And Beside The City Of Akon Runneth A Little
River, That Is Clept Belon.
And there nigh is the Foss of Mennon that is all round; and it is
one hundred cubits of largeness, and it is all full of gravel,
shining bright, of the which men make fair verres and clear.
And
men come from far, by water in ships, and by land with carts, for
to fetch of that gravel. And though there be never so much taken
away thereof in the day, at morrow it is as full again as ever it
was; and that is a great marvel. And there is evermore great wind
in that foss, that stirreth evermore the gravel, and maketh it
trouble. And if any man do therein any manner metal, it turneth
anon to glass. And the glass, that is made of that gravel, if it
be done again into the gravel, it turneth anon into gravel as it
was first. And therefore some men say, that it is a swallow of the
gravelly sea.
Also from Akon, above-said, go men forth four journeys to the city
of Palestine, that was of the Philistines, that now is clept Gaza,
that is a gay city and a rich; and it is right fair and full of
folk, and it is a little from the sea. And from this city brought
Samson the strong the gates upon an high land, when he was taken in
that city, and there he slew in a palace the king and himself, and
great number of the best of the Philistines, the which had put out
his eyen and shaved his head, and imprisoned him by treason of
Dalida his paramour. And therefore he made fall upon them a great
hall, when they were at meat.
And from thence go men to the city of Cesarea, and so to the Castle
of Pilgrims, and so to Ascalon; and then to Jaffa, and so to
Jerusalem.
And whoso will go by land through the land of Babylon, where the
soldan dwelleth commonly, he must get grace of him and leave to go
more siker through those lands and countries.
And for to go to the Mount of Sinai, before that men go to
Jerusalem, they shall go from Gaza to the Castle of Daire. And
after that, men come out of Syria, and enter into wilderness, and
there the way is full sandy; and that wilderness and desert lasteth
eight journeys, but always men find good inns, and all that they
need of victuals. And men clepe that wilderness Achelleke. And
when a man cometh out of that desert, he entereth into Egypt, that
men clepe Egypt-Canopac, and after other language, men clepe it
Morsyn. And there first men find a good town, that is clept
Belethe; and it is at the end of the kingdom of Aleppo. And from
thence men go to Babylon and to Cairo.
CHAPTER VI
OF MANY NAMES OF SOLDANS, AND OF THE TOWER OF BABYLON
AT Babylon there is a fair church of our Lady, where she dwelled
seven year, when she fled out of the land of Judea for dread of
King Herod.
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