'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.' [‎171] (500/1024)

Book III. Travels in I nd
believe him to be a Devil, and throw him into Ganges^ or any the next Pond
or River. In the places where the Apes breed, thefe poor Infants are not fo
expos’d to the Crows} for where the Ape difcovers a Nell of thofe Birds, he
climbs the Tree, and thrown the Neft one way and the Eggs another* Some
times fome charitable people among the Tnglijh^ Hollander j, and jPortttgkls^ com-
paflionating the misfortune of thofe Children, will take them away from the
Tree, and give them good education.
All along the Coaft of Cormandel^ when the Womtn are to be burnt with
their Husbands, they make a great hole in the ground nine or ten foot deep
and twenty-five or thirty foot fquare, into which they throw a great quantity
of Wood and Drugs to make the fire burn more fiercely. When the fire is
kindled, they fet the body of the man upon the brink j and then prefently up
comes the Woman dancing and chewing accompany’d by her Friends and
Kindred, with Drums beating, and Flutes founding. Then the Woman takes
three turns round the hole, and every time fhe has gone the round, Ihe kifles
her Friends and Kindred. After the third time the Bramins calls the Carcafs
ofher Husband into the flame j and the woman Handing with her back to
the fire, is pufht in by the Bramirn alfo, and tumbles backward. Then her
Kindred and Friends call Oil and other combullile Drugs upon the fire, to
make it burii more vehemently, that the Bodies may be the fooher con*
fum’d.
In moll places upon the Coaft of Cortnandel^ the Women are not burnt
with their deceas’d Husbands, but they are buried alive with them in holes
which the Bramins make a foot deeper than the tallnefs of the man and wo
man, Ufually they chufe a Sandy place \ fo that when the man and woman are
both let down together, all the Company with Baskets of Sand fill up the hole
above half a foot higher than the furface of the ground, after whiola they
jump and dance upon it,till they believe the woman to be flifl’d.
When fome of the Idolaters upon the Coall of Cormandel are upon the point
of death, their Friends do not carry them to the fide of a River or Lake to
cleanfe their Souls, but they carry them to the fattefl Cow they can find ^
and laying the fick party juft behind the Cow, they lift up her Tail, and pro
voke her to pifs. If fhe pifs, fo that it falls upon the face of the fick party, all
the Company are overjoy’d, faying, that his Soul is happy. But if the Cow
do not pifs, to walh the fick parties face, they burn him with a great deal of
fadnef's. If a Cow be fick, the owner mull be careful to lead her to a Pond
or River ^ for fhould fhe dye at his Houfe, the Bramins would fine him.
CHAP. X.
- .1 y- i * ' * ' ' ’ ' '' ‘ f '
Remarkable Sterie of Women that have leen lurnt after their.
Husband deceafe.
_ 4 >>. .?.• : ■ . V- ." f '. /' 4 • •
Tn H E Raja King of F dou having loft his City and his life, through the lofs
x of a Battel gain’d againft him by the King of tfifapHth General, he
was extreamly lamented at Court. Eleven of his Wives alfo were no lefs
concern’d for his death, and refolv*d to be burnt when his Body was
burn’d. The General of Fifapour's Army underftanding their refolution thought
at firft to divert them, by promifing them all kind ufage. But finding perfwa-
fions, would not prevail, he order’d them to be fhut up in a Room, He who
had the order, going to put it in execution, the Women in a rage told him,
that twas to no purpofe to keep them Prifoners, for if they might not have
leave to do what they had refolv’d, in three hours there would not one of
them be alive. The perfon entrufled, laugh’d at their threats j but the Keeper
oi thole women opening the door at the end of the three hours, found them
all