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.
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