servile and less able to Rebel against him When once the Husband and the Wife come to cohabit The Wives in some measure servile she is then under great distinctions of Respect and in a manner oblig'd to a kind of servile Attendance upon his Person however in Language and Deportment the Man appears very kind and obliging and shews a tenderness to the Partner of his Bed But among all the Nations of the East The great Civility which the Siamese Language shews to Women the Siameses excel in Civility of Expressions to the Female Sex For their Language as we are told admits no distinction of Masculine and Feminine in their Genders which is the cause that whenever they would Express a Woman they add young to the Masculine to imply the Feminine whereby their Language hinders a Woman from ever growing Old by affixing always Youth to the Female as when for Example they would name an Empress they would say young Emperour The Bramins Marry The Bramins Marry as well as the other Indians and treasure up sometimes abundance of Wealth which is bequeathed to their Families for maintenance of their Widows and to portion their Children One of the Bramins who had been straitned in his Abilities from giving a competent Portion with his Daughter A Bramin's Craft to get a Portion for his Daughter which was then closely Courted contrives this Stratagem to squeeze some hundreds of Roupies from the People for that purpose He ascended a Tree which stood without the Gates of his City and then declar'd that there he would fix his Habitation there he would stay and starve and never come down 'till they contributed among them to make up the Sum. The affrighted Inhabitants who are tender of the Life of any Animal thought it not fit to dally with that of their Priest but lest his obstinate Resolution of continuing there might endanger the welfare of him they so highly esteem'd and involve them in the guilt of Sacred Blood therefore with united Hearts they clubb'd together to make up a common Purse which was deliver'd to the Damsel as a Dowry The crafty Priest upon this descended from perching aloft in the Boughs of the Tree and was kindly congratulated at his coming down for sparing his Life which he had taken private Care of that it should not be in any Danger by engaging an Accomplice to convey to him secretly what Nourishment might be necessary for his Subsistence One sort of Bramins at Suratt A strict sort of Bramins which are by much the strictest Sect among them do far exceed the rest in Abstractions from Sense and abstemious living and refrain from entring the Conjugal State lest some Animals as they tell us might be crusht to Death by their mutual Embraces And therefore to keep up the Succession of this Priesthood if any Lay-Person of their Tribe has two or three Sons one of them is chosen from among the rest to be consecrated to this Order This sort of Bramins are sparing of their Speech and will rarely speak for fear of killing some invisible Creatures which they affirm float in the Air and which some of their Holy Men have seen though others cannot They also sweep the places where they rest with a Brush lest they should crush some Animal by sitting upon it And for this end a Cloath is always tied cross their Mouth and fastned at each Ear to prevent all invisible volatile Creatures approaching their Breath lest it might prove fatal to them Bramins that never wash their Bodies And though Ablutions are so necessary in India so universally practis'd and so solemnly enjoin'd yet cannot this sort of Bramins be brought over to this convenient Discipline to wash their Bodies and cleanse themselves with Water for fear of murthering some Creatures which they fancy live in that Element Nor will they drink cold Water till it 's boil'd because they say it has Life in it and that would destroy it They neither cut their Beards nor shave their Heads Nor cut their Hair but notwithstanding all the Pain of it pull all the Hair up by the Roots as fast as it grows on those parts of their Bodies And wholly careless of the Future Nor make any Provision for the future and never anxious for to Morrow's Concerns they take all chearfully that happens each Day and of the Provision which Providence sends them if any Overplus remains they liberally distribute to such as want it and trust the same Providence for the following Day Thus they live ex tempore and as little sollicitous for the World as if they had been intimately acquainted with our Saviour's Rule Take no thought for to morrow but let the morrow take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the Day is the Evil thereof The Bannians at the naming of their Children The Ceremony of naming the Bannian Children which is about Ten Days after the Nativity perform that Ceremony after this manner They call together about a Dozen Children and put into their Hands a large Sheet which is spread and they standing round take hold of it in a Circle and bear it up from the Ground The Bramin standing by has brought to him thither two or three Sere of Rice which he pours into the middle of the Sheet and upon the Rice lays the Child to be named The young Boys that hold the Sheet shake the Child and the Rice together to and fro for a quarter of an Hour or more The Father's Sister then steps near and has the right of naming the Child but in