as nations, though there may be an individual monster here and there. Nor is there any people at all such as has been invented, who have but one foot which they use to shade themselves withal. But as all the Indians commonly go naked, they are in the habit of carrying a thing like a little tent-roof on a cane handle, which they open out at will as a protection against sun or rain. This they call a chat yr ;1 I brought one to Florence with me. And this it is which the poets have converted into a foot.
ANECDOTE CONCERNING A CERTAIN INDIAN WHO WAS BAPTISED.
Here I must relate how when I was staying at Columbum with those Christian chiefs who are called Moclilial,2 and are the owners of the pepper, one morning there came to me in front of the church a man of majestic stature and snowy white beard, naked from the loins upwards with only a mantle thrown about him, and a knotted cord [crossing his shoulder] like the stole of a deacon. He prostrated himself in reverence at full length upon the sand, knocking his head three times against the ground. Then he raised himself, and seizing my naked feet wanted to kiss them ; but when I forbade him he stood up. After a while he sat down on the ground and told us the whole story of his life through an interpreter. This interpreter [strange to say] was his own son, who having been taken by pirates and sold to a certain Genoese merchant, had been baptized, .and as it so chanced was then with us, and recognized his father by what he related.
1 Chatr (Pers.) an umbrella. It is strange that he should require to give so roundabout a description, for Ibn Batuta says that every body, gentle and simple, at Constantinople used parasols at this time. I observe that a gilt umbrella is a part of the insignia of high church dignitaries in Italy, as it is in Burma and other Buddhistic countries. When did this originate ?
2 Mudiliar (Tamul), a head man. The word is in abundant and technical use in Ceylon, and probably in the south of India also.
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