenisme planted by Cham watered by Iannes Iambres Hermes ouerflowed to Athens and Rome Thy Christianisme was famous for many ancient Fathers more infamous for that Arrian heresie which rising heere eclipsed the Christian Light the World wondring and groaning to see it selfe an Arrian I speake not of the first Monkes whose Egge here laide was faire and beginnings holy but by the Diuels brooding brought forth in after-ages a dangerous Serpent Thy Mahumetisme entertained with like lightnesse of credulitie with like eagernesse of deuotion hath beene no lesse troublesome to the Arabian Sect in Asia and Afrike then before to the Heathens or Christians in Europe The first Author it seemeth of this Egyptian as of all other false Religions was Cham as before is said which had taken deepe rooting in the dayes of Ioseph the Patriarch
while detayne your eyes whereof there were in Fez together with smaller Chappels or Moschees about seuen hundred fifty of which great and faire adorned with Marble Pillars and other ornaments the Chapiters thereof wrought with Mosaike and carued workes Euery one had his Fountaines of Marble or other Stones not knowne in Italy The floores are couered with Mats closely joyned and so are the walls a mans height lined therewith Euery Temple hath his Steeple after the Mahumetan manner whereon they whose office it is ascend and call the people at the appointed houres to Prayer there is but one Priest thereunto who sayth their Seruice there and hath charge of the reuenew of his Church taking accounts thereof to bestow it on the Ministers of the said Temple namely those which keepe the Lampes light in the night the Porters and them which cry in the night-time to call them to Church For he which cryeth in the day-time is onely freed from Tenths and other Payments otherwise hath no Salarie or Stipend There is one Principall and if wee may so terme it Cathedrall Church called the Temple of Caruven so great that it contayneth in circuit about a mile and halfe It hath one and thirty Gates great and high The Roofe is a hundred and fifty Tuscan yards long and litle lesse then eighty broad The Steeple is exceeding high The Roofe hereof is supported with eight and thirty Arches in length and twenty in bredth Roundabout are certayne Porches on the East West and North euery one in length forty yards and in bredth thirty Vnder whith Porches or Galleries are Magazines or Score-houses wherein are kept Lampes Oyle Mats and other necessaries Euery night are lighted nine hundred Lamps for euery Arch hath his Lamp especially that row of Arches which extends through the mid-Quire which alone hath a hundred and fifty Lamps in which ranke are some great Lights made of Brasse euery of which hath sockets for one thousand fiue hundred Lampes And these were Bels of certayn Cities of Christians conquered by Fessan Kings About the wals of the sayd Temple within are Pulpits of diuers sorts wherein mnay learned Masters reade to the people such things as pertayne to their Faith and Spirituall Law They begin a little after breake of day and end at one houre of the day In Summer they reade not but after foure and twenty houres or Sun-set and continue till an houre and halfe within night They teach as well Morall Philosophie as the Law of Mahomet Priuate men reade the Summer-Lectures onely great Clarkes may reade the other which haue therefore a large stipend and Bookes and Candles are giuen them The Priest of this Temple is tyed to nothing but his Mumpsimus or Seruice Also he taketh charge of the Money and Goods which are offered in the Temple of Orphans and dispenseth the reuenewes that are left for the poore Euery Holy-day he dealeth to the poore of the Citie Money and Corne according as their necessitie is more or lesse The Treasurer of this Church is allowed a Duckat a day He hath vnder him eight Notaries each of which haue six Duckats a moneth other six Clarkes gather the Rents of Houses and Shops which belong to the Church retayning the twentieth part thereof for their wages Moreouer there are twenty Bayliffes of the Husbandry that ouer-see the Labourers Not farre from the Citie are twenty Lyme-Kils and as many Brick-Kils seruing for the reparations of the Temple and the houses thereto belonging The reuenewes of the Temple are two hundred Duckats a day The better halfe is layd out on the premisses And if any Temple of the Citie or Moschee be without reuenew they are hence furnished with many things that which remaines goeth to the common good of the Citie In the Citie are two principall and most stately Colledges of Schollers adorned with Mosaikes and carued workes paued with Marble and Stones of Majorica In each of them are many Chambers in some Colledges are a hundred in some more and in some lesse They were all built by diuers Kings of the Marin Family One is most beautifull founded by King Abu Henon It is adorned with a goodly Fountayne of Marble and a Streame continually running there are three Cloysters or Galleries of incredible beautie supported with eight square Pillars of diuers colours the arches adorned with Mosaike of Gold and fine Azure The Roofe is of carued worke About the walls are inscriptions in Verse expressing the yeere of the Foundation and prayses of the Founder The Gates of the Colledge are of Brasse fairely wrought and the doores of the Chambers carued In the great Hall where they say their Prayers is a Pulpit that hath nine stayres to it all of Iuorie and Ebonie This Colledge cost the Founder 480000. Duckats All the other Colledges in Fez hold some resemblance with this and in euery of them are Readers or Professors in diuers Sciences prohibited by the Founders In old time the Students were wont to haue their dyet and rayment allowed for seuen yeeres but now they are allowed onely their Chamber for the warres of Sahid consumed their Possessions So that now there remaines but little wherewith they maintayne their Readers and of them some haue two hundred Duckats some a hundred yeerely and some lesse And there abide in the said Colledges onely a few Strangers maintayned by the Almes of the Citizens When they will reade one of the Auditors readeth a Text and the Reader then readeth his Comments brings some exposition of his own and explaineth the difficulties And somtimes in his presence the Students dispute of that Argument which he handleth There are many Hospitals in Fez not inferiour in building to the Colledges aforesaid In them strangers were entertayned three dayes at the common charge But in the time of Sahids warre the King sold their Reuenues Now onely Learned men and Gentlemen receiue entertainment and poore persons reliefe There is another Hospitall for diseased strangers which haue their dyet but no Phisicke allowed them Here also Mad-men are prouided for In this Hospitall Leo in his youth had beene a Notarie There are in Fez a hundred Bath-stoues well built with foure Halls in each and certaine Galleries without in which they put off their cloathes The most part of them pertaine to the Temples and Colledges yeelding them a great rent They haue a yeerely Festiuall wherin all the seruants of the Bathes with Trumpets and great Solemnitie goe forth of the Town and gather a wild Onion which they put in a brazen Vessell and bring it solemnely to the Hot-house doore and there hang it vp in token of good lucke This Leo thinkes to be some Sacrifice obserued by the ancient Moores yet remaining Euery African Towne had sometimes their peculiar Feast which the Christians abolished Innes heere are almost two hundred built three stories high and haue a hundred and twenty Chambers a piece with Galleries afore all the
is possessed with a Deuill and cannot be cured except she become one of their Societie The foolish Husband beleeues consents and makes a sumptuous Feast at her Deuillish Admission Others will coniure this Deuill with a Cudgell out of their Wiues others fayning themselues to bee possessed with a Deuill will deceiue the Witches as they haue deceiued their Wiues There are Exorcists or Diuiners called Muhazzimi which cast out Deuils or if they cannot they excuse themselues and say it is an ayrie Spirit They write Characters and frame Circles on an ash-heape or some other place then they make certaine signes on the hands or foreheads of the possessed party and perfume him after a strange manner Then they make their Inchantment and demand of the Spirit which way he entred what he is and his name and then command him to come forth Others there are that worke by a Cabalisticall rule called Zairagia and is very hard for he that doth this must be a perfect Astrologer and Cabalist My selfe it is Leo's report haue seene a whole day spent in describing one figure onely It is too tedious here to expresse the manner Howbeit Mahomets Law forbids all Diuination and therefore the Mahumetan Inquisitors imprison the Professors thereof There are also in Fez some Learned men which giue themselues the sirnames of Wisemen and Morall Philosophers which obserue Lawes not prescribed by Mahumet some account them Catholike others not but the vulgar hold them for Saints The Law forbiddeth Loue-songs which they say may be vsed They haue many Rules and Orders all which haue their Defenders and Doctors This Sect sprang vp fourescore yeeres after Mahumet the first Authour thereof was Elhesen Ibun Abilhasen who gaue Rules to his Disciples but left nothing in writing About an hundred yeeres after came Elharit Ibnu Esed from Bagadet who left Volumes of Writings vnto his Disciples but by the Lawyers was condemned Fourescore yeeres after vnder another famous Professor that Law reuiued who had many Disciples and preached openly But by the Patriarke and Lawyers they were all condemned to lose their heads the giddie Receptacles of such phantasticall Deuotions But hee obtayned leaue of their Chaliph or Patriarch that he might try his Assertions by Disputations with the Lawyers whom he put to silence and therefore the Sentence was reuoked and many Colledges built for his Followers An hundred yeeres after Malicsach the Turke destroyed all the maintayners thereof some flying into Cairo some into Arabia Not long after Elgazzuli a learned man compounded the Controuersie so reconciling these and the Lawyers that the one should be called Conseruers the other Reformers of the Law After the Tartars had sacked Bagdat in the yeere of the Hegeira 656. these Sectaries swarmed all ouer Asia and Africa They would admit none into their Societie but such as were learned and could defend their Opinions but now they admit all affirming Learning to be needlesse for the Holy teacheth them that haue a cleane heart Therefore they addict themselues to nothing but Pleasure Feasting and Singing Sometimes they will rend their garments saying They are then rauished with a fit of Diuine loue I thinke rather superfluitie of belly-cheare is the cause for one of them will eate as much as will serue three Or else it is through wicked lust for sometimes one of the Principals with all his Disciples is inuited to some Marriage-feast at the beginning whereof they will rehearse their deuout Orizons and Songs but after they are risen from Table the elder beginne a Dance and teare their garments and if through immoderate drinking any catch a fall one of the youths presently take him vp and wantonly kisse him Whereupon ariseth the Prouerbe The Heremits Banquet signifying that the Scholler becomes his Masters Minion for none of them may marry and they are called Heremites Among these Sects in Fez are some Rules esteemed Hereticall of both sorts of Doctors Some hold That a man by good Workes Fasting and Abstinence may attaine to the nature of an Angell the Vnderstanding and Heart being thereby so purified say they that a man cannot sinne though he would But to this height is ascended by fiftie steps of Discipline and though they fall into sinne before they come into the fiftieth Degree yet will not God impute it They vse strange and incredible Fastings in the beginning but after take all the pleasures of the World They haue a seuere forme of liuing set downe in foure Bookes by a by a certaine learned man called Essebrauer de Schrauard in Corasan Likewise another of their Authors called Ibnul Farid wrote all his Learning in witty Verses full of Allegories seeming to treat of Loue. Wherefore one Elfargano commented on the same and thence gathered the Rule and the Degrees aforesaid In three hundred yeeres none hath written more elegant Verses which therefore they vsed in all their Banquets They hold that the Heauens Elements Planets and Starres are one God and that no Religion is erronious because euery one takes that which he worships for God They thinke that all knowledge of God is contained in one Man called Elcorb elect by God and wise as he Forty among them are called Elauted which signifieth Blocks Of these is Elcoth or Elcorb elected when the former is dead threescore and ten Electors make the choice There are seuen hundred threescore and fiue others out of whom those threescore and ten Electors are chosen The Rule of their Order binds them to range vnknowne through the World either in manner of Fooles or of great Sinners or of the vilest man that is Thus some wicked persons of them goe vp and downe naked shamefully shewing their shame and like brute beasts will sometimes haue carnall dealings with women in the open streets reputed neuerthelesse by the common people for Saints as we haue shewed elsewhere There is another sort called Caballists which fast strangely eate not the flesh of any liuing creature but haue certaine meates and habits appointed for euery houre of the day and of the night and certaine set Prayers according to the dayes and monethes strictly obseruing the numbers of them and carry square Tables with Characters and Numbers engrauen in them They say that good Spirits appeare to them and talke with them instructing them in the knowledge of all things There was amongst them a famous Doctor called Boni which composed their Rule and Orders whose Booke I haue seene seeming more to sauour of Magicke then the Cabals Their notablest works are eight The first called Demonstration of Light contayneth Fastings and Prayers The second their square Tables The third fourescore and nineteene Vertues in the Name of God contayned c. They haue another Rule among these Sects called Sunab the Rule of Heremits the Professors whereof inhabite Woods and solitary Places without any other sustinance then those Desarts affoord None can describe their life because they are estranged from all humane Societie He that would see more of
