and to attempt some other way, yet my last error seemed worse than ever.  Endeavouring to inspire him with confidence, I made him lie grovelling on his belly, and, by cords tied to his feet, I raised up the hinder part of his body, so that he rested only on his breast and hands; and in this posture I administered to him another glyster, allowing him to remain in that position for half an hour.  On beholding this strange mode of practice, my Persian friend asked me, if that was the manner of treating sick people in my country, to which I answered that it was, but only in cases of extremity; on which he observed with a smile, that he believed it would certainly relieve him one way or other.  In the mean time, the sick man cried out in his own language, “It is enough, it is enough, for my soul now departeth.”  We comforted him as well as we could, desiring him to have patience yet a little longer; and almost immediately his belly was loosened, and he voided like a gutter.  We then let him down, and he continued to discharge a prodigious quantity, so that shortly the pain of his head and stomach left him, and his fever was assuaged, which gave us all great joy.  By this adventurous cure, and my counterfeit holiness, I grew into great credit, and when my patient offered me ten pieces of gold as my reward, I would only accept two, which I gave away immediately among the poor.

These silly people believed implicitly in my hypocrisy, which I shewed in a constrained gravity of countenance and deportment, and by forbearing openly from eating flesh, insomuch that all thought themselves happy to have me at their houses, or to kiss my hands and feet.  The report also of my companion, that he had met with me first at Mecca, where I had gone to see the body of the holy prophet Mahomet, greatly increased among the Mahometans the opinion of my sanctity.  But all this while, I used to resort secretly in the night to the house of the Milanese Christians; and learning from them that the twelve Portuguese ships were arrived at Cananore, I thought that it was now a favourable opportunity for me to escape.  I remained, however, for seven days more, learning every thing I could respecting the preparations that were making by the king of Calicut and his people against the Portuguese, in regard to their army, artillery, and every thing relative to the war.  But, before I speak of the manner of my departure, it may be proper to say something of the religious practices of the Mahometans.

For calling the people to the mosque, their priests and other ministers, of whom there are a great number, ascend to the highest tower of the temple, where they sound three or four brass trumpets instead of bells, and then call to the people in a loud voice to come to prayers.  Then stopping one ear with their finger, they call out in their own language, Alla u eccubar, etc. That is to say, “God is great!  God is great!  Come to the temple of the great God!  Come pray to the great God!  God is