The Kingdom Of Bengal Has Been Long Under The Power Of The Mahomedans,
Yet There Are Many Gentile Inhabitants.
Wherever I speak of Gentiles I
am to be understood as signifying idolaters, and by Moors I mean the
followers of Mahomet.
The inhabitants of the inland country do greatly
worship the river Ganges; for if any one is sick, he is brought from the
country to the banks of the river, where they build for him a cottage of
straw, and every day they bathe him in the river. Thus many die at the
side of the Ganges, and after their death they make a heap of boughs and
sticks on which they lay the dead body and then set the pile on fire.
When the dead body is half roasted, it is taken from the fire, and
having an empty jar tied about its neck is thrown into the river. I saw
this done every night for two months as I passed up and down the river
in my way to the fairs to purchase commodities from the merchants. On
account of this practice the Portuguese do not drink the water of the
Ganges, although it appears to the eye much better and clearer than that
of the Nile.
"Of _Satagan, Buttor_, and _Piqueno_, in the kingdom of Bengal, no
notices are to be found in the best modern maps of that country, so that
we can only approximate their situation by guess. Setting out from what
the author calls the port of _Orissa_, which has already been
conjectured to be Balasore, the author coasted to the river Ganges, at
the distance of 54 miles.
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