they provide themselves for six days at the end of which they come to Anize which is a Well of fresh-water where they make provision again for three days in which time they arrive at Niged where there are two Castles opposite to one another and inhabited by Arabs They may have Victuals here for mony but the water is bad however they must make provision of it for five days and at five days end they find a Well where they take for two days more after that they find another Well of bitter water and yet must make Provision of it for four days which being over they come to a Well called Heram-Baglar-lar In this place all the Pilgrims strip and leave nothing upon their bodies but a Cloath to cover their Nakedness Having taken water at this Well for seven days they continue their march to Dgebel-Harafat where they spend the night in throwing stones at the Devil and next Morning having made the Courban they put on their Cloaths again There are Wells at Dgebel-Harafat Dgebel-Harafat where they take water enough to serve them to Mecha which is but a day and a halfs Journy distant From Mecha they go to Vadi-Fatima the place where the Tomb of Fatima is twelve days Journy distant wherein there are Wells but no Habitation to be found From Vadi-Fatima they go to Medina five days Journy distant Tschah-Haffer and they come from Medina to Tschah-Haffer in five and thirty days and from thence to Bassora The Basha hath a great many lovely Country-Houses and amongst others Gourdilan which is opposite to the mouth of the little Canal of Bassora and on the other side of Schat-El-Aarab The Subjects of the Basha of Bassora are either Aarabs or Sabeans Who are the Subjects of the Basha of Bassora Carmelites but besides these there are some Persians and Indians that live in the Capital City and these last have Pagods there No Franks live there except the Reverend Fathers Carmelites who have a House on the Terrass whereof they put out the Banner of the Cross They have their Church in that House which not only serves the Franks but also the Armenians and Nestorians who come to the Town during the Mouson they come there to Pray but say not Mass in it The Basha hath always some Present from these good Monks for that House The other Franks to wit the Portuguese English or Dutch come not to Bassora but in the Mouson and depart in their Ships at the end of it But two days before I came to Bassora Cunning of the Dutch in burning their Cinnamon the Dutch had burnt a great deal of Cinnamon because the Merchants would not give them the price they demanded for it which made them in anger say publickly that they would burn it which they did at home in their House and they consumed so great quantity of it that it was smelt all over the Neighbourhood During the Mouson the Franks and all other strangers are well received at Bassora Liberty at Bassora and no body molests or wrongs them Every one may wear a white Turban and the green colour there of whatsoever Religion he be and that not only during the Mouson but at any other time not but that I have been told that out of the Mouson they pretty often squeezed the Franks who staied behind there I must now say somewhat of the Sabeans The Sabeans or Christians of St. John. They are otherwise called Christians of St. John but very improperly for they are more Gentiles than Christians and one of them who turned Roman Catholick and was of those who went to Rome some years ago assured me that they were partly Christians partly Turks The Baptism of the Sabeans partly Jews and partly Gentiles The truth is if because of Baptism which they retain in memory of St. Johns Baptising our Saviour they ought to be called Christians the Turks may in the same manner be said to be of the Jewish Religion because of Circumcision It is in reality but a name of Baptism for they Baptise not in the name of the Holy Trinity nor do they perforn it but on Sundays and if the Child be born any other day they stay till Sunday though it be even in danger of dying A man carries the Child to the River-side for they hold that there can be no Baptising but in running water and therefore they always live near the Rivers and inhabit not those places where there are none One of their Ministers goes along with the Man that carries the Child and when they are come to the River-side the Minister says these words In Biscemon edai rabbi ead mai nocrai men hale me that is to say In name of the Ancient Mighty Lord God who knows all that we do before the light of the world then he throws a little water upon the Head of the Infant and repeating the same Prayer casts water again upon the Head of it afterwards he reapeats the same words a third time and throws water a third time upon the Childs Head this being done he who holds the Child dips it three times into the River and that is all the Ceremony of their Baptism It is not