These Tanks Are
Filled During The Rainy Season, And Contain Water For The Supply Of
Those Who Dwell Far From Springs Or Rivers, Till The Wet Season Again
Returns.
Water, the most ancient beverage in the world, is the common
drink of India, being more sweet and pleasant
Than ours, and agrees
better with the constitution in this hot country than any other liquor.
Some small quantity of wine is made among them, which they call arrack,
but is not common, being distilled from sugar, and the spicy rind of a
tree, which they call jagra. This is very wholesome, if used in
moderation. Many of the people, who are strict in their religion, use no
wine at all. They use a liquor which is more wholesome than pleasant,
called cohha; being a black seed boiled in water, which does not much
alter the taste of the water, but is an excellent helper of digestion,
serving to quicken the spirits, and to purify the blood.[232] There is
also another help for digestion and to comfort the stomach, used by
those who refrain from wine. This is an herb called betel, or paune,
its leaf resembling that of our ivy. They chew this leaf along with a
hard nut, called areka, somewhat like a nutmeg, mixing a little pure
white lime among the leaves; and when they have extracted the juice,
they throw away the remains. This has many rare qualities: It preserves
the teeth, comforts the brain, strengthens the stomach, and prevents a
bad breath.
[Footnote 232: The author here describes coffee, now so universally
known in Europe. - E.]
Their houses are generally very mean, except in the cities, where I have
seen many fair buildings. Many of the houses in these are high, with
flat roofs, where, in the cool of the mornings and evenings, they enjoy
the fresh air. Their houses have no chimneys, as they use no fires,
except for dressing their victuals. In their upper rooms, they have many
windows and doors, for admitting light and air, but use no glass. The
materials of their best houses are bricks and stone, well squared and
built, as I have observed in Ahmedabad, which may serve as an instance
for all. This is an extensive and rich city, compassed about with a
strong stone-wall, and entered by twelve handsome gates. Both in their
towns and villages, they have usually many fair trees among the houses,
being a great defence against the violence of the sun. These trees are
commonly so numerous and thick, that a city or town, when seen at a
distance from some commanding eminence, seems a wood or thicket.
The staple commodities of this empire are indigo and cotton. To produce
cotton, they sow seeds, which grow up into bushes like our rose-trees.
These produce first a yellow blossom, which falls off, and leaves a pod
about the size of a man's thumb, in which the substance at first is
moist and yellow. As this ripens, it swells larger, till at length it
bursts the covering, the cotton being then as white as snow. It is then
gathered. These shrubs continue to bear for three or four years, when
they have to be rooted out, and new ones substituted. Of this vegetable
wool, or cotton, they fabricate various kinds of pure white cloth, some
of which I have seen as fine as our best lawns, if not finer. Some of
the coarser sorts they dye in various colours, or stain with a variety
of curious figures.
The ships that go usually from Surat to Mokha, are of exceeding great
burden, some of them, as I believe, exceeding 1400 or 1600 tons; but
they are ill built, and though they have good ordnance, they are unable
for any defence. In these ships there are yearly a vast number of
passengers: As, for instance, in that year in which we left India, there
came 1700 persons, most of whom went not for profit, but out of
devotion, to visit the sepulchre of Mahomet at Medina near Mecca, about
150 leagues from Mokha. Those who have been upon this pilgrimage are
ever after called hoggeis, [hajim] or holy men. This ship, from
Surat for the Red Sea, begins her voyage about the 20th of March and
returns to Surat about the end of September following. The voyage is
short, and might easily be made in two months; but during the long
season of the rains, and a little before and after, the winds are mostly
so violent that there is no putting to sea without extreme hazard. The
cargo of this ship, on its return, is usually worth L200,000 sterling,
mostly in gold and silver. Besides this, and the quantities of money
which come yearly out of Europe, which I do not pretend to calculate,
many streams of silver flow continually thither, and there abide. It is
lawful for all to bring in silver, and to carry away commodities, but it
is a capital crime to carry away any great sums.
All the coin or bullion that comes to this country is presently melted
down and refined, and coined with the stamp of the Mogul, being his name
and title in Persian characters. This coin is purer silver than any
other that I know, being of virgin silver without alloy, so that in the
Spanish dollar, the purest money in Europe, there is some loss. Their
money is called rupees, which are of divers values, the meanest being
worth two shillings, and the best about two shillings and nine-pence.
This is their general money of account. There is in Guzerat a coin of
inferior value, called mamoodies, worth about twelve-pence each. Both
these and the rupees are likewise coined in halves and quarters; so that
three-pence is the smallest piece of current silver in the country. That
which passes current for small change is brass money, which they call
pices, of which three, or thereabout, are worth an English penny.
These are made so massy, that the brass in them, when put to other uses,
is well worth the quantity of silver at which they are rated.
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