One Hundred
Miles South-East Is Java The Less[10], Which Is About Two Thousand Miles In
Circuit, And Is Divided Into Eight Kingdoms, Each Having Its Own Language.
I Was In Six Of These Kingdoms, Of Which I Shall Give Some Account,
Omitting Those I Did Not See.
One of these kingdoms is Felech or Ferlach, in which the formerly
idolatrous inhabitants of the cities have been
Converted to the Mahometan
religion, in consequence of much trade and intercourse with the Saracens;
but the mountaineers are very savage, eating human flesh, and living upon
every kind of unclean food, and they worship all day what they first happen
to meet in the morning. The next kingdom is called Basma, which has a
language peculiar to itself, the people living without law or religion like
beasts: But they sometimes send hawks to the khan, who lays claim to the
sovereignty of the whole island. Besides wild elephants, there are unicorns
in this country, which are much less than elephants, being haired like the
buffalo, but their feet are like those of die elephant. These animals have
one horn in the middle of their foreheads; but they hurt no one with this
weapon, using only their tongue and knee, for they trample and press any
one down with their feet and knees, and their tongue is beset with long
sharp prickles, with which they tear a person to pieces. The head is like
that of a wild boar, which the animal, carries hanging down to the ground.
They are filthy beasts that love to stand and wallow in the mire, and they
do not in the least resemble those unicorns which are said to be found in
some other parts of the world, which allow themselves to be taken by
maids[11]. In this country, there are many apes of different kinds, some of
them, being black with faces like men, which they put into boxes, preserved
with spices; these they sell to merchants, who carry them to various parts
of the world, and pass them for pigmies or little men.
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