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