All This Coast Is Much Infested With Ravenous
Beasts, Monkeys, And Serpents, Of Which Last Here Are Some Seven
Feet
In length, and thicker than an ordinary man; in the head of
this serpent is found a stone about the
Bigness of an egg,
resembling bezoar, and of great efficacy, as it is said, against all
kinds of poison. I stayed here some time to inform myself whether I
might, by pursuing this road, reach Abyssinia; and could get no
other intelligence but that two thousand Galles (the same people who
inhabited Melinda) had encamped about three leagues from Jubo; that
they had been induced to fix in that place by the plenty of
provisions they found there. These Galles lay everything where they
come in ruin, putting all to the sword without distinction of age or
sex; which barbarities, though their numbers are not great, have
spread the terror of them over all the country. They choose a king,
whom they call Lubo: every eighth year they carry their wives with
them, and expose their children without any tenderness in the woods,
it being prohibited, on pain of death, to take any care of those
which are born in the camp. This is their way of living when they
are in arms, but afterwards when they settle at home they breed up
their children. They feed upon raw cow's flesh; when they kill a
cow, they keep the blood to rub their bodies with, and wear the guts
about their necks for ornaments, which they afterwards give to their
wives.
Several of these Galles came to see me, and as it seemed they had
never beheld a white man before, they gazed on me with amazement; so
strong was their curiosity that they even pulled off my shoes and
stockings, that they might be satisfied whether all my body was of
the same colour with my face. I could remark, that after they had
observed me some time, they discovered some aversion from a white;
however, seeing me pull out my handkerchief, they asked me for it
with a great deal of eagerness; I cut it into several pieces that I
might satisfy them all, and distributed it amongst them; they bound
them about their heads, but gave me to understand that they should
have liked them better if they had been red: after this we were
seldom without their company, which gave occasion to an accident,
which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first, turned
afterwards to our advantage.
As these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day
threatened in jest to kill one of them. The black ran in the utmost
dread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered
with Galles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the
first impulse of their fury, and retired into our house. Our
retreat inspired them with courage; they redoubled their cries, and
posted themselves on an eminence near at hand that overlooked us;
there they insulted us by brandishing their lances and daggers.
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