BENGAZI.

329 generally possessed by Turks and Arabs of all classes, to rely implicitly upon the truth of every part of the above-mentioned narrative related to us by the Eey of Bengazi : there is, however, no reason, of which we are aware, connected with the nature of the place, which militates against its probability ; and we submit it accordingly, as we received it, to our readers, in the absence of more decided information, AVe have already wandered into the regions of fable in speaking of the Gardens of the Hesperides ; and before we retrace our steps, we must be permitted to linger for a while on the borders of the mysterious, hidden stream above-mentioned.

The Lethe, or Lathon, (for it is no less a stream to which we are going to call the attention of our readers,) is laid down by geographers in the neighbourhood of the gardens, and close to the city of the Hesperides.

Strabo makes the Lathon flow into the harbour of the Hesperides, and Ptolemy also lays down the same river between Berenice and Arsinoe ; Pliny describes the Lathon as situated in the neighbourhood of Berenice, and Scylax places a river (which he calls Ecceus, Ekzsio?) in a similar situation. The river Lethe is supposed to have lost itself underground, and to re-appear (like the Niger) in another place* ; and the point to which we would call the attention of the * Here Lethe’s streams, from secret springs below. Rise to the light ; here heavily, and slow, The silent, dull, forgetful waters flow.

(Rowe’s Lucan, book ix, p. 209.)

Lucan places his Lethe and Hesperian Gardens in the neighbourhood of the Lake Tiitonis, in the Lesser Syrtis; but the western part of the Cyrenaica is the most approved position for both. See also Solinus on this point.