is called Cujaven, and which is only separated from the nayrs on
account of a fault which they committed.[230] For this reason they
remained as a separate sect. Their business is to work at baked
clay, and tiles for covering houses, with which the temples and
Royal buildings are roofed; and by law no other persons may roof
their houses except with palm branches. Their idolatry and their
idols are different from those of the others; and in their houses of
prayer they perform a thousand acts of witchcraft and necromancy;
they call their temples pagodes, and they are separate from the
others. Their descendants cannot take any other sect nor any other
occupation. In their marriages they follow the law of the nayrs. The
nayrs may cohabit with their women, provided that they do not
re-enter their houses without washing themselves from that sin, and
putting on a change of clean garments.
SECTION OF THE WASHERMEN.
In this country there is another sect of gentiles whom they call
manatamar,[231] and their business is only to wash the clothes of
the bramans, kings, and nayrs; and they live by this business, and
they cannot adopt other employments, nor can their descendants. The
men are those that wash, and they wash in their houses in large
tanks and reservoirs which they have got for this purpose. They have
constantly in their houses such a large quantity of clothes to wash,
both of their own and of strangers, that they hire out many of them
day by day to the nayrs who have not got their own, and they pay so
much a day for them when clean; and so each day they return them the
dirty ones, and fetch away clean clothes. And the clothes have to be
suitable to each person. They wash for a great many people for
money, so that they serve all with cleanliness, and they all gain
their livelihoods very sufficiently. Their lineage does not mix with
any other, neither can any other with theirs; only the nayrs can
have mistresses from amongst the women of this lineage, with the
condition that each time that they approach them, they have to bathe
themselves and change their garments before entering their houses.
These washermen have got idolatries of their own, and their houses
of prayer are separate, and they believe in many extravagant things.
They marry like the nairs, their brothers and nephews inherit their
property, and they do not recognise their sons.
SECTION OF THE WEAVERS OF THE MALABAR COUNTRY.
There is another set of gentiles, still lower, whom they call
chalien, who are weavers and have no other business except to weave
cloths of cotton, and some of silk, which are of little value, and
are used by the common people. And these also have a sect and form
of idolatry apart. Their lineage does not mix with any others; only
the nairs may have mistresses amongst the women of these people, so
that they do not enter their houses without bathing and changing
their clothes, whenever they have visited them. Many of these are
sons of nairs, and so they are very fine men in their figures; and
they bear arms like the nayrs and go to the wars, and fight very
well. In marriages they have the law of the nairs, and their sons do
not inherit. Their wives have the power of doing what they please
with themselves with the nairs, or with other weavers: and they
cannot mix with any other lineage under pain of death.[232]
SECTION OF LOW PEOPLE: ZIVIL TIVER.
Of low people zevil tiver,[233] there are eleven sects, which no
respectable people touch under pain of death: and between each other
there is a great difference and separation, and one family does not
mix with another. The best of these are labourers, whom they call
tiver. Their principal employment is to till the palm trees, and
gather their fruits; and to carry everything for hire from one point
to another, because they are not in the habit of transporting them
with beasts of burden, as there are none: and they hew stone, and
gain their livelihood by all kinds of labour. Some of them learn the
use of arms, and fight in the wars when it is necessary. They all
carry a staff in their hand of a fathom's length as a sign of their
lineage. Most of them are serfs of the nayrs, to whom the king of
the country gives them, in order that their masters may be supported
by their labour, and these protect and shew favour to these slaves.
These people have an idolatry of their own, and believe in their
idols. Their nephews are their heirs, and their sons do not inherit,
because the wives whom they marry get their livelihood with their
bodies, and give themselves to the Moors, natives of the country,
and also to foreigners of all kinds; and this very publicly, and
with the knowledge of their husbands who give them opportunities for
so doing. They make wines in the country, and they alone can sell
it. They take much care not to touch other people lower than
themselves; and live separate from other people. Of this sect
sometimes two brothers have one wife only and both of them live with
her.
MOGUER.
I find another sect of people still lower, moguer, which they call
moguer,[234] who are almost like the tivers, but they do not touch
one another. These are the people who transport the king's property
from one place to another when he moves. There are very few of these
in the country, they have a sect of their own, and have no law of
marriage; their wives are public for all, and for strangers. These
people for the most part get their living at sea, they are mariners
and fishermen. They have a separate idolatry: they are slaves of the
kings and nayrs and bramans. There are some of them very rich men
who have got ships with which they navigate, for they gain much
money with the Moors. Their nephews are their heirs, and not their
sons, because they do not marry. They take care not to touch other
people lower than themselves. These people live in separate
villages: their women are very pretty, and whiter than others of
this country, because they are for the most part daughters of
foreigners who are white: they are very smartly dressed and adorned
with gold.
CANION.
There is another lower set of gentiles called canion. Their business
is to make shields and shades[235]: they learn letters and
astronomy, and some of them are great astrologers, and they foretell
many future things, and form very accurate judgments upon the births
of men. Kings and great persons send to call them, and come out of
their palaces to the gardens and pleasure grounds to see them and
ask them what they desire to know: and these people form judgments
upon these things in a few days, and return to those that asked of
them, but they may not enter the palaces, nor may they approach the
king's person on account of being low people. And the king is then
alone with them. They are great diviners, and pay great attention to
times and places of good and bad luck, which they cause to be
observed by these kings and great men, and by the merchants also:
and they take care to do their business at the times which these
astrologers advise them, and they do the same in their voyages and
marriages. And by this means these men gain a great deal. They
reckon the months, seasons, signs and planets as we do, except that
they have months of twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two
days: and their first month of the year is April. From May till the
middle of October they have their winter, and during this time it
rains much in that country, and there are frequent storms, without
any cold: and from the middle of October till the end of April is
the summer, of great heat and little wind. And on the coast there
are many land breezes, and frequent changes in the sea breezes. They
navigate their ships in the summer, and in the winter they draw them
up on shore, and cover them up on account of the heavy falls of
rain.
AJARE.
Another lower lineage amongst these gentiles is called ajare. Their
business is that of quarry men and carpenters, and others are
blacksmiths, carvers of metals, and silversmiths. These are all of a
sect different from the idolatry of the other people. These people
marry and their sons inherit their property and employments which
they teach them from their childhood. They are slaves of the king
and the nairs, and very skilful in their business.
MUCOA.
There is another lower sect of gentiles called mucoa, who are
fishermen and mariners, without other business. They sail in ships
of moors and gentiles, and are quite at home on the sea: they also
live in separate villages. They are great thieves, and shameless:
they marry and their children inherit, and their wives sleep with
whom they like without their thinking ill of it. They have a
separate sect and form of idolatry, and are also slaves of the king
and the nayrs of the country. They do not pay any duty on the fresh
fish which they sell, and if they dry it they pay four per cent.
duty: and the fresh fish is very cheap. This is the chief food in
use amongst the Indians, for they are people who eat very little
meat on account of the country being very populous[236] and of few
flocks. There are some of these fishermen who are very rich and well
supplied, they have large houses and property. The king takes them
when he pleases, and puts much pressure on them because they are
slaves.
BETUA.
There is another lower sect of gentiles called betua. Their business
is to make salt, to plough and sow rice, and they do not live by
anything else: they have houses in the country apart from the roads
where respectable people pass. These people have a form of idolatry
of their own: they also are slaves of the king and of the nayrs.
They live very miserably: the nayrs make them keep far aloof from
them, and speak to them from a great distance: they have no
intercourse with other people. They are married and their children
inherit.
PANEU.
There is another sect even lower of these people, called paneu,[237]
who are great practisers of witchcraft, and they do not gain their
living by anything else than charms. They visibly speak with devils
who put themselves within them, and make them do awful things. When
any king falls ill of fevers or any other illness, he immediately
sends to call these men and women; of whom the most accomplished
charmers come with their wives and children. Twenty-two families
establish their dwellings at the gate of the palace of the king, or
house of the person who is suffering, and has sent to call them: and
there they set up a tent of coloured cloth in which they all place
themselves. And there they paint their bodies with colours, and make
crowns of painted paper and cloth, and other inventions of many
sorts, with plenty of flowers and herbs, and great bonfires, and
lighted lamps, and kettle-drums, trumpets, horns, and lutes, which
they sound; and in this manner they come out of the tent two and
two, with their swords in their hands, shouting and jumping, and
running about the place or the court of the palace, and they jump
upon one another's backs, and go on this way for some time, sticking
one another with knives, and pushing one another naked and
barefooted into the fire, until they are tired; and so they come out
both men and boys two and two together to do the same thing again:
and the women shout and sing with a great noise. And they go on this
way for two or three days, night and day, always performing
together, and they make rings of earth, and lines of red ochre and
white clay, and spread upon them rice and flowers of various
colours, and put lights all round, and go on this way until the
devil, for whose service they do all this, enters into one of them,
and makes him say what the king is suffering from, and what must be
done to cure him. And then they tell it to the king, and he remains
satisfied and gives them many presents, and does what they tell him,
either as to making offerings to their idols, or any other matter
which they enjoin him to do. And so he gets well by the work of the
devil, to whom they all belong. These also live separated from
intercourse with the nayrs and respectable people, and do not touch
any other sect. They are great hunters and archers: they kill many
boars and stags upon which they maintain themselves. They are
married and their children inherit.
