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:
