The great Turk hath this Shaugh in great reuerence, because he
hath reigned king so long time.
[Sidenote: The succession of the kingdom.] I haue sayd before that hee hath
foure wiues, and as many: concubines as him listeth: and if he chance to
haue any children by any of his concubines, and be minded that any of those
children shall inherite after him, then when one of his wiues dieth, the
concubine whom hee so fauoureth, hee maketh one of his wiues, and the
childe whom he so loueth best, he ordaineth to bee king after him.
[Sidenote: Circumcision.] What I heard of the maner of their mariages, for
offending of honest consciences and chaste ears, I may not commit to
writing: their fasting I haue declared before. They vse circumcision vnto
children of seuen yeeres of age, as do the Turkes.
[Sidenote: Their houses, and maner of eating.] Their houses (as I haue
sayd) are for the most part made of bricke, not burned but only dried in
the Sunne: In their houses they haue but litle furniture of houshold
stuffe, except it be their carpets and some copper worke: for all their
kettles and dishes wherein they eate, are of copper. They eate on the
ground, sitting on carpets crosse legged as do Tailors. There is no man so
simple but he sitteth on a carpet better or worse, and the whole house or
roume wherein he sitteth is wholy couered with carpets. Their houses are
all with flat roofes couered with earth: and in the Sommer time they lie
vpon them all night.
[Sidenote: Bondmen and bondwomen.] They haue many bond seruants both men
and women. Bondmen and bondwomen, is one of the best kind of merchandise
that any man may bring. When they buy any maydes or yong women, they yse to
fede them in all partes, as with vs men doe horses: when one hath bought a
yong woman, if he like her, be will keepe her for his owne vse as long as
him listeth, and then selleth her to an other, who doth the like with her.
So that one woman is sometimes sold in the space of foure or fiue yeeres,
twelue, or twentie times. If a man keepe a bondwoman for his owne vse, and
if hee find her to be false to him, and giue her body to any other, he may
kill her if he will.
[Sidenote: Women bought and sold, and let to hire.] When a merchant or
traueller commeth to any towne where he entendeth to tary any time, he
hireth a woman, or sometimes 2. or 3. during his abode there. And when he
commeth to an other towne, he doeth the like in the same also: for there
they vse to put out their women to hire, as wee do here hackney horses.
[Sidenote: Abundance of oile issuing out of the ground.] There is a very
great riuer which runneth through the plaine of Iauat, which falleth into
the Caspian sea, by a towne called Bachu, neere vnto which towne is a
strange thing to behold. For there issueth out of the ground a marueilous
quantitie of oile, which oile they fetch from the uttermost bounds of all
Persia: it serueth all the countrey to burn in their houses.
This oyle is blacke, and is called Nefte: [Footnote: These springs are
still in existence.] they vse to cary it throughout all the Countrey vpon
kine and asses, of which you shall oftentimes meet with foure or fiue
hundred in a company. [Sidenote: Oleum Petroleum.] There is also by the
said towne of Bachu another kind of oyle which is white and very precious:
and is supposed to be the same that here is called Petroleum. There is also
not far from Shamaky, a thing like vnto tarre, and issueth out of the
ground, [Footnote: These springs are still in existence.] whereof we haue
made the proofe, that in our ships it serueth well in the stead of tarre.
[Sidenote: Two sorts of kine.] In Persia are kine of two sorts: the one
like vnto ours in these partes: the other are marueilous euill fauoured,
with great bones and very leane, and but litle haire vpon them: their milke
is walowish sweete: they are like vnto them which are spoken of in the
Scripture, which in the dreame of Pharao signified the seuen deare yeeres:
for a leaner or more euill fauoured beast can no man see.
[Sidenote: Foxes in great plenty.] In the countrey of Shiruan (sometime
called Media) if you chance to lie in the fields neere vnto any village, as
the twilight beginneth, you shall haue about you two or three hundred
foxes, which make a marueilous wawling or howling: and if you looke not
well to your victuals, it shal scape them hardly but they will haue part
with you.
The Caspian sea doeth neither ebbe nor flowe, except sometimes by rages of
wind it swelleth vp very high: the water is very salt. Howbeit, the
quantitie of water that falleth out of the great riuer of Volga maketh the
water fresh at the least twentie leagues into the sea. The Caspian sea is
marueilous full of fish, but no kind of monstrous fish, as farre as I could
vnderstand, yet hath it sundry sortes of fishes which are not in these
parts of the world.
The mutton there is good, and the sheepe great, hauing very great rumpes
with much fat vpon them.
Rice and mutton Is their chiefe victual.
* * * * *
The copy of a letter sent to the Emperour of Moscouie, by Christopher
Hodsdon and William Burrough, Anno 1570.
