e out his
lond. And that water is in sum place clere, and in sum place trouble: in
sum place hoot, and in sum place cole. The seconde ryvere is clept Nilus or
Gyson: for it is alle weye trouble: and Gyson, in the langage of Ethiope,
is to seye trouble: and in the langage of Egipt also. The thridde ryvere,
that is clept Tigris, is as moche for to seye as faste rennynge: for he
rennethe more faste than ony of the tother. And also there is a best, that
is cleped Tigris, that is faste rennynge. The fourthe ryvere is clept
Eufrates, that is to seyne, wel berynge: for there growen manye godes upon
that ryvere, as cornes, frutes, and othere godes y nowe plentee.

And zee schulle undirstonde, that no man that is mortelle, ne may not
approchen to that paradys. For be londe no man may go for wylde bestes,
that ben in the desertes, and for the highe mountaynes and gret huge
roches, that no man may passe by, for the derke places that ben there, and
that manye: and be the ryveres may no man go; for the water rennethe so
rudely and so scharply, because that it comethe doun so outrageously from
the highe places aboven, that it rennethe in so grete wawes, that no schipp
may not rowe ne seyle azenes it: and the watre rorethe so, and makethe so
huge noyse, and so gret tempest, that no man may here other in the schipp,
thoughe he cryede with alle the craft that he cowde, in the hyeste voys
that he myghte. Many grete lordes han assayed with gret wille many tymes
for to passen be tho ryveres toward paradys, with fulle grete companyes:
but thei myghte not speden in hire viage; and manye dyeden for werynesse of
rowynge azenst tho stronge wawes; and many of hem becamen blynde, and many
deve, for the noyse of the water: and summe weren perisscht and loste, with
inne the wawes: so that no mortelle man may approche to that place, with
outen specyalle grace of God: so that of that place I can seye zou no more.
And therfore I schall holde me stille, and retornen to that that I have
seen.

CAPVT. 49.

In reuertendo de Cassan, et Riboth, et de diuite Epulone.

[Sidenote: Via per quam Mandeuillus redijt in Angliam.] Ex hinc de illis
quae in reuertendo vidi scribo cursim pauca, ne modum excedere videatur
materia. [Sidenote: Cassan.] Reuertebar itaque quasi per Aquilonare latus
Imperij Presbyteri Ioannis, et nunc terrae, non mari nos commendantes,
transiuimus Deo Ductore, multas Insulas in multis diaetis, et peruenimus ad
regionem magnam Cassan: ha