i 4 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



so well is the heat of the sun calculated to strengthen 

 the constitution. . . . According to the account of 

 Megasthenes, dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo, 

 there is a race of men who have their feet turned back- 

 wards, with eight toes on each foot. 



On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of 

 men who have the heads of dogs, and clothe themselves 

 with the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they 

 bark ; and, furnished with claws, they live by hunting, 

 and catching birds. According to the story, as given 

 by Ctesias, the number of these people is more than a 

 hundred and twenty thousand ; and the same author tells 

 us that there is a certain race in India, of which the 

 females are pregnant once only in the course of their 

 lives, and that the hair of the children becomes white the 

 instant they are born. He speaks also of another race 

 of men who are known as Monocoli, 1 who have only one 

 leg, but are able to leap with surprising agility. The 

 same people are also called Sciapodae, 2 because they are 

 in the habit of lying on their backs, during the time of 

 extreme heat, and protect themselves from the sun by 

 the shade of their feet. These people, he says, dwell 

 not very far from the Troglodytae (dwellers in caves) ; to 

 the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without 

 necks, and have eyes in their shoulders. 8 



Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts 

 of India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, 

 we find the Satyr, an animal of extraordinary swiftness. 

 These go sometimes on four feet, and sometimes walk 

 erect ; they have also the features of a human being. 

 On account of their swiftness, these creatures are never 



1 From &v& TOU fiOfov KU\OV, ' ' from having but one leg. " 

 * From 2ctaToOt, " making a shadow with his foot." 

 3 See illustration, p. 9. 



