CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



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they give sketches of men and manners which modern travellers have 

 confirmed. Here, he treats of the Roialme of Tharse and the londes 

 and kyngdomes towardes the septentrionale partes, in comynge down 

 from the land of Cathay : of the Eraperour of Persye and of the lond 

 of derknesse, and of othere kyngdomes that belongen to the Crete 

 Chane of Cathay, and other londes of his unto the See of Grece : and 

 of the contrees and yles that ben bezonde the Lond of Cathay, of the 

 Frutes there, and of 22 kynges enclosed within the montaynes. To 

 the admirers of vegetable marvayles, Sir John's remarks on the 

 Frutes of these contrees may afford edification. 



« Wherefore I seye zou," he observes, " that, in passynge be the Lond of 

 Cathay toward the highe Ynde and toward Bacharye, men passen be a 

 kyngdome that men clepen Caldilhe, that is a fuUe fair contree. And there 

 growethe a maner of fruy t as thoughe it weren gowrdes, and whan thei ben 

 rype men kutten hem a to, and men fynden with inne a lytylle best, in 

 ffessche in bon and blode, as thoughe it were a lytylle lomb with outen 

 wolle. And men eten both the frute and the best, and that is a grete mar- 

 veyle : of that fruy t I have eten, alle thoughe it were wonderf uUe, but that 

 I know wel that God is marveylous in his werkes." 



Prester John's country and his royal estate are painted in fair co- 

 lours ; and, somewhat in the foreground, stands an account of a riche 

 man that made a marveyllous castelle and cleped it Paradys. In this 

 dread sovereign's dominions is the " Gravely See," and 



"A3 iourneys long fro that see, ben gret montaynes, out of the whiche 

 gothe out a gret flome that coraethe out of paradys, and it rennethe thorghe 

 the desert on that o syde, so that it makethe the see gravely. And in that 

 desert ben manye wylde men that been hidouse to Token on, for thei ben 



