Book 16
4.11
Above this nation is situated a small tribe the StruthophagiAgatharchides, as quoted by Diodorus Sic. iii. 27, says expressly that this bird is the ostrich. May it be the cassowary? (or Bird-eaters), in whose country are birds of the size of deer, which are unable to fly, but run with the swiftness of the ostrich. Some hunt them with bows and arrows, others covered with the skins of birds. They hide the right hand in the neck of the skin, and move it as the birds move their necks. With the left hand they scatter grain from a bag suspended to the side; they thus entice the birds, till they drive them into pits, where the hunters despatch them with cudgels. The skins are used both as clothes and as coverings for beds. The Ethiopians called Simi are at war with these people, and use as weapons the horns of antelopes.
4.12
Bordering on this people is a nation blacker in complexion than the others,Groskurd supposes the name of this nation has been omitted in the text, and proposes Acridophagi, or Locust-eaters. shorter in stature, and very short-lived. They rarely live beyond forty years; for the flesh of their bodies is eaten up with worms.According to Agatharchides and Diodorus Sic. iii. 28, the habit of living on locusts produced a kind of winged louse in the interior of the body; but this is denied by Niebuhr. Their food consists of locusts, which the south-west and west winds, when they blow violently in the spring-time, drive in bodies into the country. The inhabitants catch them by throwing into the ravines materials which cause a great deal of smoke, and light them gently. The locusts, as they fly across the smoke, are blinded and fall down. They are pounded with salt, made into cakes, and eaten as food.
