Lest this remote country might seem an earthly paradise, without any inconveniences, I must notice that it contains many lions, tigers, wolves, and jackals, which are a kind of wild dogs, besides many other noxious and hurtful animals.  In their rivers they have many crocodiles, and on the land many overgrown snakes and serpents, with other venomous and pernicious creatures.  In the houses we often meet with scorpions, whose stinging is most painful and even deadly, unless the part be immediately anointed with an oil made of scorpions.[233] The abundance of flies in those parts is likewise an extreme annoyance; as, in the heat of the day, their numbers are so prodigious, that we cannot have peace or rest for them in any part.  They cover our meat the moment it is set on the table, wherefore we are obliged to have men standing ready to drive them away with napkins, while we are eating.  In the night, likewise, we are much disquieted with musquetos, like our gnats, but somewhat less; and, in the cities, there are such numbers of large hungry rats, that they often bite people as they sleep in their beds.

[Footnote 233:  This is a mere fancy, as any bland oil is equally efficacious.—­E.]

In this country the winds, which are called monsoons, blow constantly, or altering only a few points, for six months from the south, and other six months from the north.  The months of April and May, and the beginning of June, till the rains come, are extremely hot; and the wind, which then sometimes blows gently over the parched ground, becomes so heated, as much oppresses all who are exposed to it:  Yet God so mercifully provides for our relief, that most commonly he sends so strong a gale as greatly tempers the sultry air.  Sometimes the wind blows very high during the hot and dry season, raising up vast quantities of dust and sand, like dark clouds pregnant with rain, and which often prodigiously annoy the people among whom they fall.  But there is no country without its inconveniences; for the wise Disposer of all events hath attempered bitter things with sweet, to teach mankind that there is no true or perfect contentment to be found, but only in the kingdom of God.

This country has many excellent horses, which the inhabitants know well how to manage.  Besides those bred in the country, they have many of the Tartarian, Persian, and Arabian breeds, which last is considered as the best in the world.  They are about as large as ours, and are valued among them at as dear a rate as we usually esteem ours, perhaps higher.  They are kept very daintily, every good horse being allowed one man to dress and feed him.  Their provender is a species of grain called donna, somewhat like our pease, which are boiled, and then given cold to the horses, mixed with coarse sugar; and twice or thrice a week they have butter given them to scour their bodies.  There are likewise in this country a great number of camels, dromedaries, mules, asses, and some rhinoceroses.  These are huge beasts, bigger than the fattest oxen to be seen in England, and their skins lie upon their bodies in plaits or wrinkles.