Early Travels in Palestine: Comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell
History
Early Travels in Palestine: Comprising the Narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell
Middle East -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Palestine -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
From that isle, in going by sea towards the south, is another great
isle, called Dondun, in which are people of wicked kinds, so that the
father eats the son, the son the father, the husband the wife, and the
wife the husband. And if it so befall that the father or mother or any
of their friends are sick, the son goes to the priest of their law, and
prays him to ask the idol if his father or mother or friend shall die;
and then the priest and the son go before the idol, and kneel full
devoutly, and ask of the idol; and if the devil that is within answer
that he shall live, they keep him well; and if he say that he shall die,
then the priest and the son go with the wife of him that is sick, and
they put their hands upon his mouth and stop his breath, and so kill
him. And after that, they chop all the body in small pieces, and pray
all his friends to come and eat; and they send for all the minstrels of
the country and make a solemn feast. And when they have eaten the flesh,
they take the bones and bury them, and sing and make great melody. The
king of this isle is a great and powerful lord, and has under him
fifty-four great isles, which give tribute to him; and in every one of
these isles is a king crowned, all obedient to that king. In one of
these isles are people of great stature, like giants, hideous to look
upon; and they have but one eye, which is in the middle of the forehead;
and they eat nothing but raw flesh and fish[383]. And in another isle
towards the south dwell people of foul stature and cursed nature, who
have no heads, but their eyes are in their shoulders.
In another isle are people who have the face all flat, without nose and
without mouth. In another isle are people that have the lip above the
mouth so great, that when they sleep in the sun they cover all the face
with that lip. And in another isle there are dwarfs, which have no
mouth, but instead of their mouth they have a little round hole; and
when they shall eat or drink, they take it through a pipe, or a pen, or
such a thing, and suck it in. And in another isle are people that have
ears so long that they hang down to their knees. And in another isle are
people that have horses' feet. In another isle are people that go upon
their hands and feet like beasts, and are all skinned and feathered, and
would leap as lightly into trees, and from tree to tree, as squirrels or
apes. In another isle are hermaphrodites. And in another isle are people
that go always upon their knees, and at every step they go it seems that
they would fall; and they have eight toes on every foot. Many other
divers people of divers natures there are in other isles about, of the
which it were too long to tell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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