inhabited islands, the island of Ceylon, which has in it ten towns. The river Indus lies to the west of the district; between the river Indus and that which lies to the west of it called Tigris, both of which flow south into the Red Sea,- between these two rivers are these countries, Arachosia [Candahor] and Parthia and Assyria and Persia and Media, though writers often name all these countries Media or Assyria; and they are very mountainous, and there are very sharp and stony ways. The northern boundaries of these countries are the Caucasian Mountains, and on the south side the Red Sea. In these countries are two great rivers, Hydaspes [Jhylum] and Arabis [Pooralee]. In this district are thirty-two nations: now it is all called Parthia.

8. Then west from the river Tigris to the river Euphrates, between the rivers, are these countries,― Babylonia and Chaldea and Mesopotamia. Within these countries are twentyeight nations. Their northern boundaries are the mountains Taurus and Caucasus, and their southern boundaries lie to the Red Sea. Along the Red Sea -the part that shoots to the north-lies the country of Arabia and Saba [Saade], and Eudomane. From the river Euphrates, west to the Mediterranean and north almost to the mountains which are called Taurus, to the country which they call Armenia, and again south to Egypt, there are many nations in these districts; that is, Comagena and Phoenicia and Damascus and Coelle and Moab and Ammon and Idumea and Judea and Palestine and Saracene; though it is all called Syria. Then to the north of Syria are the mountains, called Taurus; and to the north of the mountains are the countries of Cappadocia and Armenia. Armenia is to the east of Cappadocia. To the west of Cappadocia is the country called Asia the Less. To the north of Cappadocia is the plain of Themiscyra. Then between Cappadocia and Asia the Less is the country of Cilicia and Isauria. This Asia is, on every side, surrounded with salt water, except on the east. On the north side is the Black Sea; and on the west the sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles; and the Mediterranean Sea on the south. the same Asia the highest mountain is Olympus.

In

9. To the north of the nearer Egypt is the country of Palestine, and to the east of it the district of the Saracens, and to the west the country of Libya, and to the south the mountain called Climax. The spring of the river Nile is near the

cliff of the Red Sea; though some say that its spring is in the west end of Africa, near the mountain Atlas, and then, soon running on sand to the east, it sinks into the sand. Nigh there, it flows up again from the sand, and there forms a great sea. Where it first springs up, the men of the country call it Nuchul, and some Dara. Then, from the sea, where it shoots up from the sand, it runs easterly through the desert of Ethiopia, and there it is called Ion, as far as the east part; and there it becomes a great sea. It then sinks again into the earth; and, north of that, afterwards springs up, near the cliff by the Red Sea, which I formerly mentioned. Then, from this source, the water is called the river Nile. Running thence onward to the west, it separates into two, about an island which is called Meroe; and thence, bending northward, flows out into the Mediterranean Sea. In the winter time the river at the mouth is so driven back by the northern winds that it flows over all the land of Egypt; and by this flooding very thick crops are produced in the land of Egypt. The farther Egypt lies east along the Red Sea, on the south side. On the east and south parts of the country lies the ocean; and on its west side is the nearer Egypt. In the two Egypts are twenty-four nations.

10. We have already written about the south part of Asia; now we will take the north part of it,—that is from the mountains called Caucasus, of which we have before spoken, and which are to the north of India. They begin first on the east from the ocean, and then lie right west to the mountains of Armenia, which the people of the country call Parachoathras. There, from the south of these mountains, springs the river Euphrates; and from the mountains called Parachoathras extend the mountains of Taurus right west, to the country of the Cilicians. Then * to the north of the mountains, along the ocean to the north-east of this mid-earth, there the river Bore shoots out into the ocean; and thence westerly along the ocean to the Caspian Sea, which there shoots up to the mountains of Caucasus. That district they call Old Scythia and Hyrcania. In this district are forty-three nations widely settled, because of the barrenness of the country. Then, from the west of the

*This is a description of the north and east of Asia, or rather, as Orosius states, "ab oriente ad septentrionem." Alfred has so much abridged this description, and included so large a space, in few words, that it is not easy, from the Anglo-Saxon text alone, to ascertain the locality of the places which he mentions. The original Latin of Orosius is more full and satisfactory.

