I shall first take notice of the Mahometan Religion there professed That of the Hindoos or Heathens shall find a place wherein I may speak of it afterwards But first of the Mahometan Religion because the Great Mogol with his Grandees and all other of quality about him are Mahometans which Religion if it deserve that name took its first Rise and began to be professed in the world about the year of Christ 620 as hath been observed by many Writers The Ring-leader to it and chief Founder of it was Mahomet an Arabian by Birth born as is said in a very obscure place and of very mean and low Parentage but a Man fill'd with all Subtilty and Craft who as they write after that he had much enriched himself by Wives came to be the Commander of a Company of Arabian Volunteers that followed Heraclius the Emperour in his Persian Warrs but not long after himself and Souldiers falling first into Mutiny and after that to Rebellion which was an excellent preparative to put an innovation or change on Religion and his Souldiers standing close unto him he himself with the help of Sergius a Christian by profession but an Heretical Nestorian Monk and of Abdala a Jew composed a Religion that hath nothing in it or that savours of nothing so much as of rude Ignorance and most palpable Imposture it being a Monster of many Heads a most damnable mixture of horrid impieties if it be considered alltogether Yet because it contains much in it very pleasing to flesh and blood and sooths up and complies exceedingly with corrupt Nature it wanted no followers presently to embrace and assert it so that in a little time like a Gangrene it spred it self into many parts of Asia and since that hath enlarged it self like Hell so that at this present day it hath more that profess it in the world than those which profess Christianity if we take in all collectively that do but bear the Names of Christians the world over The poor people that are so much abused by the strong delusions of that great Impostor say for themselves thus that God hath sent three great Prophets into the world first Moses and after him Christ and then Mahomet and further add that when Christ left the world he promised to send a Comforter into it and that Comforter was Mahomet and therefore they close with him I shall not need amongst men professing Christianity to write any thing in answer to those their frantick assertions neither will I make it my business to enlarge my self in the discovery of the Mahometan Religion because that hath been done by so many hands already only this I will say of it and not much more that it hath Will-worship for its Foundation Fables and Lies for its support and a groundless presumption for its superstructure For its Foundation first abundance of Will-worship manifested in many outwatd performances which are not hard to be performed because the depraved will of man is ready prest and bent to perform things of that kind with readiness cheerfulness and delight The works of your Father the Devil you will do saith our Saviour of the obstinate Jews do them be they never so hard with content and willingness Secondly the Mahometan Religion hath abundance of strange Monstroos Fables and Lyes for its support their Alcoran for the substance of it being a fardle of foolish impossibilities fit to be received by none but fools and mad-men for they can gain no more credit with those that are judicious then what is related in the ryming story of that antient Knight Errant Bevis of Southampton or in the Poems of Orlando the furious where may be found some such like parallel fictions as of Astalpho who mounted a Griffin which carried him up immediately into the Moon where they say Mahomet sometime was the reason I conceive which made himself and his followers ever since so full of Lunacy or madness Thirdly it hath a groundless presumption for its superstructure which presumption draws that misled people into a careless security they esteeming themselves the only true believers of the world and none true believers but themselves Yet it cannot be denied but that there are some things in the precepts which Mahomet hath prescribed to be received and observed by his followers that are good laid down in eight commandments which are these First That God is a great God and the only God and Mahomet is the Prophet of God Second That Children must obey their Parents and do nothing to displease them either in word or deed Third That every one must do to another that and only that which he would have another do to him Fourth That every man five times every day must repair to the Mosquit or Church to pray there or wheresoever he is he must pray every day so often if not in the Church then elsewhere Fifth That one whole Moon in every year every man come to years of discretion must spend the whole day 'twixt the rising and setting of the Sun in fasting Sixth That every one out of his store must give unto the poor liberally freely and voluntarily Seventh That every one except those Votaries which renounce marriage must marry to increase and multiply the Sect and Religion of Mahomet Eighth That no man must kill or shed blood Now much in these Commandments agrees with the word of Truth and we need not wonder at it when we consider that even the Devil himself as we may observe in the Gospel hath sometimes had a Scripture in his mouth So have Hereticks and so did Mahomet and his Assistants mix some Scripture in their Alcoran to put a fairer gloss upon their irreligion But what Scriptures they all urge are for the most part if not ever wrested by their maiming or perverting or mis-applying of them Thus the Devil quotes a Scripture Mat. 4.6 but one part is left out and the rest mis-applied Those therefore who wrest or mangle Scripture to serve their own turn we may see from whose School they have it Thus Mahomet cites Scripture to do more mischief by it let no man content himself and think all is well because he can sometimes speak good words have a Scripture in his mouth when he considers that Hereticks Hypocrites do so that Mahomet nay Satan himself hath done as much But to proceed the Mahometan-Priests are called Moolaas who read some parcels out of their Alcoran upon Fridays which are their Sabbaths or days of rest unto the people assembled in their Mosquits or Churches and then further deliver some precepts which they gather out of it unto their miserably deluded hearers These Moolaas are they which joyn those of that Religion in marriage and these imploy much of their time as Scriveners to do businesses for others or to teach their young Children to write and read their language in written hand for as before they have no Printing Those Moolaas are more distinguished from the rest of
without the Nieche hung a Bell as 't is the custom in all their Temples which as I said before all those who come to make their prayers ring at their first entrance Within this and the other Nieches on the sides were one or two lighted Candles In the other sides of the Temple something higher then the pavement were in the wall certain little Nieches in each of which stood an Idolet or little Idol some in the shape of Men others of Women One there was which had many Arms on a side and many Faces and this they said was call'd Brachma one of their chief false Deities Another had the head of an Elephant and was call'd Ganescio They say he is the Son of Mahadeu who finding him one day with Parveti his Wife but his own Mother and not knowing who he was kill'd him out of jealousie cutting off his Head but afterwards understanding that he was his own Son he repented him of his error and resolv'd to bring him to life again Wherefore meeting with an Elephant as he had purpos'd to do with what he first happen'd upon he cut off his Head and plac'd it on his dead Son's Shoulders Whereupon Ganescio reviv'd and thenceforward liv'd immortal with an Elephants Head But behold another delusion One there is with the Head I know not whether of a Tyger or Lyon probably 't is that Narosinha which I formerly writ that I saw in Combru in the maritine parts of Persia. Some of these Idolets sate upon sundry Animals as Tygers and the like and even upon Rats of which things the foolish and ignorant Indians relate ridiculous stories But I doubt not that under the veil of these Fables their ancient Sages most parsimonious of the Sciences as all Barbarians ever were have hid from the vulgar many secrets either of Natural or Moral Philosophy and perhaps also of History And I hold for certain that all these so monstrous figures have secretly some more rational significations though express'd in this uncouth manner As we know in ancient time among the Gentiles of our Countries there was in the figures of quadrifronted Janus of Jupiter Ammon with the Head of a Ram of Anubis with the Head of a Dog and many other extravagances not onely of the Grecians and Aegyptians but also of the Romans The Sieling Pillars and Walls of this Temple were adorn'd with Painting especially red which how dear 't is to the Indians I formerly intimated The doors of their Houses namely the Posts Architraves and Barrs that fasten it are all colour'd so adding some mixture of white limes to the red for of white too they are so enamour'd that all Men are generally cloth'd with it A custom peradventure deriv'd to them from Aegypt where it was in use as Herodotus writes and whence perhaps Pythagoras himself learnt it who went cloth'd in white as we find noted by Aelian and others And I observe that in many particulars the manners of the present Indians much resemble those of the ancient Aegptians but since the Aegyptians who descended from Cham the Son of Noah were a very ancient people I rather believe that the Indians learnt from the Aegyptians then the Aegyptians from the Indians and 't is known that from Aegypt there was always Navigation and Commerce into India by the Southern Ocean The red colour amongst these Indians is besides by the Women worn also by the Sami who are a kind of religious persons with red the Gioghi who live like Hermits and go about begging sometimes paint their bodies in many parts and also with red blended with yellow that is with some parcel of Sanders or Saffron almost all the Indian Gentiles dye their fore-heads and sometimes their garments accordingly as Strabo reports from the testimony of Onesicritus they did likewise in the time of Alexander the Great Lastly they wear red Turbants upon their Heads and their Girdles are oftner wrought with red then any other colour After having seen the Temple of Mahavir we went to visit an old Brachman accounted very learned amongst them with whom we discours'd as well as we could by an interpreter because he understood no other Language but the Indian We found him amongst many Scholars to whom he was giving a Lecture He shew'd us his Books written in an antique Character which is the learned amongst them not common to the vulgar but known onely to the learned and us'd by the Brachmans who in distinction from other vulgar Characters us'd variously in sundry Provinces of India call it Nagheri I have and shall carry with me two small Books of it which I sometimes bought in Lar. This Brachman is call'd Beca Azà rg of which words Beca is his proper Name and Azà rg his Title of Honour Amongst other Books he shew'd us that of their sect in which though it was bound long ways as 't is the fashion of their Books yet the lines were written cross the paper after the manner of some of our Musick-Books He affirm'd to us for certain that it was a work of Pythagoras which well agreeth with what Philostratus saith Jarchas