where, by means of the fingers, counting from one to a hundred thousand
privately, they offer and bargain far the price till they are agreed,
all of which passes in profound silence.

The women of this country suckle their children till three months old,
after which they feed them on goats milk. When in the morning they have
given them milk, they allow them to tumble about on the sands all foul
and dirty, leaving them all day in the sun, so that they look more like
buffaloe calves than human infants; indeed I never saw such filthy
creatures. In the evening they get milk again. Yet by this manner of
bringing up they acquire marvellous dexterity in running, leaping,
swimming, and the like.

There are many different kinds of beasts and birds in this country, as
_lions_, wild boars, harts, hinds, buffaloes, cows, goats, and
elephants; but these last are not all bred here, being brought from
other places. They have also parrots of sundry colours, as green,
purple, and other mixt colours, and they are so numerous that the rice
fields have to be watched to drive them away. These birds make a
wonderful chattering, and are sold so low as a halfpenny each. There are
many other kinds of birds different from ours, which every morning and
evening make most sweet music, so that the country is like an earthly
paradise, the trees, herbs, and flowers being in a continual spring, and
the temperature of the air quite delightful, as never too hot nor too
cold. There are also monkeys, which are sold at a low price, and are
very hurtful to the husbandmen, as they climb the trees, and rob them of
their valuable fruits and nuts, and cast down the vessels that are
placed for collecting the sap from which wine is made. There are
serpents also of prodigious size, their bodies being as thick as those
of swine, with heads like those of boars; these are four footed, and
grow to the length of four cubits, and breed in the marshes[82]. The
inhabitants say that these have no venom. There are three other kinds of
serpents, some of which have such deadly venom, that if they draw ever
so little blood death presently follows, as happened several times while
I was in the country. Of these some are no larger than asps, and some
much bigger, and they are very numerous. It is said that, from some
strange superstition, the king of Calicut holds them in such veneration,
that he has small houses or cottages made on purpose for them,
conceiving that they are of