BOOK VII. II. 14-17 



exterminated by the Nasaniones who now occupy 

 that region, but a tribe of mcn descended from those 

 who had escaped or had been absent when the fighting 

 took place survives to-day in a few places. A 

 similar race hngers on in Italy also, the Marsi, said 

 to be descended from the son^* of Circe and to possess 

 this natural property on that account. However, 

 all men contain a poison available as a protection 

 against snakes : people say that snakes flee from 

 contact with sahva as from the touch of boiUng 

 water, and that if it gets inside their throats they 

 actually die ; and that this is especially the case 

 with the sahva of a person fasting. 



Beyond the Nasamones and adjacent to them and wuh 

 Calhphanes rccords the Machlyes, who are Androgyni "guaHHes."^'' 

 and perform the function of either sex alternately. 

 Aristotle adds that their left breast is that of a man 

 and their riglit breast that of a woman. Isogonus and 

 Nymphodorus report that there are families in the 

 same part of Africathat practise sorcery,whose praises 

 cause meadows to dry up, trees to wither and infants 

 to perish. Isogonus adds that there are people of 

 the same kind among the Tribahi and the IUyrians, 

 who also bewitch with a glance and who kill those 

 they stare at for a longer time, especially with a kjok 

 of anger, and that their evil eye is most felt by adults ; 

 and that what is more remarkable is that they liave 

 two pupils in each eye. Apollonides also reports 

 womcn of this kind in Scythia, who are called the 

 Bitiae, and Phylarchus also the Thibii tribe and many 

 others of the same nature in Pontus, whosc dis- 

 tinguishing marks he records as being a double pupil 

 in one eye and the hkeness of a horse in the other. 

 aiid he also says that they are incapable of drowning, 



517 



