In some of these idol houses, there are people who stand by them in warm weather, fanning them as if to cool them; and when they see any company coming, they ring a little bell which hangs beside them, when many give them alms, particularly those who come out of the country. Many of these idols are black and have brazen claws very long, and some ride upon peacocks, or on very ill-favoured fowls, having long hawks bills, some like one thing and some like another, but none have good faces. Among the rest, there is one held in great veneration, as they allege be gives them all things, both food and raiment, and one always sits beside this idol with a fan, as if to cool him. Here some are burned to ashes, and some only scorched in the fire and thrown into the river, where the dogs and foxes come presently and eat them. Here the wives are burned along with the bodies of their deceased husbands, and if they will not, their heads are shaven and they are not afterwards esteemed.
The people go all naked, except a small cloth about their middles. The women have their necks, arms, and ears decorated with rings of silver, copper, and tin, and with round hoops of ivory, adorned with amber stones and many agates, and have their foreheads marked with a great red spot, whence a stroke of red goes up the crown, and one to each side. In their winter, which is in May, the men wear quilted gowns of cotton, like to our counterpanes, and quilted caps like our grocers large mortars, with a slit to look out at, tied beneath their ears. When a man or woman is sick and like to die, they are laid all night before the idols, either to help their sickness or make an end of them. If they do not mend that night, the friends come and sit up with them, and cry for some time, after which they take them to the side of the river, laying them on a raft of reeds, and so let them float down the river.
When they are married the man and woman come to the water side, where there is an old bramin or priest, a cow and calf, or a cow with calf. Then the man and woman, together with the cow and calf, go into the river, giving the old bramin a piece of cloth four yards long, and a basket cross bound, in which are sundry things. The bramin lays the cloth on the back of the cow, after which he takes hold of the end of the cows tail, and says certain words. The woman has a brass or copper pot full of water; the man takes hold of the bramin with one hand, and the woman with the other, all having hold of the cow by the tail, on which they pour water from the pot, so that it runs on all their hands. They then lave up water with their hands, and the bramin ties the man and woman together by their clothes410. When this is done, they go round about the cow and calf, and then give some alms to the poor, who are always present, and to the bramin or priest they give the cow and calf, after which they go to several of the idols, where they offer money, lying down flat on the ground before the idol, and kissing the earth several times, after which they go away. Their chief idols are black and very ugly, with monstrous mouths, having their ears gilded and full of jewels, their teeth and eyes of gold, silver, or glass, and carrying sundry things in their hands. You may not enter into the houses where they stand with your shoes on. In these houses there are lamps continually burning before the idols.
From Benares I went down the Ganges to Patenaw, [Patna] passing many fair towns and a very fertile country, in which way many great rivers enter the Ganges, some as large as itself, by which it becomes so broad that in time of the rains you cannot see across. The scorched bodies which are thrown into the water swim on the surface, the men with their faces down, and the women with theirs up. I thought they had tied some weight to their bodies for this purpose, but was told no such thing was done. There are many thieves in this country, who roam up and down like the Arabs, having no fixed abode. Here the women are so decked with silver and copper that it is strange to see them, and they wear so many rings on their toes that they cannot use shoes. Here at Patna they find gold in this manner: They dig deep pits in the earth, and wash the earth in large holes, and in these they find gold, building the pits round about with bricks, to prevent the earth from falling in.
Patna is a long and large town, being formerly a separate kingdom, but is now under subjection to the great Mogor. The men are tall and slender, and have many old people among them. The houses are very simple, being made of earth and covered with straw, and the streets are very large. There is here a great trade in cotton and cotton cloth, likewise great quantities of sugar, which is carried to Bengal and India, much opium, and other commodities. He that is chief here under the king is called Tipperdas, and is held in much estimation by the people. Here in Patna I saw a dissembling prophet, who sat on a horse in the market-place, making as if he were asleep, and many of the people came and touched his feet with their hands, which they then kissed. They took him for a great man, but in my opinion he was only a lazy lubber, whom I left sleeping there. The people of these countries are much given to these dissembling hypocrites.
