!hap. 2.] WONDERFUL FORMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 133 



ast, it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers, which 

 hey use as food j 88 in consequence of which, they are free also 

 rom all noxious animals, both in their hair and their gar- 

 aents. 



: According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there 

 3 no shadow, 89 the bodies of men attain a height of five cubits 

 nd two palms, 90 and their life is prolonged to one hundred and 

 hirty years ; they die without any symptoms of old age, and 

 list as if they were in the middle period of life, j Crates of 

 'ergamus calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one hundred 

 ears, by the name of Gymnetae ; 91 but not a few authors style 

 hem Macrobii. Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by 

 he name of Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who 

 tve to their two hundredth year ; their hair is white in youth, 

 nd becomes black in old age. 92 On the other hand, there are 

 ome people joining up to the country of the Macrobii, who 

 [ever live beyond their fortieth year, and their females have 

 hildren once only during their lives. This circumstance is 

 Iso mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that 

 hey live 93 on locusts, 94 and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus 

 nd Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and 

 numerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to 

 hem. Their women are capable of bearing children in the 

 eventh year of their age, and become old at forty. 95 



88 Pliny, in B. xxix. c. 38, speaks of the use of vipers' flesh as an 

 rticle of diet, and gives some minute directions for its preparation. It 

 r as supposed to be peculiarly nutritive and restorative, and it has been 

 rescribed for the same purpose by modern physicians. There is a medal 

 i existence, probably struck by the Emperor Commodus, in order to com- 

 lemorate the benefit which he was supposed to have derived from the use 

 f the flesh of vipers. B. 



89 See B. ii. c. 75. 



90 The cubitus and the palmus of the Romans, estimated, respectively, at 

 bout one foot and-a-half and three inches ; this would make the height of 

 aese people eight feet. B. 



91 From the Greek Tv^ivrjTrig 9 " one who takes much exercise of the 

 ody." 



92 There appears to be no foundation for this statement. B. 



93 See B. vi. c. 35. 



94 In many of the warmer climates, where the locusts are of large size 

 nd in great abundance, they are occasionally used as food ; but we have 

 o reason to believe that they constitute the sole, or even the principal 

 rticle of the food of any tribe or people. B. 



93 In warm climates, the females arrive at maturity considerably earlier 



