they believe that that was the night that Mahomet Ascended up to Heaven upon the Alboraoh as he mentions in the Alcoran Thursday the fourth of the Moon of Regeb they have Prayers in their Mosques till Midnight and then return home and Feast This Festival is because of the Ramadan which comes two Months after on all these Festivals and during the whole Ramadan the Minarets of the Mosques are as I said deck'd with Lamps which being contrived in several Figures when they are Lighted make a vary pretty show CHAP. XXXVI Of what renders the Turks Vnclean and of their Ablutions THE third Command of the Turks concerns Prayer Ablutions of the Turks but because they never say their Prayers till first they wash we must say somewhat of their Ablutions The Turks have two kinds of Ablutions the one is called Gousl and is a general Washing of the whole Body The other is termed Abdest and is the Ablution they commonly make before they begin their Prayers Of the Abdest for they never go to Prayers till first they have used the Abdest at least or both the Gousl and Abdest if it be needful Of the Gousl wherefore there are commonly near the Mosques Baths for the Gousl and Fountains for the Abdest There is also an Ablution that they perform after that they have done their Needs which is a kind of Abdest but they only wash their Hands They are obliged to use the Gousl after they have lain with their Wives or after Nocturnal Pollution or when Urine or any other unclean thing hath fallen upon them and therefore when they make Water they squat down like Women least any drop of it should fall upon them or their Cloaths for they think that that which pollutes their Bodies or Cloaths pollutes also their Souls as also by washing the Body they think they wash the Soul. After they have made Water they rub the Yard against a Stone to fetch off any thing that might remain and defile them by falling upon their Cloaths When they do their Needs they make not use of Paper as I have said but having eased themselves they make all clean with their Fingers that they dip into Water and then wash their Hands which they never fail to do after they have done their Needs nay and after they have made Water too wherefore there is always a Pot full of Water in their Houses of Office The Neatness of the Turks and they carry two Handkerchiefs at their girdle to dry their Hands after they have washed This cleanliness is in so great repute with them and they are so fearful least they should defile themselves with their Excrements that they take care that even their Sucking Children in Swadling Cloaths do not defile themselves and for that end they swadle them not as we do A Cradle after the Turkish fashion but put them into Cradles which have a Hole in the middle much about the place where the Child's Buttocks lie and leave always the Breech of it naked upon the Hole to the end that when it does its Business the Excrement may fall into a Pot just under the hole of the Cradle and for making of Water they have little Pipe of Box-wood crooked at one end and shaped like Tobacco-Pipes these Pipes are three Inches long and as big as ones Finger some have the Boul or Hole at the great end round and serve for Boys into which the Yard is put and fastned with some strings the others are of an Oval bore at the great end and serve for the Girls who have them tied to their Bellies and the small end passing betwixt their Thighs conveys the Urine by the hole of the Cradle into the Pot underneath without spoiling of any thing and so they spoil not so much Linnen as Children in Christendom do Now to continue the order of their Ablutions they are obliged to make the Abdest immediately after Prayers as they are to wash their Hands immediately after they have done their Needs or handled any thing that 's unclean and if they be in a place where they cannot find Water they may make use of Sand or Earth in stead of Water not only for the Abdest but the Gousl also and the washing of the Hands and that Ablution will be good The Abdest is performed in this manner First The way of doing the Abdest Turning the Face towards Mecha they wash their Hands three times from the Fingers end to the Wrist Secondly They wash the Mouth three times and make clean their Teeth with a Brush Thirdly They wash the Nose three times and suck Water up out of their Hands into their Nostrils Fourthly With their two Hands they throw Water three times upon the Face Fifthly They wash three times their right Arm from the Wrist to the Elbow and then the left Sixthly They rub the Head with the Thumb and first Finger of the right Hand from the Brow to the Pole. Seventhly With the same Finger and Thumb they wash the Ears within and without Eighthly they wash the Feet three times beginning at the Toes and going no higher than the Instep and with the right Foot first and then the left But if they have washed their Feet in the Morning before they put on their Stockins they pull them not off again but only wet the Hand and then with the aforesaid Finger and Thumb wash over the Paboutches from the Toes to the Instep beginning always with the right and then the left and do so every time that it is necessary from Morning to Night that is to say they pull not off their Stockins all day long But if their Stockins have a hole big enough for three Fingers they ought to pull them off They say that God commanded them to wash the Face but once the Hands and Arms as often to rub the Head as has been mentioned before and to wash the Feet up to the Instep God being unwilling to overcharge Man but that Mahomet added the two other times for fear they might neglect it The difference which they put betwixt that time which God commanded and the two times of Mahomet is that they call the first Fars and those of Mahomet Sunnet Mahomet ordained then that they should wash their Hands three times from the Wrist to the Fingers ends that they should use a Brush to make clean their Teeth that they should wash their Mouth three times that they should throw Water three times upon their Face with their two Hands that they should spend no more time in making clean one part than another but that they should make haste that they should wash their Ears with the same Water wherewith they washed the Head having a firm resolution to wash themselves and saying aloud or to themselves I am resolved to make my self clean That they should begin at the right side and with the Toes in washing of the Feet and the Fingers in washing the Hands and that whilst
that which nourishes the Country and at that Solemnity they yearly Sacrificed a Boy and a Girl upon whom the Lot fell first cutting their Throat and then throwing them into the Nile In memory whereof the Turks at this day make the above-mentioned Figures of a Man and a Woman which they fill with Fire and in this manner they divert themselves during the three Nights allotted for that rejoycing and when the Water is very high there are Men who Swim in the Khalis A Swimmer loaded with Chains with Iron-Chains One of these Swimmers I saw pass by and not without Ceremony Before him went a great Boat full of People of whom some beat the Drum others had Fire-locks to shoot at those who should throw stones and then he came in the middle of twenty Persons that Swam about him His Hands were tied behind his Back and his Feet bound with a Chain of Iron that weighed ten pound weight he stood upright in the Water and discoursed with those that were about him not seeming in the least to move He was followed by five or six Boats full of People ready to take him up if he chanced to sink In this manner he came in the Water from old Caire where the Khalis begins to the place where it ends which is a long League For a reward he has from the Basha a Vest and a thousand Maidins and besides that he goes about the Town with a Box and gets somewhat more In this manner he goes twice on two several days There is another also who Swims in Chains surrounded as the other from end to end of the Khalis and holds in each hand a dish of Coffee with a Pipe of Tobacco in his Mouth without spilling the Coffee He performs this twice and has the same reward as the other had These Swimmers shew only on Fridays so that one may see them once a Week during four Weeks CHAP. LXVII Of the Arrival of the Bey of Girge at Caire WEdnesday the fourth of September Mehmet Bey The arrival of the Bey of Girge who was then Bey of Girge arrived near to Caire and Lodged at Bezeten beyond old Caire in Tents This Bey had been a Slave to one Haley Bey who died very Rich in the year One thousand six hundred fifty five when he was Bey of Girge which is fourteen or fifteen days Journey from Caire up the Nile In his Life-time he had made four of his Slaves Beys of whom this was one and after his death Bey of Girge When Haley Bey died he left behind him Fourscore thousand Camels and about as many Asses and besides that a vast Treasure of Coyned Money and Jewels among which there was a Cup made of a Turkeis worth above an Hundred thousand Crowns This Man lived at a very high Rate and there was not a day but he spent a thousand Crowns in his House at Caire though he were not there but much more when he was His Successor Mehmet Bey I speak of was sent for by two Agas one after another and commanded in name of the Basha who had no kindness for him to come to Caire and account for what he was in Arrear to the Basha for that is a Beyship depending on the Bassaship of Caire The design of the Basha was to draw him to Caire under this pretext then to deprive him of his Beyship and give it to another which was a secret he had discovered to no Man living The Bey who suspected the Basha's design having at first slighted his Commands resolved at length to come but seeing the Basha knew that he came with a great Retinue he sent an Aga to command him back This Aga found him at three days Journey from Caire and acquainted him with his Orders which the other slighted and proceeded on his Journey till he came near to Caire Thursday the fifth of September all the Beys and other Persons of Quality went out to visit him as also all the Militia of the Country The Beys and the Cadilesquer who was no friend to this Basha had laid their Heads together to make the Basha Mansoul in case he gave bad Reception to this Bey because besides that they were all his friends they always stick together against the Basha He made his entry into Caire on Saturday the seventh of September and that I might have a full view of that entry I went to Cara Meidan which is a great Court or Square in the Basha's Palace at the end whereof the Stables are This is a large and spacious place but longer than broad The Basha came down and went into a Kieusk which is about the middle of the length of this place on the right hand as you enter it from the Romeille The Basha staid for him here because the Bey would not go to his Appartment fearing he might not be strong enough for him there Thither came all the Men of the Beys and all the Spahis Chiaoux Muteferacas and in a word all the Militia ready to fight For seeing they knew not the Basha's design and saw on the other hand that the Bey was well accompanied they doubted it might come to blows These Men of the Beys played for the matter of two Hours with the Dgerit or Zagaye which was a great Diversion to me for there I saw them at near distance with safety and ease whereas when they see a Christian abroad in the Fields they many times dart their Dgerit at him After that they drew neatly up into very close Order And at the same time by the Gate opposite to that which goes into the Romeille the Arabs of this Bey entred the place armed with Pikes and Shables four fingers broad every one with his Iron-Hook a finger broad and as big as ones Hand with a Wooden Handle to take up their Pikes without alighting from Horse-back as they run after they have darted them at any Body as they who make use of Arrows have such another Iron-Instrument wherewith they hook up their Arrows from the Ground and both are very dextrous at it These Hooks they carried in their Sleeves and were all very well Mounted and not ill Clad for Arabs They were in number above Three thousand and among them marched the sixteen Caschefs or Bailiffs Caschefs The Toug of the Bey who are Subjects of this Bey and his Sous-basha After these came the Toug of the Bey which is a Horses Tail at the end of a Pike and a large fair pair of Colours Then came above Two thousand Harquebusiers on Horse-back well clad carrying all their Harquebuses before them and their Shables by their sides and of these the last forty had on Coats of Mail Semhin or Serban Vambraces Steel-Caps Neck-pieces and in a word they were all in Mail and followed by the Beys foot who are called Semhin or Serban These are Men who have no Pay but from him receiving none from the Grand Signior They were about four
on the top you may go up to the top by a winding stair-case that is within it Burnt Pillar The other is called the burnt pillar because it is all black having been scorched by a fire that broke out in some adjoyning houses which spoil'd it so much that they have been forced to gird it about with great bars of Iron to keep it tight and hinder it from falling it is of eight pieces of Porphyrian Marble which were so well joyned together before that fire that it appeared to be but one single Stone and indeed the seams were hid and covered by Lawrel-branches cut upon them but at present they are easily seen CHAP. XVIII Of the Grand Signior's Serraglio THe Serraglio of the Grand Signior is the first thing that one sees in coming to Constantinople by Sea it affords a very pleasant Prospect Serraglio because of the Gardens on the Water-side but the Architecture of the Fabrick is nothing at all magnificent it is on the contrary very plain in respect of what the Palace of so powerful a Prince ought to be Serrai and Serraglio Serrai in Turkish signifies a Palace and the Franks by corruption call it Serraglio taking it it seems only for the Appartment where the Women are shut up as if they derived that word from the French Serrer or the Italian Serrar which signifies to close or shut but the word is Turkish and signifies a Palace and the Grand Signiors is called Serrai or Serraglio by excellence It is built in the place where in ancient times Byzantium stood upon the Hill of Sandimitri Hill of Sandrimitri which is a point of the main land looking to the Chanal of the Black Sea The Lodgings are upon the top of the Hill and the Gardens below This Palace is three miles about The bigness of the Serraglio and is of a triangular Figure of which two sides are upon the Sea enclosed within the Town Walls and betwixt the Walls and the Sea there is a little rising Key but no body dares go there especially on the side of the Port before he be past the Serraglio the third side is separated from the Town by good Walls fortified with several Towers as well as those to the Sea side in which Towers there are always some Aadgemoglans in Sentinel Aadgemoglans These Aadgemoglans are the refuse of the tribute Children out of whom they chuse the more witty and dextrous and instruct them in order to be advanced to places and those who have fewest parts are employed in mean and clownish imployments as to be Gardners Grooms and such like On the side of the Port over against Galata there is a Kionsk or Pavillion upon the Key Kionsk not raised very high from the ground it is supported by several Marble Pillars and there the Grand Signior comes often to take the Air at this place he takes water when he intends to divert himself in his Galiot upon the Sea. On the other side of the Serraglio towards the Sea and the seven Bowers Another Kiousk there is another kind of Pavillion pretty high where the Prince often diverts himself also it is built upon Arches and below it upon the Wall there are marks of Crosses the Greeks say that it was formerly a Church There is also a Fountain there where those of that Nation go on the day of the Transfiguration The Ceremony of the Greeks on the day of Transfiguration and make the Sick drink the Water of it burying them in the Sand about up to the Neck and immediately after uncovering them again and many who are very well in health do the like The Grand Signior is that day commonly at his Window where he diverts himself with the pranks they play without being seen Near to that place there is a great Window out of which those who are strangled in the Serraglio are thrown into the Sea in the night-time and as many Guns are fired as there are Bodies thrown out a great many pieces of Cannon lye there upon the shoar unmounted This Palace hath many Gates to the water-side but they are only for the Grand Signior and some of the Serraglio The chief Gate of the Serraglio the chief Gate of it looks towards Santa Sophia which is near by That being the Common Gate is guarded by Capidgis it opens into a very spacious Court where at first you see to the right Hand the Infirmerie whither they carry the sick of the Serraglio in a little close Chariot The Infirmerie of the Serraglio drawn by two men when they see that Chariot every one steps aside to make way for it even the Grand Signior if he happen'd to meet it would do so Dgebehane A little farther to the left Hand is the Dgebehane or Magazine of Cuirasses covered with Lead Vestry of Santa Sophia Second Gate of the Serraglio that building was heretofore the Vestry of Santa Sophia which shews how big a Church it has been in its time From that Court you go to the second which is not fo big as the former and is in a square extending two hundred paces every way all round it there is a Gallery in form of a Cloyster supported by several Marble Pillars and covered with Lead At the back of that Gallery to the right Hand there are nine Domes ranging from one end of the Court to the other all covered with Lead and these are the Kitchins The Kitchins of the Serraglio Stables to the left Hand at the back of the Gallery also is the Stable where none but the Horses which are for the Grand Signiors own Sadle stand the other Stables being towards the Sea along that side of the Serraglio which looks to the Propontis none but the Grand Signior enters this second Court on Horseback all others alight without at the Gate of this The Janisaries draw up in this Court under the Gallery to the right and the Horse to the left The Fountain of the Serraglio In the middle of it there is a most lovely Fountain shadowed over with several Sycamore Trees and Cypresses and near to this Fountain the Grand Signior caused heretofore the Heads of the Bashaws and other persons of Quality to be cut off At the end of this Court on the left Hand is the Hall where the Divan sits and on the right a door which gives entry into the Serraglio but that entry is only allowed to those who have orders to come that way so then since I had no call and this place being all mysterie I shall not attempt to speak of it The Fabrick of the Serraglio The Fabrick of this Serraglio by what one can see of it on the outside is no ways regular all that is to be seen are but separated Appartments in form of Domes so that there is nothing to be distinguished and one cannot tell what to make of it The Grand Signior lodges in this
the more honourable with the Turks The more honourable side because it is the Sword-side so that he who is on the right-hand has the Sword under the hand of him whom he would honour When a Turk walks with a Christian he will not willingly give him the left hand and it is very easie to make them agree as to that point for seeing with us the right hand is the more honourable both of them are in the place of honour CHAP. XXIII Of Baths or Bagnios THE Turks make great use of Bathing both for keeping their bodies neat and clean and for their healths sake For that purpose they have many fair Bagnios in their Towns and the sorriest Village that is Bagnios has at least a Bagnio they are all made after the same fashion and there is no difference but that some are bigger and more adorned with marble than others I 'll describe that which is at Tophana near to a fair Mosque as being one of the loveliest that I have seen You enter into a large square Hall A Description of Bagnios about twenty paces in length and of a very high roof all round this Hall there are Mastabez or benches of stone against the wall above a fathom broad Mastabez and half as high which are all covered with mats so soon as you come they spread you out a large napkin which they call Fouta upon the said benches Fouta where you sit down and lay your cloaths after you have stript In the middle of this Hall there is a great Fountain with a large Bason of marble for washing the Linnen that hath been used and when they are washed they are hung up to dry upon poles which are on high all round the Hall When you have sate down upon the napkin which they have spread for you they bring you another to put before you which you tie over your shirt before you pull it off lest you should show what ought not to be seen which would be a great crime that covers you behind and before from the girdle down to the knees Having pull'd off your shirt you put it with your cloaths in the napkin you sate upon leaving them there without fear that any body will touch them for the Bagnios are places of liberty and security as though they were sacred and there is no cheat ever committed in them for if any were the Master of the Bagnio would be obliged to make good what was lost or embeziled After you are stript you enter by a little door into a small room somewhat hot and from thence by another door into the great Hall which is very hot All these Halls are made with Domes having little glass windows to let in the light This great hot Hall is of a Pentagone figure each side being supported by two Pillars of white marble on each side there is a marble edging or rising about half a foot high and in the middle of that in the floor about two foot from the wall there is a little Bason of white marble two foot broad and over it a cock of warm water and a hands breadth above this cock another cock for cold water so that you mingle them as you please then you take large copper Cups which are alwaies ready for that use and with them throw upon yourself as much water as you have a mind In this Hall also there is a large stone-Fat full of hot water whereinto you may go if you please but that is not safe because a great many Rogues who have several diseases go into it though the water be often changed but if you be sure that no body has as yet been in it you may wash yourself there So soon as you enter into that great Hall you sit down upon the flat floor which is all of marble heated by Furnaces underneath then comes a Servant stark naked except those parts which modesty requires to be covered the Servants of the Bagnio are always so that they may be in readiness to wait upon those that come and making you lye out at length upon your back he puts his knees upon your belly and breast and embracing you very streight makes all the bones of your body arms and legs crack again to stretch and soften the sinews then laying you upon your belly he does the like on your back treading upon it so that he often makes you kiss the ground after that having shaved your chin and under the arm-pits he gives you a rasor to shave yourself every where else and you go into one of the little chambers that are made in the intervals betwixt the sides and being there you take off your napkin and hang it upon the door that so every one that sees it may know there is some body within which will hinder them from coming in and there you may shave yourself at your leisure If you be afraid that you may hurt yourself with a Razor they give you a bit of Paste The way of using Rusma made of a certain mineral called Rusma beat into a powder and with lime and water made up into a Paste which they apply to the parts where they would have the hair fetcht off and in less than half a quarter of an hour all the hair falls off with the Paste by throwing hot water upon it They know when it is time to throw on water by trying if the hair comes off with the Paste for if it be left too long sticking on the place after it had eaten off the hair it would corrode the flesh Rusma is a mineral like to the rust or dross of Iron What Rusma is it is much in use in Turky and sold in so great quantities that the Custom of it yields the Grand Signior a considerable Revenue In Malta they use instead of Rusma Orpiment which they mingle with lime for the same use Having taken off the hair and put your napkin about you again you return into the great Hall where you sweat as long as you please then comes a Servant with a Purse of black Camlet into which he puts his hand and rubs your body so hard all over that he clears all the filth from your skin yet without hurting you then he takes a lock of Silk with a bit of Soap in it and therewith rubs and soaps you all over after which he throws a great deal of water upon your body and washes your head also if you please with Soap Having done so he goes and brings you a dry napkin which you put about you in the place of the wet one then you return into the Hall where you left your cloaths where sitting down he pours water upon your feet to wash off the filth that you may have got in coming and after that he brings you hot and dry napkins wherewith you rub and dry your skin and when you cloaths are on again and you have seen yourself in a
shall not speak of them I will only tell what I had from an Itchoglan newly come out of the Serraglio that the Grand Signior is served at his Meals in China which is more valuable then Purcelane or Terra Sigillata that is reckoned to be good against Poyson The Grand Signior's Dishes He hath also a great many covered dishes of beaten Gold each dish with its cover weighing twelve or thirteen Marks These Dishes were presented to him by Kilidge Hali Basha a Renegado native of Messina after the Pillage and Robberies that he committed in Calabria where he took great Booty Now though with them it be a sin to eat in Gold or Silver yet he makes use of both and the Queen Mother of the Grand Signior is served in forty Silver plate dishes But at extraordinary Feasts which are kept in the Gardens or Summer-Houses they are served in Basons of Purcelane or Terra Sigillata as the Ambassadours are also when they are feasted in the Hall of the Divan before they have their Audience of the Grand Signior When he eats he speaks to no body The Grand Signior never speaks at Dinner but makes himself be understood by Signs to the mute Buffoons who are very expert at that having a very singular method in it and there is nothing but what they can express by Signs These Buffoons are always playing some foolish Tricks amongst themselves to make him Laugh He never beats his Brains about Business Care of Affairs but refers the whole management of Affairs to his Ministers who give him a Summary Account of them on certain days of the Week Not but that there have been some who have taken the Care upon themselves ordering their Ministers to act according to their Directions Sultan Amurat though a very debauched Prince always minded his Affairs and Sultan Mahomet who Reigns at present and traces the Footsteps of his Uncle Amurat loves Business very well too When the Grand Signior is weary of staying in his Serraglio he goes and takes the Air upon the Water and sometimes by Land but not often because his Ministers do what they can to hinder him from that least Petitions may be presented to the Grand Signior against them For such as cannot have Justice of them expect till the Grand Signior be abroad in the Streets and when he passes by they put their Petition on the end of a Cane which they hold up as high as they can which the Grand Signior perceiving sends for it and has it brought to him The truth is the Ministers are not well pleased he should be informed of Affairs by any but themselves I have several times seen the present Grand Signior abroad but the first time that I saw him I was told that for at least a Year before he had not been out of his Serraglio The Grand Signior's going abroad out of the Serraglio When he goes abroad by Land it is either with small Attendance or in Pomp I have seen both as I shall afterwards relate When he goes by Water he has always few Attendance his Galiotte comes to the Kieusk of the Serraglio which is on the Water-side over against Galata and entring with a very small Retinue he goes to Scudaret or the Black-Sea to take the Air. This is a most rich Galiotte guilt all over and adorned with many counterfeit Stones It hath four and twenty Benches that is to say four and twenty Oars on each side Bostangis Rowers each rowed by two Bostangis who have only a Shirt over their Breeches or rather Drawers they have scarlet Caps shaped like a Sugar-Loaf such as all the Bostangis wear being half an Ell high and they who serve on this occasion are the Favorites of the Bostangi Basha The advantage of the Rowers Those that Row on the right side are all the Sons of Christians made Turks who may arise to the dignity of Bostangi Basha to which Office those that Row on the left hand who are the Sons of Turks and commonly of Asia can never aspire And the greatest reward that they can hope for when they come out of the Serraglio is to have fourscore Aspres a day in Pay whereas those on the right side after they have discharged the Office of Bostangi Basha may be Agas of the Janizaries nay even Bashas or Governours of Provinces If any of these Bostangis chance to break an Oar in Rowing the Grand Signior gives him according to his Liberality a handful of Aspres or a handful of Chequins as an encouragement for plying his Business with so much strength In the time of Sultan Solyman three Chequins was the ordinary reward but at present it is not limited However it is not by strength but rather slight that they break their Oars and many times they break them half off before the Grand Signior come on board his Galiotte and then easily do the rest as they Row. The Bostangi Basha sits at the Helm and steers the Galiotte and at that time has opportunity enough to discourse with the Grand Signior at his ease The Grand Signior goes through the City in Disguise Besides these ways of going Abroad the Grand Signior goes sometimes through the City in Disguise and without Attendance as a private Man to see if his Orders be punctually observed And he at present who seems in all his Actions to imitate his Uncle Sultan Amurat went abroad almost every day in Disguise whilst I was at Constantinople having however some Men following him at a little distance and amongst the rest an Executioner And by the way he caused many Heads to flie off both in Constantinople and Galata which kept all things in better order The Christians were very glad that he Disguised himself so for that was the cause that no body durst molest or abuse them Sometimes he would go to a Bakers Shop and buy Bread and sometimes to a Butchers for a little Meat And one day a Butcher offering to sell him Meat above the rate which he had set he made a sign to the Executioner who presently cut off the Butchers Head. Prohibition of Tobacco But it was chiefly for Tobacco that he made many Heads to flie He caused two Men in one day to be Beheaded in the Streets of Constantinople because they were smoaking Tobacco He had prohibited it some days before because as it was said when he was passing along the Street where Turks were smoaking Tobacco the smoak had got up into his Nose But I rather think that it was in imitation of his Uncle Sultan Amurat who did all he could to hinder it so long as he lived He caused some to be Hanged with a Pipe through their Nose others with Tobacco hanging about their Neck and never pardoned any for that I believe that the chief reason why Sultan Amurath prohibited Tobacco was because of the Fires that do so much mischief in Constantinople when they happen which most commonly are
