As men are passed this wyldernesse againe comming to Hierusalem.

AND when men are passed this wyldernesse towarde Hierusalem they come to Barsabe¹ that was sometime a fayre and a lykyng towne of Christen men, and yet is some of their churches, and in that towne dwelled Abraham the Patryarke. This towne of Barsabe founded Uryas wife, of whom David engendred Salomon the wyse that was Kyng of Hierusalem, and of the xii kindes² of Israell, and he raigned xl yeare. And from thence go men to the vale of Ebron, that is from thence nere xii myle and some call it the vale of Mambre,³ and also it is called the vale of Teeres, for as much as Adam in that vale he wept a hundred yeare the death of his sonne Abel that Cayne slew. And Ebron was sometime⁴ the principall Citie of the Philistines & there dwelled giaunts & there it was so free, that all that had done evill in other places were there saved. In Ebron Josue and⁵ Calope and theyr felowship came fyrst to espy how they might wynne the lande of promyssion. In Ebron David raigned fyrst vii yeare and a halfe & in Hierusalem he raigned xxxii⁶ yeare and a halfe, and there be the graves of the Patryarkes—Adam, Abraham, Jacob and theyr wyves, Eve, Sare, Rebecca⁷ and they are in the hanging⁸ in the hyll. And under them is a right fayre Churche Kirnelde⁹ after the facion and maner as it were a Castell, the which the Sarasins keepe right well, and they haue that place in greate worship for the holy Patryarkes that lieth there, and they suffer no Christen men ne Jewes to come therein but they have speciall grace of the Soudan, for they holde Christen men and Jewes but as houndes that should come in no holy place, and they call the place Spelunke¹⁰ or double cave or double grave; for one lyeth on another, and the Sarasins call it in theyr language Caryatharba, that is to say the place of Patryarkes, and the Jewes call it Arboth. And in that same place was Abrahams house, and that was the same Abraham which sat in his dore, and saw three persons and worshipped but one, as holy wryt witnesseth saying, Tres videt et unum adoravit. That is to saye, he saw three and worshipped but one, and him took Abraham into his house.

1: Beersheba.

2: Tribes.

3: Mamre.

4: Formerly.

5: Jehoshua and Caleb (see Numbers, cap. 13).

6: Pynson and others say 33 years and a half.

7: All other editions have "and of Lya," or Leah, who is evidently here forgotten.

8: Caves cut in the side of the rock.

9: Crenelated or battlemented.

10: Lat. Spelunca, a cave.