seemed to me to be a deceiuer In Mount Beni Iesseten are many Iron mines and the women in great brauerie weare Iron rings on their fingers and eares Ham Lisnan was built by the Africans and borrowed the name from the Fountayne of an Idoll whose Temple was neere the Towne to which at certayne times in the yeere resorted men and women in the night where after sacrifices the candles were put out and each man lay with the woman hee first touched Those women were forbidden to lye with any other for a yeere after The children begotten in this adulterie were brought vp by Priests of the Temple The Moores destroyed this holy-stewes and the Towne not leauing any mention thereof In Mount Centopozzi are ancient buildings and neere thereto a spacious hole or drie pit with many roomes therein they let men downe into the same by ropes with lights which if they goe out they perish in the pit Therein are many Bats which strike out their lights In the Mountaynes of Ziz there are Serpents so tame that at dinner time they will come like Dogs and Cats and gather vp the crummes not offering to hurt any Thus much of the kingdome of Fez out of Leo a learned Citizen of Fez and great Traueller both in the Places and Authors of Afrike whom Ortelius Maginus Boterus follow commended by Bodinus Posseuinus and others as the most exact Writer of those parts and translated into English by Master Poris from whom if I swarue in diuers things impute it to the Italian copie of Ramusius which differeth not a little especially in these things I haue here set downe from the English I thought good here also to adde out of others some such customs and rites as they obserue in Fez and other parts of this Kingdome Their Circumcision is vsed in their priuate houses Women may not enter the Moschee for their often vncleannesse and because Eue first sinned The eight day after a childe is borne the parents send for a Talby or Priest and some old men and women where after a few prayers said the women wash the childe all ouer with water and giue the name making a banquet But sometimes the circumcision is deferred diuers yeeres after this ceremonie as the Fathers thinke Their Fasts they obserue very strictly not so much as tasting water till the starres appeare Yea diuers haue beene seene by their rigour in this superstition to faint and some to die A certayne Moore in the time of their Lent which continueth thirtie dayes in the companie of an English Gentleman being thirstie with heat and trauell went to a conduit in Marocco where the same Religion is professed as in Fez and there drinking was so reuiled of the people that in a desperate anguish hee slue himselfe with his dagger Yet doth their Law allow an exchange some dayes of this Lent with other dayes in the yeere following if trauell then hinder Their Feasts and Fasts are at the same times and in the same manner that the Turkes obserue of which is before spoken Their Easter they call Rumedan their Whitsuntide Lidlaber their Michaelmasse Lashour their Candlemasse Lidshemaw if it be lawfull thus to paralell those vaine superstitions with Christian obseruations In this last Feast which seemeth to bee the same which Leo calls Mahomets birth-day euery one must haue a candle for himselfe and for euery sonne in his house The King hath that day candles carried to him some like May-poles other like Castles sixe or eight men carrying one of them so artificially composed that some are in making six moneths That night the King doth heare all the Law read the like is done in all other Churches The Talby that cannot reade all their Law in a night is held insufficient for his place They goe saith my Authour sixe times in foure and twentie houres which is once oftner then is written of the Turkes except on their Sabbath to their prayers first washing themselues as they doe also after the offices of nature and after companie with their wiues thinking thereby to be washed from their sinnes Their times of prayer are two houres before day the first when the Monden or Sexten cryeth in the Steeple as you may reade in our Turkish Relations and then may no man touch his wife but prepare himselfe to pray with washing or other deuotions either in his owne house or at Church After their publike prayers the Talby sits downe and spends halfe an houre in resoluing the doubts of such as shall mooue any questions in matters of their Law The second time of prayer is two houres after when it is day The third at noone The fourth at foure of the clocke in the afternoone The fift at the twi-light The last two houres after In the first of these they pray for the day in the second they giue thankes for it in the third time they giue thankes for that it is halfe passed in the fourth they desire the Sunne may well set on them at twi-light they giue thanks after their daily labours the last time they desire a good night They thinke it vnseemely to eate meat with their left hands and hold it vncleane and doe all with their right hand Their Sabbath or Friday is not exempted from worke Onely they are then more deuout in going to Church Their Churches are not so faire generally as in Christendome nor haue seats in them ornaments or bells onely the floores are matted they are also poore for the most part as are their Church men Their Lyturgie is very short not so long as the Pater noster and Creede other set forme they haue not but euery one prayes after his owne pleasure Although the Moore may haue foure wiues and as many concubines as hee can purchase yet few marry foure because the wiues friends will haue a sufficient bill of dowrie for her maintenance which none but rich men can performe and againe the wiues challenge his nights companie and that in course if any be neglected shee complaines to the Magistrate and he forceth the husband to his dutie or else to send her home with her Dower and a Bill of diuorce The Concubines are embraced with more stolne pleasures That bill of Dower holdeth the husband in awe which else would make a slaue of his wife or still change for yonger flesh The Bride is besided before her husband see her and if hee finde her not a Virgin hee may turne her home and keepe her portion by Law For their funerall Rites when one is dead they presently wash him and speedily put him into ground the heat so requiring and after that the women at conuenient times haue a custome to meete and make memoriall of their deceased friends with remembrance of their vertues which they thinke caused men to haue more respect to their good name Their other obsequies are before declared The King vseth to sit in Iudgement on Fridayes in the afternoone and the Mufti sitteth with
him at other times in Iudgement but on the Friday he sits alone by himselfe Of these Mufties are three one at Marocco another at Fez the third at Taradant in Sus another part of this Seriffian Kingdome Other Iudges sit all the yeere long two houres before noone and as many after Before these euery one pleades his owne cause and if the witnesses can bee proued to bee infamous of life or not to say their prayers sixe times a day their testimonie is disabled The Scriuanos are Talbies which assist the Iudge and in his absence supply his place The Fokers or Saints Leo before calls them Heremites dwell in the best places of the Countrey keepe great hospitalitie for all trauellers whither any man may come for a night and be gone in the morning They giue great example of morall liuing and almes to the needie comprimising matters of difference betwixt parties and repressing disorders They are much loued and respected and their houses are holden Sanctuaries whose priuiledges the King will not breake but vpon waightie reasons CHAP. XI Of the Kingdome of Marocco with a Discourse of the Kings thereof and of the Seriffe Xarif or Iarif and his posteritie now reigning in Barbarie §. I. Of the Kingdome Kings and Citie of Marocco THe Kingdome is situate betweene Atlas and the Atlantike Ocean bearing name of the chiefe Citie thereof fruitfull of Corne Oile Grapes Sugar Honey and Cattell They make fine cloth of Goats haire and of their hides that leather which hence is called Marocchine This Kingdome is diuided into seuen Prouinces through which we intend our next perambulation taking Leo for our guide beginning at Hea which on the North and West hath the Ocean Atlas on the South and the Riuer Esifnual on the East The people feede on Cakes of barley and on a pappe or hastie-pudding of barley-meale which being set in a platter all the familie compasse about and rudely with Natures spoones claw forth those dainties Naperie they vse none a Mat laid on the ground , serueth for table and cloth and stooles too Caps are the priuiledges of age and learning Linnen shirts are almost banished their Countrey and so are Arts liberall and mechanicall except some simple Lawyer which can make some shift to reade and a Surgeon to circumcise their children Their physicke is cauterizing as men deale with beasts They are alway in mutuall warres one with another yet will not they iniurie a stranger who if he would trauell amongst them must take some harlot or wife or religious man of the aduerse part with him At Tednest one of their Cities such respect is had to strangers that if a Merchant come hither and hath no acquaintance the Gentlemen of the Citie cast lots who shall be his Host and they vse him kindly looking only for some Present at his departure in token of thankfulnesse And if he be a meaner person he may choose his Host without any recompence at all In the midst of the Citie was a great and ancient Temple with many Priests attending their deuotions besides other meaner Oratories This Citie hath since been ruined and desolate In Teculeth were a thousand households foure Hospitals one beautifull Temple and a house of religious persons destroyed it was by the Portugals An. 1514. as Hadecchis had beene the yeere before Ileusugaghen is another Towne of Hea or of Hell rather so full is it of confusion bloud and murthers besides the want of Learning Ciuilitie Iudges Priests or whatsoeuer else may detayne those men from a beastly or deuillish metamorphosis The Seriff being made a Prince of Hea brought me thither to be a Iudge but for feare of treason amongst them we were glad to leaue them How farre off in manners is their neere neighbour Tesegdelt where a guard is set at the gates not so much to keepe out enemies as to entertayne strangers whom at his first comming they aske if he haue any friends in the Citie if not they must prouide him entertainment at free-cost They haue a most beautifull Temple furnished with Priests Taglesse the next Towne is a den of theeues and murtherers When I was there such a swarme of Locusts ouer-spred the Countrey that scarce might a man see the earth eating vp their fruits Culeihat was built of a certaine Sectarie in our time first a Preacher attended with troupes of disciples after a cruell and mercilesse Tyrant murthered at last by one of his wiues for lying with her daughter and then his villanies being manifested the people put all his followers to the sword Onely a nephew of his fortified himselfe in a Castle which he held maugre all their might and burying his grand-father caused him to be adored as a Saint Homar Seijf was the name of that Rebell The other parts of Hea are like the former some exceedihg hospitall and courteous some brutish without diuine or humane learning or liuing Great store of Iewes liue here and in Mount Demensera are of those Iewes which are called Carraum of the rest accounted Sectaries These reiect the Traditions and hold them onely to the written Scriptures as in our Iewish relation yee haue read In Mount Gebelel had in are many Heremites which liue on fruits of trees and water so reputed of the simple people that all their doings are accounted miracles Sus is the second Region of this Kingdome lying Southward from hence on the other side of Atlas so called of that Riuer which is the Easterne border thereof otherwhere bounded with the Sea and the Desarts At Messa neere the Sea side is a Temple holden in great veneration Many Historians affirme that from this Temple shall come that iust Califa of whom Mahumet prophecied There also they say the Whale vomited vp Ionas The rafters and beames of the Temple are of Whales bones which vsually are left there dead on the shore This the common people esteeme to proceede from some diuinitie of that Temple but the true cause is certaine sharpe Rocks a little off in the Sea I my selfe was inuited by a Gentleman who shewed me a Whales ribbe so huge that lying on the ground in manner of an arch vnder it as it were thorow a gate we rode on our Camels our heads not reaching to touch it It had beene there kept an hundred yeers for a wonder Amber is there found in abundance which some thinke proceedes from the Whales as either the ordure or the sperme and seede thereof Teijent is a Citie of Sus wherein is a great Temple and an arme of a Riuer passeth thorow the same There are many Iudges and Priests whom in their Ecclesiasticall affaires they obey Tarodant hath three thousand Families sometimes the place where the Kings Lieutenant or Deputie resideth Tedsi is much greater adorned also with a Temple and furnished with Priests and Ministers Iudges and Lecturers payed at the common charge In Mount Hanchisa it snowes in all seasons of the yeere and yet the
friends and the broath eaten and then they hang it by the Fetisso They make solemne oathes and promises on this manner they wipe their faces shoulder brests and all their bodies on the soles of your feet thrice saying Iau Iau Iau stamping kissing the Fetissos on their armes and legs The land is all the Kings and therefore they first till his land and then by composition for themselues They begin on a Tuesday and when the Kings worke is done haue a feast in honour of their Fetisso to prosper their Husbandrie §. V. Obseruations of the Coast and In-land Countries out of BARRERIV'S and LEO and of the cause of the Negros Blacknesse ANno 1604. certaine Iesuites were sent into these parts the chiefe of which was Balthasar Barrerius who conuerted some of those Negro's to the Romish Christian profession One of which was the King at Sierra Liona Christened with the name Philip his Father a man of an hundred and thirtie yeeres about the faine time finishing his life A Letter of this Philip vnto King Philip of Spaine is published by Iarrie in which hee desireth more Priests to bee sent into those parts offers him to build a Castle at the Cape and concludeth with wishing him as many yeeres as the Heauen hath Starres and the Sea Sands The King of Bena gaue great hopes of his Conuersion which were suddenly dashed by meanes of a certaine Mahumetan for so farre hath that Pestilence infected who making a flattering Oration of two houres long inclined the King to his faithlesse Faith This Kings Dominion extendeth nine dayes journey and containeth seuen of their pettie Kingdomes Wee haue before spoken of the Mandingae neere to Gambea These haue of late yeeres embraced Mahomet and by Armes and Merchandize the vsuall meanes sought to propagate it to others beeing excellent Horse-men and couragious vsually placed in the fore-front Their Priests are called Bexerini which write Arabicke Amulets to secure such as weare them in battell These Preach to the people and drawinge forth parchment rolls spread them with great deuotion on the Pulpit and standing a while with eyes fixed to Heauen as it were in Diuine conference presently will them to thanke GOD and his Prophet for the pardon of all their sinnes then reades hee his Scrolls the people tending two houres together without once stirring their bodies or turning away their eyes One of them is chiefe ouer the rest who hath taught the King of Bena a certaine Inchantment or Witchcraft to make the Deuill the instrument of his Reuenge vpon any offender which makes him dreadfull to all Two of the Portugals confessing the experiment thereof vpon themselues The like appeared in a huge Serpent which they call the King of Serpents of most beautifull dolours as bigge as a mans thigh which the King played withall without any harme The Iesuite speakes of one Man which had threescore and twelue Sonnes and fiftie Daughters which multiplied beyond credit All the kindred mourne at the death of the great Men assemble to the corpse and offer of which offerings one third is the Kings the second the nearest kinsmans which is charged with the Funerall the third is put into the Graue together withall that Gold which they haue treasured for this purpose through their whole life hiding it closely from the knowledge of all so that if they die suddenly their Gold is perished with them Yea their Sepulchres the Iesuites report are kept secret and made in the channels of Riuers diuerting the streame till it bee made to preserue these treasures to the vse of the dead At the yeeres end they renue the memorie of the deceased with mourning and festiuall solemnitie the more drunkennesse the greater honour They haue Idols of wood and straw and their Chinas before mentioned made of Poles in forme of a Pyramis within which are many white Pismires that come not forth and it is vncertaine what they eate Before these they will adiure their Seruants to fidelitie wishing that Serpents Lizards or Tygres may teare them if they runne away which they feare with religious awe and dare not flee vpon any hard vsage Euery Kingdome hath a place sacred to the Deuill such an one was the Iland Camasson a league from the shore where all that sayled by offered Rice Oyle or some other thing The King once a yeere sacrificed Goates and Hens which were there kept there being no feare of stealing them where none durst aduenture to set foot on land And now leauing the Coasts of Guinea Benin Melegete and the other Regions of the Negros adjoyning to the Sea we will looke backe againe into the In-land Countries wherof Gualata is an hundred miles distant from the Ocean and hath already beene mentioned The next thereunto in Leos Relations is Gheneoa which is not the same with Guinea before mentioned if Leo had true intelligence but is situate betwixt Gualata Tombuto and Melli and in one place bordereth on the Ocean where Niger falleth into the Sea They had great Traffique with the Merchants of Barbarie They haue Gold vncoyned and vse also Iron money There is neither Towne nor Castle but one where the Prince with Priests Doctors and Merchants reside Those Priests and Doctors goe apparelled in white the rest in blacke or blue Cotton In Iuly August and September Niger ouer-floweth it Izchia the King of Tombuto conquered it and kept the King prisone rat Gago till his death Melli is the head Citie of a Kingdome which hence taketh name and hath in it great store of Temples Priests and Readers or Professours which reade in the Temples because they haue no Colledges They are more ingenious then other Negros and were the first that embraced the Mahumetan Law Izchia also subdued them Tombuto was founded in the yeere of the Hegeira 610. And it is situate within twelue miles of a branch of Niger There are many Wells to receiue the ouerflowing waters of that Riuer Salt is brought them fiue hundred miles from Tagazza and is very deare I at my being there saith Leo saw a Camels burthen sold for fourescore Duckats The King had many Plates and Scepters of Gold some whereof weighed thirteene hundred pounds They which speake to him cast Sand ouer their heads as Cadamosto obserued at Budomel The King would admit no Iewes into his Citie and hateth them so extreamely that hee would confiscate the goods of such Merchants as held Traffique with them Hee greatly honoured men of Learning and no Merchandize yeelded more gaine then Bookes There were many Iudges Doctors and Priests to whom hee allowed their stipends The people vsed much Dauncing in the streets from tenne to one of clocke at night They mingle Fish Milke Butter and Flesh together in their Gallimaufrey kinde of dyet neither toothsome nor holsome Hamet King of Marocco conquered the same Kingdome 1589. and also Gago and other Countries of the Negros extending his Empire sixe moneths journey from Marocco by
