Of Fowls, They Have Geese, Ducks, Pigeons, Partridges,
Quails, Pheasants, And Many Other Good Sorts, All To Be Had At Low
Rates.
I have seen a good sheep bought for about the value of our
shilling:
Four couple of hens for the same price; a hare for a penny;
three partridges for the same money; and so in proportion for other
things.
The cattle of this country differ from ours, in having a great bunch of
grisly flesh on the meeting of their shoulders. Their sheep have great
bob-tails of considerable weight, and their flesh is as good as our
English mutton, but their wool is very coarse. They have also abundance
of salt, and sugar is so plentiful, that it sells, when well refined,
for two-pence a pound, or less. Their fruits are numerous, excellent,
abundant, and cheap; as musk-melons, water-melons, pomegranates,
pomecitrons, lemons, oranges, dates, figs, grapes, plantains, which are
long round yellow fruits, which taste like our Norwich pears; mangoes,
in shape and colour like our apricots, but more luscious, and ananas or
pine-apples, to crown all, which taste like a pleasing compound of
strawberries, claret-wine, rose-water, and sugar. In the northern parts
of the empire, they have plenty of apples and pears. They have every
where abundance of excellent roots, as carrots, potatoes, and others;
also garlic and onions, and choice herbs for sallads. In the southern
parts, ginger grows almost every where.
I must here mention a pleasant clear liquor called taddy, which issues
from a spungy tree, growing straight and tall without boughs to the top,
and there spreads out in branches resembling our English colewarts. They
make their incisions, under which they hang small earthenware pots; and
the liquor which flows out in the night is as pleasant to the taste as
any white wine, if drank in the morning early, but it alters in the day
by the sun's heat, becoming heady, ill-tasted and unwholesome. It is a
most penetrating medicinal drink, if taken early and in moderation, as
some have experienced to their great happiness, by relieving them from
the tortures of the stone, that tyrant of maladies and opprobrium of
the doctors.
At Surat, and thence to Agra and beyond, it only rains during one season
of the year, which begins when the sun comes to the northern tropic, and
continues till he returns again to the line. These violent rains are
ushered in, and take their leave, by most fearful tempests of thunder
and lightning, more terrible than I can express, but which seldom do any
harm. The reason of this may be the subtile nature of the air, breeding
fewer thunder-stones, than where the air is grosser and more cloudy.
In these three months, it rains every day more or less, and sometimes
for a whole quarter of the moon without intermission. Which abundance of
rain, together with the heat of the sun, so enriches the soil, which
they never force by manure, that it becomes fruitful for all the rest of
the year, as that of Egypt is by the inundations of the Nile. After this
season of rain is over, the sky becomes so clear, that scarcely is a
single cloud to be seen for the other nine months. The goodness of the
soil is evident from this circumstance, that though the ground, after
the nine months of dry weather, looks altogether like barren sands, it
puts on an universal coat of green within seven days after the rains
begin to fall. Farther to confirm this, among the many hundreds of acres
I have seen in corn in India, I never saw any that did not grow up as
thick as it could well stand. Their ground is tilled by ploughs drawn by
oxen; the seed-time being in May or the beginning of June, and the
harvest in November and December, the most temperate months in all the
year. The ground is not inclosed, except near towns and villages, which
stand very thick. They do not mow their grass for hay as we do; but cut
it either green or withered, when wanted. They sow abundance of tobacco,
but know not the way to cure it and make it strong, as is done in
America.
The country is beautified by many woods, in which are a great variety of
goodly trees; but I never saw any there of the kinds we have in England.
In general their trees are full of sap, which I ascribe to the fatness
of the soil. Some have leaves as broad as bucklers; others are much
divided into small portions, like the leaves of ferns. Such are those of
the tamarind tree, which bears an acid fruit in a pod somewhat like our
beans, and is most wholesome to cool and purify the blood. One of their
trees is worthy of being particularly noticed: Out of its branches there
grow certain sprigs or fibres, which hang downwards, and extend till
they touch the ground, in which they strike roots, and become
afterwards new trunks and firm supporters to the boughs and arms; whence
these trees come in time to grow to a great height, and extend to an
incredible breadth.[231] All trees in the southern parts of India are
perpetually clothed in verdure Their flowers rather delight the eye than
please the sense of smelling, having beautiful colours, but few of them,
except roses and one or two other kinds, are any way fragrant.
[Footnote 231: The Banian tree, a species of Indian fig. - E.]
India is watered by many goodly rivers, the two chief of which are the
Indus and the Ganges. There is this remarkable in the water of the
Ganges, that a pint of it weighs less by an ounce than that of any other
river in the empire; and therefore, wherever the Mogul happens to
reside, it is brought to him for his drinking. Besides rivers, there are
abundance of well-fed springs, on which they bestow great cost in many
places, constructing many stone-buildings in the form of ponds, which
they call tanks, some of which exceed a mile or two in circuit, made
round or square or polygonal, girt all round with handsome stone-walls,
within which are steps of well-dressed stone encompassing the water, for
people to go down on every aide to procure supplies.
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