bee shaue their heads on the Friday and very religiously cut their nayles beginning with the fourth finger of the left hand and next with the second then with the fifth thence to the third and last to the thumbe still leaping ouer one in the right hand they begin with the second finger and after proceed to the fourth and so forth These parings if they treade vnderfoot it is a great sinne but hee which burieth them is a iust man or which burneth them Now must they also whet their kniues and put on their Sabbath-holy-day-rayment to salute Malchah the Queene so they terme the Sabbath The Clarke goeth about and giueth warning of the Sabbath and when the Sunne is now ready to set the women light their Sabbath-Lampes in their dining roomes and stretching out their hands toward it say ouer a blessing If they cannot see the Sunne they take warning by the Hennes flying to roost The cause why the women now and at other feasts light the Lampes is Magistrally determined by the Rabbins because Eue caused her husband to sinne yea with a cudgell belaboured him and compelled him to eate which they gather out of his words The Woman gaue mee of the tree to wit a sound rib-rosting and I did eate Now after they had eaten the sunne which before shined as it shall doe in the other life diminished his light and for dimming that light shee lightens this And for three causes you shall beleeue their Talmud women dye in trauell for forgetting their dough wherewith to make Cakes with Oyle Exod. 25. for neglecting their termes and not lighting the Sabbath-Lampes which their Cabalists gather out of three letters of the name of Eue or Chauah These lights are two or more according to condition of the roome They begin their Sabbath thus soone and end it also later then the iust time in commiseration of the Purgatory-soules which begin and end with them this Sabbaths-rest being the whole weeke besides tormented in that fire Iudas himselfe in honour of the Christian Sabbath from Saturday Eeuen-song obtained like priuiledge witnesse Saint Brandon in the Legend can you refuse him who found him cooling himselfe in the Sea sitting vpon a stone which hee had sometime remoued out of a place where it was needlesse into the high-way So meritorious euen in Iudas is any the least good worke There did Iudas acquaint Brandon with this Sunday-refreshing of the hellish prisoners and desired his holy company to scarre away the diuels when they should after Sunday Eeuen-song come to fetch him againe which for that time Brandon granted and performed The Iewes will not quite emptie any place of water that on the Sabbath these fierie soules may finde where to coole them Two Angels attend them home from the Synagogue one good and the other euill which if they finde all things well that is Iewishly prepared for the Sabbaths honor the good Angell saith It shall be so the next Sabbath and the euill Angell will he nill he answereth Amen If otherwise the good Angell is forced to say Amen to the euill Angels denunciation of the contrary They feast it with much ceremonie pronouncing their blessing on the wine with looking on the Lampe to repaire that fiftieth part of their eye-sight which they say in the weeke time ordinarily is wasted they couer the bread meane-while that it should not see the shame thereof in that the Wine is blessed for the Sabbaths vse before it This good cheare on the Sabbath is of such consequence that for this cause in their Talmud is reported that a Butcher in Cyprus which still reserued his best meates for the Sabbath grew by Diuine reward so rich that his Table and all his Table-furniture were of gold You may receiue with like credite the Legend of Ioseph following who buying continually the best Fish to honour the Sabbath with it found in the belly of one of these Sabbath-fishes a Hat-band of Pearles worth no lesse then a Kingdome The Table remaineth spred till the next night The Lampes must not bee put out nor the light thereof applyed to the killing of fleas to reading or writing c. The good man must honour that night with more kindnesse to his wife then on other nights therefore eate they Leekes before Therefore also they marry on the Sabbath and the children then conceiued must needes be wise and fortunate If a Iew trauell and on Friday Eeuening be further from his home then a Sabbaths-dayes-iourney he must there abide be it in the midst of a Wood or Wildernes till the Sabbath be past They sleepe longer on the Sabbath morning so with their greater pleasure to honour it They then vse more prayers in their Synagogues and reade seuen Lectures of the Law They now also reade the Prophets They stay here till noone and no longer lest by longer fasting and praying they should breake the Propheticall commandement Thou shalt call my Sabbath a delight After dinner also they reade in their Law for on a time the Sabbath and the Law put vp their complaints to God for want of a companion and learner and the Israelites were giuen as a companion to the Sabbath and on the Sabbath a learner of the Law But for all this they talke not more busily all the weeke through of Vsurie buying and selling then on the Sabbath and haue their trickes to deceiue God Almighty Their Eeuen-song they haue soone done that they might returne and while the day yet lasteth make an end of their third banquet by which they are secured against Hell and against Gog and Magog They conclude it with blessings and singings till it bee late to prolong the returne of the soules into Hell for presently after they haue ended there is proclamation through hell to recall them to their dungeons In these Songs they call vpon Elias to come so iustly are they deluded who scoffingly imputed vnto Christ the calling of Elias But their Elias being busie as he sometime said of Ahabs Baal and not comming then they request him to come the next Sabbath But he it seemeth is loth to leaue his place vnder the Tree of life in Paradise where he standeth say they enrolling their good workes in the keeping of the Sabbath When this their deuotion is done the women in haste run to draw water because the Fountaine of Mirriam Num. 20. flowing into the Sea of Tiberias doth from thence emptie it selfe in the end of the Sabbath into all Fountaines and is very medicinable After this doe the Iewes make a diuision betweene the Sabbath and the new weeke The Householder lighteth a great Candle called The Candle of Distinction at whose light he vieweth his walls blesseth a cup of Wine and a little siluer boxe full of sweet spices powreth a little of the Wine on the ground and applieth the boxe to euery ones nose to smell to thus to remedie the stinke which is caused at the
the Feast in hope of like destruction to the Christians as befell Iericho and then renew the shaking of their boughes The seuenth day is most solemne called by them Hoschana rabba the great Hosanna as if one should say the great feast of saluation or helpe because then they pray for the saluation of all the people and for a prosperous new-yeere and all the prayers of this Feast haue in them the words of sauing as O God saue vs and O God of our saluation and as thou hast saued the Israelites and such like the prayers are therefore called Hosannoth Then they produce seuen bookes and in euery of their seuen compassings lay vp one againe This night they know their fortunes by the Moone for stretching out their armes if they see not the shadow of their head by Moone-light they must dye that yeere if a finger wanteth hee loseth a friend if the shadow yeeld him not a hand hee loseth a sonne the want of the left hand portendeth losse of a daughter if no shadow no life shall abide with him for it is written Their shadow is departed from them Some Iewes goe yeerely into Spaine to prouide Pome-citrons and other necessaries for the furnishing this feast which they sell in Germany other places to the Iewes at excessiue prices They keepe their Tabernacles in all weathers except a very vehement storme driue them with a heauie countenance into their houses Their wiues and seruants are not so strictly tyed hereto §. IIII. Of their New Moones and New-yeeres day THe New-Moones are at this day but halfe festiuall to the Iewes accounting themselues free to worke or not in them but the women keepe it intirely festiuall because they denyed their Eare-rings to the molten Calfe which after they bestowed willingly on their Tabernacle The deuouter Iewes fast the day before Their Mattins is with more prayers their dinner with more cheere then on other dayes and a great part of the day after they sit at Cardes or telling of Tales That day when the Moone is eclipsed they fast When they may first see the New-Moone they assemble and the chiefe Rabbi pronounceth a long Prayer the rest saying after him The Iewes beleeuing that GOD created the world in September or Tisri conceit also that at the reuolution of the same time yeerely hee sitteth in iugdement and out of the bookes taketh reckoning of euery mans life and pronounceth sentence accordingly That day which their great Sanhedrin ordayned the New-yeeres festiuall God receiuing thereof intelligence by his Angels sent thither to know the same causeth the same day a Senate of Angels to bee assembled as it is written Daniel 12. All things prouided in the solemnest manner the three bookes are opened one of the most Wicked who are presently registred into the Booke of Death the second of the Iust who are inrolled into the Booke of Life and the third of the meane sort whose Iudgement is demurred vntill the day of Reconciliation the tenth of Tisri that if in the meane time they seriously repent them so that their good may exceed their euill then are they entred into the Booke of Life if otherwise they are recorded into the Blacke Bill of Death Their Scripture is produced by R. Aben Let them bee blotted out of the Booke of the liuing and not bee written with the Iust Blotting points you to the Booke of Death Liuing that of Life and not writing with the Iust is the third Booke of Indifferents All the workes which a man hath done through the yeere are this day examined The good workes are put in one ballance the bad in the other what helpe a siluer Chalice or such heauie metall could affoord in this case you may finde by experience in Saint Francis Legend who when the bad deeds of a great man lately dead out-weighed the good at a dead lift cast in a siluer Chalice which the dead partie had sometime bestowed on Franciscan deuotion and weighed vp the other side and so the Diuels lost their prey GOD say they pronounceth sentence of punishment or reward sometime in this life to bee executed sometime in the other In respect hereof their Rabbines ordaine the moneth before to be spent in penance and morning and Eeuening to sound a Trumpet of a Rams-horne as Aue Marie Bell to warne them of this Iudgement that they may thinke of their sinnes and besides to befoole the Diuell that with this often sounding being perplexed hee may not know when this New-yeeres day shall bee to come into the Court to giue euidence against them The day before they rise sooner in the morning to mutter ouer their prayers for remission and when they haue done in the Synagogue they goe to the graues in the Church-yard testifying that if GOD doe not pardon them they are like to the dead and praying that for the good workes of the Saints the iust Iewes there buried hee will pitty them and there they giue large almes After noone they shaue adorne and bathe themselues that they may be pure the next day for some Angels soyled with impuritie heere below are faine to purge themselues in the fierie brooke Dinor before they can prayse GOD how much more they and in the water they make confession of their sins the confession containeth two and twentie words the number of their Alphabet and at the pronouncing of euery word giue a knocke on their brest and then diue wholly vnder water The Feast it selfe they begin with a cup of Wine and New-yeere Salutations and on their Table haue a Rammes head in remembrance of That Ramme which was offered in Isaacks stead and for this cause are their Trumpets of Rams-horne Fish they eate to signifie the multiplication of their good workes they eate sweet fruits of all sorts and make themselues merry as assured of forgiuenesse of their sinnes and after meat all of all sorts resort to some bridge to hurle their sinnes into the water as it is written Hee shall cast all our sinnes into the bottome of the Sea And if they there espie any fish they leape for ioy these seruing to them as the scape-goate to carrie away their sinnes At night they renew their cheere and end this feast §. V. Of their Lent Penance and Reconciliation Fast. FRom this day to the tenth day is a time of Penance or Lent wherein they fast and pray for the cause aforesaid and that if they haue beene written in the Booke of Death yet God seeing their good works may repent and write them in the Life-Booke Thrice a day very earely they confesse three houres before day and surcease suits at Law c. And on the ninth day very earely they resort to the Synagogue and at their returne euery male taketh a Cocke and euery female a Henne if she be with childe both and the housholder saying out of the hundred and fift Psalme verses 17 18 19
and Peloponnesus for feare of a second returne of Techellis The remainder of Techellis his power as they fled into Persia robbed a Carauan of Merchants for which outrage comming to Tauris their Captaines were by Ismaels command executed and Techellis himselfe burnt aliue but yet is this Sect closely fauoured in Asia §. III. Of their Rites Persons Places and Opinions Religious WE haue now seene the Proceedings of this Sophian Sect both in Persia and Turkie both here kept downe and there established by force To weare red on the lower parts of their body were to these Red-heads scarsely piacular Touching Hali they haue diuers dreames as that when they doubted of Mahomets successor a little Lizard came into a Councell assembled to decide the controuersie and declared that it was Mahomets pleasure that Mortus Ali or Morts Ali should be the man He had a sword wherewith hee killed as many as he stroke At his death he told them that a white Camell would come for his body which accordingly came and carried his dead body and the sword and was therewith taken vp into heauen for whose returne they haue long looked in Persia For this cause the King kept a horse ready sadled and kept for him also a daughter of his to be his wife but she died in the yeere 1573. And they say further that if he come not shortly they shall be of our beleefe They haue few bookes and lesse learning There is often great contention and mutinie in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest sometime two or three thousand people being together by the eares about the same as I haue seene sayth Master Ducket in Shamaky and Ardouill and Tauris where I haue seene a man comming from fighting and in a brauery bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads carrying them by the hayre of the crowne For although they shaue their heads commonly twice a weeke yet leaue they a tuft of hayre vpon their heads about two foot long whereof when I enquired the cause They answered that thereby they may bee the easier carried vp into heauen when they are dead In praying they turne to the South because Mecca lyeth that way from them When they be on trauell in the way many of them will as soone as the Sunne riseth light from their horses turning themselues to the South and will lay their gownes before them with their swords and beads and so standing vpright doe their holy things many times in their prayers kneeling downe and kissing their beades or somewhat else that lieth before them When they earnestly affirme a matter they sweare by God Mahomet and Mortus Ali and sometime by all at once saying Olla Mahumet Ali and sometime Shaugham bosshe that is by the Shaughes head Abas the young Prince of Persia charged with imputation of treason after other Purgatorie speeches sware by the Creator that spread out the ayre that founded the earth vpon the deepes that adorned the heauen with Starres that powred abroad the water that made the fire and briefly of nothing brought forth all things by the head of Ali and by the Religion of their Prophet Mahomet that hee was cleare If any Christian will become a Bosarman or one of their superstition they giue him many gifts the Gouernor of the Towne appointeth him a horse and one to ride before him on another horse bearing a sword in his hand and the Bosarman bearing an arrow in his hand rideth in the City cursing his father and mother The sword signifieth death if hee reuolt againe Before the Shaugh seemed to fauour our Nation the people abused them very much and so hated them that they would not touch them reuiling them by the names of Cafars and Gawars that is Infidels or Mis-beleeuers Afterwards they would kisse their hands and vse them gently and reuerently Drunkards and riotous persons they hate for which cause Richard Iohnson caused the English by his vicious liuing to be worse accounted of then the Russes Their opinions and rites most-what agree with the Turkish and Saracenicall Their Priests are apparelled like other men they vse euery morning and afternoone to goe vp to the toppes of their Churches and tell there a great tale of Mahomet and Mortus Ali. They haue also among them certaine holy-men called Setes accounted therefore holy because they or some of their ancestors haue beene on pilgrimage at Mecca these must be beleeued for this Saint-ship although they lie neuer so shamefully These Setes vse to shaue their heâ—ds all ouer sauing on the sides a little aboue the Temples which they leaue vnshauen and vse to braide the same as women doe their hayre and weare it as long as it will grow Iosafa Barbaro at Sammachi lodged in an Hospitall wherein was a graue vnder a vault of stone and neere vnto that a man with his beard and hayre long naked sauing that a little before and behind he was couered with a skinne sitting on a peece of a matte on the ground I sayth hee saluted him and demanded what hee did he told mee hee watched his father I asked who was his father He quoth he that doth good to his neighbour with this man in this Sepulchre I haue liued thirty yeeres and will now accompany him after death and being dead be buried with him I haue seene of the world sufficient and now haue determined to abide thus till death Another I found at Tauris on all-Soules day in the which they also vsed a commemoration of Soules departed neere to the Sepulchre in a Church-yard hauing about him many birds especially Rauens and Crowes I thought it had beene a dead corpse but was told it was a liuing Saint at whose call the birds resorted to him and he gaue them meat Another I saw when Assambei was in Armenia marching into Persia against Signior Iausa Lord of Persia and Zagatai vnto the City of Herem who drew his staffe in the dishes wherein they are and sayd certaine words and brake them all the Sultan demanded what he had sayd they which heard him answered that he said hee should be victorious and breake his enemies forces as hee had done those dishes whereupon he commanded him to be kept till his returne and finding the euent according he vsed him honourably When the Sultan rode thorow the fields he was set on a Mule and his hands bound before him because he was sometime accustomed to doe some dangerous folly at his feet there attended on him many of their religious persons called Daruise These mad trickes he vsed according to the course of the Moone sometimes in two or three dayes not eating any thing busied in such fooleries that they were faine to bind him Hee had great allowance for his expences One of those holy men there was which went naked like to the beasts preaching their faith and hauing obtained great reputation hee caused himselfe to bee immured in a wall forty
and by their weight leaue so deepe impression in the sand that hereby men knowing their haunt doe vnder set this their Tract with sharpe stakes headed with yron couering the same againe with sand by this meanes preying on the spoyler and deuouring the deuourer esteeming nothing more sauorie then the flesh nor more medicinable then the gall of this Serpent More Serpentine then this diet was that custome which they vsed when any proper and personable Gentleman of valourous Spirit and goodly presence lodged in any house amongst them in the night they killed him not for the spoyle but that his soule furnished with such parts of body and mind might remaine in that house Much hope of future happinesse to that house did they repose in so vnhappy attempts But the great Can killed this Serpent also ouerthrowing this custome in the conquest of that Prouince CARDANDAN confineth on the Westerne limits of Carazan They make blacke lists in their flesh razing the skinne and put therein some blacke tincture which euer remayneth accounting it a great ornament When a woman is deliuered of a child the man lyeth in and keepeth his bed with visitation of Gossips the space of fortie dayes They worship the ancientest person of the house ascribing to him all their good In this prouince and in Caindu Vocian and Iaci they haue no Phisicians but when any be sicke they send for their Witches or Sorcerers and acquaint them with their maladie They cause Minstrels to play while they dance and sing in honour of their Idols not ceasing till the Diuell entereth into one of them of whom those Sorcerers demand the cause of the parties sickenesse and meanes of recouerie The Demoniake answereth for some offence to such or such a god They pray that God of pardon vowing that when he is whole he shall offer him a sacrifice of his owne bloud If the Diuell see him vnlikely to recouer he answereth that his offences are so grieuous that no sacrifice can expiate but if there be likelihood of recouery he enioyneth them a sacrifice of so many Rams with blacke heads to be offered by these Sorcerers assembled together with their wiues then will that god be reconciled This is presently done by the kinsemen of the sicke the sheepe killed their bloud hurled vp towards Heauen The Sorcerers and Sorceresses make great lights and incense all this visited house making a smoke of Lignum Aloes and casting into the ayre the water wherein the sacrificed flesh was sodden with some spiced drinkes laughing singing dancing in honour of that God After all this reuel-rout they demand againe of the Demoniake if the God be appeased : if so they fall to those spiced drinkes and sacrificed flesh with great mirth and being well apayed returne home if not they at his bidding renue their superstition ascribing the recouerie if it happen to that Idoll and if he dyeth notwithstanding they shift it off to the want of their full due fleecing or tasting the same before to the Idols defrauding Thus doe they in all Cathay and Mangi Thus much out of the large reports of Paulus that renowmed Venetian to whom our Relations are so much indebted Rubruquius telleth the like of CAILAR and CARACORAM where hee had beene in these Catayan Prouinces concerning their Christopher or Giant-like Idols and Idol Temples in one of which he saw a man with a crosse drawne with inke on his hand who seemed by his answers to bee a Christian with Images like to that of Saint Michael and other Saints They haue a Sect called Iugures whose Priests are shauen and clad in Saffron-coloured garments vnmarried an hundred or two hundred in a Cloyster On their holy-dayes they place in their Temples two long formes one ouer against another whereon they sit with bookes in their hands reading softly to themselues Nor could our Author entring amongst them by any meanes breake this their silence They haue wheresoeuer they goe a string about them full of nut-shels like the Popish beadrols alway they are vttering these words Ou â—am hactani God thou knowest expecting so many rewards as they make such memorials of God They haue a Church-yard and a Church-porch with a long pole on it as it were a steeple adioyning to their Temples In those porches they vse to sit and conferre They weare certaine ornaments of paper on their heads Their writing is downewards and so from the left hand to the right which the Tartars receiued from them They vse Magicall Characters hanging their Temples full of them They burne their dead and lay vp the ashes in the top of a Pyramis They beleeue there is one God that he is a Spirit and their Images they make not to represent God but in memoriall of the rich after their death as they professed to Rubruquius The Priests besides their Saffron-iackets buttoned close before weare on their left shoulder a cloake descending before and behind vnder their right arme like to a Deacon carrying the Housel-boxe in Lent They worship towards the North clapping their hands together and prostrating themselues on their knees vpon the Earth holding also their foreheads in their hands They extend their Temples East and West in length vpon the North side they build as it were a Vestrie on the South a Porch The doores of their Temples are alwayes opened to the South A certaine Nestorian Priest told him of so huge an Idoll that it might be seene two dayes before a man came at it Within the Quier which is on the North side of the Temple they place a chest long and broad like a Table and behind that chest stands their principall Idoll towards the South round about which they place the other lesse Idols and vpon that chest they set candles and oblations They haue great Bels like vnto ours The Nestorians of those parts pray with hands displayed before their breasts so to differ from that Iugurian Rite of ioyning hands in prayer Thus farre William de Rubruquius who was there Anno 1253. In Thebet sayth Odoricus resideth the Abassi or Pope of the Idolaters distributing Religious preferments to those Easterne Idolaters as the Roman Pope doth in the West CHAP. XVII Of other Northerne people adioyning to the Tartars and their Religions THE Permians and Samoits that lye from Russia North and North-east are thought to haue taken their beginning from the Tartar-kind whom they somewhat resemble in countenance The Permians are subiect to the Russe they liue by hunting and trading with their furres as doe the Samoits which dwell more toward the North-Sea The Samoit or Samoed hath his name as the Russe sayth of eating himselfe as if they had sometime beene Canibals and at this time they will eate raw flesh whatsoeuer it be euen the very carrion that lyeth in the ditch They say themselues that they were called Samoie that is of themselues as if they were Indigenae there â—â—ad and not transplanted from
eares but no rings on their fingers Both men and women weare long garments with wide sleeues The men weare shooes of silke with curious workes and knots none weares of leather but the basest yea their soles they make of cloth The learned men weare square caps or hats others round They bestow long time euery morning in trimming their haire They vse no shirts but weare their inmost garment of white cloth and vse often washing They haue visants or vmbrellas to keepe off the sunne or raine borne ouer them by their seruants the poorer carrie them of lesse forme themselues The generall colour of the Chinois is white more or lesse according to the climate Their beard is thin long before it comes of a few staring haires in some none noses little scarse standing forth eyes prominent blacke little of egge-fashion many dreames they had of Pantogia's eyes of a darke gray colour as if iewels and precious things might thereby be knowne where they were hidden their eares are small If they would paint a deformed man they giue him a short garment great eyes and beard with a long nose like to vs Their custome of names is very strange The surname is ancient vnchangeable and significant of which there are not a thousand in all China The name is also significant and arbitrary at the fathers pleasure if a sonne For daughters haue no names besides the surname but are called after their age and order the sonnes also are so called by others first second or otherwise with their surname the parents onely and ancestors calling them by their names and themselues in their writings It would bee accounted an iniurie if any other should call them thereby or if he should call his father or kinsman by his name When first a childe betakes himselfe to studie his Master giues him another name which hee and his schoole-fellowes may call him by and no man else When he puts on his Mans hat and marries a wife some chiefe man giues him another name more honorable by which all men may call him but his seruants or such as are subiect to him This they call the Letter Lastly when he is of full ripe age some graue man giues him his most honorable name which they call Great and by this any one may stile him which yet his parents and elders doe not but onely by the Letter If any make profession of Religion in any of their Sects his ghostly Father or Authour of his profession giues him a new name which they call of Religion When one visits another if hee doe not write in his letter of which afterwards his honorable name or surname the Visitee askes him of it that he may call him thereby without iniurie And the Iesuites did also take to themselues in China-fashion such honorable names They are studious of Antiquities Pictures artificially drawne with inke without other colours they haue in highest price the characters also and writings of the Ancients with their Seales annexed For many will seeke to gull men with counterfeits All Magistrates haue the Seale of their office deliuered to them by Humvu which if they lose they are both depriued and punished most diligently therefore preserued carrying it with them to all places and laying it vnder their heads at night Men of good sort goe not in the streets on foot but are carried in a close chaire by foure men the curtens drawne on all parts but before to distinguish them from Magistrates whose chaires are euery way open The Matrons are also carried in chaires closed euery way by the forme easily knowne from those of Men. Coaches and Chariots the law forbids Dice and Cards are common playes in China Chesse also somewhat vnlike ours for the King goes not out of foure places next him and the two Bishops haue their Queenes two men also goe before the Knights besides the ordinary pawnes They haue another play which makes the skilfull therein well esteemed though he can doe nothing else with two hundred men some white some blacke on a table of three hundred diuisions This is vsed by the Magistrates Women goe not abroad except seldome to see their neerest kindred or some of basest condition In their offices of vrbanitie and courtesie they goe beyond all others haue many bookes thereof and reckon it one of those fiue vertues which they call Cardinall I feare to be in the relation as they in action tedious and will but salute their salutations They vncouer not the head to any nor stirre the knee or foot or vse embraces or kissing the hand Their hands are hid and ioyned in their wide sleeues except they doe some worke or with a fanne coole themselues and in salutations first lift vp both sleeues and hands aloft in a modest manner and then let them fall againe standing face to face and saying Zin Zin which word is a rituall interiection without any signification When one visits another or when friends meet in the streets they doe thus bowing also their bodies with their heads almost to the ground they call this Zo ye the inferiour placing the superiour and the visited the visitor on the right hand in the Northerne Prouinces on the left and then turne themselues both to the North. In solemner salutations on high dayes or after long absence after the first bowing they kneele and touch the ground with their forehead and then rise and doe it againe three or foure times ouer In visitations after other officious ceremonies they offer him Chia to drinke of which we haue spoken with other iunkets Except there bee great familiarity he which will salute a friend must at the doore deliuer to the seruant a letter before for his harbenger to signifie his name in modest termes and affection towards him with termes answerable to his estate He is hereby warned to prepare himselfe for entertainment clothing himselfe with apparell for that purpose as must the guest also If they were vnknowne to each other they prostrate themselues and knocke the ground diuers times with their foreheads If they send a Present they send withall a Letter contayning the Inuentorie of the things sent with termes very complementall which he must answere with another Letter of thankes and a Present of like or greater value besides a recompence to the messenger Their parting 's from each other are as full of ceremonie In their feasts they set each guest to tables one furnished with flesh and fish the other with fruits and iunkets They send a Paitre or Letter the day and sometime fiue or sixe dayes before to inuite them and he which cannot come with another Letter must excuse himselfe On the day with the first light he sends new inuitations and againe a little before the time or else his guests will not come Much curtesie is in the meeting exceeding much strayning and striuing about the place of sitting as much solemne ceremonie in eating as if they were bidden to be witnesses of their
To speake largely of New Gallicia Mechuacan Guastecan and other Regions would not be much to the Readers delight and lesse to to my purpose CHAP XI Of the Idols and Idolatrous Sacrifices of New Spaine §. I. Of their Gods THe Indians as Acosta obserueth had no name proper vnto God but vse the Spanish word Dios fitting it to the accent of the Cuscan or Mexican Tongues Yet did they acknowledge a supreme power called Vitziliputzli terming him the most puissant and Lord of all things to whom they erected at Mexico the most sumptuous Temple in the Indies After the Supreme God they worshipped the Sun and therefore called Cortes as he writ to the Emperour Sonne of the Sunne That Vitziliputzli was an Image of Wood like to a Man set vpon an Azure-coloured stoole in a Brankard or Litter at euery corner was a piece of wood like a Serpents head The stoole signified that he was set in Heauen He had the forehead Azure and a band of Azure vnder the nose from one eare to the other Vpon his head hee had a rich plume of feathers couered on the top with Gold hee had in his left hand a white Target with the figures of fiue Pine Apples made of white Feathers set in a crosse and from aboue issued forth a Crest of Gold At his sides he had foure Darts which the Mexicans say had beene sent from Heauen In his right hand hee had an Azured staffe cut in fashion of a wauing Snake All these ornaments had their mysticall sense The name of Vitziliputzli signifies the left hand of a shining feather Hee was set vpon an high Altar in a small boxe well couered with linnen Clothes Iewels Feathers and ornaments of Gold and for the greater veneration he had alwayes a Curtain before him Ioyning to the Chappel of this Idoll there was a Pillar of lesse work and not so wel beautified where there was another Idoll called Tlaloc These two were alwayes together for that they held them as companions of equal power There was another Idoll in Mexico much esteemed which was the God of Repentance and of Iubilees and Pardons for their sinnes Hee was called Tezcalipuca made of a blacke shining stone attired after their manner with some Ethnike deuices it had Earings of Gold and Siluer and through the nether lip a small Canon of Christall halfe a foot long in which they sometimes put an Azure Feather sometimes a greene so resembling a Turqueis or Emerald it had the haire bound vp with a haire-lace of Gold at the end whereof did hang an Eare of Gold with two Fire-brands of smoke painted therein signifying that he heard the Prayers of the afflicted and of sinners Betwixt the two eares hung a number of small Herons He had a Iewell hanging at his necke so great that it couered all his stomack vpon his armes Bracelets of Gold at his nauill a rich greene stone and in his left hand a Fan of precious Feathers of greene azure and yellow which came forth of a Looking Glasse of Gold signifying that he saw all things done in the World In his right hand he held foure Darts as the Ensignes of his Iustice for which cause they feared him most At his festiuall they had pardon of their sinnes They accounted him the God of Famine Drought Barrennesse and Pestilence They painted him in another forme sitting in great Maiestie on a stoole compassed in with a red Curtaine painted and wrought with the heads and bones of dead men In the left hand was a Target with fiue Pines like vnto Pine Apples of Cotton and in the right hand a little Dart with a threatning countenance and the arme stretched out as if he would cast it and from the Target came foure Darts The countenance expressed anger the body was all painted blacke and the head full of Quailes Feathers Quecalcauatl was their God of the Aire In Cholula they worshipped the God of Merchandize called Quetzaalcoalt which had the forme of a Man but the visage of a little Bird with a red bill and aboue a combe full of Warts hauing also rankes of teeth and the tongue hanging out It carried on the head a pointed Mitre of painted paper a Sithe in the hand and many toyes of Gold on the legs it had about it Gold Siluer Iewels Feathers and habits of diuers colours and was set aloft in a spacious place in the Temple All this his furniture was significant The name importeth Colour of a rich Feather No maruell if this God had many Suters seeing Gaine is both God and godlinesse to the most the whole World admiring and adoring this Mammon or Quetzaalcoalt Tlaloc was their God of Water to whom they sacrificed for Raine They had also their Goddesses the chiefe of which was Tozi which is to say Our Grand Mother of which is spoken before she was flayed by the command of Vitziliputzli and from hence they learned to flay men in Sacrifice and to clothe the liuing with the skins of the dead One of the Goddesses which they worshipped had a Sonne who was a great Hunter whom they of Tlascalla afterwards tooke for a God being themselues addicted much to that exercise They therefore made a great Feast vnto this Idoll as shal after follow They had another strange kind of Idoll which was not an Image but a true Man For they tooke a Captiue and before they sacrificed him they gaue him the name of the Idoll to whom he should be sacrificed apparelling him also with the same ornaments And during the time that this representation lasted which was for a yeere in some feasts sixe moneths in some in others lesse they worshipped him in the same manner as they did their God he in the meane time eating drinking and making merry When hee went through the streets the people came forth to worship him bringing their Almes with children and sicke folkes that hee might cure and blesse them suffering him to doe all things at his pleasure onely he was accompanied with ten or twelue men lest he should flee And hee to the end hee might bee reuerenced as hee passed sometimes sounded on a small Flute The Feast being come this fat Foole was killed opened and eaten The Massilians are said to haue vsed the like order nourishing One a whole yeere with the purest meats and after with many Ceremonies to leade him through the City and sacrifice him Lopes de Gomara writeth that the Mexicans had two thousand Gods but the chiefe were Vitziliputzli and Tezcatlipuca These two were accounted Brethren There was another God who had a great Image placed on the top of the Idols Chappell made of all that Countrey seeds grownd and made in paste tempered with childrens bloud and Virgins sacrificed whose hearts were plucked out of their opened brests and offered as first fruits to that Idoll It was consecrated by the Priests with great solemnitie all
