CLap. 2.] WO'DEErUL rOEMS OF DirZEEEVT yATIO>-S. 133 



last, it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers, which 

 they use as food ;^ in consequence of which, they are free also 

 Irom all noxious animals, both in their hair and their gar- 

 ments. 



According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there 

 is no shadow,'^ the bodies of men attain a height of five cubits 

 and two palms, ^ and their life is prolonged to one hundred and 

 thirty years ; they die without any symptoms of old age, and 

 just as if they were in the middle period of life. Crates of 

 Pergamus calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one hundred 

 years, by the name of Gymnetse f^ but not a few authors style 

 them Macrobii. Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by 

 the name of Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who 

 live to their two hundredth year ; their hair is white in youth, 

 and becomes black in old age.^- On the other hand, there are 

 some people joining up to the country of the ^Macrobii, who 

 never live beyond their fortieth year, and their females have 

 children once only during their lives. This circumstance is 

 also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that 

 they live^ on locusts,^ and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus 

 and Megasthenes give these people the name of ^andi, and 

 enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to 

 them. Their women are capable of bearing children in the 

 seventh year of their age, and become old at forty. ^^ 



^5 PHny, in B. xxix. c. 38, speaks of the use of vipers' flesh as an 

 article of diet, and gives some minute directions for its preparation. It 

 was supposed to be "peculiarly nutritive and restorative, and it has been 

 prescribed for the same purpose by modem physicians. There is a medal 

 in existence, probably struck by the Emperor Commodus, in order to com- 

 memorate the benefit which he was supposed to have derived from the use 

 of the flesh of vipers. — B. 



^ See B. ii. c. 75. 



^ The cubitus and the palmus of the Romans, estimated, respectively, at 

 about one foot and-a-half and three inches ; this would make the height of 

 these people eight feet. — B. 



5^ From the" Greek TvpLi'ijTijg, " one who takes much exercise of the 

 body." 



^-' There appears to be no foundation for this statement. — B. 



52 See B. vi. c. 35. 



** In many of the warmer climates, where the locusts are of large size 

 and in great' abundance, they are occasionally used as food; but we have 

 no reason to believe that they constitute the sole, or even the principal 

 article of the food of any tribe or people. — B. 



9^ In warm climates, the females arrive at maturity considerably earlier 



