Small
craw-fish[387] go up as far as the mountains,[388] and the larger as far
as the confluence of the Indus and the Acesines.
craw-fish[387] go up as far as the mountains,[388] and the larger as far
as the confluence of the Indus and the Acesines.
Strabo
Between the Indus and the Hydaspes is Taxila, a large city, and
governed by good laws. The neighbouring country is crowded with
inhabitants and very fertile, and here unites with the plains. The
people and their king Taxiles received Alexander with kindness, and
obtained in return more presents than they had offered to Alexander; so
that the Macedonians became jealous, and observed, that it seemed as if
Alexander had found none on whom he could confer favours before he
passed the Indus. Some writers say that this country is larger than
Egypt.
Above this country among the mountains is the territory of
Abisarus,[362] who, as the ambassadors that came from him reported,
kept two serpents, one of 80, and the other, according to Onesicritus,
of 140 cubits in length. This writer may as well be called the master
fabulist as the master pilot of Alexander. For all those who accompanied
Alexander preferred the marvellous to the true, but this writer seems to
have surpassed all in his description of prodigies. Some things,
however, he relates which are probable and worthy of record, and will
not be passed over in silence even by one who does not believe their
correctness.
Other writers also mention the hunting of serpents in the Emodi
mountains,[363] and the keeping and feeding of them in caves.
29. Between the Hydaspes and Acesines is the country of Porus,[364] an
extensive and fertile district, containing nearly three hundred cities.
Here also is the forest in the neighbourhood of the Emodi mountains in
which Alexander cut down a large quantity of fir, pine, cedar, and a
variety of other trees fit for ship-building, and brought the timber
down the Hydaspes. With this he constructed a fleet on the Hydaspes,
near the cities, which he built on each side of the river where he had
crossed it and conquered Porus. One of these cities he called
Bucephalia,[365] from the horse Bucephalus, which was [CAS. 699] killed
in the battle with Porus. The name Bucephalus[366] was given to it from
the breadth of its forehead. He was an excellent war-horse, and
Alexander constantly rode him in battle.
The other city he called Nicæa from the victory, ΝΙΚΗ
(Nice), which he had obtained.
In the forest before mentioned it is said there is a vast number of
monkeys,[367] and as large as they are numerous. On one occasion the
Macedonians, seeing a body of them standing in array opposite to them,
on some bare eminences, (for this animal is not less intelligent than
the elephant,) and presenting the appearance of an army, prepared to
attack them as real enemies, but being informed by Taxiles, who was then
with the king, of the real fact, they desisted.
The chase of this animal is conducted in two different manners. It is an
imitative creature, and takes refuge up among the trees. The hunters,
when they perceive a monkey seated on a tree, place in sight a basin
containing water, with which they wash their own eyes; then, instead of
water, they put a basin of bird-lime, go away, and lie in wait at a
distance. The animal leaps down, and besmears itself with the bird-lime,
and when it winks, the eyelids are fastened together; the hunters then
come upon it, and take it.
The other method of capturing them is as follows: the hunters dress
themselves in bags like trowsers, and go away, leaving behind them
others which are downy, with the inside smeared over with bird-lime.
The monkeys put them on, and are easily taken.
30. Some writers place Cathaia[368] and the country of Sopeithes, one of
the nomarchs, in the tract between the rivers (Hydaspes and Acesines);
some, on the other side of the Acesines and of the Hyarotis, on the
confines of the territory of the other Porus, the nephew of Porus who
was taken prisoner by Alexander, and call the country subject to him
Grandaris.
A very singular usage is related of the high estimation in which the
inhabitants of Cathaia hold the quality of beauty, which they extend to
horses and dogs. According to Onesicritus, they elect the handsomest
person as king. The child (selected), two months after birth, undergoes
a public inspection, and is examined. They determine whether it has the
amount of beauty required by law, and whether it is worthy to be
permitted to live. The presiding magistrate then pronounces whether it
is to be allowed to live, or whether it is to be put to death.
They dye their heads with various and the most florid colours, for the
purpose of improving their appearance. This custom prevails elsewhere
among many of the Indians, who pay great attention to their hair and
dress; and the country produces colours of great beauty. In other
respects the people are frugal, but are fond of ornament.
A peculiar custom is related of the Cathæi. The bride and the husband
are respectively the choice of each other, and the wives burn themselves
with their deceased husbands. The reason assigned for this practice is,
that the women sometimes fell in love with young men, and deserted or
poisoned their husbands. This law was therefore established in order to
check the practice of administering poison; but neither the existence
nor the origin of the law are probable facts.
It is said, that in the territory of Sopeithes there is a mountain
composed of fossile salt, sufficient for the whole of India. Valuable
mines also both of gold and silver are situated, it is said, not far off
among other mountains, according to the testimony of Gorgus, the miner
(of Alexander). The Indians, unacquainted with mining and smelting, are
ignorant of their own wealth, and therefore traffic with greater
simplicity.
31. The dogs in the territory of Sopeithes are said to possess
remarkable courage: Alexander received from Sopeithes a present of one
hundred and fifty of them. To prove them, two were set at a lion; when
these were mastered, two others were set on; when the battle became
equal, Sopeithes ordered a man to seize one of the dogs by the leg, and
to drag him away; or to cut off his leg, if he still held on. Alexander
at first refused his consent to the dog’s leg being cut off, as he
wished to save the dog. But on Sopeithes saying, “I will give you four
in the place of it,” Alexander consented; and he saw the dog permit his
leg to be cut off by a slow incision, rather than loose his hold.
[CAS. 700] 32. The direction of the march, as far as the Hydaspes, was
for the most part towards the south. After that, to the Hypanis, it was
more towards the east. The whole of it, however, was much nearer to the
country lying at the foot of the mountains than to the plains. Alexander
therefore, when he returned from the Hypanis to the Hydaspes and the
station of his vessels, prepared his fleet, and set sail on the
Hydaspes.
All the rivers which have been mentioned (the last of which is the
Hypanis) unite in one, the Indus. It is said that there are altogether
fifteen[369] considerable rivers which flow into the Indus. After the
Indus has been filled by all these rivers, so as to be enlarged in some
places to the extent of a hundred stadia, according to writers who
exaggerate, or, according to a more moderate estimate, to fifty stadia
at the utmost, and at the least to seven, [and who speak of many nations
and cities about this river,][370] it discharges itself by two mouths
into the southern sea, and forms the island called Patalene.
Alexander’s intention was to relinquish the march towards the parts
situated to the east, first, because he was prevented from crossing the
Hypanis; next, because he learnt by experience the falsehood of the
reports previously received, to the effect that the plains were burnt up
with fire, and more fit for the haunts of wild beasts than for the
habitation of man. He therefore set out in this direction, relinquishing
the other track; so that these parts became better known than the other.
33. The territory lying between the Hypanis and the Hydaspes is said to
contain nine nations and five thousand cities, not less in size than Cos
Meropis;[371] but the number seems to be exaggerated. We have already
mentioned nearly all the nations deserving of notice, which inhabit the
country situated between the Indus and the Hydaspes.
Below, and next in order, are the people called Sibæ, whom we formerly
mentioned,[372] and the great nations, the Malli[373] and Sydracæ
(Oxydracæ). It was among the Malli that Alexander was in danger of
losing his life, from a wound he received at the capture of a small
city. The Sydracæ, we have said, are fabled to be allied to Bacchus.
Near Patalene is placed the country of Musicanus, that of Sabus,[374]
whose capital is Sindomana, that of Porticanus, and of other princes who
inhabited the country on the banks of the Indus. They were all conquered
by Alexander; last of all he made himself master of Patalene, which is
formed by the two branches of the Indus. Aristobulus says that these two
branches are distant 1000 stadia from each other. Nearchus adds 800
stadia more to this number. Onesicritus reckons each side of the
included island, which is of a triangular shape, at 2000 stadia; and the
breadth of the river, where it is separated into two mouths, at about
200 stadia. [375] He calls the island Delta, and says that it is as large
as the Delta of Egypt; but this is a mistake. For the Egyptian Delta is
said to have a base of 1300 stadia, and each of the sides to be less
than the base. In Patalene is Patala, a considerable city, from which
the island has its name.
34. Onesicritus says, that the greatest part of the coast in this
quarter abounds with swamps, particularly at the mouths of the river,
which is owing to the mud, the tides, and the want of land breezes; for
these parts are chiefly under the influence of winds blowing from the
sea.
He expatiates also in praise of the country of Musicanus, and relates of
the inhabitants what is common to other Indian tribes, that they are
long-lived, and that life is protracted even to the age of 130 years,
(the Seres,[376] however, are said by some [CAS. 701] writers to be
still longer lived,) that they are temperate in their habits and
healthy; although the country produces everything in abundance.
The following are their peculiarities: to have a kind of Lacedæmonian
common meal, where they eat in public. Their food consists of what is
taken in the chase. They make no use of gold nor silver, although they
have mines of these metals. Instead of slaves, they employed youths in
the flower of their age, as the Cretans employ the Aphamiotæ, and the
Lacedæmonians the Helots. They study no science with attention but that
of medicine; for they consider the excessive pursuit of some arts, as
that of war, and the like, to be committing evil. There is no process at
law but against murder and outrage, for it is not in a person’s own
power to escape either one or the other; but as contracts are in the
power of each individual, he must endure the wrong, if good faith is
violated by another; for a man should be cautious whom he trusts, and
not disturb the city with constant disputes in courts of justice.
Such are the accounts of the persons who accompanied Alexander in his
expedition.
35. A letter of Craterus to his mother Aristopatra is circulated, which
contains many other singular circumstances, and differs from every other
writer, particularly in saying that Alexander advanced as far as the
Ganges. Craterus says, that he himself saw the river, and the
whales[377] which it produces, and [his account] of its magnitude,
breadth, and depth, far exceeds, rather than approximates, probability.
For that the Ganges is the largest of known rivers in the three
continents, it is generally agreed; next to this is the Indus; and,
thirdly, the Danube; and, fourthly, the Nile. But different authors
differ in their account of it, some assigning 30, others 3 stadia, as
the least breadth. But Megasthenes says that its ordinary width is 100
stadia,[378] and its least depth twenty orguiæ. [379]
36. At the confluence of the Ganges and of another river (the
Erannoboas[380]) is situated (the city) Palibothra, in length 80, and in
breadth 15 stadia. It is in the shape of a parallelogram, surrounded by
a wooden wall pierced with openings through which arrows may be
discharged. In front is a ditch, which serves the purpose of defence and
of a sewer for the city. The people in whose country the city is
situated are the most distinguished of all the tribes, and are called
Prasii. The king, besides his family name, has the surname of
Palibothrus, as the king to whom Megasthenes was sent on an embassy had
the name of Sandrocottus. [381]
Such also is the custom among the Parthians; for all have the name
Arsacæ,[382] although each has his peculiar name of Orodes, Phraates, or
some other appellation.
