Geography

​And still above these, towards the south, are the Cynamolgi, called wild men by the natives, long-haired, long-bearded, breeding huge dogs, with which they hunt the Indian oxen that come from the neighboring country, being driven out either by wild beasts or by scarcity of pasture; and their invasion is from the summer solstice to the middle of winter. Next to the Harbor of Antiphilus is a harbor called the Grove of the Colobi, and the city Berenice near Sabae, and Sabae, a very large city; then the Grove of Eumenes. And above lies the city Darada and an elephant-hunting ground called ‘that near the Well’. And there dwell the Elephantophagists, who carry on their hunting in the following manner: when they see a herd from the trees passing through the forest, they do not attack the herd itself, but stealthily approaching from behind those that stray, they hamstring them. And some also kill them with arrows dipped in the gall of serpents; the archery is performed by three men, two holding the bow and planting their feet firmly, and the other pulling the string. Others, having marked the trees against which the elephants are accustomed to lean for rest, approach from the other side and cut the trunk slightly underneath; when, therefore, the beast approaches and leans against it, as the tree falls, the beast also falls; and since it cannot rise because its legs have a continuous and inflexible bone, they leap down from the trees and cut it to pieces. And the nomads call these hunters unclean.

​And above these lies a small tribe of Struthophagists, among whom are birds of the size of deer, unable to fly, but running swiftly like ostriches. Some hunt them with bows, while others, covered with the skins of ostriches, conceal their right hand in the neck part and move it just as the animals move their necks, while with the left hand they scatter seed from a pouch suspended at their side, and having enticed the animals with this, they drive them into ravines; and there woodcutters stationed there beat them down. And they also clothe themselves with these skins and use them as bedding. And the so-called flat-nosed Ethiopians make war upon them, using the horns of oryxes as weapons.

​And neighboring these are the Acridophagists, who are blacker than the others, shorter, and shortest-lived; for they rarely exceed forty years, because their flesh becomes infested with wild parasites. And they live on locusts, which the spring south-west and west winds, blowing strongly, drive into these places. And by throwing smoky wood into the ravines and setting light to it slightly—for as they fly over, they are blinded by the smoke and fall down—they pound them with salt and make them into cakes, and use them for food. Above these lies a great desert, which has abundant pastures, but was abandoned because of a multitude of scorpions and the so-called four-jawed phalangia, which once infested it and caused the complete flight of the people.

​And after the Harbor of Eumenes as far as Deire and the straits near the six islands, there dwell Ichthyophagists, Creophagists, and Colobi as far as the interior. And there are also several elephant-hunting grounds, obscure cities, and small islands off the coast. Most of them are nomads, and few practice agriculture; and among some of these there grows no small amount of storax. The Ichthyophagists gather the fish at the ebb-tides; and having thrown them upon the rocks, they bake them in the sun, and then, when they are thoroughly baked, they pile up the bones, and having trodden the flesh, they make it into cakes, and drying these again in the sun, they eat them. In winter, when they are unable to gather fish, they pound the piled-up bones, mold them into cakes, and use them, and they suck the fresh bones. Some feed shell-fish that have flesh, throwing them into ravines and pools of the sea, and then, by throwing small fish to them as food, they use them when fish are scarce. They also have all kinds of fish-ponds, from which they ration their food. And some of those who inhabit the waterless coast go up every five days to the watering-places, with their whole families, singing paeans; and having thrown themselves prostrate, they drink like oxen until their bellies are distended like drums, and then they depart to the sea again. And they live in caves or in pens roofed with beams and rafters made of whale-bones and backbones, and with olive foliage.