IV. To Herodotus

To Herodotus of Halicarnassus, greeting. --Concerning the matters set forth in
your histories, and the tales you tell about both Greeks and barbarians,
whether they be true, or whether they be false, men dispute not little but a
great deal. Wherefore I, being concerned to know the verity, did set forth to
make search in every manner, and came in my quest even unto the ends of the
earth. For there is an island of the Cimmerians beyond the Straits of
Heracles, some three days' voyage to a ship that hath a fair following wind in
her sails; and there it is said that men know many things from of old:
thither, then, I came in my inquiry. Now, the island is not small, but large,
greater than the whole of Hellas; 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