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The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys cover

The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys

Chapter 102: CAP. XCIIII.
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About This Book

The narrator offers a medieval travelogue that traces routes toward Jerusalem and across regions of Asia, Africa, and India, blending eyewitness-style observations, borrowed reports, and fantastic tales. It catalogs cities, landscapes, animals, plants, trade goods, and unfamiliar customs, alternating itinerary notes with moral and religious commentary. Frequent digressions present marvels and monstrous races alongside practical details about pilgrim routes, local rites, and fortifications, producing a text that shifts between guidebook information and imaginative storytelling. The structure mixes descriptive chapters with episodic anecdotes, inviting readers to weigh veracity while encountering the era's geographical knowledge, commerce, and popular curiosities.

CAP. XCIIII.

Of an yland where men wed theyr owne daughters & kinswomen.

THERE is another yle where there is great plenty of people & they eate neuer flesh of hares, nor of hens, nor geese, yet is there many of them but they eate of all other beastes, and they drink mylk, in this countrey they wed theyr owne daughters and other of theyr kyn as them liketh, and if there be x or xii men in one house, eche one of theyr wyves shal be comon to other, & at night shal one haue one of ye wives and another night another. And if she haue any chylde, she may give it to whome she would so that no man knowe if it be his or not. In this land & many other places of Inde, are many cocodrilles, that is a maner of a long serpent, and on nights they dwell on water, and on dayes they dwell on land and rocks, and they eat not in winter. These serpents sley men and eate them weping,1 and they haue no tongue. In this countrey and many other, men caste sede of cotton, and sow it eche yeare and it groweth as it were small trees, and they bere cotton. In Araby is a kynde of beast that some men call Garsantes,2 that is a fayre beast, & he is hyer than a great courser or a stead3 but his neck is nere xx cubytes long, and his crop and his taile lyke a hart and he may loke ouer a high house and there is many Camilions,4 that is a lytle beaste, & he eateth nor drinketh never, and he chaungeth his colour often, for sometime he is of one colour & sometime of another, and he may chaunge him into all colours that he will, saue black and red. There are many wilde swine of many colours and as great as Oxen, & they are spotted as it were smal fawnes, and there are lions all white, and there be other beastes as great steedes that men call Lauhorans,5 and men call them Toutes, and their head is blacke, and three long hornes in his fronte, as cutting as sharp swords, and he chaseth and wil sley Olifants. And there is many other maner of beastes, of whom it were to long to write all.

1:  This curious belief gave rise to the term "Crocodile's tears," i.e., hypocritical tears.

2:  Giraffes.

3:  A steed or horse.

4:  Chameleon.

5:  A rhinoceros is here evidently meant.