other offences for which they do not deserve death, they punish them
with a pecuniary penalty for the governor, and this produces much
revenue to him; and he lays hold of vagabonds as slaves, and he has
the power of selling them, and sells them without any opposition
whatever, at a price of from four to five ducats.
The nobles enjoy exemption and the privilege, that they cannot be
taken and put in irons for anything which they do. And if a noble
were to rob or kill any one, or kill a cow, or were to sleep with a
woman of low caste, or of the Bramans, or if he eat or drank in the
house of a low caste man, or spoke ill of his king--this being
established by his own words--they call three or four honourable
gentlemen in whom the king places confidence, and he bids them go
and kill this noble wherever they may meet with him, and they give
them a warrant[215] signed by the king for them to kill him without
penalty. They then kill him with daggers or spears, or shoot him
with arrows, because at times these men who are accused are such
that before being put to death, they wound two or three of the
slaughterers, if they have been forewarned. And after he is dead
they lay him on his back and place that king's warrant upon his
breast. And if they kill him in the country they leave him there,
and no one comes near him, so that the fowls and dogs devour him.
And if they kill him in the city, the people of the street where he
lies dead go and beg the king to order his removal; and the king
gives the orders, sometimes as a favour, sometimes with a
fine.[216]]
And if any noble comes to the king or to the governor, and complains
to him of any other noble who has robbed or murdered or done any
other evil deed, the governor reports it to the king, and the king
gives orders to summon the accused, and if he absents himself they
hold him guilty, and he is ordered to be executed in the same manner
without further investigation. And if he presents himself, they
summon the accuser, and examine both of them together. And the
accuser takes a small branch of a tree or green herbs in his hand,
and says, such a one did such a thing; the other one takes another
branch, and denies it. The king then bids them return eight days
thenceforward to the house of the governor to take oath and prove
that which each one asserts; and so they depart, and return on the
day fixed to the house of the governor, where the accused swears in
the manner already described with boiling butter, and having
concluded taking the oath, they tie up his fingers as has been said,
and both of them are detained in a house under a guard, so that
neither of them can run away. And on the third day they untie his
fingers, and clear up the truth, and if they find the fingers
burned, they kill the accused; and not finding them injured, they
kill the accuser. And if the accused is not of as great value, they
do not kill the accuser, on whom in such case they inflict a
pecuniary penalty and that of banishment. And if such a noble was
accused of a great robbery of the king's property, they have him
imprisoned in a close room and well guarded, and conduct him thence
to take the oath.
In this kingdom of Calicut there is another governor, who is like
the chief justice of all the kingdom, with the exception of the city
of Calicut. This chief justice is called Coytoro tical carnaver; he
has his lieutenants in all the villages, to whom he farms the
administration of justice: that is to say, the fines, not capital
penalties. And people come to this chief justice for any injury, and
he gives an account of it and reports to the king, and renders
justice in the manner followed at Calicut.
In this kingdom of Calicut no women ever die by sentence of law for
any offence whatever; they are only subject to pecuniary penalties.
And if any woman of Nayr family should offend against the law of her
sect, and the king know of it before her relations and brothers, he
commands her to be taken and sold out of the kingdom to Moors or
Christians. And if her male relations or sons know of it first, they
shut her up and kill her with dagger or spear wounds, saying that if
they did not do so they would remain greatly dishonoured. And the
king holds this to be well done.
SECTION OF THE BRAMANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.
The Gentile Bramans are priests all of one lineage, and others
cannot be priests, but only their own sons. And when these are seven
years old, they put round their necks a strap two fingers in width
of an animal which they call Cressua-mergan,[217] with its hair,
which is like a wild ass; and they command him not to eat betel for
seven years, and all this time he wears that strap round the neck,
passing under the arm, and when he reaches fourteen years of age
they make him a Braman, removing from him the leather strap round
his neck, and putting on another of three threads, which he wears
all his life as a mark of being a Braman. And they do this with much
ceremony and festivity, just as here at the first mass,[218] and
from this time forward he may eat betel. They do not eat flesh nor
fish, they are much reverenced and honoured by the Indians, and they
are not executed for any offence which they may commit: but their
chief, who is like a bishop, chastises them in moderation. They
marry only once, and only the eldest brother has to be married, and
of him is made a head of the family like a sole heir by entail,[219]
and all the others remain bachelors, and never marry. The eldest is
the heir of all the property. These Bramans, the elder brothers,
keep their wives very well guarded, and in great esteem, and no
other man can approach them; and if any of the married ones die, the
person who becomes widowed does not marry again. And if the wife
commits adultery, the husband kills her with poison. These young men
who do not marry, nor can marry, sleep with the wives of the nobles,
and these women hold it as a great honour because they are Bramans,
and no woman refuses them. And they must not sleep with any woman
older than themselves. And these live in their houses and estates,
and they have great houses of prayer, in which they do service as
abbots, and whither they go to recite their prayers at fixed times
of the day, and worship their idols and perform their ceremonies.
