appointment of the day But why is this day now called the Lords day I answer euen therefore because it is the Lords day not changed by the Churches Constitution Meere as some seeme to hold except by the Churches authority they meane Christ and his Apostles nor descended to vs by Tradition as the Papists maintaine seeing the Scriptures Act. 20.7 1. Cor. 16.21 Apoc. 1.10 mention the name and celebration by the constant practise of the Apostles yea Christ himselfe as he rose on that day so did he vsually appeare on that day to his Apostles before his Ascension Christ therefore and his Apostles are our Authors of this change And the Church euer since hath constantly obserued it The Fathers teach yea the Papists themselues acknowledge this truth So Bellarmine de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. saith Ius diuinum requirebat vt vnus dies Hebdomade dicaretur cultus diuino non autem conueniebat vt seruaretur Sabbathum itaque ab Apostolis in diem Dominicum versum est It was in the Primitiue Church called the Lords day the day of Bread and of Light because of the Sacraments of the Supper and Baptisme therein administred called Bread and Light And how it may be ascribed to Tradition Bellarmine the great Patron of Traditions sheweth out of Iustin Martyr who saith Christus haec illis Apostolis Discipulis tradidit Iustin in fine 2. Apolog He there also reporteth That they had their Ecclesiasticall Assemblies euery Lords day The Rhemists which ascribe it to Tradition in Annot. Matth. 15. acknowledge the institution thereof in Annot. 1. Cor. 16.2 Ignatius may be allowed Arbiter in this question of the Sabbath who thus writeth to the Magnesians Non Sabbatisemus Let vs not obserue the Sabbath after the Iewish manner as delighting in ease For he that worketh not let him not eate but let euery one of vs keepe the Sabbath spiritually not eating meat dressed the day before and walking set paces c. But let euery Christian celebrate the Lords day consecrated to the Lords resurrection as the Queene and Princesse of all dayes Now for the particular Commandement which was giuen him as an especiall proofe of his obedience in a thing otherwise not vnlawfull it was the forbidding him to eate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge For in the middest of the Garden GOD had planted two Trees which some call Sacraments and were by GODS Ordinance signes vnto him one of life if he obeyed the other of death by disobedience Not as the Iewes thought and Iulian scoffed That the Tree had power to giue sharpenesse of wit And although some thinke signes needlesse to so excellent a creature yet beeing mutable subiect to temptation and each way flexible to vertue or vice according as he vsed his naturall power of free-will I see not why they should deny GOD that libertie to impose or man that necessitie to need such monitories and as it were Sacramentall instructions For what might these Trees haue furthered him in carefulnesse if he had considered life and death not so much in these Trees as in his free-wil and obeying or disobeying his Creator These Trees in regard of their signification and euent are called the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and euill which was not euill or hurtfull in it selfe but was a visible rule whereby good and euill should be knowne and that by reason of the Commandement annexed which he might by this Precept see to be grounded in obeying or disobeying the authority of the Law-giuer An easie rule and yet too easily broken For when as God did hereby challenge his own Soueraignty by imposing so easie a fine which might haue forbidden all but one as contrariwise he allowed and fore-signified the danger that he might continue his goodnesse to man continuing in obedience yet did man herein shew his contempt in reiecting so easie a yoake and so light a burthen I will not reason whether these two Trees may properly be called Sacraments of which say some the one was but for the bodily life and better neuer to haue touched the other this we know that in eating of this he lost both bodily and spirituall life which the name and institution thereof forewarned and should haue preuented otherwise in eating of the other immortalitie had been sealed both in soule and body to him and his for euer Srange it seemeth that he should need no monitorie signes to preuent that which euen with these helps added he did not eschew CHAP. V. Of the Fall of Man and of Originall Sinne HItherto we haue beheld the Creation of the World and of our first Parents the liuely Images of the Creator and the Creature whom we haue somewhat leisurely viewed in a naked Maiesty delighting themselues in the enamelled walkes of their delightfull Garden The Riuers whereof ranne to present their best offices to their new Lords from which they were forced by the backer streames greedy of the sight and place which they could not hold The Trees stouped to behold them offering their shady mantle and varietie of fruits as their naturall tribute each creature in a silent gladnesse reioyced in them and they enioyed all mutuall comforts in the Creator the Creatures and in themselues A blessed Payre who enioyed all they desired whiles their desire was worth the enioying Lords of all and of more then all Content which might in all they saw see their Makers bounty and beyond all they could see might see themselues comprehended where they could not comprehend of that infinite Greatnesse and goodnesse which they could not but loue reuerence admire and adore This was then their Religion to acknowledge with thankefulnesse to be thankefull in obedience to obey with cherefulnesse the Author of all this good to the performance whereof they found no outward no inward impediment Sickenesse Perturbation and Death the deformed issue of Sinne not yet being entered into the World In this plight did Satan that old Serpent see disdaine and enuy them It was not enough for him and the deuillish crue of his damned associates for their late rebellion to be banished Heauen but the inferiour world must be filled with his venome working that malice on the Creatures here which he could not there so easily wrecke on their Creator And because Man was here GODS Deputy and Lieutenant as a petty God on the Earth hee chooseth him as the fittest subiect in whose ruine to despite his Maker To this end he vseth not a Lion-like force which then had been bootlesse but a Serpentine sleight vsing that subtill creature as the meetest instrument to his Labyrinthian proiects Whereas by inward temptation he could not so easily preuaile by insinuating himselfe into their minds he windes himselfe into this winding Beast disposing the Serpents tongue to speake to the Woman the weaker Vessell singled from her husband and by questioning doth first vndermine her The Woman
diuersly expressed Yea euen the most lasciuious cruell beastly and Deuillish obseruations were grounded vpon this one principle That GOD must bee serued which seruice they measured by their owne crooked Rules euery where disagreeing and yet meeting in one Center The necessitie of Religion As for Policie although it is before answered yet this may be added That whereas men with all threatnings promises punishments rewards can scarce establish their politicall Ordinances Religion insinuateth and establisheth it selfe yea taketh naturally such rooting that all politicall Lawes and tortures cannot plucke it vp How many Martyrs hath Religion yea superstition yeelded but who will lay downe his life to seale some Politicians authority And so farre is it that Religion should be grounded on Policie that Policie borroweth helpe of Religion Thus did Numa father his Romane Lawes on Aegeria and other Law-giuers on other supposed Deities which had been a foolish argument and vnreasonable manner of reasoning to perswade one obscurity by a greater had not Nature before taught them religious awe to God of which they made vse to this ciuill obedience of their lawes supposed to spring from a Diuine Fountaine Yea the falshoods and varietie of religions are euidences of this Truth seeing men will rather worship a Beast Stocke or the basest Creature then professe no Religion at all The Philosophers also that are accused of Atheisme for the most part did not deny Religion simply but that irreligious Religion of the Greekes in idolatrous superstition Socrates rather swearing by a Dog or an Oke then acknowledging such gods It is manifest then that the Image of GOD was by the Fall depraued but not vtterly extinct among other sparkes this also being raked vp in the ruines of our decayed Nature some science of the God-head some conscience of Religion although the true Religion can bee but one and that which GOD himselfe teacheth as the onely true way to himselfe all other Religions being but strayings from him whereby men wander in the darke and in labyrinths of error like men drowning that get hold on euery twig or the foolish fish that leapeth out of the frying-pan into the fire Thus GOD left a sparke of that light couered vnder the ashes of it selfe which himselfe vouchsafed to kindle into a flame neuer since neuer after to be extinguished And although that rule of Diuine Iustice had denounced morte morieris to die and againe to die a first and second death yet vnasked yea by cauilling excuses further prouoked hee by the promised seed erected him to the hope of a first and second resurrection a life of Grace first and after of Glory The Sonne of God is promised to be made the seede of the Woman the substantiall Image of the inuisible GOD to be made after the Image and similitude of a Man to reforme and transforme him againe into the former Image and similitude of GOD and whereas GOD had made man before after his owne Image and lost him he now promiseth to make himselfe after Mans Image to recouer him euen that he which in the forme of GOD thought it not robbery for it was Nature to bee equall with GOD should bee made nothing to make vs something should not spare himselfe that hee might spare vs should become partaker of our Nature flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone that hee might make vs partakers of the Diuine Nature flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone This was that Seede of the Woman that hath broken the Serpents head which by death hath ouercome death and him that had the power of Death the Deuill who submitted himselfe to a death in it selfe bitter before men shamefull and of GOD accursed that hee might bring vs to a life peaceable glorious and blessed beyond what eye hath seene or heart can conceiue This promise of this Seed slaine from the beginning of the World was the seed of all true Religion the soule of Faith the life of Hope the well-spring of Charitie True it is that all receiued not this promise alike for a seed of the Serpent was fore-signified also which should bruise the heele of the Womans seede And this in the first seed and generation of Man soon appeared Caine and Abel were hereof liuely examples It appeareth that GOD had taught Adam how hee would bee worshipped as it were ordering and ordaining him the first Priest of the World which function he fulfilled both in instructing his Wife and Children in prayer with and for them and in the rites of Sacrificing His children accordingly in processe of time brought and offered their Sacrifices As concerning Sacrifices some hold opinion according to their owne practice that Nature might teach Adam this way of seruing GOD as if Nature were as well able to finde the way as to know that she is out of the way and were as well seene in the particular maner as in the generall necessitie of Religion We cannot see the Sunne without the Sunne nor come to GOD but by GOD to whom Obedience is better then Sacrifice and to hearken better then the fat of Rams ABEL saith the Scripture offered by faith without which faith it is impossible to please GOD but faith hath necessary relation to the Word of GOD who otherwise will be weary of our solemnities and asketh Who hath required them at our hands These sacrifices also besides that they were acknowledgements of their thankefulnesse and reall confessions of their sinne and death due to them therefore did lead them by the hand to Christ that Lambe of GOD that should take away the sinnes of the World figured by these slaine beasts confirming their faith in the promise and their hope of the accomplishment of which Nature could not once haue dreamed which hath rather the impression of some confused notions that wee haue lost the way and ought to seeke it then either light to discerne it or wisedome to guide vs in it Of sacrificing there were from the Beginning two kinds one called Gifts or Oblations of things without life the other Victims so our Rhemists haue taught vs to English the word Victimae slaine Sacrifices of Birds and Beasts Againe they were propitiatory consecratorie Eucharisticall and so forth whose kinds and rites Moses hath in his Bookes especially in Leuiticus so plainely declared that I should but powre water into the Sea or light a candle to the Sunne to dilate much of them these beeing the same in signification with the Leuiticall and little if little differing in the manner of doing Caine brought his offering being an Husbandman of the fruit of the ground Abel a Shepheard of the fattest of his Sheepe God respected ABEL and his offering the tree first and then the fruit the worker and then the worke which he signified either by voice or by fire from Heauen according to Theodotians translation as in
Assertion The Arke was too little forsooth for so many creatures and their prouision for a yeare Wee need not seeke for shifts from helpe of the Geometricall Cubite knowne to Moses in his Egyptian Learning of three sixe or nine foot to the Cubite as Origen and Hugo doe nor of the sacred Cubite imagined twice as much as the common nor of the larger stature and Cubites of men in those youthfull times and age of the World The length hereof three hundred Cubites and the breadth fiftie doe make of square measure by common Rules of Art fifteene thousand Cubites Three floores or roomes were therein of that quantitie each contayning ten foot in height As for the beasts a floore of fifteene thousand Cubits might yeeld fifty Cubits square to three hundred seuerall kinds many more then are knowne by relation of the most Writers Aristotle Plinie Gesner c. which scarce reckon halfe that number and but fortie kinds or thereabouts that would take vp any great roome The height might yeeld commodious roomes for the fowles on Perches and all this might one roome or floore affoord Iudge then whether two other roomes of equall bignesse might not be sufficient for all other necessary employments Besides the roofe is not to be thought vnproportionable fitted for so long and tempestuous stormes and therefore not vnfitted with roome for diuers necessaries And if any accuse me for adding this of the roofe to Moses description I say that so it is translated by some Et in cubiti longitudinem consummato eius fectum superne vnderstanding those words not of the window as many doe but of the roofe it selfe which else is no where described which should ouer-hang the Arke a Cubite breadth to defend it the safer from raines as in our houses the eues and slope roofes are commodious both for roome within and against the weather without But if any would entertaine longer dispute about this he may among others that haue handled this question resort vnto Goropius Becanus his Gigantomachia whom in this point I would rather follow then in many other his Becceselanical Paradoxes Noah and his Family with this their retinue being entred the fountaines of the great deepes were opened and the windowes of Heauen the two store-houses of waters which GOD had separated in the Creation beeing in a manner confounded againe the Seas breaking their sandie barres and breaking vp by secret vnderminings the priuie pores and passages in the Earth the Cloudes conspiring with the Waters and renuing their first league and naturall amitie to the confusion of Nature and the World The heauenly lights hid their faces from beholding it and clothed themselues with blacke as bewayling the Worlds Funerall the Ayre is turned into a Sea the Sea possesseth the Ayrie Region the Earth is now no Earth but a myrie lumpe and all that huger World is contracted into a briefe Epitome and small abridgement in the Arke euen there but a few inches distant from death Thus do all Creatures detest Sinne which hath made them subiect to Vanitie thus would the Elements wash themselues cleane from it and the committers thereof but the Arke preuaileth ouer the preuailing waters a figure of the Church the remnant of the elder and Seminarie of the new World This drowning of the World hath not beene quite drowned in the World but besides Moses many other Writers haue mentioned it the time thereof being referred to that which in each Nation was accounted most ancient as among the Thebans to Ogiges in Thessalia to Deucalion among the Americans although Mercator thinke that the Floud drowned not those parts because they were not yet peopled and because the beasts there are most-what differing kinds from these in our World the people haue retayned the tradition hereof Mnaseas among the Phoenicians Berosus a Caldaean Hieronimus Aegyptius Nicolaus of Damascus the Poets Greeke and Latine adding Fables to the Truth which without some ground of truth they could not haue added all mention the Floud howsoeuer confounding the lesse and later with this first and vniuersall I might adde the testimonies of Eupolemus Molon Abidenus Alexander Polyhistor out of Eusebius Iosephus and others Lucian in his Dea Syria telleth the opinion of the Hierapolitans but a little corrupted from Moses Narration that Countrey wherein Noah liued most likely retayning firmer memorie of this Miracle so plainly doth he attribute to his Deucalion the Arke the resort and safe-gard of the Lions Bores Serpents and Beasts the repairing of the World after this drowning thereof which he ascribeth to periurie crueltie and other abominations of the former people That Berosus which we now haue is not so much as the ghost or carkasse and scarce a few bones of the carkasse of that famous Caldaean Author mentioned by the Ancients but the Dreames of Annius no new thing in this last Age coined for the most part in his name Some fragments of Berosus wee haued cited in other Authours that conuince this Bastard Among others somewhat of the Floud hath escaped drowning his testimonie whereof set downe in Polyhistor and Abidenus is in Eusebius He affirmeth that Saturne gaue warning to Sisuthrus of this Deluge and willed him to prepare a great Vessell or Ship wherein to put conuenient food and to saue himselfe and his kindred and acquaintance which hee builded of length fiue furlongs of breadth two After the retyring of the waters hee sent out a Bird which returned after a few dayes he sent her forth againe which returned with her feet bemired and being sent the third time came no more with other things to like purpose which Polyhistor there and Abidenus citeth out of Berosus Plutarch hath also written of this Doue sent by Deucalion out of the Arke which returning was a signe of tempest and flying forth of faire weather CHAP. VIII Of the re-peopling of the World and of the diuision of Tongues and Nations NOw GOD remembred Noah saith Moses not that GOD can forget but that hee declared his Diuine Power whereby Noah might know hee was not forgotten Then did the Heauens remember their wonted influence in the Elements then did the Elements remember their naturall order GOD made a winde to passe in Commission and as a common Vmpire to end their vnnaturall strife forcing the Waters into their ancient precincts aboue and beneath the Firmament Ambrose interpreteth this Winde of the HOLY GHOST Rupertus of the Sunne The most of a wind which yet naturally could not be produced from that wateris masse but by the extraordinary hand of God Then did the Earth remember first inheritance beeing freed from the tyrannicall inuasion and vsurpation of the Waters And what could then forget or be forgotten when GOD remembred NOAH and all that was with him in the Arke And in the seuenth Moneth the seuenteenth day of the moneth the Arke rested vpon the Mountaines of Ararat This fell out
