And at Famagost is one of the principal havens of
the sea that is in the world; and there arrive Christian men and
Saracens and men of all nations. In Cyprus is the Hill of the Holy
Cross; and there is an abbey of monks black and there is the cross
of Dismas the good thief, as I have said before. And some men
trow, that there is half the cross of our Lord; but it is not so,
and they do evil that make men to believe so.
In Cyprus lieth Saint Zenonimus, of whom men of that country make
great solemnity. And in the castle of Amours lieth the body of
Saint-Hilarion, and men keep it right worshipfully. And beside
Famagost was Saint Barnabas the apostle born.
In Cyprus men hunt with papyonns, that be like leopards, and they
take wild beasts right well, and they be somewhat more than lions;
and they take more sharply the beasts, and more deliver than do
hounds.
In Cyprus is the manner of lords and all other men all to eat on
the earth. For they make ditches in the earth all about in the
hall, deep to the knee, and they do pave them; and when they will
eat, they go therein and sit there. And the skill is for they may
be the more fresh; for that land is much more hotter than it is
here. And at great feasts, and for strangers, they set forms and
tables, as men do in this country, but they had lever sit in the
earth.
From Cyprus, men go to the land of Jerusalem by the sea: and in a
day and in a night, he that hath good wind may come to the haven of
Tyre, that is now clept Surrye. There was some-time a great city
and a good of Christian men, but Saracens have destroyed it a great
part; and they keep that haven right well, for dread of Christian
men. Men might go more right to that haven, and come not in
Cyprus, but they go gladly to Cyprus to rest them on the land, or
else to buy things, that they have need to their living. On the
sea-side men may find many rubies. And there is the well of the
which holy writ speaketh of, and saith, FONS ORTORUM, ET PUTEUS
AQUARUM VIVENTIUM: that is to say, 'the well of gardens, and the
ditch of living waters.'
In this city of Tyre, said the woman to our Lord, BEATUS VENTER QUI
TE PORTAVIT, ET UBERA QUE SUCCISTI: that is to say, 'Blessed be
the body that thee bare, and the paps that thou suckedst.' And
there our Lord forgave the woman of Canaan her sins. And before
Tyre was wont to be the stone, on the which our Lord sat and
preached, and on that stone was founded the Church of Saint
Saviour.
