Unknown Areas in the North and the South
But as no one up to our time has been able to settle
in regard to those parts of
Asia and
Libya, where they approach
each other in the neighbourhood of
Ethiopia, whether the
continent is continuous to the south, or is
surrounded by the sea, so it is in regard to the
part between
Narbo and the Don: none of
us as yet knows anything of the northern extent of this
district, and anything we can ever know must be the result
of future exploration; and those who rashly venture by word
of mouth or written statements to describe this district must
be looked upon as ignorant or romancing.
The extreme north and south unknown. |
My object in these observations was to prevent my narrative being entirely vague to those who were unacquainted
with the localities. I hoped that, by keeping these broad
distinctions in mind, they would have some definite standard
to which to refer every mention of a place, starting from the
primary one of the division of the sky into four quarters. For,
as in the case of physical sight, we instinctively turn our faces to
any object pointed at; so in the case of the mind, our thoughts
ought to turn naturally to localities as they are mentioned
from time to time.
It is time now to return to the story we have in hand.
