v) 



06 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



a country; nor is there any example of the Hke in the hiftory of man. 

 All the nations, which have got their civility and arts from other na- 

 tions, have not come to thefe nations, but thefe nations have come to 

 them, and have conquered them, and in that way civilifed them, and 

 introduced arts among them; and, in this way, Ofiris, with an armed 

 force, civilifed the Indians, pio, The Indians, fo far from having 

 it in their power to give a fyftem of polity to the Egyptians, fuch 

 as I have fhown they enjoyed, and the arts and fciences they pof- 

 fefTed, were themfelves in a moft barbarous ftate w^hen Ofiris came 

 among them. This is attefted by the author before mentioned, Ar- 

 rian, who, as I have obferved, was better informed concerning In- 

 dian affairs, than any other Greek writer, having taken his account 

 of the Indians from MegaRhenes, who got his information from the 

 Indians themfelves, and particularly from the Princes of the country. 

 He fays, that the Indians, before Ofiris introduced civility and arts 

 among them, were quite barbarous, feeding upon the barks of trees*. 

 Even as late as the days of Darius the Perfian King, Herodotus 

 tells us, that there was a people in India, whom he calls KxXaritx.i, 

 who inRead of burying or burning their dead parents, ate them f. 

 And he mentions another people of India, called Tla^zicti^ who were 

 fo wild, that they lived a nomade life, and fed upon raw flefh. 

 Thefe people, he fays, were even more barbarous men eaters than 

 the KocXa-iai; for, when any of their number fell fick, his neareft 

 relations killed him, and ate him, alledging that his dying a linger- 

 ing death, by difeafe, would make his flefh worfe food : And though 

 he maintained, that he was not dying, but would recover, they 

 would not take his word for it, but put him to death, and feaRed on 

 him %. And thefe Indians, he fays, copulated promifcuoufly and 

 openly as the brutes do ||. And he fpeaks of this people as exifting 



in 



* Indica, cap. 5. p. 325. 



I Lib. 3. cap. 38. 



% Ibid. cap. 99. II Foid. cap. 100. 



