OF MANY NAMES OF SULTANS, AND OF THE TOWER OF BABYLON.
And he who will go by land through the land of Babylonia, where the
sultan dwells commonly, he must get leave and grace of him, to go more
safely through the lands and countries. And to go to the Mount of Sinai,
before men go to Jerusalem, they shall go from Gaza to the castle of
Daire. And after that, they come out of Syria and enter a wilderness
where the way is sandy; and that wilderness and desert lasts eight days.
But men always find good inns and all they need of victuals. And that
wilderness is called Athylec. And when a man comes out of that desert,
he enters into Egypt, which is called Egypt Canopac: and after other
language, men call it Morsyn. And there men first find a good town,
called Belethe, which is at the end of the kingdom of Aleppo; and from
thence men go to Babylon and to Cairo.
At Babylon there is a fair church of our Lady, where she dwelt seven
years, when she fled out of the land of Judea for dread of king Herod.
And there lieth the body of St. Barbara, the virgin and martyr. And
there dwelt Joseph after he was sold by his brethren. And there[302]
Nebuchadnezzar, the king, caused the three children to be thrown into
the furnace of fire because they were in the true belief; which children
were called Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, as the psalm of _Benedicite_
says. But Nebuchadnezzar called them otherwise, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, that is to say, God glorious, God victorious, and God over all
things and realms, on account of the miracle, that he saw God's Son go
with the children through the fire, as he said. The sultan dwells in his
Calahelyke (for there is commonly his residence), in a fair castle,
strong and great, and well set upon a rock. In that castle dwell always,
to keep it and to serve the sultan, more than 6000 persons, who receive
here all necessaries from the sultan's court. I ought to know it well,
for I dwelt a great while with him as soldier in his wars against the
Bedouins; and he would have married me full highly to a great prince's
daughter if I would have forsaken my law and my belief. But I thank God
I had no will to do it for anything that he promised me. And you shall
understand that the sultan is lord of five kingdoms, that he hath
conquered and taken possession of by strength; and these are their
names: the kingdom of Canopac, that is Egypt; and the kingdom of
Jerusalem, where David and Solomon were kings; and the kingdom of Syria,
of which the city of Damascus was chief; and the kingdom of Aleppo, in
the land of Mathe; and the kingdom of Arabia, that belonged to one of
the three kings who made offering to our Lord when he was born. And he
holds many other lands in his hand. And therewithal he holds khalifs,
which is a full great thing in their language, being as much as to say,
kings. And there were wont to be five sultans, but now there is no more
but he of Egypt. The first sultan was Sarocon[303], who was of Media
(the father of Saladin), who took the khalif of Egypt and slew him, and
was made sultan by strength. After him was sultan Saladin, in whose time
the king of England, Richard I., with many others, kept the passage,
that Saladin might not pass. After Saladin, reigned his son Boradin; and
after him his nephew. After that the Comanians, who were in slavery in
Egypt, feeling themselves of great power, chose them a sultan amongst
them, who took the name of Melechesalan, in whose time St. Louis, king
of France, entered into the country and fought with him; and the sultan
took him prisoner. This sultan was slain by his own servants. And after,
they chose another to be sultan, who was called Tympieman; he delivered
St. Louis out of prison for a certain ransom. After him one of the
Comanians reigned, named Cachas, and slew Tympieman, in order to be
sultan; he took the name of Melechemes. He was succeeded by one named
Bendochdare, who slew Melechemes to be sultan, and called himself
Melechdare. In his time the good king Edward of England entered into
Syria, and did great harm to the Saracens. This sultan was poisoned at
Damascus; and his son thought to reign after him by heritage, and took
the name of Melechsache; but another, named Elphy, drove him out of the
country, and made himself sultan. This man took the city of Tripoli, and
destroyed many of the Christian men, in the year of Grace 1289; but he
was soon after slain. Elphy's son succeeded as sultan, and took the name
of Melechasseraff; he took the city of Acre, and expelled the
Christians; and he also was poisoned, upon which his brother was made
sultan, and called Melechnasser. And after, one who was called Guytoga
took him and threw him into prison in the castle of Mount Royal, and
usurped the sovereignty by force, and took the name of Melechcadelle;
and he was a Tartar. But the Comanians drove him out of the country, and
caused him much sorrow; and made one of themselves sultan, named Lachyn,
who assumed the name of Melechmanser. One day he was playing at chess,
and his sword lay beside him, and it befel that one angered him, and he
was slain with his own sword. After that there was great discord
before they could choose a sultan, and finally they agreed to take
Melechnasser, whom Guytoga had put in prison at Mount Royal. He reigned
long and governed wisely; so that his eldest son, Melechemader, was
chosen after him; he was secretly put to death by his brother, who
succeeded him, and was called Melechmadabron. And he was sultan when I
departed from that country[304].
