climate and geography: primary source documents as hunter-gatherers starting about 8000 b.c.e.; by 1000 b.c.e people were cultivating crops in the eastern plains See also agriculture; architecture; borders and frontiers; building techniques and materials; cities; economy; empires and dynasties; employment and labor; exploration; food and diet; government organization; health and disease; hunting, fishing, Africa 269 and gathering; language; metallurgy; migration and population movements; mining, quarrying, and salt making; natural disasters; nomadic and pastoral societies; roads and bridges; seafaring and navigation; settlement patterns; ships and shipbuilding; social organization; storage and preservation; towns and villages; trade and exchange; transportation; war and conquest Strabo: Geography, excerpt on Africa, ca 22 c.e The country deep in the interior is called Tenessis [modern-day Eritrea] It is occupied by those Egyptians who took refuge from the government of Psamtik III They are surnamed Sembritae, as being strangers They are governed by a queen, to whom also Meroë, an island in the Nile near these places, is subject From Meroë to this sea is a journey of fifteen days for an active person Near Meroë is the confluence of the Astaboras [modern Atbara], the Astapus [the White Nile], and of the Astasobas [Blue Nile] Far in the interior was a place called Endera [modern Axum], inhabited by a naked tribe [the Gymnetae] who use bows and reed arrows, the points of which are hardened in the fi re They generally shoot the animals from trees, sometimes from the ground They have numerous herds of wild cattle among them, on the flesh of which they subsist, and on that of other wild animals When they have taken nothing in the chase, they dress dried skins upon hot coals, and are satisfied with food of this kind Further still towards the south [near modern-day Addis Ababa] are the Cynamolgi, called by the natives Agrii, with long hair and long beards, who keep a breed of very large dogs for hunting the Indian cattle which come into their country from the neighboring district, driven there either by wild beasts or by scarcity of pasturage Next to the harbor of Antiphilus is a port called the Grove of the Colobi (or the Mutilated), the city Berenice of the Sabae, and Sabae a considerable city; then the grove of Eumenes Above is the city Darada, and a hunting-ground for elephants The district is inhabited by the Elephantophagi (or Elephant-eaters), who are occupied in hunting them When they descry from the trees a herd of elephants directing their course through the forest, they not then attack, but they approach by stealth and hamstring the hindmost stragglers from the herd Some kill them with bows and arrows, the latter being dipped in the gall of serpents The shooting with the bow is performed by three men, two, advancing in front, hold the bow, and one draws the string The nomads call the hunters Acatharti, or impure Above this nation is situated a small tribe—the Struthophagi (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 Bordering on this people is a nation blacker in complexion than the others, shorter in stature, and very short-lived They rarely live beyond forty years; for the flesh of their bodies is eaten up with worms 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 Above these people is situated a desert tract with extensive pastures It was abandoned in consequence of the multitudes of scorpions and tarantulas, which formerly abounded to so great a degree as to occasion a complete desertion of the place long since by its inhabitants Next to the harbor of Eumenes, as far as Deire and the straits opposite the six islands, live the Ichthyophagi, Creophagi, and Colobi, who extend into the interior Many hunting-grounds for elephants, and obscure cities and islands, lie in front of the coast The greater part are nomads; husbandmen are few in number There are three islands which follow in succession, the island of Tortoises, the island of Seals, and the island of Hawks Along the whole coast there are plantations of (continued)