Note 4: — CAP. CIX.

I saw in this island fouls as big as our countrey geese, having two heads, and other miraculous things, which I will not here write off. Traveling on further South, I arrived at a certaine island called Bodin,4 which signifieth in our language unclean. In this island there do inhabit most wicked persons, who devour & eate rawe flesh, committing all kinds of uncleannes & abominations in such sort, as it is incredible. For the father eateth his son, & the son his father, the husband his owne wife & the wife her husband: & that after this maner. If any mans father be sick, the son straight goes unto the sooth-saying or prognosticating priest, requesting him to demand of his god, whether his father shall recover from his infirmity or no; Then both of them go unto an idol of gold or silver, making their prayers unto it in maner folowing: Lord, thou art our god, & thee we do adore, beseeching thee to resolve us, whether such a man must die, or recover of such an infirmity or no: Then the divel answereth out of ye aforesaide idol: if he saieth (he shal liue) then returneth his son and ministreth things necessary unto him til he hath attained unto his former health: but if he saith (he shall die) then goes ye priest unto him, & putting a cloth into his mouth doth strangle him therewith: which being done, he cuts his dead body into morsels, & al his friends and kinsfolk are invited unto the eating thereof, with musique & 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 answere; this we doe lest the wormes should eat his flesh, for then his soule should suffer great torments, neither could I by any meanes remoove them from that errour. Many other novelties and strange things there bee in this countrey, which no man would credite, unles he saw them with his owne eyes. Howbeit, I (before almighty God) do here make relation of nothing but of that onely, whereof I am as sure, as a man may be sure. Concerning the foresaid islands, I enquired of divers wel-experienced persons, who al of them, as it were with one consent, answered me saying, that this India contained 4400 islands under it, or within it, in which islands there are sixty 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.