AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1330- 



and recreation of the foresayd great man. And it was 

 tolde me that there were foure such men in the sayd 

 kingdome. It is accounted a great grace for the men 



Longnailes. of that countrey to have long nailes upon their fingers, 

 and especially upon their thumbes, which nailes they 

 may folde about their hands : but the grace and beauty 

 of their women is to have small and slender feet : and 

 therefore the mothers when their daughters are yoong, 

 do binde up their feet, that they may not grow great. 

 Travelling on further towards the South, I arrived at a 



Melistorte. certaine countrey called Melistorte, which is a pleasant 

 and fertile place. And in this countrey there was a 

 certeine aged man called Senex de monte, who round 

 about two mountaines had built a wall to inclose the 

 sayd mountaines. Within this wall there were the fairest 

 and most chrystall fountaines in the whole world : and 

 about the sayd fountaines there were most beautiful! 

 virgins in great number, and goodly horses also, and in 

 a word, every thing that could be devised for bodily 

 solace and delight, and therefore the inhabitants of the 

 countrey call the same place by the name of Paradise. 

 The sayd olde Senex, when he saw any proper and 

 valiant yoong man, he would admit him into his paradise. 

 Moreover by certaine conducts he makes wine and milke 



[II. i. 65.] to flow abundantly. This Senex, when he hath a minde 

 to revenge himselfe or to slay any king or baron, com- 

 mandeth him that is governor of the sayd paradise, to 

 bring thereunto some of the acquaintance of the sayd 

 king or baron, permitting him a while to take his 

 pleasure therein, and then to give him a certaine potion 

 being of force, to cast him into such a slumber as 

 should make him quite voide of all sense, and so being 

 in a profound sleepe to convey him out of his paradise : 

 who being awaked, & seeing himselfe thrust out of the 

 paradise would become so sorowfull, that he could not 

 in the world devise what to do, or whither to turne 

 him. Then would he go unto the foresaid old man, 

 beseeching him that he might be admitted againe into 



438 



