and they call it Britain.  In that island the east wind blows for ten parts of the year, and the people know not how to cover themselves from the cold.  But for the other two months of the year the sun shines fiercely, so that some of them die thereof, and others die of the frozen mixed drinks; for they have ice even in the summer, and this ice they put to their liquor.  Through the whole of this island, from the west even to the east, there flows a river called Thames:  a great river and a laborious, but not to be likened to the River of Egypt.

The mouth of this river, where I stepped out from my ship, is exceedingly foul and of an evil savour by reason of the city on the banks.  Now this city is several hundred parasangs in circumference.  Yet a man that needed not to breathe the air might go round it in one hour, in chariots that run under the earth; and these chariots are drawn by creatures that breathe smoke and sulphur, such as Orpheus mentions in his ‘Argonautica,’ if it be by Orpheus.  The people of the town, when I inquired of them concerning Herodotus of Halicarnassus, looked on me with amazement, and went straightway about their business,—­namely, to seek out whatsoever new thing is coming to pass all over the whole inhabited world, and as for things old, they take no keep of them.

Nevertheless, by diligence I learned that he who in this land knew most concerning Herodotus was a priest, and dwelt in the priests’ city on the river which is called the City of the Ford of the Ox.  But whether Io, when she wore a cow’s shape, had passed by that way in her wanderings, and thence comes the name of that city, I could not (though I asked all men I met) learn aught with certainty.  But to me, considering this, it seemed that Io must have come thither.  And now farewell to Io.

To the City of the Priests there are two roads:  one by land; and one by water, following the river.  To a well-girdled man, the land journey is but one day’s travel; by the river it is longer but more pleasant.  Now that river flows, as I said, from the west to the east.  And there is in it a fish called chub, which they catch; but they do not eat it, for a certain sacred reason.  Also there is a fish called trout, and this is the manner of his catching.  They build far this purpose great dams of wood, which they call weirs.  Having built the weir they sit upon it with rods in their hands, and a line on the rod, and at the end of the line a little fish.  There then they ’sit and spin in the sun,’ as one of their poets says, not for a short time but for many days, having rods in their hands and eating and drinking.  In this wise they angle for the fish called trout; but whether they ever catch him or not, not having seen it, I cannot say; for it is not pleasant to me to speak things concerning which I know not the truth.