Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/69

 CHAP. ii. $ 28. INTRODUCTION. oo And if the moderns have confined the term of Ethiopians to those only who dwell near to Egypt, and have also re- stricted the Pygmies in like manner, this must not be allowed to interfere with the meaning of the ancients. "VVe do not speak of all the people who fought against Troy as merely Acha^ans and Argives, though Homer describes the whole under those two names. Similar to this is my remark concerning the separation of the Ethiopians into two divi- sions, that under thaFrlesignation we snould understand the whole of the nations inhabiting the sea-board from east to west. The Ethiopians taken in this sense are naturally se- parated into two parts by the Arabian Gulf, which occupies a considerable portion of a meridian circle, 1 and resembles a river, being in length nearly 15,000 stadia, 2 and in breadth not above 1000 at the widest point. In addition to the length, the recess of the Gulf is distant from the sea at Pelusium only three or four days' journey across the isthmus. On this ac- count those who are most felicitous in their division of Asia and Africa, prefer the Gulf 3 as a better boundary line for the example, related that they cut down every corn -ear with an axe, for they were conceived to be an agricultural people. When Hercules came into their country, they climbed with ladders to the edge of his goblet to drink from it ; and when they attacked the hero, a whole army of them made an assault upon his left hand, while two made the attack on his right. Aristotle did not believe that the accounts of the Pygmies were altogether fabulous, but thought that they were a tribe in Upper Egypt, who had exceedingly small horses, and lived in caves. In later times we also hear of Northern Pygmies, who lived in the neighbourhood of Thule : they are described as very short-lived, small, and armed with spears like needles. Lastly, we also have mention of Indian Pygmies, who lived under the earth on the east of the river Ganges. Smith, Diet. Biog. and Mythol. Various attempts have been made to account for this singular belief, which however seems to have its only origin in the love of the marvellous. 1 It must be observed that the Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea, does not run parallel to the equator, consequently it could not form any considerable part of a meridian circle ; thus Strabo is wrong even as to the physical po- sition of the Gulf, but this is not much to be wondered at, as he supposed an equatorial division of the earth into two hemispheres by the ocean. 2 15,000 of the stadia employed by Strabo were equivalent to 21 25' 43". The distance from the Isthmus of Suez to the Strait of Bab-el- Mandeb, following our better charts, is 20 15'. Strabo says nearly 15,000 stadia ; and this length may be considered just equal to that of the Arabian Gulf. Its breadth, so fur as we know, is in some places equal to 1800 stadia. 3 The Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea.