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means in the miserable condition in which they have been by 
some represented. 
They are described by Herodotus as living on flesh and milk ; and 
the prejudice which they entertained for what Englishmen would 
term cow-beef, could scarcely have existed among a people who were 
scantily provided with the necessaries of life*. 
With regard to the present inhabitants of the district of Barca 
(we mean the part of it comprehended in the Syrtis and Cyrenaica), 
we should certainly call them a healthy and good-looking race ; and 
not at all the ugly, meagre, grim-visaged people, which they have 
been described to be in some of our best received accounts of them. 
W e allude in particular to the Bedouin (or wandering) tribes, 
which are those more immediately in question; and who are gene- 
rally a finer people, both in character and appearance, than what 
are termed the more civilized inhabitants of Arab cities. Whatever 
may be the descent of the present inhabitants of this part of 
Africa, they appear to lead exactly the same kind of hfe, and to 
have as nearly as possible the same resources, as the early pos- 
sessors of the regions which they occupy. 
The penetration of Herodotus has not failed to discover among 
the African tribes which he enumerates, that they were a very 
healthy race of people ; and the practice of cautery, still adopted 
by their Mahometan successors, and to which he is uncertain 
* Ovro /0.6V rns T|i 7 wviSor aif' KvyvTcrw iiai x^soipixyot ts kqu yaXaxro- 
norai AiQvss' xai StiXecciv te /Soivv ovroi yevo/ji-ivoi, &c. — Melp. g'ffs’'. 
