THE THREE KINGS OF COLOGNE.

A CHRISTMAS TALE FROM AN OLD ENGLISH CHRONICLE.

(Written by John of Hildesheim in the Fourteenth Century.)

Here followeth the manner and form of seeking and offering; and also of
the burying and translations of the three Holy and Worshipful Kings of
Cologne: Jaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.


Now when the Children of Israel were gone out of Egypt and had won and
made subject to them Jerusalem and all the land lying about, so that no
man durst set against them in all that country for dread that they had
of them; then was there a little hill called Vaws, which was also called
the Hill of Victory, and on this hill the ward of them of Ind was
ordained and kept by divers sentinels by night and by day against the
Children of Israel, and afterward against the Romans; so that if any
people at any time purposed with strong hand to enter into the country
of the Kingdom of Ind, anon, sentinels of other hills about, through
tokens, warned the keepers on the hill of Vaws. And by night they made a
great fire and by day they made a great smoke, for that hill Vaws
passeth the height of all other hills in all the East. Wherefore, when
any such token was seen, then all manner of men made ready to defend
themselves from the enemy that approached.

Now in the time when Balaam prophesied of the Star that should betoken