entering into the houses of the richer beg prouision for the Feast And if any be exceeding poore the Rabbines make him a licence to beg therein testifying of his honestie and Iewish saith wherewith hee wandereth through the Countrey visiting all the Iewes he can finde And if hee come to a place where are many Iewes hee sheweth his licence to the chiefe Rabbi or to the Clarke which calls men to the Synagogue or to the Elders or Ruler of the Synagogue which is as their Consull or to the Ouer-seers of the poore and craueth their fauour which granted hee standeth with two others at the doore of the Synagogue and beggeth or else those two goe from house to house and beg for him The like is done when a poore Iew hath a daughter marriageable to beg for her dowrie When poore Iewes trauell they may turne into another Iewes house where their prouerbe is the first day hee is a ghest the second a burthen the third a fugitiue The falling sicknesse is vsuall among the Iewes and they vse to imprecate it to each other in their anger as they also doe the plague In a generall pestilence they write in their Chamber strange characters and wonderfull names which they say are the names of the Pest-Angels And I once saw sayth our Author Adiridon Bediridon and so on the word Diridon riding on quite through the Alphabet written with great letters in their houses as a present remedie for the Plague The Leprie they haue seldome which may bee attributed to their dyet Now the Sword and Scepter is taken from them in stead of other penalties they inflict sharpe penances according to the nature of the crime Thus the Adulterer satisfieth for his hot lust in cold water wherein hee is inioyned to sit some winter dayes and if the water be frozen the Ice is cut and hee set therein vp to his chinne as long as an Egge is roasting In Summer time hee is set naked in an Ant-hill his nose and eares stopped and after washeth himselfe in cold water If the season bee neither cold not hot hee is inioyned a certaine kinde of fasting in which he may not eate any thing till night and then onely a little bread and water is allowed him and yet hee must after endure the Ant or water-penance In Médrasch is written that Adam sate vp to the nose in water an hundred and thirtie yeeres till he begate Seth for eating the forbidden fruit If the penance seeme lighter they enioyne him further to runne thorow a swarme of Bees and when the swelling of his bodie through their stinging is abated he must doe it againe and againe according to the measure of his offence If hee hath often that way offended hee is bound to endure that penance many yeeres yea sometimes a three yeeres fast together eating bread and water at supper otherwise nothing except hee rather chuse to redeeme this with fasting three whole dayes together in each yeere without tasting any refection at all as Queene Esther did When any hath lyen with a woman in her vncleannesse hee incurreth the penance of fortie dayes fast and twice or thrice euery of those dayes to receiue on his bare backe with a leather thong or girdle nine blowes to eate no flesh or hot meate nor drinke any wine but on the Sabbath If a man kisse or embrace his menstruous wife the case is alike A Robber is adiudged three yeeres banishment to wander three yeeres thorow the Cities where Iewes dwell crying aloud I am a Robber and suffer himselfe to bee beaten in manner aforesaid He may not eate flesh nor drinke wine nor cut the hayre off his head or beard hee must put on his change of garments and shirts vnwashed He may not wash himselfe euery moneth once he must couer his head hee must weare his arme wherewith he committed murther fastened to his necke with a chayne Some are enioyned that where they sleepe one night they may not sleepe the next that they may wander ouer the world like Cain Some are constrained to weare an yron brest-plate next their skinne and some to throw themselues downe before the doore of the Synagogue that they which goe in may treade on him That Iew which accuseth another before a Christian Magistrate is accounted a Traytor and neuer made reckoning of after But why doe I tyre the Reader to whom I feare I haue beene ouer-tedious But in this matter of Religion of whom is it fitter to protract discourse then of them whom the old world yeelded the only example of Truth and the present age a principall example of falsehood and superstition Let it not grieue the Reader to performe the last office of humanitie to our Iew and as hee hath seene his birth his Synagogue-Rites and home superstitions so to visit him on his Death-bed and helpe lay him in his graue and examine his hope of the Resurrection and of their Messias and wee will end our Pilgrimage in this Holy Land §. VII Of their visitation of the sicke And funerall rites WHen a man lieth sicke the Rabbines visit him and if he be rich order is taken for his Will and then they exhort him to perseuere constantly in their Faith They aske him if hee beleeue that the Messias is yet to come Hee maketh his confession on his bed saying I confesse before thee my God and Lord God of my parents Lord of all Creatures that my health and death is in thy hand I pray thee grant me recouery of my former health and heare my praier as thou didest Hezekiah in his sicknes And if the time of my death be come then grant that death may bee a remission of all my sinne which of ignorance or knowledge I haue committed euer since I was a man grant that I may haue my part in Paradise and the world to come which is reserued for the iust grant that I may know the Way of euerlasting life fill mee with the ioy of thy excellent countenance by thy right hand for euer and euer Blessed bee thou O GOD which hearest my prayer Thus they which refuse the merits of Christs death ascribe remission of sinnes to their owne When he giueth vp the ghost all the standers by rend their garments but in a certaine place of the same where they doe no great harme about a hand-breadth They lament the dead seuen dayes They presently after his death powre out all the water in the house into the streete they couer his face that it may no more bee seene they bow his thumb in his hand framing a resemblance of the Hebrew name Schaddai his other fingers are stretched out to testifie a forsaking of the world they wash him with hot water and hauing anointed his head with wine and the yolke of an Egge mixed together they put on him a white vestment which he vsed to weare on the Feast of Reconciliation When they carry him out of the house they
the Persians losse and with lightnings to shew that indignation against the Turkes which in their thundering Dialect they aloud vttered there grew such horror to their mindes from aboue and such sicknesse to their bodies from those putrified carkasses beneath that Mustapha was forced to remoue missing forty thousand of his first Musters After hee had fortified the Armenian Castle of Teflis his Armie being driuen to shifts for lacke of victuals ten thousand of his forragers were slaine by the Persians who were recompenced with like slaughter by Mustapha that came vpon them whiles they were busie about the spoyle and spoyled the spoylers In passing ouer the Riuer Canac he lost fourescore thousand Turkes which the Riuer seemed to take for Custome as it had many of the Persians in the late conflict whereof his violent current was a greedy and cruell exactor Mustapha erected a Fortresse in Ere 's and tooke Sumachia chiefe Citie of Siruan Derbent offering her selfe to the Turke and then returning into Natolia But Emir Hamse Mirise the Persian Prince recouered after his departure both Ere 's and Sumachia slew and captiued the Tartars thirtie thousand of whom were newly come to the Turkes ayde He rased Sumachia euen with the ground The next yeere Mustapha fortified Chars in three and twentie dayes wherein they were hindered with Snowes on the fiue and twentieth of August although it standeth in fortie foure Degrees Anno 1580. Sinan Bassa was chosen Generall for the Persian Warre who as hee departed from Teflis lost seuen thousand of his people besides such as the Georgians and Persians together with the spoyle carried away This was earnest the rest was but sportfull shewes of warre in trayning his Souldiers after which he returned In 1583. Ferat Bassa was sent Generall but little was done till Osman Bassa a new Generall 1585. tooke Tauris the ancient Ecbatana as Minadoi is of opinion But the Persian Prince carried with indignation reuenged this losse on the Turkes with his owne hands slaying Caraemit Bassa Generall in the place of Osman then sicke and gaue his head as opima spolia to one of his followers and afterwards at Sancazan slew twentie thousand Turks Osman dyed of sicknesse and the Persian Prince the Morning-starre of that Easterne State was soone after murthered In that dismall yeere 1588. Ferat tooke Genge fifteene thousand houses seuen Temples and fiue and twentie great Innes were burned in Constantinople the tumultuous Ianizaries not suffering the fire to be quenched An Impost was leuied of the subiects to satisfie the pay due to the Souldiers for the Persian warre which raised these stirres Yea the Priests disswaded the people from those new payments and perswaded them to maintaine their ancient Liberties shut vp their Meschits intermitted their Orisons and the great Turke was forced to call in his Mandates and deliuer the Authors of that counsell wherof the Beglerbeg of Grecia was one to the Ianizaries furie who made Tennis-balls of their heads In the 1592. Wihitz chiefe Citie of Croatia was yeelded to the Turke The next yeere Siseg was besieged but relieued by the Christians who slew eighteene thousand Turkes and tooke their Tents yet was it soone after taken by the renewed forces of the Turkes Sinan tooke Vesprinium in Hungarie and Palotta but their losse was farre greater then their gaines which continuing and a broyle of the Ianizaries added thereto brought Amurath into malancholy and sicknesse whereof he dyed the eighteenth of Ianuarie 1595. Transyluania Valachia and Moldauia hauing before reuolted from him to Sigismund who was entitled their Prince This Amurath in a letter to Queene Elizabeth entituleth himselfe By the Mercie of God free from all sinne with all height of Grace made possessor of great blessednesse aboue the 72. Lawes of the world §. III. Of MAHOMET the Third MAHOMET his sonne succeeded who inuiting his nineteene brethren to a Feast sent them to learne his fathers death in the other world accompanied thither with ten of Amuraths women from whom issue was feared which with drowning them he preuented Much adoe he had with his Ianizaries at home much losse in his Dominions abroad for which cause he sent for Ferat Bassa out of Hungarie and strangled him and sent Sinan his emulous corriuall in his roome whom the Transyluanian Prince ouerthrew in battell and after chased him ouer a Bridge which he made a mile in length for his Armie to passe ouer Danubius with great losse of his people His Bridge the fire and water diuided betwixt them and the conceit of this ill successe as was thought procured his death soone after In the yeere 1597. Mahomet in his owne person enterprised these warres and not farre from Agria on the sixteenth of October fought a cruell battell with the Christians wherein had not Couetousnesse rightly called the root of all euill hindered had beene atchieued the most glorious victorie against those Barbarians that euer Christendome was blessed with Mahomet himselfe for feare seeing his Ordnance an hundred fourescore and tenne great Peeces taken and his men slaine in multitudes fled with Ibrahim Bassa towards Agria shedding teares by the way which he wiped off his bloudie face with a piece of greene silke supposed to be a piece of Mahomets garment carried with him as a holy Relique But whiles the Christians were now halfe Conquerours by greedie turning to the spoile their victorie was wholly lost and twentie thousand of them slaine who had slaine threescore thousand Turkes Mr. Barton the English Embassador was present in the fight and Mr. Thomas Glouer also who in a large iournall of this Expedition testifieth that the great Turk was in great feare but being animated by some about him he tooke his bow and arrowes and slew three Christians therewith Those former reports hee mentioneth not Not long after the Bassa of Buda was taken and the Bassa of Bosna with some thousands of Turkes slaine Anno 1599. Yet did not all his losses in the West by the Christians vexe the Great Sultan so much as a rebellion raised in the East which many yeeres continued Cusabin Bassa of Caramania rose in armes against his Master and hauing now done great matters his Souldiers before false to their Prince became now also false to him hee flying was after taken and tortured to death His rebellion out-liued him and was maintained by one called the Scriuano who ouerthrew Mehemet Bassa in the field and the second time in the yeere 1601. ouerthrew him with his Armie of fiftie thousand and foraged all the Countrey almost as far as Aleppo proclaiming himselfe the defender of the Mahumetan faith and soon after gaue the Bassa a third ouerthrow The Turkes Embassadour sent into Persia to demand the Sophies sonne in hostage for the assurance of the peace betweene those two Monarchs was for his proud message put to the Bastinado and grieuously threatned sent backe to the Grand Signior The Scriuano's proceedings was much furthered by the dissentions betweene
the Sacrifices of Aaron Gedeon Manoah Dauid Salomon Elias or by some other meanes both comfortable to Abel and enuied of Caine who therefore slew him thus in this member bruising the heele of that blessed seed as a type of that which the Head himselfe should after sustaine Here is the first Apostasie after that first Euangelicall promise and the first diuision of Religion Caine beeing the first builder of the Earthly Citie not that which hee called after the name of his Sonne Henoch but of that spirituall City of the Wicked the seed of the Serpent which he founded in his Brothers bloud euen as that later Compendium thereof which called her selfe Caput mundi the head of the World and indeed the World is vsually in Scripture applyed to that seed of the Serpent as it is opposite to the seed of the Woman was by Romulus her first Founder by like example of Fratricide in the murther of Remus dedicated as it were to the future mysterie of iniquitie the seat of the Beast and of the Whore by whose authoritie Christ himselfe was slaine drunken after with the blood of his Saints and still breathing blood and slaughter to euery Abel that will not communicate in her spirituall whooredomes that will not with her offer the fruits of the ground the Sacrifice of Caine which neither came from heauen nor can guide to Heauen being earthly sensuall deuillish Caine was for this his fact conuented by that All-seeing Iustice who both by open sentence and inward terrors accused and accursed him continuing his life euen for the same cause that other Murtherers loose it that he might liue an example which then in that vnpeopled world by his death he could not haue been to the future generation branded also by the Lord with some sensible marke to exempt him and terrifie others from that bloudy crueltie this mercy being mixed with this iudgement a longer time of repentance GOD before cursed the earth for Adam he now cursed CAINE from the earth to be a runnagate and wanderer thereon For how could he that had so forsaken God but be forsaken of the Earth and of himselfe the stable and mercifull earth which before had opened her mouth to receiue his Brothers bloud shrinking and as it were grudging to support such wicked feet and by denying him her strength forcing him to his manifold shifts and shiftlesse remoouing Wretched man alwayes bleeding his brothers bloud not daring to looke vp to Heauen fearing to looke downe to Hell the World without him threatning a miserable life his Body branded to contempt and shame till his death his soule become a stage of Anguish Feare Horrour and other Furies the Harbingers of Hell not able to suffer which yet he cannot but suffer the guilt of passed wickednesse gnawing him the waight of present misery pressing him the dread of a death and a death attending him restlesse in himselfe hated of the World despairing of reliefe from God a liuely Map of the deadly and damnable state of sinne and sinners without Christ dead whiles they liue moouing sepulchres the Deuils captiues hels heires exiled from heauen and vagabonds on the earth euen on that which they call their owne land Caine more vexed with the punishment then at the fault of his sinne departed from the presence of the Lord which is meant either of his iudiciall conuenting him or in regard of the visible societie of the Church cradled yet in his Fathers houshold where God did especially shew his present prouidence protection and grace who otherwise filleth the Heauen and Earth of whom in whom they are from hence as Adam before out of Paradise so Cain was as it were excommunicated expelled out-lawed and dwelt in the Land of Nod which some take to be appellatiuely spoken as if his miserie had giuen name of Moouing vnto the place where he dwelled or roamed rather Iosephus saith hee built Naida applying it to a proper place which was either Eastward from Eden or Eastward towards Eden from Canaan where Adam is supposed to haue dwelt and after with his Wife to haue beene buried at Hebron Afterward his posteritie beeing multiplied his Wife Epiphanius out of Leptogenesis calleth Shaue Comestor calleth her Chalmana Philo Themech he built a Citie which he called by the name of his sonne Henoch to crosse that curse of his wandering to and fro on the earth or to arme him against others which his guilty conscience caused him to feare or to be a receptacle and store-house of those spoyles which Iosephus saith hee robbed from others by violence when as the earth was barren to him Philo if we may so entitle that Author which hath written of the Antiquities of the Bible ascribeth vnto him other Cities Mauli Leed Tehe Iesca Celet Iebbat adding that hee liued 730. yeeres These things may bee probable although that Author be otherwise fabulous considering that men did ordinarily liue many hundred yeeres in those times and were also exceeding fruitfull especially after that Polygamy was embraced of that Family And if that in Abrahams posterity the seed of Iacob in lesse then three hundred yeares was multiplyed to so great a people it is like that the Cainites were no lesse populous liuing in more freedome Hee first saith Iosephus found out weights and measures and assigned proprieties in possessions of Land before common as the ayre and light and was Author to lewd persons of a lewd and vngodly life Probable it is that the Citie was called Henoch because the Curse suffered not the father to stay in a place but to leaue a hasty inheritance to his Son to finish and rule it Iabal and Iubal and Tubalcain were inuenters of Arts the first to dwell in Tents and keepe Cattell the second of Musicall instruments the third of working in Mettals and making of Armour which some thinke to be Vulcan by the neerenesse of name and occupation His Sister Naamah is accounted by some Rabbines the first inuenter of making Linnen and Woollen and of vocall Musique yea they make her the wife of Noah also Thus let vs leaue this Family multiplying in numbers in Sciences in wickednesse sauouring nothing diuine or at least nothing but humane in their Diuinitie therefore called the sonnes of men and let vs looke backe to Adam who in this wicked fruit of his body might read continual Lectures of repentance for the sinne of his soule Adam begat a child in his own likenesse that is not in that likenesse of God wherein he was created but like vnto himselfe both in humane nature natural corruption his name he called Seth of whose posteritie the whole world was by Noah re-peopled Vnto Seth was born Enosh Then began men saith MOSES to call vpon the name of the Lord This some interpret of the beginning of Idolatry that men began to profane the name of the Lord
the World all Nations honoring his memory except some Heathens as the Parthians on the left hand and Indians on the right which were remainders of the Chaldaeans and called Zabij These Zabij Scaliger also sayth were Chaldaeans so called a vento Apeliote as one might say Eastern-men or Easterlings and addeth that the Booke so often cited by Rambam concerning their Religion Rites and Customes is yet extant in the hands of the Arabian Muhamedans Out of this booke our Rabbie reciteth their opinions that Adam was borne of man and woman as other men and that hee was a Prophet of the Moone and by preaching perswaded men to worship the Moone and that hee composed bookes of husbandry that Noe also was a husband-man and beleeued not in Idols For which the Zabij put him in prison and because he worshipped the Creator Seth also contradicted Adam in his Lunarie worship They tell also that Adam went out of the Land of promise which is towards India and entred into Babylon whither hee carried with him a tree still growing with branches and leaues and a tree of stones and leaues of a tree which would not burne vnder the shadow of which tree he said ten thousand men might be couered the height whereof was as the stature of a man Adam also had affirmed in his booke of a tree in India the boughes whereof being cast on the ground would stir like Serpents and of another which had a root shaped like a man endued with a kind of sounding voyce differing from speech and of a certaine hearbe which being folded vp in a mans clothes would make him walke inuisible and the smoke of the same being fired would cause thunders another tree they worshipped which abode in Niniuie twelue yeeres and contended with the Mandrake for vsurping her roome whereby it came to passe that the Priest or Prophet which had vsed to prophesie with the spirit of that tree ceased a long time from prophesying and at last the tree spake to him and bade him write the sute betweene her and the Mandrake whether of them were the more honourable These fooleries saith he they attributed to Adam that so they might proue the eternitie of the world and Deitie of the Stars These Zabij made them for this cause Images of gold to the Sunne of siluer to the Moone and built them Temples saying that the power of the Planets was infused into those Images whence they spake vnto men and taught things profitable The same they affirmed of those trees which they apropriated to each of them with peculiar worships rites and hallowings whereby that tree receiued a power to speake with men in their sleepes From hence sprang magicall diuinations auguries necromancie and the like They offered to their chiefe god a Beetle and seuen Mice and seuen Fowles The greatest of their bookes is that of the Aegyptian seruice translated into Arabike by a Moore called Enennaxia which containeth in it many ridiculous things and yet these were the famous wise-men of Babylon in those daies In the said booke is reported of a certaine Idolatrous Prophet named Tamut who preaching to a certaine King this worship of the seuen Planets and twelue Signes was by him done to a grieuous death And in the night of his death all the Images from the ends of the world came and assembled together at the great golden Image in the Temple at Babylon which was sacred to the Sunne and hanged betweene the heauen and the earth which