Calicut Is Not Walled, And Contains About 6000
Houses, Which Are Not Built Close Adjoining Each Other, As In European
Cities, But A Certain Space Is Left Between Each, Either To Prevent The
Communication Of Fire, Or Owing To The Ignorance Of The Builders.
It is
a mile in length, and its houses are only mean low huts, not exceeding
the height of a man on horseback, being mostly covered with boughs of
trees, instead of tiles or other covering.
It is said that on digging
only five or six spans into the ground they come immediately to water,
on which account they cannot dig foundations of any depth. Warehouses or
lodgings for merchants may be bought for 15 or 20 pieces of gold; but
the common run of houses cost only two pieces of gold or even less.
The king and people of Calicut are idolaters, and worshippers of the
devil, though they acknowledge one supreme God, the Creator of heaven
and earth, the first chief cause of all things. But they allege that God
could have no pleasure in his government, if he were to take it upon
himself, and hath therefore given it in charge to the devil, who was
sent as they say from heaven, to rule over and judge the world,
rendering good or evil to men according to their deserts. The great God
they call _Tamerani_, and this devil or subordinate deity _Deumo_. The
king has a chapel in his palace, where this Deumo is worshipped.
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