THE BOOK OF SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. THE PROLOGUE.1 FORASMUCH as the land be yond the sea, that is to say, the Holy Land, which men call the land of promise or of behest, passing all other lands, is the most worthy land, most excellent, and lady and sovereign of all other lands, and is blessed and hallowed of the precious body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; in the which land it pleased him to take flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, to environ that Holy Land with his blessed feet; and there he would of his blessedness shadow him in the said blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, and become man, and work many miracles, and preach and teach the faith, and the law of Christian men unto his children; and then it pleased him to suffer many reprovings and scorns for us; and he that was King of heaven, of air, of earth, of sea, and of all things that be contained in them, would only be called King of that land when he said, I am King of the Jews; and that land he chose before all other lands, as the best and most worthy land, and the most virtuous land of all the world: for it is the heart and middle of all the world; witnessing the philosopher that saith thus: the virtue of things is in the middle; and in that land he would lead his life and suffer passion and death of Jews for us; for to buy and deliver us from pains of hell, and from death without end; the which was ordained for us, for the sin of our former father Adam, and for our own sins also: for as for himself he had deserved no evil. For he thought never evil, nor did evil : and he that was King of glory and of joy might best in that place suffer death, because he chose in that land, rather than in any other, there to suffer his passion and his death: for he that will publish anything to make it openly known, he will make it to be cried and proclaimed in the middle place of a 1 The space at our disposal here, and the fabulous nature of much of the narrative, has led to a re-arrangement and some considerable abridgments, while it is believed all the more Yenerally interesting, scientific, or historical parts have been retained. 42 town, so that the thing that is pro- | believe confidently that, within Wherefore every good Christian man, that is of power, and hath whereof, should labour with all his strength to conquer our right heritage, and drive out all the unbelieving men. For we are called Christian men after Christ our Father. And if we be right children of Christ, we ought to claim the heritage that our Father left us, and take it out of heathen men's hands. But now, pride, covetousness, and envy have so inflamed the hearts of worldly lords, that they are busier to disinherit their neighbours, than to claim or conquer their right heritage aforesaid. And the common people that would put their bodies and their goods to conquer our heritage, may do it without the lords. For an assembly of people without a chieftain, or a chief lord, is as a flock of sheep without a shepherd, the which departeth and disperseth, and know never a little time, our right heritage aforesaid should be recovered and put in the hands of the right heirs of Jesus Christ. And forasmuch as it is long time past that there was no general passage or voyage over the sea, and many men desiring to hear speak of the Holy Land, and have thereof great solace and comfort, I, John Mandeville, knight, albeit I be not worthy, who was born in England, in the town of Saint Albans, passed the sea in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1322, on the day of St. Michael; and hitherto have been a long time over the sea, and have seen and gone through many divers lands, and many provinces and kingdoms, and isles, and have passed through Tartary, Persia, Armenia, the little and the great; through Libya, Chaldea, and a great part of Ethiopia, through Amazonia, India the Less, and the Greater, a great part, and throughout many other isles that are about India, where dwell many divers folks, and of divers manners and laws, and of divers shapes of men. CHAPTER I. whither to go. But would God The way out of England to Constantinople— that the temporal lords and all worldly lords were at good accord, and with the common people would take this holy voyage over the sea! Then I Cross and Crown of our Lord Jesus Christ-The daughter of Ypocras transformed from a woman to a dragon. IN the name of God, glorious and Almighty. He that will pass wer me a note om many es cr he that Tensa.em. Tay my bear a branch thereof no munder pest may hurt ner n the house in which it S We are also told that the Codes & Anne, our Lady's machen St. Chrysostom, and St Lake Ee at Constan me and if Panama mt x Slem A Consumarone iruery called yamanum. there & the forest and nociestogie The palace of the Chata the word the of St emperor is described as very Sophia Before the church is handsome and well built, with the image of the Emperor Jus a fair place for joustings, or for tinian, who sits crowned upon other playsand sports, made with a horse. Formerly he held an stages, beneath which were the apple of gold in his hand; it emperor's stables, well vaulted, has now fallen off, says our tra- all the pillars being of marble. veller, a token that he hath lost a great part of his lands and lordships. This apple betokened the lordship he had over the world, which is round, and the other hand he lifts up towards the east, in token to menace the misdoers. Many wonderful relics are said to lie at Constantinople, such as the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, his coat without seams, and the sponge and the reed with which the Jews gave our Lord vinegar and gall on the cross; and one of the nails with which Christ was nail to the cross. This cross The Christians of the Greek Church say that the Holy Ghost may not come of the Son, but only of the