Travels of Davus
I, Davus, being released from my employment as a counter of grain in the province of Rome, on the 20th day of the fifth month, was generously endowed with 17 weeks recompense with which to fund my travels.
I first followed the Jordan river for many miles until reaching a land called the Levant. The people of this land follow not our Lord and Saviour, but instead study a set of four scrolls relating to their prophet.
Here I met a man who I will describe as follows: he was five cubits in height and dressed in black garb, and wore a small round hat affixed atop his head. He also fastened a pair of yellow lenses before his eyes, and claimed these enabled him to more effectively scribe a strange sequence of letters onto a papyrus sheet, which practice he gave the name of 'coding.' These 'codes' he then sent by courier to a distant province where his employers resided, a practice which he called 'working in remote.'
Despite this strange arrangement, he nevertheless swore that he applied himself diligently. I took notice that he smoked a pungent herb which was similar to one smoked in my province, a green leaf harvested in the Eastern lands, which caused many young men to walk slowly in the marketplaces and slur their speech. This herb, he said, was not as the one smoked in my province, but rendered little effect on the user, thus being more like a fine meal, and allowed him to 'code' to great effect.
When I challenged him to a lively bout of wrestling he refused, stating that the men of his tribe were forbidden from grasping another, and that the scribes feared it would lead to the loss of their good sense. He then ranged an assortment of wine bottles on the floor, stating that his people believed a true test of valour was to be thrown atop these bottles. Not falling for his ruse, I replied that if a man were to submit to this challenge, he would surely find himself visiting a nearby apothecary, and not for the purpose of soliciting the herb which he was smoking.
Let that be all there is to say on my travels in the Levant.