ively, and on account of the great
number of their people and the insufficiency of their land, sent
colonies over the Rhine. Accordingly, the Volcae Tectosages seized on
those parts of Germany which are the most fruitful and lie around the
Hercynian forest (which I perceive was known by report to Eratosthenes
and some other Greeks, and which they call Orcynia), and settled there.
Which nation to this time retains its position in those settlements, and
has a very high character for justice and military merit: now also they
continue in the same scarcity, indigence, hardihood, as the Germans, and
use the same food and dress; but their proximity to the Province and
knowledge of commodities from countries beyond the sea supplies to the
Gauls many things tending to luxury as well as civilization. Accustomed
by degrees to be overmatched and worsted in many engagements, they do
not even compare themselves to the Germans in prowess.

The breadth of this Hercynian forest which has been referred to above
is, to a quick traveler, a journey of nine days. For it cannot be
otherwise computed, nor are they acquainted with the measures of roads.
It begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii, Nemetes, and Rauraci, and
extends in a right line along the river Danube to the territories of the
Daci and the Anartes; it bends thence to the left in a different
direction from the river, and owing to its extent, touches the confines
of many nations; nor is there any person belonging to this part of
Germany who says that he either has gone to the extremity of that
forest, though he had advanced a journey of sixty days, or has heard in
what place it begins. It is certain that many kinds of wild beast are
produced in it which have not been seen in other parts; of which the
following are such as differ principally from other animals and appear
worthy of being committed to record.

There is an ox of the shape of a stag, between whose ears a horn rises
from the middle of the forehead, higher and straighter than those horns
which are known to us. From the top of this, branches, like palms,
stretch out a considerable distance. The shape of the female and of the
male is the same; the appearance and the size of the horns is the same.

There are also animals which are called elks. The shape of these, and
the varied color of their skins, is much like roes, but in size they
surpass them a little and are destitute of horns, and have legs without
joints and liga