TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
267 
Avhether or not to attribute the healthy appearance of the Libyans, 
is mentioned by this author as one of their peculiarities*. 
No allusion is made by Herodotus to the parched and barren 
sandy soil which later writers have bestowed upon the country 
in question, described by Leo Africanus as a region “ dove non 
si trova ne acqua ne terreno da cultivare and we may safely 
affirm that the impression left upon our minds of this part of 
the coast and its inhabitants (after reading the account of Hero- 
dotus) would be much more consistent with the appearance and 
peculiarities of both, in their actual state, than that which would 
result from the descriptions of any succeeding writer. 
The parts which are nearest the sea he describes as inhabited by 
Nomadic, or pastoral tribes ; and the inference is, that where there 
are flocks and shepherds, there is also pasturage and water. The 
country inland of these, and immediately adjoining them, he states to 
be abounding with wild beasts ; and for these animals, also, more 
shelter and moisture is necessary than could be afforded them in the 
burning sands of a desert : we may therefore conclude that the parts 
* Melp. — Sallust has observed of this coast and its inhabitants : — 
“ Mare saevum, importuosum. Ager frugum fertilis, bonus pecori, arbori infecun- 
dus: ccelo, terraque penuria aquarum : genus hominum salubri corpore, velox, patiens 
laborum : plerosque senectns dissolvit, nisi qui ferro, aut a bestiis interiere. Nam mor- 
bus baud saepe quenquam superat, ad hoc malefici generis plurima animalia.” — (Bell. 
Jugurth. § 17.) 
This account agrees very well with that of Herodotus; but the description which 
Sallust afterwards gives of the country where the Philaenean altars were placed, conveys 
too much the idea of a flat sandy plain. 
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