called Al
Buheira[208], and in it are many sorts of fish. Ships overlaid with
silver and gold are there, belonging to the king, who takes
pleasure-trips in them with his women[209].

[p.109]

In the park there is also a great palace, the walls of which are
painted, and overlaid with gold and silver; the paving of the floors
is of marble, picked out in gold and silver in all manner of designs.
There is no building like this anywhere. And this island, the
commencement of which is Messina, contains all the pleasant things of
this world. It embraces Syracuse, Marsala, Catania, Petralia, and
Trapani, the circumference of the island being six days' journey. In
Trapani coral is found, which is called Al Murgan[210].

Thence people pass to the city of Rome in ten days. And from Rome they
proceed by land to Lucca, which is a five days' journey. Thence they
cross the mountain of Jean de Maurienne, and the passes of Italy. It
is twenty days' journey to Verdun, which is the commencement of
Alamannia, a land of mountains and hills. All the congregations of
Alamannia are situated on the great river Rhine, from the city of
Cologne, which is the principal town of the Empire, to the city of
Regensburg, a distance of fifteen days' journey at the other extremity
of Alamannia, otherwise called Ashkenaz.

[p.110]

And the following are the cities in the land of Alamannia, which have
Hebrew congregations: Metz, Treves on the river Moselle, Coblenz,
Andernach, Bonn, Cologne, Bingen, Muenster, Worms,[211] [All Israel is
dispersed in every land, and he who does not further the gathering of
Israel will not meet with happiness nor live with Israel. When the
Lord will remember us in our exile, and raise the horn of his
anointed, then every one will say, "I will lead the Jews and I will
gather them." As for the towns which have been mentioned, they contain
scholars and communities that love their brethren, and speak peace to
those that are near and afar, and when a wayfarer comes they rejoice,
and make a feast for him, and say, "Rejoice, brethren, for the help of
the Lord comes in the twinkling of an eye." If we were not afraid that
the appointed time has not yet arrived nor been reached, we would have
gathered together, but we dare not do so until the time for song has
arrived, and the voice of the turtle-dove (is heard in the land), when
the messengers will come and say continually, "The Lord be exalted."

[p.111]

Meanwhile they send m