Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/57

MIXTURE OF GREEKS AND LIBYANS. 39 date-harvest, 1 or of purchasing dates, a journey which the Bedouin Arabs from Bengazi still make annually, carrying np their wheat and barley, for the same purpose. Each of the Libyan tribes was distinguished by a distinct mode of cutting the hair, and by some peculiarities of religious worship, though generally all worshipped the Sun and the Moon. 2 But in the neighborhood of the Lake Tritonis (seemingly the western ex- tremity of Grecian coasting trade in the time of Herodotus, who knows little beyond, and begins to appeal to Carthaginian au- thorities), the Grecian deities Poseidon and Athene, together with the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, had been local- ized. There were, moreover, current prophecies announcing that one hundred Hellenic cities were destined one day to be founded round the lake, and that one city in the island Phla surrounded by the lake, was to be planted by the Lacedaemo- nians. 3 These, indeed, were among the many unfulfilled prophe- cies which from every side cheated the Grecian ear, proceed- ing in this case probably from Kyrenasan or Theroean traders, who thought the spot advantageous for settlement, and circulated their own hopes under the form of divine assurances. It was about the year 510 B.C. 4 that some of these Theraeans conducted the Spartan prince Dorieus to found a colony in the fertile region of Kinyps, belonging to the Libyan Makse. But Carthage, interested in preventing the extension of Greek settlements westward, aided the Libyans in driving him out. The Libyans in the immediate neighborhood of Kyrene were materially changed by the establishment of that town, and con- stituted a large part at first, probably, far the largest part of its constituent population. Not possessing that fierce tenacity of habits which the Mohammedan religion has impressed upon the Arabs of the present day, they were open to the mingled influence of constraint and seduction applied by Grecian settlers ; BO that in the time of Herodotus, the Kabales and the Asbyst 1 Herodot. iv, 172-182. Compare Hornemann's Travels in Africa^ p 48, and Heeren, Verkehr und Handel der Alten Welt, Th. ii, Abth. 1 Absdmitt vi, p. 226. 3 Herodot. iv, 1 75-1 38. 3 Herodot. iv, 178,179,) 95, 1 96 4 Herodot. iv, 42.