enough for them to have been so Baptised once in their life-time but they often reiterate these Ceremonies and every year during the space of five days every person great and small young and old Male and Female is Baptised and Rebaptised and when any of them Marry the Minister again Baptises the Bridegroom and Bride The Sacraments of the Sabeans They hold only four Sacraments to wit Baptism the Eucharist Orders and Marriage they acknowledge neither Confirmation Extream Unction nor Penance As to the Sacrament of the Eucharist which is but a nominal Sacrament no more than their Baptism they pronounce not the words of Consecration over the Host but only some Prayers The Hosts of the Sabeans They make their Hosts of Flower kned with Wine and Oil. As for the Wine of their Consecration they make use of Wine drawn from dryed Grapes steeped in water which they press and they use the same Wine for moistening the Flower whereof they make the Host In relation to Orders The Ministers of the Sabeans they have Superiour and Inferiour Ministers but they use no great Ceremony in Consecrating them for Children succeed to their Fathers in the Ministery provided they be sixteen or seventeen years of Age and failing Sons the next of Kin succeed this is all the Ceremony of their Consecration a Minister says some Prayers over him who is to be a Minister and that is sufficient with them The Marriage of the Sabeans As to Marriage the Minister who is to Officiate takes an Oath of the Bride in presence of the Women that are called to the Ceremony that she is a Virgin and let her swear what she please to him the Ministers Wife must still search her and make her
they believe that that was the night that Mahomet Ascended up to Heaven upon the Alboraoh as he mentions in the Alcoran Thursday the fourth of the Moon of Regeb they have Prayers in their Mosques till Midnight and then return home and Feast This Festival is because of the Ramadan which comes two Months after on all these Festivals and during the whole Ramadan the Minarets of the Mosques are as I said deck'd with Lamps which being contrived in several Figures when they are Lighted make a vary pretty show CHAP. XXXVI Of what renders the Turks Vnclean and of their Ablutions THE third Command of the Turks concerns Prayer Ablutions of the Turks but because they never say their Prayers till first they wash we must say somewhat of their Ablutions The Turks have two kinds of Ablutions the one is called Gousl and is a general Washing of the whole Body The other is termed Abdest and is the Ablution they commonly make before they begin their Prayers Of the Abdest for they never go to Prayers till first they have used the Abdest at least or both the Gousl and Abdest if it be needful Of the Gousl wherefore there are commonly near the Mosques Baths for the Gousl and Fountains for the Abdest There is also an Ablution that they perform after that they have done their Needs which is a kind of Abdest but they only wash their Hands They are obliged to use the Gousl after they have lain with their Wives or after Nocturnal Pollution or when Urine or any other unclean thing hath fallen upon them and therefore when they make Water they squat down like Women least any drop of it should fall upon them or their Cloaths for they think that that which pollutes their Bodies or Cloaths pollutes also their Souls as also by washing the Body they think they wash the Soul. After they have made Water they rub the Yard against a Stone to fetch off any thing that might remain and defile them by falling upon their Cloaths When they do their Needs they make not use of Paper as I have said but having eased themselves they make all clean with their Fingers that they dip into Water and then wash their Hands which they never fail to do after they have done their Needs nay and after they have made Water too wherefore there is always a Pot full of Water in their Houses of Office The Neatness of the Turks and they carry two Handkerchiefs at their girdle to dry their Hands after they have washed This cleanliness is in so great repute with them and they are so fearful least they should defile themselves with their Excrements that they take care that even their Sucking Children in Swadling Cloaths do not defile themselves and for that end they swadle them not as we do A Cradle after the Turkish fashion but put them into Cradles which have a Hole in the middle much about the place where the Child's Buttocks lie and leave always the Breech of it naked upon the Hole to the end that when it does its Business the Excrement may fall into a Pot just under the hole of the Cradle and for making of Water they have little Pipe of Box-wood crooked at one end and shaped like Tobacco-Pipes these Pipes are three Inches long and as big as ones Finger some have the Boul or Hole at the great end round and serve for