_Of the Dead Sea_; _and of the Flome Jordan_. _Of the Head of Saint John
the Baptist_; _and of the Usages of the Samaritans_
AND from Jericho, a three mile, is the Dead Sea. About that sea groweth
much alum and of alkatran. Between Jericho and that sea is the land of
Engeddi. And there was wont to grow the balm; but men make draw the
branches thereof and bear them to be grafted at Babylon; and yet men
clepe them vines of Geddi. At a coast of that sea, as men go from
Arabia, is the mount of the Moabites, where there is a cave, that men
clepe Karua. Upon that hill led Balak, the son of Beor, Balaam the
priest for to curse the people of Israel.
That Dead Sea parteth the land of Ind and of Arabia, and that sea lasteth
from Soara unto Arabia. The water of that sea is full bitter and salt,
and, if the earth were made moist and wet with that water, it would never
bear fruit. And the earth and the land changeth often his colour. And
it casteth out of the water a thing that men clepe asphalt, also great
pieces, as the greatness of an horse, every day and on all sides. And
from Jerusalem to that sea is 200 furlongs. That sea is in length five
hundred and four score furlongs, and in breadth an hundred and fifty
furlongs; and it is clept the Dead Sea, for it runneth nought, but is
ever unmovable. And neither man, ne beast, ne nothing that beareth life
in him ne may not die in that sea. And that hath been proved many times,
by men that have deserved to be dead that have been cast therein and left
therein three days or four, and they ne might never die therein; for it
receiveth no thing within him that beareth life. And no man may drink of
the water for bitterness. And if a man cast iron therein, it will float
above. And if men cast a feather therein, it will sink to the bottom,
and these be things against kind.
And also, the cities there were lost because of sin. And there beside
grow trees that bear full fair apples, and fair of colour to behold; but
whoso breaketh them or cutteth them in two, he shall find within them
coals and cinders, in token that by wrath of God the cities and the land
were burnt and sunken into hell. Some men clepe that sea the lake
Dalfetidee; some, the flome of Devils; and some the flome that is ever
stinking. And into that sea sunk the five cities by wrath of God; that
is to say, Sodom, Gomorrah, Aldama, Zeboim, and Zoar, for the abominable
sin of sodomy that reigned in them. But Zoar, by the prayer of Lot, was
saved and kept a great while, for it was set upon a hill; and yet sheweth
thereof some part above the water, and men may see the walls when it is
fair weather and clear. In that city Lot dwelt a little while; and there
was he made drunk of his daughters, and lay with them, and engendered of
them Moab and Ammon. And the cause why his daughters made him drunk and
for to lie by him was this: because they saw no man about them, but only
their father, and therefore they trowed that God had destroyed all the
world as he had done the cities, as he had done before by Noah’s flood.
And therefore they would lie by with their father for to have issue, and
for to replenish the world again with people to restore the world again
by them; for they trowed that there had been no more men in all the
world; and if their father had not been drunk, he had not lain with them.
And the hill above Zoar men cleped it then Edom and after men cleped it
Seir, and after Idumea. Also at the right side of that Dead Sea,
dwelleth yet the wife of Lot in likeness of a salt stone; for that she
looked behind her when the cities sunk into hell. This Lot was Haran’s
son, that was brother to Abraham; and Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and Milcah,
Nahor’s wife, were sisters to the said Lot. And the same Sarah was of
eld four score and ten year when Isaac her son was gotten on her. And
Abraham had another son Ishmael that he gat upon Hagar his chamberer.
And when Isaac his son was eight days old, Abraham his father let him be
circumcised, and Ishmael with him that was fourteen year old: wherefore
the Jews that come of Isaac’s line be circumcised the eighth day, and the
Saracens that come of Ishmael’s line be circumcised when they be fourteen
year of age.
