_ 123 _ they take the food from their houses and sometimes spend the whole day eating. They get drunk and eat from white carpets on the ground, without table-cloths, for none of the peoples among all those in these parts eats at a raised table. Many people in the city had died of the plague. All the same there were innumerable people there, for they gather there from many places, even before they are fully grown. At the time when we arrived there, there was no Pasha, because the Turk had ordered him to go to Baghdad as Captain with aid for Basra. One of his sons had remained in his place. In the customs-house there was not a single load or chest (they carry cinnamon in chests so that it does not break) which was not opened, searched and turned upside down; they thrust sticks into the loads of cloves to see if they could find turbans, because they charge higher dues on these than on anything else. A small bag of pearls and jewellery was being carried in a wooden chest as alms for the friars of Jerusalem, but, although they searched through the whole contents, God did not permit them to find it. When we had paid the dues, which were very high (for they rob the merchants, especially the Christian ones), we wished to leave without their being able to finish with the muleteers; so I gave them two cruzados to do it. I bribed them in this manner in
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