_Of a rich man in Prester Johan's lande named Catolonapes and
of his gardeine._
IN an yle of Prester Johans land y^t men call Miscorach, there was
a rich man y^t was called Catolonapes, he was ful rich & had a fair
castel on a hil & strong, & he made a wal all about ye hill right
strong & fayre, within he had a faire gardeine wherein were many
trees bearing all maner of fruits y^t he might find, & he had planted
therein al maner of herbes of good smel and that bare flowers, & ther
wer many faire wels, & by them was made many hals & chambers wel dight
with gold & asure, & he had made there dyverse stories of beastes
and birds y^t song & turned by engin and orbage[1] as they had been
quick,[2] & he had in his gardeine al thing that might be to man
solace & comfort, he had also in that gardeine maydens within y^e age
of xv yeare, y^e fairest y^t he myght find, & men children of the same
age, & they were clothed with clothes of gold, & he sayd that they
were aungels and he caused to be made certain hils,[3] & enclosed them
about with precious stones of Jaspy & christal & set in gold & pearls
and other maner of stones, and he had made a coundute[4] under y^e
earth, so that when he wold y^e walls[5] ran somtime with milke,
somtime with wine, somtime honey, & this place is called Paradise &
when any yong bacheler of y^e countrey, knight or sqyer, cometh to him
for solace and disport, he ledeth him into his paradise & sheweth them
these things, as the songs of birds & his damosels and wels, & he did
strike diverse Instruments of musyke, in a high tower that might
be sene, and sayde they were the aungels of God, & that place was
Paradise, that God hath graunted to those that beleved, when hee sayde
thus, _Dabo vobis terram fluentam lac & mel_. That is to say, I shall
giue you land flowing with mylk and hony. And then this rych man
dyd[6] these men drinke a maner of drinke, of which they were dronken,
& he said to them if they wold dye for his sake & when they were dead
they shold come to his paradise, and they should be of the age of
those maydens, and shold dwell alway with them, and he shold put them
in a fayrer paradise where they shold se god in his joy, and in his
majesty & then they graunted to do that he wold, and he bad them go
and sleay such a lord, or a man of the countrey that he was wroth
with, and that they should haue no dread of no man and if they were
slaine themselfe for his sake, he shold put them in his paradise when
they were dead. And so went those bachelers to sleay great lordes of
the countrey, & were slaine themselfe in hope to haue that Paradise,
and thus was he avenged of his enimies through his desert,[7] and when
rich men of the countrey perceived this cautell[8] and malice and the
will of this Catolonapes, they gathered them to gither & assayled the
castel & slew hym & destroyed all his goods and his faire places and
riches that were in his paradise, and the place of the wales[9] are
there yet, and it is not long ago since it was destroyed.
[Footnote 1: This word is very puzzling. It seems to me that
it probably means _wheel work_, from Lat. _orbis_, a circle;
but Rd. Braithwaite, in his _Arcadian Princesse_, says:
"In the lowest border of the garden, I might see a curious
_orbell_, all of touch, wherein the Syracusan tyrants were
no lesse artfully portrayed, than their severall cruelties to
life displayed."]
[Footnote 2: As if they had been alive.]
[Footnote 3: Misprint for Wells.]
[Footnote 4: Conduit.]
[Footnote 5: Wells.]
[Footnote 6: Made.]
[Footnote 7: Deceit.]
[Footnote 8: Ill intent, evil mind.]
[Footnote 9: Wells.]