86 and harvested in water. They plough the land with yokes of oxen and buffaloes, like we do, and when the land is submerged, the rice is carried in a hollow in the ploughshare, thus as the land is ploughed the rice is sown below the water and the earth. When the land is dry, they sow by hand. This land gives two crops, thefirst one is called giraçal and is the better one, the second is called açal and there is another called quavagaz, and also pachari and the price of each of them is quite different. Basrur and Barkur Heading further along the coast past Majandur, one comes to two rivers with two villages, one called Basrur and the other Barkur, which belong to the kingdom of Vijayanagara and are in the province of Tulunadu. There is plenty offine rice, which is grown in the surrounding area and many ships take cargoes of it, foreign ships and vessels from Malabar. It isfirst threshed and cleaned and put in bales made from the rice straw itself. They are all of the same size; each contains four and a half bushels and sell for between one hundred andfifty and two hundred reals, depending on the quality of the rice. Large quantities of it are also taken to Hormuz; Aden; Shihr; Cannanore, and Calicut in exchange for copper; coconuts; their oil; and palm-sugar, but more rice is consumed in Malabar than anywhere else, as they do not have any other staple food. Even though this is a small place, it is so heavily populated and full of people, that we could say that there is just one city stretching from Mount Deli to Quilon. Kumbala Heading along the coast towards Malabar, one comes to another town belonging to the same kingdom and province, called Kumbala. It produces a large quantity of black rice, which is of very poor quality. The Malabars come to buy it and load it on to zambucos to sell it to
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