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.[NOTE 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 sesame, 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.[NOTE 5]
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.[NOTE 6]
NOTE 1. - The little town where the body of St. Thomas lay was MAILAPUR the
name of which is still applied to a suburb of Madras about 3-1/2 miles
south of Fort St. George.
NOTE 2. - The title of Avarian, given to St. Thomas by the Saracens, is
judiciously explained by Joseph Scaliger to be the Arabic Hawariy (pl.
Hawariyun), 'An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.' Scaliger somewhat
hypercritically for the occasion finds fault with Marco for saying the
word means "a holy man." (De Emendatione Temporum, Lib. VII., Geneva,
1629, p. 680.)
NOTE 3. - The use of the earth from the tomb of St Thomas for miraculous
cures is mentioned also by John Mangnolli, who was there about 1348-1349.
Assemani gives a special formula of the Nestorians for use in the
application of this dust, which was administered to the sick in place of
the unction of the Catholics. It ends with the words "Signatur et
sanctificatur hic Hanana (pulvis) cum hac Taibutha (gratia) Sancti
Thomae Apostoli in sanitatem et medelam corporis et animae, in nomen P. et
F. et S.S." (III. Pt. 2, 278.) The Abyssinians make a similar use of the
earth from the tomb of their national Saint Tekla Haimanot. (J.R.G.S.
X. 483.) And the Shiahs, on solemn occasions, partake of water in which
has been mingled the dust of Kerbela.
Fa hian tells that the people of Magadha did the like, for the cure of
headache, with earth from the place where lay the body of Kasyapa, a
former Buddha. (Beal, p. 133.)
[Illustration: The Little Mount of St. Thomas, near Madras.]
NOTE 4. - Vague as is Polo's indication of the position of the Shrine of
St. Thomas, it is the first geographical identification of it that I know
of, save one. At the very time of Polo's homeward voyage, John of Monte
Corvino on his way to China spent thirteen months in Maabar, and in a
letter thence in 1292-1293 he speaks of the church of St. Thomas there,
having buried in it the companion of his travels, Friar Nicholas of
Pistoia.
But the tradition of Thomas's preaching in India is very old, so old that
it probably is, in its simple form, true. St. Jerome accepts it, speaking
of the Divine Word as being everywhere present in His fullness: "cum Thoma
in India, cum Petro Romae, cum Paulo in Illyrico," etc. (Scti Hieron
Epistolae, LIX, ad Marcetlam.) So dispassionate a scholar as Professor
H.H. Wilson speaks of the preaching and martyrdom of St. Thomas in S.
India as "occurrences very far from invalidated by any arguments yet
adduced against the truth of the tradition." I do not know if the date is
ascertainable of the very remarkable legend of St. Thomas in the apocryphal
Acts of the Apostles, but it is presumably very old, though subsequent to
the translation of the relics (real or supposed) to Edessa, in the year
394, which is alluded to in the story. And it is worthy of note that this
legend places the martyrdom and original burial-place of the Saint upon a
mount. Gregory of Tours (A.D. 544-595) relates that "in that place in
India where the body of Thomas lay before it was transported to Edessa,
there is a monastery and a temple of great size and excellent structure and
ornament. In it God shows a wonderful miracle; for the lamp that stands
alight before the place of sepulture keeps burning perpetually, night and
day, by divine influence, for neither oil nor wick are ever renewed by
human hands;" and this Gregory learned from one Theodorus, who had visited
the spot.
The apocryphal history of St. Thomas relates that while the Lord was still
upon earth a certain King of India, whose name was Gondaphorus, sent to
the west a certain merchant called Abban to seek a skilful architect to
build him a palace, and the Lord sold Thomas to him as a slave of His own
who was expert in such work. Thomas eventually converts King Gondaphorus,
and proceeds to another country of India ruled by King Meodeus, where he
is put to death by lances. M. Reinaud first, I believe, pointed out the
remarkable fact that the name of the King Gondaphorus of the legend is the
same with that of a King who has become known from the Indo-Scythian
coins, Gondophares, Yndoferres, or Gondaferres.
