BOOK VII. II. 26-30 



and chickens, and that this outing occupies three 

 months ; and that othcnvise they could not protect 

 theinseh-es against the flocks of cranes that woukl 

 grow up ; and that their houses are made of mud 

 and feathers and egg-shells. Aristotle says that the 

 Pvginies live in cavcs, but in the rest of his statement 

 about them he agrees with the other authorities. 

 The Indian race of Cvrni according to Isigonus hve 

 to 140 ; and he holds that the sanie is true of the 

 Long-Hved Ethiopians, the Chinese and the inhabi- 

 tants of Mount Athos — in the last case because of 

 their diet of snakes' flesh, wliich causes their head 

 and clothes to be free from creatures harmful to the 

 body. Onesicritus saj^^s that in the parts of India 

 where there are no shadows there are men five cubits 

 and two spans" high, and people hve a hundred and 

 thirty years, and do not grow old but die middle- 

 aged. Crates of Pergamum teUs of Indians who 

 excecd a hundred vears, wliom he calls Gymnetae, 

 tliough manv call them Long-livers. Ctcsias says that 

 a tribe among them called the Pandae, dweUing in 

 the mountain valleys, Uve two hundred years, and 

 have white hair in their youth that grows black in 

 old age ; wherciis others do not exceed forty years, 

 this tribe adjoining the Long-Uvers, whose women 

 bear children only once. Agatharchides records this 

 as weU, and also that they Uve on locusts, and are 

 very swift-footed. Clitarchus gave them the name 

 of Nlandi ; and Megasthcnes also assigns them three 

 hundred \iUages, and says that the women bear 

 children at the age of seven and old age comes at 

 forty. Artemidorus says that on the Island of 

 Ceylon the people Uve very long lives without 

 any loss of bodily activity. Duris says that some 



525 



