Travels in India (Tavernier) 141: BOOK III
Travels in India (Ball) 141
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- English
BOOK III
141.1
It is in this town of Azoo that the tombs of the Kings of Assam and of all the members of the royal family are situated. Although the Assamese are idolaters, they do not burn the bodies of the defunct, but bury them. They believe that after death they go to another world, where those who have lived well in this world lack nothing, and enjoy all kinds of pleasure ; while, on the contrary, those who have lived badly, and have taken the property of others, suffer much, principally hunger and thirst, and that, accordingly, it is prudent to bury something with them to serve them at need. Thus it was that Mir Jumla found such a quantity of riches at Azoo, since for many centuries every King has had built for himself in the great pagoda a sort of chapel where he was to be buried, and during their lifetime, each of them sent, to be placed in the grave where he was to be buried, a quantity of gold and silver, carpets and other articles. When the body of a dead king is buried in his grave all his most precious possessions are also placed there, as a private idol of gold or silver which he worshipped during life, and all things which it is believed will be required by him in the other world.
141.2
But that which is most strange, and which savours much of barbarism is, that as soon as the King is dead, some of his most beloved wives and the principal officers of his house kill themselves by means of a poisoned decoction, in order to be interred with him, so that they may serve him in the other world. Besides which an elephant, twelve camels, six horses, and numerous sporting dogs are buried with him, it being believed that all these animals will come to life again, after they are dead, in order to serve the King. This Kingdom of Assam is one of the best countries in Asia, for it produces all that is necessary to the life of man, without there being need to go for anything to the neighbouring States. There are mines of gold, silver, steel, lead, and iron, and much silk, but it is coarse. There is a kind of silk which is produced on trees, and is made by an animal having the form of our silkworm, but it is rounder and remains for a whole year on the trees. The stuffs which are made of this silk are very brilliant, but soon fray and do not last long. It is in the southern direction where these silks are produced, and that the gold and silver mines are situated. The country also produces an abundance of shellac, there are two kinds of it.
141.3
That which is formed on trees is of a red colour, and is what they dye their calicoes and other stuffs with, and when they have extracted this red colour they use the lac to lacquer cabinets and other objects of that kind, and to make Spanish wax. A large quantity of it is exported to China and Japan, to be used in the manufacture of cabinets; it is the best lac in the whole of Asia for these purposes. As for the gold, no one is permitted to remove it out of the Kingdom, and it is not coined into money, but is kept in large and small ingots, which the people make use of in local trade, not taking it elsewhere; but as for silver, the King coins it into money of the size and weight of rupees, and of an octagonal shape, and they may be taken outside the Kingdom. Although the country abounds, as I have said, with all things necessary to life, among all articles of food the flesh of the dog is especially esteemed, it is the favourite dish at feasts, and every month, in each town in the Kingdom, the people hold markets where they only sell dogs, which are brought thither from all directions. There are also quantities of vines and good grapes, but no wine, the grapes being merely dried to distil spirits from. Finally, as regards salt, there is none in the Kingdom but what is manufactured, which is done in two ways. The first is to collect vegetable matter which is found in stagnant water, such as ducks and frogs eat.
141.4
It is dried and burnt, and the ashes derived from it being boiled and strained as is described below, serve as salt. The other method, which is that most commonly followed, is to take some of those large leaves of the kind of fig tree which we call Adam’s fig, they are dried in the same manner and burnt, and the ashes from them consist of a kind of salt which is so pungent that it is impossible to eat it unless it is softened, this is done in the following way. The ashes are put into water, where they are stirred about for ten or twelve hours, then this water is strained three times through a cloth and then boiled. As it boils the sediment thickens, and when the water is all consumed, the salt, which is white and fairly good, is found at the bottom of the pot. It is from these ashes of fig leaves that in this country the lye is made to boil silk, which becomes as white as snow, and if the people of Assam had more figs than they have, they would make all their silks white, because white silk is much more valuable than the other, but they have not sufficient to bleach half the silks which are produced in the country. Kemmerouf is the name of the town where the King of Assam resides, it is twenty-five or thirty days’ journey from that which was formerly the capital of the Kingdom and bore the same name.
141.5
The King takes no tribute from his people, but all the mines of gold, silver, lead, steel, and iron belong to him, and in order not to oppress his subjects, he only employs the slaves whom he buys from his neighbours for working in the mines. Thus all the peasants of Assam are at their ease, and there is scarcely any one who has not a separate house in the middle of his land, a fountain surrounded by trees, and even the majority keep elephants for their wives. These idolaters, unlike those of India, who have but one wife, have four, and when a man marries one, in order that there may be no dispute among them, he says to her, “I take you to serve me in my household for this purpose,” and to another, “I destine you for another,” and thus each of these women knows what she has to do in the house. The men and women are of fine build, and of very good blood ; but the people dwelling on the southern frontier are somewhat olive coloured, and are not subject to goitre like those of the north. The latter are not of so fine a build, and the majority of their women have somewhat flat noses. These people of the southern part go about naked, having only a piece of calico with which they cover that which modesty requires them to conceal, with a cap like those English caps, around which they hang an abundance of pigs’ teeth. They have their ears pierced so that one might easily pass the thumb through the holes, some carry ornaments of gold in them and others of silver.
141.6
The men wear their hair down to their shoulders, and the women leave it as long as it can grow. There is in the Kingdom of Assam, as well as in the Kingdom of BhutAn, a large trade in tortoiseshell bracelets, and sea shells as large as an egg, which are sawn into small circles, but the rich wear bracelets of coral and yellow amber. When a man dies all his relatives and friends should come to the interment, and when they place the body in the ground they take off all the bracelets which are on their arms and legs and bury them with the defunct.