THE KING'S MIRROR 155 



reaches us, even though it comes from the frozen south! $J 

 side of the earth, for it blows through the curved ring 

 of the torrid belt.* Consequently, though it blows cold 

 from the south, it is warm when it emerges on the north- 

 ern side. And if people live as near the cold belt on the 

 southern side as the Greenlanders do on the northern, 

 I firmly believe that the north wind blows as warm to 

 them as the south wind to us. For they must look north 

 to see the midday and the sun's whole course, just 

 as we, who dwell north of the sun, must look to the 

 south. 



We have said earlier that in winter the sun's course 

 here is short, but of such extraordinary length in sum- 

 mer that we then have day nearly all the time. From 

 this you may conclude that the sun's path is quite 

 broad and that its course is not narrow and straight as 

 if it were always following a certain line. As soon as it 

 reaches the outer edge of its sloping circuit toward the 

 south, those who live on the extreme side of the world 

 to the south have summer and long sun paths, while we 

 have winter and little sunlight. And when the sun comes 

 to the extreme edge of its circuit to the north, we have 

 long-continued sunshine, while they have cold winter. 

 For it is always this way, that the sun rises higher in the 

 north when its path declines in the south: and when its 

 course begins to decline in the north, it begins to wax 

 on the southern side. 



* Macrobius states the same belief in quite similar terms: the south wind 

 comes from a frozen clime just as the north wind does; but " since it comes to 

 us through the flames of the torrid zone and mixes with the fire, it becomes 

 hot, so that what was cold in the beginning comes to us with warmth." (P. 

 603.) 