And ye shall understand, that within the Dead Sea, runneth the flom
Jordan, and there it dieth, for it runneth no further more, and that is a
place that is a mile from the church of Saint John the Baptist toward the
west, a little beneath the place where that Christian men bathe them
commonly. And a mile from flom Jordan is the river of Jabbok, the which
Jacob passed over when he came from Mesopotamia. This flom Jordan is no
great river, but it is plenteous of good fish; and it cometh out of the
hill of Lebanon by two wells that be clept Jor and Dan, and of the two
wells hath it the name. And it passeth by a lake that is clept Maron.
And after it passeth by the sea of Tiberias, and passeth under the hills
of Gilboa; and there is a full fair vale, both on that one side and on
that other of the same river. And men go [on] the hills of Lebanon, all
in length unto the desert of Pharan; and those hills part the kingdom of
Syria and the country of Phoenicia; and upon those hills grow trees of
cedar that be full high, and they bear long apples, and as great as a
man’s head.
And also this flom Jordan departeth the land of Galilee and the land of
Idumea and the land of Betron, and that runneth under earth a great way
unto a fair plain and a great that is clept Meldan in Sarmois; that is to
say, Fair or market in their language, because that there is often fairs
in that plain. And there becometh the water great and large. In that
plain is the tomb of Job.
And in that flom Jordan above-said was our Lord baptised of Saint John,
and the voice of God the Father was heard saying: _Hic est Filius meus
dilectus_, _etc._; that is to say, ‘This is my beloved Son, in the which
I am well pleased; hear him!’ and the Holy Ghost alighted upon him in
likeness of a culver; and so at his baptising was all the whole Trinity.
And through that flome passed the children of Israel, all dry feet; and
they put stones there in the middle place, in token of the miracle that
the water withdrew him so. Also in that flome Jordan Naaman of Syria
bathed him, that was full rich, but he was mesell; and there anon he took
his health.
About the flome Jordan be many churches where that many Christian men
dwelled. And nigh thereto is the city of Ai that Joshua assailed and
took. Also beyond the flome Jordan is the vale of Mamre, and that is a
full fair vale. Also upon the hill that I spake of before, where our
Lord fasted forty days, a two mile long from Galilee, is a fair hill and
an high, where the enemy the fiend bare our Lord the third time to tempt
him, and shewed him all the regions of the world and said, _Hec omnia
tibi dabo_, _si cadens adoraveris me_; that is to say, ‘All this shall I
give thee, if thou fall and worship me.’
Also from the Dead Sea to go eastward, out of the marches of the Holy
Land that is clept the Land of Promission, is a strong castle and a fair,
in an hill that is clept Carak in Sarmois; that is to say, Royally. That
castle let make King Baldwin, that was King of France, when he had
conquered that land, and put it into Christian men’s hands for to keep
that country; and for that cause was it clept the Mount Royal. And under
it there is a town that hight Sobach, and there, all about, dwell
Christian men, under tribute.
From thence go men to Nazareth, of the which our Lord beareth the
surname. And from thence there is three journeys to Jerusalem: and men
go by the province of Galilee by Ramath, by Sothim and by the high hill
of Ephraim, where Elkanah and Hannah the mother of Samuel the prophet
dwelled. There was born this prophet; and, after his death, he was
buried at Mount Joy, as I have said you before.
And then go men to Shiloh, where the Ark of God with the relics were kept
long time under Eli the prophet. There made the people of Hebron
sacrifice to our Lord, and they yielded up their vows. And there spake
God first to Samuel, and shewed him the mutation of Order of Priesthood,
and the mystery of the Sacrament. And right nigh, on the left side, is
Gibeon and Ramah and Benjamin, of the which holy writ speaketh of.