RENOLENI.
There is another sect of people still lower, who are called
renoleni,[238] who live in the mountains very poorly and miserably.
And they have no other occupation than bringing wood and grass to
the city for sale, to support themselves. And these people have no
intercourse with any others, nor others with them, under pain of
death; and they go naked, covering only their middles, many of them
do so with only leaves of trees, and some with small and very dirty
cloths. They marry and their children are their heirs. The women
wear much brass on their ears, necks, arms, and legs, in bracelets,
rings, and beads.
PULER.
There is another lower sect of gentiles called puler.[239] These are
held as excommunicated and accursed; they live in swampy fields and
places where respectable people cannot go: they have very small and
abject huts, and plough and sow the fields with rice, they use
buffaloes and oxen. They do not speak to the nairs, except from a
long way off, as far as they can be heard speaking with a loud
voice. When they go along the road they shout, so that whoever comes
may speak to them, and that they may withdraw from the roads, and
put themselves on the mountains. And whatever woman or man should
touch these, their relations immediately kill them like a
contaminated thing: and they kill so many of these pulers until they
are weary of it, without any penalty. These low people during
certain months of the year try as hard as they can to touch some of
the nair women, as best they may be able to manage it, and secretly
by night, to do harm. So they go by night amongst the houses of the
nayrs to touch women, and these take many precautions against this
injury during this season. And if they touch any woman, even though
no one see it, and though there should be no witnesses, she, the
nair woman herself, publishes it immediately, crying out, and leaves
her house without choosing to enter it again to damage her lineage.
And what she most thinks of doing is to run to the house of some low
people, to hide herself, that her relations may not kill her as a
remedy for what has happened, or sell her to some strangers as they
are accustomed to do. And touching is in this manner, that even if
there is no contact from one person to another, yet by throwing
anything, such as a stone or a stick, if the person is hit by it, he
remains touched and lost. These people are great charmers, thieves,
and very vile people.
PARENI.[240]
There is yet another sect of people among them still lower, who live
in desert places, called pareni. These likewise do not converse with
any one. They are looked upon as worse than the devil, and as
altogether condemned:[241] so that by looking at them only they
consider themselves as defiled and excommunicated, which they call
contaminated. They support themselves on yname, which is like the
root of the maize which is found in the island of Antilla, and on
other roots and wild fruits, and they cover themselves with leaves
and eat the flesh of wild animals. And with these ends the diversity
of the sects of the gentiles, which are in all eighteen, each one by
itself: they live without intercourse or intermarriage of one with
another.
OTHER KINDS OF PEOPLE.
In these kingdoms of Malabar, besides the races of the kings and
gentiles and natives of the country, there are other foreign people
who are merchants and traders in this country, in which they possess
houses and estates; and they live like natives of the country, and
observe their own sect and customs, which are the following.
CHETIS.
Some of these are called Chetis,[242] who are gentiles, natives of
the province of Cholmender, which will be mentioned further on. For
the most part they are brown men, and some of them are almost white;
they are tall and stout. These people are considerable merchants and
changers, they deal in precious stones of all sorts, and in seed
pearl, coral, and other valuable merchandise; and in gold, silver,
either bullion or coined, which is a great article of trade amongst
them, because they rise and fall many times. They are rich and
respected, and live very decently; they have very good houses in
streets set apart for themselves; and also their temples and idols
are different from those of the country. They go bare from the waist
upwards, and have cotton cloths many cubits in length wrapped round
them; on their heads they wear small caps, and very long hair
gathered up inside the caps; their beards shaved, and a few pinches
of ashes with sandal and saffron, on their heads, breasts, and arms.
They have holes in their ears, so large that they would almost hold
an egg, full of rings of gold and jewelry, and many gold rings with
jewels on their fingers, and round their waists gold belts, some of
them studded with precious stones. They also carry with them
continually large bags in which their scales and weights are kept,
and their money, and jewels and pearls. And their sons as soon as
they have passed the age of ten do the same, and go about changing
small coin. They are great clerks and accountants, and make out all
their accounts on their fingers: they are great usurers, so much so
that from one brother to another they do not lend a real without
gain. They are very orderly people in their food and expenditure;
they keep account of everything, and are very subtle in their
dealings. Their language differs from that of the Malabars, like
that of Castilians and Portuguese. They marry in our fashion, and
their children are their heirs: and if their wives become widows,
they never marry again, however young they may be; but if the
husband becomes a widower he may marry again. Should the wife commit
adultery the husband may kill her with poison. And these people have
their own jurisdiction, and the king cannot have anything to say in
their deeds and faults; they do justice amongst one another, with
which the king is well-satisfied. When they die their bodies are
burned. They eat all flesh except cow.
