INTRODUCTORY 19

In any case this neighbourhood has a special interest, for the first spot in Negroland of which European history preserves any record would seem to have been the site of this very Kuka, or Kaougha, which stood near the present Gao. Herodotus, writing something more than five hundred years before Christ, gives an account in his second book of an attempt which was made by certain Nasamonlans, occupying the territory on the Mediterranean coast behind Tripoli, to penetrate into the desert by the eastern road, afterwards so well known and used by the caravan trade of

Negroland and the coast. According to his account there

were among these people ''certain daring youths, sons of powerful men, who, having reached man's estate, formed many extravagant plans, and chose five of their number by lot to explore the deserts of Libya to see if they could make any further discovery than those who had penetrated the furthest." The Nasamonlans related that when the young men deputed by their companions set out, well furnished with water and provisions, they passed first through the inhabited country, and having traversed this they came to the region infested by wild beasts, and after this they crossed the desert, making their way towards the

west ; and when they had traversed much sandy ground during a journey of many days they at length saw some trees growing In a plain, and that they approached and began to gather the fruit that grew on the trees ; and

while they were gathering it, some ''diminutive men,

less than men of middle stature, came up," and, having seized them, carried them away. The diminutive men con-

ducted them through vast morasses, and when they had

passed these they came to " a city In which all the inhabi-

tants were of the same size as their conductors, and black in colour ; and by the city flowed a great river running from the west to the east, and crocodiles were seen In it."

Herodotus does not mention the date of this discovery of the Niger by the Nasamonlans. It may have taken place before or after the reported circumnavigation of the continent by the Phoenicians. It may have happened