then prostrated it selfe in the midst of the Temple with all the Images round about shewing to them all which had befallen Tamut All the Images therefore wept all night and in the morning fled away each to his owne Temple And hence grew that custome yearely in the beginning of the monerh Tamut to renew that mourning for Tamut Other bookes of theirs are mentioned by him one called Deizamechameche a booke of Images a booke of Candles of the degrees of Heauen and others falsly ascribed to Aristotle and one to Alformor and one to Isaac and one of their Feasts Offrings Prayers and other things pertaining to their Law and some written against their opinions all done into Arabike In these are set downe the Rites of their Temples and Images of stone or mettall and applying of Spirits to them and their Sacrifices and kinds of meates They name their holy places sumptuously built the Temples of Intelligible formes and set Images on high mountaines and honour trees and attribute the increase of men and fruites to the Starres Their Priests preached that the Earth could not bee Tilled according to the will of the gods except they serued the Sunne and Starres which being offended would diminish their fruites and make their Countries desolate They haue written also in the former bookes that the Planet Iupiter is angrie with the Deserts and drie places whence it commeth that they want water and trees and that Deuils haunt them They honoured Husband-men and fulfilling the will of the Starres in tilling the ground they honoured Kine and Oxen for their labours therein saying that they ought not to be slaine In their festiuals they vsed Songs and all Musicall instruments affirming that their Idols were pleased with these things promising to the doers long life health plentie of fruits raines trees freedome from losses and the like Hence it is saith R. Moses that the Law of Moses forbiddeth these rites and threatneth the contrarie plagues to such as shall obserue them Tehy had certaine hallowed beasts in their Temples wherein their Images were before which they bowed themselues and burned incense These opinions of the Zabij were holden also by the Aramites Chanaanites and Aegyptians They had their magicall obseruations in gathering certaine hearbs or in the vse of certaine metals or liuing creatures and that in a set certaine time with their set rites as of leaping clapping the hands hopping crying laughing c. in the most of which women were actors as when they would haue raine ten Virgins clothed in hallowed garments of red colour danced a procession turning about their faces and shoulders and stretching their fingers towards the Sunne and to preuent harme by haile foure Women lay on their backes naked lifting vp their feete speaking certaine words And all Magicall practices they made to depend of the Starres saying that such a Starre was pleased with such an incense such a Plant such a metall such words or workes and thereby would be as it were hired to such or such effects as to driue away Serpents and Scorpions to slay wormes in nuts to make the leaues fall and the like Their Priests vsed shauings of the head and beard and linsey wolsey garments and made a signe in their hand with some kind of metals The Booke of Centir prescribeth a woman to stand armed before the starre of Mars and a man clothed in womans attire painted before the starre of Venus to prouoke lust The worshippers of
strange Lands comming thither by holes vnder the Earth shall come forth And for this cause I my selfe saith our Author haue heard the Iewes say That sometime some of the wealthiest and deuoutest amongst them goe into the Land of Canaan that their bodies may there sleepe and so be freed from this miserable passage vnder so many deepe Seas and rough Mountaynes There be three sorts of men sayth Salmanticensis in the Booke Iuchasin which see not the face of Hell those which are extremely poore those which are in debt those which are troubled with the Collicke the Hasidaei chastised themselues tenne or twentie dayes before their death with this paine of the bowels that so they might clense all and goe pure to the other World some adde in this exemption from Hell or comming to Iudgement him which had an euill Wife and some also Magistrates But in Pauls time they themselues did allow saith he a Resurrection of the dead both of the Iust and Vniust They did then hold also a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which sense it is likely the Iewes thought Christ to be Elias or Ieremie or one of the Prophets and the Disciples somewhat sowred with this Leauen asked of the blind man whether he had sinned vnderstanding as it seemeth according to the Iewish Errour when his soule had beene in some former bodie And the Cabalisticall Authors sayth Elias Leuita are of opinion that euery soule is three times created they meane it rolleth or passeth thorow three mens bodies according to that of Iob GOD worketh all these things with a man thrice So the soule of the first man saith hee rolled it selfe into the bodie of Dauid and shall thence returne into the bodie of the Messias So they say that the soules of Sinners passe into the bodies of beast as if a man committeth Sodomie his soule passeth into a Hare because that creature is somtimes Male sometimes Female the soule of the Adulterer passeth into a Camell Now to come from their Faith to their Workes The wise Rabbines perswade the silly people That they are the only Elect people of God who easily can keepe not the Decalogue or ten Commandements alone but the whole Law of Moses They diuide the whole Law into sixe hundred and thirteene Commandements and them againe into Precepts and Prohibitions Of the commanding Precepts they number two hundred fortie and eight iust so many as according to the Rabbines Anatomie a man hath members in his bodie Of the prohibiting Commandements they reckon three hundred threescore and fiue as many as are dayes in the yeere or as in the Booke Brandspiegel veines in a mans bodie Therefore if euery member of a man doe euery day performe one of the Precepts and omit one of the things prohibited the whole Law of Moses shall be euery yeere and so for euer fulfilled Their wise Rabbines say further That the men only are to obserue those sixe hundred and thirteene Commandements the women are onely subiect to the Prohibitions yea of those prohibitorie Mandates onely to threescore and foure are they obliged by some and to sixe and thirtie of the former and this because of their other houshold-businesse and subiection to their Imperious Husbands Some of their deeply-wise Rabbines adde to those sixe hundred and thirteene seuen other Commandements making vp the number of sixe hundred and twentie iust so many as are p Letters in the Decalogue and as arise of the word Keter signifying a Crowne for were it not for the Law God would not haue created the World and for the obseruation thereof it yet subsisteth And they which keepe all the Commandements doe set a Crowne on the head of God and hee vpon the head of those which crowne him shall set seuen Crownes and make them to inherit seuen Chambers in Paradise and will keepe them from the seuen Infernall Dungeons because they haue obtayned the seuen Heauens and the seuen Earths Their Wise-men affirme that euery veine of the bodie of a man doth prouoke him to omit that which is forbidden and he which doth omit such their vaine veine-warning hath no good veine in him euery of his members also doe prouoke him to performe those iussory Inuentions But as veine should I be as they if I should not make some end where they can find none We would now from these generalities proceed to the particulars of their Superstitions tracing them herein from their birth to their graues Religion being in the pretence of their Law the square of all their otherwise ciuill actions at least to speake of their Superstitions in the same But first seeing Sebastian Munster hath written a whole Booke both in Hebrew and Latine of those sixe hundred and thirteene Precepts taken out of Moses with the Exposition of their Rabbines as also P. Ricius hath done and Philip Ferdinand likewise out of Ben Kattain I thought good to cull out some which seeme most remarkeable and strange to entertayne our Reader §. II. Of the negatiue Precepts expounded by the Rabines 1. THou shalt haue no strange Gods in my sight Exod. 20. The Name of God is forbidden to be communicated to any creature 2. Thou shalt not violate mine holy Name Thou shalt not destroy a Synagogue or Temple bee it neuer so old nor shalt blot out one of the holy names wheresoeuer thou findest it written The Rabbines say If any doe against any Affirmatiue Precept and repent his sinne is forgiuen him but hee which transgresseth a Negatiue Precept is not clensed by repentance but it remaineth to the day of Expiation which is the day of their solemne Fast and Reconciliation But hee which committeth a sinne whereby he deserueth Death or Excommunication is not then purged but must abide thereunto the diuine chastisements and hee which violateth the Name of GOD cannot bee absolued from that sinne but by death 5. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart He which is wronged by another should not hate him and hold his peace but reproue him openly and if hee repent he ought not to be cruell to him But if any be often reproued and will not amend it is lawfull to hate him This Christ confuteth 12. No Idoll as to bee adored If a man haue a thorne in his foot hee may not bow before an Image to pull it out and if money fall out of his hand hee may not there before an Image stoope to take it vp lest he might seeme to adore it but he must sit downe on the ground to doe it And if the water of a Fountaine be caused to passe thorow the mouth of an Image he may not drinke thereat lest he should seeme to kisse the Image 22. An Image may not bee made viz. The Image of a man in siluer or gold if it be embossed or set out but if it bee stamped in metall in manner of a seale it is lawfull
goe vnto Armillus with three hundred thousand Ephraimites carrying with him the booke of the Law and when he comes at him hee shall reade out of the same this sentence I am the Lord thy God thou shalt haue none other Gods in my sight Armillus shall reply that there is no such sentence in their Law and therefore they should acknowledge him for God as well as the Gentiles Then shall Nehemias ouerthrow two hundred thousand of Armillus his Armie whereat Armillus shall bee so wrathfull that hee shall assemble all his forces into a deepe valley and there shall destroy with many other Israelites this Nehemias But the Angels shall take and hide him that Armillus may not know of his death lest hee should not leaue one of Israel liuing All Nations shall then expell the Israelites and such affliction shall befall them as neuer since the beginning of the world At this time shall the Angell Michael come foorth and seperate the wicked from Israel as writeth Daniel They which remaine shall flye into the desart and for fiue and fortie dayes space liue with grasse and leaues and hearbes but all the wicked Israelites shall dye Armillus shall after subdue Aegypt and shall turne thence against Ierusalem and seeke againe to waste it These things after their manner they fable out of the eleuenth and twelfth of Daniel The eighth Miracle is the arising of Michael who three times shall winde his great horne Es 27.23 and Zach. 9.14 At the first sound the true Messias Ben Dauid and Elias the Prophet shall shew themselues to those deuout Israelites in the desarts of Iuda who shall then gather courage and all the Iewes in the world shall heare this sound and shall confesse GODS deliuerance and all that haue beene led captiue into Assyria shall assemble together The same horne shall strike feare and diseases into the Christians and other people Now shall the Iewes make great iourneyes towards Ierusalem and together with Elias and Messias shall come thither with ioy Armillus hearing this in his proud furie shall re-assemble his Christians against the Messias and Ierusalem But GOD not suffering his people to fall out of one trouble into another shall say to the Messias Come place thy selfe at my right hand and to the Israelites Bee still and wait for the great succour of the Lord this day And then shall GOD rayne fire and brimstone from Heauen as Ezekiel reporteth wherewith Armillus and his Armie shall dye and The house of Iacob shall bee as fire and the house of Ioseph as a flame and the house of Esau the Idumaean Atheists which destroyed GODS house as stubble At the second sound or blast of this horne of Michael the graues at Ierusalem shall open and the dead arise and Messias Ben Dauid with Elias shall reuoke into life that Messias Ben Ioseph and the Israelites shall send Messias Ben Dauid into all Countries of the Iewes dispersion to cause them to come to Ierusalem and the Nations with whom they are shall bring them in their Chariots and on their shoulders The last Miracle is the third time of Michaels winding his horne when GOD shall bring foorth all the Iewes which are by the Riuers Gosan Lachbach Chabor and in the Cities of Iuda and they without number or measure shall with their Infants enter into the Paradise of Moses and the ground before them and behind them shall be meere fire which shall leaue no sustenance to the Christians And when the ten Tribes shall depart out of the Nations then the piller of the cloud of Diuine glory shall compasse them and GOD shall goe before them and shall open to them the fountaines flowing from the tree of Life Esa 49.10 I might adde to these miracles that of the Asse which Abraham rode on when hee went to sacrifice his sonne which Moses also vsed when he returned into Aegypt and some say Balaams Asse was the same this shall the Messias ride on according to Zacharies Prophesie Zach. 9.5 Against these ten miraculous signes fore-shewing Messias his comming the most being full of troubles they haue ten consolations first The certaintie of Messias comming secondly That hee shall gather them from all places of the dispersion Ierem. 31.8 but the Lame there mentioned shall bee so cured that They shall leape as Harts c. thirdly GOD will raise vp the dead fourthly GOD will erect a third Temple according to the figure of that in Ezekiel 41. fiftly That the Israelites shall then raigne ouer all the earth Esa 60.12 yea all the world shall bee subiect to the Law Soph. 3.9 sixtly GOD will destroy all their enemies Ezek. 25.14 seuenthly GOD will take from them all diseases Esa 33.24 eightly GOD will prolong their liues that they shall liue as long as an Oake Esa 65.22 and as in the times from Adam to Noe ninthly They shall see God face to face Esa 40.5 and They all shall Prophesie Ioel. 2.28 tenthly GOD shall take away from them all euill concupiscence and inclination to euill Ezek. 36.26 Thus farre out of the booke Abhkas Rochel §. II. Iewish tales of monstrous Birds Beasts Fishes and Men. THeir cheere in these dayes shall bee the greatest Beasts Birds and Fishes which GOD ouer created and no other wine then that which grew in Paradise and was kept in Adams Celler till that time the great Oxe Behemoth mentioned in Iob and Psal. 50.10 All the Beasts of the wood are mine and the beasts feeding on a thousand hills that is Behemoth which euery day feedeth on a thousand hills But lest this deuouring beast should consume all the hills in the world they tell you that hee is a stalled Oxe still abiding in the same place and what hee eateth in the day groweth againe in the night The huge Whale Leuiathan or as they pronounce it Lipiasan must honour also this Feast of this they write in the Talmud that to preuent filling the world with these huge monsters GOD gelded the male Leuiathan and the female is slaine and preserued in pickle for the iust to be eaten in the times of the Messias Esay 27. The male Behemoth was gelded also and the female was stored vp for this feast Elias Leuita reporteth of a huge huge Bird also called Bariuchne to bee rosted at this feast of which the Talmud saith that an egge sometime falling out of her nest did ouerthrow and breake downe three hundred tall Cedars with which fall the egge being broken ouerflowed and carryed away sixtie Villages Wee will haue the Whetstone before we part R. Barchannah saw a Frogge as big as Akra a village of sixtie housholds then came a huger Serpent and swallowed that huge Frogge Lastly the hugest hugest Crow that euer the Rabbine saw flew and deuoured these both and flying away sate on a tree which tree sure could not be lesse then the three hundred Cedars before mentioned if this Crow were but as bigge as
tell his Disciples the Historie of the Arke Who told them that by the weight of the Ordure the Arke leaned on the one side whereupon Noe consulting with GOD was bidden bring the Elephant thither out of whose dung mixed with mans came forth a Hog which wrooted in that mire with his snout and by the stinke thereof was produced out of his nose a Mouse which gnawed the boords of the Arke Noe fearing this danger was bidden to strike the Lion on the forehead and by the Lions breath was a Cat engendred mortall enemie to the Mouse But to returne from this stinking tale to refresh our selues with the like sweets of this Paradise He addeth that there they haue the wiues that here they had and other Concubines whom how when wheresoeuer they will Abd. But why is Wine lawfull there and here vnlawfull Mah. The Angels Arot and Marot were sometime sent to instruct and gouerne the world forbidding men Wine iniustice and murther But a woman hauing whereof to accuse her husband inuited them to dinner and made them drunke They inflamed with a double heat of Wine and Lust could not obtaine that their desire of their faire Hostesse except one would teach her the word of ascending to heauen and the other of descending Thus she mounted vp to heauen And vpon enquirie of the matter shee was made the Morning-Sarre and they put to their choice whether they would bee punished in this world or in the world to come they accepting their punishment in this are hanged by chaines with their heads in a pit of Babel till the day of Iudgement Hell saith Mahomet there hath the floore of Brimstone smoakie pitchy with stinking flames with deepe pits of scalding Pitch and sulphurous flames wherein the damned are punished daily the trees beare most loasome fruits which they eate The day of Iudgement shall be in this sort In that day GOD will command the Angel of Death to kill euery Creature which being done hee shall aske him if nothing bee aliue Adreiel the Angell of Death shall answere Nothing but my selfe Then goe thy waies betwixt Paradise and Hell and last of all kill thy selfe Thus he folded in his wings prostrate on the earth shall strangle himselfe with such a bellowing noise as would terrifie the verie Angels if they were aliue Thus the world shall bee emptie fortie yeeres Then shall GOD hold the Heauen and Earth in his fist and say Where are now the mightie men the Kings and Princes of the World Tell mee if yee be true whose is the Kingdome and Empire and Power Repeating these words three times he shall rise vp Seraphiel and say Take this Trumpet and goe to Ierusalem and sound This Trumpet is of fiue hundred yeeres iourney At that sound all Soules shall come forth and disperse themselues vnto their owne bodies and their bones shall be gathered together Fortie yeeres after hee shall sound againe and then the bones shall resume flesh and sinewes After fortie yeeres the third sound shall warne the Soules to re-possesse their bodies and a fire from the West shall driue euery creature to Ierusalem When they haue here swum fortie yeeres in their owne sweat they shall with much vexation come to Adam and say Father Adam Father Adam Why hast thou begotten vs to these miseries and torments Why sufferest thou vs to hang betweene hope and feare Pray to GOD that hee will finish his determination of vs between Paradise and Hell Adam shall excuse his vnworthinesse for his disobedience and send them to Noe Noe will post them to Abraham Abraham to Moses He shall send them to Iesus Christ To him they shall come and say The Spirit Word and Power of GOD let thy pitie moue thee to make intercession for vs He shall answer them That which you aske you haue lost I was indeed sent vnto you in the power of GOD and Word of Truth but yee haue erred and haue made me GOD more then euer I preached to you and haue therefore lost my benefit But goe to the last of the Prophets meaning him with whom thou now talkest Abdia Then shall they turne to him and say O faithfull Messenger and friend of GOD we haue sinned heare vs holy Prophet our only hope c. Then shall Gabriel present himselfe to helpe his friend and they shall goe to the Throne of GOD. And GOD shall say I know why you are come Farre be it that I should not heare the prayer of my faithfull one Then shall a bridge be made ouer Hell and on the top of the bridge shall bee set a ballance wherein euery mans workes shall bee weighed and those which are saued shall passe ouer the bridge the other shall fall into Hell Abd. How many bands of men shall there be in that day Mahom. An hundred and twentie of which three only shall be found faithfull and euery Band or troupe of men shall be in length the iourney of a thousand yeeres in breadth fiue hundred Abd. What shall become of Death Mah. He shall be transformed into a Ram and they shall bring him betweene Paradise and Hell Then shall arise much dissentions betweene these two peoples through feare of the one and hope of the other But the people of Paradise shall preuaile and shall slay Death betweene Paradise and Hell Abd. Thou O Mahomet hast ouercome and I beleeue that there is but one GOD Almightie and thou art his Messenger and Prophet In this long and tedious Summarie of that longer and more tedious Dialogue compared with the former Iewish opinions touching their Behemoth Leuiathan Ziz Ierusalem Swines flesh the Angell of Death and other their superstitious opinions it may appeare that the Iewes were forward Mint-masters in this new-coyned Religion of Mahomet In the beginning of this Dialogue are mentioned their fiue Prayers and their Ramadam or Ramazan Of which that Arabian Noble-man in confutation of the Alcoran writeth thus He which hath fulfilled these fiue Prayers shall bee praised in this world and in the next They are as follow Two kneelings in the morning after-noone foure at Vespers or a little before Sun-set foure after Sun-set foure at their beginning of supper two and after supper when it is darke two in all eighteene kneelings in a day Their Lent or Fast of the Moneth Ramazan is thus In the day time they must fast from Meate Drinke and Venerie till the Sunne bee downe then is Riot permitted them till a white threed may be discerned from a blacke But if any be sicke or in iourneying he may pay at another time the same number of dayes Sampsates Isphacanes a Persian in a letter written to one Meletius which had conuerted to Christianitie and fled to Constantinople to reduce him to his former vomit alleageth this saying of GOD to Mahomet I haue made all things for thee and thee for mee obiecteth to Christians the worship of three Persons the Father Mother and Sonne the worship of many gods And