Boys into which the Yard is put and fastned with some strings the others are of an Oval bore at the great end and serve for the Girls who have them tied to their Bellies and the small end passing betwixt their Thighs conveys the Urine by the hole of the Cradle into the Pot underneath without spoiling of any thing and so they spoil not so much Linnen as Children in Christendom do Now to continue the order of their Ablutions they are obliged to make the Abdest immediately after Prayers as they are to wash their Hands immediately after they have done their Needs or handled any thing that 's unclean and if they be in a place where they cannot find Water they may make use of Sand or Earth in stead of Water not only for the Abdest but the Gousl also and the washing of the Hands and that Ablution will be good The Abdest is performed in this manner First The way of doing the Abdest Turning the Face towards Mecha they wash their Hands three times from the Fingers end to the Wrist Secondly They wash the Mouth three times and make clean their Teeth with a Brush Thirdly They wash the Nose three times and suck Water up out of their Hands into their Nostrils Fourthly With their two Hands they throw Water three times upon the Face Fifthly They wash three times their right Arm from the Wrist to the Elbow and then the left Sixthly They rub the Head with the Thumb and first Finger of the right Hand from the Brow to the Pole. Seventhly With the same Finger and Thumb they wash the Ears within and without Eighthly they wash the Feet three times beginning at the Toes and going no higher than the Instep and with the right Foot first and then the left But if they have washed their Feet in the Morning before they put on their Stockins they pull them not off again but only wet the Hand and then with the aforesaid Finger and Thumb wash over the Paboutches from the Toes to the Instep beginning always with the right and then the left and do so every time that it is necessary from Morning to Night that is to say they pull not off their Stockins all day long But if their Stockins have a hole big enough for three Fingers they ought to pull them off They say that God commanded them to wash the Face but once the Hands and Arms as often to rub the Head as has been mentioned before and to wash the Feet up to the Instep God being unwilling to overcharge Man but that Mahomet added the two other times for fear they might neglect it The difference which they put betwixt that time which God commanded and the two times of Mahomet is that they call the first Fars and those of Mahomet Sunnet Mahomet ordained then that they should wash their Hands three times from the Wrist to the Fingers ends that they should use a Brush to make clean their Teeth that they should wash their Mouth three times that they should throw Water three times upon their Face with their two Hands that they should spend no more time in making clean one part than another but that they should make haste that they should wash their Ears with the same Water wherewith they washed the Head having a firm resolution to wash themselves and saying aloud or to themselves I am resolved to make my self clean That they should begin at the right side and with the Toes in washing of the Feet and the Fingers in washing the Hands and that whilst
very stony from Jerusalem to the Plain of Jericho where we arrived and encamped about two in the afternoon We took no care to carry with us Tents Victuals nor any other Necessaries in all that Journey for the Monks made it their business to provide us with Horses Victuals and Tents and to shew us all without paying any thing but for our Horses The Town of Jericho is about a quarter of a league from thence Jericho which formerly was a famous City but at present consists only of thirty or forty Brick-Houses inhabited by Arabs These Houses were all forsaken when we went that way because the Arabs had fled for fear of the Turks that went with us Near to these Habitations we saw the House of Zacheus The House of Zacheus about a quarter of a league from the Camp as I said already and then we returned to the Camp. In the Plain of Jericho Roses of Jericho there are Roses of Jericho as they call them but they have not the vertues as many ascribe to them for they blow not unless they be put into water and then they blow in all seasons and at any hour contrary to the Opinion of those who say That they blow not but in Christmas Night and others on all the Festival Days of our Lady with a great many such idle tales I found of them also in the Desarts of Mount Sinai Next day Tuesday the sixteenth of April we set out about three of the clock in the morning and travelled on still in the Plain till about half an hour after five we came to the River of Jordan which is something deep The River of Jordan and perhaps half as broad as the Scine at Paris