NOW come we againe for to know the way from Constantinople. He that will go through Turkey, he goeth through the citie of Nyke,[1] and passeth through the gate of Chivitot that is right highe, and it is a myle and a halfe from Nyke, and who so wyll go by the brache[2] of Sainct George, and by the Greeke sea there as Sainct Nicolas lyeth, and other places. First men come to the yle of Silo, and in that ile groweth mastike upon small trees as plomtrees, or chery trees. And then after men go through the ile of Pathmos, where Saint John the Evangelist wrote the Apocalips and I do you to wete,[3] when our Lorde Jesu Christ died, Saint John the Evangelist was of the age of xxxii yeare and he lived after the passion of Christ lxiii[4] year and then died. Fro Pathmos men go to Ephesim which is a faire citie and neare to the sea, and there died sainct John & he was buried behind the high aulter in a tombe, and there is a fayre church, for Christen men were wont to holde that place, but in the tombe of sainct John is nothing but Manna, for his body was translated[5] into paradise, & the Turkes hold now that citie and the church, and all Asia the lesse, & therefore is Asia the lesse called Turkey. And ye shall understand that sainct John did make his grave ther in his lyfe and laied himselfe therein all quick[6] & therefore some say he dyed not, but that he resteth there unto the day of judgement, and therefore truely there is a great marvaile, for men may see there apertly[7] ye earth of the tombe many times stirre and move, as there were a quick thing under. And from Ephesim, men go through many iles in the sea unto the citie of Pateran[8] where sainct Nicolas was borne and so to Marca[9] where he by the grace of God was chosen Bishop, and there groweth right good wyne and strong, that men call the wyne of Marca. From thence men go to the yle of Crete, which the Emperor gave sometime to Jonais.[10] And then men passe through the yles of Cophos and Lango[11] of the which yles Ipocras[12] was lord, and some say that in the yle of Lango is Ipocras daughter in maner of a Dragon, which is a hundred foote long as men saye, for I have not seene it, and they of the yles call hir the lady of the countrey, and she lyeth in an olde castell and sheweth hir thrise in the yeare, and she doth no man harme and she is thus changed from a damosell to a dragon through a goddesse that men call Diana, and men say that she shall dwell so unto the tyme that a knighte come that is so hardy as to go to hir and kisse hir mouthe, and then shall she tourne againe to hir owne kinde, and be a woman, and after that she shall not live long. And it is not long sith[13] a knight of the Rodes[14] that was hardy and valiant said that he would kisse hir, and whan the Dragon began to lifte up hir head againste him, and he saw it was so hideous, he fled awaye, and the Dragon in hir anger bare the knight on a roche, and of[15] that cast him into the sea and so he was lost.
[1:] ? Salonika.
[2:] See foot note, ante, p. 19.
[3:] Know.
[4:] Pynson says 67.
[5:] Taken up to heaven.
[6:] Living, alive.
[7:] Openly.
[8:] Patera, a city of Lycia.
[9:] Myra, also in Lycia.
[10:] The Genoese.
[11:] The island of Cos.
[12:] Hippocrates, the famous physician, who was born at Cos.
[13:] Since.
[14:] The island of Rhodes.
[15:] Off.
CAP: IIII.
Yet of the same Dragon.
ALSO a young man that wist not of the Dragon, went out of a shippe and went through the yle till he came to a Castell, and came into the cave and went so long till he founde a chamber, and there he saw a damosell that kemde[1] hir heade & loked in a mirrour, and she had much treasure aboute hir, and he trowed[2] she had been a common woman that dwelled ther to kepe men, and he abode[3] the damosel, and the damosel saw the shadowe of him in the mirrour, & she tourned toward him and asked what he would, and he said he would be hir paramoure or lemman,[4] and she asked him if he were a knight, and he sayd nay, and she sayd then might he not be hir lemman, but she bad him go againe to his fellowes and make him knighte and come againe on the morow and she woulde come oute of the cave and then hee shoulde kisse hir on the mouth, and she badde him haue no dread, for she would do him no harme, although she semed hidious to him, she sayd it was done by inchauntment, for she sayd that she was such as he saw hir then, and she sayd that if he kissed hir, he should haue all the treasure, and be hir lord, and lord of all those yles. Then he departed from hir and went to his fellowes in the ship, and made him knight, and came againe on the morow to kisse the damosel, and when he saw hir come out of the cave in forme of a dragon, he had so great dread, that he fled to the ship, and she folowed him, and when she saw that he tourned not againe, she began to crye as a thing that had much sorow, and tourned again, and sone after the knight dyed, and sithen[5] hetherto might no knight see hir but he died anon. But when a knight commeth that is so hardy to kisse hir, he shall not dye, but he shall tourne that damosel into hir right shape and shal be lord of the countrey aforsayde. And from thence men go to the yle of Rodes, the which the hospitallers held and governed, and that they took sometime from the Emperour, and it was wont to be called Colles[6] and so yet the Turkes call it Colles. And sainct Paule in his Epistels writeth to them of the yle Collocenses.[7] This yle is nere CLxxx[8] myle from Constantinople. And from this yle of Rodes, men go into Cipres where are many vines, the first is red and after a yeare they war all white, and those vines that are most white, are most cleare and best smelling, And as men passe by the way by a place where was wont to be a great citie that men call Sathalay, and all that countrey was lost through the folly of a young man, for he had a faire damosell that he loved well, and she dyed sodenly & was buried in a grave of Marble & for the great love he hadde to hir, he went in a nighte to hir tombe and opened it, & went and lay by hir and when he had done he went away, & when it came to the ende of ix monthes a voice came to him & sayd in this maner as in the next chapter foloweth.
[1:] Kemped or combed.
[2:] Thought.
[3:] Pynson says "obeyed unto the damsell"—that is, made obeisance, or bowed to her.
[4:] Sweetheart.
[5:] Since then.
[6:] From the Colossus there, a statue of Jupiter 70 cubits high, and which was accounted as one of the wonders of the world.
[7:] This is not so. The Epistle to the Colossians was addressed to the inhabitants of Colossæ, a city in Phrygia—which is clearly shown by his referring in cap. 4, v. 13, to two neighbouring cities. "For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis."
[8:] Pynson and others say 800.
