“ And it befell, in king Alexander's time, that he purposed to conquer that isle; but when they of the country heard it, they sent messengers to him with letters, that said thus:—"What may we be now to that man to whom all the world is insufficient? Thou shalt find nothing in us to cause thee to war against us; for we have no riches, nor do we desire any; and all the goods of our country are in common. Our meat, with which we sustain our bodies, is our riches; and instead of treasure of gold and silver, we make our treasure of acorns and peas, and to love one another. ”

“ See, now, how dearly he bought man, that he made after his own image, and how dearly he redeemed us for the great love that he had to us, and we never deserved it of him. For more precious goods or greater ransom might he not put for us, than his blessed body, his precious blood, and his holy life, which he enthralled for us ”

“ TO TEACH YOU THE WAY OUT OF ENGLAND TO CONSTANTINOPLE.
In the name of God, glorious and Almighty. He that will pass over the sea to go to the city of Jerusalem may go many ways, both by sea and land, according to the country that he cometh from: many ways come to one end. But you must not expect that I will tell you all the towns, and cities, and castles, that men shall go by; for then should I make too long a tale: but only some countries and the principal places that men shall go through to go the right way. ”

“ When men labour to array the body, to make it seem fairer than God made it, they do great sin; for man should not devise nor ask greater beauty than God hath ordained him to have at his birth. The earth ministereth to us two things; our livelihood, that cometh of the earth that we live by, and our sepulchre after our death. We have been in perpetual peace till now that thou art come to disinherit us; and also we have a king, not to do justice to every man, for he shall find no forfeit among us; but to keep nobleness, and to show that we are obedient, we have a king. ”

“ Canobine is a convent of the Maronites, and the seat of the patriarch, who is at present F. Stephanus Edenensis, a person of great learning and humanity. It is a very mean structure; but its situation is admirably adapted for retirement and devotion, for there is a very deep rupture in the side of Libanus, running at least seven hours' travel directly up into the mountain. It is on both sides exceeding steep and high, clothed with fragrant greens from top to bottom, and everywhere refreshed with fountains, falling down from the rocks in pleasant cascades, the ingenious work of nature. ”

“ He who carries the diamond upon him, it gives him hardiness and manhood, and it keeps the limbs of his body whole. It gives him victory over his enemies in court and in war, if his cause be just; and it keeps him that bears it in good wit ”

“ When messengers of foreign countries come before him, the sultan's people, when the strangers speak to him, stand round the sultan with drawn swords and gysarmes and axes, their arms raised up on high with their weapons, to smite them, if they say any word that is displeasing to the sultan. Neither does any stranger come before him without receiving a promise and grant of what he asks reasonably, if it be not against his law ”

“ We found here a multitude of Turks upon the divans, regaling themselves in this pleasant place, there being nothing which they behold with so much delight as greens and water, to which, if a beautiful face be added, they have a proverb that all three together make a perfect antidote against melancholy. ”

“ And some who go on pilgrimage to this idol bear knives in their hands, that are very keen and sharp, and continually, as they go, they smite themselves on their arms, legs, and thighs, with many hideous wounds; and so they shed their blood for love of that idol. They say that he is blessed and holy that dieth so for love of his god. And others there are who carry their children to be slain as a sacrifice to that idol; and after they have slain them, they sprinkle the blood upon the idol. ”

“ The soil is of a reddish colour, very loose and hollow, and you see hardly a stone in it; whereas, on its west side, there runs along, for many miles together, a high ridge of hills, discovering nothing but vast naked rocks, without the least sign of mould or any useful production, which yields an appearance as if nature had, as it were, in kindness to the husbandman, purged the whole plain of these stones, and piled them all up together in that one mountain. ”

“ It is thick-set with mosques and steeples, the usual ornaments of the Turkish cities, and is encompassed with gardens extending no less, according to common estimation, than thirty miles round, which makes it look like a noble city in a vast wood. The gardens are thick-set with fruit-trees of all kinds, kept fresh and verdant by the waters of Barrady. You discover in them many turrets, and steeples, and summer-houses frequently peeping out from among the green boughs, which may be conceived to add no small advantage and beauty to the prospect. ”

“ On the 15th of September, annually, an immense multitude of people of different nations are used to meet in Jerusalem for the purpose of commerce, and the streets are so clogged with the dung of camels, horses, mules, and oxen, that they become almost impassable, and the smell would be a nuisance to the whole town. But, by a miraculous providence, which exhibits God's peculiar attachment to this place, no sooner has the multitude left Jerusalem than a heavy fall of rain begins on the night following, and ceases only when the city has been perfectly cleansed. ”

“ In the western part of the same church are eight windows; and eight lamps, hanging by cords opposite them, cast their light through the glass as far as Jerusalem; which light, Arculf said, strikes the hearts of the beholders with a mixture of joy and divine fear. Every year, on the day of the Ascension, when mass is ended, a strong blast of wind comes down, and casts to the ground all who are in [6] the church. All that night, lanterns are kept burning there, so that the mountain appears not only lighted up, but actually on fire, and all that side of the city is illuminated by it. ”

“ The skins are as red as blood, and shine so bright against the sun that a man may scarcely look at them. And many people worship the beasts when they meet them first in a morning, for their great virtue and for the good smell that they have; and the skins they value more than if they were plates of fine gold. And in the middle of this palace is the mountour [386] of the great chan, all wrought of gold, and of precious stones, and great pearls; and at the four corners are four serpents of gold; and all about there are made large nets of silk and gold, and great pearls hanging all about it. ”

