The Jews, the Banians or Cettis, and the Mahometans, have here very considerable warehouses filled with goods. More than an hundred Arabian ships from Mascate and Mocha, which, besides Egyptian and Arabian merchandise, bring with them very large sums of money, come to anchor here every year. Venetian sequins brought from Grand Cairo are much more current at this place than in Europe. Many of the Arabian ships make two voyages hither in the course of the year. The first time, they arrive in September, and depart in October and November; the second time, they arrive in February, and return in April or May. The Arabs, who conduct these vessels, have a most horrid appearance. They are strongly built; wear their beards long; have nothing on their bodies but a shirt and a pair of wide trowsers made of white cotton cloth; are of a dark-brown complexion, and pay very little attention to cleanliness. They are active; never go but in companies, and well armed; sleep under tents, or a piece of cloth extended on poles; cook their victuals in the open streets; work at night by the light of the moon; have a great fondness for areca, or palm wine; are extremely faithful to each other while they are getting their goods on board, and unite to avenge themselves in common when any of them is injured. What a difference there is among nations! The Indians, for example, are agile, nimble and weak, but civil and polite; they act only after mature deliberation; are fond of temperance, and lead an honest and harmless life. The Arabs, on the other hand, are forward, rustic, robust and faithful; but pay very little attention to decency, or the dictates of reason. The latter devour without any scruple their _Pillow_, a dish which consists of boiled rice, with a fowl or piece of kid’s flesh; but the former eat only rice, herbs or roots; and consider it as a great crime to kill an animal. If an Indian is attacked by the small-pox, a disease which in that country occasions great devastation, all the neighbours employ every possible precaution to prevent themselves from being infected. In like cases, however, the Arabs spread out mats in the open streets; place on them the infected persons; give them palm-wine, which, as they pretend, will expel the poison; and before the pustules are ripe, or begin to dry, strew them over with ashes, under a firm conviction that the poison will by these means be dried up and dispersed. The Indians are always accustomed to perform their ablutions before and after meals, and to repair to their temples when they pray to their gods, or present offerings to them. The Arabs always kneel down in the evening in the open street; keep their eyes fixed on the moon; incline their bodies before it times without number; and repeat their prayers publicly and aloud. A like contrast is observed in the manners and customs of the other tribes who inhabit the coast of Malabar; and for that reason they are all