destroy one
another.[NOTE 3]

[All the people of this city, as well as of the rest of India, have a
custom of perpetually keeping in the mouth a certain leaf called
_Tembul_, to gratify a certain habit and desire they have,
continually chewing it and spitting out the saliva that it excites. The
Lords and gentlefolks and the King have these leaves prepared with camphor
and other aromatic spices, and also mixt with quicklime. And this practice
was said to be very good for the health.[NOTE 4] If any one desires to
offer a gross insult to another, when he meets him he spits this leaf or
its juice in his face. The other immediately runs before the King, relates
the insult that has been offered him, and demands leave to fight the
offender. The King supplies the arms, which are sword and target, and all
the people flock to see, and there the two fight till one of them is
killed. They must not use the point of the sword, for this the King
forbids.][NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.--KAIL, now forgotten, was long a famous port on the coast of what
is now the Tinnevelly District of the Madras Presidency. It is mentioned
as a port of Ma'bar by our author's contemporary Rashiduddin, though the
name has been perverted by careless transcription into _Bawal_ and
_Kabal_. (See _Elliot_, I. pp. 69, 72.) It is also mistranscribed as
_Kabil_ in Quatremere's publication of Abdurrazzak, who mentions it as "a
place situated opposite the island of Serendib, otherwise called Ceylon,"
and as being the extremity of what he was led to regard as Malabar (p.
19). It is mentioned as _Cahila_, the site of the pearl-fishery, by Nicolo
Conti (p. 7). The _Roteiro_ of Vasco da Gama notes it as _Caell_, a state
having a Mussulman King and a Christian (for which read _Kafir_) people.
Here were many pearls. Giovanni d'Empoli notices it (_Gael_) also for the
pearl-fishery, as do Varthema and Barbosa. From the latter we learn that
it was still a considerable seaport, having rich Mahomedan merchants, and
was visited by many ships from Malabar, Coromandel, and Bengal. In the
time of the last writers it belonged to the King of Kaulam, who generally
resided at Kail.

The real site of this once celebrated port has, I believe, till now never
been identified in any published work. I had supposed the still existing
Kayalpattanam to have been in all probability the place, and I am again
indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Caldwell for conclusive and most
interesting informat