48 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



to India, and from Mauritania and Ethiopia in Af- 

 rica, to Scythia and the Cimbric Chersonese. 



The seventh book is devoted to an account of the 

 various races and " wonderful! shapes of men in 

 diuerse countries," including monsters, prodigies, 

 ghosts, great characters, notable inventions, longe- 

 vity, strength, swiftness, wit, valour, and other mat- 

 ters relating to the human species. " In summe (says 

 the authority already quoted) there be in this booke, 

 strange accidents and matters memorable, 747." 

 Of these " matters memorable" Pliny has collected 

 a tolerable stock from Grecian and other travellers, 

 most of them bordering on the marvellous, and only 

 fitted to excite a smile at the credulity of those who 

 could affirm or relate them. " Certes reported it is, 

 (says he), that far within the country of Ethyopia, 

 eastward, there are a kinde of people without any 

 nose at all on their face, hauing their visage all plain 

 and flat. Others again, without any upper lip, and 

 some tonguelesse. Moreover, there is a kinde of 

 them that want a mouth, framed apart from their 

 nosthrills, and at one and the same hole, and no more, 

 taketh in breath, receiueth drinke by drawing it in 

 with an oaten straw ; yea, and after the same man- 

 ner feed themselves with the grains of oats." 



He then proceeds to give examples of cannibals, 

 hermaphrodites, androgyni, and other wonderful 

 shapes in different regions of the world. Among the 

 Scythians, he places the Arimaspians, " who are 

 knowne by this marke, for having one eie only in 



