. The Indians have doctors, or devout men, named Bramins. They have
poets also, who compose poems filled with the grossest flattery to their
kings and great men. They have also astrologers, philosophers, soothsayers,
men who observe the flight of birds, and others who pretend to the
calculation of nativities, particularly at Kaduge, a great city in the
kingdom of Gozar[11]. There are certain men called _Bicar_, who go all
their lives naked, and suffer their hair to grow till it hides their hinder
parts. They also allow their nails to grow, till they become pointed and
sharp like swords. Each has a string round his neck, to which hangs an
earthen dish, and when hungry, they go to any house, whence the inhabitants
cheerfully supply them with boiled rice. They have many laws and religious
precepts, by which they imagine that they please God. Part of their
devotion consists in building _kans_, or inns, on the highways, for the
accommodation of travellers; where also certain pedlars, or small dealers,
are established, from whom the passengers may purchase what they stand in
need of. There are also public women, who expose themselves to travellers.
Some of these are called _women of the idol_, the origin of which
institution is this: When a woman has laid herself under a vow, that she
may have children, if she happens to produce a handsome daughter, she
carries her child to the _bod_[12], so the idol is called. When this girl
has attained the proper age, she takes an apartment in the temple, and
waits the arrival of strangers, to whom she prostitutes herself for a
certain hire, and delivers her gains to the priest for the support of the
temple. All these things they reckon among their meritorious deeds. Praised
be God who hath freed us from the sins which defile the people involved in
unbelief!

Not very far from Almansur there is a famous idol called Multan, to which
the Indians resort in pilgrimage, from the remotest parts. Some of the
pilgrims bring the odoriferous wood called Hud ul Camruni, so called from
Camrun, where there is excellent aloes-wood. Some of this is worth 200
_dinars_ the mawn, and is commonly marked with a seal, to distinguish it
from another kind of less value. This the devotees give to the priests,
that it may be burnt before the idol, but merchants often buy it from these
priests. There are some Indians, making profession of piety, who go in
search of unknown islands, or those newly discovered, on purpo