general Assault to be given the next day and assured them that all such as should return from the Assault before the Town was taken should be put to death with his own hands Next day the Assault was given and seeing all knew that Sultan Amurat was a Man of Execution every one both Soldiers and Officers strove who should first offer their bodies to the Enemies blows a vast number were killed but at length they took the Town by storm Besides the advantage of their Numbers and Courage they are likewise very well armed and likewise very skilful in handling of them for in that especially they exceed the Christians that they place the chief part of their Wealth in the magnificence of their Habits Turkish Soldiers well armed Horses Arms and Harness of whatsoever quality they be and if a wretched Janizary who hath four or five Aspres a day can scrape together fifty Crowns he 'l freely lay them out upon a good Musket or handsom Sword. These Muskets are big and of very good metal and weigh sometimes forty fifty nay sixty pound weight nay I have seen one that weighed fourscore They put in them a great Charge of Powder and then ram down a sizable Bullet with the Scowring-stick The way of firing the Musket which is all Iron after that they hold their Musket with the right Hand against the right Shoulder and with the left Hand a leathern Belt fastened to a ring at the middle of the Musket and to another near the Butt and with that they 'l shoot as exact as one can do with a light Fowling-piece and their Musket never split I remember that a Janizary belonging to the French Consul at Caire having on a time charged his Musket with a Bullet of size and shot at two Turtles upon a Tree he shot off the head of the one and the other through the body As for the Troopers whatever some French men who have been in those Countries may say they sit a Horse well they have indeed the Stirrops very short but yet they look very well and sit as close as if they were nailed to the Horse One day in the French Quarter I saw a Spahi so drunk that he could not stand but when he was on Horse-back he made an hundred Caracolles without the least reeling They are very careful also in looking after their Horses Troopers careful of their Horses and there is no Trooper but hath always a measure of Oats ready for his Horse and every thing else that is fit to dress him or to set right what is amiss about him and early in the morning he rises and dresses him himself All this being considered it is not to be thought strange that they are strong by Land and bring to pass whatever they undertake CHAP. LII Of the Weakness of the Turks by Sea. IF the Turks succeed very well in their Wars by Land The Turks unskilful at Sea. they are neither so fortunate nor so stout at Sea where they are always worsted and never get the better but when they are six to one which chiefly is occasioned by their want of skilful Sea Officers fit to Command I speak not now of the Barbary men who being always a Pirating and for the most part Renegadoe Italians French English and Dutch Sea-men by profession cannot but understand Sea Affairs The Turks are even unskilful in building of Ships The Turks understand not how to build Ships and though in that they employ Christian Slaves yet they are so ill built that they are not fit to serve above two years They build Saiques and other Merchants Vessels pretty well but for Men-of-War they are meer Apprentices at it They do what they can to imitate the Galleasses of Venice which do them so much mischief but they cannot compass it for their Galleasses which they call Maones are no more but Galleys a little higher raised Nay Maone there Bastarde or Admiral Galley having served one year Bastarde becomes next year a Maone When they are about to launch a new built Vessel Ceremony in launching a new built Ship. all the other Ships and Galleys come to the place and the Ship that is to be launched is covered with Musicians and Players on Instruments adorned with Flags and Colours on all hands and the Port is covered over with Boats full of People All things being ready they kill a great many Sheep on board the new Ship which are given to the Poor and then she is launched off with the sound of all the Instruments and the shouts of the People who several times cry Allah when she is in the Sea all the other Ships and Galley's salute her with their Guns I saw the Admiral Galley launched in this manner but a little before I came to Constantinople they had ill luck with that Ceremony for a new Vessel which was very big and full of People being launched shot off so fast that she ran her head under water so that many were drowned and the Ships and Galleys that came to salute her were fain to return without firing a Gun. They man their Ships very well with Soldiers and even Janizaries but these Blades The Janizaries have an aversion to the Sea. Seferlus The insolence of the Soldiers when they are going to Sea. who know not what it is to give ground on shore never go to Sea but against their wills and if they can get off for money they are sure not to go All that go for a season to Sea are called Seferlus that is to say who make a Voyage Three days before the Fleet put out they go along the streets with a Hatchet in their hand demanding Aspres from all Christians and Jews whom they meet and sometimes of Turks too and if they have them not quickly bestowed they freely lay on with their Hatchet never minding what may come on 't for they are not sought after so that it is not good for Christians or Jews to be abroad in the streets during these three days Then are all Taverns shut up by order of the Visier who causes them ever to be sealed lest the Wine might inflame their Insolence But I cannot forbear to say somewhat of the Battel that was fought before the Dardaneiles whilst I was at Constantinople wherein the Christians and Venetians gained so much honour and advantage CHAP. LIII Of the Battel of the Dardanelles Fought in the Year 1656. Battel of the Dardanelles in 1656. NEws being brought to Constantinople that the Venetian Fleet was before the Dadanelles the Turks made hast to set out theirs and engage them and during that time an Italian who had had some command on Board of a Ship of the Venetian Fleet being disgusted by the other Officers made his escape out of the Fleet A Venetian turns Turk and came with his Son presently to Constantinople where they both turned Turks the Turks took that for a good
granted so that we entered and our Spahi being at some distance from us could not get in we were very glad that we were got into the first Court but durst not offer to present ourselves at the Gate of the second for fear of harsh usage and of being punished for our sauciness and therefore chose rather to wait for the coming of the Ambassadour in whose Train we entred The entry of the Moguls Ambassadour into the Serraglio The Chiaoux were gone to his House in the Morning to wait upon him to the Serraglio and we had not waited long before we saw fourty or fifty Chiaoux's on Horse-back then came some of the Ambassadours Servants on Horse-back also the last of whom led four lovely Horses which were followed by seventeen Mules for no Ambassadours come there without a Present After all came the Ambassadour very well mounted but plain in his Apparrel having the Chiaoux Basha on his left hand They alighted at the gate of the second Court where all went in and I among the rest The countenance of the Janizaries drawn up in a Lane. In this Court on the right hand three thousand Janizaries were so drawn up and kept so great silence that one would have thought they had been all Statues The Mules that carried the Presents were led a great way forward to the left hand and there unloaded in the mean time the Ambassadour was introduced into the Hall of the Divan where Dinner was served up and there he dined with the Visiers it being their custom that Ambassadours Dine before they are conducted to Audience of the Grand Signior and during that time the present is carried into the third Court making it pass before the Grand Signior who is willing first to see what he hath brought before he receive him to Audience after that it is laid up in the Wardrobe The Ambassadours Servants were also entertained at Dinner in a Court near to their Present which was opened under a Cloath purposely pitch'd up about twenty or thirty paces from the Divan and carried piece after piece by Capidgis who gently removed it from thence into the third Court on their Arms and every one had but a little to carry that it might make the greater shew The Moguls Ambassadours second Present Two hundred threescore and fourteen Capidgis were employed in carrying this Present which consisted of two thousand two hundred pieces wrapped up in two hundred and threescore Toilets First went four led Horses then the Capidgis carried several Turbans and Stuffs of all sorts with many Handkerchiefs wrought with Gold Silver and Silk but in such Works as cost several hundreds of Crowns four Silk Carpets of five thousand Piastres a piece and the last were four Baggs of Crimson-Velvet carried by four Capidgis A Cantar is fourty four Oques in each Bagg there was a Cantar or Quintal of Aloes Wood then two little Cases or Boxes of Ambergreese carried by two Capidgis in each Box there was half a Cantar of Ambergreese all these went very softly sometimes ten or twelve Capidgis together always two and two and then for half a quarter of an hour sometimes no body came more At that time The paying of the Forces of Constantinople that the Ambassadour might see the Forces that are commonly in Constantinople they had their Pay which had been delayed for some days on purpose There were fourteen hundred Purses to be payed of which the Janizaries had about seven hundred and fifty and it was pretty to see how a Chorbadgi being called and being come to the door of the Divan called all the Soldiers of his Company who came running to receive the Baggs carried them after the Chordadgi and then ran back again to their Places where so soon as they were come one would not have thought that they had stirred from thence so nimble they are in putting themselves in Order then went off another Company and so in order till they had done There were thirty Purses for the Chiaoux fourscore for the Spahi's fifty for the Solihhtars and the rest for the Ddebedgis Topgis Bostangis and the like The Present was at first vallued at six millions of Piastres but at length the Merchants of the Bezestein were of opinion that it was worth three millions of Piastres The value of the Moguls Present which they who knew the Wealth of the Great Mogul did not at all wonder at When the Ambassadour had Din'd we were conducted to Audience where he stayed but a very little while and came out with a Vest of Cloth of Gold upon his Back and thirty of his Retinue had each of them a Caftan or Vest of the same Stuff for it is the custome that Ambassadours take Gentlemen and those they would favour along with them to their Audience and they have all Vests of Gold as well as the Ambassadour before they appear in the Grand Signior's Presence We went out again into the first Court to see the Cavalcade which made a very fine show consisting of the Ambassadour and his Attendants who were in no very good Order and of the Visiers with the rest of the Officers of the Divan who were all well and richly Mounted Some few days after the Caymacam treated that Ambassadour at Dinner and after Dinner sent for the Singueniennes which is a very common Diversion among the Persians and Moguls and without which the best Entertainment that can be given them signifies nothing The Present of the Ambassadour of the Mogul to the Singueniennes The Ambassadour gave to these Singueniennes two hundred and thirty Turbans worth a thousand Aspres one with another which make near two thousand six hundred Piastres He was afterwards treated by all the Vifiers at Scudaret whether they Conducted him by turns in the Bastarda in which were many that played on Instruments and he also received several Presents from the Grand Signior among others some of the lovliest Horses of his Stables The occasion of his Embassie was as it was said to sollicite the Grand Signior to make War against the King of Persia while his Master the great Mogul a great Enemy to the Persians should fall upon him on the other side CHAP. LVII Of the Grand Signior's going abroad in State. The manner of the Grand Signior's ordinary going abroad THE Grand Signior intending to shew his Grandure to the Ambassadour of the Mogul resolved to go through the City in State. I have seen him several times and among others next day after the Festival of the Birth of Mahomet I saw him go to the new Mosque attended by about a Score of Horse-men He was clad in a Satin Doliman of a Flesh-colour and a Vest almost of the same Colour on his Turban he had two black Herows Tops adorned with Diamonds the one pointing up to Heaven and the other down towards the Earth He had a great many Eunuchs before and behind him richly Mounted and by his
into two Pits the first is almost square and is eleven foot long and ten foot broad there is a pair of stairs to go down to it about seven or eight foot broad cut in the Rock all round and separating the Pit from the Rock so that when you go down you have one of the sides of the Well on the right hand which serves for a rail to keep one from falling or indeed seeing into the Well unless it be by windows that are at convenient distances On the left hand you have the wall which is the Rock it self This Stair-case hath been made very easie to go down and up for the convenience of the Oxen that go down to labour so that the descent is hardly sensible You go down then 220 steps finding on each side of the Pit two windows each about three foot square there are three windows in some places A hole in Joseph's Well that goes to the Pyramides but the Pit being very deep they are not sufficient to give light enough and therefore some Torches must be carried down At the bottom of these two hundred and twenty steps in the Rock on the left hand there is a great hole like a door but stopt up and they say that that hole goes as far as the Pyramides Another hole in Josephs Well which the Aegyptians say reaches as far as Suez There is another hole like the former on the right hand of the Pit and stopt up in the same manner and that they say goes as far as Suez upon the Red-Sea but I believe neither of the two Turning then to the right hand towards that hole you come to a place which is the bottome of the first Pit or story this place answers perpendicularly to the mouth of the Pit being equal to it in length and breadth so much of it as is uncovered for afterwards it strikes off to the right hand under the Rock to the place of the second story or second Pit which is narrow but deeper than the former At the top of this last Pit in the afore-mentioned place that goes under the Rock the Oxen are which by means of wheels draw a great quantity of water out of this narrow Pit or Well which falling into a Channel runs into a reservatory at one end of this place and at the bottom of the first Pit from whence at the same time it is conveyed up on high by little buckets fastened to a rope which Oxen on the top continually keep going by the means of other wheels that they turn and then it is distributed through the Castle in several pipes One may go to the bottome of this narrow Well there being several steps in it by which some have descended but there is too much mud and slime in it Now what is most wonderful all this Pit or Well is made out of the hard Rock to a prodigious breadth and depth and the water of it is from a Spring there being no Spring to the knowledge of man in all Aegypt but this Onely two Springs of Water in Aegypt and that of the Matharee which we mentioned before Many and almost all the Franks think that the water of Joseph's Well is the same that is brought from the Nile in that fair Aqueduct which comes by Old Caire to the Castle But we informed ourselves as to that of many in the Castle who all assured us that the water that is brought by that Aqueduct served only for the Bashas Horses as indeed it comes streight to the Stables in the Bashas Appartment and that it enters not at all into Joseph's Well which is in the Quarter of the Janizaries besides the water of Joseph's Well is sweetish as the water of most Wells is and differs in taste from that of the Nile Joseph's Hall. Thirty Pillars of Thebaick stone in Joseph's Hall. The Hall of Joseph's Steward Joseph's Hall is also to be seen in the Castle but much ruined it hath thirty lovely great Pillars of Thebaick-stone and a good deal of Gold and Azure still to be seen on the seeling Pretty near to that is the Hall also of Joseph's Steward which is more curious than the other but there remains still ten or twelve Pillars such as those of Joseph's Hall. It is to be observed that all the fine things of the Antients that still remain in Aegypt are attributed to Joseph and all that is ugly or infamous to Pharaoh There is to be seen also in the Castle a large old Hall well built the seeling whereof is in many places gilt and painted in Mosaick In this Hall the Vest which is yearly sent to Mecha is embroidered Then you have many high Terrasses from whence you may see all the City of New Caire the Old Boulac and a great way farther into the Desarts Joseph's Dungeon The Dungeon or Arcane is still remaining in the Castle which they say is the Prison whereinto Joseph was cast and where he interpreted the Dreams of the King's Butler and Baker but nothing makes it considerable but the Name of Joseph for it is a Prison composed of some dark nasty and stinking passages like Dungeons by what I could discover on the out-side and some who have been Prisoners there told me that it is far worse within and Prisoners are so cruelly used there that it deserves not to be look'd upon nay woe be to them who are shut up there for so soon as a Man is clapt up in it his feet are put into the Stocks and his body chained to the wall by a heavy Chain where he must sit on his breech then the Gaolers demand of him ten or twenty Piastres more or less The bad usage of Prisoners by the Gaolers of the Arcane according as they judge him able and if he give it not they throw pales of water under his breech and when he has feed the first that he may not be abused next day others come into office who use him in the same manner if he see them not also as he did the former and in a word this Prison is a Hell upon Earth People are put in there for small matters as for Debt or Batteries especially the Christians and Jews The Aga of the Janizaries lives in the Castle and Commands there Being come out of the Castle you must go see the Basha's Appartment separated from the Castle only by a Wall and I think all together made but one Castle before but the Turks make a distinction betwixt them calling the Basha's Appartment the Serraglio of the Basha and the rest the Castle you must see then the Appartment or Serraglio of the Basha which is very neat as that of the Kiayas is also Both these places have a very pleasant Prospect for from them one has a full view of Caire Old Caire Boulac the Desarts and all places about The Hall of the great Divan is in the Basha's Appartment it is long but the seeling a
little too low against the wall of that Hall hang ten wooden Bucklers a fingers breadth thick a piece all joyned together and pierced through by a Javelin about five foot long with an iron Head about a good foot in length this Iron pierces through all these Bucklers and reaches a hands breadth farther The strength of Sultan Amurat Sultan Amurat as they say threw that Javelin wherewith he pierced the Bucklers through and sent them to Caire sticking thereon as they are to be seen at present to shew his strength to the Aegyptians this is kept as a Miracle and covered with a Net. Sultan Amurat was indeed the strongest Man of his time and marks of that are to be seen in several places In this Appartment of the Basha there is a very large court or place called Cara Meidan at the end of which are his Stables where the Aqueduct which comes near Boulac A most lovely Castle in Caire and conveyeth the water of the Nile discharges itself for the use of his Horses This Castle might pass for a great Town and is the finest that ever I saw not only for Strength but also for the stately Buildings that are in it The Castle of Caire ancient the lovely Prospects and good Air In a word it is a work worthy of the ancient Pharaoh's and Ptolomy's who built it and corresponds very well with the magnificence of the Pyramides This Castle looks great also on the out-side but chiefly on the side of the four Gates which they call Babel Carafi and which enter all four into the Romeile On that side the Castle Walls are very high and strong being built upon the Rock which is two mens height above ground These walls are very entire and look as if they were new Near to that all along from the first of the four Gates to the last and not far from the Castle there are fair Burying-places The Fountain of Lovers The Fountain of Lovers is within the City It is a great oval Bason or rather Trough made of one entire piece of black Marble six foot long and about three foot high and all round it there are Figures of Men and Hieroglyphicks rarely well cut The People of the Countrey tell a great many tales of this Fountain of Lovers and say that in ancient times Sacrifices were offered at it Not far from thence Calaat el Kabh there is a great Palace called Calaat el kabh that is to say the Castle of Turpitude it seems to have been formerly a neat Building but at present it falls to decay several lovely Pillars are to be seen in it They say that Sultan Selim lodged in that Palace after that he had made himself Master of Caire and many very ancient Fables they tell of it A few steps from thence is the Garden of Lovers Garden of Lovers Sesostris whereof the Moors relate the same thing that Diodorus Siculus reports of Sesostris the Second King of Aegypt who having lost his Sight and been told by the Oracle that he should not recover it if he did not wash his face with the Urine of a Woman that had never known Man beside her own Husband he washed with his Wife's water then tried several others without recovering his Sight and at length having washed with the water of a Gardener's Wife who was Master of this Garden his sight came to him again whereupon he married that Woman and caused all the rest who had been adulterous to be burnt CHAP. X. Of the Palaces Streets and Bazars of Caire HAving seen all the places that I have mentioned before no more remains but to walk through the City and see the lovely Mosques and fair Palaces and if you could have any occasion to go into the Houses of the Beys there you would see brave Appartments large Halls paved all with Marble with Water-works and Seelings adorned with Gold and Azure You would see likewise neat Gardens As to the Frontispieces of Houses there is not one that looks well and as I have said already the finest Houses are but dirt without Locks and Keys of wood in Caire All their Locks and Keys are of wood and they have none of iron no not for the City Gates which may be all easily opened without a Key The Keys are bits of timber with little pieces of wire that lift up other little pieces of wire which are in the Lock and enter into certain little holes out of which the ends of wire that are on the Key having thrust them the Gate is open But without the Key a little soft paste upon the end of one's finger will do the job as well There are some fair Streets in Caire the Street of Bazar or the Market Bazar is very long and broad and the Bazar is held there on Mondays and Thursdays There is always such a prodigious croud of people in this street but especially on Market-days that one can hardly go along All sorts of things are sold in this street and at the end of it there is another short street but something broad wherein the shops on each side are full of rich Goods this is called Han Kalil that is to say the little Han. Then at the end of that short street Han Kalil there is a great Han in which there is a large Piazza or Square and very high Buildings White Slaves are sold there aswel Women and Girls Slaves sold in a Market as Men and Boys A little farther there is another Han where are great numbers of Black Slaves of both Sexes There is a little street near Han Kalil where on Market-days that is to say Mondays and Thursdays there are Slaves standing in ranks against a wall to be sold to them that have a mind to buy and every body may look upon them touch and feel them like Horses to see if they have any faults The Hospital and Mosque of Mad People The Hospital and Mosque of Mad People Morestan is very near Han Kalil they are chained with heavy iron chains and are led to the Mosque at Prayer-time This is one of the largest Mosques in the City as far as I could see going by the doors of it The Hospital is called Morestan and it serves also for the sick Poor who are well entertained and look'd after in it It seems worth one's curiosity too to see them make Carpets for a great many fine ones are made at Caire and are called Turkie-work Carpets Turkie-work Carpets made at Caire Many People are employed in that work among whom are several little Boys who do their business so skilfully and nimbly that one could hardly believe it their Loom stands before them and in their left hand they have several ends of round bottoms of Woorstead of many colours which they place in their several places in the right hand they hold a Knife wherewith they cut the Woorsted at every point they touch
