Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	brother_n	mother_n	sister_n	2,328	5	9.5317	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63439	The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne through Turky, into Persia and the East-Indies, for the space of forty years : giving an account of the present state of those countries, viz. of the religion, government, customs, and commerce of every country, and the figures, weight, and value of the money currant all over Asia : to which is added A new description of the Seraglio / made English by J.P. ; added likewise, A voyage into the Indies, &c. by an English traveller, never before printed ; publish'd by Dr. Daniel Cox; Six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. English	Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste, 1605-1689.; Phillips, John, 1631-1706.; Cox, Daniel, Dr.	1677 (1677)	Wing T255; ESTC R38194	848,815	637

the Patriarch sends two Bottles to all the Covents of Asia Europe and Africa without which they cannot baptize The Ceremony of Baptism being over the God-father goes out of the Church with the Infant in his arms and a Taper of white Wax in each hand According to the quality of the person when the Child is carry'd out of the Church the Trumpets Drums Hautboys and other Instruments of the Country make a hideous noise and go before the Infant to the Parents House where being arriv'd the God-father delivers the Child to the Mother She prostrates her self at the same time before the God-father kissing his feet and while she continues in that posture the God-father kisses her head Neither the Father nor God-father names the Child but he that baptizes gives him the Name of the Saint whose Festival falls upon the Sunday on which the Child is baptiz'd If there be no Saint's day that Sunday in the Almanack they take the next Name whose Festival succeeds the Sunday of Baptism so that they have no affected Names among them Upon the return of the God-father with the Child home there is a Feast prepar'd for all the Kindred and Friends and him that baptiz'd the Infant with whom all the Priests and Monks of the Covent at least of the Parish go along The poor people were wont to be so prodigal at these Feasts as also upon their Marriages and Burials that the next day they had not wherewithal to to buy Victuals much less to pay what they have borrow'd for so needless an expence But now the poor Armenians are grown so cunning to avoid the Bastinado's which are giv'n to Debtors upon the soles of the Feet when they cannot pay according to the custom of Persia that they carry the Child to Church upon the week-days without any Ceremony with tears in their eyes pretending it to be sickly and like to dye and so make no Feasts at all If the Women lye in fifteen or twenty days or two months before Christmas they defer the baptizing the Infant 'till the Festival provided the Infant be healthy Then in all the Cities and Villages where the Armenians live if there be any River or Pond they make ready two or three flat-bottom'd Boats spread with Carpets to walk upon in one of which upon Christmas-day they set up a kind of an Altar In the morning by Sun-rising all the Armenian Clergy as well of that place as of the parts adjoyning get into the Boats in their Habits with the Cross and Banner Then they dip the Cross in the Water three times and every time they drop the Holy Oyl upon it After that they use the ordinary form of Baptism which being done the Arch-bishop or the Minister plunges the Infant in the River or Pond three times saying the usual words I Baptise c. and the same anointings as before though it seems a wonder to me that the extremity of the weather does not kill the Child The King of Persia is many times present at this ceremony when it is perform'd at Ispahan riding on Horse-back to the side of the River with all his Nobility The Ceremony being over he goes to Zulpha to the Kelonter's House where there is an entertainment prepar'd for him Neither is there any place in the World where a King may be entertain'd with less charge than in Persia. For if any private person invite the King and that His Majesty pleases to do him that Honour 't is but for the inviter to go to the chief of the Officers and to carry him twenty Tomans or three hundred Crowns and to tell him withall that the King has promis'd to accept of a small Collation with his Slave For then the Governour is oblig'd to send to the House of him that treats the King all things necessary for the entertainment Else it were impossible to be done in regard the King eats in nothing but in Gold Plate At the end of the Feast the King is always presented with some European Rarity not less worth than four or five thousand Crowns Or if the person have no Rarity to present it suffices to offer in a Bason the value in Venetian Ducats of Gold with all