Page:Legendaryislands00babcuoft.djvu/97

CHAPTER VI THE PROBLEM OF MAYDA Of all the legendary islands and island names on the medieval maps, Mayda has been the most enduring. The shape of the island has generally approximated a crescent; its site most often has been far west of lower Brittany and more or less nearly southwest of Ireland; the spelling of the name sometimes has varied to Maida, Mayd, Mayde, Asmaida, or Asmayda. The island had other names also earlier and later and between times, but the identity is fairly clear. As a geographical item it is very persistent indeed. Humboldt about 1836 remarked that, out of eleven such islands which he might mention, only two, Mayda and Brazil Rock, maintain themselves on modern charts. 1 In a note he instances the world map of John Purdy of 1834. However, this was not the end; for a relief map pub- lished in Chicago and bearing a notice of copyright of 1906 exhibits Mayda. Possibly this is intended to have an educational and historic bearing; but it seems to be shown in simple credulity, a crowning instance of cartographic conservation. POSSIBLE ARABIC ORIGIN OF NAME If Mayda may, therefore, be said to belong in a sense to the twentieth century, it is none the less very old, and the name has sometimes been ascribed to an Arabic origin. Not very long after their conquest of Spain the Moors certainly sailed the eastern Atlantic quite freely and may well have extended their voyages into its middle waters and indefinitely beyond. They named some islands of the Azores, as would appear from Edrisi's treatise and other productions; but these names did 1 Alexander von Humboldt: Examen critique de 1'histoire de la g6ographie du nouveau continent et des progres de Fastronomie nautique aux quinzidme et seizidme sidcles. 5 vols., Paris, 1836-39; reference in Vol. 2, p. 163.