a 
1923.] St. Thomas and San Thomé, Mylapore. 199 
all the pepper grows, etc. It is a wooded voc like a forest 
and everywhere full of serpents, etc.’ This wood is situated 
ati the foot of Mount Olympus, whence aiieage a limpid foun- 
tain, whose waters preserve all kinds of savours, etc. There 


all his strange notions on Ceylon, regarded as Paradise, it seems evident 
that the Indus (the Phisén) is made to issue here from Ceylon: for de’ 
i also says: ** Paradi th 
seg fair seh they to look upon, fragrant and delicious for the 
of m Now that fountain cometh down from the rete rom loth bo 
a behos which is eae by the Bhagat ophers cok eee | [Beek rates]. Here 
it passes under another water which is turbi d, and issues res on the 
cording to Cosmas rity ert cas (AB. 545) ; St pre, Ancient 
said to go n 
name, it is called Caromoran, 7.e. Bila ek er. eve it to be 
the biggest river of fresh water the paler’ and Spheres erossed it 
Next, he mentions the Tigris and the cor fool Cf. Yule’s 
Cathay, II, -346-351. These strange geographical eanee are much older 
than de’ Marignolli: he must have noted them down in the Eas t from 
31 av in 
g the Christians. The Hindus too make their sacred Ganges issue 
at all all kinds of places to sanctify the waters of their favourite bathing- 
as Mala bar was the ee country par excellence. The passage above 
must be compared with what Friar Odoriec of Pordenone writes —- the 
rpe: 13 nd n 
called Polumbu * [Coiumbu pres Quilon J. Cf.. Yule’s Cathay. I (1886), 
4-77. The passage in square brackets is from the Palatine MS. 
41 
> 
~ 
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ens 
a 
aS 
== 
ef 
— 
about se pepper forest. ‘‘ Ard there is no roasting ng the pe pper, as 
oe have falsely asserted, nor does it grow in 5 Renth: but in regular 
: A 
information from harbour gossip. Be that a may, it is certainly 
that some of the same reflections ae here in Prester John’s 
Is not the pepper forest and its serpents referred to by much older 
writers, whieh would show a remarkable fixity in the popular talk picked 
up - Malab 
? The limpid fountain at the foot of Mt. Olympus would seem to 
