Having promised early in this volume to identify our island with the Insula Hyperboreorum of antiquity, I shall, without further tarrying, produce the extract referred to, from Diodorus; and, lest I may be suspected of adapting it to my own peculiar views, it shall appear minutely in Mr. Booth’s translation, viz.:-- “Amongst them that have written old stories much like fables, Hecatæus and some others say, that there is an island in the ocean, over against Gaul, as big as Sicily, under the arctic pole, where the Hyperboreans inhabit, so called because they lie beyond the breezes of the north wind. That the soil here is very rich and very fruitful, and the climate temperate, insomuch as there are two crops in the year. “They say that Latona was born here, and therefore that they worship Apollo above all other gods; and because they are daily singing songs in praise of this god, and ascribing to him the highest honours, they say that these inhabitants demean themselves as if they were Apollo’s priests, who has here a stately grove and renowned temple of round form, beautified with many rich gifts. That there is a city likewise consecrated to this god, whose citizens are most of them harpers, who, playing on the harp, chant sacred hymns to Apollo in the temple, setting forth his glorious acts. The Hyperboreans use their own natural language, but, of _long_ and ancient time, have had a special kindness for the Grecians; and more especially for the Athenians and them of Delos; and that some of the Grecians passed over to the Hyperboreans, and left behind them divers presents[446] inscribed with Greek characters; and that Abaris formerly travelled thence into Greece, and renewed the ancient league of friendship with the Delians. “They say, moreover, that the moon in this island seems as if it were near to the earth, and represents, on the face of it, excrescences like spots on the earth; and that Apollo once in nineteen years comes into the island; in which space of time the stars perform their courses and return to the same point; and therefore the Greeks call the revolution of nineteen years the Great Year. At this time of his appearance they say that he plays upon the harp, and sings and dances all the night, from the vernal equinox[447] to the rising of the Pleiades,[448] solacing himself with the praises of his own successful adventures. The sovereignty of this city and the care of the temple, they say, belong to the Boreades, the posterity of Boreas, who hold the principality by descent in the direct line from that ancestor.”