94 
PLTIST's NA.TTrRAL HISTOET. 
[Book YI. 
are the Candei, also called Ophiophagi, a people in the habit 
of eating serpents ; there is no region in existence more pro- 
ductive of them. 
Juba, who appears to have investigated all these matters 
with the greatest diligence, has omitted, in his description of 
these regions — unless, indeed, it be an error in the copying — 
another place called Berenice and snrnamed Panchrysos,®"^ as 
also a third surnamed Epidires,^^ and remarkable for the 
peculiarity of its site ; for it lies on a long projecting neck of 
land, at the spot where the Straits at the mouth of the Red 
Sea separate the coast of Africa from Arabia by a distance 
of seven miles only : here too is the island of Cytis,^^ which 
also produces the topaz. 
Beyond this are forests, in which is Ptolemais,^^ built by 
Philadelphus for the chase of the elephant, and thence called 
Epitheras,^^ situate near Lake Monoleus. This is the same region 
that has been already mentioned by us in the Second Book,^^ 
and in which, during forty-five days before the summer solstice 
and for as many after, there is no shadow at the sixth hour, and 
during the other hours of the day it falls to the south ; while at 
other times it falls to the north; whereas at the Berenice of 
which we first made mention, on the day of the summer solstice 
the shadow totally disappears at the sixth hour, but no other 
unusual phsenomenon is observed. That place is situate at a 
distance of six hundred and two miles from Ptolemais, which 
It obtained this title of Trdvxpvcog, or " all golden," from its vi- 
cinity to the gold mines of Jebel Allaki, or Ollaki, from which the ancient 
Egyptians drew their principal supply of that metal, and in the working 
of which they employed criminals and prisoners of war. 
Or siri deiprjgy " upon the neck." It was situate on the western side 
of the Red Sea, near the Straits of Eab-el-Mandeb. 
Ansart suggests that the modern island of Mehun is here meant. 
Gosselin is of opinion that Pliny is in error in mentioning two islands in 
the Red Sea as producing the topaz. 
90 Called Theron, as well as Epitheras. It was an emporium on the 
coast of the Red Sea for the trade with India and Arabia. It was chiefly 
remarkable for its position in mathematical geography, as, the sun having 
been observed to be directly over it forty-five days before and after the 
summer solstice, the place was taken as one of the points for determining 
tlie length of a degree of a great circle on the earth's surface. 
9^ From the Greek etti Orjpagy "for hunting." 
92 In B. ii. c. 75. 
93 lu the same Chapter. 
