a numerous race, who in the summer leave their flocks behind by the sea
and go up to the region of Augila to gather the fruit of the date-palms,
which grow in great numbers and very large and are all fruit-bearing:
these hunt the wingless locusts, and they dry them in the sun and then
pound them up, and after that they sprinkle them upon milk and drink
them. Their custom is for each man to have many wives, and they make
their intercourse with them common in nearly the same manner as the
Massagetai, 156 that is they set up a staff in front of the door and
so have intercourse. When a Nasamonian man marries his first wife,
the custom is for the bride on the first night to go through the whole
number of the guests having intercourse with them, and each man when he
has lain with her gives a gift, whatsoever he has brought with him from
his house. The forms of oath and of divination which they use are as
follows:—they swear by the men among themselves who are reported to have
been the most righteous and brave, by these, I say, laying hands upon
their tombs; and they divine by visiting the sepulchral mounds of their
ancestors and lying down to sleep upon them after having prayed; and
whatsoever thing the man sees in his dream, this he accepts. They
practise also the exchange of pledges in the following manner, that is
to say, one gives the other to drink from his hand, and drinks himself
from the hand of the other; and if they have no liquid, they take of the
dust from the ground and lick it.
173. Adjoining the Nasamonians is the country of the Psylloi. These have
perished utterly in the following manner:—The South Wind blowing upon
them dried up all their cisterns of water, and their land was waterless,
lying all within the Syrtis. They then having taken a resolve by common
consent, marched in arms against the South Wind (I report that which is
reported by the Libyans), and when they had arrived at the sandy tract,
the South Wind blew and buried them in the sand. These then having
utterly perished, the Nasamonians from that time forward possess their
land.
174. Above these towards the South Wind in the region of wild beasts
dwell the Garamantians, 157 who fly from every man and avoid the company
of all; and they neither possess any weapon of war, nor know how to
defend themselves against enemies.
175. These dwell above the Nasamonians; and next to the Nasamonians
along the sea coast towards the West come the Macai, who shave their
hair so as to leave tufts, letting the middle of their hair grow long,
but round this on all sides shaving it close to the skin; and for
fighting they carry shields made of ostrich skins. Through their land
the river Kinyps runs out into the sea, flowing from a hill called the
"Hill of the Charites." This Hill of the Charites is overgrown thickly
with wood, while the rest of Libya which has been spoken of before is
bare of trees; and the distance from the sea to this hill is two hundred
furlongs.
176. Next to these Macai are the Gindanes, whose women wear each of
them a number of anklets made of the skins of animals, for the following
reason, as it is said:—for every man who has commerce with her she binds
on an anklet, and the woman who has most is esteemed the best, since she
has been loved by the greatest number of men.
177. In a peninsula which stands out into the sea from the land of these
Gindanes dwell the Lotophagoi, who live by eating the fruit of the
lotos only. Now the fruit of the lotos is in size like that of the
mastich-tree, and in flavour 158 it resembles that of the date-palm. Of
this fruit the Lotophagoi even make for themselves wine.
178. Next after the Lotophagoi along the sea-coast are the Machlyans,
who also make use of the lotos, but less than those above mentioned.
These extend to a great river named the river Triton, and this runs out
into a great lake called Tritonis, in which there is an island named
Phla. About this island they say there was an oracle given to the
Lacedemonians that they should make a settlement in it.
179. The following moreover is also told, namely that Jason, when
the Argo had been completed by him under Mount Pelion, put into it
a hecatomb and with it also 159 a tripod of bronze, and sailed round
Pelopponese, desiring to come to Delphi; and when in sailing he got near
Malea, a North Wind seized his ship and carried it off to Libya, and
before he caught sight of land he had come to be in the shoals of the
lake Tritonis. Then as he was at a loss how he should bring his ship
forth, the story goes that Triton appeared to him and bade Jason give
him the tripod, saying that he would show them the right course and let
them go away without hurt: and when Jason consented to it, then Triton
showed them the passage out between the shoals and set the tripod in his
own temple, after having first uttered a prophecy over the tripod 160
and having declared to Jason and his company the whole matter, namely
that whensoever one of the descendants of those who sailed with him in
the Argo should carry away this tripod, then it was determined by fate
that a hundred cities of Hellenes should be established about the lake
Tritonis. Having heard this the native Libyans concealed the tripod.