Earth Without the Town there are several goodly Mosques all faced with Marble on the outside and I beleive they were places that belonged all to the ancient City From Caire till we came thither we found no Wine but there we had some pretty good wherewith we provided ourselves and might have had pretty good Brandy too if we had had occasion We stayed at Gaza all Sunday the seventh of April waiting for the Jews who had stopp'd to celebrate their Sabbath at Cauniones On Monday morning when we thought of parting the Basha put a stop to it who having had intelligence that the master of the Caravan carried money for some Jews in Jerusalem who were his Debtors would needs pay himself with it The matter being taken up we parted from Gaza Tuesday the ninth of April at six a Clock in the Morning with some Turks for a Convoy about nine a Clock we passed over a very high and broad Bridge but of one single Arch which has at the higher end a Sibil joining to it and another a little beyond it about half an hour after ten we found another Sibil and about eleven two high-ways Megdel of which leaving to the left hand the one that at a hundred paces distance passes through a Village called Megdel we took the right hand way at the entry into which we found a Sibil and at noon another besides these there are a great many Birques upon the Road. Hhansedoud At three a Clock in the Afternoon we arrived at Hhansedoud travelling all the way from Gaza thither in a lovely plain full of Corn Trees and Flowers which yielded a rare good smell A Plain of Tulips and Emonies This Plain is all embroadered with Tulips and Emonies when the season is but then it was past and these Flowers would be reckoned beautiful in France Hhansedoud is a pitiful Village where there is a Han for Caravans built of small Free-stone and the doors faced with Iron but we went not into it because we would make no stay designing to make up our Mondays journey which we lost at Gaza and therefore we encamped upon a little height about two hundred paces beyond the Village from whence we parted the same day Tuesday the ninth of April at nine a clock at night and at one a clock in the morning passed a Village called Yebna at the end of which we crossed over a Bridge that is very broad about half an hour after three we found a lovely large well and a Sibil close by it as a little farther another Wednesday the tenth of April about four of the clock in the morning Rama Ramla we arrived at Rama called in Arabick Ramla we went not into it because we had no mind to lye there but encamped in a Plain over against the Town and then went to the Town to see the French Merchants that live there Rama is a Town depending on the Basha of Gaza and therein is the House of Nicomedes The House of Nicomedes where some French Merchants and their Chaplain live In the same House there is a pretty Church and it is the House where the Franks who are on Pilgrimage lodge when they pass through Rama The Door of that House is not three foot high and so are all the Doors in the Town to hinder the Arabs from entering into their Houses on Horse-back The Church of the Forty Martyrs is also in this Town and hath a very high square Steeple which in times past was as high again Heretofore there was a stately large Convent there of which the Cloyster seems still to be very entire by what we could observe in passing by the Gate for we were told that Christians were not permitted to enter it There is another Church there also dedicated to the Honour of St. George We parted from Rama on Thursday the eleventh of April at six of the clock in the morning and a little after came to a stony way which grew worse and worse all along till we came to our Lodging About nine of the clock we saw to the right hand the Village of the Good Thief Bethlakij called in Arabick Bethlakij after that we paid the Caffaire and took a Guard as far a Jerusalem before we came to that Village we found two Ways of which that which is the good Way is on the right hand and passes through the Village and the other is on the left hand which we took to avoid a Caffaire but it led us among Hills in very bad Way and at length we encamped amidst the Mountains about half an hour after two in the afternoon in a place close by a ruinous old Building which heretofore was a Convent of Franciscan Friers there are still some Arches standing and many others under ground wherein at present the Arabs put their Cows Near to it there is a Spring of very good Water issuing out of a Rock which perhaps was formerly enclosed within the Convent Friday the twelfth of April about five of the clock in the morning we parted from that place and about seven were got out from among the Hills which last about six or seven miles and are all covered with very thick Woods and a great many Flowers in Pasture-ground After that we travelled in pretty good Plains though there be many Stones in the way About eight of the clock Dgib the Town of Samuel we saw to the right hand a Village called in Arabick Dgib which was heretofore the Town of Samuel it stands upon an Eminence and in it there is a Mosque covered with a Dome they say Samuel is interred there and the Jews visite it out of Devotion About half an hour after nine we discovered a little on the right hand the beginning of the Holy City of Jerusalem Coudscherif called by the Turks Coudscherif and after about a quarter of an hours travelling we saw it plainly before us and arrived there after ten a clock in the morning but we who were Franks stay'd at the Gates of the City till the Religious sent for us When he had waited about an hour at the Gate which is called Damascus-Gate we were introduced into the City by the Trucheman of the Convent who came with a Turk belonging to the Basha that visited our Baggage for if a Frank entered the Town of Jerusalem before the Religious had obtained a permission for him from the Basha he would have an Avanie put upon him They led us to the Convent of St. Saviour where the Monks live and where after we had dined we were shew'd into an Appartment to rest ourselves This is a very commodious Convent both for the Religious and Pilgrims The reception of Pilgrims at Jerusalem About three of the clock in the afternoon a Monk came and washed our Feet with warm water and at four we were conducted to the Church where after the Compline the Reverend Father Commissary for at that time
there was no Guardian there attended by all the Monks and Pilgrims that were in the Convent making us sit down on a Couch of crimson Velvet washed the Feet of us four one after another in Water full of Roses then kissed them as after him did all his Monks singing in the mean time many Hymns and Anthems When this Ceremony was over they gave to each of us a white Wax-taper which they told us we should carefully keep because they carried great Indulgences with them and then we made a Procession about the Cloyster singing Te Deum laudamus to thank God for the favour he had shew'd us in bringing us sound and safe to that Holy Place They made us perform the Stations at three Altars to wit at the High Altar dedicated to the Holy Ghost at the Altar of our Lord's Supper and at the Altar of our Lord 's appearing after his Resurrection to the Apostle St. Thomas singing at every one of these Altars the proper Hymns for the places CHAP. XXXVII The first visiting of the Dolorous Way and other Holy Places I Shall not much enlarge in describing the Holy Places because I can say nothing of them but what hath been already said by so many who have visited them and especially by Monsieur Opdan who hath lately published a Book wherein all the Holy Places are very well and as fully as they can be described I shall therefore only speak of them as a Traveller and observe them in the order I saw them in The day we arrived we stirred not out of the Convent but next day after the thirteenth of April which was the Saturday before Palm-Sunday we went out of the Convent about eight of the clock in the morning The Judgement-Gate in Jerusalem with the Father who takes care of the Pilgrims to begin our Visites of the Holy Places and first we passed near to the Judgment-Gate through which our Saviour went out bearing his Cross when he went to Mount Calvary and it is called the Judgment-Gate because those that were condemned to Death went out of the City by it to the place of Execution at present it is within the City Having advanced a few steps we saw on our right hand the House of Veronica The House of Veronica who seeing our Saviour coming loaded with his Cross and his Face besmeared with Sweat and Spittle went out of her House and having made way through the Croud took a white Veil off of her Head and therewith wiped our Lord's Face who in testimony of his thankfulness for that charitable office left the Image of his Holy Face stamped upon her Veil which is shewn in St. Peter's at Rome four times a year There are four Steps up to the Door of this House Next to that on the right hand is the House of the Rich Glutton then on the left The House of the Rich Glutton the place where our Saviour said to the Women of Jerusalem who wept Weep not for me but for you and your Children A little after is the place where Simon the Cyrenean helpt our Lord to carry his Cross when he fell down under that heavy burthen Then on the right hand is the place of the Blessed Virgin 's Trance who fainted away when she saw our Lord bearing his Cross and so spightfully used Proceeding on our way about an hundred paces farther we passed under the Arch upon which Pilate set our Lord saying Behold the man it is a large Arch reaching from one side of the street to the other The Arch of Ecce Homo This Arch hath two Windows that look into the street which are separated only by a little Marble Pillar Under these Windows is this Inscription Tolle Tolle Crucifige eum Beyond that Arch at the end of a street on the left hand is the Palace of Herod where our Lord was cloathed with a white Robe in derision and sent back to Pilate with whom Herod being formerly at variance was that day reconciled Leaving that street on the left hand after a few steps you come to the Palace of Pilate on the right hand The Palace of Pilate which is at present inhabited by the Basha The Stairs of that Palace are to be seen at Rome near to St. John de Latran being sent thither by St. Helen they are at present called Scala Sancta because our Lord ascended them Scala Sancta when he was led before Pilate and came down again the same Stairs to go before Herod then being sent back by Herod he went them up again and afterwards descended them when he went to execution In place of that Stair-case there is another of eleven steps which are now sufficient because since that time the Street is much raised by the Ruines Having gone up these eleven steps you come into a Court and turning to the Left Hand you enter into the Basha's Kitchin which is the place where Pilate washed his Hands in that Kitchin there is a Window that looks into the Court or open place that is before the Temple of Salomon from that Window we saw the Front of the said Temple at one end of the Court there are several Arches that make a lovely Porch before the Door of the said Temple supported by several fair Pillars There is a hole in that Kitchin which serves at present to lay Coals in and is thought to have been the Prison into which our Lord was put Heretofore there was a passage from this Palace to the Arch of Behold the Man that we mentioned before Coming out of the Palace we went over to the other side of the Street into a Chappel called the Place of Flagellation The place of Flagellation because our Saviour was Scourged there the Turks make use of it at present for a Stable In that place ends according to the way we went or rather begins the Dolorous Way which reaches from the House of Pilate to Mount Calvary about a Mile in length Having seen these things to avoid the heat we resolved to see the most distant places before the Sun were too high and therefore went out by St. Stephen's Gate anciently called Porta Gregis Porta Gregis or the Sheep-Gate without which we saw the place where the Blessed Virgin let her Girdle fall to St. Thomas when he saw her Body and Soul carried up to Heaven then we went up to the Mount of Olives Mount of Olives in the middle whereof is the place where our Lord wept over Jerusalem foreseeing its future Ruine The truth is one has a very good view of it from that place and may at leisure there consider all the external beauties of the Temple of Salomon as also the Church of the Presentation of our Lady which joyns the said Temple and is magnificently built Here it was that the Blessed Virgin was by her Father and Mother presented to the good Widdows who lived near to the Temple and taught young
Girls Breeding and good Manners The Turks have converted this Church into a Mosque and suffer no Christian to enter into it On the top of the Mount is the place of Ascension Place of Ascension which is a Chappel with eight Fronts having a little Dome covered with Lead and supported by eight Pillars of white Marble in this Chappel you may still see the print of our Saviour's Left Foot on the Rock the impression of the other was also there but the Turks cut off part of the Rock on which the other Foot was imprinted and have carried it into the Temple of Salomon where they preserve it very honourably as they do this nay they have a little Mosque in this Chappel and they suffer Christians to come and kiss that holy Foot-step for a few Maidins In this place a Gentleman enflamed with the love of God and desirous to follow Jesus Christ whose Steps he had traced so far yielded up his Soul to the Lord. St. Pelagia A little below this place we saw the Grott where St. Pelagia a famous Courtizan of Antioch did Penance then coming down again we passed by the place where our Lord made the Prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer and a little lower to the Right the place where he Preached the last Judgment for a Memorial of which there stands a Pillar there Afterwards we came to a Grott or Church The Grott where the Creed was made The Sepulchre of Absolom The Sepulchre of Jehosaphat wherein are twelve Arches in this place it was that the Apostles made the Creed which goes by their Name and then to the Burying-place of the Prophets where there are many Grotts cut out in the Rock Next we saw two square Sepulchres each square cut out of the Rock in one entire piece the one is of Absolom the Son of David and it is encompassed with several Pillars cut out of the natural Rock and covered with a Pyramide The other is the Sepulchre of Jehosaphat who gave the name to the Valley others say it is the Sepulchre of King Manasses Absoloms is easily known by the many Stones that are always there because no Body goes near to it whether Christian Turk or Moor Man Woman or Child but throws a stone at it as detesting the memory of that Prince because of his Rebellion against his own Father Then we saw the Grott where St. James the younger hid himself when our Saviour was taken and continued there without eating or drinking until the Resurrection Being come out from thence The Sepulchre of Zacharias we saw the Sepulchre of the Prophet Zacharias the Son of Barachias who was slain betwixt the Porch and the Altar by the command of King Joas It is cut in a Diamond-point upon the Rock with many Pillars about it The Brook Kedron From thence we came to the place where the Brook Kedron runs which is many times dry without water as it was then and there we saw a Bridge hard by of one Arch under which that Brook passes when there is any water in it and upon that Bridge our Saviour fell when after his apprehension in the Garden the Jews brought him into the City using him so barbarously that as he went over that Bridge they threw him down from the top to the bottom and in the stone the prints of his Feet and Elbows are to be seen Having narrowly observed these Holy prints and passed the Brook dry-shod we came to the Valley of Jehosaphat The Valley of Jehosaphat which is about a League in length but not very broad it serves as a Ditch to the City of Jerusalem The Jews give a Chequin a day for permission to bury their Dead there besides what they pay for the Ground and all that they may be the sooner dispatched at the day of Judgment Garden of Olives because as they believe it will be held in that place There we saw the Garden of Olives and entring it we came to the same place where our Lord having been kissed by Judas was taken by the Jews it is a very little narrow place enclosed with a pitiful Wall. Afterwards we came to the place where the three Apostles St. Peter St. James and St. John the Evangelist fell asleep whilst our Saviour Prayed which made Him say to them Cannot you watch one Hour with me Then to the Garden of Bethsemanie where our Saviour left the Eight Apostles when He went to Pray in the Garden of Olives taking only Three with him to wit St. Peter St. James and St. John. Garden of Bethsemany At present the Garden of Bethsemanie makes but one with the Garden of Olives The Grott where our Lord sweat Blood and Water saying Father if Thou be willing remove this Cup from Me. And where the Angel came to comfort him is Painted since the time of St. Helen and receives light by an opening in the middle of the Vault The Sepulchre of the Virgin Mary which is supported by four Pillars Near to that is the Sepulchre of the Virgin Mary which is a Church almost under Ground of which nothing but the Front is to be seen It stands at the entry into the Valley of Jehosophat pretty near St. Stephen's Gate In the first place you go down by six steps into a Court or Walk and crossing over that descend One and fifty very large broad steps at the top whereof on the right Hand there is a Door walled up In the middle of this Stair-case there is a Chappel on the Right Hand The Sepulchres of St. Joackin and St. Ann. The Sepulchres of St. Joseph and St. Simeon wherein are the Sepulchres of St. Joachin and St. Ann on the other side to wit to the Left Hand there is a little Chappel where are the Sepulchres of St. Joseph the Virgins Husband and St. Simeon Towards the bottom of the Stairs there is a place on the Left Hand adorned but no body can tell for what for there is nothing to be seen in it but the Floor which is all of Mosaical Work and looks as if it were newly done At the end of the steps to the Right Hand there is an Altar of the Armenians and a lovely Cistern to the Left behind which there is an Altar of the Abyssins After that you come into the Church wherein turning to the Right Hand you see the Sepulchre of the Virgin The Sepulchre of the Virgin. which is almost in the middle of the Church in a little square Chappel four Paces long with two little Doors to enter into it The length of the place on which her Body was put is nine Spans the breadth four and the height as much It is covered with a Stone of a greyish Marble with Veins in it and in some places is broken This Chappel belongs to the Latin Monks and none but Latins can say Mass there which is Celebrated every Saturday behind that place there is a
light to the Chappel The Altar in the middle is dedicated to the honour of the Virgin Mary the Altar on the left hand to the Honour of the Holy Cross which in this place was tryed by St. Helen upon a dead Body that was raised by the touch of the Cross of our Lord the other two having been applied to it without any effect A piece of the same Cross was kept there for a long time till the Armenians stole it away The Altar on the right hand is dedicated to the honour of the Pillar of Flagellation The Chappel of the Pillar of Flagellation because behind this Altar a good piece of the Pillar to which our Saviour was tied and scourged in the house of Pilate is kept in a window made in the Wall and secured by an Iron Grate it is easily seen but no body can touch it and is betwixt two and three foot high The Lodgings of the Monks are behind the aforesaid Chappel of the Apparition from whence there is a way up to the Gallery above wherein there are little Chambers made for Pilgrims some Monks always lodge and are shut up there for some time not only for taking care of the Lamps but also for performing the Office who at a Month or two Months end are relieved and others put in their place it being impossible for any to live long there withou falling sick for want of Air. Stepping down three steps from the Chappel of Apparition into the Church before the door of the said Chappel you find two round Marble-stones set in the Pavement The Stone of Noli me tangere one of which marks the place where our Lord was when he appeared to Mary Magdalen and is called the Stone of Noli me tangere Touch me not and over it there is a large Silver Lamp kept burning the other shews the place where Mary was who would have advanced and embraced our Lord but our Saviour thrusting her back said to her Touch me not and there are two Silver Lamps over this Stone Then on the left hand you find a little Chappel taken out of the Wall dedicated to the honour of St. Mary Magdalen The Chappel of St. Mary Magdalen because that close by that place our Lord appeared to her in the likeness of the Gardener as I have just now said but seeing there is no Mystery in that Chappel it is left without any Lamp nay without any Cross too It belongs to the Nestorians or Jacobites and is railed in After that you find a little Court where the Necessary Places are The Chappel of our Lord's Prison then the Chappel of our Lord's Prison which is a very little and dark place where they say our Saviour was put while they were digging a hole in Mount Calvary to plant his Cross in you must go down to it by three steps The Vault of this Chappel is supported by two Pillars and it belongs to the Greeks who keep a burning Lamp there Near to that Chappel there is an Altar supported by two Stone-Pillars and before it there are two holes in the Pavement where they say our Saviour's Feet were put as in the Stocks The Oriental Christians pass willingly betwixt the Wall and the Pillars though the passage be very narow because all but Bastards can go through that way and I have seen big bellied Woman pass through it with much pain and the danger of destroying their Foetus there are two Lamps before this Altar After that you see another obscure Chappel The Place of the Inscription of the Holy Cross The Chappel of the Parting of the Garments wherein they say the Inscription on the Cross of our Lord was long kept and is now at Rome in the Church of Holy Cross In Atrio Selleriano This Chappel belongs to the Abyssins Then you come to the Chappel of the Parting of the Garments behind the middle part of the Quire which is so called because it is the place where the Soldiers cast Lots for our Saviour's Garments and divided them among them This Chappel belongs to the Armenians A little farther there is a Door by which you enter upon a very large pair of Stairs of thirty Stone-steps upon which there are four Lamps and five at the foot of the Stairs where you find the Chappel of St. Helen and leaving it to the left hand after you have descended eleven steps more cut out in the Rock of Mount Calvary you come to the Chappel of the Invention of the Cross The Chappel of the Invention of the Cross This is but a little place cut out of the Rock and there it was that the Cross of our Lord the Nails Crown of Thorns Inscription on the Cross and the Head of the Lance were found This place was heretofore a Ditch at the foot of Mount Calvary called by the Prophet Jeremiah The Valley of the dead bodies Jer. 31. The Valley of the Dead Bodies whereinto those who were put to Death with the Instruments of their Execution were cast It belongs to the Latins and Greeks for there are two Altars in it of which that of the Crucifix on the left hand which is the very place where the Cross of our Lord was found belongs to the Latin Monks and there are twelve Lamps before it the other on the right hand belongs to the Greeks The Cleft of the Rock at the Passion The Chappel of St. Helen and at it there are thirteen Lamps In this place one may easily see the Cleft of the Rock that clove asunder when our Lord yielded up the Ghost Being come up again the eleven Steps that are cut in the Rock you see the Chappel of St. Helen which is spacious it hath a Dome supported by four great Pillars of white Marble which the Christians of the Countrey say weep for the Death of our Lord because the dampness of the place keeps them always moist There are two Altars in that Chappel one of which is very large and all of Marble having eighten Lamps before it the other is to the left hand and hath eight Lamps before it In that Chappel also on the right hand near the great Altar there is a Marble-Chair of an Antick Form and Engrav'd wherein that Holy Empress sate while they searched for the Cross of our Lord below That Chappel belongs to the Armenians Having come up again the thirty Steps you turn to the left The Chappel of Exprobration and find the Chappel of Exprobration shut in with a wooden Lettice in this Chappel there is an Altar supported by two Pillars and under it the said Pillar of Exprobration about two foot high it is of greyish Marble and may be seen through an Iron-Grate that shuts it in It is called the Pillar of Exprobration because that after the Soldiers had buffeted our Lord they made him sit down in Pilate's Hall upon that Pillar then crowned him with Thorns and mocked him saying Hail King
this Cloath serves them to be buried in and for that end they keep it as if it were a Relick during this Solemnity one would certainly think himself in Hell amidst a Legion of Devils let loose and nevertheless the most serious cannot forbear Laughing at it After that is over they perform their office and then go eat for they neither eat nor drink that day before they have had the holy Fire Now it is impossible to know how they make this holy Fire for they have a special care that nobody comes near the holy Sepulchre to observe them but I am apt to beleive that a man hid within it strikes Fire with a Steel and so lights the Lamps The Turks discovered the Cheat and would have punished them for it but the Patriarch represented to them that he could not pay them so much Money as he did if they took from him the profit of the holy Fire and therefore they are suffered to continue the Juggle Next day the one and twentieth of April being Easter day the R. F. Commissary said high Mass upon an Altar purposely erected before the door of the holy Sepulchre a Father playing upon the Organ to which the Turks were very attentive but in the mean time purfumed us with the Smoak of their Tobacco and one of them fairly lighted his Pipe at one of the Tapers upon the Altar during the time that high Mass was saying At this Mass we all received the Sacrament from the hands of the R. F. Commissary That day we used Ornaments given by the King of Spain which are very rich in Embroadery but seeing it is not a compleat Service they made up what was wanting out of those that were given by the King of France The R. F. was very apprehensive that the Greeks might disturb our Service because they had resolved to perform theirs before ours but all was very well and we performed our Service first though they made as if they would come out of the Quire and begin their Procession at the same time we began our Mass however they durst not and perhaps they would have got nothing by it for we had Janizaries that would have hindred them They stayed then till our Service was over and then began theirs For our parts so soon as Mass was said we went out of the Church of St. Sepulchre and dined in the Convent of St. Saviour where every one of us found two Chaplets and two Crosses which had been touched at the Holy places upon our Plates The Convent treated both the Pilgrims and Monks with these CHAP. XLIV Of the places that are to be seen on the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem MOnday the twenty second of April we put it to deliberation whether we should go to Emaus as the day seemed to require but it was not thought fit that we should go because it was in our way as we returned back so that we might not make the journey twice we went not for we had no time to lose but after Dinner we set out from the Convent at one a Clock to go to Bethlehem and going out by the Gate of Bethlehem and leaving Mount Sion to the left hand of which and of all that is to be seen there I shall speak hereafter we went first to a place where a Turpentine-Tree grew The Turpentine-Tree of the Virgin. under which as the People of the Countrey say the Blessed Virgin going one day from Bethlehem to Jerusalem rested her self to avoid the heat of the Sun and that then the Tree bent downwards to give her the greater shade Some years since it was set on Fire by the Arab Shepherds which the Monks hearing of ran thither in all haste and took what remained of it whereof they still make Chaplets and little Crosses Leaving that place to the left hand and keeping on our way we saw to the right hand out of the Road the House of Righteous Simeon The house of St. Simeon who made the Hymn Nunc Dimittis c. After that we found to the right hand the Cistern where the three Wise Men found again the Star which had appeared to them in the East and which they had lost as they entered into Jerusalem A little beyond that on the right hand is the House of the Prophet Habbakkuk The House of the Prophet Habbakkuk wherein the Angel took him by the Hair of the Head and carried him to Babylon to give Daniel Food when in that City he was put into the Lyons Den Dan. 14. To the left hand there is a Greek Monastery The place where Elias was Born. dedicated to the honour of the Prophet Elias who was Born in that place and before that Monastery there is a Stone on which the figure of his Body is imprinted and which they say was his Bed and a Well called Elias Well A little farther is the place where the Prophet Amos was Born. After that we found on our right hand the Field of Stone-pease where the People of the Country say that the holy Virgin going from Bethlehem to Jerusalem found a Man sowing Pease and asking him what it was he sowed he made answer Stones whereupon by Divine permission the Pease were changed into Stones retaining only the figure of Pease and there are of them to be found at present Then wide of the way to the right hand we saw the House of the Patriarch Jacob next The House of Jacob. The Sepulchre of Rachel the Sepulchre of the Beautiful Rachel made in the Vault of the Rock which is said to be so hard that Iron cannot hurt it it is under a little Dome open on all sides and supported by four square Pillars This Sepulchre is enclosed within a little Wall three Foot high having only a little entry to which one ascends by four steps It is all still so entire that it would seem to have been newly made Heretofore it was a Church which the Turks have now changed into a Mosque As we went on our way we found about twenty paces wide of the Road to the left hand David's Cistern made with three Mouths David's Cistern whereof mention is made in the 23 Chapter of the second Book of Samuel a little after about two in the Afternoon we arrived at Bethlehem CHAP. XLV Of Bethlehem BEthlehem was anciently a Town of the Tribe of Juda Bethlehem whither Joseph came with the Virgin Mary to be Enrolled as being of the Tribe of Juda according to the Edict of Augustus Caesar the Roman Emperour who commanded that all should give in their Names and Qualities in their Towns that he might know how many Souls were under his Government At present it is a pretty big Village where the Inhabitants get a Livelihood by making Chaplets Crosses c. There is a fair Convent in it A Convent of Monks where Latin Monks live consisting of a large Court through which you go into a second wherein
