ipso facto excommunicate, until they did penance before the Warden of the Franciscans at Jerusalem.  He gives us a picture of all that he went through, in the most minute details.  During the day we see the pilgrims crowded together on deck, some drinking and singing, others playing dice or cards or that unfailing pastime for ship-life, chess.  Talking, reading, telling their beads, writing diaries, sleeping, hunting in their clothes for vermin; so they spend their day.  Some for exercise climb up the rigging, or jump, or brandish heavy weights:  some drift about from one party to another, just watching what is going on.  Our good friar complains of the habits of the noblemen, who gambled a great deal and were always making small wagers, which they paid with a cup of Malmsey wine.  He also tells how the patron, to beguile the journey, produced a great piece of silk, which he offered as a prize for the pilgrims to play for.

     [38] It has been translated by Mr. Aubrey Stewart for the
          Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, vols. 7-10, 1892-3.

At meal times, to which they are summoned by trumpets, the pilgrims race on to the poop:  for they cannot all find seats, and those that come late have to sit among the crew.  Noblemen, who have their own servants, are too fastidious to mingle with the crowd; and pay extra to the cooks,—­poor, sweating fellows, toiling crossly in a tiny galley—­for food which their servants bring to them on the main-deck, or even below.  After the pilgrims, the captain and his council dine in state off silver dishes; and the captain’s wine is tasted before he drinks it.  At night all sleep below, in a cabin the dirt of which is indescribable.  They wrangle over the places where they shall spread their beds, and knives are drawn.  Some obstinately keep their candles burning, even though missiles come flying.  Others talk noisily; and the drunken, even when quiet, snore.  No wonder the poor friar longed for the peace of his own cell at home in Ulm.

Fabri has much practical advice to give.  He bids his reader be careful in going up and down the companion, veritably a ladder in those times; not to sit down upon ropes, or on places covered with pitch, which often melts in the sun; not to get in the way of the crew and make them angry; not to drop things overboard or let his hat be blown off.  ’Let the pilgrim beware of carrying a light upon deck at night; for the mariners dislike this strangely, and cannot endure lights when they are at work.’  Small things are apt to be stolen, if left about:  for on board ship men have no other way to get what they want.  ’While you are writing, if you lay down your pen and turn your face away, your pen will be lost, even though you be among men whom you know:  and if you lose it, you will have exceeding great trouble in getting another.’