Now you must know that the sultan can lead out of Egypt more than 20,000
men of arms; and out of Syria, and Turkey, and other countries that he
holds, he may raise more than 50,000. And all these are at his wages;
and they are always ready, besides the people of his country, who are
without number. And each of them has six score florins by the year; but
he is expected to keep three horses and a camel. And in the cities and
towns are admirals, that have the government of the people. One has four
to govern, another five, another more, and another a much greater
number. And the admiral, himself alone, receives as much as all the
other soldiers under him. And therefore, when the sultan will advance
any worthy knight, he makes him an admiral. When there is dearth, the
knights are very poor, and then they sell both their horses and their
harness. The sultan has four wives, one Christian, and three Saracens;
of whom one dwells at Jerusalem, another at Damascus, and another at
Ascalon. And when they please they remove to other cities; and when the
sultan will he may go and visit them. And he has as many paramours as he
pleases; for he causes to be brought before him the fairest and noblest
damsels of his country, who are kept and served full honourably, and
when he will have one to lie with him, he makes them all come before
him, and looks at them all to see which is most to his liking, and to
her anon he sends or throws a ring from his finger; and then anon she
shall be bathed and richly attired, and anointed with delicate things of
sweet smell, and then led to the sultan's chamber. And thus he acts as
often as he likes, when he will have any of them. No stranger comes
before the sultan without being clothed in cloth of gold, or of Tartary,
or of Camaka, in the Saracens' guise, and according to the usage of the
Saracens. And when men see the sultan for the first time, be it at the
window, or in any other place, they must kneel to him and kiss the
earth, for that is the manner for those who speak with the sultan to do
reverence to him. When messengers of foreign countries come before him,
the sultan's people, when the strangers speak to him, stand round the
sultan with drawn swords and gysarmes and axes, their arms raised up on
high with their weapons, to smite them, if they say any word that is
displeasing to the sultan. Neither does any stranger come before him
without receiving a promise and grant of what he asks reasonably, if it
be not against his law; and so do other princes beyond. For they say
that no man should come before a prince without being the better, and
departing from his presence in greater gladness than when he came before
him.
You must understand that the Babylon of which I have spoken, where the
sultan dwells, is not that great Babylon where the diversity of
languages was first made by the miracle of God when the great tower of
Babel was begun, of which the walls were sixty-four furlongs high; for
that is in the great deserts of Arabia, on the way as men go toward the
kingdom of Chaldea. But it is full long since any man dare approach to
the tower; for it is all desert and full of dragons and great serpents,
and infested by divers venomous beasts. That tower, with the city, was
twenty-five miles in the circuit of the walls, as they of the country
say, and as men may judge by estimation, according to what men of the
country tell. And though it is called the tower of Babylon, yet there
were ordained within it many mansions and great dwelling-places, in
length and breadth; and it included an extensive district, for the tower
alone was ten miles square. That tower was founded by king Nimrod, who
was king of that country, and he was the first king in the world. He
caused an image to be made in the likeness of his father, and obliged
all his subjects to worship it, in imitation of which other lords
begun to do the same, and this was the commencement of idols and
simulacres[305]. The town and city were situated in a fair country on a
plain, which they call the country of Samar: the walls of the city were
two hundred cubits in height, and fifty cubits in breadth. The river
Euphrates ran through the city and about the tower; but Cyrus, king of
Persia, took from them the river, and destroyed all the city and the
tower also, for he divided the river into three hundred and sixty small
rivers, because he had sworn that he would put the river in such point
that a woman might easily pass it without taking up her clothes;
because he had lost many worthy men that tried to pass the river by
swimming[306]. And from Babylon, where the sultan dwells, to go right
between the east and the north, towards the great Babylon, it is forty
days across the desert. But the great Babylon is not in the land and
power of the said sultan, but in the power and lordship of the king of
Persia, who holds it of the great chan, who is the greatest emperor and
the most sovereign lord of all the parts beyond; and he is lord of the
isles of Cathay and of many other isles, and of a great part of India.
