IN NORTHERN MISTS 



[Ann. xiv. 30] tells of their fanatical women who, in white clothes (grave- 

 clothes) with disheveled hair and flaming torches, conducted themselves alto- 

 gether like Furies on the arrival of the Romans. 



The circumstance of Hvitramanna-land being, according 

 to the " Eyrbyggja Saga," a forbidden land may correspond to 

 that of men being prohibited from setting foot on the 

 priestesses' island, or again to the way to the Cassiterides being 

 kept secret and to the precautions taken to prevent people 

 from reaching them (cf. Vol. I, p. 27). Something similar, it 

 may be added, is told of the rich, fertile island which the 

 Carthaginians discovered in the west of the ocean, and which, 

 under pain of death, they forbade others to visit [Aristotle, 

 Mir. Auscult., c. 85; cf. also Diodorus, v. 20]. That in 

 late classical times there was a confusion between the Cas- 

 siterides and the mythical isles in the west appears further 

 from Pliny's saying [Hist, nat, iv. 36] that the Cassiterides 

 were also called " Fortunatae," and from Dionysius Perie- 

 getes making tin, the product of the Cassiterides, come from 

 the Hesperides. 



It was mentioned above (Vol. I, p. 357) that the 

 name of the promised land, "the Land of Marvels," was also 

 called in Irish legend the "Great Strand" ("Trag Mor"), or 

 the " Great Land " (" Tir Mor ") ; " two or three times as 

 large as Ireland" (Vol. I, p. 355). It does not seem unlikely 

 that the Icelanders, hearing from Ireland of this great land, 

 should come to call it " Irland hit Mikla " (Ireland the Great) ; 

 and this seems to be a more natural explanation than 

 Storm's [1887, p. 65] interpretation of the name as meaning 

 " the Irish colony," like " Magna Graecia " (the Greek 

 colony in Italy) and " Svif^jod it Mikla " (the Swedish colony 

 in Russia, the name of which may, however, have been 

 derived from the name of the latter: " Scythia Magna"); 

 on the other hand, he gives an obvious parallel in " Great 

 Han," the mythical land in the Great Ocean beyond China 

 (Han). 



In the " Eyrbyggja Saga " we read of Bjorn Asbrandsson, 

 48 



