BOOK VII. II. 30-111. s3 



Indians have union ■\vith -wild animals and the ofF- 

 spring is of mixed race and half animal ; that among 

 the Cahngi, a tribe of the same part of India, women 

 conceive at the age of five and do not Uve more than 

 eight years, and that in another part men are born 

 with a hairy tail and extremely swift, while others 

 are entirely covered by tlicir ears. 



The river Arabis is the frontier between the 

 Indians and the Oi'itae. These are acquainted with 

 no other food but fish, which they cut to pieces with 

 their nails and roast in the sun and thus make bread 

 out of them, as is recorded by Chtarchus. Crates 

 of Pergamum says that the Cavemen beyond Ethiopia 

 are swifter than horses ; also that there are Ethiopians 

 more than twelve feet in height, and that this race 

 is called the Syrbotae. The tribe of the Ethiopian 

 nomads along the river Astragus towards the north 

 called thc Menismini is twenty days' journey from 

 the Ocean ; it hves on the milk of the animals that 

 we call dog-headed apes, herds of which it keeps in 

 pastures, kiUing the males except for the purpose of 

 breeding. In the deserts of Africa ghosts of men 

 suddenly meet the traveUer and v.inish in a moment. 



These and similar varieties of the human race 

 have been made by the ingenuity of Nature as toys 

 for herself and marvels for us. And indeed who 

 could possiblv recount the various things she does 

 ever}' day and almost every hour ? Let it suffice for 

 the disclosure of her power to have included whole 

 races of mankind among her marvels. From these 

 we tum to a few admitted marvels in the case of the 

 individual human being. 



III. The birth of triplets is attested by the case Exceptionai 

 of the Horatii and Curiatii ; above that number is "^J^^ WrW*. 



527 



