‘The travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, into East-India and Arabia Deserta. In which, the several countries, together with the customs, manners, traffique, and rites both religious and civil, of those Oriental princes and nations, are faithfully described: In familiar letters to his friend Signior Mario Schipano. Whereunto is added a relation of Sir Thomas Roe’s voyage into the East-Indies’ [‎422] (443/508)

A Voyage /o E A S T-l N DI A, &c.
the other broad fide towards the Eafl: is ereded upon Pillars
( where a man may take notice of the excellent workmanftiip
both in Vaults, and Arches) the fpaces betwixt them Pillars
ftand open. Their Churches are built long and narrow 3 (land
ing North and South which way they lay up the bodies of their
dead 5 but none of them within their Churches.
At the four corners of their Mofquits which ftand in great Ci-
ties or in other places much peopled, there are high and round,
butfmall Turrets 5 which are made open with lights everyway,
wherein a man may be eafily feen, and heard 5 their devout Moo-
laar five times every day^ afcend unto the tops of thofe high
Turrets, whence they proclaim, as loudly as they can poffibly
fpeak, their Prophet Mahomet^ thus in Arabian, La alia ilia alla y
Mahomet Rejul-alla^ that is, There is no God but one God, and
Mahotnet the Meflenger from God, That voice infteadof Bells
(which they ufe not in their Churches) puts the moft devout in
mind of the hours of their devotion, thofe Priefts being ex
ceedingly zealous to promote the caufe, and to keep up the ho
nour of their Mahomet, as the men of Ephejus fometime were. #
when they feared that the credit of their Baggage Diana was
like to be called into queftjon, they took up a Cry which conti
nued for the fpace of two hours. Crying out with one voice 3
Great is Diana of the Epheftans ^AOis 19. 24.
But to return again to thofe Mahometan Priefts, who out of
zeal do fo often proclaim their Mahomet. Tom Coryat upon a
time having heard their Moolaas often (as before) fo to cry, got
him upon an high place diredly oppofite to one of thofe Priefts,
and contradidted him thus: La alia ilia alia, Hafaret Eeja Ben-
alia, that is. No God, but one God, and the Lord Chrift the Son
of Cod, and further added that Mahomet was, zn Impoftor .* and
all this he fpake in their own language as loud as poflibly he
could, in the ears of many Mahometans that heard it. But
whether (circumftances confidered) the zeal, or difcretion of
our Pilgrim were more here to be commended, I leave to the
judgment of my Reader. That he did To, I amfure, and Ifiir-
iher believe how that bojd attempt of his, if it had been aded
in many other places of 4jia, would have coft him his life with
as much torture as cruelty could been invented. But he was
here taken for a mad-man, and fo let alone.
Haply the rather, becaufe every one there hath Jiberty to
profefs his own Religion freely, and, if he pleafe, may argue
againft theirs, without fear of an inquifition, as Tom Coryat tiid
at another time with a Moolaa, and th^ Queftion was. Which of
thefe two was the Mufsleman or true Believer : after much heat
on both fides, Tom Coryat thus diftinguHhed, that himfelf was
the Orthodox Mufslemam or true true-believer, the Moolaa the
pfeudo Mvfsleman or falfe true believer ^ which diftindion, if I
had not thought it would have made my Reader fmile had been
here omitted.
The