ing each a fingle horn. Befides these animals, they have fuch as are elsewhere found, except the stag and the boar 178, which are never feen in Africa.

199

They have also three diftinct fpecies of mice, fome of which are called dipodes "", others are called zegeries, which in the African tongue has the fame meaning with the Greek word for hills. The other fpecies is called the echines. There are moreover to be seen a kind of weazel produced in Silphium, and very much like that of Tarteffus. The above are all the animals amongst the African Nomades, which my most diligent refearches have enabled me to discover.

CXCIII. Next to the Maxyes are the Zaueces, whose women guide the chariots of war.

198 Boar.]-This animal must have been carried to Africa fince the time of Herodotus, for it is now found there: according to Shaw, it is the chief food and prey of the lion, against which it has fometimes been known to defend itfelf with fo much bravery, that the victory has inclined to neither fide, the carcafes of them both having been found lying the one by the other, torn and mangled to pieces.—Shaw.

199 Dipodes.]-Shaw is of opinion that this is the jerboa of Barbary. "That remarkable difproportion," obferves this writer, "betwixt the fore and hinder legs of the jerboa, or Sr, though I never faw them run, but only ftand or reft themselves upon the latter, may induce us to take it for one of the diodes, or two-footed rats which Herodotus and other writers defcribe as the inhabitants of thefe countries, particularly (T Eng) of the province of Silphium." Accordingly Mr. Pennant has fet down the μvs dies of Theophraftus and Ælian among the fyonyma of the jerboa.-Hift. of An. p. 427. N° 291.

CXCIV. The people next in order are the Zy gantes, amongst whom a great abundance of honey is found, the produce of their bees; but of this they fay a great deal more is made by the natives 200 They all ftain their bodies with vermilion, and feed upon monkies, with which animal their mountains abound.

CXCV. According to the Carthaginians, we next meet with an ifland called Cyranis, two hundred ftadia in length. It is of a trifling breadth, but the communication with the continent is eafy, and it abounds with olives and vines. Here is a lake from which the young women of the inland draw up gold duft 201 with bunches of feathers befmeared with pitch. For the truth of this I will not answer, relating merely what I have been told. To me it seems the more probable, after having feen at Zacynthus pitch drawn from the bottom

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200 Made by the natives.]—" I do not fee," fays Reifke on this paffage, how men can poffibly make honey. They may collect, clarify, and prepare it by various proceffes for ufe, but the bees must first have made it."

I confefs I fee no fuch great difficulty in the above. There were various kinds of honey, honey of bees, honey of the palm, and honey of sugar, not to mention honey of grapes; all the laft of which might be made by the indaftry of man.-See Lucan:

Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine fuccos. See Shaw's Travels, p. 339.

T.

201 Gold duft.]See a minute account of this in Achilles Tatius.-T.

202 Zacynthus.]-The modern name of this place is Zante. VOL. II.

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Its

of the water. At this place are a number of lakes, the largest of which is feventy feet in circumference, and of the depth of two orgyiæ. Into this water they let down a pole, at the end of which is a bunch of myrtle; the pitch attaches itself to the myrtle, and is thus procured. It has a bituminous fmell, but is in other refpects preferable to that of Pieria 203. The pitch is then thrown into a trench dug for the purpose by the fide of the lake; and when a fufficient quantity has been obtained, they put it up in cafks. Whatever falls into the lake

Its tar fprings, to ufe the words of Chandler, are fill a natural curiosity deferving notice.

The tar is produced in a small valley about two hours from the town, by the fea, and encompassed with mountains, except toward the bay, in which are a couple of rocky iflets. The fpring which is most distinct and apt for inspection, rises on the farther fide near the foot of the hill. The well is circular, and four or five feet in diameter. A fhining film, like oil mixed with fcum, fwims on the top: you remove this with a bough, and fee the tar at the bottom, three or four feet beneath the furface, working up, it is faid, out of a fiffure in the rock; the bubbles fwelling gradually to the fize of a large cannon-ball, when they burst, and the fides leisurely finking, new ones fucceed, increase, and in turn fubfide. The water is limpid, and runs off with a smart current: the ground near is quaggy, and will shake beneath the feet, but is cultivated. We filled fome veffels with tar, by letting it trickle into them from the boughs which we immerfed, and this is the method ufed to gather it from time to time into pits, where it is hardened by the fun, to be barrelled when the quantity is fafficient. The odour reaches a confiderable way.- -See Chandler's Travels.

203 That of Pieria.]-This was highly efteemed. Didymus fays that the ancients confidered that as the best which came from Mount Ida; and next to this, the tar which came from Pieria. Pliny fays the fame.-Larcher.

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paffes

paffes under ground, and is again feen in the fea, at the distance of four ftadia from the lake. Thus what is related of this ifland contiguous to Africa, feems both confiftent and probable.

CXCVI. We have the fame authority of the Carthaginians to affirm, that beyond the columns of Hercules there is a country inhabited by a people with whom they have had commercial intercourse 204. It is their custom, on arriving, amongst thern, to unload their veffels, and difpofe their goods along the fhore. This done, they again embark, and make a great smoke from on board. The natives, feeing this, come down immediately to the fhore, and placing a quantity of gold by

204 Commercial intercourfe.]-It must be mentioned to the honour of the western Moors, that they ftill continue to carry on a trade with fome barbarous nations bordering upon the river Niger, without feeing the perfons they trade with, or without having once broke through that original charter of commerce which from time immemorial has been fettled between them, The method is this: at a certain time of the year, in the winter, if I am not mistaken, they make this journey in a numerous caravan, carrying along with them coral and glass beads, bracelets of horn, knives, fciffars, and fuch like trinkets. When they arrive at the place appointed, which is on fuch a day of the moon, they find in the evening several different heaps of gold duft lying at a fmall diftance from each other, against which the Moors place fo many of their trinkets as they judge will be taken in exchange for them. If the Nigritians the next morning approve of the bargain, they take up the trinkets and leave the gold duft, or else make some deduction from the latter. In this manner they tranfact their exchange without feeing one another, or without the leaft inftance of difhonefty or perfidiousness on either fide.Shar.

way of exchange for the merchandize, retire. The Carthaginians then land a fecond time, and if they think the gold equivalent, they take it and depart; if not, they again go on board..their veffels. The inhabitants return and add more gold, till the crews are fatisfied. The whole is conducted with the ftricteft integrity, for neither will the one touch the gold till they have left an adequate value in mer+ chandize, nor will the other remove the goods till the Carthaginians have taken away the gold.

CXCVII. Such are the people of Africa whofe names I am able to afcertain; of whom the greater part cared but little for the king of the Medes, neither do they now, Speaking with all the precifion I am able, the country I have been defcribing is inhabited by four hations only: of thefe two are natives and two strangers. The natives are the Africans and Ethiopians; one of whom poffefs the northern the other the fouthern Africa. The strangers are the Phoenicians and the Greeks.bˆɔ

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are fulv gro. : gillet, CXCVIII. If we except the diftrict of Cinyps, which bears the name of the river flowing through it, Africa in goodness of foil cannot, I think, be compared either to Afia or Europe. Cinyps is totally unlike the reft of Africa, but is equal to any country in the world for its corn. It is of a black foil, abounding in springs, and never troubled with drought. It rains in this part of Africa, but the rains, though violent, are never injurious. The pro

duce