Digitized from Sir Henry Yule, Cathay and the way thither: being a collection of medieval notices of China VOL. II (London: Printed for the Hakluyt society, 1913-16), pp. 209-269. Yule's page numbers are included in square brackets for reference.

THE author begins by announcing his intention of dividing his work into Three Books, viz. I. Thearchos, or the History of the World from the Creation to the Building of Babel; H. Monarchos, or the History of Kings, from Nimrod down to the Franks and Germans, and so to the Kingdom of Bohemia; HI. Icrarchos, or the Ecclesiastical History, from Melchizedek to Moses and Aaron, to the Foundation of Christianity, and so to the Roman Pontiffs and the Bishops of Bohemia in order.

After speaking of the Creation the author comes to treat of Paradise,"Eastward in the place called Eden, beyond India," and this launches him at once on his reminiscences as follows:

And now to insert some brief passages of what I have seen myself. I, Friar John of Florence, of the order of Minors, and now unworthy Bishop of Bisignano, was sent with certain others, in the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred and thirty [eight], by the holy Pope Bene­dict the Eleventh, to carry letters and presents from the [p. 210] apostolic see to the Kaan or chief Emperor of all the Tartars, a sovereign who holds the sway of nearly half the eastern world, and whose power and wealth, with the multitude of cities and provinces and languages under him, and the countless number, as I may say, of the nations over which he rules, pass all telling.

We set out from Avignon in the month of December, came to Naples in the beginning of Lent, and stopped there till Easter (which fell at the end of March), waiting for a ship of Genoa, which was coming with the Tartar envoys whom the Kaan had sent from his great city of Cambalec to the Pope, to request the latter to despatch an embassy to his court, whereby communication might be established, and a treaty of alliance struck between him and the Christians; for he greatly loves and honours ow faith. Moreover the chief princes of his whole empire more than thirty thousand in number, who are called Alans, and govern the whole Orient, are Christians either in fact or in name, calling themselves the Pope's slaves, and ready to die for the Franks. For so they term us, not indeed from France, but from Frank-land. Their first apostle was Friar John, called De Monte Corvino, who seventy-two years previously, after having been soldier, judge, and doctor in the service of the Emperor Frederic, had become a Minor Friar, and a most wise and learned one. [p. 211]

Howbeit on the first of May we arrived by sea at Con­stantinople, and stopped at Pera till the feast of St. John Baptist. We had no idle time of it however, for we were engaged in a most weighty controversy with the Patriarch of the Greeks and their whole Council in the palace of St. Sophia. Arid there God wrought in us a new miracle, giving us a mouth and wisdom which they were not able to resist; for they were constrained to confess that they must needs be schismatics, and had no plea to urge against their own condemnation except the intolerable arrogance of the Roman prelates.

Thence we sailed across the Black Sea, and in eight days arrived at Caffa, where there are Christians of many sects. From that place we went on to the first Emperor of the Tartars, Usbec, and laid before him the letters which we bore, with certain pieces of cloth, a great war-horse, [p.212] some strong liquor, and the Pope^'s presents. And after the winter was over, having been well fed, well clothed, loaded with handsome present, and supplied by the King with horses and travelling expenses, we proceeded to ARMALEC [the capital] of the Middle Empire. There we built a church, bought a piece of ground, dug wells, sung masses and baptized several; preaching freely and openly, notwithstanding the fact that only the year before the Bishop and six other Minor Friars had there undergone for Christ's sake a glorious martyrdom, illustrated by brilliant miracles. The names of these martyrs were Friar Richard the Bishop, a Burgundian by nation, Friar Francis of Alessandria, Friar Paschal of Spain (this one was a prophet and saw the heavens open, and foretold the martyrdom which should befall him and his brethren, and the overthrow of the Tartars of Saray by a flood, and the destruction of Armalec in vengeance for their martyrdom, and that the Emperor would be slain on the third day after their martyrdom, and many other glorious things); Friar Laurence of Ancona, Friar Peter, an Indian friar who acted as their interpreter, and Gillott [Gilottus], a merchant. [p. 213]

