57 They kill and eat meat and fish and all other victuals. There are still many of them even today, living in the mountains, where they have large settlements and they do not obey the king of Cambay, rather they wage war on him every day. Even though he is powerful, he is unable to defeat them because they are excellent horsemen and archers, and they have many different types of weapons. Thus, they are able to defend themselves well from the Mouros, with whom they are constantly at war, despite the fact that they do not have a king or lord governing them. There is another kind of gentiles in this kingdom called Banyans. They are great merchants and traders. They live amongst the Mouros with whom they conduct their trade. They eat neither meat norfish, nor any other living creature, nor do they kill or even want to see something killed, because their idolatry forbids it. And they take this to such extremes that it is amazing, because very often the Mouros will take small creatures and birds to them and pretend to want to kill them in front of them, and these Banyans buy the creaures from them to save them and pay well over the odds for them, in order to spare their lives and release them. If the king or governor of the land has sentenced a man to death for the offences he committed, they join together and buy his pardon, if the former wishes to sell him, so that he does not die. And when some of the Mouros beggars want to receive alms from them, they gather up large rocks and start hitting themselves about the shoulders and belly, as if they want to die in front of them, and in order to stop them, the Banyans give them many alms, so that they go in peace. Others carry knives and start stabbing themselves in their arms and legs, and in order for them not to kill themselves, the Banyans give them generous alms. Others will come to their door with mice and snakes, whose throats they want to cut. They give them large sums of money not to do it, and thus the Mouros taunt them terribly. Should these Banyans come upon a group of ants on their path, they step aside and look for a place to pass without stepping on them. And they take
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