_To come againe to Constantinople for to go toward the holy land._
[Illustration]
NOW come we againe for to know the way from Constantinople. He that
will go through Turkey, he goeth through the citie of Nyke,[1] and
passeth through the gate of Chivitot that is right highe, and it is
a myle and a halfe from Nyke, and who so wyll go by the brache[2] of
Sainct George, and by the Greeke sea there as Sainct Nicolas lyeth,
and other places. First men come to the yle of Silo, and in that ile
groweth mastike upon small trees as plomtrees, or chery trees. And
then after men go through the ile of Pathmos, where Saint John the
Evangelist wrote the Apocalips and I do you to wete,[3] when our Lorde
Jesu Christ died, Saint John the Evangelist was of the age of xxxii
yeare and he lived after the passion of Christ lxiii[4] year and then
died. Fro Pathmos men go to Ephesim which is a faire citie and neare
to the sea, and there died sainct John & he was buried behind the high
aulter in a tombe, and there is a fayre church, for Christen men were
wont to holde that place, but in the tombe of sainct John is nothing
but Manna, for his body was translated[5] into paradise, & the
Turkes hold now that citie and the church, and all Asia the lesse,
& therefore is Asia the lesse called Turkey. And ye shall understand
that sainct John did make his grave ther in his lyfe and laied
himselfe therein all quick[6] & therefore some say he dyed not, but
that he resteth there unto the day of judgement, and therefore truely
there is a great marvaile, for men may see there apertly[7] y^e earth
of the tombe many times stirre and move, as there were a quick thing
under. And from Ephesim, men go through many iles in the sea unto the
citie of Pateran[8] where sainct Nicolas was borne and so to Marca[9]
where he by the grace of God was chosen Bishop, and there groweth
right good wyne and strong, that men call the wyne of Marca. From
thence men go to the yle of Crete, which the Emperor gave sometime
to Jonais.[10] And then men passe through the yles of Cophos and
Lango[11] of the which yles Ipocras[12] was lord, and some say that in
the yle of Lango is Ipocras daughter in maner of a Dragon, which is a
hundred foote long as men saye, for I have not seene it, and they of
the yles call hir the lady of the countrey, and she lyeth in an olde
castell and sheweth hir thrise in the yeare, and she doth no man harme
and she is thus changed from a damosell to a dragon through a goddesse
that men call Diana, and men say that she shall dwell so unto the tyme
that a knighte come that is so hardy as to go to hir and kisse hir
mouthe, and then shall she tourne againe to hir owne kinde, and be
a woman, and after that she shall not live long. And it is not long
sith[13] a knight of the Rodes[14] that was hardy and valiant said
that he would kisse hir, and whan the Dragon began to lifte up hir
head againste him, and he saw it was so hideous, he fled awaye, and
the Dragon in hir anger bare the knight on a roche, and of[15] that
cast him into the sea and so he was lost.
[Footnote 1: ? Salonika.]
[Footnote 2: See foot note, _ante_, p. 19.]
[Footnote 3: Know.]
[Footnote 4: _Pynson_ says 67.]
[Footnote 5: Taken up to heaven.]
[Footnote 6: Living, alive.]
[Footnote 7: Openly.]
[Footnote 8: Patera, a city of Lycia.]
[Footnote 9: Myra, also in Lycia.]
[Footnote 10: The Genoese.]
[Footnote 11: The island of Cos.]
[Footnote 12: Hippocrates, the famous physician, who was born
at Cos.]
[Footnote 13: Since.]
[Footnote 14: The island of Rhodes.]
[Footnote 15: Off.]
[Decoration]