celebrated writer of annals, assures us of the fact that
they have all been combined under the name of Caledonians
and Maeatae. They live in wattled huts, a shelter
used in common with their flocks, and often the woods
are their home. They paint their bodies with iron-red,
whether by way of adornment or perhaps for some other
reason. They often wage war with one another, either 15
because they desire power or to increase their possessions.
They fight not only on horseback or on foot, but even
with scythed two-horse chariots, which they commonly
call _essedae_. Let it suffice to have said thus much on the
shape of the island of Britain.

(SCANDZA)

III Let us now return to the site of the island of 16
Scandza, which we left above. Claudius Ptolemaeus, an
excellent describer of the world, has made mention of it
in the second book of his work, saying: "There is a
great island situated in the surge of the northern Ocean,
Scandza by name, in the shape of a juniper leaf with
bulging sides that taper down to a point at a long end."
Pomponius Mela also makes mention of it as situated in
the Codan Gulf of the sea, with Ocean lapping its shores.

This island lies in front of the river Vistula, which rises 17
in the Sarmatian mountains and flows through its triple
mouth into the northern Ocean in sight of Scandza, separating
Germany and Scythia. The island has in its
eastern part a vast lake in the bosom of the earth, whence