In that isle be
many lions and many other wild beasts. And there be rats in that
isle as great as hounds here; and men take them with great
mastiffs, for cats may not take them. In this isle and many other
men bury not no dead men, for the heat is there so great, that in a
little time the flesh will consume from the bones.
From thence men go by sea toward Ind the more to a city, that men
clepe Sarche, that is a fair city and a good. And there dwell many
Christian men of good faith. And there be many religious men, and
namely of mendicants.
After go men by sea to the land of Lomb. In that land groweth the
pepper in the forest that men clepe Combar. And it groweth nowhere
else in all the world, but in that forest, and that endureth well
an eighteen journeys in length. In the forest be two good cities;
that one hight Fladrine and that other Zinglantz, and in every of
them dwell Christian men and Jews, great plenty. For it is a good
country and a plentiful, but there is overmuch passing heat.
And ye shall understand, that the pepper groweth in manner as doth
a wild vine that is planted fast by the trees of that wood for to
sustain it by, as doth the vine.
