374 Hamilton’s account op the east indies*

now the chief and the factors are removed to Tellicherry , and what quantities ofpepper they procure there by their black fervants, is fent by fea to Tellicherry . TheFrench have a fmall factory fettled in anno 1698 : but they are not in a conditionto carry on a trade for want of money and credit; and the Portuguefe have a church,but poorly decorated, and pitifully endowed, for Chriftian charity is much decayedthere as well as in other places; and the priefts’ perquifites are but fmall by converts.

The product of the Samorin ’s country is pepper in abundance, bettle-nut andcocoa-nut, and that tree produceth jaggery, a kind of fugar, and copera, or thekernels of the nut dried, and out of thofe kernels there is a very clear oil expreft ; alfc*fandel-wood, iron, caffia-lignum and timber for building, all which commodities theyexport to the great benefit of the inhabitants.

Many ftrange cuftoms were obferved in this country in former times, and fome veryodd ones are (till continued. It was an ancient cuftom for the Samorin to reign buttwelve years, and no longer. If he died before his term was expired, it faved him atroublefome ceremony of cutting his own throat, on a publick fcaffold erected for thatpurpofe. Fie firft made a feaft for all his nobility and gentry, who are very nume-rous. After the feaft he faluted his guefts, and went on the fcaffold, and very de-cently cut his own throat in the view of the affembly, and his body was, a little whileafter, burned with great pomp and ceremony, and the grandees elected a new Samorin .Whether that cuftom was a religious or civil ceremony I know not, but it is nowlaid afide.

And a new cuftom is followed by the modern Samorins, that jubilee is proclaimedthroughout his dominions, at the end of twelve years, and a tent is pitched for him ina fpacious plain, and a great feaft is celebrated for ten or twelve days, with mirthand jollity, guns firing night and day, fo at the end of the feaft any four of the gueftsthat have a mind to gain a crown by a defperate action, in fighting their way through3b or 40,000 of his guards, and kill the Samorin in his tent, he that kills him, fuc-ceeds him in his empire.

In anno 1695, one of thofe jubilees happened, and the tent pitched near Pennany, afea-port of his, about fifteen leagues to the fouthward of Calecut . There were butthree men that would venture on that defperate action, who fell in, with fword andtarget, among the guard, and, after they had killed and wounded many were thein-felves killed. One of the defperados had a nephew of fifteen or fixteen years of age,that kept clofe by his uncle in the attack on the guards, and, when he faw him fall*the youth got through the guards into the tent, and made a ftroke at his majefty’shead, and had certainly difpatched him, if a large brafs lamp which was burning overhis head, had not marred the blow 5 but, before he could make another,-he was killedby the guards; and, I believe, the fame Samorin reigns yet. I chan'ced to come thattime along the coaft and heard the guns for two or three days and nights fuccefilively.

When the Samorin marries, he muft not cohabit with his bride till the Nambourieor chief prieft has enjoyed her, and, if he pleafes, may have three nights of hercompany, becaufe the firft fruits of her nuptials muft be an holy oblation to the godfhe worlhips: and fome of the nobles are fo complaifant as to allow the clergy the fametribute; but the common people cannot have that compliment paid to them, but areforced to fupply the priefts places themfelves. Any women, except the firft quality*may marry twelve hufbands if they pleafe, but cannot have more at one time, andthey muft all be of her own call or tribe, under pain of excommunication and degra-dation of honour, if fhe marries into a lower tribe $ and the men are under the fame

6 penalty