And these temples have their principal doors to the west, and each
temple has three doors, and in front of the principal gate, outside
of it, is a stone of the height of a man, with three steps all round
it, and in front of that stone inside the church is a small chapel,
very dark, inside of which they keep their idol, of gold, silver, or
metal, and three lamps burning. And no one may enter there except
the minister of that church, who goes in to set before the idol
flowers and scented herbs, and they anoint it with sandal and rose
water, and take it out once in the morning, and another time in the
evening with sound of trumpets and drums, and horns. And he who
takes it out first washes thoroughly, and carries it on his head
with the face looking backwards, and they walk with it three times
in procession round the church, and certain wives of the Bramans
carry lighted lamps in front, and each time that they reach the
principal door, they set the idol on that stone and there worship
it, and perform certain ceremonies; and having ended the three turns
with music and rejoicing, they again place it in the chapel, and
each day they do this twice, by day and at night. And around this
church there is a stone wall, between which and the church they walk
in the before mentioned procession, and they carry over the idol a
very lofty canopy upon a very long bamboo for state as for kings.
They place all the offerings upon the stone before the principal
gate of the temple, and twice a day it is washed, and they set
cooked rice upon it to feed the crows twice a day with great
ceremony. These Bramans greatly honour the number trine: they hold
that there is a God in three persons, and who is not more than one.
All their prayers and ceremonies are in honour of the trinity, and
they, so to say, figure it in their rites, and the name by which
they call it is this, Berma Besnu Maycereni, who are three persons
and one sole god,[220] Thus they confess him to be from the
beginning of the world. They have no knowledge or information of the
coming of Jesus Christ. They believe many more vain things, which
they speak of. These people each time that they wash put some ashes
upon their heads, foreheads and breasts, in token that they have to
turn again into ashes; and when they die they have their bodies
burned. When the wife of a Braman is in the family way, as soon as
the husband knows it he cleans his teeth, and eats no more betel nor
trims his beard, and fasts until his wife gives birth to her child.
The kings make great use of these Bramans for many things, except in
deeds of arms. Only Bramans can cook the king's food, or else men of
the king's own family, and so all the king's relations have this
same custom of having their food cooked by Bramans. These are the
messengers who go on the road from one kingdom to another, with
letters and money and merchandise, because they pass in safety in
all parts, without any one molesting them, even though the kings may
be at war. These Bramans are well read in the law of their idolatry,
and possess many books, and are learned and masters of many arts:
and so the kings honour them as such.
SECTION OF THE NAIRS OF MALABAR, WHO ARE THE GENTRY, AND THEIR
CUSTOMS.
In these kingdoms of Malabar there is another sect of people called
nairs, who are the gentry, and have no other duty than to carry on
war, and they continually carry their arms with them, which are
swords, bows, arrows, bucklers, and lances. They all live with the
kings, and some of them with other lords, relations of the king, and
lords of the country, and with the salaried governors; and with one
another. And no one can be a nair if he is not of good lineage. They
are very smart men, and much taken up with their nobility. They do
not associate with any peasant, and neither eat nor drink except in
the houses of other nairs. These people accompany their lords day
and night; little is given them for eating and sleeping, and for
serving and doing their duty; and frequently they sleep upon a bare
bench to wait for the person whom they serve, and sometimes they do
not eat more than once a day; and they have small expenses for they
have little pay. Many of them content themselves with about two
hundred maravedis[221] each month for themselves and the servant
that attends to them. These are not married nor maintain women or
children; their nephews the sons of their sisters are their heirs.
