Geography

​In these places giraffes also exist, having no resemblance to a leopard; for the variegated color of their skin is more like that of fawns, being dappled with striped spots. Their hindquarters are completely lower than their forequarters, so that they seem to crouch down on their hind part, which has the height of an ox, while their forelegs do not fall short of those of camels. Their neck is raised high and straight, and has its head much higher than that of a camel. Because of this asymmetry, I do not believe that the animal has so great a speed as Artemidorus said, claiming it to be unsurpassed; but it is not even a wild beast, but rather a pasturing animal, for it displays no wildness. And there are also found, he says, sphinxes and cynocephali and cebi, having, on the one hand, the face of a lion, but the rest of the body of a panther, and the size of a gazelle. And there are also wild, flesh-eating bulls, far exceeding ours in size and speed, and red in color. And the crocotta is a mixture of wolf and dog, as this author says. But what Metrodorus of Scepsis says in his book ‘On Custom’ resembles myths and must not be regarded. And Artemidorus has also spoken of the sizes of serpents of thirty cubits, which master elephants and bulls, being moderate at least in this; for the Indian and Libyan ones are more fabulous, on which, indeed, even grass is said to grow.

​The life of the Troglodytes, then, is nomadic, and they are governed by chiefs in separate tribes. Both wives and children are in common, except for those of the chiefs; and for the one who violates the chief’s wife, the penalty is a sheep. The women paint themselves carefully with antimony, and they wear small shells around their necks as amulets. They fight about pasture, at first pushing one another with their hands, then with stones, and when a wound is inflicted, also with arrows and daggers. But the women put an end to the fight by coming forward into the midst and making entreaties. Their food consists of flesh and bones crushed and mixed together, wrapped in the skins, and then roasted and prepared in many other ways by the cooks, whom they call ‘unclean’; so that they not only eat flesh, but also eat bone and skin. And they also use blood and milk, mixing them together. And their drink is, for the multitude, a decoction of buckthorn, but for the chiefs, hydromel, the honey being squeezed from a certain flower. And for them, winter is when the Etesian winds blow (for they are rained upon), and the remaining time is summer. They go about naked, wearing skins and carrying clubs; and they are not only mutilated, but some are also circumcised like the Egyptians. The Megabari Ethiopians also add iron knobs to their clubs, and they also use spears and raw-hide shields, while the other Ethiopians use bows and spears. Some of the Troglodytes bury their dead by binding the neck of the corpse to its legs with twigs of buckthorn; then they immediately throw stones at it with joy, laughing at the same time, until they hide the body from sight; then they place a goat’s horn upon it and depart. And they travel by night, having fastened bells to the male beasts, so that wild beasts may be scared away by the noise; and they also use torches and bows against the wild beasts, and they stay awake for the sake of their flocks, using a certain song near the fire.