And So Is He Lord Both Temporal And Spiritual
In His Country.
And if ye will wit of their A.B.C. what letters they be, here ye
may see them, with the names that they clepe them there amongst
them:
Alpha, Betha, Gama, Deltha, e longe, e brevis, Epilmon,
Thetha, Iota, Kapda, Lapda, Mi, Ni, Xi, o brevis, Pi, Coph, Ro,
Summa, Tau, Vi, Fy, Chi, Psi, Othomega, Diacosyn.
And all be it that these things touch not to one way, nevertheless
they touch to that, that I have hight you, to shew you a part of
customs and manners, and diversities of countries. And for this is
the first country that is discordant in faith and in belief, and
varieth from our faith, on this half the sea, therefore I have set
it here, that ye may know the diversity that is between our faith
and theirs. For many men have great liking, to hear speak of
strange things of diverse countries.
CHAPTER IV
[Of the Way from Constantinople to Jerusalem.] Of Saint John the
Evangelist. And of the Ypocras Daughter, transformed from a Woman
to a Dragon
NOW return I again, for to teach you the way from Constantinople to
Jerusalem. He that will through Turkey, he goeth toward the city
of Nyke, and passeth through the gate of Chienetout, and always men
see before them the hill of Chienetout, that is right high; and it
is a mile and an half from Nyke.
And whoso will go by water, by the brace of St. George, and by the
sea where St. Nicholas lieth, and toward many other places - first
men go to an isle that is clept Sylo. In that isle groweth mastick
on small trees, and out of them cometh gum as it were of plum-trees
or of cherry-trees.
And after go men through the isle of Patmos; and there wrote St.
John the Evangelist the Apocalypse. And ye shall understand, that
St. John was of age thirty-two year, when our Lord suffered his
passion; and after his passion, he lived sixty-seven year, and in
the hundredth year of his age he died.
From Patmos men go unto Ephesus, a fair city and nigh to the sea.
And there died St. John, and was buried behind the high altar in a
tomb. And there is a fair church; for Christian men were wont to
holden that place always. And in the tomb of St. John is nought
but manna, that is clept angels' meat; for his body was translated
into Paradise. And Turks hold now all that place, and the city and
the church; and all Asia the less is y-clept Turkey. And ye shall
understand, that St. John let make his grave there in his life, and
laid himself therein all quick; and therefore some men say, that he
died not, but that he resteth there till the day of doom. And,
forsooth, there is a great marvel; for men may see there the earth
of the tomb apertly many times stir and move, as there were quick
things under.
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