[1:] Or Giants from the Arabic askhaf, a tall, big-boned man. It will be remembered that Sir Bevis of Southampton brought home a Giant Ascapart—who probably was one of them.
[2:] Unless.
[3:] They value not.
[4:] Have.
[5:] A turban.
CAP. XIIII.
As men are passed this wyldernesse againe comming to Hierusalem.
AND when men are passed this wyldernesse towarde Hierusalem they come to Barsabe[1] that was sometime a fayre and a lykyng towne of Christen men, and yet is some of their churches, and in that towne dwelled Abraham the Patryarke. This towne of Barsabe founded Uryas wife, of whom David engendred Salomon the wyse that was Kyng of Hierusalem, and of the xii kindes[2] of Israell, and he raigned xl yeare. And from thence go men to the vale of Ebron, that is from thence nere xii myle and some call it the vale of Mambre,[3] and also it is called the vale of Teeres, for as much as Adam in that vale he wept a hundred yeare the death of his sonne Abel that Cayne slew. And Ebron was sometime[4] the principall Citie of the Philistines & there dwelled giaunts & there it was so free, that all that had done evill in other places were there saved. In Ebron Josue and[5] Calope and theyr felowship came fyrst to espy how they might wynne the lande of promyssion. In Ebron David raigned fyrst vii yeare and a halfe & in Hierusalem he raigned xxxii[6] yeare and a halfe, and there be the graves of the Patryarkes—Adam, Abraham, Jacob and theyr wyves, Eve, Sare, Rebecca[7] and they are in the hanging[8] in the hyll. And under them is a right fayre Churche Kirnelde[9] after the facion and maner as it were a Castell, the which the Sarasins keepe right well, and they haue that place in greate worship for the holy Patryarkes that lieth there, and they suffer no Christen men ne Jewes to come therein but they have speciall grace of the Soudan, for they holde Christen men and Jewes but as houndes that should come in no holy place, and they call the place Spelunke[10] or double cave or double grave; for one lyeth on another, and the Sarasins call it in theyr language Caryatharba, that is to say the place of Patryarkes, and the Jewes call it Arboth. And in that same place was Abrahams house, and that was the same Abraham which sat in his dore, and saw three persons and worshipped but one, as holy wryt witnesseth saying, Tres videt et unum adoravit. That is to saye, he saw three and worshipped but one, and him took Abraham into his house.
[1:] Beersheba.
[2:] Tribes.
[3:] Mamre.
[4:] Formerly.
[5:] Jehoshua and Caleb (see Numbers, cap. 13).
[6:] Pynson and others say 33 years and a half.
[7:] All other editions have "and of Lya," or Leah, who is evidently here forgotten.
[8:] Caves cut in the side of the rock.
[9:] Crenelated or battlemented.
[10:] Lat. Spelunca, a cave.
CAP. XV.
Here foloweth a lyttle of Adam & Eve and other things.
AND right nere to that place is a cave in a Roche where Adam and Eve dwelled whan they were dryven out of Paradyse, and there got they theyr chyldren. And in that place was Adam made as some men saye, for men called sometime that place the felde of Damasse,[1] for it was in the worshippe[2] of Damasse; and fro thence he was translated into Paradyse as they saye, and afterwarde he was driven out of Paradyse, and put there agayne, for the same daye that he was put into Paradyse, the same day he was driven out, for so soone he synned. And there begynneth the yle[3] of Ebron that lasteth nere to Hierusalem, and the Aungell bad Adam that he should dwell wyth his wyfe, and there they engendred Seth, of the which kyndred[4] Jesu Christ was borne. And in that vale is the felde where men draw out of the earth a thinge the which men in that countrey call Chambell and they eate that thinge in the stede of spyce & they beare it to sell, and men may not grave[5] there so deepe ne so wyde, but it is at the yeares ende full againe up to the sydes through the grace of God. And two myle from Ebron is the grave of Loth[6] that was Abraham's brother.