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194But the greatest marvel of all the things in the land after the city itself, to my mind is this which I am about to tell: Their boats, those I mean which go down the river to Babylon, are round and all of leather: for they make ribs for them of willow which they cut in the land of the Armenians who dwell above the Assyrians, and round these they stretch hides which serve as a covering outside by way of hull, not making broad the stern nor gathering in the prow to a point, but making the boats round like a shield: and after that they stow the whole boat with straw and suffer it to be carried down the stream full of cargo; and for the most part these boats bring down casks of palm-wood[200] filled with wine. The boat is kept straight by two steering-oars and two men standing upright, and the man inside pulls his oar while the man outside pushes.[201] These vessels are made both of very large size and also smaller, the largest of them having a burden of as much as five thousand talents' weight;[202] and in each one there is a live ass, and in those of larger size several. So when they have arrived at Babylon in their voyage and have disposed of their cargo, they sell by auction the ribs of the boat and all the straw, but they pack the hides upon their asses and drive them off to Armenia: for up the stream of the river it is not possible by any means to sail, owing to the swiftness of the current; and for this reason they make their boats not of timber but of hides. Then when they have come back to the land of the Armenians, driving their asses with them, they make other boats in the same manner.
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Notes
[200] {phoinikeious}: some Editors (following Valla) have altered this to {phoinikeiou} ("casks of palm-wine"), but it is not likely that palm-wine would have been thus imported, see ch. 193.
[201] {kai o men eso elkei to plektron o de exo otheei}. I take it to mean that there is one steering-oar on each side, and the "inside" is the side nearer to the bank of the river. The current would naturally run faster on the "outside" and consequently would tend to turn the boat round, and therefore the inside oarsman pulls his oar constantly towards himself and the outside man pushes his oar from himself (i.e. backs water), to keep the boat straight. Various explanations are given. Stein takes {eso, exo} with the verbs, "one draws the boat towards himself, the other pushes it from himself." Mr. Woods understands that only one oar is used at a time and by two men looking different ways, of whom {o men eso} is he who stands nearest to the side of the boat.
[202] If the talents meant are Euboic, this would be about 170 tons.