Chap. 35.] ACCOUNT OF COU^-TEIES, ETC. 97 



tance to the open sea^ is altogether eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-five miles. All the other writers, however, are of 

 opinion that, in consequence of the intensity of the sun's heat, 

 this sea is not navigable; added to which, commerce is 

 greatly exposed to the depredations of a piratical tribe of 

 Arabians called Ascitse,^" who dwell upon the islands : placing 

 two inflated skins of oxen beneath a raft of wood, they ply their 

 piratical vocation with the aid of poisoned arrows. 1\"e learn 

 also from the same author that some nations of the Troglodytae 

 have the name of Thero those, ^^ being so called fi'om their skill 

 in hunting. They are remarkable lor their swiftness, he says, 

 just as the Ichthyophagi are, who can swim like the animals 

 whose element is the sea. He speaks also of the Bangeni, the 

 Gangorse, the Chalybes, the Xoxinae, the Sirechse, the Daremse, 

 and the Domazames. Juba states, too, that the inhabitants 

 who dwell on the banks of the jS^ile fi'om Syene as far as Meroe, 

 are not a people of Ethiopia, but Arabians ; and that the city 

 of the Sun, which we have mentioned^- as situate not far 

 from Memphis, in our description of Egypt, was founded by 

 Arabians. There are some writers who take away the fur- 

 ther bank of the Xile from Ethiopia,'-* and unite it to 

 Africa ;^^ and they people its sides with tribes attracted thither 

 by its water. We shall leave these matters, however, to the 

 option of each, to form his opinion on them, and shall now 

 proceed to mention the towns on each side^* in the order in 

 which they are given. 



CHAP. 35, ^ETHIOPIA. 



On lea^-ing Syene, ^^ and taking first the Arabian side, we 

 find the nation of the Catadupi, then the Syenitse, and the 



^ The supposed commencement of the Atlantic, to the west of the Pro- 

 montory of Mossyhim. 



^^ From the Greek affKog, a " bladder," or " inflated skin." It is not 

 improbable that the story as to their mode of navi<,ration is derived only 

 fi-om the fancied origin of their name. 



" Apparently meaning in the Greek the "jackal-hunters," BripoQuttq. 

 For an account of this animal, see B. viii. c. 52, and B. xv. c. 95. 



^- Heliopolis, described in B. v. c. 4. 



^-* Considering it as part of A.sia. 



13 Conformably with the usage of modem geographers, and, one wonld 

 almost think, with that of common sense. 



»•♦ Of the river Nile. 



15 As to Syene and the Catadupi, see B, v. c. 10. 



TOL. II. H 



