the afphodel fhrub, fecured with rufhes.-Such are the manners of these people.

CXCI. The Aufenfes, on the western part of the river Triton, border on thofe Africans who

552 cultivate the earth and have houfes, they are called Maxyes; these people suffer their hair to grow on

the right fide of the head, but not on the left; they ftain their bodies with vermillion, and pretend to be defcended from the Trojans. This region, and indeed all the more western parts of Africa, is much more woody, and infested with wild beafts, than where the African Nomades refide; for the abode of these latter, advancing eastward, is low and fandy. From hence weftward, where those inhabit who till the ground; it is mountainous, full of wood, and abounding with wild beafts; here are found ferpents of an enormous fize, lions, elephants, bears 138, afps, and affes with horns. Here also are the Cynocephali, as well as the Acephali 189, who,

188

155 Bears.]-Pliny pretends that Africa does not produce bears, although he gives us the annals of Rome, testifying that in the confulfhip of M. Pifo, and M. Meffala, Domitius Anobarbus gave during his ædileship public games, in which were an hundred Numidian bears.

Lipfius affirms, that the beafts produced in the games of Anobarbus, were lions, which is the animal alfo meant by the Lybiftis urfa of Virgil: «The first time," fays he, "that the Romans faw lions, they did not call them lions, but bears.” Virgil mentions lions by its appropriate name in an hundred places; Shaw alfo enumerates bears amongst the animals which he met in Africa.Larcher.

159 Cynocephali as well as the Acephali.]-Herodotus mentions

a nation

if the Africans may be credited, have their eyes in their breafts; they have, moreover, men and

women

a nation of this name in Lybia, and speaks of them as a race of men with the heads of dogs. Hard by, in the neighbourhood of this people, he places the Acephali, men with no heads at all; to whom, out of humanity, and to obviate fome very natural diftreffes, he gives eyes in the breast; but he feems to have forgot mouth and ears, and makes no mention of a nofe. Both thefe and the Cynocephali were denominated from their place of refidence, and from their worship; the one from CahenCaph-El, the other from Ac-Caph-El, each of which appellations is of the fame import, the right noble or facred rock of the fun.-Bryant.

See alfo the fpeech of Othello in Shakespeare:

Wherein of antars vast and defarts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whofe heads touch heav'n,

It was my hint to fpeak, fuch was my process;

And of the cannibals that each other eat,

The Anthropophagi; and men whofe heads

The Cynocephali, whom the Africans confidered as men with the heads of dogs, were a fpecies of baboons, remarkble for their boldness and ferocity. As to the Acephali, St. Auguftin affures us, that he had seen them himself of both fexes. That holy father would have done well to have confidered, that in pretending to be eye-witnefs of fuch a fable he threw a ftain on the veracity of his other works. If there really be a nation in Africa which appear to be without a head, I can give no better account of the phænomenon, than by copying the ingenious author of Philofophic Researches concerning the Ame

ricans.

"There is," fays he, "in Canibar, a race of favages who have hardly any neck, and whofe fhoulders reach up to the ears. This monftrous appearance is artificial, and to give it to

women who are wild and favage; and many ferocious animals whofe exiftence cannot be difputed 190.

CXCII. Of the animals above mentioned, none are found amongst the African Nomades; they have however pygargi 191 , goats, buffaloes, and affes, not

of

their children, they put enormous weights upon their heads, fo as to make the vertebræ of the neck enter (if we may fo fay) the channel-bone (clavicule). Thefe barbarians, from a diftance, seem to have their mouth in the breast, and might well enough, in ignorant or enthufiaftic travellers, ferve to revive the fable of the Acephali, or men without heads."-The above note is from Larcher; who also adds the following remark upon the preceding note, which I have given from Mr. Bryant.

Mr. Bryant, imagining that thefe people called themselves Acephali, decompofes the word, which is purely Greek, and makes it come from the Egyptian Ac-Caph-El, which he interprets "the facred rock of the fun." The fame author, with as much reason, pretends that Cynocephali comes from CahenCaph-El, to which he affigns a fimilar interpretation: here, to me at least, there feems a vast deal of erudition entirely thrown away.