GUZURATES.
There is another sect of gentile merchants in the city of Calicut,
which they call Guzarates, who are natives of the Kingdom of Cambay,
whose customs have already been related; and they observe them in
this city as in their own country. They are men who possess ships,
and trade in spices, drugs, cloth, copper, and other kinds of
merchandise from this place to the kingdom of Cambay, and that of
Decan, where they have other correspondents; and they at the same
time are correspondents of others. They have very good houses in
separate streets, and their temples and idols different from the
others, and many large and small bells in our fashion. The king
shows them great honour and favour, and is much pleased with them
because they give him much revenue from their trade. Some of them
also live in the city of Cananor, and others in Cochin; and so also
in other ports of Malabar. But in general most of them reside in
Calicut.
MAPULER.
In all this said country of Malabar there are a great quantity of
Moors, who are of the same language and colour as the gentiles of
the country. They go bare like the nairs, only they wear, to
distinguish themselves from the gentiles, small round caps on their
heads and their beards fully grown. So that it appears to me that
these people are a fifth part of all the inhabitants that there are
in this country. They call these Moors Mapulers, they carry on
nearly all the trade of the seaports: and in the interior of the
country they are very well provided with estates and farms. So that
if the King of Portugal had not discovered India this country would
have had a Moorish king: because many of the gentiles turned Moors
for any offence which they received amongst one another: and the
Moors did them great honour, and if they were women they immediately
married them. These people have many mosques in the country in which
they also unite in council.
PARDESY.
There were other foreign Moors in Calicut, whom they call Pardesy.
These are Arabs, Persians, Guzarates, Khorasanys, and Decanys: they
are great merchants, and possess in this place wives and children,
and ships for sailing to all parts with all kinds of goods. They
have among them a Moorish governor who rules over and chastises
them, without the king meddling with them. And before the King of
Portugal discovered the country they were so numerous and powerful
in the city of Calicut, that the gentiles did not venture to dispute
with them. And after that the King of Portugal made himself master
there, and these Moors saw that they could not defend it, they began
to leave the country, and little by little they went away from it,
so that very few of them remain. And at the time that they prospered
in their trade, without any exaggeration, they made ships in this
city of a thousand and of eleven hundred bahars bulk, which make
four quintals each.[243] These ships are with keels like ours and
without any nails, because they sew the planks with mat cords, very
well pitched, and the timber very good. The upper works are of
different patterns from ours, and without decks,[244] with divisions
in which they used to stow much pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon,
mace, nutmeg, long pepper, sandal and brazil wood, lac, cardamoms,
myrabolans, tamarinds, bamboos,[245] and all sorts of jewels and
pearls, musk, amber, rhubarb, aloes-wood, many fine cotton stuffs,
and much porcelain. And in this manner ten or twelve ships laden
with these goods sailed every year in the month of February, and
made their voyage to the Red Sea: and some of them were for the city
of Aden, and some for Jiddah the port of Mekkah, where they sold
their merchandise to others, who transported them thence in other
smaller vessels to Turkey and to Suez, and thence by land to Cairo,
and from Cairo to Alexandria. And these ships returned laden with
copper, quicksilver, vermilion, coral, saffron, coloured velvets,
rose-water, knives, coloured camlets, scarlet and other coloured
cloths, gold and silver, and other things, and they returned to
Calicut from August to the middle of October of the same year that
they sailed. These Moors were very well dressed and fitted out, and
were luxurious in eating and sleeping. The king gave to each one a
nair to guard and serve him, a Chety scribe for his accounts, and to
take care of his property, and a broker for his trade. To these
three persons such a merchant would pay something for their
maintenance, and all of them served very well, and when the merchant
bought spices the sellers gave him for each farazola of ginger,
which is of twenty-five pounds, three or four pounds of it for them;
and so of some other goods, which duties the merchant collects to
pay these officials of his. [_Here follow eleven lines in the Lisbon
edition, saying_:--These are white men and very gentlemanlike and of
good appearance, they go well dressed, and adorned with silk stuffs,
scarlet cloth, camlets and cottons: their head-dress wrapped round
their heads. They have large houses and many servants: they are very
luxurious in eating, drinking, and sleeping; and in this manner they
prospered until the Portuguese came to India: now there are hardly
any of them, and those that there are do not live at liberty.
Hitherto I have spoken at length of all the sects, and different
kinds of people of Malabar, and of some set apart in Calicut: now I
will relate the position of each kingdom by itself, and how the said
country of Malabar is divided.]
[_Here follows in the MS. No. 570 of the Munich Royal Library...._
SECTION OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE COUNTRY OF MALABAR IS DIVIDED,
AND OF THAT WHICH GROWS IN IT.