Indeed, an he had
but been so, he would have been a great saint of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so
good and pure was the life he led.[NOTE 3] And when he died they found
his body and brought it to his father. And when the father saw dead before
him that son whom he loved better than himself, he was near going
distraught with sorrow. And he caused an image in the similitude of his
son to be wrought in gold and precious stones, and caused all his people
to adore it. And they all declared him to be a god; and so they still say.
[NOTE 4]
They tell moreover that he hath died fourscore and four times. The first
time he died as a man, and came to life again as an ox; and then he died
as an ox and came to life again as a horse, and so on until he had died
fourscore and four times; and every time he became some kind of animal.
But when he died the eighty-fourth time they say he became a god. And they
do hold him for the greatest of all their gods. And they tell that the
aforesaid image of him was the first idol that the Idolaters ever had; and
from that have originated all the other idols. And this befel in the
Island of Seilan in India.
The Idolaters come thither on pilgrimage from very long distances and with
great devotion, just as Christians go to the shrine of Messer Saint James
in Gallicia. And they maintain that the monument on the mountain is that
of the king's son, according to the story I have been telling you; and
that the teeth, and the hair, and the dish that are there were those of
the same king's son, whose name was Sagamoni Borcan, or Sagamoni the
Saint. But the Saracens also come thither on pilgrimage in great numbers,
and they say that it is the sepulchre of Adam our first father, and
that the teeth, and the hair, and the dish were those of Adam.[NOTE 5]
Whose they were in truth, God knoweth; howbeit, according to the Holy
Scripture of our Church, the sepulchre of Adam is not in that part of the
world.
Now it befel that the Great Kaan heard how on that mountain there was the
sepulchre of our first father Adam, and that some of his hair and of his
teeth, and the dish from which he used to eat, were still preserved there.
So he thought he would get hold of them somehow or another, and despatched
a great embassy for the purpose, in the year of Christ, 1284. The
ambassadors, with a great company, travelled on by sea and by land until
they arrived at the island of Seilan, and presented themselves before the
king. And they were so urgent with him that they succeeded in getting two
of the grinder teeth, which were passing great and thick; and they also
got some of the hair, and the dish from which that personage used to eat,
which is of a very beautiful green porphyry. And when the Great Kaan's
ambassadors had attained the object for which they had come they were
greatly rejoiced, and returned to their lord. And when they drew near to
the great city of Cambaluc, where the Great Kaan was staying, they sent
him word that they had brought back that for which he had sent them. On
learning this the Great Kaan was passing glad, and ordered all the
ecclesiastics and others to go forth to meet these reliques, which he was
led to believe were those of Adam.
And why should I make a long story of it? In sooth, the whole population
of Cambaluc went forth to meet those reliques, and the ecclesiastics took
them over and carried them to the Great Kaan, who received them with great
joy and reverence.[NOTE 6] And they find it written in their Scriptures
that the virtue of that dish is such that if food for one man be put
therein it shall become enough for five men: and the Great Kaan averred
that he had proved the thing and found that it was really true.[NOTE 7]
So now you have heard how the Great Kaan came by those reliques; and a
mighty great treasure it did cost him! The reliques being, according to
the Idolaters, those of that king's son.
NOTE 1. - Sagamoni Borcan is, as Marsden points out, SAKYA-MUNI, or
Gautama-Buddha, with the affix BURKHAN, or "Divinity," which is used by
the Mongols as the synonym of Buddha.
"The Dewa of Samantakuta (Adam's Peak), Samana, having heard of the
arrival of Budha (in Lanka or Ceylon) ... presented a request that he
would leave an impression of his foot upon the mountain of which he was
guardian.... In the midst of the assembled Dewas, Budha, looking towards
the East, made the impression of his foot, in length three inches less
than the cubit of the carpenter; and the impression remained as a seal to
show that Lanka is the inheritance of Budha, and that his religion will
here flourish." (Hardy's Manual, p. 212.)
[Ma-Huan says (p. 212): "On landing (at Ceylon), there is to be seen on
the shining rock at the base of the cliff, an impress of a foot two or
more feet in length. The legend attached to it is, that it is the imprint
of Shakyamuni's foot, made when he landed at this place, coming from the
Ts'ui-lan (Nicobar) Islands. There is a little water in the hollow of the
imprint of this foot, which never evaporates.
