'We then entered the house, which covered a piece of ground three
hundred and twenty-seven feet long, and forty-two feet broad. It
consisted of a roof thatched with palm leaves, and raised upon
thirty-nine pillars on each side, and fourteen in the middle. The ridge
of the thatch, on the inside, was thirty feet high, and the sides of the
house, to the edge of the roof, were twelve feet high; all below the
roof being open. As soon as we entered the house, she made us sit down,
and then calling four young girls, she assisted them to take off my
shoes, draw down my stockings, and pull off my coat, and then directed
them to smooth down the skin, and gently chafe it with their hands. The
same operation was also performed on the first lieutenant and the
purser, but upon none of those who appeared to be in health. While this
was doing, our surgeon, who had walked till he was very warm, took off
his wig to cool and refresh himself: a sudden exclamation of one of the
Indians, who saw it, drew the attention of the rest, and in a moment
every eye was fixed upon the prodigy, and every operation was suspended.
The whole assembly stood some time motionless, in silent astonishment,
which could not have been more strongly expressed, if they had
discovered that our friend's limbs had been screwed on to the trunk. In
a short time, however, the young women who were chafing us, resumed
their employment, and having continued for about half an hour, they
dressed us again, but in this they were, as may easily be imagined, very
awkward; I found great benefit, however, from the chafing, and so did
the lieutenant and the purser.
'After a little time our generous benefactress ordered some bales of
Indian cloth to be brought out, with which she clothed me, and all that
were with me, according to the fashion of the country. At first I
declined the acceptance of this favour, but being unwilling not to seem
pleased with what was intended to please me, I acquiesced. When we went
away, she ordered a very large sow, big with young, to be taken down to
the boat, and accompanied us thither herself. She had given directions
to her people to carry me, as they had done when I came, but as I chose
rather to walk, she took me by the arm, and whenever we came to a plash
of water or dirt, she lifted me over with as little trouble as it would
have cost me to have lifted over a child, if I had been well.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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