[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.
The inhabitants of that country worship a living ox as their god, which is made to labour in husbandry for six years, and in his seventh year, he is consecrated as holy, and is no more allowed to work. With this strange animal god, they use the following strange ceremony: Every morning they take two basons of silver or gold, in one of which they collect the urine of the holy ox, and his dung in the other; and the devotees wash their faces, eyes, and all their five senses in the urine; and anoint their eyes, cheeks, and breasts with the dung; after which, they consider themselves sanctified for the whole of that day; and even the king and queen of the country use this absurd superstition. They worship an idol also, which resembles a man from the navel upwards, all below being in the likeness of an ox; and this idol delivers oracles, as they believe, and sometimes requires the sacrifice of forty virgins. On this account, the people consecrate their sons and daughters to the idols, even as we Christians dedicate our sons and daughters to some particular order of religion, or to some of the saints in Heaven. They even sacrifice their sons and daughters, so that many are put to death in honour of this accursed idol; and they commit many other abominable and beastly actions; and I saw many other strange things among them which I refrain from relating[2].
[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.
This nation has another most abominable custom; that when a man dies, his body is burned to ashes, and his living wife is burned along with him, that she may assist her husband in his trade or husbandry in the next world. Yet, if she have children by her husband, she may remain alive with them, if so inclined, without shame or reproach; yet most of them prefer to be burnt with the bodies of their husbands. But husbands are not influenced by any similar law, as when they lose their 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.
[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.
[1] More recent and more accurate travellers have informed us, that this profusion of gold, on the idols and temples of the Buddists, especially, is only rich gilding.--E.
At each annual festival of this idol, the king and queen of the country, with all the pilgrims, and the whole multitude of the people assemble at the temple; and placing the idol on a rich and splendid chariot, they carry it from the temple with songs and all kinds of musical instruments, having a great company of young women, who walk in procession, two and two, singing before the idol. Many of the pilgrims throw themselves under the chariot wheels, that they may be crushed to death in honour of their god, and the bodies of these devotees are afterwards burned, and their ashes collected as of holy martyrs. In this manner, above 500 persons annually devote themselves to death. Sometimes a man devotes himself to die in honour of this abominable idol. On which occasion, accompanied by his relations and friends, and by a great company of musicians, he makes a solemn feast; after which, he hangs five sharp knives around his neck, and goes in solemn procession before the idol; where he takes four of the knives successively, with each of which he cuts off a piece of his own flesh, which he throws to the idol, saying, that for the worship of his god he thus cuts himself. Then taking the last of the knives, he declares aloud that he is going to put himself to death in honour of the god; on uttering which, he executes his vile purpose. His body is then burned with great solemnity, and he is ever after esteemed as a holy person.
The king of this country has vast treasures in gold and silver, and precious stones, and possesses the largest and fairest pearls that are to be seen in the whole world. Leaving this country, I travelled fifty days journey to the southward, along the shore of the ocean, when I came to a country called Lamouri[2], in which, owing to the extreme heat, the whole inhabitants go stark naked, both men and women, and they derided me for wearing clothes, saying, that Adam and Eve were created naked. In this country the women are all common, so that no one has a wife; and when a child is born, the mother gives it to any of the men she pleases, who may have been connected with her. The whole of the land, likewise, is possessed in common, but everyone has his own house. Human flesh, if fat, is used as commonly in that country as beef with us; and though the manners and customs of the people are most abominable, the country is excellent, and abounds in flesh and corn, gold and silver, aloes-wood, and camphor, and many other precious commodities. Merchants who trade to this country, usually bring with them fat men, among their other commodities, which they sell to the natives as we do hogs, and these are immediately slain and devoured.
[2] This seems properly enough corrected on the margin by Hakluyt, by the word Comori, or the country about Cape Comorin.--E.
In this region, toward the south, there is an island or kingdom called Symolora[3], where both the men and women mark themselves with a hot iron in twelve different parts of their faces[4]; and this