OLpEN—On the Geography of Ros Ailithir. 245 
LI. 
[Scythia has its territory in the north-east; it lies along the Tanais up to the Great Sea; 
On the south is the Danube with an eastward course; on the west the river Rhine 
enclosing Germany. ]! 
Lil. 
I hear every day that in it are the territories of Scythia. 
Elimea™, Dacia, Gothia keen, Germania west, by the stream of lofty Rhine. 
LUI. 
Thracia, Mcesia, smooth Pannonia, westward to mighty river Rhine, 
{ Lie] side by side south of the Danube, from Constantinople and the Pontic Sea. 
LIV. 
Land in which are sluggish bears, much amber, and crystal, 
And [many] swift-winged things® which illuminate the night. 
LY. 
Greece [is] from Thracia in its greatest extent; southward to the sea of Cephalonia; 
To the river Rhine, which is seen to the west beyond the point of the Adriatic Sea. 
LVI. 
The territory of Attica is in the east, the great country which contains Athens ; 
Achaia is on the south, to which belongs the city of Corinth. 
LVII. 
Arcadia, without question, is in the east; in it is the stone called Asbestos,P 
Since fire affects not its mass, nor is it found to be extinguished. 
recurring at every other instant, as if disclosed by the opening of the wings at each 
successive expansion. It is of considerable intensity in a single insect, but when 
three or four are brought together it is sufficient to render the smallest object 
around quite visible.” —WNaturalist’s Library (Sir J. Jardine), vol. ii. 173. 
“When a number of these moving stars are seen to dart through the air ina dark 
night nothing can have a more beautiful effect.’’—Introduction to Entomology 
(Kirby and Spence), vol. ii. letter 25. 
Pliny describes them much in the same way, and adds another name: “‘ Cicin- 
dele. . . . Ita appellant rustici stellantes volatus.’’—18, 66. 
The Oxford copy reads—nen nittech, ‘‘ shining birds’’? which seems an attempt 
to explain, but the description can only apply to fire-flies. 
P Asbestos.—From a, and cBevvuu. The copyist of the Oxford ms. seems not 
to have known this word, and proposes as an emendation rofeist, but Mac Cosse 
gives its correct etymology, which seems to imply a knowledge of Greek: ‘‘ It was 
employed for the wicks of lamps in the ancient temples, and because it main- 
tained a perpetual flame without being consumed, was named AcBeoros, unextin- 
guished. It is now used for the same purpose by the natiyes of Greenland.’’— 
R. I, A. PROC. VOL. I1., SER. II1.—POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. 2 F 
