The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [139]
Muslims had similar ways to avoid peril at sea. At the end of our period a Muslim crew were at the entrance to the Gulf, and 'to propitiate the deity or genius loci – setting afloat a little ship rigged and in sailing order, bearing a sample of all merchandise carried for sale in the vessel which sends her forth. Prayers for her safety are uttered on launching her, and if she makes for shore the crew consider them granted.'39 Abbé Carré in 1673 wrote down a whole host of things that Muslims did. They tied little paper flags to the mast, inscribed, so he said, with the sayings of Muhammad, though it was more likely the nautical saint Khwaja Khizr. They took around basins to collect all sorts of food, and then threw it overboard. They all bathed in the sea 'in order to wash away the dirty impurities they commit with their young slaves, of which there were more than 200 in the ship.' They searched all the baggage for bones being taken back for burial in Persia, as these were bad luck. 'In short, we were about twenty days practising these superstitious antics, which, however, were of very little use.'40
Some Hindus certainly travelled by sea, normative prohibitions and much academic writing to the contrary, but they had to avoid contact with polluting food, water and people. This could lead to problems, as Dean Mahomet found out:
A considerable Banyan merchant was on his passage from Bombay to Surat, in an English ship, and having made such provision of water in vessels under his own seal, as might serve for the short voyage, which was commonly completed in two or three days, it happened however that, through retardation by calms and contrary winds, his liquid store was expended, and he reduced to a condition of perishing with thirst, though there was plenty of water on board; but, no entreaties could prevail on him to use it, as his religion forbade it, which to him was more dear than life itself. He felt all the torments occasioned by the fever of thirst, and would have actually sunk under them, had not a favourable breeze springing up, brought him to Gandevi, near Surat, but he was so faint on his arrival, that his soul was almost panting between his lips.41
The final illustration must be a long and comic account by the Jesuit Manuel Godinho. If we ignore his ethnocentrism we can see a strong degree of commonality between the practices of the various religions. The rites and ceremonies were different, but all of them were believed to deliver intercession and a favourable outcome. In 1663 he was on a Muslim ship going from Surat to the Gulf. He had disguised himself as a Muslim. When they got near Muscat the ship was becalmed.
The Muslims failed to perceive that the cessation of winds was incidental to that season [it was February], but thought it was a punishment from God and his false prophet, as there was some unclean person on board. Carried away by this fancy of theirs, the nakhuda ordered everyone, be they Muslims or Hindus or Christians, big and small, men and women, to wash their bodies in the sea, which was calm, and being the first to jump into the sea, he set an example to the rest, who promptly followed it, perforce or willingly.
The nakhuda tried to get Godinho and his European companion to jump in too, which would have given them away. Luckily a shark appeared and he was excused.
The first remedy for restoring the wind having failed, they devised yet another that might have brought us all to ruin. It consisted of hanging from the poop a small wooden horse with a very long tail, to the sound of flutes and small kettle-drums, and, lo and behold, the very moment the horse was hung there broke out a north wind, the direction towards which its head was pointing, so strong and so severe, that we flew within a day and a half to the coast of Arabia Felix....
Indeed the rite had been too successful,