The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne through Turky, into Persia and the East-Indies, for the space of forty years : giving an account of the present state of those countries, viz. of the religion, government, customs, and commerce of every country, and the figures, weight, and value of the money currant all over Asia : to which is added A new description of the Seraglio / made English by J.P. ; added likewise, A voyage into the Indies, &c. by an English traveller, never before printed ; publish'd by Dr. Daniel Cox

Of their Manners and Customs.

THe Language of the Gaurs is different from the Persians, as is their Character and manner of Writing. They love to feast, and to eat and drink well, being very profuse of their Wine and Strong-water. They never eat Hares, because they have their monthly Purgations, like Women: for the same reason they never eat Mulber∣ries, believing that they partake of the nature of Women and Hares.

If, when they comb their Hair or their Beards, any one hair happ'ns to fall upon their cloaths, those cloaths must be wash'd in the stale of a Cow or an Ox to purifie them again. If by chance they happ'n to touch any ordure or nastiness, when they come home they must wash themselves in the same Urin. If one of their Priests meet a dead Corps in the High-way, and chances to see it, he is oblig'd to wash himself in Cows-Piss, which they hold to be a good Purification: an Opinion held in some parts of India also. I ask'd one of their Priests how they came to understand the virtue of this Urin; who answer'd me, that a certain person who was contemporary with the first Man, having his Arm bruis'd and very black, by reason of some accident that befel him through the malice of the Devil, fell asleep in the fields, and as he lay, an Ox staling, a drop of the Urin flew upon his Arm, and presently heal'd that part which it wet, and restor'd it to its former whiteness: which the man perceiving when he wak'd, pre∣sently follow'd the Ox, and staid by him 'till he stal'd again, and then receiving the Piss upon the whole wound, was perfectly cur'd. They also preserve it, and compound it with a Water, which they cause them to drink who have committed any Sin, after they have been at Confession for it. They call that Water the Cazi's Water; which Urin ought to be preserv'd forty days, with an infusion of Willow-Bark, and certain Herbs. When any person is confess'd of his Sin, if it be a crying Sin, the party is bound to stay ten days in the Cazi's House, and not to eat or drink but what the Priest gives them. And in order to Absolution, the Priest strips him naked, and tyes a little Dog to his right great Toe, which he leads with him about the Cazi's

House wherever he goes, sometimes a whole day, sometimes longer, according to the hainousness of the crime. In that posture he desires the Cazi to purifie him, telling him that for his part he believes himself to be purify'd. The Priest makes answer that it is the Dog that must purifie him, and not he. After that he powrs the com∣pounded water seven times upon his head, then gives him a draught to drink, and so he is absolv'd. This penitence costs the criminal Sawce, who is afterwards bound to feast all his friends at the Cazi's House. Being surpriz'd at this superstition, I ask'd whether the women were shrifted thus by the Cazi; but I found that the Cazi's Wives confess and absolve the women and maids.

One more strange custom they have, that when a man is upon the point of death, they take a little Dog and set it upon the expiring parties brest. When he is just breathing his last, they put the mouth of the Dog to the mouth of the person dying, and cause him to bark twice in that posture, that the Soul of the deceas'd may enter into the Dog, who they say will deliver it into the hands of the Angel appointed to receive it. Moreover when any Dog happ'ns to dye, they carry him out of the City, and pray to God for the Carrion, as if the Beast receiv'd any kindness after death by their Prayers.