37. All the country on the other side of the Hypanis is allowed to be
very fertile, but we have no accurate knowledge of it. Either through
ignorance or from its remote situation, everything relative to it is
exaggerated or partakes of the wonderful. As, for example, the stories
of myrmeces (or ants),[383] which dig up gold; of animals and men with
peculiar shapes, and possessing extraordinary faculties; of the
longevity of the Seres, whose lives exceed the age of two hundred years.
They speak also of an aristocratical form of government, consisting of
five hundred counsellors, each of whom furnishes the state with an
elephant.
According to Megasthenes, the largest tigers are found among the Prasii,
almost twice the size of lions, and of such strength that a tame one led
by four persons seized a mule by its hinder leg, overpowered it, and
dragged it to him. The monkeys are larger than the largest dogs; they
are of a white colour, except the face, which is black. The contrary is
observed in other places. Their tails are more than two cubits in
length. They are very tame, and not of a mischievous disposition. They
neither attack people, nor steal.
Stones are found there of the colour of frankincense, and sweeter than
figs or honey.
In some places there are serpents of two cubits in length, with
membraneous wings like bats. They fly at night, and let fall drops of
urine or sweat, which occasions the skin of persons [CAS. 703] who are
not on their guard to putrefy. There are also winged scorpions of great
size.
Ebony grows there. There are also dogs of great courage, which do not
loose their hold till water is poured into their nostrils: some of them
destroy their sight, and the eyes of others even fall out, by the
eagerness of their bite. Both a lion and a bull were held fast by one of
these dogs. The bull was caught by the muzzle, and died before the dog
could be loosened.
38. In the mountainous country is a river, the Silas, on the surface of
which nothing will float. Democritus, who had travelled over a large
part of Asia, disbelieves this, and Aristotle does not credit it,
although atmospheres exist so rare that no bird can sustain its flight
in them. Vapours also, which ascend (from some substances), attract and
absorb, as it were, whatever is flying over them; as amber attracts
straw, and the magnet iron, and perhaps there may be in water a similar
power.
As these matters belong to physics and to the question of floating
bodies, these must be referred to them. At present we must proceed to
what follows, and to the subjects more nearly relating to geography.
39. It is said that the Indians are divided into seven castes. The first
in rank, but the smallest in number, are the philosophers. Persons who
intend to offer sacrifice, or to perform any sacred rite, have the
services of these persons on their private account; but the kings employ
them in a public capacity at the time of the Great Assembly, as it is
called, where at the beginning of the new year all the philosophers
repair to the king at the gate, and anything useful which they have
committed to writing, or observed, tending to improve the productions of
the earth or animals, or of advantage to the government of the state, is
then publicly declared.
Whoever has been detected in giving false information thrice is enjoined
silence by law during the rest of his life; but he who has made correct
observations is exempted from all contributions and tribute.
40. The second caste is that of husbandmen, who constitute the majority
of natives, and are a most mild and gentle people, as they are exempted
from military service, and cultivate their land free from alarm; they
do not resort to cities, either to transact private business, or take
part in public tumults. It therefore frequently happens that at the same
time, and in the same part of the country, one body of men are in battle
array, and engaged in contests with the enemy, while others are
ploughing or digging in security, having these soldiers to protect them.
The whole of the territory belongs to the king. They cultivate it on the
terms of receiving as wages a fourth part of the produce.
41. The third caste consists of shepherds and hunters, who alone are
permitted to hunt, to breed cattle, to sell and to let out for hire
beasts of burden. In return for freeing the country from wild beasts and
birds, which infest sown fields, they receive an allowance of corn from
the king. They lead a wandering life, and dwell in tents. No private
person is allowed to keep a horse or an elephant. The possession of
either one or the other is a royal privilege, and persons are appointed
to take care of them.
42. The manner of hunting the elephant is as follows: Round a bare spot
a ditch is dug, of about four or five stadia in extent, and at the place
of entrance a very narrow bridge is constructed. Into the enclosure
three or four of the tamest female elephants are driven. The men
themselves lie in wait under cover of concealed huts. The wild elephants
do not approach the females by day, but at night they enter the
enclosure one by one; when they have passed the entrance, the men
secretly close it. They then introduce the strongest of the tame
combatants, the drivers of which engage with the wild animals, and also
wear them out by famine; when the latter are exhausted by fatigue, the
boldest of the drivers gets down unobserved, and creeps under the belly
of his own elephant. From this position he creeps beneath the belly of
the wild elephant, and ties his legs together; when this is done, a
signal is given to the tame elephants to beat those which are tied by
the legs, till they fall to the ground. After they have fallen down,
they fasten the wild and tame elephants together by the neck with thongs
of raw cow-hide, and, in order that they may not be able to shake off
those who are attempting to mount them, cuts are made round the neck,
and thongs of leather are put into these incisions, so that they submit
to their bonds through pain, and so remain quiet. Among the elephants
[CAS. 705] which are taken, those are rejected which are too old or too
young for service; the remainder are led away to the stables. They tie
their feet one to another, and their necks to a pillar firmly fastened
in the ground, and tame them by hunger. They recruit their strength
afterwards with green cane and grass. They then teach them to obey; some
by words; others they pacify by tunes, accompanied with the beating of a
drum. Few are difficult to be tamed; for they are naturally of a mild
and gentle disposition, so as to approximate to the character of a
rational animal. Some have taken up their drivers, who have fallen on
the ground lifeless, and carried them safe out of battle. Others have
fought, and protected their drivers, who have crept between their
fore-legs. If they have killed any of their feeders or masters in anger,
they feel their loss so much that they refuse their food through grief,
and sometimes die of hunger.
43. They copulate like horses, and produce young chiefly in the spring.
It is the season for the male, when he is in heat and is ferocious. At
this period he discharges some fatty matter through an opening in the
temples. It is the season also for the females, when this same passage
is open. Eighteen months is the longest, and sixteen the shortest period
that they go with young. The dam suckles her young six years. Many of
them live as long as men who attain to the greatest longevity, some even
to the protracted age of two hundred years.
They are subject to many diseases, which are difficult to be cured. A
remedy for diseases of the eye is to bathe them with cow’s milk. For
complaints in general, they drink dark wine. In cases of wounds, they
drink butter; for it draws out iron instruments. Their sores are
fomented with swine’s flesh.
Onesicritus says, that they live three hundred years, and rarely five
hundred; and that they go with young ten years. He and other writers
say, that they are larger and stronger than the African elephants. They
will pull down with their trunks battlements, and uproot trees, standing
erect upon their hind feet.
According to Nearchus, traps are laid in the hunting grounds, at certain
places where roads meet; the wild elephants are forced into the toils by
the tame elephants, which are stronger, and guided by a driver. They
become so tame and docile, that they learn even to throw a stone at a
mark, to use military weapons, and to be excellent swimmers. A chariot
drawn by elephants is esteemed a most important possession, and they are
driven without bridles. [384]
A woman is greatly honoured who receives from her lover a present of an
elephant, but this does not agree with what he said before, that a horse
and an elephant are the property of kings alone.
44. This writer says that he saw skins of the myrmeces (or ants), which
dig up gold, as large as the skins of leopards. Megasthenes, however,
speaking of the myrmeces, says, among the Derdæ a populous nation of the
Indians, living towards the east, and among the mountains, there was a
mountain plain of about 3000 stadia in circumference; that below this
plain were mines containing gold, which the myrmeces, in size not less
than foxes, dig up. They are excessively fleet, and subsist on what they
catch. In winter they dig holes, and pile up the earth in heaps, like
moles, at the mouths of the openings.
The gold-dust which they obtain requires little preparation by fire. The
neighbouring people go after it by stealth, with beasts of burden; for
if it is done openly, the myrmeces fight furiously, pursuing those that
run away, and if they seize them, kill them and the beasts. In order to
prevent discovery, they place in various parts pieces of the flesh of
wild beasts, and when the myrmeces are dispersed in various directions,
they take away the gold-dust, and, not being acquainted with the mode of
smelting it, dispose of it in its rude state at any price to merchants.
45. Having mentioned what Megasthenes and other writers relate of the
hunters and the beasts of prey, we must add the following particulars.
Nearchus is surprised at the multitude and the noxious nature of the
tribe of reptiles. They retreat from the plains to the settlements,
which are not covered with water at the period of inundations, and fill
the houses. For this reason the inhabitants raise their beds at some
height from the [CAS. 706] ground, and are sometimes compelled to
abandon their dwellings, when they are infested by great multitudes of
these animals; and, if a great proportion of these multitudes were not
destroyed by the waters, the country would be a desert. Both the
minuteness of some animals and the excessive magnitude of others are
causes of danger; the former, because it is difficult to guard against
their attacks; the latter, on account of their strength, for snakes are
to be seen of sixteen cubits in length. Charmers go about the country,
and are supposed to cure wounds made by serpents. This seems to comprise
nearly their whole art of medicine, for disease is not frequent among
them, which is owing to their frugal manner of life, and to the absence
of wine; whenever diseases do occur, they are treated by the Sophistæ
(or wise men).
Aristobulus says, that he saw no animals of these pretended magnitudes,
except a snake, which was nine cubits and a span in length. And I myself
saw one in Egypt, nearly of the same size, which was brought from India.
He says also, that he saw many serpents of a much inferior size, and
asps and large scorpions. None of these, however, are so noxious as the
slender small serpents, a span long, which are found concealed in tents,
in vessels, and in hedges. Persons wounded by them bleed from every
pore, suffering great pain, and die, unless they have immediate
assistance; but this assistance is easily obtained, by means of the
virtues of the Indian roots and drugs.
Few crocodiles, he says, are found in the Indus, and these are harmless,
but most of the other animals, except the hippopotamus, are the same as
those found in the Nile; but Onesicritus says that this animal also is
found there.
According to Aristobulus, none of the sea fish ascend the Nile from the
sea, except the shad,[385] the grey mullet,[386] and dolphin, on account
of the crocodiles; but great numbers ascend the Indus.
