It May Be Added, That Strabo, In A Passage,
In Which He Is Apparently Copying Agatharcides, Mentions [Greek:
Kreophagoi] And As He Would Scarcely Particularize The Fact Of A Native
Eating The Flesh Of Animals Cooked, It Is To Be Presumed, He Means Raw
Flesh.
In the same place he mentions the _excisio feminarum_.
Every reader of Brace's Travels in Abyssinia must remember the fly, called
Tsalpsalza, an insect more formidable than the strongest or most savage
wild beasts: "As soon as the buzzing of this insect is heard, the utmost
alarm and trepidation prevails; the cattle forsake their food and run
wildly about the plain, till at length they fall down, worn out with
terror, hunger and fatigue; even the camel, elephant and rhinoceros, are
not safe from the attacks of this formidable insect." This fly is described
by Agatharcides in the same manner as by Bruce. The ensete tree of Bruce,
the leaves of which resemble the banana, with fruit like figs, but not
eatable, with a trunk esculent till it reaches its perfect growth and is
full of leaves, resembles in some of its particulars a tree described by
Agatharcides. This author also describes the locusts, as generally used for
food; the troglodytes; the rhinoceros; the cameleopard; what he calls
sphinxes, but which are represented as tame, and are supposed to be apes,
distinguished from the common ape in the face being smooth and without
hair. He also mentions an animal he calls crocetta, which is described as
being between a wolf and a dog, and as imitating the human voice; these
particulars seem to point it out as the hyena, though some suppose it to be
the jackall. It deserves to be remarked, that the animals enumerated by
Agatharcides as natives of Abyssinia, are all named in the same manner, as
well as depicted on the celebrated Palestrine Mosaic.
In his description of the coast of the Red Sea he commences with Arsinoe,
and goes down the western side as far as Ptolemais Theron; a place so
called, because elephants were there hunted and taken, and are still,
according to Bruce. Agatharcides adds, that the usual navigation was to
this place for elephants. He notices Myos Hormos, but not Berenice; he has
even mentioned the islands at the straits of Babelmandeb, and the prodigies
which in his time, and much later, were supposed to lie beyond them. There
is, however, one part of his work, in which he seems to indicate the
curvature of the African coast to the east beyond the straits; but it is
doubtful whether in this place he is speaking of the coast within or
without the straits.
In his description of the coast between Myos Hormos and Ptolemais, he
points out a bay, which, both from the identity of the name, and the
circumstances respecting it which he narrates, undoubtedly is the Foul Bay
of the moderns. Strabo, who, as we have already stated, borrows freely and
frequently from Agatharcides, describes this bay as full of shoals and
breakers, and exposed to violent winds; and he adds, that Berenice lies at
the bottom of it.
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