due east from Ireland, and had come at last to Paradise, which was an island full of joy and mirth, and the earth as bright as the sun, and it was a glorious sight; and the half-year he was there slipped by as a few moments. On his return to the abbey, his garments were still fragrant with the odours of Paradise. Brandan also arrived at the same island, and with his companions traversed it for the space of forty days without meeting any one, till he came to a broad river, on the banks of which stood a young man, who told him that this stream divided the world in twain; and that none living might cross it.
In a MS. volume in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a map of the world, dating from the twelfth century, whereon Paradise is figured as an island opposite the mouth of the Ganges, which flows into the ocean somewhere about where the Amour in reality empties itself.
The Anglo-Saxon poem, “De Phœnice,” in the Exeter book, a translation of the work of the Pseudo-Lactantius, asserts:—
“I have heard tell
That there is far hence
In eastern parts
A land most noble,
Amongst men renowned.
