Читать книгу Mirabilia descripta: The wonders of the East онлайн

21 страница из 27

3. I was at Thebes, where there be so many earthquakes that nobody could believe it who had not felt them; for it will happen five, or six, or seven times in the twenty-four hours, many a time and oft, that the strongest houses and walls shall be thrown down by earthquakes.[43]

ssss1

1. In Armenia the Greater I saw one great marvel. This is it: a mountain of excessive height and immense extent, on which Noah’s ark is said to have rested. This mountain is never without snow, and seldom or never without clouds, which rarely rise higher than three parts up. The mountain is inaccessible, and there never has been anybody who could get farther than the edge of the snow.[44] And (marvellous indeed!) even the beasts chased by the huntsmen, when they come to the snow, will liefer turn, will liefer yield them into the huntsmen’s hands, than go farther up that mountain. This mountain hath a compass of more than three days journey for a man on horseback going without halt. There be serpents of a great size, which swallow hares alive and whole, as I heard from a certain trustworthy gentleman who saw the fact, and shot an arrow at a serpent with a hare in his mouth, but scathed it not.[45] In a certain part of the mountain is a dwelling which Noah is said to have built on leaving the ark; and there, too, is said to be that original vine which Noah planted, and whereby he got drunk; and it giveth such huge branches of grapes as you would scarce believe. This I heard from a certain Catholic archbishop of ours, a great man and a powerful, and trustworthy to boot, the lord of that land; and, indeed, I believe I have been at the place myself, but it was in the winter season.[46]