No such single traveler as Mandeville ever existed. The work
attributed to him has been proved to be a compilation from the
writings of other travelers. A French critic says wittily: "He first
lost his character as a truthful writer; then out of the three
versions of his book, French, English, and Latin, two were withdrawn
from him, leaving him only the first. Existence has now been taken
from him, and he is left with nothing at all." No matter, however, who
the author was, the book exists. More manuscripts of it survive than
of any other work except the _Scriptures_. It is the most entertaining
volume of English prose that we have before 1360. The sentences are
simple and direct, and they describe things vividly:--

"In Ethiope ben many dyverse folk: and Ethiope is clept[13] Cusis.
In that contree ben folk, that han but o foot: and thei gon so fast,
that it is marvaylle: and the foot is so large, that it schadewethe
alle the body azen[14] the Sonne whanne thei wole[15] lye and reste
hem."[16]

Mandeville also tells of a bird that used to amuse itself by flying
away with an elephant in its talons. In the land of Prester John was a
valley where Mandeville says he saw devils jumping about as thick as
grasshoppers. Stories like these make the work as interesting as
_Gulliver's Travels_.

The so-called Mandeville's _Travels_ was one of the few works that the
unlearned of that age could understand and enjoy. Consequently its
popularity was so great as to bring large number of French words into
familiar use. The native "againbought" is, however, used instead of
the foreign "redeemed."