the Islands of Africa from the Cape hitherwards §. I. Of Saint Helena Thomee Cape de Verd and diuers others betwixt them and of the weeds and calmes of those Seas ON this side the Cape is the Iland of S. Helena in 16 degrees and one quarter of Southerly latitude It is very high and hilly the name was giuen of the Saint on whose day it was discouered It hath in it store of goats hogs hens and other creatures which the Portugals haue there left to multiply for before there was none of them there also they haue planted Figs Oranges Limons and such like whereof the Vallies are full that it seemeth an earthly Paradise the Fruit growing all the yeere long They haue great store of Fish of which with crooked nayles they take great plenty the Rocks yeeld salt for the furthering of their prouision It seemes God hath planted it in conuenient place for the long and dangerous Indian Nauigations There the Portugals leaue their sicke which stay till other ships come the next yeere to take them It was neuer inhabited onely an Hermite dwelt there who vnder pretence of mortifying his flesh by penance butchered the flesh of the Goats and Bucks so fast for their skins that the King sent for him home and will suffer none to dwell there Abraham Kendall put in there about the yeere 1591. and left on shore one Segar a sicke man whom Edmund Parker eighteene moneths after found in good plight but their vnexpected comming as it seemeth so rauished his weake spirits with ioy that it distracted him and being otherwise of bodily constitution very wel he dyed eight dayes after The like I haue read of a Portugall in the same place In Iune 1613. the Dutch set vpon two Carricks in this roade but with ill successe one of their ships with nine and forty men being casually blown vp North-west from hence are the Iles of Ascension not inhabited Of Loanda nigh to or rather a piece of Congo is already spoken Ouer against the Cape of Lopo Gonsalues is the I le of Nobon and not farre from thence Saint Thomas an hundred and fourescore miles from the shore and so much also in compasse right vnder the Line At the first discouerie it was a Wood Now inhabited by Portugals and Negro's These liue an hundred and ten yeeres but few borne in Europe exceed fifty It is vnwholsome through exceeding heat vnto Europaeans especially which in December Ianuary and February can scarcely walk vp and downe for faintnesse In the middest is a wooddy Mountaine continually ouershadowed with a thicke cloud which so moistens the Trees that grow in great abundance thereon that from hence droppeth water sufficient for the watering of all their fields of Sugar-Canes They haue threescore and ten Ingenios or Sugar-houses each of which hath two or three hundred slaues belonging thereto They grind the Canes and boyle the iuice to make it into Sugar but by no meanes can they make it so white heere as in Madera and other places The refuse of their Canes they giue to their Hogs which are heere very many fat and delicate as the flesh of a Hen. They are some yeeres exceedingly plagued with Ants and also with Rats White men which liue there are visited two houres in euery eight or ten dayes with an Ague but strangers haue more shrewd entertainment and scarcely in twenty dayes with great care can shake off this Shaker The chiefe Citie is Pouoason an Episcopall Sea. The Negro's worke sixe dayes for their Masters and the seuenth day for themselues in setting and planting their seeds fruits and prouision Wheat heere sowne becommeth all blade without ripening any corne No fruit which hath a stone in it will heere prosper The town which hath about seuen hundred Families and the Castle was taken by the Hollanders 1599. The I le Del Principe was so called because the reuenues thereof were in times past allowed to the Prince of Portugall It standeth in three degrees of Northerly Latitude Iulian Glerehagen tooke the same An. 1598. The Iles of S. Matthew Santa Cruz S. Paul and Conception yeeld small matter of History Next to Cape Verde stand seuen Islands full of Birds empty of Inhabitants called Barbacene But those that are called the Iles of Cape Verde are nine situate betweene the Greene and White Capes Linschoten reckons ten They were first discouered by Antoni di Nolli a Genoway An. 1440. None of them are inhabited but the Isles of Iago and Del Fogo both which were taken An. 1596. by Sir Anth. Sherley who had one nights showre of Ashes from that Island of Fogo or Fuego or of Fire so called because it continually burneth which fell so thicke on their ship that you might write your name with your finger vpon the vpper decke Saint Iago was taken and burnt by Sir Francis Drake An. 1585. Braua and Bueua Vista haue brauer and goodlier names then Nature Maio yeeld salt in a Lake of two leagues long the Sun congealing and turning the waters into Salt From thence is passed into the Sea called Sargasso because it is couered with herbs like to the herbe Sargasso in the Portugall Wels not vnlike to Samper yellow of colour with empty Berries like Goose-berries but lesse which beginneth at twenty degrees and continueth till thirty foure farre off in the Sea for the ships in their going to India keeping neere the shore meet not with any The Sea seemeth as a greene field so thicke that a man cannot see the water and hindereth the ships passage except they haue a strong winde Ralph Wilson hath told vs of a new Iland discouered by the Salomon in 19. 34. to the South Anno 1612. The Coast of Africa is foure-hundred miles distant neither is any Iland neere saue that these weeds seeme to make many Ilands Thus doe men in ships behold the wonders of the Lord in the deepe no Land being nigh nor no ground to be found although it is thought to come from the ground Some thinke it growes on the Rocks and is thence beaten off by the Sea . And indeed all those Seas are full of wonders as they passe along the Coast toward the Indies Thomas Steuens complaineth of the continuall Thunders Lightnings and vnwholsome Rainos which there they met the raine-water if it stand a little conuerting presently to Wormes and filling the meat hanged vp with Wormes An herbe also swamme vpon the face of the waters like a Cocks Combe so venemous that it can scarce bee touched without perill Fishes called Sharkes most rauenous deuourers which had other sixe or seuen smaller fishes garded with blue and greene attending like Seruing-men Fishes also as big as a Herring with wings which doe not so much helpe them by flying to escape another greater fish that pursueth them by Sea as endanger them to a Sea-Fowle which waits that opportunitie Neither can it fly high or farre or
longer then the wings are wet nor swimme fast hauing exchanged finnes for wings So haue I seene men thrice worse that haue two Trades than such as haue been skilfull and thriftie in one Lerius addeth the like wonder of certaine Birds so tame that they would light vpon the hatches and suffer themselues to bee taken These are the same Birds which pursue those flying fishes wiser to hunt them then to saue themselues as bigge as Crowes in feathers in flesh little bigger than a Sparrow and farre lesse then the fish which they take and deuoure These Seas are also subiect to great and tedious calmes which not onely hinder the Voyages but end the liues of many Giouanni da Empoli saith in his returne out of India they were heere detained foure and fifty dayes in which they scarce sailed aboue sixe leagues and in thirty fiue dayes they cast ouer-boord threescore and sixteene of their company very few suruiuing in their ship which likewise happened to other ships their Consorts so that they had vtterly despaired had not God sent a Portugall ship that way bound to relieue them And would God the like examples many might not be produced amongst our own Betweene 17. and 32 degrees of Northerly Latitude men are subiect to gripings and haue need to keepe themselues warme To returne to our discouerie from Iago where we left where the Negro's were wont to bring slaues to sell to the Portugals for Beads and other trifles and Cottons with other base commodities and them not such alone as they tooke in warre but their fathers and mothers thinking they did them a benefit to cause them thus to be conueyed into better countries they brought them naked The Iles of Arguin are sixe or seuen inhabited by the Azanhagi where the King of Spaine hath a Fortresse concerning the trade whereof you may reade the letter of Melchior Petonoy §. II. Of the Canaries Madera and Port-Santo FVrther into the Sea are the Canaries which are commonly reckoned seuen Canaria Teneriff Palma Gomera Hierro Lansarrotte and Fuerte Ventura : Thauet addes three others more Lobos Roca Gratiosa S. Clara Alegrança and Infierno The Inhabitants were so grosse before they were discouered that they knew not the vse of fire They beleeued in one Creator of the World who punisheth the euill and rewarded the good herein they all consented in other things disagreed their weapons were stones and staues They shaued their heads with sharpe stones like flints Iron they had not Gold they respected not The women nursed not their children but commonly committed that office to their Goats They as much delighted in dancing as the birds which beare their name in singing They were vnknowne from the times of the Romane Empire at which time they were called Fortunatae till either an English or French ship by mis-fortune lighted on them An 1405. Io. Bentacor conquered them and after him Anno 1444. Henry the Infanta of Portugal that Day-starre which by his industry made way to the present Sun-shine of Discoueries whereby the World in her last dayes hath fullest view of her selfe Galuano calleth that Frenchmen Io. Betancourt and saith hee was sent by Iohn the second of Castile An. 1417. who being slaine in the action his sonne sold them to Peter Barba a Spaniard and hee to Don Henry Hee saith the people were Idolaters and did eate their flesh raw for want of fire They tilled their ground with Oxe and Goats-horns They had many wiues but deliuered them to their Superiours to haue the first vse of them before they lay with them Don Henry conquered the rest which Betancourt had not possessed Their former gouernment was by an hundred and ninety persons which ruled also in matters of Religion prescribing to the people their faith and worship They had in highest name of authoritie a King and a Duke To slay a beast was esteemed the basest office in the world and therefore committed to their prisoners they which did this liued separate from the people Thus was it in the Gran Canaria In Gomera they vsed for hospitality to let their friends lye with their wiues and receiuing theirs in like courtesie and therefore as in India the Sisters Sonne inherited In Tenarife they had two Kings one dead another aliue when a new King was crowned some man to honour his entrance offered himselfe to voluntary death when the King was buried the noblest men caried him on their shoulders and putting him into the graue said depart in peace O blessed soule Theuet affirmeth that the Canaries are so called of the Canes and Reeds that grow there that they worshipped the Sun Moone and Planets Of these Ilands Thomas Nichols an Englishman hath composed a Treatise extant in Mr Hakluyts Voyages Tom. 2. Part. 2. He saith they dwelt in Caues supposed to descend of such as the Romans in Africa had exiled and out their tongues out for blasphemie against thiir gods The Pike or high Hill of Tenarife is after Theuets measure foure and fifty miles Tho. Byam a friend of mine told me that he had seene it eight and forty leagues into the Sea in cleere weather One of our Nation hath written a Tractate of his obseruations of these Ilands Heere before the conquest were seuen Kings which with their people dwelt in Caues Their buriall was to be set vpon their feet naked in a Caue propped against the wall and if hee were a man of authoritie he had a staffe in his hand and a vessell of milke standing by him I haue seene saith Nichols three hundred of these corpses together the flesh dryed vp the body light as parchment I my selfe saw two of those bodies in London Canaria Tenerife and Palma haue one Bishop who hath twelue thousand Ducats Reuenue which place was not long since possessed by Melchior Canus a great Writer in defence of the falling Babylon They pay to tht King fiftie thousand Ducats Hierro or the Iland of Iron is by a multitude of Authours affirmed to haue it in no fresh water but what falleth from the leaues of a certaine Tree which is alwayes greene and couered with clouds and vnderneath the same is a Cisterne to receiue the water for the vse both of men beasts throughout that Iland A whole wood of such Trees wee mentioned in Saint Thomas Iland which yeeld from their dropping leaues Rilles of water downe all sides of the Hill where they grow In this Iland heere is but one and that very ancient differing in this if we beleeue Sanutus from those of St Thomas they alwayes this onely afternoone being couered with that cloud which continueth till two houres before day and then the bodie boughs and leaues of the tree sweat out that liquor till two houres after Sun-rising it is in 27. degrees Lewis Iackson saith that he saw this tree being in this Iland Anno 1618. that it is as bigge as an Oake