And after men go to Sichem, some-time clept Sichar; and that is in the
province of Samaritans. And there is a full fair vale and a fructuous;
and there is a fair city and a good that men clepe Neople. And from
thence is a journey to Jerusalem. And there is the well, where our Lord
spake to the woman of Samaritan. And there was wont to be a church, but
it is beaten down. Beside that well King Rehoboam let make two calves of
gold and made them to be worshipped, and put that one at Dan and that
other at Bethel. And a mile from Sichar is the city of Luz; and in that
city dwelt Abraham a certain time. Sichem is a ten mile from Jerusalem,
and it is clept Neople; that is for to say, the New City. And nigh
beside is the tomb of Joseph the son of Jacob that governed Egypt: for
the Jews bare his bones from Egypt and buried them there, and thither go
the Jews often-time in pilgrimage with great devotion. In that city was
Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, ravished, for whom her brethren slew many
persons and did many harms to the city. And there beside is the hill of
Gerizim, where the Samaritans make their sacrifice: in that hill would
Abraham have sacrificed his son Isaac. And there beside is the vale of
Dotaim, and there is the cistern, where Joseph, was cast in of his
brethren, which they sold; and that is two mile from Sichar.
From thence go men to Samaria that men clepe now Sebast; and that is the
chief city of that country, and it sits between the hill of Aygnes as
Jerusalem doth. In that city was the sittings of the twelve tribes of
Israel; but the city is not now so great as it was wont to be. There was
buried Saint John the Baptist between two prophets, Elisha and Abdon; but
he was beheaded in the castle of Macharim beside the Dead Sea, and after
he was translated of his disciples, and buried at Samaria. And there let
Julianus Apostata dig him up and let burn his bones (for he was at that
time emperor) and let winnow the ashes in the wind. But the finger that
shewed our Lord, saying, _Ecce Agnus Dei_; that is to say, ‘Lo! the Lamb
of God,’ that would never burn, but is all whole;—that finger let Saint
Thecla, the holy virgin, be born into the hill of Sebast; and there make
men great feast.
In that place was wont to be a fair church; and many other there were;
but they be all beaten down. There was wont to be the head of Saint John
Baptist, enclosed in the wall. But the Emperor Theodosius let draw it
out, and found it wrapped in a little cloth, all bloody; and so he let it
to be born to Constantinople. And yet at Constantinople is the hinder
part of the head, and the fore part of the head, till under the chin, is
at Rome under the church of Saint Silvester, where be nuns of an hundred
orders: and it is yet all broilly, as though it were half-burnt, for the
Emperor Julianus above-said, of his cursedness and malice, let burn that
part with the other bones, and yet it sheweth; and this thing hath been
proved both by popes and by emperors. And the jaws beneath, that hold to
the chin, and a part of the ashes and the platter that the head was laid
in, when it was smitten off, is at Genoa; and the Genoese make of it
great feast, and so do the Saracens also. And some men say that the head
of Saint John is at Amiens in Picardy; and other men say that it is the
head of Saint John the Bishop. I wot never, but God knoweth; but in what
wise that men worship it, the blessed Saint John holds him a-paid.
From this city of Sebast unto Jerusalem is twelve mile. And between the
hills of that country there is a well that four sithes in the year
changeth his colour, sometime green, sometime red, sometime clear and
sometime trouble; and men clepe that well, Job. And the folk of that
country, that men clepe Samaritans, were converted and baptized by the
apostles; but they hold not well their doctrine, and always they hold
laws by themselves, varying from Christian men, from Saracens, Jews and
Paynims. And the Samaritans lieve well in one God, and they say well
that there is but only one God, that all formed, and all shall doom; and
they hold the Bible after the letter, and they use the Psalter as the
Jews do. And they say that they be the right sons of God. And among all
other folk, they say that they be best beloved of God, and that to them
belongeth the heritage that God behight to his beloved children. And
they have also diverse clothing and shape to look on than other folk
have; for they wrap their heads in red linen cloth, in difference from
others. And the Saracens wrap their heads in white linen cloth; and the
Christian men, that dwell in the country, wrap them in blue of Ind; and
the Jews in yellow cloth. In that country dwell many of the Jews, paying
tribute as Christian men do. And if ye will know the letters that the
Jews use they be such, and the names be as they clepe them written above,
in manner of their A. B. C.
Aleph Beth Gymel Deleth He Vau Zay
א ב ג ד ה ו ז
Heth Thet Joht Kapho Lampd Mem Num
ח ט י כ ל מ נ
Sameth Ey Fhee Sade Coph Resch Son Tau
ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת