threes with ashes, which they wear in accordance with the custom of
their sect, saying that they do it to remind themselves that they
have to turn to ashes: for when they die they burn their bodies, and
so this ceremony continues among them. And many use it mixed with
sandal wood, saffron, aloes wood, and rose water, all this ground
up. When they are in their houses they always sit on high benches,
and in houses without stories; these benches are very smooth, and
are slightly smeared once every day with cow dung. And they keep
there a stand very white and four fingers high, and a cloth of brown
wool undyed, after the manner of a carpet of the size of a
horsecloth[202] folded in three folds; and upon this they sit, and
they lean upon pillows, round and long, of cotton, silk, or fine
cloth. And they also sit on carpets of cloth of gold and silk; but
they always keep under them, or near them, that cloth of brown wool,
on account of their sect, and for state. And frequently they happen
to be lying on couches and cushions of silk and very fine white
sheets, and when any one comes to see them, they bring him this
brown woollen cloth and put it near him, and when he goes out, a
page carries the cloth folded before him for state and ceremony. And
likewise he always keeps a sword near him, and when he changes from
one spot to another, he carries it in his hand naked, as they always
keep it. These kings do not marry, nor have a marriage law, only
each one has a mistress, a lady of great lineage and family, which
is called nayre, and said to be very beautiful and graceful. Each
one keeps such a one with him near the palaces in a separate house,
and gives her a certain sum each month, or each year, for expenses,
and leaves her whenever she causes him discontent, and takes
another. And many of them for honour's sake do not change them, nor
make exchanges with them; and they seek much to please their king,
for that honour and favour which they receive. And the children that
are born from these mistresses are not held to be sons, nor do they
inherit the kingdom, nor anything else of the king's; they only
inherit the property of the mother. And whilst they are children,
they are favoured by the king like children of other people whom he
might be bringing up; but not like his own, because since they are
men, the children are not accounted for more than as children of
their mothers.[203] The king sometimes makes grants of money to
them, for them to maintain themselves better than the other nobles.
The heirs of these kings are their brothers, or nephews, sons of
their sisters, because they hold those to be their true successors,
and because they know that they were born from the body of their
sisters. These do not marry, nor have fixed husbands, and are very
free and at liberty in doing what they please with themselves.
In this wise the lineage of the kings of this country, and the true
stock, is in the women: that is to say, if a woman[204] gives birth
to three or four sons and two or three daughters, the first is king,
and so on, all the other brothers inherit from one another; and when
all these have died, the son of the eldest sister, who is niece of
the king, inherits, and so also his other heirs after him; and when
these have deceased, the children of the next sister. And the
kingdom always goes in this way to brothers, and nephews sons of
sisters, and if by good or evil fortune these women happen not to
give birth to male children, they do not consider them as capable of
inheriting the kingdom; and these ladies, in such a case, all unite
in council and institute some relation of theirs as king, if they
have one, and if there is none, they name any other person for this
office. And on this account the kings of Malabar are old men when
they succeed to reign, and the nieces or sisters from whom has to
proceed the lineage of the kings are held in great honour, guarded
and served, and they possess revenues for their maintenance. And
when one of these is of age to bring forth, on arriving at from
thirteen to fourteen years, they prepare to make festivity and
entertainment for her, and to make her enceinte. And they summon
some young man, a nobleman and honourable person, of whom there are
many deputed for this. And they send to fetch him that he may come
for this purpose. And he comes, and they give him a great
entertainment, and perform some ceremonies, and he ties some gold
jewel to the neck of the damsel, and she wears it all her life in
sign of her having performed those ceremonies, in order to be able
to do with herself whatever she chooses; because, until the
performance of this ceremony, she could not dispose of herself. And
the before mentioned youth remains with her for some days, very well
attended to, and then returns to his land. And she sometimes remains
in the family way, and sometimes not, and from this time forth for
her pleasure she takes some Braman, whomsoever she likes best, and
these are priests among them, and of these she has as many as she
likes.
