his golden mountain Meru, the city of Brahma, in the centre of
Jambadwipa, and from the four sides of which gush forth the four
primeval rivers, reflecting in their passage the colorific glories of
their source, and severally flowing northward, southward, eastward, and
westward."

It is the Garden of Eden of the Hebrews:

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put
the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the
tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the
first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is
bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon:
the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name
of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east
of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the
man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."
(Gen. ii., 8-1-5.)

As the four rivers named in Genesis are not branches of any one stream,
and head in very different regions, it is evident that there was an
attempt, on the part of the writer of the Book, to adapt an ancient
tradition concerning another country to the known features of the region
in which he dwelt.

Josephus tells us (chap. i., p. 41), "Now the garden (of Eden) was