Heresie of Eutyches heere Iason had built a Temple to Iupiter in the straights which seuer Europe from Asia after Melas measure fiue furlongs Of their ancient Kings others haue related but one cannot passe this our Historie without obseruation and that is Mithridates the sixth King of that name who loosing his father in the eleuenth yeere of his age by his Tutors was trecherously assailed but escaped and by vse of that antidote which of him still beareth the name Mithridate out-liued their poysoning conspiracie Hee liued indeed to the death of thousands which either his crueltie or his warres consumed Foure yeeres together to auoid their Treasons he liued in the fields and woods vnder a shew of hunting both preuenting their designes and inuring himselfe to hardnesse Hee spake two and twentie languages being Lord of so many Nations Hee held warres with the Romans sixe and fortie yeeres whom those renowned Captaines Sylla Lucullus Pompey did so conquer as he alway arose againe with great lustre and with greater terror and at last dyed not by his enemies command but voluntarily in his old age and his own Kingdome neuer made to attend the Roman triumphs Syllaes felicity Lucullus prowesse and Pompeyes greatnesse notwithstanding His aspiring thoughts had greedily swallowed the Soueraignty both of Asia and Europe He caused in one night all the Romans in his Dominions to be slaine in which massacre perished a hundred and fiftie thousand as some haue numbred But it cannot be conceiued saith Orosius how many there were or how great was the griefe both of the doers and sufferers when euery one must betray his innocent guests and friends or hazard his owne life no Law of Hospitalitie no Religion of Sanctuary or reuerence of Images being sufficient protection And no maruell if he spared not his enemies when he slew Exipodras and Homochares his sonnes and after the poysonings and voluntary death of Monyma his wife Statira and Roxane his daughters his sonne Pharnaces like to taste of the same cup won to his part his fathers Armie sent against him with which he pursued his father so hotly that hee hauing denounced a heauy curse vpon him entred amongst his Wiues Concubines and Daughters and gaue them poyson pledging them in the same liquor which his body accustomed to his Antidotes easily ouer-came and therefore was faine to intreat another to open a bloudy passage for that his cruell soule A man saith Orosius of all men most superstitious alway hauing with him Philosophers and men expert in all Arts now threescore and foureteene yeeres old The Religion in Pontus was little differing from the Greekes Wee read of the Sacrifices of this King to Ceres and to Iupiter Bellipotens in which the King brought the first wood to the fire He powred also thereon Hony Milke Wine Oyle and after made a Feast In honour of Neptune they drowned Chariots drawne with foure white Horses with which it seemed they would haue him ease himselfe in his Sea-voyages At the mouth of Pontus was the Temple of Iupiter Iasus called Panopeum and nigh thereto a Promontory sacred to Diana sometime an Iland ioyned to the Continent by an Earthquake Hereabouts was the Caue Acherusium whose bottomlesse bottome was thought to reach to Hell I may in the next place set downe Paphlagonia which as it fareth with such as haue mightie Neighbours can scarcely finde her proper limits Some reckon it to Galatia before described and sometimes Pontus hath shared it and either the force of Armes or bountie of Emperours hath assigned it at other times to Phrygia Cilicia or other parts the bounds thereof are thus deliuered Pontus confineth on the North on the East the Riuer Halys on the South Phrygia and Galatia on the West Bithynia Of the people hereof called Heneti some deriue the Veneti of Italy They now call it Roni It had the name Paphlagonia of Paphlagon the sonne of Phineus The Mount Olgasys is very high and in the same are many Paphlagonian Temples Sandaracurgium is another Mountaine made hollow by the Metall-miners which were wont to bee slaues redeemed from capitall Sentence who heere exchanged that speedie death for one more lingring So deadly is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and ending of this Idoll of the World which the Spaniards haue verified in the West by the destruction of another world Vitruuius tells of a Fountaine in Paphlagania as it were mixed with Wine whereof they which drinke without other liquor proue drunken The Heptacometae and Mossynoeci inhabited about those parts a people of that beastly disposition that they performed the most secret worke of Nature in publike view These are not so much notorious for being worse then beasts as their neighbours the Tibareni for surpassing in iustice other men They would not warre on their enemy but would faithfully before relate vnto him the Time Place and Houre of their fight whereas the Mossynoeci vsed to assault strangers that trauelled by them very treacherously They haue also a venemous kinde of Hony growing out of their trees with which they beguiled and slew three troupes of Pompey The Tabareni obserued one strange fashion that when the woman was deliuered of a childe her husband lay in and kept his chamber the women officiously attending him a custome obserued at this day amongst the Brasilians CHAP. XVI Of Asia proprie dicta now called Sarcum THis Region in the strict sense being a particular Prouince of the lesser Asia is bounded on the West with part of Propontis and Hellespont the Aegean Icarian and Mertoan Seas on the South with the Rhodian Sea Lycia and Pamphilia on the East with Galatia on the North with Pontus and Bithynia and part of Propontis In which space are contained Phrygia Caria and both Mysias Aeolis Ionia Doris Lydia Some circumcise from hence both Phrygia and Mysia alledging the authoritie of Saint Luke But in the Apocalypse Chap. 1. these parts are also added and 1. Pet. 1.1 PHRYGIA is diuided into the greater which lyeth Eastward and the lesse called also Hellespontiaca and Troas and of some Epictetus The greater PHRYGIA hath not many Cities Here stood Midaium the Royall Seat of Mydas and Apamia the Phrygian Metropolis Phrygia is called of the riuer Phryx which diuideth it from Caria Herodotus telleth that the Phrygians were accounted the most ancient of all people for the triall whereof Psammetichus King of Egypt had shut vp without societie of any humane creature two children causing onely goats to bee admitted to suckle them who after long time pronounced bec which they had learned of the goates but because that with the Phrygians signified bread therefore they accounted the Phrygians first authors of mankinde Before Deucalions floud Nannacus is reported to raigne there and foreseeing the same to haue assembled his people into the Temple with supplications and prayers Hence grew the prouerbe to say A thing was from
out of Berosus and Nicolaus Damascenus of old and Cartwrights later trauels what may be thought thereof Armenia as Strabo affirmeth receiued the name of one of Iasons companions which followed him in his Nauigation out of Harmenia a Citie of Thessaly betweene Pherae and Larissa The wealth of this Region appeared when Ptolomey appointing Tigranes to bring in to the Romans sixe thousand Talents of Siluer he added voluntarily beyond that summe to euery Souldier in the Campe fiftie drammes of Siluer to euery Centurion a thousand to euery Deputie of a Countrey and Chiliarch a Talent Their Religion must at first be that which Noah and his Family professed after by time corrupted Here saith our Berosus Noah instructed his posteritie in Diuine an Humane Sciences and committed many naturall secrets vnto writing which the Scythian Armenians commend to their Priests onely none else being suffered to see or reade or teach them He left also Rituall Bookes or Ceremoniall of the which hee was termed Saga that is Priest or Bishop Hee taught them also Astronomy and the distinction of yeeres and moneths For which they esteemed him partaker of Diuine Nature and surnamed him Olybama and Arsa that is the Heauen and the Sunne and dedicated to him many Cities some saith he remaining at this day which beare these names And when hee went from thence to gouerne Cytim which now as bee affirmeth they call Italy the Armenians were much affected to him and after his death accounted him the Soule of the heauenly bodies and bestowed on him Diuine Honors Thus Armenia where hee began and Italy where he ended doe worship him and ascribe to him Names Heauen Sunne Chaos the Seed of the World the Father of the greater and lesse Gods the Soule of the World mouing Heauen and the Creatures and Man the GOD of Peace Iustice Holinesse putting away hurtfull things and preseruing good And for this cause both Nations signifie him in their writings with the course of the Sunne and motion of the Moone and a Scepter of Dominion persecuting and chasing away the wicked from among the societie of men and with the chastitie of the bodie and sanctimony of the minde the two keyes of Religion and Happinesse They called also Tidea the mother of all after her death Aretia that is the Earth and Esta that is the Fire because shee had beene Queene of the Holy Rites and had taught maidens to keepe the holy euerlasting fire from euer going out Noah before he went out of Armenia had taught men Husbandry more ayming at Religion and Manners then Wealth and Dainties which prouoke to vnlawfull things and had lately procured the wrath of GOD. And first of all men he found out and planted Vines and was therefore called Ianus which to the Aramaeans soundeth as much as The Author of Wine Thus farre Berosus lib. 3. and in the fourth Booke hee addeth that Nymbrot the first Saturne of Babylon with his sonne Iupiter Belus stole away those Rituall or Ceremoniall bookes of Iupiter Sagus and came with his people into the land Sennaar where he appointed a Citie and laid the foundation of a great Tower a hundred thirtie and one yeeres after the Floud but neither finished this nor founded the other Old Ianus when hee went hence left Scytha with his mother Araxa and some inhabitants to people Armenia being the first King thereof Sabatius Saga being consecrated High Priest from Armenia vnto the Bactrians all which space saith he in our Age is called Scythia Saga In his fifth booke hee reporteth That Iupiter Belus possessed with ambition of subduing the whole world closely endeuoured to make or take away Sabatius Saga who being not able otherwise to escape his treachetie fled away secretly But Ninus the sonne of Belus pursued his fathers intent against Sabatius who substituted his sonne Barzanes in his place and fled into Sarmatia and after from thence into Italy to his father Ianus Barzanes was subdued by Ninus But to come to an Author of better credite Strabo saith The Armenians and Medes haue in veneration all the Temples of the Persians but the Armenians especially esteeme the Temples of Tanais as erecting them in other places so in Acilesina They dedicate vnto them men-seruants and women-seruants the most noble of that Nation there dedicating shall I say or prostituting their daughters where after long prostitution with their Goddesse they are giuen in marriage none refusing such matches How much can the shadow how little can the substance of Religion perswade men to The Image of Tanais or Anaitis was set vp in her Temple all of solid gold and when as Antonius warred against the Parthians this Temple was robbed The same went That hee which first had layed sacrilegious hands on the spoyles was smitten blind and so diseased that he died thereof But when Augustus being entertained of an ancient warriour at Bononia asked him of the truth of this report he answered Thou now O Emperour drinkest that bloud for I am the man and whatsoeuer I haue came by that bootie This Goddesse is supposed to be the same with Diana A Region of Armenia bare the same name Anaitis How bloudy Rites the Armenians sometimes vsed appeareth by the Historie of the Riuer Araxes before called Halmus borrowing this later name of a King there raigning to whom in warres betwixt him and the Persians the Oracle prescribed the sacrifice of his two faire daughters Pietie forbade what pietie commanded and whiles the King would be an Vmpire between Nature and the Oracle which is the vsuall euent in arbitrements he satisfied neither That the Oracle might bee fulfilled he sacrificed two of noble birth of notable beautie that Nature might not be wronged hee wronged Iustice the true touch-stone of true pietie hee spared his owne and offered the daughters of Miesalcus but so hee lost both his daughters by Miesalcus reuenging sword and himselfe in this Riuer by himselfe drowned Bacchus loued Alphoesibaea an Armenian Damsell and while Tygris then if you beleeue the Story called Sollax was too coole a Mediatour betweene the two hot louers hee swam ouer on a Tygers backe Hence the Fable of his Metamorphosis into a Tygre hence that name left to the Riuer Armenia was subdued to the Persians by Cyrus one part thereof payed to the Persians twentie thousand Colts for yeerely tribute Sariaster sonne to Tigranes the Armenian King conspired against his father the Conspirators sealed their bloudie faith with a bloudie ceremonie they let themselues bloud in the right hands and then dranke it Wonder that in such a treachery as immediately before the same Author affirmeth of Mithridates his sonne that any man would helpe or that hee durst importune the Gods no wonder that so bloudie a seale was annexed to such euidence The Temple of Baris mentioned by Strabo may happily be some Monument of Noahs descent by corruption of the word Lubar as before said Iosephus out of
and Peloponnesus for feare of a second returne of Techellis The remainder of Techellis his power as they fled into Persia robbed a Carauan of Merchants for which outrage comming to Tauris their Captaines were by Ismaels command executed and Techellis himselfe burnt aliue but yet is this Sect closely fauoured in Asia §. III. Of their Rites Persons Places and Opinions Religious WE haue now seene the Proceedings of this Sophian Sect both in Persia and Turkie both here kept downe and there established by force To weare red on the lower parts of their body were to these Red-heads scarsely piacular Touching Hali they haue diuers dreames as that when they doubted of Mahomets successor a little Lizard came into a Councell assembled to decide the controuersie and declared that it was Mahomets pleasure that Mortus Ali or Morts Ali should be the man He had a sword wherewith hee killed as many as he stroke At his death he told them that a white Camell would come for his body which accordingly came and carried his dead body and the sword and was therewith taken vp into heauen for whose returne they haue long looked in Persia For this cause the King kept a horse ready sadled and kept for him also a daughter of his to be his wife but she died in the yeere 1573. And they say further that if he come not shortly they shall be of our beleefe They haue few bookes and lesse learning There is often great contention and mutinie in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest sometime two or three thousand people being together by the eares about the same as I haue seene sayth Master Ducket in Shamaky and Ardouill and Tauris where I haue seene a man comming from fighting and in a brauery bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads carrying them by the hayre of the crowne For although they shaue their heads commonly twice a weeke yet leaue they a tuft of hayre vpon their heads about two foot long whereof when I enquired the cause They answered that thereby they may bee the easier carried vp into heauen when they are dead In praying they turne to the South because Mecca lyeth that way from them When they be on trauell in the way many of them will as soone as the Sunne riseth light from their horses turning themselues to the South and will lay their gownes before them with their swords and beads and so standing vpright doe their holy things many times in their prayers kneeling downe and kissing their beades or somewhat else that lieth before them When they earnestly affirme a matter they sweare by God Mahomet and Mortus Ali and sometime by all at once saying Olla Mahumet Ali and sometime Shaugham bosshe that is by the Shaughes head Abas the young Prince of Persia charged with imputation of treason after other Purgatorie speeches sware by the Creator that spread out the ayre that founded the earth vpon the deepes that adorned the heauen with Starres that powred abroad the water that made the fire and briefly of nothing brought forth all things by the head of Ali and by the Religion of their Prophet Mahomet that hee was cleare If any Christian will become a Bosarman or one of their superstition they giue him many gifts the Gouernor of the Towne appointeth him a horse and one to ride before him on another horse bearing a sword in his hand and the Bosarman bearing an arrow in his hand rideth in the City cursing his father and mother The sword signifieth death if hee reuolt againe Before the Shaugh seemed to fauour our Nation the people abused them very much and so hated them that they would not touch them reuiling them by the names of Cafars and Gawars that is Infidels or Mis-beleeuers Afterwards they would kisse their hands and vse them gently and reuerently Drunkards and riotous persons they hate for which cause Richard Iohnson caused the English by his vicious liuing to be worse accounted of then the Russes Their opinions and rites most-what agree with the Turkish and Saracenicall Their Priests are apparelled like other men they vse euery morning and afternoone to goe vp to the toppes of their Churches and tell there a great tale of Mahomet and Mortus Ali. They haue also among them certaine holy-men called Setes accounted therefore holy because they or some of their ancestors haue beene on pilgrimage at Mecca these must be beleeued for this Saint-ship although they lie neuer so shamefully These Setes vse to shaue their heâ—ds all ouer sauing on the sides a little aboue the Temples which they leaue vnshauen and vse to braide the same as women doe their hayre and weare it as long as it will grow Iosafa Barbaro at Sammachi lodged in an Hospitall wherein was a graue vnder a vault of stone and neere vnto that a man with his beard and hayre long naked sauing that a little before and behind he was couered with a skinne sitting on a peece of a matte on the ground I sayth hee saluted him and demanded what hee did he told mee hee watched his father I asked who was his father He quoth he that doth good to his neighbour with this man in this Sepulchre I haue liued thirty yeeres and will now accompany him after death and being dead be buried with him I haue seene of the world sufficient and now haue determined to abide thus till death Another I found at Tauris on all-Soules day in the which they also vsed a commemoration of Soules departed neere to the Sepulchre in a Church-yard hauing about him many birds especially Rauens and Crowes I thought it had beene a dead corpse but was told it was a liuing Saint at whose call the birds resorted to him and he gaue them meat Another I saw when Assambei was in Armenia marching into Persia against Signior Iausa Lord of Persia and Zagatai vnto the City of Herem who drew his staffe in the dishes wherein they are and sayd certaine words and brake them all the Sultan demanded what he had sayd they which heard him answered that he said hee should be victorious and breake his enemies forces as hee had done those dishes whereupon he commanded him to be kept till his returne and finding the euent according he vsed him honourably When the Sultan rode thorow the fields he was set on a Mule and his hands bound before him because he was sometime accustomed to doe some dangerous folly at his feet there attended on him many of their religious persons called Daruise These mad trickes he vsed according to the course of the Moone sometimes in two or three dayes not eating any thing busied in such fooleries that they were faine to bind him Hee had great allowance for his expences One of those holy men there was which went naked like to the beasts preaching their faith and hauing obtained great reputation hee caused himselfe to bee immured in a wall forty
