Chapter 30 |
Index |
Chapter 32
OF THE DEVIL'S HEAD IN THE VALLEY PERILOUS. AND OF THE CUSTOMS OF
FOLK IN DIVERSE ISLES THAT BE ABOUT IN THE LORDSHIP OF PRESTER JOHN
BESIDE that Isle of Mistorak upon the left side nigh to the river
of Pison is a marvellous thing. There is a vale between the
mountains, that dureth nigh a four mile. And some men clepe it the
Vale Enchanted, some clepe it the Vale of Devils, and some clepe it
the Vale Perilous. In that vale hear men often-time great tempests
and thunders, and great murmurs and noises, all days and nights,
and great noise, as it were sound of tabors and of nakers and of
trumps, as though it were of a great feast. This vale is all full
of devils, and hath been always. And men say there, that it is one
of the entries of hell. In that vale is great plenty of gold and
silver. Wherefore many misbelieving men, and many Christian men
also, go in oftentime for to have of the treasure that there is;
but few come again, and namely of the misbelieving men, ne of the
Christian men neither, for anon they be strangled of devils.
And in mid place of that vale, under a rock, is an head and the
visage of a devil bodily, full horrible and dreadful to see, and it
sheweth not but the head, to the shoulders. But there is no man in
the world so hardy, Christian man ne other, but that he would be
adread to behold it, and that it would seem him to die for dread,
so is it hideous for to behold. For he beholdeth every man so
sharply with dreadful eyen, that be evermore moving and sparkling
as fire, and changeth and stirreth so often in diverse manner, with
so horrible countenance, that no man dare not neighen towards him.
And from him cometh out smoke and stinking fire and so much
abomination, that unnethe no man may there endure.
But the good Christian men, that be stable in the faith, enter well
without peril. For they will first shrive them and mark them with
the token of the holy cross, so that the fiends ne have no power
over them. But albeit that they be without peril, yet, natheles,
ne be they not without dread, when that they see the devils visibly
and bodily all about them, that make full many diverse assaults and
menaces, in air and in earth, and aghast them with strokes of
thunder-blasts and of tempests. And the most dread is, that God
will take vengeance then of that that men have misdone against his
will.
And ye shall understand, that when my fellows and I were in that
vale, we were in great thought, whether that we durst put our
bodies in adventure, to go in or not, in the protection of God.
And some of our fellows accorded to enter, and some not. So there
were with us two worthy men, friars minors, that were of Lombardy,
that said, that if any man would enter they would go in with us.
And when they had said so, upon the gracious trust of God and of
them, we let sing mass, and made every man to be shriven and
houseled. And then we entered fourteen persons; but at our going
out we were but nine. And so we wist never, whether that our
fellows were lost, or else turned again for dread. But we saw them
never after; and those were two men of Greece, and three of Spain.
And our other fellows that would not go in with us, they went by
another coast to be before us; and so they were.
And thus we passed that perilous vale, and found therein gold and
silver, and precious stones and rich jewels, great plenty, both
here and there, as us seemed. But whether that it was, as us
seemed, I wot never. For I touched none, because that the devils
be so subtle to make a thing to seem otherwise than it is, for to
deceive mankind. And therefore I touched none, and also because
that I would not be put out of my devotion; for I was more devout
then, than ever I was before or after, and all for the dread of
fiends that I saw in diverse figures, and also for the great
multitude of dead bodies, that I saw there lying by the way, by all
the vale, as though there had been a battle between two kings, and
the mightiest of the country, and that the greater part had been
discomfited and slain. And I trow, that unnethe should any country
have so much people within him, as lay slain in that vale as us
thought, the which was an hideous sight to see. And I marvelled
much, that there were so many, and the bodies all whole without
rotting. But I trow, that fiends made them seem to be so whole
without rotting. But that might not be to mine advice that so many
should have entered so newly, ne so many newly slain, with out
stinking and rotting. And many of them were in habit of Christian
men, but I trow well, that it were of such that went in for
covetise of the treasure that was there, and had overmuch
feebleness in the faith; so that their hearts ne might not endure
in the belief for dread. And therefore were we the more devout a
great deal. And yet we were cast down, and beaten down many times
to the hard earth by winds and thunders and tempests. But evermore
God of his grace holp us. And so we passed that perilous vale
without peril and without encumbrance, thanked be Almighty God.
