In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fennians, and in beastly
poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the
common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only
hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones.
Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men;
for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of
the prey. Nor other shelter have they even for their babes, against the
violence of tempests and ravening beasts, than to cover them with the
branches of trees twisted together; this a reception for the old men,
and hither resort the young. Such a condition they judge more happy than
the painful occupation of cultivating the ground, than the labour of
rearing houses, than the agitations of hope and fear attending the
defence of their own property or the seizing that of others. Secure
against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods,
they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them
nothing remains even to be wished.

What further accounts we have are fabulous: as that the Hellusians and
Oxiones have the countenances and aspect of men, with the bodies and
limbs of savage beasts. This, as a thing about which I have no certain
information, I shall leave untouched.