IN an yle of Prester Johans land yt men call Miscorach, there was a rich man yt was called Catolonapes, he was ful rich & had a fair castel on a hil & strong, & he made a wal all about ye hill right strong & fayre, within he had a faire gardeine wherein were many trees bearing all maner of fruits yt he might find, & he had planted therein al maner of herbes of good smel and that bare flowers, & ther wer many faire wels, & by them was made many hals & chambers wel dight with gold & asure, & he had made there dyverse stories of beastes and birds yt song & turned by engin and orbage[1] as they had been quick,[2] & he had in his gardeine al thing that might be to man solace & comfort, he had also in that gardeine maydens within ye age of xv yeare, ye fairest yt he myght find, & men children of the same age, & they were clothed with clothes of gold, & he sayd that they were aungels and he caused to be made certain hils,[3] & enclosed them about with precious stones of Jaspy & christal & set in gold & pearls and other maner of stones, and he had made a coundute[4] under ye earth, so that when he wold ye walls[5] ran somtime with milke, somtime with wine, somtime honey, & this place is called Paradise & when any yong bacheler of ye countrey, knight or sqyer, cometh to him for solace and disport, he ledeth him into his paradise & sheweth them these things, as the songs of birds & his damosels and wels, & he did strike diverse Instruments of musyke, in a high tower that might be sene, and sayde they were the aungels of God, & that place was Paradise, that God hath graunted to those that beleved, when hee sayde thus, Dabo vobis terram fluentam lac & mel. That is to say, I shall giue you land flowing with mylk and hony. And then this rych man dyd[6] these men drinke a maner of drinke, of which they were dronken, & he said to them if they wold dye for his sake & when they were dead they shold come to his paradise, and they should be of the age of those maydens, and shold dwell alway with them, and he shold put them in a fayrer paradise where they shold se god in his joy, and in his majesty & then they graunted to do that he wold, and he bad them go and sleay such a lord, or a man of the countrey that he was wroth with, and that they should haue no dread of no man and if they were slaine themselfe for his sake, he shold put them in his paradise when they were dead. And so went those bachelers to sleay great lordes of the countrey, & were slaine themselfe in hope to haue that Paradise, and thus was he avenged of his enimies through his desert,[7] and when rich men of the countrey perceived this cautell[8] and malice and the will of this Catolonapes, they gathered them to gither & assayled the castel & slew hym & destroyed all his goods and his faire places and riches that were in his paradise, and the place of the wales[9] are there yet, and it is not long ago since it was destroyed.
[1:] This word is very puzzling. It seems to me that it probably means wheel work, from Lat. orbis, a circle; but Rd. Braithwaite, in his Arcadian Princesse, says: "In the lowest border of the garden, I might see a curious orbell, all of touch, wherein the Syracusan tyrants were no lesse artfully portrayed, than their severall cruelties to life displayed."
[2:] As if they had been alive.
[3:] Misprint for Wells.
[4:] Conduit.
[5:] Wells.
[6:] Made.
[7:] Deceit.
[8:] Ill intent, evil mind.
[9:] Wells.
CAP. XCI.
Of a marvelous vale that is beside the river of Physon.
AND a lyttle from that place, on the left syde besyde the river of Physon is a great marvaile. There is a vale betwene two hils, and that is foure myle longe, and some men call it the valay enchaunted, some ye valey of Divels, some the valey perylous,[1] and in that valey are many tempests & a great noyse very hydeous bothe day & night & sound as it were a noise of Taburines[2] of nakers[3] & of trumpets as it were a great feast. This valey is all full of devils, and hath ben alway, and men say thereby yt it is a enter[4] to hell. In this valey is muche golde & silver, wherefore many Christen men & other go thether for covetise of that golde and silver, but few of them come out againe, for they are anon strangled with divels. And in the middes of that vale on a roche is a visage, & the head of a fiend bodely, right hideous and dreadfull to see, and there is nothing sene but the head to ye shoulders, but there is no christen men in ye world nor other so hardy but yt he should be greatly afraide to beholde it, for he beholdeth eche man so sharply & felly[5] & his eyes are so staring & so sprinkling[6] as fyre & he chaungeth so often his countenaunce that no man dare come nere for all the worlde, and out of his mouth & his nose cometh great plenty of fyer of divers colours, & sometime is the fyer so stynking, that no man may suffer it, but alway a good christen man, and one that is stedfast in the fayth may go therein without harme, if they shrive them well and blesse them with the token of the crosse, then shall the divels haue no power over them. And ye shall understande that when my felowes & I were in that valey, we had full great dought[7] if we shold put our bodies in a venture to go through it, & some of my felows agreed therto, & some wold not, and there were in our company two friers minours of Lombardy & sayd if any of us wold go in, they wold also, as they had sayd so, and upon trust of them we sayd that we wold go, & we dyd sing a masse and were shriven & houseled,[8] and we went in xiiii men & when we came out we were but x[9] & we wist not whether our felowes were loste there, or that they turned againe, but we saw no more of them, others of our felowes that would not go in with us, went about another way for to be before us, and so they were. And we went through the valey and saw there many marvailous things, gold silver precious stones & jewels great plenty, as we thought, whether it were so or no, I know not, for divels are so subtill & false, that they make many times a thinge to seme yt is not, for to deceive men, and therefore I wold touch nothing for dread of enimies that I saw there in many likenesses, and of dead bodies that I saw lye in the valey, but I dare not saye that they were all bodies, but they were bodies through making of divels. And we were often cast down to the earth by winde, thunder & tempest, but God helped alway, and so passed we through that valey without peryl or harme thankes be to God.
[1:] Perilous.
[2:] Tambourines.
[3:] A kind of drum, probably a kettledrum.
[4:] Entrance.
[5:] Evilly.
[6:] Sparkling.
[7:] Doubt.
[8:] Received the Sacrament.
[9:] Others say 9.
CAP. XCII.
Of an yland wherein dwell people as great as giants of xxviii or xxx fote of length & other things.
AND beyond that valey is a great yle, where people as great as giaunts of xxviii fote long & they haue no clothinge but beasts skyns that hang on them, & they eate no bread but flesh raw and they drink milke, & they haue no houses, & they eat gladlyer fleshe of men, than other, & men saye to us, that beyond that yle is a yle where are greater giaunts as xlv or L fote long, & some sayd L cubits long, but I saw not them, and among those giaunts are great shepe, as it were young oxen, and they beare great wolle, these shepe haue I sene many times. An other yle is there northward where are many evill and fell women and they haue precious stones in their eies, & they haue suche kinde yt if they beholde any man with wrath, they sley them of the beholding as the Basalysk doeth.[1]
[1:] Here a passage is omitted.