BY THE ANCIENT HINDUS. 



219 



also repeatedly speaks of " the volcano of the field," giving 

 to nnderstand great gnns ; but these may be interpolations, 

 though I would not check a full investigation of so curious 

 a subject by raising a doubt." 96 Muhammed Kasim used 

 such a machine or manjamk when besieging in A.H. 93 

 (A.D. 711-12) the port of Daibal. The first thing done 

 with this machine was to shoot down from the top of the 

 high pagoda a long pole surmounted with a red cloth. 97 

 The prophet Muhammed is also credited with having used the 

 manjamk when besieging Taif in the ninth year of the 

 Hegira, and according to Ibn Kotaibah the projectile weapon 

 in question was already used by Jazynah, the second King 

 of Hyrah, whose date is fixed about the year 200 A.D. 98 



Passing over the statements of Dio Cassius and Johannes 

 Antiochenus, that the Eoman Emperor Caligula had machines 

 from which stones were thrown among thunder and lightning, 

 we come to the statement of Flavins Philostratos, who 

 lived at the court of the Emperors Septimius Severus, and 

 Caracalla. In his history of Apollonios of Tyana, he men- 

 tions, that when that extraordinary man was travelling in 

 India, he had among other things learnt the real reason why 

 Alexander the Great desisted from attacking the Oxydracae. 

 " These truly wise men dwell between the rivers Hyphasis 

 and Granges ; their country Alexander never entered, deterred 

 not by fear of the inhabitants, but, as I suppose, by religious 

 motives, for had he passed the Hyphasis, he might, doubtless, 

 have made himself master of all the country round them ; 

 but their cities he never could have taken, though he had 

 led a thousand as brave as Achilles, or three thousand such as 

 Ajax, to the assault ; for they come not out to the field to 

 fight those who attack them, but these holy men, beloved by 

 the gods, overthrew their enemies with tempests and thunder- 

 bolts shot from their walls. It is said that the Egyptian 



. 96 See Annals of Rajasthan, I, 310, 

 97 See Elliot's Posthumous Papers, VI, 4 6 2 . 98 Ibidem, p. 461. 



