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A FEW OF TH^ 50,000 CONES NEAR UDJ ASSARU 



The overlying stratum of lava, being harder than the pumice-stone, offered a longer 

 resistance to the abrasive influences, and the result was the caps that appear on so many of 

 the cones. One good specimen appears in this picture ; they are seen frequently in other 

 pictures. 



The Greeks have left us accounts of 

 engrossing interest concerning the Trog- 

 lodytes of antiquity. 



HOW THE) TROGLODYTES LIVED 2,000 

 YEARS AGO 



The Greek geographer and historian, 

 Agatharchides, who flourished about 175 

 B. C., wrote a book on the region about 

 the Red Sea. It was intended as a ge- 

 ography for his royal pupil, the heir to 

 the throne of Egypt, who would find it 

 to his interest to know as much as possi- 

 ble about his territories on the Red Sea 

 and about the strange people who lived 

 there. This book has perished, but about 

 fifty pages of it were quoted by other 

 writers whose works have survived to 

 our times, and among other things they 

 have preserved Agatharchides's account 

 of the Troglodytes of the region of the 

 Red Sea. 



Here is the account as quoted by Di- 

 odorus Siculus : 



"The races that live in the extreme 

 south have the form of men, it is true, 

 but they lead the life of animals. These 

 are the Ethiopians and the Troglodytes. 



"The Troglodytes are called nomads by 

 the Greeks. But though they do lead a 

 nomadic life and gain their daily food 

 from their flocks, nevertheless they have 

 organized governments, at the head of 

 which stand sheikhs who are clad with 

 absolute power. 



"They have their women and children 

 in common, with the sole exception of 

 the one woman who belongs to the 

 sheikh. Should another man approach 

 this woman, the sheikh exacts from him 

 a fine consisting of a fixed number of 

 sheep. 



"their Eood a mixture oe blood and 

 milk" 



"When the great rains come upon them, 

 at the time of the annual recurrence of 

 the periodic monsoons, the Troglodytes 



2,97 



