And it Cometh of the Dew of Heaven that falleth upon the Herbs in that Country.

And it congealeth and becometh all white and sweet.

And Men put it in Medicines." 53-4--*For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.* Professor Cooper, in the article cited in the introductory note above, points out that this part of the poem contains perhaps reminiscences of the stories told of the Old Man of the Mountain.

This was the title popularly given to the head of a fanatical sect of Mohammedans in Syria in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, whose method of getting rid of their enemies has given us the word _assassin_.

To quote from Mandeville's "Travels," which has the essentials of the story, though the chief is here called Gatholonabes, and his domain is not in Syria but in the island Mistorak, "in the Lordship of Prester John:" "He had a full fair Castle and a strong in a Mountain, so strong and so noble, that no Man could devise a fairer or a stronger.