CHAPTER X.
HOW THE PRAYER OF THE ONE-EYED COBLER CAUSED THE
MOUNTAIN TO MOVE.
And when the appointed day was come, all the Christians got up early,
men and women, small and great, more than 100,000 persons, and went to
church, and heard the Holy Mass. And after Mass had been sung, they all
went forth together in a great procession to the plain in front of the
mountain, carrying the precious cross before them, loudly singing and
greatly weeping as they went. And when they arrived at the spot, there
they found the Calif with all his Saracen host armed to slay them if
they would not change their faith; for the Saracens believed not in the
least that God would grant such favour to the Christians. These latter
stood indeed in great fear and doubt, but nevertheless they rested
their hope on their God Jesus Christ.
So the Cobler received the Bishop’s benison, and then threw himself on
his knees before the Holy Cross, and stretched out his hands towards
Heaven, and made this prayer: “Blessed LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, I pray Thee
by Thy goodness that Thou wilt grant this grace unto Thy people,
insomuch that they perish not, nor Thy faith be cast down, nor abused
nor flouted. Not that I am in the least worthy to prefer such request
unto Thee; but for Thy great power and mercy I beseech Thee to hear
this prayer from me Thy servant full of sin.”
And when he had ended this his prayer to God the Sovereign Father and
Giver of all grace, and whilst the Calif and all the Saracens, and
other people there, were looking on, the mountain rose out of its place
and moved to the spot which the Calif had pointed out! And when the
Calif and all his Saracens beheld, they stood amazed at the wonderful
miracle that God had wrought for the Christians, insomuch that a great
number of the Saracens became Christians. And even the Calif caused
himself to be baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, Amen, and became a Christian, but in secret. Howbeit,
when he died they found a little cross hung round his neck; and
therefore the Saracens would not bury him with the other Califs, but
put him in a place apart. The Christians exulted greatly at this most
holy miracle, and returned to their homes full of joy, giving thanks to
their Creator for that which He had done.{1}
And now you have heard in what wise took place this great miracle. And
marvel not that the Saracens hate the Christians; for the accursed
law that Mahommet gave them commands them to do all the mischief in
their power to all other descriptions of people, and especially to
Christians; to strip such of their goods, and do them all manner of
evil, because they belong not to their law. See then what an evil
law and what naughty commandments they have! But in such fashion the
Saracens act, throughout the world.
Now I have told you something of Baudas. I could easily indeed have
told you first of the affairs and the customs of the people there.
But it would be too long a business, looking to the great and strange
things that I have got to tell you, as you will find detailed in this
Book.
So now I will tell you of the noble city of Tauris.
NOTE 1.—We may remember that at a date only three years before
Marco related this story (viz. in 1295), the cottage of Loreto is
asserted to have changed its locality for the third and last time
by moving to the site which it now occupies.
Some of the old Latin copies place the scene at Tauris. And I
observe that a missionary of the 16th century does the same. The
mountain, he says, is between Tauris and Nakhshiwan, and is called
_Manhuc_. (_Gravina_, _Christianità nell’Armenia_, etc., Roma,
1605, p. 91.)
The moving of a mountain is one of the miracles ascribed to
Gregory Thaumaturgus. Such stories are rife among the Mahomedans
themselves. “I know,” says Khanikoff, “at least half a score of
mountains which the Musulmans allege to have come from the vicinity
of Mecca.”
Ramusio’s text adds here: “All the Nestorian and Jacobite
Christians from that time forward have maintained a solemn
celebration of the day on which the miracle occurred, keeping a
fast also on the eve thereof.”
F. Göring, a writer who contributes three articles on Marco Polo to
the _Neue Züricher-Zeitung_, 5th, 6th, 8th April, 1878, says: “I
heard related in Egypt a report which Marco Polo had transmitted
to Baghdad. I will give it here in connection with another which I
also came across in Egypt.
“‘Many years ago there reigned in Babylon, on the Nile, a haughty
Khalif who vexed the Christians with taxes and corvées. He was
confirmed in his hate of the Christians by the Khakam Chacham
Bashi or Chief Rabbi of the Jews, who one day said to him: “The
Christians allege in their books that it shall not hurt them to
drink or eat any deadly thing. So I have prepared a potion that
one of them shall taste at my hand: if he does not die on the spot
then call me no more Chacham Bashi!” The Khalif immediately sent
for His Holiness the Patriarch of Babylon, and ordered him to drink
up the potion. The Patriarch just blew a little over the cup and
then emptied it at a draught, and took no harm. His Holiness then
on his side demanded that the Chacham Bashi should quaff a cup to
the health of the Khalif, which he (the Patriarch) should first
taste, and this the Khalif found only fair and right. But hardly
had the Chacham Bashi put the cup to his lips than he fell down
and expired.’ Still the Musulmans and Jews thirsted for Christian
blood. It happened at that time that a mass of the hill Mokattani
became loose and threatened to come down upon Babylon. This was
laid to the door of the Christians, and they were ordered to stop
it. The Patriarch in great distress has a vision that tells him
summon the saintly cobbler (of whom the same story is told as
here)—the cobbler bids the rock to stand still and it does so to
this day. ‘These two stories may still be heard in Cairo’—from
whom is not said. The hill that threatened to fall on the Egyptian
Babylon is called in Turkish _Dur Dagh_, ‘Stay, or halt-hill.’
(_L.c._ April, 1878.)”—_MS. Note_, H. Y.