He Then Beat Upon A Cymbal, At The
Sound Of Which Many Animals Of Various Kinds Came Down, From The Mount,
Some Like Apes, Some Like Cats, Others Like Monkeys, And Some Having Human
Faces, Which Gathered Around Him To The Number Of Four Thousand, And Placed
Themselves In Seemly Order.
He set down the broken victuals for them to
eat; and when they had eaten, he rung again upon his cymbal, and they all
returned to their places of abode.
Wondering greatly at this strange sight,
this man informed me that these creatures were animated by the souls of
departed persons of rank, and that they were fed by him and his brethren
out of love for the God that governs the world. He added, that, when a man
was noble in this life, his soul entered, after death, into the body of
some excellent beast, while the souls of the deceased common rude people,
possess the bodies of vile animals. I then endeavoured to refute that gross
error, but my arguments were all in vain, as he could not believe that any
soul could exist without a body.
From Quinsay I went to the city of Chilenso, which is forty miles round,
and contains 360 stone bridges, the fairest I ever saw. This place is well
inhabited, has a vast number of ships, and abundance of provisions and
commodities. From thence I went to a great river called Thalay, which is
seven miles broad where narrowest, and it runs through the midst of the
land of the Pigmies, whose chief city is Kakam, one of the finest of the
world.
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