96 and their only work is to eat well. They will walk six or seven days just to stock up well; their diet consists of honey and butter; rice; sugar and vegetable and milk dishes. There is another caste similar to that of the Brahmins in this kingdom. They wear strings of white twisted silk thread around their necks from which a cloth bag holding a stone the size of an egg hangs, which they claim is their God. They are also shown a great deal of respect and honour and they are not harmed for revering that stone called a talisman. They do not eat meat or fish either and can go anywhere in complete safety. They take merchandise from one kingdom to another, and as they are never robbed, many of them are merchants also engaging in trade. They only take one wife, who, if they die, is buried alive. They dig a deep pit, so it comes up to her neck, they put her into it alive and upright and start to place earth all around her, pressing it down to her feet until it is well-pressed down and comes up as far as her neck, and then they put a rock on her, and she stays there slowing dying from being buried alive, and they make other great ceremonies. The women of this kingdom are most daring in their idolatries, doing many extraordinary and astonishing things out of love for their Gods. Should any young girl wish to marry a young man to whom she is attracted she makes a vow to her God that if he should find a way for her to marry him, she will do the God a great service before she relinquishes herself to her husband. If her wish comes true and she gets the husband she has chosen, then before she gives herself to him, she tells him that she has to make a sacrifice to the said God, as promised, and that she has to make him an offering of her blood. On the appointed day of the feast, they take a large ox cart and tie a tall stake on to it, like those which are used to draw water from the wells in Castile, and two very sharp iron hooks are inserted into the tip of the stake. She leaves her house in great pomp on that day and is accompanied by her
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