This King of Calicut, and so also the other kings of Malabar, when
they die, are burned in the country with much sandal and aloes wood;
and at the burning all the nephews and brothers and nearest
relations collect together, and all the grandees of the realm, and
confidantes of the king, and they lament for him and burn him. And
before burning him they keep him there when dead for three days,
waiting for the assembling of the above mentioned persons, that they
may see him if he died of a natural death, or avenge his death if
any one killed him, as they are obliged to do in case of a violent
death. And they observe this ceremony very rigidly. After having
burned him, all shave themselves from head to foot, excepting the
eyelashes, from the prince, the heir to the throne, to the smallest
child of the kingdom: that is, those who are Gentiles, and they also
clean their teeth, and universally leave off eating betel for
thirteen days from that time; and if in this period they find any
one who eats it, his lips are cut off by the executioner. During
these thirteen days the prince does not rule, nor is he enthroned as
king, in order to see if in this time any one will rise up to oppose
him; and when this term is accomplished, all the grandees and former
governors make him swear to maintain all the laws of the late king,
and to pay the debts which he owed, and to labour to recover that
which other former kings had lost. And he takes this oath, holding a
drawn sword in his left hand, and his right hand placed upon a chain
lit up with many oil wicks, in the midst of which is a gold ring,
which he touches with his fingers, and there he swears to maintain
everything with that sword. When he has taken the oath, they
sprinkle rice over his head, with many ceremonies of prayer and
adoration to the sun, and immediately after certain counts, whom
they call caymal,[205] along with all the others of the royal
lineage, and the grandees, swear to him in the same manner to serve
him, and to be loyal and true to him. During these thirteen days one
of the caymals governs and rules the State like the king himself: he
is like an accountant-general of the king, and of all the affairs of
the kingdom. This office and dignity is his by right and
inheritance. This person is also the chief treasurer of the kingdom,
without whom the king cannot open or see the treasury; neither can
the king take anything out of the treasury without a great
necessity, and by the counsel of this person and several others. And
all the laws and ordinances of the kingdom are in the keeping of
this man. No one eats meat or fish in these thirteen days, nor may
any one fish under pain of death. During that period large alms are
given from the king's property, of food to many poor people, and to
Bramans; and when the thirteen days are ended, all eat what they
please, except the new king, who observes the same abstinence for
one year, neither does he shave his beard, nor cut a hair of his
head nor of his body, nor his nails: and he says prayers for certain
hours of the day, and does not eat more than once a day. And before
he eats he has to wash himself, and after washing, he must not drink
anything until he has eaten. This king is always in the city of
Calicut, in some very large palaces which he possesses outside of
the city, and when the year of this mourning is accomplished, the
prince who is to succeed him, and all those of the royal family and
all the other grandees and nobles of the country, come to see him,
and to perform a ceremony, which takes place at the end of the year,
in honour of the death of his predecessor: at which great alms are
given, and much money is spent in giving food to many Bramans and
poor people, and to all those who come to visit him, and to their
retinues, so that more than a hundred thousand people are assembled
there. And on this occasion he confirms the prince as the heir, and
likewise the others as his successors step by step. And he confirms
to all the lords their estates, and he confirms or changes as he
sees fit the governors and officers who were under the former king.
And he then dismisses them, and sends each to his duties, and he
sends the prince to the estates which are assigned to him. And he
must not re-enter Calicut until the king dies; and all the other
successors may go and come to the court, and reside with the king.
When the before mentioned crown prince departs, after he has left
Calicut, and on passing the bridge of a river, he takes a bow in his
hand and shoots an arrow towards the residence of the king, and then
says a prayer with uplifted hands in the manner of prayer, and then
goes on.
This prince, when he comes to visit the king at the said feast and
ceremony, brings all his nobles with him, and his instruments of
music, which are kettle-drums,[206] drums of many shapes, trumpets,
horns, flutes, small brass plates,[207] and lutes;[208] these come
making a great harmony, and the nobles in front, all drawn up in
order, as they regulate processions here. That is to say, the bowmen
in the van, next the lancers, after them the bearers of sword and
buckler. And the king issues from the palaces and places himself at
a great door, on foot, and there he stands looking at all these
people who come up to him with great reverence, and do as though
they worshipped him. All retire after a while, and so he remains for
the space of two hours, until all have done, and the prince appears
at a considerable distance[209] with a drawn sword in his hand,
which he brandishes as he advances, with his face raised up, and
eyes fixed upon the king. And on seeing him, he worships him and
throws himself with his face upon the ground, and with outstretched
arms; and he lies thus for a short time, then gets up again, and
goes forward very slowly brandishing his drawn sword in his hand,
and with his eyes still fixed upon the king, and at half way he does
the same thing again, and the king looks at him fixedly, without
making any movement, and the prince gets up again, and so arrives
where the king stands: and there he again throws himself on the
ground in front of him. The king then goes forward two steps and
takes him by the hand, and raises him up, and so they enter both
together into the palaces. The king then sits on his dais, and the
prince with all the other heirs, stand in front with their drawn
swords in their right hands, and their left hands placed upon their
mouths out of respect, withdrawn a little from the king's dais. They
speak there to the king with much reverence, without speaking to one
another, and if it is necessary for one to say anything to another,
they speak so softly that no one hears them: so much so, that there
are two thousand men before the king in the palace, and no one hears
them; and they may not spit or cough before the king.
