Chap. 36.] ACCOUNT OF COU-N-TRIES, ETC. 105 



is a promontor}^, known as Hesperu Ceras,^ upon the confines 

 of Africa, and close to the Hesperiag, an Ethiopian nation. 

 There are some writers who affirm that in these regions there 

 are hills of a moderate height, which afford a pleasant shade 

 from the groves with which they are clad, and are the haunts of 

 ^gipans^^ and Satyrs. 



CHAP. 36. (31.) ISLANDS OF THE ETHIOPIAN SEA. 



"We learn from Ephorus, as well as Eudoxus and Timos- 

 thenes, that there are great numbers of islands scattered all 

 over this sea ; Clitarchus says that king Alexander was in- 

 formed of an island so rich that the inhabitants gave a talent 

 of gold for a horse, and of another*- upon which there was 

 found a sacred mountain, shaded with a grove, the trees of 

 which emitted odours of wondrous sweetness ; this last was 

 situate over against the Persian Gulf. Cerne^^ is the name 

 of an island situate opposite to Ethiopia, the size of which 

 has not been ascertained, nor yet its distance from the main 

 land : it is said that its inhabitants are exclusively Ethi- 

 opians. Ephorus states that those who sail from the Red 

 Sea into the ^Ethiopian Ocean cannot get beyond the Col- 

 umnae** there, some little islands so called. Polybius says 



B. V. c. 1. It is supposed to have been some portion of the Atlas chain ; 

 but the subject is involved in the greatest obscurity. 



^ Or the " AVestern Horn." It is not known whether this was Cape 

 de Verde, or Cape Eoxo. Ansart thinks that it is the same as Cape Non. 

 It is mentioned in c. 1 of B. v. as the " promontorium Hesperium." 



^^ See notes to B. v. c. 1, in vol. i. p. 378. 



^- Marcus says that these islands are those called the " Two Sisters," 

 situate to the west of the Isle of Socotra, on the coast of Africa. They 

 are called by Ptolemy, Cocionati. 



5^ The position of this island has been much discussed by geographers, 

 as being intimately connected with the subject of Hanno's voyage to the 

 south of Africa. Gosselin, who carries that voyage no further south than 

 Cape Non, in about 28" north lat., identifies Cerne with Fedallah, on the 

 coast of Fez, which, however, is probably much too far to the north. Major 

 liennell places it as far south as Arguin, a little to the south of the southern 

 Cape Blanco, in about 20" 5' North latitude. Heeren, Mannert, and others, 

 adopt the intermediate portion of Agadir, or Souta Cruz, on the coast of 

 jMorocco, just below Cape Ghir, the termination of the main chain of the 

 Atlas. If we are to trust to Pliny's statement, it is pretty clear that nothing 

 certain was known about it in his day. 



^* The " Pillars." Marcus thinks that these were some small islands 

 near the Isle of Socotra. 



