Chap. 8.] ACCOUNT OF COTJNTEIES, ETC. 403 



city of the same name. It is twenty-five miles long, and 

 half that breadth at the place where it is the widest, but 

 not more than five miles across at the extremity : the di- 

 minutive island of Cercinitis\ which looks towards Car- 

 thage, is united to it by a bridge. At a distance of nearly 

 fifty miles from these is the island of Lopadusa'^, six miles 

 in length ; and beyond it Graulos and Galata, the soil of which 

 kills the scorpion, that noxious reptile of Africa. It is 

 also said that the scorpion ^vill not live at Glypea ; opposite 

 to which place lies the island of Cosyra^, with a town of the 

 same name. Opposite to the Grulf of Carthage are the two 

 islands known as the ^gimuri''; the Altars^ which are 

 rather rocks than islands, lie more between Sicily and Sar- 

 dinia. There are some authors who state that these rocks 

 were once inhabited, but that they have gradually subsided 

 in the sea. 



CHAP. 8. (8.) — COTJNTEIES ON THE OTHEE SIDE OE AFEICA. 



If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly 

 direction, beyond the Grsetuli, after having traversed the 

 intervening deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby- 

 Egyptians^, and then the country where the Leucsethio- 



^ Now Gherba. It was reckoned as a mere appendage to Cercina, to 

 which it was joined by a mole, and which is found often mentioned in 

 history. 



2 Still called Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunis. This island, with 

 Gaulos and Galata, has been already mentioned among the islands off 

 Sicily ; see B. iii. c. 14. 



3 Now Pantellaria. See B. iii. c. 14. • 



* A lofty island surrounded by dangerous cliffs, now called Zbwamour 

 or Zembra. 



^ In the former editions the word "Arse" is taken to refer to the 

 jEgimuri, as meaning the same islands. SiUig is however of opinion 

 that totally distinct groups are meant, and punctuates accordingly. The 

 " Arse " were probably mere rocks lying out at sea, which received their 

 name from their fancied resemblance to altars. They are mentioned by 

 Virgil in the jEneid,B. i. 1. 113, upon which hncs Servius says, that they 

 were so called because there tlie Romans and the people of Africa on 

 one occasion made a treaty. 



^ The greater portion of this Chapter is extracted almost verbatim 

 from the account given by Mela. Ptolemy seems to place the Liby- 

 Egyptians to the south of the Greater and Lesser Oasis, on the route 

 thence to Darfour. 



