know, it was a very common thing for people to go on pilgrimages.
And among the long pilgrimages the one to the Holy Land was the
most common. So Sir John wrote his book to help people on their
way, just as Mr. Baedeker and Mr. Murray do now.

It is perhaps the earliest, and certainly one of the most
delightful, guide-books ever written, although really it was
chiefly made up of bits out of books by other people.

Sir John tells of many different ways of getting to Palestine,
and relates wonderful stories about the places to be passed
through. He wrote in French. "I know that I ought to write in
Latin," he says, "but because more people understand French I
have written in French, so that every one may understand it."
Afterwards it was translated into Latin, later into English, and
still later into almost every European language, so much did
people like the stories.

When these stories appeared it was something quite new in
Literature, for until this time stories were always written in
poetry. It was only great and learned books, or books that were
meant to teach something, that were written in prose.

Here is one of Sir John Mandeville's tales.

After telling about the tomb of St. John at Ephesus, Sir John
goes on: "And then men pass through the isles of Cophos and
Lango, of the which isles Ipocras was lord. And some say that in
the isle of Lango is Ipocras's daughter in form of a Dragon. It
is a hundred foot long, so men say. But I have not seen it. And