When The King Dies, All His
Subjects Express Their Mourning By Cutting Their Beards And Shaving
Their Heads; And During The Celebration Of His Funerals, Those Who Live
By Fishing Abstain From Their Employment During Eight Days.
Similar
rules are observed upon the death of any of the kings wives.
Sometimes
the king abstains from the company of women for the space of a year,
when likewise he forbears to chew _betel_ and _areka_, which are
reckoned provocatives.
The gentlemen and merchants of Calicut, when they wish to show great
friendship to each other, sometimes exchange wives, but on these
occasions the children remain with their reputed fathers. It is likewise
customary among these idolaters, for one woman to have seven husbands at
the same time, each of whom has his appointed night to sleep with her;
and when she has a child, she fathers it upon any of the husbands she
pleases. The people of this country, when at their meals, lie upon the
ground, and eat their meat from copper trays, using certain leaves
instead of spoons; their food consisting for the most part of rice and
fish seasoned with spices, and of the ordinary fruits of the country.
The lowest people eat in a filthy manner, putting their dirty hands into
the dish, and thrusting their food by handfuls into their mouths. The
punishment of murder is by impalement; but those who wound or hurt any
one have to pay a fine to the king. When any one is in debt, and refuses
to pay, the creditor goes to the judges, of whom there are said to be a
hundred, and having made due proof of the debt, he receives a certain
stick or branch of a tree, with authority to arrest his debtor, to whom,
when he is able to find him, he uses these words: "I charge you by the
heads of the Bramins, and by the head of the king, that you stir not
from the spot on which you stand till you pay me what you owe." The
debtor has now no resource but to pay immediately, or to lose his life:
for, if he escape after this ceremony, he is adjudged a rebel, and it is
lawful for any man to kill him.
When they mean to pray to their idols, they resort before sunrise to
some pool or rivet where they wash themselves, after which they resort
to the idol-house, taking especial care not to touch any thing by the
way, and say their prayers prostrate on the ground, making strange
gesticulations and contortions, so marvellously distorting their faces,
eyes, and mouths, that it is horrible to behold. The nairs or gentlemen
may not begin to eat, till one of them has dressed and set the food in
order, with certain ceremonies, but the lower orders are not bound to
such rules. The women also have no other care than to dress and beautify
themselves, as they take much pains to wash and purify their persons,
and to perfume their bodies with many sweet savours. Likewise when they
go abroad, they are singularly loaded with jewels and ornaments on their
ears, arms, and legs.
In Calicut there are certain teachers of warlike exercises, who train up
the youth in the use of the sword, target, and lance, and of such other
weapons as they employ in war; and when the king takes the field he has
an army of 100,000 infantry, but there are no cavalry in that country.
On this occasion the king rides upon an elephant, and elephants are used
in their wars. Those who are next in authority to the king wear fillets
round their heads of crimson or scarlet silk. Their arms are crooked
swords, lances, bows and arrows, and targets. The royal ensign is an
umbrella borne aloft on a spear, so as to shade the king from the heat
of the sun, which ensign in their language is called _somber_. When both
armies approach within three arrow-flights, the king sends his bramins
to the enemy by way of heralds, to challenge an hundred of them to
combat against an hundred of his nairs, during which set combat both
sides prepare themselves for battle. In the mean time the two select
parties proceed to combat, mid-way between the two armies, always
striking with the edge of their swords at the heads of their
antagonists, and never thrusting with the point, or striking at the
legs. Usually when five or six are slain of either side, the Bramins
interpose to stop the fight, and a retreat is sounded at their instance.
After which the Bramins speak to the adverse kings, and generally
succeed to make up matters without any battle or farther slaughter.
The king sometimes rides on an elephant, but at other times is carried
by his nairs or nobles, and when he goes out is always followed by a
numerous band of minstrels, making a prodigious noise with drums,
timbrels, tambourets, and other such instruments. The wages of the nairs
are four _carlines_ each, monthly, in time of peace, and six during war.
When any of them are slain, their bodies are burned with great pomp and
many superstitious ceremonies, and their ashes are preserved; but the
common people are buried in their houses, gardens, fields, or woods,
without any ceremony. When I was in Calicut it was crowded with
merchants from almost every part of the east, especially a prodigious
number of Mahometans. There were many from Malacca and Bengal, from
Tanaserim, Pegu, and Coromandel, from the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra,
from all the cities and countries of Western India, and various
Persians, Arabians, Syrians, Turks, and Ethiopians. As the idolaters do
not sail on the sea, the Mahometans are exclusively employed in
navigation, so that there are not less than 15,000 Mahometans resident
in Calicut, mostly born in that place. Their ships are seldom below the
burden of four or five hundred tons, yet all open and without decks.
They do not put any tow or oakum into the seams of their ships, yet join
the planks so artificially, that they hold out water admirably, the
seams being pitched and held together with iron nails, and the wood of
which their ships are built is better than ours.
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