their Pagodes or Idoll Temples common to all but not of all equally affected some inclining in their deuotions to one Saint some to another of which Pagodes I haue seene many some of them for the materials and structure worth the gazing vpon and may well bee as they report the ancient works of great Kings within they are very darke as hauing no other lights but the doores and they stand alwayes open and prooue in some places the best Receptacles for Trauellers one small Roome onely reserued which the Bramene that keeps it will with small intreaty vnlock and shew a Synod of Brazen Saints gilded the tutelar Saint of the place being seated in most eminencie vnto which the Heathens themselues performe very little adoration wel knowing their substances and wanting those distinctions which some Christians find out to coozen themselues withall onely once a yeere on their Anniuersary day they keep their Festiuals and to some of them repaire many thousands of people as I my selfe haue seene some for deuotion and they fast 24. houres wash their bodies and burne Lamps within or as neere the Pagode as they can get some to see their friends children or kindred which will not faile to meet them in such a generall liberty others for profit as Pedlers to a great Faire the Whoores to dance Puppet-players and Tumblers with their exquisite tricks one whereof I will mention with the admiration of such as saw it or vnderstanding shall reade it A Tumbler fetching his run did the double Sommersel without touching the ground with any part of his body vntil he fel againe on his feet keeping his body in the aire vntil hee turned twice round a strange actiuity and with me and others which saw it shall not loose the wonder it carried with it Others bring charmed Snakes and Vipers in baskets which they let loose and with their hands put in againe piping vnto them and receiuing their attention very many Beggers there be and they practise seuerall wayes to moue compassion for such as haue not naturall defects as blindnesse lamenesse c. Some lie vpon Thornes with their naked bodies others lie buried in the ground all but their heads some all but their hands diuers other such trickes they put vpon the poore peoples charity whose reward is for the most part a handfull of Rice or a smal piece of mony that may be the halfe part of a farthing About midnight the Saint is drawne forth in Procession handsomely carted and well clothed with much clamour of Drummes Trumpets Hoboyes and such like that Country Musicke and very artificiall fire-workes wherein they haue a singular dexterity followed without order or distinctiō of place sex or person hauing circled their limits they draw him back againe and there leaue him without guard or regard vntil that time tweluemoneth come againe One Saint they haue and none of the least neither in their account whom they expresse by a plaine round stone not much vnlike the block of a high crowned Hat and their reason is because the incomprehensible subsistence of this Deity admits no certaine shape or description they liken it to him which hath the likenesse of nothing building thus a Temple as those of Athens an Image to the vnknowne God Foure Feasts in the yeere they celebrate to the Sea and in the Sea many people at those seasons resorting to the appointed places washing their bodies in the salt waues and receiuing the Bramenes benediction who being with them in the Sea poure water on their heads with his hands mumbling certain Orisons ouer them they know not what then takes their reward apply themselues to the next cōmers Where the great Pagodes are there are commonly many little ones which they report to be the worke of one day or no long time the Founder after some dreame or Satanicall suggestion vowing not to eat vntil it should be begun and finished and to some of these the Bramanes perswade the people there belongs some miraculous power I haue seene the Image of a man in black storie standing vpright not aboue a yard high vpon which if a whole bushel of Rice should be cast it would all stick vpon the Image and not one corne fal to the ground and this the country people had rather beleeue then part with so much Rice to practise it Another before whom if a man should eat out his tongue it would presently grow again yet had they rather venter for a blister in the relation then the whole tongue in the experiment These two I haue bin with a third I haue seene at distance as I trauelled that way whereof they report that whatsoeuer Milke Sharbol or faire water is brought thither by the deuout Visitant and poured into a little hole by the Saint he will take iust halfe would doe so if it were a Hecatombe of Hogsheads but takes no more though it be but a pint yet is fully satisfied and will receiue no more but it runs ouer the hole an excellent sociable quality and well becomming an Ale-house Kanne Another Saint they haue or rather Deuill for in their opinion it is a maligne Spirit and brings vpon them such diseases as befall them especially the small Poxe which fury the better to expresse they forme it a great angry woman hauing two heads and no doubt as many tongues with foure armes yet is she hospitable to strangers for in her house two other Englishmen and my selfe reposed part of one night for want of other harbour where whilst we staid the Founder told vs that to appease her angry Deity he built this house to her seruice and so the small Poxe ceassed in his Family others lesse able promise in their sicknesse if they may escape they will be hanged in her honour which with the two Englishmen formerly mentioned I went purposely to behold It hapned vpon a day it seemes marked in their Calender for her seruice and this exploit to which purpose they haue a long beame of timber placed on an axletree betwixt two wheeles like to the Brewers beames by which they draw water and can so let it downe rayse it vp vpon the vpper end whereof are tied two hooks vnto which the Vow obliged patient is fastened hauing first with a sharp Knife two holes cut thorow the skin and flesh of each shoulder thorow which the hooks are thrust and a Sword and Dagger put into his hands he is lift vp and drawne forward by the wheeles at least a quarter of a mile thus hanging in the aire and fencing with his weapons during which time the weight of his body so teareth the flesh and stretcheth the skin that it is strange it yeelds so much yet it is tough enough to hold them and after this manner were fourteene drawne one after another not once complayning during the time of their flight but being let
the depth thirtie fiue foot In the middest of the Citie she erected a Temple to Iupiter Belus saith Herodotus with Brazen gates now in his time remayning foure square each square contayning two furlongs in the middest whereof is a solid Tower of the height and thicknesse of a furlong vpon this another and so one higher then another eight in number In the highest Tower is a Chappell and therein a faire bed couered and a Table of Gold without any Image Neyther as the Chaldaean Priests affirme doth any abide here in the night but one woman whom this God shall appoint They say the God himselfe there lyeth In regard of this exceeding height Diodonus affirmes that the Chaldaeans did thereon make their obseruations of the Starres Hee also addeth that Semiramis placed in the top three golden statues one of Iupiter fortie foot long weighing a thousand Babylonian Talents till his time remayning another of Ops weighing as much sitting in a golden Throne and at her feet two Lions and iust by huge Serpents of siluer each of thirtie Talents the third Image was of Iuno standing in weight eight hundred Talents Her right hand held the head of a Serpent her left a Scepter of stone To all these was common one Table of gold forty foot long in breadth twelue in weight fiftie Talents There were also two standing cups of thirty Talents and two vessels for Perfume of like value three other vessels of gold whereof one dedicated to Iupiter weighed twelue hundred Babylonian Talents euery Babylonian Talent is said to containe seuen thousand Drachmae Atticae sixtie three pounds nine ounces and a halfe and halfe a quarter Troy weight All these the Persian Kings tooke away Without the Temple by Herodotus testimonie was a golden Altar and another huge one besides for their solemne Sacrifices the other beeing not to bee polluted with bloud except of sucking things In that greater Chaldaeans burnt yeerely in their sacrifices a hundred thousand talents of Libanotus One statue of gold twelue cubits high Darius affecting spared but Xerxes both tooke it and slew the Priest that forbad him I might here also tell of those Pensile gardens borne vp on arches foure square each square containing foure hundred foot filled on the roofe with earth wherein grew great trees and other plants The entrance was as it were a hill the arches were builded one vpon another in conuenient height still increasing as they ascended the highest which bare the walls were fiftie cubits high and twelue in breadth There were within these Arches Innes There was also a conueyance of water to the watering thereof This Garden was made long after Semiramis time by a King which herein seemed to lord it ouer the Elements and countermaund Nature being himselfe the seruant of his wiues appetite who in this lowly valley wherein Babylon stood would faine haue some representation of her owne hilly and mountainous countrey of Media This King was Nabuchodonosor as witnesseth Berosus in Iosephus who hauing conquered Egypt Syria Phoenicia Arabia inriched the Temple of Belus with the spoyles and added a new Citie to the old without the same And prouiding that the enemie might not after turne the course of the Riuer and approach to the Citie he compassed the inner Citie with three Wals and the vtter Citie with as many these of bricke those also with bitumen or pitchie slime of that Countrie adding thereunto stately gates And neere his fathers Palace he built another more sumptuous and this hee did in fifteene dayes Therein hee raysed stone-works like vnto mountaines and planted the same with all manner of trees Hee made also a pensile Garden Many more things saith Iosephus doth Berosus adde and blameth the Greeke writers for ascribing the building of Babylon to Semiramis an Assyrian This fragment of Berosus cited by Iosephus doth well serue vs to cleare both the holy and prophane Historie In the one Daniel induceth Nabuchodonosor walking in his royall Palace in Babel with words answerable to his pride Is not this great Babel that I haue builded for the house of the Kingdome by the might of my power and for the honour of my maiestie His words euen in the speaking were written in the Booke of GOD and an enditement thereof framed in the highest Court where he was adiudged presently the losse of Reason which he had thus abused Till hee knew that the most High bare rule ouer the Kingdome of men giuing the same to whomsoeuer hee will Well might he say he had built it in regard of this new Citie and Palace with other miracles thereof with more truth then some Expositors which accuse him herein of a lie for arrogating that which Semiramis did His wife also for whose loue he did this was as Scaliger thinketh Nitocris mentioned by Horodotus who also coniectureth that shee was the Daughter of Aliattes that Daniel intendeth her Dan. 5.10 that shee administred the Kingdome in the time of her husbands madnesse and in the times also of Euilmerodach and Balsasar a woman no whit inferiour to Semiramis that it may be said Semiramis began Babylon and Nitocris finished and perfected it finishing and perfecting those workes which Nabuchodonosor her husband before the time of his madnesse had begunne And for Semiramis profane histories generally make her the founder of this Citie and among others Annius his Berosus who contrary to this fragment of the true Berosus in Iosephus saith that Semiramis made Babylon of a towne a great Citie that shee might be rather esteemed the builder thereof then enlarger Nimrod had before built the Tower but not finished it and did not found the Citie which hee had designed and set out and Belus his sonne had erected those designed foundations rather of the Towne then the Citie Babylon Moses testifieth that at the first building they were by confusion of language forced to cease their worke leauing a name of their shame in stead of that renowne and name which they had promised to themselues It may be that Semiramis did amplifie this and happily so did other Assyrian and Babylonian kings as Augustine and Abidenus affirme Hanc quidem putant condidisse Babylona quam quidem potuit instaurare Likewise Abidenus saith that the wals being by inundation fallen were built againe by Nabuchodonosor and agreeth in other things with Berosus But the Graecians are children in comparison of ancient Historie and little of this matter can we affirme on their testimonie their first Historian Herodotus liuing long after this age in the time of the Persian Monarchie Howsoeuer Nabuchodonosor is hee which by diuine and humane testimonie there established that golden head of the Image the seat of the Babylonian Monarchie raising it to that high top of worldly excellence Yea Daniel speaketh of one more sumptuous Image then any mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus set vp by this King threescore cubits high and six broad enioyning a
and by the glorie and order of them learned the knowledge of GOD neuer ceasing that diuine search till GOD appeared to him Which opinion may reconcile both the former that first he was and after ceased to be an Idolater before God appeared in vision to him He alledgeth Philo for his Author that at fourteene yeeres Abraham reproued Thara for seducing men vnto Idolatrie moued by his priuate lucre with Images and seeing the Heauen sometime cleare sometime cloudie he gathered that that could not bee GOD. The like hee concluded of the Sunne and Moone by their Eclipses for his father had taught him Astronomie At last GOD appeared and bade him leaue his Countrey Whereupon hee tooke his Fathers Images who as before is said was an Image-maker and partly broke partly burnt them and then departed Suidas further thinketh him the first inuenter of Letters of the Hebrew tongue and of the interpretation of dreames which I leaue to the Authors credit But for the fault of Abraham before his calling and other blemishes after in him and the rest of the Patriarchs what doe they else but in abounding of mans sinne set out the superabounding grace of GOD and are profitable as learned Morton in his answere of this cauill hath out of one of their owne obserued against them what he had obserued out of Augustine to these foure purposes Faith Instruction Feare and Hope the Faith of the Historie which flattereth or concealeth the faults of none Instruction to vertue by seeing others faults taxed Feare for what shall Shrubs doe if Cedars fall and Hope that wee imitate their repentance by seeing their pardon But to returne to our Historie Many of the Ethnike histories mention him Berosus commendeth him for his iustice and skill in Astronomie Nic. Damascenus sayth that hee raigned at Damascus and that in his time his house continued in Damascus and was still called by his name Hecataeus wrote a booke of him and Alexander Polyhistor telleth that hee was borne in the tenth generation after the floud in Camarine or Vrien a Citie of Babylon Iosephus addeth that when famine draue him into Aegypt hee disputed with the Priests and most learned Aegyptians in questions of Diuinitie and in their diuided Sects hauing confuted one by another he communicated to them the truth both in this and in Arithmeticke and Astronomie whereof before the Aegyptians were ignorant Abram sayth Master Broughton in his Consent was borne sixtie yeeres later then the common account as appeareth by computation of Terahs age who died at two hundred and fiue yeeres and after his death Abram went from Charan into Canaan the threescore and fifteenth yeere of his owne life and therefore was borne in the hundred and thirtieth and not in the seuentieth yeere of his father in the three hundred fiftie and two yeere after the Floud whereas the common opinion reckoneth the two hundred ninetie and two To Abram GOD had giuen commandement saying Goe from thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house into the Land which I shall shew thee and I will make of thee a great Nation c. His Historie is fully related by Moses and his progenie also whereof Ismael his Sonne by Agar and other his sonnes which he had by Ketura his second wife he sent to inhabite the East Countrey Arabia in his life time but Isaac was made his Heire both temporall and spirituall to whom Iacob succeeded in the promised blessing who with his sonnes and familie went downe into Aegypt where his posteritie multiplied exceedingly and were called sometimes Ebrewes of their ancient pedegree sometime Israelites of the name Israel giuen to Iacob by the Angell Gen. 32.28 Their whole Historie so largely and plainely in holy Writ recorded I feare to make Mine by euill reciting Those Fountaines are more open to all then that any should neede ours or others Brookes mixed with some myrie earth at least in the passage and my intent is to bee largest in relation of those things which are not in the Scriptures onely touching those things briefly for order sake Their Religion meane while was the best amongst the best though stayned in some as Rachel which stale her father Labans Idols and Iacob was forced to reforme his Familie in this respect and after in Aegypt they were corrupted with the Aegyptian superstition as Ezechiel protests against them The manner of Diuine worship was not so straitly limited as afterwards to persons and places By Reuelation and Tradition they receiued the religious worship wherein they instructed their posteritie vntill that in their extremest thraldome GOD sent Moses and Aaron to deliuer them vnder whose conduct they passed through the Sea and Wildernesse to the brinkes of Iordan receiuing in the way that Law which as a Tutor or Schoole-master was in that their nonage to traine them vp vntill that full and ripe age when GOD sent his Sonne made of a woman made vnder the Law that hee might redeeme them that were vnder the Law that wee might receiue the adoption of Sonnes §. II. Of the Law of MOSES the twelue Tribes and of Proselytes OF this Law although Moses hath giuen vs an absolute relation in Scripture whereof he was the first Pen-man of that at least which remayneth vnto vs yet if wee shall out of him bring them into their order and ranke them vnder their seuerall heads as Sigonius and others haue done it shall not be I thinke ouer-tedious to the Reader The Law is diuided vsually into the Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall as parts of the same the first deliuered on the Mount Sinai by the dreadfull voice of the Almightie God and by the finger of God written after in Tables of stone called Ten words summarily abridged into two Commandements by the Law-giuer himselfe The first and great Commandement enioyning the loue of GOD the second of our NEIGHBOVRS that God who himselfe is Charitie imposing nothing but the louely yoke of Loue and Charitie vnto his seruants This Law is eternall written first in the hearts of our first Parents which being defaced it was written againe in the stonie Tables of the Law where it was but a killing letter till Grace and Truth by IESVS CHRIST indited and indented it in the fleshy Tables of the Gospell as Christs new Commandement written it renewed hearts and shall for euer be then grauen in those spirituall Tables when wee that here are Naturall men shall rise againe Spirituall men and shall be the Law of that holy Citie the new Ierusalem this being then perfected when Faith and Hope and this World shall bee finished The other parts Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were for the particulars proper vnto that Nation the one respecting the manner of Diuine seruice the other of ciuill Gouernment not giuen as the other immediatly to the Israelites by GOD himselfe but communicated in the Mount to Moses that hee might acquaint the
therefore enioyne thee to desist from these attempts otherwise be thou cast out from all Israel But he proceeded neuertheles till Zinaldin a Turkish King subiect to the Persian corrupted his Father in Law with ten thousand peeces of Gold who accordingly with a Sword slew him in his bed And thus ended Dauid but not his designes for the Iewes in Persia were forced by many talents af gold to buy their peace with the King About the same time Rambam tells of another which tooke him to bee the Messenger of the Messias which should direct his way before him preaching that the Messias would appeare in the South To him resorted many Iewes and Arabians whom hee led alongst the Mountaines professing to go meete the Messias who had sent him Our Brethren in the South countrey wrote to me a long Letter hereof declaring the innouations he made in their Prayers and his preachings amongst them asking my aduice And I writ a booke saith Rambam for their sakes touching the signes of the comming of the Messias This Seducer was taken after a yeeres space and brought before one of the Kings of the Arabians which examined him of his courses who answered that he had so done at the commandement of GOD in witnesse whereof he bad him cut off his head and he would rise againe and reuiue which the King caused to be done without any such miraculous effect ensuing The like telleth Isaac Leuita of one Lemlen a Iew in the yeere 1500. as also of R. Dauid which about the same time was burned for like cause The Iewes haue Legends as that of Eldad translated by Genebrard of multitudes of Iewes in Aethiopia whom when wee come thither we will visit But alas it is small comfort being burned in the fire to make themselues merry with smoke Of their miseries sustained in all places of their abode all histories make mention And yet their superstition is more lamentable then their dispersion as also their pertinacie and stubbornenesse in their superstition And certainely me thinks that euen to him that will walke by sight and not by faith not oblieging his credit to meete authoritie as the case standeth betwixt vs and the Scriptures but will be drawne by the cords of Reason onely and Sense euen to such a one me thinks this Historie of the Iewes may be a visible demonstration of the Truth of Christian Religion Not onely because the truth of the Prophesies of Iaacob of Moses of Esay and other the Prophets is fulfilled in them and because Gods iustice still exacteth the punishment of the betraying and murthering that iust one but especially in this that the bitterest enemies cruellest persecutors and wilfullest Haters that euer were of the Christian truth are dispersed into so many parts of the World as witnesses of the same Truth holding and maintayning to death the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets then which euen Reason being Iudge as is said before we will not desire sounder and fuller proofes of our profession Neither is our Gospell wherein we differ from them any other then the fulfilling of their Law and Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill the same the same truth being deliuered in both veyled in the one and reuealed in the other In him the Promises in him the figures in him the righteousnesse of the Law righteousnesse in Doctrine righteousnesse in practice righteousnesse of Doing righteousnesse of Suffering to satisfie the debt to merit the inheritance are the witnesses that in him they are all yea and Amen haue receiued their perfect being and accomplishment But the vayle is ouer their hearts eyes they haue and see not eares and heare not They hold out to vs the light of Scripture themselues walking in darkenes and reserued to darkenesse like to a Lampe Lanthorne or Candlesticke communicating light to others whereof themselues are not capable nor can make any vse §. IIII. Of the Miserable Dispersions of the Iewes WE haue shewed how they were vtterly cast out of their countrey And Italie and the Empire was filled with Iewish slaues Nor was this their first dispersion but as the Assyrians had carried away the other ten Tribes So the Babylonians carried away the two Tribes remayning which might haue returned vnder the Persian Monarchie but many remained in those Countries till the dissolution of that Iewish state and after They had there diuers famous Vniuersities and that at Bagdet endured till the yeere of Christ one thousand three hundred so writeth Boterus At which time they fleeing the persecutions of the Arabians dispersed themselues into India where many are found at this day These through continuall conuersing with the Gentiles and Christians haue small knowledge of the Law and lesse would haue but for other Iewes that resort thither out of Egypt Before that time also if we beleeue the Ethiopian History twelue thousand Iewes of each Tribe a thousand went with the Queene of Sabaes Sonne which they say she had by Salomon into that Country and there remaine their posteritie to this day Thus is ASIA and AFRIKE fraught with them but EVROPE much more Adrian banished fiue hundred thousand into Spayne where they multiplied infinitely and founded an Vniuersitie at Corduba about the yeere of our Lord one thousand And at Toledo was a Schoole of twelue thousand Iewes about the yeere of our Lord one thousand two hundred thirty and sixe as writeth Rabbi Mosche Mikkatzi from hence it seemeth they swarmed into England and France Anno 1096. innumerable numbers of men and women of diuers Nations according to the zeale of those times trauelling to Ierusalem compelled the Iewes in places whereby they passed to be baptized euery where making terrible massacre and slaughter of such as refused may of the Iewes also killing themselues in zeale of their Law At Mentz they slew of them 1014. of both sexes and fired the greatest part of the Citie The rest rested not long in their imposed Christianitie but willingly renounced that which against their wils they had accepted Auentinus numbreth 12000. Iewes slaine in Germanie in this irreligious quarrell Otto Frisingensis attributes these Iewish slaughters to the zealous preaching of Rodolph a Monke which furie was appeased by the preaching and authoritie of Saint BERNARD These Pilgrims saith Albertus Aquensis which then liued being a gallimaufry of all Nations in pretence of this holy quarrell against the Turkes gaue themselues to all vnholy and filthy courses amongst themselues and against the Christians where they passed may whoores attending and following the Campe to which they added excesse in dyet robberies especially all cruelties against the Iewes chiefly in the kingdome of Lorraine thus beginning the rudiments of that war against the enemies of the Faith First they destroyed them and their Synagogues in Collen and taking two hundred of them flying by night to Nuis they slue and robbed them all At Mentz the Iewes committed
to him and receiued the same Light in which succeeded Thebicht Hamiessa Adeth Aduve Adne Machar Nizar Musar Aliez Madraca Horeima Knieua Anofra Melic Falhrem Luie Galiben Kab Murran Cudai Abdamenef Hesim a man by diuine testimonie free of all vncleannesse To him did all Kings offer their daughters in marriage and among the rest Constantine which he refused and married Seline the daughter of Zeit and had by her Abdalmutalib whose Light caused raine in drought To him an Elephant postrated himselfe and said with mans voice Saluation be on you and on the Light that shineth out of your Reines Dignitie Fame Honor and Victorie bee on you and that there should proceede from him a King greater then all the Kings of the earth Another time as hee slept on the stone which was placed by Abraham in his Oratorie at Mecca hee dreamed of a chaine reaching East and West and to Heauen and to the Depth which was presently conuerted into a flourishing hearb Noe and Abraham presented themselues interpreters of this Dreame Abdalla his sonne the father of Mahomet had a Tutor giuen vnto him to defend him from his enemies who seemed a man but was none Hee was preserued from the lying in waite of the Iewes by threescore and ten Angels which seemed Men. Hee wedded Ermina and therefore two hundred Women perished for his loue some hanging some burning themselues When the prescribed time was come in the moneth Dulheia on a Fryday-night GOD bad Ariduvan to open the gates of Paradise that the innermost of his secret might be manifested for it pleaseth mee saith hee this night to transport the Light of my Prophet from the reines of Abdalla into the wombe of Ermina and that it come into the world This being done as Abdalla the Iudge and Lord of the Arabians went into the house of Prayer hee perceiued a great light to lighten from his house vp toward Heauen and presently dyed On the twelfth day of Rab on a Tuseday Mahomet was borne circumcised and all frolik And then all Idolls fell and became blacke All Kingdomes were destroyed and not one stood vp-right Lucifer was cast into the bottome of the Sea and in fortie dayes could not get out and then called his fellowes and told them that Mahomet was borne with the power of the sword who would take away all their power The same also GOD caused to bee proclaimed in Heauen and Earth His mother said that she was deliuered of him without paine and Angelicall Birds came to nourish the child and a man clothed in white presented him with three keyes like to Pearles which he tooke the key of Victorie the key of the Lawes and the key of Prophecie And after came three persons with shining faces presenting him a Cauldron of Emeralds with foure handles which Mahomet accepted as a signe of his rule ouer all the world The Birds Clouds Windes Angels contended for the nourishment of the childe But the cause was determined by heauenly voice affirming That hee should not bee taken from the hands of men An Asse almost famished worshipped him and receiuing him on her backe became Herald to this new Prophet with mans voyce proclaiming the worthinesse of her Carriage Three men carried him vp into a Mountaine of which one opened him from the breast vnto the Nauell and washed his entrailes with snow the second cleaued his heart in the middest and took out of it a black graine saying That it was the portion of the Deuill The third made him whole againe Seraphin nourished him three yeeres and Gabriel nine and twentie who gaue vnto him in the fortieth yeere of his age the Law and carried him to Heauen This his iourney is related by Frier Richard sometimes a studient in the Vniuersitie of Baldach Chapter 14. and in his life Gabriel with threescore and ten paire of wings came to Mahomet in the chamber of Aissa his best beloued wife and said That GOD would haue him to visit him where he is and brought with him the beast Elmparac or Alborach of nature betweene a Mule and an Asse This beast told Mahomet That hee would not take him on his backe till he had prayed to God for him His steps were as farre as one could see so that in the twinkling of an eye hee had brought Mahomet to Ierusalem Then Gabriel with his girdle tyed the beast to a Rocke and carried Mahomet on his shoulders into heauen where he knocked and the Porter opened Here Mahomet saw troupes of Angels and prayed twice on his knees for them and amongst the rest old Father Adam reioycing for such a Sonne and commending him to his prayers Then hee brought him to the second Heauen which was a iourney of fiue hundred yeeres and so forth on to the seauenth Heauen Heere hee saw the Angelicall people euery of which was a thousand times greater then the World and euery of them had threescore and ten thousand heads and euery head three-score and tenne thousand mouthes and euery mouth seuenteene hundred tongues praysing God in seuen hundred thousand Languages And he saw one Angell weeping and he asked the cause who answered That he was Sinne And Mahomet prayed for him Then Gabriel commended him to another Angell and he to another and so forth in order till he came before GOD and his Throne Then GOD whose face was couered with threescore and ten thousand cloathes of light and from whom Mahomet stood two stones cast below touched him with his hand the coldnesse whereof pierced to the marrow of his back-bone And GOD said I haue imposed on thee and on thy people Prayers When hee was returned as farre as the fourth Heauen Moses counselled him to returne back to obtaine case vnto the people which could not beare so many praiers which he did oftentimes till there remained but few thus returning to his Elmparac he rod backe to his house at Mecca All this was done in the tenth part of the night But when he was requested to doe thus much in the peoples sight he answered Praysed be GOD I am a Man and an Apostle The Booke Asear saith Bellonius telleth further That in this iourney Mahomet heard a womans voice crying Mahomet Mahomet but hee held his peace Afterwards another called him but he gaue no answere Mahomet asked the Angell who they were He answered That the one was shee which published the Iewes Law and if hee had answered her all his Disciples should haue beene Iewes the other was shee which deliuered the Gospell whom if he had answered all his followers had beene Christians The said Booke telleth That GOD gaue him a fiue-fold priuiledge First that he should bee the highest creature in heauen or earth Secondly the most execellent of the sonnes of Adam Thirdly an vniuersall Redeemer Fourthly skilfull in all languages Fifthly that the spoiles of Warres should be giuen him Gabriel after saith that Booke carryed him to Hell to see the secrets thereof and the
vnlawfull but they say vsurie is as Merchandize Ye which are good feare GOD and forsake Vsurie lest the anger of GOD and of the Prophet assaile you Take onely the principall and if he cannot pay you stay still he can and giue him almes for this shall be better for you And Az. 6. Euery one which feareth GOD must very much beware of this vice fearing the fire prepared for vnbeleeuers And Az. 11. ascribeth the miseries of the Iewes to their wickednes and vsuries Az. 4. 15. He which repenteth him and leaueth his sinne obtaineth pardon and the cancelling of that which is past but returning againe thereto hee shall suffer eternall fire In the 5. Vnto bad men is denied humane and diuine mercie except they repent GOD careth little for the conuersion of them which after that of Infidels they are made beleeuers become worse Such shall suffer without any remission intolerable punishment 10. GOD pardoneth lesse faults but not criminall Az. 5. Let no man reckon him a good friend which is an vnbeleeuer except it be for feare If betwixt you there grow discord laying aside all stomacke doe the will of GOD and become Brethren together imitating GOD who hath deliuered you from the fire and from dangers 6. GOD would not that any should doe euill to those of his owne Nation and those which consent to your Law but rather their profit and commoditie Az. 6. Thinke not that euer Paradise shall be open vnto you if you be not first valiant and couragious in battaile and before you enter into battaile prepare your selues for death and after the death of the Prophet Mahomet defend the orders by him giuen with Armes No man can die but when GOD will that is when his time is come Those which flee out of the warre are prouoked of the Deuill but GOD pardoneth them which repent They which die in the way of GOD are not truely called dead They liue with GOD. Let none feare them which are gouerned of the Deuill 7. Be patient and you shall haue eternall life 10. Accompanie not with vnbeleeuers neither in friendship nor other businesse They which goe on warfare for GOD and the Prophet shall receiue abundance in the Earth and after death the mercie of GOD. They which refuse except they be sicke or children shall be cast into Hell Neglect not prayers in your expeditions Some may pray whiles other stand in Armes Pray not for them which hurt their owne soules 18. Looke to your selues that there be no discord amongst you His last Azoara is this In the Name of the mercifull and pittifull GOD sanctifie thy selfe and pray continually and humbly vnto him which is Lord of all Nations Lord of all GOD of all that he will defend and deliuer thee from the Deuill which entreth into the hearts of men and from deuillish and peruerse men From Mahomet himselfe and from his diuellish and peruerse Law AMEN §. III. The Saracens opinion of their ALCORAN THus haue I endeuoured to bring some order out of confusion and haue framed these heads out of that Alcorau-Chaos where is scarce either head or taile this tale they haue and beleeue for what will not What shall not they beleeue which refuse to beleeue the Truth that he which readeth this Booke a thousand times in his life shall haue a woman in Paradise whose eye-browes shall be as large as the Raine-bow But amongst the more studious and iudicious the manifold contradictions therein hath bred no scruple as in their ordinary discourses in speech and writing may appeare For as many Marchants and such as haue liued with them report it is a common thing to heare from themselues obiections and doubts touching their Law in their Bookes also and Tractates are contained many Morall sentences and exhortations to vertue and holinesse of life and those things called in question which the Alcoran hath seemed to determine Of these their Bookes Master Bedwel hath lately translated and published one a Dialogue written some six hundred yeeres since in which many scruples are propounded and left vndecided many things found contradictory yea and the Bookes of the Old and New Testament commended and approued and the Doctrine of the Trinitie explained the exceptions also made by the other Mahumetans to the Gospell answered In that booke it is affirmed that there were written by Mahomet a hundred and twentie thousand sayings of which onely three thousand are good the residue false that the descent of the Moone into Mahomets sleeue is impossible that shedding of blood is too slippery an argument for proofe of Doctrine that the Sunne his beames and heat doe represent the Trinitie and Vnitie that the state of Paradise is like to that of Angels without meate drinke women and therefore that voluptuous Paradise is one of Mahomets fictions for himselfe saith hee did write some things in iest that it seemeth absurd and against reason and faith to follow a Law which it selfe saith none can vnderstand but GOD that the Alcoran in the Assora Ionas sends men to the Iewes and Christians for the right vnderstanding thereof that wheras it sayes Christ is the word of GOD it followes hee is the Sonne of GOD as reason and speech the Sunne and his layes are one Essence and the Vnderstanding Will Memory in one Man that the Chrstians could not as the Mahumetans obiect blot the name of their prophet out of their Scriptures seeing the Iewes and Christians and Heretiques and Christians haue alway beene watchfull aduersaries to each other and they are more ancient sixe hundred yeeres then Mahomet that the storie of the speaking Ant and other things are triuiall and impertinent that Moses Law was giuen with open miracles and the Gospell approued with diuers languages and martyrdomes that these nor any Law of GOD hath therein any contraritie that virginitie is a chiefe and bodily good and their prophet writes of himselfe polygamy adulteries and the like with many libidinous precepts and practises that these things seeme contrarie that the Deuills shall be saued the Iewes also and Christians which yet he counselleth to slay with other the like contradictions that their prophet onely vnderstood the Arabike and by an Interpreter heard that which is contained in the Bookes of Iewes and Christians which easily appeares in his falsifying the Histories of the Bible that hee hath no Testimony but his owne that there are many absurd things in their law not confirmed by Miracle and others excuse them by Metaphors c. These things are there religiously discoursed with shew of reuerence to their Law but exceeding magnifying of Christ and his Gospell which is so generall with the more learned sort that some also haue hazarded their liues in this quarrell And Auicen that learned Physician saith against their Paradise that wise Diuines more respect the minde the coniunction whereof with truth is a felicitie beyond those sensuall pleasures of the bodie And
