wives they may marry again. There
are some other strange customs among the people of this country; insomuch,
that the women drink wine, which the men do not; and the women shave their
eyebrows, and eyelids, and their beards, besides many other filthy customs,
contrary to the true decorum of the sex. 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 pi