In That Town Dwelled Abraham The Patriarch, A Long Time.
That Town Of Bersabe Founded Bersabe (Bathsheba), The Wife Of Sir
Uriah The Knight, On The Which King David Gat Solomen The Wise,
That Was King After David Upon The Twelve Kindreds Of Jerusalem And
Reigned Forty Year.
And from thence go men to the city of Hebron, that is the mountance
of twelve good mile.
And it was clept sometime the Vale of Mamre,
and some-time it was clept the Vale of Tears, because that Adam
wept there an hundred year for the death of Abel his son, that Cain
slew. Hebron was wont to be the principal city of the Philistines,
and there dwelled some time the giants. And that city was also
sacerdotal, that is to say, sanctuary of the tribe of Judah; and it
was so free, that men received there all manner of fugitives of
other places for their evil deeds. In Hebron Joshua, Caleb and
their company came first to aspy, how they might win the land of
Behest. In Hebron reigned first king David seven year and a half;
and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three year and a half.
And in Hebron be all the sepultures of the patriarchs, Adam,
Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob; and of their wives, Eve, Sarah and
Rebecca, and of Leah; the which sepultures the Saracens keep full
curiously, and have the place in great reverence for the holy
fathers, the patriarchs that lie there. And they suffer no
Christian man to enter into that place, but if it be of special
grace of the sultan; for they hold Christian men and Jews as dogs,
and they say, that they should not enter into so holy place. And
men clepe that place, where they lie, Double Spelunk, or Double
Cave, or Double Ditch, forasmuch as that one lieth above that
other. And the Saracens clepe that place in their language,
KARICARBA, that is to say, 'The Place of Patriarchs.' And the Jews
clepe that place ARBOTH. And in that same place was Abraham's
house, and there he sat and saw three persons, and worshipped but
one; as holy writ saith, TRES VIDIT ET UNUM ADORAVIT, that is to
say, 'He saw three and worshipped one': and of those same received
Abraham the angels into his house.
And right fast by that place is a cave in the rock, where Adam and
Eve dwelled when they were put out of Paradise; and there got they
their children. And in that same place was Adam formed and made,
after that some men say: (for men were wont for to clepe that
place the field of Damascus, because that it was in the lordship of
Damascus), and from thence was he translated into Paradise of
delights, as they say; and after that he was driven out of Paradise
he was there left. And the same day that he was put in Paradise,
the same day he was put out, for anon he sinned. There beginneth
the Vale of Hebron, that dureth nigh to Jerusalem. There the angel
commanded Adam that he should dwell with his wife Eve, of the which
he gat Seth; of which tribe, that is to say kindred, Jesu Christ
was born.
In that valley is a field, where men draw out of the earth a thing
that men clepe cambile, and they eat it instead of spices, and they
bear it to sell. And men may not make the hole or the cave, where
it is taken out of the earth, so deep or so wide, but that it is,
at the year's end, full again up to the sides, through the grace of
God.
And two mile from Hebron is the grave of Lot, that was Abraham's
brother.
And a little from Hebron is the mount of Mamre, of the which the
valley taketh his name. And there is a tree of oak, that the
Saracens clepe DIRPE, that is of Abraham's time: the which men
clepe the Dry Tree. And they say that it hath been there since the
beginning of the world, and was some-time green and bare leaves,
unto the time that our Lord died on the cross, and then it dried:
and so did all the trees that were then in the world. And some
say, by their prophecies, that a lord, a prince of the west side of
the world, shall win the Land of Promission that is the Holy Land
with help of Christian men, and he shall do sing a mass under that
dry tree; and then the tree shall wax green and bear both fruit and
leaves, and through that miracle many Saracens and Jews shall be
turned to Christian faith: and, therefore, they do great worship
thereto, and keep it full busily. And, albeit so, that it be dry,
natheles yet he beareth great virtue, for certainly he that hath a
little thereof upon him, it healeth him of the falling evil, and
his horse shall not be a-foundered: and many other virtues it
hath; wherefore men hold it full precious.
From Hebron men go to Bethlehem in half a day, for it is but five
mile; and it is full fair way, by plains and woods full delectable.
Bethlehem is a little city, long and narrow and well walled, and in
each side enclosed with good ditches: and it was wont to be clept
Ephrata, as holy writ saith, ECCE, AUDIVIMUS EUM IN EPHRATA, that
is to say, 'Lo, we heard him in Ephrata.' And toward the east end
of the city is a full fair church and a gracious, and it hath many
towers, pinacles and corners, full strong and curiously made; and
within that church be forty-four pillars of marble, great and fair.
And between the city and the church is the field FLORIDUS, that is
to say, the 'field flourished.' For as much as a fair maiden was
blamed with wrong, and slandered that she had done fornication; for
which cause she was demned to death, and to be burnt in that place,
to the which she was led.
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