第79章

Coming back to our subject,I say that I will not mention here the situation of the cities,and towns,and villages in this kingdom of Narsymga,to avoid prolixity;only I shall speak of the city of Darcha,[383]which has a monument such as can seldom be seen elsewhere.This city of Darcha is very well fortified by a wall,though not of stone,for the reason that I have already stated.On the western side,which is towards (Portuguese)India,it is surrounded by a very beautiful river,and on the other,eastern side the interior of the country is all one plain,and along the wall is its moat.This Darcha has a pagoda,which is the monument I speak of,so beautiful that another as good of its kind could not be found within a great distance.You must know that it is a round temple made of a single stone,the gateway all in the manner of joiners work,with every art of perspective.There are many figures of the said work,standing out as much as a cubit from the stone,so that you see on every side of them,so well carved that they could not be better done --the faces as well as all the rest;and each one in its place stands as if embowered in leaves;and above it is in the Romanesque style,so well made that it could not be better.Besides this,it has a sort of lesser porch upon pillars,all of stone,and the pillars with their pedestals[384]so well executed that they appear as if made in Italy;all the cross pieces and beams are of the same stone without any planks or timber being used in it,and in the same way all the ground is laid with the same stone,outside as well as in.And all this pagoda,as far round as the temple goes,is enclosed by a trellis made of the same stone,and this again is completely surrounded by a very strong wall,better even than the city has,since it is all of solid masonry.It has three entrance gates,which gates are very large and beautiful,and the entrance from one of these sides,being towards the east and facing the door of the pagoda,has some structures like verandahs,small and low,where sit some JOGIS;[385]and inside this enclosure,which has other little pagodas of a reddish colour,there is a stone like the mast of a ship,with its pedestal four-sided,and from thence to the top eight-sided,standing in the open air.I was not astonished at it,because I have seen the needle of St.Peters at Rome,which is as high,or more.[386]

These pagodas are buildings in which they pray and have their idols;the idols are of many sorts,namely,figures of men and women,of bulls,and apes,while others have nothing but a round stone which they worship.In this temple of Darcha is an idol in the figure of a man as to his body,and the face is that of an elephant with trunk and tusks,[387]and with three arms on each side and six hands,of which arms they say that already four are gone,and when all fall then the world will be destroyed they are full of belief that this will be,and hold it as a prophecy.They feed the idol every day,for they say that he eats;and when he eats women dance before him who belong to that pagoda,and they give him food and all that is necessary,and all girls born of these women belong to the temple.These women are of loose character,and live in the best streets that there are in the city;it is the same in all their cities,their streets have the best rows of houses They are very much esteemed,and are classed amongst those honoured ones who are the mistresses of the captains;any respectable man may go to their houses without any blame attaching thereto.These women (are allowed)even to enter the presence of the wives of the king,and they stay with them and eat betel with them,a thing which no other person may do,no matter what his rank may be.This betel is a herb which has a leaf like the leaf of the pepper,or the ivy of our country;they always eat this leaf,and carry it in their mouths with another fruit called areca.This is something like a medlar,but it is very hard,and it is very good for the breath and has many other virtues;it is the best provision for those who do not eat as we do.Some of them eat flesh;they eat all kinds except beef and pork,and yet,nevertheless,they cease not to eat this betel all day.

Afterwards going from this city of Darcha towards the city of Bisnaga,[388]which is eighteen leagues distant,and is the capital of all the kingdom of Narsymga,where the king always resides,you have many cities and walled villages;and two leagues before you arrive at the city of Bisnaga you have a very lofty SERRA which has passes by which you enter the city.These are called "gates"(PORTAS).You must enter by these,for you will have no means of entrance except by them.This range of hills surrounds the city with a circle of twenty-four leagues,and within this range there are others that encircle it closely.Wherever these ranges have any level ground they cross it with a very strong wall,in such a way that the hills remain all closed,except in the places where the roads come through from the gates in the first range,which are the entrance ways to the city.In such places there are some small pits (or caves?)[389]which could be defended by a few people;these SERRAS continue as far as the interior of the city.Between all these enclosures are plains and valleys where rice is grown,and there are gardens with many orange-trees,limes,citrons,and radishes (RABAOS),and other kinds of garden produce as in Portugal,only not lettuces or cabbages.Between these hill-ranges are many lakes by which they irrigate the crops mentioned,and amongst all these ranges there are no forests or patches of brushwood,except very small ones,nor anything that is green.For these hills are the strangest ever seen,they are of a white stone piled one block over another in manner most singular,so that it seems as if they stood in the air and were not connected one with another;and the city is situated in the middle of these hills and is entirely surrounded by them.