They have a small shield of leather, and small lances with broad heads. Their tunics are loose, with wide borders; their cloak is a skin, as I have said before, which serves also as a breastplate.
The Pharusii and Nigretes, who live above these people, near the western Ethiopians, use bows and arrows, like the Ethiopians. They have chariots also, armed with scythes. The Pharusii rarely have any intercourse with the Mauretanians in passing through the desert country, as they carry skins filled with water, fastened under the bellies of their horses. Sometimes, indeed, they come to Cirta,[949] passing through places abounding with marshes and lakes. Some of them are said to live like the Troglodytæ, in caves dug in the ground. It is said that rain falls there frequently in summer, but that during the winter drought prevails. Some of the barbarians in that quarter wear the skins of serpents and fishes, and use them as coverings for their beds. Some say that the Mauretanians[950] are Indians, who accompanied Hercules hither. A little before my time, the kings Bogus and Bocchus, allies of the Romans, possessed this country; after their death, Juba succeeded to the kingdom, having received it from Augustus Cæsar, in addition to his paternal dominions. He was the son of Juba who fought, in conjunction with Scipio, against divus Cæsar. Juba died[951] lately, and was succeeded by his son Ptolemy, whose mother was the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra.
8. Artemidorus censures Eratosthenes for saying that there is a city called Lixus, and not Lynx, near the extremities of Mauretania; that there are a very great number of Phœnician cities destroyed,[952] of which no traces are to be seen; and that among the western Ethiopians, in the evenings and the mornings, the air is misty and dense;—for how could this take place where there is drought and excessive heat? But he himself relates of these same parts what is much more liable to objection. For he speaks of some tribes of Lotophagi, who had left their own country, and might have occupied the tract destitute of water; whose food might be a lotus, a sort of herb, or root, which would supply the want of drink; that these people extend as far as the places above Cyrene, and that they live there on milk and flesh, although they are situated in the same latitude.
Gabinius, the Roman historian, indulges in relating marvellous stories of Mauretania. He speaks of a sepulchre of Antæus at Lynx, and a skeleton of sixty feet in length, which Sertorius exposed, and afterwards covered it with earth.[953] His stories also about elephants are fabulous. He says, that other animals avoid fire, but that elephants resist and fight against it, because it destroys the forests; that they engage with men in battle, and send out scouts before them; that when they perceive their enemies fly, they take to flight themselves; and that when they are wounded, they hold out as suppliants branches of a tree, or a plant, or throw up dust.
9. Next to Mauretania is the country of the Masæsylii, beginning from the river Molocath, and ending at the promontory which is called Tretum,[954] the boundary of the country of the Masæsyli and of the Masylies. From Metagonium to Tretum are 6000 stadia; according to others, the distance is less.
Upon the sea-coast are many cities and rivers, and a country which is very fertile. It will be sufficient to mention the most renowned. The city of Siga,[955] the royal seat of Syphax, is at the distance of 1000 stadia from the above-mentioned boundaries. It is now razed. After Syphax, the country was in the possession of Masanasses, then of Micipsa, next of his successors, and in our time of Juba, the father of the Juba who died lately. Zama,[956] which was Juba’s palace, was destroyed by the Romans. At the distance of 600 stadia from Siga is Theon-limen (port of the gods);[957] next are some other obscure places.
Deep in the interior of the country are mountainous and desert tracts scattered here and there, some of which are inhabited and occupied by Gætuli extending to the Syrtes. But the parts near the sea are fertile plains, in which are numerous cities, rivers, and lakes.
10. Poseidonius says, but I do not know whether truly, that Africa is traversed by few, and those small rivers; yet he speaks of the same rivers, namely those between Lynx and Carthage, which Artemidorus describes as numerous and large. This may be asserted with more truth of the interior of the country, and he himself assigns the reason of it, namely, that in the northern parts of Africa (and the same is said of Ethiopia) there is no rain; in consequence therefore of the drought, pestilence frequently ensues, the lakes are filled with mud only, and locusts appear in clouds.
Poseidonius besides asserts that the eastern parts are moist, because the sun quickly changes its place after rising; and that the western parts are dry, because the sun there turns in his course. Now, drought and moisture depend upon the abundance or scarcity of water, and on the presence or absence of the sun’s rays. But Poseidonius means to speak of the effects produced by the sun, which all writers determine by the latitude, north or south; but east and west, as applied to the residence of men, differ in different places, according to the position of each inhabited spot and the change of horizon; so that it cannot be asserted generally of places indefinite in number, that those lying to the east are moist, and those to the west dry: but as applied to the whole earth and such extremes of it as India and Spain, his expressions (east and west) may be just; yet what truth or probability is there in his (attempted) explanation (of the causes of drought and moisture)? for in the continuous and unceasing circuit of the sun, what turn can there be in his course? The rapidity too of his passage through every part is equal. Besides, it is contrary to evidence to say, that the extreme parts of Spain or Mauretania towards the west are drier than all other places, when at the same time they are situated in a temperate climate and have water in great abundance. But if we are to understand the turning of the sun in this way, that there at the extremities of the habitable world he is above the earth, how does that tend to produce drought? for there, and in other places situated in the same latitude, he leaves them for an equal portion of the night and returns again and warms the earth.
11. Somewhere there, also, are copper mines; and a spring of asphaltus; scorpions of enormous size,[958] both with and without wings, are said to be found there, as well as tarantulas, remarkable for their size and numbers. Lizards also are mentioned of two cubits in length. At the base of the mountains precious stones are said to be found, as those called the Lychnitis (the ruby) and the Carchedonius (the carbuncle?). In the plains are found great quantities of oyster and mussel shells, similar to those mentioned in our description of Ammon. There is also a tree called melilotus, from which a wine is made. Some obtain two crops from the ground and have two harvests, one in the spring, the other in the summer. The straw is five cubits in height, and of the thickness of the little finger; the produce is 250-fold. They do not sow in the spring, but bush-harrow the ground with bundles of the paliurus, and find the seed-grain sufficient which falls from the sheaves during harvest to produce the summer crop. In consequence of the number of reptiles, they work with coverings on the legs; other parts of the body also are protected by skins.