I wote not who wolde verifie this, that I shall saie nowe[12] if he haue not seene it. For it may well be demaunded whereof shulde so great a nombre of people lyve travaileng thus every daie! wheare is the coʳne they eate? wheare do they gett it? To the which, I that haue seene it, do answere on this wise. About the mooneth of Februarie they make proclamac̃ons throughout the Lordo, that he which woll sowe shall prepare his things necessarie against the mooneth of Marche, to sowe in such a place. And such a daie of that mooneth they must take their waie thitherwards. This doon, they that are mynded to sowe prepare themselfs, and being agreed togither, lading their seede on cartes[13] wᵗʰ such cattaill as their busynes require, togither wᵗʰ their wiefs and children or parte of them they go to the place appointed, which most cōmonly passeth not ij ioʳneys from the place of the Lordo wheare the crie is made. And there do they eare, sowe, and tarie, till they haue furnisshed that they came for, which doon they retoʳne to their Lordo. Thempoʳ, wᵗʰ the Lordo, doth this meane while, as the mother is wonte to do wᵗʰ her children. For whan she letteth them go plaie she ever keepeth her eye on them, and so doth he never departe from these plowemen iiij ioʳneys, but compasseth about them nowe here, nowe there, till the corne be rype, and yet when it is ripe he goeth not thither wᵗʰ his LORDO, but sendeth those that sowed it and those that mynded to bye of it wᵗʰ their cartes, oxen, and camells, and those other things that they need; even as they do at their village. [Sidenote: Zattere arr polles so tied one to an other, that thei can not synke.] [Sidenote: Rialto is the merchauntes assembling place in Venice.] [Sidenote: Lordes ouer the night is an office of great auctoritie in Venice.]