102 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Cook VI. 



there is a range of mountains, of a red colour, which have the 

 appearance of being always burning. 



All the country, after we pass Meroe, is bounded by the 

 Troglodyte and the Eed Sea, it being three days' journey from 

 Napata to the shores of that sea ; throughout the whole of 

 this district the rain water is carefully preserved at several 

 places, while the country that lies between is extremely pro- 

 ductive of gold. The parts beyond this are inhabited by the 

 Adabuli, a nation of ^Ethiopia ; and here, over against Meroe, 

 are the Megabarri, 34 by some writers called the Adiabari; they 

 occupy the city of Apollo ; some of them, however, are JN"o- 

 mades, living on the flesh of elephants. Opposite to them, on 

 the African side, dwell the Macrobii, 35 and then again, beyond 

 the Megabarri, there are the Memnones and the DabeJ.i, and, at 

 a distance of twenty days' journey, the Critensi. Eeyond these 

 are the Dochi, and then the Gymnetes, who always go naked ; 

 and after them the Andetae, the Mothitae, the Mesaches, and 

 the Ipsodorse, who are of a black tint, but stain the body all 

 over with a kind of red earth. On the African side again there 

 are the Medimni, and then a nation of Nomades, who live on 

 the milk of the cynocephalus, and then the Aladi and the 

 Syrbotae, 36 which last are said to be eight cubits in height. 



Aristocreon informs us that on the Libyan side, at a dis- 

 tance of five days' journey from Meroe, is the town of Tolles, 

 and then at a further distance of twelve days' journey, Esar, a 

 town founded by the Egyptians who fled from Psamme- 

 tichus ; 37 he states also that they dwelt there for a period of 

 three hundred years, and that opposite, on the Arabian side, 

 there is a town of theirs called Daron. 38 The town, however, 

 which he calls Esar, is by Eion called Sape, who says that the 

 name means " the strangers :" their capital being Sembobitis, 

 situate on an island, and a third place of theirs, Sinat in Arabia. 

 Between the mountains and the river Nile are the Simbarri, 

 the Palugges, and, on the mountains themselves, the Asachae, 



34 Ansart thinks that the country of this people was the modern Kor- 

 dofan. This, however, could not he the case, if the Macrobii, opposite to 

 them, dwelt on the African side of the river. 



35 Or "long-livers. ' 



i6 Mentioned again in c. 2 of the next Cook. 



37 Who is mentioned again in B. xxxvi. c. 19. 



38 Ptolemy, however, speaks of Esar and Daron as the names of towns 

 situate on the island of Meroe, 



