CHAP. ii. SOUTHERN AFRICA. 59 



appeared the most desirable to be conciliated; 

 and some ambassadors were sent to them from 

 among the Ichthyophagi, an intervening people, 

 who were acquainted with their language. The 

 negotiations are related minutely, but seem to 

 have terminated unsuccessfully; as the presents 

 Cambyses sent were rejected with disdain, and 

 a kind of defiance was returned to the con- 

 queror of Egypt, by sending a bow which none 

 but the Macrobians had sufficient strength to 

 bend, and a recommendation to him to be 

 thankful to the gods that the Ethiopians had not 

 been inspired with the same ambitious views of 

 extending their dominions as himself. These 

 Macrobians are celebrated by Herodotus on ac- 

 count of their stature, their strength, and their 

 longevity, and are probably " the Ethiopians, 

 men of stature," mentioned in the Sacred Writ- 

 ings. The warlike expedition of Cambyses was 

 as unsuccessful as his attempt at negotiation. 

 Cosmas, a Greek writer, who certainly visited 

 Ethiopia, and probably India, about the year 

 535 A.D., has given an account of the trade 

 carried on with the Macrobians in his day l : 



" The country which produces incense is at 

 the farther end of Ethiopia, fifty days' journey 

 from Axum, not far from the ocean, though not 



1 The best edition of the Topographia Christiana of Cos- 

 mas is in Montfauoon, Coll. Nova Patrum, torn. ii. p. 113, &c. 



