Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/213

 the waves of Ocean, and this compass of sandy sea is about ten miles in breadth, so that none can pass through it save by a miracle and art magik. For so quick is it that it sucks in and draws down whatever is cast into it and in a moment of time, since it is full of whirlpools. But if any man could reach the other side, he would see a country as fair and fruitful as any in the world, with meadows, woods, running brooks, orchards all most green and pleasant to the sight. And on the hills are castles, fairer and stronger than any in Christendom, with towers and pinnacles that cannot be conceived, insomuch as the images adorning them are ten times the height of a man, and from the ground seem to be puppets; and the sound of the bells chiming in the high belfries is heard of still evenings in Ermony and India from a distance of many thousand leagues. And they who live in that country are men descended from the giants that in old time dwelt upon the earth, and they have many arts and mysteries of which we can understand nothing, and to strive after this secret knowledge is great sin in common men. But one marvel they have that they sometimes impart to us; for they know of our affairs and have intelligence of things which are done by us in privity, and sometimes will grant boons to them that are deserving of the same. Understand then that there grows in this land a manner of tree, with a blossom somewhat like a rose, for it is red in colour, but in each flower there are twelve leaves, and it is fairer to see than any rose, because the hue of it is not fixed nor