case of her Absence or Death this Priviledge devolves upon the Father or the Mother of the Infant When the Child has thus receiv'd its Name it continues so for the space of a Month or two after the expiration whereof they proceed further towards its perfect Initiation into the Bannian Religion and then it is brought to the Pagode where the Bramin is ready and mixes some Shavings of Sandalwood Champhire Cloves and several other sweet-scented Perfumes and puts them upon the Child's Head after which it is esteemed a Member of their Religion and commences compleat Bannian Women in Child-bed not toucht The Mother till Ten Days after Child-bed is toucht by none but a dry Nurse nor is she allowed her self to put forth her Hands for the Dressing of any Meat till Forty be past after lying in and she be perfectly past her Purification Hanging-Cradles The Cradles for the Children in India are much easier and more convenient than ours that are plac'd and move upon the Ground For theirs are hung in the Air by strings ty'd to each end and fastned to a Beam or Post above and so swing to and fro with a soft quiet Motion by the slightest touch of the Hand And this was answerable to the Tenderness and Care they had for their Children's Temper Women with Child always kept chearful even whilst they were
them to venture upon Death at pleasure and as advantagious to the Soul by securing it some degrees of Felicity and Virtue Sometimes the Husband would burn with his dead Wife And for this reason the loving Husband inamour'd with his kind or beautiful Wife would sometimes burn himself with her in the Funeral Pile in expectation of a happy future Enjoyment of her But this was seldom For it generally fell to the Wives lot to be committed to the Flames with the dead Husband The Reason why the Wives were burnt with their Husbands And this Heathenish Custom was introduc'd because of the libidinous disposition of the Women who thro' their inordinate Lust would often poison their present Husbands to make way for a new Lover This was so far incouraged by the Politick Bramin who was always a Gainer by her Death that if any Woman refus'd to burn This custom incouraged by the Bramins her Head was order'd presently to be shav'd that she might appear Contemptible and Infamous for ever after For all the Jewels she put on who deckt her Body for the Flames when she was resolv'd to die were carefully lookt after by the Priest and made his Propriety after her Death because he only had power to touch the Ashes and rake therein for Gold and Silver This Custom restrain'd by the Mogul Since the Mahometans became Masters of the Indies this execrable Custom is much abated and almost laid aside by the Orders which the Nabobs receive for suppressing and extinguishing it in all their Provinces And now it is very rare except it be some Rajahs Wives that the Indian Women burn at all and those that do obtain the liberty by costly Presents and powerful Applications to the Governours by which the Women who are forc'd to survive their Husbands by a superiour Authority evade that Ignominy and Contempt which would otherwise be cast upon them This foolish desire of Dying with their Husbands is exprest by the Poet in these Verses Propertieu L. 3. Eleg. 11. Vbi mortifero jacta est fax ultima lecto Vxorum fusis stat pia Turba comis Et certamen habent lethi quae viva sequatur Conjugium pudor est non licuisse mori Ardent victrices flammae pectora praebent Imponuntque suis or a perusta viris 'T is from this barbarous perswasion of a Power they have of disposing of their own lives and those that belong to them that the Tunquinese poyson each Year one of the Fruits of the Araguer and gives it to a Child to eat imagining that by the death of that innocent Child they shall thrive the better the succeeding Year The unreasonableness of this Custom And indeed it is an unaccountable Folly in the Indians to be so profligate of their own lives and yet so sparing of the Life of any the most insignificant living Creature as if the life of a Man were of less consequence and consideration than that of a Beast The usefulness indeed of some Brutes may gain them an esteem and the kindness and fidelity of others as of the Dog Hircanus belonging to Lysimachus who leapt as we read into the Fire with the Body of his dead Master and was burnt for Company and Tyranny even to any Creature argues a savage inhumane Nature but then it argues the pitch of stupidity and madness for a Man to destroy and cast away himself in a vain fit of Fancy or of Humour who is by the dignity of his Nature advanc'd so far above the rest of the Animal World Some Gentiles in India are Inâ—â—mb'd Tho' all the Gentiles do for the most part consume the Corps of their Dead by Fire yet some small Tombs are seen here and there where their Bodies have been immur'd but all of them very small and mean in respect of the rich and stately Monuments erected by the Principal Europeans near Suratt For the Bannians are not of the Opinion of the Egyptian Kings who fancyed that the Souls after Death were delighted to hover about their Bodies and to keep as intimate a Correspondence with them as they could the Bannians I say never dreamt this and were not therefore sollicitous for any stately Receptacle for their Bodies after Death as those Monarchs were who erected those