For
they say, "as our father did gather together all this treasure, so we
ought to accumulate as much in our turn." And in this way it comes to pass
that there is an immensity of treasure accumulated in this kingdom.[NOTE 6]
Here are no horses bred; and thus a great part of the wealth of the
country is wasted in purchasing horses; I will tell you how. You must know
that the merchants of KIS and HORMES, DOFAR and SOER and ADEN collect
great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these they bring to the
territories of this King and of his four brothers, who are kings likewise
as I told you. For a horse will fetch among them 500 saggi of gold,
worth more than 100 marks of silver, and vast numbers are sold there every
year. Indeed this King wants to buy more than 2000 horses every year, and
so do his four brothers who are kings likewise. The reason why they want
so many horses every year is that by the end of the year there shall not
be one hundred of them remaining, for they all die off. And this arises
from mismanagement, for those people do not know in the least how to treat
a horse; and besides they have no farriers. The horse-merchants not only
never bring any farriers with them, but also prevent any farrier from
going thither, lest that should in any degree baulk the sale of horses,
which brings them in every year such vast gains. They bring these horses
by sea aboard ship.[NOTE 7]
They have in this country the custom which I am going to relate. When a
man is doomed to die for any crime, he may declare that he will put
himself to death in honour of such or such an idol; and the government
then grants him permission to do so. His kinsfolk and friends then set him
up on a cart, and provide him with twelve knives, and proceed to conduct
him all about the city, proclaiming aloud: "This valiant man is going to
slay himself for the love of (such an idol)." And when they be come to the
place of execution he takes a knife and sticks it through his arm, and
cries: "I slay myself for the love of (such a god)!" Then he takes another
knife and sticks it through his other arm, and takes a third knife and
runs it into his belly, and so on until he kills himself outright. And
when he is dead his kinsfolk take the body and burn it with a joyful
celebration.[NOTE 8] Many of the women also, when their husbands die and
are placed on the pile to be burnt, do burn themselves along with the
bodies. And such women as do this have great praise from all.[NOTE 9]
The people are Idolaters, and many of them worship the ox, because (say
they) it is a creature of such excellence. They would not eat beef for
anything in the world, nor would they on any account kill an ox. But there
is another class of people who are called Govy, and these are very
glad to eat beef, though they dare not kill the animal. Howbeit if an ox
dies, naturally or otherwise, then they eat him.[NOTE 10]
And let me tell you, the people of this country have a custom of rubbing
their houses all over with cow-dung.[NOTE 11] Moreover all of them, great
and small, King and Barons included, do sit upon the ground only, and the
reason they give is that this is the most honourable way to sit, because
we all spring from the Earth and to the Earth we must return; so no one
can pay the Earth too much honour, and no one ought to despise it.
And about that race of Govis, I should tell you that nothing on
earth would induce them to enter the place where Messer St. Thomas is - I
mean where his body lies, which is in a certain city of the province of
Maabar. Indeed, were even 20 or 30 men to lay hold of one of these
Govis and to try to hold him in the place where the Body of the
Blessed Apostle of Jesus Christ lies buried, they could not do it! Such is
the influence of the Saint; for it was by people of this generation that
he was slain, as you shall presently hear.[NOTE 12]
No wheat grows in this province, but rice only.
And another strange thing to be told is that there is no possibility of
breeding horses in this country, as hath often been proved by trial. For
even when a great blood-mare here has been covered by a great blood-horse,
the produce is nothing but a wretched wry-legged weed, not fit to ride.
[NOTE 13]
The people of the country go to battle all naked, with only a lance and a
shield; and they are most wretched soldiers. They will kill neither beast
nor bird, nor anything that hath life; and for such animal food as they
eat, they make the Saracens, or others who are not of their own religion,
play the butcher.
It is their practice that every one, male and female, do wash the whole
body twice every day; and those who do not wash are looked on much as we
look on the Patarins. [You must know also that in eating they use the
right hand only, and would on no account touch their food with the left
hand. All cleanly and becoming uses are ministered to by the right hand,
whilst the left is reserved for uncleanly and disagreeable necessities,
such as cleansing the secret parts of the body and the like.
