To face [page 152].
Himilco repeated his assurance that we had no wish to do them the slightest injury, and they came up close to where we were. The leader told us that they were Sabelline Samnites, and that they wanted to know what payment we were going to make them for the pasturage of our cattle. I made Himilco satisfy them that they should have a proper remuneration.
It was now my turn to erect a barrier. This I did by driving stakes into the earth, and stretching a cord across, beyond which I made the Samnites understand that I should not permit them to pass. They raised no objection to my measure of precaution, but crowded up to inspect our goods, their curiosity meanwhile extending to our ships, ourselves, and our costume. They were rougher in manners than the Hellenes, and more suspicious, and I had some trouble in inducing them to negotiate with us at all; but after a time I succeeded in securing their confidence to a certain degree, and they informed me that they were not an agricultural people, and had no cereals nor vegetables to bring us, but could supply us with any number of sheep and oxen. They subsequently brought several half-wild pigs, which particularly attracted the attention of Chamai and Bichri, neither of whom had seen animals of the kind before. Not understanding the art of making bread, the Samnites ordinarily eat a kind of pulp called "masa;" but, as they had on previous visits of other Phœnicians tasted some loaves, they were now very anxious to be shown how to make them; they made a number of inquiries likewise about our wine, but for this they did not seem to care to the same extent as the Hellenes.
Next morning they came to us again in considerable numbers. I had observed that during the night they had lighted a good many beacon-fires over the land, and naturally conjectured that they were signalling for a gathering of their countrymen, and I accordingly doubled my ordinary guard. I soon found, however, that there was no cause for alarm, and that they had no hostile intentions; on the contrary, they were quite content to follow my injunctions that they should not approach our boundary line in groups of more than fifty; they awaited their turn with the utmost patience, and altogether were far less noisy and demonstrative than we had found the Dorians.
Amongst other things they brought a great quantity of coral, which after rough weather is washed up on their coasts, but which they also procure by diving from frail rafts of their own construction; for although they are very indifferent navigators, they are for the most part excellent swimmers. The most expert coral-divers are the Iapygians, those who dwell amongst the Samnites and the Bretians, as well as the natives of Iapygia proper. Some few of them were to be noticed amongst our Samnite visitors; they were generally tall and wore no beards; they had round heads and brown skins, being in many respects very like the Cydonians: in their manners they were more polished and in their conversation more communicative than the other Italians. They seemed to me to bear a marked resemblance to the Siculians; and I cannot help thinking that the Iapygians, the Siculians, the Cydonians, and the natives discovered by our forefathers in Malta, are the aborigines of their respective countries. Afterwards, from the coast of Asia came the Leleges and the Pelasgians (tribes that bear a strong likeness to the Lydians, Lycians, and Carians), and these settled in Dodanim and the isles, being succeeded by the Hellenes and Italians, who came southward from the confines of Thrace. Of the origin of the Rasennæ I am perfectly ignorant: all I know is that Phœnicians who have visited the mountains whence the rock-crystal is obtained, and which lie north of the Eridanus, at the head of the Iapygian Gulf, have reported that they have fallen in with a people who call themselves Rhœtians, and who speak a language in many respects identical with that spoken by the Rasennæ.
Two days were spent in bartering my cumbersome booty for coral, which could be compactly stored away. As the captured boats were emptied, I had all but two of them broken up. I reserved only the planking, which was sure to be useful, and the masts, which might be of service if we should require extra spars. After the spoil had been all exchanged away, I commenced paying for what I purchased with glass-beads, lance-heads, and sword-blades; the last of these articles were so eagerly coveted, that for four blades, worth about a shekel apiece, I obtained at least four hundred shekels' worth of the finest coral. When I expressed my surprise at the quantity of coral in their possession, they explained that it was the accumulation of a very long time, adding that they had intended disposing of it at one of the emporiums which the Phœnicians had established on the western coast, but that our arrival had saved them the trouble of the journey. They told me that they should have been glad if I could supply them with goats, and stated that those which had been brought over by our countrymen, and purchased by the Marsians and Volscians, were rapidly spreading in the mountains of the north.
The Samnites have no regular towns, but live in small scattered hamlets, consisting generally of a few thatched huts built of boughs of trees cemented with mud. They have very little notion of agriculture, and the Latins of the west coast (especially those of the valley of the Tiber) are far superior husbandmen; the Latins, however, have a city named Alba, occupying a secure position between a mountain and a lake. Along the coast I know only of a single sea-port, and that belongs to the Rasennæ, and is named Populonia. These Rasennæ are no contemptible sailors; that they were bold and unscrupulous pirates, I had long known by hearsay, but here on the Samnite coast I was destined to have a confirmation of the fact from my own experience.
Having completed all the business that was practicable, I was preparing to renew our voyage, when one of the Samnites came running up to his associates, and shouted something which appeared to throw them into a state of great excitement.
"What ails the fellows?" said Himilco; "they seem going mad. Is the cock-head Nergal at their heels?"