told Apollonius namely that they Indians believ'd the same concerning the Soul which Pythagoras had taught them and they the Aegyptians which is quite contrary to what I said before was my opinion which of these two Nations first taught the other But Diogenes Laertius who writes Pythagoras's Life copiously enough making mention of his going into Aegypt and how he convers'd likewise with the Chaldaeans and Magi yet speaks not a word that ever he went into India or had communication with the Brachmans Wherefore if Pythagoras taught any thing to the Indians as Jarchas said he did it not in person but by his books which possibly were carry'd into India Moreover Beca Azà rg added that their Brachmà esteemed one of the chief amongst their false Gods from whom they are denominated Brachmans is all one with Pythagoras A curious notion indeed and which perhaps would be news to hear in Europe that Pythagoras is foolishly ador'd in India for a God But this with Azà rg's good leave I do not believe Either he did not expresly speak thus and by the fault of the Interpreters we did not understand him aright or if he did affirm it perhaps he came to be mistaken by having heard Pythagoras nam'd by some Europaeans for the Author of that foolish opinion of the Transmigration of Souls Be it as it will I cannot believe that Pythagoras and Brachma are all one because though Pythagoras be very ancient for he flourish'd in the Consulship of Brutus who expell'd the Kings out of Rome yet I hold the Rites and opinions of the Brachmans much more ancient For when Diodorus relates the contest of the two Wives of Ceteus an Indian Captain in the Army of Eumenes each of whom would be burnt with her Husband slain in battel speaking of the Laws Customs and Rites of the Indians he calls them even
that of immature Figgs which is very pernicious to the flesh wherever it touches The Fields were full of Olive-trees Tamarind-trees and other such which in India are familiar About noon having travell'd twelve or as others said fourteen Cos we arriv'd at Ahmedabà d and our journey from Cambaia hither was always with our Faces towards the North East Being entred into the City which is competently large with great Suburbs we went directly to alight at the house of the English Merchants till other lodging were prepar'd for us where also we din'd with them After which we retir'd to one of the houses which stand in the street which they call Terzì Carvanserai that is the Taylers Inn. For you must know that the Carvanserai or Inns in Ahmedabà d and other great Cities of India are not as in Persia and Turkey one single habitation made in form of a great Cloyster with abundance of Lodgings round about separate one from another for quartering of strangers but they are whole great streets of the City destinated for strangers to dwell in and whosoever is minded to hire a house and because these streets are lockt up in the night time for security of the persons and goods which are there therefore they call the Cavanserai Notwithstanding the wearisomness of our journey because we were to stay but a little while at Ahmedabà d therefore after a little rest we went the same Evening to view the market-place buying sundry things It displeas'd me sufficiently that the streets not being well pav'd although they are large fair and strait yet through the great dryness of the Earth they are so dusty that there 's almost no going a foot because the foot sinks very deep in the ground with great defilement and the going on Horse-back or in a Coach is likewise very troublesome in regard of the dust a thing indeed of great disparagement to so goodly and great a City as this is I saw in Ahmedabà d Roses Flowers of Jasmin and other sorts and divers such fruits as we have in our Countries in the Summer whence I imagin'd that probably we had repass'd the Tropick of Cancer and re-enter'd a little into the temperate Zone which doubt I could not clear for want of my Astrolabe which I had left with my other goods at Surà t On Tuesday following which to us was the day of Carnaval or Shrove-Tuesday walking in the Morning about the Town I saw a handsome street strait long and very broad full of shops of various Trades they call it Bezari Kelà n that is the Great Merkat in distinction from others than which this is bigger In the middle is a structure of stone athwart the street like a bridge with three Arches almost resembling the Triumphal Arches of Rome A good way beyond this bridge in the middle of the same street is a great Well round about which is built a square Piazzetta a little higher then the ground The Water of the Well is of great service to all the City and there is always a great concourse of people who come to fetch it Going forwards to the end of the Market we came to the great Gate which stands confronting the street and beautifi'd with many Ornaments between two goodly Towers 't is the Gate of a small Castle which they call by the Persian word Cut. Nor let it seem strange that in India in the Countries of the Moghòl the Persian Tongue is us'd more perhaps then the Indian it self since the Mogholian Princes being originally Tartars and of Samarcand where the Persian Tongue is the natural of the Country have therefore been willing to retain their native Speech in India in brief the Persian is the Language of the Moghols Court most spoken and us'd in all publick writings Near this Castle Gate in a void place of the street are two pulpits handsomely built of stone somewhat rais'd from the ground wherein 't is the custome to read the King's Commandments publickly when they are be proclaim'd Thence turning to the right hand and passing another great Gate and through a fair Street we came to the Royal Palace for Ahmedabà d is one of the four Cities amongst all the others of his Dominions where the Grand Moghòl by particular priviledge hath a Palace and a Court and accordingly he comes sometimes to reside there This Palace hath a great square Court surrounded with white and well polish'd walls In the midst stands a high Post to shoot at with arrows as is also usual in the Piazzaes of Persia. On the left side of the Court as you go in are the King's Lodgings a small and low building What 't is within side I know not for I enter'd not into it but without 't is as follows Under the King's Windows is a square place inclos'd with a rail of colour'd wood and the pavement somewhat rais'd within which when the King is there are wont to stand certain Officers of the Militia whom they call Mansubdà r and they are almost the same with our Colonels their Command extends not to above a Thousand Horse nor are they all equal but from a thousand downwards some have more some less under them Within this inclosure of the Mansubdary under the King's Balconies stand two carv'd Elephants of emboss'd work but not large painted with their natural colours and in the front of the Royal Lodgings are other such Ornaments after their mode of little consideration Some said that a while ago in one of the Balconies stood expos'd to publick view an Image of the Virgin Mary plac'd there by Scià h Selim who they say was devoted to her and to whom perhaps it was given by one of our Priests who frequent his Court out of a desire to draw him to the Christian Faith but the Image was not there now and possibly was taken away by Sultan Chorrom his Son reported an Enemy of the Christians and their affairs since his coming to the Government of those parts of Guzarà t The station of the greater Captains and of higher dignity then the Mansubdary as the Chans and others of that rank is in the King's Balconies or near hand above there within the Rooms The inferior Souldiers that is such as have onely two or three Horses stand upon the ground in the Court without the above mention'd inclosure In the front of the Court is another building with an inclosure also before it but less adorned 't is the place where the King's Guard stands with all its Captains And the same order I believe is always observ'd in the Moghòl's Court in whatsoever place or City he happens to be Within this Court is another on the left hand surrounded with other buildings for necessary Offices but not so well built nor polish'd Having seen what we could of the Royal Palace we return'd by the same way we came to the street of the great Market From whence we went to see a famous Temple of Mahadeù to which there is hourly a great concourse of people
know not whether through the Artificers fault who seems to have been little skilful or else because the Indians as I have also heard of the people of Sumatra account it a great Beauty and perfection to have a great Belly This figure of Brahma stands upright and at his Feet two other less carv'd figures which as they say are his two Sons Sunnet and Sunnatan On each side of Brahma stand likewise two Statues of Women somewhat less then Brahma himself and they call them his Wives Savetrì and Gavetrì On the left side of this narrow Temple stand two other figures of the same bigness being two naked Men with long Beards whom they pretend to have been two religious persons I know not whether Doctors or Disciples of Brahma or Pythagoras one is call'd Chescuèr the other Ciavan de Chescuèr On the same side downwards are many other Idolets as one with an Elephants Head and divers others formerly by me mention'd All which Idols are serv'd ador'd perfum'd offer'd to and wash'd every day as for delight for the Indians account it delight to wash often by the Brachmans who assist at their service with much diligence I must not forget that the Banians say this Town Naghera was the King's Seat and principal City anciently the Head of the whole Kingdom of Cambaia and that the City now properly call'd Cambaia and rais'd to greatness by the ruine of this old is a modern thing whence I have sometimes suspected that the Indian Character call'd Naghra us'd by the learned was denominated from this City wherein it was anciently us'd but 't is onely a Conjecture and I have learnt by long and much experience that in the derivation and interpretation of Names especially of Places there is no trusting to the resemblance of Words because by reason of the diversity of Languages and the casual Conformity of Words which signifie things sufficiently different according to the variety of Places gross errors are easily admitted Nagher in the Indian Language signifies a Great City Coming from Naghra I saw some naked and besmeared Men of deportment almost like the incinerated Gioghi who were of a Race of Indians accounted by themselves the most sordid and vile Race of all in India because they eat every thing even the uncleannest Animals as Rats and the like whence â—â—ey are call'd in Persian Hhalal-chor which signifies a Man that accounts it lawful to eat any thing the Indians call them Der and all people in general abhor not onely to converse with but even to touch them Concerning Religion I have heard nothing particular of them but believe them Gentiles as the rest or perhaps Atheists who may possibly hold every thing for lawful as well in believing as in eating They are all sufficiently poor and live for the most part by begging or exercising the most sordid Trades in the Common-wealth which others disdain to meddle with but they either because their Rite teaches them so or necessity inforces them are not at all shie of March the fifth We visited the King's Garden again and many other Gardens where we tasted divers fruits and beheld several Flowers of India unknown in Europe amongst the rest one very odoriferous which I kept in a Paper which they call Ciompa