The headdress of the men consists of colored Turkish turbans, with many feathers in them.  That of the king, which corresponds to a crown, has the form of a miter in its peak.  The remainder of the clothing universally consists of jackets which they call cheninas, and trousers of blue, crimson, green, or violet damask.  Of the same material are their cloaks, which are short and military, and fastened diagonally or knotted on the shoulder, after the fashion of the ancient Roman garments, as known to us by the writings, statues, and other traces of those times.  The women show off their hair, now letting it hang, and again knotting it upon the head, and placing various kinds of flowers in the bands that hold it; so that, in the adjustment of their headdress, they are not embarrassed by veils, plumage, or feathers.  All that variety, even without art, adorns them.  They wear bracelets, earrings, and necklaces of diamonds and rubies, and long strings of pearls—­ornaments that are not prohibited to the common people; as neither are silks, which are especially worn by the women after the fashion of Persians and Turks.  These are all the wealth of the seas and surrounding lands.  Men and women betoken in their dress the natural haughtiness of their disposition.  The variety of their languages is not little.  It may happen that one village cannot understand the language of the next.  Malay, being most easy to pronounce, is most common.  From the variety of languages it is inferred that these islands have been populated by different nations.  Antiquity, and the art of navigating in those districts, is ascribed to the Chinese.  Others affirm that the Malucos are descended from the Javanese, who, attracted by the sweetness of the odors wafted by the spices, stopped at Maluco.  They took a cargo of cloves, which until then were unknown, and, continuing to trade in these, carried them in their vessels to the Persian and Arabian straits.  They went throughout those provinces, carrying also ilks, and chinaware—­products of the resources and skill of the Chinese.  The cloves, by means of the Persians and Arabs, came to the Greeks and Romans.  Several Roman emperors tried to conquer the east, in order to find the spice regions, so much did they desire the spice.  Believing that they all came from China, they gave them Chinese names.  The Spaniards formerly brought the spices with other merchandise from the Bermejo [i.e., Red] or Erithrean Sea.  The kings of Egypt once gained possession of the spices, and they reached Europe by way of the Asiatics.  When the Romans made Egypt one of their provinces, they continued the trade.  The Genoese, much later, transferring the commerce to Theodosia (now Cafa) distributed the spices, and there Venecia and other trading nations established their agents and factories.  They sailed later by way of the Caspian Sea and Trapisonda; but the trade fell with the empire, and the Turks carried this merchandise in caravans of camels and dromedaries