After this, beyond the vale, is a great isle, where the folk be
great giants of twenty-eight foot long, or of thirty foot long.
And they have no clothing but of skins of beasts that they hang
upon them. And they eat no bread, but all raw flesh; and they
drink milk of beasts, for they have plenty of all bestial. And
they have no houses to lie in. And they eat more gladly man's
flesh than any other flesh. Into that isle dare no man gladly
enter. And if they see a ship and men therein, anon they enter
into the sea for to take them.
And men said us, that in an isle beyond that were giants of greater
stature, some of forty-five foot, or of fifty foot long, and, as
some men say, some of fifty cubits long. But I saw none of those,
for I had no lust to go to those parts, because that no man cometh
neither into that isle ne into the other, but if he be devoured
anon. And among those giants be sheep as great as oxen here, and
they bear great wool and rough. Of the sheep I have seen many
times. And men have seen, many times, those giants take men in the
sea out of their ships, and brought them to land, two in one hand
and two in another, eating them going, all raw and all quick.
Another isle is there toward the north, in the sea Ocean, where
that be full cruel and full evil women of nature. And they have
precious stones in their eyen. And they be of that kind, that if
they behold any man with wrath, they slay him anon with the
beholding, as doth the basilisk.
Another isle is there, full fair and good and great, and full of
people, where the custom is such, that the first night that they be
married, they make another man to lie by their wives for to have
their maidenhead: and therefore they take great hire and great
thank. And there be certain men in every town that serve of none
other thing; and they clepe them cadeberiz, that is to say, the
fools of wanhope. For they of the country hold it so great a thing
and so perilous for to have the maidenhead of a woman, that them
seemeth that they that have first the maidenhead putteth him in
adventure of his life. And if the husband find his wife maiden
that other next night after that she should have been lain by of
the man that is assigned therefore, peradventure for drunkenness or
for some other cause, the husband shall plain upon him that he hath
not done his devoir, in such cruel wise as though the officers
would have slain him. But after the first night that they be lain
by, they keep them so straitly that they be not so hardy to speak
with no man. And I asked them the cause why that they held such
custom: and they said me, that of old time men had been dead for
deflowering of maidens, that had serpents in their bodies that
stung men upon their yards, that they died anon: and therefore
they held that customs to make other men ordained therefore to lie
by their wives, for dread of death, and to assay the passage by
another rather than for to put them in that adventure.
After that is another isle where that women make great sorrow when
their children be y-born. And when they die, they make great feast
and great joy and revel, and then they cast them into a great fire
burning. And those that love well their husbands, if their
husbands be dead, they cast them also in the fire with their
children, and burn them. And they say that the fire shall cleanse
them of all filths and of all vices, and they shall go pured and
clean into another world to their husbands, and they shall lead
their children with them. And the cause why that they weep, when
their children be born is this; for when they come into this world,
they come to labour, sorrow and heaviness. And why they make joy
and gladness at their dying is because that, as they say, then they
go to Paradise where the rivers run milk and honey, where that men
see them in joy and in abundance of goods, without sorrow and
labour.
In that isle men make their king evermore by election, and they ne
choose him not for no noblesse nor for no riches, but such one as
is of good manners and of good conditions, and therewithal
rightfull, and also that he be of great age, and that he have no
children. In that isle men be full rightfull and they do rightfull
judgments in every cause both of rich and poor, small and great,
after the quantity of the trespass that is mis-done. And the king
may not doom no man to death without assent of his barons and other
men wise of counsel, and that all the court accord thereto. And if
the king himself do any homicide or any crime, as to slay a man, or
any such case, he shall die there for. But he shall not be slain
as another man; but men shall defend, in pain of death, that no man
be so hardy to make him company ne to speak with him, ne that no
man give him, ne sell him, ne serve him, neither of meat ne of
drink; and so shall he die in mischief. They spare no man that
hath trespassed, neither for love, ne for favour ne for riches, ne
for noblesse; but that he shall have after that he hath done.
