'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎167] (208/1024)

Chap. VIII. of Monfieur Tavernier. 167
Tkgv neither bum r.or bury their dead, but carry the Corps without the Cky s
• fn a wall’d place, where are abundance of Stakes fevenor eight Foot high, fix’d
•the eround and tye the dead Corps to one of the Stakes, with his Face toward
F £ They that accompany the Corps fall to their Prayers at a diftance, ’till
Crows comes for thofe Cemitaries draw theCrows to them. If the Crow chances
faften U p 0 n the right Eye of the deceas’d, then they believe the perfon to be
Ipy, and for joy they give large Alms, and makea Featt in the held. But if the
Crow fixes upon the left Eye, then they take it for an ill Omen, return home fad,
without fpeaking to one another; give no Alms, nor eat nor drink.
Of their Adoration of tire.
T He Gaurs would not be thought to give Honour to Fire under the title of Ado-
ration.For they do not account themfelves Idolaters,faying that theyacknow-
. . but only one God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, whom they only adore. As
for the Fire, they preferve it and reverence it, in remembrance of the great Miracle,
bv which their Pr> phet was deliver’d from the Flames. One day being at Kerman,
1 defil’d to fee that Fire, but they anfwer’d me, they could not permit me. For fay
the? one day the Kan of Kerman being defirous to fee the Fire, not daring to do
otherwiie they (hew’d it him. He it feems expeded to fee fome extraordinary
Bikhtnefs; but when he faw no more then what he might have feen in a Kitchin
or a Chamber-fire, fella (wearing and fpitting upon’t as it he had been mad. Where-
m»n the Sacred Fire being thus profan’d, flew away in the form of a white Pigeon.
The Ptiefts confidering then their misfortune,which had happen d through their own
indiferetion, fell to their Prayers with the People, and gave Alms s upon which, at ,
the fame time, and in the fame form the Sacred Fire return d to its place : which
makes them fo (hy to Ihew it again.When they put any perfons to their Oaths, they
Swear them before this Fire s for they think no perfon (o impious, as to fwearfalfe
before that Sacred Fire, which they take for the Witnefs of their Oath. Their
Priefis put them in dread of very great puni[hments,and threat n them that the _ hea
venly Fire will forfake them, if they prove fo wicked as to fwear falfely before it.
Of their Manners
T fc Language of the Gaurt is different from the Perftans,as is their Chara^er and
manner of Writing. They love tofeaft, and M eat. and drink well, being.very
ptofufe cf their Wine and Strong-water. They never eat Hares, bccaufe they have
their monthly Purgations, like Women: fojtthe fame re^fon they never eat Mulber
ries, believing that they partake of the nature of Women and Hjks.
If when they comb their Hair or their Beards,any one hair happ’ ns t o fall upon tfceir
cipaths, thofi: deaths muft be wa(b’d in the dale of a Cow or an Ox to punfie them
again. If by chance they happ’n to touch any ordure or nalhnefs, when they cpme
home they mult w 3 (h themfelves in the fame Unn.ifone of their ‘ ® ^
Corps in the High-way,and chances to fee it, he is obhgdto wafl^ himfclfnCQvs-
Pifs, which they hold to be a good Purification: an Opinion held m fom part of
Ma alfo. I ask’d one of their Prietts howthey came to underhand the virtue of t his
Urin i who anfwet’d me.that a certain perfon who w as contcmpoiaiy with the hrft
Man,having his Arm bruis’d and very black,by reafon of feme accident th« befel him
through the malice of the Devil,fell afleep in the fields, and as he lay,an Ox ftalmg,
a drop of the Utin flew upon his Arm,and prefently heal d that part which it wet,and
relior’d it to its former whitenefs: which the man perceiving when he w ak d, pre-
fently follow’d the Ox, and (laid by him ’till he Hal’d again, and then receiving the
Pi(s upon the whole wound,was perfe&ly cut d. They alio prefeive it,a n
it witha Water, which they caufe them to drink who have committed any bin,att«
they have been at Confeflion for it. They call that Water the C<jzis a e *j’
Urin ought to be preferv’d forty days,with an infufi on of Willow-Bark,and certain
Herbs. When any perfon, is confefs’d of his Sin, if it be a crying Sin, the patty is
bound to ftay ten days in the Cazts Houfe, and not to eat or drink ut ^
Priett gives them. And in order ro Abfolution, the Prieft ^ l # P s na e ’ an ,
t^es a little Dog to his right great Toe, which he leads with him about the