according to which they reckon these things following to bee sinnes To thrust a knife into the fire or any way touch the fire with a knife or with their knife to take flesh out of the Cauldron or to hew with an hatchet neere to the fire For they thinke that they should so cut away the head of the fire They account it sinne also to leane on the whip wherewith they beate their horses for they ride not with spurres Also to touch arrowes with a whip to take or kill young Birds to strike an horse with the raine of their bridle and to breake one bone against another Likewise to powre out meat milke or any kinde of drinke vpon the ground or to make water within their Tabernacle which whosoeuer doth willingly is slaine but otherwise he must pay a great summe of money to the Inchanter to bee purified who causeth the Tabernacle with all things therein to passe betweene two fires Besides if any hath a morsell giuen him which hee is not able to swallow and for that cause casteth it out of his mouth there is an hole made vnder his Tabernacle by which hee is drawne forth and slaine without all compassion Likewise whosoeuer treades vpon the threshold of any of the Dukes Tabernacles hee is put to death Thus are these Gnats strained when as hostile inuasions murther and such other Camels are easily amongst them swallowed They thinke that after death they shall liue in another world and there multiply their cattell eate drinke and doe other actions of life At a new Moone or a full Moone they begin all new enterprises They call her the great Emperour and bow their knees and pray thereto The Sunne they say is the Moones mother because shee hath thence her light They are giuen to Diuinations Auguries Sooth-sayings Witchcrafts Inchantments and when they receiue answere from the Deuill they attribute the same vnto God whom they call Itoga and the Comanians call him Chan that is Emperor whom they maruellously feare and reuerence offering to him many Oblations and the first fruits of their meate and drinke According to his answere they dispose all things They beleeue that all things are purged by fire therefore when any Embassadours Princes or other personages whatsoeuer come vnto them they and their gifts must passe betweene two fires to bee purified lest peraduenture they haue practised some Witchcraft or haue brought some poyson or other mischiefe with them And if fire fall from heauen vpon men or beasts which there often hapneth or if they thinke themselues any way defiled or vncleane they thus are purified by their Inchanters If any be sicke a speare is set vp in his Tent with blacke felt welted about it and from thenceforth no stranger entereth therein For none of them which are present at his death may enter the hord of any Duke or Emperour till a New-Moone When hee is dead if hee bee a chiefe man hee is buried in the field where pleaseth him And hee is buried with his Tent sitting in the midst thereof with a Table set before him and a platter full of meate and a Cup of Mares-milke There is also buried with him a Mare and Colt a Horse with bridle and saddle and they eate another Horse whose bones the women burne for the soule of the dead stuffing his hide with straw setting it aloft on two or foure poles that hee may haue in the other world a Tabernacle and other things fitting for his vse They burie his gold and siluer with him the Chariot or Cart in which hee is carried forth is broken his Tent is destroyed neither is it lawfull to name his name till the third generation They obserue also other Funerall Rites too long to rehearse They lament their dead thirtie dayes more or lesse Their Parents and those of their family are thus cleansed They make two fires and pitch neere thereunto two Speares with a line from the top of the one to the other fastening on the same line some pieces of Buckram vnder which and betwixt the fires passe the Men Beasts and Tents There stand also two women one on this side the other on that casting water and repeating certaine charmes if any thing fall or be broken the Inchanters haue it And if any be slaine of Thunder the men in the Tent must thus be cleansed and all things in the Tent being otherwise reputed vncleane and not to be touched No men are more obedient to their Lords then the Tartars They seldome contend in words neuer in deeds They are reasonably courteous one to another their women are chaste adulterie is seldome heard of and theft is rare both punished by death Drunkennesse common but without brawles among themselues or discredit among others They are proud greedie deceitfull They eate Dogs Wolues Foxes Horses and in necessitie mans flesh Mice and other filth and that in as filthy a manner without Clothes and Napkins their Bootes and the Grasse can serue to wipe their greasie hands they haue no beard Hearbs Wine Meate or Beere nor doe they wash their dishes It is a great sinne amongst them to suffer any of their food to be lost and therefore they will not bestow a bone on a Dogge till they haue eaten the marrow Yvo Narbonensis in an Epistle recited by Mat. Paris Anno 1243. reporteth the confession of an Englishman which was taken with other Tartars by the Christians Hee saith that they called by the Name of Gods the auncient founders and fathers of their Tribes and at set times did solemnize feasts vnto them many of them being particular and but foure onely generall They thinke that all things are created for themselues alone They be hardy and strong in the brest leane and pale-faced rough and huf-shouldred hauing flat and short noses long and sharpe chinnes their vpper jawes low and declining their teeth long and thin their eye-browes extending from their foreheads downe to their noses their eyes inconstant and blacke their thighs thicke and legges short yet equall to vs in stature They are excellent Archers Vanquished they aske no fauour and vanquishing they shew no compassion They all persist as one man in their purpose of subduing the whole world Their proud swelling titles appeare in the Copies of those Letters of Duke Baiothnoy and Cuin Can expressed by Vincentius One of them beginneth thus By the precept of the liuing GOD CINGIS CHAM sonne of the sweet and worshipfull GOD saith that GOD is high aboue all the immortall GOD and vpon Earth CINGIS C HAM onely Lord c. These Letters of the Emperour the Tartars called the Letters of GOD so beginneth Duke Baiothnoy to the Pope who had sent Frier Ascelline with Alexander Albericus Simon thither in Embassage The word of BAIOTHNOY sent by the diuine disposition of CHAM Know this O Pope c. Frier Iohn saith he stiles himselfe The power of God and Emperour of all men and hath
an Earth-quake changed his channell thereby a great part of the neighbour Region being turned into a desart For in this Indus is like vnto Nilus in that without it the Countrey would be a Wildernesse and therefore is also worshipped of the Inhabitants It receiueth fifteene other Riuers into it Hee mentioneth the Cathei not farre from thence which after happily gaue name vnto Cathay The Indians are of seuen sorts The first in estimation and sewest in number were their Philosophers These kept-publike Acts once a yeere before the King he which in his Obseruations was found three times false was condemned to perpetuall silence The second sort were Husband-men which payd the King the onely owner of all the Land a fourth part of the increase The third was of Shepheards and Huntsmen which wandred in Tents The fourth Artificers The fifth Souldiers The sixth Magistrates The seuenth Courtiers and those of his Priuie Councell If any woman killeth the King in his drunkennesse shee is rewarded with the marriage of his Sonne and Heire If any depriue another of a member besides like for like he loseth his hand and if hee bee an Artificer his life They strangle their sacrifice that it may be so offered whole to their Idols §. II. Of their Philosophicall or Religious Sects OF their Philosophers or men Learned and Religious the Brachmanes obtaine the first place as being neerest in Sects to the Greekes These are after their manner Nazarites from the wombe So soone as their Mother is conceiued of them there are learned men appointed which come to the Mother with Songs containing Precepts of Chastitie As they grow in yeeres they change their Masters They haue their places of Exercise in a Groue nigh to the Citie where they are busied in graue conferences They eare no liuing Creatures nor haue vse of women liue frugally and lye vpon skinnes They will instruct such as will heare them but their Hearers must neither Sneese nor Spit nor Speake When they haue in this strict course spent seuen and thirtie yeeres they may liue more at Pleasure and Libertie in Dyet Habit proper Habitation and the vse of Gold and Marriage They conceale their mysteries from their Wiues lest they should blab them abroad They esteeme this life as mans Conception but his Death day to bee his Birth-day vnto that true and happy life to him which hath beene rightly Religious They hold the World to bee Created Corruptible Round ruled by the high GOD. Water they imagine to haue beene the beginning of making the World and that besides the foure Elements there is a fifth Nature whereof the Heauen and Starres consist They intreate of the immortalitie of the Soule and of the torments in Hell and many such like matters The Germanes another Order of Religious or Learned men are honoured amongst them especially such of them as liue in the Woods and of the Woods both for their dyet of those wilde Fruits and their habit of the Barkes of Trees not acquainted with Bacchus or Venus any more then with Ceres They speake not to the Kings when they aske counsell of them but by messengers and doe pacifie the angrie gods as is supposed by their holinesse Next in honour to these are certaine Mendicants which liue of Rice and Barley which any man at the first asking giueth them together with entertainment into their houses These professe skill in Physicke and to remedie Diseases Wounds and Sterilitie very constant in labour and hardship Others there are Inchanters and Diuiners Masters of Ceremonies about the Dead which wander thorow Townes and Cities Some there are more Ciuil and Secular in their life professing like Pietie and Holinesse Women also are admitted vnto the fellowship of their studies in this Philosophie not to their beds Aristobulus writeth That hee saw two of these Brachmanes the one an old man shauen the other young with long haire which sometimes resorted to the Market-place and were honoured as Counsellors and freely tooke what they pleased of any thing there to be sold for their sustenance They were anointed with Sesumine oyle wherewith and with hony they tempered there bread They were admitted to Alexanders Table where they gaue lessons of patience and after going to a place not farre off the old Man lying downe with his face vpward sustained the Sun and showers terrible violence The yonger standing on one foot held in both his hands a piece of wood of three cubits lifted vp and shifted feet as the other was weary nd so they continued euery day The young man returned home afterward but the old man followed the King with whom he changed his Habit and Life for which when as he was by some reproued he answered That he had fulfilled the fortie yeeres exercise which he had vowed Onesicritus saith that Alexander hearing of some Religious Obseruants which went naked and exercised themselues to much hardship and would not come to others but would bid Men if they would haue any thing with them to come to them sent him vnto them who found fifteene of them twentie furlongs from the City each of them obseruing his own gesture of sitting standing or lying naked and not stirring til sun-setting in that vnsupportable heat at which time they returned into the Citie Calanus was one of them He afterward followed Alexander into Persia where beginning to be sicke hee caused a great Pile or Frame of wood to be made wherein he placed himselfe in a golden chayre and caused fire to be put to in which he was voluntarily consumed telling if they tell TRUE that he would meet Alexander at Babylon the place fatall to Alexanders death Aelianus saith That this was done in a suburbe of Babylon and that the fire was of Cedar Cypres Mirtle Laurell and other sweet woods and after he had performed his daily exercise of running hee placed himselfe in the middest crowned with the leaues of Reeds the Sunne shinning on him which he worshipped This adoration was the signe which hee gaue to the Macedonians to kindle the fire in which he abode without any stirring till hee was dead Alexander himselfe admiring and preferring this victorie of Calanus before all his owne This Calanus told Onesicritus of a golden World where Meale was as plentiful as dust and Fountaines streamed Milk Hony Wine and Oyle Which Country by men turned into wantonnesse Iupiter altered and detayned imposing a life of hardnesse and labour which while men followed they enioyed abundance but now that men begin to furfet and grow disobedient there is danger of vniuersall destruction When hee had thus spoken hee bad him if hee would heare further strip himselfe and lie naked vpon these stones But Mandanis another of them reproued Calanus for his harshnesse and commending Alexander for his loue to learning said that they inured their bodies to labour for the confirmation of their mindes against passions For his nakednesse he alledged that that was the
need not this ruder but iust and true Apologie As for other Obiections they are friuolous and either ridiculous or meerely accidentall and it is Puritanisme in Politie to conceit any great Good without some Euills attendant in any Enterprise whatsoeuer where the Heauens Great Lights are subiect to Eclipses the longest Day hath a Night the Summer yeelds vicissitude to Winter all Bodies are mixed and compounded and in the greatest Lustre make an apparant Shadow Apparant Shadowes are the obiected expence of Victuall as if these mouthes would not exceed farre more in quantitie and qualitie at home of Timber as if this be not the most honourable vse thereof though Ireland yeeldes supply in this kind of eclipsing or sinking other Trades sic inter Stellas argentea Luna minores will they be angrie that so few Starres appeare when Aurora is preparing the Sunnes Chariot They adde Oppressions and Dealing cruelly I know not whether this be a cruell lye and many other alledged against these Indian Nauigations bee but English Knauigations This I know that the Wisest hath forbidden to answere a foole according to his foolishnesse lest thou also bee like him Easie it is for fooles to moue Scruples in the Actions of the Wisest and not hard for euill mindes to make that which they find not euill But Christians are to imitate Him rather which commanded the Light to shine out of Darkenesse with a candide Mind the true Image of GOD alway construing doubtfull things to the best which the best will doe to whom and for whom this is intended As for Cauillers they haue their Dos here according to Salomons Prescipt Answere a foole according to his foolishnesse lest he be wise in his owne conceit §. IIII. The Conclusion with commendation of the Mariner c. NOw that I haue after my ability answered the obiections and produced so many Arguments the most of which are Store-houses and Heads of many Let this be the last argument which to me was not the least and here was placed first the Increase of learning and knowledge by these worthy Discoueries of Marine Worthies How little had we knowne of the World and the Wonders of God in the World had not the Sea opened vs a Passage into all Lands Pegasus the winged Horse which the Poets fained with the stroke of his foot first made Helicon the Muses Well to spring was the issue of Neptune and that snaky-headed Monster Medusa The Mariner seemes rough-hewen and rude according to the Ocean that breeds him but hee that can play with those dangers which would transforme others into stones and dares dwell within so few inches of death that calls the most tempestuous Elements his Parents Hee I say is the true Pegasus that with his wing-like Sailes flies ouer the World which hath helped to deliuer Andromeda Geography before chained to the Rockes and ready to bee deuoured of that Monster Ignorance and out of whose salt waters wisely distilled Clio Vrania and the best of the Muses drinke their sweetest and freshest liquors Howsoeuer Others My Selfe must confesse and this Booke will witnesse that My Helicon hath in great part flowne from the footing of this Pegasus And let it be the Honour of Our Honourable SMITH that His hand hath fitted this Foot of Pegasus to this Indian Iourney whither he is now carrying you at Whose Forge and Anuill haue beene hammer'd so many irons for Neptune not like Xerxes his Arrogance which proudly cast Fetters into the Hellespont but with true effects of Conquest Mee thinkes I here see the Sterne that with little locall stirring Stiereth so many Ships to so many Ports visited by your Pilgrim HONDIVS his Map of the EAST-INDIA INDIA Orientalis CHAP. III. Of the Indian Prouinces next adioyning to China §. I. Of Cauchin China Camboia and the Laos CAuchin-China is an Indian Kingdome situate betweene the Prouince of Canton on the North and Camboia on the South in the bottome of a great Bay diuided into three Prouinces and as many Kings but one of them is Paramount It aboundeth with Gold Siluer Aloes Porcelane and Silke They are Idolaters and Pagans and haue had some deuotion to the Popish Christianity moued thereto by certaine Pictures of our Lady of the last Iudgement and Hell a new kind of preaching and haue erected many Crosses amongst them of which the Friers report after their fashion some miracles Their Religion seemeth little to differ from that of the Chinois to whom they are also Tributaries and vse their Characters One Richard Cocke Englishman in a Letter dated December the tenth 1614. from Firando in Iapan where hee was left in Factory by Captaine Saris writes of an vnhappy accident which befell Master Tempest Peacocke who with Walter Caerwarden arriued not long before with our Kings Letter in Cauchin-China with a Present also and goods to the Value of seuen hundred and thirty pounds But whiles hee with some principall Hollanders who were there likewise entertained was passing by water they were set vpon and slaine with harping irons together with their interpreters and followers Iapanders neither had they heard further what became of the rest of the Company The cause was reported to bee a quarell against the Hollanders for fraud and violence deceiuing them with false money and burning a Towne Here is much of the wood called Palo Daguilla and of the most sweet wood Calamba with other merchandize of China Betweene this and the I le Aynao tenne miles from the land is a fishing for Pearles To the South of this Kingdome is Champa the name of a Kingdome and chiefe Citie thereof of great Traffique especially of Lignum Aloes which groweth there in the Mountaines prized at the weight in Siluer which they vse in Bathes and in the Funerals of great Princes In Religion they are as the former This Tract beares also the name of Camboia Camboia on the North abutteth on Cauchin China on the South the Kingdome of Siam on the East the Sea It is a great and populous Countrey full of Elephants and Abada's this Beast is the Rhinoceros Here also they begin to honour the Crosse as Frier Siluester a man as they say much reuerenced by the King and honoured of the people hath taught them When the King dieth his women are burned and his Nobles doe voluntarily sacrifice themselues in the same fire The women are generally burned with their husbands at their death The Camboyans dealt treacherously with the Hollanders Anno 1602. whom they inuited to the shore with promise of certaine Buffolos and then cruelly slew them They detained the Admirall on shore to be redeemed with some of their Ordnance When they intend a iourney they vse diuination with the feete of a Henne to know whether it will be luckie or no and as the Wizard shall answere they dispose of themselues either to goe or stay This Land hath much of the sweet Wood Calamba which being good
