108 pliny's natural history. [Book XII. 



made mention 29 of the wool-bearing trees which it produces ; 

 and we have, likewise, touched 30 upon the extraordinary 

 magnitude of the trees of India. Yirgil 31 has spoken in 

 glowing terms of the ebony-tree, one of those which are pecu- 

 liar to India, and he further informs us, that it will grow in 

 no other country. Herodotus, however, has preferred to 

 ascribe 32 it to ^Ethiopia ; and states that the people of that 

 country were in the habit of paying to the kings of Persia, 

 every third year, by way of tribute, 32 * one hundred billets of 

 ebony-wood, together with a certain quantity of gold and 

 ivory. Nor ought we here to omit the fact, inasmuch as the 

 same author has stated to that effect, that the .^Ethiopians 

 were also in the habit of paying, by way of tribute, twenty 

 large elephants' teeth. So high was the esteem in which 

 ivory was held in the year from the building of our city, 

 310: for it was at that period 33 that this author was com- 

 piling his History at Thurii, in Italy ; which is all the more 

 remarkable, from the implicit confidence we place in him, 

 when he says 34 that up to that time, no native of Asia or 

 Greece, to his knowledge at least, had ever beheld the river 

 Padus. The plan of ^Ethiopia, which, as we have already 

 mentioned, 35 was recently laid before the Emperor Nero, in- 

 forms us, that this tree is very uncommon in the country that 

 lies between Syene, the extreme boundary of the empire, and 

 Meroe, a distance of eight hundred and ninety-six miles ; and 

 that, in fact, the only kind of tree that is to be found there, is 

 the palm. It was, probably, for this reason, that ebony held 

 the third place in the tribute that was thus imposed. 



29 See B. vi. c. 20. 



30 See B. vii. c. 2. The tree to which he alludes is unknown. 



31 Georg. B. ii. 11. 116, 117. 



32 B. iii. c. 97. There is little doubt that, under the general name of 

 " ebony," the wood of many kinds of trees was, and is still, imported into 

 the western world, so that both Herodotus and Virgil may have been cor- 

 rect in representing ebony as the product of both India and ^Ethiopia. 



- 32 * Herodotus says two hundred. 



33 In Italy, whither he had retired from the hostile attacks of his fellow- 

 citizens. It is supposed by Le Vayer and others, that Pliny is wrong in 

 his assertion, that Herodotus wrote to this effect while at Thurii ; though 

 Dr. Schmitz is inclined to be of opinion that he is right in his statement. 



34 B. iii. c. 115. 



35 B. vi. c. 35. 



