Of This Venom
The Jews Had Let Seek Of One Of Their Friends For To Empoison All
Christianity, As I Have Heard Them Say In Their Confession Before
Their Dying:
But thanked be Almighty God!
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. And therefore, they that know the manner, and shall fight
with them, they shoot to them arrows and quarrels without iron or
steel, and so they hurt them and slay them. And also of those
canes they make houses and ships and other things, as we have here,
making houses and ships of oak or of any other trees. And deem no
man that I say it but for a trifle, for I have seen of the canes
with mine own eyes, full many times, lying upon the river of that
lake, of the which twenty of our fellows ne might not lift up ne
bear one to the earth.
After this isle men go by sea to another isle that is clept
Calonak. And it is a fair land and a plenteous of goods. And the
king of that country hath as many wives as he will. For he maketh
search all the country to get him the fairest maidens that may be
found, and maketh them to be brought before him. And he taketh one
one night, and another another night, and so forth continually
suing; so that he hath a thousand wives or more. And he lieth
never but one night with one of them, and another night with
another; but if that one happen to be more lusty to his pleasance
than another. And therefore the king getteth full many children,
some-time an hundred, some-time a two-hundred, and some-time more.
And he hath also into a 14,000 elephants or more that he maketh for
to be brought up amongst his villains by all his towns. For in
case that he had any war against any other king about him, then
[he] maketh certain men of arms for to go up into the castles of
tree made for the war, that craftily be set upon the elephants'
backs, for to fight against their enemies. And so do other kings
there-about. For the manner of war is not there as it is here or
in other countries, ne the ordinance of war neither. And men clepe
the elephants WARKES.
And in that isle there is a great marvel, more to speak of than in
any other part of the world. For all manner of fishes, that be
there in the sea about them, come once in the year - each manner of
diverse fishes, one manner of kind after other. And they cast
themselves to the sea bank of that isle so great plenty and
multitude, that no man may unnethe see but fish. And there they
abide three days. And every man of the country taketh of them as
many as him liketh. And after, that manner of fish after the third
day departeth and goeth into the sea. And after them come another
multitude of fish of another kind and do in the same manner as the
first did, other three days. And after them another, till all the
diverse manner of fishes have been there, and that men have taken
of them that them liketh. And no man knoweth the cause wherefore
it may be. But they of the country say that it is for to do
reverence to their king, that is the most worthy king that is in
the world as they say; because that he fulfilleth the commandment
that God bade to Adam and Eve, when God said, CRESCITE ET
MULTIPLICAMINI ET REPLETE TERRAM. And for because that he
multiplieth so the world with children, therefore God sendeth him
so the fishes of diverse kinds of all that be in the sea, to take
at his will for him and all his people. And therefore all the
fishes of the sea come to make him homage as the most noble and
excellent king of the world, and that is best beloved with God, as
they say. I know not the reason, why it is, but God knoweth; but
this, me-seemeth, is the most marvel I saw. For this marvel is
against kind and not with kind, that the fishes that have freedom
to environ all the coasts of the sea at their own list, come of
their own will to proffer them to the death, without constraining
of man.
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