'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.' [‎108] (779/1024)

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' io8 The Gentile o/’Indoftan.
Others hold, that ail is compofed of four Element! and a nothing ■, but they do not
at all explain themfelves concerning Mixtion and Tranfmutation. And as tor their
nothing, which comes near to our privation, they admit I know not how many forts of
them, which (I believe ) they underhand not at all, nor are able to make out toothers.
There are alfo fome, that maintain light and dartyiefs to be the firh Principles, and
fayathoufand impertinent and confufed things upon it, making long-winded difcour-
fes, which favour nothing at all of Philofophy, but are like the talk of the vulgar.
Others there are that admit privation for the Principle, or rather privations, "which
they diftinguifh from nothing, and of which they make long enumerations, io ufelefs
and little philofophical, that I can fcarce imagine them to be in their Books, or that
their Authors could have entertained themfelves with fuch uncouth things.
Laftly, fome of them do pretend that all is compofed of accident! > of which alfo
7 they make odd, long, and tedious enumerations,, and fuch as favour only force Petti
fogger, that can amufe the common People. *'
Touching thefe Principles in general, they all agree that they are i ourpro-
du&ion out of nothing not having come (it feems ; into their thoughts, as it hath nei
ther to many others of the antient Philofophers : Yet they fay, that there is one of
them that hath touched fomething of it.
As to PhyficJ^, they have many little Books that are rather colle6Hons of remts then
any thing elfe i the molt antient and chief wherefore is in Verfe. I (hall here tell you,
that their prattice is fufficiently different from ours, and that they ground therofelves
upon thefe Principles: That one who is fick of a Feaver, needs no great nouriihment i
That the main Remedy of fickneffes, is Abltinence: That nothing is worfe for a fick Bo
dy then Flefh-broth, nor which corrupts fooner in the Stomach of a feverilh Patient:
That no Blood is to be let but in great and evident neceflity, as when you apprehend
fome tranilation into the Brain, or finde fome confiderable part, as the Chelf, Liver,
Kidneys, enflamed.
Whether this Pra&dce be better then ours, I leave to Phyfitians to decide •, but 1 fee
that ’tis fuccefsful among them. The fame pradf ice is not peculiar to the Phylitians of
theGentils, but the Mogolian and Mahumetan Dodfors, that toWow Avicen and Aver-
roes, do alfo very ftri&ly obferve it, efpecially as to Meat-broths. 5 Tis true that the
Mogols are fome what more prodigal of their Blood then the Gentils, for in thofe ficknef
fes wherein they fear thofe accidents lately fpecified, they commonly blood once or
twice : but thefe are none of thofe petty venefedtions of the new invention of Goa and
Paris, but they are of thofe plentiful ones ufed by fhe Antknts, of 18. or 20. ounces of
Blood, which often come to a fwounding, and frequently choak the Difeafe in the ve
ry beginning, as Galen faith, and as I have often experimented.
Concerning Anatomy, I may fafely fay, that the Gentils underhand nothing at all of
it, and they can fpeak nothing as to that fubjcdl but what is impertinent. Nor is it a
wonder they are fo ignorant in it, fince they never open any Body of Man or Beall:
they do fo much abhor it, that when I opened fome living Kids and Sheep before my
Agah, to make him underhand the Circulation of the Blood, and to Ihew him the
Pecquetian Veffels,through which the Chyle at lah comes into one of the ventricles of the
Heart, they trembled for fear and ran away. Yet notwithllanding they affirm, that
there are hve thoufand Veins in Man, neither more nor lefs, as if they had well count
ed them all.
Touching Aftronomy, they have their Tables, according to which they forefee the
Eclipfes i-and though they do it not with that exa&nefs as our European Allronomers,
yet they come pretty near. Mean time they difcourfe of the Eclipfe oftheMooffi as
they do upon that of the Sun, believing that it is the Rah, that black Villain, and mif-
chievous Vekta, whoat that time feizeth on the Moon and blackens fkr. They hold
alfo, that the Moon is an hundred thoufand kpjfes, that is, above fifty thoufand Leagues
above the Sun : that Ihe is lucid of her felf i and that 5 tis fhe, from whom we receive a
certain Vital Water, which gathereth and difpofeth it felf in the Brain, defeending
thence as from a fource into all the members for their fun&ions. Befides this, they are
of opinion, that the Sun and Moon, and generally all Stars are Dentass that kis night
when the Sun is behind the Someire, that imaginary Mountain, which they place in the
mid ft df the Earth, and make I know not how many thoufand Leagues high, and to
Which they give the drape of an inverted Sugar-loaf > fo that tis not day with them,
but whe.n the Sun gets out from behinde this Mountain.