A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1583-91. 



and then they give somewhat to the poore which be 

 alwayes there, and to the Bramane or priest they give 

 the cowe and calfe, and afterward goe to divers of their 

 idoles and offer money, and lie downe flat upon the 

 ground and kisse it divers times, and then goe their way. 

 Their chiefe idoles bee blacke and evill favoured, their 

 mouthes monstrous, their eares gilded, and full of jewels, 

 their teeth and eyes of gold, silver, and glasse, some 

 having one thing in their handes, and some another. 

 You may not come into the houses where they stand, 

 with your shooes on. They have continually lampes 



Patenaw. burning before them. From Bannaras I went to Patenaw 

 downe the river of Ganges : where in the way we passed 

 many faire townes, and a countrey very fruitfull : and 

 many very great rivers doe enter into Ganges, and 

 some of them as great as Ganges, which cause Ganges 

 to bee of a great breadth, and so broad that in the time 

 of raine you cannot see from one side to the other. 

 These Indians when they bee scorched and throwen into 

 the water, the men swimme with their faces downewards, 

 the women with their faces upwards, I thought they tied 

 something to them to cause them to doe so : but they 

 say no. There be very many thieves in this countrey, 

 which be like to the Arabians : for they have no certaine 

 abode, but are sometime in one place and sometime in 

 another. Here the women bee so decked with silver 

 and copper, that it is strange to see, they use no shooes 

 by reason of the rings of silver and copper which they 



Gold found, weare on their toes. Here at Patanaw they finde gold 

 in this maner. They digge deepe pits in the earth, and 

 wash the earth in great bolles, and therein they finde 

 the gold, and they make the pits round about with 

 bricke, that the earth fall not in. Patenaw is a very 

 long and a great towne. In times past it was a king- 

 dom, but now it is under Zelabdim Echebar the great 

 Mogor. The men are tall and slender, and have many 

 old folks among them : the houses are simple, made of 

 earth and covered with strawe, the streetes are very large. 



480 



