SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST, 25 



and though they did not see them, such was the information, which they 

 received, that they did not entertain the smallest doubt of their exis- 

 tence. The golden mountain is mentioned by Justin. (^> There is, 

 says he, a mountain of gold in that country, which is considered as sacred, 

 and no body dares dig there for that precious metal : but when it thunders, 

 the lightening very often falls upon it, and separates lumps from the 

 body of the mountain : these lumps it is lawful to take, and carry away. 

 The Silver Peak is mentioned by the poet Stesichorus, and after him by 

 Strabo and Avienus. Lastly, the third or Iron Peak is mentioned by 

 Pliny, as the northernmost of the three. (^^ This mountain of iron, says 

 he, is on the shores of the ocean, abrupt all round, and however incre- 

 dible it may appear, is a solid mass of iron. The Spaniards called gold 

 dust Balucis, Balnea, &c. The Sanscrit name for dust is Bdluca in ge^ 

 neral ; and Canchana-bdlucam signifies gold dust. Pliny says, that the 

 Spaniards called this gold dust Ballucis; in an old glossary it is called 

 Balluca, and Valuca: and in Sanscrit it is proixounced indifferently Bdluca 

 and Valuca. Timarchus of Chcsroneat who saw also these islands in a 

 vision, according to Plutarch, says that they were very larg.e, and were 

 situated in the eighth sea, or division of the world. Tri-<iita iSr always 

 placed in the last sea but one: it is in the sixth sea according to the Hind^Sf 

 who affedl the number seven : it is in the seventh according ta the Baud- 

 ^hists, wIk) affedl the number eight : and in; the west it was in the eighth^ 

 because they had a predile6lion for tlie number nine » The Styx winded 

 nine times round the world, and according to the Edda tliere were nine 

 worlds. It will appear in the sequel of this work, that the Styx\st\\Q 

 same with the seven Seas, which arc sometimes represented, as forming a 



^2) Lib. 44/ c. 5.- 



(a) Pliny, lib. ^i." c. 15.' 