the submission imaginable Besides all this some Presents must be giv'n to some of the Lords and principal Eunuchs of his train and others sent to the Queen Mother if living and to the Sultaness his Wives and Sisters Thus though the entertainment may be made with little trouble yet otherwise it proves somewhat expensive though the Armenians of Zulpha are well enough able to bear the charge I was twice at this Ceremony upon Christmas day in Ispahan The first time I saw Sha-Sefi and the second time Sha-Abas the second who drank both so hard that in their Drink they committed those crimes that very much stain'd their memories For Sha-Sefi returning home stab'd his Wife the Mother of Sha-Abas Sha-Abas another time returning home in drink would needs drink on and force three women to drink with him who finding he would not give over stole out of his Company The King perceiving them gone without taking leave in a mad humour sent his Eunuchs for them and caus'd them to be thrown into the Fire where the poor wom●● were burnt for there is no resisting nor examining the Kings command CHAP. XII Of the Marriages of the Armenians THE Armenians Marry their Children before either party have seen each other nay before the Fathers or Brothers know any thing of it And they whom they intend to Marry must agree to what their Fathers or Parents command them When the Mothers have agreed among themselves they tell their Husbands who approve what they have done Upon this Approbation the Mother of the Boy with two old Women and a Priest come to the House where the Mother of the Daughter lives and present her a Ring from him whom they intend to betroth The Boy appears afterwards and the Priest reads something out of the Gospel as a blessing upon both parties after which they give him a sum of Money according to the quality of the Father of the Girl That done they present the company with drink and this is call'd a betrothing or affiancing Sometimes they agree a Marriage when the Children are not above two or three years old sometimes two women that are friends being both with Child at one time together will make a match between the two Children before they are born if the one be a Boy and the other a Girl So soon as they are born the Contract is made and when once the Boy has giv'n the Ring thought it be twenty years after before they are Marry'd he is bound every year upon Easter-day to send his Mistris a new Habit with all the trimming belonging to it according to her quality Three days before the Celebration of Marriage the Father and Mother of the Boy prepare a Feast which is carry'd to the house of the Father and

disorder the senses which takes from her all apprehension of her preparations for death 'T is for the Bramins interest that the poor miserable creatures should continue in their resolutions for all their Bracelets as well about their legs as their arms the Pendents in their ears their Rings sometimes of Gold sometimes of Silver for the poor wear only Copper and Tin all these belong to the Bramins who rake for them among the ashes when the party is burn'd I have seen Women burnt after three several manners according to the differrence of the Countrey In the Kingdom of Guzerat as far as Agra and Dehli they set up a little Hut about twelve foot square upon the bank of a Pond or River 'T is made of Reeds and all sorts of small Wood with which they mingle certain pots of Oil and other Drugs to make it burn more vehemently The Woman is plac'd in the middle of the Hut in a half-lying-down posture leaning her head upon a kind of a wooden Bolster and resting her back against a Pillar to which the Bramin tyes her about the middle for fear she should run away when she feels the fire In this posture she holds the body of her deceas'd Husband upon her knees chewing Betlé all the while and when she has continu'd in this posture about half an hour the Bramin goes out and the Woman bids them set fire to the Hut which is immediately done by the Bramins and the kindred and friends of the Woman who also cast several pots of Oil into the fire to put the Woman the sooner out of her pain After the Woman is burnt the Bramins search the ashes for all her Bracelets Pendants and Rings whether Gold Silver Copper or Tin which is all free booty to themselves In Bengala they burn the Women after another fashion In that Countrey a Woman must be very poor that does not accompany the Body of her deceas'd Husband to the Ganges to wash his Body and to be wash'd her self before she is burnt I have seen dead Carkasses brought to the Ganges above twenty days journey off from the place and smelt 'em to boot for the scent of them has been intollerably noysom There was one that came from the Northern Mountains neer the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Boutan with the body of her Husband carri'd in a Waggon she travell'd twenty