344 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVEL IN THE EAST,
There is a church of St. George there, of the Latin communion, at which I dwelt.' And I adorned it with fine paintings, and taught there the holy Law. And after I had been there some time I went beyond the glory of Alexander the Great, when he set up his column (in India) . For I erected a stone as my landmark and memorial, in the corner of the world over against Paradise, and anointed it with oil ! In sooth it was a marble pillar with a stone cross upon it, intended to last till the world's end. And it had the Pope's arms and my own engraved upon it, with inscriptions both in Indian and Latin characters. I consecrated and blessed it in the presence of an infinite multitude of people, and I was carried on the shoulders of the chiefs in a litter or palan-kin like Solomon's.2
nelli loro fondachi," that they may have an authorized steelyard in their factories. The value of the fanam (Marignolli's fan) has varied so much that it is difficult to estimate what the legate received in this way. Marsden makes the fanam 2d. (Marco Polo, p. 656). In the beginning of last century, Visscher says the fanam of Cochin was about 12d., that of Calicut 6d., and that of Quilon 15d. Late in the same century Friar Paolino states the Paliacat fanam at 9 sous or 44d., that of Tanjore or Calicut at 6d. or 7d., and that of Madura at 3-id. And Ibn Batuta (iv, 174) tells us that 100 fanams were equal to 6 dinars, which would make the fanam nearly 8d. This last may be taken as probably about the value of our author's fan. So his monthly perquisite would be about £3 : 6, and the present he received at parting X33. If we may judge from the calculations based on Ian Batuta's statement of prices at Dehli in his time, the money would represent at least ten times as much wealth as at present.
1 This church "Latinorum" was probably founded by Jordanus, and was possibly the same old church fatto al modo nostro mediocre which the Portuguese were taken to see on their first visit to (,blom, though that was then entitled S. Maria (Ramusio, i, f. 146). Day indeed (Land of the Permauls, p. 4) mentions a church dedicated to St. George, within which may be seen a painting representing God the Father. But this is at Curringhacherry, ten miles from Cochin, and could scarcely have been the church of our author. If Jordanus or any successor in the episcopate had survived at Columbum surely Marignolli would have alluded to the fact ? He says below in quitting the place " valefaciens fratribus," which perhaps implies that there were friars there.
2 The Column or Columns of Alexander formed the subject of some legend that grew out of the memory of the altars on the Hyphasis. Imagination was dissatisfied with Alexander's turning back from India
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