ad. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1583. 



churned milke we gave them bread and pomgranat 

 peeles, wherewith they use to tanne their goats skinnes 

 which they churne withall. Their haire, apparell, and 

 colour are altogether like to those vagabond Egyptians, 

 The Arabian which heretofore have gone about in England. Their 



ZVOTtlCTl weare 11*1 • 1 



,, . . women all without exception weare a great round ring 



golde rings in . r 1 • 1 r 1 i -i ° 1 



their nostrels. in one °* tneir nostrels, or golde, silver, or yron, accord- 

 ing to their ability, and about their armes and smalles 

 of their legs they have hoops of golde, silver or yron. 

 All of them aswel women and children as men, are very 

 great swimmers, and often times swimming they brought 

 us milke to our barke in vessels upon their heads. 

 These people are very theevish, which I proved to my 

 cost: for they stole a casket of mine, with things of good 

 value in the same, from under my mans head as he was 

 asleepe : and therefore travellers keepe good watch as 

 Euphrates de- they passe downe the river. Euphrates at Birrah is 

 scribed. about the breadth of the Thames at Lambeth, and in 



some places narrower, in some broader : it runneth 

 very swiftly, almost as fast as the river of Trent : it 

 hath divers sorts of fish in it, but all are scaled, some 

 Felugia. as bigge as salmons, like barbils. We landed at Felugia 



the eight and twentieth of June, where we made our 

 abode seven dayes, for lacke of camels to cary our goods 

 to Babylon : the heat at that time of the yere is such 

 in those parts, that men are loth to let out their camels 

 to travell. This Felugia is a village of some hundred 

 houses, and a place appointed for discharging of 

 such goods as come downe the river : the inhabitants 

 are Arabians. Not finding camels here, we were con- 

 strained to unlade our goods, and hired an hundred 

 asses to cary our English marchandises onely to New 

 Babylon over a short desert, in crossing whereof we 

 spent eighteene houres travelling by night, and part of 

 the morning, to avoid the great heat. 

 The mines of \ n this place which we crossed over, stood the olde 

 olde Babylon, ^^y c ' lt y Q f Babylon, many olde mines wherof are 

 easily to be seene by day-light, which I John Eldred 



4 