Small
craw-fish[387] go up as far as the mountains,[388] and the larger as far
as the confluence of the Indus and the Acesines.
So much then on the subject of the wild animals of India. We shall
return to Megasthenes, and resume our account where we digressed.
46. After the hunters and the shepherds, follows the fourth caste, which
consists, he says, of those who work at trades, retail wares, and who
are employed in bodily labour. Some of these pay taxes, and perform
certain stated services. But the armour-makers and ship-builders receive
wages and provisions from the king, for whom only they work. The
general-in-chief furnishes the soldiers with arms, and the admiral lets
out ships for hire to those who undertake voyages and traffic as
merchants.
47. The fifth caste consists of fighting men, who pass the time not
employed in the field in idleness and drinking, and are maintained at
the charge of the king. They are ready whenever they are wanted to march
on an expedition, for they bring nothing of their own with them, except
their bodies.
48. The sixth caste is that of the Ephori, or inspectors. They are
intrusted with the superintendence of all that is going on, and it is
their duty to report privately to the king. The city inspectors employ
as their coadjutors the city courtesans; and the inspectors of the camp,
the women who follow it. The best and the most faithful persons are
appointed to the office of inspector.
49. The seventh caste consists of counsellors and assessors of the king.
To these persons belong the offices of state, tribunals of justice, and
the whole administration of affairs.
It is not permitted to contract marriage with a person of another caste,
nor to change from one profession or trade to another, nor for the same
person to undertake several, except he is of the caste of philosophers,
when permission is given, on account of his superior qualifications.
50. Of the magistrates, some have the charge of the market, others of
the city, others of the soldiery. Some have the care of the rivers,
measure the land, as in Egypt, and inspect the closed reservoirs, from
which water is distributed by canals, so that all may have an equal use
of it. These persons have charge also of the hunters, and have the power
of rewarding or punishing those who merit either. They collect the
taxes, and superintend the occupations connected with land, as
wood-cutters, carpenters, workers in brass, and miners. They [CAS. 708]
superintend the public roads, and place a pillar at every ten stadia, to
indicate the by-ways and distances.
51. Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of
five each. The first has the inspection of everything relating to the
mechanical arts; the second entertain strangers, assign lodgings,
observe their mode of life, by means of attendants whom they attach to
them, escort them out of the country on their departure; if they die,
take charge of their property, have the care of them when sick, and when
they die, bury them.
The third class consists of those who inquire at what time and in what
manner births and deaths take place, which is done with a view to tax
(on these occasions), and in order that the deaths and births of persons
both of good and bad character should not be concealed.
The fourth division consists of those who are occupied in sales and
exchanges; they have the charge of measures, and of the sale of the
products in season, by a signal. The same person is not allowed to
exchange various kinds of articles, except he pays a double tax.
The fifth division presides over works of artisans, and disposes of
articles by public notice. The new are sold apart from the old, and
there is a fine imposed for mixing them together. The sixth and last
comprises those who collect the tenth of the price of the articles sold.
Death is the punishment for committing a fraud with regard to the tax.
These are the peculiar duties performed by each class, but in their
collective capacity they have the charge both of their own peculiar
province and of civil affairs, the repairs of public works, prices[389]
of articles, of markets, harbours, and temples.
52. Next to the magistrates of the city is a third body of governors,
who have the care of military affairs. This class also consists of six
divisions, each composed of five persons. One division is associated
with the chief naval superintendent, another with the person who has the
charge of the bullock-teams, by which military engines are transported,
of provisions both for the men and beasts, and other requisites for the
army. They furnish attendants, who beat a drum, and carry gongs;[390]
and besides these, grooms, mechanists, and their assistants. They
despatch by the sound of the gong the foragers for grass, and insure
expedition and security by rewards and punishments. The third division
has the care of the infantry; the fourth, of the horses; the fifth, of
the chariots; the sixth, of the elephants. There are royal stables for
the horses and elephants. There is also a royal magazine of arms; for
the soldier returns his arms to the armoury, and the horse and elephant
to the stables. They use the elephants without bridles. The chariots are
drawn on the march by oxen. The horses are led by a halter, in order
that their legs may not be chafed and inflamed, nor their spirit damped,
by drawing chariots. Besides the charioteer, there are two persons who
fight by his side in the chariot. With the elephant are four persons,
the driver and three bowmen, who discharge arrows from his back.
53. All the Indians are frugal in their mode of life, and especially in
camp. They do not tolerate useless and undisciplined multitudes, and
consequently observe good order. Theft is very rare among them.
Megasthenes, who was in the camp of Sandrocottus, which consisted of
400,000 men, did not witness on any day thefts reported, which exceeded
the sum of two hundred drachmæ, and this among a people who have no
written laws, who are ignorant even of writing, and regulate everything
by memory. They are, however, happy on account of their simple manners
and frugal way of life. They never drink wine, but at sacrifices. Their
beverage is made from rice instead of barley, and their food consists
for the most part of rice pottage. The simplicity of their laws and
contracts appears from their not having many law-suits. They have no
suits respecting pledges and deposits, nor do they require witnesses or
seals, but make their deposits, and confide in one another. Their houses
and property are unguarded. These things denote temperance and sobriety;
others no one would approve, as their eating always alone, and their not
having all of them one common hour for their meals, but each taking it
as he likes. The contrary custom is more agreeable to the habits of
social and civil life.
54. As an exercise of the body they prefer friction in various ways, but
particularly by making use of smooth sticks of ebony, which they pass
over the surface of the body.
[CAS. 709] Their sepulchres are plain, and the tumuli of earth low.
In contrast to their parsimony in other things, they indulge in
ornament. They wear dresses worked with gold and precious stones, and
flowered (variegated) robes, and are attended by persons following them
with umbrellas; for as they highly esteem beauty, everything is attended
to, which can improve their looks.
They respect alike truth and virtue; therefore they do not assign any
privilege to the old, unless they possess superior wisdom.
They marry many wives, who are purchased from their parents, and give in
exchange for them a yoke of oxen. Some marry wives to possess obedient
attendants, others with a view to pleasure and numerous offspring, and
the wives prostitute themselves, unless chastity is enforced by
compulsion.
No one wears a garland when sacrificing, or burning incense, or pouring
out a libation. They do not stab, but strangle the victim, that nothing
mutilated, but that which is entire, may be offered to the Deity.
A person convicted of bearing false testimony suffers a mutilation of
his extremities. He who has maimed another not only undergoes in return
the loss of the same limb, but his hand also is cut off. If he has
caused a workman to lose his hand or his eye, he is put to death.
Megasthenes says, that none of the Indians employ slaves. But, according
to Onesicritus, this is peculiar to the people in the territory of
Musicanus. He speaks of this as an excellent rule, and mentions many
others to be found in that country, as the effects of a government by
good laws.
55. The care of the king’s person is committed to women, who are also
purchased of their parents. The body-guard, and the rest of the
military, are stationed without the gates. A woman, who puts to death a
king when drunk, is rewarded by becoming the wife of his successor. The
sons succeed the father. The king may not sleep during the day-time, and
at night he is obliged from time to time to change his bed, from dread
of treachery.
The king leaves his palace in time of war; he leaves it also when he
goes to sit in his court as a judge. He remains there all day thus
occupied, not suffering himself to be interrupted even though the time
arrives for attending to his person. This attention to his person
consists of friction with pieces of wood, and he continues to listen to
the cause, while the friction is performed by four attendants who
surround him.
Another occasion of leaving his palace is to offer sacrifice.
The third is a sort of Bacchanalian departure to the chace. Crowds of
women surround him, and on the outside (of these) are spear-men. The
road is set off with ropes; a man, or even a woman, who passes within
the ropes is put to death.
The king is preceded by drums and gongs. He hunts in the enclosures, and
discharges his arrows from a high seat. Near him stand two or three
armed women. When hunting in the open ground, he shoots his arrows from
an elephant; of the women some are in chariots, some on horses, and
others on elephants; they are provided with all kinds of weapons, as if
they were going on a military expedition.
56. These customs when compared with ours are very strange, but the
following are still more extraordinary. According to Megasthenes, the
nations who inhabit the Caucasus have commerce with women in public; and
eat the bodies of their relatives; the monkeys climb precipices, and
roll down large stones upon their pursuers; most of the animals which
are tame in our country are wild in theirs; the horses have a single
horn, with heads like those of deer; reeds which grow to the height of
thirty orguiæ,[391] others which grow on the ground, fifty orguiæ in
length, and in thickness some are three and others six cubits in
diameter.
57. He then deviates into fables, and says that there are men of five,
and even three spans in height, some of whom are without nostrils, with
only two breathing orifices above the mouth. Those of three spans in
height wage war with the cranes (described by Homer) and with the
partridges, which are as large as geese; these people collect and
destroy the eggs of the cranes which lay their eggs there; and nowhere
else are the eggs or the young cranes to be found; frequently a crane
escapes from this country with a brazen point of a weapon in its body,
wounded by these people.
Similar to this is the account of the Enotocoitæ,[392] of the wild men,
and of other monsters. The wild men could not be brought to
Sandrocottus, for they died by abstaining from [CAS. 711] food. Their
heels are in front, the instep and toes are turned backwards. Some have
been taken, which had no mouths, and were tame. They live near the
sources of the Ganges, and are supported by the smell of dressed meat
and the fragrance of fruits and flowers, having instead of mouths
orifices through which they breathe. They are distressed by
strong-smelling substances, and therefore their lives are sustained with
difficulty, particularly in a camp.
With respect to the other singular animals, the philosophers informed
him of a people called Ocypodæ, so swift of foot that they leave horses
behind them; of Enotocoitæ, or persons having ears hanging down to their
feet, so that they lie and sleep upon them, and so strong as to be able
to pluck up trees and to break the sinew string of a bow; of others
(Monommati) who have only one eye, and the ears of a dog, the eye placed
in the middle of the forehead, the hair standing erect, and the breasts
shaggy; of others (Amycteres) without nostrils, devouring everything,
eaters of raw meat, short-lived, and dying before they arrive at old
age; the upper part of their mouths projects far beyond the lower lip.
With respect to the Hyperboreans, who live to the age of a thousand
years, his description is the same as that of Simonides, Pindar, and
other mythological writers.
The story told by Timagenes of a shower of drops of brass, which were
raked together, is a fable. The account of Megasthenes is more probable,
namely, that the rivers bring down gold-dust, a part of which is paid as
a tax to the king; and this is the case in Iberia (of Armenia).
