Many Of The People Of This Country Cause One Of The Arms Of Their Children To Be Cut Open When Young, Putting One Of These Stones Into The Wound, Which They Heal Up By Means Of The Powder Of A Certain Fish, With The Name Of Which I Am Unacquainted.

And through the virtue of these wonderful stones, the natives are generally victorious in their wars, both by sea and land.

There is a stratagem, however, which their enemies often successfully use against them, to counteract the power of these stones. Providing themselves with iron or steel armour, to defend them from the arrows of these people, they use wooden stakes, pointed like weapons of iron, and arrows not having iron heads, but infused with poison which they extract from certain trees, and they thus slay some of their foes, who, trusting to the virtue of these stones, wear no defensive armour. From the canes formerly mentioned, named cassan, they build themselves small houses, and manufacture sails for their ships, and many other things are made from them. From thence, after many days travel, I came to another kingdom, called Campa[4], which is a very rich and beautiful kingdom, abounding in all kinds of provisions. The king who reigned at the time of my being there, had so many wives and concubines, that he had three hundred sons and daughters. He had likewise 10,004[5] tame elephants, which were pastured in droves as we feed flocks and herds.

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