Booklll. Travels in India. 



CHAP. XIII. 



Of the Pilgrimages of the Idolaters to their Tagods. 



ALL the Idolaters under the Dominion of the Great Mogul, and o^her 

 Princes, both on this fide and beyond Ganges, at leaft once in their lives 

 go in Pilgrimage to one of thefe Pagods that I have nam'd j but moft gene- 

 rally to that of fngrenate, as being the firit and moft confiderable above all the 

 reft. The Bramins and rich people go oftner. For fome go every four years, 

 fome every fix, or eight j and putting the Idols of their Pagods upon Pallekies 

 cover'd with Tilfues, they travell with their Bramins , as it were in proceiTion to 

 the Pagod which they moft efteem. 



They go not in Pilgrimage one by one, or two and two, but whole Towns, 

 and many times feveral Towns together. The poor that go a great way, 

 are fupply'd by the richj who fpend very freely in fuch ads of Charity. The 

 rich travel in Pallekies or Chariots, the poor on foot, or upon Oxen j the Wife 

 carrying the Child, and the man the Kitchrn Implements. 



The Idol which. they carry in proceflion, by way of vifit, and out of refpeft 

 to the great Ram-Ram, lies at length in a rich Palleky, cover'd with Tiflue 

 of Gold and Silver, fring'd as richly ; the Mattrefs arid Bolfter being of the 

 fame ftuff under the head, feet, and elbows. The Bramins : alfo diftribute Fla- 

 bels to the moft confiderable of the Company, the handles whereof being eight 

 foot long, are plated with Gold and Silver, the Flabel being three foot in Dia- 

 meter, of the lame Tiffue as the Pallekies $ round about, it is adorn'd with 

 Peacocks Feathers to gather more wind, and fometimes with Bells to make a 

 kind of tingling. There are fix of thefe Flabels ufually employM to keep off 

 the Flies from their God j the better fort taking it by turns, that the honour 

 of waiting upon their God may be more equally fhar'd. 



CHAP. XIV. 



Of divers Cuftoms of the Indian Idolaters. 



TH E Bramins are well skill'd in Aftrology \ and will exaftly foretell to the peo- 

 ple the Eclipfes of the Sun and Moon. The fecond of fulj 1666 3 about one 

 a Clock in the afternoon, at Patna in Bengala , there was an Eclipfe 

 of the Sun ; at which time it was a prodigious thing to fee the multitudes of 

 people, men, women, and children, that ran to the River Ganges, to warn them- 

 ielves. But it behoves them to begin to warn three days before the Eclipfe } 

 all which time they labour day and night in providing all forts of Rice, Milk, 

 Meats, and Sweatmeats, to throw to the Fifh and Crocodiles, as foon as the 

 Bramins give the word. Whatever Eclipfe it be whether of the Sun or Moon,; 

 the Idolaters as foon as it appears, break all their Earthen Pots and Difhes in 

 the houfe, which makes a hideous noife altogether. 



Every Bramin has his Magick Book, wherein are abundance of Circles and 

 Semicircles, Squares, Triangles, and feveral forts of Cifers. They alia .make 

 feveral Figures upon the ground, arid when they find that the 1 good hour is 

 come, they cry aloud to the people to feed the fifh. Then there enfiie,s 

 a moft horrible din bf Drums, Bells, and great noife of founding Mettal,which they 

 twang one againft another. 'And as foon as the victuals are thrown into the Ri- 

 ver ^ the people areto go ih and tfrafliand rub themfelves till the Eclipfe be 0- 

 ver. So that in regard the waters were at that time very high,for more than three 

 Leagues above and below the City, and all the breadth of the River, there 



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