6 
THE LEGEND OF ST. THOMAS. 
did not obey, saying : Wterever thou wisliest to send me, send 
me elsewhere ; for to the Indians I am not going. 
And as he was thus speaking and growing angry, there 
happened to be there a certain merchant come from India, by 
name Abbanes, sent from the king Gondophares, and having 
received an order from him to buy a carpenter. And the Lord, 
having seen him walking about in the market at noon, said to 
him : Dost thou want a carpenter ? And he said to him, Tes. 
And the Lord said to him : I have a slave a carpenter and I wish 
to sell him. And having said this, he showed him Thomas at 
a distance and agreed with him for thi'ee pounds of uncoined 
silver. Next day Thomas came to the Lord and said : Thy 
will be done. Then Abbanes and he began to sail away. And 
they had a fair wind and they sailed fast until they came to- 
Andrapolis, a royal city. 
And when they arrived there, the marriage feast of the 
king's daughter was being celebrated, and Thomas accompanied 
Abbanes to the feast, and when he saw them aU reclining, he- 
reclined also in the midst. But he would neither eat nor di-ink, 
and a flute-girl, a Hebrew by race, stood and played over him 
a long time, and presently he sang a Hebrew song setting forth 
the praises of the bride, which no one save the Hebrew flute- 
girl understood. Meanwhile, a naughty cup-bearer struck the 
stranger and Thomas quietly rephed that God would forgive 
him in the world to come, but the hand that had been lifted 
against His Apostle would be dragged along by a dog. And so- 
it came to pass, for the cup-bearer, having gone to the fountain 
to draw water, met a lion there and the lion rent him in pieces, 
and the dogs immediately seized his limbs, among which also 
one black dog, laying hold of his right hand in his mouth, 
brought it to the place of the banquet. And when it was proved 
to be the hand of the cup-bearer, who had struck the Apostle, 
the flute-girl broke her flutes in pieces and thi-ew them awaj 
and went and sat down at the feet of Thomas, sajing, This man 
is either God or God's Apostle. And the king having heard, 
came and said to him : Eise up and go with me and pray for my 
daughter, for she is my only child and to-day I give her away. 
And having prayed aud laid lus hands on them, he said : ' The- 