it is very rapid and the water of it thick because it passes through fat Land but they say it corrupts not The course of Jordan and I filled a Bottle of it to try the experiment but the Corsairs whom I met with threw it into the Sea this River has its source from two Springs towards Mount Libanus called Jor and Dan which joyned together make Jordan It runs from East to South passes through the Sea of Tiberius and loses it self in that nasty and stinking Lake Asphaltites called the Dead-Sea Lake Asphaltites It is very full of Fish and on both sides beset with little thick and pleasant Woods among which thousands of Nightingales warbling all together make a most pleasant delightful and charming Consort Devotions at Jordan Here our Monks quickly erected an Altar upon which they sayed two Masses at the first of which I received the Sacrament but it was very incommodious for it behoved one besides he that Celebrates to hold the Chalice Veil c. Lest the Wind which blew high might overturn and carry them away and another to hide the Tapers lest they should be blown out During that time all the Greeks Cophtes Armenians c. Performed their Devotions also most part go into the Water stark-naked especially the Men and the Women in their Smocks they had of the Water of Jordan poured upon their Heads in memory of our Lords Baptism and washed their Linen in it carrying away Jarrs and Bottles full of Water with Mud and Earth which they took up by the River side not forgetting Sticks which they cut in the adjoining Woods and all to be kept as Relicks This River is rendred Illustrious by many Miracles as having stopt its course to let the Children of Israel pass over The Prophet Elisha passed it over dry-shod upon his Masters Cloak c. I was very desirous we might have gone afterwards to the Dead-Sea but the Turks would not and therefore I shall here relate what I have learn'd of it from those that have been there The Dead-Sea It was in this Sea that the five Cities of the Plain Sodom and Gomorrah c. Were swallowed up The water of it is very clear but extreamly Salt and in some places of it they find Salt as resplendant as Cristial It bears up all who wash in it though they move neither Hand nor Foot as many have found by Experience But I do not at all believe what some say that it bears up only Live things and lets things Inanimate sink to the Bottom nay that if a lighted Candle be plunged into it it will float above But if put out it will sink to the bottom There is no sort of Fish in this Sea by reason of the extraordinary saltness of it which burns like Fire when one tastes of it and when the Fish of the Water Jordan come down so low they return back again against the Stream and such as are carried into it by the Current of the Water The extent of the Dead-Sea immediately Die. This Sea is an hundred miles in length and twenty five over The Land within three Leagues round it is not Cultivated but is white and mingled with Salt and Ashes They say that there are Apple-Trees upon the sides of this Sea which bear very lovely Fruit but within are all full of Ashes In short we must think that there is a heavy Curse of God upon that place seeing it was heretofore so pleasant a Countrey There are many Camels load of Bitumen daily got out of this Lake Return from Jordan Having no liberty then to go see that Sea we parted from the River of Jordan about seven a clock in the Morning and returned back the same way as we came about nine a clock the Musellem who as I said commanded the Convoy halted in the middle of the Plain of Jericho and went into a Tent which was purposely pitched for him then he caused all the Latin Monks to pass by before him The Musellem numbers the Pilgrims who were numbered Then we who were secular Pilgrims passed by also and the Musellem ordered us to be set down eight though we were but six and though the Trucheman said that there was but six of us and offered to make us pass by him again yet nothing would be abated which was an Avanie of twenty Piastres for the Monks An avanie for the Pilgrims Franks for every Secular Frank payes ten Piastres but they pay it in the City because the Convent answers for them after we had been thus mustered we went and Encamped in the same place where we did the day before and having taken some refreshment we went to the Mount of the Quarantine The Mount of forty days Fasting ar forty days Fast not far from thence while the Musellem mustered the rest of the Christians who payed down in ready Money four Bokels and twenty Maidins a Head though the years before they payed no more but three Bokels We parted from the Camp about ten a Clock in the Morning then went to the Mount of Fasting a League distant from the Town of Jericho it is so called because our Lord when he came out of Jordan spent forty days
