The kings and nobles of Malabar are of a brown complexion, and go naked from the waist upwards, all the under parts of their bodies being clothed in silk or cotton Vestments; yet they sometimes wear short gowns on their upper parts, called basus , of rich silk, or cloth of gold, or of scarlet, splendidly ornamented with precious stones, of all which the zamorin hath great store. They shave their beards, leaving only the hair on their upper lips, and do not shave the head like the Turks. In general, the natives of this country, even of the higher ranks, use little state in their households, and are very sparing in their diet; but the zamorin is served with considerable splendour. These kings or nobles never marry; but every one has a mistress of the Nayre cast, which, among the Malabars, are considered as the gentry; even the zamorin has only a mistress, who has a house of her own near the palace, and a liberal allowance for the charges of her household and maintenance at her own disposal. Upon any dislike or difference, he may always leave her for another. The children are only considered as the offspring of the mother, and have no right or title to inherit the kingdom, or any thing else belonging to the father; and when grown up, are only held in that rank or estimation which belongs to the blood or parentage of their mother. Brothers succeed to brothers; and in lack of these, the sons of their sisters, who do not marry, and have no certainty respecting the fathers of their children; as they are very free and dissolute in their manners, choosing paramours as they please.
These sisters of the zamorin, and other kings of Malabar, have handsome allowances to live upon; and when any of them reaches the age of ten, their kindred send for a young man of the Nayre cast, out of the kingdom, and give him great presents to induce him to initiate the young virgin; after which he hangs a jewel round her neck, which she wears all the rest of her life, as a token that she is now at liberty to dispose of herself to any one she pleases as long as she lives.
When these kings are at war with each other, they often go personally into the field, and even join personally in fight upon occasion. When one of them dies, the body is carried out into the fields, and burned on a pile of sanders, and of another sweet smelling wood called aguila , all his brothers and kindred, and all the nobles of the country being present at the ceremony; which is uniformly postponed to the third day after death, that all may have time to gather from a distance, and may have an opportunity of being assured whether his death was natural, or caused by violence: Since, if he died by the hand of any one, all are bound to prosecute revenge. After the body is burnt, and the ashes buried, the whole company shaves every part of their bodies, even to the youngest child of these idolaters. This is their token of mourning; and during the ensuing thirteen days, they all refrain from chewing betel, any one infringing this law being punished by cutting his lips. During this period of thirteen days, he who is to succeed to the throne must abstain from all exercise of government, that any one who pleases may have an opportunity of urging any valid objection why he should not acquire the vacant government. After, this the successor is sworn before all the nobles of the country, to preserve and enforce all the laws and customs of their ancestors, to pay the debts of his predecessor, and to use his utmost endeavours to recover any portion of the kingdom that may have been lost. While taking this oath, having his sword in his left hand, he holds in his right hand a burning candle, on which is a gold ring, which he touches with his fingers. After this they throw some grains of rice over him, using many other ceremonies, and numerous prayers, and then worship the sun three times. When all these ceremonies are gone through, all the Caymayles , or lords of noble birth, taking hold of the candle, take an oath to be true and faithful subjects to the new king.
After the end of the thirteen days mourning, they all begin to chew betel, and to eat flesh and fish as formerly, the new king alone excepted. He is bound to mourn for his predecessor during a whole year, chewing no betel, eating no flesh or fish, neither shaving his beard nor cutting; his nails during all that time. He must eat only once a-day, washing himself all over before this single meal, and devoting certain hours of every day to prayer. After the expiry of the year, he uses a certain ceremony for the soul of the king his predecessor, much like our solemn dirge; at which 100,000 persons are often assembled, among whom he distributes large alms. When this ceremony is ended, the prince is confirmed as inheritor of the kingdom, and all the people depart.
The zamorin of Calicut, and the other kings of Malabar, have each one especial officer, to whom the administration of justice is confided, and whose authority in all matters of government is as ample as that of the king himself. The soldiers employed by these kings are called Nayres , who are all gentlemen, and who follow no other office or employ but that of fighting when needed. They are all idolaters, armed with bows, arrows, spears, daggers of a hooked form, and targets, and they march in a very regular and warlike manner; but they go entirely naked and barefooted, wearing only a piece of painted cotton cloth, which reaches from the girdle to the knees, and a cloth or kerchief on their heads. All these men live continually at the charge of the king and nobles of the country, from whom they have small stipends for their maintenance; and they esteem themselves so highly on account of their gentility of blood, that they will not touch an husbandman, nor allow any such to enter into their dwellings. When any husbandman goes through the streets they must continually call out aloud hoo hoo ; for if commanded by a nayre to make way, they may be slain if they refuse. The king cannot raise any one to the rank of a nayre , who are all such by descent. These nayres serve very faithfully under those who give them their wages, not sparing by day or night to use their best endeavours to serve their chiefs, nor making any account of want of food or sleep, or of fatigue, when their service is required or may be effectual. Their expences are so small, that on half-a-crown, which is their only monthly pay, they can sufficiently maintain themselves and a boy, whom each has as a servant.
