If the merchandise about which they treat be spices, they deal by the bahar, which bahar weighs three of our cantari. If they be stuffs, they deal by curia, and in like manner if they be jewels. By a curia is understood twenty; or, indeed, they deal by farasola, which farasola weighs about twenty-five of our lire.1

The names of these weights and measures, I am informed, are not Malayalim, though I think it highly probable that they are still used by the Arabs who frequent the Malabar coast. Buhâr is an Arabic word, indicating usually a weight of three hundred pounds. By some Arabian lexicographers it is supposed to be of Coptic origin, and Prinsep seems to regard it as a term "properly Hindu," a corruption either of bhâra or báha. (See LANE's Arabic-English Lexicon, sub voce Buhâr, and PRINSEP's Useful Tables, part i. p. 76. Calcutta, 1834.) Crawfurd says it is the only weight introduced into the Archipelago by the Arabs, and was in use even as far as the Moluccas when the Portuguese first arrived. (Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands, sub voce Weights.) Hamilton mentions the "Bahaar" as a weight used in several parts of the East Indies in his time. PINKERTON'S Voyages, vol. viii. p. 518.

Curia stands undoubtedly for kóraja, and Farasola is the plural of fársala, both words being still in ordinary use among the Arabs of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf; but I am unable to verify their origin. The latter seems identical with ferrah, a corruption of parah, the name of an old Hindu weight, which is known throughout India, and used in measuring lime, etc.; and the former may be derived from the Sanscrit kauri, a score. (PRINSEP's Tables, id.) Kôraja means twenty, and is applied to bales of hides, piece-goods, etc., containing that number. It is written "Gorjes" in the bill of goods purchased at Mokha in 1612 by Captain John Saris from a native merchant of Surat, and Saris also enumerates it among the weights and measures known at Java and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, e. g. "TAFFATA, in Boults, an hundred and twelve yards the Piece, forty-six Ryals of Eight the Gorj, or twenty Pieces." GREENE's Collection of Voyages, vol. i. pp. 466, 504.

The present weight of a fársala at Aden is 28 lbs. Hamilton, who calls it "Frasella," and places it among the Banyan Weights, reckoned it in his time at 29 lbs. avoirdupois; and Niebuhr, who names it among the weights of Mokha, makes it 30 livres. See PINKERTON'S Voyages, vol. viii. p. 518; Voyage en Arabie, vol. iii. p. 192.

THE CHAPTER SHOWING HOW THE POLIARI AND HIRAVA FEED THEIR CHILDREN.

The women of these two classes of people, that is, the Poliari and Hirava, suckle their children for about three months, and then they feed them upon cow's milk or goat's milk. And when they have crammed them, without washing either their faces or their bodies, they throw them into the sand, in which they remain covered up from the morning until the evening, and as they are more black than any other colour, they cannot be distinguished from little buffalos or little bears; so that they appear misshapen things, and it seems as though they were fed by the devil. Their mothers give them food again in the evening. These people are the most agile leapers and runners in the world.1 I

I See note on p. 142 ante. That this is not an exaggerated picture of the mode in which the offspring of these wretched outcasts are nurtured, may be fairly inferred from the following description of the class which they compose:-"The creatures in human form, who constitute the number of 100,000, the agrestic slave population of Malabar, are distinguishable, like the savage tribes still to be found in some of the forests in India, from the rest of the human race by their degraded, diminutive, squalid appearance, their dropsical pot-bellies contrasting horribly with their skeleton arms and legs, half-starved, hardly clothed children, and in a condition scarcely superior to the cattle that they follow at the plough.” (THORNTON'S Gazetteer, sub voce Malabar.) Buchanan says: "The only means they employ to procure a subsistence is by watching the crops, to drive away wild hogs and birds. Hunters also employ them to rouse game; and the Achumars, who hunt by profession, give them one-fourth part of what they kill. They gather a few wild roots, but can neither catch fish, nor any kind of game. They sometimes procure a tortoise, and are able, by means of hooks, to kill a crocodile. Both these amphibious animals they reckon delicious food. All these resources, however, are inadequate to their support, and they subsist chiefly by begging. They have scarcely any clothing, and every thing about them discloses want and misery. They have some wretched huts built under trees in remote places; but they generally wander about in companies of ten or twelve persons, keeping at a little distance from the road; and when they see any passenger they set up a howl, like so many hungry dogs."

