'Some years travels into divers parts of Africa, and Asia the great. Describing more particularly the empires of Persia and Industan: interwoven with such remarkable occurrences as hapned in those parts during these later times. As also, many other rich and famous kingdoms in the oriental India, with the isles adjacent. Severally relating their religion, language, customs and habit: as also proper observations concerning them.' [‎222] (243/448)

vards high covered with Velvet, and the afcent by three or four fteps of refined Sil
ver. And more than this, there is Nullum mem that 1 could light upon; for
Shm-Sojfee who fucceeded^W was herefinc? buried.
Such time as Tantherlanf the Vidonous Tartar (fo I may well ftile him, fince in eight
Vmts he conouered more than the warlike could in eight hundred, as his aits
writ bv Jlbacen the Arab and tranfiated by Abbot of re .
tuned loaden with fpoils of war, having hammered the brazen face of the Turkijh
infolence. An- Dom. 1597^^.777- t his P oor C»«"(araongft others) parched in the heat
of his fury i not from any eye of rage or envy he darted, but from an imprudent pro
vocation and affront which Hchart-mirvt (called Vheder-cmn) cauflefly )ealous put up-
on the triumphant Tartar ■, fo ill refented, that no lefs than the lols both of his Life
and Crown would expiate, making alfo many Men and Towns fharers in his mifery; this
place efpecially, (which but for the Ardaveilim his requelhng mercy had been le.
veiled with the Earth, plough'd up and falted;) But in the fable weed Ihe is now appa-
relied: For great Coom is now onely Magni nominis umbra. So as we lee Towns die as
well as Men, and may figh with melancholy
Quicquid habet ortus, finem timetj ibimus omnes,
Ibimus. —
'—-—Death is the common Friend!
For what e're had beginnings jhall have end.
From Coom we rode to Zenzen^of old Zoara and thence to Cajhan, Caff aim Cluverm
mif-fpellsit: a City from removed fix and thirty miles ^ the way eafie and plain,
albeit fandy.
CASH AN, where the Artick elevation is 34 7 minute S) longitude 86 degr.
may worthily be reputed the fecondTown in Tarthia for grandeur, wealth and beauty:
diftant North from Spaham fixty long Englijh miles :and from Ca^byn South two hundred
and ten or thereabouts. Whence the Name derives it felf, the illiterate Cajhaniam
could not tell*, but my conjedure is that 'tis borrow'd either from Cufhan, which in the
5yr^c^fignifieth heat or blacfcnefs; or from Caffan-Mir^a Son to Hoc en Son of Ally • or
elfe from Shaw-Cajhan (Son to Jxan, begot by Tangrolipix An. Heg. 582. of our account
1202.) fubjeded by the Great Cham ; or (which belt pleafes me, if ancient enough) from
Vjhan-Caftan the Armeniariy (Acen or Caffan-heg fome call him) who in the Year of our
Lord 1470. of Mahomet's flight from Mecca 850. vanquiihed Malaoncres (whom fome call
Abdnlla-cham) the laft of Tamertang's progeny that ruled Perfia.
At this day it is a City both great and lovely, and ancient too ^ for Oderic intitles it.
a noble and renowned City in his time: and as now it is well feated, comely built^ and
abundantly peopled i over-topt by no Hill, unfeafoned by no Marifhes, nor watered by
any great Stream *, which chiefly augments the heat when Sol approaches Cancer : But
which rages there in no lefs violence is Scorpio ; not that in the Zodiac^ but real Scor
pions which in numbers engender here. A little Serpent of a finger long, (which makes
me marvel at Cedrenm who fayes there are Scorpions 2 cubits long in the Brachmans Coun-
trey, i.e. India,) like but lefs than our Cray-fifli v and is the onely creature that ftings
with his tail, fome flyes excepted: Of great terrour in the fting ^ and fo inflaming, as
with their invenomed arrow fome die, few avoid madnefs, at leaft for a whole day;
the fting proving moft dangerous when the feafon is hotteft, which is when the Dog--
Sta^rages. And as it was laid of aMther, Vna eademq, mams fert minus opimque: lb
in this malady is no fuch remedy as by applying the oyl of Scorpions. The Poet fo
advifes,
Quae nocmt ferpens, fertur caput illius apte
Vulneribus jungi, fanat quae lauciat ipfa.
Ut Lariflsea curatus Telaphus hafta.
The Serpent's head joyn'd to the wounded part
Fitly is [aid to heal th' infetted [mart.
Like Telaphus cur'd by Achilles Dart.
The execration is. May a Scorpion of Cafhan fting thee. But which is more remarkable,
and agreeable to what Pliny in his Natural Hiftory reports of the Scorpions in Mefopota-
mia\ they fay, and we found it true*, fome of them creeping into our our Rugs as we
flept, they feldom or never hurt a Stranger. Holler affirms how that one who exceed
ingly loved the fmell of Bafd, being dead had a Scorpion found in his brains: howbeit,
the tAEthiops fay, That to eat Bafil is an Antidote. But Maimonides the learned Jew in his
Conn. Ethici-, fayes. Contra iBurn Scorpii urina filii eft propinanda quadraginta dierum, ad
menfuram quatuor ovorum: the quantity of 4 egg-fhells full of a Child's urine drunk forty
dayes cures the fting of a Scorpion*. But what Pliny reports, That Crabs having their
claws