This King of Calicut keeps many clerks constantly in his palace,
they are all in one room, separate and far from the king, sitting on
benches, and there they write all the affairs of the king's revenue,
and his alms, and the pay which is given to all, and the complaints
which are presented to the king, and, at the same time, the accounts
of the collectors of taxes. All this is on broad stiff leaves of the
palm tree, without ink, with pens of iron: they make lines with
their letters, engraven like ours. Each of these clerks has great
bundles of these leaves written on, and blank, and wherever they go
they carry them under their arms and the iron pen in their hand: in
this way they are known to all people as scribes of the palace. And
among these there are seven or eight who are great confidants of the
king, and the most honoured, and who always stand before him with
their pens in their hand, and writings under their arm, ready for
the king's orders to do anything, as he is in the habit of doing.
These clerks always have several of these leaves subscribed[210] by
the king in blank, and when he commands them to despatch any
business, they write it on those leaves. These accountants are
persons of great credit, and most of them are old and respectable:
and when they get up in the morning and want to write anything, the
first time that they take the pen and the leaf in their hand, they
cut a small piece off it with the knife which is at the end of the
pen, and they write the names of their gods upon it and worship them
towards the sun with uplifted hands; and having finished their
prayer, they tear the writing and throw it away, and after that
begin writing whatever they require.
This king has a thousand waiting women, to whom he gives regular
pay, and they are always at the court, to sweep the palaces and
houses of the king: and this he does for state, because fifty would
be enough to sweep. These women are of good family, they come into
the palace to sweep and clean twice every day, and each one carries
a broom and a brass dish with cow dung dissolved in water; and all
that they sweep, after having swept it, they smear it with their
right hand, giving a very thin coating, which dries immediately. And
these women do not all serve, but take turns in the service; and
when the king goes from one house to another, or to some temple, on
foot, these women go before him with these dishes of the said cow
dung, spilling it on the road by which he has to pass. And these
thousand women give a great feast to the king when he newly comes to
the throne, after he has finished his year of mourning and
abstinence. It is fitting to know that all the thousand assemble
together, both the old and the young ones, in the king's house, very
much adorned with jewellery, gold belts, pearls, and many bracelets
of gold, and many rings with precious stones, and ankle rings of
gold on their legs, and dressed from the waist downwards with very
rich silk stuffs, and others of very fine cotton, and from the waist
upwards bare, and anointed with sandal and perfumes, and their hair
wreathed with flowers, and rings of gold and precious stones in
their ears, the feet bare, as they always are accustomed to be. And
they have there all sorts of musical instruments, and many guns and
other fireworks of various kinds. Many nobles who accompany them
come there very smart and gay, and are their admirers: and seven or
eight elephants covered with silk housings and small bells in great
quantity hanging to them, and large chains of iron suspended from
their backs. And the ladies take an idol for their protector,[211]
and put it on the top of the biggest elephant, and a priest who
carries it in his arms sits on the back of the elephant. So they set
out in procession with their music and rejoicing, and much firing of
guns, going along a very broad street to a house of prayer. There
they lower the idol which is to be seen with another which is in
that temple, and they perform to them great ceremonies, and many
people assemble to see and adore those idols, and pay honour to
their images. These thousand women have each got a brass dish full
of rice, and on the top of the rice lamps full of oil, with many
lighted wicks, and between the chandeliers are many flowers. And at
nightfall they set out from the temple with their idol for the
king's palace, where they have to place it; and all come in
procession before the idol which is set upon the elephant, in bands
of eight, with the before mentioned salvers, and many men accompany
them with oil, with which they replenish the lamps. And the nobles,
their admirers, go along with them, talking to them with much
courtesy; and they remove the perspiration from the ladies' faces,
and from time to time put into their mouths the betel, which both
men and women are constantly eating; and they fan them with fans,
because their hands are fully occupied with the salvers. And all the
instruments are sounding, and there is a great firing of rockets,
and they carry some burning shrubs, so that it is a very pretty
sight. Also at night some gentlemen go in front of the idol
inflicting wounds with their swords upon their own heads and
shoulders, and shouting like madmen, and foaming at the mouth like
persons possessed: and they say that the gods enter into them and
make them do this. Many tumblers and buffoons also go along
performing feats of agility, and the governors and chief men of the
city go there to direct and arrange that procession, which is
conducted with much order until it arrives at the king's palace,
where it disperses.