“ From that kingdom come men, in returning, to another isle, called Rybothe, which, also, is under the great chan. It is a full good country, and rich in all goods, and wine and fruit, and all other riches. And the people of that country have no houses; but they dwell and lie all under tents made of black fern. And the principal city, and the most royal, is all walled with black and white stone; and all the streets, also, are paved with the same stones. In that city is no man so hardy as to shed blood of any man, nor of any beast, for the reverence of an idol that is worshipped there. ”

“ And in those three days that that river runneth, no man dare enter into it, but in the other days men dare enter well enough. Beyond that river, more up towards the deserts, is a great plain all gravelly between the mountains; and in that plain, every day at sun-rise, small trees begin to grow, and they grow till mid-day, bearing fruit; but no man dare take of that fruit, for it is a thing of fairie. And after mid-day they decrease and enter again into the earth, so that at sun-set they appear no more; and so they do every day.
In that desert are many wild men, hideous to look on, and horned ”

“ They are a perfect visible comment upon our blessed Lord's description of the Jewish Pharisees. In a word, lust, arrogance, covetousness, and the most exquisite hypocrisy, complete their character. The only thing that ever I could observe to commend in them is the outward decency of their carriage, the profound respect they pay to religion and to every thing relating to it, and their great temperance and frugality. The dearness of any thing is no motive in Turkey, though it be in England, to bring it into fashion. ”

“ And you shall understand that the pepper grows like a wild vine, which is planted close by the trees of that wood, to sustain it; the fruit hangs like bunches of grapes, with which the tree is so laden that it seems that it would break; and when it is ripe, it is all green like ivy berries; and then men cut them as they do the vines, and put them upon an oven, where they become black and crisp. ”

“ They pass their children through it, and into this ditch they also throw their dead. Some of the great of this country take a vow to burn themselves alive; and if any such devotee declares to his children and kindred his intention to do so, they all applaud him and say, "Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." When the appointed day arrives, they prepare a sumptuous feast, place the devotee upon his horse, if he be rich, or lead him on foot, if he be poor, to the brink of the ditch. ”

“ Numbers of human bodies lie scattered in the way, and by the way-side, torn to pieces by wild beasts. Some may, perhaps, wonder that the bodies of Christians are allowed to remain unburied, but it is not surprising when we consider that there is not much earth on the hard rock to dig a grave; and if earth were not wanting, who would be so simple as to leave his company, and go alone to dig a grave for a companion? ”

“ But the good Christians, that are stable in their faith, enter without peril; for they will first shrive them, and mark them with the sign of the holy cross, so that the fiends have no power over them. But although they are without peril, yet they are not without dread when they see the devils visibly and bodily all about them, that make full many divers assaults and menaces, in air and on earth, and terrify them with strokes of thunder blasts and of tempests. And the greatest fear is that God will take vengeance then of that which men have misdone against his will. ”

“ Toward the head of that forest is the city of Polombe, above which is a great mountain, also called Polombe, from which the city has its name. And at the foot of that mountain is a fair and great well, which has the odour and savour of all spices; and at every hour of the day it changes its odour and savour diversely; and whoever drinks three times fasting of the water of that well is whole of all kind of sickness that he has; and they that dwell there, and drink often of that well, never have sickness, but appear always young. ”

“ And in summer, in all these countries, fall many tempests, and dreadful storms of thunder and lightning, which kill many people, and beasts also. And the temperature passes suddenly from extreme heat to extreme cold. It is the foulest country, and the most cursed, and the poorest, that men know. And their prince, whom they call Batho, dwells at the city of Orda. And truly no good man would dwell in that country; for it is not worthy for dogs to dwell in. ”

“ It was at Adena I first saw the two young men who had got their eyes thrust out at Mecca, after having seen the tomb of Mohammed.
The Turks bear well fatigue and a hard life; they are not incommoded, as I have witnessed, during the whole journey, by sleeping on the ground like animals. They are of a gay, cheerful humour, and willingly sing songs of the heroic deeds of their ancestors. Any one, therefore, who wishes to live with them must not be grave or melancholy, but always have a smiling countenance. They are also men of probity, and charitable toward each other. ”

“ You have, indeed, from the precipice, the most perfect prospect of Damascus. And certainly no place in the world can promise the beholder, at a distance, greater voluptuousness. It is situate in an even plain of so great extent, that you can but just discern the mountains that compass it on the farther side. It stands on the west side of the plain, at not above two miles' distance from the place where the river Barrady breaks out from between the mountains, its gardens extending almost to the very place. ”

“ And ye shall understand that I have put this book out of Latin into French, and translated it again out of French into English, that every man of my nation may understand it; and that lords and knights and other noble and worthy men that know Latin but little, and have been beyond the sea, may know and understand, if I err from defect of memory, and may redress it and amend it. For things passed out of long time from a man's mind or from his sight turn soon into forgetting: because a man's mind may not be comprehended or withheld, on account of the frailty of mankind. ”

“ One hundred and sixty paces from the church of the Sepulchre, towards the east, is the temple of our Lord. It is a very fair house, circular and lofty, and covered with lead, and well paved with white marble; but the Saracens will not suffer any Christians or Jews to come therein, for they say that no such foul sinful men should come into so holy a place: but I went in there, and in other places where I would, because I had letters of the sultan, with his great seal, and other men have commonly but his signet. ”

“ From this isle of Rhodes we go to Cyprus, where are many vines, which first produce red wine, and after one year they become white; and those wines that are most white are the clearest and best of smell. And men pass that way by a place which was a great city and a great land; and the city was called Sathalie. This city and the land were lost through the folly of a young man, who had a fair damsel whom he loved well for his paramour, and she died suddenly and was placed in a tomb of marble ”