Without the City we saw the Saltpits and also the Field by the Sea-side where the Indians are wont to burn the bodies of their dead which may be known by the reliques of many fires and pieces of bones not wholly burnt which are seen scatter'd about the same The next Morning early we return'd to this Field and saw several Bodies burnt and particularly observ'd the Funeral of one Woman from the beginning to the end They carry the Corps wrapt in a cloth of Cit of a red colour for the most part and much in use among the Indians for other purposes They carry it not upon a Biere as we do but ty'd to and hanging down like a sack from a staff lay'd cross two Men's shoulders They make the funeral pile of wood lay'd together in form of a bed of equal length and breadth and sufficient to receive the Body upon which beginning then to lament with a loud voice they lay the carkass naked and supine with the Face and Feet towards the Sea which I believe is likewise observ'd where the Sea is not towards Rivers Lakes and Cisterns the Indians having a particular devotion to the Water nor do I know that herein they have respect to any Region of Heaven They cover the privities with a piece of wood anoint the Hands and Feet put a coal of fire in the Mouth and then all things being prepar'd they set fire first at the Throat and afterwards to the whole pile round about beginning first at the Head but with their Faces turn'd another way as Virgil saith our Ancestors did Then sprinkle Water on the ground round about the pile which they continually stir up with staves in their Hands and blow with the motion of a cloth to the end the flame may not spread but burn more speedily The body being consum'd by degrees they reduce the fire into a round form and when all is burnt they leave the ashes and sometimes a piece of a bone not wholly consum'd there in the same place The cloth wherein the body was wrapt before it was committed to the pile they give in Charity to some poor person present Such as have where withall are burnt with odoriferous and precious wood in which the rich spâ—â—d much but they that cannot reach so high use ordinary wood Children under two years of age are not burnt but buried as we saw some in the same Field Nor let the Reader wonder that in the same day and hour we hapned to see so many dead persons for besides that Cambaia is a large City and very populous as all the Cities and Lands of India are the Gentiles are wont to perform this Ceremony of the dead onely in the Morning at a set hour and in that place so that all that dye in the whole City during the twenty four hours of the day are brought to that place at the same hour The same day we had News of a Jesuit's coming to Cambaia from Goa with a Cafila of Portugal Frigats which was going for Agrà Whereupon in the Evening Sig Alberto Scilling and I in company of a Venetian Merchant went to visit him at the house where he lodged and having told him that we were to go the next day for Surà t I desir'd him to give a letter to the Jesuits of Daman and Bassaim where I hop'd to touch upon the way to Goa which he very courteously condescending to do we went again the next Morning to see him before we departed March the seventh In the Morning we visited the Father Jesuit who was not a Priest but one of those whom they call Fratelli Brothers or young Fryars He gave me Letters to F. Antonio Albertino an Italian and Rector of their
the Harbour but something more inwardly discharging great Artillery from thence upon the City and the mouth of the Port so that no Ship could enter But at last a small number of Portugals having routed with a signal and almost miraculous victory a very great body of Moors the same day they likewise took the said Morro whither the routed Moors flying it hapned that in the entrance of the Fortress an Elephant wounded by the Portugals in its flight fell down in the Gate so that the Moors could not shut it and the victorious Portugals in that fury of pursuing the Enemy had occasion and convenience of entring so that they took it and still hold it having improv'd the fortifications and consequently deliver'd the City of Ciaùl from the continual molestations which it suffer'd from thence by the Moors and now the Citizens live in peace and more secure Having landed a little way from the Dogana or Custom-house which stands without the walls the first thing I saw was the Cathedral Church which stands likewise without the walls upon the shore and is the See not of a Bishop but of a Vicar as Daman Bassaim Ormuz and other places are which though they enjoy the title of Cities are nevertheless all subject to the Arch-Bishop of Goa I went next into the Colledge of the Jesuits whose Church here as also in Daman Bassaim and almost all Cities belonging to the Portugals in India is call'd Saint Paul's whence in India the said Fathers are more known by the name of Paulists then Jesuits Here I visited F. Antonio Pereira who was come from Bassaim where I fell acquainted with him in our Fleet in order to go likewise to Goa I likewise visited the F. Rector of the said Colledge who caus'd me to stay dinner with him and being the Fleet departed not that day I also lodg'd in the said Colledge at night April the second I heard Mass early in the Jesuits Church and taking leave of them went to embark but found that my Galeot was remov'd to the other side of the Port under the Mountain to be mended and having found Sig Manuel d' Oliveira one of our Companions embark'd in the same Galeot and understanding that the fleet did not depart that day neither I went with him to hear a Sermon in the Cathedral Church after which we went to dine in the House of F. Francesco Fernandez Priest and Vicar who liv'd sometimes at Ormuz and after the loss of that Island was retir'd hither The Portugals call Secular Priests Fathers as we do the Religious or Monasticks In the same House dwelt Signor a worthy and grave Souldier who being a Friend to my said Companion we convers'd together till it was late and then our Galeot being come back we went to embark but neither did the fleet depart this night as we suppos'd it would April the third A rumor of departing being spread abroad about noon we put out to Sea and cast Anchor at the mouth of the Harbour where many other Galeots were gather'd expecting the setting forth of the whole fleet but neither did we depart this day nor the night ensuing April the fourth The fleet being at length in readiness and the Sun a good height we set sail and departed from the Port of Ciaùl In the Afternoon we sail'd by a Fort which is the onely one possess'd near the Sea by the Moors of Daman that is by Nizà m Scià h which Fort is call'd Danda Ragiaporì and at night we cast Anchor under a steep shore call'd Kelsi We did not sail in the night time because the Cafila was numerous consisting by my conjecture of above 200. Vessels and in the dark some unwary Ship might easily have been taken by the Rovers of Malabar The next day we sail'd gently along onely with the sail call'd the Trinket making but little way that so we might go altogether and not leave many Ships behind which being ill provided of Tackle could not sail fast We cast Anchor again early in the Evening to avoid the confusion which might arise by so many Ships casting Anchor together besides the danger of falling foul one upon another in the dark Our course was always Southerly and the Coast along which we pass'd on the left hand was all mountainous till having got out of the dominion of Nizam-Sciah we began to coast along that of Adil-Scià h Now that it may be understood who these Princes are I shall tell you that on the South of the States of the Great Moghòl in the Confines whereof India begins to be distended into a great Tongue of Land like a Triangle a great way Southwards into the Sea between the Gulph of Cambaia and the Gulph of Bengala the first Province of India joyning to the States of the Moghòl is the Kingdom of Daman whereof some part is still possess'd by the Moghòl Next follows the Kingdom of Telengone or Telengà and many other Provinces divided under several Princes into little Kingdoms which they say were anciently but one or two and that the others who are now absolute Princes were sometimes his Captains or Ministers who having by degrees pull'd down the Principal who was if I mistake not the King of Bisnagà on the South and the King of Sceherbeder are become equal and all without superiority sovereign Princes Amongst these the nearest to the Moghòl are three Reguli or pety Kings all which yet have great dominion and strength and are at this day of the Sect of the Moors for the Moors having at first been brought into India to serve as slaves are by degrees become Masters and by oppressing the Gentiles in many places have much propagated their Religion Of these three Princes the nearest to the Moghòl whose Territory lyes toward the Sea on the West and Confines with the Portugals at Giaùl and other places and who is properly styl'd King of Dacà n from the greatest Province is call'd by the name or rather sirname hereditary to all that reign in this State Nizam Scià h which many interpret Rè della Lancia King of the Lance alluding to the Persian word Nizè which signifies a Lance but I conceive they are mistaken because his name is Nizam Scià h and not Nizè Sciah as according to this interpretation it should be Wherefore I have heard others perhaps better interpret it Rè de' Falconi King of Falcons or Hawks from the word Nizà m which in the Indian Tongue they say signifies a Hawk or other Bird of Prey And whosoever reigns here always retains this sirname because whilest he was not an absolute Prince but a Minister of that other great King of India this was his Title and Office under that King The Nizam Scià h now reigning is a Boy of twelve years old who therefore doth not govern it but an Abyssine Slave of the Moors Religion call'd Melik Amber administers the State in his stead and that with such authority that at this day this Territory is more generally known and
