416 
crooked hands like a flesh hook, and feet not much unlike the 
feet of acock: a monster horrible and fearful to behold. They 
sacrifice a cock to him once a week; they kill the cock with a 
silver knife, and the knife also being rayed with blood, they put 
often in the fire, that no part of the blood be lost. When the 
king hath left eating, the priests carry away all that is left to cer- 
tain crows, which they keep for the purpose: these crows are 
therefore esteemed holy ; and it is not lawful for any man to hurt 
them. When the king marries, the queen is first appropriated to 
the chief brahmin, to whom the king giveth fifty pieces of gold: 
which they say is one cause, that after the death of the king, if he 
have any male children living, they succeed not to the kingdom; 
for of ancient law and custom the sceptre pertaineth to the king's 
sister’s sons. When the king goeth a hunting the Bramini keep 
the queen at home, and remain near about her; for there is no- 
thing more acceptable to the king than that the priests should so 
keep company with the queen." 
Many of these singular customs of the high caste of the Ta~ 
muri Raja, or Zamorin, mentioned by Vertomannus, are confirmed 
by Dr. Francis Buchanan, who travelled in this country three 
hundred years afterwards: sic transit gloria mundi! for so altered 
is the whole system within that space, that the present Zamorin, 
instead of possessing the power, wealth, and dignity of his ances- 
tors, is reduced to a cypher, and subsists on a pension from the 
English East India Company. Notwithstanding his degrada- 
tion and poverty, Dr. Buchanan says, that all the males of 
his family are called Tamburans, and all the ladies Tamburetti, 
