_Of the Kingedome of Ryboth._
FROM this yle men go another kyngdome that is called Riboth, and that
is also under y^e great Caan. This is a good countrey and plentious of
corne, wine & other things, men of this lande haue no houses but they
dwell in tentes made of tree. And the principall citie of the countrey
is all blacke made of black stones and white and all the streetes are
paved with such stones and in the citie is no man so hardy to spil
blood of man ne beast, for worship of a mawment[1] that is worshiped
there. In that citie dwelleth the Pope of their lawe, that they call
Lopasse, and he giveth all dignities & benefices that fall to y^e
mawmet. And men of religion and men that haue churches in that
countrey are obedient to him as men here to the pope. In this yle they
haue a custome through all the countrey that when a mans father is
dead they wil do him great worship, they send after all his friends,
religious priests and many other, and they beare the body to an hill
with great Joy and myrth, and whan it is there, the greatest prelate
smiteth of his head, & laieth it upon a great plate of gold, or
silver, and giveth it to his sonne and his son taketh it to his other
friends, singing and sayinge many orysons,[2] and then the prestes
and the religious men cut the flesh of[3] the body in peces and say
orysons, and the byrds of the countrey come thether, for they know
well the custome, and they flye about them as they were egles and
other birds that eate flesh, and the priestes cast the pieces unto
them, and they beare it away a little from thence and then they eate
it, and as priestes in our countrey sing for soules _subvenite sancti
dei_ and so forth, so those prestes ther syng with high voyce in their
language in this maner wyse. Se and beholde how good and gracious a
man this was, that ye aungels of God come for to fetch him & beare him
into Paradise. And then thinketh y^e son of the same man that he is
greatly worshipped when birds haue eaten his father, and where are
most plenty of byrds, there is most worship. And then cometh the sonne
home with all his friendes, and maketh them a great feast, the sonne
maketh cleane his fathers head and giveth them drynke thereof, & the
fleshe of the head he cutteth of, and giveth it to his moste
speciall fryends, some a lyttle, & some a lyttle, for deynty. And in
remembrance of this holy man that the birds haue eaten, the sonne doth
make a cuppe of the scalpe[4] & thereof drinketh he all his life, in
remembrance of his father.
[Footnote 1: A puppet or doll, or mammet--an idol--probably so
called as a contraction for Mahomet.]
[Footnote 2: Prayers.]
[Footnote 3: Off.]
[Footnote 4: Skull.]
[Decoration]