soot and tastes not much vnlike it good they say for digestion and mirth Of the boyes which some Coffa-men keepe as stales wee haue spoken before Optum they much vse it seemes for the giddinesse and turbulent dreames it causeth which they as all kinde of stupifying astonishment and madnesse religiously affect This perhaps the cause why Tobacco is so liked a thing brought them by the English the worst here passing currant and excellent there But Morat Bassa not long since caused a pipe to be thrust through the nose of a Turke and so be led in derision through the Citie They take it through reeds with great heads of wood annexed The vnder garments of the women differ little from those of the men These weare on their heads a cap sugar-loafe-fashion the better sort vse Bracelets and Iewells When they goe abroad they weare ouer all long gownes of violet or scarlet cloth tyed close before the large sleeues hanging ouer their hands They haue the sweetest children that are lightly seen which they carry astride on their shoulders They anoint their bodies with the earth of Chios which makes the skinne soft white and shining freeing the face from wrinkles For the Readers further pleasure I haue here presented a Turkish Woman in Picture They vse their bond women with little lesse respect then their wiues Their Markets yeeld Men Women Virgins Children to as ample tryall and full purchase as Horses with vs saue that the Men-slaues may compell their Masters before the Cadi to limit the time of their bondage or set a price of their redemption or else to sell them to another But Galley slaues are seldome released or those that belong to great men beyond the Cadies authoritie They buy little children and geld many of them as you haue heard which some say was begun by Selym the second after he had seene a Gelding couer a Mare and by Menauinus his relation of himselfe seemes not practised in his father Baiazets time These are in great repute with their Masters yea the second Vizier of the Port is now an Eunuch For Arts some haue some little knowledge in Philosophie Necessitie hath taught them the practise of Physicke not the grounds of Arts In Astronomie they haue some insight and vndertake to tell fortunes They haue a good gift in Poetrie Their Musicke is very vile The Grand Signior was once perswaded to heare some Italian Musick but while they spent much time in tuning hee perhaps esteeming that their Musick commanded them to depart Logick and Rhetorick they reiect Some write Histories but few read them thinking none dare write the truth of the present or can of the times past Printing they reiect the most of their Priests liuing by writing Euery one hath some trades such lightly as serue their owne turnes a lazie people more esteeming ease then profit yet very couetous seldome holding compact with the Christians that holds not with their commoditie CHAP. XI Of the Religious places amongst the Turkes their Meschits Hospitalls and Monasteries with their Liturgie and Circumcision §. I. Of their Temples A description of S. SOPHIES THE places of most Religion to the Turkes abroad are those which Mahumet himselfe polluted with his irreligion as Mecca Medina c. The places of most Religion amongst themselues are their Mosches or Meschits that is their Temples and Houses of Prayer whereof they haue many in all Turkie and next thereunto their Hospitals for the reliefe of the poore impotent and Pilgrims Neither are the Turkes sparing in these or the like seeming charitable expences For when a Turke falleth sicke and thinketh he shall thereof dye hee sends for his friends and kinsfolkes and in their presence maketh his Testament the greatest Legacies whereof are bequeathed to publike vses which they thinke will be meritorious to their soules Such are the making and repayring of Bridges Cawseyes Conduits to conuey water to their Hospitalls or Temples Some also giue to the Redemption of Captiues Many of their Women the deuouter Sexe whether in Religion or superstition bequeath money to bee distributed amongst such Souldiers as haue slaine any certaine number of Christians a deed in their conceit very religious These are the Wills and Deeds of the inferiour sort But the Emperors and great Bassaes appoint Legacies to expresse a greater magnificence with their deuotion as the building of Temples and Hospitalls Their Temples or Meschites are for the most part foure square not much vnlike to our Churches but larger in length then bredth The Temple of St. Sophie in Constantinople is of all other in the Turkes Dominion the most admirable built long since by Iustinian and by Mahumet the Conqueror peruerted to this Mahumetan vse aboue nine hundred yeeres after Of this Temple they write that it was first built by Constantius sonne of Constantius the Great with a roofe of timber and burnt by the Arrians in the time of Great Theodosius who againe repayred it Sozomenus saith that in the broyles which hapned not long after in the raigne of Arcadius and Honorius about Chrysostome the Church was fired his enemies ascribing it to his partakers and they againe to his Aduersaries It is reported that Theodosius Iunior rebuilt it But in the time of Iustinian Procopius testifieth that base and wicked men burnt it againe which Iustinian built a-new in such sumptuous and manificent sort that in regard of this change it might haue beene wished that it had perished long before His chiefe worke-men were Anthemius and Isidorus who raised it into a most goodly frame which might amaze the beholders and seeme incredible to the hearers Both he and Euagrius recite the particulars The length was two hundred and threescore feet the bredth one hundred and fifteene the height a hundred and fourescore Zonaras Agathias and Georgius Cedrenus tell of the harmes it receiued by Earthquakes whiles Iustinian liued which yet he repaired as did Basilius and Andronicus after him Nicephorus saith that Constantine raised the Temple of Peace which before was but small to that large and stately greatnesse which in his dayes it retayned and his sonne Constantius finished the Temple of Sophia so neere it that they seemed to haue but one wall It was founded by Constantine his fa her and was burnt in a sedition of the people in the raigne of Iustinian in which rebellion thirtie thousand of the people were slaine and partly to pacifie the wrath of GOD saith hee for so great a slaughter hee built this Temple From the side of the Temple hee tooke foure hundred twentie and seuen Pillars or Images of Heathen gods and of the twelue signes of the Zodiake and fourescore Statues of Christian Emperours which hee didistributed in the Citie But more then enough of the ancient structure thereof As it is at this day diuers haue described it but of them all most diligently Petrus Gellius The walls and roofes thereof are of
Cherosonesus or Peninsula which containeth besides that the Regions of Pontus Bithynia Lycia Galatia Pamphilia Paphlagonia Cappadocia Cilicia and Armenia Minor It was bounded on the East with Euphrates now Frat on the South with the Mediterranean Sea on the West with the Archipelago on the North with the Black-Sea stretching in length from 51. to 72. degrees of Longitude and in breadth from 36. ½ to 45. This Countrey hath beene anciently renowned for Armes and Arts now the graue of the carkasses or some ruinous bones rather and stonie Reliques of the carkasses of more then foure thousand Places and Cities sometimes inhabited Many changes hath it sustained by the Egyptian Persian Macedonian Roman Tartarian and Turkish generall Conquests besides such exploits as Croesus and Mithridates of old the Saracens and the Westerne Christians of later times haue therein atchieued Let the studious of these things search them in their proper Authors our taske is Religion whose ouer-worne and almost out-worne steps with much curious hunting in many Histories wee haue thus weakely traced Of the Turkes we haue alreadie spoken and we leaue the larger Relations of the Christians for why should wee mixe Light with Darknesse to their proper place For euen yet besides the Armenians there remaine many Christians of the Greek Church in Cappadocia and other parts of this Region HONDIVS his Map of ASIA MINOR NATOLIA Next vnto those parts of Syria before deliuered are situate in this lesser Asia Cilicia Armenia Minor and Cappadocia CAPPADOCIA called also Leucosyria and now Amasia stretcheth foure hundred and fiftie miles along the Euxine Sea bounded on the West with Paphlagonia Galatia and part of Pamphylia on the South with Cilicia on the East with the Hills Antitaurus and Moschius and part of Euphrates Heere runneth Halys the end of Croesus Empire both in the site and fate thereof the doubtfull Oracle here giuing him a certaine ouerthrow For when hee consulted with the same touching his Expedition against Cyrus he receiued answer That passing Halys hee should ouer-turne a great State which he interpreting actiuely of his attempts against Cyrus verified it passiuely in himselfe And here besides other streames slideth Thermodon sometime made famous by the bordering Amazons Of which manly Foeminine people ancient Authors disagree Theophrastus deriuing them from the Sauromatae Salust fetching them from Tanais P. Diaconus describing them in Germany Trogus and Iustine reporting them Scythians Diodorus crossing the Seas to finde them in Lybia and thence also in a further search passing into an Iland in the Atlantike Ocean Ptolomey and Curtius placing them neerer the Caspian Sea Strabo doubting whether there euer had beene such a people or no. Some haue found them out a-new in the new World naming that huge Riuer of them Goropius confidently auouched them to bee the Wiues and Sonnes of the Sarmatians or Cimbrians who together with their Husbands inuaded Asia And this hee proueth by Dutch Etymologies and other coniectures Which if it be true sheweth that their Religion was the same with the Scythian They are said to haue worshipped Mars of whom they faine themselues to be descended Religion it were to speake of their Religion of whose being wee haue no better certaintie Strabo writeth That in the places ascribed to the Amazons Apollo was exceedingly worshipped In Cappadocia was seated the Citie Comana wherein was a Temple of Bellona and a great multitude of such as were there inspired and rauished by deuilish illusion and of sacred Seruants It was inhabited by the people called Cataones who being subiect to a King did neuerthelesse obey the Priest that was in great part Lord of the Temple and of the Sacred Seruants whose number when Strabo was there amounted to sixe thousand and vpwards of men and women The Priest receiued the reuenue of the Region next adioyning to the Temple and was in honour next to the King in Cappadocia and commonly of the same kindred These Idolatrous Rites are supposed to haue beene brought hither out of Taurica Scythia by Orestes and his sister Iphigenia where humane Sacrifices were offered to Diana Here at the solemne Feasts of Bellona those Sacred Seruants before mentioned called Comani wounded each other in an extaticall furie bloudy Rites fitting Bellona's solemnities Argaeus whose hoary head was couered continually with snow was reputed a religious Hill and habitation of some God Strabo reporteth of the Temple of Apollo Catanius in Dastacum and of another of Iupiter in Morimena which had three thousand of those Sacred Seruants or Religious Votaries which as an inferiour Order were at the command of the Priest who receiued of his Temples reuenue fifteene Talents and was reputed in the next ranke of honour to the Priest of Comana Not farre hence is Castabala where the Temple of Diana Persica where the sacred or deuoted women were reported to goe bare-footed on burning coles without harme It is reported that if a Snake did bite a Cappadocian the mans bloud was poyson to the Snake and killed him Many excellent Worthies hath this Region yeelded to the world Mazaca afterwards of Claudius called Caesarea was the Episcopall Seat of Great Basil Cucusum the Receptacle of exiled Chrysostome Amasia now a Prouinciall Citie of the Turkish Beglerbegs sometime the Countrey of Strabo to whom these our Relations are so much indebted Nissa and Nazianaum of which the two Gregories receiued their surnames But that Humane and Diuine learning is now trampled vnder the barbarous foot of the Ottoman-horse Here is Trapezonde also whilome bearing the proud name of an Empire Licaonia the chiefe Citie whereof is Iconium celebrated in holy Writ and a long time the Royall Seat of the first Turkes in Asia and since of Caramania now Conia or Cogne inhabited with Greekes Turkes Iewes Arabians and Armenians is of Ptolomey adioyned to Cappadocia And so is Diopolis called before Cabira since Augusta which Ortelius placeth in the lesser Armenia In Diopolis was the Temple of the Moone had in great veneration much like in the Rites thereof to that before mentioned of Comana which although it bare the surname of Cappadocia yet Ptolomey placeth it in this Armenia and Comana Pontica in Cappadocia of the same name and superstitious deuotion to the same Goddesse Thence haue they taken the patterne of their Temple of their Rites Ceremonies Diuinations respect to their Priests And twice a yeere in the Feasts which were called The Goddesse her going out the Priest ware a Diademe He was second to none but the King which Priest-hood was holden of some of Strabo's progenitors Pompey bestowed the Priest-hood of this Temple vpon Archelaus and added to the temples reuenue two Schoeni that is threescore furlongs of ground commanding the inhabitants to yeeld him obedience Hee had also power ouer the Sacred Seruants which were no lesse then sixe thousand Lycomedes after inioyed that Prelacie with foure Schoeni of land added thereto
Caesar remoued him placing in his roome Diteutus the sonne of Adiatorix whom with his wife and children hee had led in triumph purposing to slay his elder sonne together with him But when the younger perswaded the Souldiers that he was the elder and both contended which should die Diteutus was of his parents counselled to yeeld to the younger and to remaine aliue to bee a stay to their family Which pietie Caesar hearing of grieuing for the death of the other hee thus rewarded At the Feasts aforesaid is great recourse of men and women hither Many Pilgrims resort to discharge their vowes Great store of women is there which for the most part are deuoted this Citie being as little Corinth For many went to Corinth in respect of the multitude of Harlots prostituted or consecrated to Venus Zela another Citie hath in it the Temple of Anias much reuerenced of the Armenians wherein the Rites are solemnized with greatest Sanctimony and Oathes taken of greatest consequence The sacred Seruants and Priestly Honours are as the former The Kings did sometime esteeme Zela not as a Citie but as a Temple of the Persian Gods and the Priest had supreme power ouer all things who with a great multitude of those sacred Seruants inhabited the same The Romans encreased their Reuenues In Cappadocia the Persian Religion was much vsed but of the Persian Rites see more in our Tractat of Persia The lewdnesse of the Cappadocians grew into a Prouerbe if any were enormiously wicked he was therefore called a Cappadocian GALATIA or GALLOGRAECIA so called of the Galli which vnder the conduct of Brennus saith Suidas assembled an Army of three hundred thousand and seeking aduentures in forraine parts diuided themselues some inuading Greece others Thrace and Asia where they setled themselues betweene Bithynia and Cappadocia On the South it is confined with Pamphilia and on the North is washed with the Euxine Sea the space of two hundred and fiftie miles Sinope the mother and nursing Citie of Mithridates is heere seated one of the last Cities of Asia that subiected it selfe to Turkish bondage in the dayes of Mahomet the second Of the Galatae were three Tribes Trogini Tolistobogi and Tectosages all which Goropius deriueth from the Cimmerij At Tavium which was inhabited with the Trogini was a brazen Statue of Iupiter and his Temple was a priuiledged Sanctuarie The Tolistobogi had for their chiefe Mart Pisinus wherein was a great Temple of the Mother of the Gods whom they called Andigista had in great veneration whose Priests had sometime beene mightie This Temple was magnificently builded of the Attalian Kings with the Porches also of white stone And the Romans by depriuing the same of the Goddesses Statue which they sent for to Rome as they did that of Aesculapius out of Epidaurus added much reputation of Religion thereunto The Hill Dindyma ouer-looketh the Citie of which shee was named Dindymena as of Cybelus which Orletius supposeth to bee the same Cybele Of the Galatians Deiotarus was King but more fame hath befallen them by Paules Epistle to them Plutarch tells of a Historie of a Galatian woman named Camma worthy our recitall Shee was faire and noble the daughter of Dianaes Priest and richly married to Sinatus the Tetrarch But Sinorix a man richer and mightier then hee became his vniust corriuall and because he durst not attempt violence to her her husband liuing he slew him Camma solaced her selfe as she could cloystering her selfe in Dianaes Temple and admitting none of her mightie suiters But when Sinorix had also moued that suit she seemed not vnwilling and when he came to desire her marriage she went forth to meet him and with gentle entertainment brought him into the Temple vnto the Altar where shee dranke to him a cup of poysoned liquor and hauing taken off almost halfe she reached him the rest which after shee saw he had drunke she called vpon her husbands name aloud saying Hitherto haue I liued sorrowfull without thee wayting this day now welcome me vnto thee for I haue reuenged thy slaughter on the most wicked amongst men and haue beene companion and partner with thee in life with him in death And thus dyed they both The like manly woman-hood if a Christian might commend that which none but a Christian can discommend Valerius Maximus sheweth of Chiomara her country-woman wife of Ortyagon a great man amongst the Tectosages who in the warres of Manilius the Consul being taken prisoner was committed to the custodie of a Tribune who forc't her to his pleasure After that agreement was made for her ransome and the money brought to the place appointed whiles the Tribune was busie about the receit thereof shee caused her Gallo-graecians to cut off his head which she carryed to her husband in satisfaction of her wrong At the Funeralls of the Galatians they obserued this custome to write letters and hurle them into that latest and fatall fire supposing that their deceased friends should read them in the other world At their sacrifices they vsed not an Aruspex or Diuinor which gazed in the entrailes but a Philosopher without whom they thought no Sacrifice acceptable to their gods The Deuill certaine was the god to whom their humane Sacrifices were acceptable which in deuillish inhumanitie they offered at their bloudie Altars when they diuined of things to come which they did by his falling by the dismembring and flowing forth of his bloud Athenaeus out of Philarchus telleth of one Ariannes a rich Galatian which feasted the whole Nation a whole yeere together with Sacrifices of Bulls Swine Sheepe and other prouision made ready in great Caldrons prouided of purpose for this entertainment that he made them in spacious Boothes which he had therefore built Pausanius saith That the Pesinuntian Galatians abstained from Swines flesh The Legend of Agdistis and Atte which he there addeth is too filthy to relate Betweene the mouth of Pontus the Thracian Bosphorus and part of Propontis on the West and Galatia on the East part of the Euxine Sea on the North and Asia properly so called on the South is situate the Prouince called by the double name of PONTVS and BITHYNIA There were sometimes two Prouinces diuided by the Riuer Sangarius now they are called Bursia by Giraua by Castaldus Becsangial The most famous Cities therein are or rather haue beene NICE famous sometimes for Neptunes Temple but more for the first Generall Councell therein celebrated against Arrius in defence of the Trinitie and Christs Diuinitie Nicomedia sometimes the Seat of Emperours now ruinous Apamia and Prusa or Bursa nigh to the Mount Olympus where the first Ottomans had their seat Royall and all of that race except the Great Turkes themselues are still buried Chalcedon built seuenteene yeeres before Byzantium and therefore the builders accounted blinde which neglected that better Seat Here was a famous Councell of six hundred and thirtie Bishops against the
therein an hundred twentie seuen Pillars the workes of so many Kings threescore foot in height and sixe and thirtie of them very curiously wrought The Temple was foure hundred twentie fiue foot long two hundred and twentie broad of the Ephesians holden in such veneration that when Croesus had begirt them with a straight siege they deuoted their Citie to their Goddesse tying the wall thereof with a rope to the Temple It was enriched and adorned with gifts beyond value It was full of the workes of Praxiteles and Thraso The Priests were Eunuches called Megalobyzi greatly honoured and had with them sacred Virgins Some call these or else another order of Diana's Priests Estiatores and Essenae that is Good fellowes after the appellation of this bad age which by yeerely courses had a peculiar diet assigned them and came in no priuate house All the Ionians resorted to Ephesus at Diana's festiuall which with daunces and other pompe they solemnized with their wiues and children as they had done before at Delos the Temple had priuiledge of Sanctuarie which Alexander extended to a furlong Mithridates to a flight-shot Antonius added part of the Citie But Augustus disanulled the same that it should no longer bee a harbour for villaines This the Romans finde saith a Roman Pope relating this Historie among whom are so many Sanctuaries as Cardinals houses in which theeues and ruffians haue patronage which make the Citie otherwise quiet and noble a denne of theeues A lake named Selinusius and another which floweth into it were Diana's patrimonie which by some Kings being taken from her were after by the Romans restored And when the Publicans had seized the profits Artimedorus was sent in Ambassage to Rome where hee recouered them to Diana for which cause they dedicated to him a golden Image in the Temple In the midst of the lake was the Kings Chappell accounted the worke of Agamemnon Alexander not onely restored the Ephesians to their Citie which for his sake they had lost and changed the gouernment into a popular state but bestowed also the tributes which before they had paied to the Persians vpon Diana and caused them to be slaine which had robbed the Temple and had ouerthrowne the Image of Philip his father therein and such of them as had taken Sanctuarie in the Temple he caused to be fetched out and stoned While hee staied at Ephesus hee sacrificed to Diana with very solemne pompe all his Armie being arranged in battell array But this Temple of Diana together with their Diana is perished But neuer shall that Truth perish which Paul writ in his Epistle to them for obseruing which by Christ himselfe in another Epistle written by S. Iohn they are commended and which in a Councell there holden was confirmed against the Heresie of Nestorius and Celestius But alas that golden Candlesticke as was threatned is now almost by Greekish superstition and Turkish tyrannie remoued thence a Bishop with some remnants of a Church still continuing The Ephesians were obseruers of curious Arts which not onely Luke mentioneth but the prouerbe also confirmeth Ephesiae literae so they called the spells whereby they made themselues in wrestling and other conflicts inuincible The summe of those Magicall bookes burned by them Luke rateth at 50000. pieces of siluer which Budaeus summeth at 5000. Crownes The many Temples of Venus at Ephesus are not worth memorie Memorable is the History of an Ephesian maid who when Brennus inuaded Asia promised him her loue which he much desired and withall to betray the Citie to him if hee would giue her all the Iewels and Attire of the women which the Souldiers were commanded to doe who heaped their gold so fast vpon the Damosell according to their command that shee was therewith couered and slaine The Asiarchae which Luke nameth Beza saith were certaine Priests whole office it was to set forth publike playes and games in honor of their Gods as also were the Syriarchae The Ephesians as all other Ionians were much addicted to nicenes and sumptuousnesse of attire for which other their delicacies they grew into a prouerbe The Ionians had other places and Temples amongst them famous for deuotion and antiquitie such as no where else are to be seene as the Temple and Oracle of Apollo at Gemini Myus had a small arme of the Sea whose waters by the means of Meander fayling the soyle brought forth an innumerable multitude of fleas which forced the Inhabitants to forsake their Citie and with bagge and baggage to depart to Miletus And in my time saith Pausanias nothing remaineth of Myus in Myus but Bacchus Temple The like befell to the Atarnitae neere to Pergamus The Persians burnt the Temple of Pallas at Phocea and another of Iuno in Samos the remaines whereof are worthy admiration the Erythraean Temple of Hercules and of Pallas at Prienae that for antiquitie this for the Image The Image of Hercules is said to be brought in a ship which came without mans helpe to the Cape where the Chians and Erythraeans laboured each to bring the same to their owne Citie But one Phormio a Fisher-man of Erythraea was warned in a dreame to make a rope of the haires cut off from the heads of the Erythraean Matrons by which their husbands should draw the same to the Towne The women would not yeeld but certaine Thracian women which had obtained their freedome granted their haire to this purpose to whom therefore this priuiledge was granted to enter into Hercules Temple a thing denied to all other the Dames of Erythraea The rope stil remaineth and the Fisher-man which before was blinde recouered his sight In this Towne also is Mineruaes Temple and therein a huge Image of Wood sitting on a Throne holding with both hands a Distaffe There are the Graces and Houres formed of white Marble At Smyrna was the Temple of Aesculapius and nigh to the Springs of the Riuer Meles a Caue in which they say Homer composed his Poems Thus much Pausanius The Ionian letters were more resembling the Latine then the present Greeke are and were then common as in our first Booke is shewed in our Phoenician Relations At Miletus a mad phrensie had once possessed their Virgins where by it came to passe that they in great multitudes hanged themselues Neither cause appeared nor remedie Needs most they goe whom the Deuill driues Whom neither the sweetnesse of life bitterternesse of death teares intreaties offers custodie of friends could moue Modestie detained from proceeding in this immodest butcherie and which is more to be wondred at a Posthume modestie which could not be borne till they were dead For a Law was made That the naked bodies of such as had thus strangled themselues should bee drawne through the streets which contumely though it were but a Gnat to those Camels which with the halter they swallowed yet strained they at it and it could
Persian the Empire returned to the Persians who were thereof depriued by the Saracens and they againe by the Tartars and is now for the greatest part vnder the Sophi they had their cup-quarrels striuing who should draw deepest which custome wee need not goe into Parthia to seeke Strabo mentioneth among the Parthians a Colledge or Senate of Magi and Wise-men Their ancient religious Rites I finde not particularly related The Parthian affaires are thus by some related After Alexanders death none of the Macedonians vouchsafing so meane a Prouince Stragonor a forrainer obtained it after which the Macedonians contending in ciuill quarrels for the Soueraigntie Parthia wauered in vncertaintie till in the time of Seleucus the nephew of Antiochus Theodotus Deputie of Cachia entituled himselfe King so giuing example of rebellion to the Easterne Nations which Arsaces among the Parthians easily followed Hee combining himselfe with Theodotus and after his death with his sonne strengthened himselfe in his new erected gouernment of two Cities But Seleucus taking armes against him was by him ouerthrowne in battell which day first gaue light to the Parthian greatnesse not vnworthily obserued therefore of their posteritie with solemnitie For Seleucus being by more important affaires called home the Parthians had leisure to establish their hopes Athenaeus reporteth that Arsaces tooke him prisoner and after gentle vsage he sent him home After this first came a second Arsaces who encountered with Antiochus the sonne of Seleuchus comming against him with an Army of an hundred thousand foot-men twentie thousand horse The issue was they parted friends in mutuall league Priapatius or Panpatius was their third King to whom Phraates his sonne succeeded and next his brother Mithridates who subdued the Medes and Helimaeans enlarging the Parthian Empire from Mount Caucasus to Euphrates Hee tooke Demetrius King of Syria prisoner and died in his old age His sonne Phraates was the fourth on whom Antiochus warred and the Parthian opposed against him his brother Demetrius till then detained prisoner But whiles he warred against the Scythians by treason of his owne subiects hee was slaine and Artabanus his Vncle placed in his roome He also soone after died of a wound receiued in the field and his sonne Mithridates succeeded whom the Parthian Senate expelled and deposed But others reckon betweene Artabanus and Mithridates Pacorus and his sonne Phraates So vncertaine is the Parthian Historie for which cause also Scaliger blameth Onuphrius for being too peremptory in such vncertainties Next in orders reckoned Orodes or Herodes who besieged his said brother Mithridates in Babylon and tooke both it and him and caused him to be slaine in his sight Against him Crassus the Roman Consull moued with couetousnesse hatefull to GOD and man saith Florus led the Roman Legions to win the Parthian gold And by the way passing through Iudaea spoiled the sacred Treasury which Pompey spared amounting to two thousand talents and robbed the Temple of eight thousand talents besides Hee also carried away a beame of solide gold weighing three hundred Minae euery Mina is two pound and a halfe Roman deliuered vnto him by Eleazarus the Treasurer vpon condition to take nothing else But Crassus violated the oath which he had giuen to Eleazarus and carried all he liked Many dismall presages prohibited Crassus his expedition as the curses of the Tribune whom Dion Plutarch and Appian call Atteius Capito Those curses were denounced with inuocation of some vnknowne gods Also the Roman ensignes were drowned with sudden tempests in Euphrates and when hee had sacrificed to Venus his sonne stumbled and fell and Crassus with him He reiected the Legates of the Parthian alledging the former league with Pompey Thus posting to his destruction one Mazarus as Florus calls him or as Plutarch Ariamnes Dion and Appianus name him Augarus encountred him not with Armes but with Arts and wiles professing great hostilitie to the Parthians Crassus following his aduice led his Army into by-wayes and deserts till being brought into the Parthian snares his new guide forsooke him and the couetous Consull with his sonne were slaine and eleuen Roman Legions taken or left in the place His head and periured right hand vvere sent by Surinas the Parthian Generall vvho vvas said to haue then in the field vvith him twelue hundred Concubines and a thousand Camels laden vvith his own furniture vnto King Orodes vvho contumeliously if contumely and merite can ioyne societie vsed the same powring into his jawes sometimes greedie of that metall molten gold Orodes enuying Surinas the glory of his victorie slew him and committed the remnants of that warre to be pursued by his sonne Pacorus adioyning to him in that exploit Osaces In the ciuill warres they tooke part with Pompey against Caesar Pacorus being receiued into societie of the Kingdome with his father inuaded Iudaea and placing Antigonus in the Kingdome captiued Hircanus But whiles he aspired to greater hopes hee lost himselfe and his Armie in which were twentie thousand Horse-men in a battell with Ventidius who by a wily Stratageme counterfeiting flight and feare and suffering the Parthians to come vp to their Tents that they had now no space for their Arrowes effected this ouerthrow Pacorus his head reduced the Cities of Syria to the Roman subiection without further warre This newes made his father madde who before boasting of the conquest of Asia by Pacorus now in many dayes did neither speake nor eate but when hee once did open his mouth all his speech was Pacorus who still seemed present vnto him In this extaticall mood Phraates one of his thirtie sonnes which he had by so many Concubines slew him and after them his brethren with a sonne also of his owne This crueltie caused many Parthians to betake themselues to voluntary exile among which Monaeses prouoked Antonius to warre vpon this Tyrant Hee did so but with bad successe of sixteene Legions scarce bringing the third part backe againe Phraates impotent and vncapable of so glorious aduentures grew into such insolencies that the people exiled him and placed Tiridates in his roome who was soone after displaced by the Scythians and Phraates restored to his place Tiridates fled to Augustus then warring in Spaine for refuge and aide carrying with him the sonne of Phraates whom Caesar sent backe againe to his father without any price maintaining neither partie against the other but allowing liberall prouision to Tiridates But after this Augustus going into the East the Parthians fearing ill measure redeliuered all the Roman captiues and ensignes and gaue hostages also his two sonnes with their wiues and children and resigned Armenia to the Romans Phraatax his sonne slew him with greatest iniustice repaying that which was most iust and due to his former paricide This Phraatax vsing incestuous acquaintance with his mother Thermusa an Italian whom Augustus had bestowed on Phraates and by whose helpe hee was slaine was killed in an vprore leauing his sonne Orodes his
