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It is scarcely possible to resist the conclusion that the belief in the existence of "the Seven Cities" was founded upon some primitive Eastern myth. In the Hindoo system, Priyauratta divided the earth into seven dwipas, or islands. It was believed at first that it was his intention to divide his possessions among his ten sons, but three retired from the world. "In the accounts which the writings of the Hindoos give of the Indian Seas, the tendency to dispose everything according to the symmetry of a religious system1 prevails over the simplicity of truth." There is a tra-nate, or group of three islands, composed respectively of gold, silver, and iron. Co-existing with these, there is a mysterious assemblage of seven islands; and when Jambolo stated that the Indian islands were seven in number, he only repeated the language of the natives; for the expression Yail Laneas, or the seven lances, is still in use at the present day. It is obvious that these legends were all understood literally by the Greek geographers, and particularly by Ptolemy, who derived an unusually large share of information from India, and was careful to turn every atom to account. Accordingly, we find in his map a Heptanesia nesos, or Septuple island, which it is impossible to assign to any known position (Mythic Geography of the Hindoos, chap. x. p. 149). Marcellus distinctly states that there existed in early times seven islands (the dwipas) in the Atlantic Ocean, together with three others (the tri-cutadri) of an immense magnitude, sacred to Pluto, to Ammon, and to Neptune.

1 This is a reference to the two mystic numbers three and seven,

As to the island which, under the name of "San Brandon," appears in the so-called Cabot map of 1544, we find it solemnly recorded in all the glory of print that St. Brendon, otherwise St. Brandon, an Irish abbot of the sixth century,1 had been told that an island existed far out in the ocean which was the land promised to the saints, the "Island of Paradise." St. Brendon, of Clofort, known as St. Brendon the Navigator, so the story goes, set sail with seventyfive monks, and spent seven years on the water, and eventually found the island he was in search of, and others. A variant of the story further records, as a fact, that in the course of their wanderings upon the ocean they landed upon what they fully believed to be an island, upon which they celebrated Easter, but the "island" turned out to be the back of a huge fish. This really genuine fish story has been traced back to a very early period. St. Brandon's voyage was undertaken, so it is said, in consequence of a statement made to him by a monk, to the effect that he had sailed 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 (the monk's) return to the abbey his garments were still fragrant with the odours of Paradise. Brandon, on his arrival at the island, is said to have traversed it for the space of forty days without meeting anyone, till he came to a broad river, on the banks of which stood a young man, who told him that this stream

1 He is commemorated on May 10.

2 There are reasons for the belief that the story of Brandon is derived from that of Sindbad the Sailor,

divided the world in twain, and that none living might cross it.1 The mythical island of St. Brandon is found in various positions on the early maps; it disappeared from one position only to reappear in another. The Toscanelli map, which was in existence in 1474, and from which Columbus drew an inspiration, shows an island marked "St. Brandon," and the island is also shown on Martin Behaim's globe, 1492.2 The Spaniards had a legend that their Rodrigo retreated to this island, and the Portuguese believed it to be the retreat of their Don Sebastian. Many stories were told as to the island having been reached by various persons, none of whom were ever allowed to return therefrom.

Matthew Arnold, in right of poetic licence, takes the saint on a northern voyage

"Saint Brandon sails the northern main;
The brotherhood of saints are glad.
He greets them once, he sails again;
So late!-Such storms!-The saint is mad!

He heard, across the howling seas,

Chime convent bells on wintry nights;
He saw on spray-swept Hebrides

Twinkle the monastery lights;

But north, still north, Saint Brandon steer'd--
And now no bells, no convents more!

The hurtling Polar lights are near'd,

The sea without a human shore.

1 This part of the story is probably derived from the ancient fable relating to Charon, the ferryman, who, according to the fable, transported the shades in a boat over the Styx. In order to reward the ferryman, the ancients used to put a piece of money in the mouths of the dead.

2 Both Toscanelli's map and Behaim's globe contain an island marked "Antilia," and Toscanelli's map also represents "Brazil" as an island lying at some distance in the Atlantic beyond a portion of the coast of Ireland. Behaim's ideas were founded upon Toscanelli's

map.

At last (it was the Christmas night,
Stars shone after a day of storm)—
He sees float past an iceberg white,
And on it-Christ! living form.
That furtive mien, that scowling eye,
Of hair that red and tufted fell-
It is-oh, where shall Brandon fly?—
The traitor Judas, out of hell! "

Brandon Hill is 250 feet above the level of Bristol; from the summit a grand panoramic view of the city and its surroundings may be obtained. It derives its name from "St. Brendan," who, on his return to Ireland, according to tradition, sailed for Britain with a large company of disciples. There was a hermit's cell or chapel on the top of Brandon Hill. Dallaway1 says that the Irish mariners resorted to this chapel upon their reaching the port of Bristol. William Worcestre, a fifteenth-century chronicler, describes the chapel, which was dedicated to St. Brandon ("Sancti Brandani "),—and the hill was described as "Mons Sancti Brandani." Worcestre says: "The height of the hill of St. Brandon's chapel, as the hermit of that chapel told me, is supposed by sailors and well-judging men to be higher than any spire either of Redcliff or any other church by eighteen fathom of height, and each fathom measures six feet." ["Altitudo montis capella Sancti Brandani dicitur, ut heremita ibidem miehi retulit, quod nautæ et discreti homines dicunt esse alciorem alicujus pinaculi sive ecclesiæ de Radclyff quam aliarum ecclesiarum per spacium altitudinis 18 brachiorum anglice a vathym, et quodlibit brachium continet 6 pedes."] (Itiner1 Dallaway's Antiquities of Bristol, p. 46,

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BRANDON HILL, WITH A VIEW OF THE AVON (BRISTOL) RIVER

[A Section of an Ancient Map of Bristol.}

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