From This Land Men Go To Another Isle That Is Clept Silha.
And it
is well a 800 miles about.
In that land is full much waste, for it
is full of serpents, of dragons and of cockodrills, that no man
dare dwell there. These cockodrills be serpents, yellow and rayed
above, and have four feet and short thighs, and great nails as
claws or talons. And there be some that have five fathoms in
length, and some of six and of eight and of ten. And when they go
by places that be gravelly, it seemeth as though men had drawn a
great tree through the gravelly place. And there be also many wild
beasts, and namely of elephants.
In that isle is a great mountain. And in mid place of the mount is
a great lake in a full fair plain; and there is great plenty of
water. And they of the country say, that Adam and Eve wept upon
that mount an hundred year, when they were driven out of Paradise,
and that water, they say, is of their tears; for so much water they
wept, that made the foresaid lake. And in the bottom of that lake
men find many precious stones and great pearls. In that lake grow
many reeds and great canes; and there within be many cocodrills and
serpents and great water-leeches. And the king of that country,
once every year, giveth leave to poor men to go into the lake to
gather them precious stones and pearls, by way of alms, for the
love of God that made Adam. And all the year men find enough. And
for the vermin that is within, they anoint their arms and their
thighs and legs with an ointment made of a thing that is clept
lemons, that is a manner of fruit like small pease; and then have
they no dread of no cockodrills, ne of none other venomous vermin.
This water runneth, flowing and ebbing, by a side of the mountain,
and in that river men find precious stones and pearls, great
plenty. And men of that isle say commonly, that the serpents and
the wild beasts of that country will not do no harm ne touch with
evil no strange man that entereth into that country, but only to
men that be born of the same country.
In that country and others thereabout there be wild geese that have
two heads. And there be lions, all white and as great as oxen, and
many other diverse beasts and fowls also that be not seen amongst
us.
And wit well, that in that country and in other isles thereabout,
the sea is so high, that it seemeth as though it hung at the
clouds, and that it would cover all the world. And that is great
marvel that it might be so, save only the will of God, that the air
sustaineth it. And therefore saith David in the Psalter, MIRABILES
ELATIONES MARIS.
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