Father. They do not acknowledge the authority of the Pope, and when Pope John XXII. sent letters to them, asking their obedience, they replied thus: We believe well that thy power is great upon thy subjects. We may not suffer thy great pride. We are not in purpose to fulfil thy great covetousness. The Lord be with thee, for our Lord is with us. Farewell.'] [Those who would go to Jeruribed salem through Turkey, go toood; wards the city of Nice and pass press, through the gate of Chienetout. e stock And if by water, by way of the lands of Sylo, Patmos; thence Ephesus, from Ephesus to he city of Patera on an island, by the isles of Colos and of Lango (Cos), Rhodes, and Cyte prus, and from Cyprus to the tehaven of Tyre.] Some men say that in the isle of Lango1 is still the daughter of Ypocras, in form and likeness of a great dragon, which is a hundred fathoms in length, as they say, for I have not seen her. And they of the isles call her lady of the land. And she lies in an old castle, in a cave, and appears twice or thrice in the year; and she doth no harm to any man unless he do her harm. She was thus changed and transformed from a fair damsel into the likeness of a dragon by a goddess named Diana; and they say that she shall remain in that form until the time that a knight come, who shall be so bold that he dare come to her and kiss her on the mouth; and then she shall turn again to her own nature, and be a woman again, but after that she shall not live long. And it is not long since a knight of Rhodes, who was bold and doughty in arms, said that he would kiss her; when he was upon his courser and went to the castle, and entered into the cave, the dragon lifted up her head towards him, and when the knight saw her in that form, so hideous and horrible, he fled away. But the dragon carried the knight upon a rock, and from thence she cast him into the sea, and so was lost both horse and man. A young man that knew not of the dragon, went out of a ship, and proceeded through the isle until he came to the castle and 1 Cos, where Hippocrates was born. entered the cave, and went so far that he found a chamber: and there he saw a damsel who was combing her head and looking in a mirror, and she had much treasure about her, and he believed that she had been a common woman, who dwelled there to receive men to folly; and he abode till the damsel saw the shadow of him in the mirror, and she turned her towards him and asked him what he would? And he said, he would be her paramour. And she asked him if he were a knight? And he said, nay. And then she said, that he might not be her leman; but she bid him go again unto his fellows and get him knighted, and come again upon the morrow, and she would come out of the cave before him; and then he should come and kiss her on the mouth, and have no fear, for I shall do thee no harm, although thou see me in likeness of a dragon; for though thou see me hideous and horrible to look upon, know that it is made by enchantment. For without doubt I am no other than thou seest now, a woman, and therefore fear not; and if thou kiss me, thou shalt have all this treasure, and be my lord, and lord also of all the isle.' And he departed from her and went to his fellows, in the ship, and was made a knight, and returned on the morrow to kiss this damsel. But when he saw her come out of the cave, in form of a dragon, so hideous and so horrible, he had so great fear that he fled again to the ship, and she followed him. And when she saw that he turned not again, she began to cry as a thing that had much sorrow, and then she returned to her cave; and anon the knight died. And from that time to this might no knight see her, but he died anon. But when there shall come a knight who is bold enough to kiss her, he shall not die; but he shall turn the damsel into her right form and natural shape, and he shall be lord of all the countries and isles abovesaid. [At Cyprus we are told there are many vines, which first produce red wine, and after one year they become white, and those wines that are most white are the clearest and best of smell.' In Cyprus, on the hill of the Holy Cross, an abbey of black monks pretended to have the cross of the good thief Dismas. Before Tyre we are told stood formerly the stone on which our Lord sat and preached, and over which was built the Church of St. Saviour. About the town of Jaffa, we have the following astonishing story: 'And you shall understand that it is one of the oldest towns of the world, for it was founded before Noah's flood. And there may still be seen in the rock there the place where the iron chains were fastened, wherewith Andromeda, a great giant, was bound and put in prison, before Noah's flood; a rib of whose | side, which is forty feet long, is still shown.' Those who go to the port of Tyre or Sur, might proceed by land to Jerusalem. It was one day's journey from Tyre to Acre, and from Akoun or Acre, four days' journey to Gaza, 'a gay and rich city; and it is very fair, and full of people, and is at a little distance from the sea.'. From thence we go to the city of Cesarea, and so to the castle of Pilgrims, and so to Ascalon, and then to Jaffa, and so to Jerusalem.] CHAPTER II. Of the many names of Sultans, and of the Tower of Babylon. HE who will go by land through the land of Babylonia, where the Sultan dwells commonly, he must get leave and grace of him to go more safely through the lands and countries. And after that they come out of Syria and enter a wilderness where the way is sandy; and that wilderness and desert lasts eight days. But men always find good inns and all they need of victuals. At Babylon there is a fair church of our Lady, where she dwelt seven years, when she fled out of the land of Judea for dread of King Herod. And there lieth the body of St. Barbara, the virgin and martyr. And there dwelt Joseph after he was sold by his brethren. The Sultan dwells in his Cala |