In the fifth century, the name of Acephali was given to a confiderable faction of the Monophyfites, or Eutychians, who by the fubmiffion of Mongus were deprived of their leader.-T.

Apollonius Rhodius calls these people nuinvvss, or half dogs; and it is not improbable but that the circumstance of their living entirely by the produce of the chace, might give rife to the fable of their having the heads of dogs.-T.

199 Cannot be difputed.]-We may, I think, fairly infer from this expreffion, that Herodotus gave no credit to the stories of the Cynocephali and Acephali.-T.

191 Pygargi.]-Ariftotle claffes the pygargus amongst the birds of prey; but as Herodotus in this place fpeaks only of

quadrupeds,

192

of that fpecies which have horns, but á particular kind which never drink. They have alfo oryxes of the fize of an ox, whofe horns are used by the Phoenicians to make the fides of their citharæ. In

quadrupeds, it is probable that this alfo was one. Hardouin makes it a fpecies of goat.-Thus far Larcher. Ælian also ranks it amongst the quadrupeds, and speaks of its being a very timid animal.-See alfo Juvenal, Sat. xi. 138.

Sumine cum magno, lepus atque aper, et pygargus.

See also Deuteronomy, chap. xiv. verfe 5. "The hart and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois."

It may probably be the gazelle, a species of antelope.-T. 192 Oryxes.]-Pliny defcribes this animal as having but one horn; Oppian, who had seen it, fays the contrary. Aristotle claffes it with the animals having but one horn. Bochart thinks it was the aram, a fpecies of gazelle; but Oppian describes the oryx as a very fierce animal.-The above is from Larcher.

The oryx is mentioned by Juvenal, Sat. xi. 140.

Et Gætulus oryx:

And upon which line the Scholiaft has this remark:

Oryx animal minus quem bubalus quem Mauri uncem vocant, cujus pellis ad citoras proficit fcuta Maurorum minora.From the line of Juvenal above mentioned it appears that they were eaten at Rome, but they were also introduced as a ferocious animal in the amphitheatre. See Martial, xiii. 95.

Matutinarum non ultima præda, ferarum

Sævus oryx, conftat quot mihi mute canum.

That it was an animal well known and very common in Africa, is most certain; but, unless it be what Pennant describes under the name of the leucoryx, or white antelope, I confess I know not what name to give it.-T.

>

this region likewise there are baffaria 193, hyena, porcupines, wild boars, dictyes 19+, thoes 195, panthers, boryes 196, land crocodiles 197 three cubits long, refembling lizards, oftriches, and small serpents, hav

193 Baffaria.-Elian makes no mention of this animal, at leaft under this name. Larcher interprets it foxes, and refers the reader to the article Baccapis, in Hefychius, which we learn was the name which the people of Cyrene gave to the fox. T.

194 Didyes.]—I confefs myself totally unable to find out what animal is here meant.

195 Thoes.]-Larcher is of opinion that this is the beast which we call a jack-all, which he thinks is derived from the Arabian word chatall. He believes that the idea of the jackall's being the lion's provider is univerfally credited in this country; but this is not true. The fcience of natural hiftory is too well and too fuccefsfully cultivated amongst us to admit of such an error, except with the moft ignorant. I fubjoin what Shaw fays upon this fubject.

The black cat (fcyah ghush) and the jackall, are generally fuppofed to find out provifion or prey for the lion, and are therefore called the lion's provider; yet it may very much be doubted, whether there is any fuch friendly intercourfe between them. In the night, indeed, when all the beafts of the forest do move, these, as well as others, are prowling after fuftenance; and when the fun arifeth, and the lion getteth himself away to his den, both the black cat and the jackall have been often found gnawing fuch carcafes as the lion is fuppofed to have fed upon the night before. This, and the promifcuous noife which I have heard the jackall particularly make with the lion, are the only circumstances I am acquainted with in favour of this opi nion.-T.

196 Boryes. Of this animal I can find no account in any writer, ancient or modern.

197 Land crocodiles,] or Kgonodeλos xegatos, fo called in contradiftinction from the river crocodile, which by way of eminence was called Kçoxodeos only.-7.

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