30 History of Nature. [ BOOK IV. 



are celebrated for fabulous Wonders. There are believed to 

 be the Poles of the World, and the very Ends of the revo- 

 lution of the Heavens, having for six Months together one 

 entire Day ; and Night as long, when the Sun is turned from 

 them : but their Day is not from the Spring Equinox (as 

 the Ignorant say) to the Autumn : for once in the Year, at 

 the Solstice, the Sun riseth with them : and once likewise 

 it setteth in Mid-winter. The Region is open to the Sun, 

 of a happy Temperature, void of all hurtful impulse of Air. 

 The Woods are their Habitations, and the Groves where 

 they worship the Gods Man by Man, and in Companies : 

 Discord and all Disease are unknown ; arid they never die, 

 but when they are satiated with Life : when the aged Men, 

 having feasted and anointed their bodies, leap from a certain 

 Rock into the Sea. This kind of Sepulture is the most happy. 

 Some Writers have placed them in the first Part of the Sea- 

 coast in Asia, and not in Europe; because some are there re- 

 sembling them in manners and situation, named Atocori ; 

 others have set them in the midst, between both Suns ; that 

 is, the Setting of it with the Antipodes, and the Rising of it 

 with us: which cannot possibly be, so vast a Sea lying 

 between. Those that have placed them nowhere but in the 

 six Months' daylight, have written of them, that they sow in 

 the Morning, reap at Noon, at Sunset gather the Fruits from 

 the Trees, and by Night lie within Caves. Neither may we 

 make doubt of that Nation, since so many Authors testify, 

 that they were accustomed to send their first Fruits to 

 Delos, to Apollo, whom they chiefly worship. They were 

 Virgins that conveyed these Fruits ; who for certain Years 

 were venerated and entertained by all Nations, until, upon 

 breach of Faith, they appointed to bestow those sacred ob- 

 lations in the next Borders of their Neighbours : and these 

 again to convey them to those that bordered upon them, and 

 so on as far as to Delos : and, soon after, this custom wore 

 out. The Length of Sarmatia, Scythia, and Taurica, and of all 

 that Tract from th River Borysthenes, is 980 Miles, the 

 Breadth 717, as M. Agrippa hath delivered it. But I judge 



