. CHAPTER V.
HERODOTUS.
Importance of Herodotus to Geography—His Life, and Travels—His General
1 Views of Geography—His Primitive Cosmical Beliefs—Symmetrical Corre-
spondences—Courses of the Nile and the Ister—Attempts at Drawing a
Meridian—His Conception of the Map of the World—No Northern Sea-
Continuity of the Southern Ocean—Inlets from the Ocean—The Caspian
an Inland Sea—Size of the Palus Maeotis—The Three Continents—Bound-
aries between them—His Confusion about the Araxes—His Actae, or Pro-
jecting Tracts—Central and Western Europe—His Imperfect Knowledge
" of them—Scythia—His Acquaintance with it—Its Shape, and Inhabitants
—Peoples to the North of Scythia—The Agathyrsi, Neuri, Budini, and
Geloni—Lands to the North-east—Gold of the Ural Mountains—The
Argippaei—The Issedones—Asia—Sources of his Information—Scanty
Notices of the Geography—Error about Asia Minor—Ignorance of the
Mountain Chains—Knowledge of the Rivers—The Royal Road—Its
Course through Asia Minor, Cilicia, Armenia, Matiene and Cissia—India
—Its Races, and Products—The Nile Valley—Meroe—The Two Branches
Unnoticed—The Automoli—The Macrobian Aethiopians—Northern Coast
of Africa—Eastern Portion—Western Portion—Dumb Commerce—In-
terior of Africa—The Three Tracts—The Oases—The Garamantes—The
Troglodyte Aethiopians—Expedition of the Nasamones—Narrative of
Herodotus.
THOUGH Hecataeus was, as we have seen, the Father of
Geography, as being the first to systematise that Importailcc
subject, and to overcome the difficulties that pre- of Herodotus
sent themselves in the early stages of such a science, ° wgrap y<
yet a far greater stimulus was given to the study by Herodotus,
because of the vast amount of geographical material which he
accumulated, and the varied aspects under which he regarded it
This was the result of his extensive travels, which were pursued in
an enthusiastic spirit of enquiry, with the "hungry heart" of one
who was eager for knowledge, and the keen eye which could
distinguish the objects which were worth observing, and could
perceive their bearings upon other questions. Jt jsJnie that the
work of Herodotus was primarily historical, and that geography Is