Whether They Be
Possessed Of The Devil, Who Reveals Things To Them, I Know Not; But Many
Of The Chinese
Use these conjurers when they send away a junk on any
voyage, to learn if the voyage shall succeed or
Not; and they allege
that it hath happened according as the soothsayer told them.
The Chinese are apparelled in long gowns, wearing kirtles, or shorter
garments, under these; and are assuredly the most effeminate and
cowardly nation in the world. On their heads they wear a caul or close
bonnet, some of silk and some of hair, having the hair of their heads
very long, and bound up in a knot on their crowns. Their nobles and
governors wear hoods of sundry fashions, some being one half like a hat
and the other half like a French hood, others of net-work with a high
crown and no brims. They are tall and strong built, having all very
small black eyes, and very few of them have any beards. They will steal
and commit all manner of villainy to procure wealth. At Bantam they
purchase female slaves, as they cannot bring any women out of China. By
these slaves they have many children; and when they go back to China,
without intending to return to Bantam, they carry all their children
along with them, but sell their women. They send always some of their
goods to China by every fleet of junks; for if they die at Bantam, all
the goods they have there fall to the king.
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