134 PLINY's NATURAL UISTORY. [Book YII. 



Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprcbane,^ life is 

 prolonged to an extreme length, while, at the same time, the 

 body is exempt from weakness. According to Durisis, some of 

 the Indians have connection with beasts, and from this union 

 a mixture of half man, half beast, is produced.^' Among the 

 Calingae, a nation also of India, the women conceive at five 

 years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year.^^ In 

 other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails,^^ 

 and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that 

 luivc ears so large as to cover the whole body.* 



The Oritse are divided from the Indians by the river 

 Arabis f they are acquainted with no food whatever except 

 tish, which they are in the habit of tearing to pieces with their 

 nails, and drying in the sun.^ Crates of Pergamus states, that 

 the Troglodytae, who dwell beyond Ethiopia, are able to out- 

 run the horse ; and that a tribe of the Ethiopians, who are 

 known as the Syrbotse, exceed eight cubits in height. 



There is a tribe of Ethiopian Nomades dwelling on the 

 banks of the river Astragus, towards the north, and about 



tlian in the more temperate regions, but the age here mentioned is an ex- 

 aggeration. The female also, in such climates, ceases to bear at an earlier 

 age, probably befox'e the fortieth year. — B. 



"^ This is the Island of Ceylon, of which Pliny has given an account 

 in the last Book, c. 24. 



^" Such unnatui-al unions may have taken place occasionally, but no- 

 thing has ever been produced from them. — B. 



J^ This is a stiU greater exaggeration than that mentioned above, in 

 Note 95.— B. 



^9 Cuvier remarks that this story must have been originally told with re- 

 ference to the race of large apes. He says, however, that some men have 

 the "os coccygis" greatly prolonged, and mentions a painter of celebrity 

 in Paris who had this malformation. " But from this to an actual tail," 

 says he, " the distance is very great." In these times we have the (per- 

 il aps doubtful) account by M. de Couret, of the Niam Niams, a race in 

 Abyssinia or Nubia, with tails at least two inches in length. Few will 

 fjiil to recollect Lord Monboddo's theory, that mankind originally had 

 tails, but wore them off in lapse of time by climbing up the trees. 



' As far as there is any truth in this account, it must refer to certain 

 kinds of apes : but with respect to the size of the ears, it is, of course, 

 jjreatly exaggerated. — B. 



- Or Copbes, see B. vi. c. 25. 



■' There are many tribes who live on the sea-coast, and who inhabit a 

 b.irrcn country, with a bad climate, whose diet is almost confined to fish, 

 and who feed their cattle on it. This is the case in some parts of Iceland, 

 and even, to a certain extent, among the people of the Hebrides, — B. 



