Chap. 8.] ACCOUNT OP COIIlfTBIES, ETC. 403 



city of the same name. It is twenty-five miles long, and 

 half that breadth at the place where it is the widest, but 

 not more than five miles across at the extremity : the di- 

 minutive island of Cercinitis*, which looks towards Car- 

 thage, is united to it hy a bridge. At a distance of nearly 

 fifty miles from these is the island of Lopadusa^ six miles 

 in length ; and beyond it Gaulos and Ghdata, the soil of which 

 kills the scorpion, that noxious reptile of Africa. It is 

 also said that the scorpion will not live at Clypea ; opposite 

 to which place lies the island of Cosyra', vrith a town of the 

 same name. Opposite to the Gulf of Carthage are the two 

 islands known as the JEgimuri*; the Altars*, which are 

 rather rocks than islands, Tie more between Sicily and Sar- 

 dinia. There are some authors who state that these rocks 

 were once inhabited, but that they have gradually subsided 

 in the sea. 



CHAP. 8. (8.) — COTTNTRIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OE AEEICA. 



If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly 

 direction, beyond the Gaetuli, after having traversed the 

 intervening; deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby- 

 Egyptians*, and then the country where the Leucaethio- 



^ Now Gherba. It was reckoned as a mere appendage to Ccrcina, to 

 which it was joined hj a mole, and which is found often mentioned in 

 history. 



' Still called Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunis. This bland, with 

 Gaulos and Galata, has been already mentioned among the islainds off 

 Sicily ; see B. iii. c. 14. 



* Now PanteUaria. See B. iii. c. 14. 



* A lofty island surrounded by dangerous cliffs, now called Zowamour 

 or Zembra. 



' In the former editions the word "Arse" is taken to refer to the 

 ^gimuri, as meaning the same islands. SiUig is however of opinion 

 that totally distinct groups are meant, and pxmctuates accordingly. The 

 " Arse " were probably mere rocks lying out at sea, which received their 

 name from their fancied resemblance to altars. They are mentioned by 

 Virgil in the ^neid, B. i. 1. 113, upon which lines Servius says, that they 

 were so called because there the Eomans and the people of Africa on 

 one occasion made a treaty. 



^ The greater portion of this Chapter is extracted almost verbatim 

 from the accotmt given by Mela. Ptolemy seems to place the Liby- 

 Egyptians to the south of the Greater and Lesser Oasis, on the route 

 thence to Darfour. 



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