84 MAYDA ing of holes in ships, the tawny monsters, known to the Arabs, which rise from the depths, the dragons that come flying to devour. The words "Arabe" and "Arabour" are readily de- cipherable; so is "dragones." Perhaps there is no statement that Arabs have been to that island, for their peculiar experience may belong to some other quarter of the globe; but the verbal association is surely significant. The name Bentusla (Bentufla?) applied to this crescent island by Bianco in his map of I448 4 has sometimes been thought to have an Arabic origin; but one would not feel safe in citing this as absolute corroboration. The Breton character of the ships, however, may be gathered (as well as from their direction and behavior) from the barred ensigns which they carry, recalling the barred standard set up at Nantes of Brittany, in Dulcert's map of I339, 6 just as the fleur-de-lis is planted by him at Paris. MAYDA AND THE ISLE OF MAN We have, then, in this fourteenth-century island a direct recorded association with the Arabs, followed long after by what have been thought to be Arabic names. We have also a pictorial and cartographical connection with Brittany and also an indication of relations with Ireland. This last is fortified by its next and, except Mayda, its most lasting name. The great Catalan map of 1375' (Fig. 5) calls it Mam, which should doubtless be read as Man, for it was common to treat "m" and "n" as interchangeable, no less than "u" and "v" or i" and "y." Thus Pareto's map of I455 7 (Fig. 21) turns the Latin hanc" into "hamc" and "Aragon" into "Aragom." On some of the "" < Theobald Fischer: Sammlung mittelalterlicher Welt-und Seekarten italienischen Ursprungs, i vol. of text and 17 portfolios containing photographs of maps, Venice, 1877-86; reference in Portfolio n (Facsimile della carta nautica di Andrea Bianco dell' anno 1448), PI. 3- See also Kretschmcr, text, p. 184.
- A. E. Nordenskiold: Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and
Sailing-Directions, transl. by F. A. Bather, Stockholm, 1897, PI. 8.
- Ibid.,P. ii.
7 Kretschmcr, atlas, PI. 5.