180. Next to these Machlyans are the Auseans. These and the Machlyans
dwell round the lake Tritonis, and the river Triton is the boundary
between them: and while the Machlyans grow their hair long at the back
of the head, the Auseans do so in front. At a yearly festival of Athene
their maidens take their stand in two parties and fight against one
another with stones and staves, and they say that in doing so they are
fulfilling the rites handed down by their fathers for the divinity who
was sprung from that land, whom we call Athene: and those of the maidens
who die of the wounds received they call "false-maidens." But before
they let them begin the fight they do this:—all join together and equip
the maiden who is judged to be the fairest on each occasion, with a
Corinthian helmet and with full Hellenic armour, and then causing her to
go up into a chariot they conduct her round the lake. Now I cannot tell
with what they equipped the maidens in old time, before the Hellenes
were settled near them; but I suppose that they used to be equipped
with Egyptian armour, for it is from Egypt that both the shield and the
helmet have come to the Hellenes, as I affirm. They say moreover that
Athene is the daughter of Poseidon and of the lake Tritonis, and that
she had some cause of complaint against her father and therefore gave
herself to Zeus, and Zeus made her his own daughter. Such is the story
which these tell; and they have their intercourse with women in common,
not marrying but having intercourse like cattle: and when the child of
any woman has grown big, he is brought before a meeting of the men held
within three months of that time, 161 and whomsoever of the men the
child resembles, his son he is accounted to be.
181. Thus then have been mentioned those nomad Libyans who live along
the sea-coast: and above these inland is the region of Libya which has
wild beasts; and above the wild-beast region there stretches a raised
belt of sand, extending from Thebes of the Egyptians to the Pillars of
Heracles. In this belt at intervals of about ten days' journey there are
fragments of salt in great lumps forming hills, and at the top of each
hill there shoots up from the middle of the salt a spring of water cold
and sweet; and about the spring dwell men, at the furthest limit towards
the desert, and above the wild-beast region. First, at a distance of ten
days' journey from Thebes, are the Ammonians, whose temple is derived
from that of the Theban Zeus, for the image of Zeus in Thebes also, as I
have said before, 162 has the head of a ram. These, as it chances, have
also other water of a spring, which in the early morning is warm; at the
time when the market fills, 163 cooler; when midday comes, it is quite
cold, and then they water their gardens; but as the day declines, it
abates from its coldness, until at last, when the sun sets, the water is
warm; and it continues to increase in heat still more until it reaches
midnight, when it boils and throws up bubbles; and when midnight passes,
it becomes cooler gradually till dawn of day. This spring is called the
fountain of the Sun.
182. After the Ammonians, as you go on along the belt of sand, at an
interval again of ten days' journey there is a hill of salt like that
of the Ammonians, and a spring of water, with men dwelling about it; and
the name of this place is Augila. To this the Nasamonians come year by
year to gather the fruit of the date-palms.
183. From Augila at a distance again of ten days' journey there
is another hill of salt and spring of water and a great number of
fruit-bearing date-palms, as there are also in the other places: and
men dwell here who are called the Garmantians, a very great nation, who
carry earth to lay over the salt and then sow crops. From this point is
the shortest way to the Lotophagoi, for from these it is a journey
of thirty days to the country of the Garmantians. Among them also are
produced the cattle which feed backwards; and they feed backwards for
this reason, because they have their horns bent down forwards, and
therefore they walk backwards as they feed; for forwards they cannot go,
because the horns run into the ground in front of them; but in nothing
else do they differ from other cattle except in this and in the
thickness and firmness to the touch 164 of their hide. These
Garamantians of whom I speak hunt the "Cave-dwelling" 165 Ethiopians
with their four-horse chariots, for the Cave-dwelling Ethiopians are
the swiftest of foot of all men about whom we hear report made: and the
Cave-dwellers feed upon serpents and lizards and such creeping things,
and they use a language which resembles no other, for in it they squeak
just like bats.
