“Then cometh oone and seyth, ‘be mery: Ye shall have a storme or a pery.’[35] ‘Holde thow thy pese! thow canst no whery,[36] Thow medlyst wondyr sore.’ “Thys menewhyle the pylgryms ly, And have theyr bowlys fast them by, And cry aftyr hote malvesy,[37] ‘Thow helpe for to restore.’ “And som wold have a saltyd tost, For they myght ete neyther sode ne rost[38]: A man myght sone pay for theyr cost, As for oo day or twayne. “Some layde theyr bookys on theyr kne, And rad so long they myght nat se: ‘Allas! myne hede woll cleve on thre,’[39] Thus seyth another certayne. “Then cometh oure owner lyke a lorde, And speketh many a royall worde, And dresseth hym to the hygh borde To see all thyng be well. “Anone he calleth a carpentere And biddyth hym bryng with hym hys gere[40] To make the cabans here and there, With many a febyll cell. “A sak of strawe were there ryght good, For som must lyg[41] them in theyr hood: I had as lefe be in the wood, Without mete or drynk. “For when that we shall go to bedde, The pumpe was nygh our beddes hede, A man were as good to be dede, As smell thereof the stynk.”[42] CHAPTER VIII THE PERIOD OF COLUMBUS It is curious to observe, as one reads history, that many an invention, or a practical idea belonging to modern times, has really existed for century and century, though in an undeveloped condition. The modern liquid compass is an excellent instance. “Ere men the virtue of the magnet found, The ocean scarcely heard a human sound.” But inasmuch as the ship is at the mercy of the sea, and since the sea is a continually undulating entity, a compass which does not have a corresponding adaptability is inadequate. This fact, as one might naturally suppose, was appreciated by the early navigators. Ford[43] quotes Bailak Kibdjaki, an Arabian writer of A.D. 1242, and shows that at least a crude kind of liquid compass was in use by the Oriental navigators. “The captains navigating the Syrian Sea,” says Kibdjaki, “when the night is so dark as to conceal from view the stars, which might direct their course according to the position of the four cardinal points, take a basin full of water; they then drive a needle into a wooden peg or cornstick, so as to form the shape of a cross, and throw it into the basin of water, on the surface of which it floats. They afterwards take a loadstone of sufficient size to fill the palm of the hand, or even smaller, bring it to the surface of the water, give the hand a rotary motion towards the right, so that the needle turns on the water’s surface. They then suddenly and quickly withdraw the hand, when the two points of the needle face north and south. They have given me ocular demonstration of this process during our sea voyage from Syria to Alexandria in the year 640 of the Hegira.”