1Beyond the Suiones is another sea, sluggish and almost motionless, by which the circle of the earth is believed to be girdled and closed, from this evidence: that the last radiance of the already setting sun lasts on till its rising, so bright that it dims the stars; 1belief adds besides that the sound of him emerging is heard, and the shapes of his horses and the rays of his head are seen. 2Only thus far, and here rumour is true, does nature extend. 2So then, on the right-hand shore of the Suebian sea the peoples of the Aestii are washed by its waters; they have the rites and dress of the Suebi, but a language closer to the British.
3They worship the mother of the gods. 3As an emblem of their superstition they wear the figures of boars: this, in place of arms and every human protection, keeps the worshipper of the goddess safe even among enemies. 3The use of iron is rare, that of clubs frequent. 4They labour at grain and other crops with more patience than the usual idleness of the Germans would lead one to expect. 4But they also search the sea, and alone of all they gather amber, which they themselves call 'glesum', among the shallows and on the shore itself. 5What its nature is, or what process produces it, they have not, as barbarians, inquired or discovered; 5indeed, it long lay among the other refuse cast up by the sea, until our luxury gave it a name.
5To them it is of no use: it is gathered raw, it is passed on unworked, and they receive the price in amazement. 6Yet you may perceive that it is the sap of trees, because certain creeping and even winged creatures very often shine through it, which, caught in the liquid, are enclosed as the substance later hardens. 7I should therefore believe that, just as in the secret places of the East, where frankincense and balsam are exuded, so in the islands and lands of the West there are woods and groves of unusual fertility, whose sap, drawn out and melted by the rays of the nearby sun, flows into the neighbouring sea and is washed up by the force of storms on the shores opposite.
8If you test the nature of amber by putting fire to it, it catches light like a pine torch and feeds a rich and fragrant flame; 8then it grows soft like pitch or resin. 9Next to the Suiones come the peoples of the Sitones. 9Similar in other respects, they differ in one, that a woman rules over them: so far have they sunk not only below freedom but even below slavery.