CHAPTER III.

DESCRIPTION OF LIBYA.

Beginning from Egypt the Adrymachidæ are the first of the Libyans we meet with: they for the most part observe the usages of Egypt, but they wear the same dress as the other Libyans. The women wear a chain of bronze on each leg, and allow their hair to grow long. Next to these are the Giligammæ, who occupy the country westward, as far as the island Aphrodisias. Midway on this coast the island of Platea is situated, which the Cyrenæans colonized. The Asbystæ adjoin the Giligammæ westward; they inhabit the country above Cyrene, but do not reach to the sea; for the Cyrenæans occupy the sea-coast. They drive four-horsed chariots, more than any of the Libyans, and endeavor to imitate most of the customs of the Cyrenæans. The Nasamones, a very numerous people, live to the westward. In summer they leave their cattle on the coast, and go up to the region of Augila, in order to gather the fruit of the palm-trees, which grow in great numbers to a large size, and are all productive. They catch locusts, dry them in the sun, reduce them to powder, and sprinkling them in milk, drink them. In their oaths and divinations they swear, laying their hands on the sepulchres of those who are generally esteemed to have been the most just and excellent persons among them; and they divine, going to the tombs of their ancestors, and after having prayed, they lie down to sleep, and whatever dream they have, they avail themselves of. In pledging their faith, each party gives the other to drink out of his hand, and drinks in turn from the other's hand; and if they have no liquid, they take up some dust from the ground and lick it.

Above these to the north, in a country abounding with wild beasts, live the Garamantes, who avoid all men and the society of any others; they do not possess any warlike weapon, nor do they know how to defend themselves. The Macæ adjoin them on the sea-coast, westward; these shave their heads so as to leave a tuft, and allowing the middle hair to grow, keep both sides shaved close to the skin; in war they wear the skins of ostriches for defensive armor. The river Cinyps, flowing through their country from a hill called the Graces, discharges itself into the sea. This hill of the Graces is thickly covered with trees, though all the rest of Libya is bare. From the sea to this hill is a distance of two hundred stades. The Lotophagi occupy the coast that projects to the sea in front; they subsist only on the fruit of the lotus, which is equal in size to the mastic berry, and in sweetness resembles the fruit of the palm-tree. The Lotophagi make wine also from this fruit.

The Machlyes, who also use the lotus, but in a less degree than those before mentioned, adjoin the Lotophagi on the sea-coast. They extend as far as a large river called Triton, which discharges itself into the great lake Tritonis; and in it is an island named Phla. They say that the Lacedæmonians were commanded by an oracle to colonize this island. The following story is also told: that Jason, when the building of the Argo was finished at the foot of Mount Pelion, having put a hecatomb on board, and a bronze tripod, sailed round the Peloponnesus, purposing to go to Delphi; and as he was sailing off Malea, a north wind caught him and drove him to Libya; and before he could descern the land, he found himself in the shallows of the lake Tritonis; and as he was in doubt how to extricate his ship, the story goes that a Triton appeared to him, and bade Jason give him the tripod, promising that he would show them the passage, and conduct them away in safety. Jason consented, and the Triton showed them the passage out of the shallows, and placed the tripod in his own temple; then pronouncing an oracle from the tripod, he declared to Jason and his companions all that should happen,—that "when one of the descendants of those who sailed with him in the Argo should carry away the tripod, then it was fated that a hundred Grecian cities should be built about the lake Tritonis." The neighboring nations of the Libyans, when they heard this, concealed the tripods. The Auses adjoin these Machlyes; they, as well as the Machlyes, dwell round the lake Tritonis, and the Triton forms the boundary between them. The Machlyes let the hair grow on the back of the head, and the Auses on the front. At the annual festival of Minerva, their virgins, dividing themselves into two companies, fight together with stones and staves, affirming that they perform the ancient rites to their native goddess, whom we call Minerva; and those of the virgins who die from their wounds they call false virgins. But before they leave off fighting, they, with one consent, deck the maiden that excels in beauty, with a Corinthian helmet, and a suit of Grecian armor, and placing her in a chariot conduct her round the lake. In what way they formerly decorated the maidens before the Greeks settled in their neighborhood, I am unable to say; but I conjecture that they were decked in Egyptian armor, for I am of opinion that the shield and helmet were brought from Egypt into Greece.