setled Empire an honour giuen after by the Easterne world to Alexander in like manner The Babylonian Kingdome was thus diuided and giuen to the Medes and Persians first to Darius by bloud and descent a Mede and after by conquest to Cyrus a Persian We haue large Fragments of Ctesias who was present in the battell betweene Artaxerxes and Cyrus as was Xenophon also who hath written the same at large collected and reserued by Photius who saith hee had read foure and twentie Bookes of this Ctesias his Persica in which hee much differeth from the reports of Herodotus professing that hee had either seene those things which hee writeth or receiued them of the Persians themselues He affirmeth that Astygas so he calleth Astyages was nothing of kinne to Cyrus but being by him conquered was first imprisoned and after inlarged and kindly intreated Cyrus taking his daughter Amytis her husband Spytama being slaine to his wife He subdued the Bactrians and tooke Amorges King of the Sacae prisoner But his wife Sparethra with an Army of three hundred thousand men and two hundred thousand women came against Cyrus and taking him and Parmyses the brother of Amytis prisoners in exchange of them redeemed her husband Amorges after this helped Cyrus in his warres against Croesus who the Citie being taken and his sonne which had beene giuen in hostage slaine before his face fled vnto Apollos Temple whence by Magicall illusions he made an escape and being taken againe and bound faster his bands with thunder and lightning were loosed whereupon Cyrus freed him and gaue him the Citie Barene neere to Ecbatana Cyrus after that warred against the Derbices who by the helpe of the Indians and Elephants ouerthrew Cyrus who receiued there a wound by an Indian whereof hee three dayes afterwards died But by helpe of Amorges the Derbices were ouercome and their King Amoraeus slaine with his two sonnes Cyrus before his death made Cambyses his eldest sonne his heire and Tanyoxarces his younger Lord of the Bactrians Choramnians and Parthians and set Spytades sonne of Spytama ouer the Derbices He reigned thirtie yeeres §. II. Of the succession of CYRVS and of CAMBYSES CAMBYSES Ctesias addeth in his twelfth Booke sent his fathers bodie into Persia He warred vpon Egypt and sent Amyrtaeus the King with sixe thousand Egyptians Captiues into Susa hauing slaine fiftie thousand Egyptians and lost seuen thousand and two Persians In the meane time Sphendadates one of the Magi being corrected by Tanyoxarees for some offence accused him to Cambyses his brother who caused him to die with a draught of Buls bloud deceiuing his mother and his brothers followers as if hee had put the Magus to death for that slander And so neerely did they resemble each other that Sphendadates was sent to the Bactrians where fiue yeeres after the mysterie of this iniquitie was detected by Tybetheus an Eunuch by him chastened vnto Amitis who when shee could not obtaine him of Cambyses to punishment poysoned her selfe Cambyses after hee had reigned eighteene yeeres died at Babylon of a wound which he had receiued in his thigh by whitling a sticke to passe away the time hauing receiued before direfull presages of this disaster in his sacrifice not bleeding and Roxane bringing him forth a sonne without a head Bagapates and Artasyras his chiefe Eunuches procured the Kingdome to the Magus reigning with the name of Tanyoxarces till Ixabates detected him who fleeing into a Temple was drawne thence and slaine But seuen chiefe men Onophas Idernes Norodabates Mardonius Barises Ataphernes and Darius sonne of Hystaspes conspired against the Magus and by the helpe of Artasyras and Bagapates slew him in his bed-chamber hauing reigned seuen moneths ordaining the solemne festiuall Magaphonia in remembrance thereof Darius being mounted to the Throne by the neighing of his Horse as these Princes had before agreed built him a Sepulchre in his life time in a Hill which when hee would haue seene the Chaldaeans forbade him and his parents curious of that sight were let downe by the Priests with ropes but they terrified by the sudden sight of Serpents let goe their hold and Darius for that losse of his parents slaine in the fall cut off the heads of the Priests in number fortie He marched with eight hundred thousand men into Europe against the Scythians but returning with losse dyed after hee had reigned one and thirtie yeeres But before we follow Ctesias any further let vs see what the common report by Herodotus and others hath deliuered of these proceedings and let the iudicious Reader chuse whom hee wil embrace Scaliger and others rather follow Herodotus who relateth of Cambyses that succeeding his father hee tooke and after slew Psammenitus King of Egypt And when hee would haue added Aethiopia to his new Conquests with the spoiles of the Temple of Ammon for which purposes he sent two Armies the one was almost consumed with famine the beasts and prouisions failing and that barren desart denying grasse the remainder by consuming one another were a strange remedie preserued from consumption euery tenth man being by lot tythed to the shambles and more returning to their fellowes mawes then on their owne legs The other Armie was quite buryed in the sands At his returne finding the Egyptians solemnizing the feast of their Idoll Apis hee slew the same it was a Bull which they worshipped and after dreaming that Smerdis reigned hee sent and slew his brother which was so called in vaine seeking to frustrate this presage which was fulfilled in another of that name He fell in loue with his sister and asking whether it were lawfull for him to marry her the Iudges whose authoritie with the Persians lasted with their liues answered that they had no such law but they had another that the King of Persia might doe what him liked whereupon hee marryed her His crueltie appeared in that Prexaspes presuming to admonish him of his too much inclination to drunkennesse he answered he should see proofe of the contrary and presently sending for Prexaspes his sonne with an arrow shot him to the heart the father not daring but to commend his steadie hand and Art in shooting He dyed of his owne sword which falling out of his scabberd as hee mounted his horse killed him not fearing in this Countrey of Syria any such disaduenture because the Oracle of Latona in Egypt had told him he should dye at Ecbatana which he vnderstood of Media and was fulfilled at another Ecbatana more obscure in Syria Hee caused a Iudge which had beene corrupted with money to be flayed and made of his skin a couering for the Tribunall Polyoenus tels That against the Egyptians hee vsed this stratageme to set the gods dogs cats sheepe c. in the fore-front of his battell He neither deserued nor obtained that honourable funerall which Cyrus had who was buryed at Pasargadae a Tower shadowed with trees hauing in the vpper part a Chappell furnished with a
him placed to the East of Sarmatia diuided by the hill Imaus extending vnto the Region called Serica hauing on the North vnknowne places on the South the Sacae Sogdiana Margiana and India But our purpose is to take them here in their more generall sense vnderstanding all the North pars of Asia now Tartaria Asiatica for of Europe sauing wherein the Europaean Scythians agree with the Asian we are not now to speake And of these first to consider their ancient Scythian Rites and in the next place their later Tartarian appellation and Religion Iustin out of Tragus relateth the arguments vsed of the Egyptians and Scythians each seeking to challenge to themselues to bee the ancientest of Nations in which quarrell the Scythians preuailed Their manners and customes hee thus reporteth They haue no limitation of lands nor tillage nor house but alwaies wander thorow places not inhabited feeding their Heards Flocks They carrie their wiues and children with them on Carts which also being couered with hides they vse for houses No offence is more hainous amongst them then theft gold and siluer they as much contemne as others desire Milke and hony is their food their clothes skinnes of beasts for the vse of wooll they know not They haue three times sought the Empire of Asia neuer conquered of others They chaced Darius the Persian King out of their coasts they slew Cyrus with all his armie they ouerthrew Zopyron a Captaine of Alexander the Great with all his forces They onely heard of neuer felt the Roman armes and themselues founded the Parthian Empire That which credulous and fabulous antiquitie hath reported of the monstrous peoples inhabiting the Northerly and vnknowne parts of Scythia is not here to be recited the Countries being at this time discouered and knowne to haue no such men as either by nature are bald and flat nosed with huge chins or haue but one eye where there are also Gryphons keepers of their treasures or men with Goats feet or other monsters of men which Pliny Herodatus and others haue rather mentioned then beleeued Mandauil and Munster following them in like Relations Next to these both in place and credit wee may reckon the Hyperboreans of whom the Delians report that they sent to Delos Virgins with sacrifice to Lucina bound vp in wheat-straw through so many Nations inhabiting betweene Of the Issedones is reported that when one dieth his kindred bring thither beasts which they kill and cut and dresse and eat together with the flesh of the dead man whose skull also they keepe and gilde vsing it as an Idoll to which they performe yeerely ceremonies these exequies doth the sonne there performe to his dead father §. II. Of the Religion Diuination and other Scythian Rites GEnerally of the Scythian Religion thus Of the gods they worship first Vesta whom they call in their language Tabiti next of all Iupiter in their speech Papaeus and the Earth supposing her to bee the wife of Iupiter and call her Apia In the next place they worship Apollo and Venus by the names of Octosyrus and Artimpasa and Mars and Hercules Some of them sacrifice also to Neptune or Thamimasades Images Altars and Temples they thinke ought not to bee made except to Mars Their manner of sacrificing is generally this The sacrifice is presented with the fore-feet bound the Sacrificer at his back hauing laid aside his holy vestment woundeth the same and while it falleth calls vpon that god to whom he sacrificeth and then putteth a halter about the necke and strangleth it without kindling any fire or vowing or other ceremonie and slayeth it the flesh plucked from the bones hee casteth into a great Caldron the bones hee vseth for fewell to seeth the same for wood the Countrie doth not yeeld And if they haue not any such vessell they put all the flesh with water into the paunch and so the beast doth seeth it selfe After it is boyled he which sacrificed offereth the libaments or offerings of the flesh and inwards their sacrifices are besides other beasts especially of horses Their Temples to Mars they build on this manner They heape together bundles of twigges three furlongs in length and breadth and aboue on them is made a square plaine three sides thereof are vpright the fourth is made slope and the bending-wise thereby to get vp thither they bring euerie yeere an hundred and fiftie Waines of twigges to supply the waste of them Vnderneath this worke is erected an old iron sword and this is their Image of Mars to which they offer yeerely sacrifices both of other cattell and of horses and more to this blade then to other gods Of their captiues they offer one of an hundred but after another manner For after they haue offered wine on their heads they kill them by a certaine vessell and after lifting them vpon that their heape or Temple they embrew the Sword-god with the bloud This they doe aboue beneath in the Temple they cut off all the right shoulders of the slaine men and hurle them vp in the aire together with the hands wheresoeuer the hand shall fall there it lieth and the dead bodie apart When they haue performed all their solemnities they depart Swine are so odious to them that they will haue none of them nourished in their Countrie There are among them Diuiners whose Rites are these They bring great bundles of willow twigs which they lay on the ground and vntie and laying them asunder one by one diuine Some of them practise diuination with the leaues of the Teil-tree which they fold and vnfold in their hands The King when at any time hee falleth sicke sendeth for three choice men of those Diuiners who for the most part name some man vnto him which hath forsworne himselfe hauing sworne by the Kings Throne an oath vsed of the Scythians presently the man is brought forth who if he denieth what their art hath accused him of the King sendeth for twice the number of Diuiners and if they by new practise of their art find him guiltie his head is cut off and the first Diuiners share his goods but if they shall absolue him more Diuiners are sent for and if the most of them doe absolue him then those three first are thus done to death They lade a waine with twigs and binding the Diuiners hand and foot and stopping their mouthes cast them into the waines and set all on fire burning Oxen waine and men together vnlesse some of the Oxen by the burning of their harnes escape This punishment inflict they on their false prophets They make their leagues with other Nations in this sort They powre wine into a great bowle mixing therewith the bloud of them which ioine in league cutting some part of the body with a knife or sword and then dip in that bowle or mazer a sword arrowes an axe a dart and after curse themselues with many words last of all drinking the wine
against him and by the way enquired of his Astrologers and Diuiners touching his successe They taking a greene reed cleft it a sunder placing the parts thereof a good distance one from another and writ vpon the one the name of Vncam and Cingis on the other telling the King that whiles they were reading their coniuring charmes these reeds would fight together and the victory should remaine with him whose reede got the better which acordingly came to passe in the sight of the Armie Cingis his reed ouercomming the other as after Cingis himselfe did Vncam whom he slew in the field and possessed his daughter and state wherin he continued sixe yeeres conquering Cities and Kingdomes and at last was wounded at a Castle called Thaigin in the knee whereof he dyed and was buryed in Mount Altay The next Emperour after his account was Cin Can the third Baythin Can the fourth Allau the brother of Mangu Esu Can the fifth Mongu Can the sixth the seauenth Cublai Can who not only inherited what the former had conquered but in the sixtieth yeere of his raigne subdued in a manner the rest of those parts of the World The word Can signifieth Emperour Wheresoeuer these Emperours dye they are buryed in Altay aforesayd they which carry him killing all they meete within the way bidding them goe to the other world to serue their Emperor For this end they also slay the best horses to serue their dead Lord in another world When Mangu Can was buried there were more then ten thousand men slaine by the Souldiers which conueyed him In this Historie of M. Paul obserue that this Catalogue of Emperours is vnsound for W. de Rubruquis in Bathyes time was at the Court of Mangu Can to whom Bathy was subiect Occoday is left out and Esu put in The cause of this errour seemeth to bee the giuing of this name Can to the chiefe Dukes as Bathy c. and the want of exact written Chronicles in those times amongst them §. II. The great Exploits of CINGIS or CANGIVS the first Tartarian Emperor FOr further light into this Historie I thinke it not amisse to set downe what Haithon or Anthony the Armenian hath written of the Tartarian beginnings This our Author was Royally descended in Armenia where hee liued about three hundred yeeres since and at the request of Pope Clement the fift writ the History of the Tartars from Cingis or Cangius till Mango Can taken out of the Tartarian Histories the rest he partly saw with his eyes and partly learned of his Vnckle an eye-witnesse of the same who had attended on Haithon the Armenian King in the great Cans Court The Countrey where the Tartars first dwelt saith Haithon is beyond the Mount Belgian where they liued like beasts hauing neither letters nor Faith nor Habitation nor Souldiâ—rie nor reputation among their Neighbour-Nations There were of them diuers Nations called by one common name Mogli which were diuided into seuen principall Tribes whose names were Tartar Tangut Cunat Talair Sonieh Monghi Tebeth These all being subiects to their Neighbours a poore old man being a Smith who as they beleeue was ingendred of the Sun beames saw in his sleepe an armed man on a white horse which said vnto him O Cangius The will of the Immortall GOD is that thou bee the Gouernour of the Tartarians and Ruler of the seuen Nations to free them from their bondage and tribute This his vision when he reported to others they would not beleeue him vntill that the night following the chiefe men amongst themselues saw the same man with command from the immortall GOD to yeeld obedience vnto Cangius This they performed with all reuerence and spred in the midst of them a black felt with a seat thereon on which the seuen Princes or chiefe men placed Cangius calling him Can that is Emperor and kneeled before him This happily was then the most sumptuous Throne their State could afford but continued in the Royall inuestiture of their succeeding Soueraignes their exceeding Riches and Conquests notwithstanding at two of which solemnities saith our Author I my selfe haue beene present Cangius thus inthronized on his felt commanded them many things first to beleeue the immortall GOD and from thence forwards the Tartars began to call vpon the name of the immortall GOD seeking for his ayde in all their enterprises secondly hee commanded to make a generall view of all such as were able to beare armes appointing Captaines ouer tens ouer thousands and ouer ten thousands which made a full Regiment Hee commanded also those seuen principall heads of their Tribe to bereaue themselues of their dignities and for further triall of their obedience each of them to bring thither his eldest sonne and to cut off his head each with his owne hand which they refused not to doe in reuerence to that diuine ordinance whereby hee was made their Soueraigne Cangius hauing thus made tryall of their fidelitie subdued many Nations and one day hauing his horse slaine in battell vnder him was forsaken of his Tartars dispayring his recouerie after they saw him fall and might easily haue beene slaine had not his enemies through ignorance neglected him to pursue the rest which Cangius perceiuing conueyed himselfe into a thicket of shrubs and when his enemies returned to despoile the dead an Owle came and sate on the shrub vnder which Cangius was hidden which caused them not to suspect any to lurke there and so they departed He the next night fled to his people who seeing him and hearing the order of his escape gaue thanks to the immortall GOD who by meanes of that Bird had preserued him They also had after this that Fowle in such reuerence that it is accounted a happy thing to weare one of her feathers on their heads Cangius afterwards assaulting his enemies brought vnder both them and all the Countries on that side of Belgian The exact time of these things Haithon could not learne notwithstanding his much enquiry which he imputeth to their want of letters at that time These Countries thus conquered the armed man appeared to him the second time and commanded him in the name of the immortall GOD to passe the Mountayne Belgian and goe towards the West where he should conquer Kingdomes Signories and Lands And that thou mayest be assured that this is the will of GOD arise and goe with thy people towards the Mountayne to that part which ioyneth on the Sea There thou shalt dismount and turne thee toward the East and kneeling downe nine times shalt worship the immortall GOD and he which is Almightie shall shew thee the way by which thou mayest commodiously passe Cangius presently commands his people with their wiues and families to accompanie him in this enterprise and when they were come to the Sea forgat not with his followers to performe those nine worships and staying there that night in his prayers the next day hee saw that the Sea had gone nine foot backe from
these parts telleth of their Philosophers called Gymnosophists like things to that which is before mentioned of their beholding the Sunne from the rising to the setting with fixed eyes standing on the hot sands all day long on one foot by course Tooth-ache with other diseases of the head and eyes spitting and other sicknesses are either exiles or strangers to the Indians Tully saith That in this naked plight these Philosophers endure the cold of Winter and Snowes of Caucasus while they liue and the burning fire at their end without any playning The Indian women also striue which shall be marryed to her husbands corps in a fierie Chariot riding with him into another World Hystaspes the Father of Darius is reported to haue learned of the Indian Philosophers or Brachmanes both Astronomie and Rites of Religion with which hee after instructed the Persian Magi. None might sacrifice without one of these to direct him who onely among the Indians had skill of Diuination and authoritie to sacrifice and were free from other seruices §. III. Many doubtfull and fabulous reports of the Indians THe Indians are said to worship Iupiter Ganges and other Heroes of their Countrey Some of the Indian Nations accounted it dishonourable as they doe also at this day for the wiues not to be burned with their deceased husbands Thomas the Apostle preached the Gospell to the Indians and so did Bartholomew also and destroyed their Idols which wrought great wonders amongst them Astaroth Beirith and Waldath as Abdias reporteth who euen in this Historie may easily be conuinced to be counterfeit in ascribing the Names and Religions of the Grecians Iuno Neptune Berecinthia to the Indians besides those vnchristian reuenges in killing so many of their Aduersaries and old Heathenish new Popish Ceremonies fathered on those Apostles To let passe that Abdias a fit Bishop of that mysticall Babylon Alexander ab Alexandro reckoneth among their gods the greatest Trees to cut which was with them a capitall crime and a Dragon in honor of Liber Pater Hercules they honored in a Gyant-like statue whose daughter Pandaea the Pandeans say was their first Queene These affirme that in the Hill Meros which they account sacred to Iupiter is a Caue wherein Liber or Bacchus was nourished from whence the fable grew that hee was borne of Iupiters thigh for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Some of the Indians saith Solinus kill no beasts nor eate flesh some liue onely on fish Some kill their Parents and Kinsfolks before Age or sicknesse withereth them and deuoure their flesh an argument not of villany but pietie amongst them Their Gymnosophists from the Sun-rising to the setting fixe their eyes on the bright Orbe of the sun thence obseruing certaine secrets Hereunto he addeth the tales of Men with dogs-heads of others with one leg and yet very swift of foot of Pigmeis of such as liue onely by sent of hoarie Infants of some like Polyphemus with one eye in their fore-head of others with eares to the ground wherein many of the old Writers are Poets and the Moderne Painters as in many other Monsters of Men and Beasts We seeke credit with the wise and not admiration of fooles Ctesias in his Indica which Photius hath preserued rather as a Monument of Ctesias his lying then of Indian truth hath told the like incredible tales that it neuer rayneth in India that there is a Fountaine of liquid gold receiued into pitchers of Earth that the Sea in the top is boyling hot with the monstrous Martichora a man-like beast and other more horrible beast-like men with tailes and heads of dogs without speech the little truth in his little Pigmeis both beasts and men his great lyes of great Gryphons Lyon-Eagles Keepers of golden Mountaines with other like fables scarce in one thing agreeing with our Moderne and more certaine obseruations and such as if of purpose he had in challenge of the World cast downe the Gantlet for the Whetstone which for my part I thinke he best deserueth This hath the lyer gotten by lying that in his Persian storie which he had better meanes to know he is the more doubted and such relations haue made Indian reports accounted fabulous The Indians neuer sacrificed or saluted their Idols without dances They were neuer rewarded with militarie honor or spoile except they brought into the Campe an enemies head in their hand They punished periurie with the losse of fingers and toes and such as deceiued their Clients with perpetuall silence and besides they were disabled vnto any Office Their Lawes are not written their Contracts without seales or witnesses They vsed no pledges nor might borrow or lend vpon vsury Philostratus in his large Legend of the life of Apollonius Tyanaeus their Philosophicall Saint relateth his Pilgrimage into India to the Brachmanes in which he came to Nysa where was a Temple of Bacchus built by himselfe planted about with Bayes Vines and Iuy whose shadie roofe couered the same In the middest was an Image all Instruments belonging to the Vintage were there some of Gold others of Siluer hanged vp sacred to Dionysius Hee after came to Taxilla the Citie Royall where he found the Temple of the Sun and in it the yuorie Image of Aiax with golden statues of Alexander and ouer-against the same the brazen Images of Porus The walls of red Marble shined like fire interlaid with Gold resembling lightning The Mosaicall floore pouldred with Pearles The King here offered sacrifice to the Sun For the Pepper-trees which he saith are great and abound with Apes who gather the Pepper for the Indians gratis brought thereunto by a wyle of the Indians who first gather some and lay it on heapes and then go away at their returne finding many the like heapes made by the emulous Apes I leaue it to the Authors authoritie and Readers credulitie as that also which followeth of the Inhabitants of Paraca in these parts who by eating a Dragons heart and liuer attaine to vnderstand the Language if so I may terme it of Beasts And if you maruell at this that which followes will amaze you of Men which doe not as the former communicate with the nature of Beasts but of Spirits making themselues at their pleasure inuisible Here in a holy Hill was a pit whereof no man drinketh by which the Indians bind their faith as by the most solemne and inuiolable oath In this pit was a fierie receptacle where men were purged from their offences and two tubs of Whetstones I should say of raines and windes the one being opened yeelding raines and the other windes In this place were many Indian Grecian and Egyptian statues with their Rites obserued accordingly This Hill was reported the middle of India and euery noone-tide they sing Hymnes to the Sun for that fire borrowed they say from his beames The Brachmanes sleepe on the ground on hearbes strewed two cubits thick that by this
Christian Faith especially the Trinitie and Incarnation Hee hath addmitted the Iesuites there to preach and would haue had them by miracle to haue proued those things to him which they elswhere so much boasting of Miracles wisely refused For hee demanded that the Mulla's or Priests of the Mogores and they should by passing thorow the fire make tryall of their Faith Hee hath many Bookes and Images which the Christians there doe vse and seemeth to haue great liking to them vsing the same with great reuerence But his Religion is the same it seemeth with that of Tamerlane his predecessor to acknowledge One God whom varietie of Sects and Worshippings should best content Hee caused thirtie Infants to bee kept like that which is said of Psammetichus King of Egypt setting certaine to watch and obserue that neither their Nurses nor any else should speake vnto them purposing to addict himselfe to that Religion which they should embrace whose Language these Infants should speake which accordingly came to passe For as they spake no certaine Languge so is not hee setled in any certaine Religion Hee hath diuers Idols sometime brought before him among which is one of the Sunne which early euery morning and three other times a day at noone euening and in the night he worshippeth He worshipped also the Image of CHRIST and our LADY which hee set on the crowne of his head and wore Relikes about him He is addicted to a new Sect as is said wherein he hath his followers which hold him for a Prophet The profit which they haue by his gold addicteth them to this new Prophet Hee professeth to worke Miracles by the water of his feet curing diseases Many Women make Vowes vnto him either to obtaine children or to recouer the health of their children which if they attaine they bring him their vowed Deuotions willingly of him receiued yea euery morning as he worshipped the Sunne so he delighted to be worshipped himselfe of the people to whom hee made shew of himselfe at a window and they kneeling performed like Ceremonie to him as to their Idols and he was thought to entertaine men skilfull in diuers Sects and Religions that of euery one he might take somewhat to the constitution of a new one He hath three sonnes Sciec the eldest which is honoured with the title Gio and called Sciecigio that is the Soule or Person of Sciec he much fauoureth the Iesuites the second Pahari Dan or Daniel is the youngest Some call them by other names His Presents are exceeding besides his Tributes and Customes Hee mentions One which in their presence offered his Vassalage and withall a Present valued at two hundred thousand crownes and more a Horse with furniture of Gold and Iewels two Swords and the Girdles of like worke Camels Carpets c. taking himselfe dignified in the acceptation of his Present Himselfe after often bowings and touching the ground with his head comming neerer was searched whether hee had any weapons and then was admitted to touch his foot Echebar laying his hand on his necke and allowing him to stand with his other Nobles The Kings sonne Sultan Morad at the same time offered a Present of fiftie Elephants worth a hundred and fiftie thousand Duckats one Chariot of Gold another of Siluer others of Mother of Pearle with other things of great value The Vice-Roy or Gouernour of Bengala followed with another Present esteemed worth eight hundred thousand Duckats viz. three hundred Elephants Almost dayly hee receiueth such Presents especially at a certaine Feast called Nerosa in which one Great Man was thought to present him with neere the worth of one Million of Gold §. II. Of the Conquests and death of ECHEBAR and of his Sonne and Successour SELIM now reigning OVr Relations of Echebar or Achebar his Rites Humane and Diuine as also of his Possessions and Greatnesse wee haue alreadie seemed long yet cannot be so satisfied without further satisfaction to the Reader if he be such as he of whom wee write curious and desirous to know remote Affaires and farre distant Occurrences Great Echebar added vnto that Greatnesse which his Father left him the Kingdome of Caxemir of Sinda of Guzzarat of Xischandadan and a great part of Decan with all the Tract of Bengala Such was his felicitie that it grew into a Prouerbe As happie as ECHEBAR seldome attempting any thing without prosperous successe I speake of worldly happinesse Euen in Natures treasures hee was rich both Wit and Memorie this so happie that of many thousands of Elephants which hee had hee knew the names yea of his Horses to each of which hee gaue names of his wilde Beasts and Harts that hee kept in a place appointed and euen of his Pigeons which hee kept for sport Yet was not this happinesse so perpetuall but that he had some especially domesticke Crosses His second sonne Sultan Morad being sent into Guzzarat against Melic King of Decan sometime Lord of Chaul was slaine with many other Commanders which newes was then brought to Echebar when hee was celebrating their New-yeeres Festiuall the day that the Sunne enters into Aries whereupon hee sent thither another of his sonnes Another time when hee was solemnizing the Sunnes Festiuall on Easter day 1597. about which time the King of China sustained the like Casualtie Fire fell from Heauen vpon his Tent richly adorned with Gold and Iewels and consumed it to ashes with all the Tents adioyning together with his Throne of solide Gold valued at 100000. Duckats consumed or melted from whence it proceeded to the Palace which being of Timber was for the most part brought into ashes Some millions of Treasure there reserued could not bee there preserued from this flame which made a Streame of Gold and Siluer mixed with other Metalls runne alongst the streets For this cause hee forsooke Lahor where hee had built the Iesuites a Church and where hee kept his Court as hee did before at Fatepore and sometimes at Agra and went to Caximir or Cascimir a Kingdome which a little before he had subdued This yeelds not to any Indian Region in goodlinesse and wholesomenesse being encompassed with very high Mountaines couered most part of the yeere with Snow the rest a delicate Playne diuersified with Pastures Fields Woods Gardens Parkes Springs Riuers euen to admiration It is coole and more temperate then the Kingdome of Rebat which adioyneth to it on the East Three leagues from Caximir is a Lake deepe and beset round with Trees in the midst thereof an Iland and thereon hee built a Palace The Countrey hath store of Rice Wheat and Vines which they plant at the foot of the Mulburie the same Tree seeming to beare two Fruits Had they not beene at Contentions amongst themselues hee could neuer haue conquered so strong a Kingdome In times past they were all Gentiles but three hundred yeeres before this the most of them became Mahumetane This Countrey he left when Summer was past
and all his Partakers hee was brought into his Fathers presence Echebar was past speech but made signes that hee should take the Royall Diademe and gird himselfe with the sword hanging at his beds head The Prince performed the solemne Iordam or Rite of Adoration with the head bowed to the Earth and his Father signing with his hand that hee should depart did so as did his Father presently after out of the world His body was carried on the shoulders of his Son and Nephew out of the towre where he lay the wall being broken after the fashion for passage and a new gate there erected and being brought into his Garden a league from thence was interred with small attendance neither the King nor his Nobles except Cossero and a few others wearing mourning habite So little was He in his West a little before the great Terrour of the East Eight dayes after Echebars death the Prince entred the Palace and seated himselfe in the Throne the people crying Pad iausa or Padasha lamat GOD saue the King His first endeauours were to giue contentment to the Mahumetans causing their Moschees to bee purged and their Rites to bee established yea hee tooke a new Name NVRDIN MOHAMAD IAHANVIR that is the Splendour of MAHOMETS Law Subduer of the World And by this Name IAHANVIR or as our Countrey-men lately come from thence pronounce it IAHANGERE hee is vsually called and not by his ancient Name SELIM In Aprill after his sonne rebelled and taking the Title of SVLTAN IA that is Sultan the King brought into his partie two Great Men and so went to Lahor which not being admitted entrance hee besieged eight dayes or as others say presented himselfe with his Forces about twelue thousand before it without any great hostilitie offered him His Father in person pursued him which being rumor'd so dismayed the sonne that he fled hauing euen then put some of the Kings men to rout For by a notable stratageme hee lost the day the aduerse Generall sending many with flying tales into the Princes Armie buzzing the neerenesse and Greatnesse of the Kings power and seconding the same like GIDEONS Policie with multitude of Trumpets and Drummes scarred them and notwithstanding the Princes gaine-saying hee was by his owne almost compelled to flight Hee tooke his way towards Cabul and being to passe a Riuer the Captaine of the place caused all Boats to be taken away and commanded the rowers that if the Prince came they should fasten the Boat as by mischance on a Shelfe or Iland of sand in the middle of the Riuer which being done they should seeme to call for helpe and so giue notice This was done and the Gouernour came and after due reuerence promising all fidelitie and securitie wherein hee was vnfaithfully faithfull brought Him into the Castle and sent the King word thereof who sent presently and brought Him in fetters together with his company The King bitterly checked him committed him to prison Some adde that hee sealed vp his eyes Others say that his eyes were put out But their eyes were not put in onely cares put on that say so for hee hath lately beene freed and hath the vse also of his eyes as I haue beene tolde from the eyes of diuers His two great Captaines had a strange punishment the one sowed vp close in an Oxe-skinne the other in an Asse-skinne both new flayed that drying they might withall straightly pinch in their Prisoners in a close and narrow Little-ease The next day they were carried through the Citie on Asses their faces to the taile-wards the one conspicuous with his Oxe-hornes the other with his Asses-eares The shame and ignominy so pierced one of them that hee fell downe dead his head was cut off and the pieces of his dismembred bodie were set vp in diuers places The other by way of fauour was permitted to haue water powred on his hide which brought a worse euill by the heate of so neere a Sunne causing a filthy stinke and multiplication of Vermine till at last his pardon was procured Two hundreth of the Princes Souldiers were set on both sides the way as hee should passe to be executed He caused his second Sonne to be proclaimed Prince as his Father had before transferred the Title from him to This his Son There was a famous Prophet of the Ethnikes named Goru esteemed there of his Sectaries as the Romish Pope is of the Popish Romanists with him as a man famous for Sanctimony did the Prince consult who in adulation adorned his head with a Diadem which in an Ethnike to a Mahumetan was strange but hee coloured it with the Gentilisme of the Princes Mother Vpon this Goru was committed but vpon promise by an Ethnike of 100000. pieces of Gold to bee payd to the King hee was pardoned Hee that vndertooke this hoped on the Kings pardon or that Goru would procure this summe which failing hee seized on all hee had not sparing his wife and children adding tortures also to extort money from him and taking away his meate thinking him rather a miser then a begger Thus in varietie of misery the flattering Prophet lost his life and his Suretie also thinking to escape by flight was taken and slaine his goods all confiscate This King at first made great shew of zeale to Mahomet which since is cooled and his Religion seemes to bee the same with Echebars Contrary to the Mahumetan practice hee delighteth much in Images as of CHRIST the Virgin and other Saints with which his chambers and publike roomes are stored and to all his Letters and Charters besides the Kings Seale addes the Images of CHRIST and the Holy Virgin engrauen in a paire of tongs as it were of Emeralds with which hee seales his Letters on both sides the pendent waxe The last newes that wee haue from the Iesuites of whom wee haue borrowed almost all the former Relations is of Captaine Hawkins comming to the Court and kind entertainment of the King who made him say they a Gentleman of foure hundred Horse and assigned him thirtie thousand Rupies stipend adding other reports of his pride obstinate heresie and supplantation by the Portugals with other things of Him and those of the Ascension were wracked partly true partly false I haue thought good to set before you in the next seruice some of Captaine Hawkins obseruations whiles hee staied there and after of other our Countrey-men which now haue a settled trade in these vast Dominions Obserue by the way that the Iesuites to the last doe accuse Captaine Hawkins of his obdurate heresie contrarie to the calumnies of some that say hee became deuoutly Popish at their perswasion §. III. The Relations of Captaine HAWKINS Embassador there MAster William Hawkins being Captaine in the Ship called the Hector after a long and tedious voyage from March 1607. to the foure and twentieth of August 1608. arriued at Surat subiect to the Mogor or Mogol so he calleth him and after much