call'd by the name of Melick's Country then the Kingdom of Nizam-Scià h Nevertheless this Melik Amber governs not fraudulently and with design to usurp by keeping the King shut up as I have sometimes heard but according as I have better understood since from persons inform'd nearer hand he administers with great fidelity and submission towards the young King to whom nevertheless they say he hath provided or already given to Wife a Daughter of his own upon security that himself shall be Governour of the whole State as long as he lives This Melik Amber is a Man of great parts and fit for government but as they say very impious addicted to Sorcery whereby 't is thought that he keeps himself in favour with his King and that for works of Inchantments as to make prodigious buildings and with good luck that the same may last perpetually and succeed well he hath with certain Superstitions us'd in those Countries committed most horrid impieties and cruelties killing hundreds of his Slave's Children and others and offering them as in Sacrifice to the invok'd Devils with other abominable stories which I have heard related but because not seen by my self I affirm not for true The Ambassador of this Nizam-Scià h in Persia is that Hhabese Chan an Abyssine also whom I saw at my being there Of strange things they relate that Nizam-Scià h hath I know not where in his Country a piece of Ordnance so vast that they say it requires 15000. pound of Powder to charge it that the Ball it carries almost equals the height of a Man that the metal of the piece is about two spans thick and that it requires I know not how many thousand Oxen besides Elephants to move it which therefore is useless for war and serves onely for vain pomp Nevertheless this King so esteems it that he keeps it continually cover'd with rich cloth of Gold and once a year comes in person to do it reverence almost adoring it and indeed although these Kings are Moors yet they still retain much of the ancient Idolatry of the Countries wherein Mahometism is little or not yet universally setled The second of the three pety Kings whose Country joyns to that of the Moghòl but borders upon the Sea Eastward in the Gulph of Bengala is he who for the same reasons mention'd concerning Nizam-Scià h is call'd by the hereditary sirname of Cutb-Scià h which some erroneously expound Polo d' i Rè the Pole of Kings being deceiv'd by the Arabick word Cutb which signifies the Pole and is us'd by the Arabians and Persians to denote supream excellency understanding e. g. by Polo de i Savii ò di Sapienza The Pole of Wise-men or of Wisdom the wisest Man in the world by Polo di Santità o della Legge The Pole of Sanctity and the Law the greatest pitch and the highest observer of the divine Law and so in all other like Cases but I say I believe they are mistaken and there seems to me more truth in the exposition of others who interpret Rè de i Cani King of Dogs from Cutb which in the Language of India signifies a Dog because he was Master of the Dogs to that supream King Under his jurisdiction is Gulcondalà r where I think he hath his Royal Seat and Mislipatan a famous Port in the Gulph of Bengala Lastly the third of the three Reguli is he who hath his Seat in Visapor and reigns in the Country of Telongane bordering upon the Portugals Territories at Goa more Southwards then the two before mention'd Some will have Visapor and Goa belong to the Province of Dacà n and that Telenga much more remote toward the South The truth is India and the Provinces thereof is very confus'd forasmuch as the Indians themselves being illiterate cannot distinguish it aright and the Portugals have all their knowledge thereof from the vulgar of the ignorant Indians whose Language they understand not well and extreamly corrupt in pronuntiations therefore I cannot speak any thing certain concerning the same as neither have the Portugal Writers been able to do though persons very exact and sufficient But to return to my purpose the proper name of him that now reigns is Ibrahim but his hereditary sirname as the others is Adil-Scià h or Idal Scià h which signifies not giusto Rè a Just King as some think from the Arabick word Adil denoting Just but rather in my opinion as some others say Rè delle Chiavi King of the Keys from Adil or Idal an Indian word importing Keys he having been in times pass'd Superintendent of the Keys of the Treasury perhaps or Archives under the supream King Sometimes these Princes have been call'd Nizam-maluk Adil-Chan and so the others with the words either Melek or Chan in stead of Scià h which is all one for Melek or Maluk as some corruptly read signifies a King in Arabick as Chan doth also in Turkish and Scià h in Persian And because these three Languages are sufficiently familiar and almost common to the Moors therefore they have us'd sometimes one word sometimes another but in later times it seems that those who now rule rejecting the words Melek and Chan are better pleas'd with the Persian Title Scià h as being perhaps more modern to them whence they are ordinarily call'd now Nizam-Scià h Cutb-Scià h and Adil-Scià h which are the three Princes of whom I undertook to give an account as persons whom I shall have frequent occasion to mention in these Writings And to leave nothing unsaid I shall add that Nizam-Scià h or rather his Governour Melik-Ambar makes war frequently and bravely against the Great Moghòl upon whom he borders Cutb-Scià h I know not whether he actually makes publick war against him but at least he fails not to assist his Neighbour Nizam-Scià h with money The same doth also Adil-Scià h but secretly and by under-hand not daring through I know not what mean fear declare himself an enemy to the Moghòl I say mean fear because not bordering upon him for the two other Princes lye between them and being able as they say upon occasion to bring into the field a hundred thousand men he seems justly chargeable with timerousness and cowardice since me-thinks he that hath a hundred thousand men at his command ought not to fear the whole world or if he doth he is a very Poltron But indeed Adil Scià h fears the Moghòl yea he fears and observes him so much that he payes him an annual Tribute and when the Moghòl sends any Letter to him which is always brought by some very ordinary common Souldier or Slave he goeth forth with his whole Army to meet the Letter and him that brings it who being conducted to the Palace sits down there whilst Adil-Scià h stands all the time and the Letter being lay'd upon a Carpet on the pavement before he offers to put forth his hand to take it up he bows himself three times to the earth doing reverence to it after their manner Moreover I have heard that this Ibrahim Adil-Sciah
and stay'd both to dine sup and lodg with them April the tenth Early in the Morning I went to the Ship landed my Goods dispatch'd them at the Custom-house and having carry'd them to the House of Sig ra Lena da Cugna where Mariam Tinatin was I went to quarter till the House taken for me were emptied clean'd and prepar'd in the Covent of the Profess'd House of the Jesuits where I was receiv'd by the Visitor the Provincial the Provost and the rest with much courtesie and with their accustomed Charity and Civility I found there many Italian Fathers of which Nation the Society makes frequent use especially in the Missions of China Japan India and many other places of the East besides the two above-nam'd I found of Italians F. Christoforo Boro a Milanese call'd Brono in India not to offend the Portugal's ears with the word Boro which in their Language do's not sound well a great Mathematician and another young Father who was afterwards my Confessor F. Giuliano Baldinotti of Pistoia design'd for Japan whither he went afterwards Moreover in the Colledge which is another Church and a distinct Covent F. Alessandro Leni an ancient Roman and Friend of my Uncles with whom especially with Sig Alessandro he had studied in our Casa Instituta or Academy F. Giacinto Franceschi a Florentine all who with infinite others of several Nations Portugals Castilians and others were all my Friends and particularly F. Pantaleon Vincislao a German well skill'd in Mathematicks and a great wit Procurator of China F. Per Moryad the Vice-Roy's Confessor and F. Francesco Vergara both Castilians F. Christoforo di Giavanni a Portugal learned in Greek and Arabick F. Flaminio Carlo of Otranto Master in Divinity Of Fryers I also found many Italians namely in the Colledge of Fryer Joseph Masagna a famous Spicerer and a Man of much business in the Profess'd House a Neapolitan a Venetian and a Thuscan call'd Fryer Bartolomeo Pontebuoni a good Painter and also a Man of much employment who were all my great Friends April the eleventh my Birth-day The Jesuits shew'd me all their Covent which is indeed a large and goodly Building and though not much adorn'd according to our custom yet perhaps is the best thing that is in Goa as also the front of their Church April the fourteenth which was Holy Fryday Being present at Holy Service in the Quire of the Jesuits because I was still in my Persian Habit the Portugal Clothes which I had bespoken being not yet made and therefore I appear'd not in publick Sig Constantino da SÃ a Portugal Cavalier or Hidalgo design'd General for the Island of Zeilan whither he was preparing to go speedily with his Fleet coming also to hear the Office in the Quire saw me there and understanding who I was was pleas'd to take notice of me and after the Office was ended came together with the Fathers very courteously to complement me offering himself to serve me as he said in the Island of Zeiland if I pleas'd to go thither Whereunto I also answer'd with the best and most courteous words I could This Sig Constantino had been sent with an Armado of many Ships to relieve Ormuz when it was besiedg'd but not arriving there till after the place was taken he return'd back with his Fleet to Goa April the sixteenth being Easter-Day I first resum'd an Europaean to wit a Portugal Habit as 't is the fashion at Goa amongst the graver sort after I had worn strange garbs for many years together and ever since the death of my Sig ra Sitti Maani cloath'd my self and my servant in mourning April the seventeenth F. Vincislao Pantaleon my Friend above-nam'd who was skill'd in the China Language having been many years in these parts and intended to return thither shew'd me the Geographical Description of all China written very small or rather printed in a China Character after their way very handsomely On which occasion I must not omit to note that the Chineses as the said Father shew'd me in their Books are wont in writing to draw the line or verse of their writing not as we and the Hebrews do cross the paper but contrary to both from the top to the bottom beginning to write at the right side of the paper and ending at the left which to all other Nations seems a very strange way Moreover their Letters are not properly Letters but great Characters each of which denotes an intire word whence the Characters are as many as there are words in the Language and they reckon to the number of eighty thousand a thing indeed not onely strange and superfluous but also in my opinion unprofitable yea disadvantageous and onely for vain pomp for in learning these Characters they spend many years unprofitably which might be imploy'd in the acquisition of other better Sciences without being always Children as Hermes Trismegistus said of the Greeks yea in their whole life they cannot learn them all so that there are none among themselves or if any they are very rare and miraculous who can write and read all the words and know all the Characters of their own Tongue which is certainly a great imperfection although they say that he who knows four thousand Characters may speak and write well enough and he that knows six or eight thousand may pass for eloquent The Japoneses seem to me more judicious in this point having for ordinary and more facile use invented aâ— Alphabet of few Letters written likewise from the top downwards wherewith they write all words and all their own Language and also that of China But in the Sciences and more weighty matters the learned amongst them most commonly make use of the China-Characters which as mysterious and sacred are venerable to all these Nations and although they have all several Languages yet they do and can make use of the same writing because being the said Characters are not Letters but significative of words and the words although different in sound yet in all these Languages are of the same signification and number it comes to pass that divers Nations adjacent to China as these of Japan Cauchin-China and other although different in Language yet in writing making use of the China-Characters at least in matters of greatest moment understand one another when they read these Characters each in their own Tongue with the different words of their proper Language which indeed in reference to the commerce and communication of Nations is a great convenience April the seven and twentieth This Morning being the first Thursday after the Dominica in Albis there was a solemn Procession at Goa of the most Holy Sacrament for the Annual Feast of Corpus Christi as the custom is But in Goa it is kept out of the right time upon such a day because the right day of the Feast falls in the Moneths of great Rain so that at that time the Procession cannot be perform'd and therefore they anticipate it in this manner