stately Pyramids as Palaces of their last Repose which neither the fury of the Elements nor the Assaults of Time were able to Demolish and where their Souls might live with their Bodies solitary and undisturb'd by the approach of any rude Guest or vulgar Spirit Six Years are now elapsed since a violent Pestilence first broke out among the Indians at Suratt A tedious Pestilence at Suratt and has raged without interruption from the time of its first rise tho not always with equal fury for as it had some sort of Interval in the times of the Mussouns which cool'd the Air so its greatest Paroxysms were always immediately before and after that Season of the Year Before the Rains fall the Air is extreme dry and parching and when they are fallen such store of hot unwholsome vapours are rais'd and scatter'd in the Air that they give Birth to more Diseases than all the Year besides produces Above an Hundred Gentiles in one of these Seasons were carried out of the Gates of this City one Morning to be Burnt besides the Moors which were carried off by the Plague and those of both Casts which died in the Suburbs which by a very modest Calculation will amount to the number of 300 a Day And yet the Inhabitants are very numerous still the Streets populous and there is but little appearance of any such violent Destruction of the Natives Before the Eruption of this Pestilence An Earthquake there happen'd a small Earthquake which alarm'd the People but without the Ruin of Houses or mortal effect to any Inhabitant But that which creates the greatest Admiration in the Moors and not a little Joy in the English is our escaping all this while the direful Influence of this mortal Disease so that not one English man was ever yet affected by it This makes the Heathens cry out that God is among us whilst they observe whole Families of their own swept away without the least Infection touching any one of our Nation they observe those menial Servants that attend us both constantly in our Chambers and in all publick places falling Dead within a few Hours after they have left our presence and both the Wives and Children of these persons that wait upon us languishing at home of this Pestilential Sickness whilst we all escape its horrid Mortal Blasts And tho' I cannot in this case but ascribe something to second Causes to the generous Wines and costly Dishes to the strength of that Aliment whereon we feed yet when I consider how languid and feeble several of the English are at sometimes of the Year and notwithstanding their Food much less vigorous and Athletick in their Bodies
instance of Villany in the Danes and prevailed with to take on Board several of their Men to assist in the Conquest of their Enemies and some hundreds of Dollars were rais'd by a Contribution and given as an Encouragement and Reward to the Undertaking But the Danes vanquisht their Expectations instead of conquering their Enemies and instead of putting them to flight fled themselves with both their Men and Money so that to this Day they were never heard of These Cheats and gross Impostures fix that Infamy upon Christianity A Reason why Christianity prevails not which it rigidly disclaims and make it look like a very formidable Profession to the Native Simplicity of these People whose pliable Tempers would readily prompt them to its Entertainment were they not debarred by an Invincible Antipathy to such Injurious Transactions The Buildings of their Country Villages are slight and without Ornament The Towns and Buildings but Kings Town and Queens Town which are the Capital upon the Island have some Structures more polisht and made strong by Stone-Walls and Timber Roofs The former is the usual Residence of their Kings where they keep their Court at 25 Miles distance from the Harbour The Inhabitants of this place enjoy some peculiar Privileges above the rest of the Natives of the Island because of their being seated so near the Royal Palace which defends them from those Injuries to which those that dwell at a Distance are sometimes exposed The King Arbitrary They are all of them industrious in concealing their Wealth from the notice of their Prince whose Avarice and Injustice cause all their Goods and Estates to be seised to his own proper Use when they die whereby many times the Widow and Children are reduced to the lowest state of Misery when once the Natural Death of the Husband has made the King Heir to his Wealth and Fortune Which is an Oppression very unjustifiable even among the Mahometan Princes and those Arbitrary Governours of the East but could never be bore with any Patience by a People secur'd in their Estates by the same Laws with those which confirm that of their Prince and who like us are freed from all Royal Violences by a tame Resignation of our Possessions In Queens Town which is a Maritime Village many of their finest Houses stand uninhabited almost half of them because some of the People were formerly killed in them by the Islanders of Moheila The Causes that many Houses stand uninhabited and their Bloodshed polluted the Habitation The Death of the Master and Mistress and one or two more of the Family does the same as if they mistrusted that upon the Destruction of the Root the Natural Branches would without a Transplantation wither and decay And the Death of any Person whatsoever so far