Here is one of Sir John Mandeville’s tales.

After telling about the tomb of St. John at Ephesus, Sir John goes on:  “And then men pass through the isles of Cophos and Lango, of the which isles Ipocras was lord.  And some say that in the isle of Lango is Ipocras’s daughter in form of a Dragon.  It is a hundred foot long, so men say.  But I have not seen it.  And they say the people of the isles call her the lady of the country, and she lieth in an old castle and sheweth herself thrice a year.  And she doeth no man harm.  And she is thus changed from a lady to a Dragon through a goddess whom men call Diana.

“And men say that she shall dwell so until the time that a knight come that is so hardy as to go to her and kiss her mouth.  And then shall she turn again to her own kind and be a woman.  And after that she shall not live long.

“And it is not long since a knight of the island of Rhodes that was hardy and valiant said that he would kiss her.  But when the Dragon began to lift up her head, and he saw it was so hideous, he fled away.  Then the Dragon in her anger bare the knight to a rock and cast him into the sea, and so he was lost.

“Also a young man that wist not of the Dragon went out of a ship and went through the isle till he came to a castle.  Then came he into the cave and went on till he found a chamber.  And there he saw a lady combing her hair, and looking in a mirror.  And she had much treasure about her.  He bowed to the lady, and the lady saw the shadow of him in the mirror.  Then she turned towards him and asked him what he would.  And he answered he would be her lover.

“Then she asked him if he were a knight, and he said ‘Nay.’  She said then he might not be her lover.  But she bade him go again to his fellows and make him knight, and come again on the morrow.  Then she would come out of the cave and he should kiss her on the mouth.  And she bade him have no dread, for she would do him no harm.  Although she seemed hideous to him she said it was done by enchantment, for, she said, she was really such as he saw her then.  She said, too, that if he kissed her he should have all the treasure, and be her lord, and lord of all these isles.

“Then he departed from her and went to his fellows in the ship, and made him knight, and came again on the morrow for to kiss the damsel.  But when he saw her come out of the cave in the form of a Dragon, he had so great dread that he fled to the ship.  She followed him, and when she saw that he turned not again she began to cry as a thing that had much sorrow, and turned back again.

“Soon after the knight died, and since, hitherto, might no knight see her but he died anon.  But when a knight cometh that is so hardy to kiss her, he shall not die, but he shall turn that damsel into her right shape and shall be lord of the country aforesaid.”

When Sir John reaches Palestine he has very much to say of the wonders to be seen there.  At Bethlehem he tells a story of how roses first came into the world.  Here it is: