hanno the navigator and the wild people of the southern horn

way the heck back in five hundred bee cee (or thereabouts) hanno the navigator, a carthaginian explorer set sail for the african coast to see what there was to be seen. mostly it was boring trees and ugly beaches. occasionally, he would come across some dismal marshes. but then things began to get juicy. here is his account from two point five thousand years before you were born:

Following the rivers of fire for three further days, we reached a gulf named Southern Horn. In the gulf lay an island like the previous one, with a lake, and in it another island. The second island was full of wild people. By far the greater number were women with hairy bodies…We gave chase to the men, but could not catch any, for they all scampered up steep rocks and pelted us with stones. We secured three women, who bit and scratched and resisted us.

it is now generally regarded that hanno’s “wild people” were actually chimpanzees.

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translation of hanno’s periplus: cary and warmington (1929).
source: “knowledge of the ape in antiquity,” by ashley montagu, isis (1940).