Towards the end of the third year after our departure from the Papal Court, quitting Armalec we came to the CYOLLOS KAGON, i.e. to the Sand Hills thrown up by the wind. Before the days of the Tartars nobody believed that the earth was habitable beyond these, nor indeed was it believed that there was any country at all beyond. But the Tartars by God's permission, and with wonderful exer­tion, did cross them, and found themselves in what the philosophers call the torrid and impassable zone. Pass it however the Tartars did; and so did I, and that twice. 'Tis of this that David speaketh in the Psalms,"Posuit desertum,"&c. After having passed it we came to CAMBALEC, the chief seat of the Empire of the East. Of its incredible magnitude, population, and military array, we will say nothing. But the Grand Kaam, when he beheld the great horses, and the Pope^'s presents, with [p. 214] his letter, and King Robert's too, with their golden seals, and when he saw us also, rejoiced greatly, being delighted, yea exceedingly delighted with everything, and treated us with the greatest honour. And when I entered the Kaam's presence it was in full festival vestments, with a very fine cross carried before me, and candles and incense, whilst Credo in Unurn Deum was chaunted, in that glorious palace where he dwells. And when the chaunt was ended I be-stowed a full benediction, which he received with all humility.

And so we were dismissed to one of the Imperial apart­ments which had been most elegantly fitted up for us; and two princes were appointed to attend to all our wants. And this they did in the most liberal manner, not merely as regards meat and drink, but even down to such things as paper for lanterns, whilst all necessary servants also were detached from the Court to wait upon us. And so they tended us for nearly four years, never failing to treat us [p. 215] with unbounded respect. And I should add that they kept us and all our establishment clothed in costly raiment.

And considering that we were thirty-two persons, what the Kaam expended for everything on our account must have amounted, as well as I can calculate, to more than four thousand marks. And we had many and glorious dispu­tations with the Jews and other sectaries; and we made also a great harvest of souls in that empire.

The Minor Friars in Cambalec have a cathedral church immediately adjoining the palace, with a proper residence for the Archbishop, and other churches in the city besides, and they have bells too, and all the clergy have their sub­sistence from the Emperor^'s table in the most honourable manner.

And when the Emperor saw that nothing would induce me to abide there, he gave me leave to return to the Pope, carrying presents from him, with an allowance for three years' expenses, and with a request that either I or some one else should be sent speedily back with the rank of Cardinal, and with full powers, to be bishop there; for the office of Bishop is highly venerated by all the Orientals, whether they be Christians or no. He should also be of the Minorite Order, because these are the only priests that they are acquainted with; and they think that the Pope is always of that Order because Pope Girolamo was so who sent them that legate whom the Tartars and Alans venerate as [p. 216] a saint, viz., Friar John of Monte Corvino of the Order of Minorites, of whom we have already spoken. We abode in Cambalec about three years, and then we took our way through MANZI with a magnificent provision for our expenses from the Emperor, besides about two hundred horses; and on our way we beheld the glory of this world in such a multitude of cities, towns, and villages, and in other ways displayed, that no tongue can give it fit expression.

And sailing on the feast of St. Stephen, we navigated the Indian Sea until Palm Sunday, and then arrived-at a very noble city of India called COLUMBUM, where the [p. 217] whole world's pepper is produced. Now this pepper grows on a kind of vines, which are planted just like in our vine-yards. These vines produce clusters which are at first like those of the wild vine, of a green colour, and afterwards are almost like bunches of our grapes, and they have a red wine in them which I have squeezed out on my plate as a condiment. When they have ripened, they are left to dry upon the tree, and when shrivelled by the excessive heat the dry clusters are knocked off with a stick and caught upon linen cloths, and so the harvest is gathered.

These are things that I have seen with mine eyes and handled with my hands during the fourteen months that I stayed there. And there is no roasting of the pepper, as authors have falsely asserted, nor does it grow in forests, but in regular gardens; nor are the Saracens the proprietors but the Christians of St. Thomas. And these latter are the masters of the public steel-yard, from which I derived, as a perquisite of my office as Pope's legate, every month a hundred gold fan, and a thousand when I left.

