Babelmandel. PURCHAS WARD. "THIS streightness of the neighbouring people, and of those which inhabit the coasts of the Indian Ocean, is called Albabo, which in the Arabian tongue do signify gates or mouths and in this place and mouth the land doth neighbour so much, and the shewes which they make of willingness to join themselves are so known, that it seemeth without any doubt, the sea, much against their wills and perforce, to interpose itself in separating these two parts of the world. For the space which in this place divideth the land of the Arabians from the coast of the Abexi (Abyssinians) is about six leagues distance. In this space there lie so many islands, little islets, and rocks, that they cause a doubt, considering the straightness without, that some time it was stopt, and so by these streight sluices and channels which are made between the one island and the other, there entereth such a quantity of sea, and maketh within so many and so great nooks, so many bays, so many names of great gulphs, so many diversities of seas, so many ports, so many islands, that it seemeth not that we sail in a sea between two lands, but in the deepest and most tempestuous lake of the great ocean." D. JOAM DE CASTROS ROLEIRO. PURCHAS 1124. [Persian Botany Bay.] "THE Islands of the Red Sea were the places where the Kings of Persia used to send those whom they banished:—' kai TV νήσοισι οἰκεόντων τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἐρυθρῇ θα λάσσῃ, ἐν τῇσι, τοὺς ἀνασπάστεις καλεομέ Vovs KATOĺkiŽEL ỏ ẞariλevç."—HERODOTUS. Thalia, iii. 93. Polymnia, vii. 80. The Hindoo Padalon. 403 of snakes.) In rocky places, in the mouths of some of these pits, stones are found standing; these stones they call the uncreated Shivŭ-lingu, and believe that by worshipping in these places they will quickly obtain the most important fruits."—Ward, vol. 1, p. 417. [Dervises of Erzeroom.] NEAR Erzeroom, EVLIA speaks of some Dervises "who go bareheaded and barefooted, with long hair. Great and little carry wooden clubs in their hands, and some of them crooked sticks. They came all to wait on the Pashaw and to exhibit their diploma of foundation. The Pashaw asked them from whence their immunity dated, and they invited him to pass into their place of devotion. We followed them to a large place where a great fire was lighted of more than forty waggon-loads of wood, and forty victims immolated. They assigned to the Pashaw a place at a distance from the fire, and they began to dance around it, their drums and flutes playing, and they crying Hoo! and Allah! This circular motion having continued an hour's time, about an hundred of these dervises, being naked, took their children by the hand, and entered the fire, the flames of which towered like the pile of Nimrod, crying O all-constant! O vivifying! After half an hour they came out of the fire without the least hurt, except their beards and hairs singed, some of them retiring into their cells instead of coming before the Pashaw, who remained astonished." [Literal Application of our Saviour's Saying, "If thine Eye offend thee pluck it out."] "ONE grave old man who had a long grey beard I saw," says SANDERSON, "led with great ceremony out of the city of "THE Hindoos believe that many deep Cairo, (on his way to Mecca) who had but caverns or pits which appear to be unfathom- one eye; and I likewise did see the same able, or out of which water springs, have man return back again with the same Emir their origin in Padalon (Patŭlů, the world | Haggi, or Captain of the Caravan, and he 404 BUCHANAN - HASTINGS - ABDUL KURRCEM. had left his other eye there, having had it pluckt out, after he had seen their Prophet's Sepulchre, because he would see no more sin."-PURCHAS, p. 1616. [Eastern Apparition.] "THAT same night there suddenly appeared in Dwaraka a woman of the very blackest appearance; she was also dressed in black attire, and was hideous, with yellow teeth. She entered every house grinning horribly a ghastly smile, and all who saw her were stricken with dread."-Life of CREESHNA. [Wonderful Book of Nijaguna.] "A JANGAMA named Nijaguna wrote a book which is held in great veneration by one of the thousand and one sects of the Hindoos. He received the necessary instruction for this work in conversation with an image of Seeva, in a temple on a hill near Ellanduru, and after he had finished the book the image opened and received him into its substance."