_Of two other yles, one is called Orel, & the other Argete where
are many gold mines._
THERE are more eastward two other yles--y^e one is called Orell and
the other Argete of whom all the land is mine of gold & silver. In
those yles many men se no sters[1] clere shining, but one starre y^t
is called Canapos[2] and there many men se not y^e Mone but in the
last quarter. In that yle is a great hyll of golde that pismyres[3]
kepe, & they do fine golde from the other that is not fine golde, and
the pismyres are as great as houndes, so that no man dare come there
for dread of pismyres that should assayle them so that men may not
worke in that gold nor get thereof but by subtiltie, and therefore
when it is righte hote the pismyres hide them in the earth from
undern[4] to none of the daye, and then men of the countrey take
Cameles and dormedaries and other beastes & go thither and charge them
with gold and go away fast or the pismyres come out of the earth. And
other times when it is not so hot y^t the pismyres hide them not, they
take mares that haue foles, and they lay upon these mares two long
vessels as it were two small barels and the mouth upwards and drive
them thether and holde theyr foles at home, and when the pismyres se
these vessels they spring therein, for they haue[5] of kinde to leue
no hole nor pyt open, and anone they fyl these vessels with golde, and
when men think that the vessels be full they take the foles and bring
them as nere as they dare, and then they whine, and the mares heare
them, and anone they come to theyr foles and so they take the gold,
for these pismyres will suffer beastes for to go among them, but no
men.
[Footnote 1: Stars.]
[Footnote 2: Canopus, a star of the first magnitude, in the
rudder of the constellation _Argo_.]
[Footnote 3: Ants.]
[Footnote 4: See footnote, _ante_, p. 125.]
[Footnote 5: For it is their habit.]