ght.

Cornelius also, the author of the Annals, says that in 13
the farthest part of Britain the night gets brighter and
is very short. He also says that the island abounds in
metals, is well supplied with grass and is more productive
in all those things which feed beasts rather than men.
Moreover many large rivers flow through it, and the
tides are borne back into them, rolling along precious
stones and pearls. The Silures have swarthy features
and are usually born with curly black hair, but the inhabitants
of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed
bodies. They are like the Gauls or the Spaniards,
according as they are opposite either nation. Hence some 14
have supposed that from these lands the island received
its inhabitants, alluring them by its nearness. All the
people and their kings are alike wild. Yet Dio, a most
celebrated writer of annals, assures us of the fact that
they have all been combined under the name of Caledonians
and Maeatae. They live in wattled huts, a shelter
used in common with their flocks, and often the woods
are their home. They paint their bodies with iron-red,
whether by way of adornment or perhaps for some other
reason. They often wage war with one another, either 15
because they desire power or to increase their possessions.
They fight not only on horseback or on foot, but even
with scythed two-horse chariots, which they commonly
call _essedae_. Let it suffice to have said thus much on the
shape of the island of Britain.

(SCANDZA)

III Let us now return to the site of the island of 16
Scandza, which we left above. Claudius Ptolemaeus, an
excellent describer of the world, has made mention of it
in the second book of his work, saying: "There is a
great island situated in the surge of the northern Ocean,
Scandza by name, in the shape of a juniper leaf with
bulging sides that taper down to a point at a long end."
Pomponius Mela also makes mention of it as situated in
the Codan Gulf of the sea, with Ocean lapping its shores.

This island lies in front of the river Vistula, which rises 17
in the Sarmatian mountains and flows through its triple
mouth into the northern Ocean in sight of Scandza, separating
Germany and Scythia. The island has in its
eastern part a vast lake in the bosom of the earth, whence
the Vagus river springs from the bowels of the earth and
flows surging into the Ocean. And on the west it is surrounded
by an immense sea. On the n