there are three Cisterns and on the Right Hand of them a place Vaulted over the Arch whereof is supported by six Pillars of Garnet It was in this place that St. Jerome Read and Taught the Holy Scriptures The place of St. Jerome but the Turks at present have made a Stable of it From this second Court you go through a little Door only three Foot high and two Foot wide into a third little Court which serves for a Porch to the Church this was a very large Door but it is walled up to hinder the Arabs from entring into the Church with their Horses the Door also which is of Wood is very thick and shuts with a strong Bar behind it to hold out the Arabs after that you enter by another Door into the Church which is very spacious and we shall speak of it hereafter Turning to the Left Hand you go into a Cloyster by a little very thick Door and covered all over with Iron on the side of the Cloyster with a great Bolt and strong Bar for resisting the Arabs In this Cloyster being the Lodgings of the Latin Monks St. Catharines Church in Bethlehem whose Church is Dedicated to the Honour of St. Catharine having there said our Prayers and heard Te Deum sung the R. F. Guardian gave each of us a white Wax-Taper like to that which had been given us in the Church of St. Saviour the day we came to Jerusalem and we went in Procession to visit the holy places that are in the Convent We descended eighteen steps and came to the place where the Birth of our Saviour is represented for since the Greeks as we shall hereafter relate had taken the holy places from our Monks The place of the Representation of the Birth of our Lord. they have built a Chappel over against the real place where our Lord was Born and another over against the Manger being only separated by a Wall that is betwixt them and the Popes have granted to these two Chappels the same Indulgences as to the true ones Next we went to the Altar of St. Joseph then to the Sepulchre of the Innocents so called The Sepulchre of the Innocents The Oratory of St. Jerome because many Innocent Infants whom the Mothers had hid with themselves in that Grott were Murdered and Buried there Then to the Oratory of St. Jerome where he Translated the Bible out of Hebrew into Latin and to his Sepulchre which stands in a Chappel where there are two Altars to wit one over his Tomb which is on the Right Hand as you enter and another upon the Tomb of St. Paula and her Daughter Eustochium where there is an Epitaph made by St. Jerome The Epitaph of St. Paula in these terms Obiit hic Paula ex Nobilissimis Romanorum Corneliis Gracchas orta cum 20. Annos vixisset in coenobiis a se institutis cui tale Epitaphium posuit Hieronymus And this other besides Scipio quem genuit Paulae fudere parentes Gracchorum soboles Agamemnonis inclyta proles hoc jacet in tumulo Paulam dixere priores Eustochii genitrix Romani prima Senatus Pauperiem Christi Bethleemiti rura sequuta We made a station at the Tomb of St. Jerome St. Jerome's Tomb. and another at the Tombs of the said Saints After that we went to the Tomb of St. Eusebius the Disciple of St. Jerome singing at these several stations the proper Prayers for the places All these stations are in Grotts under Ground where there is no Light but what they bring along with them Then we come up again into the Church where the Procession ended The Church of St. Catharine was heretofore a Monastery they say that it was in that Church that our Lord Espoused St. Catharine who came to visit these holy places and the same Indulgences are there as in Mount Sinai There is a very good Cistern in that Church near the Door on the left hand as you enter It is a very pretty Church and was with the whole Convent built by St. Paula After the Procession we went to the great Church lately come into the Possession of the Greeks which for Money they gave the Turks they wrested from our Monks This Church was built by St. Helene and is a most beautiful and spacious Church it has a high Roof of Cedar-Wood extraordinary well wrought and Leaded over with many fair Windows that render it very light The Nef or Body is supported on both sides by two rows of high and great Marble Pillars all of one entire piece there being Eleven in each row so that it maketh five Isles separated one from another by these four rows of Pillars on every one of which there is the Picture of a Saint and over these Pillars all the Wall is painted in lovely Mosaick Work of Green upon a ground of fine Gold. Heretofore all this Church was lined with beautiful Marble as may be easily seen by the Cramp-Irons fixed all over in the Wall which have held the pieces but the Turks have removed these Ornaments for their Mosques As you enter that Church you see on the right hand behind the third and fourth Pillars the Greeks Font which is very fine The Quire is still very large and closed all round with a Wall the Armenians have a third part of it which was given them by the Latins whilst they possessed the Church and they have separated it from the rest by wooden Rails As you enter this Quire you see on each side a kind of Chappel and almost at the farther end of it stands the high Altar which with these two Chappels makes a Cross in that which is on the right hand there is an Altar where you see the Stone on which our Lord was Circumcised In the other Chappel on the left hand which belongs to the Armenians there is an Altar which they say is the place where the Kings alighted from their Horses when they came to adore our Lord. On the right side of the high Altar there is a pair of Stairs by which you go up to a Tower on the out-side of the Quire it was formerly the Steeple of the Church and serves at present for Lodgings for the Greeks There are also many Pillars in the Quire like to those in the Nef and which with these of the Nef make in all fifty Pillars Near to the high Altar in the Quire there are two little Marble Stair-cases one on each side having thirteen steps apiece and being gone down six of them you find a neat Brazen Door well wrought and pierced through to let in light from above passing it you come to the foot of the Stairs which lead into a little Church reaching only in length from the one Stair-case to the other Much under the great Altar of the Quire at this end betwixt the aforesaid two Stair-cases there is an Altar under which is the place where our Saviour was Born this place is
faced with lovely Marble in the middle whereof there is a Glory of Silver like the Sun with this Inscription about it Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est About half a Foot from this Glory there is naturally upon a Marble Stone The figure of the Virgin and of her Son naturally imprinted on Marble The place of the Manger of our Lord. a figure in red Colour of a Virgin on her Knees and a little Child lying before her which is taken for the Blessed Virgin and her Son Jesus on whose Heads they have put two little Crowns of Silver-Plate Nine and twenty Lamps are kept burning before that Chappel Then you go down by three Marble-steps into a little Chappel where was the Wooden Manger into which the Virgin laid our Lord so soon as She had brought Him into the World this Manger is now at Rome in Santa Maria Majora And in the same place St. Helen caused another of white Marble Tables to be put on one of which set against the Wall is the natural Figure of an Old Man with a Monks Hood and long Beard lying on his Back and they 'll have this to be the Figure of St. Jerome which God was pleased should be marked upon that Stone because of the great love he had for that place Ten Lamps are kept burning before that Chappel two steps from which and just over against it is the Altar of Adoration of the Three Kings where there is a little Stone for a mark of the place The place of the Kings Adoration on which sat the holy Virgin with Her dear Son in Her Arms when She saw the three Wise Men come in who having laid down their Presents upon a little Bench of Stone at the foot of the Altar on the side of the Epistle adored Jesus and then offered him their Presents The Vault in this place is very low and supported by three Pillars of Porphyrian Marble before this Altar three Lamps burn At the other end of this place there was heretofore a Door by which one came down from St. Catharine's Chappel into this Grott before the Latin Monks lost it but at present it is Walled up and close by that Door there is a hole into which the Oriental Christians say the Star sunk after it had guided the Magi into this holy place This Grott is all faced with Marble both the Walls and Floor and the Seeling or Vault is adorned with Mosaick Work blackened by the smoak of the Lamps It receives no light but by the two Doors that are upon the Stairs which affords but very little Now this place is held in very great Veneration even by the Turks who come often and say their prayers there The Church of Bethlehem serves for a lodging to the Turks that pass that way But it is a very incommodious and unseemly thing that all the Turks who pass through Bethlehem should Lodge in the great Church with their whole Families there being no convenient Lodging in Bethlehem which is a great Eye-sore to the Christians who see their Church made an Inn for the Infidels But it is above all troublesome to our Latin Monks whom they oblige to furnish them with all things necessary both for Diet and Lodging CHAP. XLVI Of the Way of making what Marks Men please upon their Arms. WE spent all Tuesday the Nine and twentieth of April The Pilgrims of Jerusalem marked in the Arm. in getting Marks put upon our Arms as commonly all Pilgrims do the Christians of Bethlehem who are of the Latin Church do that They have several Wooden Moulds of which you may chuse that which pleases you best then they fill it with Coal-dust and apply it to your Arm so that they leave upon the same the Mark of what is cut in the Mould after that with the left hand they take hold of your Arm and stretch the skin of it and in the right hand they have a little Cane with two Needles fastened in it which from time to time they dip into Ink mingled with Oxes Gall and prick your Arm all along the lines that are marked by the Wooden Mould This without doubt is painful and commonly causes a slight Fever which is soon over the Arm in the mean time for two or three days continues swelled three times as big as it ordinarily is After they have pricked all along the said lines they wash the Arm and observe if there be any thing wanting then they begin again and sometimes do it three times over When they have done they wrap up your Arm very streight and there grows a Crust upon it which falling off three or four days after the Marks remain Blew and never wear out because the Blood mingling with that Tincture of Ink and Oxes Gall retains the mark under the Skin CHAP. XLVII Of what is to be seen about Bethlehem and of the Grott of the Virgin in Bethlehem WEdnesday the Four and twentieth of April we parted from Bethlehem at five a Clock in the Morning and went to see the holy places that are about it In the first place we saw on a little Hill on our right hand Boticella Boticella which is a Town wherein none but Greeks live and the Turks cannot live there for they say that if a Turk offer to live in it he dies within eight days Then a League from Bethlehem we saw the Church of St. George where there is a great Iron-ring fastened to a Chain through which the People of the Country A Ring that eures the Sick. both Moors and Christians pass when they are troubled with any Infirmity and as they say are immediately cured of it We went not thither because the day before the Greeks having been there met with some Turks who made every one of them pay some Maidins though it was not the custom to pay any thing and our Trucheman would by no means have us go thither that we might not accustome them to a new Imposition We left St. George's on the right hand and went to see a Fountain called in holy Scripture Fons Signatus Fons Signatus the Sealed Well which is in a hole under Ground where being got down with some trouble and a lighted Candle we saw on the right hand three Springs one by another the Water whereof is by an Aqueduct that begins close by the Fountain Heads conveyed to Jerusalem Near to that place there is a pretty Castle built some fifty or sixty Years since for taking the Caffares of the Caravans of Hebron a little farther are the three Fish-Ponds of Salomon The three Fish-ponds of Salomon they are three great Reser-servatories cut in the Rock the one at the end of the other the second being a little lower than the first and the third than the second and so communicate the Water from one to another when they are full near to this place his Concubines lived Continuing our Journey we saw in
of the wrongs which the Franks daily do to the Greeks their Countrey men and indeed we took that resolution only that we might be delivered out of the miseries that we endured a Board of these Ships for besides the bad entertainment we had there which we could not have born with much longer we were daily in danger of being taken and burn'd a live or at least made Slaves if these Corsairs had been taken as indeed it was to me a great wonder that the Turks should suffer these Blades to stop the entry into Damiette seeing they needed do no more but man out five or six good Sayques with an hundred and fifty or two hundred men a piece and fall upon these Corsairs whom they might easily have taken Besides that we were hourly in danger of being wounded if the Ships came to an Engagement and durst not defend our selves for if we had once taken Arms we must have laid aside all thoughts of setting Foot on Turkish Ground where we might be known by one or other that had Escaped or been Ransom'd out of the hands of the Corsairs In reality the life of a Corsair is a most wretched life both for this World and the next and certainly there is nothing but I could do rather than be engaged in it When we left our Corsairs we were fifteen miles from Damiette where we arrived in three hours time and so soon as we came to the place where the water of the Nile mingles with the Sea which is a good mile out at Sea from the mouth of the River for the different colours of the River-water and Sea-water may easily be seen There came out some Germes to unload our Saycot because at this place loaded Vessels cannot come in for want of Water These Germes are great Boats with high sides and very light they are Lighters open fore and aft having no Deck that they may take in the more Goods They came about us in such numbers every one striving to be the first that some of them were like to have run down our Saycot When they had lighttened us a little and we were got into the mouth of the Nile we took our Goods in again out of the Germes and in half an hours time went up the River to Damiette about two miles from the mouth of it For defence of this entry there is only a sorry tower in form of a Castle wherein are some Guns mounted which were those that Fired at the Corsairs Being upon the Nile we drank our Bellies full of good Water thinking our selves to be come out of Hell into Paradice as we came from Sea into a River however we were still fearful of going a-shoar at Damiette where being come we quickly dispatched a Monk to find out the House of a French Man whom we knew to be there the danger not being so great for a Religious Person as for us He speedily came back to us again and having given some Crowns which we had saved from the Corsairs to the Greeks of the Saycot for they would needs be paid for our Passage and that at a dear rate too without calling to mind that we had begg'd their Saycot for them We step'd a-shoar over the Galliot which had been the day before attacked by our Corsairs We went to that French Merchants House who made us very welcome and told us that that Galliot came from Satabia and that they on Board were three hundred Men having with them fifteen thousand Piastres wherewith they were going to Trafick at Mecha and that they had had one Man Killed and three Wounded Had our Corsairs minded their business as they should they would have enriched themselves for all these Turks were well Cloathed and able to pay Ransoms being all Rich after we had rested our selves a little we went to the Bishop of the Greeks to acquaint him with our Disaster and to desire his Protection and Certificate that we were not Corsairs Afterward we kept very private within doors but the People of the Countrey were so far from abusing us that they pitied our misfortune and three Turks came to see us and told us that they were of those that were on Board that Polaque which ran foul of our Sanbiquer in the night-time and had swam a-shoar They asked us news of their Comrades that were made Slaves and we desired to know of them what was become of the other nine who jump'd into the Sea with them but they told us that they could not tell what was become of them they were certainly Drowned and indeed it requires a very good Heart to swim above two Leagues We had no sight of Damiette Damiette but upon our Arrival not daring to walk abroad in the Streets all we could observe was that it is a very handsome well built long Town yet not so long as Rossetto It was anciently called Pelusium and lyes upon a Branch of the River of Nile which discharges it self into the Sea two miles below this Town that makes one Angle of the Delta CHAP. LXIV Our Departure from Damiette and Arrival at Caire TVesday the fourth of June Departure from Damiette for Caire we Embarked in a little Bark that we had hired for our selves but the Wind not being good we made but little way till Thursday the sixth of June when a fair Wind presenting we past by Mansoura on the left hand This is a pretty neat long Town Mansoura Sammenud but we stopt not at it Friday the seventh of June we passed by Sammenud on our right hand which appears to be a Handsome Town but it is ancient and ruinous Saturday the eighth of June we left Metegamr to the left hand Metegamr a pretty neat Town half way betwixt Damiette and Caire Monday the tenth of June in the Morning we passed by that place where the River divides it self into two Channels one whereof goes to Damiette and the other to Rossetto and at length about eleven a Clock in the Forenoon we arrived at Boulac where we paid a Piastre a piece and from thence we took Asses and rode to Caire where the Merchants wondered to see us in so bad plight for I had not so much as a pair of Pabouches having lost them on board the Corsairs and all the Cloathes I had were a Wast-coat a pair of Drawers and my Capot However they had been informed that we had been twice taken by Corsairs for it was known all along the Coast And they thought we had been carried to Malta and so many times I thought we should for the Corsairs told us that if they could but take a Prize that might be worth the pains such as a good Sayque loaded with Rice they would stand away for Malta CHAP. LXV Of the Publication of the Growth of the Nile THE publication of the wonderful growth of the Nile The growth of the Nile begins to be made on St. Peter and St. Paul's day or the day
hundred in Number all in good Order every one with a large Musquet on his Shoulder well Gilt nay some of them carried Blunderbusses as big as little Faulcons with their Shables by their side After them came six led Horses as if it had been before the Basha himself then many of the Chiaoux of Caire Agas and Janizaries all with their Caps of Ceremony then the two Pages of the said Bey of Girge and the eight of the Basha with their Gilt Silver-Cap and lovely Plumes of Feathers and at length came the Bey of Girge He was a Man of good presence about forty Years of Age after him came his Household to the number of three hundred Men all in good Order The ten first were cloathed in Green Velvet with a large Collar of the same Stuff covered over with Plates of Gold having neat Bows and Quivers full of pretty Arrows with Shables by their sides The ten that came next were Apparelled in Yellow Satin carrying each a Pike a Shield and a Shable The rest were all well Cloathed too every one carrying a Carbine and Shable and in the Rear of them ten played on Timbrels and as many on Trumpets and Flutes besides all these there were above sixty Men playing on Timbrels every one mounted on a Camel who being dispersed here and there through the Cavalcade made a great Noise They drew all up in the Cara Meidan but though it be a large place yet it could not contain both them and the Militia of Caire so that a good many of them were forced to March out into the Romeille to make room for the rest When the Bey came near the Kieusk he alighted from his Horse and went unto it where the Basha expected him and treated him with Coffee Sorbet and a Perfume presenting him and every one of his Officers with a Caftan a piece Whilst he was there I went to a narrow Avenue at the end of the Romeille through which he was to pass soon after we saw him and all his Men pass that way in File I reckoned all those of his Retinue who had Caftans and found them to be an hundred and eight and they marched in the same Order as they came The Kiaya of the Basha waited upon the Bey back to his House which was not far distant However that was a thing extraordinary for it is not the custome for the Kiaya of a Basha to wait upon a Bey he saluted all the People on both hands as he went who all shouted and wished him a thousand Blessings The Turks and People of the Country were much surprised to see so many Men saying That there was no King so powerful as he The truth is the Bey of Girge is a very mighty Prince when he is beloved of his Subjects who are all Warlike so that when he is at Girge he values not the Grand Signior himself And nevertheless a Year after this solemn entry the Basha of Caire having made War with him who seemed to be very well beloved of his Subjects he took him and caused him immediately to be Strangled His Arabs who were his greatest strength and in whom he put most Confidence having forsaken him but it was thought they were corrupted by the Basha This Bey kept in his House about him a Guard of Two thousand Men and the rest of his Forces returned to Bezeten and the Rode which is a Country-house belonging to him over against old Caire but they came daily to the City to know how the Affaires of their Master stood because he mistrusted some bad design against him and therefore when he went abroad in the Town he took always Three thousand Horse along with him This Bey presented the Basha in Money and Horses to the value of eighty Purses and it was judged that that Journey would cost him Three hundred Purses and indeed he had brought Two thousand Purses with him which amount to fifty Millions of Maidins or a Hundred and fifteen thousand an hundred and one Piastres seventeen Maidins When this Bey was at Girge they killed an hundred and fifty Sheep a day for his Family CHAP. LXVIII The arrival of an Ambassadour of Aethiopia at Caire With the Presents he brought for the Grand Signior IN the month of October an Ambassadour of Aethiopia came to Caire The arrival of an Ambassadour of Aethiopia at Caire An Ass of extraordinary Beauty with several Presents for the Grand Signior and among others an Ass that had a most delicate Skin if it was Natural for I will not vouch for that since I did not examine it This Ass had a black List down the Back and the rest of its Body was all begirt with White and Tawny streaks a finger broad a piece the Head of it was extraordinarily long striped and partly coloured as the rest of the Body its Ears like a Buffles were very wide at the end and black yellow and white its Legs streaked just like the Body not long ways but round the Leg in fashion of a Garter down to the Foot and all in so good proportion and Symmetry that no Lynx could be more exactly spotted nor any Skin of a Tygre so pretty The Ambassadour had two more such Asses which died by the way but he brought their Skins with him to be presented to the Grand Signior with the live one He had also several little black Slaves of Nubia and other Countreys confining on Aethiopia Civet and other costly things for his Present These little Blacks as I said before serve to look after the Women in the Serraglio after that they are Gelded The Ambassadour was an Old Man and had the end of his Nose part of the upper and under Lip cut off but was otherwise a shapely Man and of a very good Presence He was Cloathed after the Cophtish fashion wearing a Turban like them and spoke very good Italian which gave me the opportunity of conversing with him He told me his name was Michael that he was a Native of Tripoly in Syria and that he had made three or four Voyages into Christendom he even confessed to me that he was a Roman Catholick but that he durst not make profession of it in Aethiopia but only of the Abyssin that is to say the Religion of the Cophtes That eighteen months before he had parted from Gontar the Capital City of Aethiopia and was so long retarded by the way because of the contrary Winds he met with on the Red Sea by which he came That of an hundred Persons whom he had brought with him of his own Servants and the Slaves he was to present to the Grand Signior thirty or forty were Dead If he had come by Land he had not been so long by the way for from Gontar to Schouaquen it is about six weeks Journey Gontar and from Schouaquen to Caire forty or fifty days by Camels but he could not take that way because of his Train He told me many things
fronts the North and at the end of the Court there is a Portico supported by six Pillars by which they enter into the Mosque which is covered with a very large Dome The Mosque of Hasan having one less on each side they are all three covered with lead Its Founder was a Basha called Hasan who at his death left money to build that Mosque and his own Tomb. The Basha's Serraglio Going forward we came to a place of the Street where on the left hand stands the Basha's Serraglio which seems pretty enough Over the Gate there is a Pavillion in form of a Pyramid but it is onely of Earth and not faced it is the appartment of the Basha's Kiaya and the Castle is on the right hand The Serraglio gate or of Bazar Espahi The Castle of Damascus The Gate called Bab-Espahi or Bab-Bazar-Espahi is in this place We entered the Town and went along by the Castle which was on our left hand the Ditch wherein there is Water being betwixt us That Castle serves for a Wall to the Town on that side and it reaches almost to the Gate of Paboutches it is a large square well built fabrick of Free-stone Table cut the Walls of it are very high and at certain distances there are large high square Towers built as the rest are and very near one another Having walked all along that side we went along the second side which serves also for a Wall to the Town There we saw a stone-Chain made of a single Stone though it consists of several Links cut one within another it is fastened very high to the Wall There was another Chain longer than this but six years agoe it was broken down by foul Weather and fell into the Ditch From thence we passed by the Gate of the Castle where we saw some Cannon that defend the entry of it then we went to the Market-place of Paboutches Two Mosques formerly Churches and having crossed it we went through little Streets to one where there are two Mosques in which are the Sepulchres of some Kings of Damascus having been formerly the Churches of the Christians There is no seeing into one of them but we looked into the other through lovely Grates of well polished Steel This Mosque is compleatly round and covered with a lovely Dome of Free-stone in which there are several Windows all round it is faced in the inside with Marble of various Colours from the Pavement to the height of three fathome or thereabouts and from thence up to the Windows there are several fair Paints of Churches and Trees after the Mosaick way In the middle of the Mosque there are two Tombs one by another upon a Floor of Marble raised about a Foot and a half high These Tombs are of Cedar-wood very well wrought they are about four or five Foot high and ridged They say that the one contains the Body of King Daer who being a Christian turned Turk and persecuted the Christians cruelly and the Turks affirm that no Candle nor Lamp can be kept lighted there it is certain that both times I past that way I saw none Near to these Tombs there are some Alcorans chained to desks of the same matter the Tombs are of and though all the times I passed that way I saw no body at them yet I imagine there are men hired to read the Alcoran for the Souls of these Kings according to the Custome of the great Lords of the Mahometan Religion who commonly at their death leave great Estates for performing such Prayers The great Mosque of Damascus Having considered this Mosque as much as we could we came to another which is called the great Mosque I took several turns about it to see it by the doors which were open for a Christian dares not set foot within it nor stand at the door neither Some Turks offered indeed to take me in with a Turkish Turban on my head but I would not embrace that offer for had I been known I must have died since by God's Assistance I would not renounce my Faith. On the West-side they enter that Mosque by two great brazen Gates near four fathom high which are very well wrought and full of odd Figures in the middle of each of them there is a Chalice well cut By the doors I saw the breadth of that Mosque which may be about eighteen fathom it hath two ranges of large thick Pillars of grey Marble of the Corinthian Order which divide it into three Isles and of all these Pillars each two support an Arch over which are two little Arches separated by small Pillars which look much like Windows The Pavement is all of lovely stones that shine like Lookinglass That great Mosque which reaches from East to West is covered with a sharp ridged wooden Roof and hath a very large Dome in the middle but on the Noth-side at the place where that Dome is largest there are little arched Windows all round and from these Windows three or four foot higher which is also their height it is faced with green Stone glazed which makes a lovely object to the sight and the rest is rough cast with Lime On each side of the Front of the Mosque there is a square Steeple with Windows like to ours but the higher and larger is on the East-side and they say it was made when that Church was first built which since hath been converted into a Mosque The Turks affirm that Jesus is to return into this World by that Steeple There is a third Steeple behind the Dome The Steeple of the Messias which is diametrically opposite to that of the Messias and this last is round and hath been built by the Turks aswell as the other less square one One Night of the Ramadan I went upon the Terrass-walks to the Windows of that Mosque which are made like the Windows of our Churches and have panes of glass set in Plaister which are wrought into Figures I looked in through a quarry of one of these Windows from whence I saw the end of the Mosque which I could not through the others because on the outside they have wire Lettices There by the Lamp-light I perceived in the Keblay which is exposed to the South a hole grated over with gilt Iron The head of St. Zachary wherein they say the Head of St. Zachary is kept I could see no more of the Ornaments except the Lamps which are in great Number and the Pillars I mentioned Besides the two ranges of Pillars which are in the Body of the Mosque to the Number of six and thirty eighteen to each rank there are at least threescore more aswell in the Court as at the Portico's which make the Entrys into the Court. Take this account of what I could observe of that Court its Porches and of all the outside of the Mosque having taken several turns round it On the West-side there are three Brazen Gates embelished with
