rd the south, I arriued at a certain island called Bodin,
[Marginal note: Or, Dadin.] which signifieth in our language vnclean. In
this island there do inhabit most wicked persons, who deuour and eat raw
flesh committing al kinds of vncleannes and abominations in such sort, as
it is incredible. For the father eateth his son, and the son his father,
the husbande his owne wife, and the wife her husband: and that after this
maner. If any mans father be sick, the son straight goes vnto the
soothsaying or prognosticating priest, requesting him to demand of his god,
whether his father shall recouer of that infirmity of no: Then both of them
go vnto an idol of gold or of siluer, making their praiers vnto it in maner
folowing: Lord, thou art our God, and thee we do adore, beseeching thee to
resolue vs, whether such a man must die, or recouer of such an infirmity or
no: Then the diuel answereth out of the foresaid idol: if he saith (he shal
liue) then returneth his son and ministreth things necessary vnto him, til
he hath attained vnto his former health: but if he saith (he shal die) then
goes the priest vnto him, and putting a cloth into his mouth doth strangle
him therewith: which being done, he cuts his dead body into morsels, and al
his friends and kinsfolks are inuited vnto the eating thereof, with musique
and all kinde of mirth: howbeit his bones are solemnely buried. And when I
found fault with that custome demanding a reason thereof, one of them gaue
me this answer: this we doe, least the wormes should eat his flesh, for
then his soule should suffer great torments, neither could I by any meanes
remooue them from that errour. Many other nouelties and strange things
there bee in this countrey, which no man would credite, vnles he saw them
with his owne eyes. Howbeit, I (before almighty God) do here make relation
of nothing but of that only, whereof I am as sure, as a man may be sure.
Concerning the foresaid islands I inquired of diuers wel-experienced
persons, who al of them, as it were with one consent, answered me saying,
That this India contained 4400. islands vnder it, or within it: in which
islands there are sixtie and foure crowned kings: and they say moreouer,
that the greater part of those islands are wel inhabited. And here I
conclude concerning that part of India.

Of the vpper India: and of the prouince of Mancy.

First of al therefore, hauing traueled many dayes iourney vpon the
Ocean-sea toward the East, at l