superstition They marry but one wife and admit no second succeeding marriage The Bramenes must descend of the Bramene Tribe and others cannot aspire to that Priesthood but some are of higher account then other For some serue for messengers which in time of warre and among theeues may passe safely and are called Fathers They will not put a Bramene to death for any crime Heurnius reporteth that they haue bookes and Prophets which they alledge for confirmation of their opinions that they thinke God to be of blacke colour that they worship the herbe Amaracus or Marioram with many superstitious Ceremonies that they haue in their writings the Decalogue with the explanation thereof that they adjure all of their Society vnto silence touching their mysteries that they haue a peculiar language as Latine in these parts wherein they teach the same in their Schooles that their Doctors hallow the Sundayes in diuine worship adoring the God which created heauen and earth often repeating the sentence I adore thee O God with thy grace and aide for euer to take food from the hands of a Christian they account as sacrilege When they are seuen yeeres old they put about their necke a string two fingers broad made of the skinne of a beast called Cressuamengan like a wilde Asse together with the haire which he weareth till he is fourteene yeeres old all which time he may not eate Betelle That time expired the said string is taken away and another of three threeds put on in signe that hee is become a Bramene which hee weareth all his life They haue a Principall amongst them which is their Bishop which correcteth them if they doe amisse They marrie but once as is said and that not all but onely the eldest of the brethen to continue the Succession who is also heire of the fathers substance and keepeth his wife straitly killing her if he finde her adulterous with poison The yonger brethren lie with other mens wiues which account the same as a singular honour done vnto them hauing libertie as Balby affirmeth to enter into any mans house yea of the Kings no lesse then of the Subjects of that Religion the husbands leauing the wiues and the brethren their sisters vnto their pleasures and therefore departing out of the house when they come in And hence it is that no mans sonne inheriteth his fathers goods and I knowe not whether they may inherite that name of father or sonne but the sisters sonne succeedeth as being most certaine of the bloud They eate but once a day and wash before and after meate as also when they make water and goe to stoole They haue great cournuâ—s belonging to their Churches besides offerings and at set houres of the day resort thither to sing and doe other their holy Rites Twice in the day and as often in the night their Pagode is taken out of the Altar and set on the Bramenes head looking backward and is carried in Procession three times about the Church the Bramenes wiues carrying lights burning euery time they come to the principall doore of the Church which is on the West side thereof some Churches haue two doores on a side they set it downe on their offering-stone and worship it Twice a day they bring it to eate of their sod Rice as often it seemeth as the Bramene is hungry When they wash them which is often they lay a little ashes on their heads foreheads and breasts saying that they shall returne into ashes When the Bramenes wife is with childe as soone as he knoweth it he cleanseth his teeth and abstaineth from Betelle and obserueth fasting till shee bee deliuered The Kings of Malabar will scarce eate meate but of their dressing They are of such estimation that if Merchants trauell among theeues and robbers one Bramene in the companie secureth them all which Bramene will eate nothing of another mans dressing and would not become a Moore for a Kingdome Nic. di Conti saith he saw a Bramene three hundred yeeres old hee addeth that they are studious in Astrologie Geomancie and Philosophie To be short they are the Masters of Ceremonies and the Indian Religion in whose precepts the Kings are trained vp The Bramenes haue it seemeth much familiaritie with the Deuill so strangely doe they foretell things to come though they bee contingent They also interpret Prodigies Lots Auguries and thereby growe into great credit the people depending on them and the Kings becomming of their Order They perswade the people that their Pagodes doe often feast together and therefore would haue such dainties offered which they and theirs deuoure threatning if they be sparing and niggardly plenty of Plagues and diuine wrath Besides these Secular There are other Religious or Monasticall Bramenes which are called Iogues anciently called by the Greekes Gymnosophists because they went naked and so they still doe professing much austeritie of life at least for a time with long Pilgrimages and much bodily exercise little profiting the soule possessing nothing but want and beggarie seeking thereby to winne credite to themselues and their Sect The Verteas I take to bee another Sect the religious Votaries of the Banians or Pythagoreans Both those and these are kindes of Ethnike Monkes which professe by strict penance and regular obseruations to expiate their sinnes and procure saluation to their soules There are also some that liue as Heremites in Desarts some in Colledges some wander from place to place begging some an vnlearned kind are called Sanasses some contrary to the rest nothing esteeme Idols obserue chastitie twenty or fiue and twenty yeeres and feed daily on the pith of a fruit called Caruza to preserue in them that cold humour neither doe they abstaine from flesh fish or wine and when they passe along the way one goeth before them crying Poo Poo that is way way that women especially may auoid for their vow will not permit the sight of a woman These weare not the three threads which the other Bramenes weare neither are their bodies burned after death as of the rest yea the King himselfe honoreth them and not they the King some liue inclosed in iron Cages all filthie with ashes which they strew on their heads and garments some burne some part of their body voluntarily All are vain-glorious and seeke rather the shell then the kernell the shew then the substance of holinesse Xauerius once in conference with the Bramens demanding of them what their God commanded to those that would come to Heauen was answered Two precepts one to abstaine from killing of Kine in whose shape the Gods were worshipped and the other to obserue the Bramenes the Ministers of their Gods But they haue more mysticall learning which one of them secretly disclosed to the Iesuite This was of a famous Schoole College or Vniuersity of those Bramenes all the Students whereof at their first Admission he said were sworne by solemne Oath vnto
Parimal There are two sorts of Moores one Mesticos of mixed seed of Moore-fathers and Ethnike-mothers called Naiteans Mungrels also in their Religion the other Forreiners which come thither in trading There are also many Iewes which haue almost lost their Iudaisme minding more their merchandize then superstition Besides those former Sects Stephanus de Brito speaketh of the Maleas which inhabit small Villages in the Mountaynes which are Hunters of Elephants amongst whom are no thefts or robberies and therefore they leaue their doores open when they goe abroad They haue no Idoll amongst them only they obserue their Ancestours Sepulchres These haue no Commerce with their Neighbours nor are much subiect to Kings only pay them a kinde of tribute hauing Arelli set ouer them as Iudges or Magistrates vnder each of them fiue or sixe thousand men Their houses are made of Indian Canes dawbed with earth and some liue on trees laying beames from one tree to another and so building them lofty Cottages free from Tygres and wilde Elephants whereof the Montaynes are full which they take in Pits couered ouer with leaues They haue fertile fields and Valleyes but not diligently husbanded They are content with one Wife which they carry with them whithersoeuer they goe though but a Hunting-voyage They are as other Malabars naked from the waste vpwards a long garment hangs thence to the ankles and on their heads a Turbant as the Mores Their necke eares and nostrils are laden with gold For the Malabars weare gold aswell for nose-rings as eare-rings These Maleas are of better estimation then the base vulgar nor is it accounted a pollution to touch them no more then other Nairos or Thomaean Christians They haue their Pipes and Tabors on their Feasts They are also Sorcerers acd diuine by familiar Spirits but vse not to kill or hurt men by Witch-craft as other Indians and Malabars doe A witty docible honest people perhaps descended of those Malliani which Plutarch and Curtius mention in the life of Alexander Of the Feast which all the Malabar-Kings hold euery twelfth yeare in honour of the Riuer Ganges we haue there spoken where we haue discoursed of the Riuer This Feast lasteth eight and twentie or thirtie dayes with great solemnitie the Samorin euery day washing himselfe and offering Sacrifices to Ganges after which hee returnes to his Palace with innumerable troupes of men riding vpon an Elephant in great pompe and three dayes after in the morning and euening with greatest Royaltie makes shew of himselfe in a high Throne many Lampes of gold and siluer burning about him many Peeces discharged with other ceremonie of State The King prostrates himselfe on the ground and three times doth reuerence to the People and they to Him the Kings Vassals then doing him homage After this many Champions exercise their Fencing-skill before him and at the sound of Instruments the chiefe Nobles by two and two in a ranke with their faces to the ground doe reuerence the Elephants are likewise to honour Him Twentie thousand Crownes are spent on this solemnitie by the King Another more diuellish rite followes About the yeare 1520. the Zamorin slue a certaine King In memorie whereof the Successors of that King send a certayne number of their Souldiers to reuenge his death themselues being sure to be slaine these are called Amocae which are Clients to that King and are either to come themselues or to send so many Souldiers to the number of thirtie which rush among the People and kill as many as they can themselues certayne to be killed of the Kings Souldiers CHAP. XI Of the Kingdome of Narsinga and Bisnagar §. I. Of their Funerall and Idolatrous bloudie Rites FRom those places where our feet last rested or touched rather vnto the Cape Guadauerin betwixt that ridge of Mountaines called Gate and the Ocean which is there named the Gulfe of Bengala trendeth the Kingdome of Narsinga or Bisnagar those two Royall Cities contending which shall giue name to this mightie Empire containing two hundred leagues of Sea-coast The King hath in continuall pay forty thousand Nairos But as occasion serueth he can bring into the field many many thousands more as in that Expedition against Idalkan specified by Barrius and Boterus in which was a world of people seuen hundred thousand foot fortie thousand horse seuen hundred Elephants twentie thousand harlots Hee sacrificed also vnto Idols twentie thousand seuen hundred and threescore head of Beasts and Fowles in nine dayes space which in Idoll-deuotion were all bestowed after on the poore In the yeare of our Lord 1565. Biznagar was sacked by foure Kings of the Mores as saith Frederike naming them Dialkan Zamaluc Cotamaluc and Viridy through treason of two More Captaines which had seuen or eight score thousand Souldiers vnder them but being of the same Religion with the Kings of Decan betrayed their owne King forsaking him in the midst of the battaile This was a iust reward of treason to the true King of Biznegar For three Captaines had kept the King thirtie yeares as prisoner once a yeare shewing him to the people themselues ruling the State When he dyed then Ramaragio exalted himselfe to the Throne Temiragio the second swayed the gouernment and the third Bengahe was Generall of the Armie Onely Temiragio escaped and returned when the Decans had sacked the Citie and were gone to Beznegar and sent to Goa great promises for Horses if any Merchants would bring any Whereupon Frederike went with other Merchants which carried store of them but brought no store of money in payment the Tyrant accepting the Horses but paying nothing Temiragio temoued his Court from Bezneger to Penegorde eight dayes iourney within Land And his sonne put to death the sonne of that King before mentioned which had beene imprisoned as this also had beene till Death by a murthering hand freed him Hence grew many broyles the Nobles refusing to acknowledge this New King and thus Bezneger being forsaken remained after this an Habitation for Tygres and wild Beasts containing in circuit foure and twentie myles as our Author that stayed there seuen moneths affirmeth He neuer saw Palace exceeding that of Biznagar It had nine Gates with guards of Souldiers Here hee obserued their Rites in burning the women so often mentioned which after his and Balby his relations are thus I haue declared the like for substance before this as in some Rites differing I adde also The woman taketh two or three moneths respite after her husbands death The day being come she goeth earely out of her house mounted on a Horse or Elephant or else on a Stage carried by eight men apparelled like to a Bride adorned with Iewels and her haire about her shoulders holding in her left hand a Looking-glasse in the right an Arrow and singeth as shee passeth through the Citie saying That she goeth to sleepe with her husband She is accompanied with her friends vntill it be one or two of the clocke in the afternoone
promoted Some denied a multitude of Gods onely allowing that priuiledge to Pyrama Vidhun and Vaitir one of which maketh another keepeth the third destroyeth all things Neere to Madure is an Idoll called Chocanada which by night appeared in a vision to a Priest and bade him goe say to the Naicho of Madure that hee or I must abide in this house whereupon he would not be corriuall with his Idoll but resigned the Palace to him His deuotion is such that euery day while hee sitteth in iudgement a Bramene euer and anon soundeth the name of Aranganassa in his eares and when one is wearie another succeedeth in the same Office neuer ceasing this Idols remembrance although hee there sitteth fiue or sixe houres I thought meete to mention one custome which some report of the Brama or Pope-like Bramene in these parts who by his authority dispenseth with many of their Lawes and dissolueth Marriages giuing libertie at his pleasure to the woman to marrie another which his Dispensation is sealed on her right shoulder with a marke of a hote Iron §. III. Of many other strange Rites And of Saint Thomae CHandagrin is the Royall Seat of the great King of Bisnagar The chiefest Families therein are the Bramenes Raias and Cretius They affirme that their Idoll Perimal did bring foorth the Bramenes out of his head as the Poets tell of Minerua the second out of his brest third out of his belly and all other inferiour Families out of his feet The Bramenes haue some opinions not altogether dissonant from the Scriptures They say That God onely by his thought made a man which they call Adam On the tenth day of Iuly Anno 1600. happened an Eclipse of the Sunne which the Bramenes said was by meanes of the Dragon which they make a Celestiall Signe his byting of the Sunne and Moone whereupon the King and others neither ate nor dranke that day deploring their misery because the Dragon deuoured the Sunne In the Citie Prepeti three miles from Chandagrin is the Feast of Perimal in remembrance of his Marriage at which the Offerings amounted to two hundred thousand Crownes and the Chariot of the Idoll was drawne forth a mile and a halfe in Procession by ten thousand men They haue another Feast of the Kine because they suppose Perimal to bee the Sonne of a Cow and then the wayes and streets are full of that cattle They haue a Feast in honour of the Sunne which lasteth eight dayes solemnized by the Emperour himselfe and he is iudged a Traytor which is not present thereat Then they cast lots the King first and after the rest diuining by Arrowes the next yeeres destinie If an Arrow light on a Tree and being plucked out causeth a red liquor to follow it prognosticateth Warres if white Peace Not farre hence is an Idoll called Tripiti to which are great Pilgrimages and Offerings alwayes they goe some begin and the rest answere and so all continue to resound the name of the Idoll Gaia Before they enter into the Temple they shâ—ue and wash themselues The Heremites which they call Sanasses liue in Desarts and at sometimes appeare before the people naked The Girupi beare a great port and neuer goe forth on foot The Idoll Tripiti is seated on a Mountaine about which are fertile Valleyes stored with Fruites which none may touch as being consecrated There are in the Woods great abundance of Apes so tame that they will take meate out of mens hands the people esteeme them a diuine Race and of the familiaritie of Perimal the chiefe God whom they worship in many colours and shapes as of a Man Oxe Horse Lion Hogge Ducke Cocke c. Francis Fernandes saith that Cidambaram is the Mother-citie of their Pagan Rites wherein are many stately Temples and the reuenue of the Bramenes amounted to 30000. Ducats but now they are payd but 12000. yeerely Here happened a strange accident the same day the Iesuits departed the occasion of which was this There is in this Citie a Temple of Perimal wherein they worship an Ape called Hanimant whom they report to haue beene a God and for I know not what together with many thousands of other Gods to haue remained there being all transformed into Apes Now when this principall Ape was forced to passe into the Iland Zeilan and wanted a ship he leaped and at euery leape left an Iland or heape of Land behind him so making way for his Apish traine to Zeilan The tooth of this Ape was kept for a great relike in that Iland with great resort of Pilgrims thereunto and in the yeere 1554. was by the Portugals who made a roade thither in hope of great bootie taken away The Indian Princes offered the Vice-roy three hundred thousand or as Linschoten telleth seuen hundred thousand Ducats for the ransome of this Apes tooth but the Archbishop disswaded the Vice-roy who thereupon burnt the same before those Indian Embassadors and threw the ashes into the Sea Not long after a Beniane of Cambaya perswaded the Indians that hee by Diuine Power had taken away that holy Tooth beeing inuisibly present and had left another in the roome which was burnt Superstition is credulous and the King of Bisnagar gaue him a great summe of Gold for that Apes Tooth wherewith hee thus Apishly had bitten and mocked them which was after holden in like veneration as the former But to returne to our Cidambaran Historie They tell That an holy man in great penance had many yeeres held his foot pierced thorow with a piece of Iron and when he was often by God commanded to leaue that selfe-rigour he flatly refused vnlesse that hee might see God dancing about him which also Hee condescended vnto and with the Sunne Moone and Starres which played the Musicians he appeared dancing And as he danced a Chaine of Gold fel from his foot whereof this Towne tooke name For Cidambaran signifieth a golden Chaine As Viega and Ricius two Iesuites trauelled to Chaudegrin they came to Trauilur where they say their Idoll with a white Banner on his back and after him three sacred Kine with Drummers on their backes and after them Trumpetters and many Musicians of other sorts Then followed twentie women dancing which were also consecrated to the Idols seruice and might not marry but yet prostitute their bodies these were richly attired and carried Lights The Priests followed with the Idoll and were followed by the people with Lights At their returne they set downe the Idoll and set sodden Rice before him to eate others meane while driuing away the flies and others couering him that hee should not bee seene eating and at last one maketh a long Oration of the worthy acts of their God and then set him againe in his place This lasted foure houres and in the meane space many reasoned with the Iesuits and some held vaine Discourses of the Creation as that there were seuen Seas one of Salt-water the
meere fabler And Casper Swenckfield a Physician testifieth of the common Vnicornes horne that it is inferiour to Harts horne in efficacie against poysons and therefore not likely to bee it I could bee of opinion that the hornes in Venice and other places kept as Iewels are of the Sea Vnicorne a fish which hath a horne in the forehead or nose thereof Linschoten thinkes the Rhinoceros is the onely Vnicorne That the Rhinoceros is onely male and the Vulture onely female as Baubinus sheweth many Authours conceit is not only absurd but impious to hold Of the Tygers hath beene spoken and the harme they doe in Pegu Nicholas Pimenta reporteth That the Tygers Crocodiles and a certaine Lizzard or Newt Lerius saw the like in Brasile as great and as cruell as the former doe wonderfull spoyle in Bengala both by land and neere the shoares Hee tels of one strange escape of a man in a vessell neere the shoare assaulted at once by a Tyger from Land and by a Crocodile from the water and the Tyger with more swiftnesse and fury ayming at his prey passed ouer him into the Crocodiles mouth The admirable swiftnesse of this beast is recorded by Pliny Authours agree That both in Asia and Africa they rather prey on black people then on the white Europaeans A certaine Negro dreaming that he was torne of a Tyger the next night lodged in a safer place of the ship but there had his Dreame verified The Bengalans doe not feare them that superstitiously they giue diuers names vnto them thinking if they should call them by the right name they should be deuoured of them Gods Prouidence hath yet appeared in creating a little beast not bigger then a little Dogge which no sooner espieth this beast the most dreadfull of any in the World but presently assaults him and with barking makes him run away both beasts and men conueying themselues into places of safetie so that sometimes this rauener dyes of hunger Muske is made of a certaine beast called Gudderi which liueth as Polo sayth in Thebeth and hath a kinde of swelling neere the nauell which once in the Moone sheddeth his muskie bloud the most say it is a beast in China which feedeth onely on a sweet root called Camarus him they take and bruize all to pieces with blowes and lay him where he soonest putrifieth and then cut it out skinne and flesh together and tye it vp like balles or coddes Pantogia affirmeth That it is the stomacke of a beast somewhat greater then a Cat which liueth in the Woods in Countreyes adioyning to China How-euer our greatest sweete wee see is but rottennesse and putrifaction There bee in Malacca Sion and Bengala some Goats whose hornes are esteemed excellent against Poyson which Linschoten affirmeth of his owne experience As for Fowles they haue Parrots of many kinds some reckon fourteene and Noyras more pleasing in beauty speech and other delights then the Parrot but they cannot be brought out of that Countrey aliue Of Bats they haue as bigge as Hennes about Iaua and the neighbour Ilands Clusius bought one of the Hollanders which they brought from the Iland of Swannes Ilha do Cerne newly stiled by them Maurice Iland it was aboue a foote from the head to the tayle aboue a foot about the wings one and twenty inches long nine broad the claw whereby it hung on the trees was two inches the pisle easily seene c. Here they also found a Fowle which they called Walgh-vogel of the bignesse of a Swanne and most deformed shape In Banda and other Ilands the Bird called Emia or Eme is admirable It is foure foot high somewhat resembling an Ostrich but hauing three clawes on the feete and the same exceeding strong it hath two wings rather to helpe it running then seruiceable for flight the legges great and long they say it hath no tongue and that it putteth out the pisle backwards as the Camell that it deuoureth Oranges and Egges rendring the same in the ordure nothing altered It strikes with the heeles like a Horse will swallow an Apple whole as bigge as ones fist yea it swalloweth downe burning coles without harme and in a contrary extreme pieces of Ice Of the Birds of Paradise elsewhere is shewed the falshood of that opinion which conceiue them to want feet whereas they goe as other birds but being taken the body for the most part together with the feet are cut off and they being dryed in the Sunne are so hardened and closed as if Nature had so formed them This is testified by Pigafetta and the Hollanders and my kind friend and louing Neighbour Master Henry Colthirst hath had of them whole Of this Clusius in his Auctarium hath a large Discourse shewing diuers kindes of them a greater and lesse and sayth that Iohn de Weely of Amsterdam sold one of them which had feete to the Emperour 1605. But I would not herein be tedious Of the Birds and Beasts of India Acosta Linschoten Clusius besides Gesner and others can informe the studious They haue Crowes so bold that they will come flying in at the windowes and take the meate out of the dish as it standeth on the Table before them that are set thereat and are such vexation to the Buffles that they are forced to stand in waters vp to the necks that they may be rid of them Pyrard tels of the like Crowes in the Maldiues both dreadlesse and numberlesse and of great trouble which they haue there by the Gnats Rats Mice Dormice and Pismires noysome beyond credit as also Snakes and Sharkes He tels of Pingueys foules as bigge as Pigeons which so fill the Aire and Earth in some Ilands that they can scarsly set their foot free their Egges are hatched by the Sands which are white and subtile like that of an Houreglasse by reason of the heat They haue Rats which the Cats dare not touch as bigge as young Pigges which vndermine the foundations of houses in such sort with their diggings that they sometimes fall to the ground There are other little red Rats which smell like Muske Incredible is the scathe which they receiue in Goa by the Pismires which with such huge multitudes will presently assayle any thing that is fattie or to be eaten that they are forced to set their cupboords and chists wherein are their victuals and apparell with a woodden Cisterne of water vnder euery of their foure feete and that in the middle of the roome And if they forget to haue water in the Cisterne presently these Ants are all ouer and in the twinkling of an eye sayth Linschoten they will consume a loafe of bread The like Cisternes haue they for their Beds and Tables and for the Perches whereon they set their Canary birds which else would bee killed by Pismires yea though it hung on a string from the roofe of the house The poorer sort which want cupboords hang their
other beasts wherevpon by the peoples entreatie who had learned the storie of him he was freed and the beast giuen him which followed him with a Line in the streets the people pointing and sayingt Hic est homo Medicus leonis Hic est leo hospes hominis One Elpis a Samian performed a cure on another Lion pulling a bone out of his throat at the Lions gaping and silent moane and in remembrance hereof built a Temple at his returne to Bacchus at Sango whom before hee had inuoked before in feare of a Lion Plinie and Solinus among other African beasts mention the Hyaena which some thinke to be Male one yeere and Female another by course This Aristotle denyes This beast hath no necke ioynt and therefore stirres not his necke but with bending about his whole body He will imitate humane voyce and drawing neere to the sheepe-coates hauing heard the name of some of the shepheards will call him and when hee comes deuoure him They tell that his eyes are diuersified with a thousand colours that the touch of his shaddow makes a dogge not able to barke By engendring with this beast the Lionesse brings forth a Crocuta of like qualities to the Hyaena Hee hath one continued tooth without diuision throughout his mouth Some thinke this Hyaena to bee the Lycanthropos or Man-wolfe some the Ciuet. Cat some a fable howsoeuer old and late Philosophers Physitians and Historians mention it Something perhaps told of it is fabulous But it is absurd to denie the eye-sight of so many witnesses He that will reade a pleasant storie of the taking them let him reade Buibequius his Epistles if an entire storie Banhinus his second booke De Hermaphroditis In Africa also are wilde Asses among which one Male hath many Females a iealous beast who for feare of after encroching bites off the stones of the young Males if the suspicious Female preuent him not by bringing forth in a close place where hee shall not finde it The like is told of Beuers which being hunted for the medicinable qualitie of their stones are said to bite them off when they are in danger to be taken paying that ransome for their liues It cannot be true that is reported of the Hyaeneum a stone found in the Hyaena's eye that being put vnder the tongue of a man bee shall foretell things to come except hee foretell this That no man will beleeue what our Authour before hath told The Libard is not hurtfull to men except they annoy him but killeth and eateth dogges Dabuh is the name of a simple and base creature like a Wolfe saue that his legges and feete are like to a mans so foolish that with a song and a taber they which know his haunt will bring him out of his den and captiue his eares with their musicke while another captiuateth his legs with a rope Scaliger thinkes this is the Hyaena which the Turkes call Zirtlan and take with a rope fastened to the legge he that goes in professing he is not there till they be there sure of him The Zebra of all Creatures for beautie and comelinesse is admirably pleasing resembling a Horse of exquisite composition but not all so swift all ouer-laid with partie-coloured Laces and gards from Head to Taile They liue in great Heards as I was told by my friend Andrew Battle who liued in the Kingdome of Congo many yeeres and for the space of some moneths liued on the flesh of this Beast which hee killed with his Peece For vpon some quarrell betwixt the Portugals among whom he was a Sergeant of a band and him he liued eight or nine moneths in the Woods where hee might haue view of hundreds together in Heards both of these and of Elephants So simple was the Zebra that when hee shot one he might shoot still they all standing still at gaze till three or foure of them were dead But more strange it seemed which he told me of a kinde of great Apes if they might so bee tearmed of the height of a man but twice as bigge in feature of their limbes with strength proportionable hairie all ouer otherwise altogether like Men and Women in their whole bodily shape except this that their legges had no calues They liued on such wilde fruits as the Trees and Woods yeelded and in the night time lodged on the Trees Hee was accompanied with two Negro-Boyes and they carried away one of them by a sudden surprise yet not hurting him as they vse not to doe any which they take except the Captiue doe then looke vpon them This slaue after a moneths life with them conueyed himselfe away againe to his Master Other Apes there are store and as Solinus reporteth Satyres with feete like Goates and Sphynges with brests like women and hairie whereof Pierius saith hee saw one at Verona and a kind of Conies also at the same time foure times as bigge as the ordinary and which is more incredible had each of them foure genitall members Philippo Pigafetta speaketh in his Relation of Congo of other Beasts in Africa as of the Tygre as fierce and cruell as Lions making prey of Man and Beast yet rather deuouring blacke men then white whose Mustachios are holden for mortall poyson and being giuen in meates cause men to die madde The Empalanga is somewhat like to an Oxe Their Sheepe and Goates neuer bring forth lesse then two and sometimes three or foure at a time They haue Wolues Foxes Deere Red and Fallow Roe-buckes Ciuet-cats Sables and Marterns The Riuer-horse seemes peculiar to Africa a beast somewhat resembling a Horse shorter-legged with great feet and a very great head with horrible teeth so fearefull by Land that a Child may affright them and in the Water as their proper element though their aliment be Grasse Corne in the blade and other like from the earth they are audacious and daring But of this and many other African Creatures too long heere to relate the Reader may informe himselfe more fully in my Voyages in Iobson Battell Santos Aluares Iohn Leo and others there published §. III. Of Crocadiles Serpents and other strange Creatures THey haue Snakes and Adders whereof some are called Imbumas fiue and twentie spannes long liuing in Land and Water not venemous but rauenous and lurke in Trees for which taking purpose Nature hath giuen it a litle horne or claw within two or three foot of the Taile waiting for their prey which hauing taken it deuoureth hornes hoofes and all although it bee a Hart. And then swolne with this so huge a meale it is as it were drunke and sleepie and vnweldie for the space of fiue or sixe dayes The Pagan Negroes roast and eate them as great dainties The biting of their Vipers killeth in foure and twentie houres space Africa for monsters in this kinde hath been famous as in the Roman historie appeareth Attilius Regulus the Romane Consul in the first Punicke
and in the dayes of Moses their Priests Wisemen and Southsayers confirming their deuotions with lying Miracles as the Scriptures testifie of Iannes and Iambres and Hermes Trismegistus of his Grandfather and himselfe The Grecians ascribe these deuotions to Osiris and Isis of whom the Historie and Mysterie is so confused that Typhon neuer hewed Osiris into so many pieces as these vaine Theologians and Mythologians haue done They are forsooth in the Egyptian throne King and Queene in the Heauens the Sunne and Moone beneath these the Elements after Herodotus they are Bacchus and Ceres Diodorus maketh Osiris the same with the Sunne Serapis Dionysius Pluto Ammon Iupiter Isis the Moone Ceres and Iuno Appollodorus makes her Ceres and Io. Antonius and Cleopatra stiled and figured themselues the one Osiris and the other Isis In Macrobius and Seruius she is the nature of things He Adonis and Atis Plutarch addeth to these Interpretations Oceanus and Sirius as to Isis Minerua Proserpina Thetis And if you haue not enough Apuleius will helpe you with Venus Diana Bellona Hecate Rhamnusia and Heliodorus neerer home maketh Osiris to be Nilus the Earth Isis So true it is that An Idoll is nothing in the world and Idolaters worship they know not what Stampellus interpreteth Osiris to be Abraham and Isis to bee Sazeb whom Moses calleth also Ischa Orus Apollo or Horapollo saith Isis is the Starre called of the Egyptians Sothis which is the Dog-starre therefore called Isis because at the first rising of that Starre they prognosticated what should happen the yeere following The like was in vse amongst the Cilicians who obserued the first rising of that starre from the top of Taurus and thence saith Manilius Euentus frugum varios tempora dicunt Quaque valitudo veniat concordia quanta c. Thence they foretell what store of fruits or want What times what health what concord they descant Tully in the first Booke of his Diuination reciteth the same out of Heraclides Ponticus of the Cei But the Egyptians had more cause to obserue that Starre because Nilus doth then begin to encrease And therefore from thence they began to reckon their Tekuphas or quarters of their yeere as the Iewes from Nisan But to search this Fountaine further you may read the Egyptian opinion in Diodorus how that the World being framed out of that Chaos or first matter the lighter things ascending the heauier descending the Earth yet imperfect was heated and hardened by the Sunne whose violent heat begate of her slimie softnesse certaine putride swellings couered with a thinne filme which being by the same heat ripened brought forth all manner of creatures This muddie generation was say they first in Egypt most fit in respect of the strong soyle temperate ayre Nilus ouerflowing and exposed to the Sunne to beget and nourish them and still retayning some such vertue at the new slaking of the Riuer the Sunne then more desirous as it were of this Egyptian Concubine whom the waters had so long detained from his sight ingendring in that lustfull fit many Creatures as Mice and others whose fore-parts are seene mouing before the hinder are formed These new-hatched people could not but ascribe Diuinitie to the Author of their Humanitie by the names of Osiris and Isis worshipping the Sunne and Moone accounting them to be gods and euerlasting adding in the same Catalogue vnder disguised names of Iupiter Vulcan Minerua Oceanus and Ceres the fiue Elements of the World Spirit Fire Ayre Water and Earth These Eternall Gods begot others whom not Nature but their owne proper Merit made immortall which reigned in Egypt and bare the names of those coelestiall Deities Their Legend of Osiris is that he hauing set Egypt in order leauing Isis his wife Gouernour appointing Mercurie her Counsellour the inuenter of Arithmeticke Musicke Physicke and of their superstition made an Expedition into farre Countries hauing Hercules for his Generall with Apollo his brother Anubis and Macedon his sonnes whose Ensignes were a Dog and a Wolfe creatures after for this cause honoured and their counterfeits worshipped Pan Maron and Triptolemus and the nine Muses attending with the Satyres Thus did hee inuade the world rather with Arts then Armes teaching men Husbandry in many parts of Asia and Europe and where Vines would not grow to make drinke of Barley At his returne his brother Typhon slew him rewarded with like death by the reuenging hand of Isis and her sonne Orus The dispersed pieces into which Typhon had cut him shee gathered and committed to the Priests with injunction to worship him with dedication vnto him of what beast they best liked which also should be obserued with much ceremonie both aliue and dead in memorie of Osiris In which respect also they obserued solemnely to make a lamentable search for Osiris with many teares making semblance of like ioy at his pretended finding whereof Lucan singeth Nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris alway seeking saith Lanctantius and alway finding To establish this Osirian Religion she consecrated a third part of the Land in Egypt for maintenance of these superstitious rites and persons the other two parts appropriated to the King and his Souldiers This Isis after her death was also deified in a higher degree of adoration then Osiris selfe One thing is lacking to our tale which was also lacking a long time to Isis in her search For when shee had with the helpe of waxe made vp of sixe and twentie parts which she found so many Images of Osiris all buried in seuerall places his priuities which Typhon had drowned in Nilus were not without much labor found and with more solemnitie interred And that the Deuill might shew how farre hee can besot men the Image hereof was made and worshipped the light of this darkenesse shining as farre as Greece whose Phallus Phallogogia Ithiphalli Phallophoria and Phallaphori issued out of this sincke together with their Membrous monster Priapus Yea the Egyptians hauing lost their owne eyes in this filthy superstition bestowed them on the Image of Osiris his stones which they pourtrayed with an eye Athenaeus telleth of Ptol. Philadelphus in a solemnitie wherein hee listed to shew to the world his madnesse or as it was then esteemed his magnificence a place worth the reading to them who are not heere glutted with out tedious Egyptian Banquet He among many sumptuous spectacles presented a Phallus of gold painted with golden crownes of an hundred and twentie cubits length hauing a golden starre on the toppe whose circumference was sixe cubites This was carried in a Chariot as in others the Image of Priapus and other Idols Of Typhon the Poets fable that after the Gods by the helpe of mortall men had slaine the Giants the Earth in indignation for rhe losse of that her Giantly brood lying with Tartarus brought forth Typhon which exceeded all the former for his height surmounted the Mountaines his head reached to the Starres one