There is a church of St. George there, of the Latin communion, at which I dwelt. And I adorned it with fine paintings, and taught there the holy Law. And after I had been there some time I went beyond the glory of Alexander the Great, when he set up his column (in India). For I erected a stone as my landmark and memorial, in the corner of the world over against Paradise, and anointed it with oil. In sooth it was a marble pillar with a stone cross upon it, intended to last till the world's end. And it had the Pope's arms and my own engraved upon it, with inscriptions both in Indian and Latin characters. I con­secrated and blessed it in the presence of an infinite multitl4de of people, and I was carried on the shoulders of the chiefs in a litter or palankin like Solomon's. [p. 219]

So after a year and four months I took leave of the brethren, and after accomplishing many glorious works [p. 220] I went to see the famous Queen of SABA. By her I was honourably treated, and after some harvest of souls (for there are a few Christians there) I proceeded by seato SEYLLAN, a glorious mountain opposite to Paradise. And from Seyllan to Paradise, according to what the natives say after the tradition of their fathers, is a distance of forty Italian miles; so that, 'tis said, the sound of the waters falling from the fountain of Paradise is heard there.

CHAPTER CONCERNING PARADISE.

Now Paradise is a place that (really) exists upon the earth surrounded by the Ocean Sea, in the regions of the Orient on the other side of Columbine India, and over against the mountain of Seyllan. 'Tis the loftiest spot on the face of the earth, reaching, as Johannes Scotus hath proven, to the sphere of the moon; a place remote from all strife, delectable in balminess and brightness of atmo­sphere, and in the midst whereof a fountain springeth from the ground, pouring forth its waters to water, according to the season, the Paradise and all the trees therein. And there grow all the trees that produce the best of fruits; wondrous fair are they to book upon, fragrant and delicious for the food of man. Now that fountain cometh down from the mount and falleth into a lake, which is called by the philosophers EUPHIRATTES. Here it passes under another water which is turbid, and issues forth on the [p. 221] other side, where it divides into four rivers which pass through Seyllan; and these be their names: [p. 222]

GYON is that which circleth the land of Ethiopia where are now the negroes, and which is called the Land of Prester John. It is indeed believed to be the Nile, which descends into Egypt by a breach made in the place which is called ABASTY. The Christians of St. Matthew the Apostle are there, and the Soldan pays them tribute

[p. 223]on account of the river, because they have it in their power to shut off the water, and then Egypt would perish. [p. 224]

The second river is called PHISON, and it goes through India, circling all the land of Evilach, and is said to go clown into CATHAY, where, by a change of name, it is called CAROMORAN, i.e. Black Water, and there is found bdellium and the onyx stone. I believe it to be the biggest river of fresh water in the world, and I have crossed it myself. And it has on its banks very great and noble cities, rich above all in gold. And on that river excellent craftsmen have their dwelling, occupying wooden houses, especially weavers of silk and gold brocade, in such numbers (I can bear witness from having seen them), as in my opinion do not exist in the whole of Italy. And they have on the shores of the river an abundance of silk, more indeed than all the rest of the world put together. And they go about on their floating houses with their whole families just as if they were on shore. This I have seen. On the other side of Caffa the river is lost in the sands, but it breaks out again and forms the sea which is called BACUC, beyond THANA. [p. 225]

The third river is called TYGRIS. It passes over against the land of the Assyrians, and comes down near NYNEVE, that great city of three days^' journey, to which Jonas was sent to preach; and his sepulchre is there. I have been there also, and stopped a fortnight in the adjoining towns which were built out of the ruins of the city. There are capital fruits there, especially pomegranates of wonderful size and sweetness, with all the other fruits that we have in Italy. And on the opposite side [of the river] is a city built out of the ruins of Nyneve, which is called MONSOL¹.

Between that river and the fourth, there is a long tract of country bearing these names; viz., Mesopotamia, i.e. the land between the waters; Assyria, the land of Abraham [p. 226]

and Job, where also is the city of King Abagarus, to whom Christ sent a letter written with his own hand, once a most fair and Christian city, but now in the hands of the Saracens. There also I abode four days in no small fear.

We come lastly to the fourth river, by name EUPHRATES, which separates Syria, Assyria, and Mesopotamia from the Holy Land. When we crossed it we were in the Holy Land. In this region are some very great cities, especially ALEP, in which there are many Christians who dress after the Latin fashion, and speak a language very near the French; at any rate like French of Cyprus. Thence you come to Damascus, to Mount Lebanon, to Galilee, to Samaria, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and to the Sepulchre of our Lords Jesus Christ.

Then follows a chapter Concerning the Trees of Paradise, from which I extract a few lines.

