1923. ] St. Thomas and San Thomé, Mylapore. 175 
whole coast from San Thomé to the Seven Pagodas, that ex- 
tensive ruins exist beneath the sea and are sometimes visible.” 
Another reason why we consider Can John III.’s stories 
as having originated from India is i St. Thomas’ right 
hand, the hand which touched Our Lord? s sacred side, as the 
Latin hymn put it, seems to have exercised in India a special 
fascination, so much so that it has led to legends more or less. 
similar to Mar John’s, whose original home was doubtless 
India. We should expect that some versions of them survive 
still in Malabar. 
What are we to think for ign tot of the story we read in 
John de Mandeville? Much of what the gallant knight writes 
about Maabar or the Gioea ja Coast seems, indeed, to have 
been copied from the Franciscan Friar Odoric of Pordenone : 
yet. when he happens to speak of St. Thomas of Calamye (7 ¢. 
Calamina’, he stands suddenly alone and has apparently inde- 
pendent knowledge. It is one of those passages where, instead 
of calling him a liar, a plagiarist, we feel inclined to credit him 
with a journey of his own to India. And there are other pas- 
sages which force on us the conclusion that too much has been 
made of his similarities with Marco Polo and Odoric, and too 
little of the dissimilarities. 
de Mandeville’s story about St. Thomas is remarkably 
similar to that version of Mar John’s abn in which St. Thomas’ 
hand Tejects the gifts of the unwort 
rom that Country,’ writes Sir John,! ‘‘Men pass by 
any Borders toward a Country, a 10 Days’ Journey thence, 
that is clept Mabaron ; ~ it isa great Kingdom, and it hath 
many fair Cities and Town 
“In that Kingdom lieth the Body of Saint Thomas the 
er, in Flesh and Bone, in a fair Tomb in the City of Caia- 
: for there he was martyred and buried. But Men of 

: f. The To Adventures Fd Sir John Maundeville, Kt 
are fr hur Layard, Westminster, gens bald Constable, 1895. 
ch. 16, pp. eis eis The prmlistg is pas thus: ‘‘Of the judgments 
on by St. Thomas; of Devotion and Sacrifice made to Tots in the City 
Another modern a wacieag edition, written in archaic ek eiges a 
Picture of a reliquary, ng one of the a aper rtures of which, on the sides, 
there protrudes an arm, the hand pointing heavenwards. The title is: 
Phe ¢ Voiage and Travatle of * Sir John Maundevile. Kt. eprinted tes 
hel ia of A.D, 25....by J..O. Halliwell.. _.London {.D 
LXVI, 
* Ma’abar (Coromandel Coast). 
* Where did Sir John get at that name? If he has merely govenem 
tt 
traveller in atioraig fr find the name. And from his context it can apply 
to no other plac Mylapore. Did he then hear in Malabar the pho 
Calamye ue : applied ret Mylapore? That wor uld go a long wa 
