"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" [‎٤‎٤‎٥] (٥٠٨/٤٦٦)

A Vay age to EAST-INDIA, &€.
and then both thofe Church -men fcatter Rice upon the Married
Couple, intreating God to make them fruitful in fending them
many Sons and Daughters, that they may multiply as much as
that feed doth in the ears that bear it. And the Ceremony
being thus performed^ wliich is about the time of mid-night 5 the
whole Company depart, leaving the Marryed Couple to
gether.
At the Birth of every Child, they immediately fend for the
Daroo , or Church-man, who comes to the parties Houfe, and
there being certainly enform'd of the exadt time of the Childs
birth, firft, undertakes to calculate its Nativity, and to (peak
fomething of it by way of predidion 5 after which heconferrs
with the Parents about a Name whereby it lhall be called 5
which w!ien they have agreed upon, the Motherin the pre-
fence of the Company there alfembled, gives it that Name.
And noW laftly, touching the Burials of that People, they
incircle petes of ground with a round Wall, that is of a good
height, fet a part for that purpofe. Thefe butying places (land
remote from Houfes and Koad-wayes, the ground within them
is made fmooth, or elfe paved on the bottom, in the midft where
of they have a round pit, made deep like a dr^w-Well. The
Bodies of their Dead, both Mdn , Women , /and Children 3
are carryed to thofe places, upbh a - Beel: made 6f ileight round
Iron Bars, (for they will not have dead bodies touch any wood,
left they (hould defile it, becaufe that is fewel for their adored
FireJ and thus brought thither ^ are laid round about near the
infide of that Wall upon the ground, or pavements, covered
with a thin white Clotb-5 the Daroo, pr Harhoode, accompanies
the dead body near unto the door which enters that place ( al-
wayes kept faft (hut, but when it is opened upon this occafion
to let in their dead), and,comn thithetjfpeaks thefe words in the
audience of all thofe which are thither allembled , That whereas
the f arty deceafed confijied of all the four Element s 0 he defires that
every one of them may now take his part. And this is the form
they ufe, when they there thus difpofe of the bodies of their
dead. Which being there fo left in that open place, arc prefent-
ly laid bare by the Fowls of the Air, who in fhort time after pick
all their fieffr clear from their bones,by confequence their fleftily
part having no other Sepulchres, Graves, or Tombs, but the
Craws and Gorges of rhofe ravenous Fowls. And when upon
this occafion they enter that round ft age of Mortality, the bare
Skeletons they there find, which have parted with all their flefli,
are by thofe bearers of the dead caft into that deep round pit,
where they mix promHcuouflly together, and (b make room tor
other dead bodies.
But now that my Reader may not conceive that I have en
deavoured in fome of thefe ftrange Relations to write a new
Romance 0 \ would have him to think5that for mypart I do believe
that there is very much of truth in the particulars I haveinfert'
ed,