‘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’ [‎366] (387/508)

^66 A Voyage to IL AS T-I N D I A, &>€.
The Dromedary is called by the Prophet Jeremy, Jer.2 ,i %.the
fmft Dromedary ^ the reafon may be 5 becaufe thefe j like the
Camels, have very long legS3 and confequently make long fteps,
and fo travelling rid ground apace 5 or becaufe at a pinch, or
time of need, they will carry a man exceeding far without reft,
and but with a very little food.
They have fome Rhinocerots , but they are not common^
which are very large fquare Beafts, bigger than the largeft Oxen
England affords ^ their (kins without hair, lye in great wrinkles
upon their necks, breafts and backs, which doth not make them
fcem lovely unto the beholder?. They have very ftrong, but
fhort Horns, growing upon very firm bones, that lye over thei|:
Noftrils, they grow upwards, towards rhetopof their head,
every one of thefe Creatures being fortified with one of them 5
and that enough to make them fo terrible, that they are (hunn'd
by other , though very large Creatures. With thefe Horns
( from which thofe Creatures have their Names) are made very
excellent Cups, which (as is conceived) give fome virtue un
to the liquor put into them, if itftand any whit long in thofe
Cups.
And now to conclude with the largeft and the moft intelli
gent ( as we (hall hereafter (hew) of all the fenfible Creatures
the Earth produceth, the Elephant, of which this vaft Monar
chy hath abundance 5 and of them, the Mogol is Mafter of many
thoufands> and his Nobles, and all men of quality befides, in
thofe large Territories, have more or lefs of them. But of thefe
much fhall be fpoken in my fixt Seftion.
I obferved before, that the Inhabitants of this Empire did
carry moft of their burthens upon the backs of their Beafts 5 and
in a fpecial manner this people employ their Camels and Dro
medaries for this ufe, to carry their Merchandizes from place to
place : and therefore I (hall let my Reader fee
SECTION nr.
What the chief Merchandiseand moft Staple, and
other Commodities are, which are brought
into this Empire.
THe moft Staple Commodities of this Empire are Indico
and Cotton Wool 5 of that Wool they make divers forts of
Callico , which had that name ( as I fuppofe ) from Callicnt^
not far from Goa 0 where that kind of Cloth was firft bought by
the Portugals.
For the Spices brought hither by the Eaft-India Fleet, they
are had more Southerly, from the Jflands of Sumatra^ from Ja-
4. ■ I" * va