OF THE EVIL CUSTOMS IN THE ISLE OF LAMARY; AND HOW THE EARTH AND
THE SEA ARE OF ROUND FORM, AS IS PROVED BY THE STAR CALLED
ANTARCTIC, WHICH IS FIXED IN THE SOUTH.
From that country men go by the Sea of Ocean, and by many divers isles
and countries which it would be too long to describe. Fifty-two days
from the land I have spoken of there is another extensive land, which
they call Lamary, in which the heat is very great; and it is the custom
there for men and women to go all naked. And they scorn when they see
foreigners going clothed, because they say that God made Adam and Eve
all naked, and that no man should be ashamed of what is according to
nature. And they say that they that are clothed are people of another
world, or people who believe not in God. And they marry there no wives,
for all the women are common; and they say they sin if they refuse any
man: for God commanded Adam and Eve, and all that come of him, that they
should increase and multiply and fill the land, therefore may no man in
that country say, "This is my wife;" and no woman may say, "This is my
husband." And when they have children, they may give them to what man
they will, who has companied with them. And all land and property also
is common, nothing being shut up, or kept under lock, one man being as
rich as another. But in that country there is a cursed custom, for they
eat more gladly man's flesh than any other flesh, although their country
abounds in flesh, fish, corn, gold, and silver, and all other goods.
Thither merchants go, who bring with them children to sell to them of
the country, and they buy them; and if they are fat they eat them anon:
and if they are lean they feed them till they are fat, and then eat
them; and they say that it is the best and sweetest flesh in the world.
Neither in that land, nor in many others beyond it, may any man see the
polar star, which is called the Star of the Sea, which is immoveable,
and is towards the north, and which we call the load-star. But they see
another star opposite to it, towards the south, which is called
antarctic. And right as shipmen here govern themselves by the load-star,
so shipmen beyond these parts are guided by the star of the south, which
appears not to us. This star, which is towards the north, that we call
the load-star, appears not to them. For which cause, we may clearly
perceive that the land and sea are of round shape and form, because
the part of the firmament appears in one country which is not
seen inanother country. And men may prove by experience and their
understanding, that if a man found passages by ships, he might go by
ship all round the world, above and beneath; which I prove thus, after
what I have seen. For I have been towards the parts of Brabant, and
found by the astrolabe[376] that the polar star is fifty-three degrees
high; and further, in Germany and Bohemia, it has fifty-eight degrees;
and still further towards the north it is sixty-two degrees and some
minutes; for I myself have measured it by the astrolabe. Now you shall
know that opposite the polar star is the other star, called antarctic,
as I have said before. These two stars are fixed; and about them all the
firmament turns as a wheel that turns on its axle-tree; so that those
stars bear the firmament in two equal parts; so that it has as much
above as it has beneath. After this I have gone towards the south, and
have found, that in Lybia we first see the antarctic star; and I have
gone so far in those countries that I have found that star higher, so
that, towards Upper Lybia, it is eighteen degrees and certain minutes.
After going by sea and land towards the country of which I spoke last,
and to other isles and lands beyond that country, I have found the
antarctic star thirty-three degrees in altitude, and some minutes. And
if I had had company and shipping to go further, I believe certainly
that we should have seen all the roundness of the firmament all about.
For, as I have told you before, the half of the firmament is between the
two stars, which half I have seen. And the other half I have seen
towards the north, under the polar star, sixty-two degrees and ten
minutes; and, towards the south, I have seen under the antarctic
thirty-three degrees and sixteen minutes; and the half of the firmament
in all contains but one hundred and eighty degrees, of which I have seen
sixty-two on the one part, and thirty-three on the other, which makes
ninety-five degrees, and nearly the half of a degree; so that I have
seen all the firmament except eighty-four degrees and the half of a
degree; and that is not the fourth part of the firmament. By which I
tell you, certainly, that men may go all round the world, as well under
as above, and return to their country, if they had company, and
shipping, and guides; and always they would find men, lands, and isles,
as well as in our part of the world. For they who are towards the
antarctic are directly feet opposite feet of them who dwell under the
polar star; as well as we and they that dwell under us are feet opposite
feet. For all parts of sea and land have their opposites, habitable or
passable.
