IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. Cliii
R. Senus, Cape Notion, Satyr's Cape, R. Cottiaris, and Cattigara, to the Port of the Sine. Of inland cities are named Akadra, Aspithra, Cocco- or Coccora-Nagara, Saraga, and Thine the Metropolis.
" But this last, they say, hath in reality neither brazen walls nor anything else worth mentioning"' (book vii, ch. 3).
NOTE III.
FROM POMPONIUS MELA DE SITU ORBIS.
(Supposed about A.D. 50.)
" In the furthest east of Asia are the Indians, Seres, and Scythians. The Indians and Scythians occupy the two extremities, the Seres are in the middle" (i, 2).
In another passage, after speaking of certain islands in the Caspian, and on the Scythian coast, he proceeds :--
" From these the course (of the shore) makes a bend and trends to the coast line which faces the east. That part which adjoins the Scythian promontory is first all impassable from snow ; then an uncultivated tract occupied by savages. These tribes are the Cannibal Scythians and the Sage, severed from one another by a region where none can dwell because of the number of wild animals. Another vast wilderness follows, occupied also by wild beasts, reaching to a mountain called Thabis which overhangs the sea. A long way from that the ridge of Taurus rises. The Seres come between the two ; a race eminent for integrity, and well known for the trade which they allow to be transacted behind their backs, leaving their wares in a desert spot" (iii, 7).
NOTE IV.
EXTRACTS FROM PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
(Bn. A.D. 23, Dd. A.D. 79.)
" From the Caspian Sea and the Scythian Ocean the course (of the coast) makes a bend till the shore faces the east. The first part of that tract of country, beginning from the Scythian Promontory, is uninhabitable from eternal winter ; the next portion is uncultivated and occupied by savage tribes, among whom are the Cannibal Scythians who feed on human flesh; and alongside of these are vast wildernesses tenanted by multitudes of wild beasts hemming in those human creatures almost as brutal as themselves. Then, we again find tribes of Scythians, and again desert tracts occupied only by wild animals, till we come to that mountain chain overhanging the sea, which is called Tabis. Not
1 See note at p. cxxv.
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