[146] Raymond d’Agiles, before relating this and several other similar facts, expresses himself thus:—Quod si quicquam ego præter credita et visa studeo referre, vel odio alicujus apposui, apponat mihi Deus omnes inferni plagas, et deleat me de libro vitæ. The same fact is reported in Raoul de Caen.
[147] Raoul de Caen, who was not a partisan of the lance, and who cries out, whilst speaking of this pretended discovery, “O fatuitas rustica! O rusticitas credula!” does not at all spare the Provençals, and has transmitted to us the reproaches made to them in the Christian army.
[148] Videns quid actum est, populus, calliditate verbosâ seductum se fatetur, errasse pœnitet.—Rad. Cad. cap. 109.
[149] Accounts of this event may be read in William of Tyre, Robert d’Aix, and above all in Raymond d’Agiles, who does not omit the least circumstance.
[150] The picture of the march and the impatience of the Christians is to be found in Tasso, in the same colours and almost the same circumstances as in the historians.
[151] We think it right here to give the account of Albert d’Aix:—Calamellos mellitas per camporum planiciem abundanter repertos, quas vocant ZUCRA, suxit populus, illarum salubri succo lætatus et vix ad saturitatem præ dulcedine expleri hoc gustato valebant. Hoc enim genus herbæ summo labore agricolarum, per singulos excolitur annos. Deinde, tempore messis maturum mortariolis indigenæ contundunt, succum collatum in vasis suis reponentes quousquè coagulatum indurescat sub specie nivis vel salis albi. Quem rasum cum pane miscentes aut cum aquâ terentes, pro pulmento sumunt, et supra favum mellis gustantibus dulce ac salubre videtur.... His ergo calamellis melliti saporis populus in obsidione Albariæ, Marræ et Archas, multum horrendâ fame vexatus, est refocillatus.—Alb. Aq. lib. v. cap. 3.
[152] Sanuti proposed to plant the sugar-cane in Sicily and Apulia. This idea was not carried into execution before the end of the fourteenth century. The sugar-cane did not pass, as has been said, from Sicily to America; it was transported to Madeira from the coast of Spain, whither it had been brought by the Saracens. The sugar-cane is still found in some parts of the kingdom of Grenada.
[153] I at first thought that these serpents could be only the dipsada, or fire-serpent. I communicated this opinion to M. Walckenaer, who with reason had seen nothing in the reptiles of which Albert d’Aix speaks, but the common gecko of Egypt ’Lacerta gecko of Linnæus), which Belon and Hasselquits have found in great numbers in Syria, Judea, and Egypt. This species is very venomous; it resembles other species of the same genus and of the genus stellion, which appear to be harmless, and are found in France, Italy, Sardinia, and on all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, where it is called tarente, tarenta, tarentola, &c. The opinion of M. Walckenaer appears the more reasonable, from the two species of serpents and vipers to which naturalists have given the name dipsada, the one, the Coluber dipsas of Linnæus, which is the dipsada, properly speaking, being only found in America; the other, the black viper, Coluber præster of Linnæus, appears peculiar to Europe, and is more common in the north than in the south. We may venture to quote the passage of Albert d’Aix in Latin, which speaks of the remedy advised by the inhabitants of the country against the bite of the tarenta:—Similiter et aliam edocti sunt medicinam, ut vir percussus sine morâ coiret cum muliere, cum viro mulier, et sic ab omni tumore veneni liberaretur uterque.—Alb. Aq. lib. iv. cap. 40. The same historian speaks of another remedy, which consisted in pressing strongly the place of the bite, to prevent the communication of the venom with the other parts of the system.
[154] It is Raymond d’Agiles alone who speaks of this strange deliberation of the leaders; if this historian had not been present, we could give no credit to it.—See Raym. d’Agiles, in the Collection of Bongars, p. 173. Albert d’Aix contents himself with saying that the leaders, after having traversed the territory of Ptolemaïs, deliberated whether they should not go to Damascus.
[155] Tasso has spoken of the enthusiasm of the Crusaders at the sight of Jerusalem. The historians of the crusades, Albert d’Aix, the author of the Gesta Francorum, Robert the Monk, Baldric or Baudry, and William of Tyre, present us with the same picture that Tasso does. We will content ourselves with quoting here a passage from the “History of Jerusalem and Hebron,” which proves that the sight of that city likewise awakens the enthusiasm of Mussulmans: “The coup d’œil of Jerusalem,” says this history, “is very fine, particularly when seen from the Mount of Olives. When the pilgrim arrives there, and sees the buildings nearer, his heart is filled with an inexpressible joy, and he easily forgets all the fatigues of his voyage.” Hafiz, the son of Hadjar, improvised on his arrival at Jerusalem four verses, of which this is the translation: “When we approached the holy city, the Lord showed us Jerusalem; we had suffered much during our voyage, but we believed ourselves then entering into heaven.” We have heard several modern travellers, of different manners, religions, and opinions, say that they all felt a lively emotion at seeing Jerusalem for the first time. See the beautiful description that M. de Chateaubriand has given of it in his Itinerary.