days a-foot and neither eat nor drank for 15 or 16 days together till she came to the Ganges where after she had wash'd the body that stank abominably and had afterwards wash'd her self she was burnt with him with an admirable constancy Before the Woman that is to be burnt goes the Musick consisting of Drums Flutes and Hautboys whom the Woman in her best Accoutrements follows dancing up to the very Funeral-pile upon which she gets up and places her self as if she were sitting up in her Bed and then they lay a-cross her the body of her Husband When that is done her kindred and friends some bring her a Letter some a piece of Callcut another pieces of Silver or Copper and desire her to deliver them to their Mother or Brother or some other Kinsman or Friend When the Woman sees they have all done she asks the Standers-by three times if they have nothing more of service to command her if they make no answer she ties up all she has got in a piece of Taffata which she puts between her own belly and the body of her Husband bidding them to set fire to the Pile which is presently done by the Bramins and her Kindred I have observ'd because there is scarcity of Wood in Bengala that when these poor Creatures are half griddl'd they cast their bodies into the Ganges where the remains are devour'd by the Crocodiles I must not forget a wicked custom practis'd by the Idolaters of Bengala When a Woman is brought to bed and the Child will not take to the Teat they carry it out of the Village and putting it into a Linnen Cloth which they fast'n by the four Corners to the Boughs of a Tree they there leave it from morning till evening By this means the poor Infant is expos'd to be tormented by the Crows insomuch that there are some who have their eyes pickt out of their heads which is the reason that in Bengala you shall see many of these Idolaters that have but one eye and some that have lost both In the evening they fetch the child away to try whether he will suck the next night and if he still refuse the teat they carry him again to the same place next morning which they do for three days together after which if the Infant after that refuses to suck they believe him to be a Devil and throw him into Ganges or any the next Pond or River In the places where the Apes breed these poor Infants are not so expos'd to the Crows for where the Ape discovers a Nest of those Birds he climbs the Tree and throws the Nest one way and the Eggs another Sometimes some charitable people among the English Hollanders and Portugals compassionating the misfortune of those Children will take them away from the Tree and give them good education All along the Coast of Coromandel when the Women are to be burnt with their Husbands they make a great hole in the ground nine or ten foot deep and twenty-five or thirty foot square into which they throw a great quantity of Wood and Drugs to make the fire burn more fiercely When the fire is kindled they set the body of the man upon the brink and then presently up comes the Woman dancing and chewing Betlé accompany'd by her Friends and Kindred with Drums beating and Flutes sounding Then the Woman takes three turns round the hole and every time she has gone the round she kisses her Friends and Kindred After the third time the Bramins cast the Carcass of her Husband into the flame and the Woman standing with her back to the fire is pusht in by the Bramins also and tumbles backward Then her Kindred and Friends cast Oil and other combustible Drugs upon the fire to make it burn more vehemently that the Bodies may be the sooner consum'd In most places upon the Coast of Coromandel the Women are not burnt with their deceas'd Husbands but they are buried alive with them in holes which the Bramins make a foot deeper than the tallness of the man and woman Usually they chuse a Sandy place so that when the man and woman are both let down together all the Company with Baskets of Sand fill up the hole above half a foot higher than the surface of the ground after which they jump and dance upon it till they believe the woman to be stifl'd When some of the Idolaters upon the Coast of Coromandel are upon the point of death their Friends do not carry them to the side of a River or Lake to cleanse their Souls but they carry them to the

