At 11:34 25.10.97 +0100, you wrote:
>My memory may be rusty, but I seem to recall that the `Letter of Prester
>John', a curious document purporting to originate from a Christian
>empire in India, that circulated in Europe in the twelfth century
>(1160s-70s?) mentions spices and gems lying on the bed of one of the
>rivers of Paradise, which passes through the Prester's lands.
It was common view throughout the middle ages that the fourth river of
paradise, Euphrates (Gn 2,14), was "copiosissimus gemmis" (Isidore, Etym.
XIII, xxi, 10), but I have never heard of spices in this context. Moreover
the first of the four river, Phison-Ganges, was associated by biblical
tradition with the land Evilat rich of gold, "bdellium" (a tree famous for
its aromatic resin) and gems ("ubi nascitur aurum / et aurum terrae illius
optimum est / ibique invenitur bdellium et lapis onychinus" Gn 2,11s.).
What regards the Letter of Prester John, there circulated many different
redactions, but the e-text which I once downloaded somewhere from the web
(scanned in from Gustav Oppert, _Der Presbyter Johannes in Sage und
Geschichte_, 2nd ed. Berlin 1870), in a description which does not refer
explicitly to the rivers of paradise, describes only 'precious stones and
gems', not spices, as forming the sand on the ground and banks of two
confluent rivers in India, one of them being the one behind which the ten
lost tribes of Israels have settled and are living as 'serfs and
tributaries' of the Prester and King:
Juxta desertum inter montes inhabitabiles sub terra fluit
quidam rivulus ad quem non patet aditus nisi fortuitu casu.
Aperitur autem terra aliquando, et si quis intrare voluerit
tunc potest intrare et eum velocitate exire oportet ne forte
terra claudatur, et quicquid de terra rapitur lapides preciosi
sunt et gemme; quia harene et zabulum nihil aliud sunt quam
preciosi lapides et gemme. Rivulus ille fluit in aliud flumen
quod homines terre illius [173] intrant et magnam abundantiam
preciosorum lapidum inde trahunt, nec audent eos vendere nisi
prius ad nos deferant, et si eos ad usum nostrum volumus
retinere data medietate precii illos accipimus. Sinautem
libere possunt vendere. Nutriuntur autem illorum populorum
pueri taliter in illa terra ad lapides inveniendos, ut quandoque
per tres aut quattuor dies sunt sub aqua. Ultra illud autem
flumen lapidum sunt decem tribus Judeorum qui quamvis fingant
se legem habere tamen servi nostri sunt et tributarii.
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