The people who trade to this port are from China, Bengal, Pegu, Java,
Coromandel, Guzerata, Arabia, and _Rumos_. _Rumos_ is in the Red-Sea,
whence Solomon sent his ships to Ophir for gold; which Ophir is now
Acheen, as they affirm upon tradition; and the _Rumos_ people have
followed the same trade from the time of Solomon to this day.[42] Their
payments are made in different denominations, called cash, mas, cowpan,
pardaw, and tayel. I only saw two sorts of coin, one of gold, and the
other of lead: The gold coin, or _mas_, is of the size of a
silver-penny, and is as common at Acheen as pence are in England. The
other, of lead, called _cash_, is like the little leaden tokens used in
London by the vintners: 1600 _cashes_ make one _mas_; 400 _cashes_ make
a _cowpan_, and four cowpans a mas; five _mases_ are equal to four
shillings sterling; four _mases_ make a _pardaw_, and four _pardaws_ a
_tayel_. Hence one _mas_ is 9-3/5d. sterling; one pardaw, 3s. 2-2/5d.;
one _tayel_, 12s. 9-3/5d.; one cowpan, 2-3/5d.; and one cash is a
two-hundredth part of a penny. Pepper is sold by the _Bahar_, which is
360 English pounds, for 3l. 4s. Their pound is called _catt_, being
twenty-one of our ounces; and their ounce is larger than ours in the
proportion of sixteen to ten. They sell precious stones by a weight
named _masse_, 10-3/4 of which make an ounce.

[Footnote 42: The Turks are called _Rumos_ in India, because their chief
city, Constantinople, was called New Rome. Their tradition of Ophir is
more to be marked than this conceit of _Rumos_ in the Red-Sea.--_Purchas_,
in a marginal note.

The Egyptians might follow this trade from the days of Solomon, but the
_Rums_, or Romans, could not, as they did not possess Egypt till long
after Solomon.--Astl. 1. 260. c.

It would be too long, in a note, to enter upon any critical discussion
respecting the _Ophir_ of Solomon, which was more probably at _Sofala_,
on the eastern coast of Africa.--E.]

Once every year they have the following strange custom, which happened
while we were there. The king and all his nobles go in great pomp to the
church, or mosque, to see if the _Messias_ be come. On that occasion, I
think, were at least forty elephants, all richly covered with silk,
velvet, and cloth of gold, several nobles riding on each elephant. One
elephant was exceedingly adorned beyond the rest, having a little golden
castle on his back, which was led for the expected _Messias_ to ride
up