CHAP. II.] INDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 583 



ing numerous exaggerations and assertions altogether 

 incredible, exhibit a superiority over the productions 

 of the Greeks and 'Romans. To avoid the fault of 

 dulness, both the latter were accustomed to enliven 

 their topographical itineraries, not so much by " moving 

 accidents," and "hair-breadth 'scapes," as by mingling 

 fanciful descriptions of monsters and natural pheno- 

 mena with romantic accounts of the gems and splen- 

 dours of the East. 



From CTESIAS to Sir JOHN MAUNDEVILLE, every early 

 traveller in India had his "hint to speak," and each 

 strove to embellish his story by incorporating with such 

 facts as he had witnessed, improbable reports collected 

 from the representations of others. Such were their ex- 

 cesses in this direction, that the Greeks formed a class 

 of " paradoxical " literature, by collecting into separate 

 volumes the marvels and wonders gravely related by 

 their voyagers and historians. 1 



The Arabs, on the contrary, with sounder discretion, 

 generally kept their " travellers' histories " distinct from 

 their sober narratives, and whilst the marvellous in- 

 cidents related by adventurous seamen were received 

 as materials for the story-tellers and romancers, the staple 

 of their geographical works consisted of truthful de- 

 scriptions of the countries visited, their forms of govern- 

 ment, their institutions, their productions, and their 

 trade. 



In illustration of this matter-of-fact character of the 

 Arab topographers, the most familiar example is that 

 known by the popular title of the Voyages of the 



1 Such are the Mirabilfs Aus- 

 cnUationes of ARISTOTLE, the In- 

 crcdibiUa of PALEPHATES, the His- 

 toriantm Mirabilium Collcdio of AN- 

 TiGOJfTTS CARYSTITJS, the Historia <Mi- 

 rabiles of APOLLONTTS THE MEAGRE, 

 and the Collections of PHLEGOX of 



Tralles, MICHAEL BELLTJS, and many 

 other Greeks of the Lower Empire. 

 For a succinct account of these 

 compilers, see WESTERMAK'S Haoa- 

 o6ypadoi, Scnptores Serum Mira- 

 bilium Grccci. Brunswick, 1839. 



