'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.' [‎168] (497/1024)

Travels in India,
In J^uary 1661^ theBroaker belonging to the Holland Company bofe n
was Mondas-Tarek, dy’d at Surat. He was a rich Man, and very charitable
his Alms very liberally as well to theChrihians as to the Idolaters • The
chins at Surat living one part of the year upon theJUce, Butter and Pulfe W&
hefentthem. This Banian Merchant of Indian extraction. was not lick above four or five days^ during' u
which time, and for eight days more after he was dead,, his Brothers diffributed
nine or ten-thoufand Roupies; and in the burning of his body they mix’d Sandal
wood, and Lignum-Aloes , with the ordinary wood, believing that by that means
the Soul of their Brother tranfmigrating into another body, he would come to
be fome great Lord in another Country. There are Lome that are fach fools
that they bury their treafure in their life-time, as it is the ufal cuflome ofall the
rich Men in the Kingdom of Afen ; to the end that if they fhould be condemn’d
to the body of fome poor miferable perfon, they might have wherewithal to fop,
ply their neeeffities. I remember one day that I bought in India an Agate Cup
half a foot high; he that fold it me, aflur’d me that it had been buried under
ground above 40 years, and that he kept it to ferve his occafions after death •
but that it was to him a thing indifferent whether he buried his Cup or his Mo
ney. In my laft Voyage I bought of one of thefe Idolaters fixty-two Diamonds
of about fix grains a-piece ; and while I was wondring to fee fo fair a parcel he
told me I needed not to -wonder 5 for he had been fifty years getting them to
gether,; to ferve him after his death, but that having occafion for Money, he was
forc’d to part with them. This buried treafure Rood the Raja King -Seva-Gi in great
Read, when he took Arms againR the Great Moguls and the King of Filafour.
For that Raja King having taken Callian Bi&ndi^ a fmall City in the Kingdom of Fifa-
pour, by the advice of the Bramins, who affur’d him he Ihould find great ftore of
treafure buri’d, caus’d the greateR part thereof to be demolilh’d ; and found fo
much wealth,as to maintain his Army,which was above thirty-thoufand Men. It
is impoffible to convince thefe poor Idolaters of their errors j in regard they will
hear no reafon, but fubmit themfelves altogether to their old forms and cu*
Roms.
CHAP. VIIr.
Of the Cuftom among the Idolaters to hum the Bodies of their Dead
T H E cuRom of burning the Bodies of the dead is very ancient among the
Gentiles *, which Ceremony they moR commonly perform by the banks of
Rivers, where they wafiuhe dead; which is the laR purgation of them from
them fins. Nay,their fuperRition is fo great fometimes,that they will carry the
fick perfon, death approaching, to the bank of fome River or Pond, and put his
feet in the water. As nature fails, they dip him deeper and deeper,till at length they
hold him expiring up to the chin in the River * to the end that the fame time
' that the Soul departs out of the Body, both Body and Soul may be cleans’d from
all defilement - 7 and then plunging the newly dead Body over head and ears,they
bring it out,and burn it in the place appointed; which is generally neer fome Pa-
god. There are fome perfons that make it their bufinefs to fetch Wood,and agree
what they lhall have for their pains. An Idolater being dead, all thofe of his
Cafle or Tribe affemble together at the Houfe of the deceas’d, and laying the
Body upon a Bier cover’d with clean fine Linnen actording to his Quality and
ERate, they follow the Bier, which is carri’d by fuch as are appointed for that
purpofe to the place where the Body i$ to be burn’d. As they go along they Img
certain Prayers to their God, pronouncing feveral times the words Ram, Mm,
while another going before the Bier,founds a little Bell,to advertize the living to
pray for the dead. The Body being fet down by the bank of the River or Pon ?
they firR plunge it into the water, and then they burn it. According to the
lity of the deceas’d they alfo mingle with the ordinary wood Sandal-wood, a