hem and collect the cinnamon. Thus
cinnamon is collected and comes from this nation to the other countries
of the world.

112. Gum-mastich however, which the Arabians call ladanon, comes in a
still more extraordinary manner; for though it is the most sweet-scented
of all things, it comes in the most evil-scented thing, since it is
found in the beards of he-goats, produced there like resin from wood:
this is of use for the making of many perfumes, and the Arabians use it
more than anything else as incense.

113. Let what we have said suffice with regard to spices; and from the
land of Arabia there blows a scent of them most marvellously sweet. They
have also two kinds of sheep which are worthy of admiration and are not
found in any other land: the one kind has the tail long, not less than
three cubits in length; and if one should allow these to drag these
after them, they would have sores 101 from their tails being worn away
against the ground; but as it is, every one of the shepherds knows
enough of carpentering to make little cars, which they tie under the
tails, fastening the tail of each animal to a separate little car.
The other kind of sheep has the tail broad, even as much as a cubit in
breadth.

114. As one passes beyond the place of the midday, the Ethiopian land is
that which extends furthest of all inhabited lands towards the sunset.
This produces both gold in abundance and huge elephants and trees of all
kinds growing wild and ebony, and men who are of all men the tallest,
the most beautiful and the most long-lived.

115. These are the extremities in Asia and in Libya; but as to the
extremities of Europe towards the West, I am not able to speak with
certainty: for neither do I accept the tale that there is a river called
in Barbarian tongue Eridanos, flowing into the sea which lies towards
the North Wind, whence it is said that amber comes; nor do I know of the
real existence of "Tin Islands" 102 from which tin 103 comes to us: for
first the name Eridanos itself declares that it is Hellenic and that it
does not belong to a Barbarian speech, but was invented by some
poet; and secondly I am not able to hear from any one who has been an
eye-witness, though I took pains to discover this, that there is a
sea on the other side of Europe. However that may be, tin and amber
certainly come to us from the extremity of Europe.

116. Then again towards the North of Europe, there is evidently a
quantity of gold by f