An extreme of confusion and disregard for reality is found in one of the Beatus group[1140] preserved in Paris. Here it is difficult to make out which continent is which. India, for instance, lies just across the Red Sea from Spain (it is doubtful in what direction); Arabia would seem to be in the farthest Orient, adjoined by Greece on one side and Thrace on the other. Such absurdities are unusual, but even the best maps of the period show serious errors when measured by modern standards. The “Cotton,”[1141] for instance, in such a well-known part of the world as Italy, locates Ravenna on the Mediterranean shore southeast of Rome and shows an amazing eastward displacement of Arabia and the Red Sea, though in many other respects its geography, relatively speaking, is very good. _TECHNIQUE_ The diagrammatic character of these maps is evident in the technique of their workmanship. They all show a tendency toward geometrical lines, curves, and symmetry. This is carried further on some than on others (as, for example, in the cruder specimens of the Beatus group[1142]); but, in nearly all, the ocean is represented as a smooth circular band of even width; and, in many, rivers and mountains follow direct lines or regular curves. It is obvious that the ruler and compass were not neglected. CONVENTIONS Moreover, certain cartographic conventions were followed. In the great majority of cases east was placed at the top, and some authorities have endeavored to trace this convention back to the maps of the Romans.[1143] While this explanation of its origin may be true, the traditions of the Church, which placed in the Orient the Garden of Eden together with the fountain of the waters of the world and of human life, must have had much to do toward perpetuating it. Conventions of a sort were also observed in the use of colors on colored maps: seas and rivers were nearly always blue or green, except for the Red Sea, which was invariably red. Less uniform was the color used for mountains: on the map of the world of Henry of Mayence[1144] and on one of Lambert’s _mappaemundi_[1145] they are red; the “Cotton”[1146] shows them a brilliant green; and one of the maps of Matthew Paris,[1147] a yellow. SYMBOLS AND LEGENDS