They failed of their
purpose; but always they make great mortality of people.
And other
trees there be also that bear wine of noble sentiment. And if you
like to hear how the meal cometh out of the trees I shall say you.
Men hew the trees with an hatchet, all about the foot of the tree,
till that the bark be parted in many parts, and then cometh out
thereof a thick liquor, the which they receive in vessels, and dry
it at the heat of the sun; and then they have it to a mill to grind
and it becometh fair meal and white. And the honey and the wine
and the venom be drawn out of other trees in the same manner, and
put in vessels for to keep.
In that isle is a dead sea, that is a lake that hath no ground; and
if anything fall into that lake it shall never come up again. In
that lake grow reeds, that be canes, that they clepe Thaby, that be
thirty fathoms long; and of these canes men make fair houses. And
there be other canes that be not so long, that grow near the land
and have so long roots that endure well a four quarters of a
furlong or more; and at the knots of those roots men find precious
stones that have great virtues. And he that beareth any of them
upon him, iron ne steel may not hurt him, ne draw no blood upon
him; and therefore, they that have those stones upon them fight
full hardily both on sea and land, for men may not harm [them] on
no part.
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