ABSTRACT

Near to this country is another which is called Panten 3 , but others call it Thalamasyn 4 , the king whereof hath many islands under him 5 . Here be found trees that 156produce flour, and some that produce honey, others that 157produce wine 1 , and others a poison the most deadly that existeth in the world. For there is no antidote to it known except one ; and that is that if any one hath imbibed that poison he shall take of stercus humanum and dilute it with water, and of this potion shall he drink, and so shall he be absolutely quit of the poison 2 . [And the men of this 158country being nearly all rovers, when they go to battle they carry every man a cane in the hand about a fathom in length, and put into one end of it an iron bodkin poisoned with this poison, and when they blow into the cane, the bodkin flieth and striketh whom they list, and those who are thus stricken incontinently die 1 .]