Fragments XIII-XV

> Greetings from Melanippos to his friend Mesatma.
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> My dear companion, you are asking me about the people of the world! An excellent question to, I am afraid, not as excellent a teacher. I will tell you what I know about this matter, since I owe you both my life and the life of my family. Know that the map in your possession is true to the one created by Auleo, so please let my letter guide you through it. However, I must implore you to be discreet with this Knowledge. You are a foreigner, albeit respected and beloved by the King and the Elders of Adramittum and Aulea. You have been exiled and forgotten by your people, and I know you are not an enemy, and yet you are not an Iskuzai, but a Battiad of the East. I hope you can understand the danger of my position and how much I am torn between the devotion you deserve and the respect I must pay to the traditions of my city. I will not waste your time with more lamentations, and I present you with my account.
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> A multitude of people dwell around the Ophiotaurus Sea, the Etoi say that they all come from ancient dolphins, exiled from the mighty waters by Zagrea for an old crime. The Etoi poets sing in their age-old ballads that these dolphins, our ancestors, helped Erigonio Philokteanos (He-who-loves-possessions) in brining violence to Zagrea’s daughter, Amphittile. I think you might have heard this story already. In the north, you can see the Agrauran, who are a semi-nomadic people, ancient enemies of the Iskuzai. They worship blood and live in small underground cities below the Mountains; their settlements resemble gloomy necropoli carved in quartz. They call their dead ‘Dypsioi’, ‘the thirsty ones’. In the South of Askedoria you can see many names. I know not how familiar you are with our language. These are all Iskuzai cities and colonies. Among the most important ones there are Letheia, Aulea, Psantes, Irria, Iapitos, Beitris, Mochlos Hubela and others. The vast island in the west is Melas, where the Molubdenoi, ‘The People with Lead Eyes’, live. The Molubdenoi come from the East, where they once were under the tyranny of the Silver People and escaped to the Ophiotaurus Sea many thousands of years ago. They are skilled blacksmiths and mathematicians; they despise any form of written and spoken language and tend to avoid talking. The Molubdenoi are arrogant people, proud of their lineage, and they are the only ones, as far as I know, to practice a mathematics-based divination art they call ‘Ghematria’. Whether it works, I know not.
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> To the south, in the Tooth of Zagrea archipelago, you can find the Hattusas. They are a free people of merchants, who have traveled more than anyone else, except for the Etoi, founding many colonies even in the North Region, like the rich Pesimar. The Hattusas are strange people, able to talk with dolphins and sharks, the legends say. They can tame them and often use them as messengers. The Hattusas love wine and pleasure, and believe, just like the Etoi, that humans were cast out from the sea because of some vile crime. Further south, you can see where, according to what the Iskuzai believe, the Etoi empire might be, although there is little confidence in that. The only thing we know is that the Coastal Eparchies were a colony of a powerful, far-away kingdom. At the East border, you can see a small inscription saying ‘Arguroi’ — these are the Silver People who worship the Rainbow. About them, I cannot and I will not say more. Please forgive me. Going north, you see the Sphinx; this is the vast region called by the Iskuzai ‘Kokhloi Ermos’, ‘the Shell Desert’, where the Kokhlidoi, the celestial nomadic tribes, dwell, and of which you have read in my previous letter.
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"The people of the Ophiotaurus Sea" from *Collection of Geographical Letters to Mesatma the Battiad*, I by Mealanippos