There Are Three Other Kinds Of
Serpents, Some Of Which Have Such Deadly Venom, That If They Draw Ever
So Little Blood Death Presently Follows, As Happened Several Times While
I Was In The Country.
Of these some are no larger than asps, and some
much bigger, and they are very numerous.
It is said that, from some
strange superstition, the king of Calicut holds them in such veneration,
that he has small houses or cottages made on purpose for them,
conceiving that they are of great virtue against an over abundance of
rain, and overflowing of the rivers. Hence they are protected by law,
and any person killing one would be punished with death, so that they
multiply exceedingly. They have a strange notion that serpents come from
heaven, and are actuated by heavenly spirits, and they allege that only
by touching them instant death insues. These serpents know the idolaters
from the Mahometans, or other strangers, and are much more apt to
attack the former than the latter. Upon one occasion, I went into a
house where eight men lay dead, and greatly swollen, having been killed
the day before by these serpents; yet the natives deem it fortunate to
meet any of them in their way.
[Footnote 82: From the description these must be crocodiles - E.]
The palace of the king of Calicut contains many mansions, and a
prodigious number of apartments, in all of which a prodigious number of
lamps are lighted up every evening. In the great hall of the palace
there are ten or twelve great and beautiful candlesticks of _laton_ or
brass, of cunning workmanship, much like goodly fountains, the height of
a man. In each of these are several vessels, and in every vessel are
three burning candles of two spans long, with great plenty of oil. In
the first vessel there are many lamps or wicks of cotton; the middle
vessel, which is narrower, is also full of lamps; and the lowest vessel
has also a great number of lights, maintained with oil and cotton wicks.
All the angles or corners of these candlesticks are covered with figures
of devils, which also hold lights in their hands; and in a vessel on the
top of all the candlesticks there are innumerable cotton wicks kept
constantly burning, and supplied with oil. When any one of the royal
blood dies, the king sends for all the bramins or priests in his
dominions, and commands them to mourn for a whole year. On their
arrival, he feasts them for three days, and when they depart gives each
of them five pieces of gold.
Not far from Calicut, there is a temple of the idolaters, encompassed
with water like an island, built in the ancient manner, having a double
row of pillars much like the church of _St John de fonte_ at Rome, and
in the middle of this temple is a stone altar, on which the people
sacrifice to their idols. High up between the rows of pillars there is a
vessel like a boat, two paces long, and filled with oil.
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