book v

, § 468, p. 201. Translation by Davies and Vaughan, Cambridge, 1858.

[187] Orissa: in this MS. it is clearly a _t_, but _t_ and _r_ are easily confounded in the handwriting of this period.

[188] Bragueros de laton.

[189] Eyicianos.

[190] Lo al, old expression for Lo demas.

[191] The Chulias or people of Southern India do this always.

[192] Or--these on being opened.

[193] Baxana in Ramusio, and Braechagua in the Lisbon edition.

[194] Nirabixi in Ramusio and Miralexy in Lisbon edition.

[195] People in the East carry stones of this description, which are said to draw out the venom from the bite of a serpent.

[196] Camoens addresses the King of Malabar as: "O nobre successor de Perimal" Canto viii, stanza 82.

[197] This agrees with the account of the Arab travellers of the ninth century. Paris, Langles.

[198] Cananor.

[199] Called Zamorin in other works, and Samorim by Camoens.

[200] Ramusio calls them Cunelanadyri, Benatederi, and Coletri; the Lisbon edition, Maly Couadary, Benatady, Cobertorim.

[201] Mostasos: old word, before introduction of bigotes from the German soldiers, and still used in Majorca.

[202] Repostero: a cloth marked with the arms of a grandee for putting over a beast of burden, or hanging in a doorway,--a portière.

[203] No valen mas de que ser hijos de sus madres.

[204] Sister of the king, apparently, from what follows.

[205] Ramusio, Caimaes; Lisbon edition, Cahimal.

[206] Atabal.

[207] Cymbals.

[208] Sistra.

[209] Of a cross-bow shot.

[210] Sygnadas.

[211] Valedor.

[212] Buxen, not in the dictionaries: buxeta, a small casket for perfumes to put in the pocket, so called because made of bux or box; Anglicè, box.

[213] If the writer had been a Spaniard, especially from Catalonia, he would have added here, "in our fashion." This way of drinking extends into Roussillon, and this custom was not introduced by the Arabs.

[214] Hidalgo por el Rey: an expression meaning a modern noble, not one whose origin is anterior to the Spanish monarchy: here it may imply official position only. Ramusio, Talassen; Lisbon edition, Talixe.

[215] Albalá, from Alberat, Letters Patent, Brevet, Warrant, Letter for drawing Pay. This word is in little use in Castile, but is common in Valencia and Aragon. Spanish, Latin, and Arabic Dict., Fr. Francisco Cañes. Madrid, 1787.

[216] This part is wanting in Ramusio, who says a little lower down, "Here several lines are wanting."

[217] Or it may be read Ciessua; Ramusio, Cressuamengan; Lisbon edition, Cryuamergam.

[218] That is, the first mass said by a new priest.

[219] Como mayorazgo.

[220] See Cardinal Wiseman's Lectures with regard to this subject, also the work of another Catholic author, where this Hindu doctrine is termed an _adumbration_. The Abbé Huc is opposed to the above-mentioned divines, and calls this a _counterfeit of Satan_. Unless his theory, or another alternative, be adopted, it must be assumed, since the Brahminical books were contemporary with David, perhaps with Moses, that the Hindus were more favoured than the Chosen People of Israel: which is impossible.

"Il faut ajouter que la science brâhmanique n'a pas été étrangère au développement du génie grec, l'une des sources de notre civilisation, ni à la formation du christianisme, religion de tout l'Occident." M. Emile Burnouf, La Civilisation Chrétienne en Orient, Revue des deux Mondes, 1er Juin, 1865, pp. 632, 633; see also pp. 638, 639.

[221] This may be estimated from the value of rice, 150 to 200 maravedis the 4 bushels or 90 lbs. See above.

[222] The explanation of this ceremony is to be found in Plato:--

"We said, you remember, that the children ought to be the issue of parents who are still in their prime." "True." "And do you agree with me that the prime of life may be reasonably reckoned at a period of twenty years for a woman, and thirty for a man?" "Where do you place these years?" "I should make it the rule for a woman to bear children to the state from her twentieth to her fortieth year: and for a man, after getting over the sharpest burst in the race of life, thenceforward to beget children to the state until he is fifty-five years old." "Doubtless," he said, "in both sexes, this is the period of their prime both of body and mind." "If, then, a man who is either above or under this age shall meddle with the business of begetting children for the commonwealth, we shall declare his act to be an offence against religion and justice; inasmuch as he is raising up a child for the state, who, should detection be avoided, instead of having been begotten under the sanction of those sacrifices and prayers, which are to be offered up at every marriage ceremonial by priests and priestesses, and by the whole city, to the effect that the children to be born may ever be more virtuous and more useful than their virtuous and useful parents, will have been conceived under cover of darkness by aid of dire incontinence." "You are right." "The same law will hold should a man, who is still of an age to be a father, meddle with a woman, who is also of the proper age, _without the introduction of a magistrate; for we shall accuse him of raising up to the state an illegitimate, unsponsored, and unhallowed child_." "You are perfectly right." "But as soon as the women and the men are past the prescribed age, we shall allow the latter I imagine to associate freely with whomsoever they please, so that it be not a daughter, or mother, or daughter's child, or grandmother; and in like manner we shall permit the women to associate with any man, except a son or a father." Republic,