The Customs of India

When a man is doomed to die for any crime, he may declare that he will put himself to death in honour of such or such an idol.

The government then grants him permission to do so.

His kinsfolk and friends then set him up on a cart, and provide him with twelve knives, and proceed to conduct him all about the city, proclaiming aloud: “This valiant man is going to slay himself for the love of (such an idol).”

When they be come to the place of execution he takes a knife and sticks it through his arm, and cries: “I slay myself341 for the love of (such a god)!”

Then he takes another knife and sticks it through his other arm, and takes a third knife and runs it into his belly, and so on until he kills himself outright.

When he is dead his kinsfolk take the body and burn it with a joyful celebration.{8} Many of the women also, when their husbands die and are placed on the pile to be burnt, do burn themselves along with the bodies.

Such women as do this have great praise from all.{9}

The people are Idolaters, and many of them worship the ox, because they say it is a creature of such excellence.

They would not eat beef for anything in the world, nor would they on any account kill an ox.

But there is another class of people who are called Govy, and these are very glad to eat beef, though they dare not kill the animal.

Howbeit if an ox dies, naturally or otherwise, then they eat him.{10}

The people have a custom of rubbing their houses all over with cow-dung.

All of them, great and small, King and Barons included, sit on the ground only as this is the most honourable way to sit.

• This is because we all spring from the Earth and to the Earth we must return.

So no one can pay the Earth too much honour, and no one ought to despise it.

And about that race of Govis, I should tell you that nothing on earth would induce them to enter the place where Messer St. Thomas is—I mean where his body lies, which is in a certain city of the province of Maabar.

Indeed, were even 20 or 30 men to lay hold of one of these Govis and to try to hold him in the place where the Body of the Blessed Apostle of Jesus Christ lies buried, they could not do it! Such is the influence of the Saint; for it was by people of this generation that he was slain, as you shall presently hear.{12}

No wheat grows in this province, but rice only.

And another strange thing to be told is that there is no possibility of breeding horses in this country, as hath often been proved by trial. For even when a great blood-mare here has been covered by a great blood-horse, the produce is nothing but a wretched wry-legged weed, not fit to ride.{13}

The people of the country go to battle all naked, with only a lance and a shield.

They are most wretched soldiers.

They will kill neither beast nor bird, nor anything that has life.

They employ the Saracens, or others who are not of their own religion, as butchers.

Every one, male and female, washes the whole body twice every day.

Those who do not wash are looked on much as we look on the Patarins.

In eating they use the right hand only, and would on no account touch their food with the left hand.

All cleanly and becoming uses are ministered to by the right hand, whilst the left is reserved for uncleanly and disagreeable necessities, such as cleansing the secret parts of the body and the like. So also they drink only from drinking vessels, and every man hath his own; nor will any one drink from another’s vessel.

When they drink they do not put the vessel to the lips, but hold it aloft and let the drink spout into the mouth.

No one would on any account touch the vessel with his mouth, nor give a stranger drink with it. But if the stranger have no vessel of his own they will pour the drink into his hands and he may thus drink from his hands as from a cup.

They are very strict in executing justice upon criminals, and as strict in abstaining from wine. Indeed they have made a rule that wine-drinkers and seafaring men are never to be accepted as sureties. For they say343 that to be a seafaring man is all the same as to be an utter desperado, and that his testimony is good for nothing.[1] Howbeit they look on lechery as no sin.

They have the following rule about debts.

If a debtor shall have been several times asked by his creditor for payment, and shall have put him off from day to day with promises, then if the creditor can once meet the debtor and succeed in drawing a circle round him, the latter must not pass out of this circle until he shall have satisfied the claim, or given security for its discharge.

If he in any other case presume to pass the circle he is punished with death as a transgressor against right and justice.

Marco Polo, when in this kingdom on his return home, did himself witness a case of this.

The King owed a foreign merchant a sum of money.

