it and eating the
flesh thereof, but of the skull he makes a drinking cup, wherein himselfe
with all his family and kindred do drinke with great solemnity and mirth,
in the remembrance of his dead and deuoured father. Many other vile and
abominable things doth the said nation commit, which I meane not to write,
because men neither can nor will beleeue, except they should haue the sight
of them.

Of a certaine rich man, who is fed and nourished by fiftie virgins.

While I was in the prouince of Mancy, I passed by the palace of a certaine
famous man, which hath fifty virgin damosels continually attending vpon
him, feeding him euery meale, as a bird feeds her yoong ones. Also he hath
sundry kindes of meat serued in at his table, and three dishes of ech
kinde; and when the sayd virgins feed him, they sing most sweetly. This man
hath in yeerely reuenues thirty thuman of tagars of rise, euery of which
thuman yeeldeth tenne thousand tagars, and one tagar is the burthen of an
asse. His palace is two miles in circuit, the pauement whereof is one plate
of golde, and another of siluer. Neere vnto the wall of the sayd palace
there is a mount artificially wrought with golde and siluer, whereupon
stand turrets and steeples and other delectable things for the solace and
recreation of the foresayd great man. And it was tolde me that there were
foure such men in the sayd kingdome. [Sidenote: Long nailes.] It is
accounted a great grace for the men of that countrey to haue long nailes
vpon their fingers, and especially vpon their thumbes which nailes they may
fold about their hands: but the grace and beauty of their women is to haue
small and slender feet: and therefore the mothers when their daughters are
yoong, do binde vp their feet, that they may not grow great. [Sidenote:
Melistorte.] Trauelling on further towards the South, I arriued at a
certaine countrey called Melistorte, which is a pleasant and fertile place.
And in this countrey there was a certeine man called Senex de monte, who
round about two mountaines had built a wall to inclose the sayd mountaines.
Within this wall there were the fairest and most chrystall fountaines in
the whole world: and about the sayd fountaines there were most beautifull
virgins in great number, and goodly horses also, and in a word, euery thing
that could be deuised for bodily solace and delight, and therefore the
inhabitants of the countrey call the same place by the name of Paradise.

The sayd