where we lodg'd on either side the way were such large and goodly Trees such spacious places underneath for shade and the place so opacous by the thickness of the boughs on high that indeed I never saw in my dayes a fairer natural Grove amongst other Trees there was abundance of Bambù or very large Indian Canes twin'd about to the top with prety Herbs The journey of this day was three Cos or a League and half This River they say is one of those which goes to Garsopà Vitulà Sinay we found not here because he was gone before November the fourth We began in the Morning to pass our Goods over the River but because there was but one and that a small boat it was ten hours after noon before we had got all of them over then following our journey through somewhat oblique and uneven wayes like the former we found many Trees of Myrobalanes such as are brought into Italy preserv'd in Sugar It hath leaves much like that which produces Gum Arabick by me formerly describ'd different onely in this that in that of Gum Arabick the branch consisting of many leaves is much less round or oval and seems one leaf made up of many other long and narrow ones But in this Myrobalane Tree the branch is sufficiently long and the small leaves composing it in two rows on either side are somewhat larger nor is the Myrobalane Tree prickly like that of Gum Arabick The fruit is round hard of a yellowish green smooth shining of little pulp but a great stone almost round and furrow'd with six circular lines Being raw it hath an acid and astringent but in my judgment no pleasant taste but preserv'd becomes good They say it is refrigerative and purges Choler Having rested many times upon the way and in all travell'd two Leagues we ended this day's journey in the onely considerable and populous Town we had hitherto met which is call'd Ahinelì We lodg'd in the Porches of a Temple of Idols which had two Porches one within the other without both low after their manner with very large Pent-houses strengthened with great Posts the Pavement rais'd high and dung'd but not lately the walls white sprinkled in the corners and ends with a sort of Rose-Oyle ill colour'd for so is their custom always in their Religious Structures The Idol was call'd Virenà Deurù the latter of which words signifies God or rather Lord being attributed also to Men of quality he stood at the upper end in a dark place with Candles before him of what figure he was I could not see well by reason of the darkness but they told me 't was a Man In the body of the Temple were many other wooden Statues of less Idols plac'd about in several places as 't were for ornament some of which were figures of their Gods others not of Gods but for ornament of several shapes Many of these figures represented dishonest actions One was of a Woman lifting up her cloths before and shewing that which Modesty oblig'd her to cover Another was of a Man and a Woman kissing the Man holding his Hand on the Womans Breasts Another had a Man and a Woman naked with their Hands at one another's shameful parts those of the Man being of excessive greatness and sundry such representations fit indeed for such a Temple But these were not figures of Gods Of Gods there was a Brahmà with five Heads and three Arms on a side sitting astride a Peacock which in their Language they call Nau Brahmà that is the Peacock of Brahmà another God was call'd Naraina with four Arms on a side Another with an Elephant's Head and two Hands to an Arm whom they call Ganesù and others Bacra-tundo that is Round-mouth for one and the same God hath divers names Another call'd Fuenà had the shape of a Man holding a naked Sword in his right Hand and a Buckler in his left Another had a Man under his Feet upon whose Head he trampled and so many others of various sorts I observ'd that all these Idols had the same cover of the Head high with many picks or peaks all ending in one long peak a strange and majestical Diadem not us'd now in India it might have been of wreath'd Linnen or Gold or other solid matter wherefore I imagine that it is a very ancient covering at this day dis-us'd unless haply it be some ensign of Divinity which I rather think because I remember to have seen at Rome almost the same Diadems upon the Heads of some Aegyptian Statues and if I forget not they were call'd Tutuli and the Idols of Tutulati as amongst us the Diadems of the Saints or as some make it three Crowns one upon another like the Regno or Pontifical Crown of our Pope In the middle of the Temple was another darker inclosure wherein stood fastned in the ground certain slender staves with others cross them in two rows making a little Steccato or Palisado of a long form and these were to hang Lamps and Tapers upon at more solemn dâ—yes and hours A Barber whom we had with us an Indian Gentile but a Native of the Country of Adil-Scià h who was nam'd Deugì and understood something of the Portugal-Tongue could not well tell me the names of those figures and Idols of the Temple when I ask'd him because he said they were not things of his Country where they had other things and Gods and that every Country had particular ones of their own Within the circuit of this Temple but on one side of the Court as you go in were three other little Cells separate from the body of the great Temple two of which were empty perhaps not yet well accommodated but in the other was an Idol of an Ox which our Barber knew and said was also of his Country and that they call it Basuanà it was half lying or rather sitting upon the floor with the Head erect like which Ox or Basuanà stood another in the upper part of the Temple before the Tribunal of the Idol Virenà as if it stood there for his guard In the Evening the Ministers of the Temple ring a kind of Bell or Shell which was within the Temple striking it with a staff and it made a tolerable sound as if it had been a good Bell at which sound some from without assembling together they begin to sound within the Temple very loud two Drums and two Pipes or Flutes of metal after which many Tapers being lighted particularly at the Steccato above-mention'd and put in order a little quilt with a Canopy of rich Stuff which is alwayes ready in the Temple for carrying the Idol they put the principal Idol Virenà into it not that of ordinary wood in the middle of the Temple but the other at the upper end which was of the same bigness about two spans round between the figure and ornaments about it but all painted with various colours gilded and deck'd with white Flowers
in which the Queen got the better of him and the Portugals of which she was very proud yet with-all her Protector Venk-tapà Naieka who is very rapacious and little faithful sufficiently humbled her and she got not much benefit by him saving quiet living for besides his subjecting her to his obedience in a manner she was necessitated whether by agreement or violence I know not to resign to him Berdrete which is the best and richest City she had together with much Land in those Confines of Venk-tapà and of the inner part of her Country which amounted to a good part of her Dominions however at present she lives and governs her Country in Peace being respected by all her Neighbours This Queen had an elder Son then him that now lives he was call'd Cic-Rau Ciauerù and dy'd a while since The Portugals say that she her self caus'd poyson to be given him because the young man being grown up and of much spirit aspir'd to deprive her of the Government and make himself Master Which is possible enough for divers other Princes in the world have procur'd the death of their own Children upon jealousie of State so prevalent is that cursed enormous Ambition of ruling Yet such an impiety not being evident to me concerning the Queen I will not wrongfully defame her but rather believe that the young man dy'd a natural death and with regret to her So neither do I believe what the Portugals incens'd against her further report namely that she hath attempted to poyson this second Son but it succeeded not he being advertis'd thereof by his Nurse who was to give him the poyson since I see that this Son lives with her in the same place and house peaceably which would not be if there were any such matter Nor can I conceive why she should go about to extinguish all her own Issue in this manner having now no other Heir born of her self December the fifth The Queen of Olaza's Son who though he govern not for the Mother administers all alone and will do as long as she lives yet for honor's sake is styl'd King and call'd Celuuà Rairù of which words Celuuà is his proper name and Rairù his title sent for the Brachman my Interpreter in the Morning and discoursing long with him took a particular information of me telling him that he understood I was much whiter then the Portugals who us'd to trade in that Country and of a very good presence and consequently must needs be a person of quality In conclusion he bid him bring me to him when my conveniency serv'd for he was very desirous to see me and speak with me This Message being related to me I let pass the hour of dinner because having no appetite and finding my stomack heavy I would not dine this day and when it seem'd a convenient time I went with my Interpreter cloth'd in black after my custom yet not with such large Breeches down to the heels as the Portugals for the most part are wont to wear in India in regard of the heat for they are very commodious covering all the Leg and saving the trouble of Stockins so that the Leg is naked and loose but with Stockins and Garters and ordinary Breeches without a Cloak though us'd by the Portugal-Souldiers in India even of greatest quality but with a large Coat or Cassock open at the sides after the Country fashion The Palace which may rather be call'd Capanna Reale a Royal Lodge is entred into by a Gate like the grate or lattice of our Vine-yards at Rome ordinary enough seated in the midst of a field which like them is divided by a small hedge from the neighbouring fields Within the Gate is a broad Walk or Alley on the right side whereof is a spacious plot sown at the end of which the Walk turns to the right hand and there upon the same plot stands the Royal Mansion having a prospect over all the said great green field In the middle of this second Walk you enter into the House ascending seven or eight wooden stairs which lead into a large Porch the length of which is equal to the whole fore-part of the House This Porch was pav'd with Cow-dung after their manner the walls about shining and painted with a bad red colour much us'd by them The fore-part of it which is all open is up-held by great square posts of no great height for 't is their custom to make all buildings especially Porches but low in respect of the breadth and length with very broad Pent-houses which is I believe by reason of the great heat of the Country where they have more need of shadow and coolness than of air or light Directly opposite to the stairs in the middle of the Porch was another small Porch which was all the entrance into the inner part of the building Within the little Porch was a small room long and narrow where the King sate near the wall on the left side and he sate upon the ground after the Eastern manner upon one of those coarse clothes