For if they burnt about the trees
that bear, the pepper should be burnt, and it would dry up all the
virtue, as of any other thing; and then they did themselves much
harm, and they should never quench the fire.
But thus they do:
they anoint their hands and their feet [with a juice] made of
snails and of other things made therefore, of the which the
serpents and the venomous beasts hate and dread the savour; and
that maketh them flee before them, because of the smell, and then
they gather it surely enough.
Also toward the head of that forest is the city of Polombe. And
above the city is a great mountain that also is clept Polombe. And
of that mount the city hath his name.
And at the foot of that mount is a fair well and a great, that hath
odour and savour of all spices. And at every hour of the day he
changeth his odour and his savour diversely. And whoso drinketh
three times fasting of that water of that well he is whole of all
manner sickness that he hath. And they that dwell there and drink
often of that well they never have sickness; and they seem always
young. I have drunken thereof three or four sithes, and yet,
methinketh, I fare the better. Some men clepe it the well of
youth. For they that often drink thereof seem always young-like,
and live without sickness.
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