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Reviews
Snakes with Wings and Gold-digging Ants by Aubrey de Sélincourt, John M. Marincola, Herodotus
nathanjhunt's review
3.75
My 8th book finished in 2022.
Certainly more interesting than later books in this series. Fascinating to see fact mixed with legend and presented as equals; amusing, entertaining and informative.
A lot of parts were fascinating, but others were more dull and slow.
Certainly more interesting than later books in this series. Fascinating to see fact mixed with legend and presented as equals; amusing, entertaining and informative.
A lot of parts were fascinating, but others were more dull and slow.
trailofmonkeys's review
5.0
"The process of collecting cinnamon is still more remarkable. Where it comes from and what country produces it, they do not know; the best some of them can do is to make a fair guess that it grows somewhere in the region where Dionysus was brought up. What they say is that the dry sticks, which we have learnt from the Phoenicians to call cinnamon, are brought by large birds, which carry them to their nests, made of mud, on mountain precipices, which no man can climb, and that the method the Arabians have invented for getting hold of them is to cut up the bodies of dead oxen, or donkeys, or other animals into very large joints, which they carry to the spot in question and leave on the ground near the nests. They then retire to a safe distance and the birds fly down and carry off the joints of meat to their nests, which, not being strong enough to bear the weight, break and fall to the ground. Then the men come along and pick up the cinnamon, which is subsequently exported to other countries."
davidwright's review
4.0
Love the Penguin Great Journeys series, which pulls abridgements from things like Herodotus's History and creates attractive little reads like this one out of them. Lu read me the New Yorker review of the new Landmark Herodotus that has just came out, and I returned the favor by reading to her some of these odd traveler's tales from the ancient historian in the loud hawaiian shirt. Lots of fun. My only objection is there are none of the Scythian parts here, but that is just because I have kind of a thing for the Scythians, tricky little mail-clad horse-happy buggers that they were.
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