BOOK VII. II. 17-21 



even when weighed down with clothing. Damon 

 records a tribe not unHke these in Ethiopia, the 

 Pharmaces, whose sweat reUeves of diseases bodies 

 touched by it. Also among ourselves Cicero states 

 that the glance of all women who have double pupils 

 is injurious everywhere. In fact when nature 

 implanted in man the wild beasts' habit of devouring 

 human flesh, she also thought fit to implant poisons 

 in the whole of the body, and with some persons in 

 the eyes as well, so that there should be no evil any- 

 where that was not present in man. 



There are a few famihes in the Faliscan territory, 

 not far from the city of Rome, named the Hirpi, 

 which at the yearly sacrifice to Apollo performed on 

 Mount Soracte walk over a charred pile of logs with- 

 out being scorched, and who consequently enjoy 

 exemption under a perpetual decree of the senate 

 from mihtary service and all other burdens. Some 

 people are born with parts of the body possessing 

 special remarkable properties, for instance King 

 Pyrrhus in the great toe of his right foot, to touch 

 which was a cure for inflammation of the spleen ; it 

 is recorded that at his cremation it proved impossible 

 to burn the toe with the rest of the body, and it was 

 stored in a chest in a temple. 



India and parts of Ethiopia especially teem with orimtai 

 marvels. The biggest animals grow in India : for |,"','d c 

 instance Indian dogs are bigger than any others. cusiomn 

 Indeed the trees are said to be so lofty that it is not 

 possible to shoot an arrow over them, and [the rich- 

 ness of the soil, temperate chmate and abundance 

 of springs bring it about "J that, if one is willing to 

 beheve it, squadrons of cavahy are able to shelter 

 beneath a single iig-tree ; while it is said that reeds 



519 



nuinslrosihes 



CUTIOUS 



