38 pliny's natueal histoet. [Book VI. 



on human flesh. Here are also numerous wandering Nomad 

 tribes of India. There are some authors who state that in a 

 north-easterly direction these nations touch upon the Cicones ^^ 

 and the Brysari. 



CHAP. 21. THE NATIONS OF INDIA. 



But we come now to nations as to which there is a more ge- 

 neral agreement among writers. Where the chain of Emodus^* 

 rises, the nations of India begin, which borders not only on the 

 Eastern sea, but on the Southern as well, which we have al- 

 ready mentioned ^^ as being called the Indian Ocean. That 

 part which faces the east runs in a straight line a distance of 

 eighteen hundred and seventy-five miles until it comes to a 

 bend, at which the Indian Ocean begins. Here it takes a turn 

 to the south, and continues to run in that direction a distance 

 of two thousand four hundred and seventy-five miles, accord- 

 ing to Eratosthenes, as far as the river Indus, the boundaiy 

 of India on the west.^^ Many authors have represented the 

 entire length of the Indian coast as being forty days' and 

 nights' sail, and as being, from north to south, two thousand 

 eight hundred and fifty miles. Agrippa states its length to be 

 three thousand three hundred miles, and its breadth, two thou- 

 sand three hundred. Posidonius has given its measurement as 

 lying from north-east to south-east, placing it opposite to Gaul, 

 of which country he has given the measurement as lying 

 from north-west to south-west ; making the whole of India 

 to lie due west of Gaul. Hence, as he has shewn by un- 

 doubted proofs, India lying opposite to Gaul must be refreshed 



13 See B. iv. c. 18. 



1* i'ho Emodi Montes (so called probably from the Indian hemddri., or 

 the "golden") are supposed to have formed that portion of the great 

 lateral branch of the Indian Caucasus, the range of the Himalaya, which 

 extends along Nepaul, and probably as far as Bhotan. 



1' In c. 14 of the present Book. 



'^ The whole of this passage seems very intricate, and it is difficult to 

 make sense of it. His meaning, however, is probably this : that the 

 coast of India, running from extreme north-east to south-east, relatively to 

 Greece, the country of Eratosthenes, is exactly opposite to the coast of 

 (Jaul, running from extreme north-west to south-west — India thus lying 

 due west of Gaul, without any intervening land. This, it will be remem- 

 bered, was the notion of Columbus, when contemplating the possibility of 

 a western passage to India. 