poor Pilgrims of all Religions and when I was there there were a great many Persons who were already come to perform the Pilgrimage of Mecha I went out of that Hospital by the opposite side to that which I entered it and on the left hand I saw the Stables where the Pilgrims Horses are put if they have any Pursuing my way I found to the right hand another Cloyster of the same Architecture as the former and which belongs to the same Hospital it is for poor Scholars and hath also its Mosque Being come out of the Morestan and going streight forwards I went along a street where on each side are little Chambers for poor Pilgrims also and over head Rooms for the Women Pilgrims Then I came to a great House which hath a square Court where they make the Bisket for Mecha and there I saw several hundred Sacks full though it was as yet three Weeks to the time of their setting out upon the Journey They made this Provision because it is the custome that at Damascus two hundred Camels are loaded with Biskets and as many with Water at the Grand Seigniors expences to be distributed in Charity amongst the poor Pilgrims on the way Keeping on my way I crossed the Horse-Market where stands a great stone between four and five foot high about three foot broad and half a foot thick wherein some lines in Arabick are cut but so worn out that they cannot be read but with great difficulty the meaning of them is that when this stone shall be covered with water then Damascus will be taken Nevertheless Monsieur de Bermond who conducted me to these places told me that some years before he had seen so great an inundation that he believed the stone was covered with water at least as far as he could perceive from a high place pretty near from whence he discovered all that Market-place and could not see the stone near to which many Franciscan Friers were here tofore put to death for the faith We came in the next place to the bazar of Horse-saddles it is so called because that is the onely Commodity sold there having advanced a little into it we saw on the left hand the great Bagnio which I shall describe then we entered into the City again by the Gate of Paboutches on both sides of that Gate there is a great Flower-de-luce cut in the Stone A Flower-de-luce We passed by the Gate called Bab-Fardis which was to our left on our way to Bab-Salem with out which but close by it is the conjunction of three Rivers this is an extraordinary pleasant place Keeping still along the side of the Wall we entered the City again by the Gate called Bab-Thoma and returned to our Lodging All the Coffee-houses of Damascus are fair and have much water Coffee-houses of Damascus but the fairest of all are in the Suburbs Amongst the rest that which is in the Sinanie and is called the great Coffee-house because of its vast extent is very delightfull by reason of the many Water-works that are in Basons full of Water there That which is near the Serraglio Gate and is called the Bridge Coffee-house because it is near a Bridge upon the River is so much the more delicious that the River borders it on one side and that there are Trees all along before it under the shade of which they who are upon the Mastabez of the Coffee-house have a pleasant fresh Air and the view of the River running below them The Coffee-house of the two Rivers which is near the Gate of the Paboutches and where the length of the Castle ends is also fair and large two Rivers pass by it which at the end of a great covered Hall makes a little Island full of Rose-bushes and other Plants whereof the verdure and various Colours with the smell of the Flowers delight at the same time several senses and give a great deal of agreeableness to a scituation otherwise so advantageous For you must know that these Rivers which I call little are at least four fathom broad and commonly five or six All know what a Coffee-berry is from which these places take their denomination I have spoken of it in my former Travels and shall onely add in this place what I learned of the qualities of that drink to wit that being drank very hot it clears the head of vapours moderately hot it binds up the body The Effects of Coffee and cold it is laxative At Damascus there are Capucins and Monks of the holy Land whose houses are near to one another in the quarter of the Maronites and just over against their Church where also they say Mass because each of these orders have their Chappel there There are Jesuits also in that City but they live a pretty way from thence in the quarter of the Greeks and celebrate in their own house I stayed four and twenty days in Damascus but could have been willing not to have stayed so long because of the troubles I was threatned with A false report being spread about the Town by the malice of some and perhaps of a Servant whom I had turned away that I had thirty thousand Chequins with me all ways were used to snap some of these pretended Chequins and for that end as I had information the Capicoules or Janissaries lay several times in wait to Arrest me upon some false pretext nay the same Chorbagi whom I met upon the Rode as I came from Saide having sent for Monsieur Bermond a French Merchant who was his friend told him perhaps to pump him that I had told him I was his Kinsman but that in short he knew I was a great and rich Lord and that I should look to my self because several threatened me and that he would serve me for his sake if I stood in need of it This report daily encreasing and I being very well known by face the onely remedy I had was to leave Damascus but seeing there was no opportunity of a Caravan I could not be delivered by that means so soon as I could have wished and I was forced to resolve to keep within Doors or at least not to stir abroad but as little as I could whilst I stayed for the occasion of some Caravan I could not doubt of the danger I was in especially when I knew that they watched the Reverend Father George a Jesuit who amongst other kindnesses he shewed me took the pains to come and teach me the use of the Astrolabe which obliged us for the future to correspond onely by Letters Notwithstanding all these cautions my Quality and Purse augmented daily in the mouths of the people In the mean time as luck would have it the night before my departure I had an express from Monsieur Bertet one of the chief Merchants of Aleppo upon occasion of my writing to him to give me notice when there was a Caravan ready to part for Bagdad In a trice
Turky they 'l suffer no body to ride on Horse-back with both Legs on one side as Ladies did in France when I left it the reason of that odd order is because the Turks believe that the two Gyants Gog and Magog who were Rebels against God A Posture in riding forbidden rode in that manner they are so prejudiced with that false Zeal that so soon as they see any body in that posture they hurle stones at him till he has altered his way of sitting At Damascus and Aleppo when they would whiten their Walls with Lime they cut hemp into small bits and mingle it with moistened Lime The manner of preparing Lime which they dawb the Wall over with where it would not hold without the hemp because the Walls are onely of Earth Holes in Tombs and Graves I observed at Damascus that the Turks leave a hole of three fingers breadth in diametre on the top of their Tombs where there is a Channel of Earth over the dead body That serves to cool the dead for the Women going thither on Thursday to pray which they never fail to do every Week they pour in water by that hole to refresh them and quench their thirst and at the end of the grave stick in a large branch of Box which they carry with them purposely and leave it there to keep the dead cold They have another no less pleasant custome and that is when a Woman hath lost her husband The Women ask counsel of their dead Husbands she still asks his counsel about her affairs For instance a Woman sometimes two years after her husband's death will go to his grave and tell him that such a person hath wronged her or that such a Man would marry her and thereupon asks his counsel what she should do having done so she returns home expecting the answer which her late husband fails not to come and give her the Night following and always conform to the Widows desire The Womens Mourning It is a pretty ridiculous thing too to see the Mourning which the Women at Damascus appear in at the death of their relations and even the Christian women I had that diversion one Evening about eight a Clock at Night when I was at the Capucins gate I perceived several Maronite women returning from the lodging of one of their relations who died three hours before there was above twenty of them and they made a great deal of noise some singing and others crying knocking their breasts with their hands joined together and two Men carried each a Candle to light them When they were over against the Maronites Church which is before the house of the Capucins they stopt and put themselves in a ring where for a long time they snapt the fingers of the right hand as if they had been Castanets against one anothers Noses keeping time to the songs they sung as if they rejoyced whilst some of them from time to time howled and cried like mad Women At length having performed that Musick a pretty long while they made many bows to the East lifting up the right hand to their head and then stooping it down to the ground having done so they marched foreward with the same Musick as before The way of threshing Corn. At Damascus and almost all Turkey over they thresh not the Corn but after it is cut down they put it up in heaps and round the heap they spread some of it four or five foot broad and two foot thick This being done they have a kind of sled made of four pieces of Timber in square two of which serve for an Axle-tree to two great rowlers whose ends enter into these two pieces of Timber so as that they easily turn in them round each of these rowlers there are three Iron-pinions about half a foot thick and a foot in diametre these pinions are full of teeth like so many saws there is a seat placed upon the two chief pieces of Timber where a man sits and drives the horses that draw this Machine round upon the lay of Corn that is two foot thick and that cutting the straw very small makes the Corn come out of the ear without breaking it for it slides betwixt the teeth of the Iron When the straw is well cut they put in more and then separate the Corn from that hashed Straw by tossing all up together in the Air with a wooden shovel for the Wind blows the Straw a little aside and the Corn alone falls streight down The way of feeding Horses They feed their Horses with that cut Straw In some places that Machine is different as I have seen in Mesopotamia where in stead of these pinions round the rowler they have many pegs of Iron about six Inches long and three broad almost in the shape of wedges but somewhat broader below than above fastened without any order into the rowlers some streight and others cross ways and this Engine is covered with Boards over the Irons whereon he that drives the Horses sits for he has no other seat to sit upon they take the same course in Persia nevertheless in some places they cut not the Straw but onely make Oxen or Horses tread out the Corn with their feet which they separate from the Straw as I have said Of all the Corn which they prepare in this manner Barley is the oneiy grain they feed their Horses with In the Morning they give every Horse an Ocque of that Barley and four at Night which they mingle with cut Straw and that 's all they have the whole day In Persia the Horses have Barley onely at Night but in the Day-time they give them a Sack of Straw Let us now see how they make Butter at Damascus The way of making Butter which is the same way all Turkey over They fasten the two ends of a stick to the two hind feet of a Vessel that 's to say each end of the stick to each foot and the same they do to the fore-feet to the end these sticks may serve for handles Then they put the Cream into the Vessel stopping it close and then taking hold on it by the two sticks they shake it for some time and after put a little water into it Then they shake it again untill the Butter be made which being done they pour off a kind of Butter-milk by them called Yogourt which they drink When they would have this Yogourt more delicious they heat the Milk and put a spoonfull of sower Milk to it which they make sower with runnet and by that mixture all the Milk becoming Yogourt they let it cool and then use it or if they have a mind to keep it they put it with Salt into a bag which they tye very fast that what is within may be pressed and let it drop until no more come out Of that matter there remains no more in the bag but a kind of a Butter or rather white Cheese
Hill to the left hand on which there is a Mosque with a Building like to a little Castle called Sultan-Abdullah Sultan-Abdullah heretofore it was inhabited by Dervishes and at present serves for a retreat to Arabian Robbers We saw about a score of them on the water-side with their Horses and Lances who sent three of their company towards us These Blades having stript themselves naked came swimming and asked Bread of us they had it and so returned carrying each two Loaves one upon their head and the other in one hand which they held out of the water swimming only with the other hand We had still Woods to our left and by intervals some Hills and shortly after we had Woods also to the right hand In several places on the same side we saw a great many of the Summer-houses of the Arabs but no body in them Half an hour after five in the evening we saw upon a little Hill on the same hand the ruins of a Castle called Toprac-Calasi Toprac-Calasi There were some Houses of Arabs there and the other Keleck having stopt a few minutes near Land they stole an Abe of Cloth which is a kind of a Vest and no body perceived it till they were gone These Arabs sow Millet thereabouts of which they make their Bread eating no other We stopt that day in the morning and at noon to do the needs of Nature as it was our custom and then continued our way having always Hills on the right hand and about Sun-setting we went a-shoar at a place on the left hand where there is abundance of Lions and where one must have a special care of Arabs for some time ago the Arabs robbed a Keleck in that very place having on board almost fourscore people whom they killed and then over-set the Keleck that it might be thought it over-set of it self Hardly were we arrived when three Arabs came swimming over to us from the other side we gave them Bread and so set them going We parted next morning Monday the eleventh of August at break of day and had Hills still on our right hand About eight a clock we passed near one of these Hills on which the people of the Countrey say there is a Castle named Mekhoul-Calaai by the name of a Franck who built it About nine a clock we saw the ends of these Hills Liquorice-water The Liquorice which I found by the way when we went a-shoar was very useful to me for I infused it in the water which I drank and that pleased me better than common water which not only made me sweat excessively for I voided by the pores as much as I drank but also it raised on me several Blisters that pricked me like so many needles as often as I drank or sate down whereas when I drank Liquorice-water Sumack I felt none of these inconveniences I had besides Sumack which is almost like Hemp-seed wherewith I made another sort of Drink by putting a little of that grain into water and after pounding it that yielded me a very red Water but very cooling and wholsom and if a little Salt be added to it it makes it much pleasanter They use a great deal of Sumack and when it is beat and put into Broth it is very wholsom and a good remedy against the Bloody-Flux They suffer no man to make a Tent upon these Kelecks to keep out the Sun nay they would not suffer me to hold a bough of a Tree over my head because of the wind which might over-set the Keleck but I found a way to defend my self against the heat of the Sun by lying half at length so that my head was a little higher almost as if I had been sitting In this posture I fastened one end of my Abe behind my head and covered my self with the rest in manner of a Tent by means of three sticks of which one that I held between my Legs upheld it in the middle and was like the main Pile the other two supported it on the two sides In this manner I had a pretty convenient shade and the wind ever almost on one side or other but notwithstanding all my circumspection I suffered great heats especially some days when there was not a breath of wind About noon the Hills began again and these Mountains run along as far as the Indies they call them Dgebel Hemrin Dgebel Hemrin Montes Cordaci Gioubbar Calai Altun Daghi I believe they are the Mountains called Cordaci by Quintus Curtius in his fourth Book and tenth Chapter Towards two of the clock we passed near to a Castle which is in Mesopotamia called Gioubbar Calai and some time after we saw a little Hill to the left hand called Altun Daghi that 's to say the Hill of Gold because the Arabs digging in it here and there find a little Gold. About four a clock we passed that place where they that go down the Tygris as we did begin to have the Mounts Hebrin to the left which till that place they have always had to the right and on the side of Mesopotamia It is the tradition that the River heretofore divided them and that they go by Ispahan and reach as far as the Indies and in that Countrey they affirm that these Hills which are of a white Rock encompass all the World. At Sun-setting we went a-shoar on the side of Mesopotamia over against Kizil-Han Kizil-Han which is a Han not far from it and the fifth Lodging of the Caravans that come from Mosul We did not take our Lodging on the other side as the nights before because of the Lions that are there and are to be seen in Flocks like Sheep We kept good Guard because our station was pretty near to the Houses of some Arabs besides there were some Lions also on that side Amongst the rest there is one that is in great reputation among the people of the Countrey he is called the Lion of Kizil-Han and is said to be as big as an Ass A Lion of great bigness and of extraordinary strength who never fails to take a man of every Caravan and it was very honourable for ours that we paid him not that Tribute They add that he commonly sets upon those who straggle in the rear and that it may not be thought that it 's for want of courage but only out of cunning that he does so they say he is so bold that if he see no more but two or three men he comes confidently up to them and taking one of them in his Claws lays him upon his Back and carries him away Some Caravanists told me a great many Tales upon that subject which I shall give as cheap as I had them They told me very seriously that the Lion never sets upon a man but when he is very hungry and that he feeds upon him backwards beginning always at his Buttocks because he is afraid of the face of a man. That when
covering a great pent-house which was made of sticks or laths laid cross ways and two Stores over them upon which they spread a very thin lay of this lime smoothing it with the Trowel Then they put upon this lay three fingers thick of Earth mingled with Straw and wrought into a morter In this which I saw prepared there were four and twenty Ass loads and four men prepared it They were near eleven hours about it and made it up into five Wells or Heaps which remained so for two days before they were used The greatest use they make of this lime mingled with Ashes and Straw Lime for fish Ponds Basons and Fountains is for Fish-ponds Basons of Fountains and other things that are to hold water When that Stuff is well made it lasts above thirty years and is harder than Stone In whitening of their Walls they use no lime but make use of a white Earth which is in small pieces like plaister and immediately dissolves in water This Earth they call Ghilsefid Ghilsefid that 's to say white Earth they dig it out of certain Pits or Quarries of which there are many about Ispahan As to their morter it is usually made of plaister The making of Morter earth and chopped straw all well wrought and incorporated together At Schiras to spare the charges of Ghilsefid they sometimes make use of plaister for whitening their Walls but they have not that bright whiteness which Ghilsefid giveth They cast their Walls pretty often also with a mixture made of Plaister and Earth which they call Zerdghil Zerdghil that 's to say yellow Earth though in reality it be not yellow but rather of a Musk or Cinnamon colour they get it on the River-side and work it in a great Earthen Vessel but they put so little earth in proportion to water that it remains liquid like muddy water or at most like strained Juice and it is altogether of the Colour of that Earth they make use of it to work the Plaister in another Earthen Vessel where they mingle this water with plaister in such a quantity that it be reduced to the thickness of morter which retains the colour of that Earth With this mixture they cast their Walls which at first look all greyish but according as they dry they grow so white that when they are fully dry they seem almost as if they were plaistered over with pure plaister This mixture is used not onely for saving of plaister but also because it holds better than plaister alone and in my opinion looks as well For making of Terrasses they lay as I have said upon the Stores and reeds almost half a foot thick of Earth The way of making Terrasses but which sinks to far less being trampled and tread upon when it is well dried in the Air they lay on more Earth mingled with a like quantity of Straw which they work well together stirring it often that they may better incorporate the Straw with the Earth And when that is well mixt and reduced to the consistence of kennel-dirt they trample it a long while with their feet and spread it very even all over This second lay is commonly about half a foot thick also but being dry is hardly half so thick when it is dry they lay on a third lay like the former so that all being dry it may be about a foot thick All this is held up by a range of broad burnt Bricks or Tiles which is laid all round the Terrass five or six high and level with the Earth in some places they make a little shelving that the rain-Water may run off into wooden Spouts which jet out for conveying it away In this manner I saw two Terrasses made which had in surface each about a fathom and a half square when they laid on the second lay two men wrought at each about an hours time stirring the Earth with shovels and incorporating it with the Straw whilst another man continually poured water upon it the last lay requires the same labour and pains At Schiras Lar and in other hot Countries they have upon the tops of their Houses an invention for catching the fresh Air An invention for having the fresh Air. It is a Wall one or two fathom high and about the same breadth to which at the intervals of about three foot other Walls about three foot broad and as high as the great Wall joyn in right Angles there are several of such on each side of the great Wall and all together support a Roof that covers them The effect of this is that from whatsoever corner the Wind blows it is straitned betwixt three Walls and the Roof over head and so easily descends into the house below by a hole that is made for it CHAP. VI. A Sequel of the Observations of Ispahan Of ARTS LET us go on in speaking of Arts and Trades Artists of Persia since we are insensibly engaged in it The Artists in Persia and all over the Levant use their Feet in working as much as their hands for their Feet serve them for a Loom hold fast and several other Instruments An imposition upon the companies of traydesmen Every Company of crafts men pays the King a certain Summ of Money which is raised upon all the Artists of the several Trades every one of them being assessed according to his incomes They have no Loom for turning as we have but put that which they have a mind to turn upon a Pivot or Spindle and wrap about it a thong of Leather leaving two ends A Boy holds the two ends of this strap and pulls towards him The way of turning wood sometimes the one and sometimes the other and in that fashion makes the piece to turn whilst the other labours whereas with us a single Person does all The use of the wimble Nor are the Wimbles of Carpenters and Joyners so convenient as with us neither They have a long Iron as thick as two of our Wimbles but square and flat at the end like a slice or Spatula yet drawing into a point with a side and edge which way soever they turn it This Iron is in a wooden handle about a foot long and above an inch thick with a weight of lead on the top with that they have a stick with a strap of Leather like a bow but very slack they turn the strap of this bow once about the handle of the Wimble and then leaning the left hand upon the head of the handle and pulling to and fro the bow with the right hand they turn the Wimble They have a most excellent Varnish for Painters Varnish it is made of Sandarack and lintseed Oyl which they mingle together and reduce all into the consistence of an Unguent when they would make use of it they dissolve it with the Oyl of Naphta but for want of the Oyl of Naphta one may use the Spirit of Wine many times
a Corschi These men have vast numbers of Cattle The Goulams are Slaves or the Sons of Slaves of all Nations The Goulams and chiefly of Renegado Georgians all their male issue to the hundredth Generation are of this body And there are about fourteen thousand of them in service who have from five or six to eight Tomans of pay they have also many great Lords of their Body and their chief is called Kouller Agasi The Tufenkgi are men raised the Villages The Tufenkgi and chiefly Renegado Armenians they are about eight thousand and have the same pay as the Goulams have but are looked upon onely as Peasants without reputation They were the last that have been instituted for the use of the Musket they march on horse-back but when they are to fight alight The Corschi and Goulams carry bows and arrows and fight on horse-back yet some of them carry the Harquebuse The Souldier's Sons have pay The Sons of Soldiers receive pay so soon as they are seven years old and it is augmented proportionably as they grow in Age. Besides these the King of Persia has Guards who carry the Musket A new Militia of guards but it is not long since they were instituted by an Eatmad Doulet who made use of that invention to undo the Divan Beghi then in being The Story is that a certain Person having one day found the Sister of that Eatmad Doulet in a debauched place before he was as yet raised to that dignity carried carried away her drawers and then talked of it in several places which extremely netled the Brother who at that time dissembled his displeasure Not long after being made Eatmad Doulet he resolved to undo that man who had defamed his Sister and to compass his designs cunningly he brought things so about that the King bestowed the Office of Deroga upon this man At this he was much surprised and thought that the Eatmad Doulet had forgot the trick he had put upon his Sister so that he fell to rob and cheat briskly and the rather that he was supported by the Divan Beghi When the Eatmad Doulet found that he had robbed enough he accused him before the King of abuses committed in his Office and much oppression who not being able to justifie himself was condemned to have Peggs driven through his feet to be hanged up with his head downwards and in that posture to receive a great many Bastonadoes all which was publickly put into Execution in the Meidan in spight of the Divan Beghi who did all he could to hinder it That offended the Eatmad Doulet so that he resolved to undoe him also and for that end made a Renegado Armenian Deroga who put into purses by it self all the money he got in his Office by fines and sealed these purses by order from the Eatmad Doulet who by these purses made the King sensible that if a Deroga got so much a Divan Beghi must needs get much more On the other hand the Divan Beghi who was not asleep brought complaints from all hands against the Deroga that that might reflect upon the Eatmad Doulet but these People passing no higher than the Aali Capi the complaints reached not the Princes Ear. In fine one day when the King was to go abroad the Eatmad Doulet armed several men with Muskets and placed them in guard at the Gate of the King's Palace The King as he was going out observing this new guard failed not to ask what the meaning of it was the Eatmad Doulet being there on purpose answered that it was he who had placed those guards there for his Majesties security because the Divan Beghi stirred up the People to sedition against him presently the King who was a little credulous which is a thing too common to all Princes who are not acquainted with matters but as it pleases those who are about them to inform them returned back in a great fright and sent presently to apprehend the Divan Beghi with orders to pluck out his Eyes which was instantly put into Execution publickly in the Meidan and from that time forward this guard hath been entertained in the service of the Kings of Persia Chief Officers Eatmad Doulet Sedre Sepeh Salar Kouroukgi Bassa Koular Agasi The chief Officers of the Crown are the Eatmad Doulet who is the first of the Kingdom next to the King the Sedre the Sepeh Salar who is a Generalissimo the Kouroukgi Bassa the Koular Agasi or General of the Goulams In my time there was no Sepeh Salar and they make none now but in time of War which being ended the Office also expires The Sedre is the chief in spiritual Affairs he is the high Priest of the Law as in temporals the Eatmad Doulet is the chief Minister however this man is more considerable and takes place of the Sedre Wherein it is observable that the dignities of the Church are not annexed to the Doctors of the Law as in Turkey but many times from being Sedre one is promoted to the Dignity of Eatmad Doulet Officers of Religion The Sedre The Scheick-el-Selom and the Cadi Next to the Sedre in Spirituals there are two under him who decide all points of Religion and make all contracts testaments and other publick deeds they judge also of Divorces and of all civil Debates and Processes The one is called Scheick-el-Selom that 's to say Scheick of the Law and the other Cadi Their Authority as well as Office is almost equal nevertheless the Scheick-el-Selom has some preference They are established in all the principal Towns of Persia and even in Ispahan and the King nominates them on whom they onely depend Pichnamaz In every Mosque as well as in the King's Houshold there is a Pichnamaz this is the director of the Prayers who says the Prayers and makes the rest say them and therefore he stands always foremost that the rest behind may see him Imam and do as he does in Turkey he is called the Imam They who pronounce the Prayer aloud are inconsiderable fellows that have good Voices who are hired for that and commonly they are young Boys There are Mulas who have great Salaries out of Ecclesiastical Revenues for teaching all comers Mulas Sciences and the Law and they are properly the Doctors Hodgia whom the Turks call Hodgia In Persia they all wear white turbans These Mulas are also in Persia like Clerks or Notaries they make the deeds of conveyances of purchases contracts and other deeds to make these Writings Authentick they must have the Bull of the Scheick-el-Selom or of the Cady but many neglect that Circumstance besides they are not very willing that the Scheick-el-Selom or Cadi should know their Affairs and therefore they think it enough to have the Writings drawn by a Mula with the seals onely of the Mula and party concerned These Bulls or Seals are stones with their names cut on them upon which they put a
