To Martaban,
Another Sea-Port In The Kingdom Of Pegu, Many Ships Come From Malacca,
With Sandal-Wood, Porcelains, And Other Wares Of China, Camphor Of
Borneo, And Pepper From Acheen In The Island Of Sumatra.
To Siriam,
likewise a port of Pegu, ships come from Mecca with woollen cloth,
scarlet, velvets, opium, and other goods.
In Pegu there are eight brokers called _tareghe_, which are bound to
sell your goods at the prices they are worth, receiving as their fee two
in the hundred, for which they are bound to make good the price, because
you sell your goods on their word. If the broker do not pay you on the
day appointed, you may take him home to your house and keep him there,
which is a great shame for him. And, if he do not now pay you
immediately, you may take his wife, children, and slaves, and bind them
at your door in the sun; for such is the law of the country. Their
current money is of brass, which they call _ganza_, with which you may
buy gold, silver, rubies, musk, and all other things. Gold and silver is
reckoned merchandise, and is worth sometimes more and sometimes less,
like all other wares, according to the supply and demand. The ganza or
brass money goes by weight, which they call a _biza_; and commonly this
biza is worth, in our way of reckoning, about half a crown or somewhat
less. The merchandises in Pegu are, gold, silver, rubies, sapphires,
spinels, musk, benzoin, frankincense, long pepper, tin, lead, copper,
_lacca_, of which hard sealing-wax is made, rice, wine made of rice,
[_aruck_,] and some sugar. The elephants eat sugar canes in great
quantities, or otherwise they might make abundance of sugar.
They consume many canes likewise[425], in making their _varellas_ or
idol temples, of which there are a prodigious multitude, both large and
small. These are made round like a sugar loaf, some being as high as a
church, and very broad beneath, some being a quarter of a mile in
compass. Within these are all of earth, faced round with stone. In these
_varellas_ they consume a vast quantity of gold, as they are all gilded
aloft, and some from top to bottom; and they must be newly gilded every
ten or twelve years, because the rain washes off the gold, as they all
stand exposed to the weather. Were it not for the prodigious quantities
of gold consumed in this manner, it would be very plentiful and cheap in
Pegu. About two days journey from Pegu there is a _varella_ or pagoda
called _dogonne_, of wonderful bigness, gilded all over from top to
bottom, to which the inhabitants of Pegu go in pilgrimage; and near it
is a house where their talapoins or priests preach to the people. This
house is fifty five paces long, and hath three _pawnes_ or covered walks
in it, the roof being supported by forty great gilded pillars, which
stand between the walks.
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