wice or thrice in the year. And she doth
none harm to no man but if man do her harm. And she was thus changed and
transformed from a fair damsel in the likeness of a dragon by a goddess
that was clept Diana. And men say that she shall so endure in the form
of a dragon unto the time that a knight come that is so hardy that dare
come to her and kiss her on the mouth; and then shall she turn again to
her own kind, and be a woman again, but after that she shall not live
long.

And it is not long since that a knight that was hardy and doughty in
arms said that he would kiss her. And when he was upon his courser and
went to the castle and entered into the cave, the dragon lifted up her
head against him. And when the knight saw her in that form so hideous
and so horrible, he fled away. And the dragon bore the knight upon a
rock, and from that rock she cast him into the sea; and so was lost both
horse and man.

Egypt is a long country, but it is strait, that is to say narrow, for
they may not enlarge it toward the desert, for default of water. And the
country is set along upon the river of Nile; by as much as that river
may serve by floods or otherwise, that when it floweth it may spread
through the country, so is the country large of length. For there it
raineth not but little in that country, and for that cause they have no
water but if it be of the flood of that river. And for as much as it
raineth not in that country, but the air is always pure and clear,
therefore in that country be they good astronomers, for they find there
no clouds to let them.

In Egypt is the city of Elyople, that is to say, the City of the Sun. In
that city there is a temple made round, after the shape of the Temple of
Jerusalem. The priests of that temple have all their writings under the
date of the fowl that is clept Phoenix; and there is none but one in
all the world. And he cometh to burn himself upon the altar of the
temple at the end of 500 years; for so long he liveth. And at the 500
years' end the priests array their altar honestly, and put thereupon
spices and sulphur and other things that will burn lightly. And then the
bird Phoenix cometh, and burneth himself to ashes. And the first day
next after men find in the ashes a worm; and the second day after men
find a bird quick and perfect; and the third day next after, he flieth
away.

And so there is no more birds of that kind in all the world but it
alone. And truly that is a great mir