_ 101 _ In this land there are also many Jews who remained after the first captivity of Babylon. They have many synagogues. There are also many Turks, Persians, Armenians, Russians, Poles and other uncivilized nations. We have four holy days a week, namely, Sundays for the Christians; Monday is the Sunday of the heathens; Friday is that of the Moors; Saturday of the Jews; in a word, it is always a holy day, praise the Lord. They cause me considerable sadness, when I see so much depravity in these sinners. If I wish to rest, the melancholy calls from their minaret wake me up. I often weep, and there is no-one to console me(A) against the devil, who walks about with so much success. In this city, there are ambassadors from many parts of the world. The wealth of herbs from Arabia Felix comes here. The Arabia Deserta is on the other shore of the Straits of Mecca and the Red Sea, which divides Egypt and Arabia from Ethiopia and Prester John. Into these Straits flows the Nile, whose source is in the Cape of Good Hope(B), and which passes through the lands (A) Cf. Lamentations 1, 2 17. (B) The sources of the Nile were unknown during the whole of XVI century and the cartographers of that time placed it towards the
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