to their ability, and take these to the merchants, who are keeping indoors for fear of the sun, and say to them:  “These cost me such a price; now give me what profit you please on them.”  So the merchant gives something over the cost price for their profit.  They do in the same way with many other articles, so that they become trained to be very dexterous and keen traders.  And every day they take their food to their mothers to be cooked and served, but do not eat a scrap at the expense of their fathers.]

In this kingdom and all over India the birds and beasts are entirely different from ours, all but one bird which is exactly like ours, and that is the Quail.  But everything else is totally different.  For example they have bats,—­I mean those birds that fly by night and have no feathers of any kind; well, their birds of this kind are as big as a goshawk!  Their goshawks again are as black as crows, a good deal bigger than ours, and very swift and sure.

Another strange thing is that they feed their horses with boiled rice and boiled meat, and various other kinds of cooked food.  That is the reason why all the horses die off.[NOTE 17]

They have certain abbeys in which are gods and goddesses to whom many young girls are consecrated; their fathers and mothers presenting them to that idol for which they entertain the greatest devotion.  And when the [monks] of a convent[2] desire to make a feast to their god, they send for all those consecrated damsels and make them sing and dance before the idol with great festivity.  They also bring meats to feed their idol withal; that is to say, the damsels prepare dishes of meat and other good things and put the food before the idol, and leave it there a good while, and then the damsels all go to their dancing and singing and festivity for about as long as a great Baron might require to eat his dinner.  By that time they say the spirit of the idols has consumed the substance of the food, so they remove the viands to be eaten by themselves with great jollity.  This is performed by these damsels several times every year until they are married.[NOTE 18]

[The reason assigned for summoning the damsels to these feasts is, as the monks say, that the god is vexed and angry with the goddess, and will hold no communication with her; and they say that if peace be not established between them things will go from bad to worse, and they never will bestow their grace and benediction.  So they make those girls come in the way described, to dance and sing, all but naked, before the god and the goddess.  And those people believe that the god often solaces himself with the society of the goddess.

The men of this country have their beds made of very light canework, so arranged that, when they have got in and are going to sleep, they are drawn up by cords nearly to the ceiling and fixed there for the night.  This is done to get out of the way of tarantulas which give terrible bites, as well as of fleas and such vermin, and at the same time to get as much air as possible in the great heat which prevails in that region.  Not that everybody does this, but only the nobles and great folks, for the others sleep on the streets.[NOTE 19]]