Beyond that isle is another isle, where is great multitude of folk.
And they will not, for no thing, eat flesh of hares, ne of hens, ne
of geese; and yet they bring forth enough, for to see them and to
behold them only; but they eat flesh of all other beasts, and drink
milk. In that country they take their daughters and their sisters
to their wives, and their other kinswomen. And if there be ten men
or twelve men or more dwelling in an house, the wife of everych of
them shall be common to them all that dwell in that house; so that
every man may lie with whom he will of them on one night, and with
another, another night. And if she have any child, she may give it
to what man that she list, that hath companied with her, so that no
man knoweth there whether the child be his or another's. And if
any man say to them, that they nourish other men's children, they
answer that so do over men theirs.
In that country and by all Ind be great plenty of cockodrills, that
is a manner of a long serpent, as I have said before. And in the
night they dwell in the water, and on the day upon the land, in
rocks and in caves. And they eat no meat in all the winter, but
they lie as in a dream, as do the serpents. These serpents slay
men, and they eat them weeping; and when they eat they move the
over jaw, and not the nether jaw, and they have no tongue.
In that country and in many other beyond that, and also in many on
this half, men put in work the seed of cotton, and they sow it
every year. And then groweth it in small trees, that bear cotton.
And so do men every year, so that there is plenty of cotton at all
times. Item; in this isle and in many other, there is a manner of
wood, hard and strong. Whoso covereth the coals of that wood under
the ashes thereof, the coals will dwell and abide all quick, a year
or more. And that tree hath many leaves, as the juniper hath. And
there be also many trees, that of nature they will never burn, ne
rot in no manner. And there be nut trees, that bear nuts as great
as a man's head.
There also be many beasts, that be clept orafles. In Arabia, they
be clept gerfaunts. That is a beast, pomely or spotted, that is
but a little more high than is a steed, but he hath the neck a
twenty cubits long; and his croup and his tail is as of an hart;
and he may look over a great high house. And there be also in that
country many camles; that is a little beast as a goat, that is
wild, and he liveth by the air and eateth nought, ne drinketh
nought, at no time. And he changeth his colour often-time, for men
see him often sithes, now in one colour and now in another colour;
and he may change him into all manner colours that him list, save
only into red and white. There be also in that country passing
great serpents, some of six score foot long, and they be of diverse
colours, as rayed, red, green, and yellow, blue and black, and all
speckled. And there be others that have crests upon their heads,
and they go upon their feet, upright, and they be well a four
fathom great, or more, and they dwell always in rocks or in
mountains, and they have alway the throat open, of whence they drop
venom always. And there be also wild swine of many colours, as
great as be oxen in our country, and they be all spotted, as be
young fawns. And there be also urchins, as great as wild swine
here; we clepe them Porcz de Spine. And there be lions all white,
great and mighty. And there be also of other beasts, as great and
more greater than is a destrier, and men clepe them Loerancs; and
some men clepe them odenthos; and they have a black head and three
long horns trenchant in the front, sharp as a sword, and the body
is slender; and he is a full felonious beast, and he chaseth and
slayeth the elephant. There be also many other beasts, full wicked
and cruel, that be not mickle more than a bear, and they have the
head like a boar, and they have six feet, and on every foot two
large claws, trenchant; and the body is like a bear, and the tail
as a lion. And there be also mice as great as hounds, and yellow
mice as great as ravens. And there be geese, all red, three sithes
more great than ours here, and they have the head, the neck and the
breast all black.
And many other diverse beasts be in those countries, and elsewhere
there-about, and many diverse birds also, of the which it were too
long for to tell you. And therefore, I pass over at this time.
Chapter 30 | Index | Chapter 32