but beside Bethlehem are many more places of good pasture and of flat
ground than elsewhere: insomuch that at Christmas-tide barley beginneth
to ear and to wax ripe; and then men send thither, from divers
countries, their horses and mules, to make them fat: and that time we
call among us Christmas, they call, in their language, the time of
herbage. And forasmuch as when Christ was born, peace was in all the
world, and betwixt Bethlehem and that place where the angel appeared to
the shepherds was but half a mile and a little way more, and also there
was no great cold thereabout, therefore the shepherds, all that winter
night and day, now in one place, now in another, dwelled there with
their sheep, and so they do yet to this day.

Now when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary for salvation of all
mankind, then His Star, that was prophesied of Balaam and long awaited
and looked for by the twelve astronomers on the hill of Vaws, at that
same night and at that same hour, began to arise in the manner of a sun,
bright shining; and so after, in the form of an eagle, it ascended above
the hill of Vaws. And all that day in highest air it abode without
moving, insomuch that when the sun was most hot and most high there was
no difference in shining betwixt them.

But when the day of the Nativity was passed, the Star ascended up into
the firmament, and it was nothing like to stars that be painted in
divers places, for it had right many long streaks and beams, more
burning and lighter than a brand of fire; and, as an eagle flying and
beating the air with his wings, right so the streaks and beams of the
Star stirred it about. And it had in itself the form and likeness of a
young child, and above him a sign of the holy cross, and a voice was
heard in the Star, saying: "This day is born to us the King of Jews that
folk have awaited, and Lord is of them. Go and seek Him and do Him