58. Speaking of the philosophers, he says, that those who inhabit the
mountains are worshippers of Bacchus, and show as a proof (of the god
having come among them) the wild vine, which grows in their country
only; the ivy, the laurel, the myrtle, the box-tree, and other
evergreens, none of which are found beyond the Euphrates, except a few
in parks, which are only preserved with great care. To wear robes and
turbans, to use perfumes, and to be dressed in dyed and flowered
garments, for their kings to be preceded when they leave their palaces,
and appear abroad, by gongs and drums, are Bacchanalian customs. But the
philosophers who live in the plains worship Hercules.
These are fabulous stories, contradicted by many writers, particularly
what is said of the vine and wine, for a great part of Armenia, the
whole of Mesopotamia and Media, as far as Persia and Carmania, is beyond
the Euphrates, the greater part of which countries is said to have
excellent vines, and to produce good wine.
59. Megasthenes divides the philosophers again into two kinds, the
Brachmanes[393] and the Garmanes. [394] The Brachmanes are held in
greater repute, for they agree more exactly in their opinions. Even from
the time of their conception in the womb they are under the care and
guardianship of learned men, who go to the mother, and seem to perform
some incantation for the happiness and welfare of the mother and the
unborn child, but in reality they suggest prudent advice, and the
mothers who listen to them most willingly are thought to be the most
fortunate in their offspring. After the birth of the children, there is
a succession of persons who have the care of them, and as they advance
in years, masters more able and accomplished succeed.
The philosophers live in a grove in front of the city within a
moderate-sized enclosure. Their diet is frugal, and they lie upon straw
pallets and on skins. They abstain from animal food, and from sexual
intercourse with women; their time is occupied in grave discourse, and
they communicate with those who are inclined to listen to them; but the
hearer is not permitted to speak or cough, or even to spit on the
ground; otherwise, he is expelled that very day from their society, on
the ground of having no control over himself. After living thirty-seven
years in this manner, each individual retires to his own possessions,
and lives with less restraint, wearing robes of fine linen, and rings of
gold, but without profuseness, upon the hands and in the ears. They eat
the flesh of animals, of those particularly which do not assist man in
his labour, and abstain from hot and seasoned food. They have as many
wives as they please with a view to numerous offspring, for from many
wives greater advantages are derived.
As they have no slaves, they require more the services, which are at
hand, of their children.
The Brachmanes do not communicate their philosophy to their wives, for
fear they should divulge to the profane, if [CAS. 712] they became
depraved, anything which ought to be concealed; or lest they should
abandon their husbands in case they became good (philosophers)
themselves. For no one who despises alike pleasure and pain, life and
death, is willing to be subject to the authority of another; and such is
the character of a virtuous man and a virtuous woman.
They discourse much on death, for it is their opinion that the present
life is the state of one conceived in the womb, and that death to
philosophers is birth to a real and a happy life. They therefore
discipline themselves much to prepare for death, and maintain that
nothing which happens to man is bad or good, for otherwise the same
things would not be the occasion of sorrow to some and of joy to others,
opinions being merely dreams, nor that the same persons could be
affected with sorrow and joy by the same things, on different occasions.
With regard to opinions on physical phenomena, they display, says
Megasthenes, great simplicity, their actions being better than their
reasoning, for their belief is chiefly founded on fables. On many
subjects their sentiments are the same as those of the Greeks. According
to the Brachmanes, the world was created, and is liable to corruption;
it is of a spheroïdal figure; the god who made and governs it pervades
the whole of it; the principles of all things are different, but the
principle of the world’s formation was water; in addition to the four
elements there is a fifth nature, of which the heavens and the stars are
composed; the earth is situated in the centre of the universe. Many
other peculiar things they say of the principle of generation and of the
soul. They invent fables also, after the manner of Plato, on the
immortality of the soul, and on the punishments in Hades, and other
things of this kind. This is the account which Megasthenes gives of the
Brachmanes.
60. Of the Garmanes, the most honourable, he says, are the Hylobii, who
live in the forests, and subsist on leaves and wild fruits: they are
clothed with garments made of the bark of trees,[395] and abstain from
commerce with women and from wine. The kings hold communication with
them by messengers, concerning the causes of things, and through them
worship and supplicate the Divinity.
Second in honour to the Hylobii, are the physicians, for they apply
philosophy to the study of the nature of man. They are of frugal habits,
but do not live in the fields, and subsist upon rice and meal, which
every one gives when asked, and receive them hospitably. They are able
to cause persons to have a numerous offspring, and to have either male
or female children, by means of charms. They cure diseases by diet,
rather than by medicinal remedies. Among the latter, the most in repute
are unguents and cataplasms. All others they suppose partake greatly of
a noxious nature.
Both this and the other class of persons practise fortitude, as well in
supporting active toil as in enduring suffering, so that they will
continue a whole day in the same posture, without motion.
There are enchanters and diviners, versed in the rites and customs
relative to the dead, who go about villages and towns begging. There are
others who are more civilized and better informed than these, who
inculcate the vulgar opinions concerning Hades, which, according to
their ideas, tend to piety and sanctity. Women study philosophy with
some of them, but abstain from sexual intercourse.
61. Aristobulus says, that he saw at Taxila two sophists (wise men),
both Brachmanes, the elder had his head shaved, but the younger wore his
hair; both were attended by disciples. When not otherwise engaged, they
spent their time in the market-place. They are honoured as public
counsellors, and have the liberty of taking away, without payment,
whatever article they like which is exposed for sale; when any one
accosts them, he pours over them oil of jessamine, in such profusion
that it runs down from their eyes. Of honey and sesamum, which is
exposed for sale in large quantity, they take enough to make cakes, and
are fed without expense.
They came up to Alexander’s table and took their meal standing, and they
gave an example of their fortitude by retiring to a neighbouring spot,
where the elder, falling on the ground supine, endured the sun and the
rain, which had now set in, it being the commencement of spring. The
other stood on one leg, with a piece of wood three cubits in length
raised in both hands; when one leg was fatigued he changed the support
to the other, and thus continued the whole day. The younger appeared to
possess much more self-command; for, [CAS. 714] after following the
king a short distance, he soon returned to his home. The king sent after
him, but he bade the king to come to him, if he wanted anything of him.
The other accompanied the king to the last: during his stay he changed
his dress, and altered his mode of life, and when reproached for his
conduct, answered, that he had completed the forty years of discipline
which he had promised to observe: Alexander made presents to his
children.
62. Aristobulus relates also some strange and unusual customs of the
people of Taxila. Those, who through poverty are unable to marry their
daughters, expose them for sale in the market-place, in the flower of
their age, to the sound of shell trumpets and drums, with which the
war-note is given. A crowd is thus assembled. First her back, as far as
the shoulders, is uncovered, then the parts in front, for the
examination of any man who comes for this purpose. If she pleases him,
he marries her on such conditions as may be determined upon.
The dead are thrown out to be devoured by vultures. To have many wives
is a custom common to these and to other nations. He says, that he had
heard, from some persons, of wives burning themselves voluntarily with
their deceased husbands; and that those women who refused to submit to
this custom were disgraced. The same things have been told by other
writers. [396]
63. Onesicritus says, that he himself was sent to converse with these
wise men. For Alexander heard that they went about naked, practised
constancy and fortitude, and were held in the highest honour; that, when
invited, they did not go to other persons, but commanded others to come
to them, if they wished to participate in their exercises or their
conversation. Such being their character, Alexander did not consider it
to be consistent with propriety to go to them, nor to compel them to do
anything contrary to their inclination or against the custom of their
country; he therefore despatched Onesicritus to them.
Onesicritus found, at the distance of 20 stadia from the city, fifteen
men standing in different postures, sitting or lying down naked, who
continued in these positions until the evening, and then returned to the
city. The most difficult thing to endure was the heat of the sun, which
was so powerful, that no one else could endure without pain to walk on
the ground at mid-day with bare feet.
64. He conversed with Calanus, one of these sophists, who accompanied
the king to Persia, and died after the custom of his country, being
placed on a pile of [burning] wood. When Onesicritus came, he was lying
upon stones. Onesicritus approached, accosted him, and told him that he
had been sent by the king, who had heard the fame of his wisdom, and
that he was to give an account of his interview, if there were no
objection, he was ready to listen to his discourse. When Calanus saw his
mantle, head-covering, and shoes, he laughed, and said, “Formerly, there
was abundance everywhere of corn and barley, as there is now of dust;
fountains then flowed with water, milk, honey, wine, and oil, but
mankind by repletion and luxury became proud and insolent. Jupiter,
indignant at this state of things, destroyed all, and appointed for man
a life of toil. On the reäppearance of temperance and other virtues,
there was again an abundance of good things. But at present the
condition of mankind approaches satiety and insolence, and there is
danger lest the things which now exist should disappear. ”
When he had finished, he proposed to Onesicritus, if he wished to hear
his discourse, to strip off his clothes, to lie down naked by him on the
same stones, and in that manner to listen to him; while he was
hesitating what to do, Mandanis,[397] who was the oldest and wisest of
the sophists, reproached Calanus for his insolence, although he censured
such insolence himself. Mandanis called Onesicritus to him, and said, I
commend the king, because, although he governs so large an empire, he is
yet desirous of acquiring wisdom, for he is the only philosopher in arms
that I ever saw; it would be of the greatest advantage, if those were
philosophers who have the power of persuading the willing and of
compelling the unwilling to learn temperance; but I am entitled to
indulgence, if, when conversing by means of three interpreters, who,
except the language, know no more than the vulgar, I am not [CAS. 716]
able to demonstrate the utility of philosophy. To attempt it is to
expect water to flow pure through mud.
65. “The tendency of his discourse,” he said, “was this, that the best
philosophy was that which liberated the mind from pleasure and grief;
that grief differed from labour, in that the former was inimical, the
latter friendly to men; for that men exercised their bodies with labour
in order to strengthen the mental powers, by which means they would be
able to put an end to dissensions, and give good counsel to all, to the
public and to individuals; that he certainly should at present advise
Taxiles to receive Alexander as a friend; for if he entertained a person
better than himself, he might be improved; but if a worse person, he
might dispose him to good. ”
After this Mandanis inquired, whether such doctrines were taught among
the Greeks. Onesicritus answered, that Pythagoras taught a similar
doctrine, and enjoined his disciples to abstain from whatever has life;
that Socrates and Diogenes, whose discourses he had heard, held the same
opinions. Mandanis replied, “that in other respects he thought them
wise, but that in one thing they were mistaken, namely, in preferring
custom to nature, for otherwise they would not be ashamed of going
naked, like himself, and of subsisting on frugal fare; for the best
house was that which required least repairs.
governed by good laws. The neighbouring country is crowded with
inhabitants and very fertile, and here unites with the plains. The
people and their king Taxiles received Alexander with kindness, and
obtained in return more presents than they had offered to Alexander; so
that the Macedonians became jealous, and observed, that it seemed as if
Alexander had found none on whom he could confer favours before he
passed the Indus. Some writers say that this country is larger than
Egypt.