which in Persia and Turkie are call'd Kielim and serve for poor people nor was it large but onely so much as to contain the Person of the King the rest of the room being bare saving that it was pollish'd with Cow-dung Beside the King but a little farther on his left hand sate upon a little matt sufficient onely to contain him a Youth of about fifteen or eighteen years of age call'd Balè Rairù who was his Nephew and is to succeed him being the Son of his deceased Sister who was Daughter to the present Queen The Father of this Youth was a neighbour Gentile Prince whom they call the King of Cumbià or perhaps more correctly Kunblè call'd by his proper name Ramò-Nà to Arì of which words Ramò-Nà to is the proper name and Arì the title They said he was still living though others at Goa told me afterwards that he was dead But being this young Balè Rairù was not to succeed his Father but had Right of Inheritance in Olaza therefore he liv'd not in his Father's Country but here at Manèl with his Grand-mother and his Uncle None other sate with the King but three or four of his more considerable servants stood in the room talking with him and in the great Porch without the little one stood in files on either side other servants of inferior degree two of which nearest the entrance ventilated the Air with fans of green Taffeta in their Hands as if to drive away the flyes from the King or the entrance a Ceremony us'd as I have said elsewhere by Indian Princes for Grandeur and they told me the green colour was a Ceremony too and the proper badg of the King of Olaza for the King of Banghel uses Crimson other Princes white as I saw us'd by Venk-tapà Naieka and others perhaps other colours A small company indeed and a poor appearance for a King which call'd to my
The same day after dinner I took leave of the Consul with all my other Friends and was by his Servants and many others of the Italian Nation accompany'd out of the City Before we mounted our Camels I was desirous to see in the Suburbs of Aleppo the Churches of the Oriental Christians which stand in a Street call'd Giudeida not from the Jews as some who skill not of Languages erroneously imagine but from the Arabick word Gedida which signifies New perhaps because this place of the Suburbs was built more lately then others Here a little out of the Street on the right hand I found four Churches all together led unto by one Gate onely from the Street but the place being spacious enough within conveniently divided and separated about the Court or Yard Two of them belong'd to the Armenians the greater a fair one indeed call'd Santi Quaranta or the forty Saints and the less Della Madonna or our Lady One of the other two call'd San Nicolo belong'd to the Greeks and the other which is the least of all to the Maronite Catholicks call'd Sant ' Elia. In another place a good distant from this I saw alone by it self another Church hansome and large for the Country built after our manner with three Naves or Isles upon Pillars it belong'd to the Syrian Jacobites and was call'd Sitaa Assedi or Santa Maria. This Church hath adjoyning to it a good House with a little Garden and other conveniences according to the use of the Country wherein lives the Patriarch of the Jacobits calld Heda for whom I had brought from Bassora a Letter of F. Basilio di San Francesco a discalciated Carmelite wherein he invited him to a mutual friendship and correspondence from which he might draw some benefit to the service of God by reason of his skill in the Arabick and his residence here in behalf of the Christians of the Country This Letter I had gotten presented to the Patriarch and transmitted his answer to F. Basilio but had never visited him as the Father desir'd me in order to second his Letter and settle a friendship between them because he liv'd far from the Venetian Consul's House where I resided and all the while I remain'd in Aleppo I was lame of one foot by a hurt caus'd by walking in ill shoos that day when we were in danger of being assaulted by thievs so that I could not walk and was not wholly cur'd when I departed Nevertheless hapning to be so near his Church now I would not omit to visit him I found him a very compleat civil and courtly man according to the mode of the Country he had not the fame of being learned but yet was accounted wise and generous He told me he was glad of F. Basilio's Letter and residing at Bassora and building a Church there so peaceably and with so much favour of the Turks as he advertis'd him and that he would continue correspondence with him He also shew'd me two fair Books of the Gospels written in large Parchment-sheets with excellent Syrian Characters one of them as I remember written four hundred years ago the Letters whereof were all either of Gold or Silver and this Book they say was found by the Turks in Cyprus when they took the Island and carri'd to Constantinople from whence it was afterwards redeem'd with money and brought hither Indeed no Manuscript could be more goodly or rich with gold and miniature it had also a velvet Cover adorn'd with Silver gilt but made by themselves the ancient Cover which they said was set with jewels of great value being taken away by the Turks 'T is the custom of the Orientals to make great account of Books so fairly written and richly adorned as likewise S. Jerom reports they us'd to do in his time though himself being a Scholar was better contented as he saith with his schedules of a less fair Character but correct The other Gospel which the Patriarch shew'd me was more ancient namely four hundred and fifty years old but written with ordinary ink and few miniated Figures this he told me they bought lately at Cyprus for two hundred Piastres He added that the Church of Aleppo was not his Patriarchal See although under his jurisdiction but it was near the City of Mousul which is in the place of the ancient Niniveh After much more discourse he caus'd very good Sherbets of Sugar with snow to be given us to drink as the custom is and offer'd us a Collation of fruits which we receiv'd not because it was already late and time to be gone At last at my taking leave he pray'd me to do reverence to his Holiness in his name and so when he had given me many benedictions as their manner is I left him and departed Being come to the place where the Camels with the Women waited for me I took leave of all those friends that had accompani'd me thither and chose not the direct way to Alexandretta which the Caravans commonly use but one somewhat longer hard by Antioch out of a desire to see the remains of that ancient City which I had not yet seen After a short travel we rested till the Moon arose and then proceeded all the remainder of the night in bad and uneven ways August the twenty fourth We pass'd by some Villages and places cultivated with Olive-trees which I was joyful to see not having beheld any for many years About Noon we rested amongst certain ruins of Stone-buildings which had once been very magnificent and seem'd to be the remains of some noble City in ancient times Here the Archbishop Isciva-jahab's men the one nam'd Abdisciva and the other Hendi overtook me with his Letter I receiv'd them and carri'd them with me as I had promis'd The said place is call'd Hhalqa which signifies a Circle because 't is a great Plain almost surrounded with Hills Three hours after Noon we set forth again we pass'd by another Village belonging to the Territory of Hhalqa and at night took up our Quarters near a running Water under another Village call'd Harta At midnight the Moon rising we set forth again and travell'd all the remainder of the night August the twenty fifth Continuing our journey we came into a great Plain and travelling along the River Orontes according to the stream which we had found at day-break we cross'd over the same upon a good Stone-bridge Here the Plain is contracted being streightned on the right hand with high and on the left with lower mountains travelling in which Valley about Noon we arriv'd at Antioch which is fronted with high mountains almost on the North beyond the River Orontes and back'd with lower toward the South the walls of the City being extended over the same We enter'd at the East-gate and took up our Quarters near a great Cistern which is on the left hand of the Gate divided only by a wall from the Street and pav'd round with white Marble it is fill'd by a
otherwise than they should to answer what am I Jew that I should do so and so I have observed somthing to this purpose from the people of East-India who are very valiant at tongue-fights though not so with their weapons as you will hear afterward that people I say who have a very nimble but a base quality in railing at and miscalling one another and their language is so full and significant that they can call a man in it two or three base things in one word but when they come to call him whom they miscall Judeo Jew they believe as I have been often told that they can go no higher esteeming that above all other terms the highest name of obloquy Yet we do believe because the Lord hath promised it that he will find a time to call home this people again to himself when they shall receive honour above all the contempt they have been long under after they shall see with sorrow and with the eye of faith Him whom their Fore-fathers out of ignorance and despite and unbelief pierced For the Stature of the Natives of East-India they are like us but generally very streight for I never observed nor heard of any crooked person amongst them And one reason may be because they never lace nor girt in their Bodies and when they sleep they accustom themselves to stretch out their Bodies at their full length without any thing to raise up their heads And further among many other things I took special notice of there I never observed any deformed Person nor Ideot or natural Fool in those Parts Now for the Complexion of this People they are all of them of a sad tawney or Olive-colour their hair black as a Raven very harsh but not curl'd They like not a man or woman that is very white or fair because that as they say is the colour of Lepers common amongst them Most of the Mahumetans except the Moolaes which are their Priests or those which are very old and retired and have as it were given the World quite over keep their chins continually bare but suffer the hair on their upper lipps to grow very long and they keep it in its natural colour by combing it continually with black-lead Combs till they be of good years but afterward when Time hath so snowed upon them that they can no longer keep in nor conceal their gray hairs they use the Rasor as they did no more but let the hair of their chins grow long and large which makes many gray-beards amongst them and I conceive that there are of those many Old men And further it is the manner of the Mahumetans to shave all the hair from off their Heads reserving only one lock on the Crown of them for Mahomet to pull them up to Heaven with as they fondly conceit The Hindoes shave their Heads likewise but cut all off and both of them shave thus and that very often but however their baldness appears not at all because their Heads are continually covered with a Shash or a wreath of narrow Callico-Cloth many times wrap'd about them usually for their colour white or red which they never pull off as we do our Hats in Complements Their much and often shaving makes many excellent Barbers amongst them who besides their Scisâ—ers and Rasors use a little Instrument about the length of a short Bodkin very sharp made like a Chizel but not broader at the cutting