inds came down, from the mount,
some like apes, some like cats, others like monkeys, and some having human
faces, which gathered around him to the number of four thousand, and placed
themselves in seemly order. He set down the broken victuals for them to
eat; and when they had eaten, he rung again upon his cymbal, and they all
returned to their places of abode. Wondering greatly at this strange sight,
this man informed me that these creatures were animated by the souls of
departed persons of rank, and that they were fed by him and his brethren
out of love for the God that governs the world. He added, that, when a man
was noble in this life, his soul entered, after death, into the body of
some excellent beast, while the souls of the deceased common rude people,
possess the bodies of vile animals. I then endeavoured to refute that gross
error, but my arguments were all in vain, as he could not believe that any
soul could exist without a body.

From Quinsay I went to the city of Chilenso, which is forty miles round,
and contains 360 stone bridges, the fairest I ever saw. This place is well
inhabited, has a vast number of ships, and abundance of provisions and
commodities. From thence I went to a great river called Thalay, which is
seven miles broad where narrowest, and it runs through the midst of the
land of the Pigmies, whose chief city is Kakam, one of the finest of the
world. These Pigmies are only three spans in height, yet they manufacture
larger and better cloths of cotton and silk, than any other people. Passing
that river, I came to the city of Janzu, in which there is a house for the
friars of our order, and there are also three churches belonging to the
Nestorians. This Janzu is a great and noble city, having forty-eight tomans
of tributary fires, and abounds in all manner of victuals, flesh, fish, and
fowl. The lord of this city has fifty tomans of _balis_ in yearly revenue
from salt alone; and as every bali is worth a florin and a half of our
money, one toman is worth 15,000 florins, and the salt revenue of this city
is 750,000 florins. This lord has been known to forgive 200 tomans of
arrears at one time to his people, or three millions of florins, lest they
should be reduced to distress. There is a strange fashion in this city,
when any one inclines to give a banquet to his friends: He goes about to
certain taverns or cooks shops, informing each of the landlords, that such
and such of his friends are to come t