Caspian Sea unto the river Don, and to the fen called Mæotis [Sea of Azov], and then south to the Mediterranean Sea and to Mount Taurus, and north to the ocean is all the country of Scythia within; though it is separated into thirty-two nations. But the countries, that are near, on the east side of the Don are named Albani in Latin, and we now call them Liobene. We have thus spoken shortly about the boundaries of Asia.

II. Now we will speak, as much as we know, about the boundaries of EUROPE. From the river Don westward to the river Rhine (which springs from the Alps, and then runs right north into the arm of the ocean that lies around the country called Britain); and again south to the river Danube (whose spring is near the river Rhine, and which afterwards runs east, by the country north of Greece, into the Mediterranean Sea);

*

and north to the ocean which is called the White Sea: within these are many nations, but they call it all Germania.

12. Then to the north, from the spring of the Danube, and to the east of the Rhine are the East Franks; and to the south of them are the Suabians, on the other side of the river Danube. To the south and to the east are the Bavarians, that part which is called Ratisbon. Right to the east of them are the Bohemians; and north-east are the Thuringians. To the north of them are the Old Saxons, § and to the north-west of them are the Friesians. To the west of the Old Saxons is the mouth of the river Elbe and Friesland. From thence north-west is the country called Anglen, and Zealand ¶ and some part of Den

*Into what is now called the Black Sea, which Alfred considered a part of the Mediterranean. Snorre calls it a gulf of the Mediterranean in the first chapter of his Heimskringla. In other places, Alfred mentions the Black Sea under the name Euxinus.

+ From this place to the end of $23, Alfred leaves Orosius, and gives the best information that he could collect. It is the king's own account of Europe in his time. It is not only interesting, as the composition of Alfred, but invaluable as an historical document, being the only authentic record of the Germanic nations, written by a contemporary, so early as the ninth century.

The Cwen-saé of Alfred. The plain detail which Ohthere gave to King Alfred [§ 13] can scarcely be read by any unprejudiced person without coming to the conclusion that Ohthere sailed from Halgoland, on the coast of Norway, into the White Sea. See § 13. The Germania of Alfred, therefore, extended from the Don on the east to the Rhine and the German Ocean on the west; and from the Danube on the south to the White Sea on the north.

§A. S. Eald-Seaxe, and Eald-Seaxan, THE OLD SAXONS, inhabiting the country between the Eyder and the Weser, the parent stock of the Anglo or English-Saxons, and therefore of great importance in the mind of Alfred; for he speaks of other countries, as they are located in regard to the Old Saxons. They were a very warlike and powerful people, who once occupied the whole north-west corner of Germany.

Anglen, the country between Flensburg and the Schley, whence the Angles came to

Britain.

In A. S. Sillende ZEALAND, or SEELAND, in Danish Sjalland, the largest island in the Danish monarchy, on the eastern shores of which Copenhagen is built.

mark.

