And At
Morrow, When He Found The Hermit Dead, He Was Full Sorry And Wroth,
And Would Have Done His Men To Death.
But they all, with one
accord, said that he himself had slain him, when he was drunken,
and shewed him his sword all bloody.
And he trowed that they had
said sooth. And then he cursed the wine and all those that drink
it. And therefore Saracens that be devout drink never no wine.
But some drink it privily; for if they drunk it openly, they should
be reproved. But they drink good beverage and sweet and nourishing
that is made of gallamelle and that is that men make sugar of, that
is of right good savour, and it is good for the breast.
Also it befalleth some-time, that Christian men become Saracens,
either for poverty or for simpleness, or else for their own
wickedness. And therefore the archflamen or the flamen, as our
archbishop or bishop, when he receiveth them saith thus: LA ELLEC
OLLA SILA, MACHOMETE RORES ALLA; that is to say, 'There is no God
but one, and Mahomet his messenger.'
Now I have told you a part of their law and of their customs, I
shall say you of their letters that they have, with their names and
the manner of their figures what they be: Almoy, Bethath, Cathi,
Ephoti, Delphoi, Fothi, Garothi, Hechum, Iotty, Kaythi, Lothum,
Malach, Nabaloth, Orthi, Chesiri, 30ch, Ruth, Holath, Routhi,
Salathi, Thatimus, Yrthom, A3a30th, Arrocchi, 30tipyn, Ichetus.
And these be the names of their a. b. c. Now shall ye know the
figures. . . . And four letters they have more than other for
diversity of their language and speech, forasmuch as they speak in
their throats; and we in England have in our language and speech
two letters more than they have in their a. b. c.; and that is
[character which cannot be reproduced] and [character which cannot
be reproduced], which be clept thorn and 30gh.
CHAPTER XVI
OF THE LANDS OF ALBANIA AND OF LIBIA. OF THE WISHINGS FOR WATCHING
OF THE SPARROW-HAWK; AND OF NOAH'S SHIP
NOW, sith I have told you before of the Holy Land and of that
country about, and of many ways for to go to that land and to the
Mount Sinai, and of Babylon the more and the less, and to other
places that I have spoken before, now is time, if it like you, for
to tell you of the marches and isles and diverse beasts, and of
diverse folk beyond these marches.
For in those countries beyond be many diverse countries and many
great kingdoms, that be departed by the four floods that come from
paradise terrestrial. For Mesopotamia and the kingdom of Chaldea
and Arabia be between the two rivers of Tigris and of Euphrates;
and the kingdom of Media and of Persia be between the rivers of
Nile and of Tigris; and the kingdom of Syria, whereof I have spoken
before, and Palestine and Phoenicia be between Euphrates and the
sea Mediterranean, the which sea dureth in length from Morocco,
upon the sea of Spain, unto the Great Sea, so that it lasteth
beyond Constantinople 3040 miles of Lombardy.
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