RALPH FITCH ad 



1583-91. 

 some are of brasse and some of silver : but those of 

 silver be for the king and his noble men. These are 

 gilded and made with great cunning, and ring like a 

 litle bell. There are some made of leade, which they 

 call Selwy because they ring but litle : and these be of 

 lesser price for the poorer sort. The king sometimes 

 taketh his out, and giveth them to his noblemen as a 

 great gift : and because he hath used them, they esteeme 

 them greatly. They will put one in, and heale up the 

 place in seven or eight dayes. 



The Bramas which be of the kings countrey (for the 

 king is a Brama) have their legs or bellies, or some 

 part of their body, as they thinke good themselves, made 

 black with certaine things which they have : they use 

 to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kinde of anile 

 or blacking, which doth continue alwayes. And this is 

 counted an honour among them : but none may have 

 it but the Bramas which are of the kings kinred. 



These people weare no beards: they pull out the The people of 

 haire on their faces with little pinsons made for that Pegu weare m 

 purpose. Some of them will let 16 or 20 haires grow ^^^ ^' 

 together, some in one place of his face and some in 

 another, and pulleth out all the rest : for he carieth 

 his pinsons alwayes with him to pull the haires out 

 assoone as they appeare. If they see a man with a 

 beard they wonder at him. They have their teeth 

 blacked both men and women, for they say a dogge 

 hath his teeth white, therefore they will blacke theirs. 



The Pegues if they have a sute in the law which is 

 so doubtfull that they cannot well determine it, put two 

 long canes into the water where it is very deepe : and 

 both the parties go into the water by the poles, and 

 there sit men to judge, and they both do dive under 

 the water, and he which remaineth longest under the 

 water doth winne the sute. 



The 10 of January 1 went from Pegu to Malacca, Malacca. 

 passing by many of the ports of Pegu, as Martavan, 

 the Hand of Tavi, from whence commeth great store of 

 V 497 21 