all sorts of Fowl whose Eyes they sile that they may not see How they make Falcons and then let flie the Falcon which easily takes them when they cannot see Amongst these Hawks there are Falcons for hunting the Antelope which they teach in this manner Hunting of Antelopes by Falcons They have counterfeit Antelopes on the Noses whereof they daily feed the Falcons and no where else having bred them so they go into the Fields with them and so soon as they have discovered an Antelope let flie two of these Hawks of which one of them fastens just upon the Antelope's Nose and strikes him backwards with his Talons The Antelope stops and strives to shake it off and the Hawk flutters with its Wings to keep its hold which hinders the Antelope from running fast or seeing well before him At length when with much a doe he hath shaken it off the Falcon which is aloft stoops and comes in the place of the other which immediately points up and keeps above ready to succeed to its Companion when it is forced off and in this manner they so stop the Antelopes running that the Dogs come in and catch him This sport is the more pleasant that the Countrey is open and champian there being little wood in it The King hath also a great many Elephants and many wild Beasts such as Tygres Lions and Leopards In the enumeration of the Officers of the Court of Persia I have spoken occasionally of those who administer Justice and frame publick and private acts and deeds It remains now that I should add what I have learned of the particular Laws of the Countrey Civil Laws of Persia As for civil Affairs in the distribution of inheritances in Persia the Sons have two parts and the Daughters one Division of Estates amongst the Children If there be but one Son and one Daughter the Son takes two thirds and the Daughter the other third and if there be two Sons and one Daughter the Sons have each two fifth parts and the Daughter one if there be two Daughters and a Son the Son takes two thirds and the other is divided betwixt the two Daughters and if there be two Sons and two Daughters each Son has a third and the last third is for the two Daughters An unjust law against the Christians of the Countrey But as to the right of inheritance they have a very unjust Law devised for the propagation of the Faith of Mahomet And that is if a Christian turns Mahometan when any of his kindred dies all the Estate of the departed belongs to him to the exclusion of his Children though he be no nearer to him than in the fifth Degree of Kindred He who instituted that Law Dgiafer gave it out that it was commanded by Dgiafer one of the twelve Imams and that Dgiafer affirmed that it was revealed to him from God. Nevertheless this evil is not without remedy for the Mahometan Judges knowing the Iniquity of this Law have found out a knack to cause dying Christians to make a pretended Sale of all their Goods to trusty Persons and when that is done they dispose of all their Estates by Will and the pretended Purchasers approve before the Judges of all that the deceased hath done in disposing of the Estate which he hath sold to them The Judges admit of this the more willingly that they get money by it which they could not have if a Mahometan carried away all Duschacha A kind of punishment As for Criminals they use a singular way in binding Prisoners They put a forked piece of Timber before their Throat the handle being a foot long and the two prongs of the Fork goe on each side of the Neck behind there is a wooden bar that joyns the two ends of the grains and is nailed to them so that the whole makes a triangle before the throat there is another wooden bar nailed at each end to the middle of the prongs and at the end of the handle of this fork which is cut a little hollow the Prisoners hand is put with the Wrist in the hollow and over it they put another bar half a foot long which is likewise a little hollow in the middle and the two ends thereof are nailed to the two Extremities of the handle of the Fork so that the Prisoner has his hand as it were in a Scarff and can make no use of it This Instrument may be about a foot and a half or two foot long and they call it Duschacha The rack for malefactors The ordinary Rack to extort a Confession of Robberies and other Crimes is for men to pinch off the Flesh with hot Pinsers and to give blows on the feet with a Cudgel The rack for women as in Turky For the Women they put a Rat into their Drawers so that the Rat being betwixt the Drawers and the Flesh torments them extremely King of Punishments The usual punishments they inflict upon Malefactors whom they would not put to death is to pluck out their Eyes or else to pierce the Nerves of their Ankles and then hanging them up by the feet to give them a certain number of blows with a Cudgel and sometimes also to cut the Nerves short off When they condemn any to death the most usual punishment is to rip open the Belly One day the great Schah Abbas causing the Belly of a Malefactor to be ript open in his presence observed that the Portugal Ambassadours that stood by him turned away their Eyes from beholding that Spectacle as if it raised horrour in them which made him say that certainly these torments would be too cruel and horrid if they were practised amongst Christians who are rational People but that they were absolutely necessary among the Persians who are Beasts Moreover it is very difficult for those who have committed any Crime to make their escape or avoid Justice by flying because of the good order that is observed For besides that there are but few passages to get out of the Countrey the Roads are so exactly kept by the Rahdars whom I have mentioned before and whom I found upon my entry into Persia that is almost impossible not to fall into their hands and they suffer none to go out nor come into the Kingdom till first they examine who he is and the occasion of his Journey When I came to Ispahan there were two Muscovite Ambassadours who had waited there for Audience several Months and could not obtain it and the King used them in this manner because an Ambassadour of his had not been well received in Moscovy The design of their Embassy was not known onely it was suspected that they did it for no other end but to gain credit and reputation amongst their Neighbours when they should know that the King of Persia was their friend Nevertheless they had no good success which was partly occasioned by their own fault They had made
much as the means of getting water so that finding himself in that extremity he was willing to come to a composition and offered if they would allow him free passage to return with his people into Egypt but they who would needs carry him and all his Family Prisoners to Yezid according to the orders that were given them refused him these conditions He yielded not for all that but having suffered Hunger and Thirst for some days longer resolved at length to make himself a passage by force or to die in the attempt chusing rather to die with Sword in hand than to fall alive into the power of his Enemies He therefore marched couragiously towards them charged into the thickest of them with extraordinary vigour and did all that could be done to break through but his party being too unequal he was overpowered by number himself and all his men killed and his Wives and Children made Prisoners and carried to Yezid who treated them honourably seeming to be grieved at the death of Hussein They yearly perform a great solemnity for that death I was there in the year one thousand six hundred sixty and five and was witness to the Ceremony It began the fifteenth of July which was the first day of the month Maharram Aaschour or Feast of the death of Hussein and that is there New Years day And seeing that mournful Festival lasts ten days they call it Aascour a word that signifies Ten in Arabick during these ten days all the Persians are Sad and Melancholick many being clad in Black others wearing only a black Girdle What the Persians observe in that Mournful Feast and others a black Turban In all that time no man is shaved they go not to the Bagnios nor commit any debauch and even abstain from their Wives in short they express so much grief in outward shew that one would think some great publick Calamity had befallen them The inferiour sort of people signalize their Zeal by a thousand foolish pranks some bury themselves under ground all day long having nothing out but the Head nay and that too is covered with a Pot and Earth over it others run about the streets almost stark naked having only a bit of black stuff to hide their Nakedness and most part of those Fools daub over all their Body and Face with Soot mingled with Oil others take Bol Armeniack which they dissolve also in Oil and with that Dye themselves Red that they may look as if they were all in a gore of blood and some who are more sincere cut and mangle their Bodies in several places nay and in the Head too so that the blood comes running down on all sides in all these different manners they run about the streets in companies most part with a naked Shable in their hands singing several doleful Verses made upon the death of Hussein and by fits crying as loud as they can Ya Hussein which is the burden of their Song and all this to the tune of some wretched Musick which some of them make with two stones in their Hands that they clap one against another Many publick places in the streets are hung with Black and lighted with several Lamps and there is a Pulpit where a Moula Preaches at a certain hour of the Night and relates the circumstances of the death of Hussein at which the Hearers melt into Tears They have such Sermons also in the Day time to which many persons of Quality resort nay and at Ispahan the King himself is obliged to come clad in Mourning at least the last day which is the Tenth and indeed that is the day of greatest Ceremony because that was the day say they whereon the brave Hussein was put to death Seeing I was at Schiras when I saw the Festival of that day At Schiras the Feast of the death of Hussein it is only what happened in that Town which now I relate All the Quarters of the Town went in Procession and the Processions passed by the Governours House with all their Colours the Rabble naked and besmeared in the manner I mentioned before there came after them a great many Children on Horse-back representing the Children of Hussein who were carried away Prisoners then they had led Horses covered with black and all the Armour of a Horse-man fastened to the Saddle marching next and after them they carried some Coffins covered with black Velvet and a Turban upon each This Procession having passed by the Governours Gate went out of the Town to Consummate the Festival at a Mosque where Khatoun the Daughter of Aly is Interred there they had a Sermon after which they wept and then all returned to prepare the Alms they were to give most of which were Rice and messes of Corn which they Boiled in great Kettles and distributed amongst the poor They say that during these Ten Days the Gates of Paradise are open and that all Mahometans who die then get in without any difficulty Forty days after the last day of the Aaschour that is to say the twentieth of the month of Sefer they have another Feast which they call Serten The Feast of Serten that is to say Head Body because say they that the Head of Hussein being cut off was of it self joyned to his Body forty days after They make great rejoycing that day and there are a great many who do not Shave their Heads from the first day of the Aaschour until this Feast of Serten wherein for the most part they give the like Alms as we mentioned just now The death of Aly is celebrated much after the same manner as that of Hussein his Son but it lasts only a day The Feast of the death of Aly. which is the one and twentieth of the Month of Ramazan they goe in Procession through the Town wherein they carry Standards lead Horses covered with Trophies of Arms and carry a Coffin covered with black Velvet with a Turban upon it and having said some Prayers they all return home and so the Feast is ended The History of the death of Aly Mahomet's Cousin and Son in Law The History of Aly. according as it is related in Persia is that having Married Fatima the Daughter of Mahomet he was killed at Bagdad by a servant of his own called Ebw-Mouldgem-Mourat who had been brought up in his service from his infancy with a great deal of care this Rogue having at a Wedding seen a young Widow named Quetome whose Relations and Husband had been put to death by the command of Aly fell in Love with her and courted her in Marriage she who still thought on the Death of her Husband and Relations that went to her Heart and only expected an opportunity of being revenged made him answer that she would not Marry him unless first he killed Aly which at first he refused retaining still some Sentiments of Affection towards his Master but she persisting in her resolution Love prevailed in the
built upon a narrow Rock which stretches out in length from North-East to South-West this Rock is very steep so that it is almost as broad on the top as at the bottom especially on the North-West side it is in some places above seven or eight Fathom high particularly on the South-East side at the Foot of this Rock on the same South-East side there are some Gardens and some steps farther runs a little River near to which is the Kervanseray built of burnt Bricks and over the Gate there is a pretty convenient Lodging-House it stands at the Foot of a high Rock that is to the South of it from which sometimes great pieces fall and are to be seen below most of them being as big as Houses The Village of Yez-de-Kast takes up the whole Surface of the Rock on which it stands as well in length as in breadth it hath no other Walls but the Walls of the Houses which are three or four Stories high and some higher all built of Stone This Town is in manifest danger sometime or other of falling down topsie turvy all at once being so high and having nothing to support it and indeed the Inhabitants mistrust it for about ten years since they began to build another Town at some distance from the Rock and to the Northward of it and when I passed by it on my return in the Year one thousand six hundred sixty and seven a great many Houses were already finished and new ones going up all forsaking the other Seat whereas when I past it first in the Year one thousand six hundred sixty five there was not so much as one House begun The Gate of Yez-de-Kast is on the South-West side where the ground about is as high as the Rock it is but little so that not having observed it at first coming I went from the Kervanseray to the Town climbing up the Rock on the South-East side betwixt the Gardens and after much climbing up I entered by a little Gate and went on above a hundred steps in a covered way that receives no light but by ugly holes and is by consequence so dark that one must groap along as they go in it I durst proceed no farther for fear of losing my self or entering into some House by mistake and so for that time I was obliged to turn back again by the same way I came but it is not so when one enters the Town by the other Gate The Land about Yez-de-Kast bears the best Corn in Persia and indeed they make most excellent Bread there the Inhabitants as they say mingling dry Pease with the Corn which makes the Bread so good There are several fair Tombs here built in Fashion of Domes Sunday the first of March we parted from that place half an hour after midnight and took the upper way for there are two ways the one on the Left Hand East-wards which is called the lower way and the other on the Right Hand to the West side which they call the upper way because it lies among Hills in the Winter-time when this way is filled up with Snow they are obliged to go the lower way which is the longer by a days Journy but being assured that the upper way was open we took it and for that end when we set out from the Kervanseray we held Westward for some time till we came to a place where the way leads up that Hill at the Foot whereof the Kervanseray stands being got up we marched in a Plain betwixt little Hills covered with Snow streight South-East until about Three a Clock we mounted up a Hill where the ascent is not long and the descent shorter but the way very bad and therefore it is called Chotali-Naar-Schekeni Chotali-Naar-Schekeni that is to say the Hill that pulls off the Horses shoes we came afterward into a pretty good way betwixt little Hills all white with Snow at day break we passed by a little Castle called Gombez-Cala where there is a Village also but ruined Gombez-Cala Half an hour after Nine we entered into a Plain in which we Travelled on till after Eleven that we came to a Village where we Lodged in a Kervanseray This Village is called Dehi ghirdon that is to say Village of Nuts Dehi ghirdon not that it abounds in that Fruit for having informed my self I learnt that the Nuts they eat there come from Lar however I took the pains to ask the reason why it was so called but all the answer I could get was that that was the name of it it is seven Agatsch distant from Yez-de-Kast We parted from Dehi-ghirdon Monday the second of March about midnight and after two hours and a halfs Journey past by a ruinous Kervanserai beyond which we marched on in a Plain covered over with Snow where there was but one Path open and that all Frozen about seven of the Clock we crossed over a little Bridge of five Arches under which runs a River two Fathom broad and travelling on still in that white Plain we arrived about Noon at a Village called Keuschkzer that is to say the Silver-Pavillion there are two Kervanserais there Keuschkzer the one old and the other all new well built of Free-Stone and burnt Bricks with many embellishments and very commodious Lodgings and Stables near which also there are Appartments for the Winter and in these we Lodged Keuschkzer is seven long Agatsch distance from Dehi-ghirdon the Land about is very good being Sowed with Corn there are about it also a great many Meadows where the Kings Horses are sent to Grass in the Season It is always cold there and the Snow lyes all the year round upon the neighbouring Hills The Inhabitants of that Village are Circassians they make Wine and sell it but they have the Grapes from Maain of which we shall Treat in its proper place Next Morning about half an hour after Four we went on our Journey and Travelled in a way covered with Snow and full of holes but we found it worse when the Sun was up and the ground began to Thaw especially about Eleven of the Clock when we entered amongst the Hills which being full of Dirt and Stones made the way as bad as it could be This passage makes that they goe not that way in the Winter-time for in the Summer all these ways are good we kept on always ascending a little till about One a Clock that we went down Hill a good way at the the bottom of that descent a great Brook rises out of the Ground a good Fathom in breadth the water whereof is very clear this Brook runs by a Village called Asoupas Asoupas where we arrived half an hour after two in the afternoon and there we were very ill Lodged in a nasty Kervanserai this Village is five Agatsch distant from Keuschkzer and has a sorry old ruinous Castle upon a little Hill the Inhabitants are Circassians who were Transported thither
looks but mean and nothing appears outwards but a body of Lodgings over the Gate which is at the end of a great Square long Meidan with Arches all round it filled up in the manner of Niches There are some lovely Mosques in it also A College at Schiras and a fair College with a round Tower on each side of the Gate faced with blew varnished earth but they are half ruined having thrice suffered Fire which as often seized a Neighbouring Bazar In that College there are Professors who have Salaries for teaching Theology Philosophy and Medicine Publick Professors and I was told that there were above five hundred Students in it But the pleasantest thing to be seen about Schiras are the Gardens Lovely Gardens at Schiras which are many amongst the rest the Kings Gardens are worth the seeing They are spacious and have long streight Walks shaded with stately large Cypress-Trees for some of them are the highest and bushiest that ever I saw so that into some of these Allies the Sun does not shine a quarter of an hour in a day You have there also abundance of lovely great Maple-Trees planted in rows with many Fruit-Trees Rivulets run there on all hands and fill a vast number of Basons that are all faced with stone however all this comes far short of the delightfulness of the lovely Cascades and Water-works with compartments of Beds Enamelled with Flowers that are with us in Europe they have indeed a kind of Beds and Borders but nothing in them but Lillies planted at random on the sides Nor do they know neither what it is to have Hedg-rows nor Wall-Fruit for their Fruit-Trees stand all open to the wind without order as well as many Rose-Trees and Bidmisks and what is worst of all they suffer all to go to ruin For the Persians are curious enough in beautifying their Houses but in this they agree with the Turks that they take no care to keep things in repair The Persians repair nothing and it happens many times that they will let a whole building run to ruin for want of a handful of Plaster In these Gardens they have some Lodgings which consist in cool Halls and it is enough for them to come there now and then and divert themselves in the cool In short these Gardens might certainly be made pretty for there is nothing wanting but order and contrivance As to what is about Schiras I saw no great matter the first time that I sojourned there One day we went out of the Town on the North side and having crossed the River upon a Bridge of five Arches we saw on a Hill to the Right Hand the ruins of a Castle Another day we went another way but found nothing but some old demolished Houses with Battlements and a Well of a great depth A very deep Well into which as I was told heretofore they threw Adulterous women it is so deep that one may have time to say a Pater noster before a stone that is cast into it can reach the bottom it is dry and cut all out of the hard Rock the Mouth of it is a square of two fathom in length and one in breadth A little beyond that we saw a lovely Mosque where lies Interred that illustrious Persian Poet Scheikh Sadi The Sepulchre of Scheikh Sadi A large Well with a pair of Stairs whom they honour as a Saint Near to that Mosque there is a round Well the Mouth whereof is two or three fathom in Diametre they go down to it by a pair of Stairs and in it you see a square shallow Bason through which runs a stream of water so full of Fish that they appear in heaps over one another and yet it is death to kill any of them but the Dervish who hath the care of it makes no scruple to sell some to those that have a mind and that they may be safely taken he goes up to hinder any from looking down into the Well which he can easily do by telling those who come that there is a Kourouk that is to say women below and that will make them to return presently I have been there sometimes with Dutch men who took a great many with Hooks and Nets whilst the bigot Dervish stood Sentinel at the Mouth above The people of Schiras are very witty Poets at Schiras and the City hath given birth to most of the best Poets of Persia There is much Glass made there and several Glass-Shops are in the Town though they work not constantly in their Glass-Houses Glass-Houses at Schiras but let the Fire go out after they have employed a certain quantity of materials They make their Glass of a White Stone almost as hard as Marble which they get in a Hill four days Journey from Schiras and it is very clear especially they make great Bottles as clear and delicate as in any other place in the world but it is wonderfully strange how they can blow the great Bottles Caraba they call Caraba which are as thick as ones Finger and hold near thirty Quarts of Wine these Bottles are covered with the Straw of Canes The Soil about Schiras is very good and produces plenty of all things they have of all the Fruits that we have and Oranges and Limons in abundance but they make a Wine which without dispute is one of the best Wines in the World and the prime Wine of Persia The Wine of Schiras In this Kingdom it being a common saying Yes-de-Kast Bread Schiras Wine and Yezd Women the handsomest women of Persia being as they say in that Town The Wine of Schiras is an excellent Stomach Wine but very strong so that without spoiling the taste of it it will carry two thirds of water It is not made of Kishmish or Grapes without stones as at Ispahan because then it would be so strong that it could not be drank but it is made of common Grapes they have both Red and White but the Red is the best it is full of Lees and therefore very heady to remedy which they filtrate it through a Cloath and then it is very clear and free from fumes The people of Schiras make their Wine at Martlemass when the Grapes are already almost half dry they stay till they be so before they gather their Vintage when the Wine is made and in condition to be laid up they burn Incense all over the Cellar to take away all noysome scents before they Cellar it up They put it into great earthen Jarrs which hold ten or twelve even to fourteen Carabas but when they broach a Jarr it must be presently drawn off and Bottled up in Carabas for if the Wine be left any time in the Jarr after it hath been opened it spoils and grows Eagre There is a great deal of that Wine made and many Chests of it yearly sent to Ispahan and the Indies in each Case or Chest they put ten great
