& other precious stones without number, in stede of offerings, and therefore, when y^e maister of the minster hath any neede of helping, as sone they go the river & take thereout as much as they haue neede to helping of y^e minster. And ye shall understande when that any greate festes come of y^e Idol, as the dedication day of the church, or of the throning of the Idol, all the countrey there about assemble them there togither and then men set this Idoll with great reverence & worship in a chaire well dressed with cloth of gold, and other tapistry, & so they carry him with great reverence & worship, rounde about the citie, and before the chaire goeth firste in procession all the maidens of the countrey two & two togither, & so after them go the pilgrimes that are come fro far countreys, of the which pilgrims some fall downe before the chaire, & letteth all go over them and so are they slaine, and some haue theyr armes broken & leggs,[7] and this they doe for love of the Idol, and they beleve the more paine that they suffer here for their Idol the more joy shall they haue in y^e other world, & a man shall finde few Christen men will suffer so much penaunce for our Lordes sake as they do for the ydoll. And nighe before the chaire go all the mynstrels of the countrey, as it were without nomber with many divers melodyes. And when they are come againe to the Church they sette up the ydol againe in his throne, and for worship of the ydoll two or three[8] are slaine with sharpe knives with their good will. And also a man thinketh in our countrey that he hath a great worshippe to haue an holy man in his kyn, lykewise they saye that those that are there slayne are holye men and sayntes & they are wrytten in their letany, and when they are thus dead theyr frendes brene theyr bodies & they take the ashes, and those are kepte as relykes, and they say it is an holy thing, & that they doubte of no perill when they haue of those ashes. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Footnote 1: Identical with the Maabav of Marco Polo, book 3, cap. xvi., where he gives a very interesting account of the place. It was what we call the Coromandel Coast.] [Footnote 2: Judgments.] [Footnote 3: Find out.] [Footnote 4: Paper.] [Footnote 5: Cut their legs.] [Footnote 6: Incense.] [Footnote 7: Mandeville probably describes the Car of Juggernaut.] [Footnote 8: Other editions have it "two or three hundred."] CAP. LV. _Of a great countrey called Lamory, where the people go all naked & other things._ [Illustration]