Their
Silver Money Is Made Both Square And Round; But So Thick, That It Never
Breaks Or Wears Out.
For farther commodities; India yields great store of silk, which they
weave very ingeniously, sometimes mixed with gold or silver.
They make
velvets, sattins, and taffetas, but not so rich as those of Italy. This
country also produces many drugs and gums, and particularly the gum-lac,
from which hard sealing-wax is made. The earth also yields abundant
minerals, as lead, iron, copper, and brass, and, as they say, silver;
yet, though this be true, they need not work their silver mines, being
already so abundantly supplied with that metal from other nations. They
have spices from other countries, and especially from Sumatra, Java, and
the Molucca islands. They have curious pleasure gardens, planted with
fruit-trees and delightful flowers, to which nature lends daily such
ample supply, that they seem never to fade. In these places they have
pleasant fountains, in which to bathe, and other delights by various
conveyances of water, whose silent murmurs sooth their senses to sleep,
in the hot season of the day.
Lest this remote country might seem an earthly paradise, without any
inconveniences, I must notice that it contains many lions, tigers,
wolves, and jackals, which are a kind of wild dogs, besides many other
noxious and hurtful animals. In their rivers they have many crocodiles,
and on the land many overgrown snakes and serpents, with other venomous
and pernicious creatures. In the houses we often meet with scorpions,
whose stinging is most painful and even deadly, unless the part be
immediately anointed with an oil made of scorpions.[233] The abundance
of flies in those parts is likewise an extreme annoyance; as, in the
heat of the day, their numbers are so prodigious, that we cannot have
peace or rest for them in any part. They cover our meat the moment it is
set on the table, wherefore we are obliged to have men standing ready to
drive them away with napkins, while we are eating. In the night,
likewise, we are much disquieted with musquetos, like our gnats, but
somewhat less; and, in the cities, there are such numbers of large
hungry rats, that they often bite people as they sleep in their beds.
[Footnote 233: This is a mere fancy, as any bland oil is equally
efficacious. - E.]
In this country the winds, which are called monsoons, blow constantly,
or altering only a few points, for six months from the south, and other
six months from the north. The months of April and May, and the
beginning of June, till the rains come, are extremely hot; and the wind,
which then sometimes blows gently over the parched ground, becomes so
heated, as much oppresses all who are exposed to it: Yet God so
mercifully provides for our relief, that most commonly he sends so
strong a gale as greatly tempers the sultry air. Sometimes the wind
blows very high during the hot and dry season, raising up vast
quantities of dust and sand, like dark clouds pregnant with rain, and
which often prodigiously annoy the people among whom they fall. But
there is no country without its inconveniences; for the wise Disposer of
all events hath attempered bitter things with sweet, to teach mankind
that there is no true or perfect contentment to be found, but only in
the kingdom of God.
This country has many excellent horses, which the inhabitants know well
how to manage. Besides those bred in the country, they have many of the
Tartarian, Persian, and Arabian breeds, which last is considered as the
best in the world. They are about as large as ours, and are valued among
them at as dear a rate as we usually esteem ours, perhaps higher. They
are kept very daintily, every good horse being allowed one man to dress
and feed him. Their provender is a species of grain called donna,
somewhat like our pease, which are boiled, and then given cold to the
horses, mixed with coarse sugar; and twice or thrice a week they have
butter given them to scour their bodies. There are likewise in this
country a great number of camels, dromedaries, mules, asses, and some
rhinoceroses. These are huge beasts, bigger than the fattest oxen to be
seen in England, and their skins lie upon their bodies in plaits or
wrinkles.
They have many elephants, the Great Mogul having not fewer than 1400 for
his own use, and all the nobles of the country have more or less, some
having to the number of an hundred. Though the largest of all
terrestrial animals, the elephants are wonderfully tractable, except
that they are mad at times; but at all other times, a little boy is able
to rule the largest of them. I have seen some thirteen feet high; but I
have been often told that some are fifteen feet in height at the least.
Their colour is universally black, their skins very thick and smooth,
and without hair. They take much delight to bathe themselves in water,
and they swim better than any beast I know. They lie down and rise again
at pleasure, as other beasts do. Their pace is not swift, being only
about three miles an hour; but they are the surest footed beasts in the
world, as they never endanger their riders by stumbling. They are the
most docile of all creatures, and of those we account merely possessed
of instinct, they come nearest to reason. Lipsius, Cent. 1, Epist.
50, in his observations, taken from others, writes more concerning them
than I can confirm, or than any can credit, as I conceive; yet I can
vouch for many things which seem to be acts of reason rather than of
mere brute sense, which we call instinct. For instance, an elephant will
do almost any thing which his keeper commands. If he would have him
terrify a man, he will make towards him as if he meant to tread him in
pieces, yet does him no hurt.
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