And know well that, after what I may perceive and understand, the lands
of Prester John, emperor of India, are under us; for in going from
Scotland or from England, towards Jerusalem, men go always upwards; for
our land is in the low part of the earth, towards the west; and the land
of Prester John is in the low part of the earth, towards the east; and
they have there the day when we have night; and, on the contrary, they
have the night when we have the day; for the earth and the sea are of a
round form, as I have said before; and as men go upward to one part,
they go downward to another. Also you have heard me say that Jerusalem
is in the middle of the world; and that may be proved and shown there by
a spear which is fixed in the earth at the hour of midday, when it is
equinoxial, which gives no shadow on any side. They, therefore, that
start from the west to go towards Jerusalem, as many days as they go
upward to go thither, in so many days may they go from Jerusalem to
other confines of the superficialties of the earth beyond. And when men
go beyond that distance, towards India and to the foreign isles, they
are proceeding on the roundness of the earth and the sea, under our
country. And therefore hath it befallen many times of a thing that I
have heard told when I was young, how a worthy man departed once from
our country to go and discover the world; and so he passed India, and
the isles beyond India, where are more than five thousand isles; and so
long he went by sea and land, and so environed the world by many
seasons, that he found an isle where he heard people speak his own
language, calling on oxen in the plough such words as men speak to
beasts in his own country, whereof he had great wonder, for he knew not
how it might be. But I say that he had gone so long, by land and sea,
that he had gone all round the earth, that he was come again to his own
borders, if he would have passed forth till he had found his native
country. But he turned again from thence, from whence he was come; and
so he lost much painful labour, as himself said, a great while after,
when he was coming home; for it befell after, that he went into Norway,
and the tempest of the sea carried him to an isle; and when he was in
that isle, he knew well that it was the isle where he had heard his own
language spoken before, and the calling of the oxen at the plough. But
it seems to simple and unlearned men that men may not go under the
earth, but that they would fall from under towards the heaven. But that
may not be any more than we fall towards heaven from the earth where we
are; for from what part of the earth that men dwell, either above or
beneath, it seems always to them that they go more right than any other
people. And right as it seems to us that they be under us, so it seems
to them that we are under them; for if a man might fall from the earth
unto the firmament, by greater reason the earth and the sea, that are so
great and so heavy, should fall to the firmament; but that may not be,
and therefore saith our Lord God, "He hangeth the earth upon
nothing."[377] And although it be possible so to go all round the
world, yet of a thousand persons not one might happen to return to his
country: for, from the greatness of the earth and sea, men may go by a
thousand different ways, that no one could be sure of returning exactly
to the parts he came from, unless by chance or by the grace of God; for
the earth is very large, and contains in roundness and circuit, above
and beneath, 20,425 miles, after the opinion of the old wise
astronomers; and, after my little wit, it seems to me, saving their
reverence, that it is more; for I say thus: let there be imagined a
figure that has a great compass; and, about the point of the great
compass, which is called the centre, let there be made another little
compass; then, afterwards, let the great compass be divided by lines in
many parts, and all the lines meet at the centre; so that in as many
parts as the great compass shall be divided, in so many shall the little
one that is about the centre be divided, although the spaces be less.
Let the great compass be represented for the firmament, and the little
compass for the earth; now the firmament is divided by astronomers into
twelve signs, and every sign is divided into thirty degrees. Also let
the earth be divided into as many parts as the firmament, and let every
part answer to a degree of the firmament; and I know well that, after
the authorities in astronomy, seven hundred furlongs of earth answer to
a degree of the firmament, that is eighty-seven miles and four furlongs.
Now, multiplied by three hundred and sixty times, it makes 31,500 miles,
each of eight furlongs, according to miles of our country. So much hath
the earth in circuit after my opinion and understanding.