[The trees] are there still in existence, as the Pantheon says; and this is shown by the fruits and leaves which are sometimes carried forth by those rivers, and are known by their medicinal virtue and fragrant odours. Nor is this in-credible; for in the adjoining provinces of India likewise there are trees which produce fruit of a marvellous kind every month. [p. 227]

From the chapter On the Transgression of our First Parents by Temptation of the Serpent.

And they took the leaves of the fig-tree or plantain, and made themselves girdles to hide their shame....Then God pronounced sentence after the confession of their sin, first against the serpent that he should go upon his belly creeping on the earth (but I must say that I have seen many serpents, and very big ones too, that went with half the body quite erect, like women when they walk in the street, and very graceful to look upon, but not to be sure keeping this up for any length of time)....

And he made them coats of skins: so at least we com­monly have it, pelliceas,"of fur," but we should do better to read filiceas,"of fibre"; because they were no doubt of a certain fibrous substance which grows like net-work between the shoots of the coco-palm; I wore one of these myself till I got to Florence, where I left it. And God forbade Adam to eat of the Tree of Life. See, said He to the Angels, that they take not of the Tree of Life, and so live for ever. And straightway the Angel took Adam by the arm and set him down beyond the lake on the Mountain Seyllan, where I stopped for four months. And by chance Adam planted his right foot upon a stone which is there still, and straightway by a divine miracle the form of the sole of his foot was imprinted on the marble, and there it is to this very day. And the size, I mean the length, thereof is two and a half of our palms, or about half a. Prague ell. And I was not the only one to measure it, for so did another pilgrim, a Saracen of Spain; for many [p. 228] go on pilgrimage to Adam. And the Angel put out Eve on another mountain, some four short days^' journey distant. And as the histories of those nations relate (and indeed there is nothing in the relation that contradicts Holy Scripture), they abode apart from one another and mourn­ing for forty days, after which the Angel brought Eve to Adam, who was waxing as it were desperate, and so comforted them both.

NARRATIVE CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN SEYLLAN.

Now, as our subject requires it, and as I deem it both pleasant and for some folks profitable, I propose to insert here an account of Seyllan, provided it please his Imperial Majesty; and if it please him not he has but to score it out.

First, then, it must be told how, and in what fashion I got there, and after that I will speak of what is to be found there.

First, then, when we got our dismissal from the Kaam that mighty Emperor, with splendid presentand allowances from him, and as we proposed to travel by India, because the other overland road was shut up by war and there was no possibility of getting a passage that way, it was the Kaam^'s order that we should proceed through Manzi, which was formerly known as India Maxima.

Now Manzi is a country which has countless cities and nations included in it, past all belief to one who has not seen them, besides great plenty of everything, including fruits quite unknown in o.tr Latin countries. Indeed it has 30,000 great cities, besides towns and boroughs quite [p. 229] beyond count. And among the rest is that most famous city of CAM PSAY, the finest, the biggest, the richest, the most populous, and altogether the most marvellous city, the city of the greatest wealth and luxury, of the most splendid buildings (especially idol temples, in some of which there are moo and 2000 monks dwelling together) that exists now upon the face of the earth, or mayhap that ever did exist! When authors tell of its ten thousand noble bridges of stone, adorned with sculptures and statues of armed princes, it passes the belief of one who has not been there, and yet peradventure these authors tell no lie.

There is ZAYTUN also, a wondrous fine seaport and a city of incredible size, where our Minor Friars have, three very fine churches, passing rich and elegant; and they have a bath also and a fondaco which serves as a depot for all the merchants. They have also some fine bells of [p. 230] the best quality, two of which were made to my order, and set up with all due form in the very middle of the Saracen community. One of these we ordered to be called Johannina, and the other Antonina.

We quitted Zaytun on St. Stephen^'s day, and on the Wednesday of Holy Week we arrived at Columbum. Wishing then to visit the Shrine of St. Thomas the Apostle, and to sail thence to the Holy Land, we embarked on board certain junks, from Lower India which is called Minubar. We encountered so many storms, com­mencing from St. George^'s Eve, and were so dashed about by them, that sixty times and more we were all but swamped in the depths of the sea, and it was only by [p. 231] divine miracle that we escaped. And such wondrous things we beheld! The sea as if in flames, and fire‑spitting dragons flying by, and as they passed they slew persons on board the other junks, whilst ours remained un­touched, by God^'s grace, and by virtue of the body of Christ which I carried with me,. and through the merits of the glorious Virgin and St. Clare. And having brought all the Christians to penitential mourning, even whilst the gale still blew we made sail, committing ourselves to the Divine guidance, and caring only for the safety of souls. Thus led by the Divine mercy, on the morrow of the Invention of the Holy Cross we found ourselves brought safely into port in a harbour of Seyllan, called PERVILIS, over against Paradise. Here a certain tyrant, by name Coya Jaan, a eunuch, had the mastery in opposition to the lawful king. He was an accursed Saracen, who by means of his great treasures had gained possession of the greater part of the kingdom [p. 232]

