Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/418

 384 plint's natural nisxoET. [Book V. the Massaesyli^ ; they in a similar manner have become ex- tinct. Their country is now occupied by the Gsetulian na- tions^, the Baniura3^, the Autololes^ by far the most power- ful people among them all, and the Vesuni, who formerly were a part of the Autololes, but have now separated from them, and, turning their steps towards the Ethiopians®, have formed a distinct nation of their own. This province, in the mountainous district which lies on its eastern side, produces elephants, as also on the heights of Mount Abyla^ and among those elevations which, from the similarity of their height, are called the Seven Brothers'^. Joining the range of Abyla these mountains overlook the Straits of Gades. At the extremity of this chain begin the shores of the in- land sea **, and we come to the Tamuda^, a naigable stream, with the site of a former town of the same name, and then the deserts of Zaliara, whence they had again emerged in the time of the geographer Ptolemy. ^ From the time of the second Punic War this people had remained in undisputed possession of the country situate between the rivers Mo- lochath or Moluga and Ampsaga, which formed the Csesarian Maurita- nia. Ptolemy speaks of finding some remains of them at Siga, a town situate on a river of the same name, and at which King Syphax had formerly resided. 2 Wliile Pomponius Mela does not make any difference between the Mauri and the Gsetuli, Pliny here speaks of them as being essentially different. 3 Derived, according to Marcus, from the Arabic compound hani-our., name Pliny and other ancient writers designate the wandering naked races of Western Africa. supposed, on the western coast of Africa, between Cape Cantin and Cape Ger. Their city of Autolala or Autolalse is one of Ptolemy's points of astronomical observation, having the longest day thirteen hours and a half, being distant three hours and a half west of Alexandria, and having the sun vertical once a year, at the time of the winter solstice. Keichard takes it for the modern Agulon or Aquilon, ^ The iEthiopian Daratitse, Marcus says. ^ The present Ceuta. 7 They were so called from the cii'cumstance, Marcus says, of their peaks being so numerous, and so strongly resembling each other. They are now called, according to D' Anville, ' Gebel Mousa,' which means " the Mountain of Apes," an animal by which they are now much frequented, instead of by elephants as in Pliny's time. ^ Or Mediterranean. ^ The modern Bedia, accordhig to Olivarius, the Tasanel, according to Dupinet, and the Alamos or Kerkal, according to Ansart. Marcus says
 * child of nakedness,' as equivalent to the Greek word gymnetes, by which
 * The Autololes or, as Ptolemy calls them, the Autololae, dwelt, it is