-gatherers. I, as an eyewitness, can
confirm the truth of their statement that their territory does not
bring forth the produce which is claimed at their hands. It is a rocky
and mountainous country, too dry for pasture, though sufficiently
undulating for vineyards; bad for grain-crops, though well suited for
olives. The shade has to be all provided by the industry of man, who
has planted there the tree of Pallas [the olive], which prospers in
even the driest soil, because it sends its roots down into the very
depths of the earth.

'The corn has to be watered by hand, like pot-herbs in a garden. You
seldom see the husbandman bending beneath his load as he returns from
the threshing-floor. A few bushels full are all that he can boast of,
even in an abundant harvest[839].

[Footnote 839: I do not understand the following sentences: 'In hortis
autem rusticorum agmen habetur operosum: quia olus illic omne saporum
est marina irroratione respersum. Quod humana industria fieri
consuevit, hoc cum nutriretur accepit.' Can they have watered any
herbs with salt water?]

'Contrary to the opinion of Virgil [who speaks of the bitter roots of
the endive[840]], the fibres of endive are here extremely sweet, and
encircled by their twisting leaves are caked together with a certain
callous tenderness[841].

[Footnote 840:

'Nec tamen, haec quum sint hominumque boumque labores
Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser,
Strymoniaeque grues, et _amaris intuba fibris_
Officiunt.'--Georgic i. 118-121.]

[Footnote 841: I must renounce the attempt to translate the rest of
the sentence: 'Unde in morem nitri aliquid decerptum frangitur, dum a
fecundo cespite segregatur.' There is an alternative reading, _vitri_
for _nitri_; but I am still unable to understand the author's
meaning.]

'In the treasures of the deep that region is certainly rich; for the
Upper and Lower Sea meet there. The _exormiston_[842], a sort of king
among fishes, with bristly nostrils and a milky delicacy of flavour,
is found in these waters. In stormy weather it is tossed about on the
top of the waves, and seems to be too tired or too indolent to seek a
refuge in the deeper water[843]. No other fish can be compared to it
in sweetness[844].

[Footnote 842: Apparently a kind of lamprey. See the fourth letter of
this book.]

[Footnote 843: Perhaps Cassiodorus means to say this makes it more
easy of capture, but he does not say so.]

[Footnote 8