-BUCHANAN. [Spiritual Discipline of the Brahmins.] "THE Brahmins are enjoined to perform a kind of spiritual discipline, not, I believe, unknown to some of the religious orders of Christians in the Romish Church. This consists in devoting a certain period of time to the contemplation of the Deity, his attributes, and the moral duties of this life. It is required of those who practise this exercise, not only that they divest their minds of all sensual desire, but that their attention be abstracted from every external object, and absorbed with every sense, in the prescribed subject of their attention. I myself was once a witness of a man employed in this species of devotion, at the principal temple of Banaris. His right hand and arm were enclosed in a loose sleeve or bag of red cloth, within which he passed the beads of his rosary, one after another, through his fingers, repeating with the touch of each, as I was informed, one of the names of God, while his mind laboured to catch and dwell on the idea of the quality which appertained to it, and shewed the violence of its exertion to attain this purpose by the convulsive movements of all his features, his eyes being at the same time closed, doubtless to assist the abstraction." HASTINGS, Letters prefixed to the Bhagvat Geeta. www [Earth from the Tomb of Hussein.] "Ar the distance of twenty paces from the south window of the tomb of Hussein, is a level spot where he was killed; and on the place where he fell is an excavation about the size of a grave, which is filled up with earth, brought from the place where his tents were pitched; this is covered with boards, and whoever comes to visit the shrine, pays something to one of the Kdemo, for permission to carry away some of the earth, which is universally known by the name of Khaks Kerbela (Kerbela earth) and has wonderful properties ascribed to it; and amongst others, it is said to have the power of quelling a storm at sea, upon flinging it against the wind."ABDUL KURrcem. m [Place where Abraham, at the Command of Nimrod, was thrown into the Fiery Furnace.] "In the neighbourhood of the city they show you the place where Abraham, by the command of Nimrod, was thrown into the fiery furnace, at the foot of the mountain where the machine from which he was flung was constructed, and of which they pretend to point out some vestige to this day. Over the spring, which is said to have issued from the midst of the fire, a mosque is erected, with a large reservoir on the outside, into which the water runs; and in it are great numbers of fish, which will eat out of your hand, but no one is allowed to catch them. EVLIA EFFENDI. Adjoining to this mosque is the most beautiful garden I have ever seen in any part of the world."-Ibid. [The Grave of Saint Akyazli.] "AKYAZLI lived forty years under the shade of a wild chesnut-tree, close to which he is buried under a leaden-covered cupola. The chesnuts, big as an egg, are wonderfully useful in diseases of horses. Tradition says that this tree sprouted forth from the stick on which the saint roasted his meat, as he once fixed it in the ground. Round his grave are different inscriptions from the Koran, censers, vases for rose water, candelabres, lamps wrought in the style of Khorassanic work, and at his head a horse tail, a standard and a drum. Those who enter this room are seized with trembling awe, and revived by the fragrant scent of musk which they inhale. Out of the four windows you have the prospect of a blooming garden full of hyacinths and jasmins, of roses and of nightingales. The guard of this sepulchre is entrusted to the care of the [The Sacred Handkerchief] 405 "NEAR the Convent of Abraham (at Orfa) is an ancient cloister called Ishanli Kilisse, the church with bells, where the handkerchief is preserved with which the Messias wiped his face. They guard it with the greatest care, fearing lest some king, eager to enrich himself with such a treasure, should carry it and accordingly they away, refuse to show it. Myself having much mingled in my travels with Greeks, I begged of the monks the favour to be shown that handkerchief, but they assured me that there was no such thing in their convent. Having taken my oath on the Evangelist and on the doctrine of Jesus that I would discover to I was led to an obscure cave, on the outnobody the existence of their handkerchief, side of which I left my servants. The cave was illuminated with twelve candles. They produced from a cupboard a small chest, and from the chest a box studded with precious stones, which