much bigger and fiercer than ours.  Their buffaloes are not so good as those of Italy.  This coast has abundance of fine large fish, which are sold very cheap.  The natives eat the flesh of all kinds of beasts except cows, and feed sitting on the ground without cloth or carpet, having their meat in wooden vessels artificially wrought.  Their drink is sugar and water.  Their beds are raised from the ground like ours.  Their apparel is a cloak or mantle of cotton cloth, leaving one arm bare, but some wear inner vests or shirts of silk or cotton.  All go bareheaded, except the priests, who have a kind of caps of two spans long on their heads, with a knob on the top about the size of an acorn, all sparkling with gold.  They delight in ear-rings, but have neither rings nor bracelets.  The complexion of the natives inclines towards fair, as the air is more temperate than at Calicut.  In their tillage and reaping there is little difference from the manner of Italy.

[Footnote 86:  It is not easy to conceive by what means this could be, as Pegu, Ava, Aracan, and Tipera, intervene between Tanaserim and Bengal, and the bay of Bengal between Tanaserim and Narsinga or the Carnatic, none of the powers mentioned being possessed of any maritime force.—­E.]

When the king or any of the priests or great men die, their bodies are burnt on a large pile of wood, and all the while the assistants sacrifice to the devil.  The ashes are then gathered into earthen jars like those of Samos, and are preserved or buried in their houses.  While the bodies are burning, they cast into the fire all manner of perfumes, as wood of aloes, myrrh, frankincense, storax, sandal-wood, and many other sweet gums, spices, and woods:  In the mean time also, they make an incessant noise with drums, trumpets, pipes, and other instruments, much like what was done of old by the Greeks and Romans, when deifying their departed great men.  Likewise during these obsequies, there are 15 or 20 persons disguised like devils, continually walking round the fire with strange gesticulations.  All the while the wife of the deceased stands alone beside the fire weeping and lamenting her loss.  Fifteen days afterwards she invites all the kindred of her husband to a feast, when they go at night in a body to the place where the husband was burnt, the widow being dressed in all her jewels and richest attire, using on this occasion the help of her relations to decorate her person to the utmost.  At this place a pit of some size is prepared and filled with dry reeds, covered over with a silk cloth to conceal the pit.  Then a fire of sweet woods is kindled in the pit; and when all the guests have been heartily feasted, the widow having eaten a great quantity of betola so as to make her mad or drunk, a great company of their musicians habited like devils, with burning sticks in their mouths, dance around the fire, and then make a sacrifice to the great devil Deumo.  The widow then runs about like a person bereaved of