World to bee a Tallipoy In few dayes after he is carried vpon a Thing like an Horse-litter which they call a Serion vpon ten or twelue mens shoulders in apparrell of a Tallipoy with Pipes and Drums and many Tallipoys with him and all his friends which accompany him to his House standing without the Towne and there leaue him Euery one of them hath his House which is very little set vpon sixe or eight Posts to which they ascend on a Ladder of twelue or fourteene steps These Houses are commonly by the High-wayes side and among the Trees and in the Woods They goe strangely apparrelled with one Camboline or thin Cloth next to their bodie of a browne colour another of yellow doubled many times vpon their shoulders These two bee girded to them with a broad Girdle and they haue a Skin of Leather hanging on a string about their neckes whereon they sit bare-headed and bare-footed with their right armes bare and a broad Sombrero or shadow in their hands to defend them in Summer from the Sunne and in Winter from the raine They are shauen on their heads beards and all their bodies They obserue perpetuall Chastitie and are modest in their going When one of them dies his body is kept many dayes with Feasts and after is set on a high Scaffold many Tallapoys feasting about it Thus it is carried to the place of burning by a great number of people where it is consumed with sweet Woods to the bones these buried neere their Houses and the ashes cast into the water Balby resembles them in Habite and Ceremonies to their Friers They goe with a great Pot made of Wood or fine Earth and couered tyed with a broad Girdle vpon their shoulders which commeth vnder their arme wherewith they goe to beg their Victuals which they eate which is Rice Fish and Hearbs They demand nothing but come to the doore and the people presently doe giue them one thing or other which they put together in their Pot. They keepe their Feasts by the Moone and at a new Moone is their most solemne Feast and then the people send Rice and other things to that Kiack or Church of which they be and there all the Tallipoys of that Church meet and ate that which is sent them They Preach against all abuses and many resort vnto them When they enter into their Kiack at the doore their is a great Iarre of Water with a Cocke or a Ladle in it and there they wash their feet and then enter in lifting vp their hands to their heads first to their Preacher then to the Sun and so sit downe When the Tallipoys preach many of the people carry them gifts vnto the Pulpit where they sit and preach And there is one that sitteth by them to take that which the people bring which is diuided among them They haue none other Ceremonies nor Seruice that I could see but onely Preaching Bomferrus a Franciscan and after him Boterus say That they hold an innumerable multitude of Worlds from all eternitie succeeding one after another and also an innumerable number of Gods but not all at once They imagine that fiue haue gouerned this present World whereof foure are passed aboue 2090. yeeres agoe Now they are without a God and expect the fifth many Ages hereafter after whose death they conceiue that the World shall perish by fire and then another World shall follow and others Gods to rule it They recken likewise in the number of their Gods certaine Men which yet haue first passed into Fishes Beasts and Birds of all sorts After death they beleeue three Places one of Pleasure Scuum like the Mahumetane Paradise another of Torment Naxac the third of Annihilation which they call Niba The Soules after their phantasie abide in the two former places whence they returne so often into this life till at last they be holden worthy that Niba Hee addeth that they haue Couents or Colledges of Priests which liue three hundred together or more in one place haue no vse of Women are harbourers of Strangers and liue some of Almes some of Rents They haue like Nunneries also for the Women There is supposed to be in one Idol-Sanctuary whereof they haue many 120000. Idols They fast thirtie dayes in the yeere in which they eat nothing till night They are of opinion That he which in this world robbeth another man shall in the next world bee his seruant for recompence They hold it a sin also to kill a liuing creature although this be not strictly obserued amongst them Some Iewes are of opinion That this people descended of those Israelites which Salomon sent to Ophir which they place in this Kingdome But the Peguans themselues ascribe their Religion to a Dog and a China woman which escaped shipwracke The Deuill is highly worshipped of these Pegusians to whom they erect a stately Altar and adorne it with varietie of Flowers and Meates of all sorts so to fee and feede him that hee should not hurt them This is principally done when they are sicke for then they make Vowes and build Altars which they couer with Clothes and Flowers They entertaine him also with diuersitie of Musicke and appoint him a Priest whom they call the Deuils Father which procureth his Rites and Musicke Some as soone as they rise from their beds bring a basket of Rice and meates and a burning Torch in their hands running vp and downe in the streets openly professing to feede the Deuill to preuent harme from them that day And if Dogs follow them they hold them to be sent of the Deuill to deuoure those meates in his name Some will not eate till they haue first cast something behinde their backes to the Deuill And in the Country Villages some of the richer inhabitants leaue their houses furnished with store of food three moneths space to bee inhabited of him keeping meane while in the fields that so the other nine moneths they may bee out of his danger And howsoeuer the Tallipoys preach against this deuillish deuotion yet they cannot reclaim the people The Tallipoys euery Munday arise early and by the ringing of a Bason call together the people to their Sermons which are of Iustice to man but nothing of Religion to God They wash themselues once a yeere and the water wherewith they are washed the people account holy and reserue it for their drinke as a holy potion They hold that all which doe well of whatsoeuer Religion shall be saued and therefore care not as Balby affirmeth if any of their Nation turne Christian They haue many Feasts very solemnly obserued One Feast called Sapan Giachie is kept twelue leagues from the Citie whither the King rides in a triumphall Chariot with his Queene in exceeding pompe so adorned with Iewels that the eye cannot endure their shining his Nobles attending Another is kept in Pegu against which day all the Courtiers prouide them certaine Pillars or Images
cut their Cables and to escape by flight being swifter of sayle then the English Thus the Portugals wanted a Hercules for this Dragon more watchfull then the Hesperidan more terrible then the Lernaean or a Medaea to Charme this as sometimes the Colchian these three Dragons the Poets faine Monsters begotten of Typhon and Echidna but none of them breathing Fire nor roaring Thunders like this fell Indian Dragon here spoken of In these fights after Master Salmons reckoning the Dragon spent sixe hundred thirtie nine and the Osiander three hundred eightie seuen great shot besides three thousand small The Great Mogoll which before thought none comparable to the Portugall at Sea much wondred at the English resolution related to him by Sardar Cham. The Portugals lost by their owne Confession one hundred and sixtie by others report fiue hundred men the Sabandar reckoned three hundred and fiftie in these fights the English three men and the arme of another shot off The Articles agreed on before by the Gouernour were confirmed by the Kings Firma which they receiued Ianuary the eleuenth Captaine Best returned to Swally December one and twentieth and sent Letters of this successe for England by land but the Messenger with his Indian were both poysoned by two Friers in the way homewards another Letter sent by a Mariner came to the Companies hands in very good season and they sent forth foure ships hither besides three to other places vnder the Command of Generall Downton viz. The New yeeres Gift the Hector the Merchants Hope and the Salomon These leauing England in March on October the fifteenth following 1614. anchored at South Swally not farre from Surrat where they found the Countrey in Armes against the Portugals which had a little before taken a Ship of the Mogols in which was said to bee three millions of Treasure and two women bought for the Great Mogol They also tooke a Guzzarate Ship worth one hundred thousand pounds with seuen hundred persons therin at the barre of Surat notwithstanding their owne Passe granted them and sent them to Goa The Decanims laid siege to Chaul and Mocrob Chan was to doe his vtmost for his Master the Mogol The Moores on all hands sought their Destruction and they were driuen to send away many hundreths of the Banyans out of their Townes to free themselues of vnprofitable Mouths three Barkes of which came to Surat others to Cambaya Mocrob Chan laboured very earnestly with the Generall to ingage himselfe in that warre against the Portugall which because he could not doe except in a defensiue quarrell by his Commission the Nabab so they call this Mocrob Chan then Vice-Roy or Gouernour of the Countrey about Surat the Iesuites interprete Nabab supreame Iudge was strange to the English and offered the Merchants some hard measure yea the Iesuites which were with Mocrob Chan tooke occasion from this refusall to counterfeit a Letter from the Vice-Roy threatning that except they yeelded to peace He and his friends the English would ioyne against Surat which suspition Master Aldworth one of our Merchants furthered ignorant of the former but threatning that their abuses would cause the English to ioyne with the Portugall Thus ticklish were the termes on which they stood December the sixteenth the Generall receiued a Letter that the Portugals had burnt Goga with many Villages thereabouts and ten great Ships one of which was the Rehemee with one hundred and twentie small vessels hee read the Letter of a Iesuite in which the King of Spaine commaunded the Vice-Roy to burne Surat if they receiued the English On December the seuen and twentieth two and twentie Portugall Frigates sought to lay the Hope aboord but by force of shot were put off The Vice-Roy sent offer of Friendship to Mocrob Chan on condition that hee would turne the English out of Surat and suffer him to build a Fort at Swally otherwise threatning bloudie warres And so on Ianuary the fourteenth came two Fleets of Frigates and on the eighteenth sixe great Gallions with three lesser Ships Two Gallies were yet behinde The Frigates were threescore some adde fifteene more This great force made Mocrob Chan to feare whereupon hee sent a Present to the Vice-Roy with some Treatie of peace whereof the Vice-roy made light account thinking first to ouercome vs a thing not hard in his conceit and then to treate of peace on his owne termes Much policie was vsed on both parts the Nabab complementing and sending Ptesents to the Vice-Roy and out Generall also the Vice-Roy promising much to himselfe but reckoning without his host and therefore when after the fight hee would haue concluded vpon the conditions that Mocrob had offered hee was then refused with a scoffe that hee would not make peace with so weake an enemy that could not preuaile against foure Merchants Ships On the twentieth of Ianuary their three smaller Ships had thought to haue Stemmed the Hope then riding at an Anchor neere the Barre of Swally some distance from the rest these laid her aboord on the Star-boord side and one Gally and fiue and fortie sayle of Frigates on their Lar-boord the Gallions followed as farre as the Sands would permit The Admirall made to their helpe and for the better speed cut their Cable but the Enemies had alreadie entered with great shew of resolution without feare or wit saith one of the Hopes men thirtie or fortie were entered on the Fore-castle But the Gift in this fatall Moneth answered her Name and gaue them for a New-yeeres-Gift such Orations roarations yee may call them that they were easily perswaded to leaue the Hope and all hopelesse to coole their hote blouds with leaping into the Seas cold waters where many for want of a Boat made vse of Charons those that were of most hope and courage held still their possession of the entered Hope but with enterred hopes and dispossession of their liues I know not what Salmoneus Dum flammas Iouis sonitus imitatur Olympi Aere imitans nimbos non imitabile fulmen or what Prometheus hath taught these later Ages to steale Iupiters Fires and instructed so many Cyclopean Artificers to imitate those heauenly in hellish Thunders and sulphurous lightnings these Mettall-Deuils as Angels of Death with Brazen sides and Iron Mouths proclaiming Destruction and Desolation to the World These Bullets are the true fire-breathing Buls such the Poets fained at Colchos and this Ordnance the fire-foaming horses of Diomedes feeding on the flesh of men which yet I know not whether very crueltie haue made sparing whiles the Terror hath made men sparing in the vse of it this Age for this cause yeelding fewer pitched battels and in them fewer slaine numbers then the former which neuer heard of this cruell-mercifull Engine But let vs leaue this Parenthesis The Portugals whether themselues by casualtie or industry set fire on their ships or that the fire which Master Mullineux the Master of the Hope cast into one of
people of their money by many deuices as by selling them Scroles to keepe them by the Deuill from hurt of Deuils after death borrowing of money here to repay with great interest in the future World giuing the Creditor a Bill or Scroll of their hands for security by telling of things stolne or lost which they doe by Inchantments calling a Deuill into a child who being so possessed answereth their questions by selling their blessings and curses like Balaam Some by vow the most liue vnmarryed as the Bonzian women Another Sect called janambuxos before their admission into that Order liue two thousand or more together on a high Mountayne for the space of threescore dayes macerating themselues with selfe-inflicted penance the Deuill in diuers shapes meane-while appearing to them And after this they are receiued into that damnable Fellowship distinguished by white flockes hanging downe their neckes curled haire and blacke hats and so wander from place to place giuing notice of their comming by a little Bell. Another Sect called Genguis dwell on some high Hill blacke of complexion and as is supposed horned marrie Wiues of their owne kindred passe ouer great Riuers by the Deuils helpe who on a certaine Hill at times appointed appeareth to them of whom by the name of Amida he is worshipped In another Hill he was wont to appeare to his deuout followers whom then hee would lead as they thought to Paradise indeed to destruction They say that a Sonne not able to perswade his Father from this passage to Paradise secretly followed him with his Bow and Arrowes and when the Deuill appeared shot and wounded a Foxe whom he followed by the bloud to a Lake wherein he found many dead mens bones They haue another Vniuersity in Iapon called Coia whose Bonzian Students are of the Sect of Combendaxis supposed the Inuenter of the Iaponian Letters He in his old age digged a foure-square Caue into which hee conueyed himselfe affirming that hee then dyed not but after some Millions of yeeres would returne in the dayes of one Mirozu which then should be a most worthy King in Iapon About his Sepulchre burne many Lampes sent thither from diuers Nations with opinion that such as enrich that Monument shall themselues here be enriched and in the other life by Combendaxis patronized In the Colledges here liue sixe thousand of those Shauelings from whom women are restrayned vpon paine of death At Fatonochaiti the Bonzij trayned vp witty and proper youths in all trickes of subtlety and guile acquainting them with Genealogies of Princes that so they might counterfeit to bee the sonnes of such or such great men and borrowing money on that credit might enrich their wicked Colledge till the sleight being found they were killed of the Inhabitants There be that worship the Sunne and Moone who haue an Image with three heads which they say is the vertue of the Sunne Moone and Elements These worship the Deuill in visible shape appearing to them with many and costly Sacrifices Some Bonzij play the Physicians which burne certaine papers in which are written the sentences of Cam and Fotoch which papers being burnt they put the ashes in drinke and giue the same to cure diseases and with lyes to turne away lyes and fraudulent dealing Some hold Xacas booke in such veneration that without it they hold it impossible to bee saued Other Bonzij haue beene in other ages in high reputation of holinesse but one especially not a hundred yeeres since the author of the sect called Icoxos the Ruler or Generall of which sect is openly wicked but so adored of the people that if he but looke on them they will salute him with teares of ioy praying him that all their sinnes may bee pardoned and therewith giue him no small quantitie of their gold His yeerly festiuall is so honoured with thronging of the people that in the entrie of the Cloyster many are trodden vnder foot which yet is of the blinde people accounted a happinesse many willingly yeelding themselues to be killed in that presse And in the night whiles his prayses are sung there is a great howling and lamentation Nequiron was author of the sect Foquexan There is an Image or Colossus of Copper in the way from Ozaca to Sorungo called Dabis made hollow sitting vpon his heeles of huge greatnesse and yeelding a great sound if any hallow in the hollow thereof as some of Captaine Saris his companie did At Meaco he obserued one Temple as great as the body of Paules westward from the Quire with a stone roofe borne vp on as high pillars Hee saw an Idoll greater then the former reaching vp to the top of the arch That of Dabis was in their way to the pilgrimage of Tenchadema where Master Adams told him that hee had beene There they euery moneth present the Deuill with a new Virgin instructed by the Bonzij to aske him certayne questions which he in humane shape appearing answereth hauing the carnall vse of her body if some Bonzi make not the Deuill Cuckold as in our Egyptian Relations yee shall find of Tyrannus Some of their Bonzij professe a militarie discipline as the Knights of Malta The profession called Neugori was instituted by Cacubau who is therefore deified in which some intend their prayers whiles others fight and others performe their taske of making fiue arrowes a day Their gouernment is an Anarchie euery one obeying and commanding the meanest person amongst them hauing a Negatiue in all their consultations And nothing is agreed on till all be agreed In the night they often kill one another without remorse and yet such is their Religion this Sect holdeth it a sinne to kill a flye or any liuing thing Amongst the Bonzij there are two principall men which if vnder their hand-writing they giue their testimoniall to other of their Orders it is as conferring a Degree yea a kinde of Canonization For thence-forward they sit in a chaire and are adored and appoint to other Students their taskes of meditation One of these puffed vp with vanitie and arrogance professed to know what he was before he was borne and what should become of him after death Valentine Caruaglio in relating the death of some principall Nobles which withstood Daifusama the present Emperor speaks of a certaine Bonzi which neuer stirres out of doores but vpon such occasions who accompanied with many of his Sect after other hallowing ceremonies did giue them a certaine booke to kisse and laid it on their heads wherein they reposed much holinesse and worshipped it as a god but one of them named Augustine reiected him crying out hee was a Christian and therewith tooke out a picture of Queene Catharine of Portugall sister to Charles the fifth in which were also represented the holy Virgin and our Lord and with great reuerence laid it three times on his head and so resounding the names of Iesus and Maria was beheaded This I mention to let
Almohades and had by him the Alcoran This Abdelmon or Abdel Mumen was he writeth the sonne of a Potter to whom Auentumerth a great Astronomer foretold his Royaltie To this Auentumerth did one Almehadi ioyne himselfe who interpreted the Alcoran contrary to the Bagdat Catholocisme and the interpretations of the Almoranides which then ruled in Africa whose helpe Abdel vsed to obtaine the Kingdome both of Africa and Spaine Hee buried Almohadi being dead very Royally not farre from Marocco where he is had in great veneration and prayers made to him and the followers of his sect called of him Almohadis To Abdel Mumen succeeded his Sonne Auen Iacob who being slaine in Portugall his Brother Aveniuseph succeeded and then his Sonne this Auen Mahomath with whom he saith were slaine two hundred thousand Moores the carkasses lying so thicke that they could scarce ride ouer them and yet in all the field no signe of bloud to be seene For two dayes space the Spanish Armie burne no wood for any vse but the Arrowes Launces and Pikes of the Moores burning of purpose and not onely for necessitie and yet scarcely consumed halfe With him perished the Almohades Thus farre Rodericus an eye-witnesse not much differing from Leo. I cannot omit that which Mathew Paris hath written of Iohn King of England about these times and in his owne dayes He sent saith he Thomas Herdinton and Radulph Fitz Nicolas Knights and Robert of London Clarke to Admirall Murmelius King of Marocco Africa and Spaine whom they commonly call Miramumelius to make offer vnto him of his Vassalage and that he would not onely hold the Land of him with payment of Tribute but would also change his Religion and accept the Mahumetan The Embassadours hauing declared their message the King or Emire Elmumenin to call him rightly shut vp the Booke whereon they found him reading and after a little deliberation thus answered I was now reading a Greeke Booke of a certaine wise man and a Christian called Paul whose wordes and deeds well please me this onely I like not that hee forsooke the Religion wherein he was borne and vnconstantly embraced another and the same I say of your Master God Almightie knowes that if I were without the Law and now to chuse This aboue all other should be my choise And then by diuers questions enforming himselfe better of the state of the Kingdome and of the King he grew into great passion and indignation against the King protesting that he thought him vnworthy to bee his Confederate and commanded the Embassadours neuer more to see his face The Author heard Robert of London one of those which were sent relate these things HONDIVS his Map of the Kingdome of Marocco MAROCCHI REGNUM §. II. Of the Kings of the Seriffian Familie ABout the yeere 1508 began to grow in name through Numidia a certaine Alsaique borne in Tigumedet in the Prouince of Dara beeing a subtill man and no lesse ambitious in minde then learned in those Sciences whereunto the Mahumetanes are most addicted Hee by confidence of his blood descended of their Prophet and of the diuisions of the States of Africa and the exploits there dayly atchieued by the Portugals attempted to make himselfe Lord of Mauritania Tingitana For this cause hee sent his three Sonnes Abdel Abnet and Mahomet to visit the Sepulchre of Mahomet Much was the reuerence and reputation of holinesse which they hereby acquired amongst that superstitious people which now beheld them as Saints and kissed their garments as most holy Reliques These failed not in their parts of the play to