money, but in importing they accept in exchange those things
of which they are in need, and sometimes they buy with money;
and the young people in the City of the Sun are much amused
when they see that for a small price they receive so many things
in exchange.  The old men, however, do not laugh.  They are
unwilling that the State should be corrupted by the vicious cus-
toms of slaves and foreigners.  Therefore they do business at
the gates, and sell those whom they have taken in war or keep
them for digging ditches and other hard work without the city,
and for this reason they always send four bands of soldiers to
take care of the fields, and with them there are the laborers.
They go out of the four gates from which roads with walls on
both sides of them lead to the sea, so that goods might easily
be carried over them and foreigners might not meet with diffi-
culty on their way.

   To strangers they are kind and polite; they keep them for
three days at the public expense; after they have first washed
their feet, they show them their city and its customs, and they
honor them with a seat at the Council and public table, and
there are men whose duty it is to take care of and guard the
guests.  But if strangers should wish to become citizens of
their State, they try them first for a month on a farm, and for
another month in the city, then they decide concerning them,
and admit them with certain ceremonies and oaths.

   Agriculture is much followed among them; there is not a
span of earth without cultivation, and they observe the winds
and propitious stars.  With the exception of a few left in the
city all go out armed, and with flags and drums and trumpets
sounding, to the fields, for the purposes of ploughing, sowing,
digging, hoeing, reaping, gathering fruit and grapes; and they
set in order everything, and do their work in a very few hours
and with much care.  They use wagons fitted with sails which
are borne along by the wind even when it is contrary, by the
marvellous contrivance of wheels within wheels.

   And when there is no wind a beast draws along a huge cart,
which is a grand sight.

   The guardians of the land move about in the meantime,
armed and always in their proper turn.  They do not use dung
and filth for manuring the fields, thinking that the fruit con-
tracts something of their rottenness, and when eaten gives a
short and poor subsistence, as women who are beautiful with
rouge and from want of exercise bring forth feeble offspring.
Wherefore they do not as it were paint the earth, but dig it up
well and use secret remedies, so that fruit is borne quickly and
multiplies, and is not destroyed.  They have a book for this
work, which they call the Georgics.  As much of the land as is
necessary is cultivated, and the rest is used for the pasturage of
cattle.

   The excellent occupation of breeding and rearing horses,
oxen, sheep, dogs, and all kinds of domestic and tame animals
is in the highest esteem among them as it was in the time of
Abraham.  And the animals are led so to pair that they may
be able to breed well.

   Fine pictures of oxen, horses, sheep, and other animals are
placed before them.  They do not turn out horses with mares
to feed, but at the proper time they bring them together in an
enclosure of the stables in their fields.  And this is done when
they observe that the constellation Archer is in favorable con-
junction with Mars and Jupiter.  For the oxen they observe
the Bull, for the sheep the Ram, and so on in accordance with
art.  Under the Pleiades they keep a drove of hens and ducks
and geese, which are driven out by the women to feed near the
city.  The women only do this when it is a pleasure to them.
There are also places enclosed, where they make cheese, butter,
and milk-food.  They also keep capons, fruit, and other things,
and for all these matters there is a book which they call the
Bucolics.  They have an abundance of all things, since every-
one likes to be industrious, their labors being slight and profita-
ble.  They are docile, and that one among them who is head
of the rest in duties of this kind they call king.  For they say
that this is the proper name of the leaders, and it does not be-
long to ignorant persons.  It is wonderful to see how men and
women march together collectively, and always in obedience
to the voice of the king.  Nor do they regard him with loath-
ing as we do, for they know that although he is greater than
themselves, he is for all that their father and brother.  They
keep groves and woods for wild animals, and they often hunt.

   The science of navigation is considered very dignified by
them, and they possess rafts and triremes, which go over the
waters without rowers or the force of the wind, but by a mar-
vellous contrivance.  And other vessels they have which are
moved by the winds.  They have a correct knowledge of the
stars, and of the ebb and flow of the tide.  They navigate for
the sake of becoming acquainted with nations and different
countries and things.  They injure nobody, and they do not
put up with injury, and they never go to battle unless when
provoked.  They assert that the whole earth will in time come
to live in accordance with their customs, and consequently they
always find out whether there be a nation whose manner of liv-
ing is better and more approved than the rest.  They admire
the Christian institutions and look for a realization of the apos-
tolic life in vogue among themselves and in us.  There are
treaties between them and the Chinese and many other nations,
both insular and continental, such as Siam and Calicut, which
they are only just able to explore.  Furthermore, they have
artificial fires, battles on sea and land, and many strategic se-
crets.  Therefore they are nearly always victorious.


