The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 506 (Color Image)

0506	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1

204 MARCO POLO Boox I.

in honour of the idol, and at the New Year, or on the

day of the Idol's Feast, they will take their children and

the sheep along with them into the presence of the idol

with great ceremony. Then they will have the sheep

slaughtered and cooked, and again present it before the

idol with like reverence, and leave it there before him,

whilst they are reciting the offices of their worship and

their prayers for the idol's blessing on their children.

And, if you will believe them, the idol feeds on the meat

that is set before it ! After these ceremonies they take

up the flesh and carry it home, and call together all their

kindred to eat it with them in great festivity [the idol-

priests receiving for their portion the head, feet, entrails,

and skin, with some part of the meat]. After they have

eaten, they collect the bones that are left and store them

carefully in a hutch.'

And you must know that all the Idolaters in the

world burn their dead. And when they are going to

carry a body to the burning, the kinsfolk build a wooden

house on the way to the spot, and drape it with cloths of

silk and gold. When the body is going past this building

they call a halt and set before it wine and meat and other

eatables ; and this they do with the assurance that the

defunct will be received with the like attentions in the

other world. All the minstrelsy in the town goes playing

before the body ; and when it reaches the burning-place

the kinsfolk are prepared with figures cut out of parch-

ment and paper in the shape of men and horses and

camels, and also with round pieces of paper like gold

coins, and all these they burn along with the corpse.

For they say that in the other world the defunct will be

provided with slaves and cattle and money, just in

proportion to the amount of such pieces of paper that

has been burnt along with him.4

But they never burn their dead until they have [sent

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