When The Indians And
Chinese Are About To Marry And The Parties Are Agreed, Presents Are
Interchanged, And The Marriage Ceremony Is Solemnized Amidst The Noise Of
Drums And Various Sorts Of Instruments.
The presents consist in money, and
all the relatives and friends contribute as much as they can afford.
If any
man in the Indies runs away with a woman and abuses her, both are put to
death; unless it is proved that force has been used against the woman, in
which case the man only is punished. Theft is always punished capitally,
both in India and China, whether the theft be considerable or trifling; but
more particularly so in the Indies, where, if a thief have stolen even the
value of a small piece of money, he is impaled alive. The Chinese are much
addicted to the abominable vice of pederasty, which they even number among
the strange acts they perform in honour of their idols. The Chinese
buildings are of wood, with stone and plaster, or bricks and mortar. The
Chinese and Indians are not satisfied with one wife, but both nations marry
as many as they please, or can maintain. Rice is the common food of the
Indians, who eat no wheat; but the Chinese use both indifferently.
Circumcision is not practised either by the Chinese or Indians. The Chinese
worship idols, before whom, they fall down and make prayers, and they have
books which explain the articles of their religion. The Indians suffer
their beards to grow, but have no whiskers, and I have seen one with a
beard three cubits long; but the Chinese, for the most part, wear no
beards.
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