Chap. II. to the EAST-INDIES. 
them a-drift, fo that they float up and down till they are 
quite burnt ; and this they take for a Sacrifice that is ac- 
ceptable to the King of the Winds. But when they can- 
not eafily fet their Boats and Gallies afloat, they kill Hens 
and Cocks, and throw them into the Sea right afore the 
Ship they mean to fail in. They likewife pay a fuperftiti- 
ous Deference to the imaginary King of the Sea, and dare 
not fpit to the Windward of the Ship, nor look behind 
them. 
All their Boats and Ships are devoted to the Prince of 
the Winds and Seas, and they keep them as neat and 
dean as Temples. They place a wonderful Virtue in cer- 
tain Characters called Cavide , which they wear under their 
Garments in little Boxes, and fometimes under their A rms, 
Necks, Girdles, or Feet, according to the Seat of the Di- 
ftemper } for, their imaginary Virtue is faid to confift in 
curing or eafing Difeafes, procuring Love, Hatred, Safety, 
or Danger, &c. Thefe they buy of the Magicians, who 
are their only Phyficians. They impute Death, Sicknefs, 
and all Affliction to the Devil ; and, in order to pacify 
him, make him Offerings of Flowers and Banquets in a 
certain Place, where they let them confume, unlefs fome 
poor body has the Senfe to take them. With the fame 
View they offer him Cocks and Hens, which they kill 
with their Faces directed towards Mohammed* s Tomb. 
20. To give a fhort Account of their moft common 
Diftempers; the firft is a Fever, which is dangerous to 
Strangers. An epidemical and contageous Difeafe called 
Curiadin , and not unlike the Small-pox, vifits them once 
in ten Years, and fweeps off a great many. They are 
liable to Diforders of the Eyes ; many of them are quite 
blind, and moft of them have little Eyes. When they 
have Occafion to be long in the Sun, in the Height of the 
Day, they fometimes lofe their Sight when the Sun goes 
down, and for a Cure of that Infirmity, they take the Liver 
of a Cock boiled, and after the writing of certain Words 
and Charms upon it, fwallow it juft before Sun-fet •, by this 
Remedy both I and my Companions received a confider- 
able Benefit, though we omitted the magical Part. They 
are very fubjeCt to the Itch, which they heal with the Oil 
of Cocoas, and fome of them are covered all over with in- 
curable Tetters, which is owing to their feeding moftly upon 
Salt-fifh, and their pouring fait Water upon their fait 
Meat. 
In the Winter, as they go barefoot, notwithftanding 
that it rains continually, a fort of Worm breeding in the 
Mud feizes upon the Soals of their Feet, and the Intervals 
of their Toes, where they raife Wheals that degenerate into 
Ulcers, fo that they cannot walk ; their whole Body is like- 
wife infefted with thefe Worms. Commonly their Spleens 
are large, and liable to Obftrudtions, and their Bellies are 
apt to fwell, and be hard, which they believe proceeds 
from their unhealthy Water. In all external Inflamma- 
tions, or Aches, they apply Fire, which raifes a Scar, and 
upon that they lay Cotton fteeped in Cocoa- Oil, which 
proves very fuccefsful •, their Ulcers, which happen chiefly 
in their Legs, are perfe&ly cured by the Application of 
Plates of Copper. As for their Wounds, they cure them 
very dexteroufly, by the Application of Ointments, with- 
out any Bandages or Tents ; they are fometimes troubled 
with Catarrhs, Defluxions, and Pains in the Bones. Ve- 
nereal Difeafes are frequent among them •, however, they 
cure them with China-wood without Sweating, and thofe 
Diftempers are communicated to them from the Europeans. 
They are altogether unacquainted with the Tooth-ach, 
which they owe to continual chewing of Betel, for that for- 
tifies the Gums. As foon as the Children come into the 
World they wafli them for a confiderable Space of Time, 
fix times a Day in cold Water, and then anoint them with 
Oil. When they void their Excrements they waih their 
Privities with Water. All Mothers, even the Queens 
themfelves, fuckle their own Children, and befides 
the Breaft-Milk, feed them with a fort of Pap made 
of Millet bruifed, and fteeped in Water, and afterwards 
boiled in Milk and Sugar of Coeoas. Though they never 
fwaddle their Children, yet I never faw any of them de- 
formed ; they rock them in Hammocks of Cord, or in little 
Chairs hung up in the Air, which they fwing to and again, 
At the Age of nine Months the Children begin for to go ? 
yn 
and when they are nine Years old they commence the Stu- 
dies and Exercifes of the Country. 