G.M.  Now it would be very pleasant to learn with what
foods and drinks they are nourished, and in what way and for
how long they live.


Capt.  Their food consists of flesh, butter, honey, cheese,
garden herbs, and vegetables of various kinds.  They were
unwilling at first to slay animals, because it seemed cruel; but
thinking afterward that is was also cruel to destroy herbs which
have a share of sensitive feeling, they saw that they would
perish from hunger unless they did an unjustifiable action for
the sake of justifiable ones, and so now they all eat meat.
Nevertheless, they do not kill willingly useful animals, such as
oxen and horses.  They observe the difference between useful
and harmful foods, and for this they employ the science of med-
icine.  They always change their food.  First they eat flesh,
then fish, then afterward they go back to flesh, and nature is
never incommoded or weakened.  The old people use the more
digestible kind of food, and take three meals a day, eating only
a little.  But the general community eat twice, and the boys
four times, that they may satisfy nature.  The length of their
lives is generally 100 years, but often they reach 200.

   As regards drinking, they are extremely moderate.  Wine
is never given to young people until they are ten years old, un-
less the state of their health demands it.  After their tenth year
they take it diluted with water, and so do the women, but the
old men of fifty and upward use little or no water.  They eat
the most healthy things, according to the time of the year.

   They think nothing harmful which is brought forth by God,
except when there has been abuse by taking too much.  And
therefore in the summer they feed on fruits, because they are
moist and juicy and cool, and counteract the heat and dryness.
In the winter they feed on dry articles, and in the autumn they
eat grapes, since they are given by God to remove melancholy
and sadness; and they also make use of scents to a great degree.
In the morning, when they have all risen they comb their hair
and wash their faces and hands with cold water.  Then they
chew thyme or rock-parsley or fennel, or rub their hands with
these plants.  The old men make incense, and with their faces
to the east repeat the short prayer which Jesus Christ taught
us.  After this they go to wait upon the old men, some go
to the dance, and others to the duties of the State.  Later on
they meet at the early lectures, then in the temple, then for
bodily exercise.  Then for a little while they sit down to rest,
and at length they go to dinner.

   Among them there is never gout in the hands or feet, nor ca-
tarrh, nor sciatica, nor grievous colics, nor flatulency, nor hard
breathing.  For these diseases are caused by indigestion and
flatulency, and by frugality and exercise they remove every
humor and spasm.  Therefore it is unseemly in the extreme
to be seen vomiting or spitting, since they say that this is a sign
either of little exercise, or of ignoble sloth, or of drunkenness,
or gluttony.  They suffer rather from swellings or from the
dry spasm, which they relieve with plenty of good and juicy
food.  They heal fevers with pleasant baths and with milk-
food, and with a pleasant habitation in the country and by grad-
ual exercise.  Unclean diseases cannot be prevalent with them
because they often clean their bodies by bathing in wine, and
soothe them with aromatic oil, and by the sweat of exercise they
diffuse the poisonous vapor which corrupts the blood and the
marrow.  They do suffer a little from consumption, because
they cannot perspire at the breast, but they never have asthma,
for the humid nature of which a heavy man is required.  They
cure hot fevers with cold potations of water, but slight ones
with sweet smells, with cheese-bread or sleep, with music or
dancing.  Tertiary fevers are cured by bleeding, by rhubarb
or by a similar drawing remedy, or by water soaked in the roots
of plants, with purgative and sharp-tasting qualities.  But it
is rarely that they take purgative medicines.  Fevers occurring
every fourth day are cured easily by suddenly startling the un-
prepared patients, and by means of herbs producing effects op-
posite to the humors of this fever.  All these secrets they told
me in opposition to their own wishes.  They take more diligent
pains to cure the lasting fevers, which they fear more, and they
strive to counteract these by the observation of stars and of
plants, and by prayers to God.  Fevers recurring every fifth,
sixth, eighth or more days, you never find whenever heavy
humors are wanting.

