176 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
Assyria bare his Body into Mesopotamia into the City of 
Edessa, and after, he was brought hither again. And the 
Arm and the Hand that he put in our Sends Side, when He 
appeared to him after His Resurrection and said to him, * Noli 
esse incredulus, sed fidel's’ (Be not faithless, A believing), are 
vet lying in a vessel without the Tomb. And by that Hand 
they make all their judgments in the Dieeniey: whoso hath 
Right or Wrong. For when there is any Dissension between 
2 Parties, and each of them maintaineth his Cause, and one 
saith that his Cause is rightful, and that other saith the con- 
trary, then both Parties write their Causes on 2 Bills and put 
them in the Hand of Saint Thomas. And anon he casteth away 
the bill of the wrong Cause and sehdeth still the Bill with the 
right Cause. And therefore Men come from far Countries to 
have Judgment of doubtable Causes, and other Judgment use 
they not there. 
Also the Church where Saint Thomas lieth, is both ee 
and fair and full of great Simulachres, and those be great 
Images that they call their Gods. of the which the least is as 
great as two Men.’’? 
Of Sir John de Mandeville himself we know next to noth- 
ing. The date and place of his death are alike wi oe: 
We are not even sure that his name is not a pseudonym. But 
it is sufficient for us that the book bearing his name appeared 
first between 1357 and 1371, fully a century before the Por- 
tuguese conquest of India.’ 
Something very similar is related by Jean Aerts of Mechlin, 
a priest, ane to his own testimony.* If his MS. can 
ets del oee eeee  eee 
to settle the many Pia rr ter on the whereabouts of Sarre a nak all the 
or ieee Paton by Mgr. Medlycott as containing the name would be so 
arguments proving that Calam‘na is My si 
anks to Sir John for the information that ee Gad of St. Thomas 
Coa 
some idea tha e body was never carried to omy essa, wai we have at 
th 
least _ medieval Syrian writer w ou 
: the last paragraph one might think that ‘Sir John copies Odoric 
of Punta or Marco Polo; he does it however in such a way that one 
cannot fee! sure. The text Gendcwes: -* And, amongst these. there is 
an Image more great than = of the other, that is all covered with fine 
gold and precious Stcnes ich ake and that Idol is the God of 
false Christians that — Sasa their faith.’ Follows a description of 
that ~- with acts of self-immolation, Ngee in the style of Odoric a and 
Marco Polo, but wis flourishes that see 
"Else where we shal ve = insist that. "when ie lege first 
came to India, large num rebate f people w aid to aposta atised on 
the Coromandel and Fishery Coasts, doug che pi  peneederéd them- 
selves as belonging to the caste of the Christians 
8 Cf. E. B. Nicholson and H. Yule on Mandeville (Sir Jehan) in 
I — aging a thy = , Vol. pe 
* Cf. u XVe siecle. Récit de Verpédition en Orient du 
Grand Pittew re Porton et Pe Jean Aerts de Malines (1451-984), par 
