OLpEN—On the Geography of Ros Ailithir. 223 
The later Roman writers applied the name Saracen to all the Ara- 
bian tribes, but our author, who distinguishes them from the Naba- 
theans, appears to have followed the earlier account of Ptolemy, in 
whose time they were a small tribe between Palestine and Egypt.® 
The inhabitants of Sodom (xx.) he seems to regard as still oceupy- 
ing their original seat; but the explanation probably is, that he is 
simply illustrating a map. 
In No. xxi. we have— 
Egypt of famous deeds, 
Most fertile of all lands, 
Along by the river Nile southward 
It is neighbour to Africa, 
From this it appears that Egypt was regarded as forming part of 
Asia. The earlier geographers, Ptolemy and Strabo, fixed the Ara- 
bian Gulf and the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary between Asia and 
Africa; but the later, as Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, and Solinus, pre- 
ferred the western branch of the Nile, thus giving to Asia all between 
the Nile and the present Red Sea. This is the view our author fol- 
lows. 
Passing on to verse XXIII., 
In that eastern land of many deeds 
Are the Seres of ancient fame ; 
For there are woods there 
Whence, no wonder, [comes] their wool. 
The earliest writer who refers to the Chinese as combing the silk 
called ‘‘soft wool” from the trees, is Virgil,® whose account of it is 
probably the source of the medizval stories on the subject. He was 
not aware of the existence of the little worm which accounted for 
the phenomenon. 
We have next a reference to Scythia and the griffins who protect 
the gold and precious stones there, probably a distorted rumour of the 
gold mines of the Ural,!° and then in xxv1.— 
Land of Alaunia [where is] a burning fire, 
From the Caspian Sea to the [palus] Mzotis 
Known are their tribes in west and east, 
A fair-haired people. 
There were two branches of the tribes known to eastern writers as 
the A-Lau or A-Lau-na, and to the Romans as the Alauni." Origi- 
nally occupying part of the Scythian desert, they were invaded by the 
Huns, when some of them joined their conquerors; others passed to 
8 Page 235, note 1. 9 See p. 236, note o. 
0 See p. 236, note p. See p. 236, note r 
