Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/210

18S OF THE NORTHEAST FROSTY SEA

Alcayre.

Trogloditica. Of this trench, described of Strabo and Plinie, there are scene certayne tokens remaynyng at this present, as they do affyrme whiche haue been at Sues beyonde the citie Alcayr, otherwise called Babylon in Egypt. But the merchauntes that of later dayes trauayle this viage by lande, ryde through the drye and barren desartes, on Camels, both by day and by nyght, directyng theyr waye by the starres and compasse, as do mariners on the sea, and carrying with them water sufficient for many dayes iorneys.

The viage ot East India frequented in olde tyme.

The customes and maners of the Indians.

The places of Arabic, and India, named of Strabo and Plinie, are the selfe same where the Portugales practyse theyr trade at this day, as the manors and customes of the Indians doo yet declare; for euen at this present their women vse to burne thcmsclues alyue with the dead bodyes of their husbandes. Whiche thynge (as wryteth Strabo in his xv book) they dyd in olde time by a lawe, for this consyderation, that sometyme being in loue with other, they forsooke or poysoned their husbandes. And for as muche as accordyng to this custome, the olde Poet Propertius (who lyued about an hundred yeeres before the incarnation of Christ) hath in his booke made mention of the contention that was among the Indian women, which of them shoulde be burned aliue with their husbandes, I haue thought good to subscribe his verses, which are these.

The voyage to Cathay.

As touchyng these viages, both by sea and by lande, to East India and Cathay, many thinges are wrytten very largly by diuers autours, which I omit because they parteyne not