The map itself commences at its upper part, that is, the east, by the terrestrial paradise. It is a circle, in the centre of which is represented the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve are there in company with the serpent that beguiled them. The four legendary rivers come out of the base of the tree, and they are seen below crossing the map. Outside Eden the flight of the first couple, and the angel that drove them away, are represented. At this extreme eastern portion is the region of giants with the heads of beasts. There, too, is seen the first human habitation, or town, built by Enoch. Below appears the Tower of Babel. Near this are two men seated on a hill close to the river Jaxartes; one of them is eating a human leg and the other an arm, which the legend explains thus:—"Here live the Essedons, whose custom it is to sing at the funerals of their parents; they tear the corpses with their teeth, and prepare their food with these fragments of flesh, mixed with that of animals. In their opinion it is more honourable to the dead to be enclosed in the bodies of their relations than in those of worms."
Below are seen dragons and pigmies, always to the east of Asia, and a little further away in the midst of a strange country, the King of the Cyclops.
This extraordinary geography shows us in India the "Mantichore, who has a triple range of teeth, the face of a man, blue eyes, the red colour of blood, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion; its voice is a whistle."
On the north of the Ganges is represented a man with one leg, shading his head with his foot, which is explained by the following legend:—"In India dwell the Monocles, who have only one leg, but who nevertheless move with surprising velocity; when they wish to protect themselves from the heat of the sun they make a shadow with the sole of their foot, which is very large."
The Blemmys have their mouth and eyes in their chest; others have their mouths and eyes on their shoulders. The Parvini are Ethiopians that have four eyes.
To the east of Syene is a man seated who is covering his head with his lip, "people who with their prominent lip shade their faces from the sun."
Above is drawn a little sun, with the word sol. Then comes an animal of human form, having the feet of a horse and the head and beak of a bird; he rests on a stick, and the legend tells us it is a satyr; the fauns, half men and half horses; the cynocephales—men with the head of a dog; and the cyanthropes—dogs with the heads of men. The sphinx has the wings of a bird, the tail of a serpent, the head of a woman. It is placed in the midst of the Cordilleras, which are joined to a great chain of mountains. Here lastly is seen the monoceros, a terrible animal; but here is the marvel: "When one shows to this monoceros a young girl, who, when the animal approaches, uncovers her breast, the monster, forgetting his ferocity, lays his head there, and when he is asleep may be taken defenceless."
Near to the lake Meotides is a man clothed in Oriental style, with a hat that terminates in a point, and holding by the bridle a horse whose harness is a human skin, and which is explained thus by the Latin legend: "Here live the griffins, very wicked men, for among other crimes they proceed so far as to make clothes for themselves and their horses out of the skins of their enemies."
More to the south is a large bird, the ostrich; according to the legend, "the ostrich has the head of a goose, the body of a crane, the feet of a calf; it eats iron."
Not far from the Riphean Mountains two men with long tunics and round bonnets are represented in the attitude of fighting; one brandishes a sword, the other a kind of club, and the legend tells us, "The customs of the people of the interior of Scythia are somewhat wild; they inhabit caves; they drink the blood of the slain by sucking their wounds; they pride themselves on the number of people they have slain—not to have slain any one in combat is reckoned disgraceful."