g6 HERODOTUS. [CHAP.

notices one feature of a more special character in the oases,
which he speaks of as lying at intervals of about ten

The Oases.

days' journey from one another, so as to form a belt
on the edge of the "wild-beast tract" towards the desert. Here
we find the love of symmetry which is characteristic of his mind
asserting itself, for these patches of fertile land, though they are
found in this part of Africa, and from the nature of the case
determine the lines of communication, are much more irregular in
their occurrence than he describes them to be. The same combi-
nation of truth with exaggeration is found in his account of their
details. He speaks of them as salt-hills, with springs of fresh water
issuing from the midst of the salt, while in their neighbourhood
palm-trees and grazing ground are found; and this is so far true, that
all the oases abound in salt, and that in places, as he says, masses
of it are used for building purposes. On the other hand, instead
of being hills, the oases are in reality depressions in the surface of
the desert, and the water which collects in them is the cause of
their fertility. Some of the stations which he mentions in the
early part of the caravan route along them, to the westward of
Egypt, can be identified ; for the second of them, which he calls
Augila, still bears the name of Aujileh, and the
next *s *n *e country of the Garamantes, who

occupied the district now called Fezzan, which lies
at a distance of thirty days' journey from the coast, due south of
The Tripoli. In connexion with that people he intro-
Trogiodyte duces the Troglodyte Aethiopians, against whom
opans. they were wont to make raiding expeditions. These
are easily recognised in the Tibboos of the interior of Africa by the
peculiarities which Herodotus attributes to them— their squeaking
voices, their remarkable fleetness of foot, and their habit of
dwelling in caves— all of which are found in that race.
Concerning the countries which lie beyond the great desert
Expedition Herodotus furnishes us with one intimation, which
ofthe occurs in the story of the Nasamones already re-
NasamoQes.
ferred to. This was communicated to him by
natives of Gyrene, who had been told it by Etearchus, king of the
Ammonians, while he in turn had received it from the Nasamonian
travellers themselves. These were certain young men of that