And Men Cut The Branches With A Sharp
Flintstone, Or With A Sharp Bone, When Men Will Go To Cut Them; For
Whoso Cut Them With Iron, It Would Destroy His Virtue And His
Nature.
And the Saracens crepe the wood ENONCH-BALSE, and the fruit, the
which is as cubebs, they clepe ABEBISSAM, and the liquor that
droppeth from the branches they clepe GUYBALSE.
And men make
always that balm to be tilled of the Christian men, or else it
would not fructify; as the Saracens say themselves, for it hath
been often-time proved. Men say also, that the balm groweth in Ind
the more, in that desert where Alexander spake to the trees of the
sun and of the moon, but I have not seen it; for I have not been so
far above upward, because that there be too many perilous passages.
And wit ye well, that a man ought to take good keep for to buy
balm, but if he con know it right well, for he may right lightly be
deceived. For men sell a gum, that men clepe turpentine, instead
of balm, and they put thereto a little balm for to give good odour.
And some put wax in oil of the wood of the fruit of balm, and say
that it is balm. And some distil cloves of gilofre and of
spikenard of Spain and of other spices, that be well smelling; and
the liquor that goeth out thereof they clepe it balm, and they
think that they have balm, and they have none. For the Saracens
counterfeit it by subtlety of craft for to deceive the Christian
men, as I have seen full many a time; and after them the merchants
and the apothecaries counterfeit it eft sones, and then it is less
worth, and a great deal worse.
But if it like you, I shall shew how ye shall know and prove, to
the end that ye shall not be deceived. First ye shall well know,
that the natural balm is full clear, and of citron colour and
strongly smelling; and if it be thick, or red or black, it is
sophisticate, that is to say, counterfeited and made like it for
deceit. And understand, that if ye will put a little balm in the
palm of your hand against the sun, if it be fine and good, ye ne
shall not suffer your hand against the heat of the sun. Also take
a little balm with the point of a knife, and touch it to the fire,
and if it burn it is a good sign. After take also a drop of balm,
and put it into a dish, or in a cup with milk of a goat, and if it
be natural balm anon it will take and beclippe the milk. Or put a
drop of balm in clear water in a cup of silver or in a clear basin,
stir it well with the clear water; and if the balm be fine and of
his own kind, the water shall never trouble; and if the balm be
sophisticate, that is to say counterfeited, the water shall become
anon trouble; and also if the balm be fine it shall fall to the
bottom of the vessel, as though it were quicksilver, for the fine
balm is more heavy twice than is the balm that is sophisticate and
counterfeited. Now I have spoken of balm.
And now also I shall speak of another thing that is beyond Babylon,
above the flood of the Nile, toward the desert between Africa and
Egypt; that is to say, of the garners of Joseph, that he let make
for to keep the grains for the peril of the dear years. And they
be made of stone, full well made of masons' craft; of the which two
be marvellously great and high, and the tother ne be not so great.
And every garner hath a gate for to enter within, a little high
from the earth; for the land is wasted and fallen since the garners
were made. And within they be all full of serpents. And above the
garners without be many scriptures of diverse languages. And some
men say, that they be sepultures of great lords, that were
sometime, but that is not true, for all the common rumour and
speech is of all the people there, both far and near, that they be
the garners of Joseph; and so find they in their scriptures, and in
their chronicles. On the other part, if they were sepultures, they
should not be void within, ne they should have no gates for to
enter within; for ye may well know, that tombs and sepultures be
not made of such greatness, nor of such highness; wherefore it is
not to believe, that they be tombs or sepultures.
In Egypt also there be diverse languages and diverse letters, and
of other manner and condition than there be in other parts. As I
shall devise you, such as they be, and the names how they clepe
them, to such intent, that ye may know the difference of them and
of others, - Athoimis, Bimchi, Chinok, Duram, Eni, Fin, Gomor,
Heket, Janny, Karacta, Luzanin, Miche, Naryn, Oldach, Pilon, Qyn,
Yron, Sichen, Thola, Urmron, Yph and Zarm, Thoit.
CHAPTER VIII
OF THE ISLE OF SICILY; OF THE WAY FROM BABYLON TO THE MOUNT SINAI;
OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT KATHERINE AND OF ALL THE MARVELS THERE
NOW will I return again, ere I proceed any further, for to declare
to you the other ways, that draw toward Babylon, where the sultan
himself dwelleth, that is at the entry of Egypt; for as much as
many folk go thither first and after that to the Mount Sinai, and
after return to Jerusalem, as I have said you here before. For
they fulfil first the more long pilgrimage, and after return again
by the next ways, because that the more nigh way is the more
worthy, and that is Jerusalem; for no other pilgrimage is not like
in comparison to it.
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