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. Upon the death of a relation, the Indians shave both head and face.
When any man in the Indies is thrown into prison, he is allowed neither
victuals nor drink for seven days together; and this with them answers the
end of other tortures for extorting from the criminal a confession of his
guilt. The Chinese and Indians have judges besides the governors, who
decide in causes between the subjects. Both in India and China there are
leopards and wolves, but no lions. Highway robbers are punished with death.
Both the Indians and Chinese imagine that the idols which they worship
speak to them, and give them answers. Neither of them kill their meat by
cutting the throat, as is done by the Mahomedans, but by beating them on
the head till they die. They wash not with well water, and the Chinese wipe
themselves with paper, whereas the Indians wash every day before eating.
The Indians wash not only the mouth, but the whole body before they eat,
but this is not done by the Chinese. The Indies is larger in extent by a
half than China, and has a great many more kingdoms, but China is more
populous. It is not usual to see palm trees either in the Indies or in
China, but they have many other sorts of trees and fruits which we have
not. The Indians have no grapes, and the Chinese have not many, but both
abound in other fruits, though the pomegranate thrives better in India than
in China.
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