_For to turne on this syde of Galyle._
NOW sythen I haue tolde you of many maners of men, that dwell in the
countreys before said, now will I tourne againe to my waye for to
tourne uppon this side. Now he that will tourne from the lande of
Galyle, that I spake of, to come on this syde, he shall go through
Damas that is a fayre citie & full of good marchaundises, and it is
three Journeys from the sea and five journeis from Hierusalem, but
they cary marchaundises upon camels, mules, horses and dromedaries and
other maner of beastes. This citie of Damas founded Helyzeus, that was
Abrahams servaunte before Ysaac was borne, and he thought to haue bene
Abrahams heyre and therefore he named that citie Damas. And in that
place slew Cayne his brother Abel, and besyde Damas is y^e mount of
Syry, and in y^t Citie is many a Phisicion & y^t holy man. S. Paule was
a phisicion to saue mens bodys before y^t he was Converted, and after,
he was a phisicyon of soules. And from Damas men come by a place
called our Lady of Sardmarch,[1] that is fiue myle from Damas & it is
on a roch & there is a fayre churche and there dwell Monkes & Nunnes,
crysten, in the church, behynde the high auter is a table of tree,[2]
on the whiche table the ymage of our lady was depainted that many
tymes was turned into fleshe, but the ymage is now sene but a lyttle,
but evermore through grace of God, the table droppeth oyle, as it were
an Olyfe, & there is a vessell of marble under the table to receive
the oyle, thereof they giue to Pylgrimes, for it maketh whole many
sicknesses, and he that kepeth it clenely a year, after a yeare, it
turneth to fleshe and bloud. Betwene the citie of Darke and the citie
of Raphane is a ryver that men call Sabatory, for on the Saterday it
runneth fast, and all the weeke else it standeth styll and runneth not
or little. And there is another ryver that in the night freseth fast
and upon the day no frost is seene. And so men go by a citie that men
call Berugh,[3] and there men go into the sea that will go into Cipres
and they aryve at a porte of Sur or of Thyrry[4] & then men go to
Cipres, or else men go or may goe from the porte of Thyry ryght, and
come not to Cypres and arryve at some haven of Grece & there come men
into those countreys by ways that I haue spoken of before.
[Illustration]
[Footnote 1: Others say Sardenak.]
[Footnote 2: On wood panel.]
[Footnote 3: Others say Beruthe.]
[Footnote 4: Tyre.]