end than the shank of a six-penny nail with which they pare and clense the nails on their fingers and toes Every Barber carries always about him a round Looking-glass made of steel about the compass of a large trencher-plate made somwhat hollow and kept by them exceeding clean and sleek so that it will represent the Face of him that beholds it on the convex side very well These Barbers as they walk up and down often present these Glasses unto men whom they find sitting still which is a tender of their Service if they shall please to make use of them The people there often wash their Bodies and keep their Feet as clean and as sweet as their Hands The better sort annoint themselves very much with sweet oyls which makes their company as before I observed very savory The Natives there of which there is somthing before in my third Section shew very much ingenuity in their curious Manufactures as in their Silk-stuffs which they most artificially weave some of them very neatly mingled either with Silver or Gold or both As also in making excellent Quilts of their stained cloth or of fresh coloured Taffata lined with their Pintadoet or of their Sattin lined with Taffata betwixt which they put Cotten-wooll and work them together with Silk Those Taffata or Sattin-quilts are excellently stitched by them being done as evenly and in as good order as if they had been drawn out to them for their direction the better to work them They make likewise excellent Carpetts of their Cotton-wooll in fine mingled colours some of them more than three yards broad and of a great length Some other richer Carpets they make all of Silk so artificially mixed as that they livelily represent those flowers and figures made in them The ground of some other of their rich Carpets is Silver or Gold about which are such silken flowers and figures as before I named most excellently and orderly disposed throughout the whole work Their skill is likewise exquisite in making of Cabinets or Boxes or Trunks or Standishes curiously wrought within and without inlaid with Elephants tooth or Mother of Pearl or Ebony or Tortoyse-shell or Wyre they make excellent Cups and other things of Agate and Cornelian and curious they are in cutting all manner of stones Diamonds as well as others They paint Staves or Bed-steads or Chests of Boxes or Fruit-dishes or large Chargers extream neatly which when they be not inlaid as before they cover the wood first being handsomly turn'd with a thick Gum then put their Paint on most artificially made of liquid silver or gold or other lively colours which they use and after make it much more beautiful with a very clear varnish put upon it They are excellent at Limning and will coppy out any Picture they see to the life for confirmation of which take this instance It happened that my Lord Embassadour visiting the Mogol on a time as he did often presented him with a curious neat small oval Picture done to the life in England The Mogol was much pleased with it but told the Embassadour withall that haply he supposed that there was never a one in his Country that could do so well in that curious Art and then offered to wager with him a Leck of Roopees a sum which amounted to no less then 10000 l. sterl that in a few days he would have two Copies made by that presented to him so like that the Embassadour should not know his own He refused the great wager but told the King he would
of weaving especially on both ends which hang down directly before them And thus have I presented a Mahometan there in his proper dress whose habit will more visibly appear together in the Mogols Picture portrayed and after put into this discourse Now for the Mahometan women because I had never sight of those of the greatest quality I cannot give such an account of them in respect of the Habits For these unless they be dishonest or poor come not abroad but for the fashion of their Garments they do not differ much from those the men wear for they wear Coats and Breeches one very like the other only women bind their long hair with Phillets which hang down behind them They wear likewise upon their heads Mantles or Vails usually made of white Callico or of their Pintado's which hang down over their other Garments Further the women have their Ears boared not only in their flaps but round about them wherein they wear very little Pendants those of the richer sort are made of flat narrow and thin pieces of Gold or Silver those worn by the poorer sort made of Brass or Iron kept bright so that all are in the same fashion they bestow some work upon the edges and ends of those Pendants And those women have the lower part of their left Nostrils pierced wherein they wear a Ring when they please of Gold or Silver or of some other baser Metals Those Rings of Gold have little Pearls fastned to one end of them and that Pearl is dril'd through that both ends of the ring may meet in it And doubtless the women of the greatest quality though I saw it not are bedeck'd with many rich Jewels This I have observed in some of those of the better sort I there saw that they did wear great broad hollow Rings of Gold enamel'd and some made of Silver or Brass upon their wrists and upon the small of their legs to take off and on two or three of them upon each Arm and Leg which make a tinkling noise very probably such Ornaments as the Jewish women were threatned for Isaiah 3. where Almighty God tells them that he would take away their tinkling Ornaments about their feet the Bracelets and the Ornaments of their legs their Rings and Nose-jewels For my Lord Embassadour and his Company we all kept to our English Habits made as light and cool as possibly we could have them His waiters in red Taffata Cloaks guarded with green Taffata which they always wore when they went abroad with him my self in a long black Cassock and the colours and fashion of our garments were so different from theirs that we needed not wheresoever we were to invite spectators to take notice of us And now the Constancy there observed by the Natives of both sexes in keeping to their old fashions in their Habits exampled to them by their Predecessors in many foregoing Generations and by them still continued is the great praise of this people as the commendation of every Nation in the World almost besides ours still constant to their ancient fashions in their Apparel SECTION XII Of their Language their Books their Learning c. THE Language of this Empire I mean the Vulgar bears the name of it and is called Indostan it hath much affinity with the Persian and Arabian Tongues but the Indostan is a smoother Language and more easie to be pronounced than the other a Language which is very significant and speaks much few words They write it as we to the right hand It is expressed by letters which are very much different from those Alphabets by which the Persian and Arabian Tongues are formed The Persian there is spoken as their more quaint and Court-tongue The Arabian is their learned Language both written backward to the left hand like the Hebrew from whence they borrrow many words which come so near it as that he who is a good Critick in the Hebrew may very well guess at the meaning of much in both those Languages The Persian is a Language as if it consisted all of Guttural letters as some in the Hebrew Alphabet are called filling the mouth in the pronunciation of them for as the words in that Language are full of sense so in their speaking they are full of sound For the Latin and Greek by which there hath been so much knowledg conveyed into the World they are as ignorant of them both as if they had never been and this may be one great reason why there is so little learning amongst them But for the people themselves they are men of very strong reason and will speak ex re nata upon any offered occasion very exceeding well and doubtless they are a people of such strong Capacities that were there literature amongst them they might be the Authors of many excellent works but as the case stands with them all that is there attainable towards Learning is but to read and write And here by the way let me insert this that I never saw any Idiot or natural Fool nor any deformed person amongst them in any of those parts For Logick and Rhetorick which are so instrumental the first to enlarge and the second to polish discourses they have none but what is Natural They say that they write some witty Poems and compose many handsom Annals and Stories of their own and other adjacent Countries They delight much in Musick and have some stringed but many more Wind-instruments They have the use of Timbrels likewise but for want of pleasing Airs their Musick in my ears never seemed to be any thing but discord Their Books are not many and those are Manuscripts That rare and happy invention of Printing which hath been the advancement of so much learning within Christendom is not known without it They have heard of Aristotle whom they call Aplis and have some of his Books as they say in the Arabian Tongue in which Language they further say they have many Books written by Avicenna that ancient Physitian who was born in Samarchandia one of the most fam'd places within the Tartarian Empire the Country as they believe where Tamberlain the Mogols great Ancestor drew his first breath Some parts or fragments they have of the old Testament of which more when I shall come to speak of their Religion Many amongst them profess themselvs to have great skill in judicial Astrology that great Cheat which hath been very anciently and often put upon as the Sacred Story witnesseth the people inhabiting the East and South parts of the World I call it a Cheat because there is and must needs be so much uncertainty in it all things here below being ordered and over-ruled by the secret and unerring providence of Almighty God which frustrateth the tokens of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledg foolish Esay 44.25 First these Diviners are mad when things fall not out according to their bold predictions And secondly they
