AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1563-81. 



the Indies, for hee can make but seventie thousand 

 men of armes in his campe : hee hath a great number 

 of Gentlemen which hee calleth Amochi, and some are 

 called Nairi : these two sorts of men esteeme not their 

 lives any thing, so that it may be for the honour of 

 their king, they will thrust themselves forward in every 

 danger, although they know they shall die. These men 

 goe naked from the girdle upwardes, with a clothe 

 rolled about their thighs, going barefooted, and having 

 their haire very long and rolled up together on the toppe 

 of their heads, and alwayes they carrie their Bucklers 

 or Targets with them and their swordes naked, these 

 Nairi have their wives common amongst themselves, and 

 when any of them goe into the house of any of these 

 women, hee leaveth his sworde and target at the doore, 

 and the time that hee is there, there dare not any bee 

 so hardie as to come into that house. The kings 

 children shall not inherite the kingdome after their 

 father, because they hold this opinion, that perchance 

 they were not begotten of the king their father, but 

 of some other man, therefore they accept for their king, 

 one of the sonnes of the kings sisters, or of some other 

 woman of the blood roial, for that they be sure they 

 are of the blood roiall. 

 A very The Nairi and their wives use for a braverie to 



strange thing niake pfreat holes in their eares, and so bigge and wide, 

 jj I l ^ that it is incredible, holding this opinion, that the greater 



the holes bee, the more noble they esteeme themselves. 

 I had leave of one of them to measure the circum- 

 ference of one of them with a threed, and within that 

 circumference I put my arme up to the shoulder, clothed 

 as it was, so that in effect they are monstrous great. 

 Thus they doe make them when they be litle, for then 

 they open the eare, & hang a piece of gold or lead 

 thereat, & within the opening, in the hole they put a 

 certaine leafe that they have for that purpose, which 

 maketh the hole so great. They lade ships in Cochin 

 for Portugale and for Ormus, but they that goe for 



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