act as much deuotion as high contemplatiue lookes deepe fetched sighes and other passionate interiections of holinesse could expresse Ala Ala was their yernfull note their food was the peoples almes The old Father ioyning to see his proiects thus farre proceed and minding to strike whiles the Iron was hote sent two of them to Fez Amet and Mahumet where one of them was made Reader in the Amodonaccia the most famous Colledge of Fez and the younger was made Tutor to the Kings young sonnes Aduanced thus in fauour of the King and People by their Fathers aduice they apprehended the present occasion of the harmes sustained by the Arabians and Moores vnder the Portugals Ensignes they demanded Licence of the King to display a Banner against the Christians putting him in hope easily to draw those Moores to him and so to secure the Prouinces of Marocco In vaine were Mulley Nazer the Kings brother his allegations not to arme this Name of Sanctitie which being once victorious might grow insolent and forget dutie in minding a Kingdome They obtaine their desires and with a Drum and Banner with Letters of commendations to the Arabians and people of Barbary they are so attended with forces and fortunes that Ducala and all as farre as Cape de Guer stoopes to their command the people willingly yeelding their Tenths to this Holy warre against the Portugals enemies of their Faith Hereunto was added the ouerthrow which they gaue to Lopes Barriga a famous Portugall Captaine the brightnesse of that sun-shine being somewhat eclipsed with the losse of their elder brother if rather a Monarchie were not hereby furthered By faire words they entered into Marocco The Arabians of Ducala and Xarquia about this time trying their quarrels by dint of Sword in mutuall conflicts presented a fit occasion to the Seriffs to prey vpon them both their strength hauing made them weake and their weaknesse making the other strong And now did they begin to vsurpe soueraigntie presenting their Fessan King with sixe Horses and sixe Camels and those but simple whom before they had acknowledged their Soueraigne with payment of the fifths of their spoile The King of Fez before applauding his owne victories in theirs began now to distaste and to distrust hee sends to them to demand his fifths and the tribute also formerly paide him by the Kings of Marocco Death the common enemie of Mankinde here interposed her selfe on the Seriffian part and tooke the King of Fez out of the world the Scepter descending to his Sonne Amet the Scholler of the young Seriff who not onely proceeded not in his Fathers demands but confirmed Amet in the Signiorie of Marocco so that in some small matters hee would acknowledge the soueraigntie of Fez But now the Seriffs whose hearts continually encreased with their fortunes sent him word that being lawfull successours to Mahomet they owed no man tribute and had more right in Africa then he if hee would respect them as his friends and Allies so it were if otherwise they which had power to offend the Christian should not bee destitute in defending themselues The sword the vnequalle starbiter of equitie is now made vmpire the Fessan proclaimeth warres besiegeth Marocco is dislodged and in his returne vanquished Thus haue the Seriffs acquited themselues of that yoake and now intend new conquests on the other side of Atlas and in Numidia and in
of Columbus his Companions by his example inuited made new Discoueries and Vespucius and Cabota and many other euery day making new searches and plantations till the World at last is come to the knowledge of this New World almost wholly The particulars will more fitly appeare in our particular Relations of each Countrey §. III. Of the Beasts Fowles and Plants in America AFter this Discourse of the men in those parts let vs take some generall view of the other Creatures especially such as are more generally disperst through the Indies I haue before noted that America had very few of such Creatures as Europe yeeldeth vntill they were transported thither and therefore they haue no Indian names for them but those which the Spaniards that brought them giue vnto them as Horse Kine and such like They haue Lions but not like in greatnesse fiercenesse nor colour to those of Africa They haue Beares in great abundance except on the North parts They haue store of Deere Bores Foxes and Tygres which as in Congo are more cruell to the Naturals then to the Spaniards These beasts were not found in the Ilands but in the Continent and yet now in those Ilands Kine are multiplyed and growne wilde without other Owner then such as first can kill them the Dogges likewise march by troupes and endammage the Cattle worse then Wolues Their Swine did multiply exceedingly but as an Enemy to their Sugars a great commoditie in Hispaniola where Anno 1535. Ouiedo reckons almost thirty Ingenions the number daily increasing they were forced to root out this rooting kind of beasts This Iland hath stored the other about it with store of Horse and Mares which are sold very cheape For Kine the Bishop of Venezuola had sixteene thousand head of that kind of beasts and more others possessed thousands also and some killed them only for their Hides of which were shipped from hence for Spaine Anno 1587. 35444. and from New Spaine 64350. as Acosta relateth The Lyons are gray and vse to clime Trees The Indians hunt and kill them The Beares and Tygres are like those in other parts but not so many Apes and Monkies they haue of many kinds and those admirably pleasing in their Apish tricks and imitations seeming to proceed from Reason A Souldier leuelling at one of them to shoot him the silly beast dyed not vnreuenged but hurling a stone as the other aymed at him depriued the Souldier of his eye and lost his owne life They haue Monkies with long beards Acosta tels of one Monkie that would goe to the Tauerne at his Masters sending and carrying the pot in one hand and money in the other would not by any meanes depart with his money till he had his pot filled with wine and returning home would pelt the boyes with stones and yet haue care to carie his Wine home safe to his Master neither touching it himselfe till some were giuen him nor suffering other They haue a monstrous deformed beast whose forepart resembleth a Fox the hinder part an Ape excepting the feet which are like a mans beneath her belly she hath a receptacle like a purse wherein she bestowes her yong vntill they can shift for themselues neuer comming out of this naturall nest but to sucke Sheepe haue much encreased and by good husbandry in that plenty of pasture would be a great commoditie but in the Islands the wilde Dogges destroy them and therefore they that kill these Dogges are rewarded for it as they which kill Wolues in Spaine The Dogges which the Indians had before were snowted like Foxes they fatted them to eat and kept them also for pleasure but they could not barke Such Dogges we haue shewed are in Congo Their Stagges and Deere in the South parts of America haue no horns They haue store of Conies The Armadilla is an admirable creature of which there bee diuers kinds they resemble a barded Horse seeming to be armed all ouer and that as if it were rather by artificiall Plates opening and shutting then naturall scales it digs vp the earth as Conies and Moules The Hogs of the Indies haue their nauill vpon the ridge of their backs They go in heards together and assaile men hauing sharpe talons like razors and hunt their Hunters vp the tops of trees whence they easily kill these enraged Sainos so they call them biting the tree for anger The Dante 's resemble small Kine and are defended by the hardnesse of their hydes The Vicugne somewhat resembleth a Goat but is greater they sheare them and of their fleeces make Rugs and Couerings and stuffes In the stomacke and belly of this beast is found the Bezar-stone sometimes one alone sometimes two three or foure the colour of which is blacke or gray or greene or otherwise it is accounted soueraigne against poisons and venemous diseases It is found in diuers sorts of beass but all chew the cud and commonly feed vpon the snow and Rockes The Indian sheepe they call Lama it is a beast of great profit not onely for food and raiment but also for carriage of burthens they are bigger then sheepe and lesse then Calues they will beare a hundred and fifty pound weight In some places they call them Amydas and vse them to greater burthens Hulderike Schmidel affirmes that hee liuing in the parts about the Riuer of Plate being hurt on his legge rode fortie leagues vpon one of them They will grow restie and will lye downe with their burthen no stripes nor death able to asswage their mood onely good words and faire dealing with gentle entreatie sometimes diuers houres together can preuaile Of fowles they haue many kinds which we haue as Partridges Turtles Pidgeons Stock-Doues Quailes Faulcons Herons Eagles and a World of Parrots which in some places fly by flockes as Pidgeons There are also Estridges Hens they had before the Spaniards arriued They haue other kinds peculiar The Tomineios is the least in quantitie the greatest for admiration and wonder I haue oftentimes doubted saith Acosta seeing them fly whether they were Bees or Butter-flyes but in truth they are Birds Thenet and Lerius call it Gonambuch or Gonanbuch They affirme that it yeelds nothing in sweetnesse of note to the Nightingale and yet is not bigger then a Beetle or Drone-Bee One would say Vox os praeterea nihil but so could not any truely say for euen otherwise it is almost miraculous Nature making this little shop her great store-house of wonder and astonishment and shewing her greatest greatnesse in the least Instruments The Prouinciall of the Iesuites in Brasil affirmeth as Clusius testifies that the Brasilians called it Ourissia which signifyeth the Sun-beame and that it was procreated of a Fly and that he had seene one partly a Bird and partly a Fly first coloured blacke then ash-coloured then rose-coloured then red and lastly the head set against the Sunne to resemble all colours in most admired varietie
charmes were the cause that made the earth bring forth her fruit and that he might the easier perswade them he retired himselfe once or twice a yeere to a certain house accompanied with two or three of his friends where he vsed inchantments If any man offered to see what he did it cost him his life Euery yeere he offereth a man in the time of Haruest which was kept for that purpose and taken of such Spaniards as had suffered shipwrack on that Coast They which further desire to know the riches and commodities of these Countries may resort to the Authors in this Chapter mentioned Sir Francis Drake in the yeere 1586. besides his worthy exploits in other places tooke the Forts of S. Iohn and Saint Augustine whence he brought Pedro Morales and Nicholas Burgoignon whose relations concerning that Countrey Master Hackluit hath inserted among other his painfull labours Dauid Ingram reported many strange things which he saith he saw in these parts Elephants Horses and beasts twice as big as Horses their hinder parts resembling Greyhounds Buls with eares like Hounds beasts bigger then Beares without head or necke but hauing their eyes and mouthes in their brests and another beast Cerberus he cals him Colluchio which is saith he the Deuill in likenesse of a Dogge and sometimes of a Calfe with many other matters wherein he must pardon me if I be not too prodigall of my Faith He tels also of punishment of adultery by death the woman cutting the adulterers throat and the neerest kinsman hers after many prayers to the Colluchio and a further punishment in that they haue no quicke bodie buried with them to attend them into the other world as all others haue But they that list to beleeue may consult with the Author Anthony Goddard another of Ingrams company left by Sir Iohn Hawkins going another way at Panuco yeelded himselfe to the Spaniards with whom was Miles Philips and Iob Hortop whose discourses of their disaduentures with the Spaniards and Indians Master Hakluit hath published and hath Goddards also written CHAP. VIII Of the Countreys situate Westward from Florida and Virginia towards the South-Sea §. I. Of Cibola Tigues Quiuira and Noua Albion WE haue hitherto discouered those parts of this Northerne America which trend along the North Sea which the English and French Nations haue most made knowne vnto vs further Westward the mid-land countreys are not so well knowne yet following our Spanish guides wee here present them from their relations to your view When as Cortez had conquered Mexico as after followeth to be related he was made Admirall of the South-Seas but the gouernment of Mexico and New Spaine was with the title of Vice-roy giuen to Antonio de Mendoza These two partly in emulation of each others glory partly in hope of enriching themselues sought to discouer vnknowne Lands the one by Sea the later both by Sea Land The Viceroy sent as he himselfe testifieth Francis Vasquez de Coronado and Frier Marco de Nisa with Stephen a Negro by land out of whose relations we haue inserted that which concerneth our purpose Marke the Frier and Stephen set forth with certaine Indians in this Discouerie and Stephen going before came to Ceuola as Marke related where hee was slaine the Frier followed with his Indian guides and passed thorow one place where was small store of Victuall because it had not there rained as the Inhabitants affirmed in three yeares space The Indians call him Hayota that is a man come from Heauen Hee passed on further led by the same of Ceuola which with other sixe Cities were reported to be vnder the gouernment of one Lord and to haue houses of stone consisting of diuers stories where were many Turqueses with many other strange reports of their Markets multitudes and wealth But because the Frier came not there for feare of the Negros entertainment let vs listen to Francis Vasquez who came saw and ouercame An 1540. He went with his Army from Culiacan which is 200. leagues from Mexico and after a long and tedious iourney he at last arriued in this Prouince and conquered almost with the losse of himselfe the first Citie of the seuen which he called Granado Twice he was striken downe with stones from the wall as he offered to scale the same He saith that their houses were of foure or fiue stories or lofts to which they ascended on ladders and that they had Cellers vnder the ground good and paued But those seuen Cities were small Townes all standing in the compasse of foure leagues all called by that generall name of Ceuola or Cibola and none of them particularly so called but hauing other peculiar names they were of like building In this Towne which he conquered stood 200. houses walled about and 300. others not walled The Inhabitants had remoued their wiues and wealth to the Hill Hee reporteth of beasts there Beares Tygres Lions and Sheepe as bigge as horses with great hornes and little tayles Ounces also and Stagges That which the Indians worshipped as farre as they could learne was the Water which said they caused the Corne to grow and maintained their life Hee found there a garment excellently embroidered with needle-worke Vasquez went hence to Tiguez to Cieuic and to Quiuira as Lopez de Gomara reporteth This way is full of crooke-backed Oxen. Quiuira is in 40. degrees and the Countrey is temperate They saw Ships in the Sea which bare Alcatoazes or Pelicans of Gold and Siluer in their Prowes laden with Merchandise which they tooke to be of China or Cathay The men in these parts cloath and shoo themselues with leather they haue no bread of any kind of graine their chiefe food is flesh which they often eate raw either for custome or for lacke of wood They eate the fat as they take it out of the Oxe and drinke the bloud hot which of our buls is counted poison and the flesh they warme for they seethe it not at a fire of Oxe-dung They rather may be said to rauin then to eate it holding the flesh with their teeth cut it with rasors of stone They goe in companies as the Scythian Nomades Tartarian floords and many other Nations following the seasons and best pasturings for their oxen These Oxen are of the bignesse and colour of our Buls but their hornes are not so great They haue a great bunch vpon their shoulders and more haire on their fore-part then on the hinder and it is like wooll They haue as it were a horse-mane on their backe bone and much haire and very long from their knees downwards They haue great tufts of haire on their foreheads and haue a kinde of beard vnder their chins and throats the males haue very long tayles with a great knob or flocke at the end so that in some respect they resemble a Lyon in other the Camels Horses Oxen Sheepe or Goats They push with their hornes and in their rage
harth to eate no other bread but that which had beene offered to their Gods that they should vpon all occasions repaire to their Wisards who with certaine graines told Fortunes and diuined looking into keelers and pailes full of water The Sorcerers and ministers of the diuell vsed much to besmeare themselues There were an infinite number of these Witches Diuiners Inchanters and the like and still there remaine of them but secret not daring publikely to exercise their superstitions The Mexicans had amongst them a kinde of baptisme which they did with cutting the eares and members of yong children hauing some resemblance of the Iewish circumcision This Ceremonie was done principally to the sonnes of Kings and Noblemen presently vpon their birth the Priests did wash them and did put a little Sword in the right hand in the left a Target And to the children of the vulgar sort they put the markes of their callings and to their daughters instruments to Spinne Knit and labour The Mexican history afore-mentioned in the third part thereof sheweth in pictures their policie and customes When a child was borne as is there described it was laid in a Cradle foure dayes after the mid-wife brought it naked with the instrument of the trade as is said in the hand into the yard where were prepared Bul-rushes and a little pan of water in which she washed the same Three boyes sate by eating tosted Mars with sodden Frizoles in a little pan and at the mid-wiues appointment named the child with a lowd voice After twenty dayes they went with it into the Temple and presented the same in presence of the Priest with an offering and being of fifteene yeares committed him to the High Priest of that Temple to be taught if they would after haue him a Priest or if they would haue him a Souldier they committed him to the Master thereof with an offering of meat also In this booke is pictured how they instruct and feed them at three yeeres of age giuing them halfe a Cake how at foure with a whole Cake at fiue burthening and exercising their bodies and letting their daughters to spin how at sixe they exercise them in gathering vp corne spilled on the ground or the like at seuen in fishing There is likewise described their seuere discipline in punishing them with Manguez The Priests did exercise their Pupils in bodily seruices of the Temple in going to the Mountains to sacrifice in Musicke obseruing the time by the starres and the like Old men of threescore and ten might be publikely drunken without controll which to yong folkes of both sexes was death as was theft also and adultery The Priests also had their office in marriages The Bridegroome and the Bride stood together before the Priest who tooke them by the hands asking them if they would marry vnderstanding their will he took a corner of the vaile wherewith the woman had her head couered and a corner of the mans gowne which he tyed together on a knot and so led them thus tyed to the Bridegroomes house where there was a harth kindled Then he caused the wife to goe seuen times about the harth and so the married couple sate downe together and thus was the marriage contracted That booke of pictures describes it thus as Amantesa or Broker carried the Bride on her backe at the beginning of the night foure women attending with Torches of Pine-tree Rosenned At the Bridegroomes house his parents receiue her and carry her to him in a Hall where they are both caused to sit on a Mat neere a fire and tyed together with a corner of their apparell and a perfume of Copale wood is made to their gods Two old men and as many old women were present The married couple eate and then these old folke which after this separate them asunder and giue them good instructions for Oeconomicall duties In other parts of New-Spaine they vsed other marriage-rites at Tlaxcallan the Bridegroome and Bride polled their heads to signifie that from thenceforth all childish courses should be laid aside At michuacan the Bride must looke directly vpon the Bridegroome or else the marriage was not perfect In Mixteopan they vsed to carry the Bridegroome vpon their backs as if he were forced and then they both ioyne hands and knit their mantles together with a great knot The Macatecas did not come together in twenty dayes after marriage but abode in fasting and prayer all that while sacrificing their bodies and anointing the mouths of their Idols with their bloud In Panuco the Husbands buy the Wiues for a Bow two Arrowes and a Net and afterwards the Father-in-law speaketh not one word to his Sonne in-law for the space of a yeere When he hath a child he lyeth not with his wife in two yeeres after lest she should be with child againe before the other bee out of danger some sucke twelue yeeres and for this cause they haue many wiues No woman while she hath her disease may touch or dresse any thing Adulterie in Mexico was death common women were permitted but no ordinary Stewes The diuell did many times talke with their Priest and with some other Rulers and particular persons Great gifts were offered vnto him whom the diuell had vouchsafed this conference He appeared vnto them in many shapes and was often familiar with them He to whom he appeared carried about him painted the likenesse wherein be shewed himselfe the first time And they painted his Image on their doores benches and euery corner of the house Likewise according to his Protean and diuersified apparitions they painted him in many shapes It belonged also to the office of the Priests and religious in Mexico to interre the dead and doe their obsequies The places where they buried them were their gardens and courts of their owne houses others carried them to the places of sacrifices which were done in the mountaines others burnt them and after buried the ashes in the temples burying with them whatsoeuer they had of apparell stones and iewels They did sing the funerall offices like Responds often lifting vp the dead body with many ceremonies At these Mortuaries they did eate and drinke and if it were a person of qualitie they gaue apparell to such as came When one was dead his friends came with their presents saluted him as if he were liuing And if he were a King or Lord of some Towne they offered some slaues to bee put to death with him to serue him in the other world They likewise put to death his Priest or Chaplain for euery Noble-man had a Priest for his domestical holies that he might execute his office with the dead They likewise killed his Cooke his Butler Dwarffes and deformed men and whosoeuer had most serued him though he were his Brother And to preuent pouertie they buried with them much wealth as Gold Siluer Stones Curtains and other rich pieces And if they burned the dead they