his Tyranny and began to enjoy himself with more delight Soon after he receiv'd his Sister Begum-Saheb into favour restoring to her all her Governments and giving her the Name of Cha-Begum that is to say Princess Queen The truth is she is a Woman of prodigious parts and able to govern the whole Empire And had her Father and Brothers taken her counsel at the beginning of the War Aureng-zeb had never been King As for Rauchenara Begum his Sister she had always taken his side and when she heard he had taken Arms she sent him all the Gold and Silver she could procure In recompence whereof he promis'd her when he came to be King to give her the Title of Cha-Begum and that she should sit upon a Throne in all which he was as good as his word and they continu'd very loving together till I was last at Genanabat but then they were not so good friends upon this occasion The Princess having cunningly stoll'n into her Apartment a handsom young fellow could not so privately let him out again after she had quite tir'd him but the King was advertiz'd thereof Thereupon the Princess to prevent the shame and reproach ran to the King in a great pretended fright and told him that there was a man got into the Haram even to her very Chamber and that his intention was certainly either to have kill'd or robb'd her that such a thing was never seen that it concern'd the safety of his Royal Person and that he would do well to punish severely the Eunuchs that kept guard that night Presently the King ran in person with a great number of Eunuchs so that the poor young man had no way to escape but by leaping out of a window into the River that runs by the Palace-walls whereupon a world of people ran out to seize him the King commanding them to do him no harm but to carry him to the Officer of Justice However he has been not heard of ever since that time CHAP. VIII Of the Preparations against the Feast of the Great Mogul when he is weigh'd solemnly every year Of the richness of his Thrones and the Magnificence of his Court. THis great Feast begins the fourth of November and lasts five days They usually weigh the King at the time of his Birth and if he weighs more than he did the year before there is great rejoicing When he is weigh'd he seats himself upon the richest of his Thrones and then all the Grandees of the Kingdom come to congratulate and present him The Ladies of the Court send him their Presents also as likewise do the Governours of Provinces and others in great Employments The Presents consist of Jewels Tissues Carpetts and other Stuffs besides Camels Elephants Horses and indeed any thing that is rare and of value 'T is said he receives that day thirty Millions of Livres They begin to prepare for this Feast the seventh of September about two Months before it begins The first thing they do is to cover the two great Courts overhead from the middle of each Court to the Hall which is open upon three sides The Pavilions that cover these two void places are of Purple Velvet Embroider'd with Gold and so weighty that the Posts which sustain them are as big as the Mast of a Ship some thirty some forty foot high There are thirty-eight of these Posts to uphold the Tent in the first Court and those next the Hall are plated with Gold as thick as a Ducket The rest are plated with Silver of the same thickness The Cords are of Cotton of divers colours some of them as big as a good Cable The first Court is surrounded with Portico's and little Chambers where the Omrahs keep Guard For every eight days the Omrahs relieve the Guard and during those eight days the Omrah who is upon the Guard has a Dish of Meat out of the Kings Kitchin When he sees it coming afar off he makes three obeysances laying his hand three times upon the Ground and three times upon his Head crying out at the same time God preserve the Kings health give him long Life and Victory over his Enemies They take it for a great Honour to Guard the King and when they go upon the Guard they put on all their most sumptuous Apparel and their Horses Camels and Elephants are all richly adorn'd Some of the Camels carry a small Piece of Ordinance with a man behind to shoot it off The meanest of these Omrahs commands a thousand Horse but if he be a Prince of the Blood he commands six thousand The Great Mogul has seven Thrones some set all over with Diamonds others with Rubies Emraulds and Pearls The largest Throne which is set up in the Hall of the first Court is in form like one of our Field-Beds six foot long and four broad The Cushion at the back is round like a Bolster the Cushions on the sides are flat I counted about a hundred and eight pale Rubies in Collets about this Throne the least whereof weigh'd a hundred Carats but there are some that weigh two hundred Emraulds I counted about a hundred and sixty that weigh'd some threescore some thirty Carats The under-part of the Canopy is all embroider'd with Pearls and Diamonds with a Fringe of Pearls round about Upon the top of the Canopy which is made like an Arch with four Panes stands a Peacock with his Tail spread consisting all of Saphirs and other proper colour'd Stones the Body is of beaten Gold enchas'd with several Jewels and a great Ruby upon his breast at which hangs a Pearl that weighs fifty Carats On each side of the Peacock stand two Nose-gays as high as the Bird consisting of several sorts of Flowers all of beaten Gold enamel'd When the King seats himself upon the Throne there is a transparent