Note 444 — BOOK IV. (continued 2)

Fulcher relates, with great coolness, that he saw the bodies of the Turks, who were slain at Cæsarea, piled up and burned, in order to obtain the bezants which they had swallowed. Hist. Hierosol. ap. Du Chesne, tom. iv. 845. This practice of swallowing money is referred to by pope Urban, and, by his account, the merely burning dead bodies to obtain the hoard was a very humble imitation of the Saracen custom, with respect to those who visited Jerusalem before the crusades; which was to put scammony in their drink to make them vomit, and if this did not produce the desired effect, they proceeded to immediate incision! Guibert Abbas. Opera, p. 379.