And therefore I will not
spare for them, that know not ne believe not but that that they
see, for to tell you a part of him and of his estate that he
holdeth, when he goeth from country to country, and when he maketh
solemn feasts.
CHAPTER XXIV
WHEREFORE HE IS CLEPT THE GREAT CHAN. OF THE STYLE OF HIS LETTERS,
AND OF THE SUPERSCRIPTION ABOUT HIS GREAT SEAL AND HIS PRIVY SEAL
FIRST I shall say you why he was clept the great Chan.
Ye shall understand, that all the world was destroyed by Noah's
flood, save only Noah and his wife and his children. Noah had
three sons, Shem, Cham, and Japhet. This Cham was he that saw his
father's privy members naked when he slept, and scorned them, and
shewed them with his finger to his brethren in scorning wise. And
therefore he was cursed of God. And Japhet turned his face away
and covered them.
These three brethren had seisin in all the land. And this Cham,
for his cruelty, took the greater and the best part, toward the
east, that is clept Asia, and Shem took Africa, and Japhet took
Europe. And therefore is all the earth parted in these three parts
by these three brethren. Cham was the greatest and the most
mighty, and of him came more generations than of the other.
