101 me that they carry these great iron chains in repentance for the great sin they committed in not wanting to take up arms to defend their honour and allowing themselves to be vanquished by such rotten people as the Mouros, and that they go naked as a sign of the great dishonour of losing their lands and houses in which God created them, and that they did not want any possessions, as they had lost theirs, for which they should die, and that they covered themselves in ash in order to remind themselves that they are made of dust and ashes and that they would return to dust and ashes, that everything else was a lie, and each of them carries a small bag of this ash on their person. The local gentiles pay them a great deal of honour and respect, and they give them that ash, with which they mark themselves, putting stripes of it across their chests, foreheads and shoulders. This is a common custom of theirs. These men eat all kinds of victuals, they do not practise any other idolatry, they touch all different castes of people, and they are not ordered to wash like other gentiles, but only when they wish to. There are fine horses which are born and bred in this kingdom of Delhi; the natives, both the Mouros and the gentiles, are good warriors and horsemen. They have many different kinds of weapons, are very tough and also good archers; they havefine spears; swords; steel maces and hatchets that they fight with. They also carry steel disks called chaçarão, which are two fingers wide and as sharp as razors on the outside and smooth on the inside. They are the size of a saucer and have a hole in the middle. One man may wear up to ten of them on his left arm. In battle, they take one of them and put it on the finger of their right hand and swing it round to pick up speed and then they fling it towards the enemy, and if they should hit an arm; leg, or the neck, they will cut it clean off, and thus they cause a great deal of harm and there are men who have afine aim with them. The King of Delhi is a great lord with many, warlike people and
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