OLpEN—On the Geography of Ros Ailithir. 221 
Going into detail, he begins with the Garden of Eden :— 
Vv. 
Its [Asia’s] beginning seems to be in the East 
The land wherein is the paradise of Adam ; 
The land where one need not prepare a feast, 
The land around which is a wall of fire. 
It was the universal belief of the middle ages that Paradise still 
existed, and its position was a favourite subject of speculation. © 
Cosmas, in the seventh century, says it occupies a continent in the 
east of Asia, and is still watered by the four rivers springing from 
subterranean canals. Gautier de Metz, in his poem ‘‘Image du 
monde’’, written in the thirteenth century, places 1t in an unap- 
proachable region of Asia surrounded by flames, and having an armed 
angel to guard the only gate. The medieval preacher Meffreth, in 
his second sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent, discusses the 
subject, and claims St. Basil and St. Augustine as his authorities for 
stating that it is on the top of a lofty mountain in Eastern Asia, so 
high that the cascade of the four rivers falls with such a roar that all 
the natives near are stone deaf. But these are later than Mac Cosse, 
and he is probably indebted to Tertullian, who says: ‘‘If we speak of 
Paradise, it is a divine pleasance appointed to receive the souls of the 
saints, and hidden from the observation of the common world by‘a 
girdle of fire, which encloses it like a wall.2 There is a map in the 
Library of Strasbourg belonging to the ninth century, and another at 
Turin, both of which place Paradise in the extreme east of Asia; and 
we may infer that our author followed some such map, as it appears 
from the next verse that it lay to the east of India, which is described 
as follows :— 
IX. 
From that land to the river Indus westward 
[Is] India great and proud ; 
From the north from the Hindoo Coosh, 
To the strait of the Mare rubrum. 
x. 
Known is its excellence on every’side, 
Its magnets and its diamonds ; 
Its pearls, its gold dust, 
Its gold and its carbuncles. 
xI. 
Its unicorns of fierce habit, 
Its soft and balmy breezes ; 
Its elephants of mighty strength, 
Its two harvests in one year. 
5 Page 232, note f. 
R. I. A. PROC., VOL. II., SER. II1.— POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. 20 