At first he put on a pretence of. treating us honourably, but by and by, in the politest manner and under the name of a loan, he took front us 60,000 marks, in gold, silver, silk, cloth of gold, precious stones, pearls, carnphor, musk, myrrh, and aromatic spices, gifts from the Great Kaam and other princes to us, or presents sent from them to the Pope. And so we were detained by this man, with all politeness as I said, for four months.

On that very high mountain [of which we have spoken], perhaps after Paradise the highest mountain on the face of the earth, some indeed think that Paradise itself exists. But this is a mistake, for the name shows the contrary. For it is called by the natives Zindan Baba; baba meaning"father" (and mama"mother") in every language in the world; whilst Zindan is the same as"Hell," so that Zindan Baba is as much as to say "the hell of our father,^" implying that our first father when placed there on his expulsion from Paradise was as it were in hell.

That exceeding high mountain hath a pinnacle of sur­passing height, which, on account of the clouds, can rarely be seen. But God, pitying our tears, lighted it up one morning just before the sun rose, so that we beheld it glowing with the brightest flame. In the way down from this same mountain there is a fine level spot, still at a great height, and there you find in order, first the mark of Adam's foot; secondly, a certain statue of a sitting figure [p. 233] with the left hand resting on the knee, and the right hand raised and extended towards the west; lastly, there is the house (of Adam) which he made with his own hands. It is of an oblong quadrangular shape like a sepulchre, with a door in the middle, and is formed of great tabular slabs of marble, not cemented, but merely laid one upon another.

It is said by the natives, especially by their monks who stay at the foot of the mountain, men of very holy life [p. 234] though without the faith, that the deluge never mounted to that point, and thus the house has never been disturbed. Herein they put their dreams in opposition to Holy Scripture and the traditions of the saints; but indeed they have some plausible arguments to urge on their side. For they say that they are not descended either from Cain or from Seth, but from other sons of Adam, who [as they allege] begot other sons and daughters. But as this is contrary to Holy Scripture I will say no more about it.

I must remark, however, that these monks never eat flesh, because Adam and his successors till the flood did not do so. They go naked from the loins upwards, and unquestionably they are very well conducted. They have houses of palm-leaves, which you can break through with your finger^s, and these are scattered up and down in the woods, and full of property, and yet they live without the slightest fear of thieves, unless perchance there come vagabonds from foreign parts.

On the same mountain, in the direction of Paradise, is a great fountain, the waters of which are clearly visible at a distance of good ten Italian miles. And though it breaks out there, they say that its water is derived from the Fountain of Paradise. And they allege this in proof: that there sometimes turn up from the bottom leaves of unknown species in great quantities, and also lign-aloes, [p. 235] and precious stones, such as the carbuncle and sapphire, and also certain fruits with healing virtues. They tell also that those gems are formed from Adam^'s tears, but this seems to be a mere figment. Many other matters I think it best to pass over at present.

CONCERNING ADAM'S GARDEN AND THE FRUITS THEREOF.

The garden of Adam in Seyllan contains in the first place plantain trees which the natives call figs. But the plantain has more the character of a garden plant than of a tree. It is indeed a tree in thickness, having a stem as thick as an oak, but so soft that a strong man can punch a hole in it with his finger, and from such a hole water will flow. The leaves of those plantain trees are most beautiful, immensely long and broad, and of a bright emerald green; in fact, they use them for tablecloths, but serving only for a single dinner. Also new-born children, after being washed and salted, are wrapped up with aloes and roses in these leaves, without any swathing, and so placed in the sand. The leaves are some ten ells in length, more or less, and I do not know to what to compare them (in form) unless it be to elecampane. The tree produces its fruit only from the crown; but on one stem it will bear a good three hundred. At first they are not good to eat, but after they have been kept a while in the house they ripen of themselves, and are then of an excellent odour, [p. 236] and still better taste; and they are about the length of the longest of one^'s fingers. And this is a thing that I have seen with mine own eyes, that slice it across where you will, you will find on both sides of the cut the figure of a man crucified, as if one had graven it with a needle point. And it was of these leaves that Adam and Eve made themselves girdles to cover their nakedness.

