CURIOUS CREATURES. 



owing to the flesh of vipers, which they use as food ; in 

 consequence of which they are free also from all noxious 

 animals, both in their hair and their garments. 



According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India 

 where there is no shadow, the men attain the height of 

 five cubits and two palms, 1 and 

 their life is prolonged to one hun- 

 dred and thirty years ; they die 

 without any symptoms of old age, 

 and just as if they were in the 

 middle period of life. Pergannes 

 calls the Indians, whose age exceeds 

 one hundred years, by the name of 

 >Gymnetae ; 2 but not a few authors 

 style them Macrobii. Ctesias men- 

 tions a tribe of them, known by 

 the name of Pandore, whose locality 

 is in the valleys, and who live to 

 their two- hundredth year; their 

 hair is white in youth, and becomes black in old age. 

 On the other hand, there are some people joining up to 

 the country of the Macrobii, who never live beyond their 

 fortieth year, and their females have children once only 

 during their lives. This circumstance is also mentioned 

 by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that they live 

 on locusts, and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus and 

 Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and 

 enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong 

 to them. Their women are capable of bearing children 

 in the seventh year of their age, and become old at forty. 

 Artcmidorus states that in the island of Taprobane 



1 A palm was three inches, so that these men would be eight feet high. 

 5 From rV/iM/TTjT, one who takes much bodily exercise. 



