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Ichthyophagi

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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(Gr. for "fish-eaters"), the name given by ancient geographers to several coast-dwelling peoples in different parts of the world and ethnically unrelated. Nearchus mentions such a race as inhabiting the barren shores of the Mekran on the Arabian Sea; Pausanias locates them on the western coast of the Red Sea. Ptolemy speaks of fish-eaters in Ethiopia, and on the west coast of Africa; while Pliny relates the existence of such tribes on the islands in the Persian Gulf. Herodotus (book i. c. zoo) mentions three tribes of the Babylonians who were solely fish-eaters, and in book iii. c. 19 refers to Ichthyophagi in Egypt. The existence of such tribes was confirmed by Sir Richard F. Burton (El - Medinah, p. 144).