all saue Reuell: against which he made a Castle with water and straw, the frost binding them together as fast as they were laid. The Countrey is inhabited with the ancient Indigenae, called Momese, and others of the Dutch called by them Sac's. Who by occasion of shipwracke being cast on these Countries, did buy of the simple Inhabitants so much ground as a Rose hide, &c. so building in one place Reuel, in another farre distant Rie, and so other Townes; by this meane commanding and subduing all the Countrie. Derpt was one Turfe of ground bought as before.
The Momeses are almost Saluadoes, retaining still their old superstitions, as to worship the Sun, or the first Beast they meet with, and especially they haue in religious reckoning their Leaue.
This which they call Se-leaue, or the Groues, is a company of Trees, which it is religious to [ 10] touch; and he knew a Dutchman, Martin Yekell of Derpt, who breaking a bough was swelled a yeere together as big as his skinne would hold. Heere at Marriages and Burialls they pray, but without Image. Their marriage is thus. The man and his Bride are set stridling on a Horse, and blinded; and so led into Se-leaue, there taken downe and married by their Rites; then set vp a∣gaine, blinded as before, and conueyed with their company, and Musicke to their house, singing Kosoku Kosoku Coniku seamoha: there taken downe and had to bed, still blinded till the next mor∣row, in the meane while they rest drinking, &c.
They mourne when one is borne, reioyce and make merry at death. Their mourning (in Cur∣land) is then, and when they walke alone, or fetch wood, Yerow, yerou yerou, masculine babe: the words themselues vnderstand not, but thinke it to haue remained since that Babylonish Towre. [ 20] When the Momeses die, they are buried in their Leaues, with their knife vnder their arme, and their coate hanging ouer the graue. The Momeses are very ignorant, and aske who learne the Hares in the woods their prayers. At Rie the women haue a thing of Red veluet on their heads, made like a Ship with the keele vpward, at each end a lock of hayre.
The women of the Sacs differ in their fashion of attire each City from other, a pleted Petti∣cote, with a damaske Vpper body, a veluet Square on their heads, and thereon a Cloke, &c. The maid vncouered, if she haue had a child and refuse to goe couered, she is brought to the Pillory, her haire cut off, and there nayled, and a Kerchiefe put on. Here and in Norway, and in White Russia, &c. strangers pay nothing for entertainment, but salute, sit downe, and expect the Hosts expen∣ces. Their bed they must bring with them, which is commonly a Beares skin, or else they there haue a locke of straw. To offer money is a disgrace, which yet might seeme to arise of the [ 30] basenesse of the coyne. Their houses are all of Timber beames laid square, and others laid on them in notches, so till they come to the roofe, which they couer with straw, diuided in two roomes; the inner being the Parlour or stoue, where they haue as it were one Ouen ouer another: the middle hearth being of stones set grate-wise, the fire is put in on the Back-side or Hal-side, & there also the Sinke issueth. Before that mouth in the Stoue is set a vessell of water, which, when they wil haue the heat exceeding, they besprinkle on those hot stones. A fire lasteth a day, at night they renew it. Sometimes the old Prusees on the borders of Curland, according to their old hea∣thenish Rites do sacrifice their Priest in fire.
From Derpt hee went to the Peibus, whereinto runne seuentie two Riuers making a great Lake full of Fish. In the Peibus betweene Plesk•• and Narue, the Ships (whereof are many, and [ 40] some an hundred Tunne, with one Mast) are sowed together with Osiers, hauing no Iron workes, called Boidacks. They goe to Markets in Sleds, where comming to a wal∣led Towne, and waiting the opening of the Gates, the Sled is drawne in sometime, with his Ma∣ster sitting as before starke dead with cold. Thence he went to Narue, which runneth out of this Lake, w••ere the Riuer being twice so bigge as the Thames, hath a fall a mile steepe on a Rocke. Here the Sweden (as is reported) made a Bridge ouer with the bodies of Russes, as the Russe had done before with his owne people about 40000. hence to Iuanogrod. These 40000. were one∣ly bearded men slaine, &c. not women or children; these hee dashed by the heeles, the dryed braines whereof hee hath seene on the wals, &c. these all out of two Townes, Narue and Iuano∣grod. [ 50] The Castle of Iuanogrod is so fortified, that it must bee thrice conquered before conquered, and built in a yeere, of Stone, which none else is in Russia. Hence hee went to Yeraslaue, where he and his companion were apprehended by the Russes, for trauelling without licence, and as they came at any Towne, blinded, and after some feares sent thence into Letto, or Lithuania: passing through Woods full of Beasts, Beares, &c. none hurtfull but en luxe, a kind of ounce or Cat-a-mountaine, with a tayle a handfull long, spotted, as big as a Dogge, in forme like a Cat, which would from off a tree leap on Trauellers and kill them. Here they came to the Weild or Vilna, the chiefe Citie where the old Dutchesse a Caluinist (whom therefore they called the English Queen) kept her Court. Her two sons being summoned to the Parliament in Poland, went garded with 30000. Here they vsually steale their wiues; a man viewing one to his content comes with [ 60] his company to the place where she dwels, and lies in ambush till night when she comes forth to make water, and then they catch her, and on a Sled carry her away, &c. her friends not knowing what is become of her perhaps a moneth, and yet know what to suspect because of the custome. Their Churches are thin, and in the Villages they haue a Crosse of Wood, with a Pentise, and a