Of a rich man in Prester Johan's lande named Catolonapes and of his gardeine.

IN an yle of Prester Johans land y^t men call Miscorach, there was a rich man y^t was called Catolonapes, he was ful rich & had a fair castel on a hil & strong, & he made a wal all about ye hill right strong & fayre, within he had a faire gardeine wherein were many trees bearing all maner of fruits y^t he might find, & he had planted therein al maner of herbes of good smel and that bare flowers, & ther wer many faire wels, & by them was made many hals & chambers wel dight with gold & asure, & he had made there dyverse stories of beastes and birds y^t song & turned by engin and orbage¹ as they had been quick,² & he had in his gardeine al thing that might be to man solace & comfort, he had also in that gardeine maydens within y^e age of xv yeare, y^e fairest y^t he myght find, & men children of the same age, & they were clothed with clothes of gold, & he sayd that they were aungels and he caused to be made certain hils,³ & enclosed them about with precious stones of Jaspy & christal & set in gold & pearls and other maner of stones, and he had made a coundute⁴ under y^e earth, so that when he wold y^e walls⁵ ran somtime with milke, somtime with wine, somtime honey, & this place is called Paradise & when any yong bacheler of y^e countrey, knight or sqyer, cometh to him for solace and disport, he ledeth him into his paradise & sheweth them these things, as the songs of birds & his damosels and wels, & he did strike diverse Instruments of musyke, in a high tower that might be sene, and sayde they were the aungels of God, & that place was Paradise, that God hath graunted to those that beleved, when hee sayde thus, Dabo vobis terram fluentam lac & mel. That is to say, I shall giue you land flowing with mylk and hony. And then this rych man dyd⁶ these men drinke a maner of drinke, of which they were dronken, & he said to them if they wold dye for his sake & when they were dead they shold come to his paradise, and they should be of the age of those maydens, and shold dwell alway with them, and he shold put them in a fayrer paradise where they shold se god in his joy, and in his majesty & then they graunted to do that he wold, and he bad them go and sleay such a lord, or a man of the countrey that he was wroth with, and that they should haue no dread of no man and if they were slaine themselfe for his sake, he shold put them in his paradise when they were dead. And so went those bachelers to sleay great lordes of the countrey, & were slaine themselfe in hope to haue that Paradise, and thus was he avenged of his enimies through his desert,⁷ and when rich men of the countrey perceived this cautell⁸ and malice and the will of this Catolonapes, they gathered them to gither & assayled the castel & slew hym & destroyed all his goods and his faire places and riches that were in his paradise, and the place of the wales⁹ are there yet, and it is not long ago since it was destroyed.

1: This word is very puzzling. It seems to me that it probably means wheel work, from Lat. orbis, a circle; but Rd. Braithwaite, in his Arcadian Princesse, says: "In the lowest border of the garden, I might see a curious orbell, all of touch, wherein the Syracusan tyrants were no lesse artfully portrayed, than their severall cruelties to life displayed."

2: As if they had been alive.

3: Misprint for Wells.

4: Conduit.

5: Wells.

6: Made.

7: Deceit.

8: Ill intent, evil mind.

9: Wells.