In That Land Grow Trees That Bear Meal,
Whereof Men Make Good Bread And White And Of Good Savour; And
It
seemeth as it were of wheat, but it is not allinges of such savour.
And there be other trees
That bear honey good and sweet, and other
trees that bear venom, against the which there is no medicine but
[one]; and that is to take their proper leaves and stamp them and
temper them with water and then drink it, and else he shall die;
for triacle will not avail, ne none other medicine. 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.
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