BOOK VI.] History of Nature. 127 



ritory of the Arii : and most of them affirm that the City 

 Nysa, as also the Mountain Merus consecrated to Father 

 Liber, belong to India. This is that Mountain from which 

 arose the Fable, that he sprung from the Seed of Jupiter. 

 Likewise (they assign to India) the Country of the Aspagonae, 

 so plentiful in Vines, Laurels, and Box, and generally all 

 sorts of Fruits that grow in Greece. Many wonderful, and 

 in a manner fabulous things, they report of the Fertility of 

 that Land, of the sorts of Fruits, of Trees bearing Cotton, of 

 Wild Beasts, of Birds, and other Creatures : which I will 

 reserve for their proper places in another part of this Work. 

 Those four Satrapies, which I mentioned before, I will speak 

 of presently: for now I hasten to the Island Taprobane. 

 But there are other Isles first, as Patalse, which we have 

 noted to lie in the very Mouth of the River Indus, of a 

 Triangular figure, 220 Miles in Breadth. Without the 

 Mouth of the Indus, two other Islands, Chryse and Agyre, 

 abounding, as I suppose, in Gold and Silver Mines ; for I 

 cannot easily believe, that the Soil there is all Gold and 

 Silver, as some have reported. Twenty Miles from them is 

 Crocala: and twelve Miles further Bibaga, abundant in 

 Oysters and other Shell-fishes. Then, nine Miles beyond 

 it, Toralliba sheweth itself, and many other petty Islands. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



The Island TaprobanZ. 1 



IT hath been for a long time thought that Taprobane was 

 another World under the appellation of the Antichthones. 

 But from the time of Alexander the Great, and the inter- 

 course in those parts, it was discovered to be an Island. 

 Onesicratus, the Admiral of his Fleet, hath written, that the 

 Elephants bred in this Island are bigger and better fitted for 

 War than those of India. Megasthenes saith, that there is 

 a River which divideth it, arid that the Inhabitants are called 



1 This is now generally concluded to be the island of Ceylon, in the 

 East Indies, now subject to British dominion. Wern. Club. 



