36 plitte's natural HISTOBT. [Book VI. 



turn here taken by the line of the coast. The first portion^ 

 of these shores, after we pass the Scythian Promontory, is 

 totally uninhabitable, owing to the snow, and the regions ad- 

 joining are uncultivated, in consequence of the savage state 

 of the nations which dwell there. Here are the abodes of the 

 Scythian Anthropophagi,* who feed on human flesh. Hence 

 it is that all around them consists of vast deserts, inhabited by 

 multitudes of wild beasts, which are continually lying in wait, 

 ready to faU upon human beings just as savage as themselves. 

 After leaving these,, we again come to a nation of the Scythians, 

 and then again to desert tracts tenanted by wild beasts, until 

 we reach a chain of mountains which runs up to the sea, and 

 bears the name of Tabis.' It is not, however, before we have 

 tiTaversed very nearly one half of the coast that looks towards 

 the north-east, that we find it occupied by inhabitants. 



The first people that are known of here are the Seres,' so 

 famous for the wool that is found in their forests.' After steep- 

 ing it in water, they comb off a white down that adheres to the 

 leaves ; and then to the females of our part of the world they 

 give the twofold task* of unravelling their textures, and of weav- 



' This would apply to the north-eastern coasts of Siberia, if Pliny had 

 had any idea of land situate in such high latitudes ; but, on the contrary, 

 as already remarked, he appears to have supposed that the continent of 

 Asia terminated a little above the northern extremity of the Caspian. It 

 would be a loss of time to guess vfhat locality is m^nt by the Scythian 

 Promontory. 



* Or " man-eaters." 



^ This, it would appear, he looks upon as the extreme north-eastern 

 point of Asia. Parisot suggests that the word Tabis is allied to the 

 Mongol Daba, which signifies " mountain :" or else that it may have some 

 affinity with "Thibet." 



* The people of Serica, which country with Ptolemy corresponds to the 

 north-western part of China, and the adjacent portions of Thibet and Chinese 

 Tartary. The capital, Sera, is by most supposed to be Singan, on the 

 Hoang-ho, but hj some Peking. Pliny evidently refers to the same people, 

 and has some notion of the locality of their countiy. 



' This is generally supposed to beni reference to the cloths exported by 

 the Seres, as Serica, and conesponding to our silks. On examination, how- 

 ever, it will appear that he rather refers to some textures of cotton, such as 

 calicos or muslins ; it being not unknown to Pliny that silks or bombydnsi 

 were the produce of the bombyx or silk- worm; see B. xi. c. 22. The use 

 of the word "canities" points strongly to cotton as being the substance 

 meant. 



' "ftTiether it is silk or cotton that is here referred to, PUny seems in 



