Singing all
the while, when they fall to eat themselves, and then return home. The
great men have a kind of litters, made of large canes artificially wrought,
which are fixed in some high situation, to avoid being bitten by
tarantulas[4], and other vermin, and for the benefit of fresh air.
The sepulchre of St Thomas is in a small city, not much frequented by
merchants, but very much by Christians and Saracens, on account of
devotion. The Saracens hold him as a great prophet or holy man, and call
him Ananias. The Christians take of a red earth which is found in the place
where he was slain, which they mix with water, and administer to the sick
with great reverence. It happened in the year 1288, that a great prince,
who had more rice than he had room to keep it in, chose to make bold with
that room in St Thomas's church in which pilgrims are received, and
converted it into a granary: But he was so terrified by a vision of St
Thomas in the night following, that he was glad to remove it with great
speed. The inhabitants are black, although not born so, but by constantly
anointing themselves with the oil of jasmine they become quite black, which
they esteem a great beauty, insomuch, that they paint their idols black,
and represent the devil as white. The cow worshippers carry with them to
battle some of the hairs of an ox, as a preservative against dangers.
[1] This Pinkerton calls Moabar on the margin, and Nachabar in the text, of
his dissertation on the Trevigi edition of Marco Polo, very justly
observing that it refers to Coromandel, or the Carnatic below the
gauts. Harris erroneously substitutes Malabar. Moabar and Madura may
have a similar origin, as may Nachabar and Nega-patnam. - E.
[2] The fish here alluded to are sharks; and the same custom of employing
bramins to defend the fishermen, by conjuration, against this
formidable enemy, is continued to the present day. - E.
[3] Mr Pinkerton, from the Trevigi edition, has this passage as follows:
"The king of Vor, one of the princes of Nacbabar, purchases about
10,000 horses yearly from the country of Cormos, formerly mentioned,
each horse costing five sazi of gold." - E.
[4] Tarantulas is assuredly, a mistake here for centipedes and scorpions,
which are common all over India. - E.
SECTION XX.
Of the Kingdom of Murfili, and the Diamond Mines, and some other Countries
of India.
Murfili or Monsul[1], is five hundred miles northwards from Moabar, and is
inhabited by idolaters. In the mountains of this country there are
diamonds, which the people search for after the great rains. They
afterwards ascend these mountains in the summer, though with great labour,
on account of the excessive heat, and find abundance of these precious
stones among the gravel; and are on these occasions much exposed to danger
from the vast numbers of serpents which shelter themselves in the holes and
caverns of the rocks, in which the diamonds are found in greatest
abundance.
