The Legend of St. Thomas. 
(By The Rev. GEORGE MILNE RAE, m.a.) 
In the neighbourhood of Madras there are three ' holy ' 
places associated with the name of St. Thomas the Apostle. 
They are St. Thomas' Mount, the Little Mount, and Mayla- 
pur or (as it was also called by the Portuguese) St. Thome. 
At each a church was built ; and for a cross, a cave, and a 
grave these churches are respectively remarkable. 
St. Thomas' Mount (eight miles south-west of Fort St. 
George) is remarkable for a stone cross of the Grreek type in 
the church at the top of the hill. It was found in connection 
with some excavations made by the Portuguese in 1547 at 
the time when the church was built and when the stone-steps 
up the hill-side were laid. It may now be seen above the 
altar. It is in bas-relief, cut on a tablet of dark granite. At 
the top of the upright shaft is figured a bird, like a dove, with 
its wings expanded " as the Holy Grhost is usually represented 
when descending on our Lord at his baptism or on our Lady 
at her annunciation." There is a Pahlavi inscription on it, 
which runs archwise over the cross, and is divided into two 
unequal parts by a mark like the plus sign in algebra. Of 
this Pahlavi inscription the Portuguese discoverers could make 
nothing; but certain learned brahmans, perceiving what 
was desired, speedily rendered the few words into a concise 
confession of the whole Christian faith, ending with a full 
and particular account of the martyrdom of St. Thomas. 
Certain gifted eyes, we are told, have seen on this stone 
stains of apostolic blood and have on occasions witnessed 
the miraculous phenomenon of a bloody sweat. But not to 
