欧宝娱乐

When these three women...made a compact to burn themselves, they spent three days preceding the event in concerts of music and singing and festivals of eating and drinking, as though they were bidding farewell to the world, and the women from all around came to take part. On the morning of the fourth day each one of them had a horse brought to her and mounted it, richly dressed and perfumed. In her right hand she held a coconut, with which she played, and in her left a mirror, in which she could see her face. They were surrounded by Brahmins and accompanied by their own relatives, and were preceded by drums, trumpets and bugles. Every one of the infidels would say to one of them, 鈥橳ake greetings from me to my father, or brother, or mother, or friend,鈥� and she would say 鈥榊es,鈥� and smile at them. I rode out with my companions to see what exactly these women did in this ceremony of burning. After traveling about three miles with them we came to a dark place with much water and trees with heavy shade, amongst which there were four pavilions, each containing a stone idol. Between the pavilions there was a basin of water over which a dense shade was cast by trees so thickly set that the sun could not penetrate them. This place looked like a spot in hell--God preserve us from it! On reaching these pavilions they descended to the pool, plunged into it and divested themselves of their clothes and ornaments, which they distributed as alms. Each one was then given an unsewn garment of coarse cotton and tied part of it round her waist and part over her head and shoulders. Meanwhile, the fires had been lit near this basin in a low-lying spot, and oil of sesame poured over them that the flames were increased. There were about fifteen men there with faggots of thin wood, and with them about ten others with heavy baulks in their hands, while the drummers and trumpeters were standing by waiting for the women鈥檚 coming. The fire was screened off by a blanket held by some men in their hands, so that they should not be frightened by the sight of it. I saw one of them, on coming to the blanket, pull it violently out of the men鈥檚 hands, saying to them with a laugh, 鈥業s it with the fire that you frighten me? I know that it is a blazing fire.鈥� Thereupon she joined her hands above her head in salutation to the fire and cast herself into it. At the same moment the drums, trumpets and bugles were sounded, and men threw on her the firewood they were carrying and the others put those heavy baulks on top of her to prevent her moving, cries were raised and there was a loud clamor. When I saw this I had all but fallen off my horse, if my companions had not quickly brought water to me and laved my face, after which I withdrew. (p. 222-223)

I came eventually to the city of Damascus of Syria, from which I had been absent fully twenty years. I had left there a pregnant wife, and while I was in India I learned that she had given birth to a male child鈥�.

All these products of the coco-palm and the fish which they live on have an amazing and unparalleled effect in sexual intercourse, and the people of these islands perform wonders in this respect. I had there myself four wives, and concubines as well, and I used to visit all of them every day and pass the night with the wife whose turn it was, and this I continued to do the whole year and a half that I was there.

We travelled next to Kabul. This was in former times a great city, and on its site there is now a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called al-Afghan.

Having divorced my wives I set sail. We came to a little island in the archipelago in which there was but one house, occupied by a weaver. He had a wife and family, a few coco-palms and a small boat, with which he used to fish and to cross over to any of the islands he wished to visit. His island contained also banana bushes, but we saw no land birds on it except two crows, which came out to us on our arrival and circled above our vessel. And I swear I envied that man, and wished that the island had been mine, that I might have made it my retreat until the inevitable hour should befall me.

"Thence we traveled to Ma' an, which is the last town in Syria, and descended through the pass of El-Sawan into the desert, of which the saying goes 'He who enters it is lost and he who leaves it is born.'"

" They are strong workers and a slave of that race is twice as good as a slave of another."

"From there we entered the great desert... Their blows in this desert the deadly summum wind which causes bodies to crumble through putrefaction so that when a man dies his limbs fall apart. we have already mentioned that this wind blows also in the desert between Hurmuz and Shiraz."

"Once when I ordered a thief's hand to be cut off a number of those who were in the Room fainted."