of his hands to the West the other to the East from which proceeded an hundred heads to Dragons his legges were entwined with rolles of Vipers which reached to his head filling the world with terrible hissings his body couered with feathers his eyes flaming with fire a flame streaming also out of his mouth Thus was hee armed and fought against Heauen and made the Gods runne away into Egypt and turne themselues into many formes with many tales more which I surcease to rehearse Of the Isiacall rites that brazen Table supposed to haue beene some Altar-couer after possessed by Card. Bembus full of mysticall Characters explained by Laurentius Pignorius in a Treatise of this Argument may further acquaint the desirous Reader Diodorus thinketh this the cause why they consecrated Goats and erected Images of Satyres in their Temples ; affirming that their Priests are first initiated in these bawdie Rites §. II. The causes of Consecrating their Beasts and the mysticall sences of their Superstitions THeir canonized Beasts of which the Aegyptians and Syrians saith Tully conceiued stronger opinions of Deuotion then the Romans of their most sacred Temples were Dogges Cats Wolues Crocodiles Ichnumods Rammes Goates Bulls and Lions in honour of Isis their sacred Birds were the Hawke Ibis Phoenicopterus besides Dragons Aspes Beetles amongst things creeping and of Fishes whatsoeuer had scales and the Eele Yea their reason did not onely to sensible things ascribe Diuinitie but Garlike and Onions were free of their Temples devided therefore by Iaâ—end Porrum coepe nofas violare frangere morsu O sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina For this cause some thinke the Hebrewes were in such abhomination to the Aegyptians that they would not eate with them as eating and sacrificing those things which the other worshipped Example whereof Deodorus an eye-witnesse telleth That when Ptolemey gaue entertainment to the Romans whose friend hee was declared ; a Roman at vnawares hauing killed a Cat could not by the Kings authoritie sending Officers for his rescue nor for feare of the Romans bee detayined from their butcherly furie For such was their custome for the murther of those sacred Creatures to put to death by exquisite torments him that had done it wittingly and for the Bird Ibis and a Cat although vnwittingly slaine And therefore if any espie any of them lying dead hee standeth aloofe lamenting and protesting his owne innocencie The cause of this blinde zeale was the metamorphosis of their distressed Gods into these shapes Secondly their ancient Ensignes Thirdly the profit of them in common life Origen addeth a fourth because they were vsed to diuination and therefore saith hee forbidden to the Israelites as vncleane Eusebius out of the Poet citeth a fifth cause namely the Diuine Nature diffused into all Creatures after that of the Poet Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque tractusque maris coelumque profundum God goes thorow Sea and Land and loftie Skies I might adde a sixth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transanimation which Pythagoras it seemeth borrowed hence and from India Yea Aeneas Gazeus a Platonike in his Theophrastus or Dialogue of the Soules immortalitie affirmeth That Plato learned this opinion of the Egyptians and dispersed it through all his Bookes as did Plotinus and other his followers after him numbring amongst the rest Prophyrius and Iamblichus If I might with the Readers patience I would adde somewhat of their Mysterie of iniquitie and this mysticall sense of this iniquitie For as many haue sweat in vnfolding the mysteries of that Church which spiritually is called Sodome and Aegypt as Ambrosius de Amariolo Amalarius Durandus Durantus and others so heere haue not wanted mysticall Interpreters Porphirius Iambliochus Plutarch and the rest Such is the deepenesse of Sathan in the shallownesse of humane both reason and truth Water and Fire they vsed in all their Sacrifices and doe them deuoutest worship saith Porphiry because those Elements are so profitable to mans vse and for this vse sake they adored so many Creatures at Anubis they worshipped a Man But especially they held in veneration those creatures which seemed to hold some affinitie with the Sunne Euen that stinking Beetele or Scarabee did these more blinde then Beetles in their stinking superstitions obserue as a liuing Image of the Sunne because forsooth all Scarabees are of Male sexe and therefore also saith Aelian Souldiers wore the figure of the Scarabee in their Rings as thereby insinuating their masculine spirits and hauing shed their seed in the dung doe make a ball thereof which they rowle too and fro with their feete imitating the Sunne in his circular journey Iulius Firmicus inueigheth against them for their worship and supplications and superstitious vowes made to the Water and for that their fabulous Legend of Osiris Isis and Typhon vnfolding the Historie and Mysterie Eusebius followeth this Argument in the seuerall Beasts which they worship but to auoyd tediousnesse I leaue him to looke on Plutarchs paines in this Argument Hee maketh Isis to bee deriued of the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know as being the Goddesse of Wisedome and Knowledge to whom Typhon for his ignorance is an enemie For without Knowledge Immortalitie it selfe could not deserue the name of Life but of Time Their Priests shaued their owne haire and wore not woollen but linnen garments because of their professed puritie to which the haire of Man or Beast being but an excrement disagreed and for this cause they reiected Beeues Mutton and Porke as meates which cause much excrements Yea their Apis might not drinke of Nilus for this Riuers fatning qualitie but of a Fountaine peculiar to his holinesse At Heliopolis they might not bring wine into the Temple holding it vnseemely to drinke in the presence of their Lord They had many purifications wherein Wine was forbidden Their Kings which were also Priests had their sacred stints of wine and did not drinke it at all before Psammoticus time esteeming Wine to be the Bloud of them which sometime warred against the gods out of whose slaine carkasses Vines proceeded and hence proceedeth drunkennesse and madnesse by wine Their Priests abstaine from all fish they eate not Onions because they grow most in the wane of the Moone they procure also teares and thirst Their Kings were chosen either of the Priests or of the Souldiers and these also after their election were presently chosen into the Colledge of Priests Osiris signifieth many eyes in the Egyptian language Os is much and Eri an eye The Image of Minerua at Sai had this inscription I am all which is which hath beene which shall be whose shining light no mortall man hath opened Ammon they call Am the same as is before said with Ham or Cham the sonne of Noah in the vocatiue case as inuocating him whom they hold the chiefe God of the World to manifest himselfe They esteemed children
in all Asia There goe certayne Women vp and downe the Citie crying whose office is to Excise or Circumcise the women which is obserued in Aegypt and Syria both by the Mahumetans and Iacobite-Christians Neither haue the Turkes although in superstition by themselues acknowledged short of the Arabians and Aegyptians beene altogether idle in their Deuotion which they testifie by their Pilgrimages and Almes-workes Bellonius telleth of one Turke that caused water to bee brought daily on Camels backes for the ease of Trauellers in that desart space betweene Alexandria and Rosetto Egypt hath in it many Iewish Synagogues who speake the Spanish Italian Turkish Arabian and Greeke languages and are great Merchants Thus wee see the judgements of God by the Persians Grecians and Romanes for their Pristine Idolatrie and a greater Iudgement for their Heresie hatched by Arrius punished by a Saracenicall Apostasie Amongst the differing Sects of the Mahumetans of which wee haue spoken in the third booke Africa and especially Egypt and herein Cayro most of all is pestered with them which may bee called the Naked or the Wicked Sect roguing vp and downe naked and practising their fleshly villanie in the open fight of the people who yet hold them for Saints The just hand of Diuine Iustice that when men forsake God not Religion and Truth alone but Reason but Sense shall also forsake them Before wee leaue those Soldans of Cayro or rather because you haue stayed so long heere let vs bestow some spectacle on you worthy the sight as a refreshing to your wearied eyes They are the same which the Soldan in ostentation of his magnificence made to the Turkish Embassadour Anno 1507. from Baumgartens relations which was an eye-witnesse thereof There were assembled threescore thousand Mamalukes all in like habite the Soldan himselfe all in white with a mitred Diadem and not farre from him their Pope or Calipha in a lower seate and beneath him the Turkish Embassadour The place was a spacious Plaine in which were three heapes of sand fiftie paces distant and in each a Speare erected with a marke to shoote at and the like ouer against them with space betweene for sixe Horses to runne a brest Heere did the younger Mamalukes gallantly adorned vpon their Horses running a full career yeeld strange experiments of their skill not one missing the marke first with casting Darts and after with their Arrowes as they ranne and lastly trying their slaues Others after this in the like race of their running Horses shot with like dexteritie diuers Arrowes backwards and forwards Others in the middest of their race alighted three times and their Horses still running mounted againe and hitte the marke neuerthelesse Others did hitte the same standing on their Horses thus swiftly running Others three times vnbent their Bowes and thrice againe bent them whiles their Horses ranne and missed not the marke neither did others which amidst their race lighted downe on either side and againe mounted themselues no nor they which in their swiftest course leaped and turned themselues backwards on their Horses and then their Horses still running turned themselues forwards There were which whiles their Horse ranne vngirt their Saddles thrice at each time shooting and then againe girding their saddles and neuer missing the marke Some sitting in their saddles leaped backwards out of them and turning ouer their heads setled themselues againe in their saddles and shot the former three times Others layd themselues backwards on their running Horses and taking their tayles put them into their mouthes and yet forgot not their ayme in shooting Some after euery shot drew out their Swords and flourished them about their heads and againe sheathed them Others sitting betwixt three swords on the right side and as many on the left thinly cloathed that without great care euery motion would make way for death yet before and behinde them touched the marke One stood vpon two Horses running very swiftly his feete loose and shot also at once three Arrowes before and againe three behinde him Another sitting on a Horse neither brydled nor saddled as hee came at euery marke arose and stood vpon his feete and on both hands hitting the marke sate downe againe three times A third sitting on the bare Horse when hee came to the marke lay vpon his backe and lifted vp his legges and yet missed not his shoote After all this they ranne with like swiftnesse for all these things which where is the Vaulter that can doe on his imaginary Horse standing still these did running and with their slaues carried away those markes as tryumphing ouer their innocent enemy One of them was killed with a fall and two fore wounded in these their feats of Actiuitie They had an Olde graue man which was their teacher If I haue long detayned thee in this spectacle remember that the race of Mamalukes should not bee forgotten the rather because their name is now rased out of the world and this may seeme an Epitaph on their Sepulchre after whom none perhaps are left able to doe the like nor in all Franciscus Modius his Triumphall Pandects to be parelelled As for the Christians in Aegypt yee may reade in the Histories of the Holy-land-warres what attempts were often made by the Westerne Christians against these vnbeleeuers Concerning the present state of Christianitie there Leo Boterus and Master Pory in his Additions to his Englished Leo may acquaint you and better then others Master George Sandys Besides the forreine Christians which resort to these parts for traffique there are thought to bee fiftie thousand Natiue of the Countrey which haue Churches and Monasteries whereof there are three Christian Churches at Alexandria They are called Cofti and Christians from the Girdle because of their Circumcision which together with Baptisme they admit In their Liturgie they vse the Chaldaean language But they reade the Gospell againe in the Arabian They are accounted of Eutiches Heresie Their Patriarchall Sea is Alexandria which from Saint Marke to this day hath had a continued succession as appeareth by the late Letters of Gabriel to the Pope calling himselfe the fourescore and seuenteenth of the Patriarchs from Saint Marke Thus writeth Baronius with a great many swelling words which may puffe vp his Romane Sea But how credulous is Superstition and that neuer-erring Sea hath how often beene gulled this way or sought to gull and coozen others with such Iesuiticall fictions of I know not what conuersions and submissions as Baronius would make you beleeue of this Gabriel Thus had Mahomet his Gabriel and thus our age hath another Gabriel obtruded vpon the vulgar simplicitie farre fetched belike is good for theyr Lady-mother But Alexandria hath knowne no Gabriel in these times Patriarch there George Dousa held good acquaintance with Meletius and his Predecessour was Siluester so that this Romish Gabriel which ascribeth so much to that Sea was a Romane Gabriel indeed which Alexandria neuer knew Neither did Meletius the
friends and the broath eaten and then they hang it by the Fetisso They make solemne oathes and promises on this manner they wipe their faces shoulder brests and all their bodies on the soles of your feet thrice saying Iau Iau Iau stamping kissing the Fetissos on their armes and legs The land is all the Kings and therefore they first till his land and then by composition for themselues They begin on a Tuesday and when the Kings worke is done haue a feast in honour of their Fetisso to prosper their Husbandrie §. V. Obseruations of the Coast and In-land Countries out of BARRERIV'S and LEO and of the cause of the Negros Blacknesse ANno 1604. certaine Iesuites were sent into these parts the chiefe of which was Balthasar Barrerius who conuerted some of those Negro's to the Romish Christian profession One of which was the King at Sierra Liona Christened with the name Philip his Father a man of an hundred and thirtie yeeres about the faine time finishing his life A Letter of this Philip vnto King Philip of Spaine is published by Iarrie in which hee desireth more Priests to bee sent into those parts offers him to build a Castle at the Cape and concludeth with wishing him as many yeeres as the Heauen hath Starres and the Sea Sands The King of Bena gaue great hopes of his Conuersion which were suddenly dashed by meanes of a certaine Mahumetan for so farre hath that Pestilence infected who making a flattering Oration of two houres long inclined the King to his faithlesse Faith This Kings Dominion extendeth nine dayes journey and containeth seuen of their pettie Kingdomes Wee haue before spoken of the Mandingae neere to Gambea These haue of late yeeres embraced Mahomet and by Armes and Merchandize the vsuall meanes sought to propagate it to others beeing excellent Horse-men and couragious vsually placed in the fore-front Their Priests are called Bexerini which write Arabicke Amulets to secure such as weare them in battell These Preach to the people and drawinge forth parchment rolls spread them with great deuotion on the Pulpit and standing a while with eyes fixed to Heauen as it were in Diuine conference presently will them to thanke GOD and his Prophet for the pardon of all their sinnes then reades hee his Scrolls the people tending two houres together without once stirring their bodies or turning away their eyes One of them is chiefe ouer the rest who hath taught the King of Bena a certaine Inchantment or Witchcraft to make the Deuill the instrument of his Reuenge vpon any offender which makes him dreadfull to all Two of the Portugals confessing the experiment thereof vpon themselues The like appeared in a huge Serpent which they call the King of Serpents of most beautifull dolours as bigge as a mans thigh which the King played withall without any harme The Iesuite speakes of one Man which had threescore and twelue Sonnes and fiftie Daughters which multiplied beyond credit All the kindred mourne at the death of the great Men assemble to the corpse and offer of which offerings one third is the Kings the second the nearest kinsmans which is charged with the Funerall the third is put into the Graue together withall that Gold which they haue treasured for this purpose through their whole life hiding it closely from the knowledge of all so that if they die suddenly their Gold is perished with them Yea their Sepulchres the Iesuites report are kept secret and made in the channels of Riuers diuerting the streame till it bee made to preserue these treasures to the vse of the dead At the yeeres end they renue the memorie of the deceased with mourning and festiuall solemnitie the more drunkennesse the greater honour They haue Idols of wood and straw and their Chinas before mentioned made of Poles in forme of a Pyramis within which are many white Pismires that come not forth and it is vncertaine what they eate Before these they will adiure their Seruants to fidelitie wishing that Serpents Lizards or Tygres may teare them if they runne away which they feare with religious awe and dare not flee vpon any hard vsage Euery Kingdome hath a place sacred to the Deuill such an one was the Iland Camasson a league from the shore where all that sayled by offered Rice Oyle or some other thing The King once a yeere sacrificed Goates and Hens which were there kept there being no feare of stealing them where none durst aduenture to set foot on land And now leauing the Coasts of Guinea Benin Melegete and the other Regions of the Negros adjoyning to the Sea we will looke backe againe into the In-land Countries wherof Gualata is an hundred miles distant from the Ocean and hath already beene mentioned The next thereunto in Leos Relations is Gheneoa which is not the same with Guinea before mentioned if Leo had true intelligence but is situate betwixt Gualata Tombuto and Melli and in one place bordereth on the Ocean where Niger falleth into the Sea They had great Traffique with the Merchants of Barbarie They haue Gold vncoyned and vse also Iron money There is neither Towne nor Castle but one where the Prince with Priests Doctors and Merchants reside Those Priests and Doctors goe apparelled in white the rest in blacke or blue Cotton In Iuly August and September Niger ouer-floweth it Izchia the King of Tombuto conquered it and kept the King prisone rat Gago till his death Melli is the head Citie of a Kingdome which hence taketh name and hath in it great store of Temples Priests and Readers or Professours which reade in the Temples because they haue no Colledges They are more ingenious then other Negros and were the first that embraced the Mahumetan Law Izchia also subdued them Tombuto was founded in the yeere of the Hegeira 610. And it is situate within twelue miles of a branch of Niger There are many Wells to receiue the ouerflowing waters of that Riuer Salt is brought them fiue hundred miles from Tagazza and is very deare I at my being there saith Leo saw a Camels burthen sold for fourescore Duckats The King had many Plates and Scepters of Gold some whereof weighed thirteene hundred pounds They which speake to him cast Sand ouer their heads as Cadamosto obserued at Budomel The King would admit no Iewes into his Citie and hateth them so extreamely that hee would confiscate the goods of such Merchants as held Traffique with them Hee greatly honoured men of Learning and no Merchandize yeelded more gaine then Bookes There were many Iudges Doctors and Priests to whom hee allowed their stipends The people vsed much Dauncing in the streets from tenne to one of clocke at night They mingle Fish Milke Butter and Flesh together in their Gallimaufrey kinde of dyet neither toothsome nor holsome Hamet King of Marocco conquered the same Kingdome 1589. and also Gago and other Countries of the Negros extending his Empire sixe moneths journey from Marocco by
about and that many thousand Mules besides Camels and innumerable Porters attended on the baggage at euery remoue But if these things were euer true the case is much altered in this last Age and euery day growes worse and worse those things which yee haue heard out of the Frier being false Neyther was there euer any such Emperour as Alexander the third by him so often mentioned but what with the Turkes on the North side the Moores on the East the Gallae from other parts and intestine Rebellions each challenging his right not by Election or Inheritance so much as by the Sword all things are brought almost to nothing and the Aethiopian greatnesse is now in a great Eclipse And for that Balthasar which the Frier pretends his Authour Godignus sayth that he being examined hereof affirmed them to be the Friers Inuentions somethings he confessed he had published not true but such as hee thought could doe no man harme Whatsoeuer therefore in this Booke is borrowed from that Spaniard I doe neither in all things disclaime nor can exact credit thereto this being the lyers reward that euen in true reports he is doubted More full Relations of the present State of this Empire I referre to our next Aethiopian Visitation The Gallae before mentioned are a Nationlesse Nation eyther the same or like in conditions to the Giacchi or Iagges of which we shall anon speake which as in Congo and other parts so heere also brought confusion and desolation where they came As for those Patriarches Barretus and Ouiedus Godignus hath bestowed on each of them a Booke in Relation of their Liues and inserted Epistles of their owne to prooue the Frier a Lier Barrettus desiring to be rid of that Title which he could not make reall and Ouiedo hauing a Briefe or Bull from Pius Quintus to free him and send him to Iapan which hee yet refused vpon hopes of better successe eyther amongst the Christians or Ethnickes in those parts many of which in Damut and Sinaxis had desired Baptisme and by the wicked Emperour were reiected He propoundeth also an Ouerture to send fiue hundred Portugall Souldiers into those parts by which strength they might succour themselues and their followers an argument of their weaknesse which could with so small a handfull be awed This may be added that these Aethiopians haue their blacke colour in such estimation that they paint Christ the Angels and Saints blacke the Deuill Iudas Caiphas Pilate and wicked persons they paint white They take Salt out of Minerals in pieces of halfe a foote which serues there instead of money ten or fifteene of those pieces being the price of a slaue the cause that when Paez the Iesuit first entred these parts his Gold could doe him little seruice and when a Saracen in his company had dressed him a Hen yet durst not he taste of it for offending the scrupulous Abassines who will eate nothing which a Turke hath killed Hee writes that their houses are base and little round of earth couered with thatch contayning but one roome except the Palaces of great Men. In that yeere 1603. the Grasse-hoppers did great harme which ate vp all that was greene where they came a greater misery of Ciuill Warre accompanying the Emperour being deposed and imprisoned and another legitimate for the former was a Bastard brought out of Prison to the Throne This new King Malac Ceged wrote kind Letters to Paez to bring him the Lawes of Portugal and Ouiedos Bookes praysing God that after seuen yeeres imprisonment The stone which the builders refused was become the head of the corner He was presently assaulted and much distressed by the Gallae whom at that time hee ouercame Not so other Traytors the chiefe of which was Zezelazeus who slue the Emperour Sauenquil and erected one Iacobus whom after hee relinquished and tooke part with Sazinosius which ouerthrew Iacobus and after that imprisoned Zezelazeus who escaped the Prison but not a Traytors reward being slaine by Husbandmen whose Oxen hee would haue taken away This Sazinosius still infested with Treasons for euen an Heremite or Anachoret which had liued a solitary life twenty yeeres together conspired against him aspired to Souereignty besides many many Others and the Gallae and the effect of both Robbers and Theeues through the Countrie deuised of an vnion with the Romish Church and writ Letters to the Pope dated Octob. 14. and to the King of Spaine for supplies of Souldiers Decemb. 10. 1607. the Copies of which Iarric hath inserted in his fift Booke So farre from truth is that Frier which in these times proclaymes such felicity in Aethiopia vnder I know not what Alexander the birth of his crowing braine §. IIII. Of the Sabaeans and their Queene which visited SALOMON LEt vs conclude with Saba and the Queene thereof touching which as elsewhere we haue shewed we rather beleeue that this Queene the supposed founder was of the Sabaeans in Arabia whose neighbours the Abasenes were and both as it is very probable her subiects These after many ages it is the coniecture of great Clerkes passed into these parts of Africa and seated themselues here by conquest retayning their old language in their Lyturgie to this day This Lyturgie or Canon of their Masse which with other their Formes and Rites of Baptisme Confirmation Purification c. is extant in Bibliotheca Patrum doth call their Church the Church of Sceua or Sheba and Stephanus placeth the Sabaeans and Abasenes together as before in this first Chapter of this Booke is shewed Tradition might well continue the memorie of this Queene amongst them and Superstition might easily adde where Diuine and Humane learning wanted aboundance of errours which is not the Ethiopian case alone but almost all Ecclesiasticall Histories written of things done long before and deliuered onely by Tradition rolled like a Snow-ball by superstition of succeeding times haue yeelded such Legendarie lumps that neede much licking before any forme of Truth can appeare As therefore I reiect not the Ethiopian Historie wholly nor deeme it a meere changeling in this challenge of the Sabaean inheritance so yet I hold it needes iudicious examination and censure the most whereof hath beene obtruded on that simple credulous Nation in later times as our Monkes dealt in these parts many ages Ptolomey calls the chiefe of Ethiopia Auxume which Stephanus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arianus Axomite Procopius Auzomide all of them giue it the Metropolitan honour it is supposed to be the same which now is called Chaxumo whereof Barbosa Corsali and Aluares haue written in witnesse whereof are many ancient buildings there yet remayning and pillars somewhat resembling the Egyptian Obeliskes admirable for their height and workmanship some aboue threescore yards high full of Letters These Letters of which are many there seene in many ruines not one of all the Abassens can vnderstand which argueth a greater antiquitie then the
Haruest and inuading some Country there stay as long as they find the Palmes or other sufficient meanes of mayntenance and then seeke new aduenture For they neyther plane or sowe nor breed vp Cattle and which is more strange they nourish vp none of their owne children although they haue ten or twenty wiues a man of the properest and comeliest slaues they can take But when they they are in trauell they digge a hole in the Earth which presently receiueth in that darke prison of death the new borne Creature not yet made happy with the light of life Their reason is that they will not bee troubled with education nor in their flitting wanderings be troubled with such cumbersome burthens Once a secret Prouidence both punisheth the Fathers wickednesse and preuenteth a viperous Generation if that may bee a preuention where there is a succession without Generation and as Plinie saith of the Esseni Gene aeterna est in qua nemo nascitur For of the conquered Nations they preserue the Boyes from ten to twenty yeeres of age and bring them vp as the hope of their succession like Negro Azimogli with education fitting their designes These weare a Collar about their necke in token of slauery vntill they bring an Enemies head slaine in battaile and then they are vncollared freed and dignified with the title of Souldiers If one of them runnes away he is killed and eaten So that hemmed in betwixt hope and feare they grow very resolute and aduentrous their Collars breeding shame disdaine and desperate fury till they redeeme their freedome as you haue heard Elembe the great Iagge brought with him twelue thousand of these cruell Monsters from Sierra Liona and after much mischiefe and spoyle settled himselfe in Benguele twelue degrees from the Line Southwards and there breedeth and groweth into a Nation But Kelandula somtime his Page proceeds in that beastly life before mentioned and the people of Elembe by great troupes runne to him and follow his Campe in hope of spoyle They haue no Fetisso's or Idols The great Iagge or Prince is Master of all their Ceremonies and is a great Witch I haue seene this Kelandula sayth our Author continue a Sacrifice from Sun to Sun the rites whereof are these Himselfe sat on a stoole in great pompe with a Cap adorned with Peacockes feathers which fowles in one Countrey called Shelambanza are found wild and in one place empaled about the graue of the King are fifty kept and fed by an old woman and are called Iugilla Mokisso that is Birds of Mokisso Now about him thus set attended forty or fifty women each of them weauing continually a Zebras tayle in their hands There were also certaine Gangas Priests or Witches Behind them were many with Drummes and Pipes and Pungas certaine Instruments made of Elephants teeth made hollow a yard and halfe and with a hole like a Flute which yeeld a lowd and harsh sound that may bee heard a myle off These strike and sound and sing and the women weaue as is said till the Sunne be almost downe Then they bring forth a pot which is set on the fire with leaues and roots and the water therein and with a kind of white powder the Witches or Gangas spot themselues one on the one cheeke the other on the other and likewise their foreheads temples brests shoulders and bellies vsing many inchanting tearmes which are holden to be Prayers for Victory At Sun-set a Ganga brings his Kissengula or War-hatchet to the Prince this weapon they vse to weare at their girdles and putting the same in his hand bids him be strong their God goes with him and he shall haue victory After this they bring him foure or fiue Negros of which with a terrible countenance the great Iagge with his Hatchet kils two and other two are killed without the Fort. Likewise fiue Kine are slaine within and other fiue without the Fort and as many Goats and as many Dogs after the same manner This is their Sacrifice at the end whereof all the flesh is in a Feast consumed Andrew Battle was commanded to depart when the slaughter began for their Deuill or Mokisso as they said would then appeare and speake to them This Sacrifice is called Kissembula which they solemnize when they attempt any great enterprize There were few left of the naturall Iagges but of this vnnaturall brood the present succession was raysed §. IIII. Of the Lakes and Riuers in these parts of Africa NOw that we haue thus discoursed of these former Nations let vs take view of the more in-land and Easterly borders which abut on Congo where wee shall finde the great Lake Aquilunda which with her many Riuers aforesaid watereth all that great Countrey assisted therein by a farre greater Lake called Zembre great Mother and chiefe Ladie of the Waters in Africa As for the Mountaynes of the Moone now called Toroa there is a Lake called Gale of no great quantity whence issueth a Riuer named Comissa and by the Portugals the sweet Riuer disembarquing at the False Cape an arme whereof had before entred the Sea in 32. degrees 40. minutes of Infante one of Dias his companions in the first Discouery of those parts called Infanto because hee there went first on Land But from those Hils of the Moone the Lake whence Nilus springeth hath no helpe Neyther are there two Lakes East and West distant from each other about foure hundred and fifty miles as Ptolemey describeth for then the one should be in the Confines of Congo and Angola the other about Sofala and Monomotapa where is found but one Lake for Aquilunde is no tributary to Nilus This Lake is betweene Angola and Monomotapa and contayneth in Diameter 195. miles There is indeed another Lake which Nilus maketh in his course but standeth Northward from the first Lake Zembre and not in East or West parallel Neyther doth Nilus as some affirme hide it selfe vnder the ground and after rise againe but runneth through monstrous and Desart Valleyes without any setled channell and where no pleople inhabited from whence that fabulous opinion did grow This Lake is situate in twelue degrees of Southerly Latitude and is compassed about like a Vault with exceeding high Mountaynes the greatest whereof are called Cafates vpon the East and the Hils of Sal-Nitrum and the Hils of Siluer on another side and on the other side with diuers other Mountaynes The Riuer Nilus runneth Northwards many hundred miles and then entreth into another great Lake which the Inhabitants doe call a Sea It is much bigger then the first and contayneth in breadth two hundred and twenty miles right vnder the Equinoctiall Line Of this second Lake the Anzichi giue certaine and perfect intelligence for they traffique into those parts And they report That in this second Lake there is a people that sayleth in great ships and can write and vseth number weight and measure which they haue not in the parts of