184. From the Garmantians at a distance again of ten days' journey there
is another hill of salt and spring of water, and men dwell round
it called Atarantians, who alone of all men about whom we know are
nameless; for while all taken together have the name Atarantians,
each separate man of them has no name given to him. These utter curses
against the Sun when he is at his height, 166 and moreover revile him
with all manner of foul terms, because he oppresses them by his burning
heat, both themselves and their land. After this at a distance of ten
days' journey there is another hill of salt and spring of water, and men
dwell round it. Near this salt hill is a mountain named Atlas, which is
small in circuit and rounded on every side; and so exceedingly lofty is
it said to be, that it is not possible to see its summits, for clouds
never leave them either in the summer or in the winter. This the natives
say is the pillar of the heaven. After this mountain these men got their
name, for they are called Atlantians; and it is said that they neither
eat anything that has life nor have any dreams.
185. As far as these Atlantians I am able to mention in order the names
of those who are settled in the belt of sand; but for the parts beyond
these I can do so no more. However, the belt extends as far as the
Pillars of Heracles and also in the parts outside them: and there is
a mine of salt in it at a distance of ten days' journey from the
Atlantians, and men dwelling there; and these all have their houses
built of the lumps of salt, since these parts of Libya which we have now
reached 167 are without rain; for if it rained, the walls being made of
salt would not be able to last: and the salt is dug up there both white
and purple in colour. 168 Above the sand-belt, in the parts which are in
the direction of the South Wind and towards the interior of Libya, the
country is uninhabited, without water and without wild beasts, rainless
and treeless, and there is no trace of moisture in it.
186. I have said that from Egypt as far as the lake Tritonis Libyans
dwell who are nomads, eating flesh and drinking milk; and these do not
taste at all of the flesh of cows, for the same reason as the Egyptians
also abstain from it, nor do they keep swine. Moreover the women of
the Kyrenians too think it not right to eat cows' flesh, because of the
Egyptian Isis, and they even keep fasts and celebrate festivals for her;
and the women of Barca, in addition from cows' flesh, do not taste of
swine either.
187. Thus it is with these matters: but in the region to the West of
lake Tritonis the Libyans cease to be nomads, and they do not practise
the same customs, nor do to their children anything like that which
the nomads are wont to do; for the nomad Libyans, whether all of them
I cannot say for certain, but many of them, do as follows:—when their
children are four years old, they burn with a greasy piece of sheep's
wool the veins in the crowns of their heads, and some of them burn
the veins of the temples, so that for all their lives to come the cold
humour may not run down from their heads and do them hurt: and for this
reason it is (they say) that they are so healthy; for the Libyans are in
truth the most healthy of all races concerning which we have knowledge,
whether for this reason or not I cannot say for certain, but the most
healthy they certainly are: and if, when they burn the children, a
convulsion comes on, they have found out a remedy for this; for they
pour upon them the water of a he-goat and so save them. I report that
which is reported by the Libyans themselves.
188. The following is the manner of sacrifice which the nomads
have:—they cut off a part of the animal's ear as a first offering and
throw it over the house, 169 and having done this they twist its neck.
They sacrifice only to the Sun and the Moon; that is to say, to these
all the Libyans sacrifice, but those who dwell round the lake Tritonis
sacrifice most of all to Athene, and next to Triton and Poseidon.
