During this time of my recovery, every morning Kari would go ashore,
which he did by means of planks set upon the mud, since we were within
a few feet of the bank of the creek into which a streamlet ran. Later
he would return, bringing with him fish and wildfowl, and corn of a
sort that I did not know, for its grains were a dozen times the size of
wheat, flat-sided, and if ripe, of a yellow colour, which he said he
had purchased from those who dwelt upon the land. On this good food
I feasted, washing it down with ale and wine from the ship's stores;
indeed never before did I eat so much, not even when I was a boy.
At length, one morning Kari made me put on my armour, the same which I
had taken from the French knight, and fled in from London, that he had
burnished till it shone like silver, and seat myself in a chair upon
what remained of the poop of the ship. When I asked him why, he answered
in order that he might show me to the inhabitants of that land. In this
chair he bade me sit and wait, holding the shield upon my arm and the
bare sword in my right hand.
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