I saw that lying thus for an hour he had gathered
strength and now was passed, as he was wont to pass
after quiet, into a high degree of vision, accompanied by
forth-going energy. "Now I see, and as soon as I may,
I will do! Beyond Mangi, Champa. Beyond Champa, the
coast trending southward, India of the Ganges and the
Golden Chersonese. Land of Gold--Land of Gold!--are
they not forever pointing southward? But it is not of gold
--or wholly gold--that now I think! _Aurea Chersonesus_
maketh a vast peninsula, greater maybe than Italy, Greece
and Spain taken together. But I will round it, and I will
come to the mouth of Ganges! Then again, I read, we go
southward! There is the Kingdom of Maabar where Saint
Thomas is buried, and the Kingdom of Monsul where the
diamonds are found. Then we come to the Island of Zeilan,
where is the Tomb of our Father Adam. Here are sapphires,
amethysts, topaz, garnet and rubies. There is a
ruby here beyond price, large as a man's two fists and a
well of red fire. But what I should think most of would
be to stand where Adam laid him down.--Now from the
Island of Zeilan I sail across the India sea. And I go still
south, three hundred leagues, and I find the great island of
Madagascar whose people are Saracens and there is the
rukh-bird that can lift an elephant, and they cut the red
sandal there and find ambergris.
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