One May Travel As Soon From
Agra To Sinde As To Surat, But There Is More Thieving On The Sinde Road,
In Spite Of Every Effort Of The Mogul Government To Prevent It.
The inhabitants of Sinde consist mostly of Rajputs, Banians, and
Baloches, the governors of the cities and large towns being Moguls.
The
country people are rude; going naked from the waist upwards, and wear
turbans quite different from the fashion of the Moguls. Their arms are
swords, bucklers, and lances; their bucklers being large and shaped like
bee-hives, in which they are in use to give their camels drink, and
their horses provender. Their horses are good, strong, and swift, and
though unshod, they ride them furiously, backing them at a year old. The
Rajputs eat no beef or buffalo flesh, even worshipping them; and the
Moguls say that the Rajputs know how to die as well as any in the world.
The Banians kill nothing, and are said to be divided into more than
thirty different casts, that differ somewhat among them in matters of
religion, and may not eat with each other. All burn their dead; and when
the husband dies, the widow shaves her head, and wears her jewels no
more, continuing this state of mourning as long as she lives.
When a Rajput dies, his wife accompanies his body to the funeral pile in
her best array, attended by all her friends and kindred, and by music.
When the funeral pile is set on fire, she walks round it two or three
times, bewailing the death of her husband, and then rejoicing that she
is now to live with him again: After which, embracing her friends, she
sits down on the top of the pile among dry wood, taking her husband's
head on her lap, and orders fire to be put to the pile; which done, her
friends throw oil upon her and sweet perfumes, while she endures the
fire with wonderful fortitude, loose not bound. I have seen many
instances of this. The first I ever saw was at Surat, the widow being a
virgin of ten years old, and her affianced husband being a soldier slain
in the wars at a distance, whence his clothes and turban were sent to
her, and she insisted on burning herself along with these. The governor
refused to give her permission, which she took grievously to heart, and
insisted on being burnt; but they durst not, till her kindred procured
leave by giving the governor a present, to her great joy. The kindred of
the husband never force this, but the widow esteems it a disgrace to her
family not to comply with this custom, which they may refrain from if
they choose: But then they must shave their heads, and break all their
ornaments, and are never afterwards allowed to eat, drink, sleep, or
keep company with any one all the rest of their lives. If, after
agreeing to burn, a woman should leap out of the fire, her own parents
would bind her and throw her in again by force; but this weakness is
seldom seen.
The Banian marriages are made at the age of three years or even under;
and two pregnant women sometimes enter into mutual promises, if one of
their children should prove male and the other female, to unite them in
marriage. But these marriages are always in the same cast and religion,
and in the same trade and occupation; as the son of a barber with the
daughter of a barber, and so on. When the affianced couple reach three
years of age, the parents make a great feast, and set the young couple
on horseback dressed in their best clothes, a man sitting behind each to
hold them on. They are then led about the city in procession, according
to their state and condition, accompanied by bramins or priests and many
others, who conduct them to the pagoda or temple; and after going
through certain ceremonies there, they are led home, and feasts are
given for several days, as they are able. When ten years of age, the
marriage is consummated. The reason they assign for these early
marriages is, that they may not be left wifeless, in case their parents
should die. Their bramins are esteemed exceedingly holy, and have the
charge of their pagodas or idol temples, having alms and tithes for
their maintenance; yet they marry, and follow occupations, being good
workmen and ready to learn any pattern. They eat but once a day, washing
their whole bodies before and after meat, and use ablutions after the
natural evacuations.
The Baloches are Mahometans, who deal much in camels, and are mostly
robbers by land or on the rivers, murdering all they rob; yet are there
very honest men among them in Guzerat and about Agra. While I was in
Sinde, they took a boat with seven Italians and a Portuguese friar, all
the rest being slain in fight. This was ripped up by them in search of
gold.[102]
[Footnote 102: This is obscurely expressed, leaving it uncertain what
was ripped up in search of gold: The boat, the bodies of the slain, or
the prisoners. - E.]
John Mildnall, or Mildenhall, an Englishman, had been employed with
three other young Englishmen, whom he poisoned in Persia, to make
himself master of the goods. He was himself also poisoned, yet, by means
of preservatives, he lived many months afterwards, though exceedingly
swelled, and so came to Agra with the value of 20,000 dollars. On this
occasion I went from Surat for Agra, on the 14th May, 1614. I arrived
first at Bramport, [Bushanpoor] where Sultan Parvis lives, situated
in a plain on the river Taptee or of Surat, which is there of great
breadth, and at this place there is a large castle. Thence I went to
Agra in twenty-six days, having travelled the whole way from Surat to
Agra, which is 700 coss or 1010 English miles, in thirty-seven days of
winter, during which time it rained almost continually.
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