28 Travels in India. Part II. 



are fenc'd with very good Ditches ; and to every Field there belongs a Pond to 

 preierve the water. There is this great inconvenience for Travellers • that when 

 they meet with thefc numerous Caravans in ftreight places, they are fore'd to 

 (toy two or three days till they are all pair by. They that drive thefe Oxen, follow 

 no other Calling as long as they live, nor do they dwell in houfes \ yet they carry 

 their Wives and Children along with them. There are Come among them that have 

 an hundred Oxen of their own, others more or lets ; and they have always one 

 who is their Chief, that takes as much itate as a Prince, and has his Chain of Pearl 

 hanging about his neck. When the Caravan that carries the Corn, and that which 

 carries the Salt happen to meet, rather than yield the road, they frequently enter 

 into very bloody Difputes. The Great Mogult confidering one day that thefc 

 quarrels were very prejudicial to Trade*, and the transportation of ncccllary Pro- 

 vifions from place to place, lent for the two Chiefs of the Caravan, and after he 

 had exhorted them, for the common good and their own intereit, to live quietly 

 together, and not to quarrel and fight when they met, gave to each of them a 

 Leek, or an hundred thoufand Roupies, and a Chain of Pearl. 



That the Reader may the better underhand the manner of travelling in the /«- 

 dies s hc is to take notice,that among the Idolaters of that Countrey there are four 

 Tribes, which are called ALimirts, each of which may confiftof an hundred thou- 

 fand Souls. Thefe people live always in Tents, and live onlv upon the traniporting 

 of Merchandize from Countrey to Countrey. .. The firft of thefe Tribes carrv no- 

 thing but Corn, the fecondRice, the third Pufie, and the fourth Salt, which they 

 fetch from Sttratt, and all along from as fir as Capc-Canwri*. Theic Tribes are 

 alfo diftinguifhed in this manner : Their Priefts, of whom I fhall fpeak in another 

 place, mark the forheads of the firft, with a red-Gum, about the bredth of a 

 Crown } and then they draw a Itreak all the length of his nole, fticking grains of 

 Wheat upon it, fometimes ten, and Iometimes twelve. Thole of the fecond Tribe 

 are mark'd with yellow-Gum in the fame place, with grains of Rice. Thole of 

 the third are mark'd with a grev-Gum, down to the moulders, and grains of 

 Millet. Thole of the fourth Tribe carry tied about their necks a Bagg, with a 

 great lump of Salt in it, weighing Iometimes eight or ten pounds, ('for the hea- 

 vier it is^the more they glory in carrying it 5 ) and with this Bagg they thump 

 their itomacks, as a fign of repentance every morning before they lay their Pray- 

 ers. They have all in general a little line or twilr, like a Scarf, about their necks, 

 at the end whereof hangs a little Silver-box, like a Relique-bex, wherein they 

 enclofe a little fuperftitious writing which their Priefts give them ; they tie them 

 alfo about their Oxen and other Cattel, which are bredm their Herds, for which 

 they have a particular a;feclion, and love them as tenderlv as children, efpecially 

 if they have no children of their own. Their Women wear only a piece of Ca- 

 licut white or painted, fome fix or five times doubled from their wafts down- 

 ward. From their wafts upward they cut their rlefh into lcveral forms of 

 Flowers, as they. do that apply Cupping-glafles, which they paint in various 

 colours with the juice of Grapes, that their skin feems to be all made of Flower?. 



Every morning, while the men load the Eeafts, and that the Women fold up the 

 Tents, the Priefts that follow them, fet up in the molt convenient place of the 

 Plain where they lodg'd a certain Idol in the form of a Serpent in wreaths, upon 

 a Perch fix or feven foot high ; to which they come all in files to worfhip, their 

 Women going three times about. After the Ceremony is over, the Priefts take 

 care of the Idol, and load it upon an Ox particularly appointed for that pur- 

 pofe. 



The Caravan of Waggons feldom exceeds the number of an hundred or two 

 hundred at moft. Every Waggon is drawn by ten or twelve Oxen i and attended 

 by four Souldiers, which the perfbn that owes the Merchandize is oblig'd to pay. 

 Two of them march upon each fide of the Waggon, over which there are two 

 Ropes thrown a-crofs, the ends whereof they hold in their hands, to the end, that 

 if the Waggon come to lean on one-fide in ill-wav, the two Souldiers on the 

 other fide may keep it from over-turning, by pulling the Ropes with all their 

 ftrength. 



All the Waggons that come to Suratt, either from Jlgra, or any other parts 

 of the Empire, and which return through Afr*\ or fanabatt, are bound to carry 



back 



