FRIAR ODORIC. 69
asleep, and as he thus lay asleep, to ! there appeared to him those glorious martyrs bright and shining like the sun, and holding swords in their hands, which they brandished over the Melic in. such a way as if they would have cloven him asunder. And at this sight the Melic began to roar out, and with his noise brought his whole family running to see what ailed him, and what he would have. And he told them in reply : Those Frank rabbans whom I have caused to be slain have come hither with swords to slay me ! And so he sent for the Cadi, to whom he told what had befallen him, and asked his counsel as to what should be done in the matter, for he was convinced that he should perish utterly at their hands. Then the Cadi advised him that he should do some great work of charity on their account, if he would escape from the hands of those murdered men. So he sent straightway for the Christians whom he held in durance, and humbly asked their pardon for what he had caused to be done to them, behaving to them like a fellow and a brother. And besides he ordered that any one who should hurt any of the Christians in future should suffer death. Afterwards also the Melic caused four mosques, i.e. churches, to be built in honour of the Friars, and put Saracen priests in each of them to abide continually.
12. The saine history continued.
And when the Emperor of Dili' heard that those friars had undergone such a sentence, he sent and ordered the Melic to be seized and despatched to his presence with his hands bound. Being thus brought before the emperor, and questioned why he had so cruelly put those friars to death, he replied : " I suffered them to die because they sought to over-
1 The Sultan of Dehli at this time must have been Gheiass-uddin Toghlak, who assumed the throne in 1320, according to the latest corrections of the Chronology. (See French editor's preface to Ibn Batuta, vol. iii, p. xiii).
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