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Richard Hakluyt - Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, 10
haue washed themselues, they giue to the old men which sit there praying. Afterwards they go to diuers
of their images, and giue them of their sacrifices. And when they giue, the old men say certaine prayers,
and then is all holy. And in diuers places there standeth a kind of image which in their language they call
Ada. And they haue diuers great stones carued, whereon they poure water, and throw thereupon some
rice, wheate, barly, and some other things. This Ada hath foure hands with clawes. Moreouer, they haue
a great place made of stone like to a well with steppes to goe downe; wherein the water standeth very
foule and stinketh: for the great quantitie of flowers, which continually they throwe into it, doe make it
stinke. There be alwayes many people in it: for they say when they wash themselues in it, that their
sinnes be forgiuen them, because God, as they say, did wash himselfe in that place. They gather vp the
sand in the bottome of it, and say it is holy. They neuer pray but in the water, and they wash themselues
ouerhead, and lade vp water with both their handes, and turne themselues about, and then they drinke a
litle of the water three times, and so goe to their gods which stand in those houses. Some of them will
wash a place which is their length, and then will pray vpon the earth with their armes and legs at length
out, and will rise vp and lie downe, and kisse the ground twentie or thirtie times, but they will not stirre
their right foote. And some of them will make their ceremonies with fifteene or sixteene pots litle and
great, and ring a litle bel when they make their mixtures tenne or twelue times: and they make a circle of
water round about their pots and pray, and diuers sit by them, and one that reacheth them their pots: and
they say diuers things ouer their pots many times, and when they haue done, they goe to their gods, and
strowe their sacrifices which they thinke are very holy, and marke many of them which sit by, in the
foreheads, which they take as a great gift. There come fiftie and sometime an hundred together, to wash
them in this well, and to offer to these idols. They haue in some of these houses their idoles standing, and
one sitteth by them in warme weather with a fanne to blowe winde vpon them. And when they see any
company comming, they ring a litle bell which hangeth by them, and many giue them their almes, but
especially those which come out of the countrey. Many of them are blacke and haue clawes of brasse
with long nayles, and some ride vpon peacocks and other foules which be euill fauoured, with long
haukes bils, and some like one thing and some another, but none with a good face. Among the rest there
is one which they make great account of: for they say hee giueth them all things both foode and apparell,
and one sitteth alwayes by him with a fanne to make wind towards him. Here some bee burned to ashes,
some scorched in the fire and throwen into the water, and dogges and foxes doe presently eate them. The
wiues here doe burne with their husbands when they die, if they will not their heads be shauen, and neuer
any account is made of them afterward. The people goe all naked saue a litle cloth bound about their
middle. Their women haue their necks, armes and eares decked with rings of siluer, copper, tinne, and
with round hoopes made of Iuorie, adorned with amber stones, and with many agats, and they are marked
with a great spot of red in their foreheads, and a stroke of red vp to the crowne, and so it runneth three
manor of wayes. In their Winter, which is our May, the men weare quilted gownes of cotton like to our
mattraces and quilted caps like to our great Grocers morters, with a slit to looke out at, and so tied downe
beneath their eares. If a man or woman be sicke and like to die, they will lay him before their idols all
night, and that shall helpe him or make an ende of him. And if he do not mend that night, his friends will
come and sit with him a litle and cry, and afterwards will cary him to the waters side and set him vpon a
litle raft made of reeds, and so let him goe downe the riuer. When they be maried the man and the
woman come to the water side, and there is an olde man which they call a Bramane, that is a priest, a
cowe and a calfe, or a cowe with calfe. Then the man and the woman, cowe and calfe, and the olde man
goe into the water together, and they giue the olde man a white cloth of foure yards long, and a basket
crosse bound with diuers things in it: the cloth he laieth vpon the backe of the cowe, and then he taketh
the cowe by the ende of the taile, and saieth certaine wordes: and she hath a copper or a brasse pot full of
water, and the man doeth hold his hand by the olde mans hand, and the wiues hand by her husbands, and
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