When the king or zamorin dies, his male children, if any, or his brothers by the fathers side, or the sons of these brothers, do not succeed in the kingdom: For, by ancient law or custom, the succession belongs to the sons of the kings sisters; and if there be none such, it goes to the nearest male relation through the female blood. The reason of this strange law of succession is, that when the king takes a wife, she is always in the first place deflowered by the chief bramin, for which he is paid fifty-pieces of gold. When the king goes abroad, either in war or a-hunting, the queen is left in charge of the priests, who keep company with her till his return; wherefore the king may well think that her children may not be his; and for this reason the children of his sisters by the same mother are considered as his nearest in blood, and the right inheritors of the throne. When the king dies, all his subjects express their mourning by cutting their beards and shaving their heads; and during the celebration of his funerals, those who live by fishing abstain from their employment during eight days. Similar rules are observed upon the death of any of the kings wives. Sometimes the king abstains from the company of women for the space of a year, when likewise he forbears to chew betel and areka, which are reckoned provocatives.
The gentlemen and merchants of Calicut, when they wish to show great friendship to each other, sometimes exchange wives, but on these occasions the children remain with their reputed fathers. It is likewise customary among these idolaters, for one woman to have seven husbands at the same time, each of whom has his appointed night to sleep with her; and when she has a child, she fathers it upon any of the husbands she pleases. The people of this country, when at their meals, lie upon the ground, and eat their meat from copper trays, using certain leaves instead of spoons; their food consisting for the most part of rice and fish seasoned with spices, and of the ordinary fruits of the country. The lowest people eat in a filthy manner, putting their dirty hands into the dish, and thrusting their food by handfuls into their mouths. The punishment of murder is by impalement; but those who wound or hurt any one have to pay a fine to the king. When any one is in debt, and refuses to pay, the creditor goes to the judges, of whom there are said to be a hundred, and having made due proof of the debt, he receives a certain stick or branch of a tree, with authority to arrest his debtor, to whom, when he is able to find him, he uses these words: "I charge you by the heads of the Bramins, and by the head of the king, that you stir not from the spot on which you stand till you pay me what you owe." The debtor has now no resource but to pay immediately, or to lose his life: for, if he escape after this ceremony, he is adjudged a rebel, and it is lawful for any man to kill him.
When they mean to pray to their idols, they resort before sunrise to some pool or rivet where they wash themselves, after which they resort to the idol-house, taking especial care not to touch any thing by the way, and say their prayers prostrate on the ground, making strange gesticulations and contortions, so marvellously distorting their faces, eyes, and mouths, that it is horrible to behold. The nairs or gentlemen may not begin to eat, till one of them has dressed and set the food in order, with certain ceremonies, but the lower orders are not bound to such rules. The women also have no other care than to dress and beautify themselves, as they take much pains to wash and purify their persons, and to perfume their bodies with many sweet savours. Likewise when they go abroad, they are singularly loaded with jewels and ornaments on their ears, arms, and legs.
In Calicut there are certain teachers of warlike exercises, who train up the youth in the use of the sword, target, and lance, and of such other weapons as they employ in war; and when the king takes the field he has an army of 100,000 infantry, but there are no cavalry in that country. On this occasion the king rides upon an elephant, and elephants are used in their wars. Those who are next in authority to the king wear fillets round their heads of crimson or scarlet silk. Their arms are crooked swords, lances, bows and arrows, and targets. The royal ensign is an umbrella borne aloft on a spear, so as to shade the king from the heat of the sun, which ensign in their language is called somber. When both armies approach within three arrow-flights, the king sends his bramins to the enemy by way of heralds, to challenge an hundred of them to combat against an hundred of his nairs, during which set combat both sides prepare themselves for battle. In the mean time the two select parties proceed to combat, mid-way between the two armies, always striking with the edge of their swords at the heads of their antagonists, and never thrusting with the point, or striking at the legs. Usually when five or six are slain of either side, the Bramins interpose to stop the fight, and a retreat is sounded at their instance. After which the Bramins speak to the adverse kings, and generally succeed to make up matters without any battle or farther slaughter.
The king sometimes rides on an elephant, but at other times is carried by his nairs or nobles, and when he goes out is always followed by a numerous band of minstrels, making a prodigious noise with drums, timbrels, tambourets, and other such instruments. The wages of the nairs are four carlines each, monthly, in time of peace, and six during war. When any of them are slain, their bodies are burned with great pomp and many superstitious ceremonies, and their ashes are preserved; but the common people are buried in their houses, gardens, fields, or woods, without any ceremony. When I was in Calicut it was crowded with merchants from almost every part of the east, especially a prodigious number of Mahometans. There were many from Malacca and Bengal, from Tanaserim, Pegu, and Coromandel, from the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra, from all the cities and countries of Western India, and various Persians, Arabians, Syrians, Turks, and Ethiopians. As the idolaters do not sail on the sea, the Mahometans are exclusively employed in navigation, so that there are not less than 15,000 Mahometans resident in Calicut, mostly born in that place. Their ships are seldom below the burden of four or five hundred tons, yet all open and without decks. They do not put any tow or oakum into the seams of their ships, yet join the planks so artificially, that they hold out water admirably, the seams being pitched and held together with iron nails, and the wood of which their ships are built is better than ours. Their sails are made of cotton cloth, doubled in the under parts, by which they gather much wind and swell out like bags, having only one sail to each vessel. Their anchors are of marble, eight spans long, having two on each side of the ship, which are hung by means of double ropes. Their voyages are all made at certain appointed times and seasons, as one time of the year answers for one coast, and another season for other voyages, which must all be regulated according to the changes of the weather. In the months of May, June, and July, when with us in Italy every thing is almost burnt up with heat and drought, they have prodigious rains. The best of their ships are built in the island of Porcai, not far from Calicut. They have one kind of vessel or canoe, made all of one piece of wood like a trough, very long, narrow, and sharp, which is propelled either by oars or sails, and goes with amazing swiftness, which is much used by pirates.
The palace of the king of Calicut exceeds a mile in circumference, and is well constructed of beams and posts artificially joined, and curiously carved all over with the figures of devils. It is all however very low, for the reason before-mentioned, as they cannot dig deep for secure foundations. It is impossible to express in words the number and riches of the pearls and precious stones which the king wears about him, which exceed all estimate in regard to their value. Although, when I was in that place, the king lived rather in a state of grief, both on account of the war in which he was engaged with the Portuguese, and because he was afflicted by the venereal disease which had got into his throat, yet his ears, hands, legs, and feet, were richly garnished with all sorts of jewels and precious stones, absolutely beyond description. His treasure is so vast, that it cannot be contained in two immense cellars or warehouses, consisting of precious stones, plates of gold, and other rich ornaments, besides as much, gold coin as might load an hundred mules, as was reported by the Bramins, to whom these things are best known. This treasure is said to have been hoarded up by twelve kings, his predecessors. In this treasury there is said to be a coffer three spans long and two broad, entirely full of precious stones of inestimable value.