Of the land of Bactry, and of many Griffons and other beastes.

FROM this land men shal go unto the land of Bactry,¹ where are many wicked men & fell,² in that land are trees that beare wol,³ as it were shepe, of which they make cloth. In this land are ypotains⁴ that dwel sometime on land, sometime on water, and are halfe a man and halfe a horse, and they eate not but men, when they may get them. In this land are many gryffons, more than in other places, and some say they haue the body before as an Egle, and behinde as a Lyon, and it is trouth, for they be made so; but the Griffen hath a body greater than viii Lyons and stall worthier⁵ than a hundred Egles. For certainly he wyl beare to his nest flying, a horse and a man upon his back, or two Oxen yoked togither as they go at plowgh, for he hath longe nayles on hys fete, as great as it were hornes of Oxen,⁶ and of those they make cups there to drynke of, and of his rybes⁷ they make bowes to shoote with.

1: Bactria.

2: Crafty.

3: Wool.

4: Hippopotamuses.

5: Stouter, braver.

6: The editor of the edition of 1827 says, in a footnote, p. 325: "One 4 foot long, in the Cotton Library, has a Silver Hoop about the end, whereon is engraven Griphi Unguis, Divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer. Another, about an Ell long, is mentioned by Dr. Greis, in his History of the Rarities of the Royal Society, p. 26; tho' the Doctor there supposes it rather the horn of a Rock Buck, or of the Ibex mas." Such was science a little over fifty years since!

7: Ribs.