Chap. 2.] WONDERFUL FOEMS OF DIFFEKENT >-ATIONS. 1'29 



duced to ashes together with the other portions of his body ; 

 upon which it was placed in a coffer, and preserved in a 

 temple. 



India, and the region of Ethiopia more especially, abounds 

 in wonders. ^^ In India the largest of animals are produced ; 

 their dogs,''- for example, are much bigger than those of any 

 other country.^^ The trees, too, are said to be of such vast 

 height, that it is impossible to send an arrow over them. This 

 is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the equable 

 temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water ; 

 which, if we are to believe what is said, are such, tliat a single 

 fig-tree" is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of 

 horse. The reeds here are also of such enormous length, that 

 each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube, of 

 which a boat is made that is capable of holding three men.^ 

 It is a well-known fact, that many of the people here are more 

 than five cubits in height.^® These people never expectorate, 

 are subject to no pains, either in the head, the teeth, or the 

 eyes, and rarely in any other parts of the body ; so well is the 

 heat of the sun calculated to strengthen the constitution. 

 Their philosophers, who are called Gymnosophists, remain in 

 one posture, with their eyes immovably fixed upon the sun, 

 from its rising to its setting, and, during the whole of the day, 

 they are accustomed to stand in the burning sands on one 

 foot, first one and then the other." According to the ac- 



«i Horace, Odes, B. i. 0. 22, characterises the Hydaspes, a river of India, 

 by the title of " fabulosus." — B. 



6^ See B. viii. c. 40. 



62 ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvi. c. 11, and B. xvii. c. 26, refers to the 

 large sizej)f many of the animals of India ; and in B. iv. c. 19, he especially 

 describes the size and fierceness of the Indian dog.— B. 



6* The Fieiis religiosa of Linna3us, the branches of which have the 

 property of taking root when they are bent down to the ground, and of 

 forming new stems, which again produce other branches, that may be bent 

 doAvn in the same way, so as to cover an indefinite space. — B. More popu- 

 larly known as the "banyan tree." See B. xii. c, 11. 



6^ The bambos aruncUnacea, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant of the 

 gramineous kind, which frequently grows to the height of the tallest trees. 

 The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the joints are used by the 

 natives to form their canoes. We have an account of them in Herodotus, 

 B. iii. c. 98.— B. See also B. xvi. c. 65 of this work. 



66 It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that of the 

 inhabitants of the temperate zones. — B, 



fi^ Some practices very similar to these exist in certain parts of IndLo, 



VOL. U. X 