Above this country among the mountains is the territory of
Abisarus,[362] who, as the ambassadors that came from him reported,
kept two serpents, one of 80, and the other, according to Onesicritus,
of 140 cubits in length. This writer may as well be called the master
fabulist as the master pilot of Alexander. For all those who accompanied
Alexander preferred the marvellous to the true, but this writer seems to
have surpassed all in his description of prodigies. Some things,
however, he relates which are probable and worthy of record, and will
not be passed over in silence even by one who does not believe their
correctness.
Other writers also mention the hunting of serpents in the Emodi
mountains,[363] and the keeping and feeding of them in caves.
29. Between the Hydaspes and Acesines is the country of Porus,[364] an
extensive and fertile district, containing nearly three hundred cities.
Here also is the forest in the neighbourhood of the Emodi mountains in
which Alexander cut down a large quantity of fir, pine, cedar, and a
variety of other trees fit for ship-building, and brought the timber
down the Hydaspes. With this he constructed a fleet on the Hydaspes,
near the cities, which he built on each side of the river where he had
crossed it and conquered Porus. One of these cities he called
Bucephalia,[365] from the horse Bucephalus, which was [CAS. 699] killed
in the battle with Porus. The name Bucephalus[366] was given to it from
the breadth of its forehead. He was an excellent war-horse, and
Alexander constantly rode him in battle.
The other city he called Nicæa from the victory, ΝΙΚΗ
(Nice), which he had obtained.
In the forest before mentioned it is said there is a vast number of
monkeys,[367] and as large as they are numerous. On one occasion the
Macedonians, seeing a body of them standing in array opposite to them,
on some bare eminences, (for this animal is not less intelligent than
the elephant,) and presenting the appearance of an army, prepared to
attack them as real enemies, but being informed by Taxiles, who was then
with the king, of the real fact, they desisted.
The chase of this animal is conducted in two different manners. It is an
imitative creature, and takes refuge up among the trees. The hunters,
when they perceive a monkey seated on a tree, place in sight a basin
containing water, with which they wash their own eyes; then, instead of
water, they put a basin of bird-lime, go away, and lie in wait at a
distance. The animal leaps down, and besmears itself with the bird-lime,
and when it winks, the eyelids are fastened together; the hunters then
come upon it, and take it.
The other method of capturing them is as follows: the hunters dress
themselves in bags like trowsers, and go away, leaving behind them
others which are downy, with the inside smeared over with bird-lime.
The monkeys put them on, and are easily taken.
30. Some writers place Cathaia[368] and the country of Sopeithes, one of
the nomarchs, in the tract between the rivers (Hydaspes and Acesines);
some, on the other side of the Acesines and of the Hyarotis, on the
confines of the territory of the other Porus, the nephew of Porus who
was taken prisoner by Alexander, and call the country subject to him
Grandaris.
A very singular usage is related of the high estimation in which the
inhabitants of Cathaia hold the quality of beauty, which they extend to
horses and dogs. According to Onesicritus, they elect the handsomest
person as king. The child (selected), two months after birth, undergoes
a public inspection, and is examined. They determine whether it has the
amount of beauty required by law, and whether it is worthy to be
permitted to live. The presiding magistrate then pronounces whether it
is to be allowed to live, or whether it is to be put to death.
They dye their heads with various and the most florid colours, for the
purpose of improving their appearance. This custom prevails elsewhere
among many of the Indians, who pay great attention to their hair and
dress; and the country produces colours of great beauty. In other
respects the people are frugal, but are fond of ornament.
A peculiar custom is related of the Cathæi. The bride and the husband
are respectively the choice of each other, and the wives burn themselves
with their deceased husbands. The reason assigned for this practice is,
that the women sometimes fell in love with young men, and deserted or
poisoned their husbands. This law was therefore established in order to
check the practice of administering poison; but neither the existence
nor the origin of the law are probable facts.
It is said, that in the territory of Sopeithes there is a mountain
composed of fossile salt, sufficient for the whole of India. Valuable
mines also both of gold and silver are situated, it is said, not far off
among other mountains, according to the testimony of Gorgus, the miner
(of Alexander). The Indians, unacquainted with mining and smelting, are
ignorant of their own wealth, and therefore traffic with greater
simplicity.
31. The dogs in the territory of Sopeithes are said to possess
remarkable courage: Alexander received from Sopeithes a present of one
hundred and fifty of them. To prove them, two were set at a lion; when
these were mastered, two others were set on; when the battle became
equal, Sopeithes ordered a man to seize one of the dogs by the leg, and
to drag him away; or to cut off his leg, if he still held on. Alexander
at first refused his consent to the dog’s leg being cut off, as he
wished to save the dog. But on Sopeithes saying, “I will give you four
in the place of it,” Alexander consented; and he saw the dog permit his
leg to be cut off by a slow incision, rather than loose his hold.
[CAS. 700] 32. The direction of the march, as far as the Hydaspes, was
for the most part towards the south. After that, to the Hypanis, it was
more towards the east. The whole of it, however, was much nearer to the
country lying at the foot of the mountains than to the plains. Alexander
therefore, when he returned from the Hypanis to the Hydaspes and the
station of his vessels, prepared his fleet, and set sail on the
Hydaspes.
All the rivers which have been mentioned (the last of which is the
Hypanis) unite in one, the Indus. It is said that there are altogether
fifteen[369] considerable rivers which flow into the Indus. After the
Indus has been filled by all these rivers, so as to be enlarged in some
places to the extent of a hundred stadia, according to writers who
exaggerate, or, according to a more moderate estimate, to fifty stadia
at the utmost, and at the least to seven, [and who speak of many nations
and cities about this river,][370] it discharges itself by two mouths
into the southern sea, and forms the island called Patalene.
Alexander’s intention was to relinquish the march towards the parts
situated to the east, first, because he was prevented from crossing the
Hypanis; next, because he learnt by experience the falsehood of the
reports previously received, to the effect that the plains were burnt up
with fire, and more fit for the haunts of wild beasts than for the
habitation of man. He therefore set out in this direction, relinquishing
the other track; so that these parts became better known than the other.
33. The territory lying between the Hypanis and the Hydaspes is said to
contain nine nations and five thousand cities, not less in size than Cos
Meropis;[371] but the number seems to be exaggerated. We have already
mentioned nearly all the nations deserving of notice, which inhabit the
country situated between the Indus and the Hydaspes.
Below, and next in order, are the people called Sibæ, whom we formerly
mentioned,[372] and the great nations, the Malli[373] and Sydracæ
(Oxydracæ). It was among the Malli that Alexander was in danger of
losing his life, from a wound he received at the capture of a small
city. The Sydracæ, we have said, are fabled to be allied to Bacchus.
Near Patalene is placed the country of Musicanus, that of Sabus,[374]
whose capital is Sindomana, that of Porticanus, and of other princes who
inhabited the country on the banks of the Indus. They were all conquered
by Alexander; last of all he made himself master of Patalene, which is
formed by the two branches of the Indus. Aristobulus says that these two
branches are distant 1000 stadia from each other. Nearchus adds 800
stadia more to this number. Onesicritus reckons each side of the
included island, which is of a triangular shape, at 2000 stadia; and the
breadth of the river, where it is separated into two mouths, at about
200 stadia. [375] He calls the island Delta, and says that it is as large
as the Delta of Egypt; but this is a mistake. For the Egyptian Delta is
said to have a base of 1300 stadia, and each of the sides to be less
than the base. In Patalene is Patala, a considerable city, from which
the island has its name.
34. Onesicritus says, that the greatest part of the coast in this
quarter abounds with swamps, particularly at the mouths of the river,
which is owing to the mud, the tides, and the want of land breezes; for
these parts are chiefly under the influence of winds blowing from the
sea.
He expatiates also in praise of the country of Musicanus, and relates of
the inhabitants what is common to other Indian tribes, that they are
long-lived, and that life is protracted even to the age of 130 years,
(the Seres,[376] however, are said by some [CAS. 701] writers to be
still longer lived,) that they are temperate in their habits and
healthy; although the country produces everything in abundance.
The following are their peculiarities: to have a kind of Lacedæmonian
common meal, where they eat in public. Their food consists of what is
taken in the chase. They make no use of gold nor silver, although they
have mines of these metals. Instead of slaves, they employed youths in
the flower of their age, as the Cretans employ the Aphamiotæ, and the
Lacedæmonians the Helots. They study no science with attention but that
of medicine; for they consider the excessive pursuit of some arts, as
that of war, and the like, to be committing evil. There is no process at
law but against murder and outrage, for it is not in a person’s own
power to escape either one or the other; but as contracts are in the
power of each individual, he must endure the wrong, if good faith is
violated by another; for a man should be cautious whom he trusts, and
not disturb the city with constant disputes in courts of justice.
Such are the accounts of the persons who accompanied Alexander in his
expedition.
35. A letter of Craterus to his mother Aristopatra is circulated, which
contains many other singular circumstances, and differs from every other
writer, particularly in saying that Alexander advanced as far as the
Ganges. Craterus says, that he himself saw the river, and the
whales[377] which it produces, and [his account] of its magnitude,
breadth, and depth, far exceeds, rather than approximates, probability.
For that the Ganges is the largest of known rivers in the three
continents, it is generally agreed; next to this is the Indus; and,
thirdly, the Danube; and, fourthly, the Nile. But different authors
differ in their account of it, some assigning 30, others 3 stadia, as
the least breadth. But Megasthenes says that its ordinary width is 100
stadia,[378] and its least depth twenty orguiæ. [379]
36. At the confluence of the Ganges and of another river (the
Erannoboas[380]) is situated (the city) Palibothra, in length 80, and in
breadth 15 stadia. It is in the shape of a parallelogram, surrounded by
a wooden wall pierced with openings through which arrows may be
discharged. In front is a ditch, which serves the purpose of defence and
of a sewer for the city. The people in whose country the city is
situated are the most distinguished of all the tribes, and are called
Prasii. The king, besides his family name, has the surname of
Palibothrus, as the king to whom Megasthenes was sent on an embassy had
the name of Sandrocottus. [381]
Such also is the custom among the Parthians; for all have the name
Arsacæ,[382] although each has his peculiar name of Orodes, Phraates, or
some other appellation.