there by a Sauage in reuenge as was thought for some of the people before shipped from thence They haue Hares white as snow with long furre Dogs which liue on Fish whose pisles as also of their Foxes are bone Their Summer worke is to dry their Fish on the Rocks Euery one both man and woman haue each of them a Boat made with long pieces of Firre couered with Seales skins sowed with sinewes or guts about twenty foot long and two and a halfe broad like a shittle so light that one may carry many of them at once so swift that no ship is able with any winde to hold way with them and yet vse but one oare which they hold by the middle in the middest of their Boat broad at both ends wherewith they row forwards and backwards at pleasure Generally they worship the Sunne to which they pointed at our approach saith Baffin striking on their brests and crying Ilyout not comming neere till you doe same They bury in out-lands on the tops of hils in the heapes of stones to preserue from the Foxes making another graue hard by wherein they place his Bow and Arrowes Darts and other his vtensils They bury them in their apparell and the cold keepes them from putrefaction Anno 1606. Mr Iohn Knights made a North-west voyage lost his Ship sunke with Ice and was with three more of his company surprised by the Sauages of whose language hee wrot a pretty Dictionary which I haue seene with M. Hakluyt §. V. Of King IAMES his Newland alias Greeneland and of the Whale and Whale-Fishing I Will not heere beginne with records of Discoueries in these parts written two thousand yeeres since out of which Mr Doctor Dee is reported to haue gathered diuers Antiquities antiquated by Antiquitie and rotten with age nor to shew that King Arthur possessed as farre as Greeneland nor that Sir Hugh Willoughby discouered hitherto as some coniecture but content my selfe with later Discoueries and Obseruations Much hath been spent both of Cost Industrie and Argument about finding a more compendious way to the Indies by the Northwest and by the North-East and by the North. Of the first somewhat hath been spoken Of the second were the Voyages of Master Stephen Burrough Pet and Iacman our Countrey-men and of the Hollanders in the yeere 1594. and the three following before by vs mentioned in a duer place as appertaining to Asia for they found themselues by Astronomicall obseruation in a hundred and twelue Degrees fiue and twenty minutes of Longitude and threescore and sixteene of Latitude in the place where they wintered They had touched more Northerly in some parts as is thought of Greene-land sailing along by the Land from fourescore Degrees eleuen minutes vnto Noua Zemla I omit their red Geese in one place of this Voyage their azure-couloured Ice in another place and the losse of their Ship in the Ice which constrained them to set vp a house to Winter in that Land of Desolation This building they beganne about the 27. of September Stilo Nouo the cold euen then kissing his New-come Tenants so eagerly that when the Carpenters did but put a naile in their mouths after their wont the Ice would hang thereon and the bloud follow at the pulling out In December their fire could not heat them their Sack was frozen and each man forced to melt his share thereof before he could drinke it their melted Beere drinking like water They sought to remedie it with Sea-cole fire as being hotter then the fire of Wood which they had store of though none there growing by drifts and stopped the chimney and doores to keep in the heat but were suddenly taken with a swounding which had soone consumed them if they had not presently admitted the aire to their succor Their shooes did freeze as hard as horns on their feet and as they sate within doores before a great fire seeming to burne on the fore-side behinde at their backs they were frozon white the Snow meane-whiles lying higher then the house which sometimes in clearer weather they endeuoring to remoue cut out steps so ascended out of their house as out of a Vault or Seller They were forced to vse besides store of cloathes and great fires stones heated at the fire and applyed to their feet and bodies and yet were frozen as they lay in their Cabins yea the cold not onely staid their Clocke but insulted ouer the fire in some extremities that it almost cast no heat so that putting their feet to the fire they burnt their hose and discerned that also by the smell before they could feele the heat They supposed that a barrell of water would haue been wholly frozen in the space of one night which you must interpret of their twelue houres glasse for otherwise they saw no Sunne after the third of Nouember to the 24. of Ianuary reckoning by the new Calendar a thing strange to be without the Sunne fifttie dayes before the Solstice which happened after their account on December 23. and yet within forty one dayes after might see the vpper circle of the Sun-rising aboue the Horizon which made great question whether their Eyes had deceiued them or the Computation of time in that long Night which both being found otherwise by their obseruation and experience caused no lesse wonder whether this timely approach should be attributed to the reflexion by the water or the not absolute roundnesse of the Earth in those parts or the false accounting of the Solstice or which some affirme the falshood of their calculations But I leaue this to Philosophers Our Author affirmes that when the Sunne had left them they saw the Moone continually both Day and Night neuer going downe when it was in the highest Degree the twi-light also remaining many dayes and againe they might see some day-light sixteene dayes before they saw the returne of the Sunne The Beares which had held them besieged and often endangered them forsooke them and returned with the Sunne the white Foxes all that while visited them of which they tooke many whose flesh was good Venison to them and their skins in the linings of their Caps good remedies against that extremitie of Cold. As for their feet they vsed Pattents of wood with sheepe-skinnes aboue and many socks or soles vnderneath they vsed also shooes of Rugge and Felt. These Beares were very large and cruell some of them yeelding skins thirteene foot long and a hundred pounds of fat which serued them for Oyle in their Lampes the flesh they durst not eate some of them forfeiting their whole skinnes after they had eaten of the Liuer of one of these eaters which deuoure any thing not sparing their owne kinde For the Hollanders hauing killed one Beare another carried it a great way ouer the rugged Ice in his mouth in their sight and fell to eating it they made to him with their weapons and chased him from his purchase but found
grow long they are tall nimble comely §. II. Of their Customes Manners and Superstitions THey warre alway one Country vpon another and kill all the men they can take the women and children they bring vp they cut off the haire of the head together with the skin and dry it to reserue the same as a monument of their valour After their returne from the warres if they be victorious they make a solemne Feast which lasteth three dayes with Dances and Songs to the honour of the Sunne For the Sunne and Moone are their Deities Their Priests are Magicians also and Physicians with them They haue many Hermaphrodites which are put to great drudgerie and made to beare all their carriages In necessitie they will eate coales and put sand in their Pottage Three moneths in the yeere they forsake their houses and liue in the Woods against this time they haue made their prouision of victuall drying the same in the smoke They meete in consultation euery morning in a great common house whither the King resorteth and his Senators which after salutation sit downe in a round They consult with the Iawas or Priest And after this they drinke Cassine which is very hote made of the leaues of a certaine Tree which none may taste that hath not before made his valour euident in the Warres It sets them in a sweat and taketh away hunger and thirst foure and twentie houres after When a King dyeth they bury him very solemnely and vpon his graue they set the Cup wherein he was wont to drinke and round about the graue they sticke many Arrowes weeping and fasting three dayes together without ceasing All the Kings which were his friends make the like mourning and in token of their loue cut off halfe their haire which they otherwise weare long knit vp behind both men and women During the space of sixe Moones so they reckon their moneths there are certaine women appointed which bewayle his death crying with a loud voyce thrice a day at morning noone and euening All the goods of this King are put into his house which afterwards they set on fire The like is done with the Goods of the Priests who are buried in their Houses and then both House and Goods burned The women that haue lost their Husbands in the Warres present themselues before the King sitting on their heeles with great lamentations suing for reuenge and they with other Widowes spend some dayes in mourning at their husbands graues and carry thither the Cup wherein he had wont to drinke they cut also their haire neere the eares strewing the same in the Sepulchre There they cast also their weapons They may not marry againe till their haire be growne that it may couer their shoulders When any is sicke they lay him flat on a forme and with a sharpe shell rasing off the skin of his forehead sucke out the bloud with their mouthes spitting it out into some Vessell The women that giue sucke or are great with child come to drinke the same especially if it be of a lusty young man that their milke may be bettered and the child thereby nourished may be stronger Ribault at his first being there had fixed a certaine Pillar of stone engrauen with the Armes of France on a Hill in an Iland which Laudonniere at his comming found the Floridians worshipping as their Idoll with kisses kneeling and other Deuotions Before the same lay diuers Offerings of fruits of the Country Roots which they vsed eyther for food or Physicke vessels full of sweet Oyles with Bowes and Arrowes It was girt about with Garlands of Flowres and boughes of the best trees from the top to the bottome King Athore himselfe performed the same honour to this Pillar that hee receiued of his Subiects The King Athore was a goodly personage higher by a foot and halfe then any of the French representing a kind of Maiestie and grauitie in his demeanure He had married his owne Mother and had by her diuers Children of both sexes but after she was espoused to him his Father Satourioua did not touch her This Satourioua when he went to warre in the presence of the French vsed these Ceremonies The Kings his coadiutors sitting around hee placed himselfe in the midst at his right hand had a fire and at his left two vessels full of water Then did hee expresse indignation and anger in his lookes gesture hollow murmurings and loud cryes answered with the like from his Souldiers and taking a woodden dish turned himselfe to the Sunne as thence desiring victorie and that as he now shed the water in the dish so he might shed the bloud of his Enemies Hurling therefore the water with great violence into the Ayre and therewith besprinkling his Souldiers he said Doe you thus with the bloud of our Enemies and powring the water which was in the other vessell on the fire So saith hee may you extinguish your foes and bring backe the skins of their heads Outina or Vtina another King was an Enemie to this Satourioua he in his expedition which hee made against his Enemies wherein he was assisted by the French consulted with this Magician about his successe He espying a Frenchmans Target demandeth the same and in the mids of the Armie placeth it on the ground drawing a circle fiue foote ouer about it adding also certaine notes and characters then did he set himselfe vpon the Target sitting vpon his heeles mumbling I know not what with variety of gestures about the space of a quarter of an houre after which he appeared so transformed into deformed shapes that he looked not like a man wreathed his limbes his bones cracking with other actions seeming supernaturall At last he returnes himselfe as it were weary and astonished and comming out of the Circle saluted the King and told him the number of their Enemies and place of their encamping which they found very true This King was called Helata Outina which signifieth a King of Kings and yet had but a few hundreths of men in his Armie which he conducted in their rankes himselfe going alone in the mids They dry the armes and legges and crownes of their Enemies which they haue slaine to make solemne triumph at their returne which they doe fastning them on Poles pitched in the ground the men and women sitting round about and the Magician with an Image in his hand mumbling curses against the Enemie ouer-against him are three men kneeling one of which beateth a stone with a club and answereth the Magician at euery of his imprecations the other two sing and make a noyse with certaine Rattles They sow or set their Corne rather as in Virginia and haue two Seed-times and two Haruests which they bring into a publike Barne or common Store-house as they doe the rest of their victuals none fearing to be beguiled of his Neighbour Thus doe these Barbarians enioy that content attended with sobrietie and simplicitie which
appeared this fift Sunne newly borne which after their reckoning is now in this yeere 1612. nine hundred and eighteene yeeres since Three dayes after this Sunne appeared they held that all the Gods did die and that these which since they worship were borne in processe of time At the end of euery twenty dayes the Mexicans celebrated a Feast called Tonalli which was the last day of euery moneth The last day of the first moneth was called Tlacaxiponaliztli on which were slaine an hundred Captiues in Sacrifice and eaten others putting on the skins as before is shewed Many of them would go to the slaughter with ioyfull countenance dancing and demanding Almes which befell to the Priests When the greene Corne was a foot aboue the ground they vsed to goe to a certaine Hill and there sacrificed two Children A Girle and a Boy three yeeres old to the honour of Tlaloc God of the Water that they might haue raine and because these children were free borne their hearts were not plucked out but their throats being cut their bodies were wrapped in a new Mantle and buried in a graue of stone When the fields of Maiz were two foot high a collection was made and therewith were bought foure little slaues betwixt the age of fiue and seuen and they were sacrificed also to Tlaloc for the continuance of raine and those dead bodies were shut vp in a Caue appointed to that purpose The beginning of this butcherie was by occasion of a drought which continued foure yeeres and forced them to leaue the Country When the Maiz was ripe in the moneth and Feast Hueitozotli euery man gathered his handfull of Maiz and brought it to the Temple for an offering with a certaine drinke called Atuli made of the same graine They brought also Copalli a sweet Gumme to incense the Gods which cause the Corne to grow At the beginning of Summer they celebrated the Feast Tlaxuchimcaco with Roses and all sweet flowres making Garlands thereof to set on their Idols heads and spending all that day in dancing To celebrate the Feast Tecuilhuitli all the principall persons of each Prouince came to the Citie on the Euening of the Feast and apparelled a woman with the attire of the God of Salt who danced among a great company of her Neighbours but the next day was sacrificied with much solemnitie and all that day was spent in deuotion burning of Incense in the Temple The Merchants had a Temple by themselues dedicate to the God of gaine they made their Feast vpon the day called Micailhuitl wherein were sacrificed and eaten many captiues which they had bought and all the day spent in dancing In the Feast of Vchpauiztli they sacrificed a woman whose skin was put vpon an Indian which two dayes together danced with the Townsmen celebrating the same Feast in their best attire In the day of Hatamutzli the Mexicans entred into the Lake with a great number of Canoas and there drowned a Boy and a Girle in a little Boat which they caused to be sunke in such sort that neuer after that Boat appeared againe holding opinion that those Children were in company with the Gods of the Lake That day they spent in feasting and anointing their Idols cheekes with a kind of Gumme called Vlli. When Cortes was gone out of Mexico to incounter Pamphilo de Naruaes and had left Aluarado in the Citie he in the great Temple murthered a great multitude of Gentlemen which had there assembled to their accustomed solemnitie being six hundred or as some say a thousand richly attired and adorned where they vsed to sing and dance in honour of their God to obtaine Health Children Victorie c. §. II. Their Feast of Transubstantiation Lent Bloudie Processions and other holy times IN the moneth of May the Mexicans made their principall Feast to Vitziliputzli two dayes before which the Religious Virgins or Nuns mingled a quantity of Beets with rosted Maiz and moulded it with Hony making an Image of that paste in bignesse like to the Idoll of wood putting in in stead of eyes graines of glasse greene blue or white and for teeth graines of Maiz Then did all the Nobles bring it a rich garment like vnto that of the Idoll and being clad did set it in an azured Chaire and in a Litter The morning of the Feast being come an houre before day all the Maidens came forth attired in white with new ornaments which that day were called the Sisters of Vitziliputzli they were crowned with Garlands of Maiz rosted parched with chaines of the same about their neckes passing vnder their left armes Their cheekes were died with Vermilion their armes from the elbow to the wrist were couered with red Parrots feathers Thus attired they tooke the Image on their shoulders carrying it into the Court where all the young men were attired in red Garments crowned like the women When the Maydens came forth with this Idoll the young men drew neere with much reuerence taking the Litter wherein the Idoll was vpon their shoulders carrying it to the staires foot of the Temple where all the people did humble themselues laying earth vpon their heads After this all the people went in Procession to a Mountaine called Chapulteper a league from Mexico and there made Sacrifices From thence they went to their second Station called Atlacuyauaya and from thence againe to a Village which was a league beyond Cuyoacoan and then returned to Mexico They went in this sort aboue foure leagues in so many houres calling this Procession Vpauia Vitziliputzli Beeing come to the foote of the Temple staires they set downe the Litter with the Idoll and with great obseruance drew the same to the top of the Temple some drawing aboue and others helping below the Flutes and Drummes Cornets Trumpets meane-while increasing the Solemnitie The people abode in the Court Hauing mounted and placed it in a little lodge of Roses presently came the young men which strowed flowres of sundry kinds within and without the Temple This done all the Virgins came out of their Conuent bringing pieces of the same paste whereof the Idoll was made in the fashion of great bones which they deliuered to the young men who carried them vp and laid them at the Idols feet till the place could receiue no more They called these morsels of paste The flesh and bones of Vitziliputzli Then came all the Priests of the Temple euery one strictly obseruing his place with veiles of diuers colours and workes Garlands on their heads and chaines of flowres about their neckes after them came the Gods and Goddesses whom they worshipped of diuers figures attired in the same liuery Then putting themselues in order about those pieces of paste they vsed certaine Ceremonies with singing and dancing By these meanes they were blessed and consecrated for the flesh and bones of the Idoll which were then honoured in the same sort as their God Then came forth the Sacrificers who began the
