TROGLODYTES (Gr. Troglodytai—Gr. trOgle, a hole, and dye, to get into; hence cave dveller), the name by the ancient Greeks to various tribes or races of uncivilized men, who dwelt either in natural or in holes which they had dug for themselves in the earth. They are mentioned by Strabo as existing as far w. as newel:min, and as far e. as the Caucasus; but perhaps the best-known troglodytes of ancient times were those of southern Egypt and 1Ethiopia, where a considerable district of country was called Regio Trogiodgtied. They could not speak articulately, but shrieked or screamed like the lower animals; though it ought always to be remembered that the Greeks, from whom we have such statements, are not very trustworthy authorities in the matter of language, accounting every dialect which they did not understand a barbarous jargon. The chief occupation of the troglodytes was herding cattle, though we also read that they were hunters and robbers. They are likewise mentioned as serving among the unit troops in the army of Xerxes. Their habits of life were rude and debased; they arc reported to have eaten not only the flesh, but the bones and hides of their cattle; their drink is said to have been a mixture of milk and blood; and they had a community of wives. The wives tatooed their bodies; and the men, if not clothed in cattle-skins,
went about in purls naturalibus. But the most revolting and unnatural of their prac tices was their treatment of the dead. They are reported to have bound the corpse neck and heels together, affixed it to a stake, pelted it with stones, amid shouts of laughter; and after they had buried it beneath a cairn of missiles, to have placed a horn on the top, and gone away I What measure of truth there may be in such stories, it is now impossible to say; but archaeological investigations into the pre-historical life of our own and other countries, have led to the conclusion, that a race of cave-inhabiters preceded in most countries the races that lived iu houses built on the surface of the earth; and perhaps we shall not be far if we regard troglodytism as the primitive state of all, or the greater part of, mankind.