interrupt his devotion for a Mahometan to pray five times a day and for one that is called a Christian not to pray some believing themselves above this and other Ordinances five times in a week a moneth a year But this will admit less cause of wonder if we consider how that many bearing the Names of Christians cannot pray at all those I mean which are prophane and filthy and who live as if there were no God to hear or to judg and no Hell to punish Such as these can but babble they cannot pray for they blaspheme the Name of God while they may think they adore it I shall add here a short story It happened that I once having some discourse with a Mahometan of good quality and speaking with him about his frequent praying I told him that if himself and others of his profession who did believe it as a duty to pray so often could conclude their Petitions in the Name of Jesus Christ they might find much comfort in those their frequent performances in that great duty He answered that I needed not to trouble my self with that for they found as great comfort as they could desire in what they did And presently he would needs infer this Relation There was said he a most devout Mussleman who had his habitation in a great City where Mahomet was zealously professed that man for many years together spent his whole day in the Mosquit or Church in the mean time he minding not the world at all became so poor that he had nothing left to buy bread for his family yet notwithstanding his poor condition he was resolved still to ply his devotions and in a morning when he perceived that there was nothing at all left for the further subsistence of himself and houshold took a solemn leave of his wife and children resolving for his part to go and pray and dye in the Mosquit leaving his family if no relief came to famish at home But that very day he put on this resolution there came to his house in his absence a very beautiful young man as he appeared to be who brought and gave unto his wife a very good quantity of Gold bound up in a white Napkin telling her that God had now remembred her husband and sent him his pay for his constant pains taken in his devotion withall charging her not to send for her husband for though he had taken such a solemn leave of her that morning yet he would come home to her again that night and so he departed from her The woman presently bought in some necessaries for her house for they had eaten up all before and further made some good provision for her husband against his coming home in the evening for so he did and finding all his family very cheerful and merry his wife presently told him that there had been such a one there as before described and left so much gold behind him with that fore-mentioned message delivered with it Her husband presently replied that it was the Angel Gabriel sent from God for the Mahometans speak much of that Angel and he further added that himself had nothing to bring home unto her but a little grett or sand which he took up in his way homeward and bound it in his girdle which he presently opening to shew her it was all turn'd into precious stones which amounted unto a very great value in money The seventh part of which as of his gold likewise he presently gave to the poor for said he a Mussleman is very charitable and then inferr'd that if we do not neglect God God will not forget us but when we stand most in need of help will supply us Unto which conclusion we may all subscribe leaving the premises which are laid down in that story unto those that dare believe them The Mahometans say that they have the Books of Moses but they have very much corrupted that story in ascribing that to Ishmael which is said of Isaac Gen. 22. as if Ishmael should have been sacrificed not Isaac of which more afterward They say that they have the Book of Davids Psalms and some Writings of Solomon with other parcels of the Old Testament which if so I believe are made much to vary from their Original They speak very much in the honour of Moses whom they call Moosa Calim-Alla Moses the publisher of the mind of God So of Abraham whom they call Ibrahim Carim-Alla Abraham the honoured or friend of God So of Ishmael whom they call Ismal The Sacrifice of God So of Jacob whom they call Acob The blessing of God So of Joseph whom they call Eesoff The betrayed for God So of David whom they call Dahood The lover and praiser of God So of Solomon whom they call Selymon The wisdom of God all expressed as the former in short Arabian words which they sing in Ditties unto their particular remembrances And by the way many of the Mahometans there are called by the names of Moosa or Ibrahim or Ismal or Acob or Eesoff or Dahood or Selymon so others are called Mahmud or Chaan which signifies the Moon or Frista which signifies a Star c. And they call their women by the names of Flowers or Fruits of their Country or by the names of Spices or Odours or of Pearls or precious Stones or else by other names of pretty or pleasing signification As Job named one of his daughters Jemimah which signifies Clear as the day the second Keziah which signifies pleasant as Cassia or sweet Spice And the name of the third Keren-happuch signifying The Horn or strength of beauty Job 42.14 But I 'll return again to that people that I may acquaint my Reader with one thing of special observation and 't is this That there is not one among the Mahometans of any understanding which at any time mentions the name of our blessed Saviour called there Hazaret Eesa the Lord Christ but he makes mention of it with high reverence and respect For they say of Christ that he was a good man and a just that he lived without sin that he did greater miracles then ever any before or since him nay further they call him Rha-how-Alla the breath of God but how he should be the Son of God they cannot conceive and therefore cannot believe Perhaps the Socinians first took that their opinion from these which bids them to have every thing they receive as truth to be cleared up unto them by the strength of Reason as if there were no need of the exercise of Faith And truly I must needs confess that to believe the Incarnation of the Son of God is one of the hardest and greatest tasks for Faith to encounter withall that God should be made a Man that this Man Christ should be born of a Virgin that Life should spring from Death and that from Contempt and Scorn Triumph and Victory should come c. But Christians must bind up all their thoughts as to
not eat with any but those of their own Tribes The illiterate Priests of all that people for the generality of them are called Bramins who derive themselves from Bramon whom they say was one of the first men that inhabited the World and after the sin of that first World brought the Flood the race of that Bramon whose very name they highly reverence was continued in Bremaw who as they say out-lived that deluge and is honoured by them likewise as one of their great Prophets and Law-givers Those Bramins as I conceive are they which the ancient stories call Brachmans but with this difference that those Brachmanes were accounted learned men for the learning of those times wherein they lived But these Bramins are a very silly sottish and an ignorant sort of people who are so inconstant in their Principles as that they scarce know what the particulars are which they hold and maintain as truths As anciently amongst the Jews their Priest-hood is hereditary for all those Bramins Sons are Priests and they all take the Daughters of Bramins to be their Wives Of which somthing before They have little Churches they call Pagods standing near or under their green Trees built round but as their ancient Brachmans were said not to endure these on the contrary have Images in their Pagods made in monstrous shapes but for what end they have them I know not Now from the manner of those Heathens which I believe hath been for many-many years retained in their Idolatrous worships I conceive that the Jews long ago borrowed that unwarrantable custom of worshipping God in Groves or under green Trees Both men and women before they go to their devotions which are very frequently performed wash their bodies and keep off all their cloaths but the covering of modesty till they have done led hereunto by a Precept as they say commanded them to be perform'd by their Law-giver Bremaw which requires them daily to observe their times of devotion expressed by their washings and worshippings and prayer to God which must be all done with purity of hearts And it is the manner of this people before they take their food to wash their bodies then which I much observed while we lived in Tents they make a little Circle upon the ground which they seem to consecrate after which they sit down within that compass and eat what they have provided and if any come within that Circle before they have ended their meal they presently quit the place and leave their food behind them That outward washing as this people think avails very much to their cleansing from sin not unlike the Pharisees who were all for the out-side of Religion and would not eat with unwashen hands Mark 7.2 unless they washed themselves up to the Elbows as Theophylact observes hence those Hindoos ascribe a certain divinity unto Rivers but above all to that famous River Ganges whither they flock daily in troops that there they may wash themselves and the nearer they can come to the head of that River the more virtue they believe is in the water After they have thus washed they throw pieces of Gold or Silver according to their devotion and ability into that River and so depart from it Thus Reader thou hast somewhat of the carriages of this people in life Now after death some of them talk of Elyzian fields such as the Poets dream'd of to which their souls must pass over at Styx or Acheron and there take new bodies Others of them think that ere long the World will have an end after which they shall live here again on a new earth Some other wild conceivings of this people follow afterward Some Bramins have told me that they acknowledge one God whom they describe with a thousand eyes with a thousand hands and as many feet that thereby they may express his power as being all eye to see and all foot to follow and all hand to smite offenders The consideration whereof makes that people very exact in the performances of all moral duties following close to the light of Nature in their dealings with men most carefully observing that Royal Law in doing nothing to others but what they would be well contented to suffer from others Those Bramins talk of two books which not long after the Creation when the World began to be peopled they say were delivered by Almighty God to Bramon before spoken of one of which Books they say containing very high and secret and mysterious things was sealed up and might not be opened the other to be read but only by the Bramins or Priests And this Book thus to be read came after as they further say into the hands of Bremaw of whom likewise somthing before and by him it was communicated unto Ram and Permissar two other fam'd Prophets amongst them which those Heathens do likewise exceedingly magnifie as they do some others whose names I have not Now that Book which they call the Shester or the Book of their written word hath been transcribed in all ages ever since by the Bramins out of which they deliver Precepts unto the people They say that there are seven Orbs above which is the seat of God and that God knows not small and petty things or if he do regards them not They further believe that there are Devils but so fettered and bound in chains as that they cannot hurt them I observed before the tenderness and scruple which is in very many of that people in taking the lives of any inferiour and meerly sensible yea and of hurtful creatures too And those which are most tender-hearted in this case are called Banians who are by far more numerous than any other of those Indian Sects and these hold Pythagoras his Metempsychosis as a prime Article of their Faith Which that untaught people come up very near unto thinking that all the souls both of men and women after they leave their bodies make their repose in other Creatures and those Souls as they imagine are best lodged â—hat go into Kine which in their opinion are the best of all sensible creatures and therefore as before they give yearly 〈◊〉 sums of money unto the Mogol to redeem them from â—â—â—â—ghter And this people further conceit that the Souls of 〈◊〉 wicked go into vile Creatures as the Souls of Gluttons and Drunkards into Swine So the Souls of the Voluptuous and incontinent into Monkies and Apes Thus the Souls of the Furious Revengeful Cruel People into Lions Wolves Tygres other beasts of prey So the Souls of the Envious into Serpents and so into other Creatures according to peoples qualities and dispositions while they lived successively from one to another of the same kind ad infinitum for ever and ever by consequence they believing the immortality of the World And upon that same mad and groundless phansie probably they further believe that the Souls of Froward Peevish and Teachy Women go into Wasps and that there is never a silly