EDEN, a Hebrew word signifying pleasure or delight, and which was made the mune of several places remarkably fruitful in their soil. The first ts tlutt province which the prophet Amos seems to notice (i. 5), whoa he divides Syria into three mrts, viz. Damascus, the plain of AVM), and the house of Eden, =lied Ccelo-Syria, or the hollow Syria, because the mountains of Libanus and Anti Iabantis enclose it on both sides, and make it to resemble a valley. A second place wherein several learned men have sought for the country' of Eden of the Scriptures is Armenia, between the sonrcta of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxes, and the Phasis, which they suppose to be the four rivers specified by Ifoses (Genesis ii. 10, eta). A third place which Borne have fixed on as the couutry of Eden, is Chaldma, not far from the banks of the Euphrates, a country remaxkable for its extreme fertility (Joel ii. 3). Chaldman tradition located it and its sacred tree in the city of Eridhu, whose position corresponds with the modern town of Rata. Babylon has also been so named ; also Ceylon, with its Adam's footmark, peak, and bridge. The Eden mentioned by Ezekiel (xx-vii.
23) as a great commercial place, is supposed by some to be the modern Aden, but it presents no signs of ancient grandeur. Eden is also sup posed to have been in High Asia, between the common sources of the Jihun and other grand rivers, where there was abundance of the Ficus Indica or burr-tree, sacred to the first lord,Adinath or Mahadeva. Milton (Paradise Lost, book ix.) uses this tree to describe when Adam and Eve 'Both together went Into the thickest wood ; there soon they chose The fig tree ; not that kind for fruit renowned, But such as at this day, to Indians known, In Malabar or Dekhan, spreads her arms, Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree, ft pillared shade High overarched, and echoing walks between. There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds.
Those leaves They gathered, broad as Amazonian large.' —Rajasthan, i. 23 ; Robinson's Travels, ii. 337.