TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 267 Avhether or not to attribute the healthy appearance of the Libyans, is mentioned by this author as one of their peculiarities*.

No allusion is made by Herodotus to the parched and barren sandy soil which later writers have bestowed upon the country in question, described by Leo Africanus as a region “ dove non si trova ne acqua ne terreno da cultivare and we may safely affirm that the impression left upon our minds of this part of the coast and its inhabitants (after reading the account of Herodotus) would be much more consistent with the appearance and peculiarities of both, in their actual state, than that which would result from the descriptions of any succeeding writer.

The parts which are nearest the sea he describes as inhabited by Nomadic, or pastoral tribes ; and the inference is, that where there are flocks and shepherds, there is also pasturage and water. The country inland of these, and immediately adjoining them, he states to be abounding with wild beasts ; and for these animals, also, more shelter and moisture is necessary than could be afforded them in the burning sands of a desert : we may therefore conclude that the parts * Melp. — Sallust has observed of this coast and its inhabitants : — “ Mare saevum, importuosum. Ager frugum fertilis, bonus pecori, arbori infecundus: ccelo, terraque penuria aquarum : genus hominum salubri corpore, velox, patiens laborum : plerosque senectns dissolvit, nisi qui ferro, aut a bestiis interiere. Nam morbus baud saepe quenquam superat, ad hoc malefici generis plurima animalia.” — (Bell. Jugurth. § 17.)

This account agrees very well with that of Herodotus; but the description which Sallust afterwards gives of the country where the Philaenean altars were placed, conveys too much the idea of a flat sandy plain.

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