366 JOURNEY FROM means in the miserable condition in which they have been by some represented.

They are described by Herodotus as living on flesh and milk ; and the prejudice which they entertained for what Englishmen would term cow-beef, could scarcely have existed among a people who were scantily provided with the necessaries of life*.

With regard to the present inhabitants of the district of Barca (we mean the part of it comprehended in the Syrtis and Cyrenaica), we should certainly call them a healthy and good-looking race ; and not at all the ugly, meagre, grim-visaged people, which they have been described to be in some of our best received accounts of them.

W e allude in particular to the Bedouin (or wandering) tribes, which are those more immediately in question; and who are generally a finer people, both in character and appearance, than what are termed the more civilized inhabitants of Arab cities. Whatever may be the descent of the present inhabitants of this part of Africa, they appear to lead exactly the same kind of hfe, and to have as nearly as possible the same resources, as the early possessors of the regions which they occupy.

The penetration of Herodotus has not failed to discover among the African tribes which he enumerates, that they were a very healthy race of people ; and the practice of cautery, still adopted by their Mahometan successors, and to which he is uncertain * Ovro /0.6V rns T|i7wviSor aif' KvyvTcrw iiai xsoipixyot ts kqu yaXaxronorai AiQvss' xai StiXecciv te /Soivv ovroi yevo/ji-ivoi, &c. — Melp. g'ffs’'.