If The Widow Refuses Thus To Sacrifice Herself, She Would Be
Ever Afterwards Esteemed An Evil Woman, Hated Of All Men, And Even In
Danger Of Being Slain By Her Own And Her Husband's Kindred.
The king is
generally present at these ceremonies, which are not used at the death
of ordinary people, but only for kings, priests, and great men.
Justice in strictly administered in this country. Whoever kills a man is
adjudged to die as at Calicut. Proof of giving or receiving is taken by
writings or by witnesses, the governor of the city being chief judge. If
any merchant stranger die there without children, all his goods fall to
the king. When the king dies, he is succeeded in the throne by his
children. The children of the natives divide equally among them all the
possessions of their father. When any Mahometan merchant dies, their
bodies are embalmed with many sweet spices and gums, and being placed in
wooden coffins, they are buried with their faces towards Mecca. In their
manner of writing they use parchment as we do, and not the leaves of
trees as at Calicut. Their vessels are a kind of shallow brigantines or
barks with flat bottoms, which draw very little water. Some also use
foists having _double foreparts_[87], and two masts, but these have no
decks. They have also some vessels of large burden, even carrying a
thousand tons, in which they have several boats, and these are used when
they go to Malacca for spices.
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