130 PLINYS NATUIIAL HISTORY. [Book YIl. 



count of Megasthenes, dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo, 

 there is a race of men who have their feet turned backwards,^^ 

 with eight toes on each foot.®^ 



On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of men 

 who have the heads of dogs/" and clothe themselves with 

 the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they bark ; and, 

 furnished with claws, they live by hunting and catching birds. 

 According to the story, as given by Ctesias, the number of these 

 people is more than a hundred and twenty thousand : and the 

 same author tells us, that there is a certain race in India, of 

 which the females are pregnant once only in the course of their 

 lives, and that the hair of the children becomes white the in- 

 stant they are bom. He speaks also of another race of men, 

 who are known as Monocoli,^^ who have only one leg, but are 

 able to leap with surprising agility.^' The same people are 

 also called Sciapodae,"^ because they are in the habit of lying 

 on their backs, dui'ing the time of the extreme heat, and protect 

 themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These 

 people, he says, dwell not very far from the Troglodytae ;''* to 

 the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without 

 necks, and have eyes in their shoulders.'" 



by the Fakirs, a peculiar class of devotees, and are regarded either in the 

 light of religious ceremonies, or of modes of performing penance, — B. 



<58 Henderson states, in his " Biblical Researches," that there is a race 

 of people found in the Caucasus, and known as the Ingusch, and that it is 

 their belief that a race of diBmons exists, which assume the appearance of 

 armed men, and have the feet inverted. 



^^ Ciivier remarks, that these wonderful tales are generally related of the 

 inhabitants of mountainous districts, as being less known and less acces- 

 sible to travellers. — B, 



'^^ This account probably originated in a species of monkey, with a pro- 

 jecting muzzle, called, from this circumstance, *' cynocepbalus," or the 

 " Dog's head." This account of the cynocephali is repeated by Aulus 

 Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. — B. The cynocepbalus is generally considered to be 

 the baboon. 



''^ So called, aTTo rou ^oT'oi; KwXoy, " fi'om having but one leg." It is 

 not improbable that these stories were first told of these nations from the 

 resemblance of their names to the Greek words having these significations. 



'2 "We have no method of explaining the origin of this story. It is to 

 be regretted, that Pliny should have adopted so many ridiculous fables, on 

 the doubtful authority of Ctesias. — B. 



^3 From ^KiaTTovQ, ** making a shadow with his foot." — B. 



'* Or *' dwellers in caves." 



'5 It has been conjectured, that this account may have originated in the 

 dwarfish stature and sbox-t necks of the northern tribes, according to the 