189. It would appear also that the Hellenes made the dress and the aigis
of the images of Athene after the model of the Libyan women; for except
that the dress of the Libyan women is of leather, and the tassels which
hang from their aigis are not formed of serpents but of leather thongs,
in all other respects Athene is dressed like them. Moreover the name too
declares that the dress of the figures of Pallas has come from Libya,
for the Libyan women wear over their other garments bare goat-skins
(aigeas) with tasselled fringes and coloured over with red madder, and
from the name of these goat-skins the Hellenes formed the name aigis.
I think also that in these regions first arose the practice of crying
aloud during the performance of sacred rites, for the Libyan women do
this very well. 170 The Hellenes learnt from the Libyans also the yoking
together of four horses.
190. The nomads bury those who die just in the same manner as the
Hellenes, except only the Nasamonians: these bury bodies in a sitting
posture, taking care at the moment when the man expires to place
him sitting and not to let him die lying down on his back. They have
dwellings composed of the stems of asphodel entwined with rushes, and
so made that they can be carried about. Such are the customs followed by
these tribes.
191. On the West of the river Triton next after the Auseans come Libyans
who are tillers of the soil, and whose custom it is to possess fixed
habitations; and they are called Maxyans. They grow their hair long on
the right side of their heads and cut it short upon the left, and smear
their bodies over with red ochre. These say that they are of the men who
came from Troy.
This country and the rest of Libya which is towards the West is both
much more frequented by wild beasts and much more thickly wooded than
the country of the nomads: for whereas the part of Libya which is
situated towards the East, where the nomads dwell, is low-lying and
sandy up to the river Triton, that which succeeds it towards the West,
the country of those who till the soil, is exceedingly mountainous and
thickly-wooded and full of wild beasts: for in the land of these are
found both the monstrous serpent and the lion and the elephant, and
bears and venomous snakes and horned asses, besides the dog-headed men,
and the headless men with their eyes set in their breasts (at least
so say the Libyans about them), and the wild men and wild women, and a
great multitude of other beasts which are not fabulous like these. 171
192. In the land of the nomads however there exist none of these, but
other animals as follows:—white-rump antelopes, gazelles, buffaloes,
asses, not the horned kind but others which go without water (for in
fact these never drink), oryes, 172 whose horns are made into the sides
of the Phenician lyre (this animal is in size about equal to an ox),
small foxes, hyenas, porcupines, wild rams, wolves, 173 jackals,
panthers, boryes, land-crocodiles about three cubits in length and very
much resembling lizards, ostriches, and small snakes, each with one
horn: these wild animals there are in this country, as well as those
which exist elsewhere, except the stag and the wild-boar; but Libya has
no stags nor wild boars at all. Also there are in this country three
kinds of mice, one is called the "two-legged" mouse, another the zegeris
(a name which is Libyan and signifies in the Hellenic tongue a "hill"),
and a third the "prickly" mouse. 174 There are also weasels produced in
the silphion, which are very like those of Tartessos. Such are the wild
animals which the land of the Libyans possesses, so far as we were able
to discover by inquiries extended as much as possible.
193. Next to the Maxyan Libyans are the Zauekes, 175 whose women drive
their chariots for them to war.
194. Next to these are the Gyzantes, 176 among whom honey is made in
great quantity by bees, but in much greater quantity still it is said
to be made by men, who work at it as a trade. However that may be, these
all smear themselves over with red ochre and eat monkeys, which are
produced in very great numbers upon their mountains.
195. Opposite these, as the Carthaginians say, there lies an island
called Kyrauis, two hundred furlongs in length but narrow, to which one
may walk over from the mainland; and it is full of olives and vines.
In it they say there is a pool, from which the native girls with birds'
feathers smeared over with pitch bring up gold-dust out of the mud.
