Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 6.1.6

6.1.6

We have, say they, our four Beths; that is, our four books of law, sacred and divine writings given unto us by God himself, through the medium of Brahma. These books teach that a certain Deüta, an incarnate divinity, extremely malignant and mischievous, very dark, very black, very impure, and very filthy (these are all their own expressions) takes possession of the Sun, which it blackens to the colour of ink, infects and obscures; that the Sun, which is also a Deüta, but of the most beneficent and perfect kind, is thrown into a state of the greatest uneasiness, and suffers a most cruel agony while in the power of and infected by this wicked and black being; that an endeavour to rescue the Sun from so miserable a condition becomes the duty of every person; that this important object can be attained only by means of prayers, ablutions, and alms; that those actions have an extraordinary merit during the festival of the eclipse, the alms then bestowed being a hundred times more valuable than alms given at any other time; and who is he, they ask, that would refuse to make a profit of cent per cent? These, Monsieur, were the eclipses which I told you I could not easily forget, and they naturally lead me to speak of other wild extravagancies of the unhappy heathens, from which I shall leave you to draw whatever conclusions you please.