The nair women are all accustomed to do with themselves what they
please with bramans or nairs, but not with other people of lower
class under pain of death. After they are ten or twelve years old or
more, their mothers perform a marriage ceremony for them in this
manner. They advise the relations and friends that they may come to
do honour to their daughters, and they beg some of their relations
and friends to marry these daughters, and they do so. It must be
said they have a small gold jewel made, which will contain half a
ducat of gold, a little shorter than the tag of a lace, with a hole
in the middle passing through it, and they string it on a thread of
white silk; and the mother of the girl stands with her daughter very
much dressed out, entertaining her with music and singing, and a
number of people. And this relation or friend of hers comes with
much earnestness, and there performs the ceremony of marriage, as
though he married with her, and they throw a gold chain round the
necks of both of them together, and he puts the above mentioned
jewel round her neck, which she always has to wear as a sign that
she may now do what she pleases.[222] And the bridegroom leaves her,
and goes away without touching her nor having more to say to her, on
account of being her relation; and if he is not so, he may remain
with her if he wish it, but he is not bound to do so if he do not
desire it. And from that time forward the mother goes begging some
young men, "que le desvirguen aquella hija, porque lo an entre sy
por cosa sucia y casi vileza a desvirgar mugeres." And after she is
already a woman the mother goes about seeking who will take her
daughter to live with him. But when she is very pretty three or four
nairs join together and agree to maintain her, and to live all of
them with her; and the more she has the more highly is she esteemed,
and each man has his appointed day from midday till next day at the
same hour, when the other comes; and so she passes her life without
anyone thinking ill of it. And he who wishes to leave her, does so
whenever he pleases, and goes to take another. And if she takes a
dislike to any of them she dismisses him. The children which she has
remain at the expense of the mother and of the brothers of the
mother, who bring them up, because they do not know the fathers, and
even if they should appear to belong to any persons in particular,
they are not recognised by them as sons, nor do they give anything
for them. And it is said that the kings made this law in order that
the nairs should not be covetous, and should not abandon the king's
service.[223] These nairs, besides being all of noble descent, have
to be armed as knights by the hand of the king, or lord with whom
they live, and until they have been so equipped they cannot bear
arms nor call themselves nairs, but they enjoy the freedom and
exemption and advantages of the nairs in many things. In general
when these nairs are seven years of age they are immediately sent to
school to learn all manner of feats of agility and gymnastics for
the use of their weapons. First they learn to dance, and then to
tumble, and for that purpose they render supple all their limbs from
their childhood, so that they can bend them in any direction. And
after they have exercised in this, they teach them to manage the
weapons which suit each one most. That is to say bows, clubs, or
lances; and most of them are taught to use the sword and buckler,
which is of more common use among them. In this fencing there is
much agility and science. And there are very skilful men who teach
this art, and they are called Panicars;[224] these are captains in
war. These nairs when they enlist to live with the king, bind
themselves and promise to die for him; and they do likewise with any
other lord from whom they receive pay. This law is observed by some
and not by others; but their obligation constrains them to die at
the hands of anyone who should kill the king or their lord: and some
of them so observe it; so that if in any battle their lord should be
killed, they go and put themselves in the midst of the enemies who
killed him, even should those be numerous, and he alone by himself
dies there: but before falling he does what he can against them; and
after that one is dead another goes to take his place, and then
another: so that sometimes ten or twelve nayrs die for their lord.
And even if they were not present with him when he was killed, they
go and seek him who killed him, or the king who ordered him to be
killed: and so one by one they all die. And if anyone is in
apprehension of another man, he takes some of these nairs, as many
as he pleases, into his pay; and they accompany and guard him; and
on their account he goes securely, since no one dares to molest him;
because if he were molested they and all their lineage would take
vengeance on him who should cause this molestation. These guards are
called Janguada:[225] and there are some people who sometimes take
so many of these nairs, and of such quality, that on their account
they no longer fear the king, who would not venture to command the
execution of a man who was guarded by these, in order not to expose
many nairs to danger for it. And even if the nairs were not in his
company when the man they guard was killed, they would not any the
less revenge his death.
These nayrs live outside the towns, separate from other people, on
their estates which are fenced in. They have there all that they
require; they do not drink wine. When they go anywhere they shout to
the peasants that they may get out of the way where they have to
pass; and the peasants do so, and if they did not do it the nayrs
might kill them without penalty. If a young man of family who is
very poor meets a rich and respectable peasant, one favoured by the
king, he makes him get out of the road in the same manner, as if he
were a king. These nayrs have great privileges in this matter, and
the nayr women even greater with the peasants, and the nairs with
the peasant women. This, they say, is done to avoid all opportunity
of mixing their blood with that of peasants. And if a peasant were
by misfortune to touch a nayr lady, her relations would immediately
kill her and likewise the man that touched her, and all his
relations. When these nayrs order any work to be done by the
peasants, or buy anything of them which they take, being between man
and man, they are not exposed to any other penalty on touching one
another than the not being able to enter their houses without first
washing themselves and changing their clothes for others that are
clean. And likewise as regards the nair women and the peasant women:
these practices are more observed in the country.
No nair woman ever enters the towns under pain of death except once
a year, when they may go for one night with their nayrs wherever
they like. On that night more than twenty thousand nair women enter
Calicut to see the town, which is full of lamps in all the streets,
which the inhabitants set there to do honour to the nairs, and all
the streets are hung with cloth. And the nair women come in to see
the houses of their friends and of their husbands, and there they
receive presents and entertainment, and are invited to eat betel:
and it is held to be a great politeness to receive it from friends.