Jewel with a Diamond Appendant of eighty or ninety Carats encompass'd with Rubies and Emraulds so hung that it is always in his Eye The twelve Pillars also that uphold the Canopy are set with rows of fair Pearl round and of an excellent Water that weigh from six to ten Carats apiece At the distance of four feet upon each side of the Throne are plac'd two Parasols or Umbrello's the handles whereof are about eight foot high cover'd with Diamonds the Parasols themselves are of crimson Velvet embroider'd and fring'd with Pearls This is the famous Throne which Tamerlane began and Cha-jehan finish'd which is really reported to have cost a hundred and sixty Millions and five hundred-thousand Livres of our Money Behind this stately and magnificent Throne there is another less in the form of a Tub where the King bathes himself it is an Oval seven foot long and five broad The outside whereof shines all over with Diamonds and Pearls but there is no Canopy over it Coming into the first Court on the right hand you see a particular Tent where during all the Feast the Morice-Dancers are appointed to make sport while

Character I come now to the present state of the Ottoman Family and to the particular inclinations The present State of the Ottoman Family of the Grand Seignor who now Reigns Mahomet the Fourth of that Name the Son of Ibrahim and a Circassian Lady was born in the Year 1643. and he is by that account got into the Thirty fourth year of his Age and the Twenty fourth of his Reign He has two Brothers Bajazet and Orchan but they are by another Mother who is still living and is perpetually studying how to preserve them He has also a third Brother named Solyman who is the second of the Sons of Ibrahim according to the order of their Nativities But the Mother of the last mentioned Son is dead and thence it comes that the Souldiery who conceive greater hopes of that Prince than of either Bajazet or Orchan his Brethren pity him the more and have the greater affection for him upon that very score of his having lost the support which he might have expected from a Mother Ever since the time of Bajazet the Second who first introduc'd that inhumane and cruel Custome of securing the Throne of the Sultan-Regent by the death of his Brethren few of those unfortunate Princes have escap'd the Barbarisme of their Elder-Brother and they amongst them who have been treated with somewhat less of inhumanity have pin'd away their lives in a strict and doleful Imprisonment being not permitted to see any body This was the Treatment of Ibrahim the Father of Mahomet during the Reign of Amurath his Brother the Son of Achmet by Kiosem a Woman of Excellent parts and well vers'd in the management of Affairs Mahomet's Brothers are now treated after the same rate and the Mother of Bajazet and Orchan uses all the endeavours she can to secure to them the affections of the great Officers of the Port and the Janizaries who are somewhat disgusted with the capricious humour and extraordinary covetousness of Mahomet This Prince was advanc'd to the Throne in the Year 1650. after the death of Ibrahim his Father who was strangled by the Janizaries in a Sedition He being then but Seven years of age the Regency was bestow'd during his minority on the Old Sultaness Mother to Ibrahim who soon after abus'd her authority and rais'd a dangerous Faction against her Grand-Child Mahomet wherein she lost her life The present Grand Seignor who is a Person much addicted to his Pleasures and An extraordinary Example of a Father and Son successively Grand Vizirs takes a particular diversion in Hunting leaves the management of Affairs to his Grand Vizir Achmet who has succeeded Coprogli his own Father in that principal Charge of the Empire 'T is a thing which may well pass for a Prodigy amongst the Turks and such as that there has not yet been any example of it seen as perhaps there will not be any other hereafter I have shewn that it is a thing absolutely contrary to their Politicks and therefore had it not been for the great and particular obligations which the Empire had to Coprogli who on the other side cunningly represented to the Grand Seignor that he never durst trust any but his own Son with the Secret of Affairs whereof he only had the Key this very Achmet who next to the Sultan is the Principal Person of the Empire would have been at present but a simple Bey or Captain of a Galley The Grand Seignor Mahomet is handsome enough as to his Person his Stature somewhat The Pourtraiture of Mahomet IV. the present Prince exceeding that of the middle sort of persons he has not too much corpulency and his health is in an uncertain state He is very much troubled with a Fall which he receiv'd in the violence of his Game some years since by leaping his Horse over a broad Ditch And whereas that passion is still predominant in him this inconvenience attends