Above these nomadic tribes, inland, Libya abounds in wild beasts; beyond the wild-beast tract is a ridge of sand, stretching from the Egyptian Thebes to the columns of Hercules. At intervals of a ten days' journey in this ridge, there are pieces of salt in large lumps on hills; and at the top of each hill, from the midst of the salt, cool, sweet water gushes up. The first people you come to after a ten days' journey from Thebes, are the Ammonians, who have a temple resembling that of Theban Jupiter. For the image of Jupiter at Thebes has the head of a ram. They have also another kind of spring water which in the morning is tepid, becomes colder about the time of full forum, and at midday is very cold; at that time they water their gardens. As the day declines it generally loses its coldness, till the sun sets, then the water becomes tepid again, and continuing to increase in heat till midnight, it then boils and bubbles up; when midnight is passed, it gets cooler until morning. This fountain is called after the sun. Next to the Ammonians, along the ridge of sand, at the end of another ten days' journey, there is a hill of salt, like that of the Ammonians, and water, and men live round it; the name of this region is Augila; and thither the Nasamonians go to gather dates. From the Augilæ, at the end of another ten days' journey, is another hill of salt and water, and many fruit-bearing palm-trees, as also in other places; and men inhabit it who are called Garamantes, a very powerful nation; they lay earth upon the salt, and then sow their ground. From these to the Lotophagi the shortest route is a journey of thirty days; amongst them cattle that feed backwards are met with, having horns that are so bent forward, that they are unable to feed forwards, because their horns would stick in the ground. They differ from other kine in no other respect, except that their hide is thicker and harder. These Garamantes hunt the Ethiopian Troglodytes in four-horse chariots; these Ethiopian Troglodytes are the swiftest of foot of all men of whom we have heard any account given. The Troglodytes feed upon serpents and lizards, and such kinds of reptiles; they speak a language like no other, but screech like bats.

At the distance of another ten days' journey from the Garamantes is another hill of salt and water, around which a people live who are called Atarantes; they are the only race we know of who have not personal names. For the name Atarantes belongs to them collectively, and to each one of them no name is given. They curse the sun as he passes over their heads, and moreover utter against him the foulest invectives, because he consumes by his scorching heat, the men themselves and their country. Afterward, at the end of still another ten days' journey, there is one more hill of salt and water, and men live round it, near a mountain called Atlas; it is narrow and circular on all sides, and is said to be so lofty that its top can never be seen; it is never free from clouds, either in summer or winter. The inhabitants say that it is the Pillar of Heaven. From this mountain the men derive their appellation, for they are called Atlantes. They are said neither to eat the flesh of any animal, nor to see visions. As far, then, as these Atlantes, I am able to mention the names of the nations that inhabit this ridge, but not beyond them. This ridge, however, extends as far as the pillars of Hercules, and even beyond; and there is a mine of salt in it at intervals of ten days' journey, and men dwelling there. The houses of them all are built of blocks of salt, for in these parts of Libya no rain falls; walls being of salt could not of course stand long if rain did fall. The salt dug out there is white and purple in appearance. Above this ridge, to the south and interior of Libya, the country is a desert, without water, without animals, without rain, and without wood; and there is no kind of moisture in it.

Westward of lake Tritonis, the Libyans are no longer nomads, nor do they follow the same customs, with respect to their children, as the nomads are accustomed to do; for the nomadic Libyans, whether all I am unable to say with certainty, but many of them, when their children are four years old, burn the veins on the crown of their heads, with uncleaned sheep's wool; and some of them do so on the veins in the temples; to the end that humors flowing down from the head may not injure them as long as they live: and, for this reason, they say they are so very healthy, for the Libyans are in truth the most healthy of all men with whom we are acquainted. But I simply repeat what the Libyans themselves say. From the Libyan women the Greeks derived the attire and ægis of Minerva's statues; for, except that the dress of the Libyan women is leather, and the fringes that hang from the ægis are not serpents, but made of thongs, they are otherwise equipped in the same way; and, moreover, the very name proves that the garb of the Palladia comes from Libya; for the Libyan women throw over their dress, goats' skins without the hair, fringed and dyed with red. From these goats' skins the Greeks have borrowed the name of Ægis. And the howlings in the temples were, I think, first derived from there; for the Libyan women practise the same custom, and do it well. The Greeks also learnt from the Libyans to yoke four horses abreast. All the nomads, except the Nasamonians, inter their dead in the same manner as the Greeks; these bury them in a sitting posture, watching when one is about to expire, that they may set him up, and he may not die supine. Their dwellings are compacted of the asphodel shrub, interwoven with rushes, and are portable.

To the west of the river Triton, Libyans who are husbandmen next adjoin the Auses; they are accustomed to live in houses, and are called Maxyes. They let the hair grow on the right side of the head, and shave the left; and bedaub the body with vermilion: they say that they are descended from men who came from Troy. This region, and all the rest of Libya westward, is much more infested by wild beasts and more thickly wooded than the country of the nomads; for the eastern country of Libya, which the nomads inhabit, is low and sandy, as far as the river Triton; but the country westward of this, which is occupied by agriculturists, is very mountainous, woody, and abounds with wild beasts. For amongst them there are enormous serpents, and lions, elephants, bears, asps, asses with horns, and monsters with dogs' heads and without heads, who have eyes in their breasts, at least as the Libyans say, together with wild men and wild women. None of these things are found among the nomads, but others of the following kind: pygargi, antelopes, buffaloes, and asses, not such as have horns, but others that never drink; and oryes, from the horns of which are made the elbows of the Phœnician citherns; in size this beast is equal to an ox; and foxes, hyænas, porcupines, wild rams, dictyes, thoes, panthers, boryes, and land crocodiles about three cubits long, very much like lizards; ostriches, and small serpents, each with one horn. These, then, are the wild animals in that country, besides such as are met with elsewhere, except the stag and the wild boar; but the stag and the wild boar are never seen in Libya. They have three sorts of mice there; some called dipodes, or two-footed; others, zegeries, this name is Libyan, and means the same as the word signifying hillocks in Greek; and hedgehogs. There are also weasels produced in the silphium, like those at Tartessus.

