the tools of copper found in these gold mines, supposed to have been used
by the native Egyptians, prior to the conquest of Egypt by the Persians.
The next particular mentioned by Agatharcides, respecting the Abyssinian
coast of the Red Sea, is very conclusive, with respect to his accuracy and
credibility. In Meroe, or Abyssinia, he says, they hunt elephants and
hamstring them, and afterwards cut the flesh out of the animal alive: he
adds, that the inhabitants are so extremely fond of the flesh of the
elephant, thus procured, that when Ptolemy would have paid any price to
purchase these animals alive, as he wanted them for his army, the
Abyssinian hunters refused his offer, declaring that not all the wealth of
Egypt would tempt them to forego their favourite and delicious repast. It
is a remarkable fact, that the credit of Bruce on this topic should thus be
confirmed by a writer who lived nearly 2000 years before him, of whose
writings we possess only a very short treatise, and of whose life we know
scarcely a single particular. It may be added, that Strabo, in a passage,
in which he is apparently copying Agatharcides, mentions [Greek:
Kreophagoi] and as he would scarcely particularize the fact of a native
eating the flesh of animals cooked, it is to be presumed, he means raw
flesh. In the same place he mentions the _excisio feminarum_.
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