Whether this is really so I do not know, but I write that which is
reported; and nothing is impossible, 177 for even in Zakynthos I saw
myself pitch brought up out of a pool of water. There are there several
pools, and the largest of them measures seventy feet each way and is
two fathoms in depth. Into this they plunge a pole with a myrtle-branch
bound to it, and then with the branch of the myrtle they bring up pitch,
which has the smell of asphalt, but in other respects it is superior to
the pitch of Pieria. This they pour into a pit dug near the pool; and
when they have collected a large quantity, then they pour it into the
jars from the pit: and whatever thing falls into the pool goes under
ground and reappears in the sea, which is distant about four furlongs
from the pool. Thus then the report about the island lying near the
coast of Libya is also probably enough true.
196. The Carthaginians say also this, namely that there is a place in
Libya and men dwelling there, outside the Pillars of Heracles, to whom
when they have come and have taken the merchandise forth from their
ships, they set it in order along the beach and embark again in their
ships, and after that they raise a smoke; and the natives of the country
seeing the smoke come to the sea, and then they lay down gold as an
equivalent for the merchandise and retire to a distance away from the
merchandise. The Carthaginians upon that disembark and examine it,
and if the gold is in their opinion sufficient for the value of the
merchandise, they take it up and go their way; but if not, they
embark again in their ships and sit there; and the others approach and
straightway add more gold to the former, until they satisfy them:
and they say that neither party wrongs the other; for neither do the
Carthaginians lay hands on the gold until it is made equal to the value
of their merchandise, nor do the others lay hands on the merchandise
until the Carthaginians have taken the gold.
197. These are the Libyan tribes whom we are able to name; and of these
the greater number neither now pay any regard to the king of the Medes
nor did they then. Thus much also I have to say about this land, namely
that it is occupied by four races and no more, so far as we know; and
of these races two are natives of the soil and the other two not so; for
the Libyans and the Ethiopians are natives, the one race dwelling in
the Northern parts of Libya and the other in the Southern, while the
Phenicians and the Hellenes are strangers.
198. I think moreover that (besides other things) in goodness of soil
Libya does not very greatly excel 178 as compared with Asia or Europe,
except only the region of Kinyps, for the same name is given to the land
as to the river. This region is equal to the best of lands in bringing
forth the fruit of Demeter, 179 nor does it at all resemble the rest of
Libya; for it has black soil and is watered by springs, and neither has
it fear of drought nor is it hurt by drinking too abundantly of rain;
for rain there is in this part of Libya. Of the produce of the crops
the same measures hold good here as for the Babylonian land. And that is
good land also which the Euesperites occupy, for when it bears best it
produces a hundred-fold, but the land in the region of Kinyps produces
sometimes as much as three-hundred-fold.
199. Moreover the land of Kyrene, which is the highest land of the part
of Libya which is occupied by nomads, has within its confines three
seasons of harvest, at which we may marvel: for the parts by the
sea-coasts first have their fruits ripe for reaping and for gathering
the vintage; and when these have been gathered in, the parts which lie
above the sea-side places, those situated in the middle, which they call
the hills, 180 are ripe for the gathering in; and as soon as this middle
crop has been gathered in, that in the highest part of the land comes
to perfection and is ripe; so that by the time the first crop has been
eaten and drunk up, the last is just coming in. Thus the harvest for the
Kyrenians lasts eight months. Let so much as has been said suffice for
these things.
200. Now when the Persian helpers of Pheretime, 181 having been sent
from Egypt by Aryandes, had arrived at Barca, they laid siege to the
city, proposing to the inhabitants that they should give up those who
were guilty of the murder of Arkesilaos: but as all their people had
taken a share in the guilt, they did not accept the proposals. Then they
besieged Barca for nine months, both digging underground passages which
led to the wall and making vigorous attacks upon it. Now the passages
dug were discovered by a worker of bronze with a shield covered over
with bronze, who had thought of a plan as follows:—carrying it round
within the wall he applied it to the ground in the city, and whereas
the other places to which he applied it were noiseless, at those places
where digging was going on the bronze of the shield gave a sound; and
the men of Barca would make a countermine there and slay the Persians
who were digging mines. This then was discovered as I have said, and the
attacks were repulsed by the men of Barca.