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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 13: CAP: V.
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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: V.

Of a young man and his lemman.

GO unto the tombe of the same woman that you hast lien by & opē it, behold well that which thou hast begotten on hir and if thou let for to go, thou shalt haue a great harme, and he went and opened the tombe and there flew out an head1 right hideous for to see, the which head flew all about the citie and countrey, and sone after the citie and the countrey sanke downe, & ther are many perilous passages. Fro Rodes to Cipres is five hundred mile and more, but men may go to Cipres and come not at Rodes. Cipres is a good yle & a great, and there are many good cities, and there is an Archbishoppe at Nichosy,2 and foure other Bishops in the lande. And at Famagost is one of the best havens on the sea that is in the worlde, and there are christen men and Sarasins and men of all nations. In Cipres is the hill of the holy crosse, and there is the crosse of the good thefe Dismas, as I sayd before, and some wene3 that there is halfe of the crosse of our lord, but it is not so, and they do wrong that make men to believe so. In Cipres lieth S. Simeon, of whome the men of the countrey make a great solempnitie, and in the Castell of Amours lyeth the body of Saint Hillarion, and men kepe it worshipfully, and beside Famagost was sainct Barnarde4 borne.

1:  An edder, or adder—really meaning a winged serpent.

2:  Nicosia.

3:  Imagine.

4:  Barnabas.