elephant which was found dying in the woods near that spot.




CHAPTER III

MEN OF THE WOODS


So far as this, all that I have stated has been clear, and there can be
no doubt that what has been thus handed down from mouth to mouth is for
the most part correct. When I pass from trees and animals to men,
however, the thing is different, for nothing is certain and everything
confused. None of the accounts agree, nor can they be altogether
reconciled with present facts or with reasonable supposition; yet it is
not so long since but a few memories, added one to the other, can bridge
the time, and, though not many, there are some written notes still to be
found. I must attribute the discrepancy to the wars and hatreds which
sprang up and divided the people, so that one would not listen to what
the others wished to say, and the truth was lost.

Besides which, in the conflagration which consumed the towns, most of
the records were destroyed, and are no longer to be referred to. And it
may be that even when they were proceeding, the causes of the change
were not understood. Therefore, what I am now about to describe is not
to be regarded as the ultimate truth, but as the nearest to which I
could attain after comparing the various traditions. Some say, then,
that the first beginning of the change was because the sea silted up the
entrances to the ancient ports, and stopped the vast commerce which was