And if there do, anon the rocks of the adamants
draw them to them, that never they may go thence. I myself have
seen afar in that sea, as though it had been a great isle full of
tree, and buscaylle, full of thorns and briars, great plenty. And
the shipmen told us, that all that was of ships that were drawn
thither by the adamants, for the iron that was in them. And of the
rotten-ness, and other thing that was within the ships, grew such
buscaylle, and thorns and briars and green grass, and such manner
of thing; and of the masts and the sail-yards; it seemed a great
wood or a grove. And such rocks be in many places thereabout. And
therefore dare not the merchants pass there, but if they know well
the passages, or else that they have good lodesmen.
And also they dread the long way. And therefore they go to Cathay,
for it is more nigh. And yet it is not so nigh, but that men must
be travelling by sea and land, eleven months or twelve, from Genoa
or from Venice, or he come to Cathay. And yet is the land of
Prester John more far by many dreadful journeys.
And the merchants pass by the kingdom of Persia, and go to a city
that is Clept Hermes, for Hermes the philosopher founded it. And
after that they pass an arm of the sea, and then they go to another
city that is clept Golbache. And there they find merchandises, and
of popinjays, as great plenty as men find here of geese. And if
they will pass further, they may go sikerly enough. In that
country is but little wheat or barley, and therefore they eat rice
and honey and milk and cheese and fruit.
This Emperor Prester John taketh always to his wife the daughter of
the great Chan; and the great Chan also, in the same wise, the
daughter of Prester John. For these two be the greatest lords
under the firmament.
In the land of Prester John be many diverse things and many
precious stones, so great and so large, that men make of them
vessels, as platters, dishes and cups. And many other marvels be
there, that it were too cumbrous and too long to put it in
scripture of books; but of the principal isles and of his estate
and of his law, I shall tell you some part.
This Emperor Prester John is Christian, and a great part of his
country also. But yet, they have not all the articles of our faith
as we have. They believe well in the Father, in the Son and in the
Holy Ghost. And they be full devout and right true one to another.
And they set not by no barretts, ne by cautels, nor of no deceits.
And he hath under him seventy-two provinces, and in every province
is a king. And these kings have kings under them, and all be
tributaries to Prester John. And he hath in his lordships many
great marvels.
For in his country is the sea that men clepe the Gravelly Sea, that
is all gravel and sand, without any drop of water, and it ebbeth
and floweth in great waves as other seas do, and it is never still
ne in peace, in no manner season. And no man may pass that sea by
navy, ne by no manner of craft, and therefore may no man know what
land is beyond that sea. And albeit that it have no water, yet men
find therein and on the banks full good fish of other manner of
kind and shape, than men find in any other sea, and they be of
right good taste and delicious to man's meat.
And a three journeys long from that sea be great mountains, out of
the which goeth out a great flood that cometh out of Paradise. And
it is full of precious stones, without any drop of water, and it
runneth through the desert on that one side, so that it maketh the
sea gravelly; and it beareth into that sea, and there it endeth.
And that flome runneth, also, three days in the week and bringeth
with him great stones and the rocks also therewith, and that great
plenty. And anon, as they be entered into the Gravelly Sea, they
be seen no more, but lost for evermore. And in those three days
that that river runneth, no man dare enter into it; but in the
other days men dare enter well enough.
Also beyond that flome, more upward to the deserts, is a great
plain all gravelly, between the mountains. And in that plain,
every day at the sun-rising, begin to grow small trees, and they
grow till mid-day, bearing fruit; but no man dare take of that
fruit, for it is a thing of faerie. And after mid-day, they
decrease and enter again into the earth, so that at the going down
of the sun they appear no more. And so they do, every day. And
that is a great marvel.
In that desert be many wild men, that be hideous to look on; for
they be horned, and they speak nought, but they grunt, as pigs.
And there is also great plenty of wild hounds. And there be many
popinjays, that they clepe psittakes their language. And they
speak of their proper nature, and salute men that go through the
deserts, and speak to them as apertly as though it were a man. And
they that speak well have a large tongue, and have five toes upon a
foot. And there be also of another manner, that have but three
toes upon a foot, and they speak not, or but little, for they can
not but cry.
