124 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book VII. 



this effect, among the most illustrious of whom are Herodotus 

 and Aristeas of Proconnesus. 38 



Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country 

 called Abarimon, situate in a certain great valley of Mount 

 Iniaus, 39 the inhabitants of which are a s avage_jrace, whose 

 feet are turned backwards, 40 relatively to their legs : they pos- 

 sess wonderful velocity, and wander about indiscriminately 

 with the wild beasts. We learn from Beeton, whose duty it 

 was to take the measurements of the routes of Alexander the 

 Great, that this people cannot breathe in any climate except 

 their own, for which reason it is impossible to take them be- 

 fore any of the neighbouring kings ; nor could any of them 

 be brought before Alexander himself. 



The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned 41 

 as dwelling ten days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, accord- 

 ing to the account of Isigonus of Mcaea, were in the habit of 

 drinking out of human skulls, 42 and placing the scalps, with 

 the hair attached, upon their breasts, like so many napkins. 

 The same author relates, that there is, in Albania, a certain 

 race of men, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour, and who 

 have white hair from their earliest childhood, 43 and that these 

 people see better in the night than in the day. He states also 



38 We have an account of the Arimaspi, and of Aristeas, in Herodo- 

 tus, B. iv. cc. 13, 15, and 27. Most of the wonderful tales related in this 

 Chapter may be found in Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. We have an account, 

 also, of the Arimaspi in Solinus, very nearly in the words of Pliny, We 

 have some valuahle remarks by Cuvier, on the account given hy Pliny of 

 the Arimaspi and the Griffins, and on the source from which it appears 

 to have originated, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 16, and Ajasson, vol. vi.pp. 164, 

 165. B. 



39 The modern Himalaya range. 



40 Aulus Gellius relates this, among other wonderful tales, which are 

 contained in his Chapter " On the Miraculous Wonders of Barbarous 

 Nations," B. ix. c. 4. He cites, among his authorities, Aristeas and Isi- 

 gonus, whom he designates as ''writers of no mean authority." B. 



*| In B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 29. 



42 One of the pleasures promised to the Gothic warriors, in the paradise 

 of Odin, was to drink out of the skulls of their enemies. B. 



43 The variety of the human species to which the term Albino has 

 been applied, from the whiteness of their hair and skin, is supposed by 

 Cuvier to be more frequently found in the close valleys of mountainous 

 districts, and may therefore have been very often met with in Albania, 

 which is composed of valleys in the Caucasian range. B. 