being opened spread a perfume of moscus and ambergris, and there I beheld the noble handkerchief. It is a square of Dervishes of the order of Begtash. Myself two ells, woven of the fibres of the palm being affected with ague, having come to this place, I recited the seven verses of the Lord's Prayer (Fatiha, the first Soora of the Koran), wrote a distich I was inspired with on the 1 and put myself under the green cloth covering the coffin. There I fell into a sleep, and awaked in full perspiration and restored to health by the virtue of this grave. "Saint Akyazli lived from the time of Orchan till the time of Murad II., the father of Mahommed II., the conqueror. One of his followers, called Arslanbey, was so much devoted to him, that the Saint used to bridle and saddle him, and to mount on his back whenever he went abroad. The saddle which is said to have served to the Saint is shown at the entrance of his tomb."-EVLIA EFFENDI, vol. 3. The blank is in the original MS. "Spot' would complete the sense.-J. W. W. tree. After the passion on Mount Sinai, Jesus having put this handkerchief to his face, it received the impression of his enner, that every body who looks on it, believes lightened countenance in so lively a manit to be a living image, breathing, smiling, the least doubt this is the true impression and looking him in the face. I have not of Jesus's face. Having had many conversations with learned and well-informed men, and having seen in my travels thousands of marvellous things produced by the ingenuity of art, I examined it a long time, whether it might not be, like so many other pictures in Christian churches, the masterpiece of some skilful painter: but I convinced myself by the evidence of senses and reason that this aweful portrait was the true impression of Jesus, because even such men as myself who behold it, begin to tremble, overawed by the effect of so great a miracle. I took it with reverence, and 406 CAPTAIN WILFORD-EVLIA EFFENDI. put it to my face, and bid it hail."-EVLIA'S accumulated load of their sins."-CAPTAIN Travels, vol. 3.1 WILFORD. Asiat. Res. vol. 9. [The Holy Man on his Solitary Visit to the Caaba, and the Serpent.] [The Ass of Jesus.] "KHARBU, or Kharpool, in Diarbekr. Apostles put the ass of Jesus on a living, They say that this is the place where the on which he continued to live till the time of the Prophet; and because the Christians paid worship to that ass, they derivate from thence the name of the castle; Khaar mean "THE merit of the pilgrimage round the Caaba is infinitely enhanced if it be performed alone. Kotbeddin relates that a holy man watched night and day for forty years in hopes of this happy opportunity. At last he thought he had found it; but on the waying in Persian an ass, and pool adoration." he met a serpent upon the same business, -EVLIA EFFENDI, vol. 3. and this animal assured him that he had been waiting in like manner a century longer than himself.”—Notices des MSS. de la Bibl. Nat. tom. 4, p. 544. [The Scape-Lamp of the Sucla Tirtha.] "CHANACYA having instigated Chandragupta to put his eight royal brothers to death, was exceedingly troubled in mind, and so much stung with remorse for his crime, and the effusion of human blood which took place in consequence of it, that he withdrew to the Sucla-Tirtha, a famous place of worship near the sea on the bank of the Narmada, and seven coss to the west of Baroche, to get himself purified. There, having gone through a most severe course of religious austerities and expiatory ceremonies, he was directed to sail upon the river in a boat with white sails, which if they turned black would be to him a sure sign of the remission of his sins, the blackness of which would attach itself to the sails. It happened so, and he joyfully sent the boat adrift, with his sins, into the sea. "This ceremony, or another very similar to it (for the expense of a boat would be too great) is performed to this day at the Sucla-Tirtha; but, instead of a boat, they use a common earthen pot, in which they light a lamp, and send it adrift with the Evidently the same story as that of VERONICA. See FULLER'S "True Penitent."-J. W. W. "AT the distance of three hours is a lake, which a man may come round in a day, of venomous water. Some historians assert that it communicates with the sea of Wan below ground, because you find here the same fishes. There is an island in this lake, and in this island is an Armenian monastery, where the ass of Jesus has been embalmed by the patriarchs, bishops, priests, and monks: but the grave is kept so secret that it is shown to nobody. I myself have not seen it."