report afterwards the Minister Baptises the Bridegroom and Bride and then sets them Back to Back saying some Prayers over them which compleats the Ceremony of the Marriage Every man may have two Wives both Lay-men and Ministers but all the Wives that Ministers take must be Virgins when they Marry them The Sabeans know not the Gospel They know not what the Gospel is All their Mass consists in some Prayers and in Communicating with their Host made and Consecrated after their manner and their Wine of dry Grapes They do not say Mass at Bassora because they have no Church there They Work not on Sundays and have three Festivals in the year Festival of the Sabeans to wit one at New-year which lasts three days and that is in memory of the Creation of Adam The second is at the beginning of the fourth month it likewise lasts three days and is the Festival of St. John. The third is at the beginning of the seventh month it lasts five days and is in memory of our Saviours being Baptized by St. John. They are all Baptised during these five days Pendgia once a day and they call this last Feast Pendgia They acknowledge no other Saints but St. John St. Zacharias his Father and St. Elizabeth his Mother Their belief of JESUS CHRIST The Opinion of the Sabeans concerning the other Life They acknowledge JESUS CHRIST but only as St. Johns servant As for the other World they admit not of Purgatory but only a Heaven and a Hell they say that the wicked after their death shall pass through a narrow way Guarded by Lions Serpents and such other Creatures which will devour them and the good shall go the same way but over these Beasts streight to Paradise which they fancy as well as the Turks to be Material having borrowed from them many Fables which make a great part of their belief The Meat of the Sabeans They eat no meat but what hath been killed by a Sabean and whatsoever it be else that hath been touched by any that are not of their Religion they look upon it as unclean The Sabean Ministers are their Butchers and will not eat of it Their Ministers kill their Pullets Sheep and Fish who for performing of that Office lay aside their Cloaths and put on a pair of white Drawers with a Rope for a Girdle a white Shirt girt about with a Rope a white Turban with the end of it hanging on their Left Shoulder a white Napkin about their Neck in fashion of a stole and another rag which is a Fillet like to those that are used to bind up the Arm after bloodletting these make in all seven pieces being thus accoutered they wash for instance the Feet and Beak of the Pullet they are to kill because they say it eats and many times treads upon unclean things then they kill it saying in their Language In the name of the merciful God may this be blessed to those that eat it They do the same with Sheep saving that they wash them not saying that they eat only Grass and no unclean things and the like also with Fish The power of performing this Office extends to the Children of the Minister so soon as they have attained to the sixteenth or seventeenth year of their Age provided their Fathers have discharged that duty otherwise it is not lawful for them I have been so curious as to see that pleasant Ceremony These people who think all that are not of their Religion Profane have a special care not to drink in a Vessel wherein one that is not a Sabean hath drank but if it be their own they break it The Sabeans suffer none of any other Religion to drink in their Glass The Sabeans abhor the colour Blew that so none that belong to them may be polluted by drinking in it They have another strange whimsey which is that they abhor the blew colour as much as the Jews do Hogs Flesh and that for a very ridiculous reason They say that the Jews knowing by their Books that Baptism was to destroy their Law were so malicious as that when St. John was about to Baptise our Lord they threw into Jordan a good deal of Indico thereby to spoil the water but that God sent an Angel with a Vessel full of pure clean water taken out of another place of the River of Jordan wherewith St. John Baptised our Lord and that from that time forward God cursed the blew colour This is the opinion of the Vulgar but one of them told me that the reason why they hated that colour is because there is Dogs Turd used in dying of it and they look upon a Dog to be an unclean Beast Most part of the Sabeans are Goldsmiths all very poor and a great many of them live in Bassora upon the Canal several of them also live in the Villages of Dgezire but the greatest part in Harvize and Souster Harvize two Towns belonging to the King of Persia in Chusistan The first which is four days Journy from Bassora is watered by the River Karrah which falls into the Tygris a little above the place where it joyns Euphrates Karrha The second which is Souster the chief Town of Chusistan is eight days Journy from Bassora and is watered by the River Caron as I have