IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
346 RECOLLECTIONS OP TRAVEL IN THE EAST,
went to see the famous Queen of SABA. By her I was honourably treated, and after some harvest of souls (for there are a few Christians there) I proceeded by sea to SEYLLAN, a glorious mountain opposite to Paradise. And from Seyllan to Paradise, according to what the natives say after the tradition of their fathers, is a distance of forty Italian miles ; so that, 'tis said, the sound of the waters falling from the fountain of Paradise is heard there?
CHAPTER CONCERNING PARADISE.
Now Paradises is a place that (really) exists upon the earth surrounded by the Ocean Sea, in the regions of the Orient on the other side of Columbine India, and over against the mountain of Seyllan. 'Tis the loftiest spot on the face of the earth, reaching, as Johannes Scotus hath proven, to the sphere of the moon ; a place remote from all strife, delectable in balminess and brightness of atmospb.ere, and in the midst whereof a fountain springeth from the ground, pouring forth its waters to water, according to the season, the Paradise and all the trees therein. And there grow all the trees that produce the best of fruits ; wondrous fair are they to look upon, fragrant and delicious for the food of man. Now that fountain cometh down from the mount and falleth into a lake, which is called by the philosophers EEPHIRATTES. Here it passes under another water which is turbid, and issues forth on the other side, where it divides into four rivers which pass through Seyllan ; and these be their names :3
1 A MS. of the fifteenth century in the Genoese Archives, from which extracts are given by Gräberg de Hemso, says that the Four Rivers flow down from Paradise with such a noise that the people who inhabit round about those parts. are born deaf ! (Annali di Geografia e di Statistica, ii, App.) Akin to this is the myth of the dwellers in the extreme east hearing a tremendous noise made by the sun in rising (Carpini, p. 661).
s See Introductory Notice to Marignolli, p. 326.
3 Considering how rarely in reality a plurality of rivers have a common
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