THE SASU TRADERS. 435 



meantime having slain and cut up their oxen, they 

 lay the pieces of flesh, as well as the iron, and 

 salt, upon the thorns. Then come the inhabitants, 

 and place one or more parcels of gold upon the 

 wares, and wait outside the enclosure. The 

 owners of the flesh, and other goods, then examine 

 whether this be equal to the price or not. If so, 

 they take the gold, and the others take the wares ; 

 if not, the latter still add more gold, or take back 

 what they had already put down. The trade is 

 carried on in this manner, because the languages 

 are different, and they have no interpreter ; it takes 

 about five days to dispose of the goods which they 

 bring with them."* Heeren, in his Historical 

 Researches, connects the country where this sys- 

 tem of barter was practised, with that of the 

 Macrobians, or long-lived Ethiopians, mentioned by 

 Herodotus. By an ingenious conclusion, he sup- 

 poses that the altar or table of the Sun which 

 characterized the latter people was the market- 

 place, in which, at a later day, the trade with the 

 strangers was transacted. My observations have 

 also led me to the same conclusion, but I am able 

 more distinctly to authenticate this, and to suggest 

 additional and more direct evidence of its being 

 the actual fact. 



The worship of the Gongas, which has continued 

 to the present time, is the adoration of the river that 

 flows through their country, as being part of the 



* Cosmas, pp. 138, 130. This author wrote about a.d. 535. 

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