From Patna I went to Tanda in the land of Gouren411, which is in the country of Bengal. This is a place of great trade in cotton and cotton cloth, formerly a kingdom, but now subject to the great Mogor. The people are great idolaters, going naked with only a cloth about their middles, and the country hath many tigers, wild buffaloes, and wild fowl. Tanda is about a league from the river Ganges, as in times past the river flowed over its banks in the rainy season, and drowned a considerable extent of country with many villages, and so it yet remains, and the old bed of the river still remains dry, by which means the city now stands at a distance from the water. From Agra I was five months coming down the Jumna and the Ganges to Bengal, but it may be sailed in much shorter time.
I went from Bengal into the country of Couche412, which is 25 days journey north from Tanda. The king is a Gentile, named Suckel Counse. His country is very extensive, and reaches to within no great distance of Cauchin China, whence they are said to procure pepper. The port is called Cacchegate. All the country is set with bamboos or canes made sharp at both ends, and driven into the earth, and they can let in the water and drown the country above knee-deep, so that neither men nor horses can pass; and in case of any wars, they poison all the waters. The people are all Gentiles, who kill nothing, having their ears marvellously great and a span long, which they draw out by various devices when young. They have much silk and musk, and cloth made of cotton. They have hospitals for sheep, goats, dogs, cats, birds, and all kinds of living creatures, which they keep when old and lame until they die. If a man bring any living creature into this country, they will give money for it or other victuals, and either let it go at large or keep it in their hospitals. They even give food to the ants. Their small money is almonds413, which they often eat.
From thence I returned to Hugeli, [Hoogly in Bengal] which is the place where the Portuguese have their residence in Bengal, being in lat. 23° N414. About a league from it is Satagan415, called by the Portuguese Porto Piqueno, or the little port. We went through the wilderness, because the right way was infested by robbers. In passing through the country of Gouren we found few villages, being almost all wilderness, in which were many buffaloes, wild swine, and deer, with many tigers, the grass being everywhere as tall as a man. Not far from Porto Piqueno, to the south-westwards, and in the country of Orixa, is a sea-port called Angeli416. It was formerly a separate kingdom, the king being a great friend to strangers; but was afterwards taken by the king of Patna, who did not enjoy it long, being himself conquered by the king of Delhi, Agra, and Cambaia, Zelabdim Echebar. Orissa is six days journey south-westwards from Satagan. In this place there is much, rice, and cloth made of cotton; likewise great store of cloth made of grass, which they call Yerva, resembling silk, of which they make excellent cloth, which is sent to India and other places417. To this haven of Ingelly there come many ships every year out of India, Negapatnam, Sumatra, Malacca, and many other places, and load from hence great quantities of rice, much cotton cloths, sugar and long pepper, and great store of butter and other provisions for India418. Satagan is a very fair city for one belonging to the Moors, and is very plentiful in all things. In Bengal they have every day a great market or fair, called chandeau, in one place or other, and they have many boats called pericose, with which they go from place to place to buy rice and many other things. These boats are rowed by 24 or 26 oars, and are of great burden, but are quite open. The gentiles hold the water of the Ganges in great reverence; for even if they have good water close at hand, they will send for water from the Ganges at a great distance. If they have not enough of it to drink, they will sprinkle a little of it upon themselves, thinking it very salutary.
410
This tying of new married folks together by the clothes, was used by the Mexicans in old times.-
411
In our modern maps Tanda and the country or district of Gouren are not to be found; but the ruins of
412
This seemeth to be Quicheu, accounted by some among the provinces of China.-
The name of this country is so excessively corrupt, and the description of the route so vague, that nothing can be made out of the text at this place with any certainty. It is merely possible that he may have gone into Bootan, which is to the north of Bengal. –E.
413
In Mexico they likewise use the cacao fruit, or chocolate nut, for small money, which are not unlike almonds.-
414
More accurately 22° 55' 20" N. and long. 88° 28' E. Hoogly stands on the western branch of the Ganges, called the Hoogly river, about twenty miles direct north from Calcutta. –E.
415
We thus are enabled to discover nearly the situation of Satagan or Satigan, to have been on the Hoogly river, probably where Chinsura now stands, or it may have been Chandernagor. –E.
416
Injelly, at the mouth of a small river which falls into the Hoogly, very near its discharge into the bay of Bengal. Injelly is not now considered as in Orissa, but in the district of Hoogly belonging to Bengal, above forty miles from the frontiers-E.