urg Library, places the
Terrestrial Paradise--the Garden of Eden--in that part of Asia we now
know as the Chinese Empire, and it is also so marked in a map in the
British Museum.

In a letter supposed to have emanated from the mysterious if not
mythical Prester John, it is written: 'The river Indus which issues out
of Paradise flows among the plains through a certain province, and it
expands, embracing the whole province with its various windings. There
are found emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyx,
beryl, sardius, and many other precious stones. There, too, grows the
plant called Asbestos.'

And all this was reported to be just three days' journey from the garden
from which Adam was expelled, but as the geographical position of the
province was not specified the information was a trifle vague. Prester
John, however, described a wonderful fountain, the virtues of which
correspond with those of a well in Ceylon described by Sir John
Mandeville, and this is why some people say that the Garden of Eden was
in the Island of Spices.

There is a twelfth-century map of the world at Cambridge, which shows
Paradise on an island opposite the mouth of the Ganges. And in the story
of St. Brandan, the saint reaches an island somewhere 'due east from
Ireland,' which was Paradise, and on which he met with a man who told
him that a stream--which no living being might cross--flowing through
the island, divided the world in twain. Another centre!

In an Icelandic story of the fourteenth century are related the
marvellous adventures of one Eirek of Drontheim, who, determined to find
out the Deathless Land, made his way to Constantinople. There he
received a lesson in geography from the Emperor. The world, he was told,
was precisely one hundred and eighty thousand stages, or about one
million English miles, round, and is not propped up on posts, but is
supported by the will of God. The distance between the earth and heaven,
he was told, is one hundred thousand and forty-five miles, and round
about the earth is a big sea called the ocean.

'But what is to the south of the earth?' asked the inquisitive Eirek.

'Oh,' replied the Emperor, 'the end of the earth is there, and it is
called India.'

'And where shall I find the Deathless Land?' he inquired; and he was
told that slightly to the east of India lies Paradise.

Thereupon Eirek and a companion started across Syria, took ship and
arrived at India, through