_Of the ylande of Melke wherein dwelleth evill people._
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FROM thence menne go through many yles by sea unto an yle that men
call Melke, and there be full yll people, for they haue none other
delyte but to fyght and slee men, for they drinke gladly mans blood,
which blood they call good, and they that maye most sleay is of moste
name amonge them. And if two men there be at stryfe and after bee made
at one, it behoveth them to drink eyther others blood, or else the
accorde is nought. From this yle men go to an yle that is called
Tracota where all men are as beastes & not reasonable, they dwell in
caves, for they haue not wyt to make them houses, they eate adders[1]
and they speake not, but they make such a noyse as adders doe one to
another, and they make no force of ryches but of a stone that hath
forty colours, and it is called Traconyt after that yle, they know not
the vertue thereof but they covete it for the great fayreness.
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[Footnote 1: Pliny speaks (Book 7, cap. 2) of adder-eating
people in India and elsewhere, but he says they live to the
age of four hundred years, which is supposed to be owing to
the flesh of vipers, which they use as food, in consequence
of which they are free from all noxious animals, both in their
hair and their garments. In book 29, c. 38, he also gives
directions for the preparation of viper's flesh for food.]