are very libidinous, and the men likewise, but foule and hard
fauoured. The soile is very fertile and abundant, the flesh fat which they
sell without bones, their candles they make of the marowe of cattell,
because the Moores eate the tallow. They vse also certaine litle furnaces
made of purpose, vnder the which they make fire, putting into the furnace
foure or fiue hundred egges, and the said fire they nourish by litle and
litle, vntill the chickens be hatched, which after they be hatched, and
become somewhat bigger, they sell them by measure in such sort, as we sell
and measure nuts and chestnuts and such like.

Of certaine notable monuments without the citie of Cairo.

Without the Citie, sixe miles higher into the land, are to be seene neere
vnto the riuer diuerse Piramides, among which are three marueilous great,
and very artificially wrought. Out of one of these are dayly digged the
bodies of auncient men, not rotten, but all whole, the cause whereof is the
qualitie of the Egyptian soile, which will not consume the flesh of man,
but rather dry and harden the same, and so alwayes conserueth it. And these
dead bodies are the Mummie which the Phisitians and Apothecaries doe
against our willes make vs to swallow. Also by digging in these Pyramides
oftentimes are found certaine Idoles or Images of gold, siluer, and other
mettall, but vnder the other piramides the bodies are not taken vp so whole
as in this, but there are found legges and armes comparable to the limmes
of giants. Neare to these piramides appeareth out of the sand a great head
of stone somewhat like marble, which is discouered so farre as the necke
ioyneth with the shoulders, being all whole, sauing that it wanteth a
little tippe of the nose. The necke of this head contayneth in circuit
about sixe and thirty foot, so that it may be according to the necke
considered, what greatnesse the head is of. The riuer Nilus is a mile
broad, wherein are very many great Croccodiles from Cairo vpward, but lower
than Cairo passeth no such creature: and this, they say, is by reason of an
inchantment made long since which hindereth their passage for comming any
lower then Cairo. Moreouer of these creatures there are sometimes found
some of an incredible bignesse, that is to say, of fourtie foot about. The
males haue their members like to a man, and the females like to a woman.
These monsters oftentimes issue out of the water to feede, and finding any
small beasts, as she