said already The Sabeans are extreamly ignorant and their Doctors have not much to study upon account of their Religion for they have but two Books and these not long since made neither though they give it out that they were in being in the days of Adam but the truth is their ancient Books were with their Churches burnt by Mahomet and his Successours For an instance of the stupidity of those people having asked them how many months they had in their year they made answer that they knew not and that I must ask that of their Scheik it is so with them in every thing else Nevertheless the second of November of this present year one thousand six hundred sixty five when I saw the Sacrifice of the Pullet I put so many questions to them The Sabeans Sacrifice of the Pullet The Sabeans Year that at length I learned that their year consists of three hundred threescore and six days to wit of twelve months of thirty days apiece and besides these twelve months they have six days over I also knew that they reckoned that same day the second of November to be the twentieth of their first month so that their year must have begun the thirteenth of October I did what I could to learn something of their Epoche but could not I was informed besides that their first Feast begins with their year the second three months after and the third after three months more The End of the Third Book TRAVELS INTO THE LEVANT PART II. BOOK IV. CHAP. I. Of the Voyage from Bassora to the Indies FRiday the sixth of November I Embarked at
Heart of the Traitor and one day when Aly was at Prayers in the Mosque he stabbed him with a Dagger he was immediately apprehended by those that were present who would have cut him in pieces upon the spot if Aly had not forbidden them to do him any hurt saying that if he were cured of that Wound he knew how to punish him in an extraordinary manner and if he died of it he would only have them to give him one blow a few days after Aly being dead his Servants killed Ebw-Mouldgem-Mourat at one blow of a Sword therein obeying their Masters orders punctually and on that day yearly they publickly burn the Figure of that same Ebw-Mouldgem-Mourat The Feast of Omar Keschdgiade They celebrated also the Feast of one Omar Keschdgiade the Ninteenth of September which was the Tenth of the month Rebiulewel that Feast is in honour of an illustrious Miller of that name whose History I could not learn. Besides the Feast I have mentioned they have some others as that of the great Bairam that of Quamquadir the place where Muhammed chose Aly for his Successour in presence of forty thousand men the Neurouz or New Year and some others The Formation of man and where he is to end his days The Persians in their Creed have a pleasant imagination concerning the death of men They say that every one must come and die in the place where the Angel took the Earth of which he hath been made thinking that one of these Spirits has the care of Forming the Humane Creature which he doth by mingling a little Earth with the Seed CHAP. XIV The Continuation of the Observations of Ispahan Of Jews Guebres Banians and Armenians Liberty of Conscience in Persia Jews THE Persians give full liberty of Conscience to all Strangers of whatsoever Religion they be and some years ago it was thought a very strange proceeding in an Eatemad Doulet when he undertook to oblige all the Jews to turn Mahometans For accomplishing of that he used all his endeavours sparing neither mild ways nor violence for bringing about his design nay he procured an Order from the Prince prohibiting the exercise of the Jewish Religion within his Territories but notwithstanding all that he could not succeed in it for having caused them to be strictly observed they found that what external Profession so ever they made of Mahometanism they still practised Judaism so that there was a necessity of suffering them to be again bad Jews since they could not make good Musulmans of them However these who live at Ispahan are beggarly poor and not very numerous Jews at Ispahan because there is nothing for them to be done there they pay the King yearly a Chequin a Head and are obliged to wear a little square piece of stuff two or three Fingers broad sewed to their Caba or Gown in the middle of their Breast about two Fingers above the Girdle and it matters not what stuff that piece be of provided the colour be different from that of the Cloaths to which it is sewed The Guebres There are still in Persia and particularly in Kerman people who Adore the Fire as the Ancient Persians did and these are called Guebres They are known by a dark Yellow colour which the men affect in their Cloaths and the women by their Veil none but they wearing that colour besides the Guebrish women have their Faces all naked and never cover them and commonly they are very Handsom These Guebres have a Language