Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/342

286 PYRARD DE LAVAL'S DESCRIPTION OF BENGAL supply the rest of India; and pile carpets of various kinds, which they weave with great skill. There are many good fruits, not, however, cocos or bananas; plenty of citrons, limes, oranges, pome- granates, cajus, pineapples, etc., ginger, long pepper, of which, in the green state, they make a great variety

of preserves, as also of lemons and oranges. The coun- try abounds with sugar-cane, which they eat green or else make into excellent sugar for a cargo to their ships, the like not being made in any part of India except in Cambaye and the other countries of the Mogor adjacent to Bengal, these countries being of the same climate, language, and fertility. There is like- wise exported from Bengal much scented oils, got from a certain grain, and divers flowers; these are used by all the Indians after bathing to rub their bodies withal. Cotton is so plentiful, that, after providing for the uses and clothing of the natives, and besides exporting the raw material, they make such a quantity of cotton cloths, and so excellently woven, that these articles are exported, and thence only, to all India, but chiefly to the parts about Sunda. Likewise is there plenty of silk, as well that of the silkworm as of the (silk) herb, which is of the brightest yellow colour, and brighter than silk itself; of this they make many stuffs of divers colours, and export them to all parts. The inhabitants, both men and women, are wondrously adroit in all man- ufactures, such as of cotton cloth and silks, and in nee- dlework, such as embroideries, which are worked so skilfully, down to the smallest stitches, that nothing