_Of a marvelous vale that is beside the river of Physon._
AND a lyttle from that place, on the left syde besyde the river of
Physon is a great marvaile. There is a vale betwene two hils, and that
is foure myle longe, and some men call it the valay enchaunted, some
y^e valey of Divels, some the valey perylous,[1] and in that valey are
many tempests & a great noyse very hydeous bothe day & night & sound
as it were a noise of Taburines[2] of nakers[3] & of trumpets as it
were a great feast. This valey is all full of devils, and hath ben
alway, and men say thereby y^t it is a enter[4] to hell. In this
valey is muche golde & silver, wherefore many Christen men & other go
thether for covetise of that golde and silver, but few of them come
out againe, for they are anon strangled with divels. And in the middes
of that vale on a roche is a visage, & the head of a fiend bodely,
right hideous and dreadfull to see, and there is nothing sene but the
head to y^e shoulders, but there is no christen men in y^e world nor
other so hardy but y^t he should be greatly afraide to beholde it, for
he beholdeth eche man so sharply & felly[5] & his eyes are so staring
& so sprinkling[6] as fyre & he chaungeth so often his countenaunce
that no man dare come nere for all the worlde, and out of his mouth &
his nose cometh great plenty of fyer of divers colours, & sometime
is the fyer so stynking, that no man may suffer it, but alway a good
christen man, and one that is stedfast in the fayth may go therein
without harme, if they shrive them well and blesse them with the token
of the crosse, then shall the divels haue no power over them. And ye
shall understande that when my felowes & I were in that valey, we had
full great dought[7] if we shold put our bodies in a venture to go
through it, & some of my felows agreed therto, & some wold not, and
there were in our company two friers minours of Lombardy & sayd if any
of us wold go in, they wold also, as they had sayd so, and upon
trust of them we sayd that we wold go, & we dyd sing a masse and were
shriven & houseled,[8] and we went in xiiii men & when we came out we
were but x[9] & we wist not whether our felowes were loste there, or
that they turned againe, but we saw no more of them, others of our
felowes that would not go in with us, went about another way for to
be before us, and so they were. And we went through the valey and saw
there many marvailous things, gold silver precious stones & jewels
great plenty, as we thought, whether it were so or no, I know not, for
divels are so subtill & false, that they make many times a thinge
to seme y^t is not, for to deceive men, and therefore I wold touch
nothing for dread of enimies that I saw there in many likenesses, and
of dead bodies that I saw lye in the valey, but I dare not saye that
they were all bodies, but they were bodies through making of divels.
And we were often cast down to the earth by winde, thunder & tempest,
but God helped alway, and so passed we through that valey without
peryl or harme thankes be to God.
[Footnote 1: Perilous.]
[Footnote 2: Tambourines.]
[Footnote 3: A kind of drum, probably a kettledrum.]
[Footnote 4: Entrance.]
[Footnote 5: Evilly.]
[Footnote 6: Sparkling.]
[Footnote 7: Doubt.]
[Footnote 8: Received the Sacrament.]
[Footnote 9: Others say 9.]