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Classes of savage nations. Embassadors sent to Ethiopia. The presents. The Ethiopian king detects the imposture. The Ethiopian king's opinion of Cambyses's presents. The Ethiopian bow. Return of the Icthyophagi. Jealousy of Cambyses. He orders Smerdis to be murdered. Cambyses grows more cruel. Twelve noblemen buried alive. Cambyses's cruelty to his sister. Her death. The venerable Croesus.
The term, Barbarii, was applied to the Egyptians, to the whole western coast of the Red Sea, and was derived from Barbar, the native name of the country inhabited by the Troglodytes, Icthyophagi, and shepherds: as these were much hated and dreaded by the Egyptians, Barbarii became a term of reproach and dread, and in this sense it was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, and has passed into the modern European languages.
It will be recollected that Nearchus describes in a particular manner, the Icthyophagi of Gadrosia: Agatharcides also describes Icthyophagi, though it is not clear whether he means to confine his description to those of Gadrosia, or to extend it to others on the coast of Arabia and Africa.
The mode practised by the Icthyophagi, according to him, is exactly that which was practised by them in catching fish, according to Nearchus: he also coincides with that author in various other particulars respecting the use of the bones of whales, or other large fish, in the construction of their houses; their ignorance and barbarism, their dress and mode of life.
It was very doubtful, in fact, whether, if such spies were to be sent, they could succeed in reaching Ethiopia at all. Now there was, far up the Nile, near the cataracts, at a place where the river widens and forms a sort of bay, a large and fertile island called Elephantine, which was inhabited by a half-savage tribe called the Icthyophagi.
Along the coast of the Icthyophagi, extending from Malan to Cape Jaser, a distance, by the course of the fleet, of nearly 625 miles, Nearchus was so much favoured by the winds and by the straightness of the coast, that his progress was sometimes nearly 60 miles a day. In every other respect, however, this portion of the voyage was very unfortunate and calamitous.
When the Icthyophagi returned to Cambyses with this message, the strongest men in the Persian camp were of course greatly interested in examining and trying the bow. Smerdis was the only one that could be found who was strong enough to bend it; and he, by the superiority to the others which he thus evinced, gained great renown. Cambyses was filled with jealousy and anger.
These, and a constant succession of similar acts of atrocious and reckless cruelty and folly, led the world to say that Cambyses was insane. Cambyses's profligate conduct. He marries his own sisters. Consultation of the Persian judges. Their opinion. Smerdis. Jealousy of Cambyses. The two magi. Cambyses suspicious. He plans an invasion of Ethiopia. Island of Elephantine. The Icthyophagi.
It is so, moreover, with all the other types of national constitution mentioned above. The Greeks observed these characteristics of the various savage tribes with which they became acquainted, and whenever they met with a tribe that lived by fishing, they called them Icthyophagi.
Cambyses sent to the Icthyophagi of the island of Elephantine, requiring them to furnish him with a number of persons acquainted with the route to Ethiopia and with the Ethiopian language, that he might send them as an embassy. He also provided some presents to be sent as a token of friendship to the Ethiopian king.
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