37. All the country on the other side of the Hypanis is allowed to be
very fertile, but we have no accurate knowledge of it. Either through
ignorance or from its remote situation, everything relative to it is
exaggerated or partakes of the wonderful. As, for example, the stories
of myrmeces (or ants),[383] which dig up gold; of animals and men with
peculiar shapes, and possessing extraordinary faculties; of the
longevity of the Seres, whose lives exceed the age of two hundred years.
They speak also of an aristocratical form of government, consisting of
five hundred counsellors, each of whom furnishes the state with an
elephant.
According to Megasthenes, the largest tigers are found among the Prasii,
almost twice the size of lions, and of such strength that a tame one led
by four persons seized a mule by its hinder leg, overpowered it, and
dragged it to him. The monkeys are larger than the largest dogs; they
are of a white colour, except the face, which is black. The contrary is
observed in other places. Their tails are more than two cubits in
length. They are very tame, and not of a mischievous disposition. They
neither attack people, nor steal.
Stones are found there of the colour of frankincense, and sweeter than
figs or honey.
In some places there are serpents of two cubits in length, with
membraneous wings like bats. They fly at night, and let fall drops of
urine or sweat, which occasions the skin of persons [CAS. 703] who are
not on their guard to putrefy. There are also winged scorpions of great
size.
Ebony grows there. There are also dogs of great courage, which do not
loose their hold till water is poured into their nostrils: some of them
destroy their sight, and the eyes of others even fall out, by the
eagerness of their bite. Both a lion and a bull were held fast by one of
these dogs. The bull was caught by the muzzle, and died before the dog
could be loosened.
38. In the mountainous country is a river, the Silas, on the surface of
which nothing will float. Democritus, who had travelled over a large
part of Asia, disbelieves this, and Aristotle does not credit it,
although atmospheres exist so rare that no bird can sustain its flight
in them. Vapours also, which ascend (from some substances), attract and
absorb, as it were, whatever is flying over them; as amber attracts
straw, and the magnet iron, and perhaps there may be in water a similar
power.
As these matters belong to physics and to the question of floating
bodies, these must be referred to them. At present we must proceed to
what follows, and to the subjects more nearly relating to geography.
39. It is said that the Indians are divided into seven castes. The first
in rank, but the smallest in number, are the philosophers. Persons who
intend to offer sacrifice, or to perform any sacred rite, have the
services of these persons on their private account; but the kings employ
them in a public capacity at the time of the Great Assembly, as it is
called, where at the beginning of the new year all the philosophers
repair to the king at the gate, and anything useful which they have
committed to writing, or observed, tending to improve the productions of
the earth or animals, or of advantage to the government of the state, is
then publicly declared.
Whoever has been detected in giving false information thrice is enjoined
silence by law during the rest of his life; but he who has made correct
observations is exempted from all contributions and tribute.
40. The second caste is that of husbandmen, who constitute the majority
of natives, and are a most mild and gentle people, as they are exempted
from military service, and cultivate their land free from alarm; they
do not resort to cities, either to transact private business, or take
part in public tumults. It therefore frequently happens that at the same
time, and in the same part of the country, one body of men are in battle
array, and engaged in contests with the enemy, while others are
ploughing or digging in security, having these soldiers to protect them.
The whole of the territory belongs to the king. They cultivate it on the
terms of receiving as wages a fourth part of the produce.
41. The third caste consists of shepherds and hunters, who alone are
permitted to hunt, to breed cattle, to sell and to let out for hire
beasts of burden. In return for freeing the country from wild beasts and
birds, which infest sown fields, they receive an allowance of corn from
the king. They lead a wandering life, and dwell in tents. No private
person is allowed to keep a horse or an elephant. The possession of
either one or the other is a royal privilege, and persons are appointed
to take care of them.
42. The manner of hunting the elephant is as follows: Round a bare spot
a ditch is dug, of about four or five stadia in extent, and at the place
of entrance a very narrow bridge is constructed. Into the enclosure
three or four of the tamest female elephants are driven. The men
themselves lie in wait under cover of concealed huts. The wild elephants
do not approach the females by day, but at night they enter the
enclosure one by one; when they have passed the entrance, the men
secretly close it. They then introduce the strongest of the tame
combatants, the drivers of which engage with the wild animals, and also
wear them out by famine; when the latter are exhausted by fatigue, the
boldest of the drivers gets down unobserved, and creeps under the belly
of his own elephant. From this position he creeps beneath the belly of
the wild elephant, and ties his legs together; when this is done, a
signal is given to the tame elephants to beat those which are tied by
the legs, till they fall to the ground. After they have fallen down,
they fasten the wild and tame elephants together by the neck with thongs
of raw cow-hide, and, in order that they may not be able to shake off
those who are attempting to mount them, cuts are made round the neck,
and thongs of leather are put into these incisions, so that they submit
to their bonds through pain, and so remain quiet. Among the elephants
[CAS. 705] which are taken, those are rejected which are too old or too
young for service; the remainder are led away to the stables. They tie
their feet one to another, and their necks to a pillar firmly fastened
in the ground, and tame them by hunger. They recruit their strength
afterwards with green cane and grass. They then teach them to obey; some
by words; others they pacify by tunes, accompanied with the beating of a
drum. Few are difficult to be tamed; for they are naturally of a mild
and gentle disposition, so as to approximate to the character of a
rational animal. Some have taken up their drivers, who have fallen on
the ground lifeless, and carried them safe out of battle. Others have
fought, and protected their drivers, who have crept between their
fore-legs. If they have killed any of their feeders or masters in anger,
they feel their loss so much that they refuse their food through grief,
and sometimes die of hunger.
43. They copulate like horses, and produce young chiefly in the spring.
It is the season for the male, when he is in heat and is ferocious. At
this period he discharges some fatty matter through an opening in the
temples. It is the season also for the females, when this same passage
is open. Eighteen months is the longest, and sixteen the shortest period
that they go with young. The dam suckles her young six years. Many of
them live as long as men who attain to the greatest longevity, some even
to the protracted age of two hundred years.
They are subject to many diseases, which are difficult to be cured. A
remedy for diseases of the eye is to bathe them with cow’s milk. For
complaints in general, they drink dark wine. In cases of wounds, they
drink butter; for it draws out iron instruments. Their sores are
fomented with swine’s flesh.
Onesicritus says, that they live three hundred years, and rarely five
hundred; and that they go with young ten years. He and other writers
say, that they are larger and stronger than the African elephants. They
will pull down with their trunks battlements, and uproot trees, standing
erect upon their hind feet.
According to Nearchus, traps are laid in the hunting grounds, at certain
places where roads meet; the wild elephants are forced into the toils by
the tame elephants, which are stronger, and guided by a driver. They
become so tame and docile, that they learn even to throw a stone at a
mark, to use military weapons, and to be excellent swimmers. A chariot
drawn by elephants is esteemed a most important possession, and they are
driven without bridles. [384]
A woman is greatly honoured who receives from her lover a present of an
elephant, but this does not agree with what he said before, that a horse
and an elephant are the property of kings alone.
44. This writer says that he saw skins of the myrmeces (or ants), which
dig up gold, as large as the skins of leopards. Megasthenes, however,
speaking of the myrmeces, says, among the Derdæ a populous nation of the
Indians, living towards the east, and among the mountains, there was a
mountain plain of about 3000 stadia in circumference; that below this
plain were mines containing gold, which the myrmeces, in size not less
than foxes, dig up. They are excessively fleet, and subsist on what they
catch. In winter they dig holes, and pile up the earth in heaps, like
moles, at the mouths of the openings.
The gold-dust which they obtain requires little preparation by fire. The
neighbouring people go after it by stealth, with beasts of burden; for
if it is done openly, the myrmeces fight furiously, pursuing those that
run away, and if they seize them, kill them and the beasts. In order to
prevent discovery, they place in various parts pieces of the flesh of
wild beasts, and when the myrmeces are dispersed in various directions,
they take away the gold-dust, and, not being acquainted with the mode of
smelting it, dispose of it in its rude state at any price to merchants.
45. Having mentioned what Megasthenes and other writers relate of the
hunters and the beasts of prey, we must add the following particulars.
Nearchus is surprised at the multitude and the noxious nature of the
tribe of reptiles. They retreat from the plains to the settlements,
which are not covered with water at the period of inundations, and fill
the houses. For this reason the inhabitants raise their beds at some
height from the [CAS. 706] ground, and are sometimes compelled to
abandon their dwellings, when they are infested by great multitudes of
these animals; and, if a great proportion of these multitudes were not
destroyed by the waters, the country would be a desert. Both the
minuteness of some animals and the excessive magnitude of others are
causes of danger; the former, because it is difficult to guard against
their attacks; the latter, on account of their strength, for snakes are
to be seen of sixteen cubits in length. Charmers go about the country,
and are supposed to cure wounds made by serpents. This seems to comprise
nearly their whole art of medicine, for disease is not frequent among
them, which is owing to their frugal manner of life, and to the absence
of wine; whenever diseases do occur, they are treated by the Sophistæ
(or wise men).
Aristobulus says, that he saw no animals of these pretended magnitudes,
except a snake, which was nine cubits and a span in length. And I myself
saw one in Egypt, nearly of the same size, which was brought from India.
He says also, that he saw many serpents of a much inferior size, and
asps and large scorpions. None of these, however, are so noxious as the
slender small serpents, a span long, which are found concealed in tents,
in vessels, and in hedges. Persons wounded by them bleed from every
pore, suffering great pain, and die, unless they have immediate
assistance; but this assistance is easily obtained, by means of the
virtues of the Indian roots and drugs.
Few crocodiles, he says, are found in the Indus, and these are harmless,
but most of the other animals, except the hippopotamus, are the same as
those found in the Nile; but Onesicritus says that this animal also is
found there.
According to Aristobulus, none of the sea fish ascend the Nile from the
sea, except the shad,[385] the grey mullet,[386] and dolphin, on account
of the crocodiles; but great numbers ascend the Indus.
Small
craw-fish[387] go up as far as the mountains,[388] and the larger as far
as the confluence of the Indus and the Acesines.
So much then on the subject of the wild animals of India. We shall
return to Megasthenes, and resume our account where we digressed.
