five very large provinces, with a language of their own. One
province is along the coast, and is called Tulinat; another has the
name of Legni, which confines with the kingdom of Tisa; another is
Canari, in which is the great city of Visenagar,[163] and the other
is Chomendel,[164] a kingdom which they call Tamul. This kingdom of
Narsinga is very rich and well supplied with provisions, and is very
full of cities and large townships; and all the country is very
fertile and brought into cultivation. The province of Tulinat
contains many rivers and seaports, in which there is much trade and
shipping bound for all parts, and many rich merchants dwell in them.
Between the others there is a very large river called Mergeo, from
which is produced a large quantity of inferior rice for the common
people, which the Malabars come here to buy, with their sambuks, in
exchange for cocoa nuts, oil, and jagra, which are much used in this
country.
HONOR.
Having passed this river Aliga,[165] and going along the coast to
the south-east, there is another river, at ten leagues distance,
with a good town near the sea, called Honor,[166] and the Malabars
call it Povaran; many of them come to this place to fetch cargoes of
inferior brownish rice, which is their peculiar food: and they bring
cocoa nuts, oil and jagra, and wine of the palm trees, from which
grow the cocoa nuts.
BATECALA.
Ten leagues further along this coast to the south is another small
river, with a large town called Baticala,[167] of very great trade
in merchandise, inhabited by many Moors and Gentiles, very
commercial people. And at this port congregate many ships from
Orguz, to load very good white rice, sugar in powder, of which there
is much in this country, for they do not know how to make it in
loaves; and it is worth at the rate of two hundred and forty
maravedis the arroba.[168] They likewise load much iron, and these
three kinds of goods are what are chiefly shipped at this place: and
also some spices and drugs, which the Malabars import. There are
many myrobalans of all sorts, and very good preserves are made with
them, which the ships of Ormuz, which traffic at this place, export
for the Arabs and Persians. They used each year to bring to this
port many horses and pearls, which were there sold for the whole
kingdom of Narsinga, and now they take them all to the city of Goa,
on account of the Portuguese. Some ships are also laden at this
place for Aden, risking themselves, although it is forbidden them by
the Portuguese. Many Malabar ships and sambuks also come to this
port to take in rice, sugar, and iron; and they bring cocoa nuts,
palm sugar, cocoa nut oil, and palm wine, in return for these
things, and spices and drugs, concealed from the Portuguese who
prohibit them. This town produces much revenue to the king. Its
governor is a Gentile; he is named Damaqueti. He is very rich in
money and jewels. The king of Narsinga has given this place and
others to a nephew of his, who rules and governs them, and lives in
great State and calls himself king, but he is in obedience to the
king his uncle. In this kingdom they make a great practice of
duelling, for on account of anything they at once challenge one
another, and the king at once grants them a field and arms, and
appoints a time for killing each other, and gives them seconds, who
back up each his own man. They go to fight one another bare from the
waist upwards, and from the waist downwards wrapped in cotton cloths
drawn tightly round, and with many folds, and with their arms, which
are swords, bucklers and daggers.[169] And the king appoints them of
equal length. They enter the lists with great pleasure, first saying
their prayers, and in a very few passes they kill each other in the
presence of the king and many people, without any one speaking
except the seconds, of whom each encourages his own man. This town
of Baticala pays a yearly tribute to the king of Portugal; much
copper is also sold in it each year, which is taken into the
interior of the country to make money, and cauldrons and other pans
which they use. There is also sold there much quicksilver,
vermilion, coral, alum and ivory. This town is situated in level
country, it is very populous, and not walled; it is surrounded with
many gardens, very good estates, and very fresh and abundant water.
There is in this place gold coin called Pardan,[170] and it is worth
three hundred and twenty maravedis; and there is another silver coin
called _dama_, worth twenty. The weights are called bahars, and each
bahar is equal to four quintals of Portugal.[171]
MAYANDUR.
