OL_pEN—On the Geography of Ros Ailithir. 233 
VII. 
Its beginning seems to be in the east, the land wherein is the paradisef of Adam ; 
The land where one need not prepare a feast ; the land around which is a wall of fire. 
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. 
Xs 
Known is its excellence on every side, its magnets and its diamonds ; 
Its pearls, its gold dust, its gold and its carbuncles. 
Xs 
Its unicorns of fierce habits, its soft and balmy breezes ; 
Its elephants of mighty strength, its two harvests in one year. 
Xai 
Parthians and highland Assyrians, Persians and very fierce Medes ; 
From Indus westward reach the men, to the profitable waters of the deep Tigris. 
XIII. 
From the Red Sea they reach across the plain, under the north to the land of Arcane. 
In that land, no poor lot, is the stone Selenite. 
XIV. 
Arabia with myrrh and frankincense in the east, with the phoenix of great age; 
From the angle: of the Mare rubrum, powerful, swift; from Tigris and river 
Euphrates. 
XV. 
Chaldea and Babylon the strong, are’conspicuous between Arabia 
And the plain of Shinari northward, wherein was built Nimrod’s tower. 
h Red Sea.—Muir ruadh, i.e. the Indian Ocean: this is the vernacular term : the 
other expression for it, vss. 9, 14, 20, is romair; the Latin rubrwm. The Persian 
Gulf and the Arabian Gulf with its branches were termed the Red Sea, being 
_ regarded as inlets of the Indian Ocean. In a poem of Gilla Coemain, Book of 
Leinster, 1300., the two expressions are combined, tarmthecht mara ruaid romair, 
“the crossing of the Red Sea.’’ The latter name, however, when used alone, is 
ambiguous, as it may also signify “‘ the Great Sea”: cf. the Calendar of Oengus, 
by Stokes: Index. 
Arcane.—This description corresponds better with Carmania than any other 
country. It is now the province of Oman, and the east part of Hadramant. It is 
a desert plateau with a ring of mountains round the coast. The crystallized gypsum 
or moonstone was used for glazing windows. Pliny’s account of the name is, 
SeAnvitny dictum vult Dioscorid, non quod imaginem Lune contineat sed quod 
adlucente Luna, éy 7H tis ceAnvns mapavya¢e: media nocte ac intempesta reperitur, 
37, 10 (67). 
iThe angle formed by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. ‘In Persico 
sinu maris rubri.”—Pliny, lib. ix. 106. 
i The plain of Shinar is one of the fayourite places of the Irish Bards; and Nim- 
