Onyxes, Murrhini, or the ftone from which the Vafa Myrrhina,
or drinking cups, which the Romans fet fo great a value
On, that T. Petronius had one which coft him /j. 3,415 ° f
our money, were made *. Thefe cups received their value
from their rich fculpture. Add to thefe muflins, Molocbina,
cottons dyed o f the color of mallow flowers, and a great quantity
of common Othonium, or courfe Dungarees. Some articles,
which we cannot interpret, were brought through the neighboring
Scythia, or the Indo-Scythia, bordering on the Indus. I
fhall, in another place, give at one view the various articles
mutually exchanged by the merchants o f India and o f Europe
in antient times. I fhall here only feledt a few lingular gifts,
fent as prefents to the monarch of Ozene, fuch as mufical inftru-
ments, filver veflels, and beautiful virgins for his majefty’s Zenana.
Even in thofe early times the merchants had their courfe
o f exchange, and made great profit by the change of the golden
and filver denarii, for the money o f the country +.
M a d a g e e Sin- T h e kingdoms of Ougein, Agemir, part of the Malwab,.mi
BIA' Candeifh, is now in poifeffion of the enterprizing Mahratta, Madagee
Sindia, who makes the capital of the firft his refidence.
He was originally a Jagbiredar o f the Poonah Mabrattas : a
Jagbire means a grant of land from a fovereign to a fubjeit, re-
vokable at pleafure, but generally, or almoft always, for a
life rent. Sindia flung off his dependency, and makes quick
advances to confiderable fovereignty.
L io n s , W e have the evidence o f Jebang'ir, and the reverend Edward
Terry, that in their days the province o f Malwab abounded
with lions. Jebang’ir records, that he had killed feveral; and
• Plin. lib. xxx. c. 2. t Arrian, Periplus, 170.
Mr.
Mr. Terry mentions his having been frequently terrified by
them, in his travels through the vaft woods and wilderneffes of
the country* ; whether they exift at prefent is doubtful, being
animals at left very rare at this time. But to return.
S u r a t is a city of toleration, all fedts are indulged in the
free exercife of their religion. Fanaticifm, in all its extravagance,
reigns here, amidft the various cafts o f Hindoos ; and
here are practifcd all the dreadful aufterities, and ftrange attitudes
o f the felf-tormentors we have fo often read of. Here
the Perfoes exert .their zealous worfhip to-the pure element of T h e P e r s e e s .
fire, according to the dodtrine of their great founder. Near the
city they have their repofitories for the dead. They admit
not of interment ; they place the corpfes on a platform, on the
fummit of a circular building, expofed to birds of prey. The
friends watch the bodies, and wait with eagernefs till one o f the
eyes is plucked out. If the right is plucked out, they go away,
fecure of the- happinefs of the departed fpirit ; if the left, they
deplore its eternal mifery.
I s h a l l not attempt to enumerate the articles of commerce
of Surat. In its moft profperous ftate it was the emporium of
all the produce o f India and Arabia, and o f all the produce of
Europe and Africa, wanted by the luxurious AJiatics. A Mabo- G r e a t M e r -
metan merchant, living in 1690, had at once twenty large fhips,
from" 300 to 800 tons ; none freighted at lefs expence than ten
thoufand pounds, many as high as twenty-five thoufand. , The
extent of the Indian or country trade is evident here, by the
numerous fleets which frequently turn in. Niebuhr, who was
at Surat in 1764, fpeaks in high terms of its flourilhing ftate,
* Memoirs of Jehangir, p. 43.— Terry’s Voy. p. 194, 19,6,
which