There are also many other trees and wonderful fruits there which we never see in these parts, such as the Nargil. Now the Nargil is the Indian Nut. Its tree has a most delicate bark, and very handsome leaves like those of the date-palm. Of these they make baskets and corn measures; they use the wood for joists and rafters in rqofing houses; of the husk or rind they make cordage; of the nutshell cups and goblets. They make also from the shell spoons which are antidotes to poison. Inside the shell there is a pulp of some two fingers thick, which is excellent eating, and tastes almost like almonds. It burns also, and both oil and sugar can be made from it. Inside of this there is a liquor which bubbles like new milk and turns to an excellent wine.

They have also another tree called Amburan', having [p. 237] a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach. There is again another wonderful tree called Chake­baruhe', as big as an oak. Its fruit is produced from the trunk and not from the branches, and is something mar­vellous to see, being as big as a great lamb, or a child of three years old. It has a hard rind like that of our pine-cones, so that you have to cut it open with an axe; inside it has a pulp of surpassing flavour, with the sweetness of honey and of the best Italian melon; and this also contains some five hundred chestnuts of like flavour, which are capital eating when roasted.

I do not remember to have seen any other fruit trees, such as pears, apples, or figs, or vines, unless it were some that bore leaves only and no grapes. There is an excep­tion, however, at the fine church of St. Thomas the Apostle, at the place where he was Bishop. They have there a little [p. 238] vinery which I saw, and which supplies a small quantity of wine. It is related that when he first went thither he used to carry about with him a little wine for masses (as I did myself for the space of nearly two years); and when that was done he went to Paradise, into which he found his way by the help of Angels, and carried away with him some of the grapes, the stones of which he sowed. From these grew the vines which I saw at that place, and from them he made the wine of which he stood in need. Elsewhere there are vines indeed, but they bear no grapes, as I know by experience. The same is the case with melons and cucumbers, and indeed I saw no eatable potherbs there, unless it be an exception that I saw whole thickets of basil.

These then are the trees in Adam^'s garden. But of what tree was the fruit that he ate I cannot tell; yet might I guess it to be of the citron, for it is written,

"Ipse lignum tunc notavit,

Dampna ligni ut solveret."

Now there were used, it must be observed, in making the cross, palm wood, olive wood, cypress wood, and citron wood, and the last is the only one of the four that can be [p. 239] alleged to bear a fruit which is good to eat and pleasant to the eyes. And these really appear to be the woods of the cross in that which belongs to our Lord the Emperor Charles; whatever people may say about the plantain tree (which is called also a fig tree) and its exhibiting the image of the crucifix; at the same time I don't mean to commit myself to any pre-judgment of the matter. But as regards the fruit before mentioned, there is a certain Hebrew gloss on that proverb of Ezekiel's"Patrescomederunt uvam acer-bam, et dentes filiorurn obstupuerunt," which needs notice. Where our version has Patres the original Hebrew has Adam.

