156 History of Nature. [BooK VI. 



on this point. From a Promontory of the Indians called 

 Lepteacra, and by others Drepanum, to the Isle of Malchu, 

 he layeth it down that by a straight Course it is 1500 

 Miles, beside those Parts that are burnt up. From thence 

 to a place called Sceneos is 225 Miles : and from it to the 

 Island Sadanum, 150 Miles : and thus it is made to the open 

 Sea 1885 Miles. But all other Writers have been of opinion 

 that there could not be any Sailing on it, for the exceeding 

 Heat of the Sun. Moreover, the Arabians named Ascitse do 

 much harm from the Islands to the Trade : for these Ara- 

 bians join Bottles made of Ox Leather, two and two toge- 

 ther, as if they were a Bridge, and exercise Piracy by 

 shooting their Poisoned Arrows. The same Juba writeth, 

 that there are Nations of the Trogloditae, named Thero- 

 thoes, from their huntings, of wonderful Swiftness : as 

 the Ichthyophagi from Swimming, as if they were Water 

 Creatures. He nameth also the Bargeni, Zagerae, Chalybse, 

 Saxinse, Syrecae, Daremae, and Domazanes. Also he affirmeth, 

 that the People inhabiting along the Sides of the Nile, from 

 Syene to Meroe, are not ^Ethiopians, but Arabians, who for 

 the sake of Fresh Water approached the Nile, and there 

 dwelt : as also that the City of the Sun, 1 which we said be- 

 fore in the Description of Egypt, standeth not far from Mem- 

 phis, was founded by the Arabians. There are some also 

 who assign the further side of the Nile to Africa and not to 

 Ethiopia. But leaving every Man to his own Pleasure, we 

 will set down the Towns on both sides in that order in which 

 they are declared. And to begin with that side toward 

 Arabia, after you are past Syene, is the Nation of the Cata- 

 dupi ; and then the Syenitae. The Towns Tacompson, which 

 some have called Thatice, Aranium, Sesanium, Sandura, 

 Nasaudum, Anadoma, Cumara, Beda and Bochiana, Leuphi- 



1 " City of the Sun," or Heliopolis. This is the Egyptian city, of 

 which the father of the patriarch Joseph's wife was priest. It may have 

 proceeded from the Arabian descent of the people of this place, that the 

 worship of the sun was more agreeable to the disposition of the minds of 

 the inhabitants, than that of any of the animal deities, which obtained so 

 much favour in other cities of Egypt. Wern. Club. 



