CURIOUS CREATURES. 15 



to be caught, except that they are aged, or sickly. 

 Tauron gives the name of Choromandae to a nation which 

 dwells in the woods, and have no proper voice. These 

 people screech in a frightful manner; their bodies are 

 covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green colour, 

 and their teeth like those of a dog. Eudoxus tells us, 

 that in the southern parts of India, the men have feet 

 a cubit in length, while the women are so remarkably 

 small that they are called Struthpodes. 1 



Megasthenes places among the Nomades of India, a 

 people who are called Scyritae. These have merely holes 

 in their faces instead of nostrils, and flexible feet, like 

 the body of the serpent. At the very extremity of 

 India, on the eastern side, near the source of the river 

 Ganges, there is the nation of the Astomi, a people who 

 have no mouths ; their bodies are rough and hairy, and 

 they cover themselves with a down 2 plucked from the 

 leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing, 

 and by the odours which they inhale through the nostrils. 

 They support themselves neither upon meat nor drink ; 

 when they go upon a long journey they only carry with 

 them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild 

 apples, that they may not be without something to smell 

 at. But an odour, which is a little more powerful than 

 usual, easily destroys them. . . . 



Isogonus informs us that the Cyrni, a people of India, 

 live to their four-hundredth year ; and he is of opinion 

 that the same is the case also with the ^Ethiopian 

 Macrobii, 3 the Seree, and the inhabitants of Mount 

 Athos. In the case of these last, it is supposed to be 



1 Sparrow footed, from 0rpoC0os, a sparrow. 



2 Probably cotton. 



3 Or long livers, from /ta*pdj, "long," and /3foj, "life." 



