In The
Months Of June, July, And August, They Have No Rains, And It Is Excessively
Hot, Insomuch, That They Could Not Live If It Were Not For The Refreshing
Winds Which Blow From The Sea.
They have many physiognomists and
soothsayers, who observe omens from birds and beasts, and other signs.
These people consider
One hour in every day of the week as unlucky, which
they name Choiach, and which is different on all the days, all of which are
carefully recorded in their books, and they are curious observers of
nativities. At thirteen years of age, their boys are put out to gain their
living, who go about buying and selling, by means of a small stock given
them to begin with. In the pearl season, these boys will buy a few pearls,
and sell them again for a small profit to the merchants, who are unable to
endure the sun. What gain they get they bring to their mothers, to lay out
for them, as it is not lawful for them to live at their fathers cost. Their
daughters are dedicated to the service of the idols, and appointed by the
priests to sing and dance in presence of the idols; and they frequently set
victuals before the idols for some time, as if they would eat, singing all
the while, when they fall to eat themselves, and then return home. The
great men have a kind of litters, made of large canes artificially wrought,
which are fixed in some high situation, to avoid being bitten by
tarantulas[4], and other vermin, and for the benefit of fresh air.
The sepulchre of St Thomas is in a small city, not much frequented by
merchants, but very much by Christians and Saracens, on account of
devotion. The Saracens hold him as a great prophet or holy man, and call
him Ananias. The Christians take of a red earth which is found in the place
where he was slain, which they mix with water, and administer to the sick
with great reverence. It happened in the year 1288, that a great prince,
who had more rice than he had room to keep it in, chose to make bold with
that room in St Thomas's church in which pilgrims are received, and
converted it into a granary: But he was so terrified by a vision of St
Thomas in the night following, that he was glad to remove it with great
speed. The inhabitants are black, although not born so, but by constantly
anointing themselves with the oil of jasmine they become quite black, which
they esteem a great beauty, insomuch, that they paint their idols black,
and represent the devil as white. The cow worshippers carry with them to
battle some of the hairs of an ox, as a preservative against dangers.
[1] This Pinkerton calls Moabar on the margin, and Nachabar in the text, of
his dissertation on the Trevigi edition of Marco Polo, very justly
observing that it refers to Coromandel, or the Carnatic below the
gauts. Harris erroneously substitutes Malabar. Moabar and Madura may
have a similar origin, as may Nachabar and Nega-patnam. - E.
[2] The fish here alluded to are sharks; and the same custom of employing
bramins to defend the fishermen, by conjuration, against this
formidable enemy, is continued to the present day. - E.
[3] Mr Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition, has this passage as follows:
"The king of Vor, one of the princes of Nacbabar, purchases about
10,000 horses yearly from the country of Cormos, formerly mentioned,
each horse costing five sazi of gold." - E.
[4] Tarantulas is assuredly, a mistake here for centipedes and scorpions,
which are common all over India. - E.
SECTION XX.
Of the Kingdom of Murfili, and the Diamond Mines, and some other Countries
of India.
Murfili or Monsul[1], is five hundred miles northwards from Moabar, and is
inhabited by idolaters. In the mountains of this country there are
diamonds, which the people search for after the great rains. They
afterwards ascend these mountains in the summer, though with great labour,
on account of the excessive heat, and find abundance of these precious
stones among the gravel; and are on these occasions much exposed to danger
from the vast numbers of serpents which shelter themselves in the holes and
caverns of the rocks, in which the diamonds are found in greatest
abundance. Among other methods of obtaining the diamonds, they make, use of
the following artifice: There are great numbers of white eagles, which rest
in the upper parts of these rocks for the sake of feeding on the serpents,
which are found at the bottom of the deep vallies and precipices where the
men dare not go. They therefore throw pieces of raw meat down into these
deep places, which the eagles seeing, stoop for, and seize with all the
little stones and gravel which adhere to them. The people afterwards search
the eagles nests when they leave them, and carefully pick out all the
little stones they can find, and even carefully examine the eagles dung in
quest of diamonds[2]. The kings and great men of the country keep all the
largest and finest diamonds that are procured from these mines, and allow
the merchants to sell the rest.
Lac is westwards from the shrine of St Thomas, from whence the Bramins have
their original, who are the honestest merchants in the world, and will not
lie on any account. They faithfully keep any thing committed to their
charge, or as brokers, they will sell or barter merchandize for others,
with great fidelity. They are known by a cotton thread, which they wear
over their shoulders, and tied under their arms across their breast. They
have but one wife, are great astrologers, of great abstinence, and live to
great ages. They constantly chew a certain herb, which keeps their teeth
good and helps digestion. There are certain religious persons among them
called Tangui, who live with great austerity, going altogether naked;
their principal worship is addressed to cows, of which they wear a small
brass image on their foreheads, and they make an ointment of ox bones, with
which they anoint themselves very devoutly.
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