To the north are the Afdrede, and north-east the Wylte, who are called Hæfeldan. To the east of them is the country of the Wends, who are called Sysyle; and south-east, at some distance, the Moravians. These Moravians have, to the west of them, the Thuringians, and Bohemians, and part of the Bavarians. To the south of them, on the other side of the river Danube, is the country Carinthia, [lying] south to the mountains called the Alps. To the same mountains extend the boundaries of the Bavarians and of the Suabians; and then, to the east of the country Carinthia, beyond the desert, is the country of the Bulgarians; and, to the east of them, the country of the Greeks. To the east of the country Moravia is the country of the Wisle; and to the east of them are the Dacians, who were formerly Goths. To the north-east of the Moravians are the Dalamensan, and to the east of the Dalamensan are the Horithi, and to the east of the Dalamensan are the Surpe, and to the west of them are the Sysele. To the north of the Horiti is Magtha-land, and north of Magtha-land are the Sermende even to the Rhipæan Mountains. To the west of the South-Danes is the arm of the ocean, which lies around the country of Britain; and to the north of them is the arm of the sea called the Baltic; and to the east and to the north of them are the North-Danes, both on the continent and on the islands: to the east of them are the Afdrede; and to the south of them is the mouth of the river Elbe, with some part of the Old Saxons. The North-Danes have to the north of them the same arm of the sea called the Baltic; to the east of them are the Esthonian population; and the Afdræde to the south. The Esthonians have, to the north of them, the same arm of the sea, and also the Wends and Burgundians; and to the south are the Hæfeldan. The Burgundians have the same arm of the sea to the west of them, and the Swedes to the north to the east of them are the Sermende, and to the south the Surfe. The Swedes have, to the south of them, the Esthonian arm of the sea; and to the east of them the Sermende; to the north, over the wastes, is Cwén-land, and to the north-west are the Scride-Finns, and to the west the North

men.

13. Ohthere* told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt north

* Ohthere was a Norwegian nobleman of great wealth and influence, anxious to state nothing but that to which he could bear persona! testimony. It appears impossible for any one to read this simple narrative without being convinced that this daring Northman is giving

most of all Northmen.

He said that he dwelt northward, on the land by the west sea. He said, however, that the land is very long thence to the north; but it is all waste [desert], save that in a few places, here and there, Finns reside,- for hunting in winter, and in summer for fishing in the sea. He said that at a certain time he wished to find out how far the land lay right north; or whether any man dwelt to the north of the waste. Then he went right north near the land; he left, all the way, the waste land on the right, and the wide sea on the left, for three days. Then was he as far north as Whalehunters ever go. He then went yet right north, as far as he could sail in the next three days. Then the land bent there right east, or the sea in on the land, he knew not whether; but he knew that he there waited for a western wind, or a little to the north, and sailed thence east near the land, as far as he could sail in four days. Then he must wait there for a right north wind, because the land bent there right south, or the sea in on the land, he knew not whether. Then sailed he thence could sail in five days.

right south, near the land, as far as he There lay then a great river up into the land; they turned up into the river, because they durst not sail beyond it, on account of hostility, for the land was all inhabited on the other side of the river. He had not before met with any inhabited land since he came from his own home, but the land was uninhabited all the way on his right, save by fishermen, fowlers, and hunters, and they were all Finns; and there was always a wide sea on his left. The Biarmians had very well peopled their land, but they durst not come upon it: the land of the Terfinns was all waste, save where hunters, fishers, or fowlers encamped.

14. The Biarmians told him many stories both about their

a detail of his voyage on the west and on the north coast of Norway, into the White Sea. Iceland had already been discovered by Gardar, the Dane, in A.D. 860, and it was colonized by Ingolf, a Norwegian, in 874. Greenland was discovered in 877 and inhabited by Northmen soon after. Accustomed as these Northmen were to the most daring enterprises, it was not likely that Ohthere, one of the most powerful, adventurous, bold, and inquiring of them, should come to the renowned king of England to relate the events of a common voyage. Ohthere had made discoveries, which he communicated to the king; and Alfred thought them of such importance that he wrote and inserted this detail of them in his Geographical and Historical view of Europe. It has always been considered an extraordinary vovage. On its first publication by Hakluyt, in 1598, it was acknowledged, as every unpredjudiced reader must now allow, that Ohthere doubled the north cape, and entered the White Sea. "The voiage of Octher made to the north-east parts beyond Norway, reported by himselfe vnto Aifred, the famous king of England, about the yere 890." Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques, and Discoueries of the English Nation, &c., page 5, Fol. 2nd Edn. London, 1598. Again, a little below, Hakluyt says: "Wil it not, in all posteritie, be as great renowne vnto our English Nation to haue bene the first discouerers of a sea beyond the North Cape [neuer certainly knowen before] and of a conuenient passage into the huge Empire of Russia by the bay S. Nicolas and the riuer of Duina?" &c. Id. p. 5.