In This Kingdom There Are No Inns Or Houses Of Entertainment For
Travellers And Strangers.
But, in the cities and large towns, there are
handsome buildings for their reception, called serais, which are not
inhabited, in which any passengers may have rooms freely, but must bring
with them their bedding, cooks, and all other necessaries for dressing
their victuals.
These things are usually carried by travellers on
camels, or in carts drawn by oxen; taking likewise tents along with
them, to use when they do not find serais. The inferior people ride on
oxen, horses, mules, camels, or dromedaries, the women riding in the
same manner as the men; or else they use a kind of slight coaches on two
wheels, covered at top, and close behind, but open before and at the
sides, unless when they contain women, in which case they are close all
round. These coaches will conveniently hold two persons, besides the
driver, and are drawn by a pair of oxen, matched in colour, many of them
being white, and not large. The oxen are guided by cords which go
through the middle cartilage of the nose, and so between the horns into
the hand of the driver. The oxen are dressed and harnessed like horses,
and being naturally nimble, use makes them so expert, that they will go
twenty miles a-day or more, at a good pace. The better sort ride on
elephants, or are carried singly on men's shoulders, in a slight thing
called a palanquin, like a couch, but covered by a canopy. This would
appear to have been an ancient effeminacy used in Rome, as Juvenal
describes a fat lawyer who filled one of them:
Causidici nova, cam venial lectica Mathonis; plena ipso -
They delight much in hawking, and in hunting hares, deer, and other wild
animals. Their dogs of chase somewhat resemble our greyhounds, but are
much less, and do not open when in pursuit of their game. They use
leopards also in hunting, which attain the game they pursue by leaping.
They have a very cunning device for catching wild-fowl, in the following
manner: - A fellow goes into the water, having the skin of any kind of
fowl he wishes to catch, so artificially stuffed, that it seems alive.
Keeping his whole body under water except his face, which is covered by
this counterfeit, he goes among the wild-fowl which swim in the water,
and pulls them under by the legs. They shoot much for their amusement
with bows, which are curiously made of buffaloe's horn, glewed together,
their arrows being made of small canes, excellently headed and
feathered, and are so expert in archery, that they will kill birds
flying. Others take great delight in managing their horses. Though they
have not a quarter of a mile to go, they will either ride on horseback
or be carried, as men of any quality hold it dishonourable to go on foot
any where.
In their houses, they play much at that most ingenious game which we
call chess, or else at draughts.
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