BOOK IX. XII. 36-38 



noise of their snoring; and that then the natives 

 swim quietly up to them, three men to one turtle, 

 and two turn it over on its back while the third throws 

 a noose over it as it lies, and so it is dragged ashore by 

 more men hauhng from the beach. Turtles are 

 caught without any difficulty in the Phoenician Sea ; 

 and at a regular period of the year they come of 

 their o^vn accord into the river Eleutherus in a 

 stragghng multitude. 



The turtle has no teeth, but the edges of the beak structureand 

 are sharp on the upper side, and the mouth closing ^1^11^°^''^ 

 the lower jaw Uke a box is so hard that they can crush 

 stones. They Hve on shell-fish in the sea and on 

 plants when they come ashore. They bear eggs Hke 

 birds' eggs numbering up to 100 at a time ; these 

 they bury in the ground somewhere ashore, cover 

 them with earth rammed down and leveHed with their 

 chests, and sleep on them at night. They hatch the 

 young in the space of a year. Some people think 

 that they cherish their eggs by gazing at them with 

 their eyes ; and that the females refuse to couple 

 till the male places a wisp of straw on one as she 

 turns away from him. The Cavemen have horned 

 turtles with broad horns twisted inward Hke those 

 of a lyre but movable, which they use as oars to aid 

 themselves in swimming ; the name for this horn is 

 chelium ; it is of tortoise shell of exceptional quaHty, 

 but it is seldom seen, as the very sharp rocks 

 frighten the Turtle-eater tribe, while the Cavemen, 

 on whose coasts the turtles swim, worship them as 

 sacred. There are also turtles Hving on land," and rheiand- 

 consequently caHed in works on the subject the '"^^"^- 

 Terrestrial species ; these are found in the deserts of 

 Africa in the region of the dryest and most arid 



189 