defiles the Purity of the Dwelling that it hinders the Dressing of any Meat there for the next Month or two succeeding The Coco-nut The great usefulness of the Coco-Tree upon which the generality feed supplies them not only with Meat but Drink and serves instead of a Cup to drink out of and with the Tree upon which it grows is so variously serviceable to Navigation that a Ship may both be built and rigg'd and victuall'd and freighted by them A little Rice and this Nut together without any other Food do generally allay the Hunger of the Common People Large Entertainments The Entertainments prepar'd by the King and those of the best Note are very large and hospitable at which a whole Town will be at one time treated and all the Inhabitants invited as Guests At these Feasts the Increase of the Island is serv'd up in Plenty but eat with Moderation and without much studied Niceness in the Preparation boil'd Meat and Rice do generally cover all their Tables Strong Drink forbidden Strong Drink is not so much their Aversion as Restraint being kept from it by their Obedience to the Mahometan Law contrary to their eager Desires Yet here as in places more Oriental they warm their Spirits by the smoaking of Tobacco and Beetle-nut and Chinam are very rarely out of their Mouths Beetle-nut Beetle-nut fortifies the Stomach and comforts the Brain it preserves the Teeth and cures or prevents a tainted Breath The Beetle-nut resembles a Nutmeg and is shaved into thin pieces Chinam Chinam is Lime made of Cockle-shells or Lime-stone and Pawn is the Leaf of a Tree Pawn wherein the other two are wrapped up These they take and chaw between their Teeth till they squeeze out their Moisture which is spit upon the Ground Upon this two effects follow First It leaveth a red Tincture upon the Teeth and Lips which is esteem'd with them very Ornamental and then it chears and heats their Spirits even almost to the Intoxication of such as are unaccustom'd to it Thus they commute for the use of our prohibited Wines The Rheum which is hereby raised in the Mouth is spit generally into a Hole in the Room design'd for that purpose which serves instead of a Pigdan or Spitting-pot The Floor where the Prince entertain'd us was so uneven and full of these Holes as if the whole Room had been contriv'd for that purpose In the middle of Queens-Town is a Mosque daily frequented by the People The Mosque into which we were admitted with this necessary Respect of putting off our Shoes upon the entrance into it But this was an Instance of Civility rarely allowed us Infidels by the Mahometans Near the Porch of the Mosque is a Draw-well for the washing the Hands Face and Feet of all that enter or come out of it They take Care to preserve it neat and clean with Mats spread upon the Floor for the Convenience of such Men as pray for the Women are not much concern'd to frequent it In repeating their private Prayers they make use of Beads as the Romanists do and commonly with the same neglect intermixing their Secular Conference with the handling of them The Women married young The Women are Courted sometimes at Seven or Eight Years old and married when they come to Maturity which is about Eleven or Twelve in these warmer Countreys at which time they prepare a publick Feast for the space of Seven Days as they do at their Funerals and entertain all that are pleas'd to come The Condition of married Women The Woman contributes to the Maintenance and Support of her Husband and upon some Occasions can leave him They are kept secluded from the Society of Strangers and that freedom of gadding abroad which they so eagerly desire which they sometimes unlawfully venture upon to the hazard of their Lives upon Discovery The Orientals are all of them generally jealous and very circumspect about their Wives and seldom fail of punishing their Infidelity if it come to light And particularly the Laws of Tunquin are very severe against Adulteresses A severe Law against Adulteresses at Tunquin and at
carried in the Womb who provided such convenient Food and innocent Diversions such pleasing Entertainments of their Senses and Fancy for the Teeming Women at that time that the Minds of the Children might participate thereby of those Delights might be chearful and serene and free from all dismal Impressions from their Parent and so their Lives afterwards might be composed and exempt from all anxious Thoughts from all turbulent Desires and vexatious Agonies of Spirit And from hence I will proceed to one of the last things I shall take notice of concerning the Bannians and that is their Burials As every Man 's coming into the World necessarily infers his going out of it and consequently a Separation of Body and Soul all the World therefore seems much concern'd what will become after Death of that other part of themselves in the Sepulture of their Bodies Five ways of disposing of the Dead And as there have been five ways of disposing of the Dead one to put them into the Ground another to cast them into the Water the third to leave them in the open Air the fourth to burn them the fifth to suffer them to be devoured by Beasts So of these Five two have principally obtain'd in the World that of committing their Bodies to the Earth and the other The Bannians burn the dead Bodies near the Water-side to the Flames The last of these