For Men Say
That Balm Groweth There In Great Plenty And Nowhere Else, Save Only
At Babylon, As I Have Told You Before.
We would have gone toward
the trees full gladly if we had might.
But I trow that 100,000 men
of arms might not pass those deserts safely, for the great
multitude of wild beasts and of great dragons and of great serpents
that there be, that slay and devour all that come anent them. In
that country be many white elephants without number, and of
unicorns and of lions of many manners, and many of such beasts that
I have told before, and of many other hideous beasts without
number.
Many other isles there be in the land of Prester John, and many
great marvels, that were too long to tell all, both of his riches
and of his noblesse and of the great plenty also of precious stones
that he hath. I trow that ye know well enough, and have heard say,
wherefore this emperor is clept Prester John. But, natheles, for
them that know not, I shall say you the cause.
It was sometime an emperor there, that was a worthy and a full
noble prince, that had Christian knights in his company, as he hath
that is now. So it befell, that he had great list for to see the
service in the church among Christian men. And then dured
Christendom beyond the sea, all Turkey, Syria, Tartary, Jerusalem,
Palestine, Arabia, Aleppo and all the land of Egypt. And so it
befell that this emperor came with a Christian knight with him into
a church in Egypt. And it was the Saturday in Whitsun-week. And
the bishop made orders. And he beheld, and listened the service
full tentively. And he asked the Christian knight what men of
degree they should be that the prelate had before him. And the
knight answered and said that they should be priests. And then the
emperor said that he would no longer be clept king ne emperor, but
priest, and that he would have the name of the first priest that
went out of the church, and his name was John. And so ever-more
sithens, he is clept Prester John.
In his land be many Christian men of good faith and of good law,
and namely of them of the same country, and have commonly their
priests, that sing the Mass, and make the sacrament of the altar,
of bread, right as the Greeks do; but they say not so many things
at the Mass as men do here. For they say not but only that that
the apostles said, as our Lord taught them, right as Saint Peter
and Saint Thomas and the other apostles sung the Mass, saying the
PATER NOSTER and the words of the sacrament. But we have many more
additions that divers popes have made, that they ne know not of.
CHAPTER XXXIII
OF THE HILLS OF GOLD THAT PISMIRES KEEP.
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