From That Country I Travelled Ten Days Journey To Another Kingdom Called Moabar[3], In Which There Are Many Cities;

And in a certain church of that country, the body of St Thomas the apostle lies buried; which church is

Full of idols, and round about it there are fifteen houses inhabited by Nestorian priests, who are bad Christians, and false schismatics.

[1] The names of these cities or towns, in the pepper country of Malabar, which is called Minibar in the text, are so thoroughly corrupted, that no conjectural criticism can discover them in our modern maps. Hakluyt on the margin, corrects Flandrina, by an equally unknown, Alandrina. They may possibly refer to places now fallen into ruin, in the kingdom or province of Travancore, which has always been a great mart of pepper. - E.

[2] Friar Oderic appears only to have observed the superstitions in the southern part of India very superficially, if at all; and as many opportunities will occur in the course of this collection, for explaining the strange beliefs, customs, and ceremonies of the braminical worship, it has not been thought necessary to discuss these in notes on the present occasion. - E.

[3] Hakluyt has explained Moabar on the margin by Maliassour or Meliassour. The country here indicated is obviously the Carnatic, or kingdom of Arcot of modern times, from the circumstance of containing the shrine of St Thomas. The idols mentioned by Oderic, as filling the church of St Thomas, were probably Nestorian images; not sanctioned by the Roman ritual. - E.

SECTION VI.

Of a Strange Idol, and of certain Customs and Ceremonies.

In the kingdom of Moabar there is a wonderful idol in the shape of a man, all of pure and polished gold, as large as our image of St Christopher; and there hangs about its neck a string of most rich and precious stones, some of which are singly more valuable than the riches of an entire kingdom. The whole house, in which this idol is preserved, is all of beaten gold, even the roof, the pavement, and the lining of the walls, both within and without[1]. The Indians go on pilgrimages to this idol, just as we do to the image of St Peter; some having halters round their necks, some with their hands bound behind their backs, and others with knives sticking in various parts of their legs and arms; and if the flesh of their wounded limbs should corrupt, owing to these wounds, they believe that their god is well pleased with them, and ever after esteem the diseased limbs as sacred. Near this great idol temple, there is an artificial lake of water in an open place, into which the pilgrims and devotees cast gold and silver, and precious stones, in honour of the idol, and as a fund for repairing the temple; and when any new ornament is to be made, or any repairs are required, the priests take what is wanted from the oblations that are thrown into this lake.

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