is made choice of by the Bannians who carry their dead Bodies to a Pile of Wood near the Water-side not far from Suratt which is presently kindled after the Corps is laid upon it and when the Flame has reduced it to Ashes the Remains are thrown into the River They likewise if they are able Fragrant Wood burntt with the Corps burn some fragrant Wood of great Value with the Corps to sweeten the Air and mix its Perfumes with the black Exhalations Burning more honourable than burying And were it not for the Tyranny of Custom it seems more Honourable to have our Bodies consum'd by that lively Element than to have them devour'd by Worms and Putrefaction whereof Fire being an Enemy and the Emblem and most sensible Hieroglyphick of Immortality there can be no better Expedient to secure our Friends from Oblivion than that of burning their Bodies whereof we have either the Bones or Ashes Left which may be preserved whole Ages The several Nations of the World had Customs of their own Custom a second Nature which commencing upon uncertain Principles have been deriv'd to their Posterity and receiv'd with a Religious Fancy and they would rather die than do an Act of Violence to them and believ'd it the greatest Impiety in the World to break them Whereof Herodotus gives a full Instance in a Trial made by Darius to the Indians and Greeks He askt the Greeks what they would take to do as the Indians did who eat their dead Parents and Friends and accounted it the most honourable Burial They answered They would not do it at any Price And when he askt the Indians upon what Account they would be induced to burn the Bodies of their Fathers and not to eat them They desired him not to speak to them of any such horrid Impiety as to burn their Fathers Carkasses and to deny them the Honour of a Natural Burial in the Bowels of their dear Children This shews how Custom is the Spirit and Genius of a Man's Actions and introduces a Nature and Religion it self and were the Prejudice of that remov'd other civiliz'd Nations might doubtless be as zealous for burning their dead Friends as the Bannians are now-a-days Four ways of disposing of their Dead among the Siamese The Four Elements were formerly worshipped by the ancient Siamese who committed their Bodies when dead to what they ador'd when they were alive He therefore that worshipped the Earth made choice of that for his Interrment the Fire consum'd the Corps of its Adorers the Worshippers of the Air were expos'd to the Birds to devour them and those that reverenced the Element of Water were drowned in it at their Burial This Care of Mens Bodies after Death seems natural to Mankind All Nations take care of their Dead and almost universal which Osiris King of Egypt taking notice of made use of as an Encouragement to Vertue and an Argument for the practice of Morality among his People Those whose Vertues were Illustrious and whose Characters were unblemisht were appointed by him to be buried in Beautiful Fields near Memphis verdant with all manner of Flowers whilst the others were assign'd to places of Punishment and Ignominy whose lives had been Dissolute and Vicious The Gentiles of India The Corps Burnt sometimes before 't is quite dead as it they were weary of their Friends when alive and loath to harbour them when dead burn the Body sometimes before it is quite dead and when they think it past recovery A Bannian who was Broker to the English was thus hurried away to the burning Place as he was just expiring but being happily met by the English Surgeon who felt his Pulse and gave some hopes of Recovery some kinder Friend among the rest disswaded the Company from proceeding and in a little time by the application of a few Cordials he was recover'd to his Health and by that Miraculous chance evaded an untimely end The Corps is carried upon a Bier The manner of carrying the Dead to be Burnt according to the Custom of the Moors attended by Friends and Relations who as they pass along the Road are incessantly repeating Ram Ram that is in their Language God! God! For Ram they say was formerly the name of a mighty Prince among them and is now invoked by them as if he were God or the name translated to the Almighty Shaving the Hair a token of deep mourning If a Rajah dies his Subjects and Dependants cut off all their Beards and shave their Heads as tokens of the deepest Mourning for his Decease which is such a solemn sign of Grief and extraordinary Sorrow that this nakedness and want of Nature's Covering and Ornament of the Head and Face is never shown but for a Prince a Parent or some nearest Relation Funeral expences costly Upon the Death of any Friend the Bannians are not sparing of their Cost but spend profusely in Banqueting and Feasts which are kept publickly for the two or three days following then they observe upon the same account the Twelfth the Twentieth the Thirtieth and the Fortieth besides once each Quarter of the succeeding Year ' til the Annual Solemnity returns And he who at these times is parsimonious and endeavours to contract his Expences is accounted if he be a Man of Wealth the most sordid Miser in the World The Impious Opinion which the Indians formerly entertain'd The Reason which the Indians had for burning themselves of having a power over their own Lives as they were Masters of themselves caus'd many of