and Characters which no body understands but themselves and in all things else are very ignorant When any of their Sect dies they set him upright in a place walled in purposely for that and least he should fall they put a forked instrument under his Chin to hold him up they leave him in this posture until the Crows have picked out his Eyes and if they have begun by the Right Eye they think he is happy A false Prognostick of the Guebres and put him upright in a place walled in which they call the White Pit if they have begun by the Left they think he is miserable and put him into the Black Pit these Pits are Wells raised some Fathoms high of Earth where they put the bodies stark naked covering only the Privities with a Rag and each of these two Pits is above half full of Bones and the Ashes of dead Bodies that have been put therein The greatest kindness that the Guebres think they can doe to a dead man is to kill for his sake a great many Frogs Serpents and other Infects after all these people are extremely hated of all men aswel Christians as Mahometans and being strong of body most part of them are Masons There are besides above fifteen thousand Banians in Ispahan The Banians of Ispahan Usurers they follow no Art nor Trade and all their business is to let out mony to Usury which the Jews do in Turky and in all places else where they are suffered Let us now say somewhat of the Armenians Armenians at Ispahan The Armenians pay the King of Persia five hundred Tomans The Kelonter of the Armenians who are not the most inconsiderable part of the people that inhabit the City Ispahan their quarter in that Town is at Giolfa or the places about it they yearly pay the King 500 Tomans and have an Armenian to Govern them whom they call Kelonter that is to say the greatest and he is put in and turned out by the King when he pleases They address themselves to this Kelonter in all their Affairs and Controversies and it is he that Taxes them for raising the five hundred Tomans which they yearly pay the King. But besides the Kelonter they have another Royal Officer who is a Deroga for Judging in Criminal Affairs I am apt to believe that some of these Armenians are good people but a great many of them take from them the name of Christians are every whit as bad as Infidels and in general there is but little confidence to be put in them As for their Religion it may be said that Fastings are the chief part of what they profess at present or at lest they make that the most considerable and visible point of their Religion When an Armenian Confesseth that he hath Robbed committed Murder or such like crimes the Confessour tells him that God is merciful but if he accuse himself of having Eaten Butter on a Friday or a day of Abstinence Oh! that is an execrable Crime and the Confessour will enjoyn severe Penances for that sin as to Fast several months to refrain six months from his Wife or other Austerities They Eat no Flesh Eggs nor Fish nor yet Milk Oyl nor Butter on Wednesdays and Fridays but they Eat Flesh on Saturdays as all the other Oriental Christians doe They have the Baptism of the Cross The Baptism of the Cross in commemoration of the Baptism of our Lord and they
Celebrate it the day of the Epiphany according to the Old Calendar which they follow plunging after several Prayers a Cross into water whereof all strive to take their shares in Pots They Communicate all Children in both kinds The Armenians Communicate Young Children They Marry their Children very Young. Extreme Unction with the Armenians Command for Mass Superstition of the Armenians The end of Lent with the Armenians even those that are but a year or two Old. They Marry them very Young sometimes the Parents promise them as soon as they are born and often Marry them at the Age of Seven or Eight Years but though the Priest perform the Ceremonies at that time yet they defer the Consummation of the Marriage till the usual time They say that Extreme Unction is not to be Administred till after death though some amongst them have denied me that Article but commonly they give it only to Priests They have no command obliging them to hear Mass on Sundays and Holy-days They have many of the Mahometan Superstitions and amongst others some of them hold Dogs to be Unclean as well as they and will not willingly touch them On Holy Saturday they end their Lent by Eating at night Butter Cheese Eggs and other things which are prohibited during the Lent but they Eat no Flesh till Easter-day and it must be killed too the same day for they say that it is not lawful for them to Eat of that which was killed in time of Lent. They admit of no Purgatory and yet Pray for the Dead Purgatory with the Armenians saying that those who are Damned goe streight to Hell but that the others goe not into Paradise where no body shall be received before the last Judgment but that