By the laws of this country, these nayres cannot marry, so that no one has any certain or acknowledged son or father; all their children being born of mistresses, with each of whom three or four nayres cohabit by agreement among themselves. Each one of this confraternity dwells a day in his turn with the joint mistress, counting from noon of one day to the same time of the next, after which he departs, and another comes for the like time. They thus spend their lives without the care or trouble of wives and children, yet maintain their mistresses well according to their rank. Any one may forsake his mistress at his pleasure; and in like manner, the mistress may refuse admittance to any one o£ her lovers when she pleases. These mistresses are all gentlewomen of the Nayre cast; and the nayres, besides being prohibited from marrying, must not attach themselves to any woman of a different rank. Considering that there are always several men attached to one woman, the nayres never look upon any of these children born of their mistresses as belonging to them, however strong a resemblance may subsist, and all inheritances among the nayres go to their brothers, or the sons of their sisters, born of the same mothers, all relationship being counted only by female consanguinity and descent. This strange law prohibiting marriage, was established, that they might have neither wives or children on whom to fix their love and attachment; and that being free from all family cares, they might the more willingly devote themselves entirely to warlike service. And the more to animate these gentlemen in the service of the wars, and to encourage them to continue in the order of nayres, they are privileged from all imprisonments, and from the punishment of death on all ordinary occasions, except for the following crimes; killing another nayre, or a cow which is an object of worship, sleeping or eating with an ordinary woman, or speaking evil of the king. When the king has received authentic information of any of these offences having been committed, he issues a written mandate to one of the nayres, commanding him to take two or three other nayres in his company, and to slay the nayre who has committed this offence against the laws. In obedience to this warrant, they attack him with their swords and put him to death where-ever they happen to find him, and then affix the royal order upon his body, that all may know the reason of his death.
It is not permitted to any nayre to assume arms, or to enter into any combat, till he has been armed as a knight. When a nayre becomes seven years old, he is set to learn the use of all kinds of weapons, their masters first pulling and twisting their joints to make them supple, and then teaching them to fence and handle their arms adroitly. Their principal weapons are swords and targets; and these teachers, who are graduates in the use of the weapons, are called Panycaes , who are much esteemed among the nayres, and all their former scholars, however advanced in life or however high their dignity, are bound at all times to give them due honour and reverence when they meet; likewise, every nayre is obliged to take lessons from these professors for two months yearly, all their lives: By this means they are very skilful in the use of their weapons, in which they take great pride. When a nayre desires to be armed as a knight, he presents himself before the king, accompanied by all his kindred and friends, and makes an offering of sixty gold fannoms [55]. On which he is asked by the king if he is willing to observe and follow the laws and customs of the nayres, to which he answers in the affirmative. Then the king commands him to be girt with a sword, and laying his right hand on his head, utters certain words as if praying in so low a voice that he is not heard. The king then embraces the young nayre, saying aloud in their language, "Take good care to defend the Bramins and their kine." On this the nayre falls down and does reverence to the king; and from that time he is considered as a knight, or member of the fraternity of nayres. When any of the nayres enters into the peculiar service of the king or of any individual noble, he binds himself to die with and for him, and they keep their oaths. For, if their master should happen to be slain in any war or otherwise, they will fight till they are all slain; and if they cannot accomplish their purpose at the time, or happen to be absent at the slaughter of their master, they go afterwards in search of the person who has done the deed, and never leave off till they are themselves slain.
[55] This is described by Castaneda as a coin equal in value to three crowns.
The Malabars are much given to soothsaying, and have lucky and unlucky days. They worship the sun moon and stars, the fire, cows, and the first thing they meet on going out of a morning, believing every manner of vanity. The devil is often in them, but they say it is one of their gods or pagods , as they call him. But whosoever or whatsoever it may be, it constrains them to utter terrible words, which are believed by the king. When the devil enters into a nayre, he goes with a naked sword before the king, shaking and trembling and giving himself many wounds, saying, "I am such or such a god, and am come to tell thee such and such a thing," crying out, and behaving himself like a madman or one possessed. If the king makes any doubt of what he says, he continues to roar still louder and to slash himself more severely, till the king gives credit to his assertions. There are other tribes or lineages of people among the Malabars, of various sects and divers customs, of whom it were too tedious to speak in this place, who are all under obedience to the several kings and nobles. The Moors alone are exempted from this obedience, on account of the large customs they pay for their merchandize, owing to which they are held in high estimation at Calicut.
Having come to anchor on the outside of the bar or reef of Calicut, the general sent one of the Portuguese convicts on shore, in one of the almadias which had conducted the ships to this port; instructing him to see what kind of a place it was, and to make trial of what kind of a reception might be looked for, seeing we were Christians, and as the general believed that the people were likewise Christians. When this man landed, he was immediately surrounded by great numbers of the natives, staring at him as a stranger. These people asked of the fishermen what man this was whom they had brought on shore? to which they answered, that they supposed him to be a Moor, and that he belonged to the three ships which were riding without the bar. But the people of Calicut wondered much to see a person who was clothed so very differently from the Moors who came from the Red Sea. Some of these people who had knowledge of Arabic spoke to this man, but he could not understand or answer them, at which they were much astonished. Yet, believing him to be a Moor, they conducted him to a house where two Moors dwelt who came originally from Tunis and had established themselves in Calicut. On his appearance, one of these Moors whose name was Bontaybo[56], who could speak Spanish, immediately recognized him for a Portuguese, having often seen people of our nation at Tunis in the reign of King John, in a ship named La Reyna which often traded to that port. As soon as Bontaybo saw the Portuguese, he exclaimed in Spanish, Devil take you, what brought you here ? He farther inquired which way he had travelled so as to arrive at Calicut? To this the banished man answered, telling how many ships our general had brought with him; at which Bontaybo was much amazed, wondering how they could possibly come by sea from Portugal to India. He then asked what they sought at so great a distance from home? And was answered that they came in search of Christians and spices. Bontaybo then asked why the kings of France and Spain and the Doge of Venice had not sent their ships likewise? Because, said our man, the king of Portugal would not allow them. To this Bontaybo said, he was much in the right. After some farther conversation in this way, Bontaybo gave him good entertainment, commanding certain cakes of wheat flour and honey, called apes by the Malabars, to be set before him; and then said that he would accompany him to the ships to wait upon the general.