Ytu This had no time prefixed but by Necessitie or Distresse And then the people prepared themselues thereto by fasting two dayes during which they did neyther company with their wiues nor eat any meate with Salt or Garlicke nor drinke any Chica All did assemble together in one place where no Stranger nor any beast might be admitted they had Garments and Ornaments which serued onely for this Feast They marched very quietly in Procession their heads couered with their veiles sounding of Drummes without speaking one to another This continued a day and a night The day following they danced and made good cheere for two dayes and two nights together saying that their Prayer was accepted Euen still they vsed one which is somewhat like this called Ayma with Garments onely seruing to that end and make Procession with their Dummes hauing fasted before concluding with good cheere And although the Indians forbear Sacrifices because of the Spaniards yet they vse many Ceremonies still which had their beginning from their ancient Superstitions §. II. Of the Funerals in Peru and the places adioyning and somewhat of the present estate of those parts THe Indians of Peru beleeued commonly that the Soule liued after this life and that the good were in glory and the bad in paine They vsed a wonderfull care to preserue the bodies which they honoured after death their Successors gaue them garments and made Sacrifices to them especially of the Inguas of whom wee haue spoken before In their bloudie Funerals the Women he loued best were slaine and multitudes of other Attendants of all sorts for his new Family in the other World and that after many Songs and drunkennesse They sacrificed to them many things especially young children and with the bloud they made a stroke on the dead mans face from one eare to another This crueltie is common through a great part of the East and West Indies as in their places this History doth shew you wittily auoyded once by a Portugall who was a Captiue and to be slaine at the Funerals of his Lord and hauing but one eye saw better to saue his life then if hee had both For he told them that such a deformed and maymed fellow would be a disgrace to his Master in the other life and so perswaded the Executors or Executioners if you will to seeke a new choice The Indians haue another Ceremony more generall which is to set meate and drinke vpon the graue of the dead imagining they did feed thereon At this day many Indian Infidels doe secretly draw their dead out of the Church-yard and bury them on Hils or vpon passages of Mountaynes or else in their owne houses They haue also vsed to put Gold and Siluer in their mouth hands and bosome and to apparell them with new garments durable and well lined They beleeue that the soules of the dead wander vp and downe induring cold thirst hunger and trauell and for this cause they vse their Anniuersaries carrying them clothes meate and drinke Pedro de Cieza reporteth that in Cenu in the Prouince of Cartagena which we here mention for proximitie of Rites rather then of place neere to a Temple built in honour of the Deuill there was taken forth an innumerable quantitie of Sepulchres more then a Million of them old and new Himselfe was there present Much treasure was found in the Graues Iuan de la Torre tooke forth of one Sepulchre more then fiue hundred thousand Pezoes The Great Men adorned their Sepulchres with Vaults and Towres and had with them interred their Women Seruants Meate Chicha Armes and Ornaments He addeth that the Deuill in the shape of some principall person deceased would sometimes appeare and shew them newes out of that other World how he liued and fared there And hence it seemes came that spoyle of so much wealth and so many persons for their Funerals But take heed Reader that you doe not beleeue it was the Deuill that was wont to appeare in some habit of afflicted soules and demanded Dirges and Masses for their manumission out of Purgatory Alas the Deuill was confined to the Indies and would neuer haue beene so good a Purueyor for the Popes Kitchin And certes if our Christian Ancesters had not their wiues and goods buried in their graues with Food Rayment and Ornaments yet these things were also buried with them whiles the feares of Purgatory made them willing to endow the Priests and Monasteries and bestow on Lights and other Rites that which should haue maintayned their Houses their Wiues and Children But how come we from Peru to Rome Nay how comes Rome if not from Peru as more lately discouered yet with Peru and with and from other Heathen Nations in the World in her manifold Ceremonies and Superstitious Rites as this Relation of Peru for their Confessions Processions and many other Rites will shew And one day I hope more fully to acquaint the World when wee come in our Pilgrimage to visit Christian-Antichristian Rome Worse Sepulchres then the former to returne to our American Historie were those which Herera mentions within fifty leagues of Popayan where the Husband hath bin seene to eate the Wife Father and Son Brother and Sister haue renewed a neerer proximitie and butcherly incorporation where Captiues are fatted and brought forth with Songs his members by piece-meale cut off and eaten whiles himselfe liueth and seeth it Since the inhabiting of Saint Iames of Arma they haue eaten more then eight thousand Indians and some Spaniards This our Author testifieth let vs a little view the present state of Peru that Los Reyes in twelue degrees consisteth of three thousand housholds it is one of the best Climates in the World not subiect to plagues hunger raine thunder but alwayes cleere It is the Seat of the Viceroy and Royall Councell and Inquisition Iohn Ellis which was partaker of Sir Richard Hawkins his Aduentre s saith that Lima is neere as big as London within the Wals the Houses are of Lome there are nigh an hundred thousand Negros it raineth not there but it doth within twelue leagues There are maintayned a hundred Horsemen and an hundred Carbines At Paricauo it is as cold as in England in Winter They passed to Cusco in those wayes before mentioned made by Guainacapa Cusco is now without a Wall as large as Bristoll At Potossi there worke neere an hundred thousand Indians brought in courses thither to the Mynes by the Casiques Betweene Cusco and Potossi is continuall Trade the Lords by the way will entertaine men with abundance of Plate and Guard if they like them with three or foure hundred Indians Imperiall Village of Potosi is in nineteene degrees it hath fiue hundred housholds of Spaniards and about fifty thousand Indians going and comming Alexandro Vrsiuo who sayth he liued in Peru thirty and foure yeeres and had trauelled thorow all the Kingdome hath written that in Potosi and Porto are
the Emperours only Vnkle trusted in the third place for the gouernment in the old Emperours Will with Boris who could indure no Competitor two prime Princes made away was bewitched his speech taken suddenly from him I came to visit him hee set pen to paper and writ that hee was bewitched and by whom and should not liue The Protector told me also that Mekita Romanowich was not like to disturbe him long He dyed soone after and the silly Emperour his Nephew fearing his turne next desired he might be shorne a Fryer That Nobleman left three Sonnes of great hope Feodor the eldest for whom I had made aswell as I could a kind of Latine Grammer in the Sclauonian Tongue and Letters He was now enforced to marry and had a Sonne The Protector being iealous of him hee also not long after his Fathers death was made dead to the World and shorne a Fryer made Archbishop of Rostoua His next Brother of no lesse generous spirit not able to dissemble his discontents longer tooke opportunitie to stab the Protector though not so dangerously as hee intended and escaped into Poland where hee and Bodan Belscoy and others at home practised the vtter ruine of Boris and all his Family Meane while I procured many Priuiledges for the English Merchants with Releases Payments Ratifications c. The Protector iealous and fearefull sends Treasure Siluer and Gold Coyne to Sollauetzca Monastery on the Sea side neere the Davish and Swethen Confines that it might be ready as himselfe told me to transport into England holding that his surest refuge in case of necessity It was of infinite value and not pertayning to the Crowne I was now suspected by the discontented Nobility who shewed me not wonted countenance which caused mee to haste away hauing speeded my businesse and Instructions from the Counsell and Merchants Rich Presents were sent from the Emperour for the Queene and Boris sent with secret messages a curious Robe for me of Cloth of Siluer wrought without seame made in Persia with a faire imbroydered Tent wrought Handkerchiefes Shires Towels c. brought by his neere Kinsman I intreatell two fauours for a farwell the freedome of the Liuonian men women and children sent before to Nonogrod in displeasure a Catalogue of their names were taken and they freed by the Letter of Irenia the Empresse the other was the liberty of a Noblemans Sonne of Gilderland Here Sacarius Gilfenberg which neyther the King of Denmarks nor States Letters could before procure which his Mother well recompensed After rich allowance by the way honourably attended and ample prouisions added at Saint Nicolas I was shipped in the Centurion and after fiue weekes arriued in England at Pâ—eâ—imond had audience of the Queene deliuered the Emperours Letters and Merchants Priuiledges with Golden Spread-eagle Seales at them and account of my whole employment to her good satisfaction and approbation of me Shee obserued the Characters by the affinitie they had with the Greeke and asked if they had not such and such significations said shee could quickly learne it and bade my Lord of Ess learne it When the Ships with the Presents were comne I had a second audience her Maiestie much liking to handle the Presents After this I weary of Court Holy-water was willing to retire my selfe to a priuate life but by reason of my skill in those Languages a more dangerous employment was committed to me Frederike King of Denmarke had embarqued the English Merchants Ships in the Sound about Customes and they sued to the Queene for redresse likewise diuers in Poland which there had obtayned Priuiledges and Protection had refused to pay Debts to the English Merchants c. I was appointed to take Collen in the way where the Imperiall Dyee was appointed thither to accompany Sir Heratio Palauicine the Queenes Embassadour and Monsieur de Freze the French Kings Embassadour and thence I to the Dane and the Pole I came to Copenhagen had accesse to the King of Denmarke deliuered the Queenes Letters and after had audience and propounded what was giuen me in Commission The King of Denmarke answered with a sad countenance Our Sister the Queenes Maiestie of England requires at our hands too great a losse wee are possessed of forty thousand pounds and twenty tall Ships forfeited to our Crowne by the treachery and falshood of her Subiects c. But in fine he made his minde knowne to the Queene by his Letters requiring an exchange of certayne Ships of the Easterlings embarked in England for the freedome of the English Ships and goods This was beyond my Commission to conclude And I hasted away hauing dined with the King who bestowed on mee a Gold Chaine I returned to Lubek and thence to Danzik where Master Barker Deputy and other substantiall Merchants inuited my way by Meluin where they resided But I tooke my way by Torne and came to Warsonia where Sigismundus King of Poland then held his Court and after some disgusts at last obtained the Merchants Suite against diuers Debters which had their sought protection The great Chancelor Zameitscoy the principall Statesman of that Kingdome sent vnto me a friendly message offering also for my solace his Hounds Hawkes or any other pastimes for recreation I was inuited and dined with the King receiued his Letters Patents and Dismission and after feasted by the Lord High Chamberlaine Pan Lucas Obrosemone I also had sight of Queene Anne daughter to Sigismund the Third and Wife to King Stephen Batore but priuately hauing to that end put on one of my Seruants Liueries which notwithstanding I was discouered and had conference with the Queene who seemed much to magnifie Queene Marie and no lesse disaffected to Queene Elizabeth for the death of Storie Campion c. which I sayd had beene vnnaturall Subiects and practisers of Rebellion Shee then obiected But how could she spill the bloud of the Lords Anoynted a better Queene c. which I answered was done by the Parliament without her Royall consent She shooke her head with dislike and would haue replyed had not Posseuine the Popes Legate as they termed him whose skirts I had before pressed in Musco being there the Popes Nuncio comne in wherevpon I with a Glasse of Hungarian Wine which I refused till she had taken the same into her owne hand was dismissed On that Euening in which I departed from Warsonia I passed ouer a Riuer by the side whereof there lay a dead Serpent like a Crocodile with foure feet hard skales and in length about six or seuen foot which my men brake with Boare-speares the stench whereof so poysoned me that I lay sicke many dayes in the next Village When I came to Vilna the chiefe Citie in Lituania I presented my selfe and my Letters Patents from the Queene which declared my employment vnto the Great Duke Ragauil a powerfull Prince and Religious Protestant Hee gaue me great respect and sayd Though I had
memory On Friday the three and twentieth of the later Giumad hauing enioyed the Chalifate two yeeres foure monethes and nine dayes aged sixty three and Omar the Sonne of Alchittab prayed for him He was buried in the house of Aijsia He was abstinent deuout and regarded not the goods of the World He is reported to haue taken three Staters out of the treasury for wages and to haue said to Aijsia of happy memory See O Prophetesse what hath accrewed to the wealth of Abubecr since I haue beene ouer this Empire and repay it to the Muslims And she sawit And when they had praysed all his substance the value of all was but fiue Staters Which when it was told Omar he said God haue mercy on Abubecr for he hath compelled his Successors to vndergoe labour This Abubecr first gathered the Alcoran out of Tables For when the Muslims in Iaman were crossed hee feared left some of the Alcoran might be lost being only in mens memories and in sheets betwixt Tables and he called it Mushaf Euery Friday hee distributed that which was collected in the Treasury to his Captaines according to their places first to the Souldiers and after to the learned men and to such as had by their labour merited any thing The Persians in the eleuenth yeere of the Heg. came to him about the slaughters of their Kings and seditions and desired Iazdegijrd Sonne of Cosroes which had fled from Siroes and made him King ouer them being fifteene yeeres old But their affections and assemblies were differing and the Prouinces Townes and Villages warred on their Neighbours and were deuided amongst themselues In the thirteenth yeere happened a great Earth-quake thirty dayes and a great Pestilence followed The Muslims that yeere besieged Gaza and chased the Romans which they signified by Letters to Abubecr who was then dead God haue mercy on him Omar Sonne of Alchittab Sonne of Nckail Sonne of Abdullaziz Sonne of Riah Sonne of Cart Sonne of Rawah Sonne of Adi Sonne of Caab Sonne of Luae Sonne of Galib was designed Chalifa on the day of Abubecr his death and by his command In this thirteenth yeere Omar of happy memory sent Abuobeid Sonne of Masud against the Persians whom he ouercame in Hira slaying many Infidels but in a second battell he was slaine with many Muslims After that was the battell of Buwaibic in which the Infidels were ouerthrowne In the fourteenth yeere Damascus was taken by Chalid Sonne of Walid forceably entring after seuenty dayes siege at the Thomas-gate and Abuobeid with conditions of peace at the Custome-gate Omar sent Saad against Irac which had many battels with the Persians in Cadis the Persians were a hundred and twenty thousand the Muslims thirty thousand They walled about by Omars command Bosra and Cufa In the fifteenth yeere the Romans assembled to the number of two hundred and forty thousand Infidels and the Muslims were thirty sixe thousand which preuayled as in many other battel 's this yeere Emissa became tributary Kinnasrin was taken In the sixteenth yeere Omar went into Syria hauing made Ali Gouernour of Medina He made agreement with Artenon Prince of Ramla and sent Amrus and Sergijl to besiege Ierusalem to whom Omar granted security and imposed tribute Hauing subdued Palestina he sent Amrus into Egypt This yeere Saad wanne Medaijna-Cosroe and with his Muslims possessed the treasures of Cosroes and are said to haue found 3000. Millions of gold And they found a house full of Camphora which the Muslims tooke for Salt and vsed it in leuin which made their bread bitter They found the Crowne of Cosroes and garments wrought with gold and gemmes and diuers armes and the hanging of a gallery which Said rent and made thereof a thousand thousand drammes each dramme being ten Staters They found also a silken Carpet sixty Cubits long and as many broad wrought with figures and gemmes like flowers on the border was the resemblance of the earth set with herbs and flowers as in the Spring made of gold siluer and gemmes Omar rent it and diuided it to the Muslims Ali sold his share of it none of the greatest for twenty thousand This yeere was fought the battell of Gialul with the Persians whose last King Iazdegijrd fled to Faryan This yeere Omar of happy memory returned to Medina In the seuenteenth yeere of the Hegira the King of Romans besiged Emissa and Omar sent Abuobeid forty thousand men for succour which chased away the Romans Omar the same yeere went into Syria and subiected it In the eighteenth yeere Amrus the sonne of Alab besieged Misra and tooke it It was gouerned by Macuac which conditioned with Amrus that euery Egyptian should pay an Egyptian peece of Gold and to entertaine three dayes euery Muslim which passed that way And the tribute imposed on them yeerely amounted to twelue millions of gold After that Omar went to Marbut where were many Romans and expelled them as also at Cumsieric and then besieged Alexandria That yeere was a yeere of destruction through haile which spoyled the ground and killed cattell There was a Pestilence which killed fiue and twenty thousand Muslims there and diuers of the chiefest In the nineteenth yeere Heraclius died whiles Amrus besieged Alexandria which was taken in the twentieth yeere after fourteene moneths siege The same yeere Amrus compassed Misra with a wall called Fustata that is the Tent because his Tent was there pitched before he went to the siege of Alexandria and a Doue hauing hatched her young therein hee said it is vnlawfull for vs to kill in the moneth Muharram and gaue his Captaines charge thereof In the one and twentieth was the Nuhawendike battell betwixt the Muslims and Persians wherein the Generall Nuaman was slaine and Hodaifa succeeded which after turned the Infidels to flight Mugiras possessed Aderbigian quietly and Amrus Sonne of Said got Ainwerd and Harran and Ruha Aias Sonne of Isa got Raca Nasibin and the parts adioyning Abumasa also tooke Ahwaz and Seiwas The same yeere Chorasan was wonne by Nuaman before the battell abouesaid In the three and twentieth yeere Omar of happy memory was slain by Abubulua seruant to Mugir a Persian by Nation and by Religion a Magus because he iudged against him complaining of too much tribute exacted Whiles Omar was at his morning Prayer on Wednesday the three and twentieth of Dulhiggia he stabbed him in three places one of them vnder his Nauill whereof he died And Abdurrahman Sonne of Auf prayed with the people Omar was carried to his house and he commanded Sahib to pray three dayes with the people and secretly assigned the Empire to sixe persons to Ali Sonne of Abutalib Otsman Said Abdurrahman Talha and Zubeir of happy memory Hee made his Sonne Abdalla a Counsellour only without any place of command He dyed the sixe and twentieth of Dulhiggia and Sahib prayed for him or in his steed He was buried in the house of Aijsia Hee was browne bald tall iust