The Zaveces adjoin the Maxyan Libyans; their women drive their chariots in war. The Gyzantes adjoin them; amongst them bees make a great quantity of honey, and it is said that confectioners make much more. All these paint themselves with vermilion, and eat monkeys, which abound in their mountains. Near them, the Carthaginians say, lies an island called Cyraunis, two hundred stades in length, inconsiderable in breadth, easy of access from the continent, and abounding in olive trees and vines. In it is a lake, from the mud of which the girls of the country draw up gold dust by means of feathers daubed with pitch. Whether this is true I know not, but I write what is related; it may be so, however, for I have myself seen pitch drawn up out of a lake and from water in Zacynthus; and there are several lakes there, the largest of them is seventy feet every way, and two orgyæ in depth; into this they let down a pole with a myrtle branch fastened to the end, and then draw up pitch adhering to the myrtle; it has the smell of asphalt, but is in other respects better than the pitch of Pieria. They pour it into a cistern dug near the lake, and when they have collected a sufficient quantity, draw it off from the cistern into jars. All that falls into the lake passes under ground, and appears again upon the surface of the sea, which is about four stades distant from the lake. This account given of the island may probably be true. The Carthaginians further say, that beyond the pillars of Hercules there is an inhabited region of Libya; when they arrive among these people and have unloaded their merchandise, they set it in order on the shore, go on board their ships, and make a great smoke; the inhabitants, seeing the smoke, come down to the sea, deposit gold in exchange for the merchandise, and withdraw to some distance from the merchandise; the Carthaginians then, going ashore, examine the gold, and if the quantity seems sufficient for the merchandise they take it up and sail away; but if it is not sufficient, they go on board their ships again and wait; the natives then approach and deposit more gold, until they have satisfied them; neither party ever wrongs the other; for they do not touch the gold before it is made adequate to the value of the merchandise, nor do the natives touch the merchandise before the other party has taken the gold.

No part of Libya appears to me so good in fertility as to be compared with Asia or Europe, except only the district of Cinyps; for the land bears the same name as the river, and is equal to the best land for the production of corn; nor is it at all like the rest of Libya; for the soil is black, and well watered with springs, and it is neither affected at all by drought, nor is it injured by imbibing too much rain, which falls in this part of Libya. The proportion of the produce of this land equals that of Babylon. The land also which the Euesperides occupy is good; for when it yields its best, it produces a hundred-fold; but that in Cinyps three hundred-fold. The district of Cyrene, which is the highest of that part of Libya which the nomads occupy, has three seasons, a circumstance worthy of admiration; for the first fruits near the sea swell so as to be ready for the harvest and vintage; when these are gathered in, the fruits of the middle region, away from the sea, swell so as to be gathered in, these they call uplands; and just as this middle harvest has been gathered in, that in the highest part becomes ripe and swells. So that when the first crop has been drunk and eaten, the last comes in. Thus harvest occupies the Cyrenæans during eight months. This maybe sufficient to say concerning these things.

The Persians once upon a time, sent against the city of Barce, laid siege to it for nine months, digging passages under ground that reached to the walls, and making vigorous assaults. Now these excavations were discovered by a worker of bronze, carrying a bronze shield round within the wall, and applying it to the ground within the city: in other places to which he applied it, it made no noise, but at the parts that were excavated, the metal of the shield sounded. The Barcæans, therefore, countermining them in that part, slew the Persians who were employed in the excavation. When much time had been spent, and many had fallen on both sides, and not the fewest on the side of the Persians, Amasis, general of the land forces, had recourse to the following stratagem: Finding that the Barcæans could not be taken by force, but might be by artifice, he dug a wide pit by night, laid weak planks of wood over it, and on the surface over the planks he spread a heap of earth, making it level with the rest of the ground. At daybreak he invited the Barcæans to a conference; they gladly assented, thinking that at last they were pleased to come to terms: and they made an agreement of the following nature, concluding the treaty over the concealed pit: "That as long as this earth shall remain as it is, the treaty should continue in force; and that the Barcæans should pay a reasonable tribute to the king, and that the Persians should form no new designs against the Barcæans." After the treaty the Barcæans, confiding in the Persians, went freely out of the city, and allowed any one of the Persians who chose to pass within the wall, throwing open all the gates. But the Persians, having broken down the concealed bridge, rushed within the wall: having not fully kept their oath. The Persians reduced the Barcæans to slavery and took their departure. But king Darius gave them a village in the district of Bactria, to dwell in, and the name of Barce was given to this village, which was still inhabited in my time, in the Bactrian territory.

[20] Herodotus means that south of the equator the sun was in the north.

_BOOK V. TERPSICHORE._