Chap. 2.] WONDERFUL FOEMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 131 



Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of 

 India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, we 

 find the Satyr, 76 an animal of extraordinary swiftness. These 

 go sometimes on four feet, and sometimes walk erect ; they 

 have also the features of a human being. On account of their 

 swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught, except wheii 

 they are either aged or sickly. Tauron gives the name of 

 Choromandse to a nation which dwell in the woods and have 

 no proper voice. These people screech in a frightful manner ; 

 their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green 

 colour, and their teeth like those of the dog. 77 Eudoxus tells 

 us, that in the southern parts of India, the men have feet a 

 cubit in length ; while those of the women are so remarkably 

 small, that they are called Struthopodes. 78 



Megasthenes places among the Pomades 79 of India, a people 

 who are called Scyritse. These have merely holes in their 

 faces instead of nostrils, and flexible feet, like the body of 

 the serpent. At the very extremity of India, on the eastern 

 side, near the source of the river Ganges, there is the nation 

 of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths ; their bodies 

 are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down 80 

 plucked from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only 

 by breathing and by the odours which they inhale through the 



usual exaggerated statements of the ancient travellers. Aulus Gellias 

 also repeats this fable, B. ix. c. 4. B. 



76 These are the great apes, which are found in some of the Oriental 

 islands ; this name was given them from their salacious disposition, which, 

 it would seem, they have manifested in reference to even the human spe- 

 cies. We have an account of the Satyrs in JElian, Hist. Anim. B. x\i. 

 c. 21. B. 



77 We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect 

 account of a large kind of ape ; but it seems impossible to refer it to any 

 particular species. B. 



78 " Sparrow," or " ostrich-footed ;" it does not appear that the com- 

 mentators have attempted to explain this passage ; may we not conjecture 

 that it refers to the Chinese ? With respect to the word employed, it has 

 been generally derived from (rrpovOog, "a sparrow ;" Dalechamps, how- 

 ever, as it would appear, with much plausibility, thinks that it is derived 

 from " struthio," the ostrich. B. It is not improbable, however, that 

 these were so called, from the resemblance of their gait to that of a spar- 

 row, as they would be unable to step out, and be obliged to jump from 

 place to place. 



79 Or " wandering tribes." 



80 On this subject see B. vi. c. 20. It is clear that either silk or cotton 

 is here alluded to. 



K 2 



