in form. They consist of three logs lashed together and propelled by a paddle that is nothing more than a narrow plank. The rapidity with which the paddle is worked, now on one side, now on the other, is very suggestive of the infernal imp playing at single-stick.
St. Thomas and his successor, St. Xavier, were closely connected with the Muckwas, who are said to have received Christianity at the hands of the Apostle himself. The fact of St. Thomas's visit to India has never been historically proved; it rests solely on tradition. In the 'Acts of St. Thomas,' supposed to have been written in the second century, it is related that the twelve Apostles divided the world between them for the purpose of spreading the joyful tidings. India fell to the lot of St. Thomas, whose doubting heart sank appalled at the prospect of such distant journeyings. The legend proceeds to say that he hesitated and delayed in fear and trembling to take up his mission. A certain king in South India had com- missioned one of his merchants to bring back a carpenter. Our Lord appeared to the trader and sold St. Thomas for twenty pieces of silver; whereupon the vacillating saint was carried off by force to the East. He was put ashore at Cranganore on the west coast, and from there he went to Cochin; later he found his way to the Coromandel Coast, where he was martyred by the Brahmins, who were jealous of his success. Bishop Heber, Dr. Buchanan, Dr. Kennett, and various other authorities gave credence to the fact of his visit to the south as well as to the north of India.
In countries where there is no regular method of recording history, tradition is valuable. The people cherish the tales of their fathers and hand them down to posterity. As Dr. Kennett observed, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians have made pilgrimages from time immemorial to the spot which they believed to be the burial place
