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 67: CAP. LIX.

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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. LIX.

Of the ylande called Raso¹ where men be hanged as sone as they are sicke.

AND from this yle menne go unto another yle that men call Raso, and menne of this yle when that theyr friendes are sicke & that they beleve surely that they shal dye, they take them & hange them al quick on a tree, and say that it is better that byrdes, that are aungels of God, eate them, than wormes of the earthe. Fro thence men go to an yle where the men are of ill kinde, for they nourishe houndes for to strangle men. And when theyr friendes are sicke that they hope they shal dye, then do those houndes strangle them, for they wyll not that they dye a kyndely death, for then shoulde they suffre to great paine as they say, & when they are thus dead they eate theyre flesh for venison.

1: Pynson and others say Gaffolo or Caffolos.