they are in a place where they suffer a little and that the Prayers that are made for them comfort them whence it seems that they only contend about the name and that it is only to difference themselves from Roman Catholicks that they say they admit not of Purgatory Fables of the Armenians concerning our Lord. They have a hundred Stories or rather ridiculous Tales concerning the Infancy of our Lord and that is it they call the little Gospel as for instance that the Virgin being with Child her Sister Salome accused her of having been deflowred by some man and that the Holy Virgin for her own justification bid her lay her Hand upon her Belly and that she should know what Fruit she bore which Salome having done a fire issued out of it and consumed one half of her Arm and then being sensible of her fault she laid the stump upon it again by the Holy Virgins order and so recovered her whole Arm. They also say that our Lord being grown pretty big his Holy Mother put him to School to learn to Read Armenian and that his Master making him pronounce the Armenian Alphabet he would not pronounce the first Letter which is thus made III unless his Master gave him a reason why it was shaped in that manner which made his Master give him correction Our Lord having suffered it told him mildly that since he knew it not he would teach him and made him comprehend that it denoted the Mystery of the Holy Trinity whereat the Master much surprised returned him back to the Virgin telling her that he knew more than himself This Tale is the more ridiculous that it is not above four hundred years since their Letters were invented The invention of the Armenian Characters and that before they made use of the Greek Letters and the truth is there is in the Library of the French King a large thick Armenian Book which gives the History of their Letters and by whom they were invented A Ridiculous Story of Judas They say that Judas having sold our Lord and despairing of Pardon resolved to hang himself because he knew that our Lord was to goe to the Limbus to deliver all the souls which he found there and that he made account to be one of that number for with them Hell and the Limbus is one and the same thing but the Devil cunninger than he foreseeing that held him up by the Feet till our Lord had passed the Limbus and then let him fall plum into Hell. An Errour of the Armenians concerning the two Natures in JESUS CHRIST The Armenians as well as the Euticheans believe but one Nature in JESUS CHRIST though they condemn Eutiches of Heresie they doe not indeed say that the Humane Nature was swallowed up in the Divine as the first Euticheans did nor doe they believe the confusion of Natures in JESUS CHRIST as Eutiches did but they will have the Divine and Humane Nature to be united in his Sacred Person as the Soul and Body are in a man and that so they make but one and that makes them condemn the Council of Chalcedon A false belief in the Armenians The Opinion of the Armenians concerning the Pope They say that JESUS CHRIST neither Ate nor Drank and when I alledged to one of them some passages of the Gospel where it is said that he did Eat and Drink he made answer that he only seemed to do so but that in reality he neither Ate nor Drank They acknowledge not the Pope to be Superiour to their Patriarch but only to be Patriarch of Rome Yet I found some of them that were not of that Opinion and who confessed that he was Head of the Church Nevertheless they are generally great Enemies to the Franks and to all that profess the Roman Catholick Faith so far that there are some of them who stick not to say that it is better to be a Turk than a Roman Catholick Notwithstanding all this they agree with us as to the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist The belief of the Armenians concerning the Holy Sacrament of the Altar and it is a strong Argument against the European Hereticks to object to them the Levantine Christians who for a long time have been the declared Enemies of the Roman Catholicks and nevertheless are all Uniform with them as to the Holy Sacrament and Mass Jacobites Nestorians and all which makes it appear that the Mass is no new invented thing CHAP. XV. The Continuation of the Observations of Ispahan Of Horses Mules and Camels and some Insects THE Persians use commonly to ride on Persian Horses which are but small Animals of Persia Persian Horses but good and strong and Travel great Journeys without tyring they have a trick of casting up the Head and endanger the Riders Nose if he have not a care but some mend that fault by a kind of Cavasson which is a strap of Leather in form of a Halter that they put over their Nose and bringing it betwixt the fore Legs tie it to the Girts like a Petrel Not only in Persia but all over the Levant they have a better Hoof than in our Countries whether it be because of the