From this Time forward Harpath would never venture out of the Vallies, but came to an untimely End in the 250th Year of his Age, being drowned in a River as he attempted to cross it This River is called to this Day, from his Name who perished in it, the River Harpath, and, what is very remarkable, issues out of one of those Mountains which Shalum wished might fall upon his Brother, when he cursed him in the Bitterness of his Heart.

Hilpa was in the 160th Year of her Age at the Death of her Husband, having brought him but 50 Children, before he was snatched away, as has been already related.  Many of the Antediluvians made Love to the young Widow, tho’ no one was thought so likely to succeed in her Affections as her first Lover Shalum, who renewed his Court to her about ten Years after the Death of Harpath; for it was not thought decent in those Days that a Widow should be seen by a Man within ten Years after the Decease of her Husband.

Shalum falling into a deep Melancholy, and resolving to take away that Objection which had been raised against him when he made his first Addresses to Hilpa, began immediately, after her Marriage with Harpath, to plant all that mountainous Region which fell to his Lot in the Division of this Country.  He knew how to adapt every Plant to its proper Soil, and is thought to have inherited many traditional Secrets of that Art from the first Man.  This Employment turn’d at length to his Profit as well as to his Amusement:  His Mountains were in a few Years shaded with young Trees, that gradually shot up into Groves, Woods, and Forests, intermixed with Walks, and Launs, and Gardens; insomuch that the whole Region, from a naked and desolate Prospect, began now to look like a second Paradise.  The Pleasantness of the Place, and the agreeable Disposition of Shalum, who was reckoned one of the mildest and wisest of all who lived before the Flood, drew into it Multitudes of People, who were perpetually employed in the sinking of Wells, the digging of Trenches, and the hollowing of Trees, for the better Distribution of Water through every Part of this spacious Plantation.

The Habitations of Shalum looked every Year more beautiful in the Eyes of Hilpa, who, after the Space of 70 Autumns, was wonderfully pleased with the distant Prospect of Shalum’s Hills, which were then covered with innumerable Tufts of Trees and gloomy Scenes that gave a Magnificence to the Place, and converted it into one of the finest Landskips the Eye of Man could behold.

The Chinese record a Letter which Shalum is said to have written to Hilpa, in the Eleventh Year of her Widowhood.  I shall here translate it, without departing from that noble Simplicity of Sentiments, and Plainness of Manners which appears in the Original.

Shalum was at this Time 180 Years old, and Hilpa 170.