This king is for the most part sitting on his dais, and sometimes
his confidential advisers are there, rubbing his arms and legs, or
his body, and a page with a napkin round his neck full of betel,
which he gives him to chew, and sometimes it is kept in a gilt and
coloured casket edged with silver, and at times in a gold plate, and
the page gives it to him leaf by leaf, smeared with a little lime of
sea shells diluted with rose water, like a sauce, which he keeps in
a small box[212] of gold; and he also gives him areca, which is a
small fruit, cut into pieces, and he chews it all together; and it
colours his mouth, and what he spits is like blood. And another page
holds in his hand a large gold cup, into which he spits the juice of
that leaf which he does not swallow, and he washes his mouth from
time to time, so that he is almost always munching these leaves.
His manner of eating is that no one sees him eat: only four or five
servants wait upon him. First of all, when he wishes to eat, he
bathes in a pool of water which he has in his palaces, very clean
and prettily kept; and there, when undressed, he performs his
ceremonies and worships three times to the east, and walks three
times round, and plunges three more times under the water, and after
that dresses in clean clothes, each time fresh washed; and then he
goes and sits in the place which he has appointed for eating, the
ground having been swept, or on a very low, round stand. There they
bring him a large silver tray, and upon it are many small silver
saucers, all empty. And they are set before him on the ground upon
another low stand: and the cook comes, who is a Braman, and brings a
copper pot with cooked rice, which is very dry and entire, and with
a spoon they take it out, and make a pile of it in the middle of the
said large tray; afterwards they bring many other pans with divers
viands, and put portions of them into the small saucers. He then
begins to eat with the right hand, taking handfuls of the rice
without a spoon, and with the same hand he takes some of all the
dishes and mixes it with the rice; and with his left hand he must
not touch anything of what he eats; and they set near him a silver
pitcher of water; and when he wants to drink, he takes it with the
left hand, and raises it in the air, and pours the water into his
mouth in a small jet; thus he drinks without the pitcher touching
his mouth;[213] and the viands which they give him, both of flesh
and fish, or vegetables and herbs, are done with so much pepper, so
that no one from our parts could endure them in his mouth. And he
never cleans his right hand, nor uses a napkin or cloth for that,
whilst eating, until he has done eating, when he washes his hand.
And if, during his meals, there should be present with him any
honourable Bramans, in his confidence, he bids them eat there apart
from himself on the ground; and they set before them leaves of the
Indian fig-tree, which are very large and stiff, a leaf for each
man, and upon these they set food before them, the same as for the
king; and he who is not going to eat there goes away, because no one
else may be where the king eats; and when he has ended his meal, the
king returns to his dais, and is almost always chewing betel.
Whenever the king goes out of the palace to amuse himself, or to
pray to some idol, all his gentlemen are summoned who are in
waiting, and also the minstrels, and they carry the king in a
litter, which is borne by men, and is covered with silk stuffs and
jewels. Many jugglers and tumblers go before the king, with whom he
amuses himself, and he stops frequently to look at them, and praises
the one who performs best. And one Braman carries a sword and
shield, and another a long gold sword, and another a sword in his
right hand, which the King of all Malabar, who went to die at
Mekkah, left behind him; and in his left hand a weapon which is like
a fleur-de-lis. And on each side go two men with two fans, very long
and round, and two others with two fans made of white tails of
animals, which are like horses, and which are much valued amongst
them, set on gold spears; these men fan the king, and close to them
is a page with a gold pitcher full of water, and on the left side
another with a silver one; and a page with a napkin, for when the
king wishes to clean his nose, or if he touch his eyes or mouth,
they pour water and wash his fingers, and the other gives him the
napkin to dry them; they also carry vases, in which the king spits
the betel. His nephews, governors, and other lords go along with
him, and all accompany him with their swords drawn and shields. And
a great quantity of buffoons, musicians, tumblers, and musqueteers
firing guns accompany the king; and if he goes by night, they carry
four large chandeliers of iron full of oil with many lighted wicks.