They which worke in the Mynes see no Sunne nor light by absence whereof they find both extreame cold and dreadfull darknesse and an Ayre so vnholesome as makes them no lesse sicke then men tossed at Sea They breake the Metall with Hammers and split it by force and then carry it vp on their shoulders by Ladders made of Neats Leather twisted like pieces of wood which are crossed with staues of wood at the end of one Ladder begins another with seats of wood betweene to rest them They mount three and three Hee that goes before carries a Candle tyed to his Thumbe they haue their metall tyed in a cloth like a Scrip each man bearing about fiftie fifty pound weight and that commonly aboue an hundred and fifty Stades in height The most vsuall manner of refining in these times is by Quick-siluer and therefore there are not now aboue two thousand Guayras in Potozi which haue beene in times past six thousand a pleasant sight to such whose darkned conceits make their Heauen vppon Earth to see such a resemblance of the Starry Heauen in the night dispersing such a manifold light The Siluer swimmes on the top the other Metals vnder and the drosse in the bottome The Quick-siluer is admired for his naturall properties that being a metall it is liquid not by Art as other metals or by expence in which respect the other may no lesse be called Quick-siluer but by it owne nature and being a liquor is more heauie then those which haue a naturall subsistence this subsisting and sinking to the bottome when the other swim aboue it God onely challengeth preheminence if Pliny be beleeued Nothing in this admirable liquor is more to bee admired then the naturall loue and sympathy which it hath to Gold as appeareth in such as for the French Disease vse Oyntments of this composition if they weare a Gold-ring in their mouth it attracteth this quicke and willing metall to it from the veines and inward parts into which it hath secretly and dangerously conueyed it selfe the Ring plucked out of the mouth is of a Siluer complexion which mutuall copulation nothing but fire can diuorce or restore the same to the former colour In their gildings of curious workes it hath bin obserued that the workmen which vse Quick-siluer to that purpose to preuent the secret and venemous exhalations thereof haue swallowed a double Ducat of Gold rolled vp which drawes that fume of this liquor which enters in at the eares Eyes nose and mouth vnto it in the stomacke And for this fume Lemnius telleth that the Gold-smiths hanging a cloth ouer the place where they gild which receiueth the fume of the Quick-siluer find that smoke in the cloth recouering againe his former nature in drops of that liquid metall Venenum rerum omnium est sayth Pliny it is a venome to all things and yet a greater venome is in the mouth of man I meane not that poyson of Aspes vnder the lips of many as the Prophet speaketh in a spirituall sense but euen in naturall operation the Spettle of man enuenometh with a stronger poyson this poyson of Quick-siluer and eyther killeth it or at least depriueth it of the motion and quicknesse and maketh it pliant to Medicines and Oyntments Yea some report that this Spettle of man arising of secret vapors out of the body as infectious exhalations out of vnwholsome Lakes especially when a man is fasting killeth Scorpions and other venemous beasts or at least doth much hurt them Quick-siluer disdayneth other metals only it is thus rauished with Gold and not a little affected to Siluer for the refining of which it is principally in vse it corrupteth forceth consumeth and flyeth the rest as much as may bee and therefore they vse to keepe it in earthen Vessels Bladders Skins Quils and such vnctuous receptacles It hath pierced and eaten thorow the bodies of men and hath beene found in their graues Quick-siluer is found in a kind of stone which doth likewise yeeld Vermillion At Amador de Cabrera is such a stone or Rocke fourescore yards long forty broad interlaced with Quick-siluer with many pits in it threescore Stades deepe and is able to receiue three hundred workmen it is valued worth a Million of Gold From the Mynes of Guancauilca they draw yeerly eight thousand Quintals of Quick-siluer As for the manner of refining Siluer by Quick-siluer their Engines and Mils with the tryall of their metall I referre the Reader to Acosta Atabaliba maruelled why the Europaeans hauing such Chrystaline and pure Glasses would expose themselues to those dangers by Sea and Land for those metals which he thought not comparable to the same Well indeed might hee haue wondred if that Arte had remayned which I know not how truly Pliny Petronius Isidorus and others report to haue beene in Tiberius his time to whom one presented a faire Glasse which being cast on the ground was bowed but not broken being taken vp by the same Artificer was with his hammer brought to the former forme and beauty His reward besides the wonder and astonishment of the beholders was that which precious things often procure their owners For the Emperour asking whether any other knew this Mystery this being denied he caused his head the only work house of this secret to be smote off lest Gold and Siluer should giue place to Arte The Emeralds grow in stones like Chrystall and there are many of them in the Indies But of these and other Gemmes it would be too tedious to write Pedro Ordonnes a Spanish Priest hath written of the profits which the Spaniards reape of Peru and the Indies He sayth that the Kings Reuenue thence accrueth to twelue Millions which ariseth out of ten Springs his fifths of the Gold and Siluer Mynes great Meltings Customes of Ports Indian Tributes Sale of Offices the Cruzada Tribute of Rents Quick-siluer Fines of Courts and the ninth part of Ecclesiasticall Rents Of these Rents and other things worthy knowledge See himselfe in the seuenth Booke of the last part of our Pilgrimes Let vs now come to the Men Beasts Fowles and Plants of this New World whereof wee will here promise a generall taste and hereafter giue in the due places some other particular Relations CHAP. II. Of the first Knowledge Habitation and Discoueries of the New World and the rare Creatures therein found Beasts Birds Trees Hearbes and Seeds §. I. Whether the Ancients had any knowledge of America and whence the Inhabitants first came AFter these generall Discourses of the Americans some other of like nature I hold not vnmeete to be handled before wee come to the particular Regions and first of the Men whether the Ancients had any knowledge of them how Men first came into these parts and of the first Discoueries in the former Age Concerning the first knowledge of these parts it may iustly bee a question whether the Ancients euer heard thereof
by the Queenes commandement in her Wardrobe of Robes and is still at Windsore to bee seene They went on shore and had some encounter with the Inhabitants which were of so fierce and terrible resolution that finding themselues wounded they leapt off the Rockes into the Sea rather then they would fall into the hands of the English The rest fled One woman with her child they tooke and brought away They had taken another of the Sauages before This Sauage in the ship seeing the Picture of his Countriman taken the yeere before thought him to be aliue and beganne to be offended that he would not answere him with wonder thinking that our men could make men liue and dye at their pleasure But strange were the gestures and behauiour of this man and the woman when they were brought together which were put into the same Cabbin and yet gaue such apparant signes of shamefastnesse and chastity as might bee a shame to Christians to come so farre short of them Where they could haue any Trade with the Sauages their manner of Traffique was to lay downe somewhat of theirs and goe their way expecting that our men should lay downe somewhat in lieu thereof and if they like of their Mart they come againe and take it otherwise they take away their owne and depart They made signes that their Catchoe or King was a man of higher stature then any of ours and that he was carried vpon mens shoulders They could not learne what became of the fiue men they lost the yeere before onely they found some of their apparell which made them thinke they were eaten They laded themselues with Ore and so returned And with fifteene Sayle the next yeere 1578. a third Voyage for Discouery was made by the said Captayne and Generall Hee went on shore the twentieth of Iune on Frisland which was named by them West England where they espyed certayne Tents and People like those of Meta Incognita The people fled and they found in their Tents a boxe of small nayles Red Herrings and Boords of Firre-tree well cut with other things artificially wrought whereby it appeareth that they are workmen themselues or haue trade with others Some of them were of opinion This was firme land with Meta Incognita or with Gronland whereunto the multitude of Ilands of Ice betweene that and Meta Incognita induced them In departing from hence the Salamander one of their Ships being vnder both her Courses and Bonets happened to strike on a great Whale with her full stemme with such a blow that the Ship stoode still and neither stirred forward nor backeward The Whale thereat made a great and hideous noyse and casting vp his body and tayle presently sanke vnder water Within two dayes they found a Whale dead which they supposed was this which the Salamander had stricken The second of Iuly they entred in with the Straits the entrance whereof was barred with Mountaines of Ice wherewith the Barke Dennis was sunke to the hinderance of their proiects For in it was drowned part of a house which they had intended to erect there for habitation The men were saued The other Ships were in very great danger the Seas mustering Armies of ycie souldiers to oppresse them vsing other naturall stratagems of Fogges and Snowes to further these cruell designes These ycie Ilands seeme to haue bin congealed in the winter further North in some Bayes or Riuers and with the Summers Sunne being loosed and broken out of their naturall prisons offer themselues to all outrages whereto the swift Currents and cold Windes will conduct them Strange it is to see their greatnesse some not lesse then halfe a mile about and fourescore fathomes aboue water besides the vnknowne depth beneath the vsuall rule being that onely the seuenth part is extant aboue the waues strange the multitude strange the deformed shapes if this be not more strange that they sometimes saue with killing and suffer men to moore their Anchors on them and to get vpon them to worke against them for the safegard of their Ships That bloody enemies should entertaine them with disports to walke leape shout fortie miles from any Land without any Vessell vnder them according to M. Bests Riddle and a hundred and ten miles from Land should present them with-running streames of fresh Waters able to driue a Mill. The Flood was there nine houres the Ebbe but three A strong Current ranne Westwards The people resemble much the Tartars or rather the Samoeds in apparell and manner of liuing It is colder here in 62. then 9. or 10. degrees more Northerly toward the Northeast which it seemeth comes to passe by the Windes East and Northeast which from the yce bring so intolerable a cold The people are excellent Archers a thing generall throughout America Besides Seales-skins they vse the skinnes of Deere Beares Foxes and Hares for apparell and the cases also of Fowles sowed together They weare in Summer the hairy side outward in Winter inward or else goe naked They shoote at the fish with their darts They kindle fire with rubbing one sticke against another They vse great blacke Dogs like Woolues to draw their Sleds and a lesse kinde to eate They haue very thin beards In the best of Summer they haue Haile and Snow sometimes a foote deepe which freezeth as it falles and the ground frozen three fathome deepe They haue great store of Fowle whereof our men killed in one day fifteen hundred They haue thicker skins and are thicker of Downe and Feathers then with vs and therefore must be flayed The Sunne was not absent aboue three houres and a halfe all which space it was very light so that they might see to write and reade Hence is it that those parts neere the Pole are habitable the continuance of the Sunnes presence in their Summer heating and warming with liuely cherishment all Creatures and in the Winter by his oblique motion leauing so long a twilight and the increased light of the Moone the Sunnes great and diligent Lieutenant the brightnesse of the Starres and whitenesse of the Snow not suffering them to be quite forlorne in darkenesse The Beasts Fowles and Fishes which these men kill are their houses bedding meat drinke hose thread shooes apparell and sayles and boates and almost all their riches Besides their eating all things raw they will eate grasse and shrubs like our kine and morsels of Ice to satisfy thirst They haue no hurtfull creeping things but Spiders and a kinde of Gnat is there very troublesome Timber they haue none growing but as the vndermining water doth supplant bring them from other places They are great Inchanters When their heads ake they tye a great stone with a string into a sticke and with certaine words effect that the stone with all a mans force wil not be lifted vp and sometimes seemes as light as a feather hoping thereby to haue help They made signes lying groueling with their faces vpon the ground
of fourteene foot or more in lesse and lesse proportions hee hath no teeth his meat hee sucketh his tongue is monstrous great of deformed forme like a Wool-sacke about eight Tunne weight and one part thereof vsed to this purpose yeeldeth from sixe to eleuen Hogs-heads of Oyle His food that Nature might teach the Greatest to be content with little , and that Greatnesse may be maintained without Rapine as in the Elephant and Whale the Greatest of Land-Creatures and Sea-monsters is grasse and weeds of the Sea and a kinde of water-worme like a Beetle whereof the Fins in his mouth hang full and sometimes little birds all which striking the water with his Tayle and making an Eddie hee gapes and receiueth into his mouth neither is any thing else Master Sherwin hath seene them opened and opened this vnto me found in their bellies This Great head hath little eyes like Apples very little bigger then the Eyes of an Oxe and a little throat not greater thâ—n for a mans fift to enter and that with huge bones on each side not admitting it to stretch wider His body is round fourteene or sixteene foot thicke his Pisle hangs from him as a Beasts in Generation they draw to shallow waters neere the shore and in the Act ioyne belly to belly as is also said of the Elephant In their engendering season much of that matter floteth on the water They are Swallow-tailed the extremes being twenty foot distant They haue but one yong at a time which is brought forth as in beasts Master Sherwin hath seene them in the belly being ripped about the bignesse but longer of a Hogs-head The Female hath two brests and teats with white milke in them not bigger then a mans head wherewith she suckleth the yong whereof she as the Mors also is very tender They killed one and could not get the yong one from it There hath been made seuen and twenty Tunne and a pipe of Oyle out of one Whale ordinarily sixteene Tunnes but much is wasted for haste in that store The English are growne as expert in this businesse as the Biscainer They neuer lost man in this action but one onely this last yeere §. VI. Of HVDSONS discoueries and death HEnry Hudson 1607. discouered further North toward the Pole then perhaps any before him He found himselfe in 80. deg. 23. minutes where they felt it hot and dranke water to coole their thirst They saw land as they thought to 82. and further on the shore they had Snow Morses teeth Deeres hornes Whale-bones and footing of other Beasts with a streame of fresh-water The next yeere 1608. he set forth on a Discouery to the North-east at which time they met as both himselfe and Iuet haue testified a Mermaid in the Sea seene by Thomas Hils and Robert Rainer Another voyage he made 1609. and coasted New-found-land and thence along to Cape Cod. His last and fatall voyage was 1610. which I mentioned in my former edition relating the same as Hesselius Gerardus had guided me by his card and reports who affirmeth that he followed the way which Captaine Winwood had beforc searched by Lumleys inlet in 61. degrees so passing thorow the strait to 50. c But hauing since met with better instructions both by the helpe of my painfull friend Master Hakluit to whose-labours these of mine are so much indebted and specially from Him who was a speciall setter forth of the voyage that learned and industrious Gentleman Sir Dudley Digges how willingly could I heere lose my selfe in a parenthesis of due praises to whom these studies haue seemed to descend by inheritance in diuers Descents improued by proper industry employed to publike good both at home and in Discoueries and Plantations abroad and for my particular but why should I vse words vnequall pay to him vnequall stay to thee from Him I say so great a furtherer of the North-west Discouerie and of your Discouerer the poore Pilgrim and his Pilgrimage hauing receiued full relations I haue beene bold with the Reader to insert this Voyage more largely In the yeare 1610. Sir Tho. Smith Sir Dudley Digges and Master Iohn Wostenholme with other their friends furnished out the said Henry Hudson to try if through any of those Inlets which Dauis saw but durst not enter on the Westerne side of Fretum Dauis any passage might be found to the other Ocean called the South-Sea There Barke was named the Discouerie They passed by Island and saw Mount Heela cast out fire a noted signe of foule weather towards others conceiue themselues and deceiue others with I know not what Purgatorie fables hereof confuted by Arngrin Ionas an Islander who reproueth this and many other dreames related by Authors saying that from the yeere 1558. to 1592. it neuer cast forth any flames they left the name to one harbour in Island Lousy Bay they had there a Bath hot enough to scald a fowle They raised Gronland the fourth of Iune and Desolation after that whence they plyed North-west among Ilands of Ice whereon they might runne and play and filled sweet water out of Ponds therein some of them a ground in sixe or seuen score fadome water and on diuers of them Beares and Partriches They gaue names to certaine Ilands of Gods mercy Prince Henries forland K. Iames his Cape Q. Annes Gape One morning in a Fogge they were carried by a set of the Tide from the N. E. into one of the Inlets aboue mentioned the depth whereof and plying forward of the Ice made Hudson hope it would proue a through-fare After he had sailed herein by his computation 300. leagues West he came to a small strait of two leagues ouer and very deepe water through which he passed betweene two Headlands which he called that on the South Cape Wostenholme the other to the N.W. Digges Iland in deg. 62. 44. minutes into a spacious Sea wherein he sayled aboue a hundred leagues South confidently proud that he had won the passage But finding at length by shole water that he was embayed he was much distracted therewith and committed many errours especially in resoluing to winter in that desolate place in such want of necessarie prouision The third of Nouember he moored his Barke in a small Coue where they had all vndoubtedly perished but that it pleased God to send them seuerall kinds of kinds of Fowle they killed of white Partridges aboue a hundred and twentie doozen These left them at the Spring and other succeeded in their Place Swan Goose Teale Ducke all easie to take besides the blessing of a Tree which in December blossomed with leaues greene and yellow of an Aromaticall sauour and being boyled yeelded an Oyly substance which proued an excellent Salue and the decoction being drunke proued as wholsome a Potion whereby they were cured of the Scorbute Sciaticas Crampes Conuulsions and other diseases which the coldnesse of the Climate bred in them At the opening of the yeere also there
so many Deuils their feet alwayes and only agreeing in one stroke Landing at Kecoughtan the Sauages entertayned them with a dolefull noyse laying their faces to the ground and scratching the Earth with their nayles The Werowance of Rapahanna met them playing on a Flute of a Reed with a Crowne of Deeres haire coloured red fashioned like a Rose with a Chaine of Beads about his necke and Bracelets of Pearle hanging at his eares in each eare a Birds claw The women are of a modest proud behauiour with an Iron pounce and raze their bodies legges thighes and armes in curious knots and pourtraytures of Fowles Fishes Beasts and rub a painting into the same which will neuer out The Queene of Apametica was attired with a Coronet beset with many white bones her eares hanged with Copper a Chaine thereof six times compassing her necke The Maids shaue their heads all but the hinder part the Wiues weare it all of a length the Men weare the left locke long as is said already sometimes an ell which they tye when they please in an artificiall knot stucke with feathers the right side shauen The King of Paspahey was painted all blacke with hornes on his head like a Deuill He testifieth of their hard fare watching euery third night lying on the bare cold ground what weather soeuer came and warding the next day a small Can of Barley sodden in water being the sustinance for fiue men a day their drinke brackish and slimy water This continued fiue moneths The Virginians are borne white their haire blacke few haue beards and they plucke out the haires which would grow the women with two shels are their Barbers they are strong nimble and hardy inconstant timorous quicke of apprehension cautelous couetous of Copper and Beads they seldome forget an iniury and seldome steale from each other lest the Coniurers should bewray them which it is sufficient that these thinke they can doe They haue their Lands and Gardens in proper and most of them liue of their labour The cause of their blacknesse Master Rolph ascribes to their Oyntments which in their smokie Houses they vse euen as Bacon with vs is so coloured this within doores they vse against the fire abroad against the Sunne Master Wingfield sayth they would bee of good complexion if they would leaue painting which they vse on their face and shoulders He neuer saw any of them grosse or bald they would haue beards but that they pluck away the haires they haue one wife many Loues and are also Sodomites Their elder women are Cookes Barbers and for seruice the younger for dalliance The women hang their children at their backes in Summer naked in Winter vnder a Deere-skin They are of modest behauiour They seldome or neuer brawle in entertayning a stranger they spread a mat for him to sit downe and dance before him They weare their nailes long to flay their Deere they put Bow and Arrowes into their Childrens hand before they are sixe yeeres old In each eare commonly they haue three great holes whereat they hang Chaines Bracelets or Copper some weare in those holes a small Snake coloured greene and yellow neere halfe a yard long which crawling about his necke offereth to kisse his lips Others weare a dead Rat tied by the taile Their names are giuen them according to the humour of the Parents Their women they say are easily deliuered they wash in the Riuers their young Infants to make them hardie The women and children doe the houshold and field-worke the men disdayning the same and only delighting in fishing hunting warres and such manlike exercises the women plant reape beare burthens pound their Corne make baskets pots bread and doe their Cookery and other businesse They easily kindle fire by chasing a dry pointed sticke in a hole of a little square piece of wood Powhatan had aboue thirty Commanders or Wirrowances vnder him all which were not in peace only but seruiceable in Captaine Smiths Presidencie to the English and still as I haue beene told by some that haue since beene there they doe affect him and will aske of him Powhatan hath three Brethren and two Sisters to whom the Inheritance belongeth successiuely and not to his or their Sonnes till after their death and then the eldest Sisters Sonne inheriteth He hath his treasure of Skins Copper Pearles Beades and such like kept in a house for that purpose and there stored against the time of his buriall This House is fifty or threescore yards long frequented onely by Priests At the foure corners of this House stand foure Images as Sentinels one of a Dragon another of a Beare a third of a Leopard and the fourth of a Gyant He hath as many women as he will which when he is weary of he bestoweth on whom he best liketh His Will and Custome are the Lawes He executeth ciuill punishments on Malefactors as broyling to death being incompassed with fire and other tortures The other Werowances or Commanders so the word signifieth haue power of life and death and haue some twentie men some fortie some an hundred some many more vnder their command Some were sent to inquire for those which were left of Sir Walter Raleighs Colonie but they could learne nothing of them but that they were dead Powhatan was gone Southwards when our men came last thence some thought for feare of Opochancanough his younger Brother a man very gracious both with the people and the English iealous lest Hee and the English should conspire against him thinking that he will not returne but others thinke hee will returne againe His second Brother is Decrepit and lame His age is not so great as some haue reckoned the errour arising from the Virginian computation of yeeres they reckoning euery Spring and euery Fall seuerall yeeres So did Tomocomo at his comming into England marke vp his time accounting each day and because they sayled in the night when hee thought they would haue anchored by the shore each night another day CHAP. VII Of Florida §. I. Of the Acts of the Spanish and French in Florida And of the Soyle and Cities NExt to Virginia towards the South is situate Florida so called because it was first discouered by the Spaniards on Palme Sunday or as the most interprete Easter day which they call Pasqua Florida and not as Theuet writeth for the flourishing Verdure thereof The first finder after their account was Iohn Ponce of Leon in the yeere 1512. but wee haue before shewed that Sebastian Cabota had discouered it in the name of King Henrie the Seuenth of England This Region extendeth to the fiue and twentieth degree It runneth out into the Sea with a long point of Land as if it would eyther set barres to that swift current which there runneth out or point out the dangers of these Coasts to the hazardous Mariners Into the Land it stretcheth Westward vnto the borders of New Spaine and those other Countries
grow long they are tall nimble comely §. II. Of their Customes Manners and Superstitions THey warre alway one Country vpon another and kill all the men they can take the women and children they bring vp they cut off the haire of the head together with the skin and dry it to reserue the same as a monument of their valour After their returne from the warres if they be victorious they make a solemne Feast which lasteth three dayes with Dances and Songs to the honour of the Sunne For the Sunne and Moone are their Deities Their Priests are Magicians also and Physicians with them They haue many Hermaphrodites which are put to great drudgerie and made to beare all their carriages In necessitie they will eate coales and put sand in their Pottage Three moneths in the yeere they forsake their houses and liue in the Woods against this time they haue made their prouision of victuall drying the same in the smoke They meete in consultation euery morning in a great common house whither the King resorteth and his Senators which after salutation sit downe in a round They consult with the Iawas or Priest And after this they drinke Cassine which is very hote made of the leaues of a certaine Tree which none may taste that hath not before made his valour euident in the Warres It sets them in a sweat and taketh away hunger and thirst foure and twentie houres after When a King dyeth they bury him very solemnely and vpon his graue they set the Cup wherein he was wont to drinke and round about the graue they sticke many Arrowes weeping and fasting three dayes together without ceasing All the Kings which were his friends make the like mourning and in token of their loue cut off halfe their haire which they otherwise weare long knit vp behind both men and women During the space of sixe Moones so they reckon their moneths there are certaine women appointed which bewayle his death crying with a loud voyce thrice a day at morning noone and euening All the goods of this King are put into his house which afterwards they set on fire The like is done with the Goods of the Priests who are buried in their Houses and then both House and Goods burned The women that haue lost their Husbands in the Warres present themselues before the King sitting on their heeles with great lamentations suing for reuenge and they with other Widowes spend some dayes in mourning at their husbands graues and carry thither the Cup wherein he had wont to drinke they cut also their haire neere the eares strewing the same in the Sepulchre There they cast also their weapons They may not marry againe till their haire be growne that it may couer their shoulders When any is sicke they lay him flat on a forme and with a sharpe shell rasing off the skin of his forehead sucke out the bloud with their mouthes spitting it out into some Vessell The women that giue sucke or are great with child come to drinke the same especially if it be of a lusty young man that their milke may be bettered and the child thereby nourished may be stronger Ribault at his first being there had fixed a certaine Pillar of stone engrauen with the Armes of France on a Hill in an Iland which Laudonniere at his comming found the Floridians worshipping as their Idoll with kisses kneeling and other Deuotions Before the same lay diuers Offerings of fruits of the Country Roots which they vsed eyther for food or Physicke vessels full of sweet Oyles with Bowes and Arrowes It was girt about with Garlands of Flowres and boughes of the best trees from the top to the bottome King Athore himselfe performed the same honour to this Pillar that hee receiued of his Subiects The King Athore was a goodly personage higher by a foot and halfe then any of the French representing a kind of Maiestie and grauitie in his demeanure He had married his owne Mother and had by her diuers Children of both sexes but after she was espoused to him his Father Satourioua did not touch her This Satourioua when he went to warre in the presence of the French vsed these Ceremonies The Kings his coadiutors sitting around hee placed himselfe in the midst at his right hand had a fire and at his left two vessels full of water Then did hee expresse indignation and anger in his lookes gesture hollow murmurings and loud cryes answered with the like from his Souldiers and taking a woodden dish turned himselfe to the Sunne as thence desiring victorie and that as he now shed the water in the dish so he might shed the bloud of his Enemies Hurling therefore the water with great violence into the Ayre and therewith besprinkling his Souldiers he said Doe you thus with the bloud of our Enemies and powring the water which was in the other vessell on the fire So saith hee may you extinguish your foes and bring backe the skins of their heads Outina or Vtina another King was an Enemie to this Satourioua he in his expedition which hee made against his Enemies wherein he was assisted by the French consulted with this Magician about his successe He espying a Frenchmans Target demandeth the same and in the mids of the Armie placeth it on the ground drawing a circle fiue foote ouer about it adding also certaine notes and characters then did he set himselfe vpon the Target sitting vpon his heeles mumbling I know not what with variety of gestures about the space of a quarter of an houre after which he appeared so transformed into deformed shapes that he looked not like a man wreathed his limbes his bones cracking with other actions seeming supernaturall At last he returnes himselfe as it were weary and astonished and comming out of the Circle saluted the King and told him the number of their Enemies and place of their encamping which they found very true This King was called Helata Outina which signifieth a King of Kings and yet had but a few hundreths of men in his Armie which he conducted in their rankes himselfe going alone in the mids They dry the armes and legges and crownes of their Enemies which they haue slaine to make solemne triumph at their returne which they doe fastning them on Poles pitched in the ground the men and women sitting round about and the Magician with an Image in his hand mumbling curses against the Enemie ouer-against him are three men kneeling one of which beateth a stone with a club and answereth the Magician at euery of his imprecations the other two sing and make a noyse with certaine Rattles They sow or set their Corne rather as in Virginia and haue two Seed-times and two Haruests which they bring into a publike Barne or common Store-house as they doe the rest of their victuals none fearing to be beguiled of his Neighbour Thus doe these Barbarians enioy that content attended with sobrietie and simplicitie which
wee haue banished together out of our Coasts euery one distrusting or defrauding others whiles eyther by miserable keeping or luxurious spending he which is bad to all is worst to himselfe To this Barne they bring at a certaine time of the yeere all the Venison Fish and Crocodiles dryed before in the smoke for the better preseruation which they meddle not with til need forceth them and then they signifie the same to each other The King may take thereof as much as he will This prouision is sent in baskets on the shoulders of their Hermaphrodites which weare long haire and are their Porters for all burthens They hunt Harts after a strange manner for they will put on a Harts skinne with the legges and head on so that the same shall serue them to stalke with and they will looke thorow the eye and the holes of the Hide as if it were a Vizor thereby deceiuing their Game which they shoot and kill especially at the places where they come to drinke Their Crocodiles they take in a strange manner They are so plagued with these beast that they keepe continuall watch and ward against them as other-where against their Enemies For this purpose they haue a watch-house by the Riuers side and when hunger driues the beast on shore for his prey the Watchmen call to men appointed they come tenne or twelue of them bearing a beame or tree the smaller end whereof they thrust into the mouth of the Crocodile comming vpon them gaping for his prey which being sharpe and rough cannot be got out and therewith they ouer-turne him and then being laid on his backe easily kill him The flesh tasteth like Veale and would be sauoury meate if it did not sauour so much of a Muskie sent Their sobrietie lengtheneth their liues in such sort that one of their Kings told me saith Morgues that he was three hundred yeeres old and his Father which there he shewed me aliue was fiftie yeeres elder then himselfe when I saw him mee thought I saw nothing but bones couered with skinne His sinewes veines and arteries sayth Laudonniere in description of the same man his bones and other parts appeared so cleerely thorow his skinne that a man might easily tell them and discerne the one from the other He could not see nor yet speake without great paine Monsieur de Ottigni demanding of their age the younger of these two called a company of Indians and striking twice on his thigh laid his hands on two of them hee shewed that they were his Sonnes and striking on their thighes he shewed others which were their Sonnes and so continued till the fift generation And yet it was told them that the eldest of them both might by the course of Nature liue thirtie or fortie yeeres more They haue a diuellish custome to offer the first-borne male-children to the King for a sacrifice The day of this dismall Rite being notified to the King he goeth to the place appointed and sits downe Before him is a blocke two foot high and as much thicke before which the mother of the child sitting on her heeles and couering her face with her hands deploreth the death of her sonne One of her friends offereth the child to the King and then the women which accompanied the mother place themselues in a Ring dancing and singing and shee that brought the child stands in the mids of them with the child in her hands singing somewhat in the Kings commendation Sixe Indians stand apart and with them the Priest with a Club wherewith after these ceremonies he killeth the child on that blocke which was once done in our presence Another religious Rite they obserue about the end of Februarie they take the hide of the greatest Hart they can get the hornes being on and fill the same with the best hearbs which grow amongst them hanging about the hornes necke and bodie as it were Garlands of their choisest fruits Hauing thus sowed and trimmed it they bring the same with songs and pipes and set it on a high tree with the head turned toward the East with prayers to the Sunne that hee would cause the same good things to grow againe in their land The King and his Magician stand neerest the tree and begin all the people following with their Responds This done they goe their wayes leauing it there till the next yeere and then renue the same ceremonie Ribault at his first comming had two of the Floridians aboord with him certaine dayes who when they offered them meat refused it giuing them to vnderstand that they were accustomed to wash their face and to stay till sun-set before they did eate which is a ceremonie common in all those parts They obserue a certaine Feast called Toya with great solemnitie The place where it is kept is a great circuit of ground swept and made neat by the women the day before and on the Feast day they which are appointed to celebrate this Feast come painted and trimmed with feathers and set themselues in order Three others in differing painting and gestures follow with Tabrets dancing and singing in a lamentable tune others answering them After that they haue sung danced and turned three times they fall to running like vnbrideled Horses through the midst of the thicke Woods the Indian Women continuing all the day in weeping and teares cutting the armes of the yong Girles with Muskle-shels with hurling the blood into the Ayre crying out three times He Toya Those that ranne through the Woods returne two dayes after and then dance in the midst of the place and cheere vp those which were not called to the Feast Their dances ended they deuoure the meat for they had not eate in three dayes before The Frenchmen learned of a boy that in this meane-while the Iawas had made inuocation to Toya and by Magicall Characters had made him come that he might speake with him and demand diuers strange things of him which for feare of the Iawas he durst not vtter To prouoke them vnto reuenge against their enemies they in their Feasts haue this custome There is a Dagger in the roome which one taketh and striketh therewith one that is thereunto appointed and then places the Dagger where he had it and anon renueth the stroke till the Indian falling downe the women Girles Boyes come about him and make great lamentation the men meane-while drinking Cassine but with such silence that not one word is heard afterwards they apply Mosse warmed to his side to heale him Thus doe they call to minde the death of their Ancestors slaine by their enemies especially when they haue inuaded and returne out of their enemies Countrey without the heads of any of them or without any Captiues §. III. Of the more In-land parts of Florida discouered by NVNEZ BVt let vs take view of the more Southerly and Westerly parts of Florida beyond the point Of Pamphilo Naruaes his vnfortunate Expedition
