"رحلات السيد بيترو ديلا فالي، وهو نبيل روماني، إلى الهند الشرقية وصحراء الجزيرة العربية. وفيها يصف بدقة البلدان المختلفة، وكذلك العادات، الأعراف، التجارة، الطقوس الدينية والمدنية، لهؤلاء الأمراء وتلك الأمم الشرقية: في رسائل وديّة إلى صديقه السيد ماريو سكيبانو. وتم إضافة سرد عن رحلة السير توماس رو إلى جزر الهند الشرقية" [‎٣‎٧‎٢] (٥٠٨/٣٩٣)

A Voyage E A S T -l N DI A, i&c*
oftertimes felt, which creep into their houfes efpecially in that
time of the Rains ^ whofe ftinging is moftfenfible;, and deadly,
if the Patient have not prefently (bme oyl that is made of Scor-
pionsj to annoint the part afFeftedj which is a fudden and a cer
tain cure. But if the mail can get the Scorpion that ftung him ?
(as fometimes they do) the oylie fubftance it affords 5 being beaten
in pieces, fuddenly apply ed 5 is a prefent help. The fliog of
the Scorpion may be a very fit refemblanae of the fting of Death,
the bitternefsand angui(h whereof nothing can. afl 'wageand cure
{o well, as a ferious cOnfideration, and a continual application of
the thoughts of dying. Facile contemnit omnia^qui cogitat fe fern-
per wetiturum, that man may trample upon every thing, whofe
meditations are taken up with the thoughts of his Change. He
cannot dye but well, who dyes daily 5 daily in his preparations
for death, though he dye net prefently.
The Scorpions are in (hape like unto our Cra-fi(hes, and not
bigger, and look black like them, before they are boy led. They
have a little round tayl which turns upland lyes ufuallyupon their
backs,* at the end whereof is their fting, which they do not put
in,and let out oftheir bodies3as other venemous creatures do,but
it alwayes appears in their tayls ready to ftrike 5 it is very fharp
and hard, and not long, but crooked like the talon of an Hawk.
The abundance of Flyes (/*fe thofe foarms in Egypt^ Exod.
8. 21J in thofe parts did likewife very much annoy us: for in
the heat of the day their numberlefs number was fuch, as that
\ve could not be quiet in any place for them, they being ready
to By into our Cupps, and to cover our Meat as foon as it was
placed on the T able 5 and therefore we had alwayes fome of the
Natives we kept there, who were our Servants^ to ftand round
about us onpupofe while we were eating, with Napkins^o fright
them away. And as in the day one kind of ordinary Flyes
troubled us 5 fo in the night we were likewife very much dif-
quieted with another fort called Mufqueetoes^ like our Gnats, but
fome-what lefs, and in that feafon we were very much troubled
wuh Chinches, another fort of little troublefome and ofFenfive
creatures, like little and thefe annoyed us two wayes^
as firft by their biting and ftinging, and then by their ftink.
From all which we were by far more free when we lodged in
•Tents ( as there we did much) than when we abode in Houfes,
wherein great Cities and Towns, (to add unto the difquiets
i before named ) there were fuch an abundance of large hungry
Ratts, that fome of us were bitten in the night as we lay in our
beds, either on our Toes or Fingers, or on the tips of our Ears,
or on the tops of our Nofes, or in any part of our Bodies belides
which they could get into their Mouths,
The winds in thofe parts ( as I obferved before ) which they
call the Mont foone , blow conftantly one way, altering but few
points, fix months Southerly, and fix months Northerly. The
months of April, May, and the beginning of jf#/*?, till the Rain
. falls ?