Bottles with a good deal of straw and two of these Chests make a Mules load They have also store of Capers Capers which they send also into all parts They preserve another thing in Vinegar which I never saw done any where else Preserved Grapes and that is Grapes which they gather half ripe and the time of gathering them they take to be when the Sparrows begin to peck them they put these Grapes into Bottles with good store of Vinegar which so macerates them that they lose their hardness yet no so as to become too soft or lose their Greenness only they look a little yellowish These Grapes preserved in Vinegar have a certain sweet acidity which is not unpleasant especially in the great heats and therefore they send great quantities of them into the Indies Rose-water They have also abundance of Roses from which they draw so much Rose-water that they furnish all the Indies with it They have a great deal of Corn but they give much of it to the Horses to be eaten in the blade because they say it would not come to maturity for want of water There is a great deal of Opium made at Schiras and round the Town there are large fields sowed with White Poppies A powerful Chan of Schiras In former times Schiras was Governed by a Chan who was the first of Persia and his Government reached as far as Lar Bender and the Isle of Ormus nay he was so powerful that in the Reign of the great Schah Abbas there was a Chan or Schiras called Imem-Couli-Chan who spent as much as the King and kept no smaller Family in so much that the King commanded him to spend a Mabmoudi less a day that there might be some difference betwixt their Expences Schah Sâ—fi grand Child of Schah Abbas and Father to Schah Abbas who Reigns at present put that Chan and all his Children to death because he was afraid that being so powerful he might play him some trick and after him there have been some Chans in Schiras but at present there is none a Vizier commands there as the Kings Farmer to whom he yearly pays out of his Government a thousand Tomaâ— which make a hundred and fifty thousand Crowns CHAP. III. Of the Road from Schiras to Bender and first to Lar. WE parted from Schiras Monday the sixteenth of March half an hour after Eight in the Morning having let the Caravan set out an hour and half before We took our way Southwards and past near the Lime-Kilns the way was good and in a lovely cultivated Plain Half an hour after Nine we had on our Left Hand a large Village called Oudgeval by which runs a Rivulet about half an hour after Ten we struck off a little to the Right Hand Oudgeval marching full South over Land all white with Salt where nothing grows but Abrotanum foemina An hour after we crossed over a Bridge of ten Arches under which a little River runs Abrotanum foemina It is called Poulifesa in coming to it you go along a Causey and find such another on the farther side the water that runs underneath is as salt as Sea-water Poulifesa about Noon we entered into a great Plain covered with green Grass where having Travelled till half an hour after One a Clock we came to a wretched Kervanseray standing all alone it is called Baba-Adgi from the name of its Founder who lies buried hard by and is five Agatsch from Schiras Baba-adgi close by this Kervanseray there is a little Spring which makes a great marish in that Plain but the water being naught they drink of another a little farther off which is very good water We parted from that place Tuesday the seventeenth of March half an hour after Six in the Morning and marched South-East in a great green Plain full of Heath where we saw on both hands several Villages and a great many Flocks of Sheep feeding having Travelled there till half an hour after two in the Afternoon we arrived at a Kervanseray standing by it self and called Mouzeferi seven Agatsch from Baba-Adgi near to it there is a Spring of very good water Mouzeferi behind the Kervanseray there are several vent-holes by which one may see the water run and Fish playing therein whereof some are pretty big We parted from thence on Wednesday the Eighteenth of March half an hour after five in the Morning and kept our way Southward going up Hills and down Hills covered with Turpentine-Trees and Heath this Heath is like Tragacantha and has a Carnation-Blossome divided into four or five Leaves bearing a kind of Wooll Turpentine-Trees Tragacantha Erigerum Paira and perhaps it is your Erigerum we were troubled with this rough and stony way till Noon that we arrived at a great Kervanseray called Paira which stands alone by it self and is four Agatsch distant from Monzeferi A few steps from that Kervanseray there is an artificial Canal drawn from a River a little beyond and parallel to it that River comes from the Mountains of Orostan which are above thirteen or fourteen days Journy from thence and runs as far as Tadivan a great Village Tadivan upon the way to Lar six Agatsch from Paira it afterwards loses it self in the fields which is not to be wondered at because these people having scarcity of water when they can command a River they so let it blood by drawing it off to water their Grounds that they reduce it to nothing nevertheless in those places where that River is in its strength it is seven or eight Fathom broad the water of it is clear and good and runs rapidly in a fair bed of Sand where there is not a stone to stop its course it is full of Fish Rose-Laurels and Planted on the sides with Rose-Laurels and such like Trees so that there can be nothing more charming to the sight The Canal that passes near to Paira is cut from it a little above this place and waters many Sowed fields which being done about four Agatsch lower it falls again into the same River from which it was never far distant but in all its course it runs through high ground whereas the River rowls with a great noise in a very deep precipice We parted from that place Thursday the Nineteenth of March at four of the Clock in the Morning and held our way South-Eastwards having met now and then with very stony ways we found afterwards a fair way where on each hand we saw good Corn-Land with a great many Villages where there were many Gardens full of Trees About eight a Clock in the Morning we arrived at a fair large Kervanseray Chafer called Kervanseray Chafer from the name of a Village close by it on the River-side which at this place is dwindled away almost to nothing this is a great Village and nothing to be seen in it but Gardens with long Walks in them
are very well worth the pains of Reading by those who had rather trust to my relation than to go and see them themselves For my part I had pleasure enough in seeing them and Monsieur Doliere was with me he came from France with Monsieur Tavernier as far as Bender from whence we came back together to Schiras he with design to return to France and I to shift elsewhere and go on to the Indies I could have wished not to have left him so soon for he is an honest man and very pleasant Company To see those Antiquities so much Celebrated amongst the Curious being out of the Town of Schiras you must go streight South-East keeping the way that leads to the Lake where the Salt is made that is used in those Quarters Having Travelled on an Agatsch and a half you see to the Left Hand a Hill A Lake where Salt is made at Schiras which is almost opposite to a Village standing in the middle of the Plain you must go up to the top of that Hill and there you see the ruins of a curious Temple That place is square and in the middle of the Face that looks to the North-West Antiquity and ruins of a fair Temple a League and a half from Schiras there is a great Gate another in the middle of the side that looks to the South-East and a third in the middle of the Face that looks to the North-East there is none to be seen on the opposite side nor any sign that there has ever been any there the Jams of these Gates are each of one piece of a dark grey and very hard stone and are at least ten Foot high and somewhat more than two Foot and a half broad the Lintel and Threshold are of the same and contain about four Foot in length so that these Gates or Doors are about some ten Foot high and four Foot wide On each side of the Gate there is a Figure cut in relief as big as the life the one resembles a man holding on his Arm a kind of Manipule as Priests do when they are Cloathed for saying of Mass only with this difference that it is no broader at the ends than in the middle in the other Hand he holds a thing like a Bowl or a Heart out of which mounts up a flame The opposite Figure seems to be of a woman holding in one Hand a kind of Holy-water-pot and we could not devise what it was she held in the other it being so broken and cut with a Chizzel unless it be a Candlestick and Candle or rather a Holy-water-sprinkle There are also two Figures at each Gate which have the same postures as these or at least there is but very little difference the Heads of all these Figures have been knocked off This square is about seven Fathom long towards the middle there is a little Stone-Fat of an Oblong square with a hole in the bottom to let out the water It is probable that the Walls were all of the same stone as the Doors are because from the Door that looks to the North-East to that which faces the South-East there stands a Range still which is of the very same the rest lies under ruins or is taken away and on one of these stones that remain near the South-East-Gate there are six Figures in Bass relief but very little raised which are somewhat more than a Foot high they represent men upright and following one another at equal distances in the same manner as if they were going in Procession In one Hand they hold either a Torch or a Pike I cannot tell which for they are so spoilt that hardly any thing is to be discerned On the other side of the same Door a little towards the South there is another stone with the like Figures The people of the Country call that place Mesdgidi Mader Soliman Mesdgidi Mader Soliman that is to say the Mosque of the Mother of Soliman but can give no reason for it The Mahometans in and about Schiras go and pray in that Temple the day of the little Bairam or Courban Bairami that is to say the day of their Easter of Sacrifices In fine these Antiquities are little preludes to those of Tschehel-minar I had a man who said plaisantly that the place where they are ought to be called the little Brother of Tschehel-minar Having considered it you are to go down the other side of the Hill opposite to that by which they come up and continue your way South-East a few steps off you see to the Right Hand a Spring that runs at the Foot of the Hill and makes a little Bog shaded over by many high and great Trees which render this place very pleasant a little further you see to the Right Hand a Thicket or small Wood all of Rose-Trees which yield a very lovely prospect when they are in the Flower as I saw them You must then leave the High-way which leads to the Salt-Lake and draw near the Hills that are to the Left Hand and but very little distant from the Road and having kept going a good quarter of an hour more you come to a very delightful place for there you have a great many clear Springs full of Fish that glide under the shade of a great many Planes Ash-Trees and Willows which so extend their Boughs that at Noon day they cover you from the Sun and there you may delightfully spend the whole day in the cool When you are come into this charming place you must alight from your Horse and pass over a little water close by the Hill upon stepping stones that are there in great quantity and in a place where the Hill bending makes a kind of Semicircle you see at two Fathoms height The Antiquity of Kademghah Two Figures in a Rock The Figure of a Woman two Figures of the ordinary bigness in Relief cut in the natural Rock these Figures are somewhat hid by a Fig-Tree which hath taken Root at the Foot of the Rock but it is easie to get up betwixt the Rock and the Fig-Tree and to consider them at nearer distance The first of these seems to be the Figure of a Woman with a naked Body unless towards the Legs where one may perceive some folds of a Gown behind her Head there is a kind of Crown of Rayes cut in the Rock she stretches out both her Hands to the neighbouring Figure as to receive something that it presents to her that neighbouring Figure represents a Man with a long Beard The Figure of a Man. and his Hair made up into Tresses behind his Head-attire seems to be much like a Swisses Cap for it sets close to his Head covers all his Brow and is broader above than below there is this difference that it rises round instead of being flat on the Crown he hath a Girdle and a Sword hanging at his Left side which is above two Foot and a half long
and at the Guard four Fingers broad at least but growing broader and broader it is five Fingers broad at the end and draws not into a point this man seems to present to the Woman a Posie of Flowers with the Right Hand and rests his Left Hand upon the Handle of his Sword. A little farther about ten Fathom from thence and at the same height of Ground Two other Figures there are two other Figures of the same bigness of which the first is of a young Man without a Beard whose curled Locks hang backwards behind his Head on it he carries a great Globe it might be taken for a Turban but in my Opinion it appears not to be his Head-attire though he hath no other he looks towards the neighbouring Figure and hath the Left Hand shut wherein he seems to hold somewhat the Right Hand is stretched out as if ready to receive what is presented to him The Figure that is by him seems to be of a Woman for she hath pretty round Breasts nevertheless she wears a Sword by her side like to that which I have just now described her Head-attire seems to be the Cap of a Dervisch somewhat long and all round upon her Left Shoulder she hath a little Basket or perhaps it is only the Tresses of her Hair she seems to present something with her Right Hand to the man who is looking towards her and her Left Hand is upon the Handle of her Sword. All these Figures seem to have the Body naked and only some few foldings of a Garment towards the Legs In short the two last are almost in the same posture and action as the two first but one cannot tell what it is they present to one another for the extremities of their Hands as well as many other parts of their Bodies are worn out and eaten by the weather The Work appears very well hath been good though all the proportions be not exactly observed I looked about all along the side of the Hill but could see no more and I believe there has been some Temple there This place is so covered with Trees and encompassed by Marishes by reason of the many Springs thereabouts that few people know of it and of all the Franks the Reverend Father Athanasius a bare-Footed Carmelite living at Schiras Father Athanasius was the first that found it out by chance as he was walking in that place and it being my fortune to pass by Schiras sometime after he led me to it The people of the Country call that place Kadem-Ghah that is to say the place of the step Kadem-Ghah because say they I know not what old Man walking in that place a Spring of water gushed out under his Foot it is but a few steps wide of the High-way that leads to the Salt-Lake an Agatsch distant from thence Though all these Antiquities be curious enough yet they are not that which they call the Antiquities of Tschehel-minar so much mentioned in Relations and which are in effect the same at present in Persia as the Pyramids are in Egypt that is to say the finest thing in its kind that is to be seen and the most worthy of observation One may go thither in coming from Ispahan by Main The way to Tschehel-Minar or Abgherim and the way is not long but the way to it from Schiras is by Badgega which is the first Kervanseray upon the Road to Ispahan and after two hours march from thence there are two ways whereof that to the Left goes to Ispahan you must leave it and take the way to the Right Hand which leads to Tschehel-minar Having Travelled about two hours and a half that way in a pretty good Road amongst Heath there is a Village on the Right Hand where one may stop and bait Having passed this Village you enter into a great Plain where after you have Travelled three quarters of an hour you pass over a Causey a Fathom and a half broad and about an hundred paces in length a little after you find another three hundred paces long and a little beyond that just such another having Travelled a little farther you go over another Causey five hundred paces in length beyond which after three quarters of an hours Journy you come to a great Bridge of two large Arches which is called Pouli-Chan in the middlemost Pillar of it there is a Room with some steps to go down to it which would be very delightful to take the fresh Air in if it were not uninhabitable by reason of the prodigious swarms of Gnats that haunt it The River of Bendemir runs under this Bridge and is at that place broad deep and full of Fish the water looking very white they assured me that it swells so high in the Winter-time that it reaches over the Arches almost level with the Parapet after you have passed that Bridge and Travelled an hour longer in a Plain you leave a Village upon your Left Hand and an hour after another to the Right and then within another hour you come to the Village called Mirchas-Chan near to which is Tschehel-minar being but a quarter of an hours Journy from it This Village stands in a most spacious and Fruitful Plain watered with a great many waters there you have a Kervanseray to Lodge in because in the Winter-time it is the way from Ispahan to Schiras and going Eastward but somewhat to the South from this Village you arrive at Tschehel-minar CHAP. VII Of Tschehel-minar and Nakschi Rustan I Am of their Opinion who will have Tschehel-Minar to be part of the Ancient Persepolis which was built in the place where at present stands the large Burrough of Mirkas Chan not only because of the River which Diodorus Siculus and others mention to be there under the name of the little Araxes which is now called Bendemir but also of many other marks that cannot be called into question All Tschehel-Minar is built upon the skirt of a Hill. The first thing that presents to view upon ones arrival is a great Wall of blackish stones four Foot thick which supports a large Platform or Terrass reaching from South to North about five hundred Paces in length to the West side it hath the Plain to the East beyond a great many magnificent ruins of Buildings whereof it makes the beginning it hath the Hill which bending into a Semicircle forms a kind of Amphitheatre that embraces all those stately ruins to ascend to the top of this Terrass you must go to the farther end of it towards the North where at first you will find two Stair-Cases The first Stairs of Tschehel-Minar or rather one Stair-Case of two ascents or if you please a double Stair-Case which on each side hath fix and fifty steps of a greyish stone and are so easie that Horses go up them without any difficulty having ascended by one of the sides of that double Stair-Case up to a square Landing-place where one may
rest and which is proportioned to the breadth of the Stairs you continue to go up by the upper part of the Stair-Case which goes contrary to the lower part my meaning is that the upper part of the Stair-Case above the Landing place goes North whereas the lower went Southward and the upper part of the other side which went North below goes Southward above so that these two Stair-Cases which bore off from one another in their first part draw near again in the second and Land in on the same place above and that upper part of the Stair-Case has forty six steps Being come to the top of the Stair-Case you find a Walk and traceing it Eastwards you see two great Pilasters in Front which bear nothing at present but seem to make the two sides of an Entry they appear to be but of one single stone apiece though they be very high On the inside of each of these Pilasters you see the Figure of a Beast cut in Demi-relief but it is hard to tell whether it be a Horse or an Elephant and I should rather take it to be the latter at least it seems to me to resemble that more however it be these Figures are about three Fathom high and are as I said in half body along the inside of the Pilaster one opposite to another the Head turned towards the Terrass-Walk and Stair-Case or if you will towards the Plain Beyond these two Pilasters there are two great Chamfered Pillars in front and which in all appearance are what remains of four in Square Then you find two other Pilasters like to the first with each a Figure on them of an Animal in Demi-relief of the same height and opposite to one another on the inside but the Figures of these seem to be Griffons and they are Back to Back with the Elephants looking Eastward to the Hill whereas the Elephants look Westward to the Plain these four Pilasters with the Pillars seem to have made a Portico Advancing a little forward you find on the Right Hand a great Oblong Square Bason A great Bason two Fathom and a half in length almost as much in breadth and about three Foot deep it is all of a greyish stone Turning from thence to the Right Hand and going about twenty steps Southward you find a second Terrass higher which hath a jutting out in the middle with a Stair-Case on each side there are two others at the two ends of the Terrass but these four Stair-Cases are almost buried under Ground nevertheless one may still see several Figures upon so much of the Terrass-Walls as are above Ground At the least which is as I said by the jutting out in the middle you see a Lion devouring a Bull which is often repeated By the other there are three Ranges of Bas-reliefs representing as I take it Sacrifices Bas-reliefs representing Sacrifices for many persons are there represented as going in Procession one after another and Armed some only with Swords and Daggers others with Swords Bows and Arrows and others again seem to be carrying Vessels There you see also several kinds of Beasts as Sheep Oxen Dromadaries and other Animals When you are at the top of these Stairs you come upon a Platform where there are a great many Pillars some buried under Ground and others broken A place full of Pillars and you only see the Bases of most of them nevertheless there are seventeen still standing and these with the others whereof nothing but the Bases are to be seen make according to my account twelve Ranges from East to West and from South to North in breadth consist of nine Pillars a piece they are about seven Fathom high and at three Fathom distance one from another all Chamfered and some with double Capitals they are all of an extraordinary Order which yet hath great affinity to the Dorick It appears by what remains upon some that all of them have supported Statues or perhaps Idols and at present they serve the Storks to build their Nests on Going on Southward from thence you see a square Building A square building much adorned with Bas-reliefs and part of the Walls thereof still standing It is pierced on all sides with Doors and Windows which are embellished with many Demi-reliefs especially the sides of the Doors which are of big greyish stones as the rest of the Edifice is Upon these sides of the Doors the Figures are much the same as on the rest of the Building and opposite to one another there you see an old Man followed by two Servants one of them holding in both his Hands a great Staff with seven branches at the end of it which uphold an Umbrello just over the Head of his Master the other holds a Manipule in one Hand and in the other a Crosier or crooked Staff liker to Cricket-sticks than the Crosiers carried by Bishops nevertheless by the way of holding it one may judge that it is something resembling a Bishops Crosier for the Crook is carried up over the Masters Head. In some of these Doors there is but one Servant as in the one he only who carries the Manipule and the Crosier and in the others he that holds the Umbrello The Doors of the other two Faces are almost a like and at the side of each Door on the inside you see a Man fighting with a Beast that is erected against him with the Left Hand he holds a short Club over the Head of it and with the Right sheaths a Dagger in its Belly all these are to the natural bigness nay some of them are bigger Next to this Building you see the ruins of a like Fabrick Buildings but hardly any thing standing on the sides of the Doors within there are still to be seen two men each holding a Pike as if they Guarded these Doors along the two sides of these Buildings there is a little Walk about a Fathom and a half broad that runs betwixt the Building and a Wall at the end of this last which is so ruinous you find a double Stair-Case cut in the Rock but it is almost hid under the ruins as well as the Wall betwixt the two which supports the Earth and is full of Demi-reliefs whereof there is no more but the Heads to be seen A little beyond that there is square Terrass not much raised from the Ground A square Terrass and supported by a Wall which is also embellished by several Figures in Demi-relief that are half covered under Ground and in this place there remain many round Bases beyond that Terrass that buts upon a large open places which reaches length from West to East as far as the Hill and fronts towards the South there is no more now remaining one comes down from thence by a pair of Stairs which turning to the Left you find at the side of the Terrass and are made in the Rock it self that in this place supports the Earth Returning back
Frontispiece there is Table of Bas-reliefs reaching down to the Ground whereon Men are represented Fighting on Horse-back but it is somewhat defaced Two steps from thence there is another Table of Bas-reliefs two Foot from the Ground about a Fathom and a half high and three Fathom broad where you see a Gigantick Horse-man Armed Capapie having a Crown on his Head with a Globe upon it his Left Hand is upon the Handle of his Sword and with the Right he lifts up a Woman whom he holds by the Arm near to whom there is a Man kneeling and in supplicant manner streatching forth his Hands The people of the Country say that this Horse-man is Rustan who would carry away his own Daughter and that his Son the Maids Brother beseeches him to let her alone Behind the Horse-man there is another great Figure standing upright but much defaced it hath a long Cap round at the top this Figure is all over full of Inscriptions which seem to be Greek but so worn out that it cannot be Read four steps from thence there is another Frontispiece like the other two at the bottom whereof there is a Bas-relief but all defaced Twenty paces from thence there is a fourth Frontispiece more of the same likeness with a Bas-relief underneath representing men a fighting but it is a little ruinated Opposite to this place at a few paces distance from the Hill there is a square Building A square Building in fashion of a Tower three Fathom broad and four high with a Terrass over on the top there is a kind of Architrave of the Dorick Order all of a white shining stone like Marble though it be not all the stones are three Foot high or thereabouts and three Fathom long so that there is but one in each Lay of the front The Gate of this Building looks to the Hill and is three Fathom high and one Fathom wide it is above half filled up with large stones that have been put into it In the Lintel of the Gate there are two great round holes into which went the ends of the shutting Gates that served for Hinges On each of the other three faces there are six inches and two other square ones over them but less they are all of greyish and black stone and sixty paces from thence there is a round piece of Bas-relief An Altar An hundred paces more foreward there is a kind of a round Altar cut in the Rock two Fathom from the Ground at the bottom of which there is a Man with a Head-piece on his Head his two Hands rest upon his Sword which stands before him with the point downwards he is accompanied with five Men on his Right Hand and four on his Left all with Head-pieces on their Heads but of these five there is no more to be seen but the Bust all the rest from the Feet up to the Breast being as it were behind a stone or Parapet which is on each side none but he in the middle is seen all over all of them have their Hair and Beards made up in Tresses Bas-relief six paces from thence there is a piece in Bas-relief a Fathom from the Ground one Fathom and a half high and four Fathom broad representing two Gigantick Horse-men facing one another so that their Horses Heads touch one of the Horse-men hath a long Cap round at the top with a brim four Fingers broad in his Left Hand he holds a great Truncheon in manner of a Scepter and with his Righ the pulls a Ring which the other pulls also with his Right Hand and hath a Globe on his Head if we may believe the people of the Country these two Horse-men are Rustan Sal and Rustan Colades behind this latter there is a great Figure of a Man or Woman somewhat defaced streatching forth the Hand to hinder as it were the Globe which is on his Head from falling to the side of each Horse there is a Vessel for holding of water fastened with Chains and shaped like a Pine-Apple after the manner of the Levantines who carry always a Mataras full of water A Pillar upon a Rock Some paces from thence upon a rising Rock there is a Pillar four Foot high a little farther likewise upon a rising Rock there are two Pedestals by one another and besides there are other Pillars scattered up and down here and there The people of the Country believe that all these things have been made by Dgius or Spirits Dgius or Spirits whom as they say Solomon who had power over them commanded to Build them The truth is whoever were the Work-men they have been Artists for they are well done and of curious design The good people say more that in the Chamber of the first Frontispiece there is a Treasure but that one cannot come at it because one must go over a Wheel of stone that is in the Chamber and that a Man having once attempted it the Wheel turned and crushed him to pieces they may say what they please as to that because to get up to it there is need of such long Ladders that few would be at the pains to attempt it They say also that on another neighbouring Hill beyond this there was a Gate of a City which they call the City of Solomon another at that Pillar I mentioned The Town of Solomon which is to be seen on the Right Hand as you come from Mirchas-Chan and a third on the other side of Tschehel-minar if so that Town must have had above eight Agatsch in Circumference As for Tschehel-minar many are of Opinion that it was the Palace of the Kings of Persia who held their usual Residence in Persepolis which Alexander the Great being Drunk Burnt at the instigation of a Miss but besides that this place is too little for the compass of a Palace that might answer the magnificence of the Kings of Persia in those days the Tombs that are in the Hill shew the contrary moreover since these places seem never to have been covered I had rather think that it hath been some Temple and that is probable enough because of the Pillars on which were Idols and all know that the Temples of the Ancient Persians were uncovered These Buildings have been spoilt not only by the weather but also by Men especially by a Governour of Schiras whom covetousness prompted to make great havock of them because he was obliged to defray the charges of all whom Curiosity brought thither to see them which was like to have cost him his Head the King having been extreamly displeased at so unworthy an action At Nakschi Rustan and Tschehel-minar there are Birds as big as Black-Birds which have the Beak of the same bigness and length but both it and the rest of their body is of a Flesh-colour so that one would think at first fight that these Birds had no Feathers unless on the Head Wings and Tail which are black they are
