On Their Departure From The Field, The Vultures
Of The Country, Accustomed To Similar Banquets, Come Down From The
Mountains, And Carry Off All The Remains Of The Deceased Person; Who Is
Thereupon Pronounced Holy, Because The Angels Of God, As They Say, Have
Carried Him To Paradise.
When the procession returns to the dwelling of the
deceased, the son boils the head of his father, and eats the flesh,
converting the skull into a drinking cup, out of which he, and all his
family, and kindred, carouse with much, mirth and solemnity, in remembrance
of his father.
This nation has many other vile and abominable customs,
which I refrain from describing, because no one would believe them unseen.
[1] This strange word, both in the Latin and English of Hakluyt, is
obviously the Italian for Prester John, information concerning whom
will be found in the travels of Marco Polo. - E.
SECTION XVIII.
Of a certain Rich Man, who was Fed by fifty Virgins.
While in the province of Mangi, or Southern China, I passed by the palace
of a rich man, who is continually attended upon by fifty young virgins, who
feed him at every meal as a bird feeds her young; and all the time they are
so employed, they sing to him most sweetly. The revenues of this man are
thirty toman of tagars of rice, each toman being 10,000 tagars, and one
tagar is the burthen of an ass. His palace is two miles in circuit, and is
paved with alternate plates of gold and silver.
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