_ 148 _ The next day was Saturday, and the magistrate could not speak to him or do anything, because they observed this day for Our Lady just like Saturday, and he was thus not able to write. But he did not have to wait long, as the head of the monastery came soon to him and had brought him a book for him to show the King of Portugal and to the Pope, so that they might understand the Christians of the Prester. He immediately gave it to him, and it was the eighth day of Easter. It was written in their language. With this they parted, and he was taken to a cell which had two boards for a bed and a stone for a pillow. There was a cloak for covering. The monks had these beds because they treated their bodies harshly, and practiced severe penances, through which it seems that dur Lord heard their prayers. It was so that they could be a fortress of Christianity that Our Lord had laid out those mountains inside the land. It was only to create this fortress, when they were so surrounded by the faith of Mohammed; and not be touched by it. Down at the Strait they had the Kings of Zeila and of Berbera and all the others. On the other side the King of Mogadishu and others were there with whom they were at war. On the Cairo side, beyond Suakin, sixty leagues above Massawa, this had a Moorish King, lord of the
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