is very good Soil and if Cultivated would produce any thing but is is neglected through the Laziness of the Inhabitants who content themselves with their Dates there being in that Country vast Woods of Palm-Trees We parted from Koutmian Thursday the fifteenth of October half an hour after eight in the Morning and at first put over to the other side of the River where our Men went a shoar to Towe us our course being due North-West At that place the River grows pretty broad and I think is as broad as the River of Seine at Paris and yet is very deep and makes many Islands About Eleven a Clock we stopt at a Village to the Left Hand on the water side from whence we parted at one of the Clock About half an hour after nine at night we saw to our Right Hand the end of the Isle Dorghestan Dorghestan Koutschemal which from thence reaches to the Sea. We stopped before a Castle called Koutschemal which stands on the main Land near the end of that Island and on the same Hand This is a very large Castle and the Basha of Bassora has a Palace in it which as I was told is very beautiful and as some say he keeps his Treasure there Over against this Castle but a little higher on the other side of the water there is another square Castle with a Tower at each Angle We parted from that place Friday the sixteenth of October at six of the Clock and having the Wind at South we made Sail and stood away North-West A quarter after eleven Kout-Muethel we passed by a square Castle called Kout-Muethel which was on our Left Hand and is flanked with eight Towers one at every corner and one in the middle of each side and near to it there is a little Canal A little farther we saw a Straw-House where Officers of the Customs live who did not visit us but only ordered our Master to carry us to the Custom House of Bassora Leaving then the River of Caron we entered into a Canal called Haffar Haffar which was to our Left Hand or to the South-West of us at that place it is not two Fathom over in other places it is less but towards the middle is very broad it hath been made for a Communication betwixt the River of Schat-El-Aarab and the Caron there is good Land on each side of that Canal but it is not Cultivated and bears only plenty of Date-Trees The Canal makes many turnings it is very deep and our Men shoved the Bark forwards with Poles Three quarters of an hour after Noon we saw a Canal to the Right Hand which loses it self in the Fields and a little after another to the Left that runs into the Caron near to Kout-Mnuethel as I said before and then our Men went on shoar to Towe us There the Canal of Haffar grows very broad and at the end is above seven or eight Fathom over About four a Clock we saw a Canal that spends it self in the Fields Half an hour after we passed betwixt two square Castles each of which have a Tower at every Angle and one in the middle of each side they are called Kout-Haffar Kout-Haffar because they lye at the end of the Canal Haffar that has its mouth to the South it is about six French Leagues from thence to Bassora and about twelve to the Sea. We then entered into the River made up of the Tygris and Euphrates joyned into one the Arabs call it Schat-El Aarab that is to say the River of Aarabs We turned then to the Right Hand and stood away North-West having to our Left the Isle Dgezirak-Chader Dgezirak-Chader and seeing we had a breeze of Wind from the South we spread our Sail. Half an hour after five in the Evening we saw to our Left the end of the Isle called Dgezirak-Chader which reaches from the Canal by which they go to Bahrem to the mouth of Schat-El-Aarab there are Palm-Trees yet their Soil is not good but from the Canal of Bahrem till over against or a little above the Canal Haffar for from thence to the Sea the Land is barren perhaps because it being very low the Sea overflows it at high water Next to the Islle Chader we saw on our Left Hand the Canal by which they go to Port Calif and Bahrem it runs towards the South and passes betwixt the Isle Chader and the main Land of Bassora it is very broad and has above eight Fathom water but there are great stones in some places of it From thence to Bassora the River is above twice and a half as broad as the Seine is at Paris and yet is very deep all over Three quarters after six we saw on our Right Hand the beginning of a long Island called Dgezirat-el-Bouarin and a little after we had on the same hand the Isle El-Bochasi Dgezirat-el-Bouarin El-Bochasi El-Fayadi and not long after the Isle El-Fayadi to the Left Hand These are all great Islands full of Palm-Trees and nevertheless the Channel is every where very deep and broad The Wind slackened so at this place that we scarcely made any way at all however we drew near to the shoar on the Left Hand or West side and about half an hour after eight our Men took their Oars and Rowed till three quarters after ten at night when we stopt close by the shoar before a Castle of the Bashas that seems to be very lovely it has many Pavillions all made into Windows and Porticos for taking the fresh Air in the Summer-time and indeed these Castles are only for pleasure for they could make no great defence We parted from that place Saturday the seventeenth of October at six a Clock in the Morning half an hour after we entered into a Canal to the Left Hand which runs South-West we had on our Left Hand a very spacious Castle pretty entire on the side of the Canal but all ruinous towards the Sea-side This Canal at high water is as broad as one half of the Seine but when the Tide is out it is but a sorry Brook full of Mud. The Town of Bassora lies on the two sides of this Canal though along the sides of it there be nothing to be seen but Gardens the Houses being backwards We came along that Canal till eight a Clock in the Morning when we arrived at the Custom-House which is almost at the bottom of it and having had our Goods viewed we went to Lodge with the Reverend Fathers the bare-footed Carmelites which is not far distant at that time there was but one Religious Italian there Arrival at Bassora called Father Severin With a good Wind they come often from Bender-Rik to Bassora in a days time From Bender-Rik to Bassora in a day though sometimes it makes a Voyage of three weeks We found no preparations for War at Bassora only the Basha of the place finding that the Basha of Bagdad suffered
of the Wall to go up to Terras-Walks which are at certain distances upon the Building the Tomb being exactly under the great Dome Most of these places are full of the marks of the Peoples Devotion both Mahometans and Indians who on certain days flock thither of whom the latter bewail the loss of their Princes There are a great many Pagods in those quarters Indigo at Serquech and from Serquech comes all the Indigo which is sold at Amedabad Without the City of Amedabad there is a lovely Well An extraordinary Well the Figure of it is an oblong square it is covered with seven Arches of Freestone that much adorn it There are six spaces betwixt the Arches to let light in and they are called the Mouths of the Well It is four Fathom broad and about four and twenty long At each end there is a Stair-case two Foot broad to go down to it with six Stories or Landings supported by Pilasters eight Foot high Each Storie hath a Gallerie or place of four Fathom extent and these Galleries and Pilasters are of Freestone Sixteen Pilasters support each Gallerie and the Mouths of the Well are about the same length and breadth that the Galleries are The Figure of the third Mouth differs from the rest because it is an Octogone and has near it a little turning Stair-case that leads down to the Well the Water of it rises from a Spring and it was up to the middle of the fourth Story when I went down several little Boys at that time swiming in it from one end to the other amongst the Pillars The Indians say that this Well was made at the charges of a Nurse of a King of Guzerat and that it cost thirty Millions but I could discover no work about it that required so great expences In this Town there is an Hospital for Birds An Hospital for Birds The Gentils lodge therein all the sick Birds they find and feed them as long as they live if they be indisposed Four-footed Beasts have theirs also I saw in it several Oxen Camels Horses and other wounded Beasts who were look'd after and well fed and which these Idolaters buy from Christians and Moors that they may deliver them as they say from the cruelty of Infidels and there they continue if they be incurable but if they recover they sell them to Gentils and to none else There are a great many Forrests about Amedabad Panthers for Hunting where they take Panthers for Hunting and the Governour of the Town causes them to be taught that he may send them to the King. The Governour suffers none to buy them but himself and they whose care it is to tame them keep them by them in the Meidan where from time to time they stroak and make much of them that they may accustom them to the fight of Men. A rare Beast The Dutch shewed me a Beast they had which is much esteem'd in that Countrey It hath the Head of a Conie and the Ears Eyes and Teeth of a Hare its Muzle is round and of a Flesh-colour and hath a Tail like a Squirrel but it is a Foot and a half long In the Fore-feet it hath four Fingers and a Claw in place of the fifth It s hind Feet have five Toes compleat which are very long as well as the Claws The Sole of its Feet is flat like an Apes and of a Flesh-colour Its Hair is long and course and of a dark Red but that on its Belly and Fore-feet is greyish tike the Wooll of a Hare it will eat any thing but Flesh and easily cracks the hardest Nuts It is neither wild nor hurtful will play with a Cat and shew tricks like a Squirril It rubs its Snout with the Feet and Tail as they do and has the same cry but much stronger The Dutch bought it of an Abyssin who had it at Moca though no body could tell the name of it nor what kind of Beast it was For my part I make no doubt but that it is a particular kind of Squirril though it be three times as big as those we have in Europe The Commodities of Amedabad The Commodities that are most traded in at Amedabad are Satins Velvets Taffeta's and Tapistries with Gold Silk and Woollen Grounds Cotten-Cloaths are sold there also but they come from Labors and Debly They export from thence great quantities of Indigo dried and preserved Ginger Sugar Cumin Lac Mirabolans Tamarins Opium Saltpetre and Honey The chief trade of the Dutch at Amedabad consists in Schites which are painted Cloaths but they are nothing near so fine as those of Masulipatan and St. Thomas CHAP. VI. Departure from Amedabad to go to Cambaye Departure from Amedabad to Cambaye HAving seen what was curious and worth the seeing in Amedabad and having thanked my Landlords for their Civilities who at parting procured me an Officer of the Catoual to see me safe out at the Gates I departed the sixteenth of February for Cambaye which is but two days easie Journey that is about fifteen or sixteen French Leagues from Amedabad I followed the same way I came after I had visited the little Town of Baredgia Baredgia a Town which I left on the Left hand in coming It is is four Leagues from Amedabad but I saw nothing in it remarkable When I was got as far as Souzentra I took to the Right hand The Way of Cambaye the way of Cambaye and came to lodge all Night in the Village of Canara a League and a half from Cambaye Cambaye Cambaye which some call Cambage is a Town of Guzerat lying at the bottom of a Gulf of the same name which is to the South of it It is as big again as Surrat but not near so populous it hath very fair Brick-walls about four Fathom high with Towers at certain distances The Streets of it are large and have all Gates at the ends which are shut in the Night-time The Houses are very high and built of Bricks dried in the Sun and the Shops are full of Aromatick Perfumes Spices Silken and other Stuffs There are vast numbers of Ivory Bracelets Agat-Cups Chaplets and Rings made in this Town Agats and these Agats are got out of Quarries of a Village called Nimodra which are about four Leagues from Cambaye upon the Road to Baroche but the pieces that are got there are no bigger than ones fist Most part of the Inhabitants are Banions and Raspoutes whom we shall describe in the sequel The Castle of Cambaye The Castle where the Governour Lodges is large but not at all beautiful There are so many Monkies in this Town that sometimes the Houses are covered over with them so that they never fail to hurt some body in the Streets when they can find any thing on the Roofs to throw at them The out skirts of the Town are beautified with a great many fair publick Gardens There is a Sepulchre built
makes it accounted the strongest place belonging to the Mogul It is an Hill of an oval Figure A Hill in Doltabad fortified which the Town encompasses on all sides strongly Fortified and having a Wall of a natural smooth Rock that environs it at the bottom with a good Citidel on the top whereon the Kings Palace stands This is all I could see from the place where I was without the Town But I learnt afterwards from a Frenchman who had lived two years therein that besides the Citadel there are three other Forts in the Place at the foot of the Hill Barcot Marcot Calacot of which one is called Barcot the other Marcot and the third Calacot The word Cot in Indian signifies a Fort and by reason of all these Fortifications the Indians think that place Impregnable I spent two hours and a half in coming from Doltabad to Aurangeabad which are but two Leagues and a half distant This was the third time that I crossed this last Town and about an hour after I came to the place where my company Encamped They waited only for a Billet from the Customer to be gone but it could not be had that day because it was Friday and the Customer who was a Mahometan observed that day with great exactness It is threescore Leagues and more from Aurangeabad to Calvar Calvar which is the last Bourg or Village belonging to the Mogul on the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Golconda We found eight Towns great and small before we came to Calvar to wit Ambar Achty Lasana Nander Lisa Dantapour Indour Condelvaly and Indelvay and that Countrey is so Populous that we continually met with Bourgs and Villages on our way An hour and an halfs march from Aurangeabad we encamped under the biggest War-tree A fair War. that I have seen in the Indies It is exceedingly high hath some branches ten Fathom long and the circumference of it is above three hundred of my paces The branches of it are so loaded with Pigeons that it were an easie matter to fill a great many Pigeon-houses with them if one durst take them but that is forbidden because they are preserved for the Prince's pleasure There is a Pagod under that Tree and many Tombs and hard by a Garden planted with Citron-trees We saw a stately Tanquie at the Town of Ambar it is square Ambar and on three sides faced with Free-stone with fair steps to go down to it In the middle of the fourth side there is a Divan that runs out into the Water about two Fathom it is covered with Stone and supported by sixteen Pillars a Fathom high It stands at the foot of a fair House from whence they go down into that Divan by two fine pair of Stairs at the sides of it there to take the Air and Divert themselves Near the Divan there is a little Pagod under Ground which receives day-light by the door and by a square airie and many Devout People are there because of the convenience of the Water On the Road we met with a great many Troopers who were going to Aurangeabad where there was a Rendez-vous appointed for an Army which was to march against Viziapour Five Leagues from the Town of Nander near a Village called Patoda Nander Extraordinary feats of Agility of Body we had the Diversion of seeing Feats of Agility of Body There was a great concourse of People and we had a place given us on an Eminence under the shade of a great Tree from whence we might easily see all the Plays The Tumblers did all that the Rope-dancers of Europe do and much more These People are a supple as an Eel they 'll turn their whole body into a Bowl and then others rowl them with the hand The finest tricks were performed by a Girl of thirteen or fourteen years of Age who Played for the space of two hours and more This amongst other Feats of Agility which she did appeared to me extreamly difficult She sat down upon the Ground holding cross-ways in her Mouth a long cutting Sword with the right Hand she took hold of her left Foot brought it up to her Breast then to her left side and without letting go that Foot she put her Head underneath her right Arm and at the same time brought her Foot down along the small of her Back Then she made it pass under her sitting and over the right Leg four or five times without resting being always in danger of cutting her Arm or Leg with the edge of the Sword And she did the same thing with the left Hand and right Foot. Whil'st she was shewing of that trick they dug a hole in the Ground two foot deep which they filled with Water So soon as the Girl had rested a little they threw into the hole a little Hook made like a Clasp for her to fetch out with her Nose without touching it with her Hands She put her two Feet on the sides of the Pit and turned her self backwards upon her two Hands which she placed on the sides of the hole where her Feet had stood Then she dived headlong into the Water to search after the Hook with her Nose The first time she missed it but the pit being filled full of Water again she plunged backwards into it a second time and upholding her self only with the left hand she gave a sign with the right hand that she had found what she sought for and she raised her self again with the Clasp at her Nose Then a Man took this Girl and setting her upon his Head ran at full speed through the place she in the mean time not tottering in the least Setting her down he took a large Earthen pot like to those round Pitchers that the Indian Maids make use to draw Water in and put it upon his Head with the mouth upwards The Girl got on the top of it and he carried her about the place with the same security as he had done without the Pot which he did twice more having put the Pot with the mouth downwards once and then with the mouth side-ways The same trick he shewed in a Bason wherein he turned the Pot three different ways Then he took the Bason and turned its bottom up upon his Head with the Pitcher over it The Girl shewed the same tricks upon it And at length having put into the Bason upon his Head a little wooden Truncheon a foot high and as big as ones Arm he caused the Girl to be set upright upon that Stake and carried her about as before sometimes she only stood upon one Foot taking the other in her Hand and sometimes she hurkled down upon her Heels nay and sat down though the carrier in the mean time went on as formerly Then the Man took the Bason from under the Stake and put it on the top of it where the Girl likewise appeared Then changeing the Play he put into the Bason four Pins or little Stakes of
Wind in Poop and a fresh Gale from South for those that go upon a Wind against Tide are driven back instead of going forward the Tides running very strong on that Coast and South Winds being rare Half an hour after eight at night we weighed Anchor and stood away North and by West the Wind being then North-East and by East Wednesday the sixth of January at two a Clock in the morning we came to an Anchor in seventeen Fathom water Having weighed again about nine a Clock we steered North North-East the Wind was then at East a little to the Southward but so weak that at ten a Clock it left us becalmed About three a Clock we had a Gale from West when we least expected it for it seldom blows on that Coast that was the reason we came not to an Anchor though it began to Ebb and we stood away North and by East Half an hour after five we had twenty Fathom water and at six a Clock we were becalmed Half an hour after eight we had the Wind at East North-East which made us steer away South-East but at ten a Clock the Tide of Flood beginning to make it behoved us to tack and stand away North and by East Thursday the seventh of January about four a Clock in the morning we came to an Anchor in ninteen Fathom water About nine a Clock a small Gale blowing from South-East we weighed though it was above an hour and a half to Flood and bore away East North-East but seeing the Wind did not last about half an hour after eleven we came to an Anchor again in seven Fathom water though it was Flood then but it did us no kindness because it carried us to Surrat and we were bound for Daman being so near it that some of the Ship discovered the Steeple of a Church in the Town Half an hour after one of the Clock we had a small Gale from North-East which made us presently weigh and bear away South-East and sounding every quarter of an hour we found first fifteen Fathom water then twelve after that ten and at least nine About four a Clock we steered away East South-East about five a Clock South South-East a little after we were becalmed and having cast out the Lead found eight Fathom water About six a Clock we turned the Ships Head East and by South half an hour after North-East and by East About seven a Clock we came to an Anchor in eight Fathom water and about a good League and a half from Land because there was no Wind and the Tide of Ebb cast us toward the South-West Next morning about nine a Clock we weighed though it was still low water only we had a Gale from South-East we steered East North-East that we might stand in to shoar and about half an hour after eleven we came to an Anchor a League off of the Town of Daman and Westward from it I did not go a shoar because the Captain told me that I could not stay there above an hour or two having ordered the Boat that carried a shoar Master Manuel Mendez to return immediately and being resolved so soon as he had unloaded his Goods to weigh Anchor and wait for no body I did not think going a shoar to be worth the pains of running the risk of being taken for there are Malabar Barks commonly upon the scout especially in the evening skulking behind some Points of Land and when they perceive any small Vessel make up to it and carry it away Daman is a Town belonging to the Portuguese who have made it very strong Daman Latitude of Daman and have a good Fort in it It lyes in the twentieth degree of North Latititude and is fifteen Leagues distant from Bassaim and forty from Diu. They have most delicate Bread at Daman and drink only water of a Tanquier but which they say is very good From Daman to Cape Comorin Cape Comorin a range of very high Hills runs along the Coast This Town has no other Harbour but a little Canal or Cut which is full at high water and remains dry when the Tide is out small Barks come into it but Ships ride out in the Road. Ours stayed there a little more than four and twenty hours for the Boats that were to come for the Goods of Master Manuel Mendez came not a Board of us till the next day which was Saturday it was noon before we had loaded them and it behoved us afterwards to stay till two a Clock for our Boat though we had fired a Gun in the morning as a signal for them to put off but the Sea-men being got drunk made never the more haste for that we did not weigh Anchor then till three a Clock in the afternoon and we stood away North the Wind being then at West North-West About seven a Clock we were forced to come to an Anchor because the Wind was down and the Tide of Ebb made us lose way About nine a Clock with a little Gale at East we weighed again and bore away North in five Fathom and a half water and for above an hour we had no more Next day being Sunday the tenth of January by break of day we were got within a Cannon shot of Land which was to our Starboard and to the Larboard we saw two great Ships at Anchor they were presently known to be Ships belonging to the King of Mogul which Trade to Moca Ships of the King of Mogul whither they carry at every Voyage above two Millions We saw many other Ships on Head some at Anchor and others under Sail amongst these there were two Dutch Ships who failed not to send off their Boats to know who we were taking us to have been an English Ship. At length half an hour after ten we came to an Anchor at the Bar of Surrat The Bar of Surrat in six Fathom and a half water and presently a Custom-House Waiter came on Board of us being there accidentally for commonly they come not till after the Captain be gone a shoar Next day Monday the eleventh of January several of the Custom-House Boats came on Board of us to take in all the Passengers and their Goods we went down into them and they put off from the Ship about half an hour after two at first we made towards shoar apace the Wind being good but it being low water an hour after we stuck a ground and it behoved us to stay for Flood to get off again which was not till half an hour after three when we weighed again the Anchor which we had dropped We went on then with the Tide for the Wind was contrary and within half an hour after ran a ground again where we were another half hour before we could get off having afterwards advanced a little farther we saw a small Isle to our Right Hand and from thence the Channel grows narrower and narrower About eight a Clock we passed by the
Castle of Surrat Arrival at the Custom-House of Surrat which was to our Right Hand and a little after arrived before the Custom-House where we came to an Anchor and spent the rest of the night Next day being Tuesday the twelfth of January about ten a Clock in the morning we were brought into the Custom-House where we were searched in a very odd manner of which I shall give an account in another place by the help of God who hath safely brought us hither praised for ever be his name for it Amen Laudate dominum omnes gentes c. Gloria patri filio spiritui sancto sicut erat in principio c. FINIS THE TRAVELS OF Monsieur de Thevenot The Third PART Containing the Relation of INDOSTAN THE New Moguls And of other PEOPLE and COUNTRIES OF THE INDIES Now made English LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXVII THE THIRD PART OF THE TRAVELS OF Mr. de Thevenot CONTAINING The Relation of Indostan the New Moguls and of other People and Countries of the Indies BOOK I. CHAP. I. I Set out from Balsora in the Ship Hopewel the sixth of November 1665. six Days before the beginning of the Monson and the tenth of January 1666 arrived at the Bar of Surrat Bar of Surrat so that I had above two Months Voyage of it That place which is about six French Leagues from Surrat is called the Bar because of the many Sand-banks that hinder great Ships from entring the River before they be unloaded and the proper season for Sailing on the Indian-Sea is called Mousson or Monson by corruption of Moussem Monson I have mention'd in the Second Part of my Travels that that season wherein there is a constant Trade-Wind upon that Sea begins commonly at the end of October that it lasts to the end of April and that that is the time to go from Persia to the Indies if one would avoid the Tempests Next Day being the Eleventh about half an hour after two a Clock in the Morning I went with the rest of the Passengers into a Boat and at Eight at Night we arrived before Surrat near to the Custom-house where coming to an Anchor I past the Night in the Boat and next Day the twelfth of Jaauary about ten of the Clock in the Morning the Custom-house being open our Boat upon the signal given put in to Land as near as it could From thence we were carried ashore upon Mens backs who came up to the middle in the Water to take us up and immediately we were led into a large Court having crossed it we entred into a Hall where the Customer waited for us to have us searched Visited we were but in so severe and vexatious a manner that tho' I did expect it and had prepared my self for it before hand yet I had hardly patience enough to suffer the Searchers to do whatsoever they had a mind to A strict search tho' I had nothing about me but my Cloaths and indeed it is incredible what caution and circumspection those People use to prevent being cheated And in this manner they proceed The Bar is six Leagues from the Town So soon as a Ship comes to an Anchor at the Bar the Master is oblig'd to to go ashore in his Boat and acquaint the Custom-house with his arrival and presently he is search'd from Head to Foot at the same time a Waiter is sent on board the Vessel to hinder them from breaking bulk running any thing ashore or on board another Ship that hath been already searched and in the mean time if they have still time enough they send off several Barks to bring the Men and Goods ashore to the Custom-house The Waiter has for his dues from every Passenger an Abassy which is worth about eighteen Pence Abassy 18 pennce Half a Roupie 15 pence and the Bark has half a Roupie a Head that is about fifteen Pence for the passage If when the Passengers come to the Town the Custom-house be not as yet shut they presently come ashore but if it be they must tarry in the Bark In the mean while it is never open but from ten in the Morning till Noon and it requires a whole Tide to come from the Bar to the Town unless by good luck one have the Wind and Tide with him Seeing the rest of the Day and all the following Night are to be spent in the Bark Waiters are set over it Who keep constant Watch to see that none enter in or go out When the Custom-house is opened and the Passengers suffered to come ashore then double diligence is used and the number of Waiters encreased One Bark advances at a time and she lands just against the Custom-house Gate which is upon the Key There is a Kiochk or covered Pavillion where Sentinels are placed to observe and view all that goes in or comes out of the Bark and the Custom-house Porters go into the Water and bring the Men and Goods ashore upon their Backs Pions In the mean time there are upon the River-side a great number of Pions who are Men ready to be employ'd in any kind of Service and to be hired by the Day if one pleases as the Staffieri in Italy are These Pions of the Custom-house have great Canes in their Hands to keep off the People with that those who come ashore may not have the least communication with any body and for the greater security they draw up in both sides and make a Lane for the Passengers This is no inconsiderable service to new comers for if any body came near them they would certainly be accused of smuggling Goods and then besides the Caning they would be expos'd to they must also expect to be roundly fined and some have been fined in above Ten thousand Livres though in reality they had not saved a bit of Goods And indeed they who have a mind to conceal any thing and defraud the Custom-house order their Affairs more truly They stay not till they come to Surrat there to beg the assistance of their Friends I have known some bring in a great many precious Stones and other rich Jewels which the Officers of the Custom-house never saw nor got one Farthing by because the Dutch Commander was their Friend and had assisted them From that Court of the Custom-house one is led into the Hall where the chief Customer sits on his Divan after the manner of the Orientals and his Clerks underneath him I shall say nothing of the Indian Divans in this place because they are like to those of Turky and Persia The Passengers enter into that place one after another and but one at a time Presently they write down in a Register the name of him that enters and then he is searched He must take off his Cap or Turban his Girdle Shoes Stockins and all the rest of his Cloaths if the Searchers think fit They feel his Body all over and handle