The highest portion of the emerald range is the Alborz,[121] where the fabled Sīmūrgh builds her colossal nest of sandal wood, and the woven branches of aloe and myrtle trees. Mount Alborz is represented as standing upon the earth, while her crown of light reposes in the region far beyond the stars. It is Hara-Berezaita (the lofty mountain)—the sphere of endless light, where the supreme god of Persian mythology dwells in his own temple which is the “abode of song.” This is the “Mother of Mountains” and from it have grown all the heights that stand upon the earth; it is the fabled center of the world, and around it the sun, moon and stars revolve. Hence, in the Vendīdad[122] we find the following hymn: “Up, rise and roll along, thou swift horsed sun, Above Hara-Berezaita and produce light for the world. Up, rise up, thou moon— Rise up, ye stars, rise up above Hara-Berezaita And produce light for the world, And mayest thou, O man, rise up along the path made by Mazda— Along the way made by the gods, The watery way they opened.” RIVERS. In the mythology of every people we find mystic rivers in connection with the worship of their divinities. They are winding everywhere through the enchanted land of fable. Often born in the highlands of the celestial mountains, they are represented as coming down to earth with the glint of the sunlight on their waves. The great river of Egypt, which is supposed to give life to the gods as well as men, is thus fabled to have sprung from the mountains of the sky, and a “Hymn to the Nile,” recorded on a clay tablet, begins with the words: “Adoration to the Nile! Hail to thee, O Nile! Who comest to give life to Egypt! Thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one! Thou descendest from the sky.”[123] In Greek mythology, we find the river ocean flowing around the earth, with its calm current unbroken by storm, and unswerved by the angry tempest. The sea, with her sun-kissed billows, received her waters from this unfailing fountain, and far beyond the northern mountains, where the “golden gardens” gleamed in the sunlight and the winds were rocked to sleep, there lived a happy people, where sorrow could not enter and death would never come. Among the Hindūs, the sacred Ganges flowed at first only through the blue fields of heaven, and fell to the earth from the divine feet of Vishnū: “And white foam clouds and silver spray Were wildly tossed on high, Like swans that urge their homeward way Across the autumn sky.”