and Deuils to men whom they deuoure and see if in the lower Countries wee can find higher and nobler spirits CHAP IIII. Of Brasil §. I. The Discouerie and Relations thereof by MAFFAEVS c. AS Guiana is bounded with those mighty Riuers of Orenoque and Maragnon so Brasil extendeth it selfe North and South betweene Maragnon and the Riuer of Plata or Siluer which there we haue already shewed to be the greatest Riuers in the World The Westerne borders are not so well discouered The Easterne are washed by the Sea Maffaeus hath largely described the same whose words Bertius Maginus and Gasper Ens haue transcribed the summe whereof Iarric and Boterus haue inserted into their French and Italian Relations Petrus Aluarius Capralis being sent by Emanuel King of Portugall in the yeere 1500. vnto the East-Indies to auoid the calmes on the Guinnee shore fetched a further compasse West and so discouered the Continent which now of that Red Wood there plentifully growing is called Brasil but by him was named the Land of the Holy Crosse because hee had there erected a Crosse with much ceremony since vsually named Brasil of the store of Brasil-Wood there growing This Brasil was soone after by Americus Vesputius at the charges of the said King further discouered The Region is pleasant and wholesome the Hils and Valleyes equally agreeing in their vnequalnesse the soyle fat and fertile there are plentie of Sugar-Canes a kind of Balme expressed out of the Herbe Copaibas the Zabucals which yeild a kind of Nuts growing in great hard cups of taste like a Chesnut the Auanaz excellent in scent and taste the Pacouere a tree so tender that it may bee cut with a knife a fadome high the leaues two foot broad seuen foot long the fruit a foot long like a Cucumber called Pacoua thirtie or fortie together in clusters neuer hearing fruit but once the like is in the East-Indies as Theuet our Authour affirmeth and many other fruits which the Countrey naturally produceth besides those which our Europe hath communicated Many sorts there are of Beasts as a kind of Swine which liue in both Elements their fore-feet being short in proportion to the hinder make them slow in running and therefore being hunted commit themselues quickly to the water Antae resembling a Mule but somwhat lesse slender-snowted the nether chap very long like a Trumpet with round eares and short tailes hiding themselues in the day-time and feeding in the night the flesh tasteth like Beefe there is also the Armadillo the Tygre which being hungry is very hurtfull being full will flee from a Dogge There is a deformed beast of such slow pace that in fifteene dayes it will scarce goe a stones cast It liueth on the leaues of trees on which it is two dayes in climing and as many in descending neither shouts nor blowes forcing herto amend her pace The Tamendoas are as big as a Ramme with long and sharpe snowts a tayle like a Squirrell twice as long as the body and hairy where-under they hide themselues will put out their tongue two foote out of the mouth as round as an Oyle-cruze to gather plentie of Ants into their mouthes hauing scraped vp the places where they keep with their pawes The Portugals haue there raised plentie of Horses and Sheepe The men worship no God at all but are giuen to South-sayings The men and women goe altogether naked are flat-nosed make themselues blacke with the fruit Genipapi weare their haire hanging from the hinder part of the head not suffering it else-where to grow in their nether lips weare long stones for a gallantry which being remoued they seeme in deformed manner to haue a double mouth they goe together by companies with great silence the Wife going before her Husband which some say is done for iealousie They entertain and welcome Strangers at first with weeping and deepe sighes pittying their tedious iourney and presently drie their eyes hauing teares at command Women in trauell are deliuered without great difficultie and presently goe about their houshold businesse the Husband in her stead keepeth his bed is visited of the neighbours hath his broths made him and iunkets sent to comfort him They are ignorant of numbring and Letters some Tradition they are said to haue touching Noe and the Floud Vnder the same Roofe which is like a Boat with the Keele vpwards liue many Families they lye in Nets or beds hanging aboue the ground which is vsuall in a great part of the Indies to auoid hurtfull creatures they minde the day and are not carefull for the morrow easily communicate what they haue are very patient of labour and hunger feasting if they haue wherewith from morning till night and fasting other-whiles when they want three dayes together In swimming they are miraculously skilfull and will diue whole houres to search any thing vnder the water They beleeue not any reward or punishment after this life ended but thinke that as men die so they goe to the other World maimed wounded sicke or whole and therefore bury the bodies with a Net to lye in and food for some dayes thinking that they both sleepe and eate They are excellent Archers and what enemies they take in their warres they feed well many dayes and then kill and eate them for great Dainties They dwell in Houses scattered and separated from each other their Language is almost generally the same they haue no Lawes nor Magistrates the women call certaine things by one name and the Men by another They haue no vse of three Letters in the Alphabet L F R a reason whereof some haue wittily giuen because they haue no Law Faith nor Ruler They are vnmindfull of good turnes and too mindfull of iniuries impotent of Lust and Rage and in summe more like beasts then men Thus farre Maffaeus In the yeere 1503. Giouanni da Empoli a Florentine sayled thither with the Portugals who reporteth the like of their nakednesse irreligion and of their man-eating saying that they dry it in the smoke as we doe Bacon The same doth Albericus Vesputius report that he had seene amongst them and that he had heard one of them boast that hee had in his time eaten three hundred men He weighed the long stones which they vsed to weare in their faces seuen in number about sixteene ounces He saith they liue an hundred and fiftie yeeres and that their Women are out of measure luxurious that they alway haue an Easterly wind which tempereth their Aire Let vs in the next place heare such as haue liued in the Countrie of which Lerius and Theuet two Frenchmen and Ioannes Stadius a Germane haue written seuerall Treatises But none hath more fully described them then a Portugall Frier and Anthonie Kniuet our Countriman §. II. More full Relations by STADIVS LERIVS and PETER CARDER IOannes Stadius in the yeere 1554. was Prisoner to the Tuppin Imbas and because he serued the Portugals should haue beene
Spanish Wine They eate Serpents and Toads which with them are not venemous and Lizards Our Authour saw one Lizard as big as a man with scales on her backe like Oysters They haue a kind of Monkey called Sagouin of the bignesse of a Squirrell the fore-halfe in shape resembling a Lion they haue another strange beast called Coaty as high as a Hare with a little head sharpe eares and a snout or beake aboue a foot long the mouth so little that one can scarsely put in his little finger it feedeth on Ants They take Petum it is not Tobacco not in Pipes but put foure or fiue leaues in another greater and firing it sucke in the smoke and therewith in time of warre will sustaine themselues three dayes together without other sustinance They weare this herbe about their neckes When Sir Francis Drake made his famous and fortunate Voyage about the World in the South-Sea he lost the rest of his company the Elizabeth wherein M. Winter was which returned into England and a Pinnesse wherein were seuen men besides Peter Carder the relater of this History This Pinnesse being alone returned backe the Straits and on the North side of the Riuer of Plate sixe went on shore into the wood to seeke food where threescore and ten Tapines shot at them and wounded all whereof two dyed soone after foure were taken their Pinnesse also being broken onely Peter Carder and William Pitcher remained which liued in an Iland two moneths on a fruit somewhat like Orenges Crabs without any fresh-water the want whereof forced them to drinke their owne Vrine saued in sherds for that purpose till the next morning weary of this life which began to grow weary of them they with a planke and certaine boords made shift in three dayes to set themselues ouer into the maine three leagues distant where meeting with fresh-water this Pitcher was broken and dyed within halfe an houre of ouer eager drinking Carder encountred certaine Sauages called Tappaubasse which led him away dancing rattling tabering They slept on beds of white Cotton netting tyed two foot from the ground and a fire on each side to preuent cold and wild beasts the next day they marched twenty miles to their Towne which was foure-square with foure houses euery house being two bow-shoot in length made with small trees like Arbours thatched to the ground with Palme-tree leaues hauing no windowes but thirty or forty doores on each side the square Their chiefe Lord was named Caion about forty yeeres old he had nine wiues the rest but one except the most valiant which were permitted two one for the house another to goe with him to the warres In this Towne were neere foure thousand persons Hee found among them good entertainment for certaine moneths They vsed to goe to the Warres three or foure hundred in a company with bowes and arrowes and hauing ouercome would bring home their captiues tyed by the arme to so many of their mens armes and soone after would tye them to a poste and with a club after dancing and drinking slit their heads Their drinke is made of a root chewed by women and spit into a trough where it stands two or three dayes and hath a yest on it like Ale and then is tunned into earthen jarres wherewith they drinke themselues drunke After halfe a yeere hauing learned the Language he was requested to their Warres against the Tapwees and much bettered their martiall skill teaching them to make an hundred Targets of tree-barke and two hundred clubs marking their owne company with red Balsam of this they haue red white blacke very odoriferous and so marched seuen hundred together three dayes to another foure-square Towne like but lesse then their owne They knocked downe two hundred tooke twenty they broyled their carkasses and after also the prisoners How many men they kill so many holed they make in their visage beginning at the nether lippe and so proceeding to the cheeke eye-browes and eares Some Portugals came to search for him two of which and some Negros were taken and eaten Hee obtained leaue to goe to the Coast hauing foure to prouide him victuals for nine or ten weekes and so came to Bahia de todos los Santos where he yeelded himselfe to Michael Ionas a Portugall and arriued in England in Nouember 1586. nine yeeres after his setting forth §. III. Most ample Relations of the Brasilian Nations and Customes by Master ANTHONY KNIVET MAster Anthony Kniuet hath written a Treatise of what he had seene and suffered in Brasil He was one of Master Candishes company in his vnfortunate voyage 1591. who after much misery sustained in the Magellan Straits in their returne was set on shore at St Sebastians where many of his company died with eating a kinde of blacke venemous Pease Hee saw there a great beast come out of the Riuer hauing on the backe great scales vgly clawes and a long tayle which thrust out a tongue like a harping iron but returned without harme Hee found a dead Whale which with long lying was couered with Mosse on which hee yet liued a fortnight His company were knocked on the head with firebrands and he like to be eaten of the Sauages but escaped this and many other miseries and was saued by the Iesuites from being hanged by the Portugals Where his calamities compelled him with another Indian in like predicament of slauerie to escape by flying swimming two miles ouer the Sea and so they trauelled seuen and thirty dayes thorow a desart meeting by the way as he saith Lyons Leopards huge Serpents Some Indians they saw with feathers of diuers colours fixed on their bodies and heads with oyle of Balsam seeming as if they had bin so borne not leauing a spot bare but on their legs The Sauages sell their children to the Portugals for toyes Some of them were so haunted with a Spirit which they called Coropio like that which Lerius his Sauages called Aignan that some of them dyed therewith in much amazement Many complained that they were possessed with spirits which they called Auasaly and commanded themselues to bee bound hand and foot with bow-strings desiring their friends to beat them with cords wherewith they hang their beds but most died notwithstanding They haue wormes which creepe into their fundaments which consume their guts for remedie whereof they take slices of Limons and greene pepper and put therein with salt water He in diuers expeditions for war and Merchandize with the Portugals and escapes from them trauelled thorow more of those Sauage nations then perhaps any other before or since Out of whole obseruations bought at so deare a rate I haue heere mustered these many wild people before thee with such rarities as hee found amongst them The Petiuares are not so barbarous as many other they inhabite from Baya to Rio Grande their bodies are carued with fine workes in their lips is a hole made with a Roe-Bucks horne which
