And if they be lean they feed them till
they be fat, and then they eat them.
And they say, that it is the
best flesh and the sweetest of all the world.
In that land, ne in many other beyond that, no man may see the Star
Transmontane, that is clept the Star of the Sea, that is unmovable
and that is toward the north, that we clepe the Lode-star. But men
see another star, the contrary to him, that is toward the south,
that is clept Antartic. And right as the ship-men take their
advice here and govern them by the Lode-star, right so do ship-men
beyond those parts by the star of the south, the which star
appeareth not to us. And this star that is toward the north, that
we clepe the Lode-star, ne appeareth not to them. For which cause
men may well perceive, that the land and the sea be of round shape
and form; for the part of the firmament sheweth in one country that
sheweth not in another country. And men may well prove by
experience and subtle compassment of wit, that if a man found
passages by ships that would go to search the world, men might go
by ship all about the world and above and beneath.
The which thing I prove thus after that I have seen. For I have
been toward the parts of Brabant, and beholden the Astrolabe that
the star that is clept the Transmontane is fifty-three degrees
high; and more further in Almayne and Bohemia it hath fifty-eight
degrees; and more further toward the parts septentrional it is
sixty-two degrees of height and certain minutes; for I myself have
measured it by the Astrolabe. Now shall ye know, that against the
Transmontane is the tother star that is clept Antarctic, as I have
said before. And those two stars ne move never, and by them
turneth all the firmament right as doth a wheel that turneth by his
axle-tree. So that those stars bear the firmament in two equal
parts, so that it hath as much above as it hath beneath. After
this, I have gone toward the parts meridional, that is, toward the
south, and I have found that in Lybia men see first the star
Antarctic. And so far I have gone more further in those countries,
that I have found that star more high; so that toward the High
Lybia it is eighteen degrees of height and certain minutes (of the
which sixty minutes make a degree). After going by sea and by land
toward this country of that I have spoken, and to other isles and
lands beyond that country, I have found the Star Antarctic of
thirty-three degrees of height and more minutes. And if I had had
company and shipping for to go more beyond, I trow well, in
certain, that we should have seen all the roundness of the
firmament all about.
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