it That when he is not somewhat favourable and indulgent to himself in that violent Exercise he is sometimes taken off his Horse in a miserable condition the Remedies which might be apply'd to that indisposition taking no effect by reason of the little care he takes to preserve himself He is a person of an unconstant and unquiet disposition which creates the greater trouble to those who wait on him and though they study his humours yet is it a hard matter to satisfie him He has a Son who has been circumcis'd with great solemnity at the age wherein that Ceremony is to be perform'd The Sultaness his Mother a Woman of a Magnificent humour to augment the Pomp and Splendour of that Action to the eyes as well of the Turks as Forreiners would have the Garment which the Young Prince wore that day to be all cover'd with Diamonds and to that end caus'd several Rich Pieces of the Treasury to be broken but after the Solemnity all the Precious Stones were carried back into it again I said erewhile that the present Sultan Mahomet is extreamly addicted to Hunting and makes it so much his Darling Divertisement that he makes less account of the lives of Men than he does of his Dogs and withal that he is of a very covetous humour I shall in one single Example make a sufficient discovery of both those inclinations in him and that will also further make it appear how well he was skill'd in that Knack of exercising great Liberalities without any deduction out of his Revenues When the Grand Seignor goes a Hunting there are Orders sent to a great number of people for the space of four or five Leagues about the place where he intends to Hunt in order to the surrounding of a certain quantity of Ground and for the enclosing of it so well as that nothing can escape thence 'T is not to be imagin'd this can be done without great destruction to the Country and much inconvenience to the poor people who are forc'd to leave their work to carry on an Exercise which is much more toilsome then it in which they many times come off with the loss of Limb or Life or some other disastrous Accident These continual impositions of trouble and toil put many people into the repining humour insomuch that an Eunuch who was in favour having one day taken the freedom to represent to the Grand Seignor the prejudice his Subjects underwent by those courses which occasion'd the spoyling of their Grounds and the loss of their Lives he grew very angry and after some dayes imprisonment he gave him a shameful ejection out of the Seraglio But in process of time the mischievous Inconveniences occasion'd by this insatiable pursuance of his Pleasures in Hunting increasing more and more the Grand Vizir and the other Bassa's resolv'd to intreat the Moufti to make a Remonstrance to him of the ill consequence thereof he being the only person who might presume to speak any more of it to the Grand Seignor The Moufti would by no means hearken

more Excessive than one would expect from the Climate And besides their Children go stark naked during the great heats in Summer It is also remarkable That the Cold in Winter in the same Country is exceeding severe and one would think to them who have such mean accommodation intollerable These Nagoy Tartars have great store of Cattle as Kine Sheep Horses and Camels and yet notwithstanding they are very ill clad most of their Clothing being Sheep-Skins and those but scurvily dressed They have no sort of Corn or Grain mightily scorning the Europeans and Persians whose chief Diet they say is the top of a pitiful weed Polygamy is not only allowed but altogether in fashion among them most having divers Wives more or fewer according unto their Quality and Ability who unless they are Captivated by War are such as they buy of their Parents or Kindred for Cattle If one Brother dye the other takes all his Wives who are usually 5. or 6. But if all the Brothers die either in War or by Diseases then they are devolved like other Goods and Chattels unto the Elder Brother's Son they never suffering any married Woman during life to go out of the Kindred Here our Author hath inserted a Discourse concerning divers odd and some barbarous Customes which have long prevailed among the Nagoy Tartars and wherewith they will not easily Dispence But they giving little light unto History or Geography I have not thought them worthy the trouble of transcribing ner do I apprehend they would afford any considerable instruction or divertisement unto the Reader These Tartars of the Great Nagoy when they remove their habitation transport their Houses from place to place in Waggons with 4 Wheels which are drawn usually by Camels thoy pass up and down the Country in great Hordes their ordinary march is from the Volga unto Buskowshake thence to Voroslane Samara Eirgeesse Eishene Ougogura Reimpeska and all along under the Calmukes Country untill they arrive