ON THE FASHION OF JUSTICE IN THE KINGDOM OF MALABAR.
In the said city of Calicut there is a governor, whom they call
Talaxe, a gentleman appointed by the king,[214] who has under him
five thousand gentlemen, to whom he pays their salaries from the
revenue, which is assigned for that purpose. This person administers
justice in the city of Calicut, and gives an account of everything
to the king. And justice is administered according to the qualities
of the persons, because there are divers sects and laws amongst
them; that is to say, of gentlemen, Chetres, Guzurates, Brabares,
who are very honourable people; and thence downwards there are also
divers sects of low and base people who are all serfs of the king,
or of the other lords and governors of the country. And if any of
these low people commits a robbery, concerning which a complaint has
been made to the king or to the governor, they send to take the
robber, and if they find the thing stolen in his hands, or if he
confess that he did it, if he is a Gentile, they take him to a place
where they carry out executions, and there they set some high posts
with sharp points and a small stand, through which passes one of
those points; and there they cut off his head with a sword, and spit
him through the back and the pit of the stomach, and that point
comes out about a cubit, and on it they also spit his head. And they
tie ropes to his legs and arms, and fasten them to four posts, so
that the limbs are stretched out and the body on its back upon the
stand. And if the malefactor is a Moor, they take him to a field,
and there kill him by stabbing him; and the stolen property is
appropriated to the governor without its owner recovering anything;
because their law so disposes, doing justice on the thief. And if
the stolen property is found and the thief escapes, it is for a
certain number of days in the charge of the governor; and if during
that time they do not catch the thief, they return the stolen goods
to its owner, a fourth part of it, however, remaining for the
governor; and if the thief denies the robbery, they keep him eight
days in prison, making his life uncomfortable, to see if he will
confess, and throwing him his food; and when the eight days are
passed without his confessing, they call the accuser, and he is told
that the accused does not confess, and they ask him if he requires
them to take his oath or let him go. If the accuser then requires
the accused to swear, they make him wash and commend himself to his
gods, and eat no betel, and cleanse his teeth from the blackness
caused by the betel, in order that he may swear next day, and that
he may prepare himself for it. Next day they take him out of prison,
and take him to a pool of water where he washes, performing his
ceremony, and from there they take him to a house of prayer where
his idols are kept, before which he takes his oath in this manner.
It must be known that, if he is a Gentile, they heat a copper-pot
full of oil until it boils, and they throw in a few leaves of trees,
and with the great heat of the pot the leaves fly out, and this is
in order that the parties may see that the oil is hot and boiling;
and then two scribes come near, and take the right hand of the
accused and look if he has any wound of itch or other disease, and
write down in what condition his hand is, in the presence of the
party. Then they bid him look at the idol, and say three times "I
did not commit this theft of which I am accused, nor do I know who
did it," and then put his two fingers up to the middle joints in the
oil which is boiling upon the fire; and he does so; and they say
that if he did not commit the theft, that he does not burn himself,
and that if he did it, he burns his fingers.
[And then the scribes, and governor and party, look at him again,
and the scribes write down the condition in which his hand is, and
they tie it up with a cloth whether it is burned or not, and put
seals on the fastenings of the cloth, and send him back to prison.
And three days later, all return to the same place where the oath
was taken, and they untie his hand before the governor and party,
and if they find it burned they kill him, but first give him so many
torments that they make him confess where he has got the stolen
property, or that he did it. And even if he does not confess, all
the same he suffers the penalty because his hand was burned; and if
they find his hand not burned, then they let him go, and he who
accused him pays a certain sum as a fine to the governor. And they
have the same method for him who kills another, or for him who kills
a cow, or raises his hand in anger against Bramans or noblemen. And
this is to be understood as amongst the Gentile peasants and low
people. And if it is a Moor who does such things, he passes through
the same examinations, only that instead of putting his fingers in
oil, they make him lick with his tongue a red-hot axe, and if he
does not burn himself he remains free, and if he burns his tongue he
suffers death.