His land borders unto Prester John's land; and he possesses so much
land, that he knoweth not the end of it. And he is a mightier and
greater lord without comparison than the sultan. I shall speak more
fully of his royal estate and of his might when I treat of India.
The city of Mechon (Mecca), where Mohammed is buried, is also in the
great desert of Arabia. His body lies there very honourably in their
temple, which the Saracens call mosque. It is from Babylon the Less,
where the sultan dwells, to Mechon, about thirty-two days. The realm of
Arabia is a very great country; but therein is over much desert, and no
man may dwell there in that desert, for want of water, because the land
is all gravelly and full of sand. And it is dry and entirely barren,
because it hath no moisture, and therefore is there so much desert. And
if it had rivers and wells, and the land were as in other parts, it
would be as full of people and as well inhabited as in other places. For
there is a great multitude of people wherever the land is inhabited.
Arabia reaches from the borders of Chaldea to the extremity of Africa,
and borders on the land of Idumea, towards the end of Botron. And in
Chaldea the chief city is Baldak[307]. The chief city of Africa is
Carthage, which Dido, who was Eneas's wife, founded. Mesopotamia
stretches also unto the deserts of Arabia; it is an extensive country,
and in it is the city of Haran, where Abraham's father dwelt, and from
whence Abraham departed by command of the angel[308]. And of that city
was Ephraem[309], who was a celebrated scholar. Theophilus was also of
that city, whom our Lady saved from the evil one[310]. Mesopotamia
reaches from the river Euphrates to the river Tigris, lying between
those two rivers; and beyond the Tigris is Chaldea, which is a very
extensive kingdom. In that realm, at Baldak abovesaid, the khalifs
formerly dwelt, who were both as emperors and popes of the Arabians,
lords spiritual and temporal. They were the successors of Mohammed, from
whom they were descended. The city of Baldak was formerly called
Sutis[311], and was founded by Nebuchadnezzar. There dwelt the holy
prophet Daniel, and there he saw visions of heaven, and there he made
the exposition of dreams[312]. There were formerly three khalifs, and
they dwelt in the city of Baldak abovesaid.
The khalif of Egypt dwelt at Cairo, beside Babylon; and at Marrok, on
the west sea, dwelt the khalif of the Barbarians[313] and Africans. But
there are now none of the khalifs, nor have there been any since the
time of the sultan Saladin, since which the sultan calls himself the
khalif, and thus the khalifs have lost their name. You must know that
Babylon the Less, where the sultan dwells, and the city of Cairo, which
is near it, are great and fair cities, the one nearly adjacent to the
other. Babylon is situated on the river Gyson, sometimes called the
Nile, which comes out of terrestrial Paradise. The river Nile, every
year, when the sun enters the sign of Cancer, begins to increase, and
continues increasing as long as the sun is in Cancer and in Leo. And it
increases to such a degree, that it is sometimes twenty cubits or more
deep, and then it does great harm to the goods that are upon the land;
for then no man can till the earth on account of its great moistness,
and therefore there is dear time in that country. And also, when it
increaseth little, it is dear time in that country, for want of
moisture. And when the sun is in the sign of Virgo, then begins the
river to wane and decrease gradually, so that when the sun is entered
into the sign of Libra, then they enter between these rivers. This river
comes from terrestrial Paradise, between the deserts of India; and after
it descends on the earth, and runs through many extensive countries
under earth; and after it comes out under a high hill, which they call
Alothe, between India and Ethiopia, at a distance of five months'
journey from the entrance of Ethiopia; and after it environs all
Ethiopia and Mauritania, and goes all along from the land of Egypt, to
the city of Alexandria, to the end of Egypt, where it falls into the
sea. About this river are many birds and fowls, as storks, which they
call ibes.
Egypt is a long country, but it is narrow, because they may not enlarge
it towards the desert for want of water. And the country is situated
along the river Nile; so that that river may serve by floods or
otherwise, that when it flows it may spread abroad through the country.
For it raineth but little in that country, and for that cause they have
no water, unless it be by the overflowing of that river. And as it does
not rain, the air is always pure and clear; therefore, in that country
are good astronomers, for they find there no clouds to obstruct them.
