Some Make Their
Ceremonies With Fifteen Or Sixteen Pots, Little And Great, Ringing A
Little Bell When They Make Their Mixtures, Ten Or Twelve Times.
They
make a circle of water round about their pots and pray, divers sitting
by them, and one in
Particular who reaches the pots to them; and they
say certain words many times over the pots, and when they have done,
they go to their idols, before which they strew their sacrifices, which
they think very holy, and mark many of those who sit by in the
foreheads, which they esteem highly. There sometimes come fifty or even
an hundred together, to wash at this well, and to sacrifice to these
idols.
In some of these idol houses, there are people who stand by them in warm
weather, fanning them as if to cool them; and when they see any company
coming, they ring a little bell which hangs beside them, when many give
them alms, particularly those who come out of the country. Many of these
idols are black and have brazen claws very long, and some ride upon
peacocks, or on very ill-favoured fowls, having long hawks bills, some
like one thing and some like another, but none have good faces. Among
the rest, there is one held in great veneration, as they allege be gives
them all things, both food and raiment, and one always sits beside this
idol with a fan, as if to cool him. Here some are burned to ashes, and
some only scorched in the fire and thrown into the river, where the dogs
and foxes come presently and eat them.
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