46. After the hunters and the shepherds, follows the fourth caste, which
consists, he says, of those who work at trades, retail wares, and who
are employed in bodily labour. Some of these pay taxes, and perform
certain stated services. But the armour-makers and ship-builders receive
wages and provisions from the king, for whom only they work. The
general-in-chief furnishes the soldiers with arms, and the admiral lets
out ships for hire to those who undertake voyages and traffic as
merchants.
47. The fifth caste consists of fighting men, who pass the time not
employed in the field in idleness and drinking, and are maintained at
the charge of the king. They are ready whenever they are wanted to march
on an expedition, for they bring nothing of their own with them, except
their bodies.
48. The sixth caste is that of the Ephori, or inspectors. They are
intrusted with the superintendence of all that is going on, and it is
their duty to report privately to the king. The city inspectors employ
as their coadjutors the city courtesans; and the inspectors of the camp,
the women who follow it. The best and the most faithful persons are
appointed to the office of inspector.
49. The seventh caste consists of counsellors and assessors of the king.
To these persons belong the offices of state, tribunals of justice, and
the whole administration of affairs.
It is not permitted to contract marriage with a person of another caste,
nor to change from one profession or trade to another, nor for the same
person to undertake several, except he is of the caste of philosophers,
when permission is given, on account of his superior qualifications.
50. Of the magistrates, some have the charge of the market, others of
the city, others of the soldiery. Some have the care of the rivers,
measure the land, as in Egypt, and inspect the closed reservoirs, from
which water is distributed by canals, so that all may have an equal use
of it. These persons have charge also of the hunters, and have the power
of rewarding or punishing those who merit either. They collect the
taxes, and superintend the occupations connected with land, as
wood-cutters, carpenters, workers in brass, and miners. They [CAS. 708]
superintend the public roads, and place a pillar at every ten stadia, to
indicate the by-ways and distances.
51. Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of
five each. The first has the inspection of everything relating to the
mechanical arts; the second entertain strangers, assign lodgings,
observe their mode of life, by means of attendants whom they attach to
them, escort them out of the country on their departure; if they die,
take charge of their property, have the care of them when sick, and when
they die, bury them.
The third class consists of those who inquire at what time and in what
manner births and deaths take place, which is done with a view to tax
(on these occasions), and in order that the deaths and births of persons
both of good and bad character should not be concealed.
The fourth division consists of those who are occupied in sales and
exchanges; they have the charge of measures, and of the sale of the
products in season, by a signal. The same person is not allowed to
exchange various kinds of articles, except he pays a double tax.
The fifth division presides over works of artisans, and disposes of
articles by public notice. The new are sold apart from the old, and
there is a fine imposed for mixing them together. The sixth and last
comprises those who collect the tenth of the price of the articles sold.
Death is the punishment for committing a fraud with regard to the tax.
These are the peculiar duties performed by each class, but in their
collective capacity they have the charge both of their own peculiar
province and of civil affairs, the repairs of public works, prices[389]
of articles, of markets, harbours, and temples.
52. Next to the magistrates of the city is a third body of governors,
who have the care of military affairs. This class also consists of six
divisions, each composed of five persons. One division is associated
with the chief naval superintendent, another with the person who has the
charge of the bullock-teams, by which military engines are transported,
of provisions both for the men and beasts, and other requisites for the
army. They furnish attendants, who beat a drum, and carry gongs;[390]
and besides these, grooms, mechanists, and their assistants. They
despatch by the sound of the gong the foragers for grass, and insure
expedition and security by rewards and punishments. The third division
has the care of the infantry; the fourth, of the horses; the fifth, of
the chariots; the sixth, of the elephants. There are royal stables for
the horses and elephants. There is also a royal magazine of arms; for
the soldier returns his arms to the armoury, and the horse and elephant
to the stables. They use the elephants without bridles. The chariots are
drawn on the march by oxen. The horses are led by a halter, in order
that their legs may not be chafed and inflamed, nor their spirit damped,
by drawing chariots. Besides the charioteer, there are two persons who
fight by his side in the chariot. With the elephant are four persons,
the driver and three bowmen, who discharge arrows from his back.
53. All the Indians are frugal in their mode of life, and especially in
camp. They do not tolerate useless and undisciplined multitudes, and
consequently observe good order. Theft is very rare among them.
Megasthenes, who was in the camp of Sandrocottus, which consisted of
400,000 men, did not witness on any day thefts reported, which exceeded
the sum of two hundred drachmæ, and this among a people who have no
written laws, who are ignorant even of writing, and regulate everything
by memory. They are, however, happy on account of their simple manners
and frugal way of life. They never drink wine, but at sacrifices. Their
beverage is made from rice instead of barley, and their food consists
for the most part of rice pottage. The simplicity of their laws and
contracts appears from their not having many law-suits. They have no
suits respecting pledges and deposits, nor do they require witnesses or
seals, but make their deposits, and confide in one another. Their houses
and property are unguarded. These things denote temperance and sobriety;
others no one would approve, as their eating always alone, and their not
having all of them one common hour for their meals, but each taking it
as he likes. The contrary custom is more agreeable to the habits of
social and civil life.
54. As an exercise of the body they prefer friction in various ways, but
particularly by making use of smooth sticks of ebony, which they pass
over the surface of the body.
[CAS. 709] Their sepulchres are plain, and the tumuli of earth low.
In contrast to their parsimony in other things, they indulge in
ornament. They wear dresses worked with gold and precious stones, and
flowered (variegated) robes, and are attended by persons following them
with umbrellas; for as they highly esteem beauty, everything is attended
to, which can improve their looks.
They respect alike truth and virtue; therefore they do not assign any
privilege to the old, unless they possess superior wisdom.
They marry many wives, who are purchased from their parents, and give in
exchange for them a yoke of oxen. Some marry wives to possess obedient
attendants, others with a view to pleasure and numerous offspring, and
the wives prostitute themselves, unless chastity is enforced by
compulsion.
No one wears a garland when sacrificing, or burning incense, or pouring
out a libation. They do not stab, but strangle the victim, that nothing
mutilated, but that which is entire, may be offered to the Deity.
A person convicted of bearing false testimony suffers a mutilation of
his extremities. He who has maimed another not only undergoes in return
the loss of the same limb, but his hand also is cut off. If he has
caused a workman to lose his hand or his eye, he is put to death.
Megasthenes says, that none of the Indians employ slaves. But, according
to Onesicritus, this is peculiar to the people in the territory of
Musicanus. He speaks of this as an excellent rule, and mentions many
others to be found in that country, as the effects of a government by
good laws.
55. The care of the king’s person is committed to women, who are also
purchased of their parents. The body-guard, and the rest of the
military, are stationed without the gates. A woman, who puts to death a
king when drunk, is rewarded by becoming the wife of his successor. The
sons succeed the father. The king may not sleep during the day-time, and
at night he is obliged from time to time to change his bed, from dread
of treachery.
The king leaves his palace in time of war; he leaves it also when he
goes to sit in his court as a judge. He remains there all day thus
occupied, not suffering himself to be interrupted even though the time
arrives for attending to his person. This attention to his person
consists of friction with pieces of wood, and he continues to listen to
the cause, while the friction is performed by four attendants who
surround him.
Another occasion of leaving his palace is to offer sacrifice.
The third is a sort of Bacchanalian departure to the chace. Crowds of
women surround him, and on the outside (of these) are spear-men. The
road is set off with ropes; a man, or even a woman, who passes within
the ropes is put to death.
The king is preceded by drums and gongs. He hunts in the enclosures, and
discharges his arrows from a high seat. Near him stand two or three
armed women. When hunting in the open ground, he shoots his arrows from
an elephant; of the women some are in chariots, some on horses, and
others on elephants; they are provided with all kinds of weapons, as if
they were going on a military expedition.
56. These customs when compared with ours are very strange, but the
following are still more extraordinary. According to Megasthenes, the
nations who inhabit the Caucasus have commerce with women in public; and
eat the bodies of their relatives; the monkeys climb precipices, and
roll down large stones upon their pursuers; most of the animals which
are tame in our country are wild in theirs; the horses have a single
horn, with heads like those of deer; reeds which grow to the height of
thirty orguiæ,[391] others which grow on the ground, fifty orguiæ in
length, and in thickness some are three and others six cubits in
diameter.
57. He then deviates into fables, and says that there are men of five,
and even three spans in height, some of whom are without nostrils, with
only two breathing orifices above the mouth. Those of three spans in
height wage war with the cranes (described by Homer) and with the
partridges, which are as large as geese; these people collect and
destroy the eggs of the cranes which lay their eggs there; and nowhere
else are the eggs or the young cranes to be found; frequently a crane
escapes from this country with a brazen point of a weapon in its body,
wounded by these people.
Similar to this is the account of the Enotocoitæ,[392] of the wild men,
and of other monsters. The wild men could not be brought to
Sandrocottus, for they died by abstaining from [CAS. 711] food. Their
heels are in front, the instep and toes are turned backwards. Some have
been taken, which had no mouths, and were tame. They live near the
sources of the Ganges, and are supported by the smell of dressed meat
and the fragrance of fruits and flowers, having instead of mouths
orifices through which they breathe. They are distressed by
strong-smelling substances, and therefore their lives are sustained with
difficulty, particularly in a camp.
With respect to the other singular animals, the philosophers informed
him of a people called Ocypodæ, so swift of foot that they leave horses
behind them; of Enotocoitæ, or persons having ears hanging down to their
feet, so that they lie and sleep upon them, and so strong as to be able
to pluck up trees and to break the sinew string of a bow; of others
(Monommati) who have only one eye, and the ears of a dog, the eye placed
in the middle of the forehead, the hair standing erect, and the breasts
shaggy; of others (Amycteres) without nostrils, devouring everything,
eaters of raw meat, short-lived, and dying before they arrive at old
age; the upper part of their mouths projects far beyond the lower lip.
With respect to the Hyperboreans, who live to the age of a thousand
years, his description is the same as that of Simonides, Pindar, and
other mythological writers.
The story told by Timagenes of a shower of drops of brass, which were
raked together, is a fable. The account of Megasthenes is more probable,
namely, that the rivers bring down gold-dust, a part of which is paid as
a tax to the king; and this is the case in Iberia (of Armenia).
