Chapter 21: On rivers

6. Certain of the rivers have received their names from causes peculiar to them, and of these some which are told of as famous in history should be mentioned.

7. Geon is a river issuing from Paradise and surrounding the whole of Ethiopia, being called by this name because it waters the land of Egypt by its flood, for γῆ in the Greek means _terra_ in the Latin. This river is called Nile by the Egyptians, on account of the mud which it brings, which gives fertility.

8. The river Ganges, which the holy Scriptures call Phison, issuing from Paradise, takes its course toward the regions of India.... It is said to rise in the manner of the Nile and overflow the lands of the East.

9. The Tigris, a river of Mesopotamia, rises in Paradise, and flows opposite the Assyrians (_contra Assyrios_), and after many windings flows into the Dead Sea. And it is called by this name because of its velocity, like a wild beast that runs with great speed.

10. The Euphrates, a river of Mesopotamia, greatly abounding in gems, rises in Paradise and flows through the midst of Babylonia.... It irrigates Mesopotamia in certain places just as the Nile does Alexandria. Sallust, however, a most reliable author, asserts that the Tigris and the Euphrates arise from one source in Armenia, and going by different ways are far separated, an intervening space of many miles being left, and the land which is enclosed by them is called Mesopotamia. Therefore as Hieronymus noted, there must be a different explanation of the rivers of Paradise.

24. Tanus was the first king of the Scythians, from whom the river _Tanais_ is said to have been named. It rises in the Riphaean forest, and separates Europe from Asia, flowing in the midst between two divisions of the world, and emptying into the Pontus.

35. Certain rivers were overwhelmed in the flood, and shut off by the mass of the lands, but certain ones which were not, burst forth by passages that were at that time violently formed from the abyss.