CURIOUS CREATURES. 23 



This shows that some, at least, of the Troglodytes 

 had a commercial spirit, and were in a comparative state 

 of civilisation ; in fact the latter is thoroughly proved, 

 when, a little later on, Pliny speaks of Myrobalanum, 

 "Among these various kinds, that which is sent from 

 the country of the Troglodytae is the worst of all," 

 thus showing that they had reached the civilised pitch 

 of adulteration ! There are also several notices of 

 peculiarities connected with this people, which deserve 

 a passing glance. They had turtles with horns (or 

 more probably fore-feet) which resembled the branches 

 of a lyre ; with these they swam. These were in all 

 likelihood the tortoise-shell turtles, for they called them 

 Chelyon. The Troglodytae worshipped them. Their 

 cattle were not like other oxen, for their horns pointed 

 downwards to the ground, so that they were obliged 

 to feed with their heads on one side. These oxen 

 should have been crossed with those of Phrygia, whose 

 horns were as mobile as their ears. And they were 

 the happy possessors of a lake, called the Unhealthy 

 Lake, which thrice a day became salt and bitter, and 

 then again fresh, and this went on both day and night. 

 We can hardly wonder that this Lacus Insanus was 

 full of white serpents thirty feet long. 



AMAZONS. 



The race of Amazons or fighting women, is not yet 

 extinct, as the chronicles of every police court can tell, 

 and as an organised body of warlike soldiers the King 

 of Dahomey still keeps them up, or did until very recently. 

 According to Herodotus, the Greeks, after having routed 



