OF THE ISLE OF SICILY; OF THE WAY FROM BABYLON TO THE MOUNT SINAI;
OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT KATHERINE AND OF ALL THE MARVELS THERE
NOW will I return again, ere I proceed any further, for to declare
to you the other ways, that draw toward Babylon, where the sultan
himself dwelleth, that is at the entry of Egypt; for as much as
many folk go thither first and after that to the Mount Sinai, and
after return to Jerusalem, as I have said you here before. For
they fulfil first the more long pilgrimage, and after return again
by the next ways, because that the more nigh way is the more
worthy, and that is Jerusalem; for no other pilgrimage is not like
in comparison to it. But for to fulfil their pilgrimages more
easily and more sikerly, men go first the longer way rather than
the nearer way.
But whoso will go to Babylon by another way, more short from the
countries of the west that I have rehearsed before, or from other
countries next to them - then men go by France, by Burgundy and by
Lombardy. It needeth not to tell you the names of the cities, nor
of the towns that be in that way, for the way is common, and it is
known of many nations. And there be many havens [where] men take
the sea. Some men take the sea at Genoa, some at Venice, and pass
by the sea Adriatic, that is clept the Gulf of Venice, that
departeth Italy and Greece on that side; and some go to Naples,
some to Rome, and from Rome to Brindisi and there they take the
sea, and in many other places where that havens be. And men go by
Tuscany, by Campania, by Calabria, by Apulia, and by the hills of
Italy, by Corsica, by Sardinia, and by Sicily, that is a great isle
and a good.
In that isle of Sicily there is a manner of a garden, in the which
be many diverse fruits; and the garden is always green and
flourishing, all the seasons of the year as well in winter as in
summer. That isle holds in compass about 350 French miles. And
between Sicily and Italy there is not but a little arm of the sea,
that men clepe the Farde of Messina. And Sicily is between the sea
Adriatic and the sea of Lombardy. And from Sicily into Calabria is
but eight miles of Lombardy.
And in Sicily there is a manner of serpent, by the which men assay
and prove, whether their children be bastards or no, or of lawful
marriage: for if they be born in right marriage, the serpents go
about them, and do them no harm, and if they be born in avoutry,
the serpents bite them and envenom them. And thus many wedded men
prove if the children be their own.
Also in that isle is the Mount Etna, that men clepe Mount Gybelle,
and the volcanoes that be evermore burning.
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