Yet of the same Dragon.

ALSO a young man that wist not of the Dragon, went out of a shippe and went through the yle till he came to a Castell, and came into the cave and went so long till he founde a chamber, and there he saw a damosell that kemde¹ hir heade & loked in a mirrour, and she had much treasure aboute hir, and he trowed² she had been a common woman that dwelled ther to kepe men, and he abode³ the damosel, and the damosel saw the shadowe of him in the mirrour, & she tourned toward him and asked what he would, and he said he would be hir paramoure or lemman,⁴ and she asked him if he were a knight, and he sayd nay, and she sayd then might he not be hir lemman, but she bad him go againe to his fellowes and make him knighte and come againe on the morow and she woulde come oute of the cave and then hee shoulde kisse hir on the mouth, and she badde him haue no dread, for she would do him no harme, although she semed hidious to him, she sayd it was done by inchauntment, for she sayd that she was such as he saw hir then, and she sayd that if he kissed hir, he should haue all the treasure, and be hir lord, and lord of all those yles. Then he departed from hir and went to his fellowes in the ship, and made him knight, and came againe on the morow to kisse the damosel, and when he saw hir come out of the cave in forme of a dragon, he had so great dread, that he fled to the ship, and she folowed him, and when she saw that he tourned not againe, she began to crye as a thing that had much sorow, and tourned again, and sone after the knight dyed, and sithen⁵ hetherto might no knight see hir but he died anon. But when a knight commeth that is so hardy to kisse hir, he shall not dye, but he shall tourne that damosel into hir right shape and shal be lord of the countrey aforsayde. And from thence men go to the yle of Rodes, the which the hospitallers held and governed, and that they took sometime from the Emperour, and it was wont to be called Colles⁶ and so yet the Turkes call it Colles. And sainct Paule in his Epistels writeth to them of the yle Collocenses.⁷ This yle is nere CLxxx⁸ myle from Constantinople. And from this yle of Rodes, men go into Cipres where are many vines, the first is red and after a yeare they war all white, and those vines that are most white, are most cleare and best smelling, And as men passe by the way by a place where was wont to be a great citie that men call Sathalay, and all that countrey was lost through the folly of a young man, for he had a faire damosell that he loved well, and she dyed sodenly & was buried in a grave of Marble & for the great love he hadde to hir, he went in a nighte to hir tombe and opened it, & went and lay by hir and when he had done he went away, & when it came to the ende of ix monthes a voice came to him & sayd in this maner as in the next chapter foloweth.

1: Kemped or combed.

2: Thought.

3: Pynson says "obeyed unto the damsell"—that is, made obeisance, or bowed to her.

4: Sweetheart.

5: Since then.

6: From the Colossus there, a statue of Jupiter 70 cubits high, and which was accounted as one of the wonders of the world.

7: This is not so. The Epistle to the Colossians was addressed to the inhabitants of ColossÆ, a city in Phrygia—which is clearly shown by his referring in cap. 4, v. 13, to two neighbouring cities. "For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis."

8: Pynson and others say 800.