which I haue obserued in this long and tedious Pilgrimage there is some sparke left of Religion euen in the acknowledgement of a Deuill and of eternall rewards and punishments §. II. Of their Priests or Magicians THis is further confirmed by that which is written of certaine Magicians or Priests amongst them which perswade the people that they haue dealings with Spirits that by their meanes they haue their Roots and sustinance and may by them haue fortitude I saith Lerius was present at one of their Assemblies where sixe hundred were gathered together which diuided themselues into three parts the men went into one house the women into a second the children into a third The Cariabes forbade the women and children to depart their houses but to attend diligently to singing and we saith he were commanded to abide with the women Anon the men in one house fell to singing He He He answered by the women in the other with the same They howled it out for a quarter of an houre shaking their brests and foming at the mouth and as if they had had the falling sicknesse some falling downe in a swoune the Deuill in seeming entring into them The children also followed in the same harsh deuotions After this the men sung pleasantly which caused me to goe thither where I found them singing and dancing in three seuerall Rings in the middest of each three or foure Caraibes adorned with Hats and Garments of Feathers euery one hauing a Maraca or Rattle in both his hands These Rattles are made of a fruit bigger then an Ostriches Egge out of which they said that the Spirit would speake and they continually shooke them for the due consecration These Caraibes danced to and fro and blowed the smoke of Petum on the standers by saying Receiue yee all the Spirit of Fortitude whereby yee may ouercome your Enemies This they did often the solemnitie continued two houres the men ignorant of Musicke and yet rauishing my spirit with the delight I conceiued in their Song Their words sounded this that they were grieued for the losse of their Progenitors but were comforted in the hope that they should one day visit them beyond the Hils and then threatned the Ouetacates which dwell not far from them and are at enmitie with all their Neighbours as swift as Harts wearing their haire to the buttockes eating raw flesh and differing from all others in Rites and Language and now prophesied their destruction at hand Somewhat also they added in their Song of the floud that once had drowned all the World but their Ancestors which escaped by climbing high trees That day they feasted with great cheere This solemnitie is celebrated euery third yeere and then the Caraibes appoint in euery Family three or foure Maraca to bee adorned with the best Feathers and sticked in the ground with meate and drinke set before them and the people beleeue they eate it They minister vnto their Maraca fifteene dayes after which in a superstitious conceit they think that a Spirit speakes to them while they rattle their Maraca They were exceedingly offended if any tooke away any of this Prouision as the French sometimes did for which and denying other the Caraibes lyes those Priests hated them exceedingly Yet doe they not adore their Maraca or any thing else Peter Carder saith he could obserue no Religion amongst them but the worship of the Moone specially the New Moone whereat they reioyced leaping singing and clapping of hands Stadius tels as you heard that they ascribed his taking to the prediction of Maraca Hee tels of their consecration that the Paygi so hee cals them enioyne that euery one should carry their Tamaraka to the house where they should receiue the faculty of speech Euery ones Rattle is pitched in the ground by the steele or stalke and all of them offer to the Wizard which hath the chiefe place Arrowes Feathers and Eare-rings he that breathes Petum on euery Rattle puts it to his mouth shakes it and saith Nec Kora that is Speake if thou be within anon followeth a squeaking voyce which I saith Stadius thought the Wizard did but the people ascribed it to the Tamaraka Then those Wizards perswade them to make warres saying that those spirits long to feed on the flesh of Captiues This done euery one takes his Rattle and builds vp a Roome for it to keepe it in where he sets victuals requireth and asketh all necessaries thereof as we doe of God and these as Stadius affirmeth are their Gods These Paygi doe initiate Women vnto Witchcraft by such Ceremonies of smoke dancing c. till shee fall as in the Falling sicknesse and then hee sayth hee will reuiue her and make her able to foretell things to come and therefore when they goe to the Warre they will consult with these Women which pretend conference with Spirits Andrew Theuet which was in this Antarctike France with Villagagnon agreeth in many of the former Reports he addeth that for feare of Aignan they will not goe out but they will carry fire with them which they thinke forceable against him He writes that they acknowledge a Prophet called Toupan which they say makes it thunder and raine but they assigne no time nor place to his worship They tell of a Prophet which taught them to plant their Hetich or Root which they cut in pieces and plant in the Earth and is their chiefe food of which they haue two kinds The first Discouerers they much honoured as Caraibes or Prophets and as much haue distasted the Christians since calling them Mahira the name of an ancient Prophet detested by them But Toupan they say goeth about and reuealeth secrets to their Caraibes Theuet addes that they obserue Dreames and their Payges or Caraibes professe the interpretation of them which are also esteemed as Witches which conferre with Spirits and vse to hurt others with the poyson called Ahouay a kind of Nut. They doe a kind of worship to these Payages and will pray them that they may not bee sicke and will kill them if they promise falsly In their consultations they will prouide a new lodging for the Wizard with a cleane white bed and store of Cahouin which is their ordinary drinke made by a Virgin of ten or twelue yeeres old and of their Root-food into the which they conuey him being before washed hauing abstained nine dayes from his Wife Then doth he lye on that Bed and inuocate none being with him in the House and rayseth his Spirit called Hauioulsira which sometimes as some Christians affirmed to our Authour appeareth so as all the people may heare though they see him not And then they question him of their successe in their enterprises They beleeue the soules Immortality which they call Cherepiconare with rewards to the valiant Man-eaters in goodly Paradises and Agnans punishments to others But his boldnesse makes me the lesse bold in following him in these and other things which I
could but touch and away we may aduenture notwithstanding the wonted danger vpon Bermuda Danger hath made it now not so dangerous nocuments haue beene documents For while some haue beene wracked there they haue made vertue of Necessitie and so well obserued the Coast that skill hath almost secured that which Nature had seemed to set there in defiance both of Habitation and Nauigation to both which it is now subiected by our Nation It was called Bermuda as Ouiedo sayth of Iobn Bermudez which first discouered it and Garza of the ships name wherein hee then sayled Ouiedo writeth that hee was iust by it and had thought to haue sent some Hogs on shore there to haue multiplyed but by force of tempest was driuen thence and others eyther of like purpose or by force of shipwracke haue since done it It is also called the Iland of Deuils which they suppose inhabit there and the Inchanted Iland but these are inchanted conceits Iob Hortop relateth That in the height of Bermuda they had sight of a Sea-monster which three times shewed himselfe from the middle vpwards in shape like a man of the complexion of a Mulato or tawny Indian But this name was giuen it not of such Monsters but of the monstrous tempests which here they haue often sustayned Sir G. Sommers hath deserued that it should beare his name by his indeuours thereabouts testified in life and death Hee with Sir Thomas Gates as before is said were wrackt on the Iland which losse turned to some gaine as if God would giue them this into the Virginia-bargaine Before Anno 1593. Henry May an Englishman in a French ship was wracked thereon and hath giuen vs some Discourse thereof more fully hath Syluester Iourdan one of that Virginian Company one of the company of those worthy Knights in a Treatise of that shipwracke and the Discouerie of Bermuda The Commodities whereof he reckoneth varietie of fishes plentie of Hogges which it seemeth haue escaped out of some wrackes diuers Fruits Mulberries Silke-wormes Palmitos Cedars Pearles Ambergrise But the most strange thing seemes the varietie of Fowle of which they tooke a thousand of one sort in two or three houres being as bigge as a Pidgeon and laying speckled Egges as bigge as Hens Egges on the sand where they come and lay them daily although men sit downe amongst them When Sir Thomas Gates his men haue taken a thousand of them Sir George Sommers men haue stayed a while by them and brought away as many more Another Fowle there is that liueth in holes like Cony-holes their Egges like in quantity and qualitie to Hen-egges Other Birds were so gentle that whistling to them they would come and gaze on you while with your sticke you might kill them Other Egges they had of Tortoyses a bushell in the belly of one very sweet they tooke forty of them in a day and one would serue fiftie men at a meale Two were there borne and other two married to make the most naturall possession thereof for our Nation which now in hope of good successe hath there planted an habitation That wracked Company built there a Ship and a Pinnasse and set saile for Virginia William Strachie in a large Discourse with his fluent and copious pen hath described that tempest which brought them to this Iland affirming that there was not an houre in foure dayes in which they freed not out of their almost captiued Ship twelue hundred Barricoes of water each contayning sixe gallons and some eight besides three Pumps continually going euery foure houres they bestowed an hundred tuns of water on the cruell Sea which seemed the more hungry after their bodies or thirstie for their bloud from Tuesday noone till Friday noone they bayled and pumped two thousand tunnes and were ten foot deepe nor could haue holden out one day longer when they first had fight of the Bermudas These he sayth are an Archipelagus of broken Ilands not fewer then fiue hundred if all may be so called which lye by themselues the greatest which lyeth like an halfe moone is in 32. degrees 20. minutes At their first landing they killed with Bats seuen hundred Fowles like to Guls at one time The Ilands seeme rent with tempests of Thunder Lightning and Raine which threaten in time to deuoure them all the stormes in the full and change keepe their vnchangeable round Winter and Summer rather thundring then blowing from euery corner sometimes 48. houres together especially when the Halo or circle about the Moone appeareth which is often and there foure times as large as with vs The North and Northwest winds cause Winter in December Ianuary and February yet not such but then young Birds to be seene Without knowledge a Boat of ten tuns cannot be brought in and yet within is safe harbour for the greatest Ships They found there for their sustenance wild Palmitos the tops of which trees rosted did eate like fried Melons sodden like Cabbages with the leaues they couered their Cabins Berries blacke and round as bigge as a Damson ripe in December and very luscious in the Winter they shed their leaues No Iland in the World had more or better Fish Of Fowles was great varietie They killed a wild Swan Some there are which breed in high Ilands in holes to secure them from the Swine They haue their seasons one kind succeeding another Besides this reliefe of Fowles they had plenty of Tortoise Egges which they lay as bigge as Goose Egges and commit to the Sun and Sands hatching nurserie They had sometimes fiue hundred in one of them Euen heere lest the Iland should lose that former name of Deuils some entred into Deuillish conspiracie three seuerall time Some were banished and after reconciled Henry Paine was shot to death Some fled to the Woods but all reduced except Christopher Carter and Robert Waters But these Ilands haue now beene possessed diuers yeeres by an English Colonie and my friend Master Barkley which hath beene there and is now onwards on a second Voyage thither seemeth rauished with the naturall endowments both for health and wealth of these Ilands which now are to be shared amongst the Aduenturers and fortified against all inuasions Nature it selfe being herein readie to further their securitie against the greatest forren force mustering winds which some say are violent further off but calmer neere the Ilands and Rockes many leagues into the Sea for their defence which now yet they are gone to strengthen both with men and munition The Colonie that is there haue not onely sent verball but reall commendations of the place as may appeare by a Treatise thereof lately set forth by one which in the Shippe called the Plough sayled thither Anno 1612. wherein is declared the Commodities there found as Mullets Breames Lobstars and Angel-fish Hog-fish Rock-fish c. as before is said The Ayre is very healthfull as their experience the best argument hath found and agreeing well
where I with others saw him and he espying me called vpon Christ They threw him into a Dungeon where hee miserably ended his life He had liued in pompe and beene Authour of much mischiefe had conuayed much treasure out of the Countrey by way of England to Wesell in Westphalia where hee was borne though brought vp in Cambridge an Enemy alway to our Nation Hee had deluded the Emperour with tales of Queene Elizabeths youth and hopes by his Calculations of obtayning her But the Emperour out of hope hereof heard that there was a young Lady of the bloud Royall the Lady Mary Hastings daughter to the Earle of Huntington whom he now affected The Bishop of Nouogrod was condemned of coyning and sending money to Swethen and Poland of keeping Witches buggering Boyes and Beasts confederating with Bomelius c. All his goods were confiscated and himselfe throwne into a Dungeon with Irons on his head and legges where he made painted Images Combes and Beads liued with bread and water Eleuen of his confederate Seruants were hanged in his Palace gate at Mosco and his women Witches shamefully dismembred and burnt The Emperour passed ouer those which had beene accused and now consulted about marrying his second Sonne Chariwich Theodor being of great simplicitie the eldest hauing no issue But hauing his Prelates and Nobles together could not but euaporate some of his conceits from the former confessions of their Treasons being Ascension day on which before Musco had beene burned He spent some houres in Rhetoricall enlarging the dismalnesse of that day with great eloquence darting still with his eye at many Confederates in the late Conspiracie protesting to leaue them a naked disloyall and distressed people and a reproch to all Nations of the World The Enemies are at hand God and his prodigious creatures in the Heauens fight against vs Scarcity and Famine witnesse it and yet no Iudgements moue remorse in you The Originall is too long to recite Little was done but all prostrating themselues to his Maiesty and mercy desired God to blesse his holy purpose for the marriage of his Sonne for whom he chose Irenia daughter of Theodor Iuanowich Godonoue and after the solemnization of the marriage with great Feast dismissed the Nobles and Prelates with better words and countenance which was taken for a reconciliation But the Nuptials could not be performed by vsuall cohabitation which much distempered the King it is not decent to write the courses taken therein The Emperous Letters Instructions were ready himselfe his chiefe Secretarie Sauelly Frowlow whiles I was present closed them vp in one of the false sides of a woodden Bottle filled with Aquanitae to hang vnder my Horse-mayne not worth one penny appointed me foure hundred Hungarian Duckets in Gold to be sowed in my boots and quilted in some of my worst garments He said he forbare to tell me of some secrets of his peasure fearing left I passing thorow his Enemies Country might bee inforced to discouer what hee would not haue knowne The Bottle you carry with you shall declare what you shall say to Queene Elizabeth my louing Sister of which you must haue care as of your life vntill you come in safe place to open it In meane while and alway bee thou my sweet Sunshine Eremiska trusty and faithfull and thy reward shall be my goodnesse and grace from me hereafter I fell prostrate layd my head on his foot with a heauy heart to bee thus exposed to vnauoydable danger Doeafie Vlanon a Gentleman of good ranke and daily Wayter on the King attended me my Sled and Horse and twenty Seruants were ready at the posterne gate I posted that night to Otuer ninety miles where victuals and fresh Horses were prepared and so to Nouogrod and Plesco 600. miles in three dayes where entring into Liuonia my Gentleman and Seruants tooke their leaues and desired some token to the Emperour of my safe comming thither They left me with a poore guide only Within three houres after the Centinell tooke me vpon the borders and brought me to New house into the Castle before the State-holder or Lieutenant who straitly examined and searched me suspecting me as one comming from their enemies Country I said I was glad to come into their hands out of the vaile of misery the Moscouites Country not without losse On the third day vpon some mediation they appointed mee a Guide and suffered mee to passe The Guard expected gratuitie but I excused as pinched by the Russe I passed three dayes by Land and frozen Meares to Ossell in Liefland an Iland large and spacious vnder the King of Denmarke Raggamuffin Souldiers tooke me and vsed me roughly and carried me to Sowen Burgh and so to Orent Burgh the chiefe Townes and Castles in those parts and there deliuered me to the State-holders Lieutenant I attended his pleasure kept hardly as a Spie the Snakes creeping in my Lodging on Bed and board and Milke pans the soyle was such they did no harme I was called before the chiefe Gouernour a graue Gentleman in good fauour with the King many Halberds attending who examined me with many questions I answered I was a Subiect of the Queene of England who had peace with all Christian Kings specially with the King of Denmarke but was committed againe to custody whence hauing dismissed his company he sent for me againe by his Sonne and being priuate holding a Letter in his hand said I haue receiued sundry Letters from my friends and one of late from my daughter captiue in Mosco which sheweth of much friendship shee hath found at an English Gentlemans hand which negociates in that Court for the Queen of England My Lord said I is your daughter called Magdalen Vrkil yea Sir said he I answered I was the man that within these ten dayes she was well He sayd he could not procure her ransome and clasps me about the neck crying as did his Sonne likewise Gods Angell hath brought your goodnesse thus to me how euer disguised in this turbulent time that I might render you thankes and furtherance I desired free passe and safe conduct He feasted me ioyfully and made ready his Letters and Pasports to Captaines of Townes and Castles gaue mee a faire German striking Clocke offered his Sonne and Seruants armed to guard me out of danger which I could not accept of and commended his daughter to me I passed on to Pilton a strong Castle where King Magnus lay who vsed mee roughly because I could not drinke with him excessiuely Hee had riotously spent and giuen most of his Townes and Castles Iewels Plate c. to his followers and adopted daughters which hee receiued in Dowre with the Emperours Neece and not long after dyed miserably leauing his Queene and only daughter in very poore estate I roade thorow the Duke of Curlands Country and Prussia to Konninsburgh Meluin and Danzike in Polond Pomerania and Mickelburgh to Lubeck where I was
