Now to tell of the aforesaid kingdom.It is a country sparsely wooded except along this SERRA on the east,[376]but in places you walk for two or three leagues under groves of trees;and behind cities and towns and villages they have plantations of mangoes,and jack-fruit trees,and tamarinds and other very large trees,which form resting-places where merchants halt with their merchandise.I saw in the city of Recalem[377]a tree under which we lodged three hundred and twenty horses,standing in order as in their stables,and all over the country you may see many small trees.These dominions are very well cultivated and very fertile,and are provided with quantities of cattle,such as cows,buffaloes,and sheep;also of birds,both those belonging to the hills and those reared at home,and this in greater abundance than in our tracts.The land has plenty of rice and Indian-corn,grains,beans,and other kind of crops which are not sown in our parts;also an infinity of cotton.Of the grains there is a great quantity,because,besides being used as food for men,it is also used for horses,since there is no other kind of barley;and this country has also much wheat,and that good.The whole country is thickly populated with cities and towns and villages;the king allows them to be surrounded only with earthen walls for fear of their becoming too strong.But if a city is situated at the extremity of his territory he gives his consent to its having stone walls,but never the towns;so that they may make fortresses of the cities but not of the towns.
And because this country is all flat,the winds blow here more than in other parts.The oil which it produces comes from seeds sown and afterwards reaped,and they obtain it by means of machines which they make.This country wants water because it is very great and has few streams;they make lakes in which water collects when it rains,and thereby they maintain themselves.They maintain themselves by means of some in which there are springs better than by others that have only the water from rain;for we find many quite dry,so that people go about walking in their beds,and dig holes to try and find enough water,even a little,for their maintenance.The failure of the water is because they have no winter as in our parts and in (Portuguese)India,but only thunder-storms that are greater in one year than in another.The water in these lakes is for the most part muddy,especially in those where there are no springs,and the reason why it is so muddy is because of the strong wind and the dust that is in this country,which never allows the water to be clear,and also because of the numbers of cattle,buffaloes,cows,oxen,and other small cattle that drink in them.For you must know that in this land they do not slaughter oxen or cows;the oxen are beasts of burden and are like sumpter-mules;these carry all their goods.They worship the cows,and have them in their pagodas made in stone,and also bulls;they have many bulls that they present to these pagodas,and these bulls go about the city without any one causing them any harm or loss.Further,there are asses in this country,but they are small,and they use them only for little things;those that wash clothes lay the cloths on them,and use them for this more than for anything else.You must know that this kingdom of Narsymga has three hundred GRAOS of coast,each GRAObeing a league,along the hill-range (SERRA)of which I have spoken,until you arrive at Ballagate and Charamaodel,[378]which belong to this kingdom;and in breadth it is one hundred and sixty-four GRAOS;each large GRAO measures two of our leagues,so that it has six hundred leagues of coast,and across it three hundred and forty-eight leagues...across from Batacalla to the kingdom of Orya.[379]
And this kingdom marches[380]with all the territory of Bengal,and on the other side with the kingdom of Orya,which is to the east,and on the other side to the north with the kingdom of Dakhan,belonging to which are the lands which the Ydallcao[381]has,and Ozemelluco.[382]
Goa is at war with this Ydallcao,because that city was his,and we have taken it from him.
And this kingdom of Orya,of which I have spoken above,is said to be much larger than the kingdom of Narsymga,since it marches with all Bengal,and is at war with her;and it marches with all the kingdom of Pegu and with the MALLACA Sea.It reaches to the kingdom of Cambaya,and to the kingdom of Dakhan;and they told me with positive certainty that it extends as far as Persia.The population thereof is light coloured,and the men are of good physique.Its king has much treasure and many soldiers and many elephants,for there are numbers of these in this country.(My informants)know this well,and they say that there is no ruler greater than he.He is a heathen.