Having passed Baticala, at ten leagues towards the south is another
small river, on which there is a town called Mayandur, under the
jurisdiction of Baticala, in which much rice is gathered of a good
quality, which is shipped at Baticala. The people of this town sow
it principally in certain watery valleys, which they plough with
oxen and with buffaloes, two and two, in couples, with their ploughs
after our fashion, and they put the rice for seed in some hollow
irons placed in the ploughshare, which entering the earth ploughing
it and making a furrow, leave behind the seed in it, because
otherwise they would not be able to sow it on account of the
quantity of water; and on dry land they sow it by hand. They gather
the harvest twice every year from this watery land, and it is of
four sorts of rice. The first they call girazat, which is the best;
the second jani bazal,[172] the third camagar, and the fourth
pachari: each one has its price, and there is a great difference
between one and the other.
BACAVOR BAZALOR.
There are two small rivers ten leagues further along the coast to
the south, and on both of them towns, one of which is called
Bacavor, and the other Basalor;[173] both belong to the kingdom of
Narsinga. In these also there is much rice of good quality, which is
there shipped for all parts: and many ships come from Malabar, and
sambuks great and small, which take this rice on board in sacks of a
fanega[174] each, which is worth from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred maravedis each fanega, according to its goodness. Ships also
put in here from Ormuz, Aden, Xeher, and many other places, to take
in cargo for Canaor and Calicut. They also ship there much rice in
exchange for copper, cocoa nuts, jagra, oil of cocoa nuts, for the
Malabars maintain themselves with scarcely anything else but rice,
since the country of Malabar is small and very populous: so full of
inhabitants, that it may almost be said that all the country is one
single city from the mountain Deli to Coulam.
MANGALOR.
Having left these places, at ten leagues distance there is another
large river towards the south, along the sea-shore, where there is a
very large town, peopled by Moors and Gentiles, of the kingdom of
Narsinga, called Mangalor.[175] There many ships always load brown
rice, which is much better and more healthy than the white, for
Malabar, for the common people, and it is very cheap. They also ship
there much rice in Moorish ships for Aden, also pepper, which
henceforward the earth begins to produce, but little of it, and
better than all the other which the Malabars bring to this place in
small vessels. The banks of this river are very pretty, and very
full of woods and palm trees, and are very thickly inhabited by
Moors and Gentiles, and studded with fine buildings and houses of
prayer of the Gentiles, which are very large, and enriched with
large revenues. There are also many mosques, where they greatly
honour Mahomed.
CUNBALA.
Ten leagues further along the same coast to the south, is another
town of the Gentiles, of the kingdom of Narsinga, which is called
Cunbala. In it also much brown and very bad rice is harvested, which
the Malabars go to buy there, and load it in their vessels for the
lowest people amongst them, and of the Mahaldiu islands, which are
across from Malabar, because it is very cheap, and the people poor;
and they sell it there in exchange for thread for making cordage for
ships. This thread is made of a covering and integument which grows
upon the cocoa nuts of the palm trees, and a great quantity of it is
produced; and in that place it is a great article of commerce with
all parts. This town of Cunbala has a lord to rule and govern it for
the kingdom of Narsinga, and it is frontier to the kingdom of
Cananor: because here the kingdom of Narsinga comes to an end along
the coast of this province of Tulinat.
OF THE CUSTOMS AND GREATNESS OF THIS KINGDOM OF NARSINGA IN THE
INTERIOR OF THE COUNTRY.