as heart-whole as euer he was Sir they answered bee not so wrathfull you know the day is comne and you know it ends with the Sun-setting He hasts him to the Emperour made preparation for his Bath about the third houre of the day The Emperour therein solaced himselfe and made merry with pleasant Songs after his vse came out about the seuenth houre well refreshed sate downe vpon his Bed cals Rodouone Birken a Fauourite of his to bring the Chesse-board sets his men his chiefe Fauourite and others with Boris Federowich Godonoue being then about him He in his loose Gowne Shirt and Linnen Hose faints and fals backward Great was the stirre and out-cry one sends for Aquauitae another to the Apotheke for Vineger and Rose-water with other things and to call the Physicians Meane time he was strangled and starke dead Some shew of hope was made of his recouery to still the out-cry Bodan Belscoy and Boris to whom the dead Emperour had bequeathed as the first of foure Princes to take charge of his Sonne and Kingdome being Brother to the Successors Wife goe out on the Terras accompanied with so many of the Nobility his familiar friends as was strange so suddenly to behold They called out to the Captaines and Gunnera to keepe their Guards strong and the Gates sure with their Peeces and Matches light wherevpon the Gates of the great Castle were presently shut with watch and ward I offered my Selfe my Men Powder and Pistols to attend the Prince Protector Hee accepted mee among his Familiars and Seruants passing by with a cheereful countenance towards me speaking aloud Be faithfull and faint not Eremiesca The Metropolitans Bishops and Nobility flocked into the inner Castle holding it a day of Iubilee for their redemption pressing who could first to the Booke and Crosse to sweare to the new Emperour Feodor Iuanowich It was admirable what dispatch there was in sixe or seuen houres The Treasury sealed vp and new Officers added to the old twelue thousand Gunners with their Captaines set for a Garrison about the Wals of the great Citie of Musco A Guard was giuen mee to keepe the English House The Embassadour S. I. B. trembled and expected hourely nothing but death from the rage of the Nobilitie and people His gates windowes and Seruants were shut vp his former plentifull allowance taken away Boris and three others of the greatest Peeres ioyned assistance with him in the Emperours Will for the Gouernment of the Kingdome viz. Knez Misthisloskie Knez Iuan Suskoy and Mekita Romanowich began to mannage and dispose of all affaires they proclayme the Emperour Feodore in his late Fathers stile thorow all the Kingdome take Inuentories of all the Treasure euery where Gold Siluer Iewels which was infinite make a suruay of all the Officers and Bookes of the Crowne Reuenues New Treasurers Counsellors and Officers in all Courts of Iustice are made new Lieutenants also Captaines and Garisons in all places of charge and importance most out of the Family of the Godonoues best to be trusted for attendance and seruice about the King and Queene by which meanes the Protector became strong He was with great obseruation magnified of all and so be haued himselfe to the Princes Nobility and people as he increased their loue After some pause I was sent for and asked what they should doe with S. I. B. his businesse being at an end he was not now said they to be reputed an Ambassadour I answered it stood with the honour of the King and Kingdome to dismisse him with honour and safely according to the Law of Nations otherwise the Queene whose Seruant hee was would take it ill c. They shooke their heads reuiled him saying he had deserued death by the Law of Nations practising so much mischiefe in a State They would haue sent a message to him by me to prepare his present dispatch with some other terrible words of displeasure I be sought that I might not be the messenger which somewhat offended them The Lord Protector sent for mee at Euening whom I found playing at the Chesse with Knez Iuan Gemskoy a Prince of the bloud and taking mee aside said I wish you to speake little in defence of Bowes the Lords take it ill Go shew your selfe from me and pacifie such and such Your answer was well considered of but many perswade reuenge vpon him for his ill behauiour I hope said I your greatnesse and wisdome will pacifie their furies I 'le do my best he sayd to make all well and so tell him from me I went to those Noblemen accordingly which complayning of their sufferings for his arrogance willed me to be quiet in the businesse Yet did not I leaue to deale effectually vnder hand for him intreating he might be sent for and dispatched beeing cooped vp and kept close as a prisoner and allowances taken from him At last he was sent for attended but with a meane messenger lead into a with drawing Roome where the Lords vsed him with no respect charged him with haynous matter practised against the Crowne and State would not spend time to heare his answere rayled on him especially the two Shalkans great Officers and some others who had suffered displeasure beatings from the Emperour through his complaints saying it were requisite to make him an example cutting off his Crane-legges and casting his withered carkasse into the Riuer pointing out of the window vnder him but God hath now giuen vs a more mercifull Emperour whose eyes he should see for Queene Elizabeths sake But put off your Sword which hee refused to doe saying it was against his Order and Oath they would inforce him else comming into the presence of so peaceable a Prince whose soule being clothed with mourning was not prepared for the sight of Armes And so hee put on patience and was brought single to the presence of the Emperour who by the mouth of his Chancelour commended him to Queene Elizabeth Wherewith Sir Ierome Bowes was conuayed to his Lodgings three dayes giuen for his departure out of Musco perhaps hee should haue a Letter sent after him He had now little meanes lesse money and none to supply him but my selfe who made meanes to get him thirty Carts to conuay his and his Seruants Stuffe and as many Post-horse for he could be allowed none of the Emperours charge I asked leaue of the Lord Protector to speake with him and to bring him out of the City Watch and ward was appointed in the streets that the people should not stirre at him A meane Sinoboarscoie was appointed to conduct him who vsed him with small humanity and much against the height of his mind to endure I with my Seruants and good friends accompanied him wel mounted out of Musco caused my Pauillion to be pitched by a Riuers side ten miles off and with my prouisions of Wines and Mead tooke leaue of him and his company He sadly prayed me to haue an eye an
vpon him He was solemnely inaugurated accordingly Hee was of comely person well fauoured affable easie and apt to ill counsell but dangerous in the end to the giuer of good capacity and ready wit about forty six yeeres of age much affected to Necromancie made shew of great Deuotion and Religion not Learned of a sudden apprehension very precipitate subtle a naturall good Oratour reuengefull not much giuen to luxury temperate in dyet Heroicall in outward shew one which gaue great entertaynment to forreigne Embassadours sent rich Presents to forreigne Kings to illustrate his owne greatnesse Hee now desired league by his Embassadours sent with Letters and Presents to the Emperour Pole Dane Swethen which the three last refused but vpon conditions to his loffe To them adhered those which loued him not and procured his ruine Hee continued the same course of gouernment but made shew of more security and liberty to the Subiect Still fearing his owne safety and continuance he desired to match his Daughter with Hartique Hans the King of Denmarks third Sonne Conditions were agreed on time appointed for the Marriage but this valorous hopefull Prince on that day whereon he should haue beene married dyed in the Musco Not long after he was put to extreame exigents by the Crimme the Pole and Swethen all inuading the neerest Confines Bodan Belskoy the old Emperours Minion vpon whom hee serued Boris his trusty turne making him away and so opening a way to that which Boris aymed at none being also better able to bring in subiection the aduerse Nobilitie and others was rewarded with such recompence as vsually followeth such trecherous Instruments Boris and the Empresse fearing his subtle wit found occasions and placed him remote with his Confederates sure as they thought But he in the time of his greatnesse hauing conuayed infinite Treasure now vseth it to reuenge and ioyning with many discontented Nobles stirres vp the King and Palatines of Poland with the power of Lithuania and with a meane Army hoping of assistance in Russia gaue out that they brought the true Dmetrius Sonne to Iuan Vasilowich Boris wants courage to fight notwithstanding sufficient preparations hee his Wife Sonne and Daughter tooke poyson whereof three presently dyed the Sonne liued to bee proclaymed but quickly dyed And now the Counterfeit Demetrius was admitted and crowned Sonne to a Priest sometimes carried Aquauitae to sell about the Country Married the Palatines Daughter and permitting the Poles to domineere ouer the Russe Nobility and to set their courses of Religion and Iustice out of ioynt hauing rooted out Boris his faction and Family c. The Russes conspire and kill Demetrius take him out of his bed dragge him on the Terras the Gunners and Souldiers thrust their Kniues in his body hacke hew and mangle his head body and legs carry it to the Market place shew it for three dayes about the City the people cursing him and the Traytors that brought him The Palatine his Daughter were conuayed away A new Election was made two propounded Knez Iuan Mishtelloskoy and Knez Vasily Petrowich Suskoy this was chosen and crowned but summoned as a Vassall by a Herald of Armes to yeeld obedience to the Crowne of Poland The Pole strikes the Iron whiles it is hote hauing gotten good footing amongst them inuades Russia repossesses the Musco takes Suscoy and diuers Nobles which are carried Captiues to Vilna chiefe Citie of Lituania Now the Poles tyrannise ouer the Russe more then before seize on their goods money and best things which they conuay into Polaud and Lituania But those hidden by Iuan Vasilowich and Boris in secret places doubtlesse remayne vndiscouered by reason the parties which had beene therein employed were still made away The Russe submits to the Pole desires Stanislaus his Sonne to liue and Reigne ouer and amongst them but that King and State would not herein trust them with their hope of Succession nor doe them so much honour but rule by their Presidents c. The Luganoie Nagoie and Chercas Tartars long setled in obedience to the Russe and best vsed by them now straitned of their wonted Salaries and vsage hate the Pole take armes in great numbers robbed spoyled killed carried away many of them with their rich booties before gotten the Russe Nobilitie tooke heart againe and bethinke them of another Emperour The Sonne of the Archbishop of Restona now Patriarch of Mosco Sonne to Mekita Romanowich before mentioned borne before he was made a Bishop Michael Fedorowich is elected and crowned by generall consent of all Estates God send him long to Reigne with better successe then his Predecessors RELATIONS OF THE KINGDOME OF GOLCHONDA AND OTHER NEIGHBOVRING NATIONS within the Gulfe of BENGALA Arreccan Pegu Tannassery c. And the ENGLISH Trade in those Parts by Master WILLIAM METHOLD THe Gulfe of Bengala famous for its dimensions extendeth it selfe from the Cape called Comorijne lying in 8. degrees of North latitude vnto Chatigan the bottome thereof which being in 22. degrees is not lesse as the Coast lyeth then a 1000. English miles and in breadth 900. limited on the other side by Cape Singapura which lyeth in 1. degree of South latitude washeth the Coast of these great and fertile Kingdomes viz. Ziloan Bisnagar Golchonda Bengala Arreccan Pegu and Tanassery and receiueth into its bosome many Nauigable Riuers which lose their note and names in the eminent Neighbourhood of the famous Ganges whose vnknowne head pleasant streames and long extent haue amongst those Heathen Inhabitants by the Tradition of their Fore-fathers gained a beliefe of clensing all such sinnes as the bodies of those that wash therein brought with them for which cause many are the Pilgrimes that resort from farre to this lasting Iubilee with some of whom I haue had conference and from their owne reports I insert this their beliefe The Island of Zeloan our Nation hath onely lookt vpon en passant the Portugals that clayme all East India by donation hold a great part of this in subiection and with such assurance that they beleeue they can make it good against all their Enemies yet are not they the onely Lords thereof for the naturall Inhabitants haue also their King commonly called the King of Candy with whom the Danes had not long since a fruitlesse treaty for commerce which falling short of their expectation they fortified vpon the Mayne not far from Negapatnam at a place called Trangabay with what successe or hopes of benefit I cannot relate The first Kingdome vpon the Mayne is that ancient one of Bisnagar rent at this time into seuerall Prouinces or Gouernments held by the Naickes of that Countrey in their owne right for since the last King who deceased about fiftene yeeres since there haue arisen seuerall Competitors for the Crowne vnto whom the Naickes haue adhered according to their factions or affections from whence hath followed a continuall Ciuill Warre in some parts of the Countrey and
