The Commentary of Father Monserrate 3.2.8

3.2.8

The common people live in lowly huts and tiny cottages: and hence if a traveller has seen one of these cities, he has seen them all. The ideas of government entertained by the Brachmanae and the Musalmans in Zelaldinus' empire differ widely. For the Brachmanae govern liberally, through a senate and council of the common people: but the Musalmans have no council or senators, everything being decided by the arbitrary will of the governor appointed by the King. [Here follow 23 pages of somewhat unreliable tales concerning Chingiz Khan, Timur, the Scythians, etc. See Appendix.] Thus I have written an account as full and careful, and (be it said without pride) as accurate as the demands of brevity and clearness would allow, of the purpose of Zelaldinus in summoning the priests, of their transactions with the King and his religious doctors, of the cause and conduct of the war with Mirsachimus : then of the return of the priests, and of the murder of Rudolf : next of the King's character (both at home and in the field), of his intellectual gifts, of his majestic deportment, and of his wars. Finally I have described his native land, and the brave and warlike stock to which he belongs. Thus I seem to have reached the end of my labour : and may it prove to have been to some at least a useful labour.