_As men are passed this wyldernesse againe comming to Hierusalem._
AND when men are passed this wyldernesse towarde Hierusalem they come
to Barsabe[1] that was sometime a fayre and a lykyng towne of Christen
men, and yet is some of their churches, and in that towne dwelled
Abraham the Patryarke. This towne of Barsabe founded Uryas wife, of
whom David engendred Salomon the wyse that was Kyng of Hierusalem,
and of the xii kindes[2] of Israell, and he raigned xl yeare. And from
thence go men to the vale of Ebron, that is from thence nere xii myle
and some call it the vale of Mambre,[3] and also it is called the vale
of Teeres, for as much as Adam in that vale he wept a hundred yeare
the death of his sonne Abel that Cayne slew. And Ebron was sometime[4]
the principall Citie of the Philistines & there dwelled giaunts &
there it was so free, that all that had done evill in other places
were there saved. In Ebron Josue and[5] Calope and theyr felowship
came fyrst to espy how they might wynne the lande of promyssion. In
Ebron David raigned fyrst vii yeare and a halfe & in Hierusalem he
raigned xxxii[6] yeare and a halfe, and there be the graves of
the Patryarkes--Adam, Abraham, Jacob and theyr wyves, Eve, Sare,
Rebecca[7] and they are in the hanging[8] in the hyll. And under them
is a right fayre Churche Kirnelde[9] after the facion and maner as it
were a Castell, the which the Sarasins keepe right well, and they haue
that place in greate worship for the holy Patryarkes that lieth there,
and they suffer no Christen men ne Jewes to come therein but they have
speciall grace of the Soudan, for they holde Christen men and Jewes
but as houndes that should come in no holy place, and they call the
place Spelunke[10] or double cave or double grave; for one lyeth on
another, and the Sarasins call it in theyr language Caryatharba, that
is to say the place of Patryarkes, and the Jewes call it Arboth. And
in that same place was Abrahams house, and that was the same Abraham
which sat in his dore, and saw three persons and worshipped but one,
as holy wryt witnesseth saying, _Tres videt et unum adoravit_. That
is to saye, he saw three and worshipped but one, and him took Abraham
into his house.
[Footnote 1: Beersheba.]
[Footnote 2: Tribes.]
[Footnote 3: Mamre.]
[Footnote 4: Formerly.]
[Footnote 5: Jehoshua and Caleb (see Numbers, cap. 13).]
[Footnote 6: _Pynson_ and others say 33 years and a half.]
[Footnote 7: All other editions have "and of Lya," or Leah,
who is evidently here forgotten.]
[Footnote 8: Caves cut in the side of the rock.]
[Footnote 9: Crenelated or battlemented.]
[Footnote 10: Lat. _Spelunca_, a cave.]