And Also Our Lord Saith In The
Gospel, ALIAS OVES HABEO, QUE NON SUNT EX HOC OVILI, That Is To
Say, That He Had Other Servants Than Those That Be Under Christian
Law.
And to that accordeth the avision that Saint Peter saw at
Jaffa, how the angel came from heaven, and brought before him
diverse beasts, as serpents and other creeping beasts of the earth,
and of other also, great plenty, and bade him take and eat.
And
Saint Peter answered; I eat never, quoth he, of unclean beasts.
And then said the angel, NON DICAS IMMUNDA, QUE DEUS MUNDAVIT. And
that was in token that no man should have in despite none earthly
man for their diverse laws, for we know not whom God loveth, ne
whom God hateth. And for that example, when men say, DE PROFUNDIS,
they say it in common and in general, with the Christian, PRO
ANIMABUS OMNIUM DEFUNCTORUM, PRO QUIBUS SIT ORANDUM.
And therefore say I of this folk, that be so true and so faithful,
that God loveth them. For he hath amongst them many of the
prophets, and alway hath had. And in those isles, they prophesied
the Incarnation of Lord Jesu Christ, how he should be born of a
maiden, three thousand year or more or our Lord was born of the
Virgin Mary. And they believe well it, the Incarnation, and that
full perfectly, but they know not the manner, how he suffered his
passion and death for us.
And beyond these isles there is another isle that is clept Pytan.
The folk of that country ne till not, ne labour not the earth, for
they eat no manner thing. And they be of good colour and of fair
shape, after their greatness. But the small be as dwarfs, but not
so little as be the Pigmies. These men live by the smell of wild
apples. And when they go any far way, they bear the apples with
them; for if they had lost the savour of the apples, they should
die anon. They ne be not full reasonable, but they be simple and
bestial.
After that is another isle, where the folk be all skinned rough
hair, as a rough beast, save only the face and the palm of the
hand. These folk go as well under the water of the sea, as they do
above the land all dry. And they eat both flesh and fish all raw.
In this isle is a great river that is well a two mile and an half
of breadth that is clept Beaumare.
And from that river a fifteen journeys in length, going by the
deserts of the tother side of the river - whoso might go it, for I
was not there, but it was told us of them of the country, that
within those deserts were the trees of the sun and of the moon,
that spake to King Alexander, and warned him of his death. And men
say that the folk that keep those trees, and eat of the fruit and
of the balm that groweth there, live well four hundred year or five
hundred year, by virtue of the fruit and of the balm.
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