appeared this fift Sunne newly borne which after their reckoning is now in this yeere 1612. nine hundred and eighteene yeeres since Three dayes after this Sunne appeared they held that all the Gods did die and that these which since they worship were borne in processe of time At the end of euery twenty dayes the Mexicans celebrated a Feast called Tonalli which was the last day of euery moneth The last day of the first moneth was called Tlacaxiponaliztli on which were slaine an hundred Captiues in Sacrifice and eaten others putting on the skins as before is shewed Many of them would go to the slaughter with ioyfull countenance dancing and demanding Almes which befell to the Priests When the greene Corne was a foot aboue the ground they vsed to goe to a certaine Hill and there sacrificed two Children A Girle and a Boy three yeeres old to the honour of Tlaloc God of the Water that they might haue raine and because these children were free borne their hearts were not plucked out but their throats being cut their bodies were wrapped in a new Mantle and buried in a graue of stone When the fields of Maiz were two foot high a collection was made and therewith were bought foure little slaues betwixt the age of fiue and seuen and they were sacrificed also to Tlaloc for the continuance of raine and those dead bodies were shut vp in a Caue appointed to that purpose The beginning of this butcherie was by occasion of a drought which continued foure yeeres and forced them to leaue the Country When the Maiz was ripe in the moneth and Feast Hueitozotli euery man gathered his handfull of Maiz and brought it to the Temple for an offering with a certaine drinke called Atuli made of the same graine They brought also Copalli a sweet Gumme to incense the Gods which cause the Corne to grow At the beginning of Summer they celebrated the Feast Tlaxuchimcaco with Roses and all sweet flowres making Garlands thereof to set on their Idols heads and spending all that day in dancing To celebrate the Feast Tecuilhuitli all the principall persons of each Prouince came to the Citie on the Euening of the Feast and apparelled a woman with the attire of the God of Salt who danced among a great company of her Neighbours but the next day was sacrificied with much solemnitie and all that day was spent in deuotion burning of Incense in the Temple The Merchants had a Temple by themselues dedicate to the God of gaine they made their Feast vpon the day called Micailhuitl wherein were sacrificed and eaten many captiues which they had bought and all the day spent in dancing In the Feast of Vchpauiztli they sacrificed a woman whose skin was put vpon an Indian which two dayes together danced with the Townsmen celebrating the same Feast in their best attire In the day of Hatamutzli the Mexicans entred into the Lake with a great number of Canoas and there drowned a Boy and a Girle in a little Boat which they caused to be sunke in such sort that neuer after that Boat appeared againe holding opinion that those Children were in company with the Gods of the Lake That day they spent in feasting and anointing their Idols cheekes with a kind of Gumme called Vlli. When Cortes was gone out of Mexico to incounter Pamphilo de Naruaes and had left Aluarado in the Citie he in the great Temple murthered a great multitude of Gentlemen which had there assembled to their accustomed solemnitie being six hundred or as some say a thousand richly attired and adorned where they vsed to sing and dance in honour of their God to obtaine Health Children Victorie c. §. II. Their Feast of Transubstantiation Lent Bloudie Processions and other holy times IN the moneth of May the Mexicans made their principall Feast to Vitziliputzli two dayes before which the Religious Virgins or Nuns mingled a quantity of Beets with rosted Maiz and moulded it with Hony making an Image of that paste in bignesse like to the Idoll of wood putting in in stead of eyes graines of glasse greene blue or white and for teeth graines of Maiz Then did all the Nobles bring it a rich garment like vnto that of the Idoll and being clad did set it in an azured Chaire and in a Litter The morning of the Feast being come an houre before day all the Maidens came forth attired in white with new ornaments which that day were called the Sisters of Vitziliputzli they were crowned with Garlands of Maiz rosted parched with chaines of the same about their neckes passing vnder their left armes Their cheekes were died with Vermilion their armes from the elbow to the wrist were couered with red Parrots feathers Thus attired they tooke the Image on their shoulders carrying it into the Court where all the young men were attired in red Garments crowned like the women When the Maydens came forth with this Idoll the young men drew neere with much reuerence taking the Litter wherein the Idoll was vpon their shoulders carrying it to the staires foot of the Temple where all the people did humble themselues laying earth vpon their heads After this all the people went in Procession to a Mountaine called Chapulteper a league from Mexico and there made Sacrifices From thence they went to their second Station called Atlacuyauaya and from thence againe to a Village which was a league beyond Cuyoacoan and then returned to Mexico They went in this sort aboue foure leagues in so many houres calling this Procession Vpauia Vitziliputzli Beeing come to the foote of the Temple staires they set downe the Litter with the Idoll and with great obseruance drew the same to the top of the Temple some drawing aboue and others helping below the Flutes and Drummes Cornets Trumpets meane-while increasing the Solemnitie The people abode in the Court Hauing mounted and placed it in a little lodge of Roses presently came the young men which strowed flowres of sundry kinds within and without the Temple This done all the Virgins came out of their Conuent bringing pieces of the same paste whereof the Idoll was made in the fashion of great bones which they deliuered to the young men who carried them vp and laid them at the Idols feet till the place could receiue no more They called these morsels of paste The flesh and bones of Vitziliputzli Then came all the Priests of the Temple euery one strictly obseruing his place with veiles of diuers colours and workes Garlands on their heads and chaines of flowres about their neckes after them came the Gods and Goddesses whom they worshipped of diuers figures attired in the same liuery Then putting themselues in order about those pieces of paste they vsed certaine Ceremonies with singing and dancing By these meanes they were blessed and consecrated for the flesh and bones of the Idoll which were then honoured in the same sort as their God Then came forth the Sacrificers who began the
Sacrifice of Men whereof they now sacrificed more then at other times for this was their solemnest Festiuall The Sacrifices being ended all the young men and Maydes came out of the Temple attired as before and being placed in order and ranke one directly against another they danced by Drummes which sounded in praise of the Feast and of their God To which Song all the ancientest and greatest men did answere dancing about them making a great Circle as the manner is the young men and Maids remayning alwayes in the middest All the Citie came to this spectacle and throughout the whole Land on this day of Vitziliputzli his Feast no man might eat any other meate but this paste with Honey whereof the Idoll was made and this should be eaten at the point of day not drinking till the afternoone the contrary was sacrilegious After the Ceremonies ended it was lawfull for them to eat any thing During the time of this Ceremony they hid the water from their little Children admonishing such as had the vse of reason to abstaine The Ceremonies Dances and Sacrifices ended they went to vnclothe themselues and the Priests and Ancients of the Temple tooke the Image of paste and spoyled it of all the Ornaments making many pieces of it and of the consecrated Rolls which they ministred in a kind of Communion beginning with the greater and continuing vnto the rest both men women and children who receiued it with teares feare reuerence and other both affects and effects of deuotion saying That they did eate the flesh and bones of their God Such as had sicke follies demanded thereof for them and carried it with great reuerence and veneration All such as did communicate were bound to giue the tenth part of this Seed whereof the Idoll was made The solemnity of the Idoll being ended an old man of great authority stept vp into an high place and with a loude voice preached their Law and Ceremonies This History deserueth the longer Relation because it so much resembleth the Popish Chimara and monstrous Conception of Transubstantiation and of their Corpus Christi Feast with other their Rites to which Acosta also the Relater compareth it blaming the Deuill for vsurping the seruice and imitating the Rites of their Church whereas their Church deserueth blame for imitating the Deuill and these his Idolatrous Disciples in their stupendious monsters of opinion and ridiculous offices of Superstition But you shall yet see a further resemblance Next to this principall Feast of Vitziliputzli was that of Tezcalipuca of chiefe estimation This fell on the nineteenth day of May and was called Tozcolt It fell euery foure yeeres with the Feast of Penance where there was giuen full indulgence and remission of sinnes In this day they did Sacrifice a Captiue which resembled the Idoll Tezcalipuca Vpon the Euen of this Solemnitie the Noblemen came to the Temple bringing a new garment like to that of the Idoll which the Priest put vpon him hauing first taken off his other Garments which they kept with great reuerence There were in the Coffers of the Idoll many Ornaments Iewels Eare-rings and other Riches as Bracelets and precious Feathers which serued to no vse and were worshipped as the God himselfe Besides that Garment they put vpon him certaine Ensignes of Feathers with Fannes shadowes and other things Being thus attired they drew the Curtayne from before the doore that all men might see Then came forth one of the chiefe of the Temple attired like to the Idoll carrying Flowre in his hand and a Flute of Earth hauing a very sharpe sound and turning toward the East hee sounded it and after that to the West North and South hee did the like This done he put his finger into the Aire and then gathered vp the Earth which hee put in his mouth eating it in signe of adoration The like did all that were present weeping and falling flat to the ground inuocating the darknesse of the night and the winds not to forsake them or else to take away their liues and free them from the labours they endured therein Theeues Adulterers Murtherers and all other Offenders had great feare and heauinesse whiles the Flute sounded so as some could not hide nor dissemble their offences By this meanes they all demanded no other thing of their God but to haue their offences concealed powring forth many teares with great repentance and sorrow offering great store of Incense to appease their Gods All the Martialists and resolute spirits addicted to the Warres desired with great deuotion of God the Creator of the Lord for whom we liue of the Sun and of other their Gods that they would giue them victory against their enemies and strength to take many Captiues for Sacrifice This ceremonious sounding of the Flute by the Priest continued ten dayes from the ninth of May to the nineteenth with eating of earth praying eueryday with eyes lifted vp to Heauen sighes and grones as of men grieued for their sinnes Yet did not they beleeue that there were any punishments in the other life but did these things to auert temporall punishments they accounted death an assured rest and therefore voluntarily offered themselues thereto The last day of the Feast the Priests drew forth a Litter well furnished with Curtaynes and Pendants of diuers fashions this Litter had so many armes to hold by as there were Ministers to carry it all which came forth besmeared with blacke and long haire halfe in tresses with white strings and attired in the Idols liuery Vpon this Litter they set the Image of Tezcalipuca and taking it on their shoulders brought it to the foot of the staires Then came forth the young men and Maydens of the Temple carrying a great cord wreathed of chaines of rosted Maiz with which they enuironed the Litter and put a chaine of the same about the Idols necke and a Garland thereof on his head The young men and Mayds weare chaines of rosted Maiz and the men Garlands the Maydes Mytres made of Rods couered with the Maiz their feet couered with Feathers and their armes and cheekes painted The Image being placed in the Litter they strewed round about store of the boughes of Manguey the leaues whereof are pricking They carried it on Procession two Priests going before with Incense in the circuit of the Court and euery time the Priest gaue Incense they lifted vp their armes as high as they could to the Idoll and the Sun All the people in the Court turned round to the place whither the Idoll went euery one carrying in his hand new cords of the threeds of Manguey a fadome long with a knot at the end wherewith they whipped themselues on the shoulders euen as they doe heere saith Acosta on Holy Thursday The people brought boughes and flowres to beautifie the Court and Temple This done euery one brought their Offerings Iewels Incense sweet Wood Grapes Maiz Quailes and the rest Quailes were the
Spanish Wine They eate Serpents and Toads which with them are not venemous and Lizards Our Authour saw one Lizard as big as a man with scales on her backe like Oysters They haue a kind of Monkey called Sagouin of the bignesse of a Squirrell the fore-halfe in shape resembling a Lion they haue another strange beast called Coaty as high as a Hare with a little head sharpe eares and a snout or beake aboue a foot long the mouth so little that one can scarsely put in his little finger it feedeth on Ants They take Petum it is not Tobacco not in Pipes but put foure or fiue leaues in another greater and firing it sucke in the smoke and therewith in time of warre will sustaine themselues three dayes together without other sustinance They weare this herbe about their neckes When Sir Francis Drake made his famous and fortunate Voyage about the World in the South-Sea he lost the rest of his company the Elizabeth wherein M. Winter was which returned into England and a Pinnesse wherein were seuen men besides Peter Carder the relater of this History This Pinnesse being alone returned backe the Straits and on the North side of the Riuer of Plate sixe went on shore into the wood to seeke food where threescore and ten Tapines shot at them and wounded all whereof two dyed soone after foure were taken their Pinnesse also being broken onely Peter Carder and William Pitcher remained which liued in an Iland two moneths on a fruit somewhat like Orenges Crabs without any fresh-water the want whereof forced them to drinke their owne Vrine saued in sherds for that purpose till the next morning weary of this life which began to grow weary of them they with a planke and certaine boords made shift in three dayes to set themselues ouer into the maine three leagues distant where meeting with fresh-water this Pitcher was broken and dyed within halfe an houre of ouer eager drinking Carder encountred certaine Sauages called Tappaubasse which led him away dancing rattling tabering They slept on beds of white Cotton netting tyed two foot from the ground and a fire on each side to preuent cold and wild beasts the next day they marched twenty miles to their Towne which was foure-square with foure houses euery house being two bow-shoot in length made with small trees like Arbours thatched to the ground with Palme-tree leaues hauing no windowes but thirty or forty doores on each side the square Their chiefe Lord was named Caion about forty yeeres old he had nine wiues the rest but one except the most valiant which were permitted two one for the house another to goe with him to the warres In this Towne were neere foure thousand persons Hee found among them good entertainment for certaine moneths They vsed to goe to the Warres three or foure hundred in a company with bowes and arrowes and hauing ouercome would bring home their captiues tyed by the arme to so many of their mens armes and soone after would tye them to a poste and with a club after dancing and drinking slit their heads Their drinke is made of a root chewed by women and spit into a trough where it stands two or three dayes and hath a yest on it like Ale and then is tunned into earthen jarres wherewith they drinke themselues drunke After halfe a yeere hauing learned the Language he was requested to their Warres against the Tapwees and much bettered their martiall skill teaching them to make an hundred Targets of tree-barke and two hundred clubs marking their owne company with red Balsam of this they haue red white blacke very odoriferous and so marched seuen hundred together three dayes to another foure-square Towne like but lesse then their owne They knocked downe two hundred tooke twenty they broyled their carkasses and after also the prisoners How many men they kill so many holed they make in their visage beginning at the nether lippe and so proceeding to the cheeke eye-browes and eares Some Portugals came to search for him two of which and some Negros were taken and eaten Hee obtained leaue to goe to the Coast hauing foure to prouide him victuals for nine or ten weekes and so came to Bahia de todos los Santos where he yeelded himselfe to Michael Ionas a Portugall and arriued in England in Nouember 1586. nine yeeres after his setting forth §. III. Most ample Relations of the Brasilian Nations and Customes by Master ANTHONY KNIVET MAster Anthony Kniuet hath written a Treatise of what he had seene and suffered in Brasil He was one of Master Candishes company in his vnfortunate voyage 1591. who after much misery sustained in the Magellan Straits in their returne was set on shore at St Sebastians where many of his company died with eating a kinde of blacke venemous Pease Hee saw there a great beast come out of the Riuer hauing on the backe great scales vgly clawes and a long tayle which thrust out a tongue like a harping iron but returned without harme Hee found a dead Whale which with long lying was couered with Mosse on which hee yet liued a fortnight His company were knocked on the head with firebrands and he like to be eaten of the Sauages but escaped this and many other miseries and was saued by the Iesuites from being hanged by the Portugals Where his calamities compelled him with another Indian in like predicament of slauerie to escape by flying swimming two miles ouer the Sea and so they trauelled seuen and thirty dayes thorow a desart meeting by the way as he saith Lyons Leopards huge Serpents Some Indians they saw with feathers of diuers colours fixed on their bodies and heads with oyle of Balsam seeming as if they had bin so borne not leauing a spot bare but on their legs The Sauages sell their children to the Portugals for toyes Some of them were so haunted with a Spirit which they called Coropio like that which Lerius his Sauages called Aignan that some of them dyed therewith in much amazement Many complained that they were possessed with spirits which they called Auasaly and commanded themselues to bee bound hand and foot with bow-strings desiring their friends to beat them with cords wherewith they hang their beds but most died notwithstanding They haue wormes which creepe into their fundaments which consume their guts for remedie whereof they take slices of Limons and greene pepper and put therein with salt water He in diuers expeditions for war and Merchandize with the Portugals and escapes from them trauelled thorow more of those Sauage nations then perhaps any other before or since Out of whole obseruations bought at so deare a rate I haue heere mustered these many wild people before thee with such rarities as hee found amongst them The Petiuares are not so barbarous as many other they inhabite from Baya to Rio Grande their bodies are carued with fine workes in their lips is a hole made with a Roe-Bucks horne which
know not with what authoritie hee auerreth against the former witnesses whereas Theuet sometimes taken in lying deserueth lesse credit in the rest When there is any tempest in the water hee saith hey attribute it to the soules of their Progenitors and cast something into the water to appease it They haue a Tradition That one in habite like to the Christians had long since told their Progenitors of Diuine matters but with so little effect as he forsooke them and euer since had those bloudy Warres continued amongst them How little the Iesuites can preuayle in bringing the Brasilians to Christianitie Maffaeus hath written somewhat and Pierre du Iarric a Iesuite very largely which is not so pertinent to our present purpose Master Kniuet to whose Relations our former Chapter is so much indebted telleth of a Rocke in Brasill called Etooca with an entrance like a doore where the Indians say it is like they borrowed it of some fabulous Frier that Saint Thomas preached It is within like a great Hall hard by it is a stone as bigge as foure Canoes supported by foure stones like stickes little bigger then a mans finger The Indians say it had beene wood and by Miracle was thus altered They shew vpon great Rockes many foot-prints of one bignesse and tell that the Saint called the fishes of the Sea and they heard him preach This smels of a Franciscan Cowle The Portugall Friers Treatise mentioned in the former Chapter deliuereth many things worthy our obseruation They haue some Tradition of the floud in which they say all were drowned one only escaping on a Ianipata with a Sister of his which was with childe from whom they had their beginning They haue no knowledge of the Creator nor of paine and glory after this life and therefore vse no Ceremonies of worship Yet doe they acknowledge that they haue soules which die not but are conuerted into Deuils and goe into certaine fields where grow many Figge-trees alongst the bankes of a goodly Riuer and there dance They are greatly afraid of the Deuill whom they call Curupira Taguain Pigtanga Matichera Auchanga insomuch that often they haue dyed with the imagination of him Yet doe not they worship it nor any other creature or Idoll onely some old men say that in some wayes they haue certaine posts where they offer him some things for feare and because they would not dye Sometimes but seldome the Deuill appeares to them and some few among them are possessed There are Witches which vse Witchcrafts rather for health then deuotion Some Witches are called Carayba or holinesse but like his holinesse of Rome are of bad life these would seeme to do strange things raysing some to life which had fained themselues dead they are their Oracles for their husbandry and other affaires sometimes causing them to dye for hunger whiles they promise to make the Mattockes worke alone §. III. Of other their Rites and a new Mungrell Sect amongst them THey haue no proper name for God but say Tupan is the Thunder and Lightning which gaue them Mattockes and food Their Mariages are diuorced vpon any quarrell In times past they tell no young man married before he slue an Enemie nor the woman before she had her termes which time was therefore festiuall At Marriages also they vsed great Drinkings and the Feast ended they were laid in a cleane Net after which the Father tooke a wedge of stone and did cut vpon a stake or post which they say was to cut the tailes from the grand children who were for this cause borne without them After they were married they began to drinke for till then their Fathers brought them vp in sobrietie of dyet and modesty of speech and then with a vessell the old men gaue him the first Wine holding his head with their hands for feare of vomiting which if it happened was a signe he would not be valiant They eate at all times in the night and day and keepe no meate long being no niggards of their store this name were the greatest disgrace you could offer them and count it an honour to be liberall They are patient of hunger and thirst will eate Snakes Toads Rats and all fruits which are not poyson drinke not ordinarily whiles they eate but after meate will drinke drunke They haue some particular Festiuals in which two or three dayes together they eate not but drinke and goe about singing calling all to the like fellowship sleepe not haue their Musickes and sometimes fall to quarrels They wash not before meate they eate sitting or lying in their beds or on the ground They goe to bed betimes and rise not early In the morning one chiefe man makes an Oration to them lying in his Net which continueth the space of an houre about labouring as their forefathers did with the substance and circumstances thereof When he is vp hee continueth his preaching running through the Towne This custome they borrowed of a bird which singeth euery morning by them called the King and Lord of birds When a man speakes with a woman he turnes his backe to her They shaue their haire with a halfe Moone before which they say they learned of Saint Thomas Being angry they let their haire grow women when they mourne or when their Husbands goe a farre iourney cut their haire They go naked and when any weare apparell it is for fashion rather then honesty as on the head or no further then the nauell Some houses haue fiftie threescore or threescore and tenne Roomes and some are without partition ordinarily in one House they are of a Kindred and one is principall In Child-birth the Father or some other whom they take for their Gossip takes it vp and cuts the Nauell-string with teeth or two stones and fasts till it fals off and then makes drinkings The women presently after trauell wash themselues in their Riuers giue sucke a yeere and halfe without any other thing to eate carrying the child on her backe in a Net to the place of her labour they rocke them on the palmes of their hands They neuer strike their wines except in times of drinking and sometimes will be willing to take this opportunitie Their children play without scurrilitie or quarrels imitating the voyces of Birds and the like They will spare a Captiue that is a good Singer When one dyeth they of that Kindred cast themselues vpon him in the Net sometimes choking him before he be dead and those which cannot cast themselues on the bed fall on the ground with such knockes that it seemeth strange they dye not also for company and sometimes they proue so feeble that they dye likewise If the party dye in the Euening they weepe all night with a high voyce calling their Neighbours and Kindred to societie of their griefe If it be one of the principall all the Towne meets to mourne together and they curse with plagues those which lament not
meddle withall The next Tribe is there tearmed a Committy and these are generally the Merchants of this place who by themselues or their Seruants trauell into the Countrey gathering vp Callicoes from the Weauers and other Commodities which they sell againe in greater parcels in the Part Townes to Merchant Strangers taking their Commodities in bartar or at a price Others are Money Changers wherein they haue exquisite iudgement and will from a superficiall view of a piece of Gold distinguish a penny worth of difference without whose view no man dares receiue Gold it hath beene so falsified The poorest sort are plaine Chandlers and sell only Rice Butter Oyle Sugar Honey and such like belly stuffe and these men for their generall iudgement in all sorts of Commodities subtiltie in their dealings and austerity of dyet I conceiue to be naturally Banians transplanted growne vp in this Country by another name they also not eating any thing that hath life nor at all vntill they haue fresh washed their bodies and this Ceremony is also common to the former Tribe The next they call Campo Waro and these in the Countrey manure the earth as husbandmen in the City attend vpon the richer sort as Seruing men in the Forts are Souldiers and are for number the greatest Tribe these spare no flesh but Beefe and that with such reuerence that torture cannot enforce them to kill and eate and their reason for this besides the custome of their Ancestors is that from the Cow their Countrey receiues its greatest sustenance as Milke and Butter immediately then al the fruits of the earth by their assistance in tilling it so that it were the greatest inhumanity to feed vpon that which giueth them so plentifully wheron to feed and vnto vs that would take liberty in this case they wil not sell an Oxe or Cow for any consideration but from one to another for six or 8. shillings the best Boga Waro is next in English the Whoores Tribe and of this there are two sorts one that will prostitute themselues to any better Tribe then themselues but to none worse the other meeteth none bad enough to refuse and these with their Predecessors and Of-spring haue and do still continue this course of iniquity for the daughters if handsome are brought vp to the trade if otherwise they are maried to the men of this Tribe and their children if hansomer then their mothers supply their Parents defects from whence there neuer wants a sinfull succession of impudent Harlots whom the Lawes of the Country doe both allow and protect but this is not alwayes Heathenish for in most Christian Common-wealths such creatures either by permission conniuencie or neglect find meanes to set vp and customers to deale with all Being children they are taught to dance and their bodies then tender and flexible skrewed into such strange postures that it is admirable to behold impossible to expresse in words as for a child of eight yeeres of age to stand vpon one legge raysing the other vpright as I can my arme then bringing it down and laying her heele vpon her head yet all this while standing looses the wonder in my imperfect Relation but to behold is truly strange the like for their dancing and tumbling which doth as farre in actiuity exceed our mercenary Skip-iacks as the Rope-dancing woman doth a Capring Curtezan or an Vsher of a Dancing Schoole a Country Plough-Iogger The homage they owe the King is once a yeere to repaire to Golchonda to the Court and there being met together to make proofe of their actiuities where the best deseruing is guerdoned with some particuler fauour all of them gratified with Bettelee and so returne home againe to their seuerall Mansions The Gouernour of the place where they dwel exacts nothing of them but their attendance as often as he sitteth in the publike place at which times they dance gratis but at all other meetings as Circumcision wedding ships arriuals or priuate Feasts they assist and are paid for their company They are many of them rich and in their habit cleane and costly vpon their bodies they weare a fine Callico or Silken cloth so bound about them as that one part beeing made fast about the waste couereth downwards another part comes ouer the head couering all that way wearing also a thinne Wastcoat that couereth their breasts and armes vnto the elbowes all the rest of their armes couered almost with Bracelets of Gold wherein are set small Diamonds Rubies and Emeralds In their eares they weare many Rings and Iewels and some of them one through the right nosthrill wherein a Pearle or Ruby is commonly set as also about their fingers and toes about their middles one or two broad plates of Gold for Girdles and about their neckes many chaines of small Pearle and Corall or worser beads according to their estate without other ornament on their head then their own haire which being smoothly combde is tied on a knot behind them And these also in their bestuall liberty forbeare to eate Cowes flesh all other meats and drinks are common to them and they themselues common to all The Carpenters Masons Turners Founders Gold-smiths Black-smiths are all one Tribe and match into each others Family all other Mechanike Trades are Tribes by themselues as Painters Weauers Sadlers Barbers Fishermen Heardsmen Porters Washers Sweepers diuers others the worst whereof are the abhorred Piriawes who are not permitted to dwell in any Towne by any Neighbours but in a place without by themselues liue together auoyded of al but their own Fraternity whom if any man should casually touch he would presently wash his bodie These flea all dead cattle for their skins and feed vpon the flesh the skins they dresse making thereof Sandals for the Gentiles and shooes for the Moores othersome they vse to embale Merchandise to defend it against wet to conclude they are in publike Iustice the hateful executioners and are the basest most stinking ill fauoured people that I haue seene the Inhabitants of Cape bona Esperanza excepted who are in these particulars vnparalleld and so I leaue them adding onely one word of the Porters who carry the Palamkeenes a Litter so contriued euery way as to carry a man his bed and pillowes which eight of these Porters will carry foure of those leagues in a day which are 36. of our miles supporting it on their bare shoulders and running vnder it by turnes foure at a time from which continuall toyle aggrauated by the extreme heate their shoulders are become as hard as their hoofes yet this their education makes easie to them for when their children can but goe alone they lay a small sticke on their shoulders afterwards a logge which they make them carry with proportionable increase vntill Roman Milo like they are able to run vnder a Palamkeene and in that sometimes perchance an Oxe But all these thus distinguished are in Religion one body and haue
poore mans Offering which hee deliuered to the Priests who pulled off their heads and cast them at the foote of the Altar where they lost their bloud and so they did of all other things which were offered Euery one offered meate and fruit according to his power which was laid at the foote of the Altar and was carried to the Ministers Chamber The offering done the people went to dinner the young men and Maydes of the Temple being busied meanewhile to serue the Idoll with all that was appointed for him to eat which was prepared by other women who had made a vow that day to serue the Idoll These prepared meats in admirable variety which being ready the Virgins went out of the Temple in Procession euery one carrying a little basket of bread in her hand and in the other a dish of these meates Before them marched an old man like to a Steward attired in a white Surples downe to the calues of his legges vpon a red Iacket which had wings instead of sleeues from which hung broad Ribands and at the same a small Pumpion stucke full of flowres and hauing many Superstitious things within it This old man comming neere to the foot of the staires made lowly reuerence Then the Virgins with like reuerence presented their meats in order this done the old man returnes leading the Virgins into the Conuent And then the young men and Ministers of the Temple came forth and gathered vp their meat which they carried to their Priests Chambers who had fasted fiue dayes eating but once a day not stirring all that time out of the Temple where they whipped themselues as before is shewed They did eate of these Diuine meates so they called it neither might any other eate thereof After dinner they assembled againe and then was sacrificed One who had all that yeere borne the habit and resemblance of their Idoll They went after this into a holy place appointed for that purpose whither the young men and Virgins of the Temple brought them their ornaments and then they danced and sung the chiefe Priests drumming and sounding other Instruments The Noblemen in ornaments like to the young men danced round about them They did not vsually kill any man that day but him that was sacrificed yet euery fourth yeere they had others with him which was the yeere of Iubilee and full pardons After Sun-set the Virgins went all to their Conuent and taking great dishes of earth full of bread mixed with Hony couered with small Panniars wrought and fashioned with dead mens heads and bones carried the same to the Idoll setting them downe retired their Steward vshering them as before Presently came forth all the young men in order with Caues of Reedes in their hands who began to runne as fast as they could to the top of the Temple staires euery one striuing to come first to the Collation The chiefe Priests obserued who came first second third and fourth neglecting the rest these they praysed and gaue them ornaments and from thence forward they were respected as men of marke The said Collation was all carried away by the young men as great Relikes This ended The young men and Maydes were dismissed and so I thinke would our Reader who cannot but be glutted with and almost surfet of our so long and tedious feasting Yet let me intreat one seruice more it is for the God of gaine who I am sure will finde Followers and Disciples too attentiue For the Festiuall of this Gaine-god Quetzaalcoalt the Merchants his deuoted and faithfull Obseruants forty dayes before bought a slaue well proportioned to represent that Idoll for that space First they washt him twice in a Lake called the Lake of the Gods and being purified they attired him like the Idoll Two of the Ancients of the Temple came to him nine dayes before the Feast and humbling themselues before him said with a loud voice Sir nine dayes hence your dancing must end and you must dye and hee must answere whatsoeuer hee thinketh In a good houre They diligently obserued if this aduertisement made him sad or if he continued his dancing according to his wont If they perceiued him sad they tooke the sacrificing Rasors which they washed and clensed from the bloud which thereon had remayned and hereof with another liquor made of Cacao mixed a drinke which they said would make him forget what had beene said to him and returne to his former iollitie For they tooke this heauinesse in these men to be ominous On the Feast Day after much honouring him and incensing him about midnight they sacrificed him offering his heart to the Moone and after cast it to the Idoll letting the body fall downe the staires to the Merchants who were the chiefe Worshippers These hearts of their Sacrifices some say were burned after the Oblation to this Planet and Idoll The body they sauced and dressed for a Banquet about breake of day after they had bid the Idoll good morrow with a small dance This Temple of Quetzaalcoalt had Chappels as the rest and Chambers where were Conuents of Priests young men Maydes and Children One Priest alone was resident which was changed weekly His charge that weeke after hee had instructed the Children was to strike vp a Drumme at the Sunne setting at the sound whereof which was heard throughout the Citie euery one ended his Merchandize and retired to his house all the Citie being as silent as if no bodie had beene there at day breaking hee did againe giue notice by his Drumme for till that time it was not lawfull to stirre out of the Citie In this Temple was a Court wherein they danced and on this Idols Holy-day had erected a Theater thirty foot square finely decked and trimmed in which were represented Comedies Masks and many other representations to expresse or cause mirth and ioy §. III. Of their Schooles Letters and other their Opinions THe Mexicans had their Schooles and as it were Colledges or Seminaries where the Ancients taught the Children to say by heart the Orations Discourses Dialogues and Poems of their great Orators and chiefe Men which thus were preserued by Tradition as perfectly as if they had beene written And in their Temples the sonnes of the chiefe Men as Peter Martyr reporteth were shut vp at seuen yeeres old and neuer came forth thence till they were marriageable and were brought forth to be contracted All which time they neuer cut their haire they were clothed in blacke abstained at certaine times of the yeere from meats engendring much bloud and chastened their bodies with often fasting And although they had not Letters yet they had their Wheele for computation of time as it is said before in which their writings were not as ours from the left hand to the right or as of the Easterne Nations from the right hand to the left or as the Chinois from the top to the bottome but beginning below did mount vpwards as in that