Of two other yles, one is called Orel, & the other Argete where are many gold mines.

THERE are more eastward two other yles—y^e one is called Orell and the other Argete of whom all the land is mine of gold & silver. In those yles many men se no sters¹ clere shining, but one starre y^t is called Canapos² and there many men se not y^e Mone but in the last quarter. In that yle is a great hyll of golde that pismyres³ kepe, & they do fine golde from the other that is not fine golde, and the pismyres are as great as houndes, so that no man dare come there for dread of pismyres that should assayle them so that men may not worke in that gold nor get thereof but by subtiltie, and therefore when it is righte hote the pismyres hide them in the earth from undern⁴ to none of the daye, and then men of the countrey take Cameles and dormedaries and other beastes & go thither and charge them with gold and go away fast or the pismyres come out of the earth. And other times when it is not so hot y^t the pismyres hide them not, they take mares that haue foles, and they lay upon these mares two long vessels as it were two small barels and the mouth upwards and drive them thether and holde theyr foles at home, and when the pismyres se these vessels they spring therein, for they haue⁵ of kinde to leue no hole nor pyt open, and anone they fyl these vessels with golde, and when men think that the vessels be full they take the foles and bring them as nere as they dare, and then they whine, and the mares heare them, and anone they come to theyr foles and so they take the gold, for these pismyres will suffer beastes for to go among them, but no men.

1: Stars.

2: Canopus, a star of the first magnitude, in the rudder of the constellation Argo.

3: Ants.

4: See footnote, ante, p. 125³.

5: For it is their habit.