that part of the Countrey could not be permitted â—â—dâ—ande without the Kings Firmaen with much trouble procured from whom I vnderstood that this Castle being of great circuit was deuided into sixe seuerall Forts one commanding another according to their situation which being furnished with great ponds of water store of trees as well fruit as others and large fields to plant Rice in lodged in them continually 12000. Souldiers thus much his Relation What I could soe which was enough to hide a great part of the Heauens was a huge Mountaine which being apart by nature had inuited Art to make it a retreate for the King of this Countrey if a battels losse or other aduerse fortune forced them to that extremity For besides the Mountayne it selfe steepe in most places is walled with a hand some seeming stone wall with Bulwarkes and Battlements according to the ancient Order of fornification whereunto hauing but one way that admits a â—â—ent it is thought impregnable not to bee vndermined but by treacherie skaled without wings or battered but by Famine And betwixt this Castle and Cundeuera which is at least fiue and twentie English miles there is a lightly correspondence held by shewing each other Torches lifting them vp sometimes more sometimes lesse according to the order contriued betwixt them Religion is heere free and no mans conscience oppressed with Ceremony or Obseruance onely he Kings Religion is predominant in the authority and quality of the Professors not in number of Soules for the Ancient Naturals of the Countrey commonly called Gentiles or Heathens exceed them in a very great proportion The moores are of two sorts as I formerly mentioned but they onely which are tearmed Seam haue their Mesgits and publikes exercise of their Religion the rest giuing no offence are not interrupted in their Opinions or Practizes but of these their Ceremonies or Differences I forbeare to discourse well knowing that besides our neerer Neighbourhood with Turkey and Barbarie your Pilgrimage hath an ply delineated both their beginnings and continuance The like consideration might silence my purposed Relation of the Gentiles who differing little in Habit Complexion Manners or Religion from most of the Inhabitants of the mayne of India haue alreadie from abler Pennes past your approbation and the Presse so that Nil dictum est quod non sit dictum prius Yet encouraged by your request I adde to that Treasury this myte of my Obseruation submitting all that dislikes or appeares superfluous to your suppression The Gentiles in the Fundamentall points of their little Religion doe hold the same principles which their Learned Clergie the Bramenes haue from great Antiquitie and doe yet maintayne but with an Implicite faith not able to giue an account of it or any their customes onely that it was the custome of their Ancestors Conceining God they doe beleeue him first to haue beene onely one but since to haue taken to his assistance diuers that haue sometimes liued vpon Earth vnto whose memorie they build their Temples tearmed Pagodes and styling them Demi-gods or Saints direct most of their Worship to such of them as they stand most particularly affected vnto supporting their Deities with most ridiculous Legendary Fables of Miracles done by them in the likenesse of Apes Oxen Kites or the like many yeeres since past all memory or beliefe They hold the Immortalitie of the Soule and the transmigration of it from one body to another according to the good or bad quarter it kept in the last Mansion from whence followeth much abstinence from killing or eating any thing that had life Their difference in Washings Meates Drinkes and such like arise rather from the Tradition of the Fathers enioyned to their Posteritie then in point of Religion as we reade of the Rechabites who from their Fathers Iniunction were commended for their constant continuance in their customes Their moralitie appeares best in their conuersation murder and violent theft are strangers amongst them seldome happen but for coozenage in bargaining caueat emptor Poligamy is permitted but not generally practised vnlesse in case of the first Wiues barrennesse Adultery is not common but punishable in women Fornication veniall and no Law but that of modesty restraines the publike action They are diuided into diuers Tribes or Linages they say fortie foure all which according to their degrees are knowne each to other and take place accordingly wealth in this point being no prerogatiue for the poorest Bramene will precede the richest Committy and so the rest in their seuerall Orders The Bramene is Priest vnto them all and weareth alwayes three or foure twisted threeds ouer one shoulder and vnder the other arme and in his forehead a round spot whereon there sticketh cornes of Rice dyed yellow in Turmericke they are very good and ready Accountants and in that Office much employed by Moores of greatest Affaires writing and keeping their accounts in Palmito leaues with a Pen of Iron and if in that Generall Deluge of Pagan Ignorance there remayneth any knowledge of Arts or Learning these preserue it and entirely to themselues without participation to other Tribes involved in verball Traditions or concealed Manuscripts and are indeed indifferent Astronomers obseruing exactly the course of the seuen Planets through the twelue Houses and consequently the certaine houre of Ecclipses and other Astrologicall Predictions wherein they haue gained so good credit that none eyther Gentile or Moore will vndertake any great Iourney or commence any important businesse without first consulting with his Bramene for a good houre to set forward in from whence I haue knowne it happen that a Moore which came Gouernour to Musulipatnam hath attended without the Towne ten dayes before he could find a fortunate houre to make his triumphant entry into his new gouernment and of this Tribe they forget not to tell you there are two Kings the Samorijue King of Callecut and the King of Cochijne both vpon the Coast of Malabar The next Cast in account is the Fangam who is of the Bramenes dyet in all particulars eating nor killing any thing that hath life abhorring Wine but drinking Butter by the pint contenting themselues with Milke from the Reuerend Cow and such Pulfe Herbs Roots and Fruits as the Earth produceth the Onion only excepted which for certaine red veines in it resembling bloud finds fauour in their mercifull mouthes and these also in an inferiour degree haue some Priestly power ouer such as by wearing sanctified Stones tyed vp in their haire are buried when they dye all others are burnt If these be of any Trade they must be Taylers and such many of them are but more profest Beggers and no wonder for the constancy of that Countries fashion and the little or no Needle-worke belonging to the making vp of a Garment cannot finde all of them worke if they stood affected to vndertake it but other worke then Taylours worke they may not
c. vlt. Kepler de stel No. c. 19. Valla Fracastorius Marpurg Scultetus c. Deo Hebr. Dial. 2. Ignis negat antiquis notum elementum scitè interpretatur Poetarum illud Coeli patrem Aetherem matrem esse diem vel lucem l Tych. Bra. l. 1. de N. St. 2. de Comet Kepler Bariholinus 4. numerant nouas stellas vid. Clau. in Sac. Iosc Casman Ouranograp Cosmop Hipparchi stellam N. ap Plin. c. m Such as the new Stars Fire is one of the foure Elements of the World but not placed beneath the Moone Patrit Pancos l. 1. 4. hath foure infinite eternall impious Elements Space Light Heate and Moysture n Iob 38.19 Lucis Encom o Vid. M. Ficin to 1. de lum Patrit Panaug Leonem Heb. 3. dial de Amore De luce sic Cabalistae Lux in patre luminum vera lux in filio splender illu strans in S. S. ardens fulgor in Angelis splendens intelligentia gaudium in homine ratio in Coelestibus splendor visibilis in igne vitalis vigor in perspicuis corporibus color in opacis vis generans in centro calor exaestuans Archang. in Cabal dog p Iob 38.13 q Verbum Dei voluntas est opus Dei natura est Amb Hex. 1. c. 9. Verbum hoc significat imperiū decretum voluntatem Dei efficacem Perer. r Gibbins in Gen. ſ Sic Basil hox hom 2. alij ab Patritius Panaug l. 4. Distinguit cor pora in lucida opaca hac sèrie à lucido corpore radij hinc lumen inde splendor isthinc nitor quibus opponit simili ordine corpus opacum tenebras obscurationem vmbram vmbrationem adumbrationem c. tenebrae ait habent actionem actie à viribus vires ab essentia c. t Iunius Pagnine c. Fagius habet eo modo quo iulaea expanduntur vel quo argentum malleo diducitur Sic Mercer in Gen. u Iun. Merula Io. Pic. Mirand x Bas Amb. in Hex. Du Bart Muscul in Gen. Th. Aquin. Beda Lumbard Scholastici y Psal. 104.2 3 z Sic Plato Plotinus vide in eos Ficin 4. elementa statuunt non sublunaria sed ipsius Mundi vniuersi Coelum esse ignem in stellis vnà est quaedam terra Coelestis in reliquo coelo aër vel aqua coelestis c. de materia Coeli consule Zanch. Casman Ouranog Zabarel a Patrit Pan. cos lib. 7. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. b Vide de his Christ Clau. in Sac. Bosc Keckerman Syst Astron Magini Theor. c. c Illi orbes reuera in Coelo non insunt sed docendi intelligendi gratiae roponuntur Tycho Br. l. 2. p. 180. sic Keckerman Bartholimus alij d Gal. Gal. Sid. Nun. e P. Ricij de An. Coeli Bodin Theat. Nat. l 5. Patric Ficinus Platonici R. Mos Ben. Maimon f Arist. c. R. Mos l. 3. interprets Ezekiels Vision 1. the wheeles to be the Heauens and the Beasts Angels g Inest syderibus ratio sed Dei est illa c. Lact. l. 2. 5. i The Pythagor R. Mos Cic. Som. Scip. k Pro. 8.31 Es 40.22 l Plat. Aristot Stoici Cic de N. D. l. 2. Manil. Astron l. 1. Record c. m S. lib. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n Ios. Scal. in Manil. l. 1. o In Drakes Voyage about the World an Eclipse seene here Septem the sixteenth before one in the morning was seene by them in the Magellane straights Sept. 15. at six in the euening p The Portugals sayling to China East haue their day twelue houres sooner then we the Spaniards to Manilla West twelue houres later So that both meeting there together differ a day in reckoning Ones Tuesday is the others Wednesday q Pat. Pancos l. 25. 26 31. r Vid. Plut. de plac ph l. 3. ſ As at Saint Miguel and Panama where the South Sea extendeth to the Philippinae t Eratost thought the highest Hill to bee but tenne Furlongs Cleomedes 15. which holdeth proportion in their iust Diameters to the Earth but of one to 3818. sayth R. Hues de Globis u By the like magnitudes of Starres in all places by the shadowes Horizon c. Ambros Hex. 4.6 x Aelian v. hist lib. 3. 28. Horum agrorum possessione te effers qui nulla pars sunt terrae y Hall Arte of Medit. z Sem. Scip. Plin. lib. 2. Haec est materia gloriae nostrae haec sedes hic tumultuatur humanum genus c. quota terrarum parte gaudeat vel cùm ad mensuram auaritiae suae propagauerit quam tandem portionem eius defunctus obtineat * A Iew at Rome asked a Philosopher the reason why the Sunne shined euery Wednesday The Philosopher obseruing it true but not assigning a cause the Iew said It was because the Sunne thus honored in his Birth-day Isaac Leuita a Plut. de Plac. Phil. l. 2. Barthol de Stellis pag. 6. b Barthol denyeth them to be of the same substance pag. 101. and so doth R. Mos Moreh lib. 2. cap. 20. c Scal. Opusc in Epist. d De his vid. Tych. Br. de N. St. pag. 465. Pythag. ap Phot. 100. Clauium in sac B. Albumasar introduc Alfragan diff 19. d. e 100000. Dolers in Praefat. Alphonsus spent on his Tables 400000. Ducats or after Turquets storie more f Prou. 25. g Clauius 7. numerat h 42398437 1 3 miles in one houre after Ptol. his Hypoth as Patric reckoneth so that a Bird of like swiftnesse might compasse the Earth 1884. times vnder the Line in an houres space Hee to salue this incredibilitie deuiseth a motion both of the Earth and of the Starres one from the East the other from the West i Ram. Math. Schol. lib. 11. k Barthol de Stell l Gen. 15.5 m Psal. 147. Es 40. n Hos 2.11 Iud. 5. Iob 38. Sic. Zan. de Op. Arias Mont. Stellas Chochabim vocari ait id est virtutis receptacula A. M. de Nat. o Hen. à Lindhout S. Ch. Heyden vide Taisneir Ranzou c. fraus est non ars c. Viues de Cor. art l. 5. p Nig. Figulus in the swift motion of a wheele made two blots which then seemed neere but at the standing of the wheele were farre asunder q The twelue Houses one for the Soule another for Children Fortune Death c. Vid. Alcabit Hali Io. de Saxonia c. r Euseb de praep. l. 6. c. 8. R. Mos in Ep. ad Iud. Marsil Contrarie saith Scal. to good manners Philosophy Geometry Christianitie they ascribe Christian Religion to Mercurie and Albumasar foretold it should continue but 1460. yeeres Abi. Iudaeus of the cōming of their Messias A. D. 1464. Arnaldus of Antichrist A D. 1345. In 1179. they all Arabians Iewes and Christians foretold almost a dissolution of the World by tempests to happen in 1186. with lye and all c. ſ
abbreuiat beb o Num. 14.9 They say also that on that day God fore-sheweth how much it shall rayne all the yeere following of plenty also and dearth c. and direct their prayers accordingly p New-Moon day q New-yeeres day Vict. de Carben l. 1. c. 16. Where hee rehearseth these ceremonies sayth some R R. beleeue the world began in March r Psal. 69.28 P. Ric. de Coelest Agricult l. 3. Reuchlin l. 1 c. 1 de verbo Mirifico Å¿ Gen. 22.18 t Mich. 7.19 u Reconciliation x Hospinian ex Lombardo y Buxdorf c. 20 Vict. Carben l. 1. c. 17. addeth that the men and women that morning curse the first Christian they meete and therefore will waite two or three houres for some to whome they owe some speciall grudge to bestow their curse vpon him in these words God make thee my Cocke this yeere z Esa 1.18 a Ant. Margar. b Vict. Carben l. 1. coÌ„t Iud. c. 11. c Shall bee called a sinner li. Musar fol. 18. d Saying I haue sinned against God this my brother and done thus and thus if hee oweth him money he payeth it to his heires if he knoweth none hee confesseth it and leaues it in the Court Ibid. e Yet he being mercifull c. Their fiue humiliations at the feast of Reconciliation f Manent 24. horas in Synagoga putant Deum illis remittere omnia peccata praeteri ta superioris anni Ben. Kat. praet 313. g Pirke c. 46. h Exod. 23.8 i The feast of the Law finished k Hospinian â—x M. Lombard l Hospinian m Syn. Iud. Buxdorf Hos 2.7 Buxdorf Syn. Iud. c. 26. d. * They ground these absurdities on Moses his words Exo. 23.19 a The knife may not after be vsed except heated red hot in the fire three houres and three dayes hidden in the earth three times put into water Vict. Carb l. 1. c. 12. b Nine houres saith Carbens This they gather out of Num. 31.23 b Exod. 22.31 Leuit. 22. c Tunc temporis aiunt infirmitas muliebris eam inuasit cum surrexisset de terra volucres aduolarunt sanguinemque virginitatis eius in terram occuluerunt ideoque deus mandauit sanguinem auium mactatarum tegere d Gen. 32. e Lib. Praecep 124. vid. Drus praet pag. 2. f Exod. 22.17 Deut. 22.29 g Lib. Musar cap. 6. h Fol. 364. Syn. Iud. c. 28. k Drus vbi sup. l Cap. 14. m Idqne aiebat Iudaeaster quia semen viri album mulieris rubrum n Pirke siue cap. R. Eliezer c. 11. Brandspigel c. 34 o Gen. 2.22 p Vid. Eli. Thil. vad Chapha q In token that they shall multiply like the Starres in number r Ierem. 31.22 Å¿ Psal. 147.14 t Psal. 45.10 u Ruth 3 9. Ezek. 16.8 x Some superstitiously engraue therein Good fortune commeth or the Planet Iupiter which they would borrow from Leahs words Gen. 30.11 vid. Munster ibid. The R. saith Victar Carbens marketh diligently whether she put forth her fore-finger for the Virgin Mary say they ware the Ring on her middle finger and therefore all Iewesses refuse that and vse the fore finger x Prou. 14.10 y Com. sup Aboth fol. 83. ap Drus z Rambam M. N. lib. 3. cap. 50. a Vid. Drus praet lib. 6. in 1. Cor. 7.2 Idem vid. ap R. Ab. ben Kattan pr. 150. P. Ric. in praec. neg 81. horam non minuet id est debitum coniugale idque secundum vetustam Talmud traditionem otio vacantes quotidie mecanicus operarius his in hebdomade Afinarius qui sarcinulas nectat semel qui portat per camelos semel in mense nauta semel in dimidio anni Com sup. Aboth 10. Drus praet pag. 285. b Musar cap. 6. c Vid Drus pag. 376. d Musar 74. e Vid. sup c. 8. f Drus praet l. 7 g Vid. Eli. Thisrad get Drus praet pag. 13. Bux Syn. c. 28. h Drus praet pag. 221. Buxd. Syn. ca. 30. For this they alleage Leuit. 12.4 i Adhuc bebdomadae cursu ad eam accedere imo iuxta iuniorum Talmudeorum decreta tangere non permittitur P. Ric. ad praec. neg 111 k Sup. cap. 14. l Phil. Ferdinandus pr. 1. m P. Ricius ad pr. affir 49. Buxdorf c. 33. Iewish beggers Cap. 34. Diseases of the Iewes Cap. 35. Iewish penances n Ceremonies about the sicke o And about the dead in the house p At the graue They may not bury the corps in silke or needle worke Iuch f. 54. no not a Prince for this were waste and a worke of the Gentiles Officium Lugentium ex lib. precationum heb. Mahzor vid. Genebrard q After the buriall r Esay 25.8 Å¿ In rad Chibut Hakebac Sup. cap. 13. a Act. 1.6 b Ben-Cobas Cozabh or Cuzibha c Gen 49.10 Hag. 2. Dan. 9.23 d Cantic 7.5 e Sanhed c. 11. f Hosh 3.4 g Malac. 4.2 h Dan. 12.3 i Ioel. 2.31 k Ierem. 5.14 l Cap. 12. ver 1. m Ezek. 38.22 n Obad. 18. o Vict Carb l. 8. cap. 15. p Esa 35.6 q Iob. 40.10 Of these huge creatures see the same huge reports and hideous vanities 4. Esdras 6.49 r Baua Basia cap 5. Å¿ Rad. Iuctma t Bechoros cap. vlt. Vid Hieron à sancto fide contra fudaeos l. 2. Homers Poliphemus and Guids iourney of Phaeton were pettie matters the Iewes scorne such pedling u Like the fish in the Legend of Saint Brandon x Cholm cap. 3 y Iob. 40.15 Psal. 104.26 z Psal. 45.10 Tract Sanhed c. Hesek tract de Idolot de Sabbato a This was not Elias the Prophet mentioned in the Scripture but a Talmudicall Rab. and therfore no sure ground to Scheltco his positions in his Treatise of the end of the World Englished by T. R. Vid Genebrard Chron. in iaitio b Ioh. 3.13 a Rom. 11. 25 26. b P. Mart. in Rom. c. 11. c Tom. 2. Hom. 12. in Marc. de verbis Dom. circa ficum * De generali nouiss ludaeor. vocatione d Impediments of the Iewes conuersion e Luth. in Mich. 4.1 2. See also a whole booke of his Cont. Iudaeos vbi haec fusius f Relation of Religion of the West parts g Apr. 1577. h Rel. West i Ibid. k Vict. de Carben. cont Iug. l. 1. c. 4 5. Rel. West l Gen. 1.28 m Heb. 13.4 n 1. Tim. 4.1 4. a An. Dom. 595. alij 604. Plat. Bonifac. 3. à Phoco Imp. magna tamen contentione obtinuit vt sedes B. Petri c. b P. Bizar Hist Pers l. 6. Mar. Sanut Torsel Geor. Cedreni Hist compend c G. Tyrens l. 1. saith 36000. G. Tyren l. 1. c. 2. a Lib. 8. c. 3. Tantum reuerebantur Saraceni Templum domini quantuÌ„ Christiani sepulch Ies Christi Sanutus Tor l. 3. p. 11. c. 12. Ber. Breid 1483. L. Suthenens Adrichomius c. b Thus Tyr. but others ascribe it to Axan and tell of very honourable