56 PLINY'S NATTJEAL HISTORY. [Book VI. 



and their king is chosen by the people, an aged man always, 

 distinguished for his mild and clement disposition, and without 

 children. If after he has been elected king, he happens to 

 become the father of children, his abdication is the consequence ; 

 this is done that there may be no danger of the sovereign power 

 becoming hereditary. Thirty advisers are provided for him by 

 the people, and it is only by the advice of the majority of them 

 that any man is condemned to capital punishment. Even then, 

 the person so condemned has a right of appealing to the people, 

 in which case a jury consisting of seventy persons is appointed. 

 Should these acquit the accused, the thirty counsellors are no 

 longer held in any estimation, but are visited with the greatest 

 disgrace. The king wears the costume of Father Liber, 9 whilo 

 the rest of the people dress like the natives of Arabia. The 

 king, if he is found guilty of any offence, is condemned to death ; 

 but no one slays him ; all turn their backs upon him, and refuse 

 to hold any communication or even discourse with him. Their 

 festivals are celebrated 10 with the chase, the most valued sports 

 being the pursuit of the tiger and the elephant. The lands 

 are carefully tilled ; the vine is not cultivated there, but of other 

 fruits there is great abundance. They take great delight in 

 fishing, and especially in catching turtles ; beneath the shells 11 

 of which whole families find an abode, of such vast size are 

 they to be found. These people look upon a hundred years as 

 a comparatively short life. Thus much have we learned re- 

 specting Taprobane. 



CHAP, 25. THE ABIANI AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS. 



We will now proceed to give some further particulars 



9 Or *' Bacchus." This means that he wears a long rohe with a train ; 

 much like the dress, in fact, which was worn on the stage by tragic actors. 



10 u Festa venatione absumi, gratissimam earn tigribus elephantisque 

 constare." Holland gives this sentence quite a different meaning, fan- 

 cying that it bears reference to the mode in which the guilty king comes to 

 his end, which, indeed, otherwise does not appear to be stated. " But to 

 doe him to death in the end, they appoint a solemne day of hunting, 

 right pleasant and agreable unto tigres and elephants, before which beasts 

 they expose their king, and so he is presently by them devoured." It is 

 difficult to say, however, where he finds all this. 



Ll It is much more probable that they used the shells for the purpose 

 of making roofs for their habitations. 



