1923.] St. Thomas and San Thomé, Mylapore. 203 
lest td one should enter stealthily with poison ;! the rest are 
of ebony. The windows are of crystal. The tables at rt 
our haces eats are some of gold, others of amethyst, and t 
columns which sustain them are of ivory. Before our sles 
there is a square where or justice alone is wont to watch 
those who fight in duel, ete. 
room where our scan? sleeps is a wonderful piece 
of art, adorned with gold, silver and every kind of seat 
stones, etc. Within it, balsam is ever burning. Our is of 
sapphire. We have most beautiful women ; “sed non cent 
ad nos, nisi causa procreandorum filiorum quater in anno, et 
sie a nobis sanctificatae, ut Bethsabee a David, redeunt quaeque 
in locum suum. 
ur court eats once a day. At our table feed thirty 
thousand men, not counting those who go in and out; il 
these receive daily sums from our chamber, for their horses 
and other expenses, etc. Every month we are served at our 
table by seven Kings, each in his turn, by seventy-five dukes, 
and by three hundred and sixty-five counts, in addition to 
those who are appointed for divers functions. At our court 
there dine daily by our side, on our right twelve Abokbishope; 
on our left twenty Bishops, besides the Patriarch of St. 
Thomas, and the Protopapas of Salmagantum, and the Arch- 
protopapas of Susae, in which city is the throne and seat of 
ours glory and our imperial palace. Every month, each of 
these iP. 493) in turn never departs from our side. Abbots, 
according to cae number of the days of the vear, serve us in 
our chapel and return home every month, as many others 
ote every month for the same ministrations in our 
chape 
| Cups made of rhinoceros horn were commonly believed to 
be 
proof against poison. ‘‘ Now this Abath [Rhinoceros] iz a beast which 
hath one horne only in her forehead, and is thought to abe the femele 
Unicorne, and is high y esteemed of a Se, as @ 
most soveraigne remedie pt oyson.” Barker uyt, IT, 59 
Quoted by Yule, Hobson Oriental Art Exhibi 
v. Abada. n 
tion by the Nahar moae Claines ay: 46, Indian Mirror Str., Calcutta, 
4 was shown in January 1922, a collection of cups tnade of rhinoceros 
Cla udius a (middle of 2nd century of our era) writes: *‘ India, 
according to report, breeds one-horned horses also one-horned asses. 
From these horns drinking-cups were made; and if into these one threw 
a deadly poison, the drinker would come by no harm poe’ such a plot 
e ass i 
as his life, for the horn both of the horse = 2 Ss an 
antidote against — Ho CEO WEG dle’s vi 
dent} ft rns is = rhinoceros. At p. 193, n. £ ibid., 
M* Crindle says that ee story o Ww of 
Lemnos places in the river H Hear’ poten pes is on from Ktésias. 
Fr om the horn of the un aseove-ane a hich possessed 
magical virtues. 
2 This seems to be characteristically Eastern. We think of Akbar. 
