For Trying The Parity Of Gold, They Use The
Touch-Stone As With Us, But With This Addition:
Having first rubbed the
gold to be tried on the touch-stone, they rub over the mark with a
Ball
of some sort of composition resembling wax, by which all that is not
fine gold disappears, and the marks or spots of gold remain, by which
they have an exact proof of the fineness of the gold. When the ball
becomes full of gold, they melt it in the fire, to recover the gold
which it contains; yet are these men very ignorant even of the art which
they profess. In buying or selling merchandise they employ the agency of
brokers; so that the buyer and seller each employs a separate broker.
The seller takes the buyer by the hand, under cover of a scarf or veil,
where, by means of the fingers, counting from one to a hundred thousand
privately, they offer and bargain far the price till they are agreed,
all of which passes in profound silence.
The women of this country suckle their children till three months old,
after which they feed them on goats milk. When in the morning they have
given them milk, they allow them to tumble about on the sands all foul
and dirty, leaving them all day in the sun, so that they look more like
buffaloe calves than human infants; indeed I never saw such filthy
creatures. In the evening they get milk again. Yet by this manner of
bringing up they acquire marvellous dexterity in running, leaping,
swimming, and the like.
There are many different kinds of beasts and birds in this country, as
_lions_, wild boars, harts, hinds, buffaloes, cows, goats, and
elephants; but these last are not all bred here, being brought from
other places. They have also parrots of sundry colours, as green,
purple, and other mixt colours, and they are so numerous that the rice
fields have to be watched to drive them away. These birds make a
wonderful chattering, and are sold so low as a halfpenny each. There are
many other kinds of birds different from ours, which every morning and
evening make most sweet music, so that the country is like an earthly
paradise, the trees, herbs, and flowers being in a continual spring, and
the temperature of the air quite delightful, as never too hot nor too
cold. There are also monkeys, which are sold at a low price, and are
very hurtful to the husbandmen, as they climb the trees, and rob them of
their valuable fruits and nuts, and cast down the vessels that are
placed for collecting the sap from which wine is made. There are
serpents also of prodigious size, their bodies being as thick as those
of swine, with heads like those of boars; these are four footed, and
grow to the length of four cubits, and breed in the marshes[82]. The
inhabitants say that these have no venom.
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