or Indians.  The Chinese worship idols, before whom, they fall down and make prayers, and they have books which explain the articles of their religion.  The Indians suffer their beards to grow, but have no whiskers, and I have seen one with a beard three cubits long; but the Chinese, for the most part, wear no beards.  Upon the death of a relation, the Indians shave both head and face.  When any man in the Indies is thrown into prison, he is allowed neither victuals nor drink for seven days together; and this with them answers the end of other tortures for extorting from the criminal a confession of his guilt.  The Chinese and Indians have judges besides the governors, who decide in causes between the subjects.  Both in India and China there are leopards and wolves, but no lions.  Highway robbers are punished with death.  Both the Indians and Chinese imagine that the idols which they worship speak to them, and give them answers.  Neither of them kill their meat by cutting the throat, as is done by the Mahomedans, but by beating them on the head till they die.  They wash not with well water, and the Chinese wipe themselves with paper, whereas the Indians wash every day before eating.  The Indians wash not only the mouth, but the whole body before they eat, but this is not done by the Chinese.  The Indies is larger in extent by a half than China, and has a great many more kingdoms, but China is more populous.  It is not usual to see palm trees either in the Indies or in China, but they have many other sorts of trees and fruits which we have not.  The Indians have no grapes, and the Chinese have not many, but both abound in other fruits, though the pomegranate thrives better in India than in China.

The Chinese have no sciences, and their religion and most of their laws are derived from the Indians.  They even believe that the Indians taught them their worship of idols.  Both nations believe the Metempsycosis, though they differ in many of the precepts and ceremonies of their religion.  Physic and philosophy are cultivated among the Indians, and the Chinese have some skill in medicine; but that almost entirely consists in the art of applying hot irons or cauteries.  They have some smattering of astronomy; but in this likewise the Indians surpass the Chinese.  I know not that even so much as one man of either nation has embraced Mahomedism, or has learned to speak the Arabic language.  The Indians have few horses, and there are more in China; but the Chinese have no elephants, and cannot endure to have them in their country.  The Indian dominions furnish a great number of soldiers, who are not paid by their kings, but, when called out to war, have to take the field and serve entirely at their own expense; but the Chinese allow their soldiers much the same pay as is done by the Arabs.