The city of Cairo is very great, more extensive than that of Babylon the
Less; and it is situated above towards the desert of Syria, a little
above the river aforesaid. In Egypt there are two parts; Upper Egypt,
which is towards Ethiopia, and Lower Egypt, which is towards Arabia. In
Egypt is the land of Rameses and the land of Goshen. Egypt is a strong
country, for it has many dangerous havens, because of the great rocks,
that are strong and dangerous to pass by. Towards the east of Egypt is
the Red Sea, which extends to the city of Coston; and towards the west
is the country of Lybia, which is a very dry land, and unfruitful, on
account of the excess of heat. And that land is called Fusthe. And
towards the south is Ethiopia. And towards the north is the desert,
which extends to Syria. Thus the country is strong on all sides. And it
is full fifteen days' journey in length, and more than twice as much of
desert, and it is but two days in breadth. Between Egypt and Nubia there
is full twelve days of desert. The men of Nubia are Christians, but they
are black, like the Moors, on account of the great heat of the sun.
In Egypt there are five provinces: one is called Sahythe; the other,
Demeseer; another, Resithe[314], which is an isle in the Nile; another,
Alexandria; and another, the land of Damiette. This latter city was once
very strong, but it was twice taken by the Christians, and therefore the
Saracens have beaten down the walls. And with the walls and the tower
thereof the Saracens made another city farther from the sea, and called
it New Damiette, so that now the older town of Damiette is uninhabited.
That city of Damiette is one of the havens of Egypt, and at Alexandria
is the other. This is a very strong city; but it has no water except
what is brought by conduit from the Nile, which enters into their
cisterns; and if any one stopped that water from them they could not
hold out a siege. In Egypt there are but few forts or castles, because
the country is so strong of itself.
In Egypt is the city of Heliopolis, that is to say, the city of the Sun,
in which there is a temple, made round, after the shape of the temple of
Jerusalem. The priests of that temple have all their writings dated by
the bird called Phœnix, of which there is but one in the world. It
comes to burn itself on the altar of the temple at the end of five
hundred years, for so long it lives; and then the priests array their
altar, and put thereon spices, and sulphur, and other things that will
burn quickly, and the Phœnix comes and burns itself to ashes. The next
day they find in the ashes a worm; and the second day after they find a
bird, alive and perfect; and the third day it flies away[315]. This
bird is often seen flying in those countries; it is somewhat larger than
an eagle, and has a crest of feathers on its head greater than that of a
peacock; its neck is yellow, its beak blue, and its wings of a purple
colour, and the tail is yellow and red. It is a very handsome bird to
look at against the sun, for it shines very gloriously and nobly.
Also, in Egypt, there are gardens with trees and herbs which bear fruit
seven times in the year. And in that land abundance of fair emeralds are
found, which are on that account cheaper than elsewhere. When it rains,
once in the summer, in the land of Egypt, the country is all full of
great mires. At Cairo they sell commonly in the market, as we do beasts,
both men and women of a different religion. And there is a common house
in that city, which is all full of small furnaces, to which the
townswomen bring their eggs of hens, geese, and ducks, to be put into
the furnaces; and they that keep that house cover them with horse-dung,
without hen, goose, or duck, or any other fowl, and at the end of three
weeks or a month they come again and take their chickens, and nourish
them and bring them forth, so that all the country is full of them. And
this they do there both winter and summer.
In that country also, and in some others, are found long apples in their
season, which they call apples of Paradise; and they are very sweet and
of good savour. And though you cut them in ever so many slices or parts,
across or end-wise, you will always find in the middle the figure of the
holy cross. But they will rot within eight days, for which reason they
cannot be carried to far countries. They have great leaves, a foot and a
half long, and proportionately broad. They find there also the
apple-tree of Adam, the fruit of which has a bite on one side. And there
are also fig-trees which bear no leaves, but figs grow upon the small
branches; and men call them figs of Pharoah. Also near Cairo is the
field where balm grows: it comes out on small trees, that are no higher
than the girdle of a man's breeches, and resemble the wood of the wild
vine. And in that field are seven wells, which our Lord Jesus
Christ made with one of his feet, when he went to play with other
children[316]. That field is not so well closed but men may enter at
their will; but in the season when the balm is growing good guards are
placed there, that no man dare enter. This balm grows in no other place
but this; and though men bring of the plants to plant in other
countries, they grow well and fair, but they bring forth no fruit; and
the leaves of balm never fall. They cut the branches with a sharp flint
stone, or with a sharp bone; for if any one cut them with iron,
it would destroy their virtue and nature. The Saracens call the wood
_Enochbalse_; and the fruit, which resembles cubebs, they call
_Abebissam_; and the liquor that drops from the branches they call
_Guybalse_. They always cause that balm to be cultivated by Christians,
or else it would not fructify, as the Saracens say themselves, for it
hath been oftentimes proved. Men say also that balm grows in India the
Greater, in that desert where the trees of the sun and moon spake to
Alexander[317]. But I have not seen it, for I have not been so far
upward, because there are too many perilous passages. And you must know
that a man ought to take great care in buying balm; for, if he does not
know it well, he may very easily be deceived; for they sell a gum called
turpentine instead of balm, putting thereto a little balm to give a good
odour. And some put wax in oil of the wood of the fruit of balm, and say
that it is balm; and some distil cloves of gilofre and spikenard of
Spain, and other spices that are well smelling, and the liquor from it
they call balm; and they imagine they have balm, but they are mistaken.