at the Jaick or Yeike Sometimes they pass by Cassoone Aurrow Camoyes Samar and so to Saraichika This is ordinarily their Summer Progress Against Winter they return unto those parts of the Country which border upon the Caspian Sea As Baksake upon the Caspian Sea Beallnssa Kitgach Sheennamara Coudake Caradowan Actabon and higher upon the Volga scattering themselves upon the Sea-shore and Banks of the Rivers among the Reeds and VVoods or wheresoever they find the Climate most mild and best Defence against the Cold which in the VVinter is in those Parts extremely severe so that 't is hard to determine whether they suffer more from the Heat in Summer or Cold in Winter During which latter Season they leave their Hergels or Horses and most of their greater Cattle to shift for themselves in the Deserts Having had often occasion to mention the River Jaicke or Yeike I shall here give a short account of what I have observed and learnt concerning its Rise and Course It comes from the Calmukes Land where it is thought to spring though some of the Russes affirm it Fountains are more Remote in Siberia the Southern parts of which is also inhabited if not possessed by the Kalmukes some of whose Ulusses or Hords are subject unto the Muscovites others in League with them but they have sometimes cruel Wars and did formerly destroy Tumen with some other Towns and Castles of the Russes who they apprehended did incroach too fast upon them But to return unto the Course of the Yeik after it hath passed through the Calmukes Country it divides the Great Nagoy from Cassachy Horda and after it hath passed in all a Thousand miles throwes it self into the Caspian Sea a little below Seraichika This is a very large River and the Land on each side well cloathed with Wood Grass divers sorts of Herbs and wild Fruits and the VVater full of good Fish which Conveniences do oft-times invite the Cossacks to make their abode there and from thence they make Incursions on divers parts bordering on the Caspian Sea This River among divers other Fish doth so wonderfully abound with Sturgeon that a man may stand upon the Pank side with a Pole in hand arm'd at the end with an Iron Crook make choice of what Sturgeon best pleaseth him which he shall rarely fail of taking though never so inexpert in Fishing if he have but strength or help to draw it on Land Not far from the Mouth of the Jaick in the Caspian Sea near the Shore are many Coves and Corners which they call Lapateens and Cultukes which are alwayes full of Swans usually swimming on the Sea which are so numerous that it is impossible to make any reasonable Computation thereof These Swans after Midsummer every Year cast their Feathers a little before which time there parts from Astracan many Boats which are manned by Russes and most of them are their Youth after a passage of 500 miles they arrive at these places which the Swans mostly haunt and having filled their Boats with Swans Skins and Feathers they return unto Astracan where a great Trade is driven with the Persians who give ordinarily a Dollar apiece for these Skins The next Country unto the Great Nagoy towards the East is Cassachy Horda which hath as I said on the West the Jaick by which it is divided from the Great Nagoy On the North the Kalmukes North East the Yurgeach or Jurgench Tartars and to the South the Caspian Sea and Caragans who inhabit on the North East side of the Caspian Sea These Cassachy Tartars march up and down the Country much after the manner of the Nagoys They have frequent Wars with the Kalmukes and Yurgeachians but seldome with either Nagoys or Caragans Only after the manner of most other Tartars they will clandestinely steal even from those Neighbours with whom they have the most uninterrupted and profound Peace Cassachy Horda is altogether Desart excepting some Woods Northward bordering upon the Kalmucks where there are divers small Rivers which empty themselves into the Jaick which River is also in most places bordered with Woods unto its Entrance into the Caspian Sea And therefore the Inhabitants may well be named Cassachy Horda or Wild people as the name imports They sowe no sort of Corn their chief Food being Horse-flesh and Mares milk which is also common to divers other Nations of the Tartars On the North of Cassachy Horda dwell the Kalmuke Tartars if such a life as they lead may be called dwelling The Country they inhabit deserves a better People the Land abounding with all things necessary for a Comfortable subsistence This Country hath store of Sables Marterns Black Foxes Squerrils and several other sorts of Furs which they Exchange with the Russes for Aqua-vitae Mead Tobacco and other Commodities This Country hath some Towns as Siberia the Head of a Province of the same name and Tumen both which the Russes have gained from them Ouffha Wadle Sellona Lucomoria which latter place they say is