Hippopotami: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

19

Of the judgements given by the hand of Saint Thomas
the Apostle in the city of Calamy; of the devotion and
sacrifice offered to idols there; and of the procession
round the city


to carve

and carve as far as the earth

intends

to build upward


by the fifth idol

only anger

gives way

to an amputated ridge


before the last idol is cut

from ‘frazzled stalk’

to the intention of likeness


the repaired plants

will cover the one who once

planted


whose mount begins from ashes

to baruch


the unpaved hole

altered

by depth and comeliness