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All the geographers agree in placing the Nasamones on the shores of the Greater Syrtis. Augila (c. 182; hod. ‘Audschila’) is an important oasis in the latitude of Cyrene, on the caravan route to Fezzan; it is still a great centre of date production. Pacho (p. 280) says H.'s descriptions are ‘tellement fidèles qu'elles pourraient encore servir à décrire l'Augile moderne’, and works out in detail the correspondences. Rohlfs (Tripolis nach Alex. ii. 49) estimated the palms as over 200,000 in 1869, but in 1879 found them much less numerous (K. p. 220).

αὐήναντες. For the eating of locusts (ἀττελέβους) cf. Matt. iii. 4 of John the Baptist. Diod. iii. 29 gives a description of the ‘locusteaters’ in Africa, a ‘marvellously black’ race, who live only on this food, and die before they are forty by a disgusting death brought on by it. The chapter is a significant contrast to H.'s veracity. Duveyrier (p. 240) says the Tuaregs eat locusts ‘dried and reduced to powder’.

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