152 MELPOMENE.

cian cities near the lake of Tritonis. The Africans,
hearing this prediction, are said to have concealed
the tripod.

CLXXX. Next to the Machlyes live the Ausenses.
The above two nations inhabit the opposite sides of
lake Tritonis. The Machlyes suffer their hair to
grow behind the head, the Ausenses before. Thej
have an annual festival in honour of Minerva, in
which the young women, dividing themselves into
two separate bands, engage each other with stones
and clubs. These rites, they say, were instituted by
their forefathers, in veneration of her, whom we call
Minerva; and if any one die in consequence of wounds
received in this contest, they say that she was no
virgin. Before'the conclusion of the fight, they ob»
served this custom: she who by common consent
fought the best, has a Corinthian helmet placed upon
her head, is clothed in Grecian armour, and carried
in a chariot round the lake. How the virgins were
decorated in this solemnity, before they had any know­
ledge of the Greeks, I am not able to say; probably
they might use Egytian arms. We may venture to
affirm, that the Greeks borrowed from <Egypt the
shield and the helmet. It is pretended that Minerva
was the daughter of Neptune, and the divinity of the
lake Tritonis; and that from some trifling disagree­
ment with her father, she put herself under the pro­
tection of Jupiter, who afterwards adopted her as his
daughter. The connexion of this people with their
women is promiscuous, not confining themselves to
one, but living with the sex in brutal licentiousness.
Every three months the men hold a public assembly,
before which, each woman who has had a strong
healthy boy, produces him, and the man whom he
most resembles is considered as his father.

CLXXXI. The Libyans who inhabit the sea-coast,
are called Nomades. The more inland parts of Libya,
beyond these, abound with wild beasts; remoter still,
is one vast sandy desert, from the Egyptian Thebes
to the columns of Hercules. Penetrating this desert
to the space of a ten days' journey, vast pillars of
•alt are discovered, from the summits of which flow* a