The Monks Have Also Small Gardens, Covered Over In Winter,
Which Being Watered From The Hot Spring Are Effectually Defended From The
Extreme Cold And Snow, Which Are So Rigorous In This Region So Near The
Pole.
By these means they produce flowers, and fruits, and different kinds
of herbs, just as they grow in temperate
Climates; and the rude savages of
those parts, from seeing these to them supernatural effects, take the
friars for gods, and supply them with poultry, flesh[14], and various other
things, reverencing the monks as their lords and rulers. When the frost and
snow is considerable, the monks warm their apartments as before described,
and by admitting the hot water, or opening their windows, they are able in
an instant to produce such a temperature as they may require.
In the buildings of their monastery they use no more materials than are
presented to them by the before mentioned volcano. Taking the burning
stones which are thrown from the crater, they throw them, while hot, into
water, by which they are dissolved into excellent lime; which, when used in
building, lasts forever. The same stones, when cold, serve to make their
walls and vaults, as they cannot be broken or cut except with an iron
instrument. The vaults which they build with these stones are so light as
to require no props for supporting them[15]. On account of these great
conveniences, the monks have constructed so many walls and buildings of
different kinds, as is really wonderful to see.
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