• The merchant often asks for it back, but he was always put off with promises.

One day when the King was riding through the city, the merchant found his opportunity.

• He drew a circle round both King and horse.

The King, on seeing this, halted, and would ride no further.

Nor did he stir from the spot until the merchant was satisfied.

When the bystanders saw this they marvelled greatly, saying that the King was a most just King, having thus submitted to justice.{14}]

The heat here is sometimes so great that ’tis something wonderful.

Rain falls only for 3 months in the year: in June, July, and August.

• Without it, there would be a great drought.

They have many experts in an art which they call Physiognomy, by which they discern a man’s character and qualities at once.

They also know the import of meeting with any particular bird or beast; for such omens are regarded by them more than by any people in the world.

Thus if a man is going along the road and hears some one sneeze, if he deems it (say) a good token for himself he goes on, but if otherwise he stops a bit, or peradventure turns back altogether from his journey.{16}

As soon as a child is born they write down his nativity, that is to say the day and hour, the month, and the moon’s age.

This custom they observe because every single thing they do is done with reference to astrology, and by advice of diviners skilled in Sorcery and Magic and Geomancy, and such like diabolical arts; and some of them are also acquainted with Astrology.

All parents who have male children, as soon as these have attained the age of 13, dismiss them from their home, and do not allow them further maintenance in the family.

For they say that the boys are then of an age to get their living by trade; so off they pack them with some twenty or four-and-twenty groats, or at least with money equivalent to that.

These urchins are running about all day from pillar to post, buying and selling. At the time of the pearl-fishery they run to the beach and purchase, from the fishers or others, five or six pearls, according to their ability, and take these to the merchants, who are keeping indoors for fear of the sun, and say to them: “These cost me such a price; now give me what profit you please on them.”

So the merchant gives something over the cost price for their profit.

They do in the same way with many other articles, so that they become trained to be very dexterous and keen traders.

Every day they take their food to their mothers to be cooked and served, but do not eat a scrap at the expense of their fathers.]

In this kingdom and all over India the birds and beasts are entirely different from ours.

There is only 1 bird is exactly like ours – the Quail.

They have bats. These are birds that fly by night and have no feathers.

Their birds of this kind are as big as a goshawk!

Their goshawks again are as black as crows, a good deal bigger than ours, and very swift and sure.

Another strange thing is that they feed their horses with boiled rice and boiled meat, and various other kinds of cooked food.

That is the reason why all the horses die off.

They have certain abbeys in which are gods and goddesses to whom many young girls are consecrated.

Their fathers and mothers present them to that idol which they have the greatest devotion.

When the monks of a convent want to make a feast to their god, they send for all those consecrated damsels and make them sing and dance before the idol with great festivity.

They also bring meats to feed their idol. The damsels prepare dishes of meat and other good things and put the food before the idol, and leave it there a good while.

Then the damsels all go to their dancing and singing and festivity for about as long as a great Baron might require to eat his dinner.

By that time, they say the spirit of the idols has consumed the substance of the food, so they remove the viands to be eaten by themselves with great jollity.

This is performed by these damsels several times every year until they are married.

The reason assigned for summoning the damsels to these feasts is, as the monks say, that the god is vexed and angry with the goddess, and will hold no communication with her.

They say that if peace be not established between them things will go from bad to worse, and they never will bestow their grace and benediction.

So they make those girls come in the way described, to dance and sing, all but naked, before the god and the goddess.

Those people believe that the god often solaces himself with the society of the goddess.

The men of this country have their beds made of very light canework, so arranged that, when they have got in and are going to sleep, they are drawn up by cords nearly to the ceiling and fixed there for the night.

This is done to get out of the way of tarantulas which give terrible bites, as well as of fleas and such vermin, and at the same time to get as much air as possible in the great heat which prevails in that region. Not that everybody does this, but only the nobles and great folks, for the others sleep on the streets.{19}]