AFRICA. of Ammon, or Siwah, to consult the oracle. Here CHAP. VIII. they had an audience with Etearchus, the king of the Ammonians; and after a conversation upon a variety of subjects, they chanced to talk about the river Nile, and the circumstance that no one was acquainted with its fountain-heads. Etearchus then remarked, that at one time certain Nasamones, a powerful but sensual tribe of nomades, occupying the region of the Syrtis,' once came to the oasis to consult the oracle, and were asked if they could supply any information concerning the deserts of Libya. They replied that there were some daring youths amongst them, sons of the most powerful men, who having reached man's estate formed many extravagant plans, and amongst others chose five of their number by lot, and deputed them to explore the deserts of Libya, and see if they could make any additions to the then existing state of geographical discovery. The five young men set out on their expedition well supplied with water and provisions. They first passed through the Inhabited country, then the Wild Beast country, and after this they crossed the desert and made their way towards the west. After a journey of many days, during which they traversed much sandy ground, they at length saw some trees growing in a plain. Accordingly they approached and began to gather the fruit, upon which some small men, who were shorter than men of middle stature, came up and seized them and carried them away. These natives were totally ignorant of the language of the Nasamones, nor could the latter understand the speech of the natives. However the natives conducted their prisoners through vast morasses, until they reached a city where all the natives were as short and black as themselves. By the city flowed a great river running from the west to the east, and containing crocodiles. Such was the account given by Etearchus, king of the Ammonians, to the Cyrenaeans who reported it to Herodotus, and the Cyrenaeans added that the king 1 See p. 546.

2 ii. 32.

assured them that the Nasamones returned home in AFRICA. safety, and that the short black men whom they had CHAP. VIII. seen were all necromancers. Etearchus considered that the river flowing past the city of black men from west to east was the Nile, and Herodotus thinks there is reason for this theory, for the Nile flows from Libya and intersects it in the middle; and he conjectures, inferring things known from things unknown, that the Nile sets out from a point corresponding with the Ister.1

credibility

Identifica

the Niger,

The river seen by the Nasamones has been sup- General posed to refer to the Yeou, or river of Bornou, and of the story. the vast morasses to Lake Tchad; we however the strongly incline to the older opinion expressed by river with Rennell, that the river alluded to was the Niger, and and of the the city of short black men was Timbuctoo. The city with westerly course of the Nasamones commenced long buctoo. after they had entered the desert, and they crossed none of the salt hills, nor indeed passed along the beaten caravan track which would alone have led them to the Lake Tchad, as it led Denham and Clapperton. Herodotus supposed that the route of the Nasamones led to the south of the salt hills, whereas it led to the west. The recent origin of Timbuctoo is no objection to this view, any more than the small stature of the natives; and if we may regard the Nasamones as represented by the modern Tuarics, they are the very men to have performed a similar exploit to that described by our author. Every traveller describes the Tuarics as the finest race ever seen; tall, straight, and handsome, with a certain air of independence and pride, which is very imposing. Three Tuarics once told Richardson that they had eaten nothing for fifteen days, and that lamented traveller adds that there can be no doubt of the fact, as both the Tibboos and the Tuarics can at a pinch remain without food for ten or twelve days together. We therefore see every reason to believe in the thorough authenticity of the story of the expedition of the Nasamones, and that these first labour

1 ii. 33.

AFRICA. ers in the field of African discovery, actually reached CHAP. VIII. the banks of the Niger, and penetrated the old city where now stands the still mysterious Timbuctoo.

Conclusion.

Here then, on the very verge of ancient and modern knowledge, we take our farewell of the father of history. The spirit of the old Halicarnassian, bearing his tablets on his breast, has led us a long and pleasant pilgrimage through the ancient world; and ever and anon have we halted on our way to refresh our memories and spirits with the contents of his immortal page, whilst modern discovery, pointing out the various scenes which met the good old father during his early travel, has vouched for the credibility of those everlasting writings, to which nature herself is the best and eternal witness.

APPENDIX I.

TRAVELS OF HERODOTUS.

FOR the sake of reference, and as an illustration of the geography of Herodotus, it has been thought advisable to bring together in the present shape, by the assistance of Dahlmann, Ukert, and others, such allusions and notices throughout our author's history, as seem to indicate a personal visit to any locality, and at the same time to sketch out such a range of travel as he may be supposed to have undertaken, if we may place any reliance upon the evidence thus supplied.

5

In Asiatic Greece Herodotus was, of course, personally acquainted with the several districts of his native land, Doris, Ionia, and Æolis; but in European Greece there was no province, and probably no place of consequence, which he did not examine with his own eyes. He seems to have consulted the oracle in the oak forests of Dodona,3 inspected the treasures at Delphi, and traced out similarly consecrated gifts at Thebes. At Athens, which he compared with Ecbatana," he doubtless remained a considerable time. He also travelled in the Peloponnesus, and perhaps visited Corinth; and likewise entered Lacedaemon, where he probably obtained a list of the glorious 300 Spartans who fell at Thermopylae; and from thence he might have journeyed to the peaceful neighbourhood of Olympia, on the western coast, and seen the six ruined cities of Triphylia built by the ancient Minyae. That he also bent his steps to Northern Greece, is almost proved by his graphic descriptions of the battle-fields of Thermopylae and Plataea, and by his account of the gorge, or defile, through which the

Peneus flows between Ossa and Pelion. He was also in the peninsula of Mount Athos, where he saw the city of Crestona inhabited by the Pelasgians; and as he circumstantially describes the advance of Xerxes' army from place to place along the inner edge of Greece,3 we cannot for a moment doubt his personal acquaintance with the whole extent of the coast of the Egean Sea. He extended his travels to the islands also, and beside those in his immediate neighbourhood must have even been to Salamis. He knows how to speak of the mines of Thasos which he had himself inspected, and the most important of which, as well as the temple of Heracles, he attributes to the Phoenicians; and on visiting the islands west of Greece, Zacynthus astonished him by the phenomenon of obtaining pitch by plunging myrtle branches into a lake.5

6

In tracing his supposed travels to other lands, we will take first in order those which related to Greece. He seems to have passed through the Hellespont and the Propontis, where he halted in the island of Proconnesus, and also visited Cyzicus on the Asiatic shore; and having then probably sailed through the Bosphorus, he calculated all this extent of water on a rough average of length and breadth. He next entered the Euxine Sea, and took the mean proportion of that vast body of water in both directions, reckoning the voyage by the number of days and nights, but could hardly have sailed through the Lake Maeotis, or he would not have estimated it as only a little less than the Euxine. Penetrating beyond the fair circle of Greek colonies, he inspected a portion of Thrace, 10 but did not upon that occasion" go beyond the Danube or Ister, yet at some other time 12 he must have passed the mouths of that river. He also made acquaintance with the Scythians when he visited the country that lies between the Bog or Hypanis and the Dnieper or Borysthenes, where the two rivers run towards the sea, and where he beheld the huge brazen vessel, capable of containing 600 amphorae, which was said to have been made of the polished arrow-heads of the Scythians.13 In both these countries he thought he saw traces of the expedition of Sesostris, 14 as he did also in Colchis 15 and in Palaestine.16

Before, however, we trace our author to Palaestine, we must notice that he knew the interior of Asia Minor, including Lydia and its city of Sardis, by ocular demonstration.17 He was also no