i78 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
St. Thomas te brings us back, but on independent testimony, 
to some of the legends recorded by Marco Polo. If he did not 
rome to vice |! he must have obtained his information in 
Malabar from the St Thomas Christians, or from ‘ Armenians,’ 
and Europeans, who had visited the place. We quote from 
him here only what pertains to — arm of the Saint. 
‘They say,” Barkosa writes, ‘ that, on burying him [St. 
Thomas], they could never put his right arm in the tomb, and 
it always remained outside: and, f they buried him entirely, 
next day thev found the arm na the earth, and so they let 
it be. The Christians, his disciples and companions who built 
the said Church fof Mylapore} and the already held him 
for a saint, and honoured him greatly. He remained thus with 
his arm outside of the grave for a long time, and they say that 
many people came there from many quarters in pilgrimage, 
and that some Chinese came a'so, who wished to cut off his 
arm, and carry it away as a relic, and that ne Ae they were 
about to strike at os with a sword, he withdrew his arm inside, 
they say, and it y never seen again.! So he remains still 
in that her aaiace very humbly, and lighted up by the grace 
of God, because the Moses and yee ie light him UP each 
one saying that he is something belonging to them 
Among the information collected in 1531 by a Fer- 
reira from Muhammadans and Hindus, from natives of Myla- 
pore and torsigners, we have the usual story of the Sl ; but in 



| This mention of the Chinese is less preposterous than may appear 
at first sight. Chinese vee peas nted Ceylon and the Coromandel 
Coast peck Malabar till about time of rey "= ese. Certain ruins 
esui 
iar | 
S 
2 
And, in view of the other explanations given a few yea 
after Barbosa, we a Agate the point that the Chinese would have 
me to cut off St. Thom 
2 
A des en ae he Co “ pl East = “, es in a be- 
osa 
Society, : 
Vo facta later than 1514 occur in the eae The author was 16 years 
in the Indian Ocean. In that ea: a a retur ae home 
before 1515. He could — ; have siaitea all the places ; he deseribes- 
His book is less a histor = one an itinerary. The preface, by the author, 
in as Portuguese slits of Lisbon (1822) says that the book was finish 
ip 