58. Speaking of the philosophers, he says, that those who inhabit the
mountains are worshippers of Bacchus, and show as a proof (of the god
having come among them) the wild vine, which grows in their country
only; the ivy, the laurel, the myrtle, the box-tree, and other
evergreens, none of which are found beyond the Euphrates, except a few
in parks, which are only preserved with great care. To wear robes and
turbans, to use perfumes, and to be dressed in dyed and flowered
garments, for their kings to be preceded when they leave their palaces,
and appear abroad, by gongs and drums, are Bacchanalian customs. But the
philosophers who live in the plains worship Hercules.
These are fabulous stories, contradicted by many writers, particularly
what is said of the vine and wine, for a great part of Armenia, the
whole of Mesopotamia and Media, as far as Persia and Carmania, is beyond
the Euphrates, the greater part of which countries is said to have
excellent vines, and to produce good wine.
59. Megasthenes divides the philosophers again into two kinds, the
Brachmanes[393] and the Garmanes. [394] The Brachmanes are held in
greater repute, for they agree more exactly in their opinions. Even from
the time of their conception in the womb they are under the care and
guardianship of learned men, who go to the mother, and seem to perform
some incantation for the happiness and welfare of the mother and the
unborn child, but in reality they suggest prudent advice, and the
mothers who listen to them most willingly are thought to be the most
fortunate in their offspring. After the birth of the children, there is
a succession of persons who have the care of them, and as they advance
in years, masters more able and accomplished succeed.
The philosophers live in a grove in front of the city within a
moderate-sized enclosure. Their diet is frugal, and they lie upon straw
pallets and on skins. They abstain from animal food, and from sexual
intercourse with women; their time is occupied in grave discourse, and
they communicate with those who are inclined to listen to them; but the
hearer is not permitted to speak or cough, or even to spit on the
ground; otherwise, he is expelled that very day from their society, on
the ground of having no control over himself. After living thirty-seven
years in this manner, each individual retires to his own possessions,
and lives with less restraint, wearing robes of fine linen, and rings of
gold, but without profuseness, upon the hands and in the ears. They eat
the flesh of animals, of those particularly which do not assist man in
his labour, and abstain from hot and seasoned food. They have as many
wives as they please with a view to numerous offspring, for from many
wives greater advantages are derived.
As they have no slaves, they require more the services, which are at
hand, of their children.
The Brachmanes do not communicate their philosophy to their wives, for
fear they should divulge to the profane, if [CAS. 712] they became
depraved, anything which ought to be concealed; or lest they should
abandon their husbands in case they became good (philosophers)
themselves. For no one who despises alike pleasure and pain, life and
death, is willing to be subject to the authority of another; and such is
the character of a virtuous man and a virtuous woman.
They discourse much on death, for it is their opinion that the present
life is the state of one conceived in the womb, and that death to
philosophers is birth to a real and a happy life. They therefore
discipline themselves much to prepare for death, and maintain that
nothing which happens to man is bad or good, for otherwise the same
things would not be the occasion of sorrow to some and of joy to others,
opinions being merely dreams, nor that the same persons could be
affected with sorrow and joy by the same things, on different occasions.
With regard to opinions on physical phenomena, they display, says
Megasthenes, great simplicity, their actions being better than their
reasoning, for their belief is chiefly founded on fables. On many
subjects their sentiments are the same as those of the Greeks. According
to the Brachmanes, the world was created, and is liable to corruption;
it is of a spheroïdal figure; the god who made and governs it pervades
the whole of it; the principles of all things are different, but the
principle of the world’s formation was water; in addition to the four
elements there is a fifth nature, of which the heavens and the stars are
composed; the earth is situated in the centre of the universe. Many
other peculiar things they say of the principle of generation and of the
soul. They invent fables also, after the manner of Plato, on the
immortality of the soul, and on the punishments in Hades, and other
things of this kind. This is the account which Megasthenes gives of the
Brachmanes.
60. Of the Garmanes, the most honourable, he says, are the Hylobii, who
live in the forests, and subsist on leaves and wild fruits: they are
clothed with garments made of the bark of trees,[395] and abstain from
commerce with women and from wine. The kings hold communication with
them by messengers, concerning the causes of things, and through them
worship and supplicate the Divinity.
Second in honour to the Hylobii, are the physicians, for they apply
philosophy to the study of the nature of man. They are of frugal habits,
but do not live in the fields, and subsist upon rice and meal, which
every one gives when asked, and receive them hospitably. They are able
to cause persons to have a numerous offspring, and to have either male
or female children, by means of charms. They cure diseases by diet,
rather than by medicinal remedies. Among the latter, the most in repute
are unguents and cataplasms. All others they suppose partake greatly of
a noxious nature.
Both this and the other class of persons practise fortitude, as well in
supporting active toil as in enduring suffering, so that they will
continue a whole day in the same posture, without motion.
There are enchanters and diviners, versed in the rites and customs
relative to the dead, who go about villages and towns begging. There are
others who are more civilized and better informed than these, who
inculcate the vulgar opinions concerning Hades, which, according to
their ideas, tend to piety and sanctity. Women study philosophy with
some of them, but abstain from sexual intercourse.
61. Aristobulus says, that he saw at Taxila two sophists (wise men),
both Brachmanes, the elder had his head shaved, but the younger wore his
hair; both were attended by disciples. When not otherwise engaged, they
spent their time in the market-place. They are honoured as public
counsellors, and have the liberty of taking away, without payment,
whatever article they like which is exposed for sale; when any one
accosts them, he pours over them oil of jessamine, in such profusion
that it runs down from their eyes. Of honey and sesamum, which is
exposed for sale in large quantity, they take enough to make cakes, and
are fed without expense.
They came up to Alexander’s table and took their meal standing, and they
gave an example of their fortitude by retiring to a neighbouring spot,
where the elder, falling on the ground supine, endured the sun and the
rain, which had now set in, it being the commencement of spring. The
other stood on one leg, with a piece of wood three cubits in length
raised in both hands; when one leg was fatigued he changed the support
to the other, and thus continued the whole day. The younger appeared to
possess much more self-command; for, [CAS. 714] after following the
king a short distance, he soon returned to his home. The king sent after
him, but he bade the king to come to him, if he wanted anything of him.
The other accompanied the king to the last: during his stay he changed
his dress, and altered his mode of life, and when reproached for his
conduct, answered, that he had completed the forty years of discipline
which he had promised to observe: Alexander made presents to his
children.
62. Aristobulus relates also some strange and unusual customs of the
people of Taxila. Those, who through poverty are unable to marry their
daughters, expose them for sale in the market-place, in the flower of
their age, to the sound of shell trumpets and drums, with which the
war-note is given. A crowd is thus assembled. First her back, as far as
the shoulders, is uncovered, then the parts in front, for the
examination of any man who comes for this purpose. If she pleases him,
he marries her on such conditions as may be determined upon.
The dead are thrown out to be devoured by vultures. To have many wives
is a custom common to these and to other nations. He says, that he had
heard, from some persons, of wives burning themselves voluntarily with
their deceased husbands; and that those women who refused to submit to
this custom were disgraced. The same things have been told by other
writers. [396]
63. Onesicritus says, that he himself was sent to converse with these
wise men. For Alexander heard that they went about naked, practised
constancy and fortitude, and were held in the highest honour; that, when
invited, they did not go to other persons, but commanded others to come
to them, if they wished to participate in their exercises or their
conversation. Such being their character, Alexander did not consider it
to be consistent with propriety to go to them, nor to compel them to do
anything contrary to their inclination or against the custom of their
country; he therefore despatched Onesicritus to them.
Onesicritus found, at the distance of 20 stadia from the city, fifteen
men standing in different postures, sitting or lying down naked, who
continued in these positions until the evening, and then returned to the
city. The most difficult thing to endure was the heat of the sun, which
was so powerful, that no one else could endure without pain to walk on
the ground at mid-day with bare feet.
64. He conversed with Calanus, one of these sophists, who accompanied
the king to Persia, and died after the custom of his country, being
placed on a pile of [burning] wood. When Onesicritus came, he was lying
upon stones. Onesicritus approached, accosted him, and told him that he
had been sent by the king, who had heard the fame of his wisdom, and
that he was to give an account of his interview, if there were no
objection, he was ready to listen to his discourse. When Calanus saw his
mantle, head-covering, and shoes, he laughed, and said, “Formerly, there
was abundance everywhere of corn and barley, as there is now of dust;
fountains then flowed with water, milk, honey, wine, and oil, but
mankind by repletion and luxury became proud and insolent. Jupiter,
indignant at this state of things, destroyed all, and appointed for man
a life of toil. On the reäppearance of temperance and other virtues,
there was again an abundance of good things. But at present the
condition of mankind approaches satiety and insolence, and there is
danger lest the things which now exist should disappear. ”
When he had finished, he proposed to Onesicritus, if he wished to hear
his discourse, to strip off his clothes, to lie down naked by him on the
same stones, and in that manner to listen to him; while he was
hesitating what to do, Mandanis,[397] who was the oldest and wisest of
the sophists, reproached Calanus for his insolence, although he censured
such insolence himself. Mandanis called Onesicritus to him, and said, I
commend the king, because, although he governs so large an empire, he is
yet desirous of acquiring wisdom, for he is the only philosopher in arms
that I ever saw; it would be of the greatest advantage, if those were
philosophers who have the power of persuading the willing and of
compelling the unwilling to learn temperance; but I am entitled to
indulgence, if, when conversing by means of three interpreters, who,
except the language, know no more than the vulgar, I am not [CAS. 716]
able to demonstrate the utility of philosophy. To attempt it is to
expect water to flow pure through mud.
65. “The tendency of his discourse,” he said, “was this, that the best
philosophy was that which liberated the mind from pleasure and grief;
that grief differed from labour, in that the former was inimical, the
latter friendly to men; for that men exercised their bodies with labour
in order to strengthen the mental powers, by which means they would be
able to put an end to dissensions, and give good counsel to all, to the
public and to individuals; that he certainly should at present advise
Taxiles to receive Alexander as a friend; for if he entertained a person
better than himself, he might be improved; but if a worse person, he
might dispose him to good. ”
After this Mandanis inquired, whether such doctrines were taught among
the Greeks. Onesicritus answered, that Pythagoras taught a similar
doctrine, and enjoined his disciples to abstain from whatever has life;
that Socrates and Diogenes, whose discourses he had heard, held the same
opinions. Mandanis replied, “that in other respects he thought them
wise, but that in one thing they were mistaken, namely, in preferring
custom to nature, for otherwise they would not be ashamed of going
naked, like himself, and of subsisting on frugal fare; for the best
house was that which required least repairs.
