s of Cush,
who read the stars, and are all black in colour. They are honest in
commerce. When merchants come to them from distant lands and enter the
harbour, three of the King's secretaries go down to them and record
their names, and then bring them before the King, whereupon the King
makes himself responsible even for their property which they leave in
the open, unprotected. There is an official who sits in his office,
and the owner of any lost property has only to describe it to him when
he hands it back. This custom prevails in all that country. From
Passover to New Year, that is all during the summer, no man can go out
of his house because of the sun, for the heat in that country is
intense, and from the third hour of the day onward, everybody remains
in his house till the evening. Then they go forth and kindle lights in
all the market places and all the streets, and then do their work and
business at night-time.

[p.91]

For they have to turn night into day in consequence of the great heat
of the sun. Pepper is found there. They plant the trees thereof in the
fields, and each man of the city knows his own plantation. The trees
are small, and the pepper is as white as snow. And when they have
collected it, they place it in saucepans and pour boiling water over
it, so that it may become strong. They then take it out of the water
and dry it in the sun, and it turns black. Calamus and ginger and many
other kinds of spice are found in this land.

The people of this country do not bury their dead, but embalm them by
means of various spices, after which they place them on chairs and
cover them with fine linen. And each family has a house where it
preserves the embalmed remains of its ancestors and relations. The
flesh hardens on the bones, and the embalmed bodies look like living
beings, so that every man can recognize his parents, and the members
of his family for many years.

[p.92]

They worship the sun, and they have high places everywhere outside the
city at a distance of about half a mile. And every morning they run
forth to greet the sun, for on every high place a solar disc is made
of cunning workmanship and as the sun rises the disc rotates with
thundering noise, and all, both men and women, offer incense to the
sun with censers in their hands. Such are their superstitious
practices. And throughout the island, including all the towns there,
live several thousand Israelites. The inhabitants are all black,