think I ought not to omit explaining to you the many kinds of animals and birds which are found in Calicut, and especially about the lions, wild hogs, goats, wolves, kine, buffalos, goats, and elephants (which, however, are not produced here, but come from other places),1 great numbers of wild peacocks, and green parrots in immense quantities; also a kind of red parrot. And there are so many of these parrots, that it is necessary to watch the rice in order that the said birds may not eat it. One of these parrots is worth four quattrini, and they sing extremely well. I also saw here another kind of bird, which is called saru.2 They sing better than the parrots, but are smaller. There are many other kinds of birds here different from ours. I must inform you, that during one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening there is no pleasure in the world equal to that of listening to the song of these birds, so much so that it is like being in paradise, in consequence of there being such a multitude of trees and perpetual verdure, which arises from the circumstance that cold is unknown here, neither is there excessive heat. In this country a great number of apes are produced, one of which is worth four casse, and one casse is worth a quattrino. They do immense damage to those poor men who make wine.3 These apes mount on the top of those nuts and drink that same liquor, and then

Hamilton's account is somewhat different. He says: "they are cunning in catching wild beasts and birds ;" and strikingly corroborates Varthema by remarking that "they are very swift in running." PinkerTON's Voyages, vol. viii. pp. 375-6, 739.

1 Wild elephants, inferior in size to none in India, exist in the jungles and forests of Malabar. Varthema probably meant that they were not bred in the immediate vicinity of Calicut. All the other quadrupeds and birds which he enumerates, and a great many besides, abound in the country.

2 Saru is probably from the Persian sar, a starling. Shakespeare, however, gives saro as an Hindostani name for that bird. He seems, moreover, to make it identical with the mainâ (Gracula religiosa). 3 That is, cocoa-nut wine, or toddy.

they overturn the vessel and throw away all the liquor they cannot drink.

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE SERPENTS WHICH ARE FOUND IN CALICUT.

There is found in this Calicut a kind of serpent which is as large as a great pig, and which has a head much larger than that of a pig, and it has four feet, and is four braza long.1 These serpents are produced in certain marshes. The people of the country say that they have not venom, but that they are evil animals, and do injury to people by means of their teeth. Three other kinds of serpents are found here which, if they strike a person a little, that is, drawing blood, he immediately falls to the ground dead. And it has often happened here in my time that there have been many persons struck by these animals, of which animals there are three kinds. The first resemble deaf adders; the next are scorpions; the third are thrice as large as scorpions. Of these three kinds there are immense numbers. And you must know that when the king of Calicut learns where the nest of any of these brutal animals is, he has made over it a little house, on account of the water. And if any person should kill one of these animals

1 Crocodiles, the animals here indicated, swarm in the rivers of Malabar. "Of other reptiles, there are the skink, a large lizard about four feet long, the salamander, tortoise, snakes of various kinds, as the cobra de capello, the bite of which results in inevitable death, and many other venomous kinds, as also the boa constrictor, generally swept down by torrents from the jungly valleys of the Ghats." THORNTON'S Gazetteer, sub voce Malabar.

" I visited one of these retreats for serpents at Kolapore in the Southern Mahratta country, and witnessed them feasting on milk which had been prepared for them by the guardians of the shrine; nevertheless, on two different occasions I have seen Hindus join heartily in killing a cobra de capello.

Baldæus, speaking of the cobras at Negapatam, says: "They are in

the king would immediately put him to death. In like manner, if any one kill a cow, he would also put that person to death. They say that these serpents are spirits of God, and that if they were not his spirits, God would not have given them such a power, that biting a person a little he would immediately fall dead. And it is from this circumstance that there are such numbers of these animals who know the Pagans and do not avoid them. In my time one of these serpents entered into a house during the night and bit nine persons, and in the morning they were all found dead and swollen. And when the said Pagans go on a journey, if they meet any of these animals they receive it as a good augury.

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE LIGHTS OF THE KING OF CALICUT.

In the house of the king of Calicut there are many chambers, in which as soon as evening comes they have ten or twelve vases made in the form of a fountain, which are composed of cast metal, and are as high as a man. Each of these vases has three hollow places for holding oil, about two spans high from the ground. And, first, there is a vase in which is oil with cotton wicks lighted all round. And above this there is another vase more narrow, but with the same kind of lights, and on the top of the second vase there stands another yet smaller, but with oil and lights ignited. The foot of this vase is formed in a triangle, and on each of the faces of the foot there are three devils in relief, and they are very fearful to behold. These are the squires who hold

such reverence among these Pagans, that if they should happen to kill one of them, they will look upon it as an expiable [inexpiable ?] crime, and to forbode some great misfortune." CHURCHILL'S Collection, vol. iii. p. 651.