Some of them come wrapped up,[226] and others uncovered; and the
women relations of the kings and great lords come also to see the
city on this night, and to walk about it, looking at the property of
the great merchants, from whom they receive presents, in order that
they may favour them with the king.
Those nayrs whom the king has received as his, he never dismisses
however old they may be; on the contrary, they always receive their
pay and rations, and he grants favours to whoever has served well.
And if some years should pass without their being paid, some four or
five hundred of the aggrieved rise up, and go in a body to the
palace, and send word to the king that they are going away
dismissed, to take service with another king, because he does not
give them food. Then the king sends to beg them to have patience,
and that he will send and pay them immediately. And if he does not
immediately give them a third part of what is due, and an order for
the payment of the rest, they go away to another king, wherever it
appears to them that they can best suit themselves; and they engage
with him, and he receives them willingly, and gives them food for
thirteen days before he has them enrolled for pay. And during this
time this king sends to inquire of their king if he intends to send
and pay them; and if he does not pay them, then he receives them in
his pay, and gives them the same allowances which they had in their
own country, from which and from their king in such a case they
remain disnaturalized. And many undertake, but few perform this,
because their king grants them a remedy, and holds it to be a great
disgrace should they go away.
When these nayrs go to the wars their pay is served out to them
every day as long as the war lasts; it is four taras per day each
man, which are worth five maravedis each,[227] with which they
provide for themselves. And during the time that they are at war,
they may touch any peasant, and eat and drink with them in their
houses, without any penalty. And the king is obliged to maintain the
mother and family of any nayr who may die in the war, and those
persons are at once written down for their maintenance. And if these
nayrs are wounded, the king has them cured at his expense, besides
their pay, and has food given them all their lives, or until they
are cured of their wounds.
These nayrs show much respect to their mothers,[228] and support
them with what they gain, because besides their allowances, most of
them possess houses and palm trees and estates, and some houses let
to peasants, which have been granted by the king to them or to their
uncles, and which remain their property. They also have much respect
for their elder sisters, whom they treat as mothers. And they do not
enter into a room with those that are young girls, nor touch them
nor speak to them, saying that it would give occasion to sin with
them, because they are younger and have less understanding, which
could not happen with the elder ones, on account of the respect they
have for them. These nair women every month set themselves apart in
their houses for three days without approaching anyone; at which
time a woman has to prepare her food in separate pots and pans. And
when the three days are ended, she bathes with hot water which is
brought there, and after bathing dresses in clean clothes, and so
goes out of the house to a pool of water and bathes again, and again
leaves those clean clothes, and takes other fresh ones, and so
returns home, and talks with her mother and sisters and the other
people. And the room where she was for those three days is well
swept and wetted, and plastered with cow dung, because otherwise no
one would dwell there. These women when they are confined, three
days afterwards are washed with hot water, and after getting up from
their confinement they bathe many times each day from head to foot.
They do no business, eat the bread of idleness, and only get their
food to eat by means of their bodies: because besides each one
having three or four men who provide for them, they do not refuse
themselves to any braman or nayr who pays them. They are very clean
and well dressed women, and they hold it in great honour to know how
to please men. They have a belief amongst them that the woman who
dies a virgin does not go to paradise.[229]
SECTION OF THE BRABARES WHO ARE MERCHANTS OF THE KINGDOM OF MALABAR,
OF THEIR CUSTOMS AND SECT.
In this kingdom of Calicut, and in all the other Malabar kingdoms,
there is a sect of gentile merchants who are called amongst them
brabares, who trafficked also before foreign persons came to port or
navigated in these seas. These still deal, especially in the
interior, in all sorts of goods, and collect all the pepper and
ginger from the nayrs and cultivators, and frequently buy them in
advance in exchange for cotton stuffs, and other goods which come
from beyond the sea. These people are also great changers, and gain
much upon coin. They enjoy such freedom in this country that the
kings cannot sentence them to death, but the chief men of these
brabares assemble together in council, and having arrived at the
knowledge that the offender deserves death, they kill him, the king
having information thereof: and if the king knows first of the
offence before them, he informs them of it, and they kill him with
dagger or lance thrusts. For the most part they are very rich
people, and possess in the country many estates inherited from old
times. They marry only one wife in our fashion, and their sons are
their immediate heirs; and when they die their bodies are burned,
and their wives accompany the body weeping for him: and she takes
from her neck a small gold jewel which he gave her when he married
her, and she throws it into the fire upon him, and then returns to
her house, and never more can be married, however young she may be.
And if she were to die before her husband he has her burned, and may
marry again.
These people are of as pure lineage as the nairs, men and women, and
they may touch one another.
SECTION OF THE CUJAVEN, WHO ARE POTTERS AND WORKERS OF CLAY.