Of a marvelous vale that is beside the river of Physon.
AND a lyttle from that place, on the left syde besyde the river of Physon is a great marvaile. There is a vale betwene two hils, and that is foure myle longe, and some men call it the valay enchaunted, some ye valey of Divels, some the valey perylous,1 and in that valey are many tempests & a great noyse very hydeous bothe day & night & sound as it were a noise of Taburines2 of nakers3 & of trumpets as it were a great feast. This valey is all full of devils, and hath ben alway, and men say thereby yt it is a enter4 to hell. In this valey is muche golde & silver, wherefore many Christen men & other go thether for covetise of that golde and silver, but few of them come out againe, for they are anon strangled with divels. And in the middes of that vale on a roche is a visage, & the head of a fiend bodely, right hideous and dreadfull to see, and there is nothing sene but the head to ye shoulders, but there is no christen men in ye world nor other so hardy but yt he should be greatly afraide to beholde it, for he beholdeth eche man so sharply & felly5 & his eyes are so staring & so sprinkling6 as fyre & he chaungeth so often his countenaunce that no man dare come nere for all the worlde, and out of his mouth & his nose cometh great plenty of fyer of divers colours, & sometime is the fyer so stynking, that no man may suffer it, but alway a good christen man, and one that is stedfast in the fayth may go therein without harme, if they shrive them well and blesse them with the token of the crosse, then shall the divels haue no power over them. And ye shall understande that when my felowes & I were in that valey, we had full great dought7 if we shold put our bodies in a venture to go through it, & some of my felows agreed therto, & some wold not, and there were in our company two friers minours of Lombardy & sayd if any of us wold go in, they wold also, as they had sayd so, and upon trust of them we sayd that we wold go, & we dyd sing a masse and were shriven & houseled,8 and we went in xiiii men & when we came out we were but x9 & we wist not whether our felowes were loste there, or that they turned againe, but we saw no more of them, others of our felowes that would not go in with us, went about another way for to be before us, and so they were. And we went through the valey and saw there many marvailous things, gold silver precious stones & jewels great plenty, as we thought, whether it were so or no, I know not, for divels are so subtill & false, that they make many times a thinge to seme yt is not, for to deceive men, and therefore I wold touch nothing for dread of enimies that I saw there in many likenesses, and of dead bodies that I saw lye in the valey, but I dare not saye that they were all bodies, but they were bodies through making of divels. And we were often cast down to the earth by winde, thunder & tempest, but God helped alway, and so passed we through that valey without peryl or harme thankes be to God.
