898 PLurr's natueal histoet. [Book V. 



formerly called Mesammonee, from the circumstance of 

 their being located in the very midst of sands ^ The terri- 

 tory of Cyrene, to a distance of fifteen miles from the shore, 

 is said to abound in trees, while for the same distance 

 beyond that district it is only suitable for the cultivation of 

 corn : after which, a tract of land, thirty miles in breadth 

 and 250 in length, is productive of nothing but laser [or 

 eilphium^]. 



After tlje Nasamones we come to the dwellings of the 

 Asbystse and the Macae', and beyond them, at eleven days' 

 journey to the west of the Greater Syrtis, the Amantes*, a 

 people also surrounded by sands in every direction. They 

 find water however without any difficulty at a depth mostly 

 of about two cubits, as their district receives the overflow of 

 the waters of Mauritania. They build houses with blocks 

 of salt*, which thev cut out of their moimtains just as we 

 do stone. From this nation to the Troglodytae' the distance 

 is seven days' journey in a south-westerly direction, a peo- 

 ple with whom our only intercourse is for the purpose of 

 procuring from them the precious stone which we call the 

 carbuncle, and which is brought from the interior of Ethiopia. 

 Upon the road to this last people, but turning off" towards 

 the deserts of Africa, of which we liave previously' made 

 mention as lying beyond the Lesser Syrtis, is the region of 

 Phazania^ ; the nation of Phazanii, belonging to which, as 



cording to Bochart. The Nasamones were a powerful but savage people 

 of Libya, who dwelt originally on the shores of the Grrcatcr Syrtis, but 

 were driven inland by the Greek settlers of Cyrenaica, and afterwards by 

 the Romans. ^ From fieaos " the middle," and a^/ios " sand." 



2 See note « in p. 396. 



3 Herodotus places this nation to the west of the Nasamones and on 

 the river Cinyps, now called the Wadi-Quaham. 



* In most of tlie editions they are called ' Hammanientes.' It has been 

 suggested that they wert5 so called from the Greek word dfi/ios " sand." 



^ This story he borrows from Herodotus, B. iv. c. 158. 



* From the Greek word TpojyXodvrai, " dwellers in caves." Pliny has 

 used the term already (B. iv. c. 25) in reference to the nations on the banks 

 of the Danube. It was a general name applied by the Greek geographers 

 to various uncivilized races who had no abodes but caves, and more 

 especially to the inhabitants of the western coasts of the Bed Sea, aloug 

 the shores of Upper Egypt and ^Ethiopia. 



7 At the beginning of C. 4. 



» Which gives name to the modem Fezzan. 



