IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
A
CHAP. IV. THE SEA OF CHIN
263
the East : e.g. see illakrizi, Pt. III. p. io8, and Pottinger, as quoted by Marsden in loco. It also appears among the tortures of a Buddhist hell as represented in a temple at Canton. (Oliphant's Narrative, I. 168. )
NOTE 3.—Like devices to procure invulnerability are common in the Indo-Chinese countries. The Burmese sometimes insert pellets of gold under the skin with this view. At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1868, gold and silver coins were shown, which had been extracted from under the skin of a Burmese convict who had been executed at the Andaman Islands. Friar Odoric speaks of the practice in one of the Indian Islands (apparently Borneo) ; and the stones possessing such virtue were, according to him, found in the bamboo, presumably the siliceous concretions called Tabashir. Conti also describes the practice in Java of inserting such amulets under the skin. The Malays of Sumatra, too, have great faith in the efficacy of certain " stones, which they pretend are extracted from reptiles, birds, animals, etc., in preventing them from being wounded." (See Mission to Ava, p. 208 ; Cathay, 94 ; Conti, p. 32 ; Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1868, p. 116 ; í11i 7sion to Sumatra, p. 323.)
CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING THE FASHION OF THE IDOLS.
Nov you must know that the Idols of Cathay, and of
Manzi, and of this Island, are all of the same class. And
in this Island as well as elsewhere, there be some of the
Idols that have the head of an ox, some that have the
head of a pig, some of a dog, some of a sheep, and some
of divers other kinds. And some of them have four
heads, whilst some have three, one growing out of
either shoulder. There are also some that have four
hands, some ten, some a thousand ! And they do put
more faith in those Idols that have a thousand hands
than in any of the others.' And when any Christian
asks them why they make their Idols in so many different
guises, and not all alike, they reply that just so their
forefathers were wont to have them made, and just so
they will leave them to their children, and these to
the after generations. And so they will be handed down
for ever. And you must understand that the deeds
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