Their Studies confift in learning to read and write, to 
underftand the Alcoran , and to know their Duty. They 
have three forts of Letters, viz. the Arabick , the Mai di- 
van, and a third fort, which is commonly made ufe of in 
moft Parts of the Eajl-Indies . Their Leffons are wrote 
down on white Tables of Wood, which they clean and 
whiten again after they have got their Leffons by Heart ; 
for durable Writings are on Paper made of the Leaf of a 
Tree called Macare Queau, that Leaf being a Fathom and 
a half long, and a Foot broad. To teach the Children to 
write, they make ufe of no Paper, but make Draughts of 
Letters with a Bodkin upon fmooth, plain Boards of Wood, 
covered with fine white Sand. The Children have fuch a 
profound Veneration for their Mafters, that they cannot 
marry them any more than their own Parents. Some of 
them, efpecially the Moudins , Nabeys , and Catines , carry 
their Studies a great Length, and acquire great Skill in the 
Alcoran , and other Treatifes of the Law. The Mathe- 
maticks are much efteemed in this Country, and efpecially 
that Part called Aftrology ; for they always confult Aftro- 
logers, not only upon Nativities and Births, but upon all 
Undertakings whatfoever, as Travelling, Building, &c. 
As for their Exercifes, they have Schools for learning the 
right Ufe of a Sword and Buckler, of a Bow, of a Gun„ 
and of a Pike ; and the Mafters who teach them are much 
refpedled. They have no fort of Diverfions but that of 
the Foot-ball, which they tofs very dexteroufly. Many of 
them apply themfelves to Manufactures, for Houfhold- 
Goods arid other Commodities, which they make very in- 
genioufly i but the moft univerfal and the moft confider- 
able Exercife they have, is that of Filhing, which is fo 
common an Exercife all over the Maldives , that there’s no 
fuch thing as a particular Trade of that Nature j for Gen- 
tlemen, and even their Kings, purfue Filhing as we do 
Hunting in this Part of the World. Every Man there 
enjoys the natural Liberty of Filhing where and for what he 
pleales. The Fifh which are taken in the deep Sea about 
fix or feven Leagues off the Bars of the Attollons are large, 
and of feven or eight forts, fuch as Bonitos , Albacores , Guilt- 
heads, &c. which are all much of the fame Tafte, and have, 
no more Scales than a Mackrel. The Inftruments with 
which they catch them are a Line of a Fathom and an half 
of great Cotton Thread tied to a Cane, together with a 
Hook that in Form refembles the Letter h. The Bait is 
not faftened upon the Hook, but thrown about into the 
Sea ; for they drag after their Boat a Quantity of fmall Filh 
like our Roaches, which are very numerous among the 
Banks and Sands, and which are preferved alive in Purfe- 
nets of Cocoa-thread ; and when they come to the deep Sea 
they caft thefe little Fifties about, and throw in their Line. 
Upon which the great Fifties perceiving an unwonted Quan- 
tity of little Filh crowd upon them in Shoals, greedily 
fwallow the whitened Hook, taking it for one of the little 
Filh. The Fifh that fwallows the Hook falls off as foon 
as the Line is brought into the Boat, and fo the Line is 
thrown in again. At this rate they will fill their Boat with 
Fifh in three or four Hours Time, and, which is very 
ftrange, the Boat is all along under Sail.. The Filh thus 
taken are all black, from whence they are called Coholly 
Majfe , i. e. the Black-Jifh. They have another way of fifh- 
ing in the Night-time upon the Banks that furround the 
Attollons. At every full and every new Moon they convey 
themfelves to the Banks upon Hurdles, and the Fiihing 
lafts three Days every time. ’Tis performed by Lines of 
hard, coarfe Cotton Thread, fome of which are fifty or fixty 
Fathom long, and are blackened over with the Bark of a 
Tree that ferves inftead of Pitch, in order to preferve it 
from Corruption. At the End of this Line they have a 
Hook with a Bait faftened upon it, after the fame manner 
as is ufual among us : By this means they catch a prodigious 
Quantity of large red Fifh, fuch as I never faw elfewhere, 
which eats moft delicioufly, and is by them called. The 
King of the Sea. In fine, they have fuch Plenty of feveral 
forts of Fifh, and different ways of taking them unknown 
to us, that ’tis impoffible to diftinguifh them j for befides 
the Lines above-mentioned, they have all forts of Nets of 
Cotton, T wine. Wheels, and other Inftruments for Fifh* 
1 
