.................................................
Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura sub alta
Otia agunt terra, congestaque robora, totasque
Advolvere focis ulmos, ignique dedere.
Hic noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti
Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis.
Talis Hyperboreo Septem subjecta trioni
Gens effraena virum Rhipaeo tunditur Euro,
Et pecudum fulvis velantur corpora saetis.

The Roman conception of the situation of these "Hyperboreans"
and of the Rhipaean mountains may be seen in the map of Mela's
world.]

[Footnote 363: "Huic medio terra sublimis cingitur undique
mari: eodemque in duo latera, quae hemisphaeria nominantur, ab
oriente divisa ad occasum, zonis quinque distinguitur. Mediam
aestus infestat, frigus ultimas: reliquae habitabiles paria agunt
anni tempora, verum non pariter. Antichthones alteram, nos
alteram incolimus. Illius situ ab ardorem intercedentis plagae
incognito, hujus dicendus est," etc. _De Situ Orbis_, i. 1. A
similar theory is set forth by Ovid (_Metamorph._, i. 45), and
by Virgil (_Georg._, i. 233):--

Quinque tenent coelum zonae; quarum una corusco
Semper Sole rubens, et torrida semper ab igni;
Quam circum extremae dextra laevaque trahuntur,
Caerulea glacie concretae atque imbribus atris.
Has inter mediamque, duae mortalibus aegris
Munere concessae Divum; et via secta per ambas,
Obliquus qua se signorum verteret ordo.]

[Sidenote: Curious notions about Ceylon.]

This notion of an antipodal world in the southern hemisphere will have
especial interest for us when we come to deal with the voyages of
Vespucius. The idea seems to have originated in a guess of Hipparchus
that Taprobane--the island of Ceylon, about which the most absurd
reports were brought to Europe--might be the beginning of another world.
This is very probable, says Mela, with delightful _naivete_, because
Taprobane is inhabited, and still we do not know of anybody who has ever
made the tour of it.[364] Mela's contemporary, the elder Pliny,
declares that Taprobane "has long been regarded" as part of another
world, the name of which is Antichthon, or Opposite-Earth;[365] at the
same time Pliny vouchsafes three closely-pr