IN NORTHERN MISTS 



In his text-book of the elements of astronomy he says that from " the Encir- 

 cling Ocean" (the Oceanus of the Greeks), out into which one never sails, but 

 only along the coast — " there proceeds a great bay to the north of the Slavs, 

 extending to the vicinity of the land of the Mohammedan Bulgarians [on the 

 Volga]. It is knovirn by the name of the Varangians' Sea [' Bahr Warank'], 

 and they [the Varangians] are a people i on its coast. Then it bends to the 

 east in rear of them, and between its shore and the uttermost lands of the 

 Turks [i.e., in East Asia] there are countries and mountains unknown, desert, 

 untrodden." 



Al-Biruni also has a very primitive map of tlie world as a 

 roiirxd disc in the ocean, indented by five bays, of which the 

 Varangians' Sea is one [cf. Seippel, 1896, pi. i]. The peoples 

 who are beyond the seventh climate, that is, in the northern- 

 most regions, are few, says he, "such as the Isu [i.e. Wisu], 

 and the Warank, and the Yura [Yugrians] and the like." - 



The Arabs of the West came in contact with the North 

 through the Norman vikings, whom they called Magus (cf. 

 p. 55), and who in the ninth century and later made several 

 predatory expeditions to the Spanish peninsula. Their first 

 attack on the Moorish kingdom in Spain seems to have taken 

 place in 844, when, among other things, they took and 

 sacked Seville. After that expedition, an Arab writer tells 

 us, friendly relations were established between the sultan of 

 Spain, 'Abd ar-Rahman II. and "the king of the Magus," and, 

 according to an account in Abu'l-Khattab 'Omar Ibn Dihya^ 

 (ob. circa 1235), the former is even said to have sent an 



1 The Persian version and as-Shirazi add " tall, warlike." 



2 The Christian Jew Assaf Hebraeus's cosmography, of the eleventh century, 

 was probably written in Arabic, but is only known in a Latin and a Hebrew 

 translation [cf. Ad, Neubauer, in " Orient und Occident," ed. Th. Benfey, ii., 

 Gottingen, 1864, pp. 657 f.]. He mentions beyond " Scochia " (Scotland) the 

 land of " Norbe " (Norway) with an archbishopric and ten bishoprics. In these 

 northern lands, and particularly in Ireland, there are no snakes. Many other 

 countries and islands are beyond Britain and the land of " Norve " (Norway), 

 but the island of " Tille " (Thule) is the most distant, far away in the northern 

 seas, and has the longest day, etc. There is the stiffened, viscous sea. Next 

 the Hebrides (" Budis ") are mentioned, where the inhabitants have no corn, 

 but live on fish and milk (cf. Vol. I, p. 160), and the Orcades, where there dwell 

 naked people (" gens nuda," instead of " vacant homines," see Vol. I, p. 161). 



3 Cf. R. Dozy, 1881, pp. 267 f. 

 200 