For the Saracens counterfeit it to deceive the Christians, as I have
seen many a time; and after them, the merchants and the apothecaries
counterfeit it again, and then it is less worth, and a great deal worse.
But I will show how you may know and prove it, to the end that you shall
not be deceived. First, you must know that the natural balm is very
clear, of citron colour, and strong smell; and if it be thick, or red,
or black, it is counterfeit. And if you will put a little balm in the
palm of your hand towards the sun, if it be fine and good you will not
be able to bear your hand in the sun's heat. Also, take a little balm
with the point of a knife, and touch it to the fire, and if it burn it
is a good sign. Take also a drop of balm, and put it into a dish, or in
a cup, with milk of a goat, and, if it be natural balm, anon it will
take and curdle the milk. Or put a drop of balm in clear water, in a cup
of silver or in a clean basin, and stir it well with the clear water;
and if the balm be fine and genuine the water will not be troubled; but
if the balm be counterfeit the water will become troubled immediately.
Also, if the balm be fine, it will fall to the bottom of the vessel, as
though it were quicksilver; for the fine balm is twice as heavy as the
balm that is counterfeited.
Now I will speak of another thing that is beyond Babylon, above the
Nile, towards the desert, between Africa and Egypt; that is, of the
granaries of Joseph[318], that he caused to be made, to keep the grains
against the dear years. They are made of stone, well made by masons'
craft; two of them are marvellously great and high, the others are not
so great. And each granary has a gate to enter within, a little above
the earth; for the land is wasted and fallen since the granaries were
made. Within they are all full of serpents; and above the granaries
without are many writings in divers languages. And some men say that
they are sepulchres of great lords, that were formerly; but that is not
true, for all the common rumour and speech of the people there, both far
and near, is that they are the granaries of Joseph; and so find they in
their writings and chronicles. On the other side, if they were
sepulchres, they would not be empty within; for you may well know, that
tombs and sepulchres are not made of such magnitude or elevation;
wherefore it is not credible that they are tombs or sepulchres.
Now I will proceed to tell you the other ways that draw towards Babylon,
where the sultan dwells, which is at the entry of Egypt; because many
people go thither first, and after that to Mount Sinai, and then return
to Jerusalem, as I have told you before. For they perform first the
longer pilgrimage, and return by the nearest ways; because the nearer
way is the more worthy, and that is Jerusalem; for no other pilgrimage
is to be compared to it. But to accomplish their pilgrimages more easily
and safely, men go first the longer way. But whoever will go to Babylon
by another way, and shorter from the countries of the west, he may go by
France, Burgundy, and Lombardy. It is not necessary to tell you the
names of the cities and towns in that way, for the way is common, and
known to every body. There are many ports where men take the sea; some
embark at Genoa; some at Venice, and pass by the Adriatic Sea, which is
called the Gulf of Venice, and divides Italy and Greece on that side;
and some go to Naples; some to Rome, and from Rome to Brindes[319], and
embark there, and in many other places. Some go by Tuscia, Campania,
Calabria, by Apulia, and by the mountains of Italy Chorisque, by
Sardinia, and by Sicily, which is a great and good isle. In that isle of
Sicily is a kind of garden, in which are many different fruits; and the
garden is green and flourishing at all seasons of the year, as well in
winter as in summer. That isle contains in compass about three hundred
and fifty French miles. Between Sicily and Italy there is but a little
arm of the sea, which men call the Faro of Messina; and Sicily is
between the Adriatic Sea and the Sea of Lombardy. From Sicily to
Calabria is but eight Lombard miles. In Sicily there is a kind of
serpent by which men assay and prove if their children be bastards or
not; for if they are born in lawful marriage, the serpents go about
them, and do them no harm; but if they are illegitimate, the serpents
bite them and kill them with their venom: and thus many wedded men
ascertain if the children be their own. Also in that isle is Mount Etna,
which men call Mount Gybell, and volcanoes, that are ever burning. And
there are seven places which burn and cast out flames of divers colours;
and by the changing of those flames, men of that country know when it
will be dearth or good time, or cold or hot, or moist or dry, or in all
other manners how the time will vary. From Italy to the volcanoes is but
twenty-five miles; and they say that the volcanoes are ways to
hell[320].
