NOW sythen I haue tolde you of many maners of men, that dwell in the countreys before said, now will I tourne againe to my waye for to tourne uppon this side. Now he that will tourne from the lande of Galyle, that I spake of, to come on this syde, he shall go through Damas that is a fayre citie & full of good marchaundises, and it is three Journeys from the sea and five journeis from Hierusalem, but they cary marchaundises upon camels, mules, horses and dromedaries and other maner of beastes. This citie of Damas founded Helyzeus, that was Abrahams servaunte before Ysaac was borne, and he thought to haue bene Abrahams heyre and therefore he named that citie Damas. And in that place slew Cayne his brother Abel, and besyde Damas is y^e mount of Syry, and in y^t Citie is many a Phisicion & y^t holy man. S. Paule was a phisicion to saue mens bodys before y^t he was Converted, and after, he was a phisicyon of soules. And from Damas men come by a place called our Lady of Sardmarch,[1] that is fiue myle from Damas & it is on a roch & there is a fayre churche and there dwell Monkes & Nunnes, crysten, in the church, behynde the high auter is a table of tree,[2] on the whiche table the ymage of our lady was depainted that many tymes was turned into fleshe, but the ymage is now sene but a lyttle, but evermore through grace of God, the table droppeth oyle, as it were an Olyfe, & there is a vessell of marble under the table to receive the oyle, thereof they giue to Pylgrimes, for it maketh whole many sicknesses, and he that kepeth it clenely a year, after a yeare, it turneth to fleshe and bloud. Betwene the citie of Darke and the citie of Raphane is a ryver that men call Sabatory, for on the Saterday it runneth fast, and all the weeke else it standeth styll and runneth not or little. And there is another ryver that in the night freseth fast and upon the day no frost is seene. And so men go by a citie that men call Berugh,[3] and there men go into the sea that will go into Cipres and they aryve at a porte of Sur or of Thyrry[4] & then men go to Cipres, or else men go or may goe from the porte of Thyry ryght, and come not to Cypres and arryve at some haven of Grece & there come men into those countreys by ways that I haue spoken of before. [Illustration] [Footnote 1: Others say Sardenak.] [Footnote 2: On wood panel.] [Footnote 3: Others say Beruthe.] [Footnote 4: Tyre.] CAP. XLI. _How a man may go furdest and longest in those countreys as heare are rehersed._ NOWE have I tolde you of wayes by the whiche men goe furthest and longeste, as by Babylon and mount Synay, and other places many, through the which landes men turne againe to the lande of promission. Now will I tell you the way of Hierusalem, for some men will not passe it, some for they have no company[1] and many other causes resonable and therefore I shall tell you shortely how a man may go with lyttle coste and short tyme.