The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 02Hakluyt, Richard
History
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 02
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English; Voyages and travels
All their Priests had their heads and beards shauen quite ouer: and they
are clad in saffron coloured garments: and being once shauen, they lead an
vnmaried life from that time forward: and they liue an hundreth or two
hundreth of them together in one cloister or couent. Vpon those dayes when
they enter into their temples, they place two long foormes therein:
[Sidenote: Bookes.] and so sitting vpon the sayd foormes like singing men
in a quier, namely the one halfe of them directly ouer against the other,
they haue certaine books in their hands, which sometimes they lay downe by
them vpon the foormes: and their heads are bare so long as they remaine in
the temple. And there they reade softly vnto themselues, not vttering any
voice at all. Whereupon comming in amongst them, at the time of their
superstitious deuotions, and finding them all siting mute in maner
aforesayde, I attempted diuers waies to prouoke them vnto speach, and yet
could not by any means possible. They haue with them also whithersoeuer
they goe, a certaine string with an hundreth or two hundreth nutshels
thereupon, much like to our bead-roule which we cary about with vs. And
they doe alwayes vtter these words: _Ou mam Hactani_, God thou knowest: as
one of them expounded it vnto me. And so often doe they expect a reward at
Gods hands, as they pronounce these words in remembrance of God. Round
about their temple they doe alwayes make a faire court, like vnto a
churchyard, which they enuiron with a good wall: and vpon the South part
thereof they build a great portal, wherein they sit and conferre together.
And vpon the top of the said portall they pitch a long pole right vp,
exalting it, if they can, aboue all the whole towne besides. And by the
same pole all men may knowe, that there stands the temple of their idoles.
These rites and ceremonies aforesayd be common vnto all idolaters in those
parts. Going vpon a time towards the foresayd idole-temple, I found certain
priests sitting in the outward portal. And those which I sawe, seemed vnto
me, by their shauen beards, as if they had bene French men. They wore
certaine ornaments vpon their heads made of paper. The priestes of the
foresaide Iugures doe vse such attire whithersoeuer they goe. They are
alwaies in their saffron coloured iackets, which be very straight being
laced or buttened from the bosome right downe, after the French fashion.
And they haue a cloake vpon their left shoulder descending before and
behind vnder the right arme, like vnto a deacon carying the housselboxe in
time of lent. Their letters or kind of writing the Tartars did receiue.
[Sidenote: Paper. So do the people of China vse to write, drawing their
lines perpendicularly downward, and not as we doe from the right hand to
the lefte.] They begin to write at the top of their paper drawing their
lines right downe: and so they reade and multiply their lines from the left
hand to the right. They doe vse certaine papers and characters in their
magical practices.
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