Chapter XXIV.

OF THE GREAT ISLAND OF CEYLON, OF THE KINGDOM OF MALABAR, AND THE STATE OF OTHER COUNTRIES VISITED BY THE AUTHOR.

Sailing hence one thousand miles to the west, and a little to the north-west, is Zeilan, two thousand and four hundred miles in circuit, and anciently three thousand and six hundred miles, as is seen in the maps of the mariners of those places; but the north winds have made a great part of it sea. It is the finest island in the world; the king is called Sendernaz. The men and women are idolaters, go naked, save that they cover their privities with a cloth; have no corn, but rice and oil of Sesamino, milk, flesh, wine of trees, abundance of brazil, the best rubies in the world--sapphires, topazes, amethysts, and other gems; the king is said to have the very finest ruby that was ever seen, as long as one’s hand, and as big as a man’s arm, without spot, shining like a fire, not to be bought for money. Cublai-Khan sent and offered the value of a city for it; but the king answered he would not give it for the treasure of the world, nor part with it, because it had been his ancestors. The men are unfit for soldiers, and hire others when they have occasion. From Zeilan, sailing sixty miles to the west, lies the great province of Malabar, which is not an island, but firm continent, called India the Greater, the richest province in the world; there are in it four kings, the chief of which is Sinder Candi, in whose kingdom they fish for pearls, viz., betwixt Malabar and Zeilan, in a bay where the sea is not above ten or twelve fathom; in which divers descend, and in bags or nets tied to their bodies bring up the oysters, in which are the pearls; and because there are some great fish which kill the fishermen, they hire certain Brahmins to charm them, and these have the twentieth, and the king the tenth. These oysters are found through the whole month of April, and till the middle of May, and not at any time else. In September they find them in a place above three hundred miles off, and till the midst of October. The Khan goes as naked as the rest, save that he wears some honourable ensigns, as a collar of precious stones about his neck, and a thread of silk to his breast, with one hundred and four fair pearls strung thereon to count his prayers by, of which he must daily say so many to his idols. A sort of bracelets he weareth on three places on his arms, and likewise on his legs, on his fingers, and on his toes. The prayers which he says are Pacauca, Pacauca, Pacauca, one hundred and four times. This king hath one thousand concubines, and if any please him he takes her, as once he did from his brother, whence wars had followed; but the mother threatening to cut off her breasts, which had nourished them, if they proceeded, the quarrel was composed. He hath many horsemen for his guard, which always accompany him, who, when the king dies, throw themselves voluntarily into the fire when he is burnt, to do him service in the next world.

This prince and his brethren, the kings of Malabar, buy their horses from Ormus and other parts; the country breeds none, and if it sometimes falls out that it does, yet are they there bred ill-favoured and naught. Condemned persons will offer themselves to die in honour of such an idol, which is performed with twelve knives, and twelve wounds in divers parts of the body, at every blow saying, “I kill myself in honour of that idol;” and the last he thrusts in his heart, and is then burnt by his kindred. The wives also cast themselves into the fire with their husbands, disrepute following those who refuse it. They worship idols, and most of them adore cows, and would not eat so holy flesh as beef for all the world. There are some called Gaui, who eat such oxen as die of themselves, but may not kill them, and daub over their houses with ox-dung. These Gaui are of the posterity of those which slew St. Thomas, and cannot enter the place where his body is. They sit on carpets on the ground in this kingdom: they have no corn but rice; are not a martial people; kill no beasts, but when they will eat any, get the Saracens to do it, or other people; wash twice a-day, morning and evening, both men and women, and will not otherwise eat, which they who observe not are accounted heretics. They touch not their meat with their left hand, but use that hand only to wipe, and for other unclean uses. They drink each in his own pot, and will not touch another man’s pot, nor suffer their own to touch their mouth, but hold it over, and pour it in. To strangers who have no pot they pour drink into his hands, and oblige him to drink with them. Justice is severely administered for crimes, and a creditor may in some cases encompass his debtor with a circle, which he dares not pass till he hath paid the debt or given security; if he does, he is to be put to death: and Master Marco once saw the king himself on horseback thus encircled by a merchant, whom he had long delayed and put off: neither would the king go out of the circle which the merchant had drawn till he had satisfied him, the people applauding the king’s justice. They are very scrupulous of drinking wine made of the grape, and they which do it are not thought worthy or honest men, or admitted to be witnesses, a thing denied also to him who sails by sea, for they say such men are desperate. They think lechery no sin. It is very hot, and they have no rain but in June, July, and August, without which refreshing of the air they could not live. They have many physiognomers and soothsayers, which observe beasts and birds, and have an unlucky hour every day in the week called Choiach, as on Monday, betwixt two and three, on Tuesday the third hour, and on Wednesday the ninth, etc., through all the year, set down in their books. They curiously observe nativities. At thirteen years old they put their boys to get their own livings, who run up and down to buy and sell, having a small stock given them to begin, and in pearl season they buy a few pearls, and sell them again to the merchants, which cannot well endure the sun, for little gain; what they get they bring to their mothers to dress for them, for they may not eat at their father’s cost. They have idols, male and female, to whom they offer their daughters, who, when the monks or priests appoint, sing and dance to the idols, and very often set victuals before them, saying that they eat, leaving it the space of a meal, singing all the while, and then they fall to eating in earnest, after which they return home. The cause of these sacrifices is the household quarrels betwixt the god and goddess, which, if they should appease, they should lose their blessing. The great men have litters made of large canes, which they fasten artificially to some upper place to prevent tarantulas biting, and also fleas and other vermin, and for fresh air.

The place of St. Thomas’s sepulchre is a small city, not much frequented by merchants, but very much by Christians and Saracens for devotion. The Saracens hold him a great prophet, and call him Ananias, that is, a holy man. The Christians take of the earth where he was slain, which is red, and carry it with them with great reverence, and give it, mixed with water, to the sick. A.D. 1288, a great prince, having more rice than room to lay it in, made bold with St. Thomas’s church, in the room where pilgrims were received; but, by a vision of St. Thomas in the night, was so terrified that he quickly left the place. The inhabitants are black, not so born, but became so by often anointing themselves with jessamine oil, to obtain that beauty. They paint the devil white, and their idols black. The cow-worshippers carry with them to battle some of the hair of a wild ox, as a preservation against dangers, and therefore such hairs are sold at a high price.