Leaving this sea coast, and going inland into the kingdom of
Narsinga, at twelve or fifteen leagues distance there is a very high
mountain range, precipitous and difficult of ascent, which stretches
from the beginning of this kingdom to Cape Comeri,[176] which is
beyond the Malabar country; and the before-mentioned province of
Tulinat is at the foot of this range, between it and the sea. And
the Indians say that in former times all these low grounds were sea,
which reached to the said range, and that in process of time the sea
uncovered it, and swelled it up in other parts, and to the foot of
those mountains. There are many traces of things of the sea, and all
the low ground is very level like the sea, and the mountain chain is
very craggy, and seems to rise to the heavens; and it is not
possible to ascend, except in a few parts, and with difficulty,
which is a cause of great strength to the Malabars, for were it not
for the difficulty of entering their country on account of the
roughness of these mountains, the King of Narsinga would already
have conquered them. This range is peopled in several parts, with
good towns and villages, very luxuriant in water and delicious
fruit: and in it there are many wild boars, and large and fine deer,
many leopards, ounces, lions, tigers, bears, and some animals of an
ashy colour, which look like horses, very active, and which cannot
be caught.[177] There are serpents with wings, which fly, very
venomous, so that their breath and looks kill whatever person places
himself very near them, and they always go amongst the trees. There
are also many wild elephants, and many stones of gegonzas,[178]
amethysts, and soft sapphires, are found in the rivers where they
are deposited. They carry them from the mountains to sell them in
the Malabar towns, where they are wrought. After passing this
mountain range, the country is almost entirely plain, very fertile
and abundantly supplied in the inland districts, which belong to the
kingdom of Narsinga, in which there are many cities and villages and
forts, and many large rivers run through it. There is in this
country much cultivation of rice and other vegetables, with which
they maintain themselves, and many cows, buffaloes, pigs, goats,
sheep, asses, and diminutive ponies, all of which they make use of;
and they carry their goods by means of buffaloes, oxen, asses, and
ponies, and do their field work with them. Almost all the villages
are of Gentiles, and among them are a few Moors; some of the lords
of these villages are of these last, to whom the king of Narsinga
has granted the villages, and others are his, and he keeps his
governors and tax collectors in them.
BIJANAGUER.
Forty-five leagues from these mountains inland, there is a very
large city which is called Bijanaguer, very populous and surrounded
on one side by a very good wall, and on another by a river, and on
the other by a mountain. This city is on level ground, the King of
Narsinga always resides in it. He is a Gentile and is called Raheni:
he has in this place very large and handsome palaces, with numerous
courts in which are many mounds, pools of water with plenty of fish,
gardens of shrubs, flowers, and sweet-smelling herbs. There are also
in the city many other palaces of great lords who live there. And
all the other houses of the place are covered with thatch, and the
streets and squares are very wide: they are constantly filled with
an innumerable crowd of all nations and creeds; for, besides many
Moorish merchants and traders, and the Gentile inhabitants of the
country who are very rich, an infinite number of others flock there
from all parts, who are able to come, dwell, trade, and live very
freely and in security, without anyone molesting them, or asking or
requiring of them any account of whence they come, or in what creed
they live, whether they be Moors, Christians, or Gentiles; and each
one may live according to any creed, or as he pleases. There is an
infinite trade in this city, and strict justice and truth are
observed towards all by the governors of the country. In this city
there are very many jewels which are brought from Pegu and Celani,
and in the country itself many diamonds are found, because there is
a mine of them in the kingdom of Narsinga and another in the kingdom
of Dacani. There are also many pearls and seed-pearls to be found
there, which are brought from Ormus and Cael; and all these jewels
and pearls are much esteemed among them, because they adorn
themselves much with them, and on that account a great quantity are
poured in. In this city they wear many silks and inferior brocades,
which are brought from China and Alexandria, and much scarlet cloth,
and of other colours, and much coral worked into round beads; and
they import copper, quicksilver, vermilion, saffron, rose-water, much
anfiani which is opium, sandal and aloes wood, camphor, musk,
because the inhabitants of this country are much in the habit of
anointing themselves with these perfumes.
There is also a great consumption in this place, and in the whole
kingdom, of pepper, which is brought from Malabar on oxen and asses.
The money is of gold, and is called parda, and is worth three
hundred maravedis;[179] it is coined in certain cities of this
kingdom of Narsinga, and throughout all India they use this money,
which passes in all those kingdoms; its gold is a little inferior.
This coin is round, and made in a mould. Some of them have some
Indian letters on one side, and two figures on the other of a man
and a woman, and others have nothing but the lettering on one side.
CUSTOMS OF THIS KINGDOM OF NARSINGA AND OF ITS INHABITANTS.