Now this word is written sometimes one way and sometimes another. For Adam is written one way when it signifies parents, or man and woman, as in Genesis when 'tis said"Vocavit nomen eorum Adam" in the plural; and it is written with other letters when it signifies a man only. Just as we say on the one hand hic et haec homo, and on the other hand hic vir (though I don't mean to say that we use diacritical marks and inherent vowels like the Hebrews), so also Sem is written sometimes with a Zade, and some-times with a Samech; and Abram sometimes with an Aleph and sometimes with a He, the signification varying accordingly. So then"Adam comederunt uvam acerbam" [has been understood of our first father]. But this inter­pretation is not approved by our divines, for there was no vinewood in the cross. The same remark may be made regarding the fig tree for which the sons of Adam in Seyllan stand up, and also regarding the plantain (though it is highly probable that our parents made their aprons of its leaves, seeing that they be so big). As for the olive and the date, though they are" good for food" nobody ever suggested their being the forbidden fruit. Yet there was palm wood in the cross, as is clearly seen in the reliques belonging to the Emperor; at least that is my opinion. Yet that can hardly be if the story be true that Godfrey [p. 240] of Viterbo tells in his Pantheon. For he says that when Adam was waxing old and infirm, he sent his son Seth to Paradise to seek the promised oil of mercy. The angel warden of Paradise said:"The time is not yet; but take thou these branches of olive, citron, and cypress, and plant them; and when oil shall be got from them thy father shall get up safe and sound." So Seth returned, and found his father dead in Hebron. Wherefore he twisted together those three branches, and planted them above the body of Adam, and straightway they became one tree. And when that tree grew great it was transplanted, first to Mount Lebanon, and afterwards to Jerusalem. And at Jerusalem to this day exists a monastery of the Greeks on the spot where that tree was cut down. The hole whence it was cut is under the altar, and the monastery is called in Hebrew" The Mother of the Cross" from this circumstance. The tree was made known to Solomon by means of the Queen of Saba, and he caused it to be buried under the deep foundations of a tower. But by the earthquake that took place on the birth of Christ, the foundations of the tower were rent, and the tree discovered. It was from it that the pool called Probatica acquired its virtues.

CONCERNING THE CLOTHING OF OUR FIRST PARENTS

And the Lord made for Adam and his wife coats of skins or fur, and clothed them therewith. But if it be asked, whence the skins? the answer usually made is, either that they were expressly created (which savours not of wisdom!); or that an animal was slain for the purpose (and this is not satisfactory, seeing that ^'tis believed the animals were at first created only in pairs, and there had [p. 241] been no time for the multiplication of the species). Now then I say, without however meaning to dogmatize, that for coats of fur we should read coats of fibre. For among the fronds of the Nargil, of which I have spoken above, there grows a sort of fibrous web forming an open network of coarse dry filaments. Now to this day among the people there and the Indians it is customary to make of those fibres wet weather mantles for those rustics whom they call cannalls, whose business it is to carry burdens, and also to carry men and women on their shoulders in palankins, such as are mentioned in Canticles," Ferculum fecit sibi Salomon de lignis Libani," whereby is meant a portable litter, such as I used to be carried in at Zaytun and in India. A garment such as I mean, of this cannall cloth (and not camel cloth), I wore till I got to Florence, and I left it in the sacristy of the Minor Friars there. No doubt the raiment of John Baptist was of this kind. For as regards camel's hair it is, next to silk, the softest stuff in the world, and never could have been meant. By the way (speaking of camels), I once found myself in company with an infinite multitude of camels and their foals in that immense desert by which you do down from Babylon of the Confusion towards Egypt by way of Damascus; and of Arabs also there was no end! Not that I mean to say there were any camels in Seyllan; but there were innumerable elephants. And these though they be most ferocious monsters seldom hurt a foreigner. I even rode upon one once, that belonged to the Queen of Saba! That beast really did seem to have the use of reason--if it were not contrary to the Faith to think so. [p. 242]

CONCERNING THE FOOD OF OUR FIRST PARENTS.

Our first parents, then, lived in Seyllan upon the fruits I have mentioned, and for drink had the milk of animals. They used no meat till after the deluge, nor to this day do those men use it who call themselves the children of Adam. Adam, you know, was set down upon the mountain of Seyllan, and began there to build him a house with slabs of marble, etc., as has been already related. At that place dwell certain men under religious vows, and who are of surpassing cleanliness in their habits; yea of such cleanli­ness that none of them will abide in a house where anyone may have spit; and to spit themselves (though in good sooth they rarely do such a thing) they will retire long way, as well as for other occasions.

They eat only once a day, and never oftener; they drink nothing but milk or water; they pray with great propriety of manner; they teach boys to form their letters, first by writing with the finger on sand, and afterwards with an iron style upon leaves of paper, or rather I should say upon leaves of a certain tree.

In their cloister they have certain trees that differ in foliage from all others. These are encircled with crowns of gold and jewels, and there are lights placed before them, and these trees they worship'. And they pretend [p. 243] to have received this right by tradition from Adam, saying that they adore those trees because Adam looked for future salvation to come from wood. And this agrees with that verse of David^'s,"Dicite in gentibus, quia Dominus regnabit in ligno," though for a true rendering it would be better to say curabit a ligno.

