Chapter CXIX: Section II

_Of the Manners of the Chaldeans, and concerning India_.

From thence I travelled into Chaldea, which is a great kingdom, having a language peculiar to itself, and I passed beside the Tower of Babel. The men of this country have their hair nicely braided and trimmed, like the women of Italy, wearing turbans richly ornamented with gold and pearls, and are a fine looking people: but the women are ugly and deformed, and are clad in coarse shifts, only reaching to their knees, with long sleeves hanging down to the ground, and breeches or trowsers which likewise reach the ground, but their feet are bare. They wear no head-dresses, and their hair hangs neglected and dishevelled about their ears. There are many other strange things to be seen in this country.

From thence I travelled into the lower India, which was overrun and laid waste by the Tartars[1]. In this country the people subsist chiefly on dates, forty-two pound weight of which may be purchased for less than a Venetian groat. Travelling on for many days, I arrived at Ormus on the main ocean, which is a well fortified city, having great store of merchandize and treasure. The heat of this country is excessive, and constrains the people to make use of extraordinary expedients to preserve their lives[2]. In this place, their ships or barks are called _jase_, the planks of which are sewed together with hemp. Embarking in one of these vessels, in which I could find no iron whatever, I arrived in twenty-eight days sail at Thana[3], in which place four of our friars suffered martyrdom for the Christian faith. This country is well situated for trade, and has abundance of bread and wine, and of all other articles necessary for the food of man. The kingdom in ancient times was very large and populous, and was under the dominion of King Porus, who fought a great battle with Alexander the Macedonian conqueror. The inhabitants are idolaters, worshipping the fire, and likewise paying divine honours to serpents, and even to trees. The Saracens have conquered the whole of this land, and are themselves under subjection to king Daldili[4]. In this country there are great numbers of black lions; apes and monkies are also very numerous, and their bats are as large as our pigeons. They have rats also, as large as the dogs in Italy, which are hunted by means of dogs, as cats are unable to cope with them. In this country every one has a bundle of great boughs of trees, as large as a pillar, standing in a pot of water before the door; and there are many other strange and wonderful novelties, a relation of which would be exceedingly delightful.

[1] By lower India, our author seems here to indicate the southern
provinces of Persia.--E.

[2] Tantus est calor, quod virilia hominum exeunt corpus, et descendant
usque at mediam tibiarum: ideo faciunt unctionum, et ungunt illa, et
in, quibusdam sacculis ponunt circa se cingentes, et aliter
morerentur.

[3] This place seems to have been Tatta, in the Delta of the Indus.--E.

[4] This unknown king, rex Daldili, is probably an error in translating
from the Venetian or Friul dialect of Oderic into Monkish Latin, and
may have been originally _Il Re dal Deli_, or the King of Delhi.--E.