“COTONOLAPES, THE MAGICIAN.”
In the isle of Pentexoire, that is in the land of Prester John, is a great isle, long and broad, and men call that isle Milsterak. There was a man there that was called Cotonolapes; he was full rich, and had a fair castle on a hill, and strong, and he made a wall all about the hill right strong and fair; within he had a fair garden, wherein were many trees bearing all manner of fruits that he might find, and he had planted therein all manner of herbs of good smell, and that bare flowers, and there were many fair wells, and by them were made many halls and chambers well dight with gold and azure, and he had made there divers stories of beasts and birds, that sung and turned by engine and orbage as they had been quick; and he had in his garden all things that might be to man solace and comfort; he had also in that garden maidens within the age of fifteen years, the fairest that he might find, and men children of the same age, and they were clothed with cloth of gold, and he said that they were angels; and he caused to be made certain hills, and inclosed them about with precious stones of jasper and crystal, and set in gold and pearls, and other manner of stones; and he had made a conduit under the earth, so that when he would, the walls ran sometimes with milk, sometimes with wine, sometimes with honey, and this place is called Paradise; and when any young bachelor of the country, knight or esquire, cometh to him for solace and disport, he leadeth them into his paradise and showeth them these things, as the songs of birds, and his damsels and wells; and he did strike divers instruments of music in a high tower that might be heard, and said they were angels of God, and that place was Paradise that God had granted to those who believe, when he said thus: Dabo vobis terram fluentem lacte et melle; that is to say, I shall give you land flowing with milk and honey. And then this rich man made these men drink a manner of drink of which they were drunken; and he said to them, if they would die for his sake, when they were dead they should come to his paradise, and they should be of the age of those maidens, and should dwell always with them, and he should put them in a fairer paradise, where they should see God in joy and in his majesty: and then they granted to do that he would, and he bade them go and slay such a lord, or a man of the country that he was wroth with, and that they should have dread of no man. And if they were slain themselves for his sake, he should put them in his paradise when they were dead. And so went these bachelors to slay great lords of the country, and were slain themselves in hope to have that paradise; and thus he was avenged of his enemies through his desert; and when rich men of the country perceived this cautel and malice, and the will of this Cotonolapes, they gathered them together and assailed the castle, and slew him, and destroyed all his goods and his fair places and riches that were in his paradise; and the place of the walls there is yet, and some other things, but the riches are not, and it is not long ago since it was destroyed.
“The variation made by this worthy story-teller seems to me to be an incorporation of the history of the Assassins,” said Herbert.
“Perhaps their ‘Old Man of the Mountain,’ as the chief of the Assassins was called, may have given rise to the entire fable,” rejoined Lathom. “Now, Thompson, read the poet’s conversion.”
THE GARDEN OF ALOADDIN.
—Thalaba stood mute,
And passively receiv’d
The mingled joy which flowed in every sense.
Where’er his eye could reach,
Fair structures, rainbow hued, arose;