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φθειροτραγέουσι. Rawlinson translates ‘lice-eaters’; cf. for this disgusting practice the Adyrmachidae (c. 168) in North Africa, who ‘crack’ lice with their teeth before throwing them away; but H. uses a different word here, and probably means ‘fir-cone-eaters’; cf. Photius φθεὶρ τῆς πίτυος καρπός, πίτυς φθειροποιός, and the town Πιτυοῦς in the Caucasus, near which lived a race of φθειροφάγοι (Strabo 492, 496; he, however, clearly thought these to be ‘lice-eaters’).

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