I Went From Agra To _Satagam_ In Bengal, In Company
With 180 Boats Loaded With _Salt_, Opium, _Hinge_, Lead, Carpets, And
Various Other Commodities, Down The River _Jemena_, [Jumna]; The Chief
Merchants Being Moors.
[Footnote 406:
In Purchas his Pilgrims, I. 110, is the following notice
respecting Mr Newberry: "Before that," meaning his journey along with
Fitch, "he had travelled to Ormus in 1580, and thence into the
Continent, as may appear in fitter place by his journal, which I have,
passing through the countries of Persia, Media, Armenia, Georgia, and
Natolia, to Constantinople; and thence to the Danube, through Walachia,
Poland, Prussia, and Denmark, and thence to England."]
In this country they have many strange ceremonies. The bramins, who are
their priests, come to the water having a string about their necks, and
with many ceremonies lave the water with both their hands, turning the
string with both their hands in several manners; and though it be never
so cold, they wash themselves regularly at all times. These gentiles eat
no flesh, neither do they kill any thing, but live on rice, butter,
milk, and fruits. They pray in the water naked; and both dress and eat
their food naked. For penance, they lie flat on the earth, then rise up
and turn themselves round 30 or 40 times, lifting their hands to the
sun, and kiss the earth with their arms and legs stretched out; every
time they lie down making a score on the ground with their fingers, that
they may know when the prescribed number of prostrations is finished.
Every morning the Bramins mark their foreheads, ears, and throats, with
a kind of yellow paint or earth; having some old men among them, who go
about with a box of yellow powder, marking them on the head and neck as
they meet them.
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