   They use baths, and moreover they have warm ones accord-
ing to the Roman custom, and they make use also of olive oil.
They have found out, too, a great many secret cures for the
preservation of cleanliness and health.  And in other ways they
labor to cure the epilepsy, with which they are often troubled.


G.M.  A sign this disease is of wonderful cleverness, for
from it Hercules, Scotus, Socrates, Callimachus, and Mahomet
have suffered.


Capt.  They cure by means of prayers to heaven, by
strengthening the head, by acids, by planned gymnastics, and
with fat cheese-bread sprinkled with the flour of wheaten corn.
They are very skilled in making dishes, and in them they put
spice, honey, butter, and many highly strengthening spices,
and they temper their richness with acids, so that they never
vomit.  They do not drink ice-cold drinks nor artificial hot
drinks, as the Chinese do; for they are not without aid against
the humors of the body, on account of the help they get from
the natural heat of the water; but they strengthen it with
crushed garlic, with vinegar, with wild thyme, with mint, and
with basil, in the summer or in time of special heaviness.  They
know also a secret for renovating life after about the seventieth
year, and for ridding it of affliction, and this they do by a pleas-
ing and indeed wonderful art.


G.M.  Thus far you have said nothing concerning their sci-
ences and magistrates.


Capt.  Undoubtedly I have  But since you are so curious
I will add more.  Both when it is new moon and full moon they
call a council after a sacrifice.  To this all from twenty years
upward are admitted, and each one is asked separately to say
what is wanting in the State, and which of the magistrates have
discharged their duties rightly and which wrongly.  Then
after eight days all the magistrates assemble, to wit, Hoh first,
and with him Power, Wisdom, and Love.  Each one of the
three last has three magistrates under him, making in all thir-
teen, and they consider the affairs of the arts pertaining to each
one of them: Power, of war; Wisdom, of the sciences; Love,
of food, clothing, education, and breeding.  The masters of all
the bands, who are captains of tens, of fifties, of hundreds, also
assemble, the women first and then the men.  They argue about
those things which are for the welfare of the State, and they
choose the magistrates from among those who have already
been named in the great Council.  In this manner they assemble
daily, Hoh and his three princes, and they correct, confirm, and
execute the matters passing to them, as decisions in the elec-
tions; other necessary questions they provide of themselves.
They do not use lots unless when they are altogether doubtful
how to decide.  The eight magistrates under Hoh, Power,
Wisdom, and Love are changed according to the wish of the
people, but the first four are never changed, unless they, tak-
ing counsel with themselves, give up the dignity of one to an-
other, whom among them they know to be wiser, more re-
nowned, and more nearly perfect.  And then they are obedient
and honorable, since they yield willingly to the wiser man and
are taught by him.  This, however, rarely happens.  The prin-
cipals of the sciences, except Metaphysic, who is Hoh himself,
and is, as it were, the architect of all science, having rule over
all, are attached to Wisdom.  Hoh is ashamed to be ignorant
of any possible thing.  Under Wisdom therefore are Grammar,
Logic, Physics, Medicine, Astrology, Astronomy, Geometry,
Cosmography, Music, Perspective, Arithmetic, Poetry, Rhet-
oric, Painting, Sculpture.  Under the triumvir Love are Breed-
ing, Agriculture, Education, Medicine, Clothing, Pasturage,
Coining.


G.M.  What about their judges?


Capt.  This is the point I was just thinking of explaining.
Everyone is judged by the first master of his trade, and thus
all the head artificers are judges.  They punish with exile, with
flogging, with blame, with deprivation of the common table,
with exclusion from the church and from the company of
women.  When there is a case in which great injury has been
done, it is punished with death, and they repay an eye with an
eye, a nose for a nose, a tooth for a tooth, and so on, according
to the law of retaliation.  If the offence is wilful the Council
decides.  When there is strife and it takes place undesignedly,
the sentence is mitigated; nevertheless, not by the judge but by
the triumvirate, from whom even it may be referred to Hoh, not
on account of justice but of mercy, for Hoh is able to pardon.
They have no prisons, except one tower for shutting up rebel-
lious enemies, and there is no written statement of a case, which

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