58 their supper in their houses by day; they do not light candles, either by day or by night, so that mosquitos will not burn in theflame; and if they should in any case really need a light at night, they have a paper or starched cloth lantern, so that no living creature will die in the fire. If they get a lot of lice, they do not kill them. When they become a nuisance, they call for some men who live amongst them, who are also gentiles. They are considered as living a holy life and they live like hermits in great abstinence, in reverence of their gods. They pick the lice off the heads of the others and put them on their own, and rear them on their ownflesh. They claim to thus be doing a great service to their idol, and hence, one and all observe the law of not killing anything with great temperance. On the other hand, they are terrible shylocks and cheats in weights and measures, and in many other goods and coins and dreadful liars. These gentiles are brown-skinned and good-looking, well-mannered and handsomely dressed, refined and moderate in their eating habits; their diet comprises milk; butter; sugar and rice, and many different conserves. They eat many kinds of fruit and vegetables and wild herbs. They tend vegetable patches and orchards wherever they live and have water-tanks, where both the men and women wash twice a day, and they say that having washed, they are saved from the sins they have committed up until that point. These Banyans grow their hair long, like the women in our parts, and they wear it tied on the tops of their heads, and they make it into a bun and keep it in a turban so that it does not fall down, and they put flowers and other scent in their hair. They often anoint themselves with white sandalwood mixed with saffron and other scents. They are very romantic sorts and wear long silk and cotton shirts, they wearfinely made pointed leather shoes, some of them wear short silk or brocade cloths, and they do not carry any weapons, only some very small knives adorned with gold and silver. There are two reasons why, the first is that they rarely use weapons, and the second
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