They Believe In The Doctrines Of The
Evangelists And Apostles, And Write From Right To Left Like The
Armenians.
They celebrate the birth and crucifixion of Christ, observe
the forty days of lent, and keep the days of several saints.
They wear
no shoes, but have a kind of hose of silk on their legs, garnished with
jewels. On their fingers they wore rings with stones of wonderful
splendour. At their meat they use no tables, but eat lying on the
ground, feeding upon flesh of all kinds. They affirmed also that there
are certain Christian kings, whom they called _Rumi_, bordering on the
Turks. When these Christians had seen the precious merchandise belonging
to my companion, and particularly a great branch of coral, they
earnestly advised him to accompany them to a certain city, whither they
were bound, assuring him that by their procurement he should sell this
to very great advantage, especially if he would take rubies in payment,
by means of which he might easily gain 10,000 pieces of gold, assuring
him that these stones were of much greater value in Turkey than in the
east. And as they were ready to depart the very next day in a foist
bound for the city of Pegu, where they meant to go, my companion
consented to go with them, more especially as he expected to find there
certain Persians his countrymen. Wherefore departing with these men from
Bengal, and sailing across a great gulf to the south-east, we came at
length to the city of Pegu, which is 1000 miles from Bengal.
[Footnote 88: Here, as usual, the name of the country is given instead
of the chief city, and we have no means even to guess what place is
indicated, unless perhaps the _Satigan_ of other ancient relations,
which appears to have been a city on the Hoogly river, or western branch
of the Ganges. - E.]
[Footnote 89: The capital of Cathay or northern China is Cambalu or
Pekin, but it is difficult to make any thing of these Christian natives
of _Sarnau_, or of their many Christian princes in Tartary; unless we
may suppose Verthema to have mistaken the followers of the Lama of
Thibet for Christians, as appears to have been done by some of the more
ancient travellers in our early volumes. - E.]
The city of Pegu is situated on the continent, not far from the sea, and
upon a large river, by which merchandise are conveyed to or from the
city very conveniently. The city is walled, and the houses are well
built. The king and his subjects are idolaters, of a fairer complexion
than those of Tanaserim, as the climate is rather cooler, but in dress,
manner of living, and general appearance, in every respect resemble the
inhabitants of that other city. The king has a vast army both of horse
and foot, among whom are many native Christians, who have six pardaos of
monthly pay. The beasts and fowls are much the same as at Calicut, so
that they have abundance of animal food; and besides these they have a
few elephants.
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