The chronicles of Paes and Nuniz (Vijayanagara) 1.5.2

1.5.2

This is the best provided city in the world, and is stocked with provisions such as rice, wheat, grains, Indian-corn, and a certain amount of barley and beans, MOONG,[417] pulses, horse-gram,[418] and many other seeds which grow in this country which are the food of the people, and there is large store of these and very cheap; but wheat is not so common as the other grains, since no one eats it except the Moors. But you will find what I have mentioned. The streets and markets are full of laden oxen without count, so that you cannot get along for them, and in many streets you come upon so many of them that you have to wait for them to pass, or else have to go by another way. There is much poultry; they give three fowls in the city for a coin worth a VINTEM,[419] which coins are called FAVAOS;[420] outside the city they give four fowls for a VINTEM. In this country there are many partridges, but they are not of the same sort or quality as ours: they are like the ESTARNAS[421] of Italy. There are three sorts of these: one class has only a small spur such as those of Portugal have; another class has on each foot two very sharp spurs, almost as long and thick as one's finger; the other class is painted, and of these you will find the markets full; as also of quails, and hares, and all kinds of wild fowl, and other birds which live in the lakes and which look like geese.