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0411 The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2
マルコ=ポーロ卿の記録 : vol.2
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / 411 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000269
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CHAP. XVIII.   SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS

355

         

brethren who keep the church relate the story of the

Saint's death.

They tell that the Saint was in the wood outside his

hermitage saying his prayers ; and round about him were

many peacocks, for these are more plentiful in that

country than anywhere else. And one of the Idolaters

of that country being of the lineage of those called Govi

that I told you of, having gone with his bow and arrows to

shoot peafowl, not seeing the Saint, let fly an arrow at

one of the peacocks ; and this arrow struck the holy man

in the right side, insomuch that he died of the wound,

sweetly addressing himself to his Creator. Before he

came to that place where he thus died he had been

in Nubia, where he converted much people to the faith of

Jesus Christ.4

The children that are born here are black enough,

but the blacker they be the more they are thought of ;

wherefore from the day of their birth their parents do

rub them every week with oil of sesamé, so that they

become as black as devils. Moreover, they make their

gods black and their devils white, and the images of

their saints they do paint black all over.'

They have such faith in the ox, and hold it for a thing

so holy, that when they go to the wars they take of the

hair of the wild-ox, whereof I have elsewhere spoken, and

wear it tied to the necks of their horses ; or, if serving

on foot, they hang this hair to their shields, or attach it to

their own hair. And so this hair bears a high price,

since without it nobody goes to the wars in any good

heart. For they believe that any one who has it shall

come scatheless out of battle.6

         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         

NOTE t.—The little town where the body of St. Thomas lay was MAILAI'IR, the name of which is still applied to a suburb of Madras about 3i miles south of Fort St. George.

NOTE 2.—The title of Avarian, given to St. Thomas by the Saracens, is

VOL. II.   Z 2