incense and other aromatic things of noble smell, and scent the idol, as we here do God's precious body. And so people come to worship this image, some a hundred miles, and some many more. And before the minster of this idol is a pool, like a great lake, full of water; and therein pilgrims cast gold and silver, pearls and precious stones, without number, instead of offerings. And when the ministers of that church need to make any reparation of the church or of any of the idols, they take gold and silver, pearls and precious stones, out of the pond, to pay the expenses of such thing as they make or repair. At great feasts and solemnities of that idol, as the dedication of the church and the enthroning of the idol, all the country about meet there, and set the idol upon a chair with great reverence, well arrayed with cloths of gold, of rich cloths of Tartary, of camaka[375], and other precious cloths; and they lead him about the city with great solemnity. And before the chair go first in procession all the maidens of the country, two and two together; and, after them, the pilgrims. And some of them fall down under the wheels of the chair, and let the chair go over them, so that they die immediately. And some have their arms or their limbs broken. And all this they do for love of their god, in great devotion. And they think that the more pain and tribulation they suffer for love of their god, the more joy they shall have in another world. In a word, they suffer so great pains and so hard martyrdoms for love of their idol, that a Christian, I believe, durst not take upon him the tenth part of the pain for love of our Lord Jesus Christ. And after them, before the chair, go all the minstrels of the country, with divers instruments, and make all the melody they can. And when they have all gone about the city, they return to the minster and put the idol again into its place. And then, for the love and in worship of that idol, and for the reverence of the feast, two hundred or three hundred persons slay themselves with sharp knives, whose bodies they bring before the idol; and then they say that those are saints, because they slew themselves of their own good will, for love of their idol. And as men here, that had a holy saint of their kin, would think that it was to them a high worship, right so they think there. And as men here devoutly would write holy saints' lives and their miracles, and sue for their canonizations, right so do they there for them that slay themselves voluntarily for love of their idol. And they say that they are glorious martyrs and saints, and put them in their writings and in their litanies, and boast them greatly one to another of their holy kinsmen, that so became saints, and say, "I have more holy saints in my family than thou in thine." And the custom also there is this, that when any one has such devotion and intent to slay himself for love of his god, they send for all their friends, and have numerous minstrels, and they