"[NOTE 2] The
Christians who go thither in pilgrimage take of the earth from the place
where the Saint was killed, and give a portion thereof to any one who is
sick of a quartan or a tertian fever; and by the power of God and of St.
Thomas the sick man is incontinently cured.[NOTE 3] The earth, I should
tell you, is red. A very fine miracle occurred there in the year of
Christ, 1288, as I will now relate.
A certain Baron of that country, having great store of a certain kind of
corn that is called rice, had filled up with it all the houses that
belonged to the church, and stood round about it. The Christian people in
charge of the church were much distressed by his having thus stuffed their
houses with his rice; the pilgrims too had nowhere to lay their heads; and
they often begged the pagan Baron to remove his grain, but he would do
nothing of the kind. So one night the Saint himself appeared with a fork
in his hand, which he set at the Baron's throat, saying: "If thou void not
my houses, that my pilgrims may have room, thou shalt die an evil death,"
and therewithal the Saint pressed him so hard with the fork that he
thought himself a dead man. And when morning came he caused all the houses
to be voided of his rice, and told everybody what had befallen him at the
Saint's hands. So the Christians were greatly rejoiced at this grand
miracle, and rendered thanks to God and to the blessed St. Thomas. Other
great miracles do often come to pass there, such as the healing of those
who are sick or deformed, or the like, especially such as be Christians.
[The Christians who have charge of the church have a great number of the
Indian Nut trees, whereby they get their living; and they pay to one of
those brother Kings six groats for each tree every month.[1]]
Now, I will tell you the manner in which the Christian 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.