-Ibid. [Woman and the Haudji Bairaum.] "A WOMAN who sought to seduce the Mahommedan Saint Haudji Bairaum began to praise his hair, his beard, his eyebrows and his eyelashes. The Saint retired into a corner and prayed to God that he might be deprived of all these beauties, which had produced so ill an effect, and become uglified. When he returned there was neither hair on his head or face, brows or eyelids, and the woman trembling at his portentous ugliness, ordered her maidens to turn him out of doors."—EVLIA. [Faith of a Good Mussulman.] "EVERY good Mussulman believes that after the death and burial of the Prophet, his soul reunited itself to his body, and ascended to Paradise, mounted upon Al Borak. The Wahabees deny this, and affirm that the mortal remains of the Prophet remain in the sepulchre the same as those of other men."-ALI BEY, vol. 2, p. 129. [Oriental Knowledge.] "In these new countries almost all things which we so much esteem of here, and hold that they were first revealed and sent from Heaven, were commonly believed and observed; from whence they came I will not say, who dares determine it? Yea, many of them were in use a thousand years before we heard any tidings of them; both in the matter of religion, as the belief of one only man the father of us all, of the universal deluge, of one God, who sometimes lived in the form of a man, undefiled and holy, of the day of judgement, the resurrection of the dead, circumcision like to that of the Jews and Mohammed; and in the matter of policy, as that the elder son should succeed in the inheritance, that he that is exalted to a dignity loseth his own name and takes a new, tyrannical subsidies, armouries, tumblers, musical instruments, all sorts, artillery, printing."-CHARRON, p. 231. [Villages and Cattle-how protected under Annual Inundations.] 407 convenient enclosure is formed for keeping calves, &c. As long as the waters are up, the cattle of each village are kept in boats, crowded as thick as their prows can be brought together all around the insulated village; and green fodder is daily procured by means of long wooden forks, pushed down in the water near to the bottom, whence they come up well laden with a remarkable sweet kind of bent grass, providentially abounding at this juncture, and remarkably fattening to every species of cattle."—Oriental Sports, vol. 2, p. 186. www [Indian Cannibals.-The Modern Sect of the Thugs.] 66 "I WILL go a step farther, and say, that not only do Hindus, even Brahmins, eat flesh, but that, at least, one sect eat human flesh. I know only of one sect, and that I believe few in numbers, that doth this; but there may, for aught I can say, be others, and more numerous. They do not, I conclude, (in our territory, assuredly not,) kill human subjects to eat; but they eat such as they find in or about the Ganges, and perhaps other rivers. The name of the sect that I allude to is, I think, Paramahansa, as I have commonly heard it named; and I have received authentic information of in "THE villages throughout the low country, which is subject to annual inundation, dividuals of this sect being not very unuare invariably built upon eminences, or sually seen about Benares, floating down knobs of land, of which many appear to be the river on, and feeding on a corpse. Nor artificial. Nevertheless, in some extraordiis this a low despicable tribe, but, on the nary season, towns are swept away. This, contrary, esteemed-by themselves, at any however, is not so alarming an event as rate-a very high one. Whether the exmight at first be supposed. Such places as altation be legitimate, or assumed by indiare considered of insufficient height, are far-viduals in consequence of penance, or holy ther secured by building the houses on stakes or piles, over which the floors, composed of bamboo laths and mats, are laid, perhaps five or six feet from the ground. The openings below are sufficient, on one hand to let the water pass freely; which it does at a slow rate, seldom exceeding a mile in the hour; while, by means of a few additional battens during the dry season, a and sanctified acts, I am not prepared to state, but I believe the latter."-MOOR'S Hindu Pantheon, p. 352. [Remarkable Banian Tree near Manjee.] THE following is an account of the dimensions of a remarkable banian or burr tree, near Manjee, twenty miles west of |