These monks, moreover, never keep any food in their house till the morrow. They sleep on the bare ground; they walk barefoot, carrying a staff; and are contented with a frock like that of one of our Minor Friars (but without a hood), and with a mantle cast in folds over the shoulder ad modum Apostolorum. They go about in procession every morning begging rice for their day's dinner. The princes and others go forth to meet them with the greatest reverence, and bestow rice upon them in measure pro-portioned to their numbers; and this they partake of steeped in water, with coco-nut milk and plantains. These things I speak of as an eye-witness; and indeed [p. 244] they made me a festa as if I were one of their own order.

There follow Chapters Concerning the Multiplication of the Human Race, The Offerings of Cain and Abel, etc., etc., to the end of the first section of his book, which he terms Thearchos. These chapters do not contain anything to our purpose except a few slight notices here and there, which I shall now extract. Thus of Cain he says:

If we suppose that he built his city after the murder of Abel there is nothing in this opposed to Scripture, unless so far that it seems to be implied that he never did settle down, but was always a vagabond and a fugitive. This city of his is thought to have been where now is that called KOTA in Seyllan, a place where I have been. After he had begotten many sons there he fled towards Damascus, where he was shot by the arrow of Lamech his descendant in the seventh generation; and there, hard by Damascus, his sepulchre is shown to this day.

In the next passage also he seems to be speaking of Hebron from personal knowledge:

And the story _/goes that Adam mourned the death of his son Abel for a hundred years, and desired not to beget any more sons, but dwelt in a certain cave apart from Eve, until by command of an angel he rejoined her, and begat [p. 245] Seth. Then he separated himself from the generation of evil doers, and directed his course towards Damascus, and at last he ended his days in EBRON, and there he was buried, some twenty miles from Jerusalem. And the city was called Arba, i.e. of the four, because there were buried there Adam the chief, then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in the double cave that is in Ebron. And there the Patriarchs and other holy Fathers were afterwards buried, and Joseph also when he was brought up out of Egypt.

To Seth, he says,

Succeeded his son Enoch, who began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is believed to mean that he first instituted the practice of addressing God in audible prayers, and that he founded a religious discipline and peculiar rule of life, such as is followed to this day (they say) by the Bragmans, and by the monks of Seyllan, though these have turned aside to idolatry and to the worship of a tree, as we have related....

...And the sons of Adam in Seyllan adduce many proofs that the flood reached not to them. And this is one of the chief, that in the eastern part of the country there are a number of roaming vagabond people whom I have seen myself, and who call themselves the sons of Cain. Their faces are huge, hideous, and frightful enough to terrify anybody. They never can stay more than two days in one place, and if they did they would stink so that nobody could endure them. They seldom show themselves, but yet they are given to trade. Their wives and children, as frightful goblins as themselves, they carry about upon donkeys. Yet St. Augustine and the mass of theologians [p. 246] deem it absurd to suppose that any should have escaped the Deluge unless in the ark....

...And the ark grounded in the seventh month on a mountain of Armenia, which is near the Iron Gates in the Empire of Uzbek, and is called Ararat in the Lesser Armenia

Next we come to the Second Age, and the beginning of the Second Book which is called Monarchos.

From the first chapter, which treats Of the Distribution of the Earth among the Sons of Noah, I extract some passages:

Noah therefore under the command of God delivered instructions to his sons about maintaining divine service in the worship of the One God by sacrifices, about the multi­plication of offspring, and the division of the earth, that they might replenish it, and live in peace after his death. And he desiring a quiet life for his remaining days, reserved for himself the Isle of Cethym [Chittim] now called Cyprus. Shem the firstborn, as king and priest after his father, obtained half of the world, i.e., all Asia the Great, ex-tending from the White Sea beyond Hungary, where now are the Wallachians, in a straight line over all the empire [p. 247] of Uzbek, Katay, the Indies, and Ethiopia to the world's end.

The other half was divided between the other two brothers. Cham had Africa (including the Holy Land) by Carthage and Tunis to the world's end. Japhet the younger had Europe where we are now, that is to say, all on this side from Hungary, and all on this side from Rome, including Germany, France, Bohemia, Poland and England, and so to the world^'s end.

The next chapter is Concerning Worship after the Flood, a large portion of which is worthy of translation: [p. 248]