Histories

Next to these Macae are the Gindanes, where every woman wears many leather anklets, because (so it is said) she puts on an anklet for every man with whom she has had intercourse; and she who wears the most is reputed to be the best, because she has been loved by the most men.

There is a headland jutting out into the sea from the land of the Gindanes; on it live the Lotus Eaters, whose only fare is the lotus.[*](The fruit of the Rhamnus Lotus, which grows in this part of Africa (continent)Africa, is said to be eatable, but not so delicious as to justify its Homeric epithet “honey-sweet.”) The lotus fruit is the size of a mastich-berry: it has a sweet taste like the fruit of a date-palm; the Lotus Eaters not only eat it, but make wine of it.

Next to these along the coast are the Machlyes, who also use the lotus, but less than the aforesaid people. Their country reaches to a great river called the Triton,[*](The “Triton” legend may arise from the Argonauts' finding a river which reminded them of their own river Triton in Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia, and at the same time identifying the local goddess (cp. Hdt. 4.180) with Athena, one of whose epithets was *tritoge/neia (whatever that means).) which empties into the great Tritonian lake, in which is an island called Phla. It is said that the Lacedaemonians were told by an oracle to plant a settlement on this island.