Both Men And Women Are So Exceedingly
Addicted To Debauchery, That A Foreign Merchant Has Been Known To Send Even
For A King's Daughter, To Attend Him At The Fishing Grounds, In Quality Of
Mistress; Wherefore The Mahomedan Doctors At Siraff, Strictly Warn Young
People Not To Go There.
In the Indies there are heavy rains, called jasara, which last
incessantly day and night, for three months every year.
The Indians prepare
against these to the best of their power, as they shut themselves up in
their houses during the whole time, all work being then performed within
doors; and during this time, they are subject to ulcers in the soles of
their feet, occasioned by the damps. Yet, these rains are of indispensable
necessity; as, when they fail, the Indians are reduced to the utmost want,
as their rice fields are watered only by the rains. It never rains during
summer. The Indians have doctors, or devout men, named Bramins. They have
poets also, who compose poems filled with the grossest flattery to their
kings and great men. They have also astrologers, philosophers, soothsayers,
men who observe the flight of birds, and others who pretend to the
calculation of nativities, particularly at Kaduge, a great city in the
kingdom of Gozar[11]. There are certain men called Bicar, who go all
their lives naked, and suffer their hair to grow till it hides their hinder
parts. They also allow their nails to grow, till they become pointed and
sharp like swords. Each has a string round his neck, to which hangs an
earthen dish, and when hungry, they go to any house, whence the inhabitants
cheerfully supply them with boiled rice. They have many laws and religious
precepts, by which they imagine that they please God. Part of their
devotion consists in building kans, or inns, on the highways, for the
accommodation of travellers; where also certain pedlars, or small dealers,
are established, from whom the passengers may purchase what they stand in
need of. There are also public women, who expose themselves to travellers.
Some of these are called women of the idol, the origin of which
institution is this: When a woman has laid herself under a vow, that she
may have children, if she happens to produce a handsome daughter, she
carries her child to the bod[12], so the idol is called. When this girl
has attained the proper age, she takes an apartment in the temple, and
waits the arrival of strangers, to whom she prostitutes herself for a
certain hire, and delivers her gains to the priest for the support of the
temple. All these things they reckon among their meritorious deeds. Praised
be God who hath freed us from the sins which defile the people involved in
unbelief!
Not very far from Almansur there is a famous idol called Multan, to which
the Indians resort in pilgrimage, from the remotest parts. Some of the
pilgrims bring the odoriferous wood called Hud ul Camruni, so called from
Camrun, where there is excellent aloes-wood. Some of this is worth 200
dinars the mawn, and is commonly marked with a seal, to distinguish it
from another kind of less value. This the devotees give to the priests,
that it may be burnt before the idol, but merchants often buy it from these
priests. There are some Indians, making profession of piety, who go in
search of unknown islands, or those newly discovered, on purpose to plant
cocoa nut trees, and to sink wells for the use of ships. There are people
at Oman who cross to these islands that produce the cocoa nut trees, of
planks made from which they build ships, sewing the planks with yarns made
from the bark of the tree. The mast is made of the same wood, the sails are
formed from the leaves, and the bark is worked up into cordage: and having
thus completed their vessel, they load her with cocoa nuts, which they
bring to Oman for sale.
The country of the Zinges, or Negroes, is of vast extent[13]. These people
commonly sow millet, which is the chief food of the negroes. They have also
sugar-canes and other trees, but their sugar is very black. The negroes are
divided among a great number of kings, who are eternally at war with each
other. Their kings are attended by certain men called Moharamin, each of
whom has a ring in his nose, and a chain round his neck. When about to join
battle with the enemy, each of the Moharamin takes the end of his
neighbour's chain and passes it through the ring in his own nose, by which
the whole are chained together, so that no one can possibly run away.
Deputies are then sent to endeavour to make peace, and if that is done, the
chains are unfastened, and they retire without fighting. But otherwise,
when once the sword is unsheathed, every one of these men must conquer or
die on the spot[14].
These people have a profound veneration for the Arabs; and when they meet
any one, they fall down before him, saying, "This man comes from the land
of dates," of which they are very fond. They have preachers among them, who
harangue with wonderful ability and perseverance. Some of these profess a
religious life, and are covered with the skins of leopards or apes. One of
these men will gather a multitude of people, to whom he will preach all day
long concerning God, or about the actions of their ancestors. From this
country they bring the leopards skins, called Zingiet, which are very large
and broad, and ornamented with red and black spots.
In this sea is the island of Socotra, whence come the best aloes. This
island is near the land of the Zinges, or Negroes, and is likewise near
Arabia; and most of its inhabitants are Christians, which is thus accounted
for: When Alexander had subdued the empire of Persia, his preceptor,
Aristotle, desired him to search out the island of Socotra, which afforded
aloes, and without which the famous medicine Hiera[15] could not be
compounded; desiring him likewise to remove the natives and to plant there
a colony of Greeks, who might supply Syria, Greece, and Egypt with aloes.
This was done accordingly; and when God sent Jesus Christ into the world,
the Greeks of this isle embraced the Christian faith, like the rest of
their nation, and have persevered in it to this day, like all the other
inhabitants of the islands[16].
In the first book, no mention is made of the sea which stretches away to
the right, as ships depart from Oman and the coast of Arabia, to launch out
into the great sea:
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