Also, for those who go by Pisa, there is an arm of the sea, where men go
to other havens in those parts, and then they pass by the isle of Greaf,
that is at Genoa; and so they arrive in Greece at the port of the city
of Myrok, or at the port of Valone, or at the city of Duras (where there
is a duke), or at other ports in those parts; and so men go to
Constantinople. And afterwards they go by water to the isle of Crete,
and to the isle of Rhodes, and so to Cyprus, and so to Athens, and from
thence to Constantinople.
To hold the more direct way by sea, it is full one thousand eight
hundred and eighty Lombard miles. And after, from Cyprus they go by sea,
and leave Jerusalem and that country on the left, and proceed to Egypt,
and arrive at the city of Damiette, at the entrance of Egypt, whence
they go to Alexandria, which is also upon the sea. In that city was St.
Catherine beheaded; and there St. Mark the Evangelist was martyred and
buried; but the emperor Leo caused his bones to be carried to Venice.
There is still at Alexandria a fair church, all white, without pictures;
and so are all the other churches which belonged to the Christians all
white within, for the Pagans and the Saracens whitewashed them, to
destroy the images of saints that were painted on the walls. The city of
Alexandria is full thirty furlongs in length, but it is but ten broad;
and it is a noble and fair city. Here the river Nile enters the sea; in
which river are found many precious stones, and much also of lignum
aloes, a kind of wood that comes out of terrestrial Paradise, and is
good for many different medicines; and it is very precious. From
Alexandria we go to Babylon, where the sultan dwells, which is situated
also on the river Nile; and this is the shortest way to go direct to
Babylon.
From Babylon to Mount Sinai, where St. Catherine lieth, you must pass by
the desert of Arabia, by which Moses led the people of Israel; and then
you pass the well which Moses made with his hand in the desert, when the
people murmured because they found nothing to drink. And then you pass
the well of Marah, of which the water was first bitter, but the children
of Israel put therein a tree, and anon the water was sweet and good to
drink. And then you go by the desert to the vale of Elim, in which vale
are twelve wells; and there are seventy-two palm-trees that bear the
dates which Moses found with the children of Israel. And from that
valley is but a good day's journey to Mount Sinai.
And those who will go by another way from Babylon go by the Red Sea,
which is an arm of the ocean. There Moses passed with the children of
Israel across the sea all dry, when Pharaoh, king of Egypt, pursued him.
That sea is about six miles broad. That sea is not redder than other
seas; but in some places the gravel is red, and therefore they call it
the Red Sea. That sea runs to the borders of Arabia and Palestine, its
extent being more than four days. Then we go by desert to the vale of
Elim, and thence to Mount Sinai. And you must know that by this desert
no man may go on horseback, because there is neither meat for horses nor
water to drink; wherefore they pass that desert with camels. For the
camel finds always food in trees and on bushes, and he can abstain from
drink two or three days, which no horse can do.
From Babylon to Mount Sinai is twelve good days' journey, and some make
it more; and some haste them, and thus make it less. And men always find
interpreters to go with them in the countries, and further beyond, until
they know the language. Travellers must carry with them victuals and
other necessaries sufficient to last through those deserts.
Mount Sinai is called the Desert of Sin, that is to say, the burning
bush; because there Moses saw our Lord God many times in form of fire
burning upon that hill, and also in a burning bush, and spake to him.
And that was at the foot of the hill. There is an abbey of monks, well
built and well closed with gates of iron for fear of wild beasts. The
monks are Arabians or Greeks; and there is a great convent, and they are
all as hermits, and drink no wine except on principal feasts; they are
very devout men, and live in poverty and simplicity on gourds and dates,
and perform great abstinence and penance. Here is the church of St.
Catherine, in which are many lamps burning, for they have enough oil of
olives both to burn in their lamps and to eat also, which plenty they
have by God's miracle: for the ravens, crows, and choughs, and other
fowls of that country, assemble there once every year, and fly thither
as in pilgrimage; and each brings a branch of bays or olive in its beak,
instead of offering, and leaves it there; of which the monks make great
plenty of oil; and this is a great marvel. And since fowls that have no
natural knowledge or reason go thither to seek that glorious Virgin,
well more ought men to seek her and worship her. Behind the altar of
that church is the place where Moses saw our Lord God in a burning bush.
When the monks enter that place they always put off both hose, and
shoes or boots, because our Lord said to Moses, "Put off thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."[321]
And the monks call that place Bezeleel, that is, the shadow of God.
Beside the high altar raised on three steps, is the chest of alabaster
containing the bones of St. Catherine, and the prelate of the monks
shows the relics to the pilgrims, and rubs the bones with an instrument
of silver, whereupon there issues a little oil, as though it were a kind
of sweating, which is neither like oil nor balm, but is very sweet of
smell; and of that they give a little to the pilgrims, for there issues
but a small quantity of the liquor. They next show the head of St.
Catherine, and the cloth that she was wrapped in, which is still all
bloody. And in that same cloth, so wrapped, the angels bore her body to
Mount Sinai, and there they buried her with it. They also show the bush
which burnt and was not consumed, in which our Lord spake to Moses; and
they have many other relics. When the prelate of the abbey is dead, I
have been informed that his lamp becomes extinguished. And when they
choose another prelate, if he be a good man and worthy to be prelate,
his lamp will light by the grace of God, without being touched by any
man. For every one of them has a lamp for himself, and by their lamps
they know well when any of them shall die; for then the light begins to
change and wax dim. And if he be chosen to be prelate, and is not
worthy, his lamp immediately goes out. Other men have told me, that he
that sings the mass for the prelate that is dead finds written upon the
altar the name of him that shall be chosen prelate. One day I asked
several of the monks how this befel. But they would not tell me, until I
said that they ought not to hide the grace that God did them, but that
they should publish it, to make the people have the more devotion, and
that they sinned in hiding God's miracle, as appeared to me. And then
they told me that it so happened often; but more I might not have of
them. In that abbey no flies, toads, or lizards, or such foul venomous
beasts, nor lice, nor fleas, ever enter, by the miracle of God and of
our Lady; for there were wont to be so many such kind of pests, that the
monks were resolved to leave the place, and were gone thence to the
mountain above, to eschew that place. But our Lady came to them and bade
them return; and since that time such vermin have never entered in and
place amongst them, nor never shall enter hereafter. Before the gate is
the well where Moses smote the stone from which the water came out
abundantly.
From that abbey you go up the mountain of Moses by many steps; and there
is, first, a church of our Lady, where she met the monks when they fled
away from the vermin just mentioned; and higher up the mountain is the
chapel of Elijah the prophet, which place they call Horeb, whereof holy
writ speaks, "And he went in the strength of that meat forty days and
forty nights, unto Horeb, the mount of God."[322] And close by is the
vine that St. John the Evangelist planted; and a little above is the
chapel of Moses, and the rock where Moses fled for dread when he saw our
Lord face to face. And in that rock is imprinted the form of his body;
for he threw himself so strongly and so hard on that rock that all his
body was buried into it, through the miracle of God[323]. And near it is
the place where our Lord gave to Moses the ten commandments of the law.
And under the rock is the cave where Moses dwelt when he fasted forty
days and forty nights. And from that mountain you pass a great valley,
to go to another mountain, where St. Catherine was buried by the angels
of our Lord; in which valley is a church of forty martyrs, where the
monks of the abbey often sing. That valley is very cold. Next you go up
the mountain of St. Catherine, which is higher than the mount of Moses;
and there, where St. Catherine was buried, is neither church nor chapel,
nor other dwelling place; but there is a heap of stones about the place
where her body was placed by the angels. There was formerly a chapel
there, but it was cast down, and the stones lie still scattered about.
And although the collect of St. Catherine says that it is the place
where our Lord gave the ten commandments to Moses, and where the blessed
virgin St. Catherine was